Happy New Year

Well it's time for a catch-up.
I've made it to Sydney, via many long hours of boredom and relative discomfort and DVT paranoia and two chinese men who for some inexplicable reason liked to take up as much space as possible, hawk plegm all the time and eat food by sucking it off their forks, making a noise not unlike the vacuum-flush toilet. Call me an imperialist but theres a lot to be said for British manners.

Keir had just rescued me from the airport and brought me to Rooty Hill- a suberb outside the centre of Sydney- when we were confronted by a man who looked like Bill Oddie and a huge swollen red faced woman, fighting over a tame bird. Apparently the bird belonged to him- when she picked it up off the street and went to walk off with it he went mental and grabbed her. She dropped the bird (a little greeny cockatiel) to swing at him and the two of them swore and shouted and wrestled until a security man pulled them apart- we had to move on at this point because I was worried that the woman was going to stomp on the poor thing, which was waddling dazed around their feet.

Apologies for the scatteryness of this blog, I am reeling stuff off as I remember it.

There are many birds here- all of them prettier and singier and stranger than the ones back home. So far there seem to be two main contenders for most common- pigeons, and brown birds the size of thrushes with yellow legs and beaks, we are calling them 'silly birds', that like to sing like mentals and walk around looking at things. I like them. There are also black and white birds that are very curious, look like little magpies and like to come right up to you to see what you are doing/eating. Oh, and big grey and white things that are bloody ugly and hang out at the park- I call them Turkeyherons. There are wild parakeets and really brightly coloured birds in the trees, but they are a bit more shy.

I met a stick insect this morning, it was hanging from the frame above the toilet door. It was seven inches long and looked very much like a stick.

I spent my first day of 2009 swimming in the sea at Coogee beach, smothered in factor 30 and happily being tossed around in the surf. The tide there is incredibly strong and if you decide to surf a wave to the shore using just your body, beware- being ploughed into the sand feels like being held against a Black & Decker circular sander. There was a bit of bikini slippage, and Keir and I got stuck in the surf; every time we tried to stand up another wave smacked us back down, hurling small children at our heads and shins. It was tremendous fun. :) Afterwards we went along the coast a little to the cove next door- Gordon's Bay, which was a huge contrast to the body-covered beach at Coogee- it was weedy and smelly and had a lot of little fishing boats tethered up on wooden slatting all around, and there were rocks and beautiful shells all over the beach. And lovely dogs. My kind of place. Apparently it's illegal to take shells from the beach, and one can be fined up to $5000 if caught....so I didn't sneak any into my hat.....

Tomorrow we are off to wander round The Rocks market, then we are going to a moonlight outdoor cinema to see Wall-E.

New Year's Resolutions:

1) No more will I drunkenly demand a cigarette.
2) Swimming and squash. Lots of it. Slim is the new squishy.
3) I will get through my degree with at least my sanity, if not a first (which looks unlikely now)
4) Post-graduation, I will learn to drive, if not for the benefit of living in the UK, then at least for the privilege of car-hire when travelling.
5) Jewellery making as a side-business, not just a break-even hobby. Will attempt to get into a few more galleries this year. Maybe try outside the UK.

Thatsitfornow. xx