Ah, I love October... the flowers in bloom, the days getting warm, spring rains giving way to summer sunshine...
Only eight week left for us in the sunny land of Oz. D's job applications are all but done, and she now returns to the ever-present thesis.1 The features section of the blog is now four months behind2 and the scrapbook is also four months behind, but slow progress has once again commenced on both. Buffy has started college, Dr. House has to fire one of the three doctors in his department, Kate was killed by a terrorist sniper,3 and D is getting really really good at Spider Solitaire.
Yesterday was Labour Day, at least in the state of New South Wales, and so, we decided to spend the holiday at home.4 There were two major news events around here this weekend: First, the bombing in Bali, in which four Australians were killed. This was the bad news, and it shook up Australia pretty bad, as had the previous attacks in 2002. Indonesia is one of Oz's nearest neighbors, and Bali is a popular vacation destination for Aussies-- even with the terrorist attacks and the fact that there have been 11 highly publicized arrests of Australian tourists in Bali who have been accused of carrying drugs (an offence that can carry the death penalty in Indonesia.) Today I read a new report that said that Aussie survivors of the 2002 bombings in Bali had gone back there this week for the third anniversary of the first attacks "as part of the healing process" and so were caught in Sunday's attacks as well. My friend in Indonesia on a Fulbright reported that he was pretty shaken up but okay. (He is not living or working on Bali.) The second major news event was good news-- the "Wests Tigers" won the National Rugby League Premiership. "Wests" in the team name means in this case "Inner West suburbs" of Sydney, and alert readers will recognize this as the name of the region in which we now live. In fact, Leichhardt is the proverbial "home" of the home team in this case... so our next-door neighbor (otherwise known as Leichhardt Town Hall) was decked out in black and orange streamers all last week, and after the game Sunday night the street outside sounded like Ann Arbor on a fall Saturday afternoon.5
Did I mention that last week the Sydney Swans (Aussie Rules Football, totally different game from Rugby League, which is also a different game from Rugby Union) won the Grand Final for the first time since 1933? There was a ticker tape parade6 downtown for the Swans on Friday, and intermittent fireworks last week. It's getting hard to sort out what celebrations are for what teams... or what sport, for that matter! (And D thought she'd left the insanity of home football Saturdays back in Ann Arbor.)
Into the home stretch now...
;)
- D
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NOTES
1You know, the one that she spent the last two weeks trying to convince US schools and colleges was already done?
2I'm sorry, I really am-- the next page to be done is taking me a long time because it's all our underwater pictures from the reef, and they're way cool but there's a lot of them.
3"Buffy" of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which we watch on DVD, twelve episodes in a week; Dr. House of House, M.D. and Kate of NCIS, which we watch on regular Australian TV, one episode a week if we're lucky.
4This was only partially due to the fact that most places were closed, and had much more to do with the fact that we pretty much stay home every day, holiday or no.
5When Michigan wins, of course. The mood when they lose is a bit more subdued.
6I kid you not, "ticker tape parade"-- isn't it so 1940s? I didn't actually see it, but that's what the news said.
Back to the GAA page!