'Now, if you're ready, Oysters dear, we can begin to feed.'

I just made the BEST dinner - thai yellow coconut curry with prawn, red pepper* and pak choi. I love asian greens, I always like to eat them whilst Mark is away as he doesn't like them so much. I like the bitterness and the crunch. I guess I've always liked things like that, cabbage, sprouts etc. Green leafy things as part of a hot meal.

I really don't have that much to report. Stress continues to plague me in various guises - all UK-move-related. But I am calmer today due to a possible step forward on the temporary accommodation front and after a long discussion with one of my staff (Rosie) about Port Stephens and all the things we can do when we go up there in November with Mark's parents. I am planning a lot of swimming, walking, relaxing, whale and dolphin watching, fish eating, and horse riding. Spring break!!!

Since Mark went away I've not been really doing that much, which I'm hoping to change this weekend with at least one proper day out. Last Saturday I got the train to Redfern then walked into Glebe and met Dean at about 10.30am, we visited La Banette, the bakery/patisserie and bought many pastry and cakey and bread based items. La Banette is great - can't believe I've not been before. They do this mini brioche thing stuffed with nutella, omg so nice!!!
We got the bus back to Newtown and dropped the food at Dean's before heading round to Shenkin to drink coffee and milkshakes and eat hommous and falafel and greek salad. Mmmm Shenkin falafel is amazing, and their hommous is pretty much the best ever. Possibly even better than the chile dip from Sultan's Table. We sat for a long long time then went back to Dean's to while away another couple of hours playing with the dogs. Then I walked back down the road to mine and watched the last of my DVDs before I had to take them back to the video shop, the last one being Notting Hill, which was enjoyable enough but Love Actually is SO much better. Then I walked up to the video shop to put my DVDs in the returns chute.

Sunday I woke up feeling a little ill. Lay around feeling sorry for myself for a while but then had a shower and caught the train to Circular Quay for a walk and to take some more photos. Then bought some AMAZING CHEESE from David Jones on the way home. Like mega creamy brie with a blue vein. Oh and also 6 oysters to try to make myself feel healthy. Oh oysters. How I love thee.

'O Oysters,' said the Carpenter,
'You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none --
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.



*Yes, pepper. I may have slipped comfortably into 'eggplant' for aubergine, come around to 'chips' for crisps, and eventually even forced myself to adopt 'lollies' for sweets, I cannot and will not ever bring myself to call a pepper a 'capsicum'.

Eurasia

Watching Kevin McCloud's Grand Tour is giving me itchy feet. I've been in one place so long, and Australia can feel so restricting. I want to see Greece, I want to see Sarajevo, I want to see Rome, I want to swim off Croatian beaches, I want to dance all night in Berlin clubs, I want to wander down side streets in St Germain eating crepes in Paris. Try to find somewhere interesting to go for 3 days or so that can be easily accessed from Sydney, and you basically come up with....Melbourne.

Now, Melbourne is a great place. I possibly had more fun there than I've ever had anywhere else in my life, in terms of marauding and gallivanting and generally drinking too much and going to bed at 6am. It's attractive, clean, easy to navigate, friendly, varied, cultural, affordable and generally an all round good, interesting place to pass some time. But, both of us having spent some time there, it's no longer perhaps the most exciting destination. It's essentially Sydney, with trams.

You can get onto a plane in Sydney, fly for over 5 hours, get off the plane, and still be in the same country. I'm yearning for some variety. The kind of variety you get in Europe in such abundance. I know there are some beautiful places relatively nearby, but most are inaccessible or at least difficult to come by by public transport (Hawkesbury River, Hunter Valley and the Snowy Mountains to name just a few I seem to be coming up against a google-brick-wall of useful transport options).

I find the programs shown on Aus TV, in particular ABC which buys a lot of BBC imports, somewhat odd sometimes. A lot of the shows are very Euro-centric, or even British-centric, and I wonder how this really goes down with the average aussie viewer. One night, I found myself watching an episode of a Bristish property show, 'Escape to the Country', which was extolling the virtues of the common dream of moving to Cornwall. I highly doubt there are large numbers of aussies desperately interested in the trials and tribulations of buying an overpriced pokey seventies' stone-clad cottage with a view of a dismal grey drizzly coastline. I do wonder though, if some Australians ever share this feeling of being stuck in a big expanse of the cultural same old.

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After a scorching hot day yesterday, we took a picnic down to Sydney Park and sat out on the hill until it got too dark to see. Last night was the warmest night for 13 years, with the temperature 'dropping' to an overnight low of 26 degrees. Today is all change, however, and there is a distinct wintery chill in the air, especially as it is now starting to get dark a little earlier. I have a stressful week this week, but I'm looking forward to a bit of relaxation at the weekend, perhaps a trip to the beach as there will not be many more opportunities now.

Last weekend we saw British Sea Power play at the Manning Bar and they were excellent. Afterwards we trundled to the townie (what is that pub's full name??) for gin and I met a man from Cheltenham who is seconding at the British High Commission in Canberra, which was interesting as I secretly would love to work for the British High Commission. I did also secretly want to work for the government but not if it means I have to get bitch-slapped by a raging Gordon Brown. *quiver*

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I was going to end this post by querying whether I should watch QI or go to bed but I appear to now be watching QI so there we go.