The woes of the share house

Our little Taichemel household of one-and-a-half years is splitting up. Tai is moving to Sydney for a new job, Mel is moving closer to work. And Michael and I are getting married in October so it was all going to end soon anyway. Still, it has NOT been fun being the only one to be left on the lease, to have to interview new housemates (and contemplate the perils of having to absorb 3 persons' rent on my own if I don't find anyone), to meet some truly bizarre people, to weigh up pros and cons of smokers, short-term tenants and cleaning Nazis, to have made an offer to someone who accepted and later changed her mind while in the meantime I'd decided to turn other people down, to have to explain the whole lease and housing situation to the interviewees over and over and over again, to figure out whether I could be fridgeless and washing machine-less for a few months (the former is definitely not doable!), work out money matters with soon-to-be former housemates and also good friends - I guess it's all been another learning experience. Another lesson I'm only learning because I've moved out of home!

Three and a half days in Melbourne (and I only bought one pair of shoes!)

Over the long weekend, Michael and I made a short getaway to Melbourne. We spent some time with my Auntie, Uncle and cousins who I have barely seen over the past 20 years. It makes you realise how big Australia is when you can live in the same country but travel from East to West less than once a decade.
















My cousin's 2 1/2 year old son Andrew was so very cute and smart. Not many toddlers can point out New Zealand or Japan or the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the world map, or tell you where his nose, ear and popliteal fossa are. Having two doctors for parents may have contributed to the advanced anatomy knowledge!

We stayed at John's apartment which was just ten minutes walk from Melbourne city shopping. It was fantastic to see John and Kristy again, our fellow Contiki travellers, and Kristy thank you so much for driving us all over Melbourne and giving us the Victorian hospitals tour!






























We had dinner at a Greek restaurant in Crown, and later mucked around in the Casino to pay for some of our dinner! Alec had a very impressive win at the pokies, putting in $10 that led to a flood of $105 in gold coins that kept streaming out of the machine until someone had to come to refill it!

We really enjoyed the Asian food - any Asian who has lived in Canberra can tell you how dismal the Asian food scene is here, so whenever we're in a bigger city we become ridiculously happy by just sitting on little plastic stools in some poorly decorated restaurant in Chinatown over bowls of noodle soup or steamed dumplings or barbeque pork. We also enjoyed the buzzing Melbourne cafes with their smooth, rich coffee and all-day breakfasts and fruity fruity Gelati on Lygon street.

Despite the sales, I showed remarkable resilience and only made one lone purchase despite steeling myself for much greater temptations - it must have been an act of God.

All you ever wanted to know about chair covers

Recently I realised, to my horror, that I haven't updated this blog for about 2 months. It's been a pretty busy past few months, but not crazily so... at least not most of the time. I have a feeling it will get that way by July though.

I'm really quite enjoying life at the moment - I've settled into more of a routine this year that contrasts with the chaos that was last year. It's all very comfortable and familiar now. There's much less randomness. I think the knowledge that we have a wedding to prepare for has disciplined me a little - in terms of money, in terms of health, in terms of how I want to spend my time and what is important. Work's also become familiar. I reckon by next year I will be ready for new challenges and another round of changes, but for now I am happy to cruise.

I'm just going through my photos from the past couple of months and realised I haven't taken many! Not even during my trip back to Perth in April. The trip was fun - 9 days back in Perth, catching up with quite a few people - I had about 8 dinners out (two in one night!) and only got to eat my mum's cooking once! I went to Yen's wedding which was lovely, and it was great to catch up with some old uni friends there!

Also in Perth I ticked off some more tasks on our own wedding to-do list. I realised how ridiculous this whole process can be - intricate details that no normal person would give a second thought to become the object of analysis, consultation and conjecture during the wedding planning process. The subject of chair covers is a typical example. I have discovered that a lot of non-married/engaged people (and quite a few people who are married/engaged!) do not even know what chair covers are. And nearly everyone thinks it is incredible that a single chair cover, which is hired, costs about $4.50 per chair. Multiply this by 200 chairs, throw in setup fees, and you have kissed goodbye $1,000 for pretty chairs.

So what are the fine details that no normal person knows about chair covers? Well, I pondered the many different shades of red there are (there are many! wine red, true red, orange-red), the different types of sash fabric (organza, par silk, silk, taffeta), the different ways of tying a sash (bow, cravat, sideways), whether to have all the same colour sashes or alternating different colours, whether to have ivory or white for the covers themselves, which fabric could form the largest bow, whether we wanted the colour to be exactly the same as the bridesmaids dresses or slightly different so as not to make them fade into the decor. This is from a girl who is not into weddings. Honest! Options are evil.

Another funny experience Michael and I had on the weekend was going to David Jones to start a gift registry. Who knew forks could come in so many different styles? Did we want the forks with small grooves along the handle, the flatter forks, the heavier forks, the shinier forks or the squarish forks? We ended up laughing and picking the cheapest ones! That's always a good way to fast track any decision making process.

The other thing I did back in Perth was have a menu tasting at the Duxton, where we are having our reception. My mum and I were soooo stuffed afterwards. No matter what though, I always seem to have a second stomach for dessert.

Bliss

I meant to post this up awhile ago... Canberra Day was 19 March. So here goes:

Last weekend was blissful. It was the Canberra Day long weekend, and I also took Tuesday off work as it was my birthday and Michael had a whole week off between overnight shifts. On Sunday morning we headed to Thredbo for a two-night stay. It was a two-and-a-half hour drive to the mountains.

We stayed in a lovely big hotel with wooden staircases and stone fireplaces. It would so cosy and warm in winter. On the first day we attempted some mountain bike riding (this was too hard for words!) and then explored the area a bit on foot. There are little shops in Thredbo village (selling lots of winter clothes and ski gear), a supermarket, restaurants, cafes, pubs, a leisure centre. It was nice to be able to step straight out of the hotel into the village, with everything only metres away. Later on we watched Sunday night TV and had a late dinner at a nearby restaurant/pub.














Mountain biking... not my strength

On Monday we took the chairlift up the mountain, did a 10km trek all the way down the mountain in partial rain and wind (I was sore for the next two days), ate a huge lunch, took an awesome 100km drive through mountain ranges, retired to the hotel to watch TV, ate at Cascades, the hotel restaurant, watched The Departed until late, and fell asleep after the movie for 9 hours straight, which if you know me, is a rare occurrence indeed.














Views during our walk through the mist ... very beautiful and mysterious!














On Tuesday we visited the Snowy Mountains info centre and like a true nerd I got all excited learning about how hydro-electricity is generated and how in the eastern states electricity is traded on a spot market and buyers can enter into forward contracts to minimise risk.

On our drive home, we stopped for lunch at the Lott Café/Bakery in Cooma which came recommended by a friend and the SMH Good Food Guide – it’s just a tiny place on a main street in Cooma that doesn’t jump out at you, but then you step in and the place has heaps of character and couches and pillows and interesting food. We had scrumptious hot chocolate and a picking plate filled with toasty foccacia, ham, olives, Atlantic trout, eggplant, sundried tomato and cheese… molto bene!















We ended up back in Canberra around 3pm and it didn’t take long for me to feel bored. I wonder if I’m going to become one of those people who is constantly seeking new and more adventurous experiences! Anyway, after wandering around the shops for awhile we went to watch Letters from Iwo Jima.

After the movie we had dinner at Iori - it really is the best Japanese restaurant in Canberra! It’s probably even better than many of the Japanese restaurants I’ve been to in Perth. We enjoyed a meal of inside out sushi with prawns, caviar and the usual fillings, and then covered with sashimi on top. Yuuumm. There was also a crab set – crab hot pot, crab tempura, crab sushi. And Sake to top it off!





















Thoughts of wedding are all very far away at the moment but for those wanting to know dates – the date is 6 October 2007 in Perth. I hope that helps at least with travel plans, if you will be in Perth around this time.

Fitness First

I changed gyms recently. All of last year I'd been going to this little one near my house which is pretty decent - has all the requisite classes and a small selection of equipment, as well as lots of friendly faces. And it was reasonably priced.

But last week I started going to Fitness First and it's awesome. It's five minutes drive from anywhere I'm ever likely to be, got heaps and heaps of equipment (I swear the treadmills are kinder to your knees at this gym, and my beloved cross trainers are in ample supply), and TVs with sound to entertain while you're exercising.

Perhaps the best thing about the new gym is the classes - the group fitness room is just massive and the atmosphere is on a completely different level to my old gym. There's a big stage with two or three instructors at the front, and the classes are packed with over a hundred people. The music pumps out and with that many people hyped up and running around, you get an adrenalin rush just being there that makes you forget everything you were doing or thinking before you got to the class and push yourself further past the pain barrier. It was so good.

No, I'm not dead

Just busy. Everything is going pretty well. The trips to Sydney have stopped (thankfully) - I found a wedding dress. I need to sleep more. I bought new shoes today. There was a crazy hailstorm in Canberra last week that badly damaged buildings in the city and at ANU. It looked like the city had been covered in snow. Some people's cars floated. It was followed by a weekend of 30-something degree weather. I keep saying, This place was not meant to be inhabited. Shame I can't pick it up and move it nearer to some natural body of water, or Sydney, or a place with decent Asian food.

Ever Learning

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, never haughty or selfish or rude. Love doesn’t demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong. It is never glad over injustice, but rejoices when truth wins out. If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You’ll believe in him and always expect the best of him, while defending him. (NKJ)

Ran out of time

Sometime last year I started realising that I simply don’t have time to do everything I want to do in life. It’s not like I have almost enough time, or a few isolated things I want to do that I need to make more of an effort to get around to. It’s not even close to that. There are hundreds of things that I would like to do and will probably not get around to doing.

Life gets fuller and fuller. Getting through the basics of each day is keeping me busy enough. Going to work for the whole day, trying to cook decent meals for the week, keeping up with the news, keeping up with what other areas of Treasury are working on, spending time with Michael, spending time with my group of girls, spending time with the wider grad group, going to parties, keeping in touch with colleagues and friends from church and Bible study group and Perth, talking to my parents, going to the gym, keeping the house clean (failing), grocery shopping, washing clothes, wedding planning, Legal Workshop assignments, replying emails, various personal maintenance matters (who has time to blow dry their hair, put on makeup, cut their fingernails or moisturise these days?), going to church, going to sleep, watching TV, reading all the books I can't resist buying…

And these are just the ‘essentials’ that I’m struggling to manage. Never mind the other things -trips I want to take with friends, the cooking class, the French and Chinese and Japanese classes, brushing up my piano skills, dance classes, skiing, Bible college, studying in China, working in Asia, working in the UK, spending two weeks in Rome and a week at the Louvre, going on a mission trip, studying English and creative writing and watching Westwing, The Godfather, Yes Minister and Bleakhouse.

I used to tease Michael about having a housekeeper. Now I’m starting to think it’s actually very smart.

Whrilwind of activity

It's been a long time between updates - where do I start? I was back in Perth for almost 3 weeks over Xmas and it was blissful to just relax and get away. I had been painfully homesick in December, and when I returned home and escaped the responsibility of work, the house chores and rushed cooking jobs, I could just feel all the stress draining out of me. It was like living in a hotel – my mum washed my clothes, cooked delicious food, we went for walks through pretty Applecross streets and along the river, watched DVDs and caught up with friends for hours. I swear it makes such a big difference living at home.

It’s funny because I feel like I have two homes now – one in Perth and one in Canberra. When I’m back in Perth I feel unquestionably at home – so comfortable there, it’s so familiar, I still know so many people. But returning to Canberra is also like coming home – my workplace is still awesome, my grad group is fantastic and we have so many shared experiences together both past and ongoing. I am still So Glad to Be Here.

Below are some photos from New Year's Eve - it was fun hanging out with Michael's friends in Perth and I know they'll be friends for life.












































I was trying to find just one picture of Michael from NYE that wasn't... how do you say... bad... but this is the best I could do! At least you know it was fun!

Coming back to Canberra has not exactly been Back to Reality. Michael has been sleeping on our floor while still deciding where to move to permanently, I haven’t had a chance to unpack properly and I think I have slept an average of 6 hours a night since coming back over a week ago. So many things – we went to Sydney for a weekend trip two days after getting back to Canberra, where it was lovely catching up with Yen and Ro and looking at wedding dresses with Yen. We ended up sitting in the apartment having baguettes with ham and cheese, wine and fruit, and later ended up at the Domain catching part of a free jazz concert which hundreds of thousands of people crowded along to, and then afterwards at Chinatown having congee for supper.

Visitor from Perth…

During the week I felt like I never got time to breathe or recover, we were always doing something or seeing someone. Then on Thursday night my old friend Sasha came to visit us in Canberra. Sash it was great catching up with you and I’m really glad you made the trek to Canberra, and didn’t even bag the place too much! Sasha had been on a 9-month trip around the world and Canberra was her last stop before returning to Perth. We had a barbeque at home on Thursday night, went to OPH for after-work drinks on Friday night and later for a sampling of the delectable Asian cuisine Canberra has to offer, to Questacon on Saturday, and to Krispy Kremes, Frozen Custard, and the embassies on Sunday.

Long weekend

Thank God it’s the weekend! I’m going to take a break and do Nothing. Well... there's lots of packing to do for our big house move on Wednesday, and tomorrow I'm making a day trip to Sydney to continue my quest to find the Perfect Wedding Dress (this is a joke... maybe). Other than that though, it'll be a lazy one.

Long Distance ends Tonight

I'm flying back to Perth tonight for a couple of weeks over the Christmas break. 11 months of Long Distance with Michael ends tonight. I've had enough. I really enjoyed the first six months. It was so important for me to come to Canberra and have a year of independence, making new friends, learning to survive work and living out of home on my own, without anyone to go to or anywhere to escape to. There have been so many good times this year. But now I've had enough.

Over the past few months definitely, I've become tired of the single life and just want my fiancé here to spend time with and as I keep saying to Michael, I just want a hug! After I fly back tonight, Michael will fly back to Canberra with me on January 10 and God willing we won't have to spend months apart anymore.

The last week especially I think I've literally felt depressed at the thought that ending long distance was so close yet so far away. But now as it all ends tonight, I'm just reflecting on a significant year and feeling glad that I did this year on my own.

Office Christmas celebrations

I'm so tired. Again! Mel and I have been house hunting because we're keen to move out when our lease expires at the end of January. I've been rushing to home opens that only last for 15 minutes before work, after work and during lunch breaks. And work has still been really busy, but in a good way.

We've had a few Christmas celebrations already - last week we had the Treasury Christmas party which was pretty good. A few hours of champagne and canapés wasn’t a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon. And it’s always fun spending time with colleagues in a social context.

Yesterday we had the Competition & Consumer Policy divisional Christmas party at Belluci’s, an Italian restaurant in Manuka. I’ve never had a banquet with Italian food before – they had about 4 different courses – pizza, antipasto, breads & dips, and pasta & risotto, so we were all very full by the end of lunch.

My unit manager was sitting beside me at lunch and it was so nice to be able to catch up with her as I haven’t really talked to her much lately. I really admire her and think she has such a great work ethic and attitude to life in general. She’s very real and not pretentious, always wants the best for everyone, and doesn’t have all these boundaries or ways of acting just because she’s so senior. She loves to have fun with people in our unit and will chew anyone’s ear off who’ll listen. I think she’s great. Plus I love the fact that she’s a youngish Asian female who doesn’t at all conform to the stereotype.

Anyway, as things hopefully start to wind down next week, I’m just really looking forward to a break! I miss Michael, I miss my mum, I miss Perth a little… but not too much. I’m really looking forward to catching up with people back in Perth though and just hanging out with old friends a bit. It’s definitely time for a break from work.

Sydney Road Trip II

Five of the girls made our second (shopping) trip to Sydney this weekend for a much needed getaway and taste of a bigger city (and better Asian food). We shopped, ate in Chinatown, and shopped… I still ♥ Sydney. I think it has a great vibe and reminds me of big Asian cities.

We also saw the Borat movie. Someone at work had told me that the movie is so wrong you don’t even know where to start in describing it. I think there were two or three scenes that were a bit too mean, but a lot of it was really funny.

On Sunday morning, Yen and Ro took Mirren and I to visit Hillsong church. It was really interesting. Actually, I really enjoyed the service. There are a few things that I disagree with about Pentecostal churches, but then all denomination have their differences. Clearly, Hillsong has blessed a lot of people, done heaps of great work in the community, and has amazing services and dynamic leaders. There are huge advantages in having a lot of money, and they’ve used a lot of that for good. I couldn’t help being inspired and touched by the music and the preaching, even if I didn’t agree with everything that was said.

After church we went to Bills for brunch (one of Bill Granger’s cafés) and had delicious ricotta pancakes. Yen and I talked weddings and chair covers – I’m surprised that I’m enjoying the wedding talk. If you had tried to talk to me about chair covers or veils or floral arrangements 6 months ago it would have been a short conversation. I suppose it’s all on a need-to-discuss basis. Which is why I’m surprised to find the process almost fun. Weird.

Engaged to be married...

November 18

Michael came to Canberra on Saturday November 18, took me for a lovely dinner, and then a mysterious walk at Commonwealth Place between flagpoles and walls before reaching a point overlooking the War Memorial on one side and Parliament and Old Parliament House on the other, where scattered rose petals covered the ground and he proposed.

Life as a fiancée

Everyone has been so excited about it all, yesterday at work I just kept getting emails and people coming to talk about weddings and rings. It has been kind of fun! I am not one of those girls who knows all (or anything) about diamonds, and being asked about ring details I really struggled. Michael actually wrote down the specifications of the diamond for me before he left, but I looked at the piece of paper and promptly forgot half the letters and numbers, let alone what they meant. So on Monday one of the ladies in my unit came and sat down with me and gave me a diamond lesson, going through the 4Cs, listing the different colours and clarities and all the rest and drawing diagrams of what is meant by an 'ideal cut' etc etc... So now I know a little bit more! But I think it is the guys who learn an awful lot about diamonds because they're the ones who make the big investment!

Despite my cluelessness about the technicalities, I love the ring and think it's beautiful, and from what everyone has said, Michael has made an excellent choice :)

Let the planning begin...

Similarly to the whole diamond issue, I've never put a whole lot of thought into wedding matters, other than thinking I would enjoy shopping for a dress... I still think the whole project sounds daunting. But as I intend to tell myself 100 times over the next 10 months or so, it is about a marriage moreso than a wedding.

Snow

It snowed in Canberra today!

So glad to be here II

I said this before but I'll say it again - I'm so glad to be here. Yesterday after work Kylie, Maria, Mirren and I did the bridge-to-bridge walk together. It's only about 5 kms and it was so relaxing just to walk together and chat on a Friday evening instead of the usual rush to join the queues at OPH drinks. I really love these girls - they're sweet, real, and loyal. I think often when you're in a relationship, friendships tend to suffer, purely because you have less time to spend with your friends. This year has really given me the chance to spend more time with people other than Michael, and it's been a huge wakeup call and reminder that next year when Michael moves to Canberra, we really need to do things with our own groups of friends. And I think as you do that, you become happier and have a fuller and broader perspective on things, which brings a lot to the relationship.

So anyway, after the walk we went to the Hyatt to catch the end of drinks, and then into Civic to eat and help Kylie search for a mobile phone... later on we met up with some other grads for coffee (tea) and then to Hippo Bar for awhile. I really lament my failure to take any photos for the past few months, laziness has overtaken...

Today wasn't so crash hot - I'm still struggling with the whole working & studying thing, so always scrambling to keep up with both, with having a divided mind when in the past I've always given single minded devotion to one thing.

Last weekend Yen, Ro and Craig came to Canberra from Sydney to attend a wedding. It was really nice to have Yen & Ro stay over for a night, to catch up with Yen, and get to know her fiancé.

Not even mediocre

I just submitted an entirely sub-standard assignment for my trust accounting unit of Legal Workshop. It's not even mediocre - it's crap. It doesn't balance, the written answers are incomplete, and it's reasonably obvious that it was a very rushed job. I've had enough though. It's been so busy at work. This morning I researched, consulted on and fine tuned an Executive Minute to as near perfection as the limited time I had allowed. I churned out ministerials and Dawson-related work last week. I spent all of yesterday starting the commercial practice assignment for Workshop which is due a day after the accounting one I submitted tonight. My team has a pile of urgent deadlines to meet over the next few days. I don’t have any more capacity, so for once I am happy to hand in something crap. It’s just not that important.

The Dawson Bill - Historic moments

The Dawson Bill has passed! It has been the bane of our existence for the whole year, and had a lot of people horribly depressed after they spent years working on it and it failed to pass in October last year when Barnaby Joyce crossed the floor of the Senate, voting to take out large parts of the Bill. Well Barnaby crossed the floor again today, but it didn't matter. The Government secured the support of Family First man Senator Steve Fielding and the Bill passed in the House of Reps yesterday, then passed the Senate with some minor amendments today, then was back in the House this afternoon where the final version passed - marking the biggest overhaul of trade practices law in Australia in many many years.

There has been so much hype about this Bill - so many business groups, industries, law firms who have been pushing for it and wanting to know when it would happen. It was very exciting to be there watching the debate from the advisers' boxes in the House of Reps yesterday, and then in the Senate today. I learned a lot about the world of politics, about how outcomes are achieved and the tactics that are used. I got to shake hands with the Treasurer and sit in his office while my supervisor answered his questions.

Our division is having celebratory drinks tomorrow - it's been an exciting past couple of days as it happened so suddenly, and my unit rapidly churned out briefing after briefing for the Treasurer on last-minute issues, finalised the Explanatory Memorandum, Bill and press releases. We’ve all been a bit sleep deprived and nervous. But it's exciting to have played a small part in a piece of history and to be able to say 'I was there when the Dawson reforms were passed.' It won't be a big deal to most people reading this, but to businesses, the ACCC, commercial lawyers and anyone who's worked in or studied competition law, what happened in Parliament today was momentous.

Above all

It's been very exciting at work lately - potentially groundbreaking events are being set in train. At this time, it's so easy to get caught up in the moment and see all this as so important. I was listening to the lyrics of Above All on my iPod and was reminded that in the midst of all that seems to impressive and significant, there is Jesus who is above all.

Above all powers, above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began

Above all kingdoms, above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what you're worth

Crucified, laid behind a stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all.

Michael in town

Michael was in Canberra for 4 days, starting over the weekend. It was fantastic to be together again and I am really looking forward to him moving here. In the first half year or so, I was very glad to have come here on my own - it gave me a chance to find my feet, make some good friends, go out late, become more independent. If I'd done this for a few years earlier, it probably wouldn't have been a bad thing either. But despite all the benefits, being with Michael again is so different and special, and it'll be so good next year when we're living in the same city again.

Had a ball

The SNoG ball was on Saturday and we had heaps of fun dancing, eating, drinking, talking... Unfortunately the next day was a complete write off, but it's all well worth it once in awhile.




Together again

Maria, Lukas, Chrissy and me

Dave, Phil, Heather, Rithy, Kylie and me


Floriade

Michael and I went to Floriade on Monday, a flower festival held in Canberra each Spring. It was essentially tulips - very pretty - anything different to do here is good!

So so so so tired!

Working girl

Why didn't anyone ever tell me that working life would be so tiring? That I would never again experience the flexibility of uni - doing work when I felt like it, going to lunch for as long as I liked, shopping when I felt like it, being able to run errands more than twice a year! Of course, never mind the burden of guilt often at the back of my mind about my uncompleted Honours thesis in fifth year, the last-minute cramming, the weekends and evenings spent studying in the weeks before exams... OK, so there are benefits to finishing uni!

But lately I have realised how exhausted I get by the end of a day at work - even those days that aren't particularly busy. This whole week, for example, has been relatively quiet - yet I have still come back on 2 out of 4 nights feeling like I couldn't be bothered to lift a finger - hence the laundry basket filled with clothes needing washing, the ironing basket filled with wrinkled clothes, the Legal Workshop papers strewn across my desk and the surrounding floorspace... About the one thing that gets done without fail is the washing up and the cooking - because these are shared chores in our household so I have no choice!

So I've been a bit of a recluse since coming back from Perth - only went out once this week, on Monday night (and that took it out of me for the rest of the week!) and have been holing up in my room after dinner each night, not chatting to the flatmates...

Home time

Going back to Perth for 9 days last week was fantastic - such a good break from everything, and so relaxing. Caught up with quite a few people, but also had time for relaxing things like watching DVDs, hanging out with Michael, chatting with Mum, dinners at home, visiting my former home (according to Sasha), Garden City. It was soooo good to eat my mum's cooking again! Perth hasn't changed - it never seems to - but I guess that's one of the good things about it. It's still very pretty, and much warmer than Canberra!

Photo catchup

I realised this blog is low on visual content... so here are some photos from the past couple of months!
















Edwina and I during her visit to Canberra in July
















Simon, me, Edwina, Yau Hing and Mandy at the Kingston Grind for lunch
















The Taichemel household, at our house party in July