A series of lasts, a sinking duck and a personal fly

Things are beginning to wrap up very quickly here. We have had our last orchestra concert, our last chamber music assessment, our last lessons and our last concert pracs. Did we ever tell you about Concert Prac? This is a fabulously useless innovation of the Con. Since REAL concerts happen maybe twice a semester, you have to practice giving concerts. So every Friday we had to sit in a Recital Hall while a series of freshman played a series of wrong notes while we all write comments. At the end the professors stand up and give each performer comments. The reigning mantra is "how much you've improved!!!!" Anyway, Mike and I made it through our last Concert Prac ever by turning it into a drinking game. We each had a bottle of juice, and every wrong note was worth a swig. An especially out of tune one was worth 2. And so on. But we got through!!

For those of you devoted readers who are worried that the blog might end once we move back to the US, never fear!! We have every intention of keeping this going, assuming you people keep reading it. ??????? I'm not sure how many people we've told, but our current plans (subject to change at any time, of course, but these haven't changed for a bit, so we're probably safe) is to move to the Dallas area. We have some connections there :o) and will while away our time freelancing and teaching until we figure out what our next adventure will be. Of course, one could definitely argue that moving to Texas will also be an adventure!!!!
~Ruth Ann

The personal fly is one of the most annoying things about the Australian spring. Normal flies are annoying, but the Australian Personal Fly is worse. This is when a fly takes a liking to you and decided to orbit your head and follow you....for a VERY long time. I swatted at one for almost a mile one day. Despite hitting him several times, he kept right on following me. Often, whole gangs of them will camp out on your back where you can't reach them and take turns buzzing around you.
I had to work a concert in the box office a week ago. I had a fly follow me from Circular Quay to the Con(.5 miles), came inside with me and half a madding hour later was still there! I walked very slowly to the bathroom, went to the farthest wall, then sprinted out and slammed the door, trapping my personal fly inside. I haven't been back to that bathroom since.

Every morning when we are waiting to catch the ferry to school, we have to amuse ourselves in several ways. 1. Watching all the stuffy business people try and get at the head of the line. 2. Looking at all the jellyfish splooshing along in the water. 3. Watching territorial seagulls scream at other seagulls, and my favorite 4. Watching the sinking duck. This isn't actualy a duck; the body shape is a little different and the neck is longer. It's sort of what I imagine a duck would look like during the days of the dinosaurs. He dives down in the water for a minute or so and pops up somewhere else. But instead of coming to the top of the water, only his neck comes out. He looks around with a quizzical expression as if thinking "Hey, this is weird. Why am I sinking?" Sometimes he'll jump out of the water and land on top of it(like a normal duck would). But then he stops moving and waits until he sinks a little bit before continuing.

Never dull in Australia!
~Mike

Christmas shopping in summer

It's quickly becoming full-fledge summer here. We had thunderstorms yesterday and it's been nearly 100 degrees several days. But Christmas is coming!!!!!! Some stores have even begun their Christmas SALES and I am so confused! Christmas tinsel juxtaposed with manequins wearing shorts and tank tops. I don't really remember Florida well enough to remember being hot during the holidays so this is just hurting my brain.

We're now at 26 days. We have mailed several boxes home and everything we have left should fit in our massive suitcases. (That is, assuming we don't buy LARGE Christmas presents for people!) My to-do list has shrunk considerably and I'm beginning to feel like these last few weeks shouldn't be any stress at all. We have our recitals coming up, but somehow 40 minutes of music seem pathetically short. That's not how it seemed during my undergrad!!! I guess I must have improved some since I was 22 :o)

On a completely unrelated note, have we discussed the difference between raisins and sultanas? When we first got here, we discovered Sultana Bran was Raisin Bran, and just assumed that raisins were sultanas, end of story. A couple of weeks ago I was ordering our groceries online, like I always do, and absentmindedly did a search for "raisins." An entry came up, and I bought them. When they got here, I went to put them in a recipe but noticed they seemed kind of slimey. Concerned, I checked the box, and here's what I found: Sultanas are dried grapes. Raisins are dried grapes...soaked in vegetable oil. EW! They worked fine in an Indian lamb recipe, but to just eat them out of the box? Ick!

~Ruth Ann

Cue-dahhhhhhhs

The Con High School is just like Hogwarts!! Today they elected their house captains. But instead of Ravenclaw, Slytherin, etc., the Con HS is divided into Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. (How adorably dorky and quaint, at the same time!) The high school librarian was explaining the system to me at work, and said it was a great "cuedahhhhhhs" to be elected. Thrilled to be encountering a word that sounded like a Trekkie alien race I queried the word. "You've never heard "cuedahhhhhhhs" before?" She looked astounded. "K-U-D-O-S?"

Alas. Tripped up again by another Australian pro-nun-ski-ation!

~Ruth Ann

000

We have just been rudely awakened by the very loud, very insistent fire alarm. We and all of our neighbors staggered out into the hallway, modeling a wide variety of PJs, to discover that our batty neighbor upstairs (the one who cuts bushes at 10pm) was the one responsible for setting off the alarm. She claims she doesn't know why. Another crazy lady (the one who was prone to cookies) was convinced she smelled cooking and kept asking me "Don't you smell cooking?!" Both batty ladies together decided they should call the fire department. "Do you know their number?" One batty lady asked another. Luckily, the fire department came on their own and turned off that infernal noise. We're going back to bed now!!!

Wedders

Yesterday Mike and I went shopping for wedding rings. Given that our wedding is less than three months away, this was probably a good idea. After no luck in our first store, we wandered into a store called (I kid you not) Angus&Coote, where we were assisted by a lovely gentleman named Ernest. Apparently we were not actually in search of wedding bands; here in Australia they are called "wedders." Ernest very patiently showed us wedder after wedder after wedder, and even pulled out a large catalogue of all the wedders in the world. (He also enthusiastically showed us that his wedding ring is SQUARE!) Luckily for Angus&Coote&Ernest we think we found the rings we want in the metal we want in the price we want. Successful shopping in Sydney?! I didn't think it could happen!
Our time is really running out fast here. I could write a pensive blog about all that Sydney has taught me, but I have no time. I'm beginning to feel that panicky feeling that I remember from LAST October, thinking "I"M MOVING IN 3 MONTHS!" At least the move this time should be much easier. We have relatives to mooch off of for a few months :-) Our recitals are scheduled (Nov. 6th, but we were assigned times that are back to back, so we may not be very good at moral support that day!) and our last day of work at the library will be Nov. 10th. They're giving us a "Farewell Morning Tea," which should be very cute, and all seem very distressed that we're leaving, which is very sweet. Personally, I'm not sure the library will survive without us there, but that's another story. Meanwhile, if you know anyone who wants to buy a couch or a desk or a washing machine..or a 5-year-old Powell flute, please let me know!
~Ruth Ann

Fans! PM's! Camels!

We had a very eventful couple of days! Not only was Cairns a fantastic vacation, it allowed me to add a few critters to the list of animals I've eaten. For those of you who don't know, I have been keeping a tally of the different kind of animals I've eaten over the years. Now, I am proudly up to 20! Australia has been very kind to me with adding 7 new ones: kangaroo, wallaby, emu, rabbit, quail, goat, and camel. YES! I've finally eaten the much sought after camel meat and it was really good! Not stringy or gamey at all. Much better than my ill fated goat adventure in Melbourne. Now that I've hit 20 animals, I'm aiming for 25 (this of course doesn't count the bugs I've accidentally swallowed while biking. Nor does it count creatures that live in water as they are too numerous and would skew the numbers. I have a separate list for fish.)

Yesterday as we were walking home from our ferry, we passed the Prime Minister's house. Normally it's very quiet with a couple of friendly guards outside saying hello to everyone who passes. On hot days, they stand across the street in the shade. Yesterday there was a bit more hubbub: a few more guards and several official cars. As we got halfway down the street the motorcade of John Howard passed us. I actually saw him in the front seat of the first car reading a newspaper. He's a lot smaller than all the pictures I've seen before but his head is very round! This is the first time either of us has seen our reclusive PM despite the rumor he goes jogging through Kirribilli.

Today was even more exciting as we finally found a fan!!! We went to Manly to bum around a bit this morning and we passed a store that had them on sale! We weren't able to get one quite as cute as Hoppy, but it's bigger, more powerful, much taller, and REALLY gets the air moving through the apt. Now our clothes can dry in a night! I personally have a huge pile of clothes to test this ability on. The name hasn't come to us yet. Any suggestions? Actually I just looked at the fan and the name came: Filburt the Fan.

~Mike

Cairns is great!!!!

Of course, it would help if we knew how to pronounce the name of the city! Mike and I firmly keep pronouncing it as "C-A-I-R-N-S," ennunciating every letter. Australians, however, tend to drop Rs and add them again in funny places, so Cairns becomes "Cannes, Australier." I think they're just hoping to envoke memories of the real Cannes. But French Riviera or no, this was a lovely tropical paradise!
Our weather was perfect the whole time--in the 80s, sunshine, light breeze. (None of us got completely fried by the sun.) We spent a good deal of time laying on the beach with the turquoise ocean in washing on the shores. I never entirely knew if I could trust the pictures supplied by travel agents about the color or tropical oceans--actually, you can!
I think Carins will be best described in a picture blog, so here goes:



A beach outside of Cairns, to give you a feel for for the lay of the land. (That's the Coral Sea!)









On the second day, Emily (you'll see her in a minute!) went on a diving trip to three spots out on the Great Barrier Reef, and Mike and I went out to Michaelmas Cay. That's a small island about 40 miles off the coast that was created by the decay of the reefs. See what I mean about blue oceans?!




Mike went snorkelling and I laid on the beach and did nothing. :-)









The cruise we took did have a semi-submersible boat that would take you around the reefs and look for wildlife in cozy, dry conditions. We saw a bunch of parrot fish, the world's largest clams (huge!!!) and two sea turtles!! Alas, our cameras weren't fast enough to catch much moving wildlife--we'll have to be content with pictures of the reef.


On Wednesday we went up to Karunda Village, about 30 minutes up the mountain from Cairns. There they several wildlife parks--Birdworld and the Koala Gardens were our favorite. When we arrived at Birdworld, we were one of the first groups to show up that day, and as you get to feed the birds, the birds are thrilled to see you!!!




This is Emily. She was the unlucky person holding the bag of food when we entered the park, so was mobbed by several hungry birds. Actually, don't you think she looks ecstatically happy to have a bird on her arm? Birdy here was trying to eat through the plastic bag.








Koala Gardens was another great place, because you could Cuddle a Koala! For $15 we could hold a koala and have our pictures taken. Obviously, we jumped at this chance!












Finally, I'm going to leave you with the Hysterical Signs of Cairns. Quiz of the week: do you know what these signs are for?!?!?!?!






~Ruth Ann