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