October

A couple of evenings later it was my friend Kate's birthday and I had the chance to see her, her husband Simon and a different group of friends (some overlapping) and catch up more at an Indian restaurant. The poor restaurant just didn't know quite how to cope with us all. They only had one waitress on for the evening and there were more than 40 of us there. In the end, we grabbed and distributed plates and cutlery ourselves, and organised to order drinks in batches to help them cope. It is very typical of I think Australians, or perhaps just my group of friends, that our reaction to the lack of serving staff was not being upset or offended, but to offer to do what we can to lighten the load.  

Then I got to enjoy a wedding. It is always lovely to see people I like get married, and in this case, while I only met the groom on the day, I thoroughly approve.  The wedding itself was on Mount Ainslie, and the reception out at a farm in Womboin. I am kicking myself that I didn't have my camera at the wedding, however a friend lent me theirs so hopefully I will have some pretty shots from that to share with you.  Mount Ainslie looks out over Canberra, so I got to see how the city has spread over the years. Much of it stays the same, but there is definitely a lot of growth that has happened around the edges. It is also still looking dry; worryingly so considering that summer is not yet upon us.

Wamboin is a sort of farming area on the outside edge of Canberra; about 45 minutes drive. The bride and groom have a small farm, and asked guests to bring a dish rather than a gift. Cate and I made up a salad of fresh asparagus and snowpeas. The treat of the meal for me though was the roast pork – apparently the farmer just across the way slaughters on a Friday, so they just bought the meat directly from him, and it was totally delicious.

Being out on the farm was great – getting to hear the sounds of the frogs in the dam once the sun had set and smelling the distinct gum tree – scent on the air really made me feel at home. Cate was able to identify 6 different species of frog, which impressed me. I just knew that one of them goes “Bonk. Bonk. Bonk” - and that is the name I know it by – the bonk frog. I snatched a few photos of the sunset over the bush.  What a special country Australia is.. the sunsets there just are so spectacular, and this one, accompanied by the music of nature was totally magic.

28 October

On my actual birthday I had a training course, which was interesting, but what a pity to travel all the way to Australia and have one of the only days where I had to work being my birthday!

Two days later, disaster struck. I was walking in the back door of my parent's house and the screen door was swinging closed behind me. To stop it slamming into my back, I put my foot up, and the door closed and sliced open the side of my foot. My dad drove me to the medical centre where I had 5 stitches put into my foot and there ended any ideas of me swimming every day throughout my holiday! (for those of gruesome bent, there is a photo of my foot here) The next few days were of necessity quiet, spending a lot of time on the couch with my foot up trying to rest and take it easy. At least my parent's house has the advantage of having lots of wonderful birds visit outside the window that I could watch and photograph.   The bird bath and feeder attract a wide range of birds, including parrots and native pigeons.

24 October

The timing of my arrival in Australia, coincided with my birthday, so my parents hosted a bit of a combined welcome home and birthday party for me. I didn't think too much about it beforehand, being on the way to Australia at the time, and I guess a little nervous how many of my friendships would have survived the four years I have been away. The day came for the party.

Discussion with my mum had decided us that a simple barbecue was the way to go, that way we could just cook and then eat lunch and continue to graze on birthday cake and other goodies throughout the afternoon. I was delighted to discover that all my friends were keen to see me and to catch up, and was very touched by having so many of them come to the party. In the end the celebration continued on into the evening.

I have to admit I came close to crying when making a short speech after I cut the birthday cake!   A special surprise for me was the presence of my godmother, who I got to spend time with and get to know. What a fabulous woman she is. Strong and intelligent and empathic and a great inspiration. I wish she had lived in the same city as me as I grew up.

22 October

Time for a bit of a reconnection with Australian gastronomy. A trip to the Poachers Pantry with my sister turned into a post-interview foursome, joined by katrina. For those not in the know, the Poachers Pantry started as a smokehouse and now has a restaurant and vineyard. Smoked meats, smoked semi-dried tomatoes (which are incredibly incredibly good) and other goodies are transformed into scrummy meals on this quite typical Australian country property. We opened a bottle of champagne and tucked into a delicious lunch on the verandah. I did a review on my foodblog if you are interested.

I had sort of forgotten just how bright the light is in Australia. Glowing blue skies reflecting the short-lived green of spring grass. The rusted corrugated iron of the roof of the wood walled shearing shed presents a very special dilapidated beauty.

Some small children played on the lawn while we ate lunch - incredibly cute in their bright coloured sun hats.

21 October

I landed in Sydney, Australia and was greeted by my dear friend Vicki. She was carrying a big beautiful butterfly balloon which was a totally sweet greeting, but really it was seeing her that made my heart leap with joy. We have been friends since we were in high school together, and she is as dear to me as any of my family. I had deliberately organised things so that I would get to spend a night with her and Peter, just to catch up a bit before I headed home to Canberra.

I had a piece of good fortune... another dear dear friend of mine was heading to Canberra for a job interview, and offered to drive me. It worked out really well; I was able to rescue her from great hairy spider and we got to spend some happy hours on the road catching up. Before I knew it, I was home hugging my mum and dad.... truly home. Mum and dad seem just the same, which was a relief and the mayhem that seems to be my family - people appearing and disappearing from the house, laughter and noise, all the same.

I kept my head down completely during the beginning of October, saving money for.... Australia!

But to get there, I had to fly through somewhere else, and this time I chose to fly through the United Arab Emirates, and chose to stay a couple of nights in Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi was both interesting and ordinary.  

On the street, many women are covered from head to toe in black and men pass in their equally long white robe, red and white or blue and white covering their heads. I thought at first it was a uniform and I guess in some ways it is.  The days are hot but don't feel it as much as you would expect. 35 degrees, but not feeling too hot at that - I guess it is the lack of humidity that makes it so. The skies are a brilliant blue and the beaches white and clear of human inhabitants or mess. The backdrop of skyscrapers seems at odd with such an empty stretch of sand.

Abu Dhabi is growing constantly and the roadworks that made finding the hotel a challenge seem to be an endemic part of life here.  My hotel was very luxurious, and the swimming pool a place of informal gatherings for expat locals and visitors. It was so nice I have to admit it was actually pretty hard to drag myself out of there. Breakfast was pretty cool, and included among the milks was camel milk! So I got to have my first ever taste of camel milk, and I have to tell you, I was pretty impressed. It has a really lovely mouthfeel; really creamy feeling but somehow without the sort of fatty feel of normal milk. Quite fascinating. I found the taste to be quite nice, pleasingly mild and a little nutty, but with just a slight "goaty" sort of after taste. I think given a choice I would actually choose it over cows milk.

Eventually I did venture out, getting a car to drive me to see the historical fort in town. Sadly (as is often the story with my life) it was closed for renovations. So I got the driver to take me to the historical arts centre. She dropped me off, and I walked in, just to discover that it is closed on a Sunday. Grrr. The centre is out on a spit of land, with no public transport that I could find. Uh Oh... it looked like I was going to have a long walk in boilingly hot dry weather to get to the nearest point of civilisation. The mini headscarf on my head and chiffon drape covering my shoulders were not going to be enough to stop me from burning to a crisp.

I decided it was at least worth walking around the centre to have a look before trying to deal with transport. While doing so I saw an english couple and offered to take their photo, and in the end, they kindly offered to take me to the nearby mall, where I could get a taxi. We walked around together, and it was them that pointed out that one of the buildings is in fact an example of ancient air conditioning! The tower has vanes of fabric which are wet, and as they cool, the air is sucked downwards into the house.Very ingenious.

There was also a rather amusing archeological site. Amusing because a) it is a copy of multiple sites, b) it is in miniature, and c) there is a sewage outlet in the middle of it.

The malls were big and empty and cold . Airconditioning at a frigid temperature meant that I put on a wrap to keep me warm when I went in!

In hopes to meet some locals, I got in touch with the Couchsurfers group in Abu Dhabi. There wasn't anything on, so, well, I organised something. I randomly chose a central hotel to meet in, and discovered that by perfect coincidence this location was the usual meeting spot. Well done me! So about 10 of us met up and went out for a very lovely and inexpensive dinner. It was especially nice for me to meet Rashed, who is an actual Emirati; everyone else was an 'ex-pat'. We got on very well and was kind enough to answer lots of questions I had about the UAE, customs etc. I found out, for example, that the long white robes really are their equivalent of business suits, and that the rope that sits on the headdress used to have a very practical purpose - you would slip it off your head and onto the front legs of your camel to keep it in one spot.

I didn't really get to see much more, but with a little hunting I found my gold butterfly for the UAE, and ordered some more gold beads to be made for my butterfly necklace. Then it was time to fly... home.