Auckland

I've arrived in Auckland. It seems very hilly to a Perth girl.

Fireworks

Fireworks
Originally uploaded by Karen_Hall_.

My Australia Day was spent fairly quietly, with a walk down to the harbour and then exploring the bookshops of Glebe. I'm trying to be restrained, but I have a suspicion that I will re-enact my first England trip in having most of my backpack weight coming from books.
In the evening I went up to the roof garden of the youth hostel to watch the fireworks - they were going off at three different points on the horizon, and then closer, at Darling Harbour. Seeing the orb suspended off the Harbour Bridge (left from the New Years Eve celebrations) yesterday made me imagine how spectacular that lot of fireworks would have been.

Glebescape One

Glebescape One
Originally uploaded by Karen_Hall_.

Glebe is the type of place I would love to live - old terrace houses with wrought iron lacework, and lots of green trees. It really doesn't feel like my mental image of Sydney - all bustle and big buildings - rahter, it seems more bohemian and village-like.

Sydney Streets

Sydney Streets
Originally uploaded by Karen_Hall_.

Anyone that has stopped me walking into traffic knows that I can be a bit hopeless at times. This is what happens when I meet the crazy drivers of Sydney..
Actually, I haven't been run over yet. But I've been walking to the University of Sydney each day, and there is always interesting things to see on the streets of Glebe, like these remnants of a 'look before you walk' campaign.

Fridge Cooling

Fridge Cooling
Originally uploaded by Karen_Hall_.

And here we all are meeting the fridge...

Tallulah

Tallulah
Originally uploaded by Karen_Hall_.

My old bar fridge finally got replaced with a full size (possibly slightly yuppie style) fridge, and was named Tallulah. Points (and maybe coffee when I get back) to anyone spotting the movie reference...

Fun With Lemmings

To all those (few) people that may have been attempting to follow my travels through this blog, I apologise for my lack of posts. I had planned to do a big picture upload and extended commentary this evening, but I'm off with Jill for fish and chips instead (assuming the rain currently bucketing down stops). And so I head back to the library, into the depths of the Fisher Library to play with lemmings, Vampires from Venus, and Weird Golden Bikini Tops of Amazing Perkiness - and yes, this is all thesis related. The joys of researching pulps!

Sleep-deprived in Sydney

It takes very little for Sydney to irritate me. Everytime I come here, I seem to spend at least the first few hours convinced I hate the place. But to go back to the beginning...
In a premium performance as the Queen of Lastminuteness, I spent all Saturday recovering from the fridge-cooling (I'll post pictures from the party when I am awake enough to work out how to do more than type at the YHA computers) and then most of Sunday running round panicing. Booking the day before meant I ended up booking in to YHA Glebe rather than Central as originally planned. But I did finally end up packed and ready (with the last minute addition of aa alpaca hat, which I will model when I'm in NZ - it's very sexy!).

The flight was hideously crowded and I got a centre seat at the back of the plan, and nowhere near enough sleep. Arriving in Sydney at 3am-ish Perth time in stickily humid weather was a great kick-off for my usual love-hate (no, make that plain hate) relationship with Sydney public transport. But eventually I got to Glebe, and got to check in there and then, and thank god shower. Glebe YHA seems nice, and I really like Glebe - old terrace houses, green trees, way too many bookshops.

Then it was straight into Fisher Library. My state of awakeness can be measured by the fact that I voluntarily drank coffee (only three sugars, and I actually liked it - but they seem to do better than standard Guild here). Weird Tales today, and I'll probably tackle Astounding tomorrow. Right now, I'm about to fall asleep on the keyboard, so goodnight from me.

Still Life with Heifers

Still life with Heifers
Originally uploaded by Karen_Hall_.

My first attempt to go digital in the photographic world. The black and white blobs are two cows - my Christmas present from Tara ('These heifers made me think of you!').

Prince, my gorgeous beloved puppy dog. Requiescat in pace.

The Teleology of Cricket

On Wednesday night I went to the first Twenty/Twenty state cricket in Australia, down at the WACA. Cricket has always been at traditional bonding point for my father and I, so off we went, taking my mum along for her first ever live cricket experience. For the non-cricket indoctrinated, twenty/twenty cricket means each side has only 20 overs, rather than the usual 50 of one day cricket, along with various other rules designed to encourage lots of action for the audience.

Cricket, to me anyway, is as much about people-watching as it is about the match itself. There was the spot-the-other-women-in-the-bar game (8 women, 1 girl in among the very long queues), doing the Mexican wave (and seeing if it made it through the members stand), and watching the rahter violent competition for the beach balls.

I missed the certainty you get in going to a test match that you can look away from the game for five minutes and nothing will have happened, the sense that a whole day of relaxed spectating and drinking and talking stretches before you. And so for a moment I found myself thinking, 'oh twenty/twenty is okay if it will lead people to coming to other cricket matches and eventually getting the proper original experience.' This made me realise I was setting up teleology of cricket, in a similar way that an author I'm reviewing does with Lord of the Rings merchandise and the books. Tracing origins may be useful, but if it obscures a fuller understanding of what is going on or what people or doing with these 'derivative' forms that usefulness is lessened.

So a reflective thumbs up for twenty/twenty, and a nostalgic resolution to go to a test game sometime.

Reconnected

Back to the essential tool of all medieval people - the internet! The wonderful thing about my lack of internet access over the holiday break (while the university is closed down) is that I can't feel guilty about not doing net-y things. So I have been to the beach, read my Christmas doorstop book (Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, which I enjoyed thoroughly, down to the footnotes!) and generally did less work than I should have.

Now I'm back at uni, with munchkins taking over the campus, and an adventure/quest to undertake - searching for pathways through trackless renovations - every time I visit the library cafe.

My breakfast reading this morning was the Lonely Planet New Zealand Guide. (For some reason I can't eat breakfast without reading.) I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to holiday planning, I am an incurable Western Australian country driver - "117 kms - that should only take an hour." Or not, when you factor in things like settlements and landscapes that aren't dead flat.

And with an Italian-themed feast this weekend, I've decided I need a new dress. No handsewing this time, it's going to be a quick (but hopefully not too dirty) machine job.