Australia: June 19

G'Day Mates!

In case you didn't know, I'm in Sydney, Australia!...

Almost finished my stay here (just over a month), and realised I haven't really written to anyone about it... NO time, been 'slaving' away helping my friend Ali move into her house...

crikeey! what a lot of work... (I actuallyheard someone say, 'crikeey'... cute huh) when I was here 10 years ago, the journey was about seeing the Outback and wilderness: kangaroos, koalas, wombats, agro crocodiles, emu (is that the plural? one emi?) and cassowaries (never did find a platypus)... wide open spaces and new people daily... an adventure, driving in the desert in an old beater car...

this time here in Auz has been all about interior decorating adventures (thank goodness I was out last summer with my bunged up ankle, sitting on the sofa watching the Home and Garden Show Channel! or I'd never know all this stuff... ) much hard work, nose to the grindstone doing renovating and helping with settling them into the home they bought in the suburbs north of Sydney...

so it's been prep work and painting: high tea greens, marakesh red, york stone, oak stain... sand sand sand, stripping wood down to bare with nasty chemicals that despite the mask have affected my brain tonight... (hopefully this note isn't too disjointed!) been doing a work schedule that finally caught up with me last week, slumped into exhaustion: up early, collecting materials and supplies and then working thru until sometimes 10pm and later at night...

one day my ankle swelled up again, really got totally burnt out... then this week, the moving company arrived with their stuff, unloaded from a 40ft container! all 294 boxes!... some big enough to hold a sofa, other just small boxes of books... piles everywhere... can't believe she has collected all this stuff in the last few years...

so I've spent most of my time inside (first few weeks were nice but it's now winter and raining hard so I'm rather glad to be warm inhere)... a storm last weekend, pushed a freighter onto a beach near Newcastle... (so very glad to be inside)... so really haven't seen much...

but when we had a few breaks we did some great fun things: highlights include --- saw the Dalai Lama this weekend!!... what a brilliant man, he really does emanate happiness... he spoke on kindness,and his comment on 'war being an outdated concept' got a huge applause... luckily it only sprinkled rain while he was speaking, he finished and moments later it poured!!

two separate nights we went to see some music in Glebe Pt: Liz Frenchman with Fred Smith one night, and with her band JigZag the other... two movies: Oceans 13 (yesterday after DimS um!) and Pirates of the Caribbean 3... day off to go to the Maritime Museum and wander the city... lunch at Doyle's near the Heads at the entrance to the Sydney Harbour, and a Sunday drive to Bondi Beach...

and best weekend being of course the Writers fest: funny to cometo the other side of the world and meet a Canadian publisher here!... didn't have the guts (because I didn't prepare) to pitch him a book: met, shook his hand, and 'choked'!... oh well, hopefully next time... so manyauthors and famous folk: Madeleine Thien, Shane Koyczan (both Canadians), Raimond Gaita (for a movie premiere from his book, also actors Eric Bana and Marton Csokas), Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Andrew O'Hagan, Richard E Grant (also an actor), Pico Iyer, Lionel Shriver, and my fave, Joanne Harris who wrote Chocolat (just finished reading the sequel she was promoting, Lollipop Shoes, such fun)...

in general, I've only hung out with my friend, going where she goes so we can get the projects done... or staying in the house painting and practicing my Spanish with the Nicaraguan painter, Marlon (from Matagalpa)... so I haven't picked up an Aussie accent, nor any hunky Aussie surfer dudes!... no souvenier shopping yet, though I do have an order in for a kangaroo scrotum change purse (anyone else want one?) ...

and seen some nature because out the back of their house is a reserve that connects to a large park, so tons of birds in the amazing trees: fern trees (huge!), eucalyptus, palms, and others grown to huge size that are usually small tropical plants in peoples living rooms... the kookaburros are hysterical with their rollicking giggles, and theres a sort of mimick-type bird sometimes sounds like a cel phone, sometimes like the 'shave and a hair cut' tune, and the brilliant noisy loikeets...

seen a few parts of the city... have done some driving around to go to the shops and supply stores... my friends have a great GPS plotter in the car that says how to get from A to B, “stay left over the Harbour Bridge” ... of course stay left or I'd hit the oncoming traffic!... (only once did I pull in an exit instead of entrance, oops) but I have discovered Tim Tam biscuits (a type of chocolate cookie) much to my waistline's chagrin, I can hear my jeans yelling 'stop stop stop, don't put that in your mouth!'... and sticky date pudding, which despite it's lack of chocolate is so good it should be outlawed...

and though Ihaven't hung out with Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban and Russell Crowe, I keep looking out for them... so I fly out of here on Sunday, back into Vancouver... the plan is to finish my book that I'm fired up about once again!... and work, hopefully on a movie set, we'll see what I can land to pay the bills... hopefully, I'll get a chance to see everyone over the summer...

it will be my 40th birthday this year (wow how time flies), and I'm planning a big shindig with my sister, Tiffany (she will be 30)... setting it for the Sat, Aug 18th so leave that date free and I'll send you all the details in an invite soon! hope to see you then...

hugs