Sunday, February 25, 2007

"It's raining outside, feels like it's gonna rain all night" - Shakin' Stevens

Shakin' Stevens... what a legend. Did anyone else love the song "This ole house"?

At home alone crying on a Saturday night. How sad is that. My baby has gone away to Albury for work for 11 days and I'm feeling sorry for myself. I'm not sure quite what has come over me. Must be just one of those emotional days you have sometimes. He just left in a cab, not quite confident enough yet to drive in the manual on the roads or by myself, plus the rain, so I didn't drop him off. And you know how it gets, once those first few tears fall, it's hard to stop, so it's better just to let it all out. Anyway, I'll be ok. The world's best time-waster can certainly keep herself entertained for the next couple of weeks! :)

It's pouring rain here at the moment - been going for ove 3 hours now. No signs of stopping either. Quite refreshing. We got caught out in it earlier on. Between the restaurant (some reasonable tapas - yes Darwin has tapas!) and Cold Rock, we got drenched. I think I'm going to have to make it my duty while here to try and fit in as many combinations of icecream and fillings as possible. Tonight I had coconut icecream with strawberries - it was quite delightful. Gideon went for a rum 'n' raisin with skittles! - not to my taste, but it was pretty good. Last time I had butterscotch and strawberry icecream with cookiedough all mixed together! - I had wanted real strawberries, but the girl misheard me, so I ended up with a weird mix, which ended up being quite delectable! Any suggestions as to what to try next?

Today was a stunner of a day. I have to say, a highlight, believe it or not, was washing the car! I can't tell you how glorious it is to be able to hose down your car (and each other ;P), with big suds and the whole deal. For those down south, I'm sorry to boast, but it was just so lovely not to have to worry about water. Plus with the hot weather, we were in our bathers, and it was a relief to be sprayed with the hose every now and then. Then afterwards, a jump in the pool. Crystal clear water and blue skies. Just heavenly!

So what else is good about Darwin? Here are just a few things, not necessarily in any particular order (mostly heat related):

*You can turn off the shower to shave your legs and not freeze to death.
*It doesn't take long to learn where everything is, the city is basically all on 3, maybe 4 parallel streets. And everything is a 5 minute bike ride away.
*There is Darwin time... which is vaguely equivalent to Gayle time!... well, maybe not quite so bad. ; )
*The pool is ALWAYS at swimming temperature
*Mostly workwear is bordering on casual wear
*Smaller appetite
*It's true that in general people seem friendlier
*Cold water tastes better here :p
*Things dry really quickly
*You don't have to take just-in-case extra layers to wear everywhere you go, not even in the open-top mini at night-time!


Anyway, so I have some big plans for the next few days :D

1. Try and finish Icewind Dale II. I have been playing this damned game since at least October and am still not finished. Even worse, up until yesterday, I was just redoing what I'd done before on another computer. I guess I shouldn't complain, if it really that bad, I would have stopped ages ago!




2. It's finally here! Oscars Night!!! Yes I do! No prizes for guessing where I will be from 7.30pm on Monday night. I can't wait!

Go Little Miss Sunshine!!!!!




3 comments:

Matt said...

Sorry to hear you're feeling down Gayle! I was trying to think how I could maybe lift your spirits...and realised that when I'm down I like to keep myself occupied. So here are some suggestions for a few things you might not normally do that may put a smile on your face:

o Take photos - take the best damn photo you can, publish it on flickr and let us know about it. Get as artsy as you like - play with long shutter speeds or abstract shapes.

o Write a letter to a friend (you know, with a pen and paper?).

o Publish more stuff in your blog (yep, looks like you've already sussed this out!).

o Learn something new. Jump on wikipedia and do a random search. Or go to the nearby library (is there one in Darwin? ;) and head into a section you would normally never think to go in. Get some juggling balls and start practicing. :)

o Watch a movie. (Like I need to suggest this to you!)

o *Record* a movie. Publish it to YouTube and let us all know. With your movie-watching obsession I reckon you'll have Spielberg-like skills oozing from every pore. If you don't have a camera let me know - I've got a spare webcam floating around here somewhere (lo-fi is cool!).

o Invent a new board/drinking game.

o Do an adrenalin activity. Skydiving, go-karting, bungee, hanggliding, rafting, paragliding and rock-climbing all qualify.

o Make a list of places that interest you in the area and start visiting them. You'll be able to get some good practice driving the car too.

Anyways, whether you do any of these or not I hope you're feeling better soon. :)

Lot's of xox's from Melbourne way - and don't worry, Gideon will be back before you know it!

Gayle said...

Thanks for the list Matt and thanks for worrrying. Feeling a little better today, and am sure once I'm working this week, the days will go faster. Besides, it's only going to be about a month all up, and he comes home in the middle.. nothing like the 6 months you away from Mel for!

Very conveniently managed to waste a lot of time today. It's already 2330hrs and I still haven't done everything I wanted to do. Doh!

Definitely a few things worth checking out on the list. I really need to get myself a better camera though! And I do believe there may be an indoor climbing gym nearby which I should check out! Wondering if I should take myself out driving... haven't been out on the roads yet, so it could be a bit risky!

Thanks for the ideas! Will no doubt keep you guys abreast of what I do end up doing!

Anonymous said...

Hey you ... will give you a bell on the weekend (prob Sunday, am riding 160k betwixt the Otways with about 3000 other pain-lovers - masochist, yeah, I know). Be good till I hear that lovely voice of yours.