We drove to the Blue Mountains on Saturday. It was a bit of a soggy affair, but the fresh country air - it was 10 degrees! Around 12 degrees cooler than in Sydney - woke us up. It is definitely looking like Autumn there!
Hello my friends.
It's been a while. But there hasn't been all that much to write about as I mostly slept, ate, slept, hid (ahem) from birds, slept a little more...you get the picture. My days were full of routines - and I do love a good routine, although between you and me I was a little bored. I miss my Whiggin. And Grey. And Black. Then, a fortnight ago, something happened. R and T went funny. Nervous. They got my carry home out, but then went outside with it - without putting me in it. (I was in no hurry to correct them on this mistake.) When they came back, carrying the carry home, there was something in it, squawking. I was a little confused. Now the days are drawing in and the nights are cooler, getting up early doesn't quite have the same appeal to it. But on the plus side, I am clearly not alone in this thought and therefore the beaches are much quieter at 7am.
Well it has been a pretty eventful past few days for Albie.
Most importantly, let me introduce Ralph: Sorry for the shortage of posts recently - a combination of a bad cold, and something I will reveal to you on Friday... Whenever I am struck down by a cold, I have a desire to sort out. Boxes, cupboards, drawers, you name it: I have a sore throat and feel as though my head is stuffed with tissue paper - I need to sort. We don't have all that much clutter (moving always helps with that, especially when you are paying per cubic metre...), and we had been briefly through the files, but that had been a last-minute token sort. Papers which needed some thinking as to what to do with had been swiftly returned to the file; as had scraps destined for the bin. I had been meaning to sort some files for a while. T had put them in the sitting room as I seemed to be 'forgetting' to do them when they were in the office. We then had to clean the sitting room for the landlord to visit, so they were moved back to the office. It was a very nostalgic hour as I was transported back to Germany, Spain, and Montreal. Snippets of memories bought back to life in full colour on the sight of an invoice or business card.
The receipts from furniture bought when we first arrived in the Canadian city: the sofa receipt - bought before we really understood Sales Tax, and that it wasn't included on the ticket price. When it came to paying we very much understood - as 15% of a price of a new sofa is quite noticeable! Paper receipts for Medicare, as an interim solution whilst waiting for the proper cards to arrive in the post. We drove quite a bit out of town to register for Medicare. It took a whole morning. It wasn't until I was helping others register that I realized there was one a ten-minute bus ride away in the city centre. We are now officially in Autumn. In March. That seems so odd - March is all about daffodils and lambs playing in the fields, (or, in the case of Montreal, the month where there is hope there will be a day or two at least where the base temperature at least isn't minus figures). There is an Autumnal feeling here though - the sun is getting lower in the sky and the shadows are changing. I find myself thinking of cheese and apple sandwiches - a childhood memory of the apples in the garden not quite being ripe enough to eat on their own, but when grated with rich, crumbly Lancashire cheese and mixed with salad cream, is a delicious combination. With these thoughts and feelings I expect Christmas to be just around the corner; the tree-couloured light in the darkness of shorter days. Halloween, carved pumpkins placed amongst fallen leaves on peoples' steps...
Yes, it is going to take a little time to get my head around this Autumn in March thing... |
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December 2015
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