Trying to cool down an unwilling Peyton in the laundry sink. Well, it's been Australia Day here recently. We didn't really know what to do on this particular festivity, so we just chilled at home for some of the day and then went to the Weir later. I thought the Weir would be less busy than the local swimming pool - which it probably was. Still, it felt like most of Chinchilla had showed up, chilling in Australian flag towels or shorts and eating water melon.
There's nothing like getting your body temperature down on a hot day though. We enjoyed the water and deliberately stayed on the side of the wharf that is farthest away from the jet skiers. That's what a lot of people do at the Weir - they take a boat into the water, hook someone up at the back of it and tow them around the Weir in rapid circles. They get around it in less than two minutes and create waves in otherwise calm waters, meaning the other half of the people who are there (who are most probably calmly bobbing around on blow up floaties) get thrown around a bit every so often. The jet skiing can be fun to watch but it is slightly stressful if you take a kayak out to the Weir, because you make significantly slower progress than a motorboat. So you've just managed to frantically paddle your kayak over to one bank to avoid the motorboat. Then it passes; you relax and kayak out into the middle of the causeway and breathe a sigh of relief. But right then, the painfully close rumble of the motorboat crescendos as your favourite waterway friend sweeps around the bend just behind you again. Cue frenzied paddling with the motorboat and the wildly swinging jet skier bearing down on you. And in the meantime, you're trying to prevent your dog from jumping ship and getting run over by said motorboat.
Nice.
We survived, but I have to admit, it's different than kayaking about the Bay of Islands in New Zealand, because you don't encounter the same motorboat twelve times in less than half an hour there. Next time I should just tie our blow-up kayak to the back of a jet skier's boat and go for a ride myself. It's probably easier being behind the thing.
In the meantime, Michael's been at work, getting used to a new school and new culture, and I started teaching singing again this past week. Year eight of music tuition, here we come. So far my students are representing Australian singing tolerably well. This week, many things are starting up again. There'll be Bible Study, and the first official meet up of the brand new Chinchilla Writers' Group. I didn't start it up, by the way. I just attended the first casual meet and greet. It consists of essentially two young ladies who work for the local paper who like to write a bit. So it should be good fun working on stuff together.
I'm sort of used to attending things like this, being asked what I write, and pulling one of my published books out of my laptop bag to save time explaining. But it doesn't seem to get old for other people. They look at me like I've arrived from another planet. Seriously though, writers are just normal people.
Scratch that - we are really weird, but apart from that we're normal, whatever that means.
In the meantime, daily life around here includes trying new ways of keeping the dog cool. I've never seen her pant so much - or lie around languidly for such long periods of time. Yesterday I tried putting her in a sink full of cold water after her walk. She unfortunately associated this with a bath, so it took her a long time to relax. I seriously do not understand her. Baths seem so relaxing to me.
I've had the privilege of looking over the interior of Consort to the Shadows, Part One this past week. Together with my author care manager, we've been working on improving the overall look. It's beginning to look really good, and I'm so excited to hold it soon!
I wonder how long shipping takes to Australia from the USA.
One of the cool things about living in Australia is that you get to use Amazon. New Zealand is missing out. My husband has become extremely excited about Amazon, and he's ordered three or four things in the last ten days alone. One was an air fryer that came in a massive box which contained another massive box which contained a third less massive box that actually contained the product we bought. Has anyone ever told Amazon they're not very efficient with packing?
Still, our New Zealand packers could learn a thing or two from them. They destroyed our dinner set and my antique soup tureen.
And in the meanwhile, the heat continues. 37 today again. Nothing new on that front. Still, you've got to admit that the giant blue sky behind the gum trees does look pretty spectacular. I just have the ceiling fan on three throughout the night so that I can sleep. It's kind of like having a helicopter permanently landing in your room. The sheets are blasted against your body and loose papers go flying about. Sometimes I wonder if the fan will fly right off and decapitate me during the night. Still, I'm too hot to care!
More soon.
There's nothing like getting your body temperature down on a hot day though. We enjoyed the water and deliberately stayed on the side of the wharf that is farthest away from the jet skiers. That's what a lot of people do at the Weir - they take a boat into the water, hook someone up at the back of it and tow them around the Weir in rapid circles. They get around it in less than two minutes and create waves in otherwise calm waters, meaning the other half of the people who are there (who are most probably calmly bobbing around on blow up floaties) get thrown around a bit every so often. The jet skiing can be fun to watch but it is slightly stressful if you take a kayak out to the Weir, because you make significantly slower progress than a motorboat. So you've just managed to frantically paddle your kayak over to one bank to avoid the motorboat. Then it passes; you relax and kayak out into the middle of the causeway and breathe a sigh of relief. But right then, the painfully close rumble of the motorboat crescendos as your favourite waterway friend sweeps around the bend just behind you again. Cue frenzied paddling with the motorboat and the wildly swinging jet skier bearing down on you. And in the meantime, you're trying to prevent your dog from jumping ship and getting run over by said motorboat.
Nice.
We survived, but I have to admit, it's different than kayaking about the Bay of Islands in New Zealand, because you don't encounter the same motorboat twelve times in less than half an hour there. Next time I should just tie our blow-up kayak to the back of a jet skier's boat and go for a ride myself. It's probably easier being behind the thing.
In the meantime, Michael's been at work, getting used to a new school and new culture, and I started teaching singing again this past week. Year eight of music tuition, here we come. So far my students are representing Australian singing tolerably well. This week, many things are starting up again. There'll be Bible Study, and the first official meet up of the brand new Chinchilla Writers' Group. I didn't start it up, by the way. I just attended the first casual meet and greet. It consists of essentially two young ladies who work for the local paper who like to write a bit. So it should be good fun working on stuff together.
I'm sort of used to attending things like this, being asked what I write, and pulling one of my published books out of my laptop bag to save time explaining. But it doesn't seem to get old for other people. They look at me like I've arrived from another planet. Seriously though, writers are just normal people.
Scratch that - we are really weird, but apart from that we're normal, whatever that means.
In the meantime, daily life around here includes trying new ways of keeping the dog cool. I've never seen her pant so much - or lie around languidly for such long periods of time. Yesterday I tried putting her in a sink full of cold water after her walk. She unfortunately associated this with a bath, so it took her a long time to relax. I seriously do not understand her. Baths seem so relaxing to me.
I've had the privilege of looking over the interior of Consort to the Shadows, Part One this past week. Together with my author care manager, we've been working on improving the overall look. It's beginning to look really good, and I'm so excited to hold it soon!
I wonder how long shipping takes to Australia from the USA.
One of the cool things about living in Australia is that you get to use Amazon. New Zealand is missing out. My husband has become extremely excited about Amazon, and he's ordered three or four things in the last ten days alone. One was an air fryer that came in a massive box which contained another massive box which contained a third less massive box that actually contained the product we bought. Has anyone ever told Amazon they're not very efficient with packing?
Still, our New Zealand packers could learn a thing or two from them. They destroyed our dinner set and my antique soup tureen.
And in the meanwhile, the heat continues. 37 today again. Nothing new on that front. Still, you've got to admit that the giant blue sky behind the gum trees does look pretty spectacular. I just have the ceiling fan on three throughout the night so that I can sleep. It's kind of like having a helicopter permanently landing in your room. The sheets are blasted against your body and loose papers go flying about. Sometimes I wonder if the fan will fly right off and decapitate me during the night. Still, I'm too hot to care!
More soon.
Big blue skies on the way out to the Weir.
