Sally's Journal

Good morning all.

First of all, a summary of my holiday as I fear LJ entries were rather sparse while I was out there. It was a rebellion against the computer kind of thing.

( Australia - the summary )

*exhales*

Anyway, in other news, I'm in a good mood today. This may seem peculiar, as I've been up and down like a kite for the last two weeks. It turns out that what I've really been stressing about (and it's a definite peculiarity of the Sally-brain that she often doesn't know what is making her stressed and ratty, even while she is bursting into tears over chipped nail varnish) was related to the gentle pokings at mortgages that jez and I have been making, and a broker who apparently can't use e mail for anything other than leaving cryptic messages such as 'urgent - phone me now' or 'there is a problem' or 'you're going to die'. OK, I may have been exaggerating that last bit, but not by much. I got home, called her, and found out that actually the urgent problem was that she couldn't get hold of me by phone. Despite me saying I was in Australia. Despite me leaving her my e mail address.

Damn her. And her little dog too. However, all is now well. I'm home. I'm fed (and I've found a really nice cafe in Greenwich that does fantastic organic scrambled egg) and I'm bathed. The world is a better place. I'm pondering my holiday, being impressed by how much more glamorous Australia looks in molez's photos, and sorting out my life determinedly.

( Sorting out my life )

pierot, ksirafai, castorlion, molez and I are all back in the UK.

The journey was less painful than it could have been and I discovered how much valium it takes to get me to fall unconscious on a plane. I also got to watch 'Memoirs of a Geisha' and discovered that it got worse second time round!

I'm now at home, with the cats, about to fall unconscious.

My holiday was a mixed bag. My brain was a broken place for parts of it, and I stomped and grumped my way through several bits of Australia. My friends, on the other hand, were lovely, and I'm still bouncy at having climbed in a rainforest. I have seen kangaroos up close, and splashed about in the ocean, knowing that in front of me the sea stretched on to Antartica. All this makes me happy.

But now I am home, I am tired, and I think I shall go and sleep...

I'm in Australia.

*does the jet lagged dance*

The journey was surprisingly painful. I have come to the conclusion that I disagree with twicedead* who said that London-Melbourne is hell, however you do it, and at least China Eastern are cheap. Cathay Pacific made SUCH a difference. Good food, stewardesses who spoke English, a selection of films and games available via the back of the headrest in front of you and a really plushy airport in Hong Kong really turned the journey from being HELL HELL HELL to instead being merely hellishly tiring.

We arrived (we being me, pierot, ksirafai, molez and castorlion on Thursday at 6 am. We got picked up by two nice local Cam people, and since then have been living in this weird world of jet lag. However, I have been able to see a lot of the lovely people I met last time, met some new folk (all of who know suchid. It appears that Liam has become the nexus of the role playing world somewhere along the line), and have already found myself shopping again. Melbourne is very bad for my bank balance. But I've got a gorgeous red silk top now.

Over the next week we're hopefully going to move beyond shopping, drinking, sleeping and meeting Australians and actually do some tourist stuff. I'm entirely behind on LJ, e mail and all forms of communication. So, is England still there? Has it been blown up by terrorists again? That always seems to happen when I leave the country.

What's your news? How are you doing?


*This is, of course, unusual, for Ben is usually the font of all wisdom. *nods nods nods*. Oh, and Ben - MattMatt has been radiating smugness for having listened to you ever since we got here and he pulled out an umbrella as it started raining while th rest of of simply collapsed into soggy heaps.

Just so people know, as of tomorrow myself and pierot will be in Australia, getting back on May 2nd.

I'll have regular e mail access there, so I shouldn't be too hard to get hold of.

Wish me luck with the 24 hour flight, and I'll see you on the flipside...

( Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) )

Am I the only person who thinks this is a happy and feel good song? I play that song when I'm feeling down about the good things that have gone wrong, gone away - the relationships that end, losing people to death or to distance - the pieces from my past I can't get back. I play it and I remember that I was happy at the time, that that which felt good once was worth it, just for that happy moment.

It's the song which says that it's OK if the guy you spent a night kissing on a sofa never bothered to call - there was still that wonderful evening when everything felt great. It's that song that says that never being able to go back to Nepal doesn't matter when if I close my eyes I can still see the Himalayas.

I sometimes suspect I may be hearing this all wrong, however.

Anyway. Back to reality. I'm home. I've had a good night's sleep and am now pottering around jet lagged to hell and back but I think mostly happy. It's odd. Australia almost feels like a dream in some ways - oddly unreal. I can't quite believe that it's Tuesday now, and on Saturday morning I was walking through Melbourne after a night of drinking and watching the sun come up. Foreign countries always feel like that - like they belong in a different world. I've still got a lot of bounce in my step, though, and a distinct lack of tension along my spine. I'm also pondering the extent to which I am a different person when I'm away from home. Mike's often said I was a lot more laid back in the US - he never really saw the KABOOM-y Sally until he came to visit the UK. How much am I shaped by my environment or is it just that holidays are easy places to be this more relaxed and cool person? Is it just a lack of pressure? Longer and more meandering entry later.

For now, lunch and then a food shop. Real life is waiting.

m,zxcvm.kjcxvzkjcvsjnmcvx

And the above statement is quite indicative of Sally's current coherancy and typing skills at this moment.

China Eastern are evil. I spent twelve hours in darkness as they insisted on keeping all the windows shut and the cabin lights dimmed. The food sucked as well.

But I am now home, and curry will arrive soon. Then there will be bath and bed.

*sighs happily*

Home. Home good. Home nice.

Night all.

We're at the airport.

I'm slightly zombified, mostly because Friday night was spent indulging in the 'it seemed like a good idea at the time'-esque pastime of drinking. All night. Until 8 am. I thus spent yesterday still drunk, and I think the hangover is only hitting today. Having had five hours sleep over two days is also not good for me.

*whinges quietly*

However, thanks to ksirafai providing myself and pierot with a wake up call at 5 am our time we did manage to make it out of the flat in time, although we did really sadly lose vilenspotens's hat with corks and the rather fantastic canned koala I'd found for wildrogue (it was SO tacky) en route, thus necessitating a bit of a last minute change in present from the airport gift shop. I was somewhat distressed to discover that we couldn't get another hat (what the hell is up with Melbourne Airport not selling tourist tat?) but hopefully something in my bag will provide Lee and Elle with joy.

We'll be back tomorrow evening, and probably start planning Sally's Next Big Adventure - called 'Operation Get A Multi-continental Posse To Australia'. If I'm playing Cam again, I want to play it over many continents, and for reasons not entirely clear to anyone other than me I'm really curious as to how the UK, the US and Australia would play together at a big convention. melsner - how hard would it be for you to get to Australia? There are girls here with new and shiny accents, you know?

To any Australians reading - thank you so much for being wonderful to myself and jez while we've been visiting. It's been lovely to meet you all, and I really do hope to see you all again.

To the Americans - I miss you all. I really do owe you lot a trip soon!

To the Brits - be with you soon!

Now. To the plane! Hopefully no one is blowing anything up this morning.

In other news, I got my hair cut in Sydney.

Not just trimmed, cut.

I'm still mildly in shock.

I've been told that those who aren't me probably won't view my new hair style as exactly extreme - it's now shoulder length - but it's the shortest I've had my hair since I was about twelve. It's very very strange. I keep running my hands through it and blinking as they hit open air. There's layering as well.

Kinda cute, but a bit weird!

And so here I am again, sitting in Sydney in an internet cafe waiting to get my bus to the airport. Tonight the Sydney adventure is over, pierot and I are heading back to Melbourne, and then leaving for London on Sunday, apparently arriving home on Monday instead of Tuesday as anticipated. My shopping is mostly done (although that pink stuffed koala for ksirafai remains elusive) and I'm getting ready to go home. Jez and I went whale watching yesterday and both wound up getting splashed, leaving me with a nasty cold in the head. I want somewhere to flop!

So. How has my holiday been going so far?

Jeremiah's Family

Last Sunday was spent having curry with Jeremiah's extended family, and a wonderful curry it was as well! Proper, thick home cooked dahl, with thick pressure cooker cooked rice and lovely vegetable curry. I spent the entire evening in a nostalgic haze, whittering about Sri Lanka and Nepal. Jez mocked me greatly afterwards for using the Sri Lanka card as my 'survive any conversation' card. I also survived the 15 minutes of Christian prayer before the meal without bursting into flames which was a relief. I always feel a little uncomfortable around deeply religious people, which I think I can put down to not being baptised. It's an odd quirk.

It was also odd meeting jez's family due to the Bhurger thing. For those who don't know, jez's family are of Sri Lankan Bhurger descent - the Sri Lankan Bhurgers being the descendents of the original Dutch and Portugese settlers in Sri Lanka who intermarried with the native Singhalese. Michael Ondaatje, who wrote 'The English Patient', was of Bhurger descent and once said that his family were known for their odd grab bag of racial characteristics - one generation could be blue eyed and look remarkably Dutch, and then the next generation could look deeply Asian. His father was very dark, and his mother was very fair - apparently before Michael Ondaatje was born his parents were told they were likely to produce a patchwork baby. Jez's family had that same amazing mix of features - ranging from the very dark to the very fair, and sometimes with two dark parents producing a child as fair as Jeremiah (like his cousin, Kylie, both of who's parents are very dark). The other thing that was interesting was the obvious mix of Asian and westernised culture that they seemed to have.

Did I mention that they cooked amazing curry as well?

Sydney

So. Sydney. This is going to be summarised a bit, but suffice it to say that I've had a really nice time. Due to wonderful people like Nic and Mandy loaning myself and jez a flat in Melbourne, I got to blow all our accomodation budget on three nights in a four star hotel. Go me! It was glorious - it offered wonderous food via room service (I used room service! First time ever! I felt even more decedent) and had a swimming pool in the basement, all in the middle of the Sydney CBD.

Sydney itself was interesting - very different to Melbourne. I'm still trying to figure out whether this is because we were visiting Sydney as tourists, and lacked the local guides etc, or whether it is because Sydney is a very different kind of place. It felt a lot more energised, more pressured, a lot more like London than laid back Melbourne. The buildings all seemed higher, and more modern, and everything seemed to hark back to the ocean - the sculpture, the tourist attractions, the museums etc. The shopping was much pricier and the streets were much more dominated by chain stores instead of the quirky little shops that Melbourne has. On the other hand, it was a bigger place, with a lot more to do as a tourist. The Sydney Aquarium was also amazing - we saw a platypus! I think that makes it all worthwhile.

Plans

Like I said, I'm now going to go and get my bus to the airport, and then back to Melbourne. Jeremiah and I will be there until Sunday, when we vanish off into the weird world of travel. I'll be checking e mail tomorrow, and then vanish. I'm a little worried about how hard it'll be to get from Heathrow to Acorn Walk in the wake of the bombings. Hopefully we'll make it!

And that's me!

In a quick update - pierot's plans to send in a stunt double have failed! His family didn't buy the "actually, I'm in Melbourne, Florida" story either.

His Sri Lankan/Australian family have tracked him down, and we're being picked up in an hour to be taken to meet the entire extended family (jez's father was the youngest of seven. He was the only one who left Sri Lanka to move to the UK - the rest all settled in Australia) and be fed good Sri Lankan curry.

I'm oddly nervous, and slightly worried that my rather goffic cardigan with 'misery' embroidered on it might not be entirely appropriate, but I'm lacking warm clothes and I'm definitely lacking respectable Asian stylee clothes.

I'm also slightly thrown by the fact that jez and I only have this evening left in Melbourne. We've had a stunning time here, but tomorrow we are moving on and catching flights up to Sydney, which I'm told has a better aquarium, but a crappier zoo than Melbourne. As we've saved a hell of a lot of money staying with Nic and Mandy - jez's very very very nice friends - I've decided that it's OK for me to blow our accomodation money on a nice hotel for four nights. This means we get a swimming pool, a gym, and an en suite bathroom. I feel deeply decadent but in a gloaty and good way. It's all very different to the youth hostels and dodgy Cthulhu hotels of South America. I'm being such a spoilt heiress!

We'll be in Sydney til Friday, then we come back to Melbourne for 24 hours and then we get our flight to Shanghai on Sunday morning. It's going so quickly. I can't believe we've been gone for nearly two weeks already. I don't want to leave!

But now, onward! Curry and quite possibly a mouth burning death* awaits!


* If their curry is anything like the horrific death-by-spice food that I got served in Sri Lanka while staying with family friends out there is anything to go by!