Greetings and Happy New Year from Australia
I arrived here on New Year's Day after having travelled first class from Edmonton. Let me tell you, first class is the way to go. It was weird being on the receiving end of the resentful/envious glances from the people travelling coach. In first class, they give you something to drink right when you sit down, as you're waiting for the plane to load. Usually, the choices are water, juice or wine/champagne. Because I was so sick with a cold, I usually chose juice. You are fed to death! The long trans-Pacific leg from Los Angeles featured an extensive menu of entree and dessert choices as well as a wine list. Of course, everything is gratis. And one has the choice of having your meal in several courses over the evening or at once so you can sleep. We were also given a little kit of supplies that included a sleep mask, earplugs, toothpaste and brush, socks, etc. The seats were like large lazy boys that reclined to almost flat, so it was actually possible to have a decent sleep. I woke a couple of time in the night only to have a flight attendant there immediately to offer me something to drink. I'd had a Bailey's as a 'nightcap' that helped my cough and also helped me sleep. I wish I'd been feeling better to more fully enjoy the service and pampering! They even put a priority on your luggage so that it comes out of the carousel first!
On the Los Angeles leg, I was fortunate enough to sit beside a woman named Renie from White Plains, New York. I imagine her to be in her late 60s and she was a delight! We were very comfortable comrades almost immediately. She was off to see her daughter in Hobart, Tasmania and had travelled business class several times before. So, she was able to tell me what all the buttons and levers on my chair were for. By the time we'd touched down in Melbourne, we had exchanged contact information and pledged to stay in touch...and we have!
Everything ground to a halt when we arrived in Sydney. We had to get off the plane, then go through security again to get on the one hour Melbourne bound flight. We were all set and ready to go when the pilot said there was a 'minor' mechanical problem that had to be seen too. Wouldn't be but a few minutes. Ultimately, that few minutes turned into a four hours as they eventually deplaned us, bought us lunch and searched for a different plane to take us to Melbourne. So close and yet so far! I had no way of contacting my sister and brother-in-law, who were stuck waiting in
Tullamarine airport in Melbourne. For Renie, it meant missing her connection to Hobart and there are precious few flights there each day. Luckily, she was able to get a flight on another airline only an hour after her original flight.
When we finally got off the ground, we got a spectacular view of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour. I was struck by the difference in the countryside between Sydney area and Melbourne. Everything was so lush and green in Sydney, but as we flew in to Melbourne, the land looked absolutely scorched. Brown hardly begins to describe it, but it certainly drove home the reality of the drought in this part of Australia. Some parts of Australia, particularly along the northeast coast up into Queensland have had more rain than usual, while poor
Tocumwal (where my sister lives) and the farming areas around there have been scorching for years now under the Australian sun. As a farmer in this part of the country, my brother-in-law has to buy an allotment of water with which he would irrigate his crops. The allotments have been cut back so severely by the
NSW government that there is essentially no water to buy. Really, he can only have enough water for running the house, livestock and a bit for the garden. My sister and brother-in-law bought a new farm just over a year from now, which features a remarkable garden with more than 100 varieties of roses as well as a host of other flowing plants and shrubs. They've been hard pressed to keep the roses alive. Many other sections of the garden have had to succumbed to the heat. As for crops and livestock, there really is no point without water. It's grim to say the least. I think it's left my brother-in-law feeling very much as loose ends and wondering what he, at 50 years old, will do with the remaining working years of his life.
Not surprisingly, it has been very hot here in
Tocumwal. It was around 40C when I got here on New Year's day and has ranged from a 'moderate' 33C to day to a possible 45C on Thursday. According to the residents of this small Australian town on the mighty Murray River, any temp over 40 is considered fairly oppressive. People would do what they had to early in the morning and retreat indoors until it cooled in the evening. It's a dry heat that reminds me of
Las Vega -- like a kiln. It doesn't bother me too much to be honest because there is no humidity. Plus, my sister's in ground pool is about 20 steps from the back door ; )
I have managed to keep up my running so far. I hadn't had a run for over a week prior to my arrival because I'd been so sick. I've been getting up at around 7 am to beat the heat (though it's already about 25 by that time) and running north down the back track of my brother-in-law's land, across a small metal bridge that crosses a shallow channel that is the farm's water source, then east up another dirt track that runs parallel to the farm. Today I managed to get a 40 minute run in, which pleases me. The huge gum trees, which molt their bark in great brown and tan shards, arch over the track and provide a fair bit of shade. Once I'm running back up the paddock towards the house, however, it is bare, open field and I really feel the heat then. Sometimes, the dogs -- Loki, Lucy and Wally -- come along. It's wonderful to see dogs with so much room to run, so many smells to smell and things to pee on. Makes me realize how important walks are to my dogs and how much I miss them.
The kids, of course, have all grown dramatically since I was here last. Anna, the youngest, is 13 and is an observer. Still waters run deep with that girl. She is initially quite quiet, but I think now it's because she susses things out before she engages. Not a bad plan! She is very motivated on her own to get things done around the house and seems to keep a mental inventory of every object in the house. They say if Anna doesn't know where it is, it's lost. My nephew Michael (15) is over 6 feet tall now and struggling to cast off the last vestiges of boyhood. It's not easily done without awkwardness and pain (for everyone!). He reminds me a bit of the molting gum trees! Jenn, (20) the second eldest, is very even tempered, funny and comfortable in her own skin. She is on summer break from university where she is taking a nursing degree with a major in midwifery. She will start her third year in February. She's very anxious now about finding shared accommodations close to the university as her two roommates from last year have bailed on her without giving her much notice. Jenn is going out with a VERY nice boy named Ryan, who goes by the nickname
Rizza (which sounds like "
Rizzer" is Australian). He is finished his apprenticeship as an electrician as of today!! He is also a fairly accomplished football player who plays for an
AFL farm team in
Geelong, which is near Melbourne. Lisa, (22) the eldest, lives in Melbourne with her boyfriend of three years, Dave. Although she had a challenging adolescence, Lisa has found her way in life and is doing very well as a Accounts clerk with a company in the city. She will start taking some finance evening courses in the fall. That leaves Natalie (17) who is entering Grade 12 this fall (February). She still doesn't know what she wants to do when she finishes school, but I'm sure she'll work it out. She has a wry sense of humour and seems more bohemian in lots of ways than her siblings. She enjoys music, eating things that are bad for her, and hanging out with her "
bestie" Nicole. It is so weird to have her driving me around!!
That's the state of the union in
Tocumwal, New South Wales, Australia for January 7, 2008. I'll upload pictures at a later date as doing so from my sister's computer at home is a virtual impossibility.
