Things that I do like about Canberra:

Peak hour traffic. Actually the lack of peak hour traffic. They really don't have a peak hour here, although I've heard reference to a "peak half-hour". Traffic is never at a standstill, which happens every morning in Melbourne.

Fresh air. Not that Melbourne air is particularly bad, although it sometimes gets pretty smoggy. But Canberra, being practically in the bush, generally smells pretty good.

Being in high demand. Most people in Canberra are here to work for the government. People like me, who would rather work in the private sector, are fairly rare!

The interesting and often unpronounceable place names. Narrabundah, Tuggeranong, Stromlo, Jerrabombera, Giralang. I'm not joking. These contrast nicely with the very English-sounding place names like Kingston, Watson, Hackett, Dickson, Campbell.

You know what I really miss about Melbourne? It's the alleyways, the small streets, the funny little backways and hidden-away shops. It's the hustle and bustle of 3 million people getting on with their own lives. Going exploring in Canberra eventually brings you back to where you started, but exploring Melbourne means getting lost and finding yourself somewhere out the back of Richmond or South Yarra where you've never been despite having lived and worked there for eight years, and finding several funky shops and some awesome grafitti along the way.

I'd better get to bed. It's nearly 1am, and I have my parents coming to visit tomorrow. Wish me luck!!!

These are for Hilary, who asked to see the purple hair. It was hard to get good shots of it, but I tried...

As at least one person may have noticed on Aidan's blog, we're back up and running!! We have our new house very nearly organised (except for the massive pile of empty boxes), and we have an internet connection again, yay! Aside from that, I really don't have that much to add. Work is still going well, I still enjoy what I do and like my colleagues. We had Andrew here over the weekend, which was great, and he brought us gifts to remind us of Melbourne! I should probably put some pics up...


This is the view over the city of Canberra. It doesn't look much like a city... it's practically the bush, but that's our capital. It is a very pretty city, but a tad on the dull side.


I believe I mentioned that one of my colleagues is a gilder, and this is what he did to my fingernail. It looked extremely awesome, until it fell off because I didn't look after it properly. That is actually real 23 carat gold leaf.



These pictures illustrate what our new house looks like: a mess.

Hello! Apologies for my recent blog-silence, but time and opportunity have not presented themselves too often! Just a quick one with a news update:

I'm still alive.

We have somewhere to live, we move in on Tuesday!!! Rent in this city is insane, it's almost double what we used to pay in Melbourne... I actually earn less than we pay in rent right now, so thank god I'm not single and my husband is on the gravy train!

Work is going quite well, it's not rocket science but it suits me and my tendency to organise other people. (I rarely organise myself.) The people are really nice, which I always think is one of the most important things about a workplace, so I can probably say that I've made some friends too.

Aidan and I both have contact lenses now! Glasses are a thing of the past. They're a little weird to get used to, but I like them. It will be a lot more comfortable to wear a helmet now, when I start riding my scooter again. (She's locked in a garage now, Aidan has the only key so I can't get her out!)

My boss has allowed me to continue my habit of dying my hair insane colours. So my hair is bright purple again, I've always thought purple hair suits me the best.

One of my colleagues is a gilder by trade - he puts gold on things. So he gilded one of my fingernails the other day! Photos will follow when I have my own computer back. It looked really cool.

I think that is about all my news for now... I will keep you all updated on the move once everything is up and running!

Take care!