And time rolls on
Since our last post, I’ve turned 31 and Dana has been a non-smoker for over 3 months, so we’ve hit a couple of small milestones. Work is keeping us quite busy, but we’ve found time for weekend visits to Melbourne and Canberra. Melbourne is always fun, and this time we really enjoyed the seasonal temperatures - we miss that in Sydney, where there is just summer and not summer. Melbourne has deciduous trees (even maples), falling leaves and genuinely crisp temperatures.
Canberra was interesting. It is very much like Ottawa in that its a total government town (purpose built in fact), but it is quite pretty, set as it is around a lake nestled in the mountains. We visited the Parliament House, a museum or two, and watched the Sydney Swans thrash the Western Bulldogs (a Melbourne team) at the Manuka Oval.
We’ve had crazy storms here in the past couple of weeks. Most of Australia has been in relative drought for several years, but the coast where we are gets consistent rain. Last weekend there were massive storms and 100 mph winds all weekend. There was tons of damage and flooding North of Sydney. The waves on the coast were huge - apparently the ocean swell was measured at up to 18 metres. A coal tanker was beached in Newcastle, about 2 hours North of Sydney, and is still there. We decided to do the famous “Coogee to Bondi Walk” that weekend and while we were absolutely soaked, the views of the massive waves crashing below us as we walked along the cliffs were quite amazing.