Happy new year to all! Still can't get my head round the fact that it's January though, especially not now that summer has finally arrived and it's around 30 degrees most days :)
Christmas was certainly different this year but I absolutely loved it, and didn't find it too strange without log fires, glühwein and snow. I'm so glad we were able to be with a family, it felt a lot more special that way. We were made to feel so welcome and thoroughly enjoyed joining in with the Lobsey traditions of darts and cricket in the back garden, dips in the pool, singsongs and BBQs.
New Year's Eve was, of course, a most excellent celebration, and seemed a fitting occasion for the first outing of our new Vietnamese dresses. The fireworks really were unbelievably spectacular and it was amazing to see them up close, instead of just in pictures or on TV. New Year's was a particularly good day for me as I met up with friends from uni who are also travelling in Australia at the moment and had a lovely time catching up. Whilst I was with them in town I also bumped into a student I taught in Switzerland, very random!
It's been great doing lots of sightseeing and touristy things during Stuart's visit the last couple of weeks, and I feel I'm getting to know Sydney quite well now. Through going to museums and on a free walking tour around the city I've learnt a lot more about the history of Sydney and my knowledge of Australian history in general has been further consolidated. At least with such a young country it's not too difficult to get a decent understanding of its past, unlike with the UK! It was especially fascinating learning about the Opera House, given that we'd been to see the Australian Philharmonic there just a few days before. The concert was great (a fun, lighthearted New Year thing, with pieces like an Abba medley!) and it was a lovely evening, getting all dressed up and having a drink in the Opera Bar on the water's edge beforehand. However, we all agreed that acoustically speaking it wasn't quite the impressive venue you'd expect. Then on the walking tour we found out why! Construction of the building was taking far longer and costing far more than anticipated, so the government stepped in to "help", made shortcuts and brought in other workers to finish the job. Unfortunately these people didn't really know what they were doing and so ended up ruining somewhat Utzon's wonderful design. Apparently the Opera House was recently voted 20th in a survey of Australian concert halls, but improvement work would cost so much money that it's unlikely to ever take place. Good job it's such an iconic building that it'll continue to attract the crowds anyway! Right, history lesson over for today...
We also went to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where there is a Picasso exhibition on at the moment. It was amazing to see the progression of his work throughout his life, and to have the chance to view in real life some paintings I'd studied at school.
Last week I went to see my first ever cricket game and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually a lot of fun! It was the third day of the test between Australia and India and it seemed we picked a good day to go as there was a lot of action and some record-breaking scores. I was only bored at one point when India were batting and the score didn't change at all for about an hour!
So we've been pretty busy...and inbetween all that I've somehow managed to squeeze in some job interviews and trials too!
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