Aussie Expats Update – Fourth of July and Visitors

Welcome back to the weekly update!

I’ve been busy studying this week in an attempt to wrap my head around some new ideas and forty-page readings for uni, and have to admit that it’s a lot of work! I’m studying two writing subjects, a political ideology subject and an introductory psychology subject; there’s a bit of variety and some interesting stuff to learn every week. I can only hope that I will get more effective and efficient at the whole business! I’ve also managed to do some work on my novel this week, which is really exciting. I’ve decided to write for at least thirty minutes every day from now on, after a prolonged lapse of discipline, and hopefully that word count will start climbing.

On to more domestic matters. In the spirit of settling in, we went out and bought some matting for our garage last Friday to turn it into a home gym! The equipment arrives on Monday and we’re very excited at having the freedom to train at home when we feel like it. Add in the delivery of our new rental furniture on Wednesday and we’re well and truly nesting in for the next few years. We’re also meeting new people – always a challenge for me – and making some new friends. We celebrated Fourth of July on Sunday evening at a Black Dog Crossfit party. Despite stopping along the road to visit a marquee full of fireworks and spend some money, we arrived smack on time, and were the first and only people there. Though the introductions were a little awkward, we settled into the aircon, played with the rambunctious border collie/kelpie puppy and got to know the people whose home we’d just wandered into.

As people started to trickle in, we met some more gym goers and friends of friends of friends and  started getting stuck into a wide variety of food. I love to eat, so this was really my field of expertise. There were ribs and tacos and sausages and chips and apple pie and blueberry pie and freedom cake and pecan pie… And my biggest regret is that I managed to fill up both my food stomach and my dessert stomach without managing to sample everything! Meanwhile, James heartily indulged in the slip’n’slide and competed in a few races of FlipCup.

When it finally started getting dark enough for fireworks, we gathered up our cherished collection and started going through them all. Though we both burnt our fingers a few times, and were laughed at for our (my) excessive reactions to the resulting explosions, it was a lot of fun. As we got closer and closer to the large fireworks, other people’s bountiful collections were pulled out. By the time we went home, there were bursting fireworks engraved behind my eyelids, only slightly more vivid than the fireflies I saw flickering at the bases of the trees and in the growing shadows across the grass.

James’s family arrived for a visit in the middle of the week, so it’s a short post for today! Between study, writing, training and visitors, I’m struggling to stay on top of everything and I need to get that 30 minutes of work done on my novel for the day.

See you all next week!

— Ana