Over & out

Exams are over. I'm finishing up here. Had a few days down south, which was really good. I'm now packing up & saying bye to Australian friends, such as this fella:







Touch down at Heathrow early Wednesday morning. Thanks for reading this year. Hopefully see you soon.

Living the dream...

I could do this whole Australian thing a little longer. At the beach this morning (in the middle of winter) it was at least 25c, a light breeze, cloudless skies, bright sun, vibrant waters, & glassy 2ft surf. Perfect.





I have had a bit of an all Australian day... after the morning surf I headed to Subiaco Oval with a few mates to watch an AFL game - my first professional, live game. Fremantle Dockers beat Richmond Tigers 106-98, which is good for me. Sports spectators down here are far more diverse than in Englad: far more women & children. It's obvious why - sitting in the sun on a chilled out Sunday afternoon with family & friends is a little different to braving the gale force winds and sheet rains on a dark November Saturday afternoon sat in the town end of the County Ground, as Swindon lose 1-0 to Port Vale... the only goal being a penalty. That takes a little more commitment, & interest in actually what is going on. I'm planning on finishing the day off in a not so traditionally Australian way - by heading to Church.





Yesterday morning was my first exam - employment law. It was my potential banana skin this semester as it was a 90%er and my lecturer seems to get kicks out of setting ridiculously confusing exam papers. I think you need to be a professional reader to actually read the questions in the exam, because they are so long - and a doctorate would help to figure out which combination of questions it is ok to answer. Anyway, after navigating those tricky waters I still had some inspiration to write some stuff... I actually ran out of time half way through my second question, which isn't great, but I think I got enough down to do ok. We'll see. Last night I also went to the aforementioned Subiaco Oval, to watch the Australia v Fiji test. A comprehensive 49-0 win for Australia - good preperation for the imminent tri-nations and World Cup. Sports games cost so little to watch out here - it cost me roughly £17 in total to watch both those games!





Apart from trying to get some preperation in for these exams over the last couple of weeks, I have put a fair amount of effort into living the dream. Friends leaving parties, dinner out with friends, surfing, sports games, bush bonfires & bbq's, Sunday sessions (afo drinks) at Little Creatures, & Caversham wildlife park... all contributing to some memorable last few weeks. There are still a few more things I would like to be seeing & doing in the next couple of weeks. Of course, I'll try not to forget that I still have two more exam papers to sit this week.

The boys bush bonfire & bbq!:

So, I'm certainly loving this place. It will be so sad to leave. But also getting more excited about many of the cool things about coming home - Anneli, mums food, family banter, friends weddings, catching up with you(!), Bratton, familiarity... see you before long!