So far, I'm liking the Aussie concept of November

Part of me feels guilty for spending so much of today inside. Melbourne had a (rare) second day in a row of beautiful (and boy, do I mean B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L) weather. It was 32C today and not a cloud in the sky! And because the humidity is typically low here, it was hot but not icky. At all. So what did I do on this beautiful day? I spent most of it glued to my computer, unfortunately. I had letters to write, emails to answer, and budgets to update. By the time I was done with all that, it was almost 3pm! This is a wee bit embarassing because I had originally planned to spend the day on the beach. On the other hand, my chances of getting skin cancer on this trip were nicely reduced since I spent the highest UV portion of the day inside.

I did wander around the neighborhood for a bit in the late afternoon. I am officially sick of the clothes I brought with me. Add to that the hole I managed to tear in my butterfly shirt (one of my favorites - wah!) and the orange stain of something-or-over I discovered today all down the front of another of my shirts (double wah!), and I figured it was about time for me to find some more shirts to wear. So after a completely random bout of shopping I now own two more pairs of capris and three new shirts, and I spent just over $50. I'm getting better at this. Some of the bargain stores on Sydney Road actually carry clothes in my size. :-)

This evening, Jen and I joined a bunch of our housemates for an impromptu barbecue in the backyard. How wonderful to be sitting out in mid-November in shirtsleeves and sandals. I was even enjoying swatting the mosquitoes away, since it means that it's warm enough for the "mozzies" to be out. I managed to slice my thumb open while cutting the potatoes, though. What a pain! Not a deep cut but in a really annoying spot that refuses to stay closed. Jen had to do some first aid on me and now my whole thumb is wrapped in gauze and masking tape. A bandaid won't keep the cut closed. Grr.

It's going to take some serious psyching up to get ready for Christmas here. While I was out shopping today, I was admiring the Christmas displays in the store windows. They're marketing pretty sundresses, shorts and blouses, and fancy hats (much like the types we saw at the Melbourne Cup) as holiday party wear. The Christmas commercials on TV include scenes of families enjoying barbecues and sun-drenched days on the beach. And then just to really confuse things, all the familiar North American trees, tinsel, and Santas are also in the stores! It's hard to juxtapose wintry scenes with snow and sunny beach life. For some reason, I find the trees particularly funny. The government does not encourage the planting of 'alien' trees, so seeing images of northern hemisphere pine and spruce trees is strange. It also makes me wonder - are all Aussie Christmas trees artificial, or if not, what gets used instead? I have yet to see a real pine or spruce tree growing here at all...