Sunshine

We headed up to Sydney last Saturday morning to visit my Dad and Stepmother and to have a bit of a break. After being sick for over three weeks, I felt almost immediately better once we arrived up in Sydney. The moist, warm air (well, warm in comparison to Canberra) was fantastic - as was the relaxation that comes from having the small one completely focused on other people (her beloved grandparents) and having everything done for you by loving parents (cooking, cleaning, Lily-playing, etc)...

We went to the zoo to see the new baby elephant (oh.so.cute!), caught the ferry to Darling Harbour and took Lily to the aquarium (the tickets were a gift from my brother and sister-in-law), read the paper, went for walks in the sun to the lovely local park, enjoyed being looked after and generally had a lovely time.

While we were up in Sydney we got some more detailed quotes on the passive solar house that we wanted to build and began to realise that the budget was slipping further and further out of our means. Although this was a little disappointing, we weren't too sad about it, the weather and the fun of Sydney was once again weaving its magic on our life plans.

To add to this, I also caught up with my supervisor and attended a great seminar at the law school, which I found really intellectually stimulating. Both of these things really made me crave more of that kind of contact and I began to think about the possibilities of life post-PhD.

In the end we realised that there really is no one perfect place that we need to end up or one perfect plan that we have to find. There are so many interesting places to live in this world and so many interesting things to do with ourselves in those places.

For now, however, we think that we might aim for Sydney.

I can't promise that this will still be the plan next month though. We roll with the punches around here and you really never know what life will throw at you next...

[As a classic example of this very point: this morning we went out to the Farmers' Markets, drank coffee and ate pain au chocolat, stocked up on lots of yummy local produce and then came home to a house bathed in sunlight. Canberra is pretty nice too.]