 |
| The Melboune Skyline at night. There were many different sets of fireworks displays that we could see from the balcony at the Anderson's. |
| Erin's Journal 12-31-02 & 01-01-03Victoria New Years Eve dawned rainy and gray. We didn't have any plans for the day other than chores, as most things would be closed today. So after a lazy late rising, we had breakfast and read for a while, then started our laundry. Due to the rain, we couldn't hang our clothes out to dry, so while Glenn typed journals I took myself down to the laundromat (in my grubbies, with unwashed hair) and stuck them in the dryer. I also stopped off for a bit of milk and a bottle 'o bubbly for midnight. Glenn had been trying to figure out what we'd go do around midnight, as there were several fireworks displays scheduled. We didn't want to go into the crowds downtown though, and both of us daydreamed fondly of the party with friends we plan to have next year when we have a place! With the weather behaving so poorly, we had mostly decided to keep things close to home, but we wanted to get out of the house and do something fun - so we went to the movies. The theaters were closing early to let their people get some celebrating too, so the last show for the night was at 7:10. We went to see Sweet Home Alabama, and both enjoyed it. It had several jokes that would be understood only to Americans, and we were both jamming to the music. Stuff we haven't heard in a long time, being out on the road! Afterward, we wandered through the video arcade across the way, where we watched a couple race each other at Daytona - they kept wrecking each others' cars!! - then the guy played a game of video tennis, where the graphics were so real that the players would get scraped knees when they fell, and their hair was sweaty by the end of the match! Glenn and I restrained ourselves from our usual racecar rivalry, but did indulge in one heated game of air hockey before getting kicked out by the one remaining employee (he wanted to get out of there!). We went home and watched Moulin Rouge until midnight, then climbed some steep stairs up to the viewing roof on the house (we hadn't known it existed!). We could see the fireworks on the horizon, and the neighbors all around cheering and yelling. The poor dogs were going out of their heads and trying to tear the door down, but they settled in when the noises died out around 2am. I watched the end of another movie before hitting the hay at 1:30am. Happy New Year! Happy New Year!!! 01-01-03 Victoria For the first day of what promises to be a very busy year, we did next to nothing. We leave for New Zealand tomorrow, so first priority when I finally got up was to take all our various treasures out, all our clothes and stuff from our backpacks, and spread it on the bed to determine what to send home, what to leave here for 3 weeks with our car, and what to take with us to NZ. We'd accumulated more stuff to send home than we thought, but that was ok. We won't ship anything until we get back from NZ anyway, in case we find more to add to our 'send home' pile, but it was good to get things organized. I also got rid of a few clothing items that I had replaced with ones I'd asked mom to ship us here in Melbourne before we left home. It is good to get a few new things to rotate into my (tiny) wardrobe! I also tried on my wedding dress again, and find that I'm not as happy with it as I was when we first bought it in Perth. It's still a nice going-out dress, but I'll be keeping my eye open for something better as we travel around before going to Fiji! The bulk of the day was spent in resizing and fixing up a bunch more photos for the website, so we can have a few photo pages as well! I know most of our website viewers don't have time to read the actual journal pages, so photo pages are a nice way to see some of the stuff we've seen without having to page through each journal to see a photo. We'll try to get some more web work done tomorrow before leaving for the airport. By late afternoon when I finished the photos, I relaxed a bit by playing some of the addictive computer games on Elaine's computer, then did a bit of industrious work by typing a few journals. I am drastically behind - 3 weeks or more! But when I get that far behind, I start from the most recent days and work my way backward, as that's how my memory seems to work. And for the tricky parts, I consult Glenn's journals for a reminder of what we did, then write my own recollections of those events. I know, boring to most folks, but I know I'll be glad to have these detailed memories a few years from now when all the waterfall photos look the same to me (heck, they already do!!!) and I wonder 'did we hike down to that one? Was it hard?' A good start to the new year, I think. Get a few things done, relax a little, look forward to all the stuff going on in our future! I have many roles to play this year: traveller, tourist, photographer, wife, aunt, daughter-in-law, job applicant, mortgage applicant, car loan applicant, long-lost friend... We like being busy! |