BLOG FROM OZ – Day 1 and a half

After almost 36 hours of no sleep (I don’t do sleeping on planes but thanks to the wonders of “entertainment on demand” I discovered my talent for non-stop movie-watching – perhaps I could break a Guinness World Record? 48 hours has gotta be easy enough –wait, might have to rig DVD player up in toilet –certainly have no talent for going long periods without peeing...) anyhoo, I have arrived in Perth where it is super hot in the knowledge that everyone who said Superman Returns was bad are wrong and stupid.
The little suburban road we live on (in a beautiful house) looks reassuringly like Ramsey Street. My uncle and aunt’s house is round the corner. You definitely know you’re in Oz -everywhere the roads are dusty red and the signs are diamond-shaped. Emma has got burnt THROUGH her giant medical stocking. Our cousins who are all four in the mental image I have of them are inexplicably in their late teens: quiet, cool surfer dude/dudettes. They left the table when the conversation got boring and I realised that I am now one of the grown-ups at family gatherings who stays up late on the patio talking about the dogs and drinking Cabarnet Savign……wait, I can’t spell it – oh that’s a relief…
Mum and I went to the mall this morning to do our Christmas shopping. While we were putting our santa-patterned wrapping paper into our bags, the Musak-arrangement of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (one small step away from pan pipes) was interrupted by a radio announcement: “Many of us will experience bush fires this Summer…”
BUG COUNT SO FAR: 1 persistently kamikaze fly.