Who knew 2012 would start in a foreign country?

We are nearly half way through the calendar summer [1 Dec – 29 Feb] and honestly it barely even feels like summer.  Of course, I say this after we had a sweltering 40C [104F] high on 2 January.  But other than that 36-hour period of really bracing heat, it really hasn’t been that rough.  The past two mornings I’ve worn my jacket to ride into work against the chill in the air.  It’s hard to remember that we’re on the southern end of Australia and not be surprised when it’s not swelteringly hot multiple days in a row.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally grateful. 

I feel like, as time progresses, I begin more and more of my emails and general correspondences with people back home with updates about the weather.  I have no idea when I became “that guy”, but it makes me feel old.

Aside from updates on the weather, things in the land of Ruthie and EP are pretty chill [although I expect that will change next week, but more about that in a minute]. 

The good news is that I sprained my knee at the beginning of vacation.  The bad news is that I sprained my knee at the beginning of vacation.

For the week of Christmas and New Year, I got a taste of the unemployed lifestyle Ruthie’s been leading since we got here.  And I have to say it was sweet.  A little dry [read: boring] towards the end, but I only have myself and my knee to blame for that.

So I was all mentally prepared to have a super-fit time off.  I was going to get up every day and go for a run, and I was going to use our little dinky basement gym to lift some weights and it was going to be great.  Except on my first day of vacation I sprained my left knee.  With all the holidays and what not, I didn’t really get a chance to go see a doctor until the 30^th.  Got myself some x-rays and a CT scan, but everything came out as okay; which means I sprained my knee.  Doc sent me home with an anti-inflammatory and a soft knee brace.  But with all the time off, I just let the days blend together, relaxed on the couch, and let my knee do the healing thing.

The downside is that we weren’t really able to embrace the warm Christmas like we’d hoped and go beaching.  We’d wanted to head down to Torquay [pronounced tor-key] for a day and maybe go exploring along some spots we’d been recommended by a coworker, but that was a no go. 

Instead we watched Scrooged and Christmas Story [never got around to Christmas Vacation, unfortunately – but there’s still time!], all the Firefly episodes and Serenity, Battle Royale, and the entire Dragon Tattoo trilogy.  I played lots of video games and Ruthie spent her time reading and watching Queer as Folk.

But now it’s back to the grind.  For me at least.  The only thing Ruthie had for a grind was her sewing class, and that’s still on break. 

However, Beef arrives on Sunday.  Ruthie and I were discussing on NYE how after the first month of getting settled with the car, we’d stopped getting out and seeing random things in this country.  We hope that Beef will be the kick in the arse we need to get back on that horse.  She’ll only be here for a week and has more energy than the two of us combined, so Ruthie’s done her part to schedule Beef to the fullest.  I’m taking a few days off work so we can go surfing and who knows what else.  Fun [and busy] times ahead!

-EP