Still alive! Plus, more reasons I love Sydney.

Whoops. Somehow a day turned into a week, and the weeks turned into a month. It has been non-stop busy, and as is obviously evident, blogging was one of the first things to fall off the priority list. Cooking, sadly, has been replaced by more time-efficient methods of satisfying my food needs - namely, good ol' KD mac-and-cheese, cheap takeout kebabs and Turkish pide. However, my recent discovery of the George Foreman steamer in our kitchen has brought steamed vegetables back on the menu, if you can call that cooking. I love steamed veggies. You think I'm kidding! No joke!

In my attempt to roll a month's worth of updates into one post, I will summarize as follows:

- I got to spend some quality time with Mona before she returned to Germany. Sad to have to say goodbye to one of the first few friends I made when I initially arrived in Sydney.

- Then Alice and Michael visited from Vancouver. We took a trip to Melbourne where we stuffed ourselves silly with delicious food, got arrested at the Old Melbourne Jail, and went on a "safari" with Paul and Terrie where we spotted a mother and joey kangaroo hopping around the golf course. Back in Sydney, we climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge with Pauline and went to the opera at - you guessed it - the Opera House. I didn't think I'd like opera, but Rigoletto was really good!

- I completed a SCUBA diving class and now I'm certified as an open water diver! The past couple weekends have been filled with early mornings, tests of my (very poor) swimming ability, and bike commutes to and from Sydney University where my classmates and I were transported to dive sites. I have so much to say about diving and how awesome it is, but to summarize, it is like visiting another planet! I highly recommend taking up diving!

- Work is piquing my interest again. I'm learning a lot about traffic control theory - that is, the configuring of traffic lights to optimize car traffic flow. Car traffic is not like internet traffic! Also, this is amazingly complex stuff!

- Although not official, there is intent to have my work contract renewed, and by extension, have me moved onto a more proper work visa. This means I'll be in Sydney for another while! Don't ask me how long I will be here - I don't know :)

- I'm taking a month off starting December 3rd and returning sometime at the beginning of January. The plan is to hit up a couple out-of-the-way places in Australia - Darwin in the north, and Perth in the west. I'm looking forward also to doing some travelling in Southeast Asia where I'll be meeting up with various friends along the way. Exact countries to be determined, but Singapore and Vietnam are on the list so far.

I hope to be able to post again before I go on vacation! With that intent in mind, I'm not going to preemptively wish you a merry christmas and happy new year...

I leave you with 4 pics of Sydney's closest equivalent to Vancouver's Stanley Park Seawall, and one of oh, about a zillion reasons why I love this place.