Long time no blog!
It's been about half a year since I last posted here, and some people already know the reason. But for those who don't - I have a girlfriend! Her name is Amy and she's a member of the ANU Anime Society (which is where I met her), but she's originally from Singapore and is currently staying here with her parents. So I've been learning a lot about what it's like to deal with Asian parents, and what it's like to deal with a girlfriend with Asian parents - different, but not unmanageable, and they're certainly not bad people.
So far in our relationship we've had mostly ups, very few downs, she's dragged me to New Zealand for a friend's wedding, I've dragged her to stay with my parents up at Kincumber over Christmas[1], she's taken up line dancing, we've done lots of weird random things, and it's been fun.
Some other things that have happened, in no order other than that in which I recall them:
* Two weeks ago I went to the 4th annual Sydney Line Dance Ball and to a post-ball 100 Dances social, from which I returned thoroughly exhausted. However, I did win a dinner cruise for two around Sydney Harbour and a new heater, so even without the dancing (which was fantastic) I did pretty well out of the weekend.
* Last week I went to Mayworth, the normally-in-May-hence-the-name-but-in-April-this-year country dance festival in Tamworth, and entered two dances in the choreography competition. My Intermediate level entry didn't get anything, but my Easy Intermediate dance won! So I have a cute little trophy and hopefully I'll get some interest in my dances.
* A close friend who I dance with was diagnosed with breast cancer about six months ago. She's receiving treatment, and she's mostly doing ok, but it's hard for her when the chemo really hits her and she can barely get out of bed, let alone dance, for several days.
* I've (finally) made moves on getting my licence - in a couple of weeks I will be attending the "Road Ready" course, and then hopefully getting my L plates.
* For my birthday last month, I went with Amy to have High Tea at the Hyatt. It was a bit pricey, but utterly fantastic - pots of just about any kind of tea you might want, delicious little savoury and dessert items including macaroons, and they even do the cucumber cut into fingers with the crusts removed.
* My aunt and uncle from the US came down to Australia to meet various people at Australian universities (they work at U. Minnesota), and during the couple of weeks they were in Canberra my parents also came down and we had some lovely dinners and catching up. It was really good to meet with them, since I only met my aunt once in 2000 when I went to the US, and I've never met my uncle.
* Work has got me doing a few interesting things[2], and is sending me to Sydney in May and Perth in September and possibly Melbourne some time mid-year (brrr), having sent me to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Hobart last year. Some of the trips are to attend various meetings, some to present a course I redeveloped last year. Also, in a couple of weeks there's a good chance I'll be put on higher duties while my manager fills in for the director of another section. The money will be nice, but I'm not so sure how I feel about the responsibilities (especially since her job seems to often involve metaphorically kicking a large number of people in the backside, something I'm not really good at doing to myself let alone others).
More posts coming soon (I swear), including the "award-winning" line dance.
[1] It's possible that neither of us was actually "dragged".
[2] Well, interesting to me. YMMV.
So far in our relationship we've had mostly ups, very few downs, she's dragged me to New Zealand for a friend's wedding, I've dragged her to stay with my parents up at Kincumber over Christmas[1], she's taken up line dancing, we've done lots of weird random things, and it's been fun.
Some other things that have happened, in no order other than that in which I recall them:
* Two weeks ago I went to the 4th annual Sydney Line Dance Ball and to a post-ball 100 Dances social, from which I returned thoroughly exhausted. However, I did win a dinner cruise for two around Sydney Harbour and a new heater, so even without the dancing (which was fantastic) I did pretty well out of the weekend.
* Last week I went to Mayworth, the normally-in-May-hence-the-name-but-in-April-this-year country dance festival in Tamworth, and entered two dances in the choreography competition. My Intermediate level entry didn't get anything, but my Easy Intermediate dance won! So I have a cute little trophy and hopefully I'll get some interest in my dances.
* A close friend who I dance with was diagnosed with breast cancer about six months ago. She's receiving treatment, and she's mostly doing ok, but it's hard for her when the chemo really hits her and she can barely get out of bed, let alone dance, for several days.
* I've (finally) made moves on getting my licence - in a couple of weeks I will be attending the "Road Ready" course, and then hopefully getting my L plates.
* For my birthday last month, I went with Amy to have High Tea at the Hyatt. It was a bit pricey, but utterly fantastic - pots of just about any kind of tea you might want, delicious little savoury and dessert items including macaroons, and they even do the cucumber cut into fingers with the crusts removed.
* My aunt and uncle from the US came down to Australia to meet various people at Australian universities (they work at U. Minnesota), and during the couple of weeks they were in Canberra my parents also came down and we had some lovely dinners and catching up. It was really good to meet with them, since I only met my aunt once in 2000 when I went to the US, and I've never met my uncle.
* Work has got me doing a few interesting things[2], and is sending me to Sydney in May and Perth in September and possibly Melbourne some time mid-year (brrr), having sent me to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Hobart last year. Some of the trips are to attend various meetings, some to present a course I redeveloped last year. Also, in a couple of weeks there's a good chance I'll be put on higher duties while my manager fills in for the director of another section. The money will be nice, but I'm not so sure how I feel about the responsibilities (especially since her job seems to often involve metaphorically kicking a large number of people in the backside, something I'm not really good at doing to myself let alone others).
More posts coming soon (I swear), including the "award-winning" line dance.
[1] It's possible that neither of us was actually "dragged".
[2] Well, interesting to me. YMMV.