Missive from the Underworld

[usuakari]

It's almost the end of January, which is an entirely more comfortable thing to say this year than last. The weather has been much milder, and while much of the country may not agree, I'm generally happier when it rains. Green is so much easier on the eye and mind than grey, brown and sun-blasted yellow. The destruction caused by flooding and fires

Comments

[australian_joe]

Good luck with the house and with work! Sing out if you'd like a hand with shifting stuff - yes I'd come down to help, work permitting. :)

[usuakari]

That's a big offer Joe. Thank you. :)

I think we'll be right, but if in doubt, I'll drop you an e-mail. Why don't you and Karina, or Laura, or both, just come and visit anyway?

[australian_joe]

It's neither difficult nor expensive to get to you, and I have a fair bit of control over taking time off work. I have the sense your social support network (and hence supply of assistants for moving) is still being developed... and I am pretty sure you've helped me move more than once now. :)

Certainly I'd like to visit! Probably with only one of them at a time though. :)

[usuakari]

It's conceivable that I don't tell you that you rock quite often enough!

I think we'll probably have professional help this time around, as Tooticky's new work did offer to cover moving costs. That ought to make life (bar the packing and unpacking) a lot easier.

Please do come, in whatever arrangements you all care to make. I figured all at once was unlikely. ;) We're deliberately going for a place with room for guests, including crazy family of both the genetic and chosen types. I don't guarantee that we won't be distracted with work or school some of the time, but there's enough to do in and around Hobart too. All that Tasmanian wine to check out, if nothing else...

[tyellas]

Congratulations on the house and all the cultural opportunities! Based on my own "damn, I'm in between" moving experiences:

* Movers who will store your stuff for a few weeks can be found, and the storage addon costs are tolerable.
* If cats wind up at a cattery for a few weeks, it doesn't kill them. My cat's moans and groans to the contrary.

[tooticky]

Thanks tyellas, agreed. Odin and Tess can just harden the @#$% up. :)

[usuakari]

Thank you. :)

A break from the gerontocracy may be nice. I'd certainly get more unbroken sleep. We'll see how it all plays out.

Feel like coming over for a housewarming?

[tyellas]

Gosh, really? When? I've never been to Tasmania!

[kitling]

Congrat on completing a degree, that is awesome.

Buying a house is also pretty cool,we look forward To seeing pics

[usuakari]

I'd post a link to the property, but that sets my interweb privacy alarms ringing madly. So piccies will have to come via us at some later date.

The degree? I have so many mixed-up thoughts and feelings about it, that it's impossible to really just have any single sense of achievement or relief. I did realise the other day that I'm don't win the award for the longest time taken to complete the first undergrad degree though.... I think that still goes to silverygibbon.

[sealwhiskers]

What a great and thorough update for once!! (heh, ahem..)Congrats to the degree! I so recognize the feeling with the bumpy roads to get it. And congrats on the house! I hope you guys post some pics from there, when you've acclaimed it a bit more. I thought about you and alecto a lot in January, when I was in Sweden and they had a lot of coverage about the Aussie flooding.

[usuakari]

It was partially with you in mind that I wrote it. And look what I get in return: a measly two line comment

[sealwhiskers]

Oy, I'm not good with long eloquent answers, but I always read and with great interest! Now I feel like I should write a poem in your honor for making a post or something! :P
No, but it really is always very good to read an update by you guys!

[pointilliste]

Very exciting to be moving into your own place, finishing a degree and attending cool cultural stuff! The FOMA (and MONA itself) sounds really good and a reason to perhaps visit Tasmania in the future (I presume it's an annual event?)

Great review of Philip Glass. I too grew up listening to that Sesame Street piece. The John Malkovich surprise must have been worthwhile since his own Sydney Festival shows sold out in about minus eleventy seconds :( Mind, it'd be nice to hear what Ginsberg sounded like too.

[usuakari]

Exciting... yes that's the word. Not exhausting. Or exasperating. Or mildly terrifying. Exciting.

I'll have to work on that a bit more. ;)

MONA has definitely been getting good reviews, although a giant, installed, simulated digestive system may not do it for many people. FOMA is now an annual event, and I'm glad we got to see what we did. Especially Neil and Amanda for free.

Ginsberg? Sounds... like Ginsberg. There's no one else that gets quite the same reedy, whacky tone when they get excited. Bob Dylan sounds vaguely similar in a singing way, but reminds me less of a stoned Doctor Seuss. I suspect Alan Ginsberg may have been a total pain in the arse in real life (like many artists), but comes across as a genial kind of fruit-loop at a distance.