The next morning (after some reading), we headed into the city to go to Mass at the cathedral. We then wandered around the city a little before and after lunch. It really feels like a subtropical city: emphasis on the outdoors, full of verandahs and the like, even in the old buildings.
Dan was around and Heather also came over for dinner (Jeanette made lasagna), so there was a nice little family crowd. I haven't been able to see cousins much in recent years, so it was nice to see that they're still doing well.
The next morning, I headed to Norfolk Island to spend four days with Carl and the family. The flight over was very pleasant (I had two empty seats beside me), and it seemed that the whole island had come out to meet us at the airport. I waved to Carl and Daphne, then saw them about 30 seconds later after a very quick passage through customs (one of the advantages of travelling with only carry-on baggage).
I saw how well Norfolk suits Carl: he really does seem to thrive in the smalltown environment. I was very amused when I walked out of the terminal and saw the numberplates, which are four digits. And he knew and struck up a conversation with the woman working at the checkout when we went to get a few supplies (and most of the businesses we happened to venture into during the time I was there).
I won't try to give you an hour by hour account of my time on Norfolk, but just mention some highlights.
We went swimming at Emily Bay a couple of times. The water is very calm, and reasonably warm. Daphne is a good swimmer and we had a great time.
Walking in the National Park was lovely. The whole island is so overwhelmingly green, and it's also interesting to get views right out to sea in any direction you can look. I think we walked most of the interesting paths on our main expedition out.
Just playing with Daphne (and Bronte occasionally, though Daphne seemed to be of the opinion that Bronte wanted to play exactly the game Daphne wanted to) was nice: it's by far the longest I've spent with her - or any four year old for a long time. As Carl mentioned, she's developing quite a good attention span, and she certainly enjoys being read to.
We bought a car! Carl and Ang were thinking of buying a second car, and when the first had to go to the mechanic, it seemed like a good time. And there was one for sale right as we went into town. So we took it for a test drive, and it seemed ok for the price.
Blue cake, courtesy of Ang and Daphne (I suspect Daphne's big contribution was choosing the colour of the icing).
Perhaps the greatest highlight of all was just a simple walk one evening with Carl and Bronte. Just spending time together in pretty surroundings, strolling (well, not strolling: Carl is one of the few people who walks faster than me) and chatting.
Before long, it was time to get on yet another plane (well, perhaps it was the same plane), back to Brisbane. Once again, the entire town crammed into the terminal, and we headed across the tarmac to board. The flight was almost as empty and just as uneventful: the only disappointment was that I accidentally left the book I was reading in the seat pocket.
I had a few hours at Brisbane Airport so I caught up on some emails, had some dinner and shooed the enormous spider off my bag (welcome to Australia!). The plane was heavily delayed as we were getting ready to depart: there was some confusion about whether a couple of people onboard should really have been onboard, so we kicked them (and their bags) off before departing! After that, the flight was pleasant (they even served dinner: I had only been expecting a snack). Tom and Grace came to pick me up, though we didn't get far before getting a flat tyre. Our first attempt to jack the car up didn't go so well (we had put the jack too far under, so didn't have any leverage: apparently that style of jack is meant to go just under the outermost part of the body), but some people came towing a racing-looking car, and they helped us out with their enormous, very fast jack.
Sunday, we headed down to Wollongong to see Mum and Dad. There was considerable shuffling of clothes and other items that had been stored here, there and everywhere, then we headed to Kiama for a barbecue with Jacqui, Vik and Luke. The latter actually spent most of his time sleeping, but I did get to have a cuddle. It seems like a very ordered household, which I think has helped Luke get into the habits of sleeping long nights.
Monday began with Mass, followed by the Patriots-Broncos game, which was shown on free-to-air TV in Australia. When I heard the commentators, I thought they couldn't be the usual ones, but they were: I had simply grown so unused to the American accent already. The game was disappointing for me, but my emotions aren't too tied to the success of sporting teams! We packed up and headed across the mountains to Yass.
Tuesday was a day to visit Canberra: shopping for clothing and visiting grandparents (that's chronological order, not order of importance!).
Wednesday I was frantically working at getting my main paper from Chicago close to publishable form. I finally got around to reading another paper I had seen on a similar topic, and found that my results were very consistent with it (but, in my opinion, explain what's going on in a simpler, more fundamental way). That was very satisfying, and I felt that I was making fast progress, although also encountering a little extra to fit into the paper. So I still had some to do! We then had dinner with a friend of Mum's.
Thursday, we went back to Canberra to see uncles. We met Bede for coffee at a trendy cafe, and Andrew for a lunchtime walk along the lakeshore with some very simple sandwiches: I think that says something about their respective approaches to life, though their work lives sound similarly busy. Then, after dinner with more of Mum and Dad's friends (now that they are spending less time in Yass, everyone wants to jump on opportunities to see them), I was up late finishing that paper.
By mid morning Friday, I had it in good shape to hand off to my advisor with a reminder that I would be able to contribute very little more. So Mum and I hopped in the car and headed off through rather stormy weather to Sydney.
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