It's Beginning to Look a Bit Like Christmas

Eighty degrees on Christmas Eve, a few hours on the beach, a spray tan...yep, it's beginning to look a bit like Christmas. The good news is that Santa visits us early--we come just after the Kiwis, when he's still fresh. We'll give him a few Tim-Tams for the road, and send him to Europe and then State-side. Here are some Xmas Eve images from Down Under:

Whale Beach House

Just some photos of our beautiful pad (and our view) in Australia-land. With Justine now in the Whitsundays and the Holbrookes coming in one week, we are hoping to entice more of our friends and relatives to visit.

College Roomies Hang with Bono and Oprah in Oz

Our first out-of-town visitor arrived! Fellow Wes alum Justine hit the ground running when she arrived on Sunday. Besides the usual sight-seeing highlights, Justine and Sid attended the U2 concert (with Jay-Z) at Olympic Stadium, had several near misses with Oprah (in town to promote Australia to her billions of fans), and some up-close and personal moments with Oz wildlife. Best of all, we had drinks on the "Athena," a 50 meter schooner owned by Netscape founder, Jim Clark and his wife, supermodel Kristy Hinze (photos to come when JG gets back to the US)



This is a shot of Justine nervously petting the gorgeous juvenile koala at Walkabout Park. She loves animals--can't you tell?


That's better.
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Look closely--that's the "Oprah" House. She was there with Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, etc... We didn't rate. Wha?



Bondi in the background. Just glorious.



PK and Justine on the way up to the Barrenjoey Lighthouse.

Gene Pool

Isn't genetics fascinating? Last Sunday Philip's cousin held a mini-reunion, and we were able to snap some photos that support Gregor Mendel's findings. The shot of Jillian and Clare is especially telling, I think.

Girls Rule in Oz

It's curious that, as I reside in Australia, writing a book on 16th century women in power (the manuscript is tentatively titled "Rogue Madonnas"), the folks Down Under have just elected their first female Prime Minister. The last (and only other) time I lived in a country with a female in charge was in England in 1980 when Margaret Thatcher held tightly to her stiff handbag and ruled with an iron fist. She was deemed "The Iron Lady." Thirty years later, Jillian Gillard, the new Aussie PM, has been dubbed "The Red Queen." Good grief! Admittedly Gillard has the worst hair colorist in the southern hemisphere, but is that any reason to link her with the one-dimensional "off-with-their-heads" symbol of tyranny from Alice in Wonderland? For the record, if a male Prime Minister had that hair color, I would be much (much!) more critical. Meanwhile, what can an American say? The US still has not elected a female president or vice president (full disclosure: I voted for Obama--I had my reasons, and fingers crossed that I didn't make the wrong choice).

There are three levels of female overlordship in Australia at the moment--the British Queen is still the nominal head of the country; her representative, The Governor-General, referred to as "her excellency," is also female. And then there's Gillard, the one who's really running the show. I have to admit, that's super cool. Sure we Americans threw out the monarchy long ago, but we are nowhere near achieving this kind of gynocratic representation in our government.

Spider Bite!

For all you arachnophobes (you know who you are, SJ and EF)--I was bitten last week by a nasty spider, twice on my elbow. Been feeling a little fluey ever since--don't worry, Mom, I talked to a chemist and am treating it appropriately. My guess is it was a white-tail spider, not one of the two fatally venomous spiders, but one that certainly packs a punch. White-tails are pretty common, and with all this rainy weather, the spideys are headed inside. Anyway, they say to take photos to monitor the wound on a daily basis--so here you go.

Bite update: Worser and worser and then a little better. The bites blistered up considerably, but the sites are healing slowly. Other blisters erupted up and down my arm. Frickin' spider!

Update on the update: Two+ weeks later, I'm still feeling the effects. For about 10 days, I had flu-like symptoms, mild but there. Also neck pain. After two days of feeling great, the neck pain is back. Arg. This is so frustrating. Meanwhile the bite itself looks like it has healed, although the break-outs on my appendages are still irritating.

More Tales from the Australian Bestiary

Protected bandicoot? Nearly extinct pygmy possum? Or....common rat?

We have a new beastie to report. He (or she) hangs out on our stone decks, snuffling up invisible bugs, leaving raisin-like scat, and generally minding his own business. Initially we thought he was a rat. I mean, we're Brooklynites, and if it looks remotely like vermin, it is vermin.

This isn't a random sighting--this animal comes around just about every day; he walks the same daily beat and is generally around late afternoon - evening.

We dutifully reported this "rat" to our landlord, but he suggested the little guy might be a bandicoot, in which case he's a loved and protected marsupial and to exterminate in any way would be unlawful. So we did our internet research and it seems "Randy-Andy," as he is now named, has attributes in the bandicoot, rat, and (a dark horse entry) pygmy possum columns. Check out the tail--rat-like, right? But the fur is a little orangy--suggestive of a pygmy possum in breeding season (Nov-Dec). Possums also have those creepy hairless tails. Meanwhile bandicoots have longer back legs, a hump-like back, and skip around a bit, which our guy does, sort of.

We leave it up to you, dear readers. In the end, it's a moot point--as Clare says, it's not like we'd really put out poison if it really did turn out to be a rat.