It's been a long time between updates, not because nothing has been happening, but rather because I got unexpectedly snowed under about the time I would normally have written one. Back in April I started organizing a couple of small home projects: replacing the downstairs flooring in the tenanted house on Moor St and installing a garden tap on our deck so we might grow something other than succulents. One project can give rise to another and now we need some more minor building work at home before doing the plastering and painting to fix the holes from the plumbing and at Moor St the bathroom is going to need some renovation work.

We have had time to see a few shows in the last few months as well. We saw Empire@Crown, a circus-style show in April. Einstein on the Beach was not appealing to Jay, so instead of feeling guilty about making him sit through five hours of Philip Glass, I went with Sandy, a friend from rowing. Recently we saw an intriguing puppet show from Canada: Penny Plain by Ronnie Burkett. Two weeks ago we went to the Pink "Truth About Love" concert. It was a good show and very popular here, selling out 18 performances at the tennis centre.



Though many friends have been away over the Winter, including much of the rowing club competing in Antwerp and seemingly everyone else we know going to Spain, we have had a few opportunities to party with friends. In May we went out with Kevin and Scott who were visiting from Perth on the right weekend to go to one of the regular events here. In June we went to Sydney for the weekend and toured the Blue Mountains with Jim and Chad. Recently Jim returned the favour by coming to visit us for the weekend. A couple from the rowing club, Ben and Sanda, bought an apartment across the road from us, so we have had a couple of dinners with them and their housewarming party was last weekend.



The big celebration we had was for the ending of the naturalization process for Jay. He had his citizenship ceremony on a Thursday night in July and this was followed on the weekend by drinks at our house to celebrate with friends. It's a great relief to have that process finished and it will be a novelty for him to travel on his new Australian passport when we visit the US and Canada later this month. He will also get to vote in Australia for the first time this weekend. It's a pity that it is not a more inspiring electoral contest this time.



We have renewed our focus on gym training as I have completed treatment for tendinitis in my elbow (with significant improvement) and have also started doing a weekly session with a trainer, Scott Goble, for some new ideas. 

The bad news and the thing which has meant I haven't had much spare time has been that my father has been ill. While he has not required a lot of care other than a few visits to the hospital, because he has been the main carer for my mother during the day there has been a lot of work for the rest of the family in trying to make up some of the work he does with mum. My sister and two of our aunts have been great as has Carol, who does a lot of work for them. I have been able to get some time off with colleagues covering my work and Jay has been extremely supportive. At least these commitments have made the Winter seem to pass very quickly.



I hope that everything will have settled into a new routine by the end of September when we are going away for a few weeks. We will be visiting friends in the US and also Jay's parents in Canada. I will be staying on an extra week in San Francisco for the American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting.

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