I made the most of staying up late every night watching the Tour de France and cheering on Cadel Evans (so close!) - I spent most nights knitting away at my jumper and finally finished it a year after I began! I don't have any photos as yet (I'll post some when I get round to it!) but I'm really happy with it and have worn it quite a bit, problem is it is a little too snug for your average Sydney winter day! Oh well, its good for keeping me warm in my apartment in the evenings! I've already started on a couple of new projects - a cardigan for baby Zara, I think I've finally worked out how to do the pattern so should be able to get this one done in smarter time than my first effort, and a cardie for me which is an easy pattern and is on the back burner whilst I get Zara'a done! Hopefully she wont be too big for it when I get it finished!
I was kept busy on Sundays in July playing two games of hockey each weekend, one for my team and one for the team above - it was great fun but ensured that I was thoroughly worn out by Sunday evening. I had my best goal haul in one day a few weeks ago with 2 goals in my game and 3 in the 2nd game! I felt awesome that night and was buzzing round for hours! Only two more rounds before finals, we're pretty sure we are in the semi's so I've got my fingers crossed we go on to the final and grand final!
Work has also been busy since returning, I had 6 weeks to do, analyse and understand some experiments I had put in an abstract at a conference (without having actually done them). I managed to get them done and am now working on my Oral presentation for the conference! They would choose the highly speculative abstract for the talk rather than the completed, written up work! I've got just under 2 weeks left before I go and I think I'm on track with both my talk and poster.
The big news of the last month is that I've placed a deposit on an apartment! Scary business! I'd been looking on and off for around 6 months then found a place I loved (but needs so tlc). I saw it on its first open house on a Saturday, made an offer, fought off the other contenders (read lots of phone calls back and forth between RE agent and me detailing the offers of the other parties, increasing my offer etc) and got across the line ahead, signing the contract on the following Wednesday i.e. 4 days later! Still 3 weeks to settlement so I'm getting quotes for carpets, wardrobes, kitchens etc - its all fun until you start thinking about all the thousands of dollars that are required! I'm definitely not happy about interest rates going up too, but I guess that is the pitfall of getting into property...
I managed to get out of Sydney on a couple of weekends, one to visit Jez and Claire in Canberra and assisted in the warming of their new house, the other to the blue mountains with Jen, Nate and Phil. The following pictures are from that trip. The first one is the view from Conservation Hut, Wentworth Falls, the second is of Wentworth Falls themselves. It was a beautiful winters day, crisp but clear.
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