One.

One year ago today, I moved to Canberra. 

If you come to Canberra and speak to local Canberrans, they’ll tell you that “hey, I actually like Canberra”.

They’ll go on to tell you how much they enjoy the “open spaces”, the cleanliness, the lack of traffic, how Canberra is a lovely place to raise a family, and how it’s only a one hour flight from Melbourne and 3.5 hour drive from Sydney …

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you any of that, because I don't actually like Canberra. 

But here’s what I can tell you: 

In the past year, I’ve worked, studied, met new people, made new friends. I’ve started with French again. I danced salsa. I volunteered in a community I don’t know very well. I’ve cooked, baked, planted stuff in my garden. I’ve taken road trips, short trips, overseas trips. In short, I’ve generally gotten my shit together.

So no regrets: one year on, life is not ideal, but it’s pretty damn comfortable. 

This February, I’ll graduate from my ‘graduate program’ and get a nice ceremony in front of Old Parliament House. I’ll be (fingers crossed) admitted as a solicitor, and I’ll be settling down into a somewhat right job in a somewhat wrong city. 

But it’s okay. Because I’m excited about this new year. I’m excited because of new studies, new travels and new plans. I’m excited because 2013 will hopefully be my last in Canberra to cap off 2 fruitful years.

And who knows where life will take me next, and what anniversary I’ll be celebrating next year. 

So happy Canniversary, y'all. And may it be the lucky last! 

xx doots

Reading List November/December 2012

I don’t remember Anne of Avonlea being so hilarious. There are some things you just can’t appreciate as a child. 

From October to November, I re-read the second book in the Anne series by LM Montgomery for the first time since I was 10. I finished the Griffith Review #36. I read Once Upon a Time in Beirut in one go - it ended up somewhat inspiring my proposed thesis topic for my Honours Application (yes, I’ve decided to do Honours next year while working full time. Because, ya know, I’m a total effing masochist.)

But I didn’t manage to get through all of A Walk in the Woods, so it’s back on the list for the next month. 

Reading List November/December 2012

1. A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson


2. Anne of the Island, by LM Montgomery


3. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz


4. Statute of Liberty, by Geoffrey Robertson

Reading List October/November 2012

Ohmahgah! I managed to race through 3 books since my last reading list on 20 September - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Conditions of Faith and Anne of Green Gables - all the while on vacation in China. 

But Eating Animals is unfortunately going nowhere. Time for a new list! 

Reading List October/November 2012  

1. Anne of Avonlea, by LM Montgomery


2. Once Upon a Time in Beirut, by Catherine Taylor


3. A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson


4. Griffith Review #36 - What is Australia for? 

Tossing in a quarterly in there for kicks. 

HURRAH! 

xx doots

September/October 2012 Readings

August was my most productive month yet! I raced through the Eyre Affair, dusted off Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy brought back some hazy memories of my early childhood in a communist country.

What a bizarre life that seems like now. And I’m heading back for a quick visit in a week. 

Meanwhile, I’ve given up on Alex Ross’ The Rest is Noise for now. Love his blog, love his writing, love the New Yorker, but the chapter on Schoenburg is turning out to be just as hard to get through as Schoenburg’s music.

The rest is noise indeed. 

Since I never seem to write my reading list at the start of the month, here’s one for September/October. 

Reading List September/October 2012

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Staffer and Annie Barrows


2. Conditions of Faith, by Alex Miller


3. Anne of Green Gables, by LM Montgomery (re-reading the entire series) 


4. Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer

For any Canberrans out there - Lifeline Canberra Bookfair and the Canberra Readers’ Festival are both on this weekend. I’m wiping my reading glasses in anticipation. 

xx doots

An Australian winter

Spring is here. I can smell it, I can feel it, I can’t fight the the pollen slowly beginning to clog up my nostrils and making my tear ducts dysfunctional. And with that, I’ve survived my first winter in Canberra. 

Life has taken on a hectic pace, with new work, all the requirements of my legal admissions, French classes, salsa classes, planning a trip to China to visit some relatives before they forget what I look like.

No time for tennis. No time to blog.

:( doots

P.S. All photos taken during the past winter in and around Crapberra. It was really a lot colder than it looks.