life & other things

spring rocks. the daffodils have gone, and now the tulips and magnolias have arrived. and all the trees have new leaves shooting. and our garden really needs some work. we have a greenhouse, half constructed, with the rest of the bits laying in the overgrown grass. we got it second hand, which of course means it comes without instructions, but we think we have it under control now. so far i have identified two blackberries and a rose bush sprouting in the garden beds, and a lot of weeds. almost everything appears to have thorns of some sort. the kittens love it all.

it is light until 9pm. it is amazing what a difference it makes. and it is warm - tshirt weather even. somewhat scarily tshirt weather is only about 16 degrees. and the sun feels so strong, i am worrying that i will never be able to survive in the harsh aussie sun again. of course that is partly because i now understand the compunction to resemble a lobster just like all the british backpackers down at coogee.

the football team i play for have one game left, which is the battle for second place and promotion. Adam's local team turned out to be a bit selective - you had to be related to the coach or at school with his kids to get on the pitch it seemed. So he is playing with a team of postdocs up at oxford as well. Chelsea are 1 point away from winning the premiership, with 3 games to play. Spurs are currently in fourth place, which should get them the final champions league spot, which would be there first time in europe for x years, and there highest ever finish in the premiership (i.e. since the early 90s). all very exciting. made even more so by the fact that their local rivals, arsenal, are currently 5th, and can snatch the last champions league spot if they win the champions league this season. they are in the final which is played in may. of course spurs would still be in the uefa cup, another european competition, but after sitting in 4th position for so much of the season the fans would be a bit heart broken. newcastle are in european contention which is very exciting for their supporters since they had a pretty miserable first half to the season. unfortunately there is no silverware for shearer. he retired with an injury a few games ago. i expected him to come on for the last 5 minutes of the last game or something similar, but i guess the games will be too important.

we sanded our floorboards. they look stunning. it took a week longer than planned because the sander didn't work the first weekend we hired it. but now it is all done and looks fantastic. to us anyway, who sweated and slaved over it for 48 hours, and remember the dull carpet and the horrid black patches on the boards when we first ripped up the carpet. we just have to wait a few days for varnish to harden fully before we move back in. at the moment we are sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the study. the kittens love it but i am starting to feel a bit claustrophobic, especially when you walk into our lovely big room of the shiny floors.

Stu (Adam's brother) & Lauren came over for a week at easter. they came to our place for a day (Stu helped to destroy our old wardrobe - that is a good thing, we had to get to the floorboards underneat) and we went to visit them in london for a day. we went to a Fulham v Charlton game, since it was convenient, which was a bit of fun. and adam and i had a lovely walk through hyde park in the spring sunshine, stopping to watch the baby bunnies, and squirrels and ducks playing. and the thousands of londoners out playing, and renting expensive sun chairs.

and that's about us up to date. only 6 weeks until the world cup and we are keeping a close eye on australia's injury list as it continues to grow: schwarzer, cahill, viduka, kewell...