Australia

Ah yes..possibly since mid November my ties to Australia have been reaffirmed. There will always be a tie because my younger sibling lives there. But more recently my walkabout legs have been getting a twitch. This has not been eased by re-reading Bill Bryson's 'Down Under' - a book I read way back in 2000/1 when my brother was first thinking about leaving the motherland to go for a 12 month stint to see how he and his girlfriend got on. Since then I have acquired a sister-in-law and he has acquired a house, job and residency. Not long after my brother left I met and fell in love with an Australian. But I digress. Since that Oct day in 2000 when Stu flew to the antipodes I have had the great fortune to travel to Australia three times. So to re-read 'Down Under' now has the great effect of bringing back good memories and whetting the appetite for more adventures. I have been laughing out loud on the tube. Now I can totally understand what Bill means by Canberra. His description of Australians whilst seemingly stereotypical is fairly accurate. I have met several. I suppose I also get an injection of Aussie culture every time Sparky opens his mouth! (Not so loud about the current cricket showing down under mind you!) During Christmas and the repeated 'not so gentle' reminder that I have too many days leave left on my card I pretty much made my mind up to head south again. Sparky could do with seeing a friendly face and I do need a holiday and some time away. Far enough away to not be contacted. Plus I have various people I can catch up with and there are still plenty of things I want to see. So flights to Australia are currently being sourced.

My now annual birthday trip to the cinema therefore was a no brainer... the big movie - 'Australia'. So to Wimbledon Odeon @ 3.30pm for 2hours 40 mins of escapism, fantastic scenery and soppy romance - the tear jerking moments and the spirit lifting ones.. an epic was just what I needed. If you are expecting a challenging plot - don't bother! But it's got Baz Luhrmann's name all over it. (I first watched Moulin Rouge on a flight to Australia). Lavish and rich in cinematic effort. It also scores quite highly with Hugh Jackman fronting up and despite her dappling with Tom Cruise, I quite like Nicole Kidman too. Nothing too taxing, plenty to cheer the eye and bearing in mind the freeze outside the sun and desert warmed up my heart no end. It bought me as close I was likely to get to my distant friend, for the time being at least. (Needless to say 5 mins before the film ended I could feel my phone vibrating. 5.30am in Sydney and someone is leaving me a VM song - Happy Birthday the reprise! You beauty!)