I feel a blog post coming on.... Picnicking in the park with friends listening to Sydney orchestra at sunset at a free concert = I will miss! Neighbour playing gangnam style at 5am on a Sunday = I will not miss! The way it cools down so quickly after a hot day = I will miss! The way it pours with rain on a public holiday = I will not miss! I'm sure there are lots more, but those are most poignant to me this morning :-)

2 years 7 months and 22 days after leaving the United States, our flight landed at the Austin-Bergstrom airport. Apart from my brother who I'd contacted a few days before, no one in the States knew of our travel plans. So, on Friday evening  a week and a half before Christmas, Jean and I eased in on into the homestead in Buda much to the surprise to my parents. Fortunately, I didn't have dust off my resuscitation skills. Here are some shots from our first few weeks back.  

Some months ago a colleague(a fellow expatriate) and I were chatting about bush walking around Sydney. He and I got to talking about the coast track in the Royal National Park. The Royal National Park is a big patch of green on the map just south of Sydney. Last year, Jean and I hiked the 26 kilometer long trail along the park's eastern edge. My colleague had walked the trail as well. "Did you go through the tunnel?" he asked. "What tunnel?" He told me that as part of a friend's birthday request, he and a small party had accompanied the friend on a hike from the town of Stanwell Park through a 1.6 kilometer(1 mile) long disused railway tunnel to Otford(southern end of the park) and then along the whole 26 kilometer track to Bundeena in the North. I was, to use his terminology, gobsmacked. We spent two days covering that distance. I was also intrigued by the revelation of this little gem of Australian industrial archaeology. With the assistance of Mr....

Let the feasting begin! Ever heard of a chocolate pizza? Yum! Making good progress... On a sugar high! Best way to spend a birthday...with good friends and chocolate! Thanks everyone for helping me celebrate!

  View Larger Map Sculpture by the sea is an annual community art event set up between Tamarama beach and Bondi Beach. The exhibition goes on for a couple of weeks and t his year it featured works from over a hundred of artists. Jean and I met up with Sunita and Neel a couple of weeks ago to check it out. We started a t Tamarama beach and meandered our way along the coast line the 2 kilometers to Bondi. There were a wide variety of works. I was particularly drawn to the ones that made use of the landscape or environmental factors. Tamarama beach One of the creepier pieces, a giant, bodiless baby doll head constructed from sheet metal Oh wait, now it has body Hubasaurus Rex. Angle iron and internet boxes. Mr. Tumnus practicing his marksmanship at Narnia's laser rifle range

“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..." "You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?" "No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people." "Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy." "I did," said Ford. "It is." "So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?" "It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want." "You mean they actually vo...

With spring in fill swing Jean and I have been putting aside our museum going and been hitting the trail on the weekends. A large patch of green on the map north of Sydney called Brisbane Water National Park piqued Jean’s interest some time ago. Hunting around on the Wild Walks website she discovered track notes for a hike from Wondabyne train station through the park to the town of Woy Woy.  Wondabyne is a peculiar station. First, it's located in the very heart of the National Park on the edge of a tributary of the Hawkesbury River. Second, there's no road access to the station. Catching a train here involves either walking in or getting a boat. There's no regular service stopping at the station. One must flag down a train. The third and most important fact is that you have to notify the conductor if you want to alight at Wondabyne. The platform is only half a carriage length long so you have to disembark from the last door of the last car. Jean managed ...