Liresius' Fandom Journal

Back from a lovely week in Perth, Australia. I took the students over and they seem pretty happy there, mostly. Caught up with family. Mum caught the Indian Pacific over. It was cold in Perth but warm in the sun. Beautiful blue skies. Mum and I stumbled on an All Male Voice choir performance in the Perth Town Hall the first night and we caught a 5 minute ferry to the other side of the Swan River to watch the city lights come on. I was impressed with both the modern skyline and the way the historic buildings have been kept in Perth - not torn down for the march of modernity. We visited Fremantle Port and the original prison, The Round House, based on Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon design. We also took in the Art Gallery and saw Cowboys and Aliens (terrible!).

After Mum went home, I rented a car for one day and went up to the Gravity Discovery Centre, which I had heard about on my radio podcast of The Science Show and Yanchep National Park, north of Perth. On the way back I drove down to the coastline of Joondalup - cold blue ocean and rocks. The people at the GDC were great and really got people involved in trying out all the science exhibits. I enjoyed Yanchep - I walked around the lake Wetlands Track, but even more, I loved getting behind the wheel of a car after so long and just driving! Also did lots of clothes shopping, so I feel good to have a supply of decent clothes for the next while. I have tomorrow to pack for Spain (and Marrakech), but am catching up on Torchwood, Dr Who and True Blood. I love TW ep 7! We are finally seeing a serious amount of Jack's past life (love the period chosen) and whoo whoo for the Angelo love!

Got my gaijin card updated with my new visa (to 2010) at City Hall - good to get that out of the way ..

Had an Italian lunch set in Takashimaya Dept store. Yum! The pasta had a creamy tomato sauce but was ever so delicately a curry flavour too. Didn't think they could pull it off, but they did!

Then lucked in on an underwear/bra sale - bought three Wacoal bras @3000 en each - they usually cost 7-8000, so that was full of \o/. I now have full brassiere confidence for my busy work year ahead *g*

I also bought some khaki work trousers/pants for 13 000 en at another store the day before yesterday, so I feel pretty set, although I'd like to get some more new and longer summer skirts and some non-iron shirts too.

I just picked up a couple of extra conversation classes at the same university that I got a full day's work at starting in April - so that means six classes (1 1/2 days) at that university. Even better the two new classes are in the afternoon, so I can have a late rise mid-week, on Wednesdays. So I have work every weekday from April now as well as Saturday. I might decide to quit my Saturday eikaiwa job since the pay is not so good anyway. I'll keep it for a bit though and see how I cope. At least Wednesdays and Fridays are half days. Whee! Money! I'm excited about the computer classes on Tuesdays too, wherein I can do blogging and group work around PowerPoint ... oh, and the taboos discussion classes on Thursdays - that should be interesting. Nice change from the verb "to be". *g*

In other news, I bicycled out to the big national tax place today and a nice lady helped me do it on the computer there. All done in about 45 minutes. Next off is my three yearly visa renewal, which has come around again.