One of the things I promised myself while in Australia this time was to go back to Adelaide and visit a few old friends. I lived in Adelaide for just over 4 years [age 16-20] and although I think it's a great place, it's one of those remote Australian cities that you can easily convince yourself to miss when your planning a trip. I've done the Sydney to Adelaide drive a few times and had the opportunity to drive down there with a good friend.

On the trip I saw the clearest sky I've seen in a long time. It was moonless until early in the morning so there was no bright light to block out the stars, and damn, were there stars. A sky full of them. Satellites were easy to spot and falling stars were in abundance.

There was a lot of road kill on this trip, although I think our car only caused the death of one rabbit, and even that wasn't a confirmed kill [hopefully we missed the little guy]. But there was a veritable feast of dead roo on the road. Early morning, usually after 3am is the most dangerous as this is when the roos wake from their nights sleep and try and eat as much food as they can before retiring for their morning sleep [which usually lasts until late afternoon].

We spotted this roo after coming over a crest at about 120km and my friend driving was swift enough to slow down safely so I could take a quick snap. It's still at a bit of a distance 'cause the roos are fairly nervous of humans in cars. And can you blame them? Apart for the loarge road kill toll, we also spotted some roo shooters while going across the Hay Plains. Two PickUps with roving spot-lights were about 3km off the main road. There's plenty of game for those guys on the Hay.

And we're would a traveller be without friends who can spare a room or a floor for you to crash in/on. I was lucky enough to get my own room for a whole month. The house had that kind of peaceful feel you just hate leaving. Harry and Margie [the residents] had recently moved in and were just getting use to the place themselves. Lots of backyard improvments including a little native garden bed, a water feature complete with goldfish and an array of bonzai provided me with those all important distractions when you are trying to forget about work and relax.

Thrown into the package were BBQs with old friends, video nights and home cooked meals. Life was good in Maroubra.

On one of the afternoons I was sitting in the backyard I took this photo. While it doesn't give you a clear visual of what the place looked like, I think it gives a pretty good description of the feel of the place. I'll remember it fondly and long to return. You gotta love it when you can think about a place like that.

I back and kind of in the swing of things again. Heaps of work still to do, which explains the lack of posting recently. The Australia trip was so busy with work and catching up with friends/relatives. But on the bright side I have heaps of things [photo, experiences, etc] to post about.

6 x 3 ? I thought I'd just note down that a 3 magnitude 6 earthquakes hit the Nigata region in Japan recently. So far 21 people are dead and 60,000 people have been displaced, most of which are probably in their local gymnasium sleeping and eating together. Those that aren't are probably out fixing things that where damaged or destroyed.

Japan is a great place in a time of crisis [having said that I suppose most places are]. Humans tend to shine when there's trouble.

Another recent events worth noting are that Australia has been classed as the 4th worse abuser of natural resources. Behind America, Kuwait and another country I forgot. Seeing as Australia has so much land and so few people, it's not a good look. And seeing as the Howard government was recently re-elected again [I'm still in shock over that one], I can't see things getting any better. In fact they'll probably get worse. Damn...I've promised certain readers [and myself] that I won't get political on my blog, so I'll drop that right here.

Today I went to Teine, a town/suburb between Sapporo and Otaru, to see the 1st dan Kendo testing. At the dojo I train at only myself and a good friend who started at the same time are below 5th dan. Today my friend pass the test, so I'm the only one who doesn't have a dan against his name. I was suppose to do the test as well, but the Australia trip and associated work has put me a little behind [mainly in the katta]. My next chance in is Feb. 2005, in Otaru. Should be ok if I can dedicate some time to training.

Feels good to be back writing again.