Marathon

I completed a marathon yesterday....

A sleeping marathon.

I slept for 12 hours.

It was.......AWESOME.

3 cheers for semi-retirement (and Australia's incredibly slow visa approval process).

Tasmanian Devils, Pademelons and Cradle Mountain

JL and I recently had a long weekend in Tasmania.  It was probably poor planning on our part since we left a gorgeous summery weekend in Sydney for a gloomy, rainy and freezing weekend in Tasmania - but it was a good way to say goodbye to winter!  (Hallelujah!!  And "nah nah nah" to all you poor northern folk!)

We went to Cradle Mountain and stayed in the Cradle Mountain Lodge which was totally FANTABULOUS.  We had a wood burning fireplace in our room and no TV (which was shocking, but great).  Even though it did rain almost the entire weekend we still had a great time.....

Playing with wild-ish pademelons outside of our room (a pademelon is a type of wallaby - I, of course, called them Patty Melts because, well, because I'm that cool).

Going to the Tasmanian Devil sanctuary.  Regardless of what you think, T-Devils are pretty cute - they look sorta like huge rats, and really, who doesn't like a huge rat.  But they do have a super creepy growly scream thing going on.  

And they scare the crap out of me when they eat (and they eat those cute little Patty Melts!).

We hiked around Cradle Mountain, which was gorgeous and rainforesty.

We ate yummy food.

And we saw some amazing views.

All in all, I loved it!  

As an aside, this trip was JL's birthday present from me.  Aren't I nice (notwithstanding the fact that JL has already been here before, and hiked Cradle Mountain and seen T-Devils and Patty Melts, while I hadn't - it was still ALL about him, doncha know)?

The Lilliputian Palace

I have lived in some small apartments in my time. I guess its the old joke about New York, but those of you who are not actually New Yorkers have no idea how bad of a joke it really is.

First, there was the apartment in Clinton Hills, Brooklyn (and with no intentions of offending anyone I do have to add, that it was in the ghetto -- and really, shouldn't you at least get a decent size apartment when you're living in the ghetto??). My bedroom in this apartment was tiny. Really, almost nonexistent. Let's put it this way, I had a futon, and when I folded it out, it took up the entire room. And the TV was in the closet!

Then there was the second Brooklyn apartment, this one in Brooklyn Heights which is, ostensibly, the "nice" part of town. This one was so small it only had a mini-size fridge in it! I'm talking the mini-bar variety like you see in some of the better hotels. If you put some OJ and yogurt in there it was a tight squeeze.

Finally, there is my current New York apartment. It's definitely a step up from the earlier two (and is in Soho which I adore) but to make my point, my pup Lucy doesn't even have to lift her head to watch me walk from one end to the other.* Yes, its that small.

But all of that pales in comparison to the apartment I'm living in in Sydney. It is the smallest apartment I've ever lived in......tiny....miniscule. Yesterday there was a moth on the chair across the room and I felt crowded.** It is so small that the kitchen sink (and accompanying dishdrying area) IS IN THE LIVING ROOM. Yep, just sticking right out of the wall. The kitchen, on the other hand, is in the small hall you walk through as you come in the door. To tell you the truth, I'm not actually sure why they bothered with the kitchen sink....after all, you can reach the bathroom sink, turn on the taps, and fill a saucepan with water all while stirring the pasta sauce on the stove. It is THAT small. To illuminate my point, here is a picture from the website that pushes this Lilliputian palace:

Does this look spacious to you? Please note the kitchen sink to the far left of the picture. Oh, and this had to have been taken with someone standing ON the couch, back pressed against the windows. Basically, this is the whole apartment. For more pics see here.

Now what I don't understand is WHY? Australia is the 6th largest country in the world (by pure land mass territory) but it only has the 53rd largest population. Seriously, it's not for a lack of space! Spread out people. The rest of the world is waiting for you.

Oh and HERE IS THE BEST PART....ITS $800 A WEEK! No joke. Someone should be sued. Thank goodness I'm a lawyer!***

* She does though. In fact, she will follow me from the living room, to the bedroom, to the kitchen, to the bathroom and back to the living room. All of which amounts to about 10 steps.

** For some reason there has been a moth infestation the last couple of days. Trust me, its worth its own blog so you'll see it sometime soon.

*** My company pays for it so I really shouldn't complain. It's the principle of the thing though....I mean really!