Under the weather Down Under

I can't say what has been happening in Melbourne in the past week, because I haven't been outside much. Or make that at all. I got sick on Wednesday night and was laid up in bed for all of Thursday and all of Friday. I felt really guilty calling in sick to work because Thursdays and Fridays are our busiest deadline days, but I had a fever and I couldn't keep any food down. I stayed in bed from 8pm on Wednesday night until 8:30 am on Saturday. Leslie was very good to me and brought me chicken soup, or as much as I would eat, which wasn't very much. I still have sniffles and a cough, but the worst is definitely behind me. I haven't been sick like that in many years. I think maybe I should buy a winter coat. It's cold here, and all I have is a leather jacket (sunny and warm Australia, indeed).

Yesterday I was feeling better, and it was a good thing, too, as the last Harry Potter came out at 9 am yesterday (one good thing about being on Mars is that we got the book at 12.01 London time, at the respectable hour of 9.01 am here). I wasn't so sick anymore that I needed to be confined to the apartment, but I was so excited for the book that I just sat on the couch all day and read it. I finished the whole thing in one go. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet, but it was a satisfying ending.

Leslie went to take pictures of a soccer club last week and is doing up individual and team photos for them. He's collaborating with one of his classmates, and they've been very busy this week. While I've been lazy in bed he's been dealing with more than 80 pictures. They're due back to the club next week, so he's been spending pretty much all of his free time in front of the laptop correcting pictures. It would be great if he could get more of this kind of thing, team and school portraits. His classmate does a lot of them, and maybe he'll be able to collaborate with her again.

The cat is pretty well settled. When we went to the RSPCA the first time, he was there but we didn't choose him because we thought his long fur would be a problem and because his personal ad said "I would love to spend time exploring a garden," and we don't have a garden. When we went back and the cats we wanted were taken, the people there convinced us he might be okay with not going outside, as he seemed pretty lazy. I can now say, Jazz does not want to explore a garden. He doesn't want to explore anything beyond his blanket on the couch. He doesn't venture beyond the living room very often, although the doors are open and he'd be welcome to. We have the balcony doors open sometimes, and while Leslie can coax him out there sometimes, I think it's cold on his paws, as he comes back in pretty quickly. Lazy is an understatement for this cat. He just wants to lie on the couch and purr and be petted. Since that's what we want from him, it works out for all.

We went into the city to check out some light exhibitions last weekend. The one I have pictured here is a coral garden with lights inside. The exhibitions were on barges in the river. It was kind of an odd installation, but neat.

There's a ferris wheel near the river in the centre of the city, and we took a ride on that too. The view was pretty good from the top, and they gave you a good few goes-round. It looks neat at night, because it's all lit up with different patters. I took some pictures of it moving at different speeds with different coloured lights.

We also went to the National Gallery of Victoria two weeks ago to check out an exhibition devoted to sneakers. It was really odd to see an entire exhibition devoted to sneakers (Air Jordans through the years got their own display case - there must have been 20 pairs), to see runners held up as art. A lot of them were strange, a lot of them were funky, a lot of them made you remember certain times (like Converse All-Stars or Reebok Hi-tops), and a lot of them just looked like normal sneakers. It was a fun exhibition. I like art with a bit of whimsy.