November 23, 2011

camels and galahs make super vacation-companions

If you couldn't tell from the last post, Vincent and I went to Uluru and Kata Tjuta last weekend. It was surprisingly cold for the desert in November, but I think that ended up being a blessing in disguise. Who wants to hike around a huge rock when it's 40+degrees outside!

And of course, what would an Australian vacation be without a nice sampling of local flora and fauna. We didn't see any dingos, probably because we weren't carrying any babies or pizza with us. But we were beautifully serenaded by a flock of galahs that were chillin' out by our cabin.


Then on the last morning, at 5am, we went and trekked through the bush on a camel to watch the sun rise over Uluru. I can now say I'm not a fan of 5am, but I am a super fan of camels.


For those of you interested, here's more photos. Enjoy!

November 21, 2011

those rocks be huge yo!

Central Australia, otherwise known as the Red Centre, is a unique place. It is vast, quiet, inspiring, and...well, red.

It is home to two great monoliths: Uluru and Kata Tjuta.




These rocks are big. I'm not talking, "Oh, wow, look at that big rock."

It's more like, "Me and Vincent walked around the base of this rock, and it took us 3 hours" kind of big.

Every single person should visit this ancient place at least once in their life. But maybe just not all at the same time. I think it'd take away some of the atmosphere.

November 5, 2011

wow. so that's what that feels like.

Sigh.

My hip hurts. Again. You know when I tore my labrum two years ago and I complained about that hurting. This hurts waaaaay more. And all the time. It's actually shocking and exhausting how much it hurts.

It's been like this for over a month now. I finally went to the doctor. And after a bunch of scans and a really traumatic cortisone injection, my hip is still filled with fluid and extremely painful. It hurts basically all the time when I'm awake. I reckon it hurts when I'm sleeping too, but these days I'm usually too drunk to care. I know that sounds sad, but it works way better than any of the meds I've been offered. Eh.

What's dumb about it all is that I am so SO close to finishing my PhD that I can smell it. (It smells of homemade scones and really pretty flowers). But since I can barely sit for more than five minutes, progress has stalled. ::shakes fist at sky:: Seriously?

Hips are overrated. Boo!