We have booked our flights to London. We’ll be leaving at 10:30am on Thursday 16th June.

79 days and counting.

Yesterday I advised my employers that Olivia and I will be relocating to the UK at the end of May / early June. It felt great to get things out in the open. Looks like it will be a very amicable parting of ways.

Last night I watched an episode from an old series of “The Amazing Race” which was showing on cable. It was an episode which saw the race pass through Australia, Coober Pedy to be precise.

One of the tasks which the contestants had the option of completing was to dig for an opal in one of the local mines. The show normally involves a few token locals for effect. One scruffy looking bloke had the job of looking at the rocks which the contestants had dug up and telling them if they had found an opal or not. He had obviously been told to throw in a few Aussie expressions..
“Bewdy” was the first one I caught. It was funny seeing that whenever one of the Australian people spoke, the show would put subtitles on the screen. When our opal judge said “Bonza”, the subtitles read “Banzai”. It’s good to know that some subtleties of Australian slang haven’t caught on in the US yet. May-te.

Tonight we had dinner at our favorite Greek restaurant, Piraeus Blus, in Brunswick St, Fitzroy. For dessert I had baked figs in cognac served with halva ice-cream.

It was quite easily one of the nicest desserts I have ever eaten. It’s truly worth going there just for dessert and a nice Greek coffee.

We decided to stray from our old standard of starting off with bread and dips, followed by either a meat or fish platter and try a number of different dishes. Who would have thought that a lamb and artichoke fricasee could be so nice. And don’t let me get started on the ginormo prawns with fetta in a delicious rich tomato sauce. Mmmm all good.

The other good thing to come out of the meal was the news that one can get a pork souvlaki pretty much anywhere in Greece. According to the wonderful waitress Dina, it’s a lot easier to get a pork souvlaki than the lamb equivalent. I look forward to putting Dina’s theory to the test at some point over the next year or two.

The day after the wedding we had an informal gathering at Olivia’s parents’ place so that we could unwrap the “loot” from the wedding. Now THAT was a fun job!

When you’re dealing with that many parcels it’s inevitable that some cards are going to get detached. One card caught my eye. Written on the envelope was “Mr and Mrs Polli”. I thought “How lovely, someone has written some sort of congratulatory/thank-you card to my parents.” – It was a good 30 seconds before I realised that the card was addressed to Olivia and I, the new Mr and Mrs Polli. I felt silly, but also kinda good.