Happy New Year

2006! I can’t actually believe that 2005 is already over. December always seems so far away then suddenly it’s Christmas and then New Year. I didn’t do anything for New Year, which could be seen as anti-social, but I’ve never been a big fan of New Year and since I’ve been to see the fireworks in previous years, I thought I’d have a quiet evening at home then get up early to see the first sunrise of 2006. Just up the road is Bellevue Park, so named because of the beautiful views of the ocean and the harbour (and where Bellevue Hill, where I’m living, got its name from), so I got up at 5.15am and walked up to the park and sat and watched the sunrise over Bondi. There was no-one else there, although I could hear music in the distance from some New Year’s party. Apparently the fireworks were very spectacular, but hey.

The first day of 2006 was a real hot one – 44 degrees!!! It just seemed to get hotter and hotter as the day went on and it was basically impossible to be out in the sun after about 10am. Anina and Mia came down for a swim and then I went up to Anina’s place for lunch. Anna and her family were away and they’d asked me to look after their plants. Everything was completely wilted by the end of the day, but luckily with some judicious watering and rain over night everything survived. Judith, Kiavash and Ben came round for a swim later in the afternoon and then once it got a little cooler we went out to Watson’s Bay for a stroll and something to eat. At 8.30 it was still very hot, but around 9 a southerly change brought gusty, cool winds, which cooled things down. It’s been very overcast all day today, which is a pity as I would have liked to have gone for a swim at the beach. Back to work tomorrow!

Last week I was teaching a class for someone who was away. Wasn’t feeling particularly inspired, but managed to put together some interesting lessons and on Friday I made some worksheets and took the class to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is very close by at Circular Quay. There are four interesting exhibitions on and since the class was high-level I thought they’d be able to cope with the vocabulary. It was great to get out of the classroom – particularly given we had no air-conditioning on Wednesday and everyone was feeling pretty listless.

Three more weeks at work and then I’m off. I still have a lot to organise – need to get on to it soon or I’ll end up spending the last week rushing around trying to do things, which is not what I want to do.

It’s been an interesting start to 2006 and I’m sure the rest of the year will be just as interesting.