Well I said that I would be at least 500m from U2 but it turns out that it was more like 2 metres (I think but I am really bad at estimating distnce). It was awesome, absolutely unbelieveable, incredible and so, so fun. They do rock. I bought U2 on U2 yesterday so if anyone wants to come around and read it, it will be on our coffee table.

The rest of the weekend was pretty good too. With a big sleep in and pancakes on Saturday morning I was off to a good start. It was particularly good when I I looked at the clock and saw 11.45. My initail reaction was oh no I have to study but then I realised that I didn’t. Yay for finishing uni for the year. In the afternoon Libby, Ryan and I went to Coogee. We went on the bus which made it more fun. I like catching new buses. After a swim and some reading on the beach mum and Keityh came adn we walked around to Tamarama to look at Sculptures by the Sea. We didn’t run into Jenny and Robert but it was still cool. It was my forst time so I was kind of blown away. Unfortunately getting home was not so fun. I won’t go into details but it took about two hours. I was not happy at all but Ran and Libby were. I am going to try to be more like that. We did finally make it to Helen’s drink which were nice. Always good to catch up with the Belrose crew and Happy Birthday Helen.

Sunday, after a bit of a crappy start where Martin and I went out to Silverwater jail to visit our friend we discovered they had moved him. No notice. no phone call to tell us that ou appointment had been cancelled. I can’t believe how inhumane that system is. We came back to Newtown and took a cruise done King Street. The Newtown festival was on so we listened to some music and looked in book shops. We ended up at Broadway so we visited Jem at the Oxfam shop which is so the coolest shop and it has so many Peruvian things in it which are lovely.

In the evening we went to Rough Edges. Another calm (in a Rough Edges kind of way) night and we also had Laksa at S Thada which was yummy. I had forgotton how good they were and so cheap.

Tonight I am going to be within at least 500m of U2. Praise the Lord. They are going to rock.

I really wish that I wasn’t at work. I am so excited and time is going so slowly…..

“ALMOST two-thirds of Australians are prepared to pay more tax and more for essentials if it helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Herald/ACNielsen poll.” Sydney Morning Herald.

Yay, maybe Australians aren’t as bad as I have previously thought.

I went and saw Ngapartji Ngaparji tonight. This is what they call a theatre experience where you go along and learn some Pitjantjatjara (Aboriginal language of Northern Territory) and sing some songs and then listen to a story about one of the actors families acted out. Learning the language was fun. They taught us words about family my mum is my ngunytju and my dad is my mama and Gemma is my kangkuru. Martin is wiru (beautiful). I know that’s not family but I liked the word and I wanted to talk about Martin. They also taught us about how family works and who marries who. There are lots of laws that I don’t fully understand so Iwon’t go into it but it was interestinh. The story like many was very sad. It made me really angry.

I am glad I wnet and saw this today as in class today my lecturer told us that the uni now had a relationship with someone who teaches language in the Northern Territory and they want people to do their practicums there. I was thinking that I would like to do this and tonight made me quite excited about the idea. A bit scared as the whole thing is so complex and I worry that I really have no idea what I can/should do but I think that I should at leat try.

Hopefully I can go again tommorrrow.

Today we bought our tickets for South America. Yay I am so excited and I can’t wait but we aren’t going till June.

We will be flying into Buenas Aires and then going to Iguazu Falls which is on the border of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. From there we travel to Asunsion, the capital of Paraguay to stay with our lovely friend Sandra and from there to Santa Cruz and La Paz in Bolivia. I am excited about that as La Paz is the most surreal city and so beautiful but I was unable to enjoy it that much last time because I nearly got kidnapped so I was scared. This time though I speak the language and I am a bit more of an experienced traveler and of course my wonderful husband will be with me so it should be better. Of course after Bolivia we head to Peru and up to our Piura where will spend two weeks with family and friends.

I have put a map up where you can have a look at out trip.

I had a great weekend, hence the title good weekend.

On Friday night I went and saw Blue King Brown. They were brillant and there support act was almost as brillant. The music was good and the message was good and the vibe was good too. The last song they just played drums but it was the coolest sound ever. I felt like it was going right through me.

On Saturday morning Jo, Jem and I went to Post cafe in Marrickville and drank Chai and ate breakfast. Again it was really brillant, the company was good, the food and drink was good and the vibe was good too. We talked about lots of things, one of them being community and you’ll be very surprised to know that we think community is good. I really like Marrickville and this whole area is beginning to feel so familair and so homely. I almost feel like I belong. Afterwards we went to the Salvo’s shop and I got two new towells, two toothbrushes and some toothpaste and a massive bottle of sorbolene cream for 19.00. How good is that and new towells are great, they are like clean sheets. You just want dry yourself forever.

On Sunday I did some study which was relatively productive. Studying when you achieve nothing sux so bad but when you are productive it is actually really satisfying. It makes me realise why poeple like it.

In the afternoon when the sun was at it’s warmest I went for a swim with Hayley. I have been swimming a lot lately which has been really relaxing me and I am feeling pretty healthy too. In the evening with had a really fun BBQ with lots of local people who spontaneously dropped by, including our wine making neighbours who brought there very yummy wine. She is pregnant. I think preganant women are beautiful but if I hang around them I get really clucky. I don’t know if that is a good thing.

Today I wrote a letter to Peter Costello asking him in his role as chair of the G20 meeting of Finance Ministers to put the reduction of poverty on the agenda. Then I looked up the addresses of my local MP, John Howard and Phillip Ruddock and over the next couple of weeks I am going to write them all letters. After that I think I will get some more MP’s adresses like Amanda Vanstone, Kim Beazley and Alexander Downer so that I can write them letters too……..

I have been meaning to do this for so long but for some reason I never got around to it. I don’t know why maybe I thought that it would be too hard to find their addresses or something but it was really, really easy. Maybe I thought that it was a waste of time but somebody told me recently that they had been speaking to MP’s who said that if people keep writing they can not ignore it forever. It feels good to have finally done it.