Driving again

It's now been three months since I lost the sight in my left eye and according to Australian law, that means I can legally drive again. Having sat in the back yard for all that time my poor car battery was absolutely flat and so Jarrod had to pop round and kindly jump-start me. A solid run up to the Blue Mountains was just what was needed and hopefully things are fine now.

It's freezing here at the minute. Literally freezing. The city copped a proper frost last night and as Australian homes don't have heating, double glazing or any adaptations for the cold, things are a bit chilly at night. Up in the mountains it's even colder and is dropping well below zero after dark.

Emily and I went for a bit of a bush-bash behind her folks' place and found an aboriginal hand painting on a cave wall. Actually, Emily knew it was there but it's well out of the way of any tracks so I doubt many other people have been there. There was also a partial lunar eclipse in the evening which is always nice. Looking forward to a good night's sleep at last tonight. A couple of days off from the world cup is very welcome. Although I'm not getting up at 4.30am for those games, the midnight kick-offs are doing enough damage!

Partial lunar eclipse

Damp camp

A wet Yengo NP

It's pretty miserable here at the moment with rain and relatively cold weather most days so not much has been happening. As the World Cup starts next weekend and I'll be out of circulation for the month, we all decided to go for a spot of camping last weekend in Yengo NP which is just north of Sydney. This was fairly foolish in hindsight as a cyclone was forecast to make landfall round Sydney on the Saturday night. Luckily it came ashore further south and looking at the pictures on TV it would have been crazy to be out in a tent in it's path! As it was, we copped a bit of drizzle but apart from that, things were fine and Jarrod managed to coax a decent fire out of some pretty wet wood. The birds were laying low in the poor weather but we did have good views of Gang-gang Cockatoos and Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters as well as a couple of Swamp Wallabies.

As good as it gets

As far as my eye is going, I'm now off all medication and it's healed as well as it ever will. I don't have any sight really but it's comfortable and the surgeon has put me on the transplant list so now I'm just waiting for the call which should come in six months or so.