Burning Koala (aka Angela and Eric) has just posted some lovely photos of Sydney University and Victoria Park. This is just a few streets over from our house and it’s one of the prettiest places on this side of Sydney.

Someone on MetaFilter just asked about married bloggers. Well, I guess I’m one. The Snook has kept up his streak of never commenting for five years now, but you all know he’s basically the silent partner here, right? A few highlights for the newcomers:

• Here’s where we made the concrete decision to leave London and move to Sydney together
• Here’s where my Permanent Residency visa (as a defacto spouse) was approved
• Here’s where we decided to get married
• Here’s where we got married live on the Internet in Vegas
• And here’s where I became an Australian citizen last Friday

And don’t forget our photos page, where you can see momentos from all our silly adventures. Being married to your best friend and sharing it with the world is so fun.

This may be the Dumbest Question Ever, but how do you put powder on your feet? I have only recently discovered the joys of Lush T For Toes Powder for making sockless summer shoe wearing bearable. The only problem is that I get it *everywhere*. Do I need to invest in a puff or something?

A few months ago, I remember reading a MetaFilter thread where somebody was asking for recommendations of a good, modern sci-fi-ish book to recommend to his wife, who doesn’t actually like sci-fi. One title that popped up a lot was Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. (Here’s the thread.) I spotted it in the bookstore not long after and picked it up, but I didn’t get around starting it til last week. I didn’t really know anything about it other than it was supposed to be one of those “postmodern” novels where the timeline is a bit of a puzzle and the bits are all intersecting. Needless to say, I was pretty surprised to find myself reading some sort of Hornblower tale of the South Pacific, with a bunch of 19th century Englishmen learning about Maori history. “This is science fiction?” And then suddenly… it changed completely.I don’t want to ruin it for you though, so I’m going to keep the plot discussion minimal. But don’t worry; it’s not a nerdy genre piece with aliens or spaceships. Most of it isn’t what you’d classify as “sci-fi” at all. So don’t let that put you off. But if you think you might read it AT ALL, don’t do any googling on it or read the Wikipedia. The structure is a lot more fun to discover on your own and I’m glad I came to it without any expectations. Suffice it to say that the “gimmick” tested my patience at first, and you may well find the first half of the book a little frustrating. (It’s not confusing though; these isn’t a hoity-toity story where the language is impenetrable.) By the time we got to Korea, I was completely hooked. (Sonmi’s tale was my favorite by far.) And then suddenly it all starts to make sense and you reach the top of the mountain, and you’ve got it worked out and you’re sure you know where the second half is going to go – because you’ve already seen where it’s going to go – but you plunge in all the same and you’re both racing to find out what happens and dreading each link in the chain that brings you nearer to the end… and then suddenly you’re right where you expected to be, but you’re still amazed that he managed to pull it off. So if you’re looking for something a little different, something that is both an entertaining read and a work of stunning inventiveness, I really recommend Cloud Atlas. Now I just have to convince the Snook that getting a comet tattooed on my shoulder is a good idea…

I had my first piece of Vegemite toast today as an Aussie, and I think I can say I actually liked it! I ate the whole thing anyway. (The rumors about its efficacy as a hangover treatment seem to be true as far as I can tell.) I also made my first official trip to the Sydney Fish Market to get the prawns yesterday. I’d managed to avoid it for five years, but I figured it was finally time to take the next step. It was smelly, but I survived. Lastly, I played a demo version of Lego: Star Wars and I think I might be hooked on a video game for the first time in years. It was a good weekend for Firsts!

Idol Impressions: Beware! There was a lot of shouting in my house during this episode tonight, so Here Be Capital Letters…

• I liked that Damien moved out of his comfort zone, but his dancing made me cringe a little bit. There’s a little bit of dorkiness there. I liked him better posing in his leather rock god pants.
• Ricky had the crazy eyes going again. I am starting to see nothing but the crazy eyes. And he makes me really anxious whenever he finishes, because he is SO DETERMINED AND DESPERATE. Just looking at him gives me sympathy ulcers.
• Jessica looked gorgeous. And I still can’t get over her voice. A 17-year-old should not sound like that. She’s just too good. She didn’t go for the obvious crowd pleaser this week, which makes me worry for her. I’ll throw her some votes, I think.
• Bobby Freakin’ Flynn. I can’t wait for this to go up on YouTube tomorrow so all you non-Aussies can see what we’re talking about. He walked out tonight and I practically screamed. “HE HAS A STIPE STRIPE! DUDE, HE HAS A BLUE MAKEUP STIPE STRIPE!” (The Snook didn’t believe me and had to come verify for himself.) “Under Pressure” is one of my favorite songs and I wasn’t sure about the arrangement at first. When Bobby belts, though, I am powerless to resist. I hope he realises how much we all react when he stops murmuring and goes into the shout. It was friggin’ awesome.
• Lisa was very cute, and “The Joker” was a great song for her. She still wanders the stage a bit though. I liked that she wore a skirt instead of her usual skinny jeans, but the whole “romper” look was a bit naff. And for the record, I thought she was barefoot the whole time.
• Dean is such a Corey. Bon Jovi was a brilliant choice and it was nice to see him get away from the 90’s, but for such a pretty guy he’s about as sexual as a Ken doll. I was singing along in my living room and I had more grunt and grit in my voice than he did. I’m ashamed to say I laughed when Kyle called him out for being a virgin.
• Mutto = HAAAAAATE. HAAAAAAAAAAATE. Seriously. That was the wussiest Aerosmith rendition I’ve ever heard. And am I the ONLY person who realised he was CHEWING GUM the whole time? I was seriously YELLING at the television throughout his performance. (The Snook’s trying out his new microphone for playing World of Warcraft, and I can only imagine what his raid teammates were hearing: “JESUS, SANDILANDS, I KNOW HIS HAIR SUCKS BUT WOULD YOU CALL HIM ON THE GODDAMN GUM ALREADY?!” Yeah, Mutto drives me insane.)
• Lavina’s song was lovely. I really like her much better than her scary alien sister. I don’t think she has a chance of winning though; people don’t seem to connect with her very much. I just wish she had stood up to Kyle a bit more about her tattoos.
• Chris Murphy cracks me up. His voice is awesome, but I actually genuinely think he’s really funny. Did you see that pose he pulled when he sang the “brutally handsome” line? You don’t get much wit on Idol; you’ve got to cling to these small scraps. And DUDE, did he get bleeped at the end of the song? That rules! What the hell did he say?

The hosts had a couple great moments tonight too. Baby James Mathison with his big ol’ bug eyes was ADORABLE. I also liked when Kyle started picking on G and James was like, “Don’t be judging us! We’re the hosty parts!” (That said, what was up with Andrew’s hair? It was so flat and un-flowy tonight. He must’ve made the stylist mad.) My predictions for the bottom three are Mutto, Lavina, and Ricky, with probably Ricky to go. Dean deserves to be there instead of Lavina, but I think he’ll get a big bounce from all the teenage girls who panicked when he was in the bottom three last week…

How to use the Cornell Note-Taking Method. This should prove very useful if I find myself here next year. (Link courtesy of Max.)

Excellent. The first knitted “tag” from the Sydney Stitch and Bitch group went up yesterday in Martin Place. And it was Swannies-themed! Too bad they went down by one point in a nailbiter. Better luck next year, Bazza.

Well, it’s official folks. I am (you are, we are) Australian. It’s weird; the importance of what I was doing didn’t really hit me until yesterday. I was at the shop saying goodbye to Verna, the lady who runs our embroidery clinic, when I mentioned that I’d be Australian the next time she saw me. “Really? You’re getting your citizenship?” she asked. I said I was. “Thank you.” she said sincerely. “I really mean that. Thank you. I think it’s wonderful when people decide to join us.” How nice is that? And that’s when I realized that this kind of is a big deal. For the rest of my life, whenever anyone asks my nationality, I will say something different to what I’ve said up to this point. I always feel weird about making big changes like that. (Hence, I kept my last name when I got married.) So there really was a sense of the momentous when we headed into Sydney Town Hall this afternoon.

We were ushered upstairs – it really is a very pretty old building – and into a reception room. Snookums left to sit with the other guests in the back while I signed in and was directed to a seat in the front row. (I quickly worked out that the two halves of prospective citizens were divided based on whether they were taking the “God” oath or not. I was on the “not” side.) A woman in the corner played a steady stream of Australian classics on the piano: “Waltzing Matilda,” “I Still Call Australia Home,” “We Are Australian,” “The Pub With No Beer,” etc. Eventually everyone was settled and our host entered; it was Clover herself! Wearing her Lord Mayor regalia and her signature choker. SWEET. As she spoke to us about this nation of immigrants, I started thinking about my grandmother going through a similar ceremony in the US more than forty years ago. She was a long way from home too, and she was saddled with a foreign tongue, young children, and a husband in the service. I can’t imagine. Soon Clover was finished and our two groups were asked to stand and recite the pledge together. My version read: “From this time forward, I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey.” Personally, I really like it. I think it’s fair. All notions of patriotism and national identity aside, I feel like the Australian people – the friends, co-workers, and family I’ve met over the past five years – deserve this much. I want them to know I do respect their way of life, and it’s my way of life too. Then we were each called to the podium in turn to collect our certificate and have a photo taken with Clover. (They’ll mail them to us soon.) We also got a “showbag” of gifts. We concluded by all singing the national anthem and then snacking on meat pies and lamingtons. (No, really.) This flag-waving was all a little much for a still-recovering Snookums, so we headed home not long after.

Oh! So you’ll want to know what was in my gift bag. Well, unlike other people, I didn’t get a tree. I repeat – NO TREE! I was very disappointed. I was really looking forward to nurturing a native plant. I got a little photo book about Sydney, a commemorative pin, and an ink pen. (My inner Lloyd Dobler: “Australia gave me a pen. I gave her my loyalty, and she gave me a pen.”) Oh well. And can I just say, if the group of new immigrants I was in is in any way indicative of the future gene pool of Australians, we’re all going to be a much shorter nation in the future. Other than me and a few giant Russian guys, everyone else was tiny. I was surrounded by insanely happy, cute, tiny Asian-Australians. I really like living here. BRING ON THE BARBECUE!

Ooh ooh! Damien from Idol has a myspace page with two songs to download! (Link courtesy of his – unbeknownst to him – girlfriend, Crumpet.)