In eight hours I’m leaving sunny Australia for the neverending gloom of the U.K. As if that weren’t depressing enough, I tripped on a sidewalk running to catch a bus yesterday and wrenched my ankle, which is now the size of a grapefruit. I can barely walk. I’m talkin’ serious pain here. On the plus side, my sister would’ve loved it. (She finds pratfalls to be the height of comedy.) I mean, painful though it was, I can see the inherent physical humor in a person trying to simultaneously run, turn, and remove a bus ticket from a backpack, which leads to said person tripping on a crack, stumbling forward, skinning her knees and hands, and finally belly-flopping on the pavement right in front of her astonished boyfriend, a bus driver, and about 30 bus passengers of various nationalities. And let’s not forget the other catastrophes of this otherwise wonderful holiday: I fell on my ass in Snookums’s garage (resulting in an egg-sized bruise on my bum), I had a land leech attached to my right foot (which left a bump that began to itch like mad a week later), I was caught in the worst floods Australia has seen in fifty years, and I got fried to a crisp after spending a mere 20 minutes in the sun (resulting in peeling shoulders and my having to cover myself in SPF 30 every time I set foot out-of-doors). Like I said, it’s probably best that I leave the country before it kills me. The next time y’all hear from me, I’ll be home in the boring (but safe) U.K.

Um, yeah, so that rain I mentioned? It turned out to be the biggest flood in over fifty years. Snookums’s parents’ house is seriously located right in the middle of the swath of destruction, yet luckily they’re up on a high hill and most of the bridges near us were still passable. We couldn’t get back to Sydney til Tuesday though, when we lucked out and discovered a train that was still running. Now we’re back in civilization at Snookums’s sister’s house (hooray for cable modems!) and planning our tour of the city. Since the flood cut into my time in Sydney, we managed to call my office in London and convince them to let me stay an extra couple of days. I got Qantas to move my ticket, and Voila! I’m here til next Tuesday. Apologies to my patient visitors for the extended sabbatical, but I promise to have lots of interesting stuff to share when I get back. Later…

Greetings everybody! I’m about halfway through my trip and I thought I’d check in and say hello. Singapore was great, very hot with lots of shopping malls and things to do. Snookums and I visited the Zoo and got our picture taken with a chimpanzee! It was so cute. We got into Sydney on Wednesday and unfortunately it’s been raining ever since. We did make it out to see a koala though, and I got my first glimpse of the Pacific. On a scarier note, I had a leech in my shoe today that took a tiny bite out of my foot! I used my new digital camera to take pictures for you all when I get back… 🙂 See you soon!