Fa caldo!

Ciao i miei amici! I'm in Siena at my language school. Finalmente! I had two wonderful weeks in the UK and Ireland with friends and family. Big love to all those who let me sleep on their couches or spare beds! Ireland was beautiful to see in the summertime but now I'm in Italy I am remembering what summer really is. Siena is a beautiful city and I arrived here on the day of the Palio, the big traditional horse race in the middle of the city. The Civetta contrada (district) won and their patron animal is the owl, so I hope that's good luck for me. Lessons are tough and I have to study hard so I'll add more photos when I get time. The girl I am staying with is lovely and her mother Patrizia is known as 'everyone's mother', she is hilarious (speaks only Italiano so I think she is) and wants to wash my clothes and feed me all the time. I am missing home a bit but have been too busy to be sad! I've been eating and drinking with other students which is great. Highlight of Siena so far was seeing a girl in a silver satin long jumpsuit with hybrid boot-flipflops. Ahh fashion. Ci vediamo!

Transitory Swank

Yes my dears I have left the country! Flew out from the sunny Gold Coast airport on Tuesday with tears in my eyes and rain in my heart. I've never found it so hard to leave Brisbane before, this time I balled with every goodbye, softy that I am. The good news is I am all set for smiles and hellos from friends abroad I haven't seen in an age. See? I'll be just fine. The flight to KL was taken up mostly with total absorption in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, thanks to Cam for giving it me before I left. I found the retelling quite hilarious but was hoping for a bit more battles-to-the-death before the end. Seated next to an English lad I got to hear about an Australia-NZ wide dodgy strawberry selling syndicate; I'm hoping for an Underbelly-style expose series on it soon. My hotel in KL was heaven sent straight from the sweet Lord. I ordered my first room service, got cosy in my robe and luxuriated with the knowledge that it would be a long time before I could afford a five star hotel room again. I know this view from the window looks like a doll's house but honestly it was a real place!Terima kasih to the lovely bellhops and waiters that served me delicious nasi lemak and starfruit juice at 6am when no one else was awake. The weather was super-tropical and I got treated to an electrical storm the morning of my leaving. The next flight from KL to London was not so dreamy. The extravagant purchase of a tiny bottle of Chardonnay left me with not enough ringgits to buy the inflight entertainment, grrr. Once again books saved my sanity and I got sucked into the classy LA gangsta world of Raymond Chandler's Farewell My Lovely, gifted by my sis. I do hope Moose Malloy finds his long lost Velma before the end of the book or there will be hell to pay. One more flight and I was safe in Dublin at my old friend Aminah's house where you know find me. I'm re-exploring this dirty auld town, visiting old haunts and enjoying the (mostly) good weather. I had forgotten about cottage flowers, hedges, murders of crows, egg mayonnaise and green green grass. Photos to come dear readers.

Best scamps a girl could wish for

These are my superfrendz and I love them. My last weekend in Aus was spent in the magical realm of Springbook at a wood cabin with these fine folk. We took in waterfalls, birds, lavish breakfasts, liquor and the local fudge. Extra props to G for the discovery of a new chai cocktail, what an innovator!