The Fairy in the Enchanted Forest

Hello, Darling! Hello, Sweetie!

Yesterday was the time for a walk in the Enchanted Forest, I was looking for the white lyre-bird, and I almost found it! Unfortunately, it's a very fast bird and it ran away so quick, there was no time to take a picture.

 But when you only look up, you can end falling in a hole, as Alice did, isn't it? She was looking for a white rabbit, I was looking for a lyre-bird, and there isn't much difference!

Suddenly I found myself in the middle of the Enchanted Forest, 

with three-times-my-height ferns and 

impossible-to-reach-with-the-sight eucalyptus. 

The old trees were whispering to me: 

s t a y  h e r e... n e v e r  l e a v e...

I was looking for the bird for hours, on my tiptoes and on my knees...

I only found a mini-painter with a maxi-toile, painting the giant ferns.

In a moment, the weather changed, from full summer in coldest winter ever, like the Forest wanted me to freeze and to keep me inside it.

I just started to run and try to find a way out...

I was crossing the old bridge...

... then I fell asleep on a tree...

... only to wake up in another dream.

Monday, Bloody Monday {One Picture, No Words}

Sunday, Lovely Sunday

We woke up a little bit earlier than yesterday, only to fall asleep again.  

Not me. Him.

I woke up, went outside and bought some fresh bread, prepared a brunch, opened the champagne. Mmm. No. The dot must come after the word "brunch". No champagne today. 

Then we hurried up to meet Liliana and Tibby for a walk on Mount Lofty Botanical Garden. Magic, I tell you! 
Only 30 minutes drive from Adelaide, on the hills,  there is this beautiful place, smelling like Heaven from eucalyptus, camellias, hydrangeas and rhododendrons. Winter flowers in full bloom, few lakes and rusty autumn trees, everything was like in a fairy tale. 

And, of course, after all this beauty, tired of the mountains, we ran to the beach. Bogdan chose Port Noarlunga for this evening. The place is astonishing, I left a piece of me on that beach! 

I think I can live here (insert smiley stupid face with big teeth), but I don't know what life has in its pockets for us next week. He's having some meetings and interviews starting tomorrow, I hope we will know soon where we're heading.

But, hey! Good news! If you want to visit ALL THE BEACHES in Australia, one by one, every day, you'll need about 27 years. I guess we will find one for us, no matter where we'll go!

 

Jet Lag

During the (very) long distance trips, we usually force our bodies to resist until the local sleep time, so we are able to function normal from the very next day of our arrival. We did the usual trick when arriving to Adelaide, so we slept at 23:30 and woke up at 7:30 in our first morning here.  

But guess what? 

The next night didn't work. I went to sleep at midnight and fell asleep at 4 a.m. No surprise I woke up at 1 p.m. today. 
I'm talking here about desynchronosis or circadian dysrhythmia,
which results from alterations to the body's circadian rhythms resulting from rapid long-distance trans-meridian travel on high-speed aircrafts.

Maybe is about jet lag, maybe is only about our sleepless minds, trying to cope with everything that is happening with us. 

This is going to fade, I think, or maybe we'll just learn to live with it.

We started to meet people here, to make new friends, to know the places. We felt very welcomed by people who never heard of us, friends of friends, writing nice and beautiful messages and inviting us to have a coffee together and trying to help. 

Actually, we had coffee with a new friend, and dinner with not-so-new friends, to our delight. 

 

 We already knew that the key to be successful here is networking and good relations, but they reinforced that insight.  

On our way to those meetings, we crossed the Linear Park, one of the many from Adelaide, on the Torrens River. Bogdan always carries his camera with him, so he took some pictures around. 

 

 

It's Saturday, and it seemed half of the city was around, in the Zoo, in the Botanical Garden or playing sports in the park. 

The other half is around the beaches, running, having dinner or just beers with families or friends. This is where we ended our day, in beautiful Glenelg, with a long walk on the beach and then downtown.

Glenelg

Glenelg

Friday 13. The First Day from the Rest of Our Lives.

This is the first day of the rest of my life. 

In Australia.

Few years ago we decided to move away from our country. To raise our children away from obvious political corruption, from an education system which changed the education law more than 100 times in 27 years, from an incredible rotten medical system (whose faults, by the way, just erupted in the media these days).

It was not an easy decision to make. It took me years to convince Bogdan that we need to go away. It took us years to decide which country we want to live in. It took us two years to apply and obtain the Australian resident visa. It was a lot of work for him, because we were too old to apply for the visa in an old fashion way. I mean, after 40's, you need to be a skilled migrant in order to obtain the extra points you need to apply.

But we did it.

So, last November, we had it. The resident visa, I mean. All of us. And, ever since, our life is a carousel. And, probably, it will spin for a while as crazy.

Today is our first day from the rest of our lives. In Australia. In Adelaide, to be precise. For now. Today we opened the bank account, we had a cup of coffee in the City, we went to Brighton so Bogdan could shoot the sunset, and now he works on a market study, while I cook and enjoy some Australian rose wine. We'll go back soon to bring the kids, as soon as we will set up all things here.

Friday, 13. 

The First Day from the Rest of Our Lives. 

A day to be remembered.