Then there's the whole business of daylight savings. So one day back in March I wake up, futz around the room for a while, procrastinate, and then settle down to do some work. I look at the clock on my computer, and am shocked to see how late it is. I look at my watch and realize that my computer is an hour faster than my watch. Hmmm...

So, apparently I had changed the time of my computer clock, but didn't change the time zone, so my computer dutifully 'sprang forward' an hour when the U.S. changed time. Australia doesn't feel the need to participate in the whole clock-changing ritual on March 21. OK. Cool. 15 hours difference. Then I found that this past weekend was Australia's chosen clock-changing time. But Aussies turned their clocks BACK an hour because it's autumn here. OK then, 14-hour difference.

Apparently daylight savings is a somewhat controversial topic here. Some states do it, some states don't. Those that do it don't always change their clocks on the same day. Western Australia is currently in the middle of a three-year trial of daylight savings time to see if they like it.

Oh! Then there's the whole half-hour time change thing. When I was in the Northern Territory, I was one AND A HALF hours behind Sydney. I had no idea time changes between time zones could be fractions of an hour. An Internet search informed me that "offset time zones" are more common than I thought. The reason for the offset is so that noon would be closer to when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. Good to know.

Enough of me rambling. What have I been up to since I got back from the outback? Well, a lot of work to start with. I'm taking ballroom dancing lessons and sailing lessons, which have been a lot of fun so far. For sailing I get to sail around the harbour for a few hours every Friday. It's fantastic. I'm going to bring a camera this week, so hopefully there will be pictures soon.

This weekend, I went to the Blue Mountains, which are west of Sydney. The Blue Mountains are a World Heritage listed park. (Hmmm, how many world heritage sites am I going to visit while in Australia?) On Saturday, I went to Featherdale Wildlife Park and got to play with kangaroos, wallabies, and koalas. The wildlife part was really cool and had oodles of Australian animals. Afterwards we went on a hike with an aboriginal guide. We did some bark paintings and he showed us how to meditate and connect with the earth like the aboriginals. We spent the night in Katoomba, a small town in the mountains.

Sunday morning we went to Jenolan Caves and went caving. We got all dressed up in blue jumpsuits (we looked like inmates) and got to wear the hardhats with lights on them. We rappelled into the cave and then went crawling through little holes and tunnels going room to room in the cave. Check back in a few days for pictures! After caving we went to the Blue Mountains Scenic World and rode the steepest incline railway in the world down the side of a mountain. We walked around in the woods for a while and then took a cable car back up the mountain and across the valley. We had great views of the Three Sisters and of the surrounding mountains and valleys. It was a fantastic trip. I really liked the rural-ness of the Blue Mountains area. The area reminded me a little bit of central PA ... except with more exotic animals. Where else do you see kookaburras sitting on power lines?

Wombat

Koala

1...2...3...awwww!

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree...

Poor guy has to sleep through people petting him all day

Feeding a kangaroo

The kangaroo wanted to hold hands

Feeding a very chubby wallaby...maybe there was a joey in its pouch?

That has to hurt

These birds are everywhere

Carved into the rock by the aboriginals

Abseiling into the cave.

Squeezing through a hole in the wall of the cave.

Post-caving shot in the stylish jumpsuit.

Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains

Can you see the rainbow? It's more viable when then picture is larger.

Blue Mountains

Three Sisters