Work on "The Shed" is progressing slowly but steadily – I've attached a couple of photos for you. One is an artist's impression of how The Finished Shed might look if it was plonked in downtown Manhattan (it's the tall shiny one). As you can see by looking at the other pic, there's still a fair bit of work to be done. Although, truth be told, it's not actually A Shed as such, it's more A Workshop/Factory Type Thing. I quite enjoy working on it – y'know, father-son stuff (men doing men stuff etc) - it's quite varied work, and also quite designy-constructiony, which is my kinda thing. In other designy-constructiony news, I'm also in the process of making myself some very snazzy shelves out of sassafras and blackwood, and hopefully after that a nice dinner table out of celery top pine or perhaps mrytle, if I get around to it.
As for bushwalking, I've done a few lengthy-ish day walks, and I'm planning to do various parts of the Overland Track with a mate visiting from England in a couple of days – normally it's a 5 – 7 day walk that is considered one of the best in Oz, but we're just going to pick out a few of the highlights. And then over Easter I'm thinking of joining some mates and tackling the Port Davey and South Coast track, a 10 – 14 day epic all along the wild south coast of Tassie. It's actually fairly easy though – all you have to do is keep Australia on your left and Antarctica on your right!
Being back home is still a little bit strange at times – I think I was away just long enough, so that when I came back it no longer felt like home – things were familiar, but I still felt as if I was in a foreign place. The Aussie accent took a little getting used to, driving on the left hand side of road felt weird at first (attempting to indicate left, and suddenly seeing the windscreen wipers go crazy instead, can get very annoying very quickly) and quite a few shops have moved 30m across the road or closed down, which is a bit confusing for poor old me. I've annoyed several people by asking them where the bank or bottle-shop has gone, and they look at me like I'm thick, and then point to the big building behind me.
My Germanness is also hard to shake – I still have to stop myself saying 'Danke' and 'Bitte'. Several times I have started to say 'Danke', realised halfway through that I'm in the wrong country for that, and had to adjust, and I've ended up saying 'Dunkyou'. Cue slightly quizzical look from the person I just "thanked". From time to time I walk around to the wrong side of the car, and expect to drive from the passenger's side. I still think that I have to stock up on food on Saturday, because I won't be able to buy any on Sunday. I still get a certain smug satisfaction from arriving somewhere exactly when I said I would, and when I know I will be more than a minute late I still have to fight the urge to feel guilty. I also have to fight the urge to shake people's hands every time I see them or whenever I say goodbye. Every now and then I still go to knock on the table when I leave, and I end up looking very silly when I put my fist out, motion to knock . . . and then remember that it's a German thing that we don't do in Oz, and have to withdraw. There is no way to accomplish this without looking foolish. And one habit from my time in Egypt is quite hard to shake – I still look for the bin when I'm in a foreign toilet! (In Egypt, all toilet paper goes in a bin and not down the toilet).
Egypt was fantastic. I was there for three weeks in Nov/Dec with 15 others, and what with squatting toilets, toilet paper in bins, and a lot of people getting the runs, bowel movements were the talk of the trip. Well, they were for me anyway. You'll be pleased to know that despite predictions from family members that I wouldn't last two days before succumbing, I was actually solid as a rock. It was only some dodgy ice cream on day 15 that finally caused me to wave the white flag (which of course was made of bog roll), however thankfully I was back to dropping bombs again a day later. I think my lower intestinal tract must have been designed with Egyptian food in mind, because I have never, ever crapped better than I did for those three weeks.
Anyhoo, on to other, more pleasant, Egyptian things – I marveled at the feats of engineering that are the pyramids, I saw the sun rise over Mt Sinai, I dove in Dahab, I bargained in Luxor, I dodged insane drivers in Cairo, I saw Tutankhamen's treasures and I swam in the Nile. But far and away the best part of the whole trip was the Western Desert (which is actually the eastern edge of the Sahara), and in particular the White Desert. This place has to be seen to be believed (hence, I have attached a photo for you!). Originally it was all limestone (I think about 200 square km from memory), but over time part of the limestone has been eroded by wind and water, resulting in spectacular rock formations.
Our desert experience was quite simple – we drove for hours and hours and hours, and then camped somewhere overnight. Camping involved getting a sleeping mat, dragging it to a location of your choice amongst the sand and rocks, stretching out your sleeping bag . . . and then shivering for the rest of the night, because it was ball-shrivelingly cold. However, the sunrise was well worth it. The other major highlight from Egypt was the felucca ride down the Nile. A felucca is a simple sailing boat with no engine, no toilet, no cooking facilities, no nuthin! What it does have though, is a big deck covered with a big mattress. What a top idea! Lying on a mattress, drifting down one of the greatest rivers in the world, is an amazing way to spend three days.
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