What is ... Ta? and Skinny Milk?

I had never thought that living in a different city, ok continent would mean I have to re-learn a language almost! And a language I was familiar with since I could open my mouth to yawn. I accept that shifting places so drastically can lead to some adjustment drama, but you've got to be kidding me when someone tells you 'thongs' are worn on the feet and 'ta' means thankyou!! Seriously?

The number of 'firsts' and 're-learns' that ive had here in just a month are crossing all known records. The way you order coffee is different, long black, flat white, the regular cappucino and latte (thankfully!) and many more.There's a variety of milks like, no fat, full cream, tone, soya and then there was 'skinny' milk. That really got me going! I only knew skinny jeans. =)

Clearly my education in the whole new culture of city lingo is just beginning. OK, the roads are the best, pedestrians are kings here. Pedestrians have their own traffic light system, zebra-crossings MEAN what they stand for - pedestrian convenience! Cars rushing in stop for you, and wait! even if youre tottering at the speed of .005 kmph. What a refreshing change this is. From the years of dodging speeding cars, raving mad bikers, plodding buses and all that's in between, and getting second citizen treatment on the roads solely because I chose my legs over a petrol guzzling car to reach office, I was welcomed open-armed into this relatively free and dignified manner of crosssing the road. I'd call it close to pedestrian nirvana! More so, because you have your own system of pedestrian traffic symbols and lights and not to forget the bikers who cannot step out without their helmets and tiny night-lights. Order, discipline and sytem. These are a few of my favourite things. 
Weather. Whether or not. Weather or not. Its interchangeable, these two sentences. Whether or not it is going to rain, whether or not its going to be hot and subsequently windy are concerns that the weather develops in you here. But, I am not complaining yet, these are a few unpredicatable things left in life that you can truly relish. Other 'firsts' which I can recollect are the vending machine experience and the water fountain. Classic western inventions exemplifying convenience. Negotiating with them as an international student who has never used either, is another story altogether. How exactly do you drink water from a spout without messing your clothes or wetting your hands and other parts of the face is still a mystery for me. I search for the true water spout-drinker sans mess albeit. The vending machine although Ive learnt how to operate.
Well, that is it for now folks. I do have many other interesting updates in my life, that being of a new house and my very first aussie BBQ. But I will save them for another post.
Let me get back to spending a beautiful Saturday afternoon within the environs of the uni (pronounced you-knee in case you wondered) library and cook me up a story for my upcoming group workshop on short fiction.

Love,
J


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Sometimes, its wise to accept ....it has been really late! But better late than never =)

So, well... I am back, after an extremely long sabbatical, which bordered mostly on the 'giving-up' of blogging. Back after two years and two months of my first post. Ive had so much to say and so many experiences to share that I have no idea where and how to begin. Firstly, let's start with the apologies, to all those who laid faith in me and decided to read what I wrote, and got that opportunity only once. To say that I am lazy and the undisputed queen of procrastination and complacency will not be an understatement of my general form of existence. I am actually right now procrastinating about doing my class readings, and found a way into my blog to get that reading out of my way. Im incorrigible to the point-of-no-return! So, as I was saying, I am sorry I never wrote. I hope to write more often now.
In the past two years I have had two life-altering experiences. One was when I moved towns and got a job in the television world and lived in a house on my own and shared the space with two flatmates. It taught me what the 24 years spent before that never could. It gave me more appreciation and understanding of my mother, respect for my father and undying love for my brother. Not that I never felt these emotions earlier, but now I could feel the 'weight' of them along with their gravity and intensity.
The second life-altering experience was when I moved continents. I relocated. After having spent more than two and half decades in a civilization, a culture and a complex country such as India, I moved to Australia. Its been one month since I have been in Melbourne, and it is mindboggling the number of 'firsts' I have had. Many of you be prepared for a laugh, but I have had to re-learn how to order my coffee!! How to use a vending machine is also many of my firsts.
Its a joke if I say anxiety is not a part of the mix. It very much is. My mind is always in a spin because ive uprooted my self, just as I was beginning to flourish and flower and have re-sown my self in new soil. A soil I have no previous knowledge of, a soil whose nutrients and sunlight I still have to learn to get used to. But I am the same plant, just in a new garden now!
So, folks, see you all here, more often. I am hoping to chronicle my new life with every interesting turn of events. And I hope for your warm company along the way.

Cheers!
J

PS: I hope not to disappoint this time! And your comments are the lifeblood of the blog. Need I be more discreet. Leave a mark that you read. Thanks.