I aint'nt ded

Or something like that. Frankly, I can't be arsed to leave the comfort of the settee to get a book from the shelf to check the quote. Answers in the comment box, please. Oh yes, it's the blog with homework.

So, what have I been up to? Not a lot, to be honest. It's been a less than exciting week. Nothing has happened to raise my blood pressure and nothing in the news has caused me to a) throw the paper to the floor and swear or b)shout at the television and turn over. It's either old age or it truly has been a slow week.

Ooh, that's a bit of a fib. Last week marked the ten year anniversary of the arrival of SSS in Australia. It wasn't my first visit but it's certainly been the longest. I'd started a post about it but it sort of veered off into the Marks and Spencers food hall and I never managed to get it back on track. I might try later. I celebrated the only way an Englishwoman with a decade of Australian life under her belt could - I went to the pub. Much alcohol, telling of very bad jokes and cackling was had. Nutritional needs were met by a couple of bags of crisps, or chips as the Aussies insist on calling them. What I wouldn't give for a good old fashioned bag of chips from the chippy on Lea Bridge Road, but there you go.

There are good things and bad things about being in Oz right now. (again, a more detailed post on this subject will follow at some point). The bad - we are way behind with Doctor Who. My spoiler embargo continues, I've taken steep measures including avoiding the entertainment news on the Beeb site and disabling signatures and avatars on the Doctor Who forum. No, I won't tell you who I am over there. It has been pointed out to me that I am in fact lucky because I still have it all to look forward to when the UK fans won't get any new Who for over a year. I'm just worried I won't make it to the end without some well (or ill) meaning cretin spoiling it for me. Still, I'll try my best.

Another bad thing. It's winter. Not the winters of my childhood in Warwickshire but a Sydney winter with temps between 4 and 10 degrees. I know that seems like nothing to those sweltering in the UK at the moment but trust me, it's cold. Sydney homes aren't designed for the cold weather in the same way that homes in the Uk aren't designed for the summer. Mind you, you could argue that the English summer consists of possibly 1o days of real heat and a couple of months of drizzle and cloud. I am so cold this evening. The heater is on full blast, I'm no more than 10 inches away it and my nose is cold.

A good thing? Well, we get Top Gear. And Doctor Who. And our summer is weeks away. Okay, probably 12 weeks away. Maybe 16. But it's coming.