The morning after the morning after

I awoke this morning to smell burning. South Australia is battling bush fires (mum, don't worry, they're a long way from me) and the view from my 14th Floor breakfast suite was of the sun competing with the smog for dominance. For the Aussies, please bear with me whilst I bring the Brits up to speed on stuff you know.

It's summer, it's boiling, and last year was relatively quiet on the fire front, so the fire season is expected to be worse than usual this year. Already local newschannels throughout the land are filled with a mixure of stories that leave viewers either contemplating the horrors of fire struck communities, or marvelling in the power of the human spirit. The story that struck me most this week was of an eight year old and six year old girl who got in their parents 4 wheel drive and sped to safety whilst mum and dad successfully managed to save their farm. I loved the comment from the copper who said something like "they were handling the car beautifully and I saw that talking about their age was couterproductive in the circumstances so let them through"

Australian politics have also been grabbing headlines, the leader of the Labor Party, the guy I had a hard time working for, has gone. It was a thouroughly unceremonious demise, he didn't put out a statement on the tsunami disaster, and when his office were questioned, they belated revealed he was too ill to do so. He had a bout of Pancreatisis during the election campaign and it seems he was dealing with a re-occurance. Apparently he was not however too ill to recouperate by the pool in a five star resort. As you can imagine the media had a feeding frenzy, and, coming as it did on the back of a hideous election defeat, his enemies within the party did likewise. After a media statement attempting to buy time around his health last week, his hand was forced by the State Premiers lining up to undo him, and the inevitable resignation took place at midday yesterday. I would love to see Julia Gillard, a dynamic young woman on the left (which is the equivalent of the centre in UK Labour terms, due to the dominance of the Catholic right in the party here) take over, but it looks like Kim Beazley, the guy who led Labor to two defeats under Howard has the election sewn up and the best she'll get is deputy.

I have been so excited by the luxury of my hotel that bar a quick sejourn for a vegatarian supper, I have been entrenched in my room. Revelling in the ability to pick up emails without time constraints, to make the bubbles in my bath threathen to flood the floor by turning on the spa, and yes, sadly, dipping into the fabulous jar of free posh cookies. Sam's present of a massage was joyfully received, and delivered by a lovely single mum with charisma and nurturing oozing from every pore.

I am looking forward, I am not sure to what yet, but doggedly doing so anyway and the pecker is not only up but illumated by the opportunities I am sure await me in Western Australia and beyond.

Thanks for all your lovely emails and text messages, I am aware I am the luckiest girl in the world to feel so spoilt by such a global support network. Not sure when I'll next get online but I love being a blogger so will endeavour to rush back.

Much Love
Julie