Well, it's been a while, but I've finally gotten off my fat can and onto my laptop (which is finally, albeit tenuously, alive again!) to update this sorry excuse for a blog. Rather than dwell on the yuckeries of having to leave my home of 2 1/2 years, I'll give you a happy little rundown of the last few weeks -

After leaving Montreal I spent a big twelve hours in London, where I had a chance to head into town for a pretty sweet afternoon shopping on Oxford, tooling around Soho and lunching on Carnaby Street. Luvverly bunch of coconuts, that. I’m still trying to forget the horrible 30 hours of cramped flights and frantic transfers that ensued, so we’ll cut to a few days later – there I was in Perth, Western Australia, with a glorious shower and 12 hours sleep under my belt, and all was right with the world. I stayed with my friend Cheryl Glasgow, Perth swing pioneer and Herrang junkie, and was made supremely welcome by her and the rest of the Perth scene. I took some classes as a lead, checked out Fremantle and had a brilliant night’s social dancing and catching up with friends at the Mustang Bar. Before I knew it, it was time to head home to Adelaide, and reality.

I've been back home for about 3 week now, and it's been a bit of a bizarre alternate-reality experience. It's like I dropped off to sleep, just for a moment, and even though everything and everyone is exactly the same as before there are now huge and random glaring differences that have grown up out of the ground in the blink of an eye. It's just that sort of town.:D

I’m sharing a tiny three-bedroom house with my brother, his housemate Corissa, two dogs and, would you believe it, a kangaroo named Hoppy. That’s right, we have a kangaroo in our midst – a foul, grumpy animal who eats peanut butter and growls at you in a highly disconcerting fashion whenever it wants something. It was cool at first, but novelty is definitely wearing thin. Anyway, I’ll attach some photos for your viewing (dis?)pleasure.

As far as swing dancing here goes, the scene is still in its infancy but there are some super keen newbies, a bunch o' up-and-comers and a handful of advanced dancers. So it’s not quite Montreal, but it should still be a lot of fun watching the scene grow. In other news, I had my highly un-anticipated DJing debut on Friday night at a new monthly dance here called ‘Little Shop of Swing’. It was a mammoth 3 ½ hour set, and I learned a pretty big lesson from it – even if you think the song sucks a major nut, you still have to play it if it gets them up and dancing. I managed to sneak in some of my Fletcher Henderson and Slim Gaillard, but it was mostly ‘Potato Chips’ and ‘Fly Me To The Moon’. *sigh * Still, it went pretty well, and was a bunch o' fun – I think I’m really going to enjoy working on my leet DJ Madskillz™! :D

Anyway, for the next few months I’ll be doing temp office work (lame but phat ca$h ensues) and getting my resume together for my application to grad school next year (the Australian academic year starts in February). And trying, in the words of a wise man, to "just live every day" - and that means making time for a beer on a Tuesday night. Cheers!

Hey, it's Fred. Just wanted to say hi. :)  


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