Knit is a Four-Letter Word

This isn’t the entry I planned to write and was writing, but then the lights in the house surged and dipped into black, one, two, three times, you’re out. Completely dark except for the light of my now-not-internet-connected laptop.

I called SA Power Networks, and they wanted me to walk outside to check the fuse box, even though I can see from my window that the street lights are out, and it’s moonlit but inky darkness as far as my madly adjusting pupils can make out. Then they had a report of an adjacent outage. Adjacent? Does that mean I am darkness adjacent? Because it feels like darkness immersion to me, and I really do not want to venture out into the pitch-black outside to confirm a theory.

So we settle on adding my report to their list, which means I will get SMS updates and I grab the anemic but better than candle torch/flashlight from the drawer of random. Cleaning my teeth by torchlight is not so much like camping but rather trying to remember where bits of my mouth are by touch and randomly issued pallid beams of not helpful illumination.

I am typing this out on my mobile phone which is plugged hopefully into a currently dormant power strip. According to the ETA of the text that just popped up from SA Power Networks, there is an outage in my suburb (no longer adjacent but rather actual SMS-confirmed darkness, possibly) and they’re anticipating power back on by 3:15. I’m anticipating the darkness brought on by closing my eyes, but am hoping the power comes on and charges my phone so the alarm clock app wakes me up for work in the morning.

2010 was the Year before Everything Changed. 2011 was the Year of Suck. 2012 was the Year of Transition, and 2013 was the Year of Awesome.

(Previous Introductions 2010, no 2011 because oh man, what a year that was, 2012 and 2013)

2014 has been the Year of Settling in, but also the Year of Really, Really Busy.

My name is still Amanda Page, despite being within cooee of being a divorcee, I’m keeping my last name. It’s who I’ve been since 1998, and it fits me well.

Chris, the chap I beamed and glowed about in December 2013, he’s still well and truly part of my picture. Come January 10th, we will have been together for 2 years. He’s a continuing part of my Australian story.

I still have my wee black 1998 Honda Civic. I take her to a sole owner mechanic about 15 minutes down the hill. Dino is his name, and he treats us both with respect.

I now have two jobs – Accounts Receivable for a detective, and mid-December 2013 I started work as a Finance Officer for a Community Organisation. My current career deviation is to finish the financial counselling diploma I started in August, and to start and complete a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment in Semester 1 in 2015. Along with trying to maintain some continuing Accounting studies. Busy brain, but loving the learning. Lifetime learner, that’s me.

A little heavier than I was last year – the study/work/social combo has left me not organising time to move, and that’s on my list of things to change. I have a gym membership, they have exercise bikes and treadmills and all classes are included. Not just about my size, although I really do like it when I can wear the smaller sizes. But my health, I am better when I’m carrying less, when there’s less stress on my joints and my back.

December the 1st is the first day of Summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Today was a little chilly – 25C aka 77F. Ah yes, I am completely assimilated back into the weather of my choice. When I lived in New Jersey (Jan 1998 – June 2012), 77F would have been a short-sleeves and shorts-with-sandals kinda weather. Back in Adelaide for just shy of 2.5 years, and today’s ensemble included a long-sleeved top, jeans, and my favourite scarf. It did warm up a little later in the day, but this was temperature appropriate wear for all but a bit of it.

I still have moments where I think of December as July weather. Because for fourteen Julys, that’s what Summer and hot weather meant, July and August, humidity and ceiling fans, corn and barbecues. December meant scarves and woollens, hot apple cider and snow. I have side-by-side snapshots in my head for every month of the year, because while I am (as a US friend put it) the Aussie Australian from Australia, 14 years in the US has left/gifted me with a strong sense of a second place that meant home.