It's a strange feeling to be so far from home when you hear that Osama bin Laden has been killed. I am patriotic but don't buy into war. I am liberal but believe that people can't blame a bank for lending them more than they can afford. I think OBL was a really horrible guy, responsible for reprehensible and unconscionable acts, but I can't say I'm happy to hear he's been killed. And at the same time, watching the news so far away made me sad to be away. To experience this surreal event in a country where his death doesn't bear the same significance as it does to Americans is a lonely feeling. In other news, I lost Saturday and I will never get it back. We crossed the international date line, and like that -- my day was gone before I ever met it. I had HUGE plans for April 30th. April 30th was the day that I was going to discover a cure for cancer and teach Katy Perry how to dance. Guess all that will have to wait until another otherwise perfect day comes along.
We arrived in Melbourne at about 10 a.m. Melbourne is a lovely city. It is wrought with parks and Gehry-looking architecture, and, according to our car driver, is known for its "stabbings at night." True to that, on Sunday night, there was indeed a stabbing. There was also a guy shot by police on Monday, as reported by a woman whose plans to go to yoga were thwarted by the whole mess. (I found it oddly funny that she was on the radio reporting that she was "overjoyed that the bad guy was caught" while she probably had her yoga mat in hand.)
I got to my hotel and went for a 30-minute run. After exercising, I trekked off to acupuncture, referred by my awesome acupuncturist in LA. What fortune too, since Stephanie reset my circadian clock and I felt like a hundred bucks. So good, in fact, that I went for one of the best coffees EVER at this adorable out of the way shop, followed by some fruitless shopping, only to get lost about 1/3 of mile from my hotel with a dead battery on my phone. Sucks it. Eventually, after asking four strangers for directions, I found my way back to the hotel where I spent the rest of the night working, which was awesome.
The thing about the Aussies is that they're wicked nice. (Save for the whole stabbing bit.) My work day was delightful because the people that we were in town to meet with were not only really fun, but also very hospitable. They took us to a restaurant -- A Taste of Salt -- known as the hipster epicenter of Melbourne. It's also really tasty.
I felt sorry to leave the city, but, well, Brisbane calls.