**back from the country**

Interesting queens birthday it was. I went with my Partner and stayed at his parents new place up in the country the house was lovely. an interesting layout, and on about an acre of land, full with gardens and plants and things. i spent a lot of time cooking. because i enjoy cooking, and it kept me busy. I'm not good at the small talk thing. Don't get me wrong, Andrews family are nice (his mum is one of the most lovely woman I've ever met) I'm just not the best at social situations exspecially when Andrews run off into a room and is playing some shoot em' up game on the computer. but Andrew mum, step dad and i spent the morning playing monopoly, i kicked ass! (against the 'very vicious' monopoly player who is Andrews stepfather) and the game of life, (i won, got married, had no kids, didn't go to college, and still managed to retire at the millionaires estate and invent a new ice-cream flavour!) that's a nice thing about Andrews family place someone is always up for a board game. i played 5 rounds of hero quests over the Friday and Saturday nights we were there.

Andrew and i 'christened' the newly brought fold out couch *if you know what i mean...*

What i did notice a lot of was the quiet there. the sounds are different. i woke at 5am this morning to a heavy rainstorm, the drops falling and making music on the roof. We don't hear that in our apartment (because our roof is some-one's floor) we hear the wind really loudly here, whistling through the tall city buildings, but its not the same as the pitter patter of rain.
the dark. no city lights.

The view. absolutely amazing. they are quite high up on a hill type thing, and you could see down, and pass fields, into the distance and view a motorway and mountain/hill things. the gully's were full with fog both mornings, which made it look like a sea of cloud.

the sky was open and clear. and the stars. they all had there chance to shine, and twinkle. i miss that so much. you can see some stars in the city, but not like in the country.

and last but not least, what made me just stare at the sky in silence for about 15 minutes, the beautiful, just past full moon. it was hard to believe that it didn't make its own light. it was pure luck that we arrived just after it had become full, so it was huge, and bright hanging in the sky. Yellow glowing, and just awe inspiring. it humbles you, and makes you realise your insignificance in the world compared to things like that. the sky is definitely one of the most beautiful things in nature, ever changing. ever breathtaking...

it is nice to be home though, you can't walk around in your underwear at someone elses place (not that i would want to) you have to fit into their pattern and way of doing things, and (well, maybe this is just me) i just have a weird UN-easy feeling. its just not home. but it was nice to get away.

i checked my bank balance when i came back, not looking too good. the next 10 days is going to be hard for me money Wise. grrr. i should be making a decent amount of $$ (it looks like that on paper) but take off tax, student loan re-payments, food, bills, and there's almost nothing left. really depressing. i want to start saving to go overseas but i can't see that happening (the saving part...)for a least a year.

I am now going to thoroughly deserve a hot deep karma scented bubble bath (another thing, the country air makes me so tired....)

X's and O's
Nessa

p.s. happy birthday queen-ie