please don't take my sunshine away.

once upon a time i was a fastidious blogger. and then it got sunny. and then i was less fastidious.

can you blame me for being in the sun while i can? it is perilously difficult to blog and swim at the same time. i also have to plug the broadband cable into my laptop to access the internet and while the cable is generous in length i somehow don't think that it will stretch to manly beach. and so i have been neglectful of this blog. so sue me.

when i arrived in sydney the weather was only okay. i didn't make a big deal of this for three reasons: firstly, i knew that most people back home wouldn't believe that the weather wasn't that great as everyone assumes that sydney is perpetually sunny; secondly, i knew that whatever i had here would most certainly be warmer than toronto; and finally, i didn't want to ruin the impression that i am having the time of my life as so many people are assured that i am having. and so when it rained i opened my umbrella and shut my mouth.

i arrived in early february to be greeted by the coldest ferbuary sydney has seen since 1957. more than half a century of glorious summers, then i show up in my shorts and flip-flops and all anyone can talk about is how bad the weather has been. this is not to say that the weather was even all that bad- a few rainy days and a higher than normal percentage of gray skies but nothing to start knitting about. and i didn't really mind. i still found my way to the pools and the beaches on the days where the sun shone and even somehow managed to get sunburned on the inside of my left knee. so rest assured there was some sun. and i was fine with it all.

but then. then-

just over two weeks ago the skies shifted. the clouds went- well, somewhere else and the sun cranked it up a few. and i went outside and never looked back.

there are precious few things that feel better than the warmth of sun on your face. i know i say this to a city buried beneath a ceaseless snow, a city whose back aches from shoveling and whose lips are chapped. i say this from a city that is alive under the blazing heat of a tropical sun, whose face is turned skyward and whose smile is widening day by day. i wish you were warm with me. it feels so good.

so please forgive me my negligence. the sun and i have been making up for lost time.