In SA we would call it a bit of a k*k day...

Today the honeymoon feeling was punctured somewhat. I guess I missed family and friends, my parish community and had an 'off' day at work. I suppose that reality would inevitably bite, and day to day routine take over, but I thought it would take longer. I miss my family and friends and perhaps the familiarity of knowing where everything is, while at the same time, I am glad to have been given a chance to start a new adventure. Australia is a country of great physical beauty, much like Cape Town and Knysna - without the litter, crime and beggars. Funny enough, I saw a young student being booked by a traffic officer at the traffic lights here in Sydney for trying to clean people's windscreens. My Australian companion remarked: 'Shame she is only trying to pay for uni", until I took him 5 or 10 years down the line if they allowed that and stopping at traffic lights becomes the running of a gauntlet. Though I am certainly enjoying the many freedoms that physical security gives you here, there are also some freedoms that are missing here and that SA had, although they were also beginning to fade - freedom of expression would be one: it is difficult to have the robust debates that one could have in SA without offending, as all speech is sanitised and you have to be very careful not to offend. Sure it makes for politeness and great courteousness, but it also means that society in general doesn't share on issues of the heart - be they politics, religion or whatever, and so, sharing superficially, except for those most close to you, means that in the main, wider society appears shallow and soulless. Australia is not perfect - it has never claimed to be and I guess I also want those reading here to know that I am not blind to her faults. But on the balance, I still choose it, as the right to life of every human being, necessarily underlies all other rights of our shared humanity. At least even if this country does not respect that right to life with regards to the unborn, unlike SA, it at least does so with regards to those ex utero.