We are all made of stars

Our friends, Rachel and Steve, came for a visit for about a week. It was nice to see some familiar faces from home again. One of the things we did with them was go on the night tour of the Sydney Observatory, which was pretty cool. We got to look through some fancy telescope that was over 130 years old. The tour guide was saying it was pretty much the Mona Lisa of telescopes, but it just seemed like a regular telescope to me that was old and had to be set manually. We also got to look through a modern one, and we got to see Jupiter and moons, Saturn and a moon, Alpha Centauri, and some "baby stars" forming in the Greater Orion Nebula. It was fun and I would definitely go back. I think if we were to go back it would be a different experience every time because you look at different things based on what is in season, so to speak. 

I have had a cough for about a week, a bi-product of working with germy children. One thing that is different in Australia is that codeine is really easy to get over the counter in common painkillers and cough medicines. It's just strange to see something that's a controlled substance where you're from commonly used elsewhere. Nobody thinks anything of it other than it makes one drowsy. I suppose I've seen this kind of thing elsewhere in my travels since I've been to Amsterdam, but it is funny how the laws in the country we live in shape how bad or good we think something might be for us, and thus, our behavior. Sometimes it seems quite arbitrary what is accepted in one place and not in another.

This week was a four day work week. I will have a five day weekend (it's supposed to be four, but I took off an additional day to pickup our cats from quarantine) because of Easter. I will then have a two day work week followed by a three day weekend for ANZAC day. Right now, life ain't bad. At least I'll hopefully have enough time to finally recover from this cough.