Visitors

Two good friends of mine who also happen to be a couple have been visiting me in Townsville this weekend. It has been exceptionally pleasant despite our minds having spent the past three days firmly in the gutter. We're disgraceful.

Sky & Lauren:

Histories or Histories?

I am struggling to find fascination in things that I do day to day, so I have decided to rediscover all of the things I used to love. One of those things is history (as anyone who knows me even remotely can attest to). So, every so often I am now going to give you all a bit of a spiel about some fact or event or discussion or person from history that interests me. Today we will start with my all time favourite profligate, Alkibiades.

There is so much information out there on Alkibiades that I am going to give you a snapshot of this famous womanizer and statesman so you can grasp why he is my favourite. If you are interested, start at the true point of initiation for the modern scholar, Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkibiades

Alkibiades was an Athenian citizen who lived in the 5th century BCE (for those not in the know, being that we’re all politically correct these days we use BCE = Before Current Era & CE = Current Era instead of the traditional BC & AD). He famously changed sides during the Peloponnesian War and supported the Spartans for a while, then the Persians, and then Athens again, and has been credited with single-handedly instigating the fall of the Athenian Empire. Of course, that’s a pretty enormous statement to go making so I’m not going to make it.
I am going to give you a five point snapshot of things I like about Alkibiades:

1. This extremely popular politician went on a drunken bender the night before sailing to attack Sicily as a general and he and his mates smashed the phalluses off Hermes statues throughout Athens (this resulted in him being recalled from Sicily to answer charges of sacrilege – so he deserted his soldiers who mostly perished thanks to Sicily, and skipped off to Sparta)
2. He had to leave his newly adopted city of refuge due to a rather inappropriate (and poorly thought out) affair with the wife of one of the two kings of Sparta
3. He had a lisp
4. He was supposedly one of the most handsome men in the ancient world (upon hearing this in grade 11 ancient history class my friend Krista let out an exclamation of excitement, henceforth our teacher was convinced that she was boy-crazy. This caused me great amusement).
5. Unsubstantiated rumour has it that Alkibiades finally perished at the hand of the older brother of a village girl he’d decided to bed. Not the most gallant of ways to go… but fitting.

I refuse to back any of this up as I am not in a factual mood. To be honest, I’m just remembering this stuff from a university assignment from about eight years ago… I’ll make corrections and retractions in a later post.

Happy histories…
Sarah

Oscar (aka my darling)

The light of my life was born and abandoned underneath the demountable office on one of my company's construction sites in Townsville. One of the girls took pity on these poor creatures and found homes for them. Oscar was the last one left and I love him to pieces despite his minute size, his predilection for illness, his occasional forgetfulness regarding the location of the kitty litter or his terrible habit of biting me...

From a blog that didn't make it...
2nd February 2008:
The newest Townsvillian, I mean Townsvillain, is actually a Brisbane-ite. I have been transferred to Townsville for work, and I figured, why become just another regular local of Townsville, when I can become the ultimate villain?

Honestly, I probably won't do anything evil, however I have been set a number of challenges, which I will detail at various points on this blog.

Challenge #1:
Move to Townsville
Challenge #2:
Climb Castle Hill (on foot)

That's enough challenges for now...

26th February 2008:
So, I've been in Townsville for a few weeks now. Challenge 1 was completed either on the 4th February when I flew to Townsville or the 13th February when I moved into my flat. Take your pick..

Challenge 2 (climbing Castle Hill) was successfully completed on Sunday the 24th February at about 6.30am. Wohoo!

The picture to the left contains the view from my front yard. I like it.

Actually, I really like Townsville - it is a lovely place to live. I've never felt so incredibly welcome so quickly before. On the Wednesday evening that I moved into my new place, my neighbour to the right, Katherine, came over to introduce herself and welcome me to the neighbourhood. I'm not used to meeting my neighbours... on Thursday I met Steve, my neighbour to the left. On Friday I met Holly and her two little boys (Steve's other neighbour). Then I met Steve's wife Ilonka who is Croatian. The block is called 'Olivia' and I attended an 'Olivia' barbeque last weekend... this whole friendly people living next to you thing is a bit strange...

The sunrise at the start of my climb:

The view from the top!