Canberra's name is thought to mean 'meeting place', derived from the Aboriginal word Kamberra

It's been a busy few weeks. After the Canberra Times Fun Run I had some time off work as I was done working at Ray White but had yet to hear about my job at Australia National University. It was pretty nice being domestic for a week, the house was clean, laundry was done and we were eating some tasty meals. On top of that my website got updated, I finished 5 photos for my cheese calendar and submitted to various competitions.

Last weekend Andrew and I headed down to Tathra, NSW for the wedding of a family friend Kate (Andrew's friends Simon's twin sister/the youngest daughter of Paul and Judy's best friend). We arrived at our cabin in Tathra Friday night in time to grab some fish and chips plus grog to get set to watch the Raiders play what turned out to be their last game of the season. After the tragic end to the Raiders game Andrew and I decided to crash out for the night after our long drive down.

For the weekend we were staying at the Kianinny Resort which was a lovely place. Saturday morning we decided to take a walk through the woods down to the coast, it took us about 20 minutes to get there and was a fairly nice walk although more uphill then we had hoped it would be. Once at the beach we wandered down it for a bit before walking back along the road so we could stop at a shop for ice cream. The wedding wasn't until 3pm so we had plenty of time to relax in our cabin before getting ready to walk down to the lake for the ceremony.

The wedding itself was very quick and to the point, just what Kate and Mitch wanted. After the 15 minute ceremony the bridal party headed off for photographs while rest of us grabbed what snacks and alcohol we had in our cabins and brought them down to a pavilion on site for our own cocktail hour before the reception. We had a great time the whole evening, ate a lot, drank a fair bit and Andrew and I finally managed to make it back to our cabin somewhere between 2 and 3, strangely with 3 bottles of open wine.

We had a bit of a sleep in the next morning before getting up for a quick breakfast before wandering to the cabin next door where Kate and Mitch's family were barbecuing up a breakfast feast. Before we knew it it was time for Andrew and I to hit the road home. We had so much fun that we're already thinking of making a trip down there this summer for a weekend.

Last week Andrew had to head to Sydney and Newcastle for four days which left Coopa and I to fend for ourselves. I had expected to get my official letter of offer from Australia National University (ANU) the Friday we left for the wedding so I could start the following Monday but sadly it did not arrive. We checked on Monday and still no letter so I was a bit surprised when I received a phone call on Tuesday afternoon from Tarik, my boss at ANU, asking me if I could come in the next day to sign my contract and start work.

So last Wednesday I hopped the bus into the city and headed on ANU campus for my first day. I am working in International Student Services where I help the students with the health care, one of the stipulations for overseas student visa's is that the students are covered by health care for the duration of their visa. I'm still learning exactly what I do but I've been told by Tarik that he is streamlining the process so that I won't have to do as much with that and can learn the other aspects of international student services and help with things like orientation.

There is a lot of room to grown in the department and at the university in general. It's a great step in the right direction for me. Besides that it's such a good environment, everyone has been really nice and helpful so far, I even already got invited out for drinks with some of the girls which should be nice. And it's gone from driving to catch a bus, working 8:30-5 with a half hour for lunch to walking to the bus stop at the top of our street with Andrew to work 9-5 and getting kicked out of the office for an hour for lunch. My office is only a few blocks from Andrew's so we're going to try and grab lunch together occasionally, plus it will be nice that during the summer when we want to grab drinks in the city after work I can just walk there to meet up with Andrew and our friends.

So a good first few days, and to top it all off we got this Monday off as a public holiday for Canberra Community Day, sounds pretty lame but a day off is a day off. Andrew's sister Kate returned from her 4 months traveling abroad Friday morning so we headed over there for dinner that night to catch up. Saturday we did a tiny bit of gardening, I got a few plants in the ground, we took Coopa on a long walk and a play at the dog park which he loved before heading into the city for dinner and drinks for Andy's birthday. It was a nice night but made us feel a bit old as we realized we were struggling around 11. Sunday we had a nice bbq with Andrew's family, did a few errands then a nice Sunday roast with Andrew's family.

And that brings us up to today which was nice and relaxing, a bit more gardening and a lot of relaxing, plus a quick trip to the river for Coopa's first swimming experience. We took Austin, Kate's dog, with us to show Coopa how it's done, he mainly splashed along the edge but did manage one actual swim that was pretty impressive. I think it'll be easier to get him in once it's warm enough for us to go in with him.

Well, that's all for now, hopefully some photos from the wedding coming soon otherwise, more next week.