When I first set up this blog, it was partly with the intention of using it to keep my family and friends up-to-date with my life when I moved interstate. Well, now it's finally time to start doing just that!

I arrived in Darwin last night. The weather is perfect. The serviced apartment that I'm staying at is great, and is centrally located in the CBD. Everything feels both familiar and unfamiliar. Love it!

Tim and I have had a crazy few weeks getting ready for this move. Unfortunately, Tim won't be joining me here in Darwin for another week while he finishes our house renovations in Melbourne. He has also supervised most of the packing and uplift, after Roxy (our cat) and I skedaddled out of town partway through. He's been amazing.

I got into town on Darwin Cup Day, not long after the race finished. Which meant the queues for taxis were much longer than usual! Roxy was on the flight with me, so after collecting my luggage I caught a taxi to the freight area of the airport to collect her. A moment of panic when it appeared that they were closed for the public holiday, but they saw me arrive and opened up to let me collect Roxy in her new airline-safe pet carrier. She handled the flight really well, thank goodness! The nice lady from the cattery came to collect her, and she was whisked away to her accommodation for the next few weeks.

I caught another taxi into town, and commiserated with the taxi driver over Darwin house and rental prices. Then I checked into my hotel. I'm staying in a serviced apartment, with a full kitchen, bathroom and laundry. From my balcony, I can see (and hear) the Mitchell St tourist precinct, but I can also see the harbour, and the lights of the wharf at HMAS Coonawarra. I stocked up on supplies at the nearby supermarket, and soaked up the atmosphere in town. The Darwin Cup revellers hadn't gone home after their day out - they had swarmed into the city, and every pub and restaurant was packed! Back in my hotel room, I ate dinner on the balcony, enjoying the warm breezes and listening to the sounds of revelry below.

3 August - Mitchell St

Tomorrow is the first day in my new job. I'm glad that I was able to come up a day early to acclimatise (and calm down after all the activity!) before starting work. Today was simply a day off - sleeping, reading, wandering, regrouping.

Blog posts may be few and far between for the next month, as internet access will be ridiculously expensive (hotel rates) until we've moved into a place of our own. But I'll try to post something, somewhere every couple of days at least. If I haven't updated my blog, you may find that I've updated on Twitter or Flickr instead.

Speaking of Flickr, I'm attempting to take part in another daily challenge. It's called #1pic1thoughtinAug. Each day (or as close as I can manage) I'll post a photo and a thought/comment/ramble on Flickr. When I have a bit more time, I'll set up a Flickr widget or something here on the blog, but please feel free to check out my #1pic1thoughtinAug Flickr set as well as the contributions from many other folk at the #1pic1thoughtinAug Flickr group pool. Thanks to Ruth for organising it :)