Distracting things from Australia...

The land down under has provided me with two distracting things that have really kept me from accomplishing too much this weekend. The first is this book, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. It is a fascinating novel that was recommended to me by two different school librarians. It might be classified as Young Adult literature, but was first marketed as an adult novel in Australia. It is narrated by Death, and tells the story of a girl living through Nazi Germany. Very unique and interesting...



The other distraction is the Australian Open, and I'm sure any tennis fans would agree that this weekend has provided some enthralling matches. I was gripped to the game between Federer and Tipsarevic -- a relatively low-ranked Serb who almost ousted the king of tennis in the early rounds of the tournament. I stayed up until well after 3 a.m. Friday night watching that game, which unexpectedly went to five sets, and ended 10-8 in the fifth set (tie-breakers aren't played in fifth sets)! I went to bed after that game, but caught a rerun the next day of another marathon battle that lasted until 4:33 a.m. in Australia between the country's favourite Leyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus. The match looked like it would end fairly quickly when Hewitt was up 5-0 in the fourth set, but Baghdatis rallied back to win the set in a tiebreaker, forcing a fifth set! Incredible...