The Pain! The Horror!

My back hurts like so many demons are running through my muscle sinews causing all types of havoc. After months of doing sweet dick all, I now have to build and left and move and haul and cart heavy things around. I spent today trying to fit metal tubes together to make ice box racks, too bad they were all welded together like shit, so they didn't exactly get put together easily. I feel like I can feel my muscles ripping apart in protest. I'm so sorry muscles! Today was so busy, and I just don't know enough stuff yet, so it was very frustrating, I tried to stay building, but every time i would go find someone to ask them a question, like 5 customer would ask ME a question, so i then had like 7 questions to ask, and I got lost and frustrated a TON. SIGH, it does *seem* to be getting easier...

Tim got a job near my job, so I may not have to take many bus trips, THANK GOD. Oh, Tim got a job! We can afford things again! Tuesday is pay day, so I am going to get new shoes that I can wear to work, new pants, and go for all you can eat pizza. I hope to do lots of other things too, like buy groceries, and go to shows and BUY BOOZE (holy shit.) I AM SO EXCITED.

All that said, I'm in hurtville, and I think I may be stinky (noone has balls enough to confirm this, though noone has denied it) so I am going to shower and hope for the best. Have fun kids!

Brain... Food?

Today was my first day at work! I did a lot of training on the boring type learny stuff like health and safety and using the big-heavy-thing lifters, and stuff. But then I learned about BBQ's. My head is so jammed with BBQ information, I'm afraid if I fall and hit my head a whole pile of meat will spill out, as my brains have been replaced by steaks and burgers. I now know the difference between the types of paints (paint, powder coating, and viscous or some other v word enamel) and why the latter option is the best. I know why having enamel coated cast iron insides is better than just plain cast iron. Indeed, I am but one more 4 hour shift away from being the BBQ queen, as tomorrow is my full on BBQ learny day. I also have to learn how to fill propane tanks, which, while scary, should be alright. All in all, this job is AWESOME, and I am very very happy to have it. It even makes nearly 3 hours of public transport worthwhile. And no, I am not being sarcastic.

I also would like to point out there is a cereal commercial on the TV, that says "to see what (cereal brand) does, we'll have to go inside my insides!" she then transports into a weird pink room and says its a redecorated version of her insides. She then walks by two men one of which is gardening, and the other is sweeping and cleaning. Yep, this woman has two attractive men inside of her. One of them is planting seeds. None of the 5 boys I live with noticed this, until I pointed it out. Poor Will though, he didn't watch the ad as he was in the kitchen, and just heard me pointing it out... he was mildly concerned. One of those wrong part of the conversation deals. I hate to say this, but girls are RARELY laugh out loud funny, and I was actually quite content with myself for making everyone actually give a full on laugh. Go me!

Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?

Tonight Tim took me in a drain (squee!) since we haven't been exploring, and I really wanted to do that sort of thing when we came here, because that's all he could talk about! So we went. Its like, right down the road from our house, but it's been raining for the last week (it STOPPED and was WARM today, woohoooo!) so it was wet to the ankles. It was a bit cold, but not as cold as I would expect from Canada during this part of the season. My 'drain shoes' that we picked up at hard rubbish also apparently had some waterproofing issues, and as a result, I was pretty much one with the water from the get go. It was surprisingly therapeutic. There was a lot of graffiti, but Tim pointed out that a lot of the graf writers peter out in the first few meters of the tunnel, and then the explorers kick in. But, since there's been a bit of a culture swap, most people who explore now also do graf and vice versa, so you get some really awesome stuff on the wall right in the middle of the underground. I can't explain what makes drains so awesome, but it's like, when we think of being outside, we think of nature. I like nature, nature rocks. This was outside, but it was almost nothing to do with nature. That was really cool. It's also weird knowing there are like, things going on above you that are completely oblivious to your presence, but you are aware of theirs? I don't know... Anyways, the thing is, I just went in my very first drain, and I feel like a big girl now (even though, my pants did end up soaked).

Rain in Drought Land.

So, this is, as I've probably harried on about before, the driest state, in the driest country on this Earth, according to Tim. I believe him! But it is hard to believe when it rains like it has been raining. Australia does not muck about with its weather. It has rained so hard this week, that the river catchment where they gather water for the city proper (yes, the ENTIRE city, that has well over a million people in it) has become far too full. Full enough for them to open the floodgates and let 'er rip. My friends, being explorers, wanted to see this magical happening, and so we drove out into the hills and the naturey goodness to check it out. The drive out is brilliant, and so beautiful. I will never get sick of Aussie wilderness. The trees rock, the animals rock, the rocks rock, there is nothing shitty about this. The dam pouring out a whole shitload was pretty rad too. I'm saying this, because I have seem so many waterfalls that are apparently "spectacular" and thought "meh, could be better" but this was like "woah... thats a LOT." It was really cool to watch it change colors and patterns and shapes. To prove how NOT often this happens, on an out of town road, there were cars parked for ages. Old people, people with tiny kids, like, everyone and their dog was out to see this shit. Pretty darn cool.

So we drove even further out... and Tim took us to see something that noone else wanted to see just for me. A bit of back story first...

Australians have a collection of "Big" things. They make way massive statues of random shit, like oranges, or ants, or pineapples, or koalas... Then people climb up them and take photos of them for money. This is their passtime, this is what they do. There are dozens of these things scattered all around this country.

Well, just past the dam, was, the BIG ROCKING HORSE. Oh yeah. We didn't climb it, because noone gave a crap enough to pay, and I do not have a camera, so we opted out. But I AM going back, armed with camera and goofiness. I promise! It was awesome! We also saw some little white wallabies... Will and I thought they were giant bunnies, but theres no way a bunny is THAT big, then we figured it out, it was wallabies! Those cute little bastards! Oh man, I love how much wildlife here hops!

One Step Back, 3 Steps Forward

I got a much much much better job. I'll be working at Barbeques Galore, selling "typical Aussie blokes" bbq's. Sounds fun, right? I'm so excited, it should be nice to have people walk in and want what I'm selling, instead of me rocking up and being like here, buy something you don't want or need! I go in tomorrow for paperwork and training and such. The only down side is its like a billion miles away and will likely take an hour via bus, but that's ok, it will give me time with my iPod, and my notebook.

I was reading a small Vice magazine, Sumer Guide, and they had a thingy on how to make Halloween themed SNOWGLOBES. Stay tuned for some art and glitter-as-fake-blood themed creativity sessions!

Things otherwise have been going well, if you average it out over the last week. It started off sunny and hot hot hot and now it is raining (so hard of rain, you simply cannot imagine this rain, it actually hurts the skin if it hits you in the face.) The rain won't last long though, I hope. Tim and I had a big fight, but then we had a big patching up. Normally, this is yes, good news, but this time it feels much more resolved. Hopefully this is good. Moving across the world is so stressful, even when it doesn't FEEL like it is, it is. I realize that, even though its easy to make it about me and how hard it is for me, since I am the one out of my home and my familiarity and my friends... its hard on everyone who has to suddenly make room for this new chick they don't REALLY know that well. I mean, I did kind of invade a bachelor pad.

I'm really excited about having a job I am really truly excited about, and I think I will be getting up to much more mischief because of it. This should make my writing much more dynamic, so cross your fingers!

Nightmare of You

I had two nightmares this morning, and I have felt like shit all day because of them. Tim woke up at 10am, because he was going to go into the city. I then went back to sleep, and dreamed that he was going to go to a party and did not want me to go (we've been arguing over his excluding me from time to time lately, so it made me feel very badly that this is what started the nightmare off, and also made it that much more realistic and scary) so we fought, and I stole the car and drove off in it, so he couldnt drive, and I parked and hopped in the backseat to cry. Someone climbed in to the front seat, and started driving away, and i was freaking out because he was holding a knife at me. Eventually, he started cutting my legs and writing on them with the knife, and I was bleeding and screaming and trying to get away but there are no back doors so i was trapped, and eventually I bled to death. Then I woke up, and felt so fucking horrible, but I didn't think Tim was home, so I curled up in a ball and felt awful until I passed out again... Then the dreams started. I got mad at Tim for something entirely different, and I don't remember what it was. But I decided I was going to go for a walk afterward, to cool down because it was a very bad fight, with screaming. I was walking through the park where we always walk, and this person jumped out of the bushes and basically attacked me until I couldnt fight any more, and used a bike chain to attach me to a park bench, and then lit me on fire. I stayed asleep through the screaming and being burned alive, THEN as i was gasping my last breaths again I woke up. I again felt terrible, but knew Tim was not home, so I lay in bed shaking and upset being too afraid to get up until a while later, Tim came in and said he had been home the whole time. I was so scared, but he had errands to run and he was doing them out of the city, so he invited me along, and didn't try to comfort me at all, because we were in a hurry. Now he's gone out with his mum, and I feel awful, because we started to talk about it but then she came, and now I feel alone and frightened again. It was so scary that we HAVE been fighting about the same things in awake land, and then being upset with him cause me to be violently killed twice in one morning in dream land. I'm scared to be upset, I'm scared to even think of any bad thoughts even to make them go away. I'm just, in this horrible place mentally, and I just don't know how to get out!

I hate it when you dream something, and when you wake up, you can see fragments of where you were in the dream when you wake up, an you are not sure where you are exactly, and whether or not you are still alive...

Holla!

So, Tim and I got to the museum! It was awesome, I really enjoyed it. They ad a bunch of taxidermied animals, which, while creepy, was pretty cool. They had a huge whale skeleton too!! Lots of Pacific cultures (like Fiji and Solomon Islands etc) and aboriginal things. They had an exhibit on giant squids (squee!!!) and gems and meteorites stuff, as well as a small egyptian exhibit. Pretty fabulous. Even though part way through they had a fire drill, and we had to go outside for a while, which was weird! Overall, it was pretty awesome, and I'm glad we finally went.

Last night was our friends' Chad and Billie's engagement party... it was a REALLY good time, and a pretty epic party. 2$ beers, but when people started filtering out, there was a lot left on the tab, so Chad made it free for us, and we all got a bit too silly for our own goods. Chad was talking to a couple other friends of his, who aren't in our little circle, and they wanted to know where I was from in Canada, so I came over to talk a bit. Steve wandered over, and Chad was there, and we started talking about Henry Rollins, since Steve has been listening to Henry Rollins' stories in mp3 form... well the guys we didn't know didn't know who that was, so Steve said, "Nah don't worry about it mate" and the guy started bugging him about what he was wearing, and calling him a loser and shit... so Steve started crapping about his clothes... and then the dude pushed Steve, and punched him in the face (!!) so then in about .5 of a second it turned into these two faux tough guys, and our motley assortment of our 5 boy roomies, plus Laurie, plus Chad. Yep, thats right, they started a fight 7 on 2. Stupid fuckers. So the staff came out to watch and I was chatting with them, and I felt like it was my fault, because I was hammered, and I brought up Henry Rollins, and thats what started it, so I went and apologized to Billie and it was all ridiculous. We all got on our bikes separately, and rode home. It was crazy. We were all pretty retarded, and Tim and I don't exactly remember our ride home other than the fact that 1) I talked the WHOLE time, because I felt better when I wasn't paying attention to the ride, because I am terrified of riding on the street. In hindsight, this means I was probably riding like a fucking asshole, and very likely could have died. 2) I had to stop to pee behind a big gum tree in the park. I do not know how close or visible I was from the highways, as it was right near a major intersection.

Needless to say, we all had not-very-productive days. I, however, had a job interview at 3pm today at Bar-be-ques Galore. I think I turned on the charm enough that my hangover peaced out while I was there, so there is still hope!

In other news, both 30 Seconds to Mars, AND Greeley Estates, among others, are putting out new albums.... SOON. What fabulous news for me!

...Fail!

Tim and I, on Sunday, said to ourselves, ok, I know we've been talking shit about going to the museum for weeks, but tomorrow is a public holiday, so let's go tomorrow. It will be a nice sunny day and we can go on the bike ride through Torrens park to get there. Well, we didn't go. So we said, let's go tomorrow. We didnt go. We have made solid plans to go, every day, and it is now Wednesday, and we have not gone! Tim has been really unable to sleep, so I feel bad waking him up, and I'll be honest, I really loves my sleep and will get what I can, so we just sleep in later than makes it plausible to even ride in to town to go. SIGH, can't win them all, I guess. Maybe we'll go tomorrow... and tomorrow and tomorrow...

Most of our roomies have been on vacations out of town for most of this week or last, and the house has been pretty darn empty aside from Tim and I... well the last of them get home tomorrow, so the energy level (and noise level) should go up accordingly. I never thought I would say this, in a house with 5 boys and me, but I'll be kinda glad.

In other news... I read the Communist Manifesto, and I was incredibly disappointed by it. How was anything from that in direct influence of a political system used in two 'superpower' countries? I think this may be a classic case of people reading too much into something. Good on them, for their creativity; but bad on the writers, cause I'm going to be honest, I thought it was badly put together. Tim doesn't really agree, but, maybe North America has a different opinion on Communism since the US hates it... and Australia hears more news from China than the USA on their own news... Who knows.

Polar Opposites

So, many friends on Facebook today have been mentioning a downturn in the weather, even snow in some cases! I am REMARKABLY glad that I am avoiding winter. I would also like to mention, that while in some areas of Canada it is snowing, today it is 20 degrees, it is sunny as, I am wearing shorts, and hanging my laundry to dry on the clothes line.

That said, whatever the sky is doing where you are, I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am enjoying my bit of sky.

Love youse!

Misunderstanding

Well, since my last update, I've been working. I've also been not working. I've also had quite an inner battle, and some outer battles. This has, definitely, been a very hard week for me. I'll be completely honest, the job I got was an awful thing, and I have since quit. I feel so let down, by myself and by the job. I was so excited, that I failed to see that it was the exact opposite of what I came here for. The thing is, we all thought door-to-door sales would be good for me, I would get to see the town, I would get to meet people, and I would get outside in the summer. Unfortunately, I was not prepared for the reality of being driven to an unfamiliar location, dropped off to fend entirely for myself for 7 hours with no contact with anyone but strangers who;s lives I am intruding on and who, despite my talking to them, I am not MEETING. None of them wanted me there, and I hate absolutely HATE being alone and trapped. All that, and I was coming home miserable, frustrated, and sore from hours of walking after months of doing nothing. For commission only, no base pay. This means, that the 36 hours that I worked yielded me 15$, and frankly, it was sheer luck, and none of my own skill. Now, I don't feel that sales is not for me, and I also have no problem knocking on people's doors. The job, in essence, is a job I could do. But fuck, this is not what I came here to do, and it was a waste of time. On a great enough time line, sure I'd be making more than a normal job,as I'm sure I'd get better at it... but I'm on a timeline here, and I just can't afford to be spending more money on bus fare to and from work than I am making from it! So after a week of being so internally conflicted about how miserable I felt about this that it made me physically sick, I quit. I'm looking for other jobs that, while I may not like, they won't make me scared and miserable, and I won't be alone.

This has been pretty much the shittiest!

That said, today Tim and I went to the art gallery. I really liked it, they had some REALLY cool stuff in there. Tim had seen alot of it many many times, so I felt a bit rushed when he was a room and a half ahead of me, and not so sure that he would wait, and not wanting to get lost, but that just gives me an excuse to go all over again. They had these mod paintings, that I can't even describe... like they were just simple big blotches of bright colors, but there was so much to look at in so little variation, it was weirdly eye catching.

As I've been so shitty all week, I haven't felt very good about things that quite probably I have no reason to feel not very good about. Though there are a few people I've talked to on Facebook and email who probably don't know just how happy they have made me with such simple things. I really appreciate the frankness, and the familiarity. I miss being able to see someone who I have known for so many years that I don't feel I have to catch up, we just start from exactly where we left off. I guess this is what home sick feels like. :) Love you guys <3

A Change OF Pace

Well, we did go play cricket in the building I discussed in my last post (a TV studio)... and it just so happens that I am SHIT at cricket. I mean, I have the fear of balls (a long developed fear resulting from years of baseball, volleyball, and general ball sport mishaps) and a weak girly throw, so my initial odds were not staggeringly good anyways. I hit it twice, but the ball was thrown at me (lightly, as the boys took pity on me) far more times than 2. In the end, we decided that if they wanted to do it again (it was only 5 of us, noone else could make it) that I should either film it (Laurence was going to, but he wanted to play too badly) or be the referee, since I know the rules like no other now. I did climb a 2 storey ladder to the production walkways though, which was basically, one ladder followed by a plank, followed by another ladder. It did not feel overly stable, but I was very proud of myself for conquering it.

I have two jobs now, I think. I went through and interview for one, and made the other guy look bad (he was quieter, and I, being myself, was boisterous and loud) and got the job. I went in for training, and made the person I was training ith look bad because he was late both showing up and coming back from lunch, and I was early. My bosses even invited me to go to lunch with them, and after work we had beers. It was lovely. I go out on the field (I will be going door to door offering people the chance to switch to a new power company which has lower rates) on Monday. It is commission, and I am a little nervous about it, but I think I will do ok. The other job came as a surprise. I have been applying for primarily receptionist/admin jobs with the odd retail job, but the job that came to me is for an online auction company, where i will be doing 'admin' but it is basically helping people do money transfers internationally and such, and getting commission for it, plus a SWEET base salary. PLUS I can do this from home, PLUS it's only 3 hours a day, and I'm still making what would be sweet pay on a full time job.

It's kindof shocking to think that I went, in one day, from having no job and being upset about it and in tears and home sick and feeling like a failure to having 2 jobs, and what seems to promise, a stack of cash.

Wish me luck!

Today Tim and I woke up later than we had hoped, so we axed our plans to go to the art gallery, as it was likely to close around the time we would get there after showering and riding our bikes all the way into the city. It's not that far, but I am still very very nervous around traffic, so I go slow, and poor Tim has to wait and go slow with me, even though his bike is a fixie, and it is hard. A fixie, is if you don't know, a fixed gears bike, where when the bike's tire turns, the pedals turn. There are no brakes. To stop, you simply pedal backwards. Instead we opted to head to the botanical gardens and wander in there until sundown. We rode our bikes in, though I had to leave Lace at home and try a different girls bike just to see how it went, and that bike was shit. We wandered the gardens, and it was awesome! There are the typical paved paths, but there are also little sawdust and dirt paths through the bushes, so you feel like you're really IN the bushes. There were so many pretty flowers I haven't seen before, and lots of the Australian common flowers I always gawk at when I'm walking past people's lawns and gardens. There were also several trees that, I'm convinced, if there is a God, he made them SPECIFICALLY for humans to climb, they are THAT perfect. I am starting to get a cold though, so i felt achey and brain-foggy, so we went home without climbing. We didn't see much of the garden, only a small part, and we were there for just over an hour! I can tell there is much adventure to be had there. Hopefully with my new jobs I will be able to afford a camera soon, and fix Tim's laptop so not only will I be able to post our photos from our trip to the States and the first few weeks of Australia before we smashed the camera at the wedding, but I will also be able to take and post NEW photos. Oh also, I decided to wear the shoes we found in hard rubbish to be my exploring and drain shoes, just to see if they were any good, and they were comfy!!! Yess, old school adidas hi top kicks.

That said, we're going to an old-school homemade ice cream shop in North Adelaide tonight, so I'm gonna go get ready. ICE CREAM!

Art in Still Motion.

Our roomie Kev has a sister, Steph, that Kev, Tim and I go to visit every week or two. Steph is really rad, and it's neat being able to hang out with a girl sometimes. Well, anyways, Steph is a wicked good artist, and she had 2 paintings in an art show, in the upstairs area of a local bar. While some of the art there was really freaky... some of it not so good, three of the artists were really cool. Steph's paintings were amazing, I love her style, as were two different boys named Jake One and Jake Two. Jake one had this really cool cartoon style, and he had some pictures he drew on random items, then he also had two older scenery paintings that he has cut out his own characters and glued on, they were soo neat! The other Jake is a comic book style artist, and his characters were all really unique and well done. Lots of details even where they didnt need to be, they were excellent.

I've been so gung ho on the cricket the last few weeks, that I have gotten the roomies more into it that they were as well. There's a big abandoned building they love, and are quite sure it would be perfect for an indoor cricket game. I am very excited about this!!!

Tonight for dinner, I made sushi, and it was delicious, and I was very proud of myself. Go team!

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I like...

Today Lace and I went on adventure with Tim and his bike.

We took our bikes to St Peters park, on the Torrens River. (Map below shows the end of the River St cul-de-sac, just below it is a small green blob, which follows the river to a BIG green space, which is all around the City proper (or CBD, Central Business District) We didn't make it all around, but we went through the Uni area. It was so awesome. The zoo is across the river from part of our ride, and since they are building (for the pandas!!!), the close side was blocked off. I still got a pretty neat look see. There were tons of black swans (I know, cool) and lots of parroty local birds, including some that look sortof like monsters from Silent Hill. They also have Quails, which are different from quails back home, since ours have flopped over round bobbles on their heads, and these ones have straight up, nazi helmet style feather spikes. Pretty awesome. Did I mention that they have BLACK swans?! Part of the river has this HUGE fountain, and it has fake origami boats, It was absolutely the cutest thing. There were a lot of people lazing around on the grass and enjoying their day, it was really cool that its right beside the huge bustley city, but everything in this park is just calm and slow.

That said, one of the panda's names is Wang Wang.

Have a great day!

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Random made up words.

Urbex.

This is what Tim and his friends do in their spare time. They go into buildings and drains and train tunnels and all this shit. This is something that is not only completely foreign and unheard of for me, but it is also nerve wracking in ways it should never be. I'm going to clarify now that I have no fear of heights. None. The only thing I am afraid of is climbing down on awkward ladders. Getting up is fine, looking down is fine, but I fear losing my grip. This has nothing to do with what we did though, as it was all stairs. Last night we went on top of some old building, and it had a metal roof. I did not realize this, but Tim said "you should check out the other side." Well to GET to the other side, I had to get off the wooden (stable) walkway and cross the actual corrugated metal (unstable) roof. I made it about 5 steps before my brain logged that "hey... this roof bends when you walk on it... hey what's that creaking noise?" At that point I lost every desire I had to go forward, and I was too terrified to go back. I stood there shaking by myself, because Tim was busy helping his friend take photos for his Uni class, which is actually why we went in the first place. It was awful. Then he came over, and not knowing HOW scared I was, made fun of me. Then called me out in front of everyone there to walk across it, and then walked over himself. I was terrified. But I lived. He didn't KNOW that I was crying the whole way, because it was dark and I didn't want anyone to know. Being the only girl, and being the only noob, is very very embarassing. I have always felt when I'm in a group that I have to keep up, it's just who I am, so it was very awkward and socially horrible for me. So then, I stood there, too afraid to look over the edge at the view, despite not being afraid of heights, because the already scary metal roof didn't go all the way to the edge, and there was a good 5-6 inch gap. So in all reality, I missed the whole purpose of being there in the first place, because I didn't feel I could ask if it was safe. Then Tim walked away. And I was stuck very very far away from anything considerably stable. Eventually I found which corrugation a metal beam was under, and powered all the fucking way across the roof. I then sat on some concrete and cried and shook some more.

I don't blame Tim for it, this isn't that kind of story, he had no idea how awful it was for me, and I didn't feel I could LET him know.

The moral of the story is that one should probably never ever try this urbex thing unless they feel comfortable embarassing themselves in groups, or have only one other person whom they can cling to if need be. At least until you know the ropes. Which I despirately do not.

It was not all bad though, next we went to another building they have in their repertoire, which was conveniently all indoors, and all perfectly stable (aside from creaky, but admittedly stable wooden floors.) Tim showed me around while more photos got taken, and not much of his help was needed. I actually really enjoyed it. It was this old professional building, and it had once housed several podiatrists (and endodiatrists, whatever the fuck that is) so there were all these creepy foot molds left behind. It was pretty cool. But it was also really creepy, because part of my brain was shouting "Stop! This is where horror films happen! Get out of these abandoned doctors offices!" Inevitably though, we had no run ins with zombie doctors, mangled patients, or creepy bioengineered mutants. Thank goodness.

We then went to the grocery store in town thats open all night. While we were drinking our milks outside (more on this later) there was this creepy old lady that I saw when Tim took me to the beach lurking about and she was MESSED up on drugs. It was very reminiscent of Grandma Death from Donnie Darko. She didnt cross the street many times, but she did go in approximately this order: 5 feet forward. Stop for 5 minutes and stare blankly. 5 feet back. Stop for 5 minutes and stare blankly. 6 feet forward. Stop for 5 minutes and stare blankly. 5 feet back. Stop for 5 minutes and stare.... repeat. She, she was making progress, but it was very creepy slow progress. She was much less drugged at the beach, and mostly just sat in doorways and on benches. So it was very weird. Then once we left to head back home, a few blocks later there was an old DUDE doing the same thing on another street! They had the same hair cut, and obviously the same dealer. It was weird. Fucking loonies.

I guess I didn't blog about my beach trip, so here goes. Tim and I went to the posh urban cosmopolitan beach the other day. Despite it being what neither of us like about beaches, I really wanted to go, and I figured now, the very beginning of spring, would be the best and least busy time. So we wandered. I collected some big shells that I have some great ideas on how to turn into jewelry once I can afford paint and other craft supplies. We also checked out this really wicked record store, which I may have to go back to. We walked to the end of the jetty, and looked out at the vast oceany horizon. I have never lived this close to the ocean, and it was amazing. I am absolutely excited about living here. The sand is so white and nice. It has this ridiculously amazing texture that I cannot even begin to describe. It is actually difficult to walk in because its so nice. I'm not going to lie, this shit tops Waikiki sand. Oh, and we saw a crazy lady. Hahaha.

Oooh, Eli and Tim and I also went riding looking for Hard Rubbish... Basically people are encouraged to throw out furniture etc they do not want and the city comes to pick it up a few days later, but people go and take stuff from the piles if they need it, its like a big community yard sale, only no money is involved. We went to the store after our ride, and Eli bought us ice cream treats. They were like Revellos, however, they had a layer of cookie crubs, then the chocolate outer of a revel, then a layer of frozen cookie, then the ice cream inside. And... it was called.... Golden Gaytime. The box had 4 in it, and the catch phrase was "4 delicious chances to have a gaytime!" I almost died of laughing. It was very delicious.

All of these adventures were brought to you by, my new bike. Which was a hard rubbish score the guys made. We have about 15 bikes in various state of disarray, but this bike is a full on girls bike, and therefore isnt WAY too big for me. They made it work, and now I keep to ride around on an old school chick bike. It's fucking SWEET. It's name is Lace. I did not name it this, but I accepted it full on.

Cricket!

So, the other night Tim, Will, and I were sitting around the tv... and CRICKET came on.... I was so scared. Cricket, I'm not going to lie, seems boring as fuck. Who on Earth would want to watch this shit. 5 day for ONE GAME? Well, it turns out, they also have one day games, which actually means 6 hour games, not 24 hours games. I figured I would make the best of it. So Tim and Will explained cricket to me, one over at a time. I now have a very large understanding of cricket. This is my third one day game. I am enjoying them more than anyone in the house (they say the games that have been on have been played poorly and aren't very exciting, which only means that cricket, which I am enjoying, can only get BETTER from here.)

Oh cricket, where have you been all my life.

On that note, earlier today I got a tattoo. Now, some of you know, some of you dont, but Tim and his friends are into home-done tattoos, and when we were in Canada I put a leaf on Tim's shoulder. Well he did this one, its the symbol from Hedwig and the Angry Inch and its in the middle of the right hand side of my back, just below the ribs. You know, right in that fleshy bit. It pretty much hurt like the dickens in a few places, but otherwise was tolerable. It took quite a while, definitely over an hour, and Tim said it was challenging because it is in a circle, and also my skin is apparently quite stretchy and doesn't like ink very much. I also start to bleed pretty nasty after I had a cookie break. Stupid cookies.

I have been experimenting with cookies, as NOTHING is the same here. We, in Canada, REALLY put a lot of sugar into everything, not to much here. I ate an Australian oreo, and I will tell you this, it was definitely not something I would eat a whole package of. In some ways I suppose that's good but.... ew. So, I decided to branch out. So far, so good. If you ever come to Australia, pretty much anything from Arnott's is go. Tim Tams are the best things that have ever happened to me. I also had Butter Nut Snaps, when I saw the package I was like squash cookies, wtf? But it turns out they were like Dad's brand cookies, but they were about 500% better. Yeeessssssss.

I had my first job interview the other day, they will let me know by the 21st how it went. I think I did well, but I don't have my hopes up excessively, because I'd rather not have them dashed by not getting my absolute dream job. I also don't want to jinx it by giving many details :D

More on that by the 21st!

Out and About

Well, a lot has happened but none of it seemed substantial enough for its own post so I saved up all that flavor for one big one. Sorry for those a.d.d types who got bored (I know I myself am one of you!)

Well, I did a bad thing.

I ate kangaroo meat.

They're cute, fluffy, hoppy, and..... REALLY tasty. Many of you who know my eating habits know that i avoid big chunks of red meat, and am generally disinclined to eat steaks or pork chops or whatever have you. I just don't like chewing and chewing and chewing, and I REALLY dont like the stringy muscley bloodiness. Its just not my thing. I like bits of meat, but not big hunks. So anyways, Eli was having a kebab of kangaroo meat, so I ate a big old slab of it. It was so delicious. It was soft and juicy and sweeter than cow meat. It was everything I love about red meat (which is a lot despite the above) and nothing I hate about it. Then a few days later, we went to Tim's mum's for her tasty curry dinner (the week before we had chicken and green chili, and this time it was to be red curry and kangaroo) and it was delicious ALL over again. I still have leftovers, and am looking forward to it again, as it was also my lunch today.

I went into my temp agency today, and did all my australian work safety crap and typing tests and questionnaire filling et al. She doesnt have anything at the moment, but she is a friend of Tim's family, and she is looking for me. She gave me tips on my resume, and what goes as par for Australia, since they dress differently and write applications a bit differently. I think I might now have a chance. She said to look into other agencies, and since agencies only offer temp work, maybe i should continue looking for another job as well, to give me some permanence, which was nice to know. I felt very successful. I had been dropped off (Tim drove me so I wouldnt get lost and be late, but he is sick so I let him go home lol) so I was downtown by myself for the first time. I explored. Today being the last day of the month, and banks generally operate by charging you for shit on the first of the month, I decided that, since I was downtown by myself already, I would go to the bank and deposit some money out of my canadian account into it, so I dont get charged for going under my limit when the service charges come out tomorrow. I asked the lady at the desk of the agency I'm with for Temp jobs, and she gave me directions, however I got turned around in the elevator, and got really quite lost. I finally gave up, and went to the bus stop to go home, and the bank was right across the street from my bus stop! SIGH. So I go up to the atm which is outside the main branch on the street, and start to use my card. Of course, it is a Visa debit, so for some reason each feature has its own pin number. It only tells me this AFTER I attempt (and fail) to deposit. Each time I do this, it gives me a new envelope. I tried my 3 pins (of course it was the last one) but then I couldnt figure out which 'account' to use! Cheque (as we usually use in Canada, Saving, Credit, Visa, or Mastercard (I was unsure, as my Canadian credit card is Mastercard, and I got confused.) Again it gave me a new envelope every time. Turns out it was a savings account, which was the last one I tried. I had about a metric ton of envelopes in my hand. Two Indian guys were watching me, and trying not to laugh. Sigh. I then hopped on the bus and made it home without further damage, though I did get off one bus stop too early because Tim didn't explain it the way I would have, and I had to walk an extra two blocks. Woe is me.

In the meantime, the sickness that plagued me every day since I have been here (just over a month now!!) and every time I am in a moving vehicle has finally died a violent death. I am a completely different person not having the threat of 'when today am I going to feel like violent shit' lurking at every bend. I just feel so much more conent and happy. And motivated! I didn't realize what a toll it had taken on me, because I was being a surly bitch without even noticing it (Tim was trying not to say anything, but he couldnt deny it when i asked, bless him, he's so brave.) But, its all over, and I am much happier and calmer. I am looking forward to future car rides where I can actually look around instead of trying to keep my insides as just that... insides.

If You Go Out in the Woods Today...

So, yesterday the boys decided that since almost everyone in the house had the day off, that we were all going to go on an adventure in the woods. Don't ask me why boys who like to paint on things and go in drains wanted to go into the woods, but we went. The trees here are amazing, and I've been completely loving the gum trees, palm trees, and whatever else that grows around here (90% of them look way more climbable than anything I've ever seen in Canada) but, I have been saying how much I missed my pine trees. So we go to this place they went to before, and after getting lost, twice, we found our way to a PINE forest!!! I spent hours walking around with pine cones and needles, and it was awesome. I was a little home sick. It was amazing.

Aside from that, everything is going well, though I'm still looking for a fun job, SIGH.

Oh, Devon sent me photos of the fires outside of Vernon and I am SHOCKED. Hope it gets over itself soon so everyone can go back to normal, I'm trying to send you some of the rain we've been getting down here ;)

Home is Where Your Giant Backpack is.

Well, we're back home in Adelaide now, and it really does feel like home now. The holiday was amazing and I loved seeing other pieces of Australia, but damn it's nice to be home, an do home stuff. Luckily yesterday and today have been super sunny so I've been able to do laundry and hang it to dry instead of carting all my shit to a laundromat. Dryers are not popular here, much to my dismay. Unfortunately though, I ended up putting one load up a little too close to sunset, and they didn't dry. Tim said it should be nice enough, just leave them out overnight, and while he was right, today is nice enough, at 3am when I woke up it was winding and raining like you would not believe! I decided it best to just clean up in the morning, and stay in bed. Turns out only one sock and a pillow case made it to the ground and the rest is nice and dry, excellent!

That said, Brisbane was super fun, we toured around the City a lot, went to the huge malls (like Indooroopilly, seriously I will give any Canadian who can pronounce that on the first try money) and the park along the river (Southbank.) It was so warm! It honestly felt like late spring in Canada, and it was shocking that this is mid-winter here. Tim's cousins took us to Wagamama for J-food, and it was (for everyone else) delicious, but i ordered potentially the most boring dish on this earth, sucks to be me! Even without much flavor, it was still pretty tasty though. I went to a Subway for lunch, and ordered my go-to sub that I ALWAYS get because it is the best (chicken bacon ranch) and it was not NEAR as good. For one, they just used ham, because bacon is not Canadian bacon, which I accepted, but they also use way more processed cheese, so it ws just incredibly weak. However, Tim and I both have a love for McDonald's breakfast, so we went for that, and while they don't have my go-to item there, they did have something even MORE exciting, a double bacon muffin. Its two hunks of Aussie bacon, and cheese and muffin, and it is better than anything i have ever had fast food in the morning ever.

I do unfortunately have work to do today, euck. This week the goal is to find a job, so I have to Australia-ize my resume. I also have to finish all my laundry, since my backpack's waterproof coating is wearing off and has covered all my clothes in waterproof powder, and stink. Then I'm going to rip apart Tim's old street directories and make a giant wall sized map of Adelaide so I can get my bearing as to where things are. Finally, we are hopefully going to find supplies to craft shelves and a closet the DIY way... I don't know if I have mentioned this, but our room is TINY and I should probably post pictures of it. Its a long skinny rectangle, and it is exactly as wide across as a double bed. To be honest, I love this little room (it just despirately needs so homey touches.)

Sights, Sounds and Sun

Well, I'm in Brisbane at Tim's Aunt and Uncle's house, we just got in yesterday after a few days trip to Hamilton Island (seriously, google that shit, because I can't describe in full how awesome this place is.)
Hamilton Island was wonderful, it's "as far north" as Tim has ever been in Australia, and as a result, despite being winter, it was only chilly at night, and warm during the day... However, they don't believe in heating their outdoor pools, so swimming was a little bit too cold for my liking, but the fact that I even considered it at a 'mere 21 degrees' was enough to label me as Canadian. There were tropical flowers, birds, palm trees EVERYWHERE and no cars on the whole island, only golf buggies. It was so much fun. We were there for Tim's sister's wedding so there was all the family schmooze and drama and such that goes along with, but how can you be grumpy in tropical island weather? The cockatoos were as big as Canadian crows, and very brave; the other birds were super cute too I think they were called Rosettas. Tim and I also went off the main beaches and walked around on the rocky bits through some rich person's unused holiday home backyard and through a construction site (we couldn't get back up the way we came so we had to make due) and it was all very fun. The best part about it was meeting people from so many different states, and picking up all their fun slang. One of Bianca's (the bride) friends stayed with us a few nights, and she was hilarious. I also have never eaten so much cheese and crackers as I did those few days.

We're in Brisbane now, and we're going out tonight for dinner, so I will update about this section of the trip later, when I have more time. Mmm, Japanese food.

Cheers!

Australian Bugs:2; Ashley:0

So, I went to have a shower the other day, and I put my sweater on the edge of the tub, since its separate from the shower, and i noticed the MOTHER OF ALL dead spider corpses in the drain. "Ok," I said to myself, "it's very dead. No worries..." I took a calming breath and put my clothes on the floor as far from it as possible. I don't even want to think of it coming back as a zombie spider and nesting in them, waiting for my sweet brain goo. I thought about the proximity of such a big dead spider for my entire shower. It really concerned me. Then again today, I went to shower. I checked the drain quickly, to make sure it hadn't in fact zombified, or worse, a bigger one come to take its place... Luckily it was still there. Unfortunately though, mid shower a big roach decided to crawl up the door, blocking my exit. Then it fell towards me. There was screaming involved. I had to get Tim to rescue me before I could wash my conditioner out because i was too petrified to close my eyes.

Stupid Australian bugs...

Pre-Trip and Arrival

Alright! Here I am in Adelaide, using Eli's computer, as Tim's is broken and I've never had a laptop. Tim and I have been here since the 24th and it is now the 27th. Luckily, we went the nice way for jet lag, and I have avoided feeling like tired crap, hooray! Before we got here, we went on a side trip to Vancouver, Seattle, and San Fransisco. That lasted from the 15th-22nd (Yes we lost a day in transit.) In Vancouver, we stayed at Tim's friend Chris' house, and left our massive overseas bags there, thank goodness. We had a goodbye drink at the nearby pub, and a few of both Tim and my friends came, and it was nice to have everyone together. The next day we set off for Seattle on the bus, and Tim's first experience with an American was unfortunately one working for US customs, so it was not very nice (my customers person was fine, actually.) In Seattle, our hostel was like 2 doors down from Pike Place Market, so needless to say I went to Starbucks (it wasn't any better than other Starbucks, but it was good still.) We went on several walks around the waterfront and Pioneer/Union Square, but unfortunately, Seattle is VERY lame and absolutely everything was closed before or at 5pm. There was absolutely nothing to do. We did get free dinner from the hostel though, and it was surprisingly delicious. The next day we went to the Experience Music Project as well as the Science Fiction Museum. I almost died over Kurt Cobain's Guitar, and Tim stole disallowed photos of the hoverboard from Back to the Future. We were bother very excited. It also happened to be this Bite of Seattle event while we were there, so it was extremely busy and was a neat little festival with live music and tasty food vendors, it was very cool timing. Tim has a thing for trains, for those who don't know, so we took the monorail back to the hostel, and it was all very exciting :) I started feeling like I had a cold though, so we took a couple more walks but I was absolutely exhausted so Tim went out on his own and I happily sat around the hostel writing and napping.

The next day we head out to the airport and met a horrible planning disaster. Everyone at the hostel had said to be there 1 hour to 45 minutes before a domestic flight, however, United, our airline, had about 8 flights in 4 hours, so the lineup was CHAOS, and the only reason we made our flight, is because it was delayed an HOUR. Even then we only had time to get our food at the cafe to go, and ate part of it on the plane. We arrived to San Fran, and took the BART to our couch surfing hosts' beautiful home. It had high ceilings, huge windows, and a taco truck right outside. Chris, our host, was super nice, and knew basically everything we could ever even imagine needing to know in SF. We left for an explore and some tacos from the truck (which were AMAZING) and when we came back, the German girls (Jana and Kai [sp]) were just on their way. They had booked the couch first, but Chris figured we looked the type who would be okay with a floor sleep, and we definitely were. That night we all got together and played drinking games and got to know each other, it was really fun, but Tim was definitely the loser, so the next morning (I was getting to the worst part of my cold right about this time) we took quite a while to get lucid enough to do anything. We ended up walking to Haight-Ashbury, bussing to the Golden Gate, then walking up the back side of Lombard Street (I have to tell you, I'm quite certain the back side is much steeper and angrier than the famous curvy front, and I thought I might die.) After this, we went back to the house, and I cooked up some dinner, we watched a movie with Chris and the girls, and then went to bed. The next day, we wandered around more, and had some burritos before heading back to the airport. We arrived painfully earlier out of fear from the Seattle fiasco, and got through security in record time. We did a lot of sitting. After the flight, it was quite late, so we went straight to the hostel, grabbed some dinner from Subway across the street, since it's the ONLY business open for miles, and go to bed. We wake up painfully early, walk to the bus pickup, bus back to Van, pick up our bags, an head to the airport. We've arrived before even the staff do so we can't check in, but we have some amazing pizza, and by the time that's done we check in and do some duty free shopping. Then its on to our 13 hour flight.... unfortunately, the but runway was closed for maintenance, and since its the only one for the weight class of our plane, we had to wait 2 hours while they unloaded 4 tons of cargo from our plane so we would be light enough to take off from another runway. Once we got to Auckland, we had missed our flight by 20 minutes, but we were on the same airline and several other connection had been missed as well, so they delayed all the flights, and we RAN across the airport to catch our flight, while everyone on that plane who'd been waiting glared at us. Oops!

We got to Adelaide no problems, and customs was a breeze, and Tim's mum Lesley picked us up at the airport, complete with Tim's favorite iced coffee (coffee flavored milk, gross) and a stuffed koala for me. We went to her and George's home for lunch and showers (thank goodness, because after running and being in the heat of Seattle and Van I was probably more disgusting than I should have been for meeting the mum) and I had a nap before dinner. After our delicious dinner, we got taken to the house I'm now living in, which is just behind a Bridal shop, so thats what we refer to it as. I met about 20 people, and it was all very hectic, but I am very sure I remember all their names, which is good for me. The next day we went to the National park and I got to hold a koala named Belle and pet another named Priscilla. I got to feed kangaroos and wallabies, and pat them too, theyre SO FLUFFY! Everything that is wildlife here hops, its amazing! We went for dinner at Bob, Naomi and Georgia's house, which was delicious as well, (everything Ive eaten here has been amazing) to say goodbye to Bob and Naomi, who stayed a few days to say hi to us before moving to Tasmania. They left us their car to use, which is awesome. Today I woke up at 9:30 am, and it is pouring rain more than I can imagine, it is actually LOUD it is pouring so hard. Its beautiful! It's colder than I imagined it would be here, since I am so geared for this time of year to be summer. Ive been in my touque (which I am so thankful I brought at the last minute) and mittens the entire time. I am slowly getting used to it though.

Now for the good stuff.... Whats different?

Well, for one, everyone talks ridiculously fast. Sometimes I don't know what to say because everythign is going so quickly by the time I think of something the topic has changed hahaha. My inner dialogue is distinctly Aussie, I can't hear my own Canadian voice when I think inside my head anymore. I went to the grocery store with Tim, and everything was just.... different. Its like the same stuff, but its all weird so I don't know what what, and shopping takes forever! I went by myself a bit later to get shampoo and the line was so long, they opened a new till for me. The girl said "Yes, thanks" and I had NO idea this meant I could go to her till, so i just stood there, and she looked at me, and I looked at her, and the people in line behind me looked at me. She repeated herself, and I realized what was wrong, so i ran up and accidentally dropped my shampoo SIGH. I got out of there asap. Otherwise, we have a palm tree in our back yard, and rose bushes (its record rainfall this year, and the boys says they havent seen that plant have roses before I think) they also have different light switches, and toilets. Aklso, the outlets are weird, not in a different plug sort of way, that I was prepared for, but there's on an off switches, and there's an on and off for the stove top as well. It is very weird.

One last thing, they have normal fences like we do, but also they have these cute little 'brush fences' which are basically thousands of long sticks bundled together. Its awesome, and I love them.

We haven't got any of our pictures done yet, as Tim's computer is broken, but once we've had a chance to fix it or upload the photos elsewhere, I will be putting up a mostly photo post.

Cheers!

-Ashh