you’ll linger longer in yarrawonga

They’re a mighty team from yarrawonga.  ha. Today is day 6 on our fantastic journey up the coast of eastern Australia.  I am on a ridiculous computer so will keep this short.  Our camper van is big but I am able to drive it and being that I am not a native that says a lot for my self esteem as of late.  We haven’t named it yet but maybe soon.  We spent two days in Canberra which is the capital for all you morons reading (oh wait i didnt know that until last year so dont feel bad).  A mob of kangaroos greeted me on  my walk through the botanical  gardens and I saw Parliament and all that good stuff.  Port Macquarie then for two nights and I pet a koala named Clancey.  In Byron Bay which is hippie haven but very pretty.  Rainy and chilly at the moment but hopefully will turn nice once we pass the tropic of capricorn in wonderful (fingers crossed) Rockhampton.  I have not thrown Matt out of the vehicle yet but you never know what might happen.  Saw a big banana, a big prawn, and a big merino (sheepY!).  Weird.

April fools

Today I got hit by a motorcycle. No, no, I’m ok! However, it would have been a lot more fun if the guy had gotten off his bike and said “April fools!” But no. That is not how it happened. Basically I had the pedestrian walk sign and I began to cross the street after the cars had been stopped for quite some time. I believe this motorcycle man was behind me trying to turn into the street I was on and didn’t see me about to cross so he turned left. After falling to the ground (no injuries), and him falling off his bike which was leaking green fluid, I asked him if he was alright. Why do I seem to be the one who feels like it is my fault when accidents happen, even when they’re clearly not my fault? This man looked very perturbed and said “I looked and it was clear, you need to watch where you’re going”. I said “well I looked and I had the walk sign!” Why do I still feel like I must apologize for this mans lack of skills? No matter what I had the right of way. He left after checking out his bike and giving me a quick “just be careful next time” comment. Oh, how lovely thank you!!

Blah. Tonight I made my grandmother’s recipe of hamburger meat, elbow macaroni noodles and peas. Oh, and lots of butter! This might sound unappetizing to most but my grandmother made it all the time and it became one of my favorite of her meals. It is just a small taste of home in a home away from home.

I’m bored. I am trying to stay in lots so I don’t spend money before the trip, but I’m starting to get restless. I watch too many movies and sleep in too late. I eat too much random food and don’t do anything productive. I finally was able to do my taxes last night so that is good, but I need to start planning what I want to do on this trip of mine. Surfing? Skydiving? Do I have it in me? Time will only tell…

OH YEah almost forgot – I saw the British comedian Stephen K. Amos and he was great! He started paying out on (making fun of ) Americans and of course I raised my hand for him to belittle me and he made all the cracks from pretending like I talked like a valley girl to helping me pronounce my name correctly in his british accent. It was pretty fun. I will try to see at least one more comedian before the week is over – why? because I can!

domestic bliss

Amy + no work + new house = domesticity.  Errrrr what?!  Not working has given me time to sleep in, watch lots of Miami Ink, and enjoy things like ironing, making cole slaw, and mopping the bathroom.  What is wrong with this picture?  Yes, that’s right – I am enjoying being a domestic lady.  I’m guessing this phase will last for two to three weeks so don’t be too concerned.  And don’t think that this means I’m an anal neat freak or anything – I’m still way messier than Matt and he hates it, so perhaps I am just trying to make up for my lack of organization while he is at work.  I dunno.

I have the house to myself tonight which is awesome.  Happy Easter!  I didn’t do much today to celebrate the holiday except eat a huge chocolate egg.

I went to my first Australian footy game at the MCG which is the largest stadium in the southern hemisphere.  There were 72,000 people there!  It was Richmond vs Carlton, two Melbourne suburbs, and I was trying to stay neutral, even though the team was Richmond (seemed fitting to go for them doesn’t it, especially since their team colors were yellow and black (VCU!)).  Australian football is much easier to understand than American football – it’s pretty fast paced, the men aren’t weighed down by lots of padding and are in really good shape, and Richmond won! woohoo.  Wrong Richmond but who cares!

I met with the Gift of Life Victoria (organ donation) people and had a chat with one of their coordinators about how they do things.  Amazingly enough organ donation numbers are pretty darn low here and maybe I should start an organization to change that!

I went to the top of the Eureka Tower yesterday, the tallest residential building in the southern hemisphere (are you catching on to the trend yet?)  I got a good view of Melbourne.  It really is a pretty city.

Off the topic of anything, let’s talk about Mcdonald’s.  You should be able to go anywhere in the world and know that your maccas (as called here) burger should be made anyway you like it and taste pretty much the same as you’re used to, right?  Well, I like my cheeseburger with just meat, cheese, lettuce, and mayonnaise.  That’s it.  No ketchup, no mustard, no pickles, whatever.  Just those four things.  Easy right?  Well unfortunately they screw up my order every time.  So, after the game and a few drinks I order this cheeseburger, and of course it’s just a plain cheeseburger.  Normally not a huge deal, but I’m hungry so I go back to request the extras.  I get my burger handed back to me with a “I’m sorry but we can’t fire up the grill right now”.  Wait, what?  What does that have to do with anything?  I decide this really isn’t something to dwell on, and there are a few people in line, so I just make a weird face and huff and puff off.  Matt grabs my burger, goes up to the lady who took my order, and requested a new burger while this woman shot me dirty looks and I laughed and hid in the corner.  Of course, he got the correct burger – fuck hamburger helper, he’s my new hamburger hero.

Oh man oh man oh man.

I saw Be Kind, Rewind last night and it was pretty good – I have to say it’s still going to be my least favorite of the Gondry films I’ve seen but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. I had a raging headache for most of it so that may have affected my viewing, but I still liked watching Mos Def and Jack Black “swede” the Lion King. haha.

Tomorrow night we’re going to see comedian Stephen K. Amos at Melbourne Town Hall which should be fun – standup comedy is probably one of my favorite forms of entertainment when it’s actually funny. The hard part is a comic who can actually get me to belly laugh instead of fake laugh. Fake laughing is difficult and it makes my face hurt, so yeah!

parting is such sweet sorrow.

Nah, not really!  Ok, I’ve posted a few pics from the other night.  After a bottle of wine and a dance party in Jen’s apartment where we learned to “one-two step”, we meandered across the street over to Luke’s where we shared more wine and I fell into a closet.  I was all ready to go out on the town but by the time we got to our destination it was just Matt and I and I no longer felt like being out.  I just realized today that I have a knot on my head that may or may not have happened on this night. 

Last night was much more calm, I worked until midnight, then caught a taxi home.  Hailing a cab is a hard thing to do if you are not a) from new york city b) with other people, c) drunk and d) anyone but me.  I walked around for like 10 minutes before I bent down to a taxi driver at a stoplight and he waived me in.  Who knew!!  Plus, it was uncomfortable because we didn’t speak for the whole ride, because after 2 minutes of not speaking that window of trying to speak closes and then you just look like you’re forcing it.  Ah well. 

My actual last day of work today.  Glad to be here cuz its hot hot hot and I’m sure the house is a scorchin!  The Grand Prix is on this weekend and KISS is playing – I don’t know much about cars but people sure do seem to like ‘em. 

 There are airplanes flying over my office checking out the race or whatever they’re doing – they are super loud!

why I can’t complain about work.

Because when I came in to do my night shift tonight, the work wasn’t quite yet ready for us, and my boss divided us into 6 teams, passed out spaghetti noodles and marshmallows, and we each had 20 minutes to compete in building the tallest spaghetti marshmallow structure possible.  Not as easy as it sounds, but getting paid to play with food is never a bad thing.

Happy guy.

I can’t believe I almost forgot to tell you about Happy Guy. 

Wow.

Yesterday my coworker Devin sat next to me and told me a great story.  He gave me permission to tell it so here I go – actually, wait, this looks like its off his cousins page, so I will copy and paste, woohoo!

“Seven years ago, my cousin Nate found a photo in the rubbish bin of a hotel room in Banff, Canada. He kept the picture with him, and returned home to Melbourne, Australia, where he posted the photo on his family’s kitchen fridge, and ever since that day “Happy Guy” has been smiling at the family from his spot in the kitchen. Everyone who visited the Sturdy house would always ask about the photograph, inquiring: “Who is that?”
“It’s Happy Guy” the family would respond, and then the story of how the picture of a complete stranger ended up on the fridge would follow.

So, why did Nate feel so attracted to this particular picture of a smiling stranger? For no other reason then simply looking at the picture made him feel happy, and how could it not?-!

Earlier this year, Nate and his brother Devin, started a group on Facebook called “Who Is Happy Guy?” The goal of this group was to find and meet the man whom they had formally nicknamed.
They started a “Happy Guy” website (http://www.whoishappyguy.com), and made “Who Is Happy Guy?” tee-shirts, and awarded them to anyone who made an extra special “Happy Guy” effort, and that was the beginning of their Global Search.

The result: Making millions of people happy!

Folks from all over the world started to post Happy Guy’s picture up and would take photos of it to show all the different places that Happy Guy’s smile had reached, and with each new photo you just couldn’t help but smile also, proving the age-old saying that “a smile goes a long long way.”
Recently, Happy Guy was found!

So yeah, apparently they’ve gotten all kinds of newspaper stories and such on this story, and I think it’s fantastic!  I just thought that would make you smile or laugh a lil, so there u go.

 Oh Happy day!

and I’ll gamble away my time

Today is my last day of work.  However, I rang the immigration office and they informed me that they are not making their decision on whether or not I get granted this tourist visa until tomorrow (there’s really no reason I wouldn’t get it but ok) so I won’t get the official confirmation until Tuesday or so.  Well, this makes me think that I should come into work tomorrow.  Not that I want to, but because I’m going to go a month without income in a pricy country I might as well work one more day.  Yeah?!  Yeah.

 John made me the Bonnie Prince Billy cd I’d been missing and gave me the new Beirut cd. I love the song Nantes though I’m not quite sure why.  I like how he is a little tike from new mexico yet when I listen to him I feel like I’m watching snake charmers or in some mediterranean country eating fancy food.  Perhaps I’m the only one that feels like this while listening to his music, but needless to say, I enjoy it.  You should check it out if you haven’t already.

 My buddy Mark came over the other night to check out the new pad and Matt and I decided to try out a recipe for risotto.  This is basically just creamy rice, but it’s a bit more complicated to prepare because you have to boil stock that you gradually pour into the rice until it gets to the right consistency.  We put sundried tomatoes, onions, garlic, parsley, and cheese in and it somehow came out to be extremely edible and delicious.  woohoo!  This from the people who can ruin mac and cheese in a box.  Last night Cam and Matt cooked up some bowtie pasta bolognese (sp?) and it was really yum also.  I suppose when I have time off I will spend time learning how to cook (I say that now but it probably will not happen). 

 There is a small child of african descent on my 8:15 bus that I want to steal.  Now, don’t go crazy and think I’m a crazy child kidnapper, it’s just that he’s so cute I can’t take it.  He’s so small he can barely see over the seats, and he wears this bookbag that swallows him whole.  He also always wears big hoodies and he can’t be over 6 years old.  Way too cute.

 The other day a cop car rolled up at my  neighbor’s house and went into the house twice with cameras.  I’m assuming maybe someone broke in but I’m not sure.  This worries me for obvious reasons.  I need to do some investigating but not to worry, I am trained in judo (though have forgotten all of it). 

The coworkers and I are going out for end of work night tomorrow night and it should be exciting.  So far I have only specified that I would like to end up at a hip hop dance club so if that doesn’t happen I may be a tad disappointed.  I still don’t really ever know where to go in the city and just basically follow those around that live here and know where they are.  Good thing I am only a 12 dollar cab fare away from home, in comparison to the 55 dollar cab fare that I used to have.

I have lost weight while being in Australia.  I can’t figure out if it’s my lack of southern friend food or the fact that I can’t takeaway bad food from restaurants anymore but I have.  Maybe it is because I walk a lot more because I don’t have a car, and maybe because I eat portions now instead of 3 or 4 helpings of yummy food.  I can’t tell.  Or maybe because I get anxious from being in a new place and don’t have an appetite.  Whatever the case, none of the pants that I brought over here fit me and the one pair that my parents sent me which I originally declined to bring over because they were too tight, are now too big.  The experiment will be to see if I pack the pounds back on when I get home.  I am guessing I will. 

I think I just agreed to work a Saturday shift 5pm to midnight and Sunday 11am to 6pm.  Weekends mean nothing when you are far away from home and have 4 friends.  Woe is me.

Speaking of friends, I love my coworkers so much.  I am so fortunate that I got the opportunity to do really mundane work in an environment with so many awesome people.  They make me laugh all day and after seeing each other for 40 plus hours we still want to hang out on weekends and after work.  Amazing. 

16 flights…

…is the amount of stairs that I had to file down when the fire alarm went off at work today.  Why is it that we always assume that a fire alarm means a drill?  Is it kind of like peter crying wolf?  When there actually is a real fire, such as the case today (though never figured out if someone burned their toast or if it was a bomb threat), then no one really believes it.  This i s a sad state of affairs.  Whatever, I got a 45 minute break so that’s kewl.

 The independent runway show was awesome!  Having never been to a runway show (oh god theyre playing magnetic fields on triple r!) sorry.  Having never been to a runway show and thinking that I could never get into one without being in the know, I was pleasantly surprised that it was both affordable and enjoyable.  I believe most of the designs at fashion week here are wearable designs that these designers will actually carry in their stores, as opposed to the off the wall designs that some catwalks boast.  These models were decked out with slicked back hair, black lipstick, and very androgynous clothing (lots of black, satin pants, leather jackets, boys and girls, plus pulsing music and a hurried pace).  Plus, did I mention that Jen and I spent lots of time making sure we looked fabulous? I took a few pics and will post them as soon as I have internet access at the house.  Afterwards we attemped to go out, and ended up in a huge beer garden, but once that closed, we were all dressed up with nowhere to go being that it was a Sunday night before Labor day!  Double bourbon and cokes from hip hop blasting asian restaurant did the trick, though I would have really liked to have gone dancing somewhere.  There is always next week I suppose!

 Earlier on Sunday I met some coworkers at the beach, and after a bit of a commute and hearing a man call the tram woman a fat slut, I finally was able to enjoy some sun.  I’m not sure why I asked my family to send me a care package with my jacket and boots, as it’s been up in the 90’s (30’s celcius) all weekend and week and it doesn’t look like it’s dropping.  Coworker Will thought it would be awesome to introduce me to jellyfish by placing one on my back as I was laying out, which produced a delayed reaction of a scream from me and a good laugh from everyone else in the water.  Ra!!  It looked like a huge sillicone boob and I was waiting for it to sting me, not even knowing if it was dead or alive.

 The house has no blinds at the moment so it’s “bloody” hot so I took a dip in the pool yesterday and enjoyed a good meal at matt’s parents house.  I explored Footscray a bit more with its cultural diversity (mostly vietnamese stores, markets, african hair accessories) and found that I like living in a place that makes me forget I’m actually in Australia.  I didn’t expect Melbourne to be this diverse. What an interesting city this is.

My care package has arrived! Unfortunately my puppy is not in it (fortunately for him) but there is …drum roll please..BRUNSWICK STEW!  Can I get a hell yeah?!  I’m starved for familiar food. 

 We have a new roomie who seems very nice, and tonight Mark luv is coming over and we are going to attempt to make risotto and chill out.  4:55, peace out.

amy and the city.

I have watched almost every episode of Sex and the City at work.  Not so much watched them but listened to them while I complete bill smoothing and direct debit transactions.  I am about to run out and it’s stressing me out (shouldn’t be though, because I’m about to run out of work anyways, so oh well). 

 One more week of work.  This is a good thing and a bad thing.  No income sucks but sleeping in, reading books in parks, and exploring Melbourne by myself makes me excited.

Is it strange that I need to go buy a fancy dress to wear to see other fancy dresses at the fashion festival?  I can’t possibly wear anything that I already have here.  Shopping tomorrow late night!

 And I’ve been searching all day thru youtube trying to figure out which comedians to buy tickets to see for the comedy fest.  I’ve come to realize that none of them live up to Mitch Hedberg though, and that makes me disappointed.

We have foxtel at the new apartment which means I can watch retarded american sitcoms, sweet!

 I need to update with some more pics, so hopefully they will come this weekend.  I’m a bad little updater, so sorry.

 If anyone has any yummy recipes can you send them my way?  I’ve gone blank trying to think of things to eat.

 I need to make the following two months the best months here so far.  Frankly, I’m not sure what my next move will be once I arrive back in the states and I’m going to attempt to put that thought to the side while I enjoy what Australia has to offer.  Perhaps I will post the travel itinerary soon.  oooh!

karaoke box

This is what happens when you combine crazy coworkers, alcohol, cheesy music, two tambourines, apparently a ladies toilet,  an Irish Mcluvin and his video camera.  Enjoy!!

 http://www.thecameradoesntlie.co.uk/gallery/video.php?gallery_id=192&video_id=90