R.I.P. Buddy

On May 30, 2006 at 10:30pm, Butterscotch Caramel Shaloum passed away. The white and beige Maine Coon was 18 years old and had resided at the Shaloum's for almost his entire life. Mother, Eileen, brought Butterscotch home just a kitten after discovering some boys picking on him outside the tennis courts. He lived in the garage while the family discussed what to do with him and before he got his shots. For a short while, Butterscotch enjoyed the company of Smokey Robinson Shaloum, a dark and short-haired Tabby, before Smokey chose to run away from the comforts of home. Buddy, as he was so lovingly nick-named, became the hero that day as he chose to remain loyal to the family who loved and supported him. Months turned into years and Buddy became rather large. He had grown to a full-sized cat and the Shaloums could not have a more cuddly pet. During his long life, Buddy was loved and doted upon and never wanted for anything...except, of course, his favorite treat, Pounce! From 2004-2005, the Shaloums anticipated the passing of Buddy several times, but he always bounced back, earning him the title of Wonder Cat! Butterscotch is survived by "mother" Eileen, "father" Al, and "sisters" Tami and Allison.

Almost Over!

One more week and I am KF (Kid Free)! Don't get me wrong, I love the little buggers. But, hallejulah! I'll be free... When Sophie asked me tonight if I was really leaving next week and I said yes, she got slightly upset and whined, "But you make the best toast!" Jack didn't even bat an eye. Folks, I'm touched, but all the emotion is just too much to handle ;-) That's cool though, makes it easier for me to leave knowing they don't really care that I'll be gone.

The Sydney Writers' Festival is on now and last night, Matt accompanied me to the Spotlight on Sherman Alexie, a Native American writer whose book, "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," I read in college. To be honest, he was the only writer I recognized on the program for the Festival. Except for Maya Angelou but she doesn't count because she only appeared via satellite. It was an enjoyable evening. Sherman was quite funny, it was almost like watching a stand-up comedy routine. He talked a lot about indigenous culture and the differences between the treatment of the Aborigines and the Native Americans--mainly that the Aborigines were treated to government-sponsored genocide whereas the Native Americans were just kind of pushed aside by the government and persecuted by everyone else. He was pretty interesting. During the Q&A, I asked him his opinion on the state of indigenous writing--is it progressing or remaining stagnant? He answered that it is definitely stagnating, that there are only about 20 Native American writers who are getting published and a lot of them have been around for 30 years or so. Crazy.

So the plan for the rest of the week is to try not to get irritated by the kids as much and not yell at them, take advantage of having my own bed, shower and computer as much as I can, and see as much of my remaining friends as I possibly can. Sarah goes back to Liverpool Monday week so we're going to hit Star City casino (god help me) on Saturday since neither of us have been yet. And of course, there is the last Friday with Kate at the Mercantile! Sadness... Then, on Sunday or Monday, I go up to the central coast with Matt to visit his hometown and possibly a side trip to the Hunter Valley. Oh boy, lots to look forward to. I just hope everything works out...

I'm laughing at clouds...

Oy! The kids are driving me up the wall! They've been getting sick a lot lately and throwing tantrums left and right. It has not been good. I wish I could say I'll be sorry to leave, but right now I'm ready to say au revoir. But in just two more weeks I'll be done! I will actually miss them (maybe). I will definitely miss the comforts of home. I'm not looking forward to living out of a backpack for 2 months, but c'est la vie. Nathalie is already in New Zealand, living and working on a farm just outside Wellington. She says the country is magnificent, so I'm getting really excited! She found a car rental company that will let us rent for $20/day as well as ditch the car in Picton before getting on the ferry (since it will cost us $210 to cross from the South Island to the North with a car and just $60 a person without) and getting another car when we get off the ferry. Sweet! I think we might also try to do some skiing. The other night, I had a dream that we were in Sydney when it started to snow these crazy huge, fluffy flakes. I was with Nathalie and we decided we wanted to go skiing. So we went shopping for the equipment, but by the time we got everything and got to the mountain (miraculously we ended up in NZ that same day), the day was almost over and we decided it wasn't worth it to buy a lift ticket, so we scrapped the idea. Ever since then I've had a yen to go skiing. I'm not sure if the mountains will be open that early in the winter, but there might be something.

On Friday, I had dinner with Matt in the always cheap, but tasty, Newtown at a Chinese/Vietnamese/Thai restaurant. We hit the jackpot that night for bizarre street entertainment. On our way to dinner, we saw some Hare Krishnas doing a little dancing and singing. On our way back we saw a preview for a burlesque show that's going to be on Oxford Street next week. There were 3 girls in the window of an alternative clothing boutique, wearing satin, Chinese print dresses. They would be absolutely still one moment and then all move to a different position simultaneously. Very creepy. Then, further down the street was a blues guitarist and a didgeradoo player. Very cool. Who needs to pay for entertainment when all you have to do is walk down the street?

More free entertainment today at the Art Gallery of NSW, which showed "Singin' in the Rain." Matt joined me as we are both fans of the movie. It's just such a feel-good, uplifting film. Really funny and clever. Afterwards, we walked through the Domain (the park just outside the Gallery) and came across "Speaker's Corner." I guess it was just like the one in Hyde Park in London (although I'd never been there)...there were a couple of guys on soapboxes, shouting out absolute nonsense. One of them, naturally, was talking about terrorists. But instead of the usual targeting of the Muslims, he was saying it's the Jews who need to be wiped out! I was so taken aback and horrified (not to mention a little frightened) that I started to walk away so I didn't really hear the rest of his "sermon." I think Matt was even more horrified than me though. He asked if I was ok and I really was after the initial shock because who the hell cares what a ranting lunatic has to say anyway? But man, it was pretty scary to hear that shit from someone just a couple of feet in front of you.

Yesterday, Angie had a farewell party at her house because she's entering the Peace Corps in June! She's going to El Salvador. The girl's got cajones, that's for sure. She has no idea what kind of situation she'll be in, whether she'll be living with other volunteers or not, what town she'll be in. All she knows is that she'll be working with local authorities to make the community more "transparent," whatever that means. She's probably the most open-minded individual I've ever met. She has such a breezy, go-with-it attitude that is so refreshing and that I wish everyone could adopt. Anyway, the party was fun even though I didn't know anyone there. One of her friends was visiting from Brisbane and we were talking about the drought here in Australia. I was saying how strange it is for me to come to a country that is so concerned with water conservation, coming from America where we use everything to excess. He said that, yeah we do and then once we run out of something, we start taking it from other countries. As soon as he said it, though, he had this expression like, "Shit! What did I just say?!" and apologized for it. But I laughed at his comment and said yeah, he was right. How can you take offense to something so true?

Meanwhile, I hear gas prices in the States have risen. WTF?!

Getcher freak on!

I've never been much of a sports fan, but I think since being here, I've attended/watched more sporting events than I have in my entire life. First, there was the Aussie Cup Tennis Finals on the steps of the Opera House, then the Rugby League match and finally last night I gave in to soccer (aka football in England). But I have a good excuse: I was out with Sarah, who is from Liverpool, and her team was playing against West Ham United. She was really into it and every bar we went to had the game on so there was no avoiding it really. Now, you know I'll always side with the Scousers 'cause, well, The Beatles (duh). But I wasn't prepared for how much I'd get into the game (of course I was fuelled by a few drinks). Eventually the Liverpudlians won and everyone was shouting and cheering and jumping up and down, hugging each other...including me! Far out!

La-di-da, la-di-da

I just booked my flight to Christchurch, NZ for June 7! Flying with Jetstar, which was by far the cheapest airline. I'll be meeting Nathalie there and we're going to rent a car and drive around the country. Then I return June 27 for the Coldplay show. Now I know it seems a bit crazy to clip short my NZ adventure just for a concert, but amidst the rumors that they won't be touring for a while, I figured I might as well see Coldplay as long as I have the chance. Plus, they rock! After the show, it's off to start my Australian adventure (or at least continue the one I'm having now, but with more traveling). Whoa excitement! However, I cannot help feeling the bittersweetness of all these plans....blah blah blah, you've heard all this before.

Oh Me, Oh My

Only one more month to go, then I'm outta here like a bat out of hell (well, more like a reluctant bat out of hell). This Friday will mark 4 months since I arrived in Australia. My does the time fly. On the other hand, it feels like I've been here for a year.

Much has happened lately. Because Becca, Jen and Nathalie all came back within the same week, it's back to having a life. On Thursday it was Skip's Trivia at Forrester's, where we were joined by two new suspects, Sarah and Matt. Team X hadn't made an appearance for some weeks, so it was a long overdue comeback. Unfortunately, we didn't win, but we didn't do too bad what with 5 people on the team. We did, however, manage to score a free bottle of wine during one of the rounds of "Guess Who I am?" where Skip reads clues about a famous person and whoever guesses it right first wins a bottle of wine. I don't remember who the person was, some Aussie dude. Who cares, free grog is always good. And there was more of it as most of the winning team left by the end of the night, so the two remaining guys asked if we wanted to share their $60 voucher. They bought us all a round of drinks! Even losers can be winners sometimes...

On Friday, I finally went to Minus 5, the ice bar in circular quay. It's in a room made almost entirely of ice. They serve the drinks in cups made of ice. Before you go in, they give you warm coats, gloves and boots to wear because it's so freakin' cold. However, you're only allowed to stay for 1/2 hour. It's definitely a touristy thing to do, but pretty cool (pardon the pun). There were beautiful ice sculptures all over the room. And I finally met Tricia, another au pair from the agency who I'd been trying to meet up with for weeks but it never worked out for us. She joined me, Becca, Jen and Anna at the bar. Afterward, we went to Bar 333 and Cargo Bar, where Tricia got kicked out for being intoxicated. Fun times! To be fair, she didn't seem more intoxicated than any other person there, and we have no idea what happened to get her kicked out. We may never find out because I don't think she remembers much from the night. Before that, we were having a grand time with a couple of guys we met outside the bar. One was a Canadian dude, pretty cool and a fun dancer. The other was this 6'6" Czech guy who said to call him Z because his name was too complicated to pronounce. Randomness ensued.

The following night was Kate's dinner party at Dennis' (and now her!) apartment in Ryde. Mmm, mmm, good. She made three awesome dishes: chicken parm, chicken curry, and prawns with bok choy and rice. Insanely delicious! It was a nice low-key night, a good change of pace.

On Sunday a bunch of us went to what was my first Rugby League match. It was the Manly Eagles vs. the Paramatta Eels. The Eagles won! I suppose I was cheering for them mainly because the eagle is sort of an emblematic bird for America. I was having a weird patriotic moment. The game was pretty exciting at times. I actually paid attention to what was going on from time to time.

After the game, Becca, Jen, Nathalie, J and I went for sushi at a nice Japanese restaurant (yum, real sushi, not the $1.60 hand rolls you get from take-away). Then it was off to the Three Wise Monkeys for some pool. At the bar, we made friends with a couple of guys, who may or may not have been on a date. They invited us to play pool with them and they turned out to be pretty interesting people. One was an Austrian nurse, the other was an Australian hotel manager for the Shangri-La (one of the top hotels in Sydney).

Last night was Comedy Night at Fringe Bar. The bar itself is really nice and a cool place to hang out in, but the comedy was seriously lacking. Some jokes were really funny, but none made me laugh like the way I do at the Comedy Cellar in NY. Maybe I just don't get Autralian humour, whatever that is.

Tonight I'm seeing American Dreamz with Becca, who shares my admiration for Mandy Moore...I know, it's a sickness. I'll let ya'll know how it goes.