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.

ANZAC Day

Today was ANZAC Day, which commemorates the alliance between Australia/New Zealand and England in getting their asses whooped at the battle of Galipoli during World War I. Correct me if I'm wrong, however, cause I might not have the facts straight. Anyway, basically it's a big public holiday in the likeness of Memorial/Veterans Day in the States. The only good thing about it is the abundance of men (and women) in uniform a la Fleet Week in NYC. I started the day with Angie, her uncle, and cousins going book shopping in Glebe and then Border's in the city. Wrote down the names of a couple of books I want to buy, but would never get in Australia because books are so freakin' expensive down here! Then Angie and I bussed it up to Centennial Park to meet her friends for a BBQ/picnic. Only we hadn't brought any food with us so we ended up munching on the crackers and hummus that the other girls brought. It didn't matter, though, because it started raining about half an hour after we arrived, and we were meant to meet some of my friends in The Rocks anyway. We bussed back to Circular Quay and met Becca and Anna at Jackson's On George, which was insanely packed because of the holiday, mostly by uniformed persons. We were met there by Jen, whom I had not seen since January! She just got back from travelling the country and was back in Sydney for a week before going home to NY. The vibe at Jacksons was pretty interesting. What is it about men in uniform that is so sexy? We chatted with a bunch of navy guys and drank a bit. Nothing too exciting happened but after talking, first with Becca on Sunday and then with Jen about her travels, I'm starting to get pretty excited about my own travel plans. I'll be really sad to leave Sydney, the comforts of home, and the awesome people I've met here, but it will be a whole new adventure once I finally leave the city. Right now I think I still need to get used to the idea...I really don't want to leave certain people behind in Sydney. I hope once I've made my bookings and everything, I'll have grown accustomed to leaving. After all, it's still over a month away...

Weekend Update

I just had a pretty awesome weekend. Friday night I went to see Ten Part Invention, an amazing jazz band that has been around for 20 years, with Matt and his friend Lawrence at the Sound Lounge. It's a great jazz venue that is the closest thing you can get to the Village. The show was fantastic and afterwards we went to Badde Manors in Glebe for some coffee with Matt's roommate and her boyfriend. Then we went back to Newtown for some bar hopping and great conversation.

Saturday I met Kate and Dennis at the Merc to listen to that band (whose name I still don't know) that plays there every Saturday afternoon, the one with which I played the tambourine my first day in Sydney. We had a couple of drinks before I had to go into work at the Entertainment Centre for the David Gray concert. I worked one of the candy bars with this Aussie guy named Paul who has lived in America (NY and California) for the past several years. He made some joke about getting citizenship and actually proposed to me! Well, not actually, I think he might've been joking. It was fun to work beside him because, although he was a strange guy, he made the shift fun by just goofing around and chatting with me about NY and "Strong Island" (his term, not mine). After we closed the bar, I went in to watch the concert. I've never really been familiar with David Gray (although it turns out I have one of his songs on my DJ), but he was pretty good! He did that song "Babylon," which is about the only song I know besides the one on my MP3 player. He does this Bob Dylan song too, and a cover of The Cure's "Friday I'm In Love." After the show I met up with Matt (again!) since he was working the same shift and we went to Chinatown for a bite to eat. Interesting dining experience that was.

Today I worked at Aussie Stadium again for a footy match this time. It was a better shift than last week's, but only because I wasn't feeling like crap. I worked with Polly, who is this cool Aussie chick I've worked with a bunch of times and who's house I almost moved into back when I was looking for a place to live. The supervisor was kind of a jackass though and we started the shift working with this really odd guy who had some sort of tantrum soon after starting and was asked to leave. Bizarre. I'm glad he left because he was being really condescending. I hate that...some people think that just because they're permanent staff they can treat the agency staff like children.

After work I met Becca in Surry Hills! She's back in town after travelling up the coast for over a month. It was so much fun catching up with her. She had some great stories and good travel tips as well. Next week Nathalie comes back to Sydney too! Can't wait to hear all about her tour, for which she was the French translator.

I'm starting to formulate a travel plan in my head. I think I'm going to start off in New Zealand for about 3 weeks starting at the beginning of June. Then I'll be back in Sydney at the end of June for the Coldplay concert (Kate bought tickets before she left NY!). After spending a few days in Sydney, I'll start travelling the rest of Australia, probably starting in Melbourne and making my way over to Adelaide, up to Alice Springs and Uluru, then up to Cairns and down the coast. I hope I can fit it all in. I should have about 5 weeks to do all of the Australia stuff. We shall see...

Easter Weekend

I worked both the best and the worst shifts this weekend. The worst was last night at the Aussie Stadium where I sold beer after beer to rabid rugby fans whilst shivering in my t-shirt because it was about 50 degrees. Oh yeah, did I mention I have a bad cold? Hopefully the paycheck this week will make up for it. Saturday, I worked the big Easter races at the Randwick Racecourse, probably the biggest day for horse racing in Sydney. Everyone gets dolled up in suits and cocktail dresses and the women wear flowers and stupid little hats on their head. So it was a pretty cool shift, and busy...I got to work the bar in the Members' section right next to the racetrack (even though I saw bupkiss of the races). We sold soooooo much champagne (no Kristal, but some Moet and Dom for sure). It was pretty crazy because the bar area was so small and there were a lot of us behind the bar. So lots of tripping over each other and elbowing going on. It was fun because at my station I worked with this guy, Matt, whom I had worked with a couple of times at the Opera House a while ago. We got on really well back then and even went for a drink after work once, but I never saw him after that (except once I ran into him randomly on the street) and didn't think I would until, lo and behold, there he was working behind the very same bar. After our work shift was over, we ended up getting dinner at a Thai restaurant in Newtown, a hip, bohemian, Village-esque neighborhood in Sydney. The food was awesome and so cheap too! Afterwards, we met Adam and his friend Leah at Zanzibar, an ultra-cool Newtown haunt. Sarah and her friends met us there, then we left Adam and Leah to go the Marlborough, where we met J and his friends, and danced to a really good band. It would have been a perfect day had it not been for the cold that suddenly crept up on me. Personally, I blame Jesus (again). If I had been able to go out Friday night, I wouldn't have felt the need to stay out as late on Saturday and get sick like I did. Ah, who am I kidding?

Bad Friday

So let's talk about the fact that I was all set to go out tonight when I discovered that every bar in Sydney closes at 10pm on Good Friday! WTF!!! How dare Jesus ruin my night.

Today I was waiting at the bus stop down the block from the house but, of course because of this damned holiday AGAIN (or perhaps because Sydney buses are crap), I waited for a half hour and no bus came. An elderly man came to wait at the stop too and we exchanged a few pleasantries. He had huge sunglasses on, the kind that cover half your face, a dark suit, a cane, and some kind of cap on his head. He spoke with an unidentifiable (seemed Eastern European) accent. When I remarked on the late bus situation, he said all he had to do was go down the block to the pharmacy to get eye drops. He suggested that while we wait for the bus we get coffee. Imagine, I was actually being picked up by an octogenarian! I'm ashamed to say it, but I did not relish the idea of getting coffee with this strange man, although he seemed harmless. I thanked him kindly, but declined. Then I suggested I walk down to the pharmacy to pick up the eye drops for him. He thanked ME kindly this time, but said he could not let me do that. I insisted, but he said no, I would miss the bus. Rather than stay and keep him company while we both waited for the bus, I decided to walk to the main part of town (just 15 minutes away) and catch a bus there. I said goodbye to the man and went on my way. I was halfway down the street when I realized I really should have stayed with him. Not only out of good samaritanism (because that would have been the right thing to do), but for the prospect of talking with someone who had the potential to be really interesting. I started to feel really bad about leaving and really wished I had stayed, but it was too late. Then I passed the pharmacy and it was closed of course. Dammit Good Friday, you are so not! Now I started to really regret my decision and I realize this sounds kind of nutty, but I felt like a terrible person at that moment. I really hope I see this man again so I have a chance to redeem myself, ask HIM to go for coffee maybe. This seems a tad self-centered though, like who am I to assume this man even gives a shit that I left him there? Anyway, even though I missed out on a potentially interesting conversation (who knows, maybe this guy is a complete bore or maybe he is a terrible person), I'm thinking it would make a great basis for a novel. Sort of a what if situation...what if I had stayed at the bus stop and become friendly with this elderly man? After all, he lives just down the street from me. But how do I prevent a story about a friendship between a young woman and an old man from becoming overly sentimental?

You Can't Always Get What You Want

I just returned from a great evening at Angie's house. She cooked dinner for two friends and me. She made beer bread, which I had never heard of but apparently you use a can of beer in the dough. It was delicious, who would've thought? We also had eggplant lasagna and baked pumpkin. Man, was it good! The girl can cook. Anyway, I can't stress enough how cool her house is (which is really her aunt and uncle's house). There's even a pinball machine downstairs, which we played after dinner. For some reason I did terribly...guess I ain't no Tommy.

So I am super jealous of Angie because, not only did she get to work the Rolling Stones concert Tuesday night at Telstra Stadium, she catered to the actual band!!! No joke...she got to meet the Rolling Stones. Plus, Mick Jagger gave her his juicer (apparently he didn't want it anymore because it had a European plug...dude, ever hear of an adapter?) and she got to take home a bottle of leftover wine. I took pictures of both. But the best story of the evening is that they served kangaroo meat and after Mick went up to get some, he said, and I quote, "Try something new, eat some 'roo!" How amazing is that?! I'm just dying that I didn't get to work there too. Ah well, time to console myself by remembering I'm getting time and a half this weekend for working on a holiday. Maybe Mick'll be at the races...or Keith, I don't discriminate.