Ramblings from Down Under: Catching Up...

Well I guess it has been awhile, time flies when you are having fun…oh wait that is right I was sick.

So it seems that every time I travel for an extended time I get deathly ill (yes I enjoy exaggerating). No exception this time. It really isn’t cold enough here to wear a jacket but the weather changes very quickly. Like one day you might go to work in a tshirt and be too warm but then you come out of work and it is raining and windy and pretty chilly. What this all means is that I deserved the cold I got. I took Friday off from work because I was hoping to stop a doctor visit since I bought bargain insurance. I felt really bad about that because I don’t believe in calling in sick but at least I didn’t have to see a doctor (knock on wood). At any rate I was really sick all weekend and even into the next week. It took an entire week for me to not be “burning up” all of a sudden when over exerting myself (which wasn’t really doing that much as one could imagine). What I have learned is that I hate ginger, never buy cold medicine just because it is on sale, and not all tissues are created equal. Also for the first time ever Flonase let me down… The good news is at least this time around there were people in the same country that cared if I lived or died. April brought in chicken noodle soup, Wendy brought in this awesome tea (with actually medicine in it) called Lemsip, and Angela supplied a bag of chocolate (does she know me or what). I am stocking up on the Lemsip before I go back. So weekend #1 was spent in bed wishing someone would shoot me…

The next week brought a lunch for all of the girls (the ones who wished to go) at work to celebrate Rachel’s birthday. The restaurant was located in Harris Park which is the next station from here but I hadn’t been there before. Harris Park is predominately Indian. I don’t know anything about Indian food so I had Rani order for me. She ordered like half the menu so I could try it. Well, I won’t be going back to have more anytime soon but it was an interesting experience trying everything. How did I know I wouldn’t like it unless I tried it? Besides being hot (spicy) I didn’t like the flavoring. The fermented rice wrap (dosa) was good though. Anyway it was nice to be able to spend time outside of work as a group. Also, I liked that Masuma, Neha, and Rani could explain more about their culture. After the meal we had Lebanese sweets (a Lebanese sweet shop is behind the Indian restaurant) called Baklava. This is a pastry made of layers filled with nuts and held together with some type of syrup. It wasn’t bad. I would eat that again but not seek it out type of thing. Next culinary experience will be Yum Cha…

Not the best quality, I promise we are much more beautiful in real life...hehehe. So around the table starting from the left: Angela, Rebecca, Chrissie, Masuma, Neha, Moi, Wendy, Rani, April, Renee, Rachael, and Rachel's sister with her new nephew (those last two dont work with us).

Last Saturday I went to Liverpool to go secondhand shopping again…I know. Then I met up with April in Auburn. Auburn is predominately Arab. There is a rather large Mosque there that can be seen from the train. She showed me the area and I got to know her a bit better. She is the newest member of my team. We went shopping at Big W and then went back to her flat which is really nice. We talked for a couple more hours about Serendipity Books, the original 21 Jump Street series, and Stephen King books. Then we parted ways.

Last Sunday I went on a Vivid Lights cruise with Rani. It was nice. I was going on it for the Vivid part and Rani went for the food part because she likes “fancy” food. We walked all through Darling Harbour to get there which was nice. There were people doing hula tricks with neon lighted hulas and other various light installations like colored fountains. One thing I thought was pretty neat were these interactive color boards. Basically you could color the windows of a building with whatever color you picked! It was like painting a building! Even better was that there was no line and I played with it for like 10 minutes before someone came up. That never happens here! On the way to the pier we caught the fireworks show and ran into Neha and Rishi which was crazy. Then we set sail so to speak…

This was the building with one of my color schemes on it.

Darling Harbour Fireworks show

It was a seated buffet dinner. There was pasta salad, bread rolls, chicken, beef, roasted potatoes, and a lot of other stuff that I am forgetting. The boat we went on was called The Pontoon. It is a classy boat which means that it is not the party boat. There is an infamous boat in Sydney Harbour that no one ever admits to being on I have heard. The Pontoon has two levels and the dining area is surrounded in glass. I spent most of my time on the upper deck taking pictures. From the boat we could see the Sydney Opera House, Luna Park, and the Harbour Bridge. We could also see some of the installations on land as well. Luna Park wasn’t part of Vivid but I was still excited because I wanted to see it up close lit up and now I have. The Harbour Bridge had lights on one side and then Aboriginal pictures appeared on the other one with words. We also got to literally see how the other half lives. We could actually see into the apartments to know one person was sweeping and the other was having a glass of wine…yep that is not creepy at all. Anyway Rani said that is where the footy players live. It was nice to go on a sitted cruise of the Harbour but it wasn’t the view of Vivid I was looking for…