Dec 31 - Pizza Stress and Fireworks

It's been impossible to sleep in the past couple days, with construction happening across the street at like 7:30 in the morning. So today I rose early again, had some eggs and toast and flipped on the TV to catch my usual programs of Seinfeld and Charlie's Angels. I chatted online with some people on Facebook, read some of Catch 22, did some sit-ups and push-ups and just laid around. I went over to the mall with the locksmith to see about getting another key cut, but they were the only store in the whole mall that was closed. At 3 I had to go chat with the boss at the restaurant, but he wasn't there yet, so I went back at 3:30 and he gave me a speal about not being able to pay much and that he could give me $10/hour as a dishwasher or $12/hour when I helped in the pizza area (keeping in mind that minimum wage here is about $14/hour). I nodded along in agreement and he told me to come at 6 to learn in the pizza area. I put on my best smile and then walked out as my heart sunk. The plan for tonight was to go to the Rocks or Opera House area and watch the 9 and midnight fireworks shows. But I'm a working man now so fun comes at a sacrifice to the job I suppose.

I got an email back from a futon seller who said we could pick it up today, so when Brennan got back we went in search of the apartment to pick it up. We walked and walked and finally came to the right street, but there was no apartment with the number we were given and no phone number to get in touch with the seller. So we walked back home only to find out that there are two Cooper streets within a 1 km radius of each other. Frustration!!! Unfortunately it was too late to walk back again, as I had to go to work. Brennan packed up some drinks, the iPod and a book then headed out to find a spot for the show. I checked my email and saw I had been asked to interview for a job with a promotions company trying to sign people up to Woolworth's loyalty program inside the stores, so I said I'd show up for the interview (scheduled for the 4th) so perhaps I can supplement my minimal dishwashing wage with a real 9-5 job. I trudged into work and had to help the boss as he made pizzas. He is a short-tempered man and got angry with me several times for things like not knowing how to roll the dough with the proper amount of weight on the pin, or not lifting the pizza roller after each slice so the toppings weren't pushed, or not understanding his requests with words like capsicum (red peppers) or docket (bill). The words I wasn't familiar with plus his thick Italian accent made it a struggle. So I was relegated to pizza cutting and then to helping on dishes when it slowed down. Once the place closed up, I was taught how to clean the place, then had a beer with my kitchen coworkers, who are 3 guys from Nepal and one from India. I'm the token white guy. A Canadian girl who bartends said the boss yells at her a lot too because she can't understand him half the time. Alas, I need the money. The boss paid me cash for the first 2 shifts (under the table) and told me to come back Monday or Tuesday to talk about my next shift.

I left then ran full out up to the Kings Cross area and found a good viewing spot about 20 minutes before midnight. The Harbour Bridge had an LED screen that cycled through a check mark, an X, a peace sign and a Red Hot Chili Peppers logo. There was no countdown (that I could see, Brennan said he could see the countdown on the pillars of the bridge but he was waaaaay closer than me...like several kilometers) then fireworks went off at midnight. Oh, happy new year's I guess! The fireworks were pretty expansive, with a ton being launched off the Harbour Bridge, a launch site to the right across the water, and 6 buildings to the left that shot up multiple roman candle type fireworks. Lots of impressive bursts, but it ended after 10 minutes. A bit premature I thought, but not bad overall. I walked back home, and got a kebab and a powerade - great first meal of the new year! Waited in the building entrance for Brennan (who didn't have the building key tonight) and he showed up about 20 minutes after me. He had gone to the Rocks area, watched both fireworks shows, and enjoyed them much more than me. He was so close to the bridge that he felt the major power of the explosions and the dazzling lights of the fireworks. I was probably 2 or 3 KM further away and thus a lot of the sound disapated by the time it got to me (or was less intense at least). He said his walk home was like a mosh pit the whole way, and that he had never seen that many people in one place before in his life. Sounds like I missed out on a cooler experience, but oh well, I still saw the New Year's Eve fireworks in Sydney...check. And then I went to bed, because after all that running and stress at work, I was exhausted.

Dec 30 - Long Walk and JOB

When I got up today, guess what I did? That's right, I looked online for jobs and also for futons. I applied for a couple then read some Catch 22 as well was my new book, "My Columbian Death." After a couple chapters of each, and a bowl of cereal with banana slices in it, I ventured out for a walk. I wandered aimlessly up through the Kings Cross area, down a bunch of streets I hadn't been on before. Eventually I ended up at a harbour with a trail/park system beside it that reminded me of Meewasin. I made my way down to a viewing area of the Harbour Bridge, that was being fenced off for the fireworks tomorrow so they could charge people admission to stand in this prime viewing area. It was smoking hot out today and my t-shirt was a thick cotton, so I was just drenched by this point, so I walked back to the apartment. I chatted on Facebook for awhile and applied for 3 more jobs. Then I went out again and walked to the YHA we had been staying at, and bought an internet card and printed off 25 resumes so I could go hand them out at places. Walked back to the apartment, where Brennan had arrived back from work. I changed into some nicer clothes, then went across the street to talk to the Italian lady who ran the Italian restaurant I had applied at the other day. Turns out the "kitchen-hand" job means I get to wash dishes, but I was very enthusiastic about the opportunity. She reluctantly said I could come back in an hour for a trial shift. Awesome. I went back to the apartment and gobbled down some soup and an english muffin, changed into clothes more suitable for washing dishes and went back to the restaurant. I was trained by the current kitchen-hand and got right into it. Tonight was super busy, with a huge birthday party taking up the whole place and thus lots of food and subsequently, lots of dishes. Trial by fire. One of the highlights of the night was one waiter nearly getting into a fight with an unruly customer. Everyone was stressed with the big group's orders and getting food out on time, but I was just smiling and washing dishes. I worked for 5 and a half hours, then was cut loose for the night. The boss man told me to come back tomorrow at 3 and "we'll have a chat" which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing. Despite just washing/putting away dishes and humming the theme to the Godfather all night, I was sufficiently exhausted by the end of my trial shift. I went home, had a cold shower then went to bed. Oh, actually before I went to bed, I checked my email and I had one back from a guy with a futon for sale in our area of Sydney who said I could pick it up tomorrow. So today ends the search for both a futon and a job! What a successful day. And what a waste of time and money all those resumes proved to be. Weird how it'll often work like that; you go out of your way to spend money on part of the job hunt and end up not needing to. Oh well, no complaints. I may even find another part time job, depending on the hours this one provides (and it will probably be evenings mostly).

Dec 29 - Job Application Spree and Reading in the Park

Got up today and fired up the netbook to search for jobs. This is beginning to become a trend. I applied for 4 jobs on Gumtree; two waiter jobs, a sales job and a hostel cleaning job. Cream of the job crop, no doubt. Then I watched Seinfeld and an episode of Charlie's Angels as I enjoyed a tasty breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, peanut butter toast, an apple, an orange, and a banana. That's what I call a complete breakfast. I walked to a key cutting place to see if I could get another copy of the building key made, but the guy wouldn't cut it and suggested I talk to a locksmith. Deciding to do that later, I walked over to Hyde Park and sat on a bench listening to music and reading Catch 22 for awhile. Once I was sufficiently frustrated with how the plot was progressing, I went back to the apartment. I applied for a job with a men's fashion store called Yd and looked up a locksmith. I dropped a resume at the Italian restaurant across the street and was told to come back tomorrow and talk to the lady who owned the place about a position as a kitchen-hand. So that actually has a little bit of promise, unlike the thirty or so other jobs I applied for this month. I walked over to the locksmith building and struggled to find the place. After asking around, I found the shop (that had a completely different name than the one listed on Google) and it was closed, 45 minutes early. Great. Walked back to the apartment and got a call from a lady about a free futon. We just had to pick it up. However, it was 4 KM away, and Brennan wouldn't walk there and carry it back with me, so I called the lady back and said thanks, but no thanks. So the futon hunt continues. Went for a walk, wandering through the CBD for awhile, then came back to the apartment and made pasta for dinner. Read another Catch 22 chapter, then watched TV. Tonight included How I Met Your Mother, CSI Miami, and Batman Returns (which is probably the most ridiculous Batman ever made). Tomorrow, the job hunt continues and who knows what else.

Dec 28 - Job Search and TV

I got up relatively early today, somewhere in the 10 AM range. Had a shower and a bowl of cereal, then browsed online for jobs. Not any promising new ones, so I took my binder of resumes, put on some nice clothes, and headed out to find some work. I went all around the CBD to different hostels and hotels asking if they were hiring. I handed out a couple resumes, but then I started to get the same answer everywhere: "No, we're not hiring, but you can leave a resume if you want." Well I don't have an unlimited supply of resumes and it's a big hassle to print more off (walk all the way to the YHA, buy internet time, download my resume files from my email, print them via the front desk, pay for them, borrow a stapler to put them together). So after a few places said no jobs were open, I went back to the apartment and called every hostel within a reasonable distance from here. None are hiring. I called all the travel places that have backpackers hassle people on the sidewalk and hand out flyers with travel deals. Nothing with them either, though I emailed my resume to one company. So, rejected and dejected, I took a break from the job hunt for a bit. I looked up locksmiths (as we have two keys to the apartment but only one key for the outside building door) and wrote down 3 addresses nearby. I walked to all three and found that one didn't exist, and two were closed. This was becoming a frustrating day in a hurry, and I returned to the apartment. I then called every locksmith and key-cutting place in the whole downtown region of Sydney and not a single one was open. Great, that will have to wait I suppose. I changed to shorts since it had gotten warm out and walked to the grocery store. Picked up a big pack of bottled water, and some other little things, then walked them back to the apartment. This had finally given me the correct change to do laundry, so I grabbed all the dirty stuff and the sheets and pillowcases for the bed and tossed them all in the laundry. There is only one garbage can in the place (presently in the kitchen) and I figured one for the bathroom was necessary, so I went to find one at a dollar store. However, this was a huge scam of a dollar store and the smallest trash can (that was like 2 litres capacity) was $8. So I bought some tupperware (was also on the shopping list) and went to Woolworth's to try and find one. The trash cans were bigger there, but still like $15, so I opted for a big 9 litre pail that was $1.15. Much more reasonably priced. I also picked up an Air Wick thing to add some nice ambiance to the apartment and prevent the funky smell of the hall from creeping in.

As I walked out of the store, B called and had just gotten off work. I was only a block from his office, so I went there and we went to an electronics store to find some tv accessories. But the store had closed 45 minutes early, so we tried and second (which didn't have what we needed) and a third that had the right stuff. We bought a digital cable box and an antenna and went back to the apartment and set them up. I am happy to report that we are now the happy viewers of several free Australian TV channels. A lot of the programming is Australian (like the news) but there are plenty of American shows as well. Tonight we watched How I Met Your Mother as we ate our dinner of burgers, then a game show, a movie called Tomcats and South Park to round out the night. Brennan reckons we will be reading significantly less now that we have tv to watch. I think he's right. Got the laundry out and put sheets on the bed (something it was lacking last night, therefore requiring the second use of sleeping sacks - the first being on Fraser Island). We've been replying to postings for futons and hideabeds, but no responses back yet. Before bed I applied for a sales job and an editorial intern position, both with a magazine here called BBM. So hopefully I can meet with them in the coming days. This whole unemployment thing has lost its charm.

Dec 27 - Moving Day and Heaps of Groceries

Got up just after 7 AM this morning and watched the Russia vs. Canada world junior hockey game. Terribly sloppy play by the Canadians for most of the game and I think they were lucky to come away victorious. Brennan had to leave after the first period because he has the unfortunate responsibility of a job. I am free from such obligations still, so I watched the whole game while enjoying some toast. Then I spent about an hour on Amazon.ca adding books to my wishlist that I had been meaning to read over the last couple of years. I had a list, so I went through it and added the books to my Amazon wishlist, so that I can keep track of them and buy them when I get home. But anyone who has used Amazon before knows one book leads to 4 more recommendations and thus an hour can easily be spent browsing. Then I had to check out and store mine and Brennan's luggage in lockers at the hostel. It had been raining hard as B left for work and was still drizzling enough to warrant a raincoat when I left to walk to the apartment. I didn't bring any backpacks because i wasn't sure if we were in fact getting to move in right now, plus it was raining and it would have soaked our stuff. So I walked there and met the landlady and paid her two weeks' rent and the rest of the deposit/bond and got the keys. The place is all ours now. She gave me a tour of the facilities (laundry, garbage, etc) then left. I left shortly after and walked back to the hostel. I got Brennan's two backpacks and walked back to the apartment with them. On the way I saw three police officers escorting a man (after confiscating his backpack) to the police station and he had a green parrot on his shoulder that he kept nuzzling with his nose. Such a bizarre sight. I dropped off Brennan's bags at the apartment then walked back to the hostel and picked up my bags. I stopped at a discount bookstore before returning to the apartment and bought a book (yes, another book!) that I had on my list but couldn't find on Amazon this morning. Just my luck, it was there for the low price of $7.75. I bought it then hiked to the apartment again then sat down once I arrived, exhausted from walking the trip 3 times, two of which I wore very heavy backpacks. After a stretch and a rest, I unpacked my stuff into the nightstand and closet, put our remaining food in the kitchen, etc. Killed a massive huntsman spider in the bathroom, then searched the rest of the place top to bottom for any other spiders. All clear. In celebration of a successful move from the YHA to the apartment, I walked through Hyde Park straight to Yummy's for a kebab. What a succulent reward for a job well done.

Brennan finished work and came to the apartment (which is closer to his work than the YHA was) and unpacked his stuff. I dropped off a resume at a restaurant across the street from the apartment who have a sign up requiring a waitperson. But the manager wasn't there and there were only Asian ladies working, so I don't feel overly confident of my chances at that one. With that out of the way, we headed to Coles to stock up on groceries for the week. And did we ever stock up! Four baskets, all overflowing with groceries. $150 dollars later and we were set. The cashier wasn't very good at bagging though and only put a couple items in each bag, so we had to carry like 25 bags home. The walk is a couple kilometers and our arms and hands were killing us when we came across a ditched shopping cart near an alley. Jackpot. Loaded it up and pushed it home. We unloaded our stuff and an older guy by our building says "I assume you're bringing that trolley back when you're done with it." So after we brought the groceries up, Brennan pushed it back to the alley where it apparently belongs. Dinner tonight consisted of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches (tasty as always). Then we watched some Trailer Park Boys on the laptop since our TV doesn't work. I'm going to go get a digital box and/or rabbit ears for it tomorrow so that we can pick up the 12-ish free channels broadcast in Australia. I read the first couple chapters of Catch 22 and so concluded the night. Brennan works again tomorrow and I'm going to go to all the hostels and hotels to apply in person, as well as any cafes or restaurants I pass along the way.

Dec 26 - Lots of Walking and Job Searching

The plan was to wake up early and hit the job trail hard today. Well, 9 am rolled around and my alarm went off and I woke up to pouring rain and me being very much still sleepy. So I went back to sleep til 11. Then I got up and walked around the downtown to find places to apply to. I didn't see any that I liked or that were overtly needing employees or that I was qualified for (lots of bars and coffee shops that require special training courses). So I walked back to the hostel, enjoying a kebab on the way back. Sat around a bit, then put on shorts and a t-shirt because it's really hot out and my pants and long-sleeved dress shirt were not conducive to the heat. Then I walked over to Market City with the plan to buy a binder to put resumes in for my job search. I got there and browsed around and it was super busy with frenzied boxing day mall patrons. I bought a nice striped red/white polo to wear when looking for work (less casual than a t-shirt but still cool enough to wear on a hot Sydney day). It looks a bit like a Where's Waldo shirt, but it fits good and was only $15, so I tossed it on and walked back to the hostel. I was steps away from my room when I remembered I still need the binder. Awwwww. So I put my other shirt in the room and walked to Coles supermarket and bought a little clipboard/binder thing and walked back to the hostel (That makes 3 return trips down essentially the same path today thus far). I printed out a bunch of resumes in three different formats: one for cooking jobs, one for retail/clothing store jobs, and one for more professional jobs. Then I put them in my new binder and walked over to the area where the new apartment is. I looked around a bunch of streets there at a bunch of different businesses. The problem is that almost all of them are closed for the holidays and many don't reopen until well into the new year. So I marked down a few that sounded promising and walked back to the hostel. Now feeling hungry, Brennan and I walked to Coles and picked up pasta/sauce/canned corn and peas mixture for dinner. Walked back to the hostel (That's 5 times for me today, if you were counting) and cooked it all up, along with 2 burgers we had left in the fridge. Full to the brim and spent the rest of the night surfing the internet (I even applied for an office job doing inventory management). I took a break to go out in the pouring rain and get money for tomorrow (Brennan had gotten money out when we went to Coles) . We need to pay the rest of our apartment deposit ($400) and the first two weeks' rent ($900). Got a text from the landlady tonight saying the old tenants would be out at 11 AM tomorrow, so that's when we could move in. Brennan will be working though, so I'll have to go over and clear up all the details and bring over our backpacks to our new home. Pretty excited to have our own place to call home after all this time in hostels. Now there won't ever be a situation where there aren't any clean pots available in the kitchen or there isn't any space in the fridge for our food. The only thing I need to do now is get a job (easier said than done) and we'll both be set.

Dec 25 - Apartment and Christmas on the Beach

Got up around 11 today (hey, the sleep-in is justified, we were up til nearly 3 last night with church and watching the light show). Put on some presentable clothes and walked over to Riley Street to meet the lady who was showing us the apartment. She met us there with her boyfriend and they took us up to the apartment on the 2nd floor. The building looks like an apartment on 7th street, but it`s in a decent neighborhood that's also quiet and centrally located, so overall not bad. The apartment itself looks nice and is...cozy...in that it's a studio apartment of maybe 400 square feet including the kitchen and bathroom. The bed is in the living room (the only room, really) with a little kitchen to the side with a fridge and sink and stove/oven and a little bathroom with a shower and toilet and sink. We went downstairs and signed a little rental agreement and forked over a $200 deposit. We get to go back on Monday in the afternoon to take over the place and need to bring the rest of the $600 deposit, plus the first two weeks' rent (at $450 for the first two weeks, then $420 for the remaining weeks). So we're going to fork over a big chunk of change on Monday and thus I need a job even worse than before.

We walked back to the hostel and started to figure out what to do for accommodation for the 26th, as we don't get the apartment til the 27th. I booked us into a new hostel via hostelworld, but then we checked at the desk here and they have space tomorrow (albeit at a higher rate than the $30/night we pay now) so we booked that because it's easier and cancelled the other reservation (thereby forfeiting the $5 deposit). Easier to just move once instead of twice. Packed up our beach stuff, then walked to Hyde Park and took the 333 to Bondi. The beach was hopping today (they claim Christmas brings over 40,000 people but there was maybe half that) and we plopped down close to the water amidst the Christmas revelers. It seemed like half the beach were wearing santa hats. Christmas seems like New Year's Eve over here; everyone gets dressed up in some type of festive outfit (mostly santa hats or santa suits) and wanders around in it all day. I headed for the waves quite quickly as I tend to do at Bondi and spent a little over an hour in the water, but it wasn't much fun today. There were significantly more people in the tiny flagged off swim area in the water, there was a ton of seaweed and crap floating in the water, and the waves weren't very big or powerful (couldn't even body surf them). Thus, before long I was back on the beach and reading. Brennan and I each did a walk of the beach and some reading. Stayed on the beach til nearly 7, then took a bus back to the hostel. For dinner, we made grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato (they pronounce it toe-mah-toe rather than toe-may-toe) soup. Not the most festive of meals, but last night's supper was pretty epic. I finished my Craig Ferguson book tonight and I'm going to tackle Catch 22 next. But I'll take a break for a couple days first. Brennan took a nap and I walked back to the Cathedal we were at last night. I watched and filmed all the patterns projected onto the church (which I'll post on Facebook) then went back to the hostel. Split a pack of Tim Tams for dessert as I browsed for jobs on Gumtree (emailed one guy who needed painters). Tomorrow I'm going to print off a big stack of resumes and hand them out at places until I get a job somewhere...anywhere.

Dec 24 - The Hunt for Housing and Midnight Mass

Brennan headed off the work shortly after 8 this morning (he started at 9 but it's a bit of a walk and he wanted to be early) while I got to sleep a couple hours longer. I got up and started looking online for housing and emailed a couple people about ads they posted. Took a break and had some grilled cheese sandwiches with bbq sauce for dipping and an apple for lunch. Then I figured I'd try to find some place that was hiring and go talk to them. So I put on my nice clothes and fancy new shoes and walked over to Market City and another mall afterwards. There were no new places hiring and a couple I had applied to no longer have signs in their windows. Headed back to the hostel and called about a couple apartments; one ended up being unfurnished, so it was a bust, while another was really nice but there was no answer, so I left a message. A third place looks decent and I got ahold of the lady, who arranged for us to view it tomorrow at noon. Finally a bit of success in the accommodation search. I went out again and transferred money to my NAB account in case we have to pay deposits for apartments, then went back to the hostel, where Brennan had arrived home from work. He said it was easy work (entering invoices into a database) but a bit dull, as you can imagine with the description of the job. We headed over to Coles and got our Christmas meal purchased, then brought it back and got to cooking. What ensued was easily the best meal we have had the whole trip. BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn on the cob and pavlova cake with whipped cream in a can and fresh kiwis and canned mangoes to go on top. As the potatoes were cooking, we actually realized we had forgotten about gravy (and what Christmas meal is complete without it) so Brennan went off to buy some. He came back surprisingly fast and said "Just as I walked out the door I had the best idea...KFC gravy!" He opened a bag with 2 big vats of the delicious brown gold and it made a perfect companion to our chicken and potatoes. We ate the whole meal between the two of us, every last bit, and we were both as uncomfortably full as we were after the Maori cultural show feast in Rotorua. But this was even better tasting. Cleaned up and sat in the room reading and surfing the web while allowing the food to digest very slowly.

After a couple hours, we headed over to the massive St. Mary's Cathedral, which is on the edge of Hyde Park in the middle of the city. It's Christmas eve, so fittingly we had to go to midnight mass. We showed up at about 11 PM and the place was PACKED. Standing room only is an understatement. We weaved our way over to the side wall as far back as a person could go and leaned against the last bit of wall space available (well against a sign and a pillar actually). From here, however, we couldn't see the altar or priests due to huge stone pillars that ran the length of the processional aisle on either side of it. But there were some plasma TVs on the pillars with a video feed of the front, so we could sort of see what was going on. From 11 to 12, this big procession of choirboys marched through the church singing carols along with the pipe organ. Unfortunately, the organ almost entirely drowned out the singers (who had no mics) and they sounded creepy anyways, with sort of a gregorian chant style. Some of the classic carols were sung by the public in attendance oddly as well, with different timing and melodies. So after an hour of this, there was a huge procession in of all the singers, then the priest, a priest from Toronto, a priest from Scranton (like the Office haha), the bishop and a Cardinal. I think the Cardinal said mass, but I can't be sure as there were a lot of old dudes in white robes and big hats. The mass was very solemn, and some of the singing was in Latin. The Gospel was sung, in its entirety, by a squeaky-voiced priest who sounded like he was going through puberty. It was all Brennan and I could do not to burst out laughing, and I at least was very, very close to losing it. The homily reminded me of a speech from a general, with the Cardinal or Bishop of whoever did the homily calling Catholics to arms and going over how our religion was faring in a variety of developing countries and how we were better than other religions and stuff. Was very weird and a bit awkward. The mass ended after one and a half hours, so in total, we had been standing or sitting on the granite floor for two and a half hours and were quite thrilled to leave. It was an odd crowd inside, with many people seeming like they were there simply for the novelty of it. People would be taking photos during the mass and talking on the phone and lots of people left at various stages of the mass. Part time Catholics (or not Catholics at all, more likely). Outside, the public was treated to an amazing light show projected onto the church that was so detailed and designed to highlight specific features of the massive cathedral. It was utterly breathtaking and astounding. We looked up at it for close to an hour before returning to the hostel and hitting the hay. Merry Christmas from sunny Australia.

Dec 23 - Applying for Jobs and Looking for Housing

Got up and at em before noon today, which in itself is something to be proud of. I finished reading my Bill Shatner biography book while Brennan surfed the web looking for someplace we could stay once we have to check out of our hostel on Boxing Day. Any hostel in Sydney has a day or two when they're full (usually the 31st and 1st) and even Katoomba hostels are filling up. So we started looking at Gumtree (like Kijiji) for listings of houses/apartments/flats being rented out or people looking to share. Most were swamped with views, though we did email a couple people with expressions of interest. We both finished off our respective boxes of cereal for breakfast/lunch, I made a couple calls home to chat with the family before Christmas and Brennan sent an email home too I think. When I got back to the room, Brennan had been talking to a guy at the job placement agency, who arranged a tryout of sorts for Brennan doing a data processing job. The call from this guy had actually woken us this morning now that I think about it, then he called again later with details. Anyways, as Brennan got that sorted out on the phone, I hopped on the internet and started applying for the jobs I had found in my searching last night. I spent a couple hours applying for 6 jobs in total; 3 at hotels and 3 in retail. The one shoe store job required me to include a link to a website that showed my personality. I fretted about it for awhile then decided to put in the link to my Flickr photo page. Myer is a department store and had a long process of determining my skills and fit with their organization, while Ben and Jerry's was a real quick, single form submission. In terms of hotels, I did two applications for the Accor group of hotels, namely Novotel and Mercure. I had to make a profile and paste in bits of my resume individually for those, so they took a decent amount of time also. But by far, the most lengthy application was for Marriott hotel. I had to go through points of each section of my resume and take a multiple choice test about how I would handle different hotel situations (all of which I had encountered before at the Radission luckily!) and answer questions to determine my fit with the company. Way way way too intensive of a process for every potential applicant. Sure, it may weed out the good from the incapable, but imagine the hours wasted having to review 35 pages of stuff for every applicant for every position. Crazy. Anyways, Brennan had lined up an apartment we could view that was open to stay in from the 23rd til Jan. 3rd, but just before we went to go see it, the girl said she had leased it already so not to bother. People amaze me every day.

Shortly after 5, Brennan got dressed up in his fancy clothes and walked over to his typing test for this data entry job. I continued to look for places to live. I had burgers while he was gone, then he had burgers when he got back. Burgers just aren't the same when they're pan-fried... Apparently the test/interview thing went well and he starts work tomorrow at 9 AM. I get to sleep in and continue to be unemployed. Each role has its perks. I cracked open my next book, a Craig Ferguson biography (I'm on a biographical spree presently) and Brennan read a bit of Robinson Crusoe and looked for apartments. Eventually we had been inside for too long and went out for a walk to Darling Harbour to hopefully glean some Christmas spirit. We headed over and there were a few people out and about, but it was relatively quiet and Christmas cheer was noticeably absent. It's just not the same here. Wandered around the city for awhile then headed back to the hostel. On the way we picked up breakfast for tomorrow. Chocolate milk and cereal for B, strawberry milk and ingredients for grilled cheese sandwiches for me. It still doesn't feel right making a grilled cheese with white cheddar cheese (they have no orange cheddar cheese slices here) but it'll have to do. Read a bit more and called it a night. One of us has to get up early tomorrow and put some food on the table.

Dec 22 - Job Hunt Journey

Today involved sleeping until about 1 pm. Got a terrible sleep for some reason and had to sleep in to make up for it. Our Canadian roommate left this morning so Brennan and I have the room to ourselves now. When our roomie left, he gave me a book that he had finished reading; The Snowball; Warren Buffet and the Business of Life, which is exactly 707 pages. So that should keep me busy reading after I finish the Shatner and Ferguson biographies. Brennan ate some cereal but I opted out. We headed over to Starbucks for a couple regular North American style coffees and to read the jobs section of the paper. The coffee wasn't great - something like what you would find at a 7-11 or truck stop, but it was regular filter coffee, none of this espresso/mochiato/americano whatever stuff they drink here, so it was a nice touch of home style caffeine. The jobs in the paper ended up being a pretty poor selection, so after we downed our coffee we wandered to a mall and browsed around to see if anyone was hiring. Brennan bought a copy of Robinson Crusoe to read (he had wanted it for a long time apparently) so that will be his next book once he finished Catch 22. Went back to the hostel to read and use the internet and job search a bit more. Then for supper we cooked up a pack of hotdog-ish sausages we got at Coles the other day. Added some potato chips and carrots and boom, we had ourselves a meal. The sausages were...edible..still probably the closest thing we've found to a hotdog since being here. Brennan went back to reading and I went for a walk. The walk turned into a 2 hour journey all the way to the harbour, and I wrote down names of stores along the way that would be good to apply to and were big enough to have a website. I got a 4 page (little travel diary-sized pages, mind you) list of stuff by the time I finished. From the harbour I walked to The Rocks area, which is trendy with lots of little shops and bistros and cafes, etc. Then I sort of got lost in some residential area near there for a bit before finding my way back into the city and walking back to the hostel. Brennan was still motoring away at his book, so I hopped on the Internet and went through the careers section of every single place on the list I had made tonight. This led to surprisingly few job openings and even less that I could qualify for. I did find a couple reservations and front desk jobs at a couple different hotel chains in Sydney and a couple shoe and apparel stores had open job application submission forms. So tomorrow I'll tweak the resume and fire it off for all the open positions. Might go for a walk through a couple other areas of Sydney too, to see about jobs there. We have to check out of our hostel on the 26th (literal translation of boxing day) and almost all hostels in Sydney are full until after the new year. The ones that are available are charging outrageous rates like $97/night for a 10-share dorm room. So we'll probably have to relocate to Katoomba, which is a 2-hour train ride away (and the rates are $30/night) for like 10 days. This makes finding and getting a job in Sydney an issue if we have to spend 4 hours on the train everyday to get to/from it. It's going to be an interesting end of 2010/beginning of 2011...

Dec 21 - Bondi and Burgers

Woke up at a reasonable hour today, ate breakfast and read a bit. Brennan slept in later due to not getting a good sleep during the night. So once he was up and had eaten, we walked over to the Hyde Park bus stop, picked up a couple bus tickets at a convenience store, and took the 333 to Bondi beach. Got off the bus and set up shop at our usual spot down from the main stairs, between the yellow/red swim flags. B immediately tossed on the iPod and napped, but I headed straight for the water. Well, down the beach actually. I wanted to surf I had decided, so I walked over to the northern end of Bondi, where there were surfing students and an instructor in the water. I stood on the beach and watched them for a good 20 minutes. And I decided that looked incredibly boring. They take these huge foam boards a few feet out into the ocean and try to stand up and ride whitewash. And the boards are too big and cumbersome to really go ride the bigger waves out further. Catch 22. If I'm surfing I want to be shredding nice 6 or 7 foot waves on a fiberglass board. I realize this is no easy feat and requires time spent on the learner boards and lame waves. But I don't want to put in the time on the beginner stuff. So I just won't surf. Or I'll need to find someone who will buy a good board with me and go out there and learn on the bigger waves. Unfortunately, that person is not Brennan. He had learned to surf in Hawaii on little waves and didn't find it thrilling, so he said enough of that. Fair enough, I didn't want to waste time moving at 5 km/hr for 10 feet after spending 5 minutes getting into position either. So I went back to the flagged off swim area and jumped over, dived under and body surfed waves. There's something amazingly fun and magical about being out the ocean on a sunny summer day, floating around or playing in the waves. I do it for hours every time I go to the beach here. Brennan joined me in the water after a couple hours to toss around the skim ball, but he wasn't feeling it, so he went back to lay on the beach and I resumed my wave jumping. I hopped my way out a ways to where the water was deeper than me, so I couldn't touch. There were a few other Aussie guys out as far as me and farther, so it wasn't dangerous or anything. Here you could float up and over big waves, that would always crash before they got further in where the majority of the people in the water were. I spent a good hour or two treading water, swimming, riding waves and going over and under them, then swam back to shore. Really good workout and tuckered me out sufficiently. Zipped over to McDonald's and had a meal, then went back and did the cliche move of reading on the beach. Once I was fully dry, we went and got a return bus ticket and rode the 333 back to Hyde Park, then walked back to the hostel.

On the way back to the hostel, we stopped at Coles and picked up some chips and pop and cake to go with dinner tonight. Back at the YHA, we got out the stuff for dinner and got to work right away. The kitchen was very busy because it was taco night or something, but we had a nice pack of burgers ready to cook. Brennan fried up the burgs in a pan (the lack of oven or BBQ is annoying) and I did up some carrots and we chowed down on that for dinner, with chocolate cake for dessert. Delicious. Went back to the room and read for a couple hours after that before bed. Half done my second book already, which I suppose is a testament to the lack of work and activities recently. Brennan hasn't heard back about a job from his interview yesterday and I got no call-backs today from the retail places I applied to either. It's starting to get a bit ridiculous, like will McDonald's tell us we're not qualified enough or turn us away because we're from Canada? Get your act together Australia, this is just plain dumb.

Dec 20 - Interview for Brennan and Applications for Me

This morning Brennan had an interview for an accounting job. As a show of solidarity, I slept until he returned from it. Apparently it went quite well, with the interviewer taking him around to talk to several people in the office. Now he gets to play the waiting game to see if he gets the job. Hopefully he is successful, because someone has to put food on this table and it sure isn't me yet. I read some more of my book and got out of bed well before noon for some cereal and a banana. I evidently still require some form of employment, and the online applications for marketing and office work have not been successful in any manner. So I changed my strategy and figured I'd go see if there were retail stores in the downtown malls that were hiring. I walked over to market city and wandered around and saw that a fancy dress clothes store called Politix had a sign up needing a sales associate. I went in and asked about it and the guy said "bring me a resume and the job is yours." Cool, I said, I'm on a working holiday visa, is that alright? "Oh, I dunno then, you'll have to go talk to the boss at the Pitt Street location about it then." Works for me, I'll head that way. It seems like people here are so anti-traveler or anti-foreigner that as soon as they realize you aren't an Aussie, it's like get the hell out of my store. Seems really weird, because I can't imagine any employer in Canada firstly even asking if someone is a citizen, and secondly, being rude to them and immediately disqualifying them from a job simply because of that. Such a different mindset over here. Regardless, I marked it down in my notebook and moved onto the next mall, where I found a semi-casual, semi-dressy clothing place called Marc's and a Hugo Boss store that both had signs in the window needing workers. So I marked down all these places and marched back to the hostel. Tried on my new shoes again and decided they were too small when I'm wearing socks. So I ventured out over to Market City to see if they would exchange them for a larger size. They had no issues and I brought my new size 11 shoes back to the hostel, which didn't crunch my toes inside them. I doctored up the resume to target clothing store jobs, printed off three copies and off I went again. Dropped off resumes at Marc's and Hugo Boss to the people working (neither of the managers were in) and was promised that they would pass along my resume to the bosses tomorrow. Then I went to search out the Pitt Street Politix store. Found one in the Westfield mall and told the girl I was told to come talk to the person here by the people at the other store. She asked me a few questions and then told me she didn't do hiring and to go to another Politix store in the adjacent mall to talk to the boss. So I used her vague directions and wandered around until I found the other store. I went in to ask for the boss and was informed he had left for the day. The girl asked me bluntly if I had retail experience. I said yes. She asked where. I said Canada. She said "ohhhh, I see. I'll pass the resume along to the boss...thanks for coming in." Great, thanks for your time (sarcasm but I sounded sincere) and walked back to the hostel. So three applications, none of which seemed all that promising.

Had a kebab on the way back that was so delicious and satisfying since I hadn't eaten anything besides the cereal this morning. Went to a discount bookstore by the hostel and picked up two new books: the autobiographies of William Shatner and Craig Ferguson. Read a bit more of my first book and chatted with our Canadian roomie, then went for groceries. B had a kebab for supper on the way and we picked up a decent little selection of lunch and supper foods that should last a few days. Got back, put away the food and I finally finished my book (victory!). Killed some time and hung around and listened to our other roomie (a 48 year old lawyer also from Canada but living in Australia) talk about stuff for a while like to go work in a mine or pick fruit because this and that and such. And he rambled on about taxation and stuff until we all lost interest and then he left to go check out the common room. Read a bit of each of my new books, neither of which seem to be written with the same level as the Chili Peppers book (probably because it was a story told by one of today's best lyricists instead of actors or comedians) but these look like they could have some good humour in them at least (whereas Scar Tissue was fairly dark). The forecast for tomorrow is sunny and 26 (feel free to hate us now) so we plan on going to Bondi beach. I may even learn to surf. We'll see how to waves are breaking.

Dec 19 - Books and Church

Woke up to the alarm at 10 AM, shut it off and slept til past noon. The past few nights, both Brennan and I haven't gotten to sleep til 2 or 3 AM due to not being tired enough, so then we sleep in, which makes it hard to get to sleep early again. Crappy cycle, but we have been getting more sleep than we have become accustomed to in the past three months, so it's nice to be able to catch up after many busy days in the course of our travels. Checked the forecast and it wasn't hot and due to rain today, so I scrapped the surfing initiative. One day this week I plan on going for sure, but some research as to days with good waves and which company to use, etc. will be required first. After showering and enjoying a breakfast of eggs, toast/jam and cereal, it was back to the room. Brennan spent time online and I crushed a couple hundred pages of my book. This is perhaps why I don't read often, because when I get into a book, I don't really put it down til it's done, and I do nothing during the course of this reading session. Anyways, read and surfed the web and such til just after 5, then we walked over to a huge cathedral style church by Hyde Park downtown for mass. The church was enormous and so elaborate inside, moreso than any church I'd seen before. We sat and waited for mass to begin, which was done by the bishop, who was old and monotone and his sermon was simply him explaining the facts of the Christmas narrative. Yawn. Went for some food after; Brennan opted for Subway while I was craving a kebab, so I went that route. Then we headed back to the hostel and read and went on the internet some more. I got into looking for jobs and wrote a whole new cover letter for one position from scratch, which is so hard to get motivated for when you've got a good generic CV situation. When I hit the apply button, it said the job was no longer available. What a waste of my time. Then I wrote another new cover letter for an executive assistant postion with the organization that runs Earth Hour. I took a whole new approach to my style of writing and my tone of the letter, sort of expressing my desire to be a part of something so important and dedicated to changing the world. We shall see what the results are. Tomorrow I might go through the big mall in Sydney and check with each retailer if they can hire on another employee. If I could just get an interview, I know I'd have any job I applied for, but getting interviews is proving to be quite a challenge. I spent a couple hours at the end of tonight editing my blog posts for grammar and spelling issues and by downloading some new music on the Global Gossip connection (anonymity works great when pirating music). I want to put all my blog posts and the less artistic, but more fun photos of the trip into a book via Blurb, so I'll whittle away at that in the coming days.

Dec 18 - Clothes Shopping and Reading

Woke up at 1:30 PM today, wow, should probably set an alarm. Got up and showered and dressed and surveyed the food situation. Starting to run low on groceries so we opted for a kebab at Yummy's, which was delicious as per usual. B got a call yesterday about an interview for an accounting job on Monday, so he needed to get dress shoes and pants. I tagged along and we headed to Market City, which is adjacent to Paddy's Markets, but is actually a mall with legitimate retailers, albeit often discount ones. Came across a shoe store having a sale of buy one pair, get 50% off the 2nd pair, so after he picked a pair, I chose a pair as well. We both got black loafer style dress shoes, mine having a bit more stitching and shininess to them than Brennan's. He picked up pants at a dress clothes store that had surprisingly affordable prices and I tried on some dress shirts but didn't like how they looked, so I left that store empty-handed. Probably for the best anyways, as I don't have any interviews, let alone knowing if I'll even be working in a job I have to dress fancy for and I already have an extra pair of shoes recently purchased. On the way back to the hostel we see a shop having a going-out-of-business sale and they have shoes that look just like ours for even cheaper, but we shrugged it off, not wanting to have to return ours and re-buy new shoes to save a few bucks. Our shoes only ended up being about $40 per pair anyhow.

Back at the hostel I spent some time looking for retail jobs online, but there weren't many leads and I think I may have to just go in person to random places and ask if they're hiring. Did some reading; Catch 22 for Brennan and Scar Tissue for me before wandering to the kitchen for supper. Made up dinners of soup, corn niblets, pasta and toast, which was sort of everything we had left. Read some more after dinner then went for a Krispy Kreme dessert snack. Learned that they have no loyalty card program (at that store anyways) which was disappointing, but we felt better after eating some original glazed. Stopped at Cole's supermarket after that and got some fruit and cereal and milk for breakfast tomorrow, then went back to the hostel and tossed our stuff in the fridges and on the food shelves. Then read for probably 2 or 3 hours after that. I'm starting to understand how people can really get into reading and spend a lot of time doing it at the beach, at home, etc. Tomorrow I want to go to Bondi and get some surfing lessons, provided the waves are cooperating. We're thinking of attending church in the morning also, so it should be a busy day. I really need to find myself a job and therefore attain some interviews, so I'll probably put some time into that tomorrow as well.

Dec 17 - Job Agencies and Tron 3D

Today, we decided to be proactive and visit Hays job recruitment agency in person, dressed nicely, with resumes in hand to plead our case. After a tasty brunch of toast, eggs and soup, we printed off a couple resumes and were on our way. Earlier this week, we had emailed our stuff to the Hays contact person as requested, and didn't ever hear back. Then we called a couple times, and apparently she was on the phone or in a meeting all the time and would return our call when she was done. But she never returned our calls. So with a little frustration and a new assertive plan, we walked over to the Hays building and into the office. It's a weird office in that there is no reception, just a couple chairs and a small table with business cards. Just like the first time we went in there, someone immediately came out from behind a closed door and asked what we were doing there and what we wanted in an annoyed manner. We explained we wanted to speak with Lorraine and that no, we didn't have an appointment, so the girl went to the back and got Lorraine. She came out and was equally as short and mildly annoyed. Always a good start to any meeting. We explained our situation and that we wanted jobs and had tried unsuccessfully to get in touch with her before. She looked at Brennan's CV and said she would give it to a colleague who dealt with the accounting field. She looked at mine, got into a weird discussion about me doing work for the Edwards School of Business and told me she didn't deal with education jobs and to email someone different in the office. Unable to explain or protest, we stood there as she bid us adieu and we shrugged and went down the elevator and back outside. Not really what we had in mind when we set out this morning. So we hiked a number of blocks to a second job placement agency. Went in and again, no reception. We had to use a phone in the hallway and dial a random employee's extension and ask if we could talk to them about jobs. Eventually a lady came out and directed us into a boardroom. She talked to Brennan mostly, as he had applied for a couple accounting jobs through this agency earlier in the week. I wasn't as lucky, however, since their site didn't have any marketing or admin jobs listed. So she said she would pass along Brennan's info to one of their partner companies that they do hiring for and that I could email my resume too if I wanted. Went back outside and walked back to the hostel, stopping for Starbucks on our way. At this point I was extremely frustrated with the whole job scenario and spent a couple hours reading in the room. Checked for more jobs on various sites for awhile after to no avail and called it quits to go eat supper. Brennan had cooked up some pasta and I heated up some niblet corn and we chowed down on that.

Killed some more time on the internet and then walked over to the Darling Harbour IMAX theatre to watch a movie. This particular IMAX theatre is the largest movie screen in the world apparently. We bought some $28 tickets to Tron 3D, added a popcorn/drink combo each and rolled into the theatre. Movie theatres assign seating on tickets here, so you have to sit in a specific row and seat, at least if the movie is close to full. The 3D glasses they use are much bigger than the ones back home, and resembled big sunglasses or ski goggles, but did the trick nicely. But to my disappointment, despite the enormous screen in front of us, not all of it was used. A rectangle on the big wall had the movie projected onto it, but there was a huge border around it (like 30 feet wide all around the screen) so in actuality, the viewing area was probably the same size or maybe a bit smaller than a screen at Galaxy Cinemas. Regardless, the movie was pretty entertaining, with some excellent 3D going on. The one issue I had was that after guzzling the pop, I had to pee so so so bad about an hour in. Not wanting to miss any key plot points I held it in like a trooper, but when the movie finished it felt like my bladder was about to burst. I rushed for the bathroom (along with about 30 other people) and had to wait in line before I could be relieved. Luckily, due to people having self-conscious issues, I got to use the urinal a lot quicker than expected, as several waited for the privacy of a stall. Walked back to the hostel through very busy Friday night crowds. There were even more people out and about than normal due to a Bon Jovi concert tonight that let out just before our movie. Read some more and listened to music, then called it a day.

Dec 16 - Still No Jobs and a Brief Venture Outdoors

Got up late today and checked the email accounts. No word from any jobs yet. Cooking breakfast seemed a daunting task, so we walked to get a kebab from a place we hadn't tried yet (with pretty much one on every block there are plenty to choose from). This one was decent, but not as good as Yummy's. Walked over to Paddy's market afterwards because Brennan wanted to get a knock-off Lacoste shirt to wear for interviews, etc. I tried on one but didn't like the fit or material, but Brennan got a navy one with white stripes for $25. As we left he noticed that none of the words on the tag were spelled correctly and the lines looked like they were painted on. You get what you pay for, I suppose. Stopped in at a bookstore and spent some time browsing around the different sections, flipping through interesting books. I think this is one of my new favourite activities, and something I plan on doing more of in the future. Finally settled on a book called Scar Tissue, which is the biography of the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Brennan still has a lot left in Catch 22, so he didn't buy another one yet. Went back to the hostel after picking up an 8 pack of 1.5 litre bottles of water. I think hydration has been lacking in my diet the past couple days, so this should help clean out the system and maybe help me defeat my pesky cold. Sat around and killed time on the internet, checking for job responses and looking for more job opportunities. For dinner we cooked pasta and combined that with pan-fried chicken breast and a stir-fry veggie/sauce package. Delicious and looked so official. There's nothing that makes me prouder while travelling than making a beautifully presented plate of food when everyone else is eating ichiban noodles and rice. After dinner we spent a couple hours reading our books and listening to music until we were bored and it was time for a snack. What better snack than Krispy Kreme. Walked over a split a 6-pack of donut goodness. Forgot to get a loyalty card, which we could have filled by now, so next time we'll have to remember to get one. Had some tea at the hostel and chatted with our roommates, then read some more and then lights out. I think tomorrow I might go to Bondi and learn to surf with an instructor and a lesson (provided it doesn't rain like today).

Dec 15 - Staying Indoors and Job Hunting

Slept til around noon again today. Both of us have colds that are taking a toll on the energy levels. Got up and had a big breakfast of eggs, toast/jam, banana, orange and milk. Then went back to the room and searched online for jobs. For hours. Took turns using the laptop to scour the main job site in Australia. Stopped for a bit to make some pasta for dinner with a few raw carrots on the side. Then back to the search. There are a lot of job postings, but most are permanent positions, and while we can lie now and say we're going to stay, realistically when they find out we are only on a working visa, that will be the end of the interview. So we're going for contract or temporary work with companies, ideally in office jobs. I'm going for marketing-related jobs and Brennan is going for accounting jobs and both of us will settle for office admin work as well. Today also entailed polishing the resume and writing a lot of cover letters. Each job has different buzzword requirements that require us to edit our cover letters to fit it. Later in the evening we had a Subway break, which was much more delicious than our pasta dinner. Brennan bought the book Catch-22 that he delved into late tonight. He picked it up on his walk today. We each took a long walk while the other was using the computer. In the end, Brennan applied for 5 jobs I think (most of which were accounting ones). I applied for 8, yes, count them, 8 jobs. They ranged from marketing assistants to office support to admin at the Australian Institute of Music. This also meant I wrote 8 separate cover letters, or at least wrote one and edited it extensively 7 times. My brain is numb. Time for bed. Hopefully I get some calls tomorrow about jobs.

Dec 14 - No Oprah, but Lots of Jay-Z and U2

Woke up early this morning (despite being up really late working on my book) because we planned to go see Oprah's taping. Well that wasn't happening, wow, so tired and kind of sick was the story for the both of us. So back to sleep until noon, then up for a shower and a breakfast of crumpets/jam, fruit and milk. What a healthy (albeit late) start to the day. Spent some time on the internet again and I finished my book and ordered it (keep your eye out parents, coming your way soon). Brennan called a guy on Gumtree (their version of kijiji) about some tickets to the U2 concert tonight and he said he would meet us out front of the stadium with the tickets at 5 (when the doors opened). Ate some sandwiches for lunch then zipped over to a hair salon and I got my hair buzzed off. Feels/looks much better now I think. Then we had to walk over to the train station to go to Sydney Olympic Park for the concert. Took 2 trains and eventually got there and went out front of the stadium to meet the ticket guy. He wasn't there so Brennan called him and he said he was just getting some food and would meet us in 30 minutes. So we stood around and 45 minutes later Brennan texted him and asked what the deal was and he said on his way in 15 minutes. 30 minutes later I called him from a payphone (the cell phone ran out of credit) and he said oops I'm at a different gate, meet him at gate J. So we walked over to Gate J and looked around for the guy "in a white shirt" and finally found him. Can we get our tickets? "Nope, it works a bit differently" he said as he handed us crew passes and said "here put these on and follow me. If anyone asks, you're part of the light crew." So we followed him through the gates and flashed our passes to the security guards. On we went down to the floor level and flashed them again to get onto the floor. Now we had a problem, because we need wristbands to stay on the floor, so we had to follow the guy outside again as he asked a security guard for three wristbands. "You can get onto the floor with crew passes" she said. "Oh it's just for a souvenir" replied the guy. So she gave us the wristbands. He led us back onto the floor inside ANZ stadium, we gave him our money and the crew passes back and walked up into the crowd by the stage. So sketchy, wow. Not even sure if the passes were real or not, but it goes to show how easy it is to get into an event if you seemingly have credentials and walk with a sense of authority. Felt a bit guilty about getting in this way, but they wanted $100 at the gate for the tickets, so we saved $25 each and we had assumed we would be getting legit tickets. Alas, we weren't caught and got to enjoy the show.

Before it got underway, we bought a hot dog and beer each. The hotdogs were delicious, the beer was terrible (and cost $6.30, how weird of a price is that?) and we consumed them on the way back down to the floor level. The stadium has an open roof and the huge 360 degree stage looks like the giant spider from Wild Wild West crossed with an alien spaceship from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Jay-Z came out just before 7:30 and played a real good set of 50 minutes. Most of the crowd was obviously there solely for U2 though and many were not impressed to be listening to cursing and rap (the horror!). After Jay-Z finished his set of new hits and old classics, there was a set change of instruments, etc. that took 50 minutes. The wait felt like forever and finally U2 trotted out onto stage. It was worth the wait and then some. What ensued was a performance that made it clear why these guys are the biggest rock band in the world. Lights, smoke, huge sound, crowd involvement on singing songs and a super cool moving video backdrop all contributed to the show. They played for 2 and a quarter hours and went through all their hits. There were a couple cheesy songs/video segments about contributing to the One organization and about freeing political prisoners in Burma which didn't tickle my fancy. And the last few songs dragged a bit, all being of the ballad variety, so the show didn't end on the high note it began with. But besides these two minor issues, the rest of the show was outstanding. We crowded out into the street with somewhere between 60 and 80 thousand other people and crushed our way to the subway trains to get home. Had a snack and a shower at the hostel then hit the sack. That was the most exciting night in quite some time.

Dec 13 - Groceries and Night Stroll

Slept in past noon today. Both Brennan and I have colds, which is typical for December in Saskatchewan, but seems weird in Australia. Anyways, the extra rest always helps. Got up and had the free hostel breakfast, which consists of two pieces of toast (no spread) and a glass of orange juice. Surprisingly, they had raisin toast, so we both opted for that. Sat on the internet for awhile then decided to hit up some food, since the breakfast didn't do much to fill the void. So we walked over to our favourite place, also known as Yummy's kebab and pizza shop. Both crushed delicious kebabs and then walked over to Woolworth's to embark on a grocery mission. Since we're at our current hostel for 2 weeks, we decided to stock up on food and we each packed a grocery basket until they were overflowing. Cracked the $100 grocery mark (total, not each) for the first time this trip. Normally we did a bunch of smaller grocery missions on a day to day or every other day basis. We loaded up 4 canvas grocery bags full of our food and walked back to the hostel to put it all away. Fruit, pasta, meat, stir fry, crumpets, sandwich meat, bread and other random items are now at our disposal. Tired out from the busy day thus far, we chilled at the hostel and surfed the web some more. Our mobile internet stick turned out to be a great investment and is working like a charm.

The internet eventually got boring so we ventured out for a snack. Weren't hungry enough for another meal due to the very filling kebab earlier, but a couple Krispy Kreme donuts and a coffee did the trick nicely. Then we walked over to the harbour and snapped some pictures of the Oprah "O" on the Harbour Bridge and pictures of the set in front of the newly dubbed "Oprah House" (instead of Opera House, how very clever...). We decided it'd be worth the hassle to walk down and check out the taping tomorrow morning, then walked back to the hostel, stopping on the way to take photos of the town hall. There is a projector across the street from town hall and it lights up the building with colour and patterns and quotes and pictures. Back at the hostel we killed some more time on the internet and I worked on a book I'm going to publish about the trip, then went to bed. Up early tomorrow to watch Oprah and then going to try and see U2 in concert. Probably the two most powerful media moguls in the world in one day.

Dec 12 - New Home and Oprah Set

Woke up and checked out of Base this morning much, much too early (at 10 AM which meant I got maybe 5 hours of sleep). Tossed our heavy backpacks on our shoulders and trudged over to YHA Railway Station, which will be our new home for the next 2 weeks, right up until boxing day. So Santa better bring a present for me here or there will be trouble... Then we got to sit and waste time on the internet and lazed around until 2 pm, when we could check in. Got the keys to the new room, which only has 4 beds in it (2 bunks so only us and 2 other people) and dropped the stuff in. Met one of the other room residents, who is a Canadian guy (probably in his 30s) that was born in Kindersley and his parents live in Saskatoon. Small world. Chilled in the room and napped a bit, surfed the web some more and just relaxed. Eventually this got boring and we unloaded our backpacks and did a much needed load of laundry. Once it was finished and the clothes were all lemony fresh again, we packed them in the lockers that are in the room and set out in search of food. Considered a couple Vietnamese places and a pho place, but after the Chinese food debacle, we decided to play it safe and hit up a kebab shop. Yes, twice in one day (well, for Brennan anyway...I had pizza instead). If it ain't broke, don't fix it, as the saying goes.

Fueled up with food again, we walked down to the harbour to the Opera House to see the big set-up for the Oprah show being filmed here tomorrow. They hung a huge red "O" from the Harbour Bridge in honour of Oprah and fenced off the steps of the Opera House and set up a massive stage and a couple thousand plastic chairs for the American audience she brought with her to Australia. Might go peep the commotion tomorrow when she's actually there filming the show. Walked back through a park where we saw a bunch of possums eating buns that had been placed in holes in trees. Quite odd; not sure if the food is maybe poisoned because possums are a pest or if they feed them to keep them around as a tourist attraction or what. Cute little guys though and we saw one with a baby on its back too. Got back to the hostel and Brennan opted for internet time, while I watched the movie Elf, then called it a night. Tomorrow we need to drop off resumes, follow up the ones we sent online and apply to more online agencies. I've also decided I need to learn how to surf, so I may commit to that in the coming days as well.

Dec 11 - Markets and Farewell Drinks

Slept in today as my throat is awfully sore and I'm not feeling so hot. Chugged water and the extra rest helped a bit. Once I was up and moving, I joined Sarah and Brennan down in the lobby and we went to the markets that Enrico had recommended we check out. I expected some food stands and some souvenirs and crap being peddled. I was pleasantly surprised though. We went into the market inside a huge warehouse and there were hundreds of stalls, selling everything from watches to clothing to food to electronics. Cheap dress shoes and dress clothes that we'll probably hit up if we need them for our jobs and very cheap Lacoste polos at one stand (2 for $45 instead of the $110 each in Lacoste stores) which are most likely knock-offs, but looked legit. One stand even had NHL jerseys for $45 that had all the authentic logos and stitching, etc. But these are things that can be purchased at a later date, so we browsed for awhile then headed out and had some Subway. Sarah also wanted to see the big fish market, so we walked over there and walked through the building and viewed all sorts of seafood, then sat at a table along the waterfront just outside the market. Brennan and Sarah sipped some wine (I skipped out due to the throat and general dislike for wine). Spent a couple hours sitting in the hot sun and chatting, then walked back into the city and around the mall by the Sydney Tower. Back to the hostel to chill out for a bit, then headed out to meet up with Dan, who has been hard to get in touch with recently because he has been working a bunch putting up posters. We walked over to the apartment Dan and his buddy were staying at and picked up some booze on the way (wine for Brennan and Sarah and I figured I'd try some famous Aussie Bundaberg rum with Coca-Cola). We got to the apartment and met Dan and his friend (from Calgary, hooray, another Canadian!) and the 5 of us chatted and had drinks in the kitchen of the place. The Bundaberg rum was awful and tasted like 151 (mmm paint thinner) but I finished off the $25 mickey with the assistance of the others. Then we all headed to an Irish bar called Kelly's that we had been at with the Aussie girls the other night after the hip hop show (to meet up with said Aussies again). Took a bus there, I think, and when we arrived I went down the street for a very delicious kebab. Then we spent the next few hours in the outdoor patio that's sort of in the middle of the building. Around 2 or 3 or somewhere around there it was time to go but we lost Brennan and Sarah. Dan and Rob (from Canada) took a taxi back to their place, which is in the opposite direction of where I was going. So I picked up a Powerade from a 7-11 and legged it all the way back to the hostel. Had a delicious, fresh slice of pizza a couple blocks from the hostel and made it back successfully, which I was proud of as I'm terrible with directions here since I'm usually not paying attention to streets and landmarks as we walk around. Brushed the teeth (always feels great after a night at the pub) and zonked out for the night at about 4:30. Apparently Brennan and Sarah had caught a cab back to the hostel and thus arrived before I did. Sarah and Dan both fly home tomorrow, so our travel group is no more.

Dec 10 - Job Hunt Begins and Odd Food

Got up and dressed nicely today then walked over to Hays job recruitment agency to see if we could chit chat with someone about employment. Got there and were told to email our resumes and they'd get to us when they get to us. Awesome service for the win. A little dejected, we stopped for some late breakfast; I had some pizza and B opted for a kebab. We figured it'd maybe be best to just go online and send out the resume, so we headed back to the hostel. Browsed for job sites for awhile, then came the time for the bus to Coogee beach for a BBQ with other Base guests. I wasn't feeling up to it though (had my fair share of swimming, beaches and walking lately) so I stayed back to get a jump on the job search, while Brennan and Sarah went to the BBQ.

I headed up to my room and polished my resume, created profiles/accounts with Hays and mycareer.com.au on their websites and emailed my resume to a Hays recruitment specialist also. The MyCareer site was cool, it scanned my resume and picked out all the job experience, then asked a series of questions about each previous job to identify the specific skills I used and had learned with each. Then it created a profile page for me, where I added a photo, my resume, and what I'm looking for in a job, etc. and it even made skill maps based on the skills identified in the questions. So the idea is that employers will look at the profile page and see if I am a good match for their company and then contact me if I am. Not sure if that will actually occur, but in theory it sounds good. That took quite some time to finish all up, and after I got to Christmas shopping. I spent a good hour browsing on Amazon.com and found good gifts for everyone then went to checkout and it wouldn't ship any of them to Canada (sigh). So I had to go to Amazon.ca and look for the items again. The problem was that a few of the items aren't available on the Canadian version of the website (which I think is the stupidest thing EVER, but I won't get into that rant now) so I had to spend another good while looking for new gifts. Once I was satisfied, I paid up and they are presently being shipped to Canada as we speak. The internet can be a wonderful thing sometimes. It would have been nice to send some gifts from Australia, but the shipping time and cost to get them home is outrageous...

Brennan and Sarah got back shortly after I finished my xmas shopping and said the BBQ was good and that they did the Coastal Walk from Coogee to Bondi (Brennan and I had walked it in the opposite direction when we were in Sydney the first time). Having not eaten for hours now and their BBQ having been a few hours previous, we opted to go in search of food. Vietnamese was the consensus and we wandered the Asian areas by Darling Harbour, but couldn't find any Viet places, so we settled for Chinese and were seated at the Golden Dragon. We all ordered a chicken/noodle dish which sounded delightful on the menu. Unfortunately it looked and tasted pretty awful and wasn't at all what we expected. My chicken/corn soup was also very odd, with the consistency being quite similar to mucous. Yum. So after choking down our meals, we exited and headed straight to Krispy Kreme, and the 2 donuts we each had were much better a meal than the Chinese food. For "dessert" we had a chocolate dipped cone from Hungry Jack's. Went back to the hostel for some retro TV watching (old episodes of Friends, Dharma and Greg, Mad About You, etc...ya, old tv) then bedtime.

Dec 9 - A Walk to Remember

Today we (Sarah, Brennan and me) had to check out of the YHA and then walk over to our new hostel (Base) where we'll be for the next three nights. We stored the luggage because we couldn't check in until 2. So we walked down to the Darling Harbour and then over to the Rocks area. Did a big loop and got back to the hostel just after 2, where Enrico met us. Today is Enrico's birthday, so we went in search of cake. After a Subway stop to fuel up for the day (hadn't eaten until this point, so it was much needed) we walked until we came to a custom cake shop and each got a slice. Enrico paid despite our protest, but apparently it's a tradition in Italy for the birthday boy to buy drinks (or in this case, cake) for the friends, as opposed to the other way around in Canada. We went to Hyde Park and sat on the grass to eat the cake and relax for awhile. Today is really humid and hot, so the break was much needed after walking around for a decent while now. After the cake, we walked around the city for another while longer then went for dinner at a pub. Some mediocre pasta down the hatch and then we parted ways with Enrico, who flies back to Italy tomorrow and had yet to pack up his stuff tonight. The plan is to meet up with him again in Italy (he lives in Milan) with our original 6 travelling group from New Zealand sometime around April. Brennan, Sarah and I went back to the hostel and hung out, watching old tv episodes, reading magazines and surfing the net. Felt good to sit down after walking probably over 20 KM today. There's a free bus to Coogee beach and a free BBQ there for people at Base tomorrow at 1, so we'll probably hit that up, and I want to go to Hays job agency in the morning to see what they can match me with in terms of a job.

Dec 8 - Bondi and Hip Hop

Healthy cereal with strawberry milk again for breakfast. It's no Mcmuffin, but it'll do... After we finished, Dan showed up (although Enrico was missing in action) and the 4 of us (Dan, B, Sarah and myself) headed to the 7-11 to buy bus tickets. Then we had to ask for info at the bus center because we didn't know where to catch the bus to Bondi. We had to walk to Hyde Park, which is a decent distance away from where we were, so we hiked over there and caught the 333 over to Bondi beach. Ideal conditions; sunny, hot, perfect sand and nice medium breaking waves. We set up our towels and Dan and I headed straight for the ocean (while the other two lamed out and opted to sit on the beach) and jumped over and under waves for a good hour. The water was freezing cold; much colder than the water in Manly. Then we took a sun break on the beach and convinced Sarah and Brennan to join us in the water. We all spent a good hour or so jumping waves and Dan and I stayed longer, body-surfing waves. Then more sun to dry off. I went for a walk end to end on the beach and was pleasantly surprised with a whole lot of topless ladies suntanning. No shame... (not complaining) and odd to see at such a busy public beach. I enjoyed a tasty bagel with healthy stuff in it (salmon maybe? with lettuce, etc) and a smoothie that was like a Booster Juice. A short while later, the four of us packed up for the day and went to McDonald's for a $5 meal deal (cheeseburger, fries, drink, sundae) that classified as supper. We hit up a convenience store for a return bus ticket and took it back into the city, then walked back to the hostel. Dan took off in a different direction as he was going to help a friend put up posters, so we bid him adieu for the evening.

Showered up and got into fresh clothes then Enrico showed up. Apparently he went to Bondi and looked for us but couldn't track us down. He had run into 2 Aussie girls that were on the Magic Bus with our group in New Zealand and it was one of their birthdays today. He led us a couple KMs to the bar where the festivities were supposed to be taking place. We looked around but the Aussies were nowhere to be found. So we asked the bartender and she said they had left earlier to go to a different bar and gave us directions to get to that one. It wasn't close to this one and probably took 30-45 minutes to walk there, but eventually we arrived, got ID'd and went inside. The bar was weird, there was a VLT room when you entered, an outdoor patio through a door on the side that led to what looked like a fenced off backyard, a main bar in a room with a mini stage that had speakers and a half assembled drum kit on it and a larger back room with a bigger stage and another bar where there was a big group of people bobbing to a guy rapping. The whole place was painted flat black (walls, floors, ceiling, bars, etc) and had a bizarre mix of people in it: from goths to hipsters to dressed up people to rockers to long-shirted/flat brim hatted hip hop fans. The whole thing was a bit much and felt like a scene from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or something along those lines. We went out to the smokers patio where we found the Aussies finally and had a good chat. Then we went in and watched the headline hip hop act (by the name of Urth Boy) which was a white Australian hip hop group with a lead singer who sounded sort of like Eminem and acted/looked like Rob Dyrdek (pro skateboarder with MTV shows), a girl who sang melodies alongside him and a DJ who scratched and spun the music and sang backup vocals (cool to see a DJ participating fully). The group was absolutely amazing and we stayed right until the end of the encore. The show even included a cool MIDI board solo by the DJ which was a remix of Sweet Dreams and easily the best remix I've ever heard of that song. The bar then kicked everyone out (at midnight...weird even for a Wednesday) and the Aussies wanted us to see another of their favorite bars, so they led us there, which took probably close to an hour and was so far away. It was a 2 level Irish bar and we went upstairs and sat down out on a patio. The Aussies however, left within about 10 minutes of getting there...so all that effort and convincing us to go there and they up and leave... I spent most of my time inside watching a mix of eclectic music videos on the wall tv, which were selected by people in the bar via a digital jukebox program. After maybe another hour, the 4 of us left (me, B, Sarah and Enrico) ventured back home and called it a night. Earlier Sarah, B and myself had booked the next 3 nights at Base, because our hostel is full tomorrow (as are many in the city for some reason...but only tomorrow) so we'll have to move over there tomorrow morning. And tomorrow I will officially look for a job online and at job agencies.

Dec 7 - Manly and Wine Tasting

Got up and had some cereal with strawberry milk this morning (delicious!) and Sarah showed up (having moved to our hostel now). Once finished eating, we rolled out and walked to the harbour through the botanical gardens and past the Opera House, etc. Hopped on the ferry to Manly, which is a little suburb north of Sydney proper and has a popular surfing beach. The ferry took about 30 mins, then it was only about a 5 minute walk to the beach. We tossed our stuff down and chucked frisbee for awhile, then played catch with the skimball (getting good use now) then had a nap/tan session. Then we moved down to the flagged swim area and dove under/over waves and body surfed them for a good hour or so, maybe longer. Then everyone napped on the beach and dried off. Brennan and I grabbed a slice of pizza each for lunch then returned to the beach for more nap time. Once we were all good and tanned we ventured into the shops and found a Coles supermarket. For dinner we picked up a BBQ chicken, pasta salad, greek salad, buns and cookies. Took all the stuff over to a picnic table just up from the beach and munched out. Once we tore through the delicious (and healthy) meal, we walked to a wine bar that was having a free tasting from 6-7 (as they do every first Tuesday of each month). We had a few samples of red wines, then grabbed a table and ordered a bottle of white. Chatted and enjoyed a glass each, then ended up getting 2 more bottles to share and slowly sipped away until just before 11 PM. At this point, we walked to the ferry terminal and waited a few minutes until it arrived, then rode it back to Sydney. Walked back to the hostel, with a stop for McDonald's 50 cent ice cream cones then called it a night. Tomorrow the plan is to go to Bondi beach along with Sarah, Enrico and Dan (who arrived in Sydney late today). So 5/6 of the super 6 travel group will be back together tomorrow on sunny Bondi. And we also need to look for jobs at some point...

Dec 6 - Back to Sydney and Fantastic Four Reunion

Early start this morning, with the airport shuttle driver banging on the front door of the hostel 5 minutes before the already stupidly early 3:20 AM pickup time. Apologized to the annoyed driver and he took us to the domestic terminal at Perth airport. We checked our baggage with Virgin Blue (never flying Jetstar again) and my overtired and thus bubbly personality was a hit with the check-in girl, who switched us to the emergency exit seats, which have significantly more legroom. Positive attitude for the win! Had a hot breakfast at the cafe on the other side of security and boarded the plane. No TVs on this one unfortunately, but there was loads of leg room and some armrest radio to plug into along with a new edition of the in-flight magazine, so these factors made it a quite enjoyable flight. Landed in Sydney and went to wait for the bags. Brennan's came out right away and we waited for mine (which should have been right after since we checked them one after the other at the Perth airport) and waited and waited... Just when I thought my bag had been lost, out it came...relief. Strapped on the backpacks and took the train to our hostel. Literally. Our hostel is the railway station YHA that is right next to the central train station. It's awesome when you know how to get to your hostel easily (and have pre-booked one for that matter). Checked in and went to the room, which is an old railcar converted to a dorm on the inside. The one downside is that the train tracks are right outside our window, so might be woken up by trains in the morning. But the hostel is big, nice and clean and no deposit for keys or plates/cutlery and there is a/c in the rooms. It's like heaven compared to Perth.

Then we got down to being productive. Walked to a Nab bank and put more money in our accounts, then continued to a mall where we enjoyed some Nando's for lunch (a chicken place like swiss chalet or something that has custom hot sauces for its meat), then researched mobile internet at JB hifi on their mac computers that were on display, then got some Krispy Kreme donuts (seriously once you have these you can't go back to Tim Horton's crap donuts) and then we went to an Optus store. Optus is Australia's second largest wireless carrier in terms of phones and also does internet. We picked up a wifi mobile modem that gives us 8 GB of data to use in 2 months and up to 5 devices (laptops, iPods, etc) can be connected to the internet via this device, anywhere in Sydney (or any major Australian city). Once we run out of data, we have to recharge our time and there's different amounts, but 4 GB is $50. But Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. (basically all social networking sites) don't count towards the data limit. So we can go on Facebook and chat and upload photos all day everyday and not run out of credit. On the way back to the hostel, we pass a big movie theatre where people are setting up fencing and ropes and laying red carpet. Checked online what was going on and it turns out it's the Australian premiere of the movie Love and Other Drugs, and Jake Gyllenhal and Anne Hathaway would be attending it. Cool almost brush with fame... Back at the hostel we tested out the new internet device and it worked like a charm, then we headed over to the YHA central hostel (about a block away) for a $5 BBQ that included a beer. Lo and behold, who do we meet up with but Sarah, our traveling buddy from New Zealand. Chatted with her and had some kangaroo on a bun with a beer (Brennan had beef instead) and caught up about the last week we each had. Then we ventured out to check out the harbour, but along the way were enticed by the bright lights and tasty food of the Woolworth's, so Sarah got groceries and Brennan and I got milk and cereal for tomorrow morning. But now we had to go back to the hostel to put away the milk...dumb. A couple blocks later and we randomly run into Enrico (another of our traveling buddies from NZ) and he joins us in our walk. We drop off the stuff at the hostel and the 4 of us walk through the Darling Harbour, which is beautiful at night and even moreso now that it's all decked out with Christmas decorations and a huge neon tree. Looped around the whole harbour then returned to our respective hostels. Sarah, Brennan and I are going to Manly beach tomorrow and Rico said he'd meet up with us on Wednesday to hang out somewhere. Wednesday should also be the day Dan (from our NZ group) arrives in Sydney, so we'll have 5/6 of the super 6 group back together for a short while. Oh, and we're going to look for jobs sometime soon too.

Dec 5 - Church and Perth (again)

Got up early and went to mass at the Catholic church here at 7:30 in the morning. Suddenly 9:30 AM mass at home doesn't seem so bad... The mass was essentially the same as any Catholic mass I've been to, with 3 exceptions. They didn't say the Apostles' Creed like I'm used to, instead they did the other one (Nicean Creed, is it?), they sang the Our Father (which Brennan says he's done before but I've never seen), and right after shaking hands for "peace of christ" everyone sat down (which eliminated the awkward standing around until someone decides to sit down and everyone follows after the Eucharistic Ministers get their host/wine on the altar). All those times back home it was a struggle to get me to mass and now I go on my own accord haha. It was just a nice reminder of home and of routine that has been lost in traveling. Walked back to the hostel and packed up everything in order to check out before 10 (lest we be charged a late check-out fee of $20) and then sat around and watched some news, read the paper/flyers, etc. because there was a bit of rain and we didn't want to wait for the bus or on the beach in rain. Missed out on the Christmas parade in Perth city central today, but it only did like a 2 block loop, so probably wasn't that sweet... Once the rain subsided we took a bus to the city and walked what seemed like an endless number of blocks (due to the heavy backpacks we were lugging) to our new hostel. It's a half decent little place with no A/C (0 for 4 on air conditioning at hostels in the hottest place in Australia...wow) that will suffice for the one night we are here for. Used up the hour remaining on our 1 month of Global Gossip internet and got the photos current, etc. Then took the free inner city bus over to the shopping district and had a burger at a British pub. It was surprisingly hard to find a place with burgers, and then harder to find one with burgers under $20. Alas, our burger was pretty tasty and when we got back to the hostel I spent some time on the web investigating Christmas gift ideas, while B opted for an evening run. Then we turned in early, as we need to catch a shuttle to the airport at 3:20 AM tomorrow. Back to Sydney to look for jobs and a place of our own to stay (no more hostels!) for the next few months. Wish us luck.

Oz Observations #4

In order to offset the boring last few posts from Australia, here are some wild and true things that occur in Australia:

1. All schoolchildren wear uniforms

2. Pop goes flat really fast. Like between the time you crack a bottle/can and the time you finish it, the soda will be flat. (Something to do with less or no preservatives I'm told)

3. Mountain Dew tastes like Sprite and "Lemonade" here is Sprite flavor.

4. For water at restaurants, they put an old glass bottle (winebottle) full of water on the table with glasses for everyone. It's much classier than just filling our cups.

5. There are premixed cans of whiskey/coke, vodka/sprite, etc. to buy at bars or the liquor store.

6. Baby strollers are called prams and lots of places have signs about their use (like trains, buses and stores).

7. Diapers are called nappies.

8. All public garbage cans (or rubbish bins) have cigarette disposal units on top of them.

9. All wine comes in screw-top bottles (no corks!).

Dec 4 - Beach and Movies

Enjoyed a nice sleep-in today, had a long hot shower (with pressure even!) then got on the trunks, hat, sunglasses and sunblock. Beach time! Walked down to the beach, set up towels and soaked up some sun. Then did some wave jumping, body-surfing and finally used the skimball again (used it once on Whitsunday Island and then lugged it around thousands of kilometers before I used it again today). Watched the kiteboarders for awhile; there are lots of them here, which makes sense with the constant wind, and they rip across the water and ramp off waves. Looks fun but also like it's a lot of work. Napped on the beach and worked on the tan for awhile then packed up and got some Subway for lunch. Yum yum yum. Headed back to the hostel for another shower (get off all the saltwater residue) and to watch movies. The movie collection here is an odd assortment of mainly pirated discs (lots of covers that were clearly printed off and don't reflect the actual covers) so we watched Sin City until it froze, then Step Brothers until it froze, then back to TV. Deal or No Deal is different here; it looks more like a cheesy old 70s game show, only goes up to $200,000 and the people holding the cases get to guess the amount they have and if they're right, they get $500. Went for a stroll to the beach to try and get some photos of the sunset over the Indian Ocean, but it was too cloudy, so some artsy beach shots sufficed. Back at the hostel there was a Kevin Costner marathon on tv (they love their actor marathons, last night was Leslie Nielson, now tonight Kevin Costner) so I got to enjoy Field of Dreams and The Untouchables (Brennan went to bed early and missed the cinematic adventures). Tomorrow we go back to central Perth and try to think of how to burn a day back there. After that it's off to Sydney and employment and responsibilities. Yikes, that sounds dreadful.

Dec 3 - Football and Beach

Woke up and had cereal again today (this time accompanied by an orange and leftover carrots) and to my surprise there was an NFL game on tv! Real sports (none of this rugby or cricket nonsense) make me so happy. Watched the first half of the Eagles vs. Texans game then checked out of the hostel. Made our way over to the bus station (which was difficult due to several roads being closed for constuction between the hostel and the station) and hopped on the bus to Scarborough. When we got to the hostel around noon, the reception was closed until 3 (typical Perth luck for us) so we hung around for a bit, ate sandwiches for lunch and then checked out the beautiful beach just down the road. Once 3 rolled around, we walked back up to the hostel and checked in. Got a 4-share dorm room and did the usual check-in ritual of making the beds, unpacking the essentials from the backpacks and saying hi to the roommates. Then it was time for some food (real food; those sandwiches just didn't do the trick) so we walked a couple KMs to a little strip mall and ordered some pizza and bought breakfast groceries while we waited for the za to be cooked. Enjoyed the pizza on a bus stop bench then wandered back to the hostel and put the groceries away. There's not much to do in this little suburb of Perth and even less to do at the hostel. Spent the rest of the evening watching the news, then tv, then a Leslie Nielson marathon that came on. Got through Airplane (or Flying High as it's called here) and half of Naked Gun before calling it a night.

Dec 2 - Fremantle Beaches and Art Galleries

Began the day with two big bowls of cereal, complete with freshly sliced banana topping. Delicious, healthy and fuel for the big day ahead. We exited the hostel and walked to the train station, bought tickets and hopped on the next train to Fremantle. Fremantle is a suburb of Perth and is the end of the line for the train. We hopped off and walked through an artsy little district of cafes and shops until we reached the beach. The beach and water weren't overly impressive looking, but we were standing and staring at the Indian Ocean. Checked that one off the list and walked along the shore in the waves (and surprisingly cold water). Because the beach was dirty and empty, we walked through the city until we reached North Fremantle, which had a much nicer, albeit nearly as quiet beach. I got a picture with a street team for Suncorp Bank who were handing out water and sunblock and needed to prove they had given stuff out to people today (haha reminded me of Wired). We sat on the beach for a bit, but the wind was really strong and essentially sandblasted us, which prompted us to move along. Back into the city we walked further along the coast up to Cottesloe main beach, which was very busy and the sun was baking down. Put down towels on the grass, ate lunch and napped a bit, but soon enough we were annoyed by the strong winds (probably about 30 km/hr steady with gusts of up to 50 or 60). Again we picked up and walked into the city and this time we hopped on the train back into Perth.

Dropped our bags back at the hostel and went to Woolworth's for some more milk and snacks for the evening. Dropped the groceries in the fridge back at the hostel and sat and watched a couple hours of TV, which was mainly Bondi Rescue (tv show about lifeguards saving people on Bondi Beach). Since the art galleries and museums are only a block away, we went over to the Western Australian Art Gallery and the modern art gallery. The WA gallery was just like any other gallery; with a bunch of aboriginee art and portraits and landscapes (yawn) and just like so many before it, this one did little to impress me. The contemporary/modern art gallery next to it was interesting though. It had a huge room with white walls covered in quotes. The quotes were peoples' reactions to what this artist had done. She apparently said to the media that she had obtained some of Kurt Cobain's ashes and invited others to smoke them with her. So the reactions (which were painted in various sizes and colours on the wall) ranged from intrigue to disgust to anger. There was also a couple Cobain obejcts, like a cigarette case and a smashed left handed guitar. Spent awhile in the room reading about the project and the reactions then departed back to the hostel. Brennan had checked out the 2nd floor of the contemporary gallery while I was reading about the main floor project and he said it was all weird art that people were working on, with stuff like hospital beds covered in toothpaste and such (so I didn't miss much apparently). Back at the hostel we made supper (pasta again, but with alfredo this time and corn) and ate it as the bar had a quiz night with very obscure and difficult questions. Shortly after 9, I was exhausted. Not sure if it was the sun today that did it or something else, but a shower and then bed finished the night. We go to Scarborough tomorrow and a new hostel (yay!), although the forecast is glum. Soon enough we'll be in Sydney and looking for work, so need to enjoy the free time while it lasts.