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.