Mexican Party

After the not so perfect sunny day on the boat I met Jon at his friends dress up party. Theme was Mexican.
It was so rainy and muddy but I had heaps of fun. My super cute Billabong boots (pictured in many fashion photo ops) are totally muddy and ruined! Ugh. Oh well.
I took 296 pictures that day/night. Here are some memories from the Mexican Party.

Sorry about the great white butt. I do not know him nor his name but I do know that he is the guy that owns lo down the skate shop in Cronulla.

This is Tara. I met her at the party. She is pretty cool. She has a little (massive) crush on Jon's friend Mark. Aww.

It's finally warm enough for the beach!

Abby already got her tan on at the Cool Islands. I am still workin on mine. But don't worry bc I am wearing sunblock everyday! 15 for my everyday, and 30 if I am seriously in the sun!

Afternoon stroll

This is the view I see everyday when I leave our unit once you get onto Kingsway at the top of the hill.

I absolutely love living here! LOVE IT!

I am so lucky.

This is a picture our mail man. He wears a florescent long sleeve, white helmet and drives a scooter around delivering mail. It is really a motor powered push bike. There are a few different mail men and one mail lady that I have seen and all are really super nice.  

I just liked this tree bush thing. I want to know what it is called so I can plant one. I bet my mom already has one. It kinda looks familiar. 

I took a picture of an airplane because they are constantly flying overhead. Seriously. Like 100 airplanes fly by ever hour. Sydney is a happenin' spot. 

You can see the city in the distance. I took this pic at the top of Jon's street. 

Here is a close up. You can make out the Sydney Tower. 

Arts Theatre Cronulla

So I am finishing up my Art Critique class and I have to write a few more play reviews as well as attend and review a symphony performance. 

My friend Rowdy and his girlfriend Alex had 2 extra tickets to the theater and asked if Jon and I would like to go. I had mentioned to Rowdy the I needed to go see some plays to review. 

The theater is just in the mall near Grind cafe.

 Rowdy called and said he could not get the tickets so I had put on my lounge clothes and an overnight bag to take to Jon's. Then Rowdy called and said he was able to get the tickets. I met him and Abby and Alex at Splash where they were having a few drinks. They had a bucket of Heineken and offered me one. I did not want one but they were makin fun of me for not drinking it so I accepted. Then Rowdy said, yeah right, that I would take two sips and then give it to him or Abby. Which I did. They know me so well those sillies. So then I called Jon and asked if he wanted to come but he would have to meet us at Splash like right then. He did and he is so cute. I heart him. 

The following is my review on the play we saw that evening.
I encourage attending the Arts Theater Cronulla and supporting your local arts!!!!!!!

Sheri Partain

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and a Half

by Sue Townsend
Directed by Susan Geldart

Who? Local actors from Cronulla Beach, NSW Australia

Where? Arts Theater Cronulla

When? Friday, August 20^th 2010 at 8 pm

Cast:
ADRIAN MOLE
GEORGE MOLE
PAULINE MOLE
MR LUCAS
MRS LUCAS/MATRON  
PANDORA
GRANDMA/QUEENIE
NIGEL/BARRY KENT
BERT BAXTER/SCUTTON 
ELECTRICITY BOARD OFFICIAL 
DOREEN 

I was not planning on going to the theater that evening. I met my friends at Splash, a tapas bar by the beach, for a little chat and when they invited my boyfriend and I to accompany them to the Arts Theater Cronulla I thought it would be fun. I walk by the theater almost every day and had been interested in going since I moved to Cronulla. I had not heard of the play being performed until tonight but that did not matter to me.

 The opening scene is a New Years Eve party. The location is an unnamed middle class English town and the time is the early 1980’s. Most of the main characters are present, Mr. and Mrs. Mole, Mr. and Mrs. Lucas, Adrian, Nigel, and Grandma. Pauline Mole is visibly tipsy from alcohol and is dancing with Mr. Lucas while Mr. Lucas’ wife continues to drink and stumble around stage. I felt the scene went for too long before Adrian performed his first soliloquy.

He addresses the audience throughout the play explaining the drama that is going on in the world around him. He tells the audience he is an intellectual even though it is apparent he is not very bright. He is also constantly worrying throughout the play about anything and everything but is too immature to understand the things he worries about. He is in love with Pandora, a rich new girl from school.

We find out very soon that Adrian’s mom and dad have an unhealthy relationship and fight after the party. Adrian’s mom, Pauline, has a crush on the neighbor Mr. Lucas.

Adrian’s parents neglect him, talk badly about him, and do not care much about his feelings or what is going on in his life. When they fall ill with a cold, it is Adrian who takes care of them.

 I thought the stage bed was innovative. It was not an actual bed but appeared so. It had a head board, pillows and a small bench attached. Then the foot board also had a small ledge with a blanket, so when the actors sat on the headboard and covered their legs with the blanket it appeared as though they were lying in bed.

When Pauline becomes well she neglects her household chores, becomes a feminist and begins to wear overalls. However, she still does her hair, make-up, and wears high heeled shoes.

So many bad things happen to Adrian and he is hopeless in his pursuit to become an intellectual. He decides to become socially active and joins a group called the Good Samaritans. He is assigned to take care of an 89-year-old man named Bert Baxter. Before he meets Bert, Adrian fantasizes what he will be like and imagines Bert will be an intellectual. However, the truth is Bert is a rude and filthy old man living in a dirty house with a noisy dog.

Meanwhile, a bully at Adrian’s school demands that he give him money each week. Adrian can’t pay him and because of the threats from the bully decides to get a paper route. This is an example of Adrian’s adolescence and undeveloped social skills.

By this time in the play I am already over it and ready for it to end. Then the most obvious occurred, his parents split up. Pauline moves in with Mr. Lucas while Mr. Mole eventually begins to date a woman from his work. The new woman does not do anything to help out around the house. Eventually the Mole home is filthy with absolutely no food left. It gets even worse. The electricity goes out because Mr. Mole forgets to pay the power bill and cannot afford to have it turned back on.

Then finally Pandora reciprocates Adrian’s love when he rebels against the school uniform rule and begins to wear red socks to school. When she goes on holiday to Tunisia, he calls her resulting in a very large phone bill which his penniless father cannot afford to pay.

Grandma somehow finds out that Adrian is being bullied at school. She goes and bullies the bully demanding all the money back that he took from Adrian. She gives the money back to Adrian and tells him he will not be bullied again.

When old man Bert Baxter falls ill he has to move in to a pensioner’s home where he falls in love with a lady named Queenie. The final scene of the play is their wedding.

I think the characters fit the cast for the most part. A young high school girl was cast as Pandora who was meant to be beautiful, however harsh, the actress was average at best. She also had a lisp and I was uncertain if it was her own or part of the character.

Mr. Lucas was a tall, lanky, skinny, creepy fellow who gave me bad vibes. If this was meant to be part of his character I think it fitted well but I have a feeling it was not.

Although the title of the play and plot is centered on Adrian, I feel the strongest character acting was that of Pauline Mole. In the first scene I thought everyone excluding Adrian was terrible, but she ended up leaving the best impression.

The character playing Adrian would be difficult to cast. However, the actor fitted the character so well that the fact he was actually in his 30s or 40s didn’t even matter. Adrian imagines himself as an intellectual although he is not and that actor appeared dorky and naïve like that character should.

The character of Bert Baxter was fitting at first but then began to over act and was painful to watch. He was really getting on my nerves and made me want to leave the play. This was my reaction to his over acting; however, the reaction of the audience was enjoyment and laughter. The same actor also played Scutton, the school principal, whose character only had one scene. I felt the actor did a much better job at portraying this character than that of old man Baxter.

Another actor that did not fit the character was Tennielle Willis who played Mrs. Lucas as well as the Matron. There was something off about her. I could not feel any emotion coming from the stage and I did not like her from the very first scene. She did not portray her characters well, I felt lied to, like there was an imposter on the stage.

            My favorite actor was Brett Simeon who played the Electricity board official who only made an appearance in one small scene.

Adrian’s costumes were great, his wool vest with numbers and school designs fitted his age well and the fact he thought of himself as an intellectual added to the humor.

Pandora wore the school uniform for the majority of the play. I vaguely remember she did one costume change for the party scene but it was not significant in my memory.

Adrian’s friend Nigel also changed his outfit for the party scene. He wore tight acid wash jeans paired with a dark shirt. When Adrian comments on the change in his friend’s wardrobe, Nigel responds by saying he is tired of being a Brit and wishes to be a Punk American.

I think the best and most costume changes were made by Pauline Mole. I met her after the show and commended her on speedy changes between scenes.

Themes of the play include friendship between Adrian and Nigel, Adrian and Pandora; and the failing relationship between Adrian’s parents.

A memorable quote from the play was from a song performed by Adrian to Pandora: “Oh Pandora, I adore ya”. My favorite part of the play was when it was over. I was cringing in my seat the last scene during the wedding. Bert Baxter was truly getting on my nerves and if I had a rotten tomato near my reach I would have been highly inclined to throw it in his face.  

After the play the theater hosted a meet and greet for the actors and theater patrons. They provided cheese plates with olives and crackers as well as juice drinks. This was my second favorite part of the evening.

A few remembrances from Aussie

6/2 5:47 p.m.

 It feels like such a waste to be writing events that have happened in he past but I feel that it will prove valuable in the future. This morning Abby and I woke up to the phone ringing. It was the phone I usually carry and I saw the number and thought it may be Brian so I answered. It wasn’t Brian. I said hello, and the voice on the other end said, Hello Abby, something something something Germany, something something. And I was like, what? Can you call back later. Hhaha, that was much too much of a confusing call for that early in the morning. We finally got up and read to go to Gloria Jeans for a bit. We walked around at first, Abby stopped by and ordered a Veggie Wrap from Things to Go and went by the ATM. We walked into a few shops and looked around before making our way to the worst Flat Whites ever! They were terrible and cold. I am drinking one now that is heaps better and deliciously warm. Abby stayed for about an hour and then left for work. I finished reading Achebe’s Things Fall Apart then video chatted with Molly for a good bit. It was wonderful and refreshing to see her face. Abby called and asked me to bring her lap top to her work. On the way I stopped by the apartment scuffed down the Chinese noodles with green curry over them and grabbed her optus. Her work is very nice and serene and tranquil. Very beachy, I liked it very much. I would like to make it my house, minus all the dentist equipment. Then I walked to the beach and took photos along the way. When I was crossing the road by Mundo’s a creepy looking man said “hello” and I said “Hello,” and he asked me where I was from and proceeded to follow me to my sunny spot on the beach. J  Of course back to Gloria Jeans, it is dark now. We are going into the city tomorrow and I need to be well rested for a big day. I enjoyed today by the beach, it was wonderful, minus creepy guy.

6/4/10 3:31p.m.

At Gloria Jeans again and it is raining again. Yesterday Abby and I went to the city and had an adventure at the Wildlife Center. It began with creepy crawlies then to the fun stuff like Koala’s and Kangaroos. Reading my notes I have discovered I completely left out the aquarium day and the trip to Abby’s University. It was last Thursday because Abby does not have work in the morning, just class in the afternoon. We got on the 9ish train to Sydney and bought a 3fer ticket from the aquarium. We also got the shark feed ticket, Wildlife Center, and Sydney Tower. We were rushed to the 10:45 Shark Feed. It was pretty cool. They only other people were a non-English speaking lady and her translator. The aquarium has a Where’s Waldo theme and that was neat. The shark feed tour guide took us to the kitchen where they prepare the food for both the aquarium and the wildlife center. It was very fancy with fresh chopped fruit and veggies such as grapes, carrots, and spinach.

Australian Culture

Several times I have been asked what I think of the culture in Australia and having been here only 2 weeks I hope to find it soon because I have not seen much of anything I could call a culture. It is expensive, when a male hears my American accent he wants to sleep with me, Abby said it is not common for boys to be circumcised, many people I meet from Australia have never left, some have gone as far as New Zealand, but again that is some, I see interesting hair and clothing fashion. Girls wear fun braids and cool cuts, interesting hair color, sort of a punk fashion, fun boots, leggings, layers are cool, vests, scarves, light jackets, hoodies, boys also wear scarves, many different kinds from the traditional to the handkerchief, cool sunglasses, rectangular shaped, some over weight people but they dress cool for the most part, skateboarders crossing buy, people running in their wet suits with their surf boards, the school children wear uniforms and take the trains homes, havnt seen a school bus, leggings, and skinny jeans, boys have great fashion, very sexy, a lot of people smoke, cant order a coffee and add cream, must order a flat white, cool hats, sexy walks, mullets and rat tails are common and considered cool, neat spikey hair, weird looking trucks called youts. Many people are from other countries and not like America who are proud to be an American cheer for their old country. Where I am in Cronulla are mainly people from Australia and they wear the flag around and they are proud but it in the city is is a bit better of a diverse culture but even Birmingham has more diversity. Again, I have only been here 2 weeks so my view is small in scale. I really like it here, it somewhat reminds me of San Diego meets New York. Super friendly, laid back with drive and style but in Sydney  Birds are everywhere, they fly into the coffee shop and where ever they want. Its kinda funny. 

Shopoholic

-June 1^st!

Okay so right after I wrote about my misfortunes the internet started to work J that’s good. I talked to Brian and Jon Swaim for a good while. Then my computer ran out of battery and of course I forgot to bring the plug to Australia but went back to Abby’s charged the computer for a bit then went to McDonalds and ordered food and talked to Brian for a bit more. The fries were so delicious. We went to Northies after Abby got off work and met with Rowdy. I went home early and ate.

I went to the city all by myself and walked around all day through Hyde Park and around the business district then back to Darling Harbour, which was beautiful. I shopped around for a few hours, sat outside and had a coffee. I found a cute pair of black gummies at Rubi shoes that have a croc pattern. (Perfect because it rained for the next 2 days)

I met Mahtab in front of the Imax Theater at Darling Harbour. We walked around for a bit and then decided on eating at Thai Foon which was delicious! We ordered 2 dishes and shared. One was Prawns and Pad Thai and then a yummy green curry. We sat outside and the restaurant was great- right in the middle of the harbour side with a perfect beautiful view of the glittering city.

After dinner we walked across back to the city part and walked down George Street and throught the Victoria Building. Mahtab helped me back to the Town Hall train station and figure out which train to get, which I am very grateful for.

It has become one big blue blur now, my days and nights are running together and my time here is running out. It is almost over. I have been sick for the past 2 and a half days and they have just been wasted. 

6/2 5:47 p.m.

Spent the day at the beach with an aggressive bloke named Chris. It feels like such a waste to be writing events that have happened in he past but I feel that it will prove valuable in the future. This morning Abby and I woke up to the phone ringing. It was the phone I usually carry and I saw the number and thought it may be Brian so I answered. It wasn’t Brian. I said hello, and the voice on the other end said, Hello Abby, something something something Germany, something something. And I was like, what? Can you call back later. Hhaha, that was much too much of a confusing call for that early in the morning. We finally got up and read to go to Gloria Jeans for a bit. We walked around at first, Abby stopped by and ordered a Veggie Wrap from Things to Go and went by the ATM. We walked into a few shops and looked around before making our way to the worst Flat Whites ever! They were terrible and cold. I am drinking one now that is heaps better and deliciously warm. Abby stayed for about an hour and then left for work. I finished reading Achebe’s Things Fall Apart then video chatted with Molly for a good bit. It was wonderful and refreshing to see her face. Abby called and asked me to bring her lap top to her work. On the way I stopped by the apartment scuffed down the Chinese noodles with green curry over them and grabbed her optus. Her work is very nice and serene and tranquil. Very beachy, I liked it very much. I would like to make it my house, minus all the dentist equipment. Then I walked to the beach and took photos along the way. When I was crossing the road by Mundo’s a creepy looking man said “hello” and I said “Hello,” and he asked me where I was from and proceeded to follow me to my sunny spot on the beach. We talked and laughed for a bit but he kept asking me to leave with him, which was very unsettling and awkward. Then he began to speak very inappropriately and instead of telling him to “f* off” I just said, “thank you for hanging out and spending time with me today.” And then I walked away. J  Of course back to Gloria Jeans, it is dark now. We are going into the city tomorrow and I need to be well rested for a big day. I enjoyed today by the beach, it was wonderful, minus creepy guy.

It is June 7th now and I am at Gloria Jeans with Abby. I have a sore throat bc of the crazy weather. Rain, sun, hot, cold, wind, rain, sun...... Going to Miranda later for grocery shopping and such. I am leaving in a few days for freezing weather in New Zealand. I hope my health improves by tomorrow because I want to go to the city and I need to go to Bondi for a little walk. And if I can I would like to go to the markets at Circular Quay and the contemporary art museum or back to the QVB and buy another pair of fabulous boots for $10. I do not have a warm jacket for New Zealand yet but I hope to find one soon. 

Here are the sights I see and places I have been. 

Woolooware Station

 

 Kingsway- the main road we walk on- takes you straight to the beach

Driving on the wrong side of the road......

JD's Restaurant and Bar

Wok Star- delicious curry, noodles, rice..

Cronulla Central Business District

Nando's - Abby likes this place

Cronulla Beach

Buddha Beach Thai Restaurant where we went with Joe and Pasquale

Mundo- where Abby and I went for white Sangria and Tapas on a Friday night

Walking to the Beach

Sitting on the Beach with my book and a weirdo

Watching surfers

Running to catch a wave

Many words but no meaning....

Saturday May 29^th

Abby and I got ready and went to Miranda to go shopping. It was fabulous. It is a 6 minute train ride from the Woolooware station. 

We ate first. Abby got a boost then we walk around the food court trying to decide what we were going to have to brunch. Abby chose to get a fajita from Salsa’s and I for some reason chose to have Indian. I have 2 different veggie dishes, a dahl and a veggie korma over rice. Abby also ordered a cheese burger from McDonalds, silly girl. After we ate we went back to McDonalds and ordered 2 large diet cokes which were really medium sized. We went into just about every shop. We both bought outfits for tonight from Surf Dive and Ski,  I bought a cute dress and Abby got a leopard jacket and a skirt. Abby got a shirt from some other place I cant remember. I bought 2 necklaces from another store. Shopping is fun. 

We met Joe and his friends at the Paddington Inn at Kings Cross. So much fun. After that it is a blur, we drank a lot and danced and had super amounts of fun. 

Abby and Joe

Pasquale and myself

Then Joe and Pasquale took us to another place called Trade Mark, again more drinking, fun, and dancing. We ended at a boutique hotel that was absolutely beautiful architecture. 

The next morning we looked so wrong walking back to the train in our outfits from the night before. We got chips and water for breakfast to eat on the hour train ride back to Cronulla. 

After we got back we showered and Abby went to get pizza and a few things from the grocery. We slept much of the rest of the day. Then I woke up when the sun was going down very sick, but not from the night before. I was sick that night to my stomach and the whole day the next day and finally on Tuesday I made myself go out to get a few things from Woolworths, the Fruit Stand, and Franklins. Finally today, Wednesday I feel back to better. But 2 days were totally wasted. I did finish a few things for school so not completely but still.

Anger Management

5/25/10 9:29 a..m

FML. Im at Gloria Jeans, ordered a flat white and wanted to use the internet but of course it isn’t working AND my computer is about out of battery and I cant plug it in because of course I left the adapter plug at home. The coffee is good but WTF am I to do now? I have to walk back to Abby’s and charge my computer and I guess walk back here or more likely McDonalds since this stupid internet isn’t working. Abby is at work until 6:30 tonight. We are going to eat and drink with Rowdy tonight. It rained this morning and I am wearing my new gummies. They started to hurt my feet after a block, but I think I can figure out how to walk differently in them and they will be a little more comfortable. I need to read some more stories today. Tomorrow Abby and I plan on going into the city before her class and playing around a bit. I’m kinda bummed right now, but really, but a little bit. Nothing big, but things just are not going my way. Well just those 2 things about my computer and internet. I have only had my coffee this morning so maybe I will wait and order breakfast or lunch at mcDonals and use the internet. I hope they have it.  

If you are today, then I am tomorrow, But I am today, therefore you are yesterday ;)

Saturday,  22^nd 10:15 a.m.

It is fucking cold. Abby and I started to watch the movie (finally, lol) on my computer laying in her bed. She still is not feeling well and fell asleep twenty minutes into the film. It is a good movie, I like it so far, I paused it after 56 minutes to eat some fruit. I left Abby to rest. For brekky Abby made a delicious scramble with onion, tomato and a dash of milk. We spread Nando’s Perinaise on tortilla wraps for a delicious egg wrap. The perinaise is hot, on the bottle it says Peri-Peri Mayonnaise and it is an orangish color, much like cheese whiz.

 It is made in South Africa, imported by Australia. I prepared some brekky potatoes. I thinly sliced red potato with chopped white onion and red bell pepper- seasoned with salt, black and white pepper.

I am now munching on a fruit bowl I made. I have been craving fruit every day since I got here. I can say that the fruit tastes the same but I swear it is juicier.

After writing a bit I went to take a nap about 11:30 and woke up 2 hours later. I made a delicious yummy wrap, similar to the one I made yesterday.

Been working on school for the most of the day and watching AFL, it is so cool.

Sunday 5/23/10

Went around had fun with Abby, then her friend Joe called and said he would be at Northies.

 I read much of the morning and then about noon we went and met Joe and his friends. They had already been drinking. We got a bottle of wine and began to have to much fun. These boys are silly and fun. They were betting on horses and dog races. I asked them questions about Australia. We spent hours there and before dinner had appetizers. We ordered some wedges (French fry wedges) that were served with sour cream and some sweet chili sauce on top. So weird. They were better plain but Pasquale and Abby seemed to like it. Abby ordered Bruschetta and it was not very good at all. Quite bland. Pasquale kept correcting us on how to say it- pronounced Brus-ketta, not brush-etta. Okay. Got it. But I kept forgetting Pasquale’s name and was calling him Pedigree for the whole night. But it was fun. After we had another bottle of wine we had dinner at Buddha Beach. 

YUM YUM YUM For realz. 

A bit of Day 3

Day 3

went grocery shopping after brekky at Kafenilo. I had a delicious Egg Benedict thing topped with smoked salmon and instead of an English muffin it was on a toasted delicious bread. Abby had some kind of veggie wrap thing.

 We went to Woolworths for items like orange juice, flour (Abby insisted), chips, paper goods and shelf items like that. Then we went to the Cronulla fruit stand for our fruits and veggies. At Franklins we got bread, eggs, and a few other small things. When we were walking out of Franklins to Nando’s the bag Abby was carrying broke and the salsa she got busted all over the inside so we had to do a quick switcharoo. After Abby got her Nando Peri sauce thing we traded the movie in for another one that hopefully does not skip. 

Unedited Aussie Day 2

Day 2

We were suppose to go somewhere for Abby to get laser and she also had class. But when the alarm went off about 8:30 we hit snooze. Abby called to cancel her laser appointment and fell back asleep. I barley moved but was aware of what was going on, pleased, I fell back asleep. We woke up a little after noon, showered and got ready. We took both of our laptops hopefully We walked to the mall (Cronulla CBD) and had lunch at Good To Go. The mall is an outdoor strip laiden with pebbles and shops on both sides of the walk way about 40ft wide. We sat outside again in the cute little outdoor café, again enclosed by an outdoor tent like structure but the thick plastic was not rolled down because it was such a beautiful day. The weather was about 66. We both had a yummy wrap of a veggie patty, similar to a falafel, less spice, and shaped like a patty. Also in the wrap was carrot, iceberg lettuce, and sweet chili sauce. Yum. Abby had a flat white, although I wanted one SO bad, I am on a huge budget and have already spent ¼ of my money and it is only the second day. WTF.

After lunch we walked around a bit and Abby decided she felt like shit and was not going to school. She called her doctor and he said he could see her right away. We took a cab, thank god Abby covered it, and she was in and out of the doctors office in like 15 minutes. We then walked to the Woolooware (or something) train station and bought a round trip ticket to Miranda. It was 2 stops away. Miranda is 3km  more inland and more city like. We walked into the mall and walked around a bit. I bought a small fruit cup for $4.80 and it was delicious! It had red grapes, kiwi, strawberries, cantaloupes, red apples, watermelon, and pineapple. Abby went to the chemist, got her meds and then got her computer fixed for internet at Optus. By this time I am in so much pain from carrying our laptops around in my backpack but I didn’t complain. We walked around some more and walked into shops, Forever New was a fabulous shop we went into and I wanted EVERYTHING. They had the most fabulous tights, leggings, hats, skirts, shirts, jackets, necklaces, dresses, shoes, and purses. I wanted it all. Abby bought a pair of pants for work; I think she said they were $70. We walked into a few shoe stores and they were all fabulous, reminded me of Aldo, but I am looking for practical. We walked into a shoe store with super cute shoes all at reasonable prices. I was SO tempted to buy a pair, but they cute, and IDK if they were comfortable. BTW, while walking I saw an Aldi Grocery, I thought that was pretty funny. About 4:30 p.m. we caught the train back to Cronulla.

We watched some tele and Abby made another yummy salad with even more cheese than the last time. It was so good. We watched tv for very little before passing out on the couch and made it to the bed about 11pm

Unedited Aussie Day 1

DAY 1

Apartment in Cronulla Beach is a minute walk to the ocean and to the CBD which is an open breezeway market with tons of shops and cafés.

When my plane first arrived in Sydney it was about 8 a.m. I walked right up to the customs counter, there was surprisingly no line. The customs agents asked the usual questions, where I was visiting, how long, why? I answered, Cronulla, till June 11^th, and to visit a friend. I was so super excited but then he made the comment under his breath, “not off to a good start” then he called his superior. A man came and handed me off to another lade who then walked me around the corner and asked me to have a seat. Less than five minutes later I was on my way to baggage claim. I never got an explination….

I walked out the terminal and saw Abby sitting at a silver bistro table with her cart of 2 huge suitcases, a huge pink Vera Bradley duffle, and a Welcome to Australia balloon! FUN. I was sooo excited! OMG. We had our greeting and walked out to the taxi line.

It was $64.00 to take the taxi from the airport to her apartment. It was sprinkling when we arrived and one of Abby’s huge suitcases had a broken wheel. After we got inside we began to unpack some then freshened up and went to breaky.

We walked down the hill to the water and ate a café called Alley Break, overlooking the beach. We were seated outside and protected by the elements by a large outdoor tent structure thing with roll down thick plastic windows. The windows were rolled down today because of the rain. Abby ordered a calamari salad ($18) and I ordered 2 poached eggs served on toasted sourdough and potato hash ($9.5) we both had a large flat white. Abby wasn’t feelin her salad and barely ate any of it. I tried a calamari and wasn’t too keen on the flavour or texture but the greens were great. I loved my plate and ate every bit.

After that we walked around some and bought a few things like champagne from the bottle shop and orange juice from Franklins. On our walk back we stopped by Blockbuster and rented The Girlfriend Experience and stopped by the bike shop to see Rowdy, although everyone at the shop calls him Fred or Freddie.

We came back to finish unpacking and rest a bit. About 6 pm Rowdy called to say he was off work. We started to get ready and Abby put on her power hour CD and poured us each Mimosa’s. Rowdy came over and we talked and drank for an hour before leaving for the bar around 8:45.

 

It was a sports bar down by the water called Northies. You bet on horse and dog races.  Abby and Rowdy picked up the first round and I got the third but by that time I was spent. I was jonesin for a ciggie and walked outside to find some peeps smoking it. I asked a dreddie kid for one and he bummed his too. Abby came out and found me one. I was totally relieved to have a smoke. I talked with some people outside for a while when Abby made friends with everyone from before and they were inside and were calling me back. They bought us more drinks and we laughed and talked for about an hour before leaving for the petrol station for more cigs on our way to their apartment to hang out more. I was hot so our new friend Eric said I could borrow some of his boardies. I then took some pictures with his shorts, an Australian soccer ball, and Vegemite.

Afterwards I changed back into my clothes and played with Abby and Lizzie on her fridge word game for ever. It was super fun. Got home after 4 a.m. When we got home, we tried to watch the movie but it still wouldn’t work on her DVD player, I watched snow and scratchy subtitles while Abby made a delicious spinach salad with tomatoes, pine nuts, fried haloumi cheese (delicious) and balsamic vinaigrette. She also made some noodles with tomato spicy sauce I ate up. YUM. Who knows what time we passed out, not me.