Well...that was a first...

Work's been a bit easier these days. Suz left on a three week trip to Tasmania, so we've been working with her partner, Viktor, finishing up the last few things to do on the shed/guesthouse. And he's quite a bit easier to deal with than Suz is. Also, last friday and today, we spent helping their next door neighbors pack up their house because they're moving about 10 hours south to Newcastle. I love Mel and Vinay and their 3 year old daughter, Aasha. They made us tea both days we worked for them and Mel baked this awesomely delicious banana, pistachio, chocolate chunk bread which is addictive and I ate way too much of. I gotta get the recipe for that even though I don't bake...just in case I ever change my mind and take up the hobby. Today, we cleaned out the kitchen and Steve walked away with about 10 pairs of chopsticks and we got a bottle of Jose Cuervo and another liquor since they didn't want to pack them up and haul them south. Score! Tomorrow, we clean out the fridge and we'll probably eat like kings for a week!

The last few days have been quite dramatic at the hostel. Our roommates (this would be our 3rd pair in a week's time) are undergoing a crisis. It's a boy and a girl from the UK who've been friends forever, but apparently the guy wants more and the girl doesn't and she just realized that he wants more than a friendship so now she's really uncomfortable around him. The tension and awkwardness between those two is almost palpable when you walk into the room (my room). Makes it hard to sleep at night...not really...but you understand what i'm saying. Anyway, she wants to cut the trip short and go home and he says that if she does, their friendship is over....cue drama and long discussions with third party observers (ie. me and steve) and endless pro/con lists of what happens if she stays and what happens if she goes. Don't get me wrong...I like this girl. She's fun and I like talking to her. She's actually one of the best roomies we've had, but I don't understand the back and forth. She knows what she wants to do, but then keeps second guessing herself. We'll see what happens. They're leaving in the next couple days, so I might not get the end of the saga.

Unrelated words of wisdom: It is incredibly hard to line dry your clothes when it insists on raining 2-3 times every SINGLE day.

Saturday night Steve and I went down to the pub with our UK roomies and actually stumbled upon something I'd never seen before. The band entertaining us were freestyle rappers who had artists draw on pieces of paper and their drawings were projected onto the wall behind the rappers. They played games trying to guess what the artists were drawing, what phrase the artists were representing, and telling a story about the pictures. It was pretty cool until they let a local in on the drawing. A very hammered local whose only artistic accomplishment was being able to draw wieners. They got rid of him pretty fast, but a while later he was back and took it a step farther, unzipping and flashing his junk so it'd be projected up onto the wall for the whole pub to see....and this is where Australia is soooo different from the States. In the US that guy would be out of the pub as fast as the bouncers could catch him, but here, the bouncers just shook their heads sadly and ignored him.

I think that's all the gossip and shenanigans that have been going on here...so...hope you're enjoying January and 2011!