Beaches, Bugs and Bah! Humbug!

This is a defficult time of year for me, I'm not gonna lie. X-Mas in general when you are parent-less is hard enough when I am at home, with all my friends and my Brother. But being on the other side of the world and adding to that the fact that I am suddenly no longer in contact with the person whom I was closest to here (long story) has made it even harder. Thankfully technology allows me to instantly talk or text message with the people who love me the most and usually within a few hours I am feeling much better. Luckily I got 5 hours of work on X-Mas day and since it's a holiday it pays a ridiculous amount of money (like $50/hr), which is good because I haven't worked since last Friday. I have been working as a server for an events company. The jobs vary a lot depending on where I am sent. I have done some bartending, some serving, some helping out in the kitchen. The pay is good and the hours are flexible but the shifts are not consistent so I haven't been working as much as I woould have liked. In fact, I feel like I am ready to move on from Sydney. I haven't made any really close friends here and it has been hard to get work. Plus, it's too expensive and too much like Toronto. Everyone keeps telling me how great Melbourne is so I have booked a plane ticket to move there on the 5th of January when my sublet here runs out.



So yesterday I went to the beach with my friend Henna (see below) isn't she just so cute? She's from Finland and her accent makes her voice go up and down when she talks (hard to explain).

So when we were at the beach we saw these 2 lovely ladies wearing santa hats with their bikinis. How weird is that?




Then we saw this awesome dude who was searching for who the heck knows what. Treasure? Loose change? A secret passage to Canada?

I have recently become aware of the fact that I am getting very used to seeing large insects and not feeling freaked out about it. For instance, when I went to get my laundry that was hanging out on the line when I got home last night this dude was chilling just a few feet away. By the morning he had totally vanished though, web and all. At home I would have just left my laundry outside all night but I just went about my business and so did he (or she!?)

Then when I came inside I found this half-dead cockroach in the bathtub (sorry for the gross pic but I wanted you to see how big they are here). At night it's very common to see them on the sidewalk and just step over them. They even fly (although thankfully I haven't encountered that yet) and my friend Chanelle even told me that she ate a deep fried cockroach! Not sure I could get that used to them but I was easily able to just scoop this guy up on a dust pan and flush him down the toilet. Bugs at home just seem to wimpy now.

Other things I am saying like a true Aussie include:

I have updated "Wah-ta" to "Wahda", said very quickly (I have become very aware that Aussie's drop their "R"s off most words.

"Ring me" instead of "Call me"

"Heaps" (They just use this to descibe "A lot". )

Merry X-Mas everyone!!!