Mommy and Aunt Carol!

I may very well be the ONLY girl on the Australian continent who currently possesses Cool Ranch Doriots, Peach Snapple, Skippy Peanut Butter and Arrowhead Water. How nifty is that? My taste buds have been in a very good mood recently!

My mommy and Aunt Carol came to visit me these past 2 weeks. Now a bunch of you out there talked a good game, but they are the only ones who actually got on a plane and showed up! So three cheers for that indeed. However, the second place prize for being the first person to actually mail me a care package is still a wide open race. If anyone out there wants to obtain that silver medal, then let me know and I’ll give you my mailing address J

The past 2 weeks have been exhausting. I have no idea how the two of them managed to do all the stuff they crammed in without passing out. I’m dead tired, and I had 4 days of work while they were in town to recuperate and sit on my butt all day long. They both impressed me energy-level wise. They got in a LOT of stuff in a short period of time. Let’s recap!

They got here on Monday the 17^th, so I met them on my break and we wandered around for a bit. After work we went out for dinner, where we of course had soup dumplings. I wonder how many times thus far I’ve been out for soup dumplings in Sydney? I don’t think I ever set foot in a restaurant here unless they are making me a cheeseburger or my beloved xiao long bao.

Tuesday the 18^th was a really nice day, the first warm one we’ve had in a while. I took them down to Bondi Beach, and we spread out the towels and sat for a bit.  The water is still a bit nippy to really go swimming, but we went in about calf-length. We walked around the shops for a bit, and then did about half of the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk. I may or may not have forgotten to put on sunblock, and may have gotten a bit crispy by the end of the day. Ooops? Must make more of an effort to keep in mind that the pesky hole in the ozone layer is DIRECTLY above Australia...

I made them cook me dinner that night. Watching the two of them cook in a hostel kitchen was entertaining. They scrubbed down everything before they used it, and seemed a bit lost at times. I guess it is a unique experience, cooking in a giant kitchen filled with backpackers yapping in a dozen different languages. They did well with dinner though, it was basic, but it tasted good, and most importantly, I did not have to cook it. We headed over to the casino later on, just to check it out. I hadn’t been there yet, nor had I been on the light rail, so it was all new for me too. I was pretty impressed with “the Star” as they now call the casino. It was pretty glam, and has lots of nice, upscale shopping and dining. Said hello to Cheryl at the Sports Bar while we were there. It was weird talking down to her. The bar is kind of in a pit, so the bartenders all seem really short.

Wednesday the 19^th we went to the Taronga Zoo, which I’d been to already, but it’s a pretty zoo and we actually did hit up some areas that I’d missed the first time around. I also watched a snake eat a baby chick, which was super cool to observe. I took lots of pictures, but I won’t post any of them here because I doubt most of you want to see that… After the zoo, we took the bus to Enmore so that I could show them my little house and neighborhood. The universe was blessedly on my side, because the house was actually EMPTY when we got here – and this place is never empty. Woo Hoo! Awkward introductions to people I don’t even actually speak to were successfully avoided. Walked them through Enmore Park, and then over to Marrickville Metro to see the mall. Did some nice discount shopping at Aldi, then walked up to Newtown to meet Cheryl for dinner at Thai Po-Thong. It was my mom’s first time having thai food, so that was fun too. Put my mother and aunt on a train back to the city, and then Cheryl and I grabbed a quick drink after at a bar I was curious to check out. It was kind of disappointing, but the drink wasn’t too bad.

Thursday the 20^th I had a normal Thursday. Work from 8:30 to 5, then gymnastics. They did their own thing, hitting up Wildlife World, the Sydney Aquarium, and the Sydney Tower. Friday the 21^st I did my own thing as well, going to work as per usual, and they did the day trip to Canberra. Ironically, they ended up having the exact same driver that Cheryl and I had when we did the tour last month.

           

Last Saturday we went on a mini-trip out of the city. They took the train by themselves down to Newtown, so that they could store their luggage at my place before we headed to the Blue Mountains. They did get here eventually, but naturally got on the wrong train first and had to double back. That was all well and good though, since I was late getting to the station anyway J After storing the bags, we hopped a train to Blacktown to go to Featherdale Animal Park. Featherdale, as it was last time, was awesome. One of the koalas, who my mother figured out was named Willie (they have the koala pictures and names on a sign outside of their enclosure, and Willie was the only boy so he was easy to spot), was in party animal mode. He was running around like a bat out of hell, doing laps in his enclosure and nearly trampling the lizards living on the floor every time he made his rounds. Willie was an absolute beast! We took tons of picture and videos of him, but because none of them were done on my camera I don’t have anything to post quite yet. I let my mom & aunt take the pics, and I just enjoyed watching Willie go wild! They had a great time at Featherdale. They got to pet the kangaroos and feed them and all that stuff too. There was even a wallaby with a little joey in her pouch. Featherdale really is an awesome little park. After we were done watching Willie and feeding the roos ice cream cones, we got on a train and headed off to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. Aunt Carol liked Katoomba right off the bat, since it’s a tiny town like Havasu, although Katoomba does get a bit nippier.  We had to make the beds at the hostel when we got there, although naturally I did not make mine. That’s what parents are for!

I think mommy may have thrown that pillow at me right after this was taken...

Sunday the 23^rd we went to the Jenolan Caves. We did two cave tours, the River Cave and the Lucas Cave. I hadn’t seen either on my first trip to the caves, since I did the adventure tour, so this was all new for me as well. The tours were both good, but I think I liked the second one better. The second one involved underground rivers, and watching my mother and aunt climb down ladders:

They both did well though, and everyone was all smiles throughout the tour:

Dinner that night was QUITE special. Not only did I convince them to cook for me, but we cooked KANGAROO. They were both all yappy about looking up recipes, and knowing exactly how to cook it, and needing spices and butter and blah blah blah… I live by the theory that you can cook ANYTHING by either throwing it in boiling water or tossing it in a frying pan. Don’t need nothin’ else.  So that’s what we did!

The kangaroo was a bit tough – apparently when you overcook it (which they INSISTED on doing, since they both seemed to be convinced that we were all going to die unless they cooked the crap out of it) it gets harder to chew. But it wasn’t too bad. We paired it with a bottle of red wine, and some fresh veggies in cream of mushroom sauce. A good, home-cooked meal that I didn’t have to home-cook myself.

The next day we went for a bushwalk! It was unexpectedly warm on Monday, but since we were always under the trees it wasn’t too bad. We walked for maybe about 4 hours, first along the cliff walk, and then down the giant staircase, which is close to 1,000 steps down:

It leads to a lower trail, but it’s still only about halfway to the valley floor. We then walked along the lower trail until we got to the railway that leads up to a happy little mountain tourist sport called “Scenic World” at the top of the cliff. Once we got back up to the top though, we saw that a fire had started across the valley. It got quite big quite fast, and we had to damn near walk through it to get back to Katoomba:

 Crazy stuff. The town was aflutter with sirens wailing all over the place. I got yelled at for being slow walking past the fire, but then I got to yell back at them when we got back to town. Both of them made a beeline for the Police Station (which is next to the hostel), and I got to delicately point out that they were blatantly waltzing into the completely wrong building. Hopped a train back from Katoomba to the city shortly thereafter.

Tuesday was the only real minor disaster of the trip. We went whale watching. Or rather, we attempted to go whale watching. It was rainy and the seas were rough, and slowly but steadily about 75% of the boat got unwell enough that they could no longer stand upright. I spent the duration of the voyage lying down in the cabin. A couple of times the captain said there was a whale outside, but when I sat upright I immediately felt light-headed, so I gave up on trying to see anything. I’d like to say it was a bonding experience for the three of us, but we all had our own spot and no one really spoke until the boat was out of the rough seas and back in the harbor again. Turns out in the end we didn’t miss much though. We briefly chatted with one of the girls who managed to stay alert and outside the whole trip, and she said all she was able to get was one glimpse of a tail. My aunt eventually called and complained, since they really shouldn’t have gone out in those conditions, and we did get 3 vouchers to go again, but I don’t think I’ll have time to use them before they expire L

Wednesday was a lighter day. We all did laundry in the morning, then checked out the Chinese garden in Darling Harbor in the afternoon:

 I also finally bought Ugg boots for myself, and then we had dinner at a “hotel.” You know, one of those Australian kinds that aren’t actually hotels. They’re bars. Still can’t figure that one out!

Thursday and Friday I went back to work. Spent some time with them Thursday night after gym, and then again on Friday during my break. Friday night we had our last dinner, which was, of course, soup dumplings! Then said our goodbyes and back on our separate ways.

Thoughts on their visit:

Great time! They must be exhausted though, they were just go-go-go for nearly 2 weeks. I was impressed with both of them, particularly my mom though. She was killin’ it. She had her own Aussie mobile phone like 5 seconds after the plane landed and figured out the area and the trains and everything pretty quickly. She figured out the Central station exits better than I even have, and I’ve been here 4 months!

Aunt Carol was quite a fan of the new lingo.  She liked “no worries” in particular. AND, I promised Aunt Carol that I would NOT mention one of her questions in the blog, and I am not. See?????? I keep my word! I am vaguely alluding to it though, you know which question I’m thinking of J

It was just so much fun to have them both here. Neither one of them does a whole lot of international travelling, so I was excited for them to be here and excited to show them the new little life that I’ve carved out for myself in the past 4 months. I was also really excited about the presents. I can now wash down my cool ranch chips with arrowhead water. All is right in the world again!

It was also neat sharing some first experiences with them, like checking out Star City and seeing a koala actually…..MOVE for the first time ever. We also discovered the joy of Pie Face. It’s a big chain here, they are everywhere. They make pies. With FACES on them! I also finally tried chicken flavored potato chips. I liked them. No one else did though…

I was a bit sad today, I had no family to hang out with anymore. Back to normal I guess, although normal is actually ending soon, because…

Tomorrow is my last day at HSBC! RAS is almost no more. I only took 5 calls today, as we were only on phone duty for an hour and a half all day. I’ve got a nice part time job lined up for next week, and then Saturday I’m out of here! Enmore and HSBC and really living in Sydney is about to become part of the past. Phase 1 of Australia is ending. Weird! But it’s time, between the job being over and the tide of the house changing, the universe is definitely telling me to head out. I still haven’t any plans past the end of my surf camp, but in a few days I hope to have something that at least resembles an outline of a plan.

So that’s all then, folks. Last day of work tomorrow, followed by a Halloween party at Cheryl’s, and then a few days to wrap up my life here and plan the next phase. Yikes!

Thank you again to my mother and aunt for coming to visit me and brining me all those yummy gifts! I look forward to our next vacation. When are we going to Hawaii???

Stay tuned for my Farewell Sydney entry, coming up in a few days…

One Step Closer to AARP Membership...

This is my first post as a 27-year-old. 27! That’s not a small number, folks. On the contrary, that’s quite a BIG one indeed. I wonder how much longer until I start having to pluck out the gray hairs… It can only be days now before I have to start seriously worrying about that, perhaps a few weeks if I’m lucky. Ugh. To any youngsters out there, I do advise you to enjoy your youth. One day you’ll wake up and you’ll be 27 and it’ll all start going downhill.

So as the savy amongst you may have deduced, I had a birthday recently. The birthday was pretty memorable actually. Climbed to the top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge! We started the day with some dumplings, and then headed up to the top.

The climb started during the day:

And finished up at night:

So we got the daytime, twilight, and nighttime views. Pretty neat! It was a group of 14 of us and the tour leader. It was also my first time taking a Breathalyzer! They make everyone do one before you go up to the top. No tipsy or buzzed folks are permitted to go up, although you are physically attached via cable to the structure the whole time anyway, so it's not like the drunk people could fall off. But good thing we didn’t get a glass of wine with lunch!

Post-climbing, we had some sangria back at Cheryl’s house, and I even got myself a nice birthday cupcake before heading out on the town for the evening:

Now we move on to the negativity. I have bad news, and I have TERRIBLE news. The bad news is that I have a roommate. Her name is Alex. She is from Adelaide. She has a fiancée back in Adelaide, and is here for work. She curses like a sailor though, and her vernacular reminds me of Helena’s less-than-classy speech patterns. They seem to be cut from a similar mold. She gave me a glass of wine the other night. She thinks I am “sweet.” I’m fairly certain that is her nice way of saying she thinks I’m a nerd, but that’s fine. She’s ok I guess.

Now the TERRIBLE news: The house has flipped. The tide has turned. Tom, Claire, and Moritz all left within 24 hours, leaving behind 3 newly empty beds plus the empty one in my room making 4. They filled them all up quickly. I now live in a party house with trashy idiots. Tom and Claire were replaced with another British couple. Their names are Jay and Jaz, I think. They are maybe early 30s, and their hobbies seem to include chain smoking, blasting horrible techno music, and drinking beer like 19-year-old American frat boys. The refrigerator where we all used to keep our fresh vegetables is now filled with cases of BEER. I’ve never seen so many empty beer bottles in my life. It’s disgusting. They’ve completely taken over the house. They even decided that apparently my food doesn’t require the 2 shelves that I’ve had since I moved here. I came home the other day and some of my crap was shoved onto the one shelf, and the rest of it was stashed in various other places to make room for their stuff. Very nice. Then there is the kid who replaced Moritz. I don’t know what his name is. I don’t really care either. He told me, but he (along with Jay ad Jaz) have crazy thick British accents that I cannot understand for the life of me. The Moritz replacement is a lazy unemployed pothead. He spends his days stoned on the couch. He does not know how to cook. He orders pizzas. Then he leaves the box wherever he finished. I am not sure if he is too stoned to get the pizza box to the garbage can, or if he is too stupid to know that empty pizza boxes should go in the garbage. Again, it doesn’t really matter. He’s an idiot. We will not be friends. I do not enjoy coming home at the end of the day to a domicile filled with empty beer bottles and that stinks like stale weed. If I wasn’t leaving in 3 weeks I’d look for other accommodation. These new people are exactly the sort of crap I feared would move in at some point, but I’ll manage. It’s allllllll part of the experience J

I finally got to Wildlife World in Darling Harbor. It had been closed for a while, and it recently reopened. I came across a rather large croc while I was wandering through, and we got into a fight:

Did anyone think that was real????? Did you???? No? Ugh. Nevermind then.

I also went up to a small zoo up in the Northern Suburbs, up by Macquarie University and Epping. It was called the Koala Park Sanctuary, although it had more kangaroos than koalas. They had the typical Aussie animals on display, but there were a couple of interesting things that made the trip up there worthwhile. One was the talking cockatoo! He was a big bird, and he could talk! I’ve never had a conversation with a bird before, at least one where the bird actually answers me in English. Granted, our conversation wasn’t super deep. We basically said hello back and forth. And I think he also knew how to say polly want a cracker. Either that or the bird was calling me a motherf*cker, so I’d like to think that he was actually talking about the crackers and polly wanting one. The other cool thing about the zoos was that they took their dingoes for walks! I got to pet a dingo. They seemed like nice enough little fellows. The kangaroos, wallabies, and wallaroos, however, do NOT enjoy watching the dingoes make their rounds, even though they are on leashes. I’ve never seen SO many animals so painfully alert all at once J.

Not much else to report. I’ve been on the internet researching things a lot lately, plus the gymnastics world championships is going on right now, so lots of stalking message boards and watching youtube uploads, none of which is really worth  writing oodles about on the blog.

This entry may not have been super exciting, but things should get more interesting soon. My mother and aunt arrive in a couple of days to visit for a spell, and then it’s off to cowgirl school and surf camp. That’s right, I’ll be heading off on my very own City Slickers-esque adventure, and then I will (attempt) to learn how to catch a wave. I’ve got some ideas for what will come after that, but nothing is anywhere near being set in stone yet.

Only a couple more weeks at HSBC! The call center has already started the process of moving over to Manila, so for parts of the day I don’t have to deal with the phones anymore! I’m thoroughly enjoying working in a phone call-less call center. It’s not too shabby!

The stoner kid is downstairs on the couch blasting music. I have my earplugs in, which does drown out about 85% of it, so it’s certainly tolerable. Wish me luck that in his stoned-ness he doesn’t feel the need to crank up the volume.

Dumpling Hunt, Eels, & the Brunner Failure

Things are moving along here… I finally have the date when I’ll be putting in my 2 weeks notice to vacate my townhouse! But let’s go in order here… I left you all hanging last the day before my marathon day. And by marathon, I mean working all day then flipping for hours then going out all night. I certainly don’t mean an actual marathon. I really don’t enjoy running.

So the week before last, I went to work all day long and then went to the gym. All of this was relatively ordinary. Usually I go home after and crawl into bed, but not this time! In an effort to recapture my youth, I went home and instead of throwing on the sweats, I threw on the foundation and black eyeliner. Cheryl and her friend Jared got to my place around 11, and we chatted and enjoyed some yummy Long Island Iced Teas. They come in bottles here! Do they come in bottles at home? I’ve never seen them bottled before, it’s pretty snazzy. We then cabbed it up to Kings Cross. We went to a couple of places, with a pit stop at McDonalds in the middle. The beverages at the first place weren’t so hot, but the entertainment was amusing J At the second place the three of us split a nice bottle of sparkling champagne. The décor was good as well, but their bathrooms were unisex and incredibly confusing. Now I know I’d had some wine (and an iced tea) but I’m 100% sure that even without that, those bathrooms would have still been incredibly perplexing. Luckily enough, the first place gave us a stamp so we could come and go as we pleased, and return we did! Their drinks may have been a bit blah, but their bathrooms were nice and clean, and most importantly, straightforward. A trip to the bathroom shouldn’t be an intellectual challenge.

Naturally the next day at work was a bit of a long one. I worked the 12:30-9 shift though, so I was able to get up late and take a cab home and charge it to the company. I like not paying for cabs. It’s a lot of fun. Of course, that day was also the day when I received the CRAZIEST phone call I’ve ever gotten at HSBC. The caller was a rotten old woman named Lady Mary Fairfax. She was mean and nasty, but to the point where it wasn’t even offensive, it was just comical. I spent half of the call going back and forth with her assuring her that we weren’t in the Philippines. Apparently I sound like I’m from Manila? She refused to believe me and told me I was a liar. I gave her our number so she could call back as “proof” that we were in Sydney. Naturally I happened to get her call back as well, and then we launched into round 2 of the You’re in the Philippines – No, I’m in Sydney argument. She was looking for a specific person I think to speak to about depositing money (I think), but it had absolutely nothing to do with our department whatsoever in any way shape or form. But because she was a mean old hag who refused to tell anyone anything, she just kept getting bounced from call center to call center. I eventually gave the call to one of the managers. I listened in for a bit while she accused him of being in the Philippines as well (he’s a white guy born and raised in Australia, with a clear Aussie accent…) and then I got bored and hung up. It was entertaining though, helped me get through the day.

Sunday of that week we had trivia at work. Australians seriously love their trivia, which is cool with me since I love trivia too! The categories were less than stellar though. Lots of rugby, looney tunes and star wars, which as most of you probably know, none of those things are my forte.  I did, however, get the capital of Mongolia correctly. Anyone else out there ever heard of Ulaanbaatar?  It’s on my list of random places to visit one day, along with the –stan countries.

Monday night was an interesting one. Cheryl and I embarked on a CBD Dumpling Hunt. We’d already hit up 2 of my places in Ashfield, so this time we planned to hit up two places that she’d read about. The evening ended up being quite the dumpling adventure. The first place on her list was on George Street, down in the Chinatown section. It was a very nice restaurant, but when we sat down and opened the menus, they only had regular food! We wanted dumplings! Apparently they only do the dim sum/yum cha/dumpling scene for lunch. Rats! So we moved on.

We went to another one of my suggestions next, since it was also on George Street and only a few blocks up. It was quite crowded and we had to wait about 25 minutes for a table, which I figured was a good sign. The food must be decent if so many people are after it! I naturally ordered my soup dumplings, and Cheryl got some veggie ones. We split a fried rice and shrimp dish too. It was all quite yummy. Next, we headed up to Cheryl’s second choice of restaurant, but as it was located in the Pitt street mall, it seemed to be already closed up for the night since it was already around 9 pm. Rats again! We were only 1 for 3 with the dumpling search. Where o where would dinner the sequel be found?? The 4^th option was another one of my recommendations. I had recalled that the other place I had read about in the CBD for good soup dumplings was also on Pitt Street. We walked down to 373 Pitt Street, searching for a restaurant called “Sea Bay,” but there was nothing to be found. We asked a guy in a small grocery store if he knew where Sea Bay was. He did not. Rats for the third time. We were now 1 for 4 for the evening. What to do?

We decided to head to Chinatown. There MUST be decent dumplings in Chinatown, right? On the walk over there however, I suddenly recalled my first soup dumpling restaurant that I had discovered in Sydney. It was about halfway between the missing Sea Bay restaurant and Chinatown, and was therefore on the way. It was located in a mall of sorts as well, so I wasn’t sure if they’d be open, but they did have decent dumplings so I figured it was worth a shot. We had a tough time getting down into the mall as all of the escalators down were closed and blocked off for the night. Most of the stores were either shut or in the process of closing, but the three restaurants down there, including my dumpling establishment, were still open! Huzzah! Dinner part 2 was found. I got more soup dumplings at last, and we split a yummy noodle dish as well. We snuck in just before the kitchen closed too… perfect timing. Final tally for the dumpling day: 2 for 5. But those 2 were homeruns J

I was stuffed and ready to go to bed after, but we ended up going for a drink instead since I recalled that the Shark Hotel was nearby, and I really did want to check that place out. I’d heard people at Five Dock talking about it, plus any bar with a picture of a great white shark on it has to be super fun? The place was actually deceptively large and snazzy based on its exterior awning. I was quite impressed with it. Multiple floors and rooms, with a nice open floor plan. Good spot. I tried a cider on tap. It was good. Do we have ciders on tap at home too? I can’t recall ever seeing any.

Tuesday (still last week here of course) Cheryl and I met up at Circular Quay and checked out the Royal Botanical Gardens. There’s a lookout point in there where you can get great photos of the opera house with the bridge in the background, cause you know I don’t have enough of those yet. We took some nice scenic shots:

On the walk back towards the opera house, we noticed a bunch of kids throwing bread into the pond and squealing. I went over to check it out. I couldn’t imagine why children were squealing watching pond koi fish eat stale bread. Once I got to the water, I understood why the kids were squealing. They were not feeding pretty orange koi fish. They were feeding these:

WTF??? Why are there eels in the Royal Botanical Gardens?? Creepy. Someone needs to inform the groundskeeper that koi are much more aesthetically pleasing, and give off much less of a villainous vibe. I half expected Ursula the sea witch to pop out of the water and ask me for my voice…

Next was a tour of the opera house! I probably won’t go to any performances there (too expensive!!) but at least I got to see the inside. It’s quite plain in there actually. The most interesting aspect of it is the external architecture. But it was still cool to be inside it and see the different theaters and stages (there are quite a few in there), and to learn about the history of the place. There was a bit of a funny moment during the tour for me though. I was randomly looking at a banner listing top donors to the Australian Opera Fund, and look who I found! 9th from the bottom:

I googled her after. Apparently she’s a big philanthropist worth like $300 mil. Someone should inform her that while its all well and good to donate money, manners and common courtesy do go a long way as well…

Wednesday I went on an odd adventure of sorts. It requires a bit of background information, but I’ll keep it brief. There was a book that I found in Olin Library while I was at Cornell, and although I took it out of the library a half dozen times, I never got around to actually reading it. It’s on a book on ancient Egyptian sorcery, written in French.  When I went up to visit Cornell last summer, I popped into the library and searched for the book’s call number to go and visit my old friend. When I did the search, the results also listed all of the other university libraries in the world where the book was located. There weren’t many on the list, as the book is pretty random. The search results listed the libraries in order of distance from Ithaca. I scanned through the list. The farthest copy of the book that existed was in Sydney, Australia. I said to myself, one day I’ll get to Australia and I’ll take a picture of the Sydney copy of it too!

Well here I am, and it was a cruddy rainy day, perfect for heading off to a library. I only recalled from last summer that the book was in Sydney, not at which university specifically. I did a search and found that the book was located at Macquarie University. Ugh. The University of Sydney? Walkable from here. The University of New South Wales? A quick bus ride away. Macquarie? That’s up by Epping, waaaaaaaaay up in the northern suburbs. That’s a schlep.

I experimented with transportation options in getting up there, and ended up outsmarting myself and getting on a bus that didn’t go where I wanted it to go. I got lost and had to walk map-less for an hour until I finally got back to a train station. I then stopped trying to be slick (and cheap) and just paid for the damn train and finished the journey.

Once on campus, I found the library fairly easily. I headed for the section where the book should have been based on the call number. The surrounding books were all on Egypt, so I figured my book should be in there. I scanned the numbers, and……… zilch. Nothing. Not there. Macquarie’s website said they had 1 copy. Why was it not there????

I wandered around the library aimlessly for a bit, unsure of my next move. Was that it? Had a dragged by butt all the way up there for such an epic failure? I then pulled out my post-it again, where I had written down the call number and location of the book. I had written down Brunner collection, Level 2. Well I certainly was on level 2, but perhaps I had not been in the Brunner collection? A ray of hope! I moseyed on over to the touch screen map. Where is this “Brunner Collection”? Aha! It was a small random room, off to the side and in the back of the library.

I wandered in, and searched more call numbers. The surrounding books were all about Egypt. I scanned the letters and numbers, but again to no avail. Where is my book???? I then quickly realized that I was still in the wrong section. I had wandered into the Reserve collection, which according to the map is right next door to Brunner. Ooopps. Third time’s a charm?

I went down the hall, and found it. Small room, glass walls and door with “Brunner Collection” written in fairly large letters down the side. Epic fail no more! Ha! I was on the cusp of visiting the farthest copy of Magie et Magiciens dans l’Egypte Ancienne that exists from Ithaca, New York. I walked up to the room. The door was shut, and there was a kid in there sitting at one of the desks watching me. I pulled the door. It did not open. Locked. LOCKED. After all that, the door is LOCKED. I could see the shelves. My book is in there! I have travelled 9,900 miles, and taken one  very expensive train ride up to the damn northern suburbs, to reach…. a locked door?  It appeared to be key card or ID card access only. I walked over to the circulation desk to inquire. Um, do you have to be a student to walk into Brunner? She didn’t specifically answer the student requirement part, but she did say that in order to obtain access you have to apply through the ancient history department. Only those with approved access can go in. But I’m assuming without a student ID card for this department to activate, then you can’t go in. So that was that. No visiting Magie et Magiciens for me. So here’s as close as I got:

This work week has been fairly dull. I haven’t done much. My gym was surprisingly closed on Thursday night, which was disappointing. The US Dollar has gained strength against the Aussie dollar, so that’s exciting. I still have no roommate! It’s been 2 full weeks of solitude. I am treasuring every moment.

Tom and Claire are leaving on Thursday! That’ll be weird not having them here anymore. Moritz has left recently as well, so if no one new moves in before Thursday, then it will be just me and Maurice in the house. I worry about the new people they’ll move in. I don’t want the tide of the house to change. We are the quiet, mellow house. I’d like to keep it that way.

For anyone out there still on the edge of his or her seat wondering where the Sea Bay restaurant is, don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten you. I thought the address was 373 Pitt street. I was wrong. It was 372. Now in most places in the world, 372 would have been just across the street and we would have spotted it anyway, but things don’t seem to work like that in Sydney. 372 Pitt Street was like 2 blocks away. I did find the restaurant the other day though, so I now still have one more CBD soup dumpling place to check out.

That being said however, I’m moving out November 6^th! Where am I going? Well, HSBC will be over right before then, so I’ve booked 2 weeks of what will in the end be a 3 week trip, It’s more of two “classes” though then just tours. I’ll go into more details in the next entry, once everything is confirmed and set to go. What happens when I land back in Sydney after my 3-week trip is over? Where will I go? That’s a great question. Anyone out there have an answer? I sure don’t! J