Apartments with Birthdays

Hi!

Well. That was a nice, busy week. Having a birthday to kick-start it helped!

So, yeah! Birthday was very nice! Am getting pretty good at entertaining myself on the day when there's no one else around. Geez, anymore, I wouldn't know what to do with people to help entertain me on the day!? Anyways, took myself to Favorite Cafe #2 (#1 was closed, sheesh), wandered a little through the botanical gardens, then took myself to The Mall to see the new Harry Potter movie in Gold Class! Maaaaaaaaaaan. If cinemas over in the States have something similar, I highly recommend it. It's basically like flying Business Class - you have your own entrance that leads to a very plush sort of living room area - complete with bar and nicely dressed wait staff! Because I bought my ticket ahead of time, all I had to do now was buy treats for during the film. You can order real food and nibbles and booze and desserts and all kinds of stuff, including everything at the regular snack bar. And the very best part of all of this is, besides the really comfy lazyboy chairs and tiny cinema with a perfectly sized screen and excellent sound - they bring it to you in your chair during the film at a time you tell them to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "And when would you like your champagne and chocolate cake taken out to you? Half an hour after the film starts?" "No, please, make it about 45 minutes after it's started." "Very well, we'll bring that to you then! Will there be anything else?" "Oh, yes, please. One more glass of champagne (it is my birthday after all) and a small popcorn." "And when would you like this?" "Oh, say, 10 minutes after the film's started?" "Excellent." Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! But I kinda had to feel for them - they have to totter around holding a little tray full of drinks and food, in the half-dark, up and down stairs, and yet try their best not to lean over into your view too much, or, well, spill it all over you. I swear, the movie may not have been all that great, but with warm chocolate cake and champagne delivered to me when I say just made it Oscar-worthy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was bloody brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then, well, how do you top that really, besides, maybe roller coaster rides? So I went and got my nails done (had to do at least one really girly thing) and then onto the bus home to get ready to meet the gals for dinner at the swish Australian food restaurant "Tukka". I ate emu (niiiice, light), kangaroo (couldn't tell because it was smoked or salami-fied, but nice, tasty), and crocodile - by far my favorite. No wonder Steve Irwin liked them so much (ooooooh, just kidding)! It was lovely, little chewy, but not nearly as chewy as squid, light, not fishy (or chickeny), it was just really excellent, and they let the flavor do it's thing by not drowning it in any kind of sauce, it was just lightly grilled. Man, it was just good. The restaurant itself and the service, eh, not nearly as good as the crocodile. May go again sometime and give it another chance. If one of you guys wants to come down here for a visit we'll go. Bring a small chunk of dough though, it wasn't cheap. But hey, I'm not going out to catch crocodile or kangaroo for dinner, so I guess it's danger-pay added to the bill. And that was my 37th year on this little planet celebrated! Nice.

And then there was the real week to come back to. Which was fine. Work is most excellent, I think I did maybe 3 hours' worth of work all week - see? It's picking up! I had to sign off on the proofs from the printing house for that big manual I was working on earlier - it's a scary moment signing off almost $80,000 worth of work to be distributed across the entire state (and Queensland is a big bloody state) - I really hope I caught all the mistakes. Egads. But, it's gone, and that's what they hired me to do. Excellent! Still working on another manual which is getting close to leaving my hands. I think. There's about 10 other unknown/unseen people involved so, yeah, I'm just a cog. I don't mind. It still beats screaming little students or "scholars" screaming at me to wash their dishes. Yes. Most excellent indeed.

But the real trick to the week was the fact I got a place to move to on the 9th of August (when my lease runs out and the rent goes up for this place I'm in now). I'd been hunting everyday for a couple months. So yeah. It's a dump, if I do say so myself. But it's a cheap dump that comes with an old fridge, an old microwave and electricity to run it all (but nothing else - hello, I'm 18 again furnishing my own digs. Eeek). All for $180 a week (trust me, that's cheap). Which is why it's a dark, chilly, small first floor place. But, it's in Paddington (where I can now walk to go get cat food!), the grocery store, post office, cafes, etc is a 5 minute walk away, and it's cheap. I'll save loads of dough. Pay off the bills and save up to get the hell outta Dodge on the weekends. I'm signed up for six months, so fingers crossed I can do it. I have to, so the bank says. I tell ya, I'm gonna miss this apartment though. Lots. But I'll like the money to go on trips even more, so there's the trade-off. Oh well. I really need to start checking off my list 'things to do in Oz', enough messin' around!

And, really, that's about it. The weather is warming up - getting up to the high-70's and next week is supposed to hit 80. So much for winter! But in gearing up for the warmer weather and the fact that they've had a pretty bone dry winter, the fire department has been doing lots of controlled burns on the hills just outside of town. And where does the smoke and ash go to? Town. Ugh. It's like having 24 hour, free incense! Nice sunsets. But I can't help but worry about all those poor animals. I hope they had some sort of advance notice so they could find new digs. Ahhhhh well, better than brush fires outta control taking out homes and people. It's why we have thumbs I guess.

So that's that! I hope you're all well up there!

BYE!
J!