My so-called Australian life
And what is this so-called Australian life? Ha! I'm working on that. :) Let me expound a bit on the basics. I live in a two-story town-home sort of place. Apparently it used to be an interior design shop, but from the way the place is designed you would never guess! It's located in the Sydneyian suburb of Alexandria but is right on the border of Erskineville and apparently it's the thing to do to tell people we live in Erskineville. Interestingly, I have discovered that Erskineville is a popular address for the gays and I was overjoyed to see my first gay boys while I was in a local cooking supply store called Victoria's Basement. Strikingly similar to Victoria Secret...I think Victoria might be my favorite lady with her collection of underwear and cooking supplies, so Victoria, wherever you are, I applaud you! I digress...back to the apartment. The ceilings are giant, the floors are wooden, and the air in between is nearly frigid. When the weather is nice, I try to spend as much time out of doors as possible, usually reading on the couch that's sitting on our back porch. The back area serves as 1. a cramped garage, with our roommate's car's bumper actually touching the porch, 2. an open air dryer that puts my delicates on display on a regular basis, 3. a garden complete with fresh basil, 4. ping pong table storage area, 5. a garbage can storage area which is located right next to 6. the BBQ area which we use as 7. an entertainment area, complete with a table, chairs, a couch, and christmas lights. Who would ever have thought you could get so much use of an outside space that is approximately the size of our bedroom? Pretty snazzy set-up, kids.
Inside the house, on the other hand, we have a strange entry way room that is being completely unutilized at the moment--though I have no idea what we would do with the room, it's adjacent to the sidewalk out front that borders a semi-busy street. Meh. It has a few strange doors that have nothing inside or on the contrary are locked and don't open. It weirds me out to have doors in the house that do not open...underground railroad? Is there a secret mafia down some secret stairs located behind the door? Or is it like a locked door in a hotel room that links to the room (our in our case the townhouse) next door? Strange... Anyway, through that room is the living room/dining room, through that the kitchen which has ample counter space if only because we have a big, industrial, non-working bench refrigerator that now serves as our pantry. And the experience I gained while baking in South American kitchens has prepared me for the oven here which is also gas-powered and requires manual lighting. I love my roommates for bringing a candle into the kitchen to make lighting the oven easier! It has come in quite handy, let me tell you... Through the kitchen is a guest bathroom with a hard to close sliding door that I sometimes fear will lock me in, and next to the bathroom is the official laundry and storage room. Upstairs we have three bedrooms and in between the two levels a bathroom that also has a sliding door that unfortunately doesn't shut all the way. Up until this past year of traveling, I have had anxiety about other people hearing me go to the bathroom. I mean, I remember my first year in college I hung out with my guy friends in their quad in McMahon rather frequently, and I would always warn them before I went in to use the bathroom so nobody else would come in. One time, one of the guys came in and I stopped mid-stream, yelled at him to get out of the bathroom. He thought I was joking. Um, I did not finish my bathroom session until he had fully exited the bathroom. At my last apartment in Seattle, my apartment was so small that if there wasn't any ambient noise you could hear all of the goings on in the bathroom. I kept my radio right next to the door, easy to turn on to drown out all rest room noises. Well, this phobia pretty much went away over the last year and good thing, otherwise I would be really nervous using the bathrooms here--one that has no soundproofing while the other might lock me in. :)
That's plenty of bathroom excitement for now. Let's move on to a quick run down of the roommates. First there's Aidan, our IT guy, a sweet and friendly kind of guy who is Marcus's and my usual dinner companion. We'll cook dinner together then retire to the living room for an episode of MacGuyver, who, by the way, is rather socially inept and not quite as brilliant as I formerly thought. Granted, I was probably 3 years old at the time and my ideas of brilliance (and adulthood for that matter) have changed a bit since then. :) Still entertaining, though, and it certainly won't stop me from continuing to watch MacGuyver make tripwires out of fishing line and tranquilizer guns out of empty flashlights and coat strings.
We also have Bec, the other lawyer in the household, who typically has a smile on her face, a story to tell and a glass of red wine in her hand. Her parents are from Canada and moved to Australia before Bec was born. I met her mom and it was so interesting for me to see a native English speaking mother-daughter pair, each with a different accent. Of course it makes sense since Bec grew up in Australia so naturally she would have a different accent, but I still find it fascinating.
Both roomies are nice people and contrary to what I thought before I got here, I'm not dying to get out of here and get my own place with Marcus. Maybe four is a good roommate number. I suppose we shall see...
This last weekend Marcus and I trained it out to Penrith (or rather, Emu Plains) where Marcus grew up. His house is up for sale but it's not sold just yet, so we crashed in his empty, mammoth house. It's a big ol' two-story house out in the 'burbs complete with a pool in the backyard. Seriously, beyond the kitchen (with enviably vast counter space and a wall-oven that would be wonderful for watching the goods bake) there's this spacious room that I will call the ballroom. They might call it a game room, but I think a ballroom sounds much better! Beyond that room is his grandma's room, bathroom, and huge closet. Get the point? I have big house jealousy. :) However, it's also true that the family went through a lot to get that house. Their original house caught on fire while they were all sleeping one night and they had to jump out of the second story and run across the street to safety. Everything they owned and all of his childhood pictures were lost. So after something like that? I would definitely agree that they earned that Brobdingnagian house.
Good word, huh?
Brob-ding-nag-i-an
Immense; enormous.
[After Brobdingnag, a country in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, where everything was enormous.]
I love thesaurus.com...And words of the day!
Anyway, Penrith...we took another train up to Katoomba to see the Blue Mounts and the infamous Three Sisters. Marcus' friend Seamus thought that the three sisters were actually three promiscuous sisters that were punished by their fathers by being turned to stone. The legend we found up on the mountain was that there were three giant sisters from an aboriginal group who fell in love with three warriors from a neighboring tribe. But their love was forbidden and the two tribes went to war. A medicine man from the sisters' tribe, to protect the sisters, turned them to stone with the intention of reversing the spell after the end of the war. Unfortunately, the medicine man was killed during the war and therefore unable to reverse the spell. So the sisters continue to sit, contemplating their forbidden love amidst tourist visits.
The Blue Mountains are quite lovely, though, and so named for the way sunlight reflects off of the eucalyptus trees. (Wikipedia disagrees, giving some explanation about "Mie scattering" and "UV radiation" but I prefer to go with the eucalyptus tree idea which brings to mind thoughts of the still-elusive koala.....mm, yes.) The weather was cold and Marcus and I spent some time happily inside a cafe sipping hot chocolate, complete with whipped cream AND marshmallows. Mmm, good. Then we ventured on a twenty minute walk to see the Three Sisters and the surrounding mountains. We walked, we froze, and we saw the beautiful mountains amidst the sun, clouds, and distant showers.
It was a nice weekend with lots of walking which was a good off-set to what I spend the rest of my week doing...sitting...reading...being, uh, inactive...
I have one final message to leave you with this week, courtesy of the Erskineville Public School sign:
Inside the house, on the other hand, we have a strange entry way room that is being completely unutilized at the moment--though I have no idea what we would do with the room, it's adjacent to the sidewalk out front that borders a semi-busy street. Meh. It has a few strange doors that have nothing inside or on the contrary are locked and don't open. It weirds me out to have doors in the house that do not open...underground railroad? Is there a secret mafia down some secret stairs located behind the door? Or is it like a locked door in a hotel room that links to the room (our in our case the townhouse) next door? Strange... Anyway, through that room is the living room/dining room, through that the kitchen which has ample counter space if only because we have a big, industrial, non-working bench refrigerator that now serves as our pantry. And the experience I gained while baking in South American kitchens has prepared me for the oven here which is also gas-powered and requires manual lighting. I love my roommates for bringing a candle into the kitchen to make lighting the oven easier! It has come in quite handy, let me tell you... Through the kitchen is a guest bathroom with a hard to close sliding door that I sometimes fear will lock me in, and next to the bathroom is the official laundry and storage room. Upstairs we have three bedrooms and in between the two levels a bathroom that also has a sliding door that unfortunately doesn't shut all the way. Up until this past year of traveling, I have had anxiety about other people hearing me go to the bathroom. I mean, I remember my first year in college I hung out with my guy friends in their quad in McMahon rather frequently, and I would always warn them before I went in to use the bathroom so nobody else would come in. One time, one of the guys came in and I stopped mid-stream, yelled at him to get out of the bathroom. He thought I was joking. Um, I did not finish my bathroom session until he had fully exited the bathroom. At my last apartment in Seattle, my apartment was so small that if there wasn't any ambient noise you could hear all of the goings on in the bathroom. I kept my radio right next to the door, easy to turn on to drown out all rest room noises. Well, this phobia pretty much went away over the last year and good thing, otherwise I would be really nervous using the bathrooms here--one that has no soundproofing while the other might lock me in. :)
That's plenty of bathroom excitement for now. Let's move on to a quick run down of the roommates. First there's Aidan, our IT guy, a sweet and friendly kind of guy who is Marcus's and my usual dinner companion. We'll cook dinner together then retire to the living room for an episode of MacGuyver, who, by the way, is rather socially inept and not quite as brilliant as I formerly thought. Granted, I was probably 3 years old at the time and my ideas of brilliance (and adulthood for that matter) have changed a bit since then. :) Still entertaining, though, and it certainly won't stop me from continuing to watch MacGuyver make tripwires out of fishing line and tranquilizer guns out of empty flashlights and coat strings.
We also have Bec, the other lawyer in the household, who typically has a smile on her face, a story to tell and a glass of red wine in her hand. Her parents are from Canada and moved to Australia before Bec was born. I met her mom and it was so interesting for me to see a native English speaking mother-daughter pair, each with a different accent. Of course it makes sense since Bec grew up in Australia so naturally she would have a different accent, but I still find it fascinating.
Both roomies are nice people and contrary to what I thought before I got here, I'm not dying to get out of here and get my own place with Marcus. Maybe four is a good roommate number. I suppose we shall see...
This last weekend Marcus and I trained it out to Penrith (or rather, Emu Plains) where Marcus grew up. His house is up for sale but it's not sold just yet, so we crashed in his empty, mammoth house. It's a big ol' two-story house out in the 'burbs complete with a pool in the backyard. Seriously, beyond the kitchen (with enviably vast counter space and a wall-oven that would be wonderful for watching the goods bake) there's this spacious room that I will call the ballroom. They might call it a game room, but I think a ballroom sounds much better! Beyond that room is his grandma's room, bathroom, and huge closet. Get the point? I have big house jealousy. :) However, it's also true that the family went through a lot to get that house. Their original house caught on fire while they were all sleeping one night and they had to jump out of the second story and run across the street to safety. Everything they owned and all of his childhood pictures were lost. So after something like that? I would definitely agree that they earned that Brobdingnagian house.
Good word, huh?
Brob-ding-nag-i-an
Immense; enormous.
[After Brobdingnag, a country in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, where everything was enormous.]
I love thesaurus.com...And words of the day!
Anyway, Penrith...we took another train up to Katoomba to see the Blue Mounts and the infamous Three Sisters. Marcus' friend Seamus thought that the three sisters were actually three promiscuous sisters that were punished by their fathers by being turned to stone. The legend we found up on the mountain was that there were three giant sisters from an aboriginal group who fell in love with three warriors from a neighboring tribe. But their love was forbidden and the two tribes went to war. A medicine man from the sisters' tribe, to protect the sisters, turned them to stone with the intention of reversing the spell after the end of the war. Unfortunately, the medicine man was killed during the war and therefore unable to reverse the spell. So the sisters continue to sit, contemplating their forbidden love amidst tourist visits.
The Blue Mountains are quite lovely, though, and so named for the way sunlight reflects off of the eucalyptus trees. (Wikipedia disagrees, giving some explanation about "Mie scattering" and "UV radiation" but I prefer to go with the eucalyptus tree idea which brings to mind thoughts of the still-elusive koala.....mm, yes.) The weather was cold and Marcus and I spent some time happily inside a cafe sipping hot chocolate, complete with whipped cream AND marshmallows. Mmm, good. Then we ventured on a twenty minute walk to see the Three Sisters and the surrounding mountains. We walked, we froze, and we saw the beautiful mountains amidst the sun, clouds, and distant showers.
It was a nice weekend with lots of walking which was a good off-set to what I spend the rest of my week doing...sitting...reading...being, uh, inactive...
I have one final message to leave you with this week, courtesy of the Erskineville Public School sign:
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