Martha and Susan’s Excellent Adventures

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Well, birthday week used to consist of birthday celebrations for Anne, Amy Turner and I, but here and now it is just I. Dad, the camera is working out nicely. I have some pics from my first birthday celebration, a joint birthday dinner with Jenny Park whose birthday was on the 11th. We went out for some very excellent Thai in what I like to call the “Thai district” of Randwick. You stand outside a Thai restaurant and can count over 5 other Thai restaurants within 30m of where you’re standing.

Sunday we made an attempt to visit Canada Bay, a suburb in Sydney. We didn’t quite get past walking around 5 Docks before people got hungry and we went down town for food and chocolate (at an Israeli chocolate chain called Max Bremmer, because of course if Ziv is there we need some sort of an Israeli connection ). We also saw this interesting quote get written in the sky during our walk:

I felt like I was in Ghana! Crazy Christians! They also wrote ‘Jesus Saves’. Twice. That one made me think of the Princess. On the old ticket box there’s a bunch of pretentious pop crap written all over it, and to quote the box: “Satan Spends. Jesus Saves”.

Tuesday was my actual birthday, so I took brownies in to school. Michelle’s chocolate coffee brownies. They’re a HUGE hit here! Danny, the PV centre office guy, bought me a baking tin on the weekend just so that I can continue making it for people. Tuesday I went to see “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” with Frederick and Ziv, then went over to Frederick’s to watch the Germany-Ecuador and England-Sweden matches. Frederick’s from Germany, and Elsa’s boyfriend Deo is from Sweden, so of course we watched both.

Speaking of soccer, I’m doing very little sleeping now. Ghana’s made it through! So thrilling! But soccer and exams don’t mix. Kushal may have failed 2 exams already, and I have one on Friday that I haven’t studied for at all yet. But I did put in a solid 20 minutes today. I’d do more if I wasn’t so exhausted from school and soccer.

Sue’s friend Casey is on her way here as we speak. And Sue called me from the middle of the ocean, on a boat somewhere in the vicinity of the Great Barrier Reef, on Thursday. Apparently the Reef gets better cell phone reception than Lindeman Island

And that’s all the news from birthday week. Oh wait! We also had a cake in the meeting on Friday. And one in the flat on Wednesday. So much chocolate cake! So good!

Okay. Peace out homeslices.

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Okay, this is Martha, but I’m going to write this post on behalf of Sue and Nath. Just to give you a bit of an idea as to what they’re up to now.

So Sue and Nath are working on a Club Med doing housekeeping. Lindeman Island resort. It looks quite gorgeous. But is quite the odd place. They work 11 days on, 3 days off, doing housekeeping during the day and clearing tables at dinner in the evenings. Not every evening though. Sue called me yesterday, and her and Nath had gone sea kayaking after work and she said it was awesome. And that the snorkelling is great (it’s right by the Great Barrier Reef. Dying of jealousy!).

The downside of the location is that cell phone reception is not very wide-spread - Sue has to climb the highest hill/mountain in order to get a signal. And internet is $6 an hour, so she hasn’t been using it very much.

Another funny story that I don’t think you’ve heard: Nathaly was bit by a possum! Sue and Nath were drunk at their campsite, and after dark Sue went to bed and Nath stayed up chatting with some neighbouring campsite guy. Both were drunk and at some point a possum showed up. Nath thought it would be a great idea to pet it, but it turns out possums don’t like being pet. That was weeks ago now, though. She’s fully recovered from the possum bite now

Other thing: people who work at the Club Med, like the other people doing Sue and Nath’s jobs, are lowly educated. Most have been in juvie (sp?), a lot haven’t finished high school, some don’t have all their own teeth any more, and one 19 year old girl working there can’t even read! ??? So they will probably have a post about all the strange people they’ve met sometime when they don’t have to pay $6 an hour to get the stories up on this blog.

So their plans for the short-term future: Casey is coming up and the 3 of them are going on a 4 day sailing trip out to the reef with some divers. They plan to do some snorkelling I believe. Apparently there’s not much swimming due to sharks near where they are (scary!). They’ll probably last until the end of the month doing what they’re doing, then after that doing some WOOFing (Sue can explain that later if you don’t know what it is. I didn’t.) Hopefully Ziv and I, and possibly Olaf, will get up to visit them before they leave Queensland. I’d like to see the Reef with Sue.

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Our research group mascot! Vote now: Cute? Or scary?

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Had lunch out in the sun today with Ziv and some guys I don’t know really well. It was lovely and sunny and I had to take my sweater off.

You know how some days you just don’t feel like working? This is one of them. I’m researching scholarships in my spare time (when I’m not writing e-mails or reading blogs or world cup results) so that I feel I’m doing something useful. I made plans to clean some wafers, and write a program, but don’t actually want to undertake any of the work that that will involve yet.

My mom gave me some ‘Craisins’ to eat on the plane on my way back to Australia. I’m eating most of them now. Craisins are dried cranberries that for some reason the people at Ocean Spray decided to flavour like cherries. And there’s nothing raisin-ish about it aside from the fact that it’s dried fruit. I like cranberries just the way they are, like in cranberry sauce. Why would they flavour them like cherries? And if you wanted to eat dried fruit that tasted like cherries, why not just dry cherries in the first place?

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Steve & Anne’s wedding was incredibly fun! They’re off to Cape Breton Island now for their honeymoon. Check out the Gallery for some pictures of the event. The most fun wedding I’ve ever been to.

Random Canadian news:

• There’s a black bear on the loose in Waterloo Region, but no one can find it now
• Edmonton has lost 2 heart-breakers so far in the Stanley Cup Finals
• No more smoking in public buildings in Ontario. Period. Woo hoo!

Back to Sydney this afternoon. The maple syrup and hockey stick are packed. The Crown will be bought at the airport. Take off, you hosers.