I dreamed about a building with children inside. There's something wrong with the building. It could collapse at any time. I believe people should leave the building, but they won't. It's as if they feel staying is worth the risk.
I'm sure the fires influenced that dream.
I woke up sad about the camera. I didn't think we should get a new one. Or maybe I should say I felt we didn't deserve to get a new one. Well, it was me who didn't deserve it. But Tim felt we should get one. I guess he was right. We'd have to get a new camera eventually. I mean we don't HAVE to. But we WOULD someday. So we might as well have photographs for the last few days of our trip.
I have in my notes that Jack and I stayed in the room during the morning. I guess Tim went out to get the new camera then.
We weren't sure what we were going to do this day. We had plans in the evening with Michelle; but the afternoon was open. We hadn't gone to the Taronga Zoo yet. I had been saving that for Suzanne. We were all going to go together. Now she wasn't coming. I felt a bit sad about going without her. But I felt obligated to take Jack there.
I went online to look at the ticket prices and opening/closing times.
I didn't like the price. It was 40 dollars for adults. I think I'd be okay paying that if we had left early in the morning and spent the day there. But we wouldn't be getting there until afternoon; and then we might have to leave fairly early because of our dinner plans.
On Thursday we had mid afternoon plans so we really couldn't do the zoo then. On Friday, we'd have no travel pass so we were hoping to not use trains, buses, and ferries.
I decided to leave it up to Jack. I gave him a choice. Did he want to go to the zoo or the Australia Museum? To my surprise, he eagerly picked the latter. I felt happy about the money we'd be saving. I also felt better about not having to go to the zoo without Suzanne.
The zoo isn't the only thing we skipped because of her. We had also planned to explore the Dulwich Hill neighborhood. When Suzanne found out about that, she told me her mother lives around there. So, I had decided we'd just wait and go to Dulwich Hill when Suzanne arrives. She'd be staying at her mother's house so it made sense for us to visit her there. But since she wasn't able to get to Sydney, we never went to Dulwich Hill.
Before going to the museum we went to David Jones for lunch.
Tim was in a pretty good mood that day...still talking about us moving to Australia. I think he liked how I was so social there. If I could find more people in Fort Worth that I loved, I might be more social here too. I can be a fairly social person if I find people I click with well. That just hasn't happened to me much here. I do have one best friend, and I love her. I'm grateful to have at least that.
But I'm not the type of person who will socialize just for the hell of it. If there's a choice between going to a party with people, I have barely anything in common with, or staying at home and emailing my friends; I'm going to pick the latter.
Who knows?
I'm trying to keep an open-mind and open-heart about everything.
I'm pushing myself to being more open to going out. I don't want to be one of those people who says this is not what I want out of life, so I'm going to sit here and force myself to be unhappy. But if Tim takes me to another party where they have anti-Obama stuff on the refrigerator; a guy who tells me the Palestinians should be thrown in to the sea; and they pass out bible scripture as party favors, I shall probably retreat under my shell until it's time to go back to Australia.
Anyway......
Jack got another create-your-own juice at David Jones.
This one had strawberry, pear, rockmelon, and mint. It was good, but I think I preferred the one he got the day before.
We had lunch. I forgot what we ate.
Well, Jack remembers. He got Mediterranean Lamb. I don't remember what Tim and I got. I'm pretty sure I got pasta.
We ate that, and then we got dessert.
Tim and I picked out some cookies for us all to share. Jack got a passionfruit cheese cake. Then we sat down at the coffee shop. Tim got a coffee thing, I got a hot chocolate, and Jack got a babycino. Jack later told us he hadn't been impressed with the babycino. He said it was too foamy.
A gay couple sat down next to us. One of the guys had a touristy shirt. I started talking to them. I sometimes like meeting other tourists. They were from Holland and were on a four month holiday to Australia and New Zealand. No, I wasn't jealous or anything.
They said their favorite city was Sydney. I always think Sydney is my favorite city, but I haven't gone to the others yet. I need a four month Australia holiday so I can have a valid opinion about it all.
We had fun at the Australia museum. We looked at the skeleton exhibit we had missed last time. Jack had a lot of fun with the table where film images of dangerous animals jump out at you.
We looked at dinosaur stuff.
Then we went to the search and discovery room. Jack played on the computer. I read a fun book about dangerous animals. I can't remember what Tim did. He might have taken a cat nap. (FYI: cat nap=nana nap)
After awhile, I said good-bye to Tim and Jack because I wanted to take a walk. They spent a little more time in the museum when I left. Then they went home so Jack could play with the computer. With the internet service we ordered, we had limited downloads. Tim had told Jack this meant he couldn't play website games or watch videos. We weren't sure how much that would effect our download quota. But now we had only about three days left, and we had a lot of downloads remaining. Tim now said Jack was free to do what he wanted.
I walked to the Royal Botanical Gardens. On the way there, I walked up the steps to St. Mary's Cathedral and peered inside. It was very beautiful.
In the RBG, I saw Cockatoos and bats. I thought about my mom while I was there. She loves birds. I think she'd really like the RBG. My parents are going on an Australian-New Zealand cruise next March. I hope they have a chance to go to the gardens. They might have only one day in Sydney though.
On the way back to the apartment, I saw a lot of police. It looked like they were escorting someone important. Who? I don't know.
At one point, I saw a man who looked like Jesus. He really did! It's like he had stepped out of a performance of Jesus Christ Superstar. I mean I don't think he was dressed like it. It's just his face, beard, hair, etc looked a bit Christ-like. I saw him turn to his companions and say Is that our bus?
That's not exactly the thing you expect to hear from the mouth of a Messiah. Maybe it was symbolic! A parable?
When I got home, I found Jack watching Lazytown videos on YouTube. While he did that, I read Leviathan. That book has a FABULOUS ending, by the way. Have any of you read it? I think I might have been sobbing when I read it. John Birmingham can be really awesome sometimes. I still haven't read the Falafel book, though. I need to!
In the evening, we took a bus to the Tigers club on Victoria Road. We met Michelle and her family there. It was crowded and we had a hard time finding a table. But we still had a lot of fun. We had great conversations, and Jack enjoyed playing with the kids.
On the way home, Tim and I talked about being incredibly exhausted. I realized that although I was having the best time of my life, I was ready to go home. I was TIRED. Of course, then we thought how the hell would we live here if we get so tired out? I decided if we ever move to Sydney, we'll have to learn how to pace ourselves. I hope we'd be more active and social than we are in Texas. But we really need to make sure we're not THAT active. I think if we lived in Sydney, we'd almost HAVE to start taking things for granted. If we didn't, every morning I'd wake up and think Holy shit. I live in Australia. We MUST seize the day! I love the seize-the-day attitude. It's a great approach to life. But when your legs are killing you....screaming at you. Let us have a day off! It might be nice to let them rest. I told my legs they'd have plenty of time to rest. In a few days, they'd be stuck on a long plane ride.
I'm sure the fires influenced that dream.
I woke up sad about the camera. I didn't think we should get a new one. Or maybe I should say I felt we didn't deserve to get a new one. Well, it was me who didn't deserve it. But Tim felt we should get one. I guess he was right. We'd have to get a new camera eventually. I mean we don't HAVE to. But we WOULD someday. So we might as well have photographs for the last few days of our trip.
I have in my notes that Jack and I stayed in the room during the morning. I guess Tim went out to get the new camera then.
We weren't sure what we were going to do this day. We had plans in the evening with Michelle; but the afternoon was open. We hadn't gone to the Taronga Zoo yet. I had been saving that for Suzanne. We were all going to go together. Now she wasn't coming. I felt a bit sad about going without her. But I felt obligated to take Jack there.
I went online to look at the ticket prices and opening/closing times.
I didn't like the price. It was 40 dollars for adults. I think I'd be okay paying that if we had left early in the morning and spent the day there. But we wouldn't be getting there until afternoon; and then we might have to leave fairly early because of our dinner plans.
On Thursday we had mid afternoon plans so we really couldn't do the zoo then. On Friday, we'd have no travel pass so we were hoping to not use trains, buses, and ferries.
I decided to leave it up to Jack. I gave him a choice. Did he want to go to the zoo or the Australia Museum? To my surprise, he eagerly picked the latter. I felt happy about the money we'd be saving. I also felt better about not having to go to the zoo without Suzanne.
The zoo isn't the only thing we skipped because of her. We had also planned to explore the Dulwich Hill neighborhood. When Suzanne found out about that, she told me her mother lives around there. So, I had decided we'd just wait and go to Dulwich Hill when Suzanne arrives. She'd be staying at her mother's house so it made sense for us to visit her there. But since she wasn't able to get to Sydney, we never went to Dulwich Hill.
Before going to the museum we went to David Jones for lunch.
Tim was in a pretty good mood that day...still talking about us moving to Australia. I think he liked how I was so social there. If I could find more people in Fort Worth that I loved, I might be more social here too. I can be a fairly social person if I find people I click with well. That just hasn't happened to me much here. I do have one best friend, and I love her. I'm grateful to have at least that.
But I'm not the type of person who will socialize just for the hell of it. If there's a choice between going to a party with people, I have barely anything in common with, or staying at home and emailing my friends; I'm going to pick the latter.
Who knows?
I'm trying to keep an open-mind and open-heart about everything.
I'm pushing myself to being more open to going out. I don't want to be one of those people who says this is not what I want out of life, so I'm going to sit here and force myself to be unhappy. But if Tim takes me to another party where they have anti-Obama stuff on the refrigerator; a guy who tells me the Palestinians should be thrown in to the sea; and they pass out bible scripture as party favors, I shall probably retreat under my shell until it's time to go back to Australia.
Anyway......
Jack got another create-your-own juice at David Jones.
This one had strawberry, pear, rockmelon, and mint. It was good, but I think I preferred the one he got the day before.
We had lunch. I forgot what we ate.
Well, Jack remembers. He got Mediterranean Lamb. I don't remember what Tim and I got. I'm pretty sure I got pasta.
We ate that, and then we got dessert.
Tim and I picked out some cookies for us all to share. Jack got a passionfruit cheese cake. Then we sat down at the coffee shop. Tim got a coffee thing, I got a hot chocolate, and Jack got a babycino. Jack later told us he hadn't been impressed with the babycino. He said it was too foamy.
A gay couple sat down next to us. One of the guys had a touristy shirt. I started talking to them. I sometimes like meeting other tourists. They were from Holland and were on a four month holiday to Australia and New Zealand. No, I wasn't jealous or anything.
They said their favorite city was Sydney. I always think Sydney is my favorite city, but I haven't gone to the others yet. I need a four month Australia holiday so I can have a valid opinion about it all.
We had fun at the Australia museum. We looked at the skeleton exhibit we had missed last time. Jack had a lot of fun with the table where film images of dangerous animals jump out at you.
We looked at dinosaur stuff.
Then we went to the search and discovery room. Jack played on the computer. I read a fun book about dangerous animals. I can't remember what Tim did. He might have taken a cat nap. (FYI: cat nap=nana nap)
After awhile, I said good-bye to Tim and Jack because I wanted to take a walk. They spent a little more time in the museum when I left. Then they went home so Jack could play with the computer. With the internet service we ordered, we had limited downloads. Tim had told Jack this meant he couldn't play website games or watch videos. We weren't sure how much that would effect our download quota. But now we had only about three days left, and we had a lot of downloads remaining. Tim now said Jack was free to do what he wanted.
I walked to the Royal Botanical Gardens. On the way there, I walked up the steps to St. Mary's Cathedral and peered inside. It was very beautiful.
In the RBG, I saw Cockatoos and bats. I thought about my mom while I was there. She loves birds. I think she'd really like the RBG. My parents are going on an Australian-New Zealand cruise next March. I hope they have a chance to go to the gardens. They might have only one day in Sydney though.
On the way back to the apartment, I saw a lot of police. It looked like they were escorting someone important. Who? I don't know.
At one point, I saw a man who looked like Jesus. He really did! It's like he had stepped out of a performance of Jesus Christ Superstar. I mean I don't think he was dressed like it. It's just his face, beard, hair, etc looked a bit Christ-like. I saw him turn to his companions and say Is that our bus?
That's not exactly the thing you expect to hear from the mouth of a Messiah. Maybe it was symbolic! A parable?
When I got home, I found Jack watching Lazytown videos on YouTube. While he did that, I read Leviathan. That book has a FABULOUS ending, by the way. Have any of you read it? I think I might have been sobbing when I read it. John Birmingham can be really awesome sometimes. I still haven't read the Falafel book, though. I need to!
In the evening, we took a bus to the Tigers club on Victoria Road. We met Michelle and her family there. It was crowded and we had a hard time finding a table. But we still had a lot of fun. We had great conversations, and Jack enjoyed playing with the kids.
On the way home, Tim and I talked about being incredibly exhausted. I realized that although I was having the best time of my life, I was ready to go home. I was TIRED. Of course, then we thought how the hell would we live here if we get so tired out? I decided if we ever move to Sydney, we'll have to learn how to pace ourselves. I hope we'd be more active and social than we are in Texas. But we really need to make sure we're not THAT active. I think if we lived in Sydney, we'd almost HAVE to start taking things for granted. If we didn't, every morning I'd wake up and think Holy shit. I live in Australia. We MUST seize the day! I love the seize-the-day attitude. It's a great approach to life. But when your legs are killing you....screaming at you. Let us have a day off! It might be nice to let them rest. I told my legs they'd have plenty of time to rest. In a few days, they'd be stuck on a long plane ride.
What would our world be like if we
knew for sure there
was life after death, and
we could easily talk to our
dearly-departed on the Internet?
The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts
Were the police escorting the Jesus guy???
ReplyDeleteI think if you moved to Sydney you would definately find the balance you need. There wouldn't be life narrowed down to a few weeks to see everyone and have fun..you'd have - well a lifetime to do it! I'm so tempted to move back to Victoria for the social contact again but so much of my life is here now it's a hard decision to make. Who knows what the future will bring?
Sounds like a fun day you had anyway :-)
xxx
What??? $40 to get into Taronga Zoo? Strike that off my list for my next Sydney visit.
ReplyDelete'and they pass out bible scripture as party favors, I shall probably retreat under my shell until it's time to go back to Australia.' That is one thing I am quite proud of about Australia. That is our increasing lack of religious nonsense.
Dina, you have perhaps heard it, but we Melburnians say, Sydney is a great place to visit, but Melbourne is much nicer to live in.
LOL about the party favors...really they didn't hand out bible scriptures...they did, however, try to tattoo a scripture on us before we ran ou...um...left the party.
ReplyDeleteI ate lasagna for lunch or was it the sandwich?...damn we really ate at DJ quite a bit.
Tracey: lol. Yeah. Maybe that's why the police were there! I agree. Who knows what the future would bring.
ReplyDeleteWe were so excited to get a Wii message from you guys!!
Andrew: I just checked the website again to make sure I hadn't made a mistake about the 40 dollars!! It's now 41 dollars. Or maybe it was that before and I had round it down to 40.
Yeah. I like how Australia has less religion. I actually don't think religion is a bad thing. I just don't like when it's pushed on me--no matter how subtle or politely. Although we should have taken a hint. There had been Jesus stuff on the invitations. That probably should have given us a clue about what we were getting ourselves into.
I shall move to Melbourne and be your neighbor. We can visit each other everyday and check out our toilet paper arrangements.
Tim: They did TOO hand out scripture. We just didn't take any. I said "no thank you." I don't think they liked that very much.
We DID eat at David Jones a lot. I miss it! Jack and I had a virtual trip there yesterday via Google Maps.
I agree!, The other one was better
ReplyDeleteWow! I don't remember that happening...I do remember the racist/xenophobic article on the fridge.I'm surprised they didn't try to hand out guns and ammo to defend ourselves.
ReplyDeleteJack: I wonder what kind of juices you'll make for us next time....
ReplyDeleteTim: They might have handed out guns. I think we left too early.
That pretty funny about the parties. It reminds me of a time when my sister was going through a churchy stage and see invited me to her friends place for a BBQ on grand final day (which is the same as the super bowl)little did i know that there wasn't going to be any football, but a full scripture lesson. I quickly got up and walked home (i was only 16 at the time my sister was 18)and watched the footy and the next time i saw my sister i told her don't ever do that again but in a less polite manner. The good thing was that she stopped going to church when they told her that she had to donate 20% of her earnings to the church and they would constantly ring home every sunday morning asking her why she wasn't at church and how she would burn in hell if she didn't attend but they stopped ring when we told them we would file for harassment.
ReplyDeleteMatt,
ReplyDeleteYikes! Those sound like very scary people. Fortunately, my husband isn't like that. He's nonreligious like me. It was just people he works with. Tim is much more accepting than I am!!
I really hate when people push their beliefs on me--whether it's Christianity, Scientology, Atheism...whatever.
I mean maybe passing out scripture shouldn't be considered as pushy. But I feel it sort of is. I don't pass out my spiritual beliefs on a piece of paper.
I DID pass out stickers as a teenager that said "Fight Cystic Fibrosis." I guess that's kind of being a little bit pushy. I was VERY weird!!!!
Anyway, do you think that Christian group was a cult? It sort of sounds like it. Or is that standard religious behavior?
I totally used to have the "seize day" theory when I moved here, but its slowed down a bit. Particularly with essays due and stuff its like "alright i might be IN australia but i am HERE to study"...
ReplyDeleteThe taronga zoo was totally worth it! I loved it (although I think I got a student price...). They had this awesome red pandas!
I love Melbourne way more than sydney.
Thanks for stopping by my blog - you're right a lot of it is my family that is holding me back...I'd hope I'd never resent them no matter what I choose.
Deirdre,
ReplyDeleteI imagine my seize-the-day attitude would diminish too.
I think when I'm in Sydney for 2 weeks, I WANT to go out. But I think after awhile, it might feel like obligation. "Well, we're in Australia. We better take advantage of it."
I feel that way here with good weather sometimes. It's sunny out so I feel I SHOULD go out. But sometimes I really don't want to.
We went to Taronga Zoo in 2007...twice (half off for Jack second time). I liked it, but like Wildlife World better. I think they had red pandas at the Central Park zoo so I think I've seen them before. At least I think they were red pandas. ????
Well they weren't a mainstream church. I think it was just a scam myself, because the church leader just lived off the income of the followers, my sister later told me that they never met in the same place two weeks in a row and it was always at at one of the church leaders houses (apparently they had quite a few). She was introduced to the church by her than boyfriend, but thankfully that didn't last and because she was going through a rough patch at time time i believe she was more vulnerable. What i do when someone tries to push there religious views onto me is ask them to explain dinosaurs and why god created them before humans, it pretty fun with some of the answers you get.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem going to a church for a wedding or funeral cause i just see it a ceremony, i don't see it as anything spiritual as i just have my own beliefs.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteYeah. Something sounds fishy there. Maybe a cult? Or something else bad like that.
Yeah, I don't mind going to religious ceremonies. I avoid them when I can though.