Hey, hey, hey...
Things are really on a roll now and the Surfers Paradise calendar is gradually filling up. This week has seen me check out a house music fashion show, Tapas Tuesday, lots of free drinks, losing spectacularly at bowls and enjoying the simple things in life like beers on the balcony with Jules in the afternoon sun.
The 2009 Gold Coast GP has got to be the biggest anti-climax of the moment with town feeling very empty during the day and bizarrely the night also. We'd been warned for weeks about how it was going to morph the area into a battle ground (which it normally is on a Saturday night anyway) but the only real change was an influx of promo girls in chequered hot pants and exposed bum cheeks.
A highlight of the last 7 days was discovering that the Aussies have Iced Magic, the hard topped chocolate sauce for ice cream. I've got an unhealthy but enjoyable routine going on of buying 4 litre vanilla ice cream tubs and devouring the lot with sugar strands and the special sauce within a worryingly short amount of time.
*Being on a budget i’ve had to downgrade to the supermarket's own brand ice cream and hard topped sauce but it's still great*
So last Sunday I managed to blag myself, Jules, Martin, Loz and a new guy called Richard who we nicknamed 'Tasmania' because that's where he was from into the trendy Elsewhere club for free, bonus! We wanted to check out a fashion show that was supposed to be happening so just chilled in a booth waiting for that to materialise (no pun intended).
After a couple of hours listening to some very enjoyable deep house, the fashion part of the night was still a mystery to us and it all turned into a bit of a joke as there were only another 20 people in the club including the bar staff and dj!
Finally at half midnight the show began...and oh my god, it was the worst thing i've ever seen, pretty much primary school standard clothing and models pulled in from the street. Still, it made us all laugh and Tasmania bought me some drinks which went down well.
On Tuesday evening Jules, Martin and I went to Pearl for Tapas night which is a real find here in Surfers. My $9 mojito wasn't made to perfection like last week (new bartender) but it was still tasty and the tapas were absolutely delicious, only $6 a plate too. I asked to doggy bag a lonely unfinished meatball but was met with a look of puzzlement and warned about possible food poisoning if left out of refrigeration...I guess i'm still used to the American way of dining out!?
Weds and Thurs were great as I had no work and managed to get some kite surfing in. The wind forecast is good this week and as long as the swell remains small I can keep kiting out on the sea. After some beach front lunch on Thursday J, M and I headed back to the Azzura to top up the tan by the pool. As the heat eased off, the sunbathing session quickly turned into a white wine and spritzer session and then into a cocktail and shots session. All this for free though as we've become friendly with the bar staff at the hotel and they seem to like treating us :).
At work on Friday I realised how all the kids coming into the bear shop were born in the 2000's and I got a strange feeling of age creeping through my bones, suddenly the 80's seems a very long time ago.
Also every week we have a competition where the person who puts the biggest sale through the till wins a bar of chocolate and now I try and guess who the rich are as they walk through the door. It's never who you think it's going to be though and it's beyond me how people can spend over $600 on bear clothing!
The period of time between 4pm and 7pm I call dead time as the sun has set and there's nothing to do but on Friday Mike, his mate James and I filled it by playing lawn bowls. To be honest I was concentrating more on the conversation than the game and that's my excuse for losing...the conversation and the beers.
Last night Jules and I went out to a great little club called Ruby Tramp, randomly I actually managed to come home with a job starting on the door there next weekend, how does this stuff happen??...probably because I hunted down the manager and asked him for a job so there we go. It'll be a couple of shifts a week which is cool as Loz is out working then anyway too.
We also had some unexpected guests join us out last night including the owner of one of the hotels here in Surfers and we were very spoilt the whole night. Anything to drink for free all night, doesn't get much better than that!
Today was supposed to be a relaxed affair but Jules and I were invited out with the same guys from last night who insisted on buying platters of seafood and antipasti for us so we weren’t complaining there either.
I think next week's going to be a busy one with 5 shifts at Build a Bear, new work at the club and our now infamous Sweet Chilli Blue Thursdays. Sweet Chilli Blue is the name given to a recipe Loz created in LA out of all the leftovers in Chris's fridge, and it's possibly the best dish i've ever had. J, M, L and I get together at the flat, cook it up and devour it fast.
...Reading back over this post for spelling errors is really surreal...is this life i'm writing about mine? It's so completely random and different from anything I was doing 5 months ago. I guess that's why people travel and what they hope to experience when away from the norm. I mentally pinch myself regularly as a reminder of where I am on the globe and how far from home I am and I never take the hot sun and clear blue skies for granted. I have to admit I miss home, family and friends more and more each day but it's likely i'll never get this much continual sun ever again so am trying to appreciate and take advantage of it!
xxx
Wednesday 28 October 2009
Sunday 18 October 2009
Back in the Loop
6 weeks on and finally some kind of routine has formed...granted it consists of bbq's, monday night tv sessions and work at the bear shop which is hardly crazzzzyyyy behaviour but it's nice to have some consistency for a few months before things get shaken up again in December.
We've come a fair way since that first week of work at the holiday company...actually it was only three days before we got as far away from that fraudulent group of people as possible. Only one good thing came of our brief stint there and that was meeting Jules and Martin, a cool couple from the Midlands who i've latched myself onto! We're totally on the same wavelength and have begun planning lots of exciting plans and things to look forward to so thats cool. They also have an awesome jacuzzi and grill area in their building which is great to chill in after a day stuffing bears.
At first I only had 3 shifts a week at Build-a-bear and it really wasn't enough but we've had some scandalous things going on recently and 2 people have just resigned so I was the first to stick my hand up for more work which is cool.
So what else has been going on here on the Gold Coast? Well Jules, Martin and I go out clubbing every couple of weeks just to mix it up, the majority of people and clubs here are 100% chav havens but i've done some digging and found a few hidden gold mines which are worth going to. I'm not sure how i do it but i've also managed to get friendly with the girls running the doors too and that means free entry for everyone which is always good :)
Last Tuesday Jules, Martin and I went to a classy establishment called Pearl for the cocktail deal they were doing and honestly, it was the best classic mojito I have EVER had. Really, really good. We're soooo going back next Tues to take full advantage of the tapas as well. I guess that's the good thing about earning some money while we're here, I don't feel too bad treating myself to a drink or ice-cream here or there....well, quite freqently actually lol.
The four of us have also taken to holding little dinner parties for each other... how middle aged of us haha! Loz and I have just got back from The Azzura (J+M's building) where they'd made homemade sangria and got some awesome dips on the go, they've really stepped up their game this week lol.
This Wednesday just gone J, M and I went whale watching which was an amazing experience, Martin works for the local tour company and managed to get a good discount for the three of us which was a benefit. We got to cruise round the canals looking at the Aussie homes of the rich and famous and then out into the open sea to look for the humpback whales making their migratory cruise south back to Antartica. We saw quite a few in the 2 hours we were out and one even jumped right out of the water which was a very 'Free Willy' moment.
My building is attatched to the local grass bowls club which is quite amusing and yesterday J, M and I had a quick game or two after work. It was funny to see Martin get so competitive over the sedate game but the true master won (me obviously) and now i'm really going to focus on that 'kneel and roll' technique, you never know when it'll come in use.
The other highlight of the week is our Monday tv night - 'Flash Forward' followed by 'The Apprentice' (Australian version) and then a pretty bad American reality tv show called 'Momma's Boys', all washed down with a bowl of ice-cream, chocolate sauce and sugar strands of course.
It's the Motor GP car racing event next week which completely takes over the Gold Coast and will no doubt bring in big crowds so we'll have to see how that goes. Other things in the pipeline are a trip to Wet n' Wild in November (a waterpark) which'll be so fun with Loz's underwater camera and the Stereosonic festival in Brisbane which i'm going to just before returning to Sydney.
The one thing that's really thrown me and I have to admit really don't like is how the sun is weak by 3pm and sets around 5pm....WAY too early! It makes the evenings feel so dark and long and the days too short...and after the 9pm sunsets of Maui it is not cool.
Aside from the above we're regulars in the jacuzzi, try to chill with beers on the beach and cook alot of meat on the bbq. I can't get enough of the avocado and helumi burgers we've been making, defo more of them to come. Delicious...xxx
We've come a fair way since that first week of work at the holiday company...actually it was only three days before we got as far away from that fraudulent group of people as possible. Only one good thing came of our brief stint there and that was meeting Jules and Martin, a cool couple from the Midlands who i've latched myself onto! We're totally on the same wavelength and have begun planning lots of exciting plans and things to look forward to so thats cool. They also have an awesome jacuzzi and grill area in their building which is great to chill in after a day stuffing bears.
At first I only had 3 shifts a week at Build-a-bear and it really wasn't enough but we've had some scandalous things going on recently and 2 people have just resigned so I was the first to stick my hand up for more work which is cool.
So what else has been going on here on the Gold Coast? Well Jules, Martin and I go out clubbing every couple of weeks just to mix it up, the majority of people and clubs here are 100% chav havens but i've done some digging and found a few hidden gold mines which are worth going to. I'm not sure how i do it but i've also managed to get friendly with the girls running the doors too and that means free entry for everyone which is always good :)
Last Tuesday Jules, Martin and I went to a classy establishment called Pearl for the cocktail deal they were doing and honestly, it was the best classic mojito I have EVER had. Really, really good. We're soooo going back next Tues to take full advantage of the tapas as well. I guess that's the good thing about earning some money while we're here, I don't feel too bad treating myself to a drink or ice-cream here or there....well, quite freqently actually lol.
The four of us have also taken to holding little dinner parties for each other... how middle aged of us haha! Loz and I have just got back from The Azzura (J+M's building) where they'd made homemade sangria and got some awesome dips on the go, they've really stepped up their game this week lol.
This Wednesday just gone J, M and I went whale watching which was an amazing experience, Martin works for the local tour company and managed to get a good discount for the three of us which was a benefit. We got to cruise round the canals looking at the Aussie homes of the rich and famous and then out into the open sea to look for the humpback whales making their migratory cruise south back to Antartica. We saw quite a few in the 2 hours we were out and one even jumped right out of the water which was a very 'Free Willy' moment.
My building is attatched to the local grass bowls club which is quite amusing and yesterday J, M and I had a quick game or two after work. It was funny to see Martin get so competitive over the sedate game but the true master won (me obviously) and now i'm really going to focus on that 'kneel and roll' technique, you never know when it'll come in use.
The other highlight of the week is our Monday tv night - 'Flash Forward' followed by 'The Apprentice' (Australian version) and then a pretty bad American reality tv show called 'Momma's Boys', all washed down with a bowl of ice-cream, chocolate sauce and sugar strands of course.
It's the Motor GP car racing event next week which completely takes over the Gold Coast and will no doubt bring in big crowds so we'll have to see how that goes. Other things in the pipeline are a trip to Wet n' Wild in November (a waterpark) which'll be so fun with Loz's underwater camera and the Stereosonic festival in Brisbane which i'm going to just before returning to Sydney.
The one thing that's really thrown me and I have to admit really don't like is how the sun is weak by 3pm and sets around 5pm....WAY too early! It makes the evenings feel so dark and long and the days too short...and after the 9pm sunsets of Maui it is not cool.
Aside from the above we're regulars in the jacuzzi, try to chill with beers on the beach and cook alot of meat on the bbq. I can't get enough of the avocado and helumi burgers we've been making, defo more of them to come. Delicious...xxx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)