How YOU goin?

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

I'm in a much better mood today. The weather turned out to be beautiful yesterday so we went to South Bank again and spent the whole day tanning – I am now as dark as I was coming back from Cancun/Hawaii and only after 4 hours of tanning. The sun is just something different here – it’s piercing. I'm assuming the ozone hole is right above me. I used SPF 30 for the first time in my life – not a pretty sight. We found out there were shark attacks in knee deep water both the day before and the day after we were in Gold Coast...maybe its a good idea we didnt stay...

South Bank in the daytime


I'm picking up more Aussie slang as the days go by… “grouse lippy” means “nice lipstick”. “How ya goin?” replaces the “What’s up”…but I still don’t know how to reply because I keep saying “Good, how YOU goin? as in “Good, how YOU doin?” (Joey style). People kind of look at me funny when I do that so I gotta start sounding more authentic if I'm going to be here for another 5 months. Oh ya, the lettuce here is quite bitter, you cant get a regular double double, and they call ketchup tomato sauce…so what do they call actual tomato sauce?? No idear! The toilet flushes are quite weird here – they consist of two buttons that need to be simultaneously pushed – I think…at least that’s what I'm doing! A lot of the light switches work the opposite way…that’s how I know I'm really “down under”. Today we went to see the botanical gardens in the middle of Brissy on Roma Street and also check out the Museum of Brisbane (MoB) in City Hall. It was quite interesting but really we only went in there to beat the outside heat, which was probably around 35oC. Then it was a trek to the airport and trying to talk my way out of paying over-limit luggage allowances. I cannot believe my luggage is ALREADY overweight, 1 week into my trip. Well, on to the next phase, Melbourne here I come!

The Brisbane River at dusk