Two Shopping Days Left

Pretty good day today. I started off with a workout - it's getting embarrassing going to the beach every day with my soft and squishy body. In America I fit right in, but here it's a different story.

After lunch, Glenys, Angie and I headed down to Torquay to sit by the ocean for a few hours. It's so strange to go to an enormous beautiful beach and not see anyone on it. I'm used to beaches in the states where there are tons of people playing frisbee and walking around and basically just sitting on top of each other. There's none of that here. I guess if there's one thing they've got in Australia it's a lot of space.

After hanging out in Fiji for a couple of weeks I was shocked by how cold the water is here. Keep in mind, I'm from Connecticut so I'm used to frigid, icy surf, but this was too much for me. I went in for a couple of minutes, but my nipples were becoming a safety hazard so I went in to warm up. Luckily the sun was blazing and I had Talib Kweli on my mp3 player so everything turned out just fine.

When we got back to the house Peter was outside mixing a load of concrete by hand, which was a bit of a surprise giving his heart attack history. He was standing by the side of the road sweating his face off and turning this massive barrel thing. Glenys was surprised, to say the least.

I went out to help him and did my best to pretend I know anything at all about laying concrete. It's amazing what a few well-placed "yeps" and "oh yeahs" can do for your image in the manual labor arena. I'm certainly no Luigi Fontanelli, but I have to admit - when it comes to laying crete I've got skills. That new step out by the side door is a masterwork.

For dinner we went over to Harold and Angie's and I made a phenomenal risotto. Again, I'm no Luigi Fontanelli, but my risotto is delicioso. Even Harold murmured his approval at one point. After dinner we sat around and talked about our upcoming ascent of Federation Peak in Tasmania. More on this later, but suffice it to say we're planning some serious "bushwalking" as they say around these parts.

We left Harold and Angie's at around 10:30 and I doubled Fiona home on my gay little pink bike. Luckily it was all downhill so I didn't have to do any work. Otherwise Fiona would have wound up doubling me and that would have just been unacceptably pussified (you know with the pink bike and everything).

Finally, I was surprised to learn that many of the department stores in Australia are open all night long tonight for Christmas. I mean, that's standard operating procedure in America but I honestly didn't think Aussies were into that type of Tickle Me Elmo/Cabbage Patch Kid silliness. Apparently no one is immune from the capitalist juggernaut that is Christmas.

Except for Jews. I guess they don't give two shits about Christmas, do they?

Posted by SmooveJ Zao on December 23, 2004 at 07:16 AM in Australia | Permalink