Chinatown

Got to spend part of my Sunday in Chinatown...which is always a pleasure. I thought I'd take a photo of the fountain, but the universe spiced it up with a little impromptu child action. Twice. I know how to take a hint.

Quick updates

The dead possum is STILL hanging on the light wire down by the park. Interesting. The mechanism for tail grasping must be independent of muscle activity - for SURELY the rigidity of rigor has long since passed. Or, maybe he is fused there thanks to a, um, large voltage surge...

The car. The car. Once more my primary concern is what tune to sing while driving alone.

A full week of work this week and next - then the onslaught from Ohio arrives. July 5th. Plans are being made. Money is being spent.

Celebrated picking up 4 weeks of pay! (I finally learned where the envelopes are kept.) And, since it was all in cash, of course, I thought I'd treat myself to someone cooking for me. Especially good on a Sat because there is really no lunch on Saturdays. My first choice, the Tai restaurant on Gimpie, didn't open until 5:30 and it was 5:00 and too cool to just stand around. So, I went to Montezuma's for a change of pace. Oh my. I must stop trying to get Mexican food in Australia. I ordered a seafood enchilada and while it took about 1/2 of the enchilada to dissect out the flavor, I must say "fishstick with ketchup AND tarter sauce". Yuck. Never again! I can wait til I get home. There will be chips and salsa there, as well.

Totally beat this evening. Kevin is gone and Zelda and I are about to veg out with a movie. Tonight I think it will be "Half Nelson". Good reviews and less than 2 hours long.

We caught the new HBO comedy "Flight of the Conchords"...and look forward to a regular relationship with the band. Check it out if you get the chance. What lyricists! Way, way, way better than "John from Cincinnati". While we usually give a show about 3 episodes to entice us- we have made an exception here. I think this change comes from 2 sources. We felt burned by "Dirt" and we were never intrigued by "Deadwood". I like the title, though.

The first season of "Big Love" is starting in Australia. Pink signs on buses with a groom statue and 3 brides- like you'd see on a wedding cake. Maybe this was the ad in the US, too? Anyway, these are the chunkiest wedding cake brides I've seen! Odd.

And now to change into my jammies and start the sacrifice of the meager brain cells. Ah, the end of a busy week!

Winter

To those of you in the Northern Hemisphere- Enjoy your first day of summer and you can start sharing some of those extra hours of sunshine NOW. As for us, we already started winter. For some reason Australia has divorced itself from using the sun as a calendar. Winter starts June 1. Solstice be damned! But, for me, pagan that I am at heart, I celebrated the beginning of the winter season by moving my summer clothes into the spare room closet and pulled out my winter clothes. We dashed out two weeks ago and purchased a space heater so we can huddle together on the love seat and stare at the computer screen in comfort. Maybe it was because my house was ALWAYS 65 degrees in the winter (day and evening) that it felt more comfortable than 65 on a Brisbane evening. Maybe it is contrast of the warm sunny afternoons that make the nights feel so frigid.

New music

I ordered an e-card for Kevin for father's day- Zelda has trouble getting out to the store to pick out her own. None of the choices said "you throw a mean tennis dumb-bell" or "I like sleeping with you best" or "my chin, your knee". So, I got one that I liked the music on. You can hear it here- I hope- Kevin's card. A little internet research tells me it is Kate Rusby's "The Sleepless Sailor". I'm a sucker for a lullaby. Enjoy.

Stray thoughts

The nudist beach in Noosa- in error I reported it was "unofficial". I am embarrassed to report my error. It is "informal". Those were informal nudists. I should have known. No ties.

Having multicolored money and a lack of pennies may be having an anti-arithmetic effect here. I noticed the cash register at Sushi Train. You don't key in the dollar amount that the customer has given you. You only have to match up the bill to one on the touch screen. Of course, you still have to count out change. At the deli counter in Coles I had a second interesting numbers experience. I asked for 300 grams of chicken mince. The young man glopped out 248 and asked "is 250 OK?". Granted 2 grams of chicken is negligible, but I suspect he's been reading cash registers for too long- where $2.48 cents of chicken mince will cost you $2.50.

EXPLOITING BASE 2.
Which brings me to my wild idea for becoming rich, rich, rich! Lets say we are out shopping at Coles. If the total bill comes to something plus 2 cents (or less), it is rounded down to 0. For example, my grocery tab was $64.52. I'm charged $64.50. If I pay in cash. If the total bill sums to 3 cents (or more- which face it, is 4 cents), the amount is rounded to 5 cents: $43.84 becomes $43.85. (The same rounding occurs above 5: 6 and 7 round down, 8 and 9 round up.) It seems that if I'm paying with our debit card- we CALL it a credit card- and it has a VISA imprint on it- but that DOESN'T make it a credit card- I get charged the exact amount. I guess that the bank can still handle numbers other than 0 or 5 in the ones column. So, if I pay cash for all purchases that get rounded DOWN and credit for purchases that would be rounded UP...I think I could end up with something like a million dollars in only a few centuries!

Kootie catchers.
Kevin remarked while driving last weekend that we forget all kinds of things as we get older- like how to make those decision making devices out of paper. (We called them kootie catchers. I don't think he had a name for them.) As it turns out, though my memory can be very sieve-like, I CAN help you chose between two options. Call for yours today. (It is easier to use two hands- but harder to use two hands AND photograph the device.)

Happy Father's Day!

Missing my dad. Everyday. Happy Father's Day! to every one who is a father or knows a father or has a father...

Automobile blues

Our car IS quite remarkable. I do a lot of complaining about it: the lack of power steering, the absence of air conditioning, heating, defogging- though a fan will blow to no great effect for all three of these- the useless windshield wipers (less of a problem during drought), the way you have to roll down the driver's side window to see out the side, the lack of power steering, no radio, no clock, no tape player, no power steering... Yet, it is now 20 years old and is currently chugging along quite nicely. For the last year it has gotten us everywhere we've wanted to go. Even when it was hemorrhaging oil, we made it to Sydney! All in all a bargain at $100.

This is as far as I got on Friday. I wanted to send a grateful message to the universe for the automobile that gets me to work, to the grocery, to the movies daily. I was going to try to then slide into a discussion of whether and what to sing in a car without a radio. Light and happy.

This morning, however, Kevin sketched a pentagram on the driveway with his three point turn. A steady stream of oil pours- not drips- from the passenger side of the engine. He thinks it is a new problem and not the one Rob fixed in Sydney. We've debated flying Rob up from Sydney to help- but I think the current plan is I'll fill it up with oil then (fingers crossed) drop it off at Aspley Automotive on Monday on the way to the train station. Kevin would say that "life tends to greater irony".

Australia- where the dead hang

I don't see much in the way of road kill in Brisbane. (I've seen PLENTY of it while driving through the outback. Not little roadkill, either. Big dead animals. Animals that would have killed our car if we had been involved with the collision. Big and stiff legged like toppled saw horses. But, that's another story. And, I guess I've told it. Oh, well. Maybe I will change the title.)

Road kill, no. Power line kill. Yes. In the last month- 2 bats and a possum. We found the possum today on our "get-out-of-the-house-so-the-realtor-can-show-the-place" walk with Zelda. I'm not sure what kills you up there. But once you're dead, you seem to have fantastic holding ability. You probably can't appreciate it, but the possum is holding on by the tip of his tail. Prehensile rigor mortis.

I don't walk under the dead, anyway. Someday, they're gonna fall.

cluster map test

I'm not convinced the map is updating- so I'll put it back in the body of the blog.

Or, perpetually 5 people have stopped in and the "new" map is never triggered...?

Working- week 6 or so

I'm learning some new vocabulary- if not some new spellings.

My dog is "real crook". This isn't good. In fact, it is quite bad. Not bad as in felony vs. misdemeanor but bad as in "not long for this world", perhaps.

He's a "sook". She's been "sooky" lately. This isn't necessarily bad. It means primarily the dog has been underfoot and wanting attention. It might mean a bit of a "drama" about getting a shot. Oh wow. The internet provided the definition: person or animal who is soft, tame, inoffensive; Someone who complains a lot.

Does he look like he's a dier? (Just what it sounds like. So far, I've been wrong every time... which is good. They both recovered.)

He's here for his needle. Vaccine- or other injection.

She hasn't fitted since last December. I know it sounds potentially obscene- but no one is wearing their doberman. She just hasn't had a seizure in 6 months. That is good.

I think I may have covered this one before. The dog was "unwell". This CAN mean anything up to and including "knocking on death's door". Masters of understatement! Though to be fair the referral report DID say the dog was "very unwell".

Our Queen's' Birthday Weekend AWAY

A novel idea. We, having 2 days off together, took off for the holiday weekend. And, we didn't get a speeding ticket.

I wanted to see the Glass House Mountains. Despite having seen them and having read the origin of their name (they looked like the chimneys of glass factories), I still picture peaks made of big chunks of glass. Some of it is colored. Pink. Green. Most is clear. But, anyway, it isn't like that. We took the Glass House Mountain Tourist Drive and went first to the viewing area. From two different platforms you can look out over the expanse of green to gaze upon the Glass House Mountains. Here you are seeing Beerwah (the pregnant mother) and Coonowrin (the cowardly son- who failed to protect his mother as his father Tibrogargan requested- so Pop took a "big ole stick" and slammed him "upside the head" (I'm translating from the original Aborigine here) producing the crooked neck appearance. Family values. coolrunning.com.au


We had read in the Lonely Planet Guide to Queensland (that we borrowed from the library- having sent all our own tour books to the US for upcoming travelers) that the trail to the top of Tibrogargan was steep but doable. Do-able for a goat. A goat or Kevin. Me- I made it MAYBE half-way when I decided that climbing straight up may be possible, but I couldn't imagine how I'd climb back down. So, I went down a few meters and sat on a rock and waited for Kevin. It was very peaceful sitting in the warm sunshine. I started nodding off. I reconsidered my decision. Sleeping on mountain ledge did not seem like the kind of rest I needed- so I went back down and waited in the car.

From there we headed North by way of going South. My mistake. I -the navigator- failed to figure out what unmarked road we were traveling on. By luck, however, we came to the Wild Horse Mountain look out. Wow. Painful. Kevin pointed to this structure wayyyy up and supposed that was the look out. Ha. It was. It was an 800 m walk on a paved drive at a steep incline. We paused more than once on our ascent. As it turns out- it was totally worth it. You'll have to believe me here- because this is where I determined that my camera was "unreliable". The view of the Glass House Mountains was superior. We could even see tiny Brisbane in the distance. Kevin assures me that the experience still counts even if we don't have a photo. Sigh.

We arrived in Noosa just after sunset. We ate dinner and retired early. It was a bit of a noisy hostel and I thought I might have trouble sleeping- but that was my last thought. In the morning we went to the Noosa National Park and took a fabulous 3 hour hike. Along a boardwalk on the cliffs above the shore, on the beach (the unofficial nudist beach with the unofficial nudists), through eucalyptus groves and rainforst. We occasionally looked up but failed to spot any of the koala that make this park famous. We didn't work too hard at this, as we've learned that even in zoos when they point at WHICH tree the koala is in we can't find them. Here photos exist. But they are on film. And, I've 3 exposures left on that roll. It could be months!

After lunch, we pulled on our bathing suits and went for a dip in the ocean. Kevin wins. He went under water. Me- I wasn't interested in a full wet body experience and just walked along the shore. I did do a cartwheel through the surf. I saw some 6 year old doing them. It looked like fun.

On the drive home we pulled over for 2 tourist attractions: The Ginger Factory ("Free Samples"- but only if you pay for the $12 tour!) and The Giant Pineapple. The pineapple appears in the newest Australian stamps. Kevin really should get more mileage out of being "Big Kev"...if not a stamp, at least a t-shirt! flickr.com

Happy Birthday to the Queen!

except in Western Australia.

I don't think it matters how long I live in Australia- or really anywhere- I will always have the same reaction to the Queen's Birthday Holiday. Huh? I can't quite figure it out. Which Queen? (Of England, I know... the current queen, the first queen, the next queen. Maybe Queens are like race horses and are all "born" on the same day.) And, why on my calendar does it say 9 June "Queen's Official Birthday tentative"?? Is it "Official" or is it "tentative"? Is there a King's Official Birthday? And, if "we" had a king and a queen, would we have 2 holiday weekends? Or, would they be "born" on the same weekend...and wouldn't that be incestuous??? And, what's up with WA? Birthday rebels?! Wonder if they have second birthdays for everyone in WA...

Where's my cake?

Catching up- Working weeks 4 and 5

Work has been just so...hmmm...every day. No room to reflect, let alone write. Last week I had off Tuesday; this week, Friday. And, in Bald Hills, at least, we've been very busy. Thursday's half day ended with me getting home at 6:30 pm. I also learned that tea tree oil (as an essential oil) is a neurotoxin and will result in weakness and ataxia when applied to one's shih tzu. Friday's day of stress was peppered with surgical mayhem and awkward moments in two afternoon exams where I had to quickly excuse myself so that I might not vomit on the scheduled pet. Saturday was like a breath of fresh air. The surgical dogs were both alive and with their guts neatly tucked away inside their respected abdomens, Why I was worried about that for the dog with knee surgery is a mystery even to me. In addition, despite being double booked at least twice, we managed to get out almost on time!

Saturday evening we used 2 of our prepaid movie passes to see "My Best Friend". I thought it was warm and charming. Kevin thought is was predictable and without the humor he was expecting. He is a hard man on comedy. Anyway, I really enjoyed the film- I am a bit of a sucker for love stories about friends. Not "love stories about friends" ala "When Harry Met Sally"- though I quite like that film. I mean, stories about the love that friends have for each other- ala "Il Postino"... which I probably like more than "WHMS". (I just looked up both these films on IMDB. Both receive 7.6/10 ratings! And, I am reminded that there is a romantic love story in Il Postino....but that isn't the story that makes me cry.)

Big memorial day weekend!

That's just what you might call it since it fell on the Memorial Day weekend in the US. Here, it was just the last weekend in May. Nothing wrong with that. Somebody's got to do it.

And, yet, it was a pretty big weekend. Zelda got a good walk. "We" had our first open house. Played games with John and Buhva at Andrew's in-law's home. Saw a movie in a group of 7! Then, toured the air traffic control center at Brisbane airport. Some of this could be talked about...

The walk. Kevin liked it. Zelda loved it. And, I was at work.

The open house. I understand there were several visitors. Kevin said one man lingered. Scoping out the games?

Gaming. I was totally creamed in Fiji- though it was fun competing to win shrunken heads; made a remarkable recovery to come in second in Trans America. I think I could have done better from the start if someone had explained to me that it wasn't about women pretending to be men pretending to be women. Had ONE good clue in Thingamajig- "What 27 is to 3". And, found my calling with... hmmmm you'd think I could remember that title. But, the gaming was just gaming. The cool bit was watching the possums in the backyard as we were eating supper. No one could tell me whether Australian possums "played possum". But then again, no one really believed me that American ones did either. You'd think you could count on your husband for something!



Zodiac- I wanted to love this movie, but I didn't/can't. I identified more with the following comments from (positive) reviews from rottentomatoes.com. "Overlong and lacking dramatic focus"; a "sprawling story". I'm particularly sensitive to "sprawling". Movies exceding 90 minutes are at a distinct disadvantage. And, Jake Gyllenhaal- he's cleaned up his diction but he's still a gay cowboy. Don't point to the wife and kids. They didn't mean anything in "Brokeback Mountain", either. While I enjoyed Robert Downey Jr.'s character and performance, I thought the movie really became more coherent once he was out of the story. What I liked: one, it WAS a true story; and, two, the effect that this series of murders had on the detectives and reporters interested me.

Air traffic control- A big, big thank you to Phil who arranged for us to see where he's keeping the skies safe above Broom (-which has a great fish shop, cool dinosaur footprints, and a neat-o effect that the moon produces- something about steps). Kevin and Steve drooled over the BIG computer screens and we all enjoyed the birds eye view of Brisbane, the ocean, the bush, and, oh yeah, the airport. Little known untrue fact: Brisbane's air traffic control centre was the inspiration for the movie "Snakes on a Plane" (see below).

Happy Birthday to you!

Marjorie Anne (Hunt) Dapore!

Happy birthday to you! It's my mother's 75th birthday. I wish I could be there to help her celebrate! Here's sending you a little extra wind to blow out all those candles!

House for Sale

Once again we are living in a house for sale. This time we don't own it. This makes the entire enterprise harder to get comfortable with. You'd think it would be easier since it isn't our place, but the proscriptions on how to behave are much more precise for that scenario. You know you want the house spotless and you want to be exceptionally accommodating. Now, we just don't want people to think we live like slobs. We don't really- but our decor is definitely "grad school 101". No, my furniture in grad school was actually much nicer.

Anyway, Tuesday a photographer came to shoot images for the on-line listing. She brought her step ladder and a very wide angle lens. The result is a view of our house that has never been seen before. I feel like we must be living in a "fun house" and expect that the mirrors are all wavy so you look either 50 kilos heavier or very, very thin. (See how I slipped in that Australian metric measurement. Smooth.) You'll see she REALLY focused on the dining room- and totally skipped the "lounge"-- lounge population 1. one small end table/bookcase combo jobby and 2. two cans of clams sitting on the floor covering possible spider entrances. It is a fine room. It has a red wall. I often spread out my yoga mat and stretch in there.

You'll see I made the bed. I didn't hide the front of the drawer to the dresser that has broken off. The photographer didn't either. She probably didn't notice until she got home and looked at the photo. I'd have tried to photoshop it out. She did, however, remove some of the piles of papers that sit forever atop the desk in the computer room. It looks positively neat. Neat- with the world's crappiest love seat.

Saturday is the first open house. I'll be at work so it will be Kevin's duty to be scarce with the dog. He hasn't had practice with this. Hope he isn't too stressed! Zelda should be able to show him the way it is done.

Going North up the Bruce Highway

For my birthday I elected to travel north. Not too far. We didn't leave home until 11 AM and with the darkness setting in about 3:30 you don't get too far. It was enough time, however, to take in two stops: The Alma Park Zoo and one of the beaches on Bribie Island.

The Alma Park Zoo is very close to Brisbane. It is a small zoo with Australian animals plus an odd smattering of "exotics": European deer, Ostriches (I guess so you can compare them to the Emus), lots of marmosets, a few beleaguered looking monkeys, and baboons. The animal housing isn't spacious. It certainly isn't highly naturalized. It was amusing to watch the baboons ogling the rhesus moneys though holes they had ripped in the plastic sheeting hung between their enclosures. Well, amusing to us. The monkeys seemed p.o.ed about it.




The high points:
1. Carpet pythons- reaching up to 2 meters are found commonly in Brisbane and in some suburbs are living in up to 50% of the house attics/roofs!
2. Feeding the kangaroos- They aren't actually hungry- but it lets you get up close.
3. Everybody gets to touch a koala and for $15 you can hold one AND get your picture taken. (I took the free route.)
4. Throwing food INTO the open mouth of the donkey.
5. Finding Scooby Doo's girl genius, Velma. I didn't even know she was Australian!



We went to Bribie Island by way of Deception Bay. What a name! We didn't see a lot to do there, but you know, we may have been...deceived. Anyway, Bribie Island. On the Coast of the Coral Sea. We'd talked about going up to the Sunshine Coast- but that was going to be a longer drive and it was getting late-ish: 2 PM. The beach was sparsely populated. Virtually every group was kicking a football around. Barefoot. It looked painful to us.

Taking stock and Setting new goals

Seems like the thing to do on your birthday. Especially a momentous birthday like 46. My last birthday resolution, and this was a few years ago, was to start wearing only clothes that fit. And, I'm almost there! It really helped to move to Australia and downsize (so to speak) my wardrobe. Lately, even, I've found pants that don't fall off. Not many, but enough. And, shirts- well, I am less successful there. But today- everything is sized appropriately.

So, what does one resolve at 46? If you've got your clothing worked out, what next? I could find a new hair cut. Or, exercise regularly. Or, write. Or, take a class. I think maybe I'll work at being more cool. I've already got a start. Tim sent me an iPod for Christmas. That pretty much gets me to cool already.

And, iPods make excellent night lights for reading your watch when you're aren't asleep at 4 AM.

Wait. That probably isn't cool. Maybe I should stick with the haircut.

My Birthday

I found these beautiful flowers outside my door when I got home from work. As I walked from the car I considered who may have sent them. I hadn't guessed Christine. Just goes to show you what superior people eat sushi!

What to do? I got home from work about an hour and a half later than I was expecting to (2:00 pm). That pretty much eliminated going to the Alma Park Zoo...or anything that had a limited "open" time...like the museum of art or the koala sanctuary. They all close by 5:00 and I hadn't eaten lunch. So, I took a short trip to the Hypermarket to buy a vase then spent time researching the movies showing today.

My choices:
"Infamous" - (another) movie about Truman Capote- rated 70% on rottentomatoes.com
"Death of a President" - what happens after W dies in office - 37% fresh (aka rotten)- no thanks
"My Best Friend" - a French film about a man who has 24 hours to find a best friend- Kevin wants to see that with me- plus it feels kind of pathetic to see by yourself on your birthday. Not rated.
"The Lives of Others"- Oscar winner for best foreign film- again something Kevin's particularly interested in
"Into Great Silence"- sounds like an interesting experience - but I'm already tired and it is TWO hours and 44 minutes long! and, mostly SILENT. Just won't work despite being 88% fresh!
"Half Nelson"- teacher/addict- student relationship. 94% fresh. A possibility.
"Paris Je T'aime"- 80% fresh- a collection of short love stories.

I went with the last film. I'm having a bit of a short story fling having just finished "Vincenzo's Garden". There were some great pieces. Mostly, stories of romantic love- but not exclusively. I enjoyed it more than "Coffee and Cigarettes" (2004). And, it ended with a very nice song- "All in the Dance"

I'm very pleased with myself. I found this theater, thanks to "whereis", on my own. I was a bit concerned because Kevin and I tried to go once before but got lost. (The problem is that the road "whereis" routes you on is CLOSED. This time I saw the detour signs. This time I was traveling in daylight.) So, should anyone want to visit and go to the Dendy Portside, I'm the woman for the job.

And, the theater is right beside a Japanese restaurant.

Excellent idea.

Birthdays

May is a month with lots of birthdays. That is true whether I'm in the US or Australia. The only real difference is that you're practically guaranteed that the birthday card I send you will be late and that if I send a gift, it will either be from Amazon.com OR it will be light-weight. OH, and it will be late, too. I mailed out two packages on Thursday. The price to ship them was almost as much as the gifts themselves.

May is also the month with my birthday. That is true in both countries, as well, even though you can't say that for the Queen. Tomorrow. I'll be older.

To quote Laurie Anderson. "So, happy birthday" to Tim, Carolyn, Diana, Yof, Brenda, Margie, and me!

Laurie Anderson - Born, Never Asked

It was a large room.
Full of people.
All kinds.
And they had all arrived at the same buidling at more or less the same time.
And they were all free.
And they were all asking themselves the same question:
What is behind that curtain?
You were born.
And so you're free.
So happy birthday

Working: week 3

Tired.

I've worked everyday this week except Tuesday. All wearing "real" dress-up shoes, no less. I haven't worn shoes since I left NC! I mean, I haven't worn anything but athletic shoes since I left NC. My feet are very confused. They like living in a white, nylon house.

It has been a pretty good week, however. I'm not sure how many computer errors I've made. They've undoubtedly been numerous. But, I got to help pin a femur fracture on a cat and I think the tests I ordered on the akita puppy with chronic diarrh(o)ea (I think that is where the o goes!) will provide the answer! Tonight, though, I have a German coolie (never heard of them before) with an ugly hot spot in the hospital. Please, please, please let the steroids kick in so she doesn't do any more damage before her mom comes to get her tomorrow. I also have one very hot dog. Everybody please send a breath of cool air his way. I'm really worried. I haven't been successful at creating much of an improvement. Lab work is pending.

Overall, I'm having a good time working. I like the people I work with. I enjoy meeting with clients. I get to kiss new puppies.

Speaking of Sushi

Not that you were. I wasn’t even. But, still, doesn’t it sound like a great idea? Tuesday I celebrated my new employed status by picking up the salmon nigiri off the sushi train at Sushi Train. My god it was marvellous. Eating sushi is a semi-erotic experience. The sweet ice. The pungent wasabi. The delicate, almost melting fish. They slice their salmon thin and while I know they are only doing this to save themselves money, I think I like it better that way. I like the balance. It is easier to bite through.

I am no stranger to Sushi Train. Every semi lunch time if I’m at Chermside I stop by to watch the parade of fish. I watch. I fantasize. I drool. I order a bowl of miso ($1.50) and they GIVE me a cup of green tea. How could I pass up this spot? In a country where you may be charged for a single packet of ketchup (tomato sauce), they GIVE you tea!



So, I ate my two pieces of sushi and toasted my sushi buddies: Tim, Susette, and Christine. They’ve never even met- but we’re all tied together by the same yen. (ouch)

Tim introduced me to sushi. He and Carolyn and I and other people I don’t remember drove to Raleigh one evening to a Japanese restaurant. (I’m guessing there’s a sushi bar in Durham now. There are several in Fayetteville- and Durham is WAY cooler.) I ordered something I can’t remember now- and at the time I was not impressed. Tim gave me a piece of his sushi. All I remember was the pop of the roe. It was enough to hook me. Later, after he moved to LA, we went out to an all you can eat sushi night. That has to be what heaven is like.

It was with Susette that I ate the sushi that made me cry. We were seniors in vet school about midway through our rotations. Long days. Long nights. Feeling useless and stupid and lost. We took off the evening and went out to dinner. To a nice dinner. I ordered sushi. I can’t tell you now exactly why I cried. Everything was so hard and I was so tired and the meal was a complete luxury. A total escape. And like when I heard “Domino” (Cocteau Twins) for the first time, I was carried away by the beauty of the experience.

Finally, Christine. Christine is my Cleveland sushi partner. I passed the virus onto her not long after we met. She’s now more dedicated than I am and makes rolls at home. But, she doesn’t eat meat/fish- so sushi together is in part a parallel sushi experience. I like a cucumber roll or avocado roll- but I long to share my yellow tail or salmon or eel.

And, Kevin? He’ll eat sushi. He’ll eat just about anything that isn’t made with red beets (beet root). He just doesn’t swoon. It sort of takes the romance out of the experience- like it was just a small, raw, fishy burger. So, I’ll watch out for my next sushi buddy. It’s a big country- with lots of sushi trains.

Finding Friends

Di at work suggested that I might join a club in order to meet people and make friends. You know, so I’d have something to do other than watch Kevin use the computer. So, when I saw a flier for the Zillmere Community Centre I picked it up. Chances are this is not where I’ll be hanging in the future.

1. Hepatitis Council of Qld. Monthly on a Wednesday Evening.
2. YACCA- Girls group and Boys group (12- 17 years)
3. ZCC “Boot Scooters”- Every Friday 9 to 10 am. (This one isn’t out of the question, but if I’m working on Friday…)
4. “Monday Group”- 9 to 11am- Meets every Monday. Activities include Art & Craft. Work conflict. Again.
5. North Star Orchid Circle Inc.- 3rd Tues of Month 9-11 am
6. Mature Social Art/Craft Group – Saturday 1-4 pm. Am I sufficiently mature?
7. Northside Lace Makers – Wed 9-12 noon.
8. North Moreton Orchid Council Inc.- Monday every 2nd month from 6 – 9 pm. (Wondering here about the rivalry between the orchid councils. Do they wear colo(u)rs? Is there knife play involved?) I could get there before they ended.
9. Pacific Education Training & Development- Monday & Thursday evenings. Huh?
10. Narcotic Anonymous-
11. Zillmere Place Steering- ??
12. Zillmere Older Women’s Network (ZOWN)- ZOWN, that sounds cool. Like grey-haired female “batmen". Hey, maybe I could wear my electro-shield outfit?

THE massage mouse

Last week a package arrived for me from the US. My mother has sent me THE Massage Mouse. Little sticky pads attach to your skin and current is dispersed originating from a half-an-egg shaped devise that is EQUIPPED WITH EARS. This is too cool. I made the mistake of turning the current up initially and was so startled I practically screamed. This is no AA battery massage!

And now, I quote:
Massage Mouse
Hands-Free Massager
Passive Exerciser
And Document Holder.

What every home, every desk needs!

While you're wiling away your time on the Internet, check out what else is available from Hi-Dow! http://www.hi-dow.com/products.htm
I’m particularly keen on the slippers and the swifto electro-shield apparel! Who knows what kind of super-hero one could attract with the right polarity!

Watching me, watching you

I'm hearing Abba, here.

Working: Week 2

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And, I got my first pay check. It is really feeling official. Next week I'm peaking (I hope) and work every day except Tuesday. This isn't really what I had in mind when I went looking for a part time job. I don't know. It feels so, what's the word for it...? Full time. Definitely, not "casual". Fortunately, none of those days were crazy, busy days- but I did manage to see 3 really sick dogs, half a dozen new puppies or kittens, did lots of routine vaccinations, and spayed my first cat in two years. Funny thing about spays here- they're speys. How'd that happen?

Missing a few things, however, with working so much: keeping up with email and this blog, eating lunch, sleeping past 4 AM. My alarm doesn't ring til 5:30 or 6:00AM- it is just my internal alarm that has been going off in the middle of the night. It goes off and I'm AWAKE. I realize that the correspondence and the eating were predictable sacrifices to the paycheck god- I'm hoping that the early wake up is a transient problem.

By the way- I never got that button sewed on. Neither Kevin nor I could thread the needle! All I had was a set of tapestry needles (??) and a zip lock of embroidery floss. I was going to make it work. I'd started this cross-stitch YEARS ago- like in the last century. Why I thought I might finish it now and, therefore, brought it to this country I can't imagine. But I did and its here and I can no longer thread those needles! Fortunately, I'm working with a 20 year old- so I took it all in to work with me on Thursday. I told her it was OK if she couldn't do it. "It would only make me feel more competent". I don't think she was listening to the subtext. The needle is now threaded. A button will be sewn today.

Oh, and the photo. I just read the manual of the camera I've been using for 3 years and learned it had a macro setting. So, I shot a dozen photos.

Kevin's knee

Has a little less cartilage in the meniscus. He had surgery on Thursday and is doing great. He is saving his tylenol with codeine for a rainy day. And, I am getting plenty of exercise running downstairs to supply him with diet coke.

Does his colo(u)r look unhealthy to you?

Working: week 1

Gee... working can really eat into your day! This week I went to 2 interviews. "Hung out" in two different clinics on a trial basis. And, worked my first day. (Earned my first plastic-with-a-see-through-window money! I don't actually have any of that moola in my pocket, none the less I'm going to see how it spends later today.)

For some reason here they don't seem to carry generic drugs. This makes my job more of a challenge, because I have to learn a bunch of trade names. A few are the same: Rimadyl, Heartgard, Frontline, Antirobe. One is an easy enough change: Clavamox is now Amoxiclav. But there is no "cephalexin" or "amoxicillin" or even "prednisolone". The biggest source of this challenge comes from how my prescribing self is set up- in the room with the client and not in front of the shelves containing the desired medications. A cheat sheet in under construction.

I'm also learning to use a computerized client record system, work with only an owner to restrain their pet, and to pronouce Rottweiler with a long "e" sound - Wheeeeeler.

I've agreed to work part time in two different clinics: the Bald Hills clinic (hitherto to be known as MPV) in Bald Hills and the Caboolture clinic in Morrayfield (which I guess I'll call CMF). I think it means I'll be working 6 days a week someplace and at least a few days a month working both places at the same time.

Both clinics want me to wear a uniform shirt- though neither one has one remotely in my size. (My fault- I'm freakishly small.) I tried on a long sleeved top at MPV and it looked like I was wearing one of Kevin's! I don't think that is the look they have in mind. The short sleeved shirts they had were a bit smaller- a size 8 and a size 10. "You can wear the 10 today. The 8 will fit better but you need to take it home and IRON it." What have I gotten myself into???? I spent the last 4 years working in scrubs. No muss- no fuss. Not only do I need to IRON this weekend- I have to put a button on. Obviously, they think they've hired someone with a wife.

My first day of work was with MPV. They are tied into a number of pet stores so most of their patients are young pets- primarily dogs. Lots of routine vaccination appointments. The exceptions on Wednesday were an anal gland abscess (and rupture) in a greyhound and a very painful old Staffordshire Terrier. So, I was pleased to get a little pus and frustrated to find I couldn't provide the Staffie with much relief. (Kevin, by the way, thinks its gross that I would include an abscess in my blog...but, this is my life. It gets gross and smelly.)

CMF, on the other hand, according to my visit day was more like what I'm used to- though we were a bit heavy on the euthanasias. It has been a long time since I had to travel down that road and I was the one in the room crying on Friday. The day was brightened by a woman bringing in a laundry basket piled high with blankets and towels and heating pads...and buried deep inside a soft fleece bag- a baby kangaroo. (A joey- just to practice my technical language). I hadn't thought about kangaroo development for forever- so I was surprised to see this footlong pink, blind, naked and long-footed baby. Those marsupials just pulled fetal development out of the uterus and stuck it in a pouch. Anyway, this joey is experiencing severe diarrhea (which I think I need to put an "o" in somewhere) and so to combat dehydration was in the clinic to get some subcutaneous (SubQ- though here they are sub-cut) fluids. I tried to remain professional and not jump up and down so to get a better view.

Monday is a holiday. Labour day. And, given I am now "labour", I shall be taking it easy.

Friday morning's dream

I had a strange dream last night.

I dreamed I was living someplace else. All I know about it was I in a very big room with very high ceilings and from the ceilings against the walls hung beautiful purple tapestry curtains. They had gold trim or tassels – some sort of ornamentation along the edges. And, in this place a man with red hair named John asked me to marry him. I didn’t feel I knew John well, but I said yes.

And, as he left the room the tapestries began to come down and I knew that it was because I got to keep them if I married John. Other people came in the room. Young people like I was young and I told them about saying yes and about the tapestries.

Then time passed and I was looking upon a rural scene. There was a bright green pasture with horses and a field in which were planted a long row of apple trees. It was very early in the spring. The trees were dark and leafless, but the grass was yellow green. I turned to my mother and said I didn’t know where I was, but I hoped this was mine.

I turned the image and saw the house. It was a large, old farmhouse. The off-white paint was pealing from the walls. Maybe this wasn’t such a dream house…but then I looked at the front.

Like a dollhouse the front of the house was removed inside people were scurrying to replace the furniture and decorations. A grand staircase descended down the middle of the house- the stairs and baluster’s dark wood shining with wax. Chairs were set up both upstairs and downstairs looking out and I was placed, now wearing a long gown, on the stage in front of the house. I had a high backless stool that I could sit or lean against if I liked. And, in front of the stage were more folding chairs with more guests.

I knew this was my wedding to John. I looked through the crowd and couldn’t see his face and I told myself I thought I would recognize him…but I wasn’t certain. Then the music began.

Making his way down from the upper floor and through the crowds to come sit or lie propped on an elbow before me came a man wearing a plastic mask and singing. “One love to be living for. This nearly was mine.” I wondered if it could be John- but I didn’t think so. (http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/southpacific/thisnearlywasmine.htm)

And, while he was singing, three older women arrived. Two made their way up onto the stage and found seats on the first floor of the house and the third sat on a chair on the ground immediately in front of my stool. She had brought a gift, but she didn’t seem to really know who I was.

I woke up before the music ended. I woke up before I knew for sure that John wasn’t coming or before I knew if I cared whether he came or not. I woke up feeling bittersweet.