A day a the races

I have had a fabulous week in Brisbane. I am really starting to settle in, I have different groups of friends and there are always things to do now. It is starting to feel more like home…not sure if this is where I want to be but it is good for the time being. Two weeks until I head up the coast. I have several different Christmas invites but I think I will just spend the day with Maria and Dean up the coast on a beach.

This week I had a couple of girls’ nights, went to see Australia, became completely addicted to sushi, had a decent week of work and went to the races. It was another fabulous Australian experience, I have never really watched horse races and I thought that they only really dress up for Melbourne cup, but apparently they do every race day. I went with my flat mate Jo and her friends. It is essentially a day of dresses, hats, betting and debauchery. I would highly recommend it for a fun day out.

Next week work is having a fancy dress party, which means a uniform costume party. I am not sure what I will be yet but it should be entertaining. As well, the event will involve more karaoke… bound to be a fun.

As the holiday season gets near I am really starting to miss everyone from home. At least I get to see my Mom and Aunt Sherry in a little over a month in New Zealand.

Tropical paradise…maybe not…

Everyone keeps telling me that I should be used to the extensive amount of rain since I am from Newfoundland and the only other place I have lived is Scotland… I am not. I didn’t move to Australia to deal with downpours all the time. On Sunday Brisbane experienced the worst storm in twenty years. A guy died in my suburb, there are over 4000 homes damaged, and they are still expecting more storms.

They told me when I arrived in Brisbane that there were 300 nice days a year. This is a lie. I haven’t made it through one week without it raining at least once. As I am typing I can hear the torrential rain hitting the tin roof of the house… While on occasion I have a fond love for thunder and lighting (despite my grandmother once getting hit by lighting) it loses its glamour after weekly bouts.

I still haven't left Brisbane... it seems the stop that never ends. On a good note the reason that I am hanging around is to save some funds before heading up the coast and onto New Zealand (Mom and Sherry are coming). I have a job doing in person sales getting people to sign up for Amnesty International, so it is a pretty fun job. Looks like the end of December onto the beginning of February will be pure travel. Still no idea what I will be doing after... but that isn't important.

A couple of weeks ago Maria and I headed back to Byron Bay, the home of the best gluten free food!! It is really sad how much food is one of my favorite things in life. There is a reason that no matter how much exercise I do I will never be a skinny person. I had the best steak sandwich...oh the simple things in life. We also went to Nimbin the hippiest place that I have ever been in life. Everything is painted with murals, the locals are all pot heads and the museum is the most eclectic amount of random things ever. It was a really fun weekend and just nice to get out of Brisbane.

Nothing too exciting is planned for the next while, settling in and saving money is the only real plan. End of November I am going to head to the horse races with the girls. I am pretty excited; dresses and fancy hats...should be fun.