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Published: February 13th 2009
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View of downtown
Waiting for the ferry, we snapped off a few shots with our other camera... As most of you know, Sidd is working at one of the hospitals here in Brisbane. Currently, he is working in the ICU and works 13-14 hour shifts, then promptly comes home and collapses in bed. Given that he works only 4-6 shifts every 2 weeks, this isn’t as bad a gig as it sounds, especially when compared to his work schedule at home. Whoever thought that it would be beneficial for doctors to work 24 hour shifts is beyond me.
Sidd’s work schedule has left me with some spare time, that is, when I’m not dutifully carrying out my “wifely duties” as Sidd puts it - which, incidentally now include not only cooking, cleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping but also managing our finances. Yes, I realize that this is amusing on a number of levels - one, that my contribution to our finances amounts to only depleting them, and two, I am incompetent with accounting principles. In the past, I have even managed to pay the wrong credit card (and then 1000% assured Sidd that the bank must have made a mistake). Since then, I have been banned from touching that account. I guess I’m being given a second
30th Birthday!
En route to the casino, where we were rejected due to our flip flops chance.
At any rate, these past few husband-free days have been devoted to exploring the city and finding things to do. Although I would love to just sit back with a cocktail by the pool and do nothing, unfortunately there a few things preventing this fantasy. One is that cocktails are unreasonably expensive ($22/martini), and I do have some sense to not bake myself to a crisp. Additionally, there is the minor fact that my personality just does not let me sit back and do nothing. Yes, despite being off of work for about 3 weeks now, I simply cannot let go of my to-do lists or my tendency to weave through the slow pedestrians who congest the sidewalks. The only difference between here and Calgary is that I have given up my high heels and am thus far more nimble in side-stepping those who are intent on slowing me down!
After a few days of exploring grocery stores, I embarked on the mission of finding a job. Sidd came up with the brilliant plan of randomly dropping by restaurants and asking if they were hiring. So, dressed up in my “respectable clothes”, I ventured forth to one
of the trendy restaurant-filled areas to try my luck. After being pleasantly but out-right rejected at a number of places, I was a little demoralized and went in search of a cocktail. This is when I discovered the unfortunately exorbitant price. I settled instead on sushi which proved equally unsatisfying as the salmon maki had MAYO hiding in it! Really!? To the ignorant Canadian, it appears that Aussies adore their sauces. The steaks our friends ordered were drenched in a thick brown sauce, reminiscent of canned mushroom soup. I suppose that this is fine, especially if the beef isn’t as good here, but mayo in sushi? Please!
Having crossed off “find job” from my list for the meantime, I now had even more time on my hands. Luckily, Sidd had planned some events for my 30th birthday (yes, I have now embarked on my 4th decade of life). We spent the weekend on the Sunshine Coast, eating amazing fresh seafood and attempting to learn to surf (not too successful, but very fun). We also visited the Giant Pineapple and generally spent too much time in the sun. I managed to turn my skin a pleasant shade of pink, despite
smothering myself in sunscreen. I now use SPF 60. And to think I made fun of people using SPF 45 and was just asking Sidd the other day if he could find SPF 15 as I “still wanted to get a bit of a tan.” Ha.
After returning from that weekend getaway, the world decided to conspire against me and not only keep me busy, but running... yes, this is melodramatic but really, how else can I explain losing our camera when I was being extra careful - and on my birthday? This was compounded by also losing whatever small shred of direction-sense I may have. But on the upside (and I can laugh about it now), I did manage to fill two days with wandering in circles through downtown, attempting to retrace my steps from the day before to see if a camera had been turned in. In a word - terrible. Ultimately, Sidd convinced me to let it go and buy a new one. In the same breath, he mentioned that I could pay it off by finding a job - changed now to “Mission Barista”. I laugh every time he nags me about it, as he
Birthday dinner
Yummy seafood parcels full of mahi mahi and prawns. pronounces: “go find a barrister job”. Now that, I can do...
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anonymous
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Nice update! Hey, I agree with you: Sushi with Mayo is ewwww! Any barbies yet?