Enough With the B.O. already!

Monday

I hate to continue harping on the fact that there’s a significant amount of body odor around here but the issue continues wafting into my face. As I was sitting at an internet kiosk at the mall (yes, I’ve become that desperate to get online), I smelled him before I heard him. The friendly fellow sat down two seats from me. I had about 7 minutes left online and he decided to let me know that the kiosk he was at had taken his money and had not let him online. Trying not to gag, I sympathized a bit and then turned away. He continued to talk. He told me about how he had been there a couple of days ago and it was just horrible that he’d had to clean fast food trash off the kiosk before he could even use it. After all, he had two kids and even they knew how to clean up after themselves. It took everything in me not to point out how nice it was that he knew how to clean up after himself since it was obvious by the aroma of what could only be unwashed ass that he didn’t know how to clean himself. I logged off immediately and got out of there as fast as possible.

We made our way yesterday morning to the Northey Street Farmer’s Market. Public transportation hit a dead-end after our ferry and first bus ride. When we got to our second bus stop and realized that it only ran every hour, we called a taxi and got there in no time at all. The market was fabulous. Fresh eggs, local organic meats, tons of delicious smelling foods you can buy for breakfast or a snack, gorgeous veggies, fantastic fruits. There’s even someone selling fresh unpasteurized unhomogenized “bath” milk. Here in Brisbane, the raw milk laws are basically the same as they are in Maryland. …it can only be purchased for non-consumption uses but I can’t imagine someone at a Farmer’s Market back home selling it. I bought some lard from a woman who was so happy to meet someone who understood the value of “fat” in our foods. She didn’t have to convince me!

We explored a little bit of Kangaroo Point yesterday evening. Now I know where the grocery store is and it’s not very far at all! We found several restaurants (Fish and Chips are very popular here.), a pharmacy, a bakery and a convenience store. Kelsey will be going down that way today to apply for jobs. She’s starting to get a bit discouraged. Yesterday was especially bad as the manager of a restaurant nearby had told her to be there at 7am for a trial run. His wife was in charge at that point and when Kelsey arrived she said she didn’t need her and would call her. Terribly rude of her to do that but what can you do? There were two other girls coming for a trial run and she said that having Kelsey there would be too much. Sounds like bull since the other two girls weren’t going to be there until 9am. But, honestly, she was foreign (Asian) and who knows what kind of miscommunication was going on.



Tuesday

Yesterday was gorgeous and sunny for the first part of the day. So, when Kelsey and I stopped by the apt. to drop off the groceries, I also dropped off my sweater. Turned out that was a mistake. By late afternoon, the clouds were out and I had goosebumps on my arms. As soon as we got home, I put on three shirts, jeans, socks and wooly slippers. The rain started about the time we went to bed and poured all night. It’s still coming down hard this morning. I read that it’s possible that we’ll get enough to put an end to water restrictions. I didn’t even know there were water restrictions though I have been mindful to use as little water as possible because of the drought. I guess if I watched the news I’d have heard about them. But, watching the news here is just as depressing as it is at home. They bash their politicians, delight and despair when their sports’ heroes fall from grace and people get hurt just like they do at home. And reading or hearing about it doesn’t really seem to be easier when you don’t “know” them. Adding news on top of dealing with homesickness just seemed like a bad plan…so I avoided it.

Kelsey had a little better luck with the job hunt yesterday. At least she found a couple of places that were actually hiring and they talked to her while making notes on her resume. Two of them are within walking distance of the apartment. The other might be a little difficult to get home from at night but we’ll work that out if she gets the job.

A couple of days ago, Kelsey and I were on a bus chatting. For some reason, we were talking about protests and wondering which countries allowed people to gather in protest or in support of a cause. About that time, the lady in front of us got up to get off at her stop and turned around and said something very quickly. Luckily Kelsey understood her or it would have remained a mystery forever…..she was happy to let us know that you could protest in Queensland, that “it was a way of life”. Another day, Ben and I were making our way somewhere with a map….no less than three people stopped within the 20 minutes we were walking on a particular street and offered to help. The pace is different too. The Queen Street Mall area streets can be just as crowded as any I’ve been on in NY but they walk slowly. Usually too slowly for my impatient American tastes, so I often end up rushing around people as soon as I can. They must think I have an emergency somewhere. But, I am getting more patient. Really, I am. I was able to be very patient through a very slow restaurant meal the other evening and didn’t even get irritated by having to wait so long for the check. I just enjoyed sitting there. Seriously, I did. I may never be able to do it again but I did it once and that must count for something.

The atmosphere here for buskers must be very supportive. There’s always someone performing at the Queen Street Mall and at South Bank. There’s going to be a busker competition in June with cash prizes. I even saw a little girl on the street playing her clarinet for donations. That’s gotta trump a lemonade stand any day!