Big W and Woolies

Now, I finally feel like I'm learning my way around a bit. I can get around Bulimba, Tenneriffe, Kangaroo Point, Riverside, and can get to the Queen Street Mall which I call downtown because the damn thing seems as large as a small town. I spent too much time on the boats yesterday and took a while to get over the dizziness. Not a good sign but I'm ignoring it for now because who has time to find someone to fix that problem? I'm going to try to figure out the bus from Kangaroo Point tomorrow so I don't have to take the ferry every time. Right now, it's just too complicated from here. I could spend half the day trying to find the second bus stop. Oh well. The apartments I saw yesterday weren't really anything to write home about. They were all acceptable in their own way. The one in South Bank was a great location in that it's near that fantastic South Bank park area, the art museum, the science center and a bus stop where all the buses seem to go thru....but it had absoltely no view to speak of. The ones on Kangaroo Point were small but okay. All were quiet either because they faced away from the street or they were just in a quiet area. What a I really want is the inside of the apartment in Admiralty Towers (so large it even had a breakfast nook), combined with the view from the one in front of Skyline Apartments (the name escapes me for the moment), combined with the quiet of Bulimba and for it to be located at Riverside. See, I'm not difficult to please. I have one to see this morning and then Ben and I will be out for most of the day tomorrow looking at potential places. The one in Silver Quay looks so promising that I'm practically holding my breath in anticipation.

Ben keeps telling me about various areas that other people tell him about. He has NO idea how much walking I'm doing trying to see places. I flatout refuse to try to find my way to a new area by myself. We've decided on which areas are acceptable and until I exhaust all my options there, I don't see any reason to open to door to other possibilities. I simply don't have the mental energy or the physical stamina (though I have been doing really well in that department, if I do say so myself.) End of rant.

Apparently, there's a huge celebration here in August called River of Fire. I'm only catching about half of what anyone tells me about it but apparently there's boats, lots of lights, fireworks and if you have an apartment on the river then you are in high demand amongst your friends;-)

Yesterday a taxi came out of nowhere around the front of my bus and was nearly hit. It was all very exciting. I even let out a little yelp. The driver was paying attention and was rather proud of himself for stopping so quickly I think. The lady across the aisle commenced to telling me about how many accidents she's seen and how many times she's ended up on her back in a bus. As I type that, I realize it sounds little dirty but she had a cane so I'm pretty sure she meant she'd just fallen when the bus driver hit the brakes. lol. The driver could hear her talking and said, "Ay, sounds like we've got a black cat on the bus today" and grinned at me. When the little old lady realized what he'd said, I think she was rather offended. Like anywhere else, there are varying degrees of sympathy and care from the drivers...some will step off the bus to fold up a walker or a stroller for someone...others will sit there all day and just watch someone try to get on the bus. But, honestly, I've seen more kindness than indifference especially considering how mindnumbing the job must be. The worst job though would have to be the ferry across the river. It's a five minute ride, tops. So, the boat driver is just back and forth, back and forth all day. Tie the boat up, untie the boat, tie the boat up, untie the boat, wait for the city cat to get out of the way, tie the boat up..... I'd simply lose my mind. I prefer riding the bus. Being on the ferry makes me want to go to sleep. The view is always lovely but I get too relaxed.

There's a place that makes fruit shakes...tossing all this gorgeous fresh fruit into a juicer, dropping in a dollop of yogurt and it's done.... I could drink them all day. At at about $7 for a large one, it's quite a bargain. Kelsey and I had lunch the other day and it was over $45. I had fish and chips (with ketchup that tasted just like American ketchup to me so I don't know what people were talking about when complaining about the ketchup) and a lipton bottled tea. Kelsey had a salad and a smoothie. At least we were full when we walked away. Junk food can be had for next to nothing,McDonalds or Subway....$7 or so. Gag.

Monday is a holiday here. Ben will have three 3 day weekends in a row! Hopefully, in another week we'll be over our jetlag completely. Bedtime last night was around 8:30 but that was with me really pushing to stay awake. lol. I was technically ready to lay down at 7pm. But, I love being up with the sun and it's not as if there's anything at all on tv. I cannot even express to you how lame the local channels here are. But, it's probably a good thing. After all, there's no lack of something to do here.

I found a huge store similar to Walmart here yesterday when I was wandering around the Queen Street area. Ironically enough it's called Big W. While the prices still cause sticker shock, it was a good bit cheaper than the other places I've been. But, honestly, the quality here is horrendous in many cases. You know the cheapo laundry baskets you can buy at Dollar General Store? Well, that's just about all I've seen here. I finally found one that was a little less brittle at the grocery store for $10.49 so I bought it. The ones at KMart were so brittle, I was afraid I'd break it in less than a week. The grocery store I prefer is called Woolworths. I think the only reason that I prefer it is that everyone calls it Woolies. And seriously, who wouldn't want to shop at a store with a nickname like that? It sounds so friendly and non-threatening. hehe. They did have organic apples so that also helped.

There are no pennies here. The smallest coin in 5 cents. So, your total is either rounded up or rounded down. But, the cashier gives you the real total first. Weird. Why don't they just make everything end in 5? And with the $1 and $2 being coins, you can rack up a heavy pocketful of change pretty quickly. The largest coin is 50 cents. It's huge compared to the others. Seriously, it's a bit of overkill if you ask me. lol.

Well, I must run. 'Tis better to arrive at an apartment inspection early assuming I don't get lost rather than late because I was lost, I suppose. Afterwards, I'm going to explore the Queen Street area a bit more.....