Friday, August 24, 2012

Engrish lessons.

I cannot pull off the following phrases:

'cheers' (cheeahs)
'cheers mate' (cheeahs might)
'hello darling' (dahling)
'pardon?' (pahdon)
'good day' (good eye)

I tried today -not in an Aussie accent- but used simple phrases to our customers and it made me feel very weird, out of place and down right creepy.

Oy vey.



Wednesday, August 15, 2012

factoids

Today was a public holiday in Brisbane, in celebration of the Royal Queensland Show, the annual agricultural show of Queensland, also known as EKKA.  It's pretty much a fair type thing, with rides, free petting zoos, overpriced food / drinks and heaps of kids, meh.  Not my cup of tea but it was nice to see all sorts of people going this morning while we were working on site.  It's nice that the seventh show day is a public holiday, no work for most people like Danny.   I love that there are 2 holidays I never thought I would be celebrating the first being the Queen's birthday and second one being the Royal Queensland Show.

here is a photo of my work at EKKA:




Thursday, August 2, 2012

Melbourne

Melbourne was great. Our train was 40 minutes late so we took a taxi to the airport.  Of course during those times when you are in most need to rush, we get a taxi driver who was not a negligent speedster but rather one that followed the speed limit and the laws of the road. We made it just as the plane was boarding thanks to Australia's less strict airport security (no one had even checked my ID).

We finally arrived and the feeling of staying in a hostel was like a feeling of being home! ridiculous, yes but seriously... I love hostels. After a stomach wrenching all carb & simple sugar breakfast, we walked through the South Yarra neighbourhood where our hostel was located.  We walked to the Royal Botanical Gardens where we saw the governors' palace, the Anzac memorial, some cool trees and rainforest wildlife from Queensland! We hopped on a free city bus that takes a loop around the most popular spots in Melbourne:



National Victoria Gallery - had an exhibit about Napoleon but we decided against indoor activities since the weather was really nice.

Federation Square - amazing area bustling with people, checked out St. Paul's Cathedral, Flinder's Street Station, walked by / through some of the theatres and galleries surrounding the square. Then we saw the Joker painted on a side garage door in a tiny alley.  Naturally we headed that way to check it out and lo & behold our first street art encounter... the whole alley way just covered in street art.  After taking a gander we had tapas and cortado at Movida.






Queen Victoria Market - largest outdoor market... meh...it was cool until we saw vendors selling full body kangaroo skins.

South Bank - nice stroll by the river at South Bank... we took some photos of the city skyline, saw a weird large goose, crossed the bridge back to Flinder's street station were we caught the tram back to our hostel for a nap!





Lygon Street - considered the 'little Italy' of Melbourne.  We met up with Daniella & a few other friends for a lovely dinner. Chapel Street - this street is happening!  lots of bars, restaurants, cafes, people... it was busy even really late at night...A few other attractions we saw:
More street art on Little Bourke Street
Possums at the Royal Exhibition
State Library of Victoria
Parliament
Another Cathedral
Galletes on Brunswick Street
China Town
Collins Street




Possums and Opossums are different:  Australian Possums are cute whilst North American Possums are disgusting and creepy. 







After 2 days of checking out Melbourne, Danny and I ended our weekend trip with a delicious cafe cortado at the Young & Jackson's bar in the presence of the famous nude portrait painting of Chloe.