Week twoooo

Monday was a VID. A Very Important Day, as it was Kirsty's 16th birthday! Whoooo! Stepping into adulthood, and I can still remember her as the six year old I knew back in England... :') How time flies.


Well, Sharon had to work that day, so it was just Kirsty, Pete, myself and Nicky until twelve when she had to work. From my family, a nice blue bracelet. She got awesome gifts from her family, including a Samsung Galaxy S2, an inflatable velociraptor, Just Dance 3, a bear you can write messages on as a sort of keep-sake, and other very funky stuff :) Oh, to be sixteen... 


In my house, whenever a birthday occurs we always play Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday song when presents are being opened. So I loaded it up on youtube and played it, and got some very odd looks for it. It had never really occurred to me before that different households have different traditions - for example, on boxing day Maddy heads to the coast, whilst my family usually does it on New Years. 


Well, Nic went off to work, and Kirsty and I went off to have a work-out; Just Dance is an incredibly tiring and energetic thing. Well, it is for me anyway - I really throw myself into it. Try and work up some perspiration so I can fob it off as exercise. That's what helps me sleep at night, anyway. I'm not exactly the sporty type - neither am I the dancey type. I remember once telling Bestie that when I dance I look like a duck on cocaine, which I think is a fair comparison. Just Dance is the only way I can dance and not look like a complete fool because everyone else does as well.


Well we danced to Nightmare Before Christmas, Japanese Power Rangers, LMFAO, Katy Perry and many others. Kirsty was not-energetically doing the moves, whereas I was going for it with gusto. As such, afterwards we felt that a dip in the pool was required. Armed with her inflatable velociraptor, we had a lovely swim. I'm actually pretty happy - Kirsty has taught me how to dive! I was always a bit useless at that. Dad dislikes water so he doesn't really know how to do it, and thus couldn't ever teach me. Mum doesn't swim often either so no chance of learning it through her. However, Kirsty has managed to guide me into how to dive! Very very happy with that. One of my life's goals ticked off. It's plain sailing from here on in.


For a special birthday treat, I made Kirsty an omelette for lunch. It's the only food I can cook from scratch, so naturally I have made it so many times I've got it perfect now. In return for the omelette, she made me a cheese toastie which was lovely. The only downside to this harmonious exchange of food was that we both burnt a knuckle on the toastie-maker. Which sucked, and was quite painful.


At three thirty, Kirsty went to visit her boyfriend. I had by this time noticed that there was no birthday cake. A birthday with no cake is no birthday at all, in my humble opinion. So, as I had used the last of the eggs to make omelette, Pete and I got some ingredients at Brookside shopping centre. I also got a nail file, and a bottle of HP brown sauce :') Happy times indeed.
On the way home, we decided to do a little tour of the Samford Downs - the rather posh end of Samford. They are houses all in a pretty little row, with pretty little gardens kept inside pretty little fences.
I much prefer Sharon and Pete's house. There's so much more space, and you aren't on top of your neighbours and have a bit of privacy. That sounds much better to me.


Well when we got home, Sharon was in from work, and I told her I wanted to bake a cake but had never done so before. The most I had ever achieved in the baking department was cupcakes. So she helped me out, and eventually this fabulous looking cake came out of the oven. It had dark chocolate on the bottom, a layer of blue icing, white chocolate on top of that with a milk choccy topping with white choccy buttons spelling out 16. And it tasted amazing. So so happy with it. I totally want to make another one, but don't want to look like a complete pig. So I shall wait for a bit before bringing it up in conversation.


We had taco's for dinner, and the chicken was in this really weird sauce thing, and I didn't like it all too much, so just had cheese and brown sauce in the next one, which was lovely. I can't remember what we did for the rest of the evening, although we were planning on actually celebrating Kirsty's birthday the next day, when Nicky wasn't working.
Nic and I also watched the latest episode of My Little Pony that night. That was a bad idea, as it was centred on Pinkie Pie babysitting two new foals. Cue lots of crying and screaming from the foals, and then from Pinkie herself. Bad idea when you're tired, which we were.


So Tuesday, at around half eleven, we set off for UnderWater World. Which is an aquarium at Mooloolaba. Yes, I did spell that correctly. No, I'm not messing with you, this place actually exists. It was a rather crummy day - raining and raining and raining - which is why we decided to go there. 
They have this really really awesome underwater tunnel there, with loads and loads of sharks floating around overhead. Hammerheads and the like, you know? Scary great big fish that could really do some damage if they wanted to. It was awesome...
That's what I'd like to say, anyway. The tunnel was actually shut. Undergoing maintenance, apparently. Until September. I mean, September? Really? Seems like an awful long time to fix a leak or what have you.


As compensation for their non-existent shark tunnel, they had lowered their entry fee by ten dollars, which was nice of them. Basically, their biggest attraction wasn't open and they knew that if they kept the price the same no one would go visit.
As it turns out Nic Kirsty and I were able to get in as students anyway (I know I'm not one, but I look like I could be, and no I.D was asked for) so that was a bit cheaper for us anyway. I was a concession! I felt so proud. I've always associated concessions with old people, so to be a concession before I actually become a concession (if that makes sense) was pretty cool.


They had the usual fish - nemo's, dory's, star fish, sting rays, manta rays etcetera... They also had a crocodile in a massive tank with some really fat fish. Apparently crocodiles don't eat those kinds of fish, so that was all good. There was only one croc there though, so maybe if they want baby crocs they have to send it to another aquarium/zoo to mate? 
There was an awesome fish I'd never seen before - called a SawFish. Basically looks like it's got a chainsaw attached to its face. Very trippy, and it's actually not a shark, which it looks like it could be due to the large fins on its back. It's a ray, in the manta ray sense, because it glides rather than flaps its fins. Cool, eh?


We had a good look at the otter enclosure, too. They're the most adorable things ever, I love them to pieces :) Along with sealions, they're my favourite thing in the water. They were very playful too, bounding all over each other and running backwards and forwards in their enclosure. They are also incredibly intelligent creatures too, and are now not kept in separate day and night enclosures because they've escaped from their night one so much that the keepers don't see much point in keeping them shut in. Clever little creatures :')


Then we went to the sealion show :D Obviously, being so close to Colchester Zoo, I have been around when shows have been on before. But the thing is at home, there is a viewing platform of a flat semicircle, and the wall around the enclosure isn't clear glass - it's wooden planks with 'viewing windows'. It gets so crowded that you can't hardly see anything at all. So whilst I have seen shows, I have never actually been to one that you can see.
This one was fantastic. There were chairs layered up the wall so that people actually had a view, and there were not wooden planks to obscure the vision. It was all an act in which the trainers explain to the audience how the animals are trained, whilst all the while training the animals. INCEPTION!
It was fantastic though, and I was very impressed. The show alone was worth the drive there.


I have also decided I want a sealion and an otter as pets. But I'm sure some people knew that already ;)


Wednesday was a quiet day - Kirsty was at her boyfriend's place, and everyone else was at work. I kind of went a bit insane - it's one thing to lounge around in your own home, but you don't really want to do that when you're on holiday. You kind of think - I could be doing this in England - and that's not fun at all. I went on Just Dance, took a quick dip and watched some movies, but it's all a little bit boring when you're on your own. Thankfully, Pete got home at around three and he showed me a walk I could go on to keep myself entertained if I found myself home alone. We also adjusted a bike so that I can ride into Samford village if I so desire, which I shall definitely do at some point.


Thursday Nic, Kirsty and I went into the city. Walked around China Town, posted some post cards, then went into a part of Queenstreet we didn't go to before. This included going into a very very gothic-y shop full of blackness and creepy movies, creepy clothes, creepy books, creepy comics and creepy jewellery. Let's just say that Nic or Kirsty were not more than two steps away from me the entire time we were in that shop. I was so out of place there - like a bunny rabbit in a Cattery. Thankfully we didn't stay too long, and made our way to more colourful shops.


We had a Maccy D's, or Maccas as they're called here, and eventually found ourselves at a surf shop called Rush, which was having a closing-down sale. We spent ages in here - everything was $20! Uber uber cheap. We did spend a long time there - at first I was trying to figure out what size swim shorts to buy - apparently, I'm a 10-12 - and then seeing as everything was so cheap, I bought two leather-looking jackets. Actually, I have a feeling that one might be real leather, seeing as it was originally $180. The other was originally $80, and I got two pairs of swim shorts, one which would have been $45, and another that would have been $59. So that's a lot of quality stuff for $80! Nic bought a bikini that would have cost $160, and three denim jackets, and Kirsty bought some bracelets.


I had a little chat with the woman in the shop, and she was very friendly. Covered in tattoos, but elegantly so. She was from New-Zealand, and is headed back there sometime this week. I mentioned that I was over from England, and she said that she could then place my accent (how she couldn't before I have no idea, it's not like it's hard to place or whatever...). I told her of my travel plans, and that I'd eventually be looking for work in retail or bars, and she said that if the shop wasn't closing the branch, she'd have hired me on the spot. Which is really lovely to hear, and very encouraging. I don't feel as nervous about trying to find work now, having heard that.


That night, we watched The Little Mermaid :) Twas nice visiting nostalgia again with it. Though it reminded me that I was disappointed we didn't see any mermaids at Tangalooma... It also sparked conversations that little girls don't tend to have when they watch it - "How do they poop?" from Nicky, and "Well, how do they reproduce?" from myself. A very thought-provoking movie ;)
There's an awesome parody of Part of Your World on Youtube, called I Want a Vagina, or something akin to that. If you guys haven't seen it already, give it a look. It's incredibly amusing and very well sung.


Friday, Pete wasn't working until two, so he and I drove up Mount Glorious, a mountain about ten minutes from their house. And when I say 'he and I drove', what actually happened was that he let me drive his car! It was great to be behind the wheel again. Aussies drive on the left like we do in the UK, so it wasn't all that different at all. Only thing is, they use Kilometres per hour rather than miles, but just do what the speed-signs say, or just under, and you're good.
Pete and Nicky both own Hyundai Getz's. My granddad also owns a Getz, and when I went on holiday with my grandparents to Norfolk I drove their car the entire week, so I was already familiar with the model which was very handy.


Well, I drove up the side of a mountain. It was very very cool :) We went from Mt Glorious to Mt Nebo, stopping off at look-outs on the way. At one point we could see the part of the valley where their house is, but couldn't pinpoint it exactly, even with Pete's GPS on his swish Samsung Galaxy (I swear, more than half of the people here own one of those).


We reached our stop on Mt Nebo; a little coffee shop. Pete bought me a cheese toastie, as I had missed breakfast and he's just a nice guy and does things like that, and got a coffee for himself.
On the patio was a chinese tourist, and what I presume was her husband, or a tour guide or something. The coffee shop provides bird seed, and loads of parrots come and take their fill from the tourists. The most colourful ones were absolutely amazing - called lorikeets - and Sharon always says that if a four year old was given a picture of a parrot and a box of crayons, this would be the result.
Pete was quite happy to put some feed in his hand and have parrots sitting on his fingers eating out of his palm. I, myself, was quite happy to watch. I'm not a fan of things that flap their wings. Or insects. Or frogs. Or geckos... 


That afternoon, Kirsty had work in the village 5:30pm. To get us out of the house, we decided to cycle into the village at 4pm, seeing as I hadn't yet been in the village. There's a fuel station there, a post office, a gem+crystal shop, cafes, a seafood bar, a pub etc. So it's quite a substantial little town. It took us around half an hour to cycle there, going up along a dirt-path. We got a bottle of water, some chips with chicken salt on them (it's not made from chicken, it's just the name) and sat on the Rotary International bandstand eating our chips :) very English of us, I thought.


Kirsty then had work, so I started cycling back. Two minutes in, fine. Five minutes in, fine. Ten minutes in, I'm beginning to think that nothing looks familiar. I figure that because I was following Kirsty on the way in, I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings so nothing would look familiar. I carry on. Twenty minutes in, I realise I'm a tad lost. 30 minutes in, I phone Sharon and this is how our conversation went...
Me - Do you know where Bygotts Road is?
Sharon - Yes...
Me - Have I gone wrong somewhere
Sharon - Oh darling, yes you have.
Me - Oh.


So, after dragging this bike up a grass verge, realising that it was a 'no-way-through verge', dragging it back (all the while a horse in the field next to it is laughing at my stupidness), then carting it up a stupidly steep hill and nearly falling into a ditch, I called in the cavalry and Sharon came and picked me up. In addition to that, it's also illegal to ride a bike without a helmet in Australia, so I'm apparently a criminal now too. Wunderbar!!


To round off my day, we watched Titanic. Now, I'm a wuss, okay? I can watch the end a film for five minutes and cry at it. So myself plus Titanic equals around 15-20 solid minutes of crying. All in all, an exhausting day both emotionally and physically :P