Wednesday 23 December 2009

Season's Greetings

Now we're both working, 'blog time' has been seriously reduced....hence the fact it's been a little while since the last post.....!
Anyway, all is still bonza, as they say over here. Dan's yoghurt shop is closed for most of Christmas so he's got a cushty week off.... in contrast, I'm working every waking hour with my only day off being actual Christmas Day. Someone's got to put bread on the table!

I'm still blagging the fact that I'm a 'barista' at the ice cream shop. I can cope with the simple coffees now but anything out of the ordinary still confuses me. Here's a pic of me practising at home....

Our landlady, Joanne, organised a Christmas get-together for the housemates here and the ones at another of her houses. We all went round to their house, because it's huge, and had a pizza night. We were eating pizza for the next week, as Joanne had ordered us a giant pizza each...I think she thought we needed feeding, as we're all living away from home!
Last week we headed over to Coogee beach, after Jen our housemate recommended it. It's about a 30 minute bus ride from here, which saves us going into the city. We had a really lovely day there, relaxing on the beach. It doesn't seem quite as manic as Bondi, which tends to get overrun with school kids (especially now it's the school holidays).
We liked Coogee so much that we decided to go back there at the weekend for their carol concert. We headed over early and spent a bit of time exploring the area. Someone at work had said that Clovelly (not the one in ND!) is really nice, so we took a walk along the coastal path to check it out. It was a lovely walk and I'm sure we'll revisit Clovelly with our swimming costumes again soon. It's a very narrow beach, and they've made the bay into a massive swimming pool, with places to climb in along the side. It wasn't the weather for it when we were there, but we'll definitely be back on a sunny day.

Dan and I got to the carol concert nice and early to get our pitch. It was a good job we did, because by the time it started every little space was taken by families and their picnic blankets. Dan bought a little candle and a booklet so we could sing along..... as you can see, he got well into it!!
 Newtown is full of lovely restaurants, so it is surprising that we have only just been out for our first meal. To celebrate our five and a half year anniversary (any excuse!!) we went to Thai Riffic, one of the most popular eateries. It's got a great reputation, and I can see why. The decor in the restaurant is so pretty and the food was amazing. A very enjoyable evening....
  All that's left for me to say is MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Bread on the table!

It feels better typing a blog this time knowing that we both have jobs now! We've both been working for nearly two weeks and are making the most of our days off. I have landed a job at a frozen yogurt bar that opened a fortnight ago in Newtown. I am really enjoying it and the owners are nice too, which helps. They left me in charge the other night, while they went to see a show, which I was chuffed with as I have only been there a short while. The following day they said how well I had done and that I have gained their trust, which is good! Jo was doing a little bit of waitressing for a while but the owner wasn't very nice and didn't give her enough hours so she tried for another job. She is now working in an ice-cream parlour. It's just up the road from me which is handy and only a short walk from the house. They sell coffee at the shop too, so Jo has been putting her barista skills to work! She dreads being asked to make any coffees but as they say 'practice makes perfect!'

 
Last week we popped over to Manly where a Ben and Jerry's shop was having its grand opening. Because we can't say no to a freebie we went over to grab our free ice-cream.  Ben and Jerry's isn't well-known over here yet so the majority of the customers that day were American! The queue was quite long but worth the wait, especially when Mr Cohen and Mr Greenfield (aka Ben and Jerry) served us themselves. I had the 'Chocolate Therapy' and Jo had 'Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough'. If you have never tried their ice-cream before then go out now and buy some, you won't be disappointed...!
As you might be aware by now, I really hate spiders! I knew that coming to Australia wasn't going to be easy as 'house spiders' over here are a bit bigger than the ones back at home. I have only seen a few so far and they aren't a pretty sight. Jo was working the other night and I was at home with Yazeed, one of our housemates, who also hates spiders. Yazeed went into the cupboard under the stairs to put the iron away and spotted an 'incy wincy' (as I like to call them). It ran deeper into the cupboard so Yazeed pulled all the contents out and tried to coax him out. He eventually emerged just in time for Yazeed to get him, hooray! I still will always be on edge but that is one less to worry about!
We're both still trying to get our heads around Christmas being a few weeks away. With the weather being around 35°C most days it's hard to believe. Anyway, we have got our Christmas party tonight organised by our landlady, Joanne. She has a few houses around the area so is gathering us all up and putting on a little get-together. It will be nice to meet some new people and get a few 'Christmassy' photos...