Island in the Sun

This past weekend we went up to visit our friend, Ian, in Brisbane. We took a ferry over to Moreton Island. There are shipwrecks that have been purposely put there in the 1960's where coral reefs have grown. We hopped off the ferry, put on our snorkels, and checked them out. We saw lots of tropical fish, I saw a little stingray and Michael saw some puffer fish.

We also checked out Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary south of the city, which was more like a little zoo. We fed some really cute kangaroos and wallabies and see some other native animals up close. 

Comparing Currumbin to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which is much closer to Brisbane, I recommend Lone Pine, but it was still a fun time. We were also able to see a small part of Springbrook National Park , where there is a nice river to swim if you have the time. It was another weekend surrounded by nature and wildlife, moreso than flowers and hearts and the typical Valentine stuff. 

The Casual Queen

...And I don't mean a blasé monarch. 

I survived my first day as a primary school casual teacher, aka substitute, in a year five and six classroom today, and over all it went pretty well, if I do say so myself. 

I also signed up to take an RSA (responsible service of alcohol) certification class next week so that it will be much easier for me to get casual waitressing work (at conferences and things like that) to supplement my other two casual jobs when their hours are in short supply. Yes, you need a certification in this country to be a waitress. Yes, that is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Where else in the world do they make people do that? A certification can't make someone a good waiter or waitress; experience can. Also, I don't know how the class can possibly take 6 1/2 hours. That's two times longer than my CPR course. It takes longer to tell someone how to hand another person some food and/or drinks than to save their life.

Soon enough I will go from having two jobs to having three. The downside is that the hours are unstable and everything is different from one week to the next right now. The upside is flexibility and variety. Hopefully over time I'll develop relationships with the core schools I'll sub for, and that will get easier. My team-building job is fun and will get easier once I have more events under my belt too. Waitressing I've done before and is pretty fun and simple usually. 

So that's the update to my work situation. It's not glamorous, but it suits me for now. Just call me the casual queen. 

Nothing Much to Report

It's a typical week. My trivia team earned 2nd place and I won my frisbee game yesterday even though it came down to the wire. I'll sail this evening assuming the weather remains good. Michael has been corresponding from Wellington, where he's mostly working and getting to see a little bit of the little city. 

Weekend Wonder

It was a typical weekend complete with room escaping, sushi, ice cream, throwing a frisbee on the beach, and more hanging out in Centennial Park. Since I last posted the link to Michael's flickr bird album he's added quite a few pictures.  

Right now Michael just got on a plane to Wellington, NZ, where he will be the next week for work. Bon voyage!

Wyrmwood

Sometimes when you go see a low-budget film premiere, everyone that made it is there. Last night we went to see Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead  premiere at Moonlight Cinema in Centennial Park. We didn't realize this was the premiere, we just thought it was opening night. It turns out the cast and director were there, and for fun they also had the decked out truck from the movie.

When I had seen the trailer, I didn't realize exactly how low-budget the movie was, since you can't tell from the production value. Apparently they just shot it over a period of four years on weekends outside of Sydney. There are very few sets in the movie, so they just literally drove out to the bush to film. There is one familiar scenic shot of the blue mountains that I was happy to see in one of the scenes.

I got to briefly talk to a few of the actors and I got a signed movie poster. I'm sure the last movie poster I acquired was 10 years ago when I still worked at a video store, but I figured, "why not" since I could get it signed. Beforehand, the director and producer gave short speeches, and the producer "skulled" a beer in front of the audience (what a bro). 

It's weird watching a movie knowing that the people starring in it are listening to the audience's reaction. It made me want to laugh more and cheer louder, like I would if my friend was giving a class presentation. 

My biggest issue with the film was that the timeline was absurd, but perhaps that was meant to be a joke in itself. Although the movie is obviously implausible, it would be slightly less implausible if they just had it span a time period of several weeks or more, instead of a few days. [Minor spoiler alert] The zombie apocalypse just began one day ago and there's already an evil scientist in the middle of doing experiments complete with protocols, and he has cronies to help him carry them out? How did he become so evil so quickly and already have a plan and systems in place?! As long as you suspend disbelief about that, it's still entertaining (in a disturbing way).

One thing I have to applaud the film for is having a modern Aboriginal main character that, as far as I know, was depicted accurately (as much as one could be in a comedic apocalyptic setting). As far as I'm concerned, Leon Burchill stole the show. 

It was another good picnic (I'm starting to become an expert at preparing them) and a fun kickoff to the weekend.

0118 999 881 999 119 725... 3

I had to do an online 1st Aid training today, which was mostly a refresher. The big difference in 1st Aid in Australia is that they talk about how to deal with the many many venomous things that can attack you, not just beestings and cuts and sprains. With one kind of spider you're supposed to apply ice to the bite to slow the spread of the venom, but for another one you're supposed to treat it like a snake bite and not do that. Well that's not confusing at all when you're trying to act fast and save someone's life. For one kind of sea creature you're supposed to rinse the sting with sea water, but for another you're not supposed to because it makes it worse. They need to come up with some helpful mnemonic devices (not pneumonic devices, which I originally just googled) to remember these things. It all somewhat tangentally reminds me of my favorite episode of The IT Crowd.

 

In the online training, they also said not to use the Heimlich maneuver if someone is choking, but to rather slap them on the back several times. This is in direct opposition to what I have previously learned in four different trainings, so I'm not sure what to believe now. I guess if someone's choking in Australia you do one, but if they're choking in the US you do the other, even though choking is choking no matter what hemisphere you're in. 

Tomorrow I have a CPR refresher course too. I guess I'll find out if Rescuci Annie looks the same, or they have a Resusci Sheila. 

Dear Catastrophe Waitress

Friday evening was Michael's belated work holiday party. The Sydney office is quite small so we had an intimate eight course tasting dinner at The Bentley. I tried to take pictures of all the courses, but after a while I started to forget. 

Sea urchin, crab, carrot

Pea soup (and other fancy things I can't remember)

Cauliflower custard, white asparagus, and brown butter

Murray cod, baby pink turnips, and brown butter

I don't remember what this is but it had mustard flowers on top

Coconut sorbet, desert lime, and honeydew melon

Charred milk custard, raspberry, and chervil sorbet (I had never even heard of chervil before I had this - quite good)

Over all it was a tasty meal, but the courses were really small and spread out so I was still hungry enough to eat a big snack when I got home.

Saturday night we went to see Belle and Sebastian play at Taronga Zoo as part of the Twilight at Taronga concert series. We hadn't been back to the zoo since about a year ago when our friend, Monty, visited. It was a cool venue for a show, and some kookaburras came out to enjoy the performance. Two of them huddled together and their third-wheel friend sat on a nearby branch just a little above and ahead of us for the last few songs; it was pretty cute. It was too dark by then to get a good pic.

It was a lawn picnic kind of show, but you could walk right up to the stage. At one point they pulled up a lot of people from the audience to dance on stage.

Belle and Sebastian didn't play my favorite song, or even my second favorite song, but I forgive them. As we were waiting for the ferry back to Circular Quay, one of the lead singers actually walked down and got on the boat too. I've never just seen a singer take public transportation after performing, so that was a first. He was really friendly and low-key, talking to some fans and taking pictures, but kind of blending in at the same time.

Sunday we went hiking with one of Michael's coworkers and a bunch of people from a Reddit group to which he belongs. We did the Karloo walking track in Royal National Park (same park we were in last weekend, different area). We didn't make it all the way to the waterfall, but many people in the group swam in the Karloo pools. 

It ended up being a full weekend. Michael also managed to squeeze in a frisbee game win. Summer is in full swing down under!