Monday, March 29, 2010

Missing Articles

I am a grammar nerd. You should know this right away. I’m perplexed by a couple of missing articles here. I was already aware of the example involving the hospital. It’s a pretty well known phenomenon in Britain and its commonwealths. Here it’s, “I go to hospital” rather than, “I go to the hospital.” The article is missing. And the fact that I know the term for that word is why I am a grammar nerd.

There’s another one that bothers me. I’m currently applying for a job at the Gold Coast City Council, commonly referred to as “Council,” but not “the Council.” WHY!? I wonder aloud. But Theo is not a grammar nerd and doesn’t care, not even a little bit, just as you probably don’t. “I don’t know,” he says…”why?” (meaning why do you even care). I say, (completely incorrectly) “Because there’s nothing like that in American English…” (2 minute pause) “I thought of one!”

These are the silly mind puzzles I play with myself. There are examples in US English:

I go to school. (not really)
I go to church. (nope)

Theo chimes in:

I went to court. (he never did this either)
But this could cause one to go to jail, I suppose.

All these examples show an obvious trend. They are all public institutions! What is up with that? Does dropping the article give them more stature maybe? Or do people say them so much they decided for a shortcut by dropping the pesky article?

But then I continued to ponder and realized there are some examples that don’t fit this:

Let’s go to town. (if you live in the country)
I want to go home. (wherever that is)

Then I thought, well maybe you do this when there is just one of something in your life. Let’s say you do live in the country. The “town” you speak of is probably the nearest town. Even if you live in the city, you only generally have one home… one church, one school, etc. that you attend, at least.

So I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with that answer for now, but ‘going to hospital’ still bugs me.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Gold Coast Night Life

Theo and I haven't properly gone out once since we've gotten here. Mainly because we're "old" but also because we have no money. When we do go out on weekends (at least in KC), it was either a rugby function or salsa dancing. And since my power to persuade my husband to go salsa dancing diminishes over time, and since I have no idea if there's even a salsa club in the Gold Coast, we just don't even try. Maybe someday when I have the energy, and the ability to pretend I fit in with 18 year olds (which is the legal drinking age here), I'll try again. But in the meantime, we'll just live vicariously through others. After reading a wonderfully written account of our houseguest's recent night life experience, I don't feel so bad watching DVDs from the library and eating ice cream on Saturday nights. I think we're actually making the best decision. Give it a read and you'll see what I mean!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

tubeflops

I thought I had a healthy appreciation of flip flops (or jandles, as my husband calls them) before I moved here. But I realized the other day while shopping that the Aussies take them to a whole other level here:



I'm not sure what occasion would warrant these... my toes are the first thing to get cold... and they're not comparable to those gloves with the fingers cut out. At least those have a purpose, but unless you are a monkey and grip things with your toes, I just don't understand.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Toilet Rooms

You may remember from my earlier post about our apartment that it is common here to have a floorplan allowing for a tiny separate room just for your toilet – I theorize this began as the British “Water Closet” (WC) since that’s about how big it is - the size of a closet, with a toilet in it. I call it the toilet room, for lack of a better term.

I was pretty neutral on this subject, originally thinking it was a little odd, but then concluding that it is helpful for avoiding certain smells or allowing for privacy when my husband and I need to use the bathroom for different things at the same time.

But its true value occurred to me one day when I was watching TV. It was actually an American show – they are ubiquitous on Aussie TV. I’m embarrassed to admit it was “The View,” a show I never really saw back home but due to my current extreme boredom circumstances, seemed interesting enough to watch. They were having one of their little discussions and somehow the subject of bathrooms came up. Whoopie Goldberg was saying how she refused to share bathrooms with men due to the male post-urination “shake” phenomena, which I was aware of but never gave much thought to. She was disgusted by the idea of that shake and the thought that any nearby bathroom objects could be subject to its resulting spray.

And then the light bulb came on for me. I now think the toilet room idea is genius. I also now regard the actual room with more disgust than before, but at least its effects are confined and innocent toothbrushes can remain safe.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Living Penniless

One of the nice things about shopping in Oz is the way they’ve eliminated the need for pennies. Here’s what I mean:



Rounding…a simple grade school concept given a noble duty of lightening everyone’s load. In Australia, they simply round up or down to the nearest 5 cents.

It’s not that I’m a penny-hater. Absolutely not. I grew up loving pennies in the US; not only because they were free money I could scavenge from my brother’s bedroom floor, but also because of what’s, or I should say, who's imprinted on them.

Before there was Michael Jackson or Michael Jordan, my first childhood crush was Abraham Lincoln… probably the first clue to my family that I was odd. I was born in the “Land of Lincoln,” learned about him in grade school (when I thought it was dreamily awesome that he freed the slaves; whether for political reasons or not -- I was too young to care -- still don’t) went to the budget movie theater in downtown Belleville named after him, knew that various local schools and streets were given his name, and several family trips were made so I could visit his grave in Springfield, Illinois. Creepy to some…I know.

But even though I have this affinity for the coin, I understand its burdensome quality. It seems that the men in my life, from my brother to my husband, hate pennies and refuse to use them. I’m the type of person to toss in a few pennies during a sale transaction to reduce the change I get back. But not my husband, no, not even to save himself from getting 97 cents back in change. I will even purposely pad my wallet with his discarded pennies so that I’m never in that situation.

But I don't have to worry about that anymore. It’s actually nice to not have a wallet that feels like a lead brick. I would even advocate for its elimination in the US. After all, I can still swoon over the 5 note.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Gecko Update

After a few days of living in Frida's shadow, only occasionally coming out to explore the quietest corner of the living room, our friend "Gary" the gecko has left the building. Tonight, he made a move toward the back door, silently signaling his wish to be free. So we opened the door for him and he quietly and quickly left us. Our little friend has moved on to bigger and better things, I am certain. There is now an eerie emptiness in the apartment, but we wish him all the best!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Doctor Visit

Yesterday, I accompanied Theo to see a doctor. I’ve been infinitely curious about the national health care system (Medicare). I want to see if all the “horror stories” you hear about socialized medicine in the American press are true.

Theo doesn’t have a regular doctor, so we stopped in to a couple of medical centers within walking distance to see how soon he could get in. We were able to conveniently make an appointment for the next day. Since it was his first visit at this particular office, he had to pay a small initial visit fee of $50, about 75% of which will be refunded by Medicare. Even though the doctor’s name was ominously “Joe Black,” he seemed nice and took good care of Theo. He ordered some CT scans, so we made an appointment for the next day at another nearby location. This visit was also covered by Medicare, with the “benefit assigned” totaling about $300. I’m not sure why they give you this information, but it’s certainly interesting because we’ve had similar scans done in the US. We know they cost my employer-provided health insurance company thousands of dollars, not hundreds. Why the extreme cost difference, I have no idea...

We’ll get the results in about 2 working days, when we’ll return to the doctor “Joe Black.” Hopefully his name is no indication of the impending test results.

Either way, I’m impressed so far and it’s been an extremely easy process.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

New Roommate

We have a new roommate. He doesn't pay rent, but he keeps to himself.

I first spied our new little Gecko friend a couple of days ago. He's not as green as the Geico Gecko and he hasn't even whispered a word yet. He only seems to come out when Theo and Conor are gone to rugby practice or touch. I guess I'm quiet enough to make him feel comfortable. But I'm not completely comfortable with him yet, even though I know he can't hurt me. Last night, he was on the ceiling. I was going about my business, with one eye on him when all of sudden I hear a light thud. He jumped off (dropped from?) the ceiling onto a chair. He proceeded to jump from the chair to the wall, then sought refuge behind Frida.

I told Theo about it when he got home and hinted that maybe our new friend would be happier outside. He gave up before he started and said, "Nah, those buggers are too fast." Besides, Theo says he'll eat up any unwanted bugs in the house, so I guess I'd rather have a gecko than a cockroach any day.

So I guess our roommate is here to stay.



(since there's no scale, he's probably less than 2 inches long)

Monday, March 8, 2010

My Curly Mulatto Hair

There are two things I've learned about my hair:

1. It is nothing without Pantene for curly hair. OK, I've already known that for awhile, but it really hit home when I put off buying some (because it costs twice as much here) and went without for a few days. Absolutely not going to work.

2. My hair loves ocean water. I'm not sure if I should be surprised or not, but I am. I guess growing up landlocked, I always associated horrible dry hair with swimming, due to the chlorinated water at the public swimming pool. Even after the no-Pantene episode, I just went swimming at the beach and I came back with detangled, soft, silky hair. It's amazing!

Friday, March 5, 2010

Restaurants



Theo and I had a "date lunch" today since our visitor was in Brisbane visiting friends. Well at least that seemed like a good enough excuse anyway. See, it's been quite an adjustment for me to be home so much, cooking all 3 of my daily meals at home, then doing dishes at least 3 times a day. It can be quite maddening some days, actually. So any excuse to escape the hum-drum is highly prized for me!

I've found that eating at restaurants here is a little different from the States. First, the prices are pretty high. This may just be because we're in the Gold Coast, a very touristy part of Oz, I don't know for sure yet. But here, an "entree" (called here a "main," the word "entree" is used in the strict French sense) at a mid-scale restaurant is usually $15 to $25, which is above average for me, especially since I normally used 2for1 coupons when I dined back home. It took a while, but I have found these type of coupons here as well, usually on the back of cash register receipts. They're usually for local surf club restaurants. Surf Lifesaving Clubs (SLSC) are located at each suburb, where you can join for a small fee, which gives you access to surf lifesaving classes, sometimes a gym, food and drink specials, pokie machines, and probably a lot more. The clubs provide volunteer life guards during the weekends for the nearby beach, which is nice. It doesn't sound like it would be an ideal place to eat, but their restaurants are surprisingly good! The first time I dined at a SLSC was at Greenmount (since the suburbs are very small, there are at least 3 or 4 SLSCs within walking distance). I had an awesome seafood ravioli. Today I had a grilled salmon (probably from the Tasman Sea) at the Kirra SLSC. It was delicious! The clubs are always either right on the beach or right across the street, so the views are always nice, too!

Another thing I noticed about restaurants is the service level. I haven't been to any of the more upscale restaurants, but so far, at most of them you either order and pay at the register, or you order at the table and pay at the register before you leave, which results a gaping hole with regard to table service. You're pretty much on your own. They bring the food and that's about it. Most of the time, you're not even offered water with your meal (we normally have to ask for it), and you may even have to get your own silverware. But the positive side of this coin is that you don't leave tips, which is an annoyance I don't mind forgetting.

Overall, I don't think that eating out is as popular as in the States. (It's almost a sport to me!) I think Kansas City must have more restaurants than people (okay...exaggeration), so I'm used to having more than enough access to cheap yummy food. But at least now I've probably gained a greater appreciation when we do finally get to go out these days. And it has probably saved me a few pounds as well.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

OnTheRoad-ie

Since I have mucho time to spare these days, I've been catching up on reading time lost during past times of my life when I was at the other end of spectrum of busy-ness. The complete other end...

So at the library (my new constant friend) I stumbled upon "The Portable Jack Kerouac" compilation of JK books. It uses excerpts from various articles and books written by Kerouac, which sewn together weave one long tale which JK called "The Legend of Duluoz." I'm thoroughly enjoying it both as a sentimental reminiscence of America, as well as an indulgence of my feelings of being in a limbo of sorts... very "ontheroadie."

My favorite quote of the day (one of JK's very Buddhist sentiments, written literally on a mountain):

-Hold together, Jack, pass through everything, and everything is one dream, one appearance, one flash, one sad eye, one crystal lucid mystery, one word - Hold still, man, regain your love of life and go down from this mountain and simply be -- be -- be the infinite fertilities of the one mind of infinity, make no comments, complaints, criticisms, appraisals, avowals, sayings, shooting stars of thought, just flow, flow, be you all, be you what it is, it is only what it always is-"

from Desolation Angels, Jack Kerouac

Monday, March 1, 2010

The Visitor

It was an exciting day yesterday! Conor finally arrived to begin the first leg of his world tour. Theo and I rented a car so we could greet him at the Brisbane airport. Unfortunately, it was raining like crazy during morning rush hour and took 3 times as long as it should have to get there from Kirra. Luckily, Conor is a patient person, and was probably still dazed from his 36 hour traveling purgatory. We showed him around our 'hood and acquainted him with my favorite tuber in the world - the New Zealand kumara (kind of a cross between a potato, sweet potato and taro). (Tubers the world round should be jealous of that statement.)

It's really fun having someone from the homeland to show around. It's almost like seeing everything for the first time through their eyes. And for some reason, new birds keep appearing everywhere we go... I think Conor has a bit of a Snow White effect on Australia. On the way to the airport, I saw two white cockatoos just hanging out on street lamps. Then later when we were driving around, I saw my first kookaburra. I have heard them many times and never seem to get tired of their monkey voices, but this was my first spotting... I was so excited! Then today, a couple of different birds perched right on our deck, one I've never seen before, a cute thing with velvety green wings.

We wanted to immerse Conor directly into Aussie cuisine so today for lunch, Theo served up kangaroo sausages. Theo and I have eaten kangaroo steaks before, but this was a first for sausage. It was really nice! Very lean... and I think I like them better than regular Aussie sausages.

Unfortunately, though, the rain the past two days has been of epic proportions, causing the boys' touch and rugby practices to be canceled. Hopefully it dries up soon, so we can do some proper Aussie activities.