Another One Bites The Dust (Weekend, That Is...)

I know everyone has been waiting for it. And I have finally come through for all of you. That’s right – I had a big adventure on Saturday. Drum roll, please… I tried Vegemite! My Saturday morning breakfast consisted of toast with Vegemite spread on it. Now, those of you who know me know that I will try anything once. I seriously had to choke the Vegemite toast down. Luckily I only ate it on one piece of toast and was smart enough to save the jelly toast for the second piece. What’s it like? I really can’t describe it, other than to say it tastes like crap. Salty crap. So I can say I tried it, and I can warn each of you: Stay the hell away from it! It only proves that the Aussies here are missing out on the good things in life. Like jelly biscuits. Mmm…
After breakfast, I went out and wandered around. I spent most of Saturday walking around Mosman, Cremorne, and Neutral Bay, also known as the North Sydney suburbs. My biggest task of the day was to go get a haircut. I have been starting to look pretty shaggy. So I walked through these suburbs, and absolutely could not find a place for a haircut. Actually, that’s not entirely true. There was one place: Ménagé A Trois. Based on the things here that are legal, I think I will pass on that place!
While I was down in the other suburbs, I decided to try out a different grocery store, as I thought it would have more selection that the one by me. Let it be a lesson to me: Change is bad. Okay, not really. But all this time when I thought my grocery store had limited selection (it is really small, and I actually have to go to two stores each week – one for bread, fruits, and vegetables, and one for everything else), I can admit I was wrong. In fact, I still had to go to my regular grocery store on Sunday for some of the things I needed. Weird.
After going to the store, I finished off some chores around the house.
Which leads me into the latest episode of “Good Idea, Bad Idea.” I have had a light out above my kitchen/dining room/living room/they’re-all-the-same-room table for almost two weeks now. And without this light, the flat is pretty dark at night. So on Saturday, I decided it was time to replace the light bulb. Pretty basic thing, right? Well, under normal circumstances in which I might have access to a ladder, yes, it would be basic. But in my little world (Tony can insert a leprechaun joke now), this task was not as easy as it sounds. So in order to change the light bulb, I had to move my whatever-room table underneath the light, and climb up onto the table to reach the light fixture which is flush mounted to the 8-foot ceiling. (I’m sure it’s really in meters…) It is one of those wobbly pedestal tables. So I think you now see why this little task might be a bad idea…
Actually, I didn’t fall. I did wobble a lot, but I’m pretty quick on my feet, so it wasn’t too bad. The problem was that the light bulb had to go in a certain way, apparently. So I screwed it in, got down, turned on the light, nothing. Turned off the light, climbed back up, screwed it in again, climbed down, turned the light on, nothing. Here’s where the bad idea came into play. I left the light on, climbed up, and played with the light bulb. I think you see where I am going here, but to foreshadow a little bit, I will add a comment that the voltage here in Australia is just about double that of the US. I have already been indirectly warned that the switches on the plugs are there for a reason. (Yes, there are little switches above every plug I have seen over here. The GM of my current client was plugging something in the other day and made some crack about “I shouldn’t let the American see me doing this.”) So I climbed back up on the table with the light switch on. I’ll tell you what – it wasn’t as bad as you might think, but the sparks were kind of like little fireworks. Pretty cool!
The rest of the afternoon was just finishing up some other chores around the apartment. For dinner, I headed over to my local pub, since I hadn’t been there in a while. I figured it was a good night to go. It was the last night of the Olympics here, aside from the closing stuff on Sunday, so it would be fun to go to the pub and watch with some other people.
Now, I have had several people as me about the Olympics over here. Yes, it is kind of weird to watch and cheer for the US from here. And, I will admit that I find myself cheering for a lot of Aussies. I think it is mostly because all I get to see are the Aussies over here. In fact, I think I know more of the Aussie Olympians than the Americans. Take it for what you will. But once the swimming wrapped up here, the Olympic spirit really kind of faded. I mean, people still talk about it, but swimming really was a huge buzz for everyone here! I think I mentioned that there were emails sent out about certain swim events being shows on the TV in the office lobby. But I have not seen any emails about watching the kayaking or the track and field events. The Aussies have done pretty well in those (gold in kayaking and skull, silver in hurdles, and a gold in pole vaulting, which was the first gold medal in a field event here in 60 years), but the excitement just isn’t there any more.
My trip to the pub sort of exemplifies my ramblings. The men’s field hockey was on, and the Aussies were playing for a bronze medal. I honestly think I was the only person in the pub watching the game. It’s kind of sad, since Australia was playing really well (and ended up winning). Although I have to wonder what the pub was like on the nights of the swimming events!
Sunday was a pretty laid-back day. I decided to try out a new church this week. I am somewhat ashamed to say I have only been to church twice since I have been here. Although I think City2Surf should count as a day of worship, too. So I headed down to the Mosman Baptist Church (MBC). I really was curious what “Baptist” here meant. The sign on the outside of the church said it was an “OPEN” church: Outreach, Praise, Encouragement, Nurture. So it looked like a decent place. Plus it didn’t start until 10 – Aside from the Catholic mass, it’s the latest service in the neighborhood!
I walked in and sat down towards the back. It was a more contemporary church, with chairs, the big screen with PowerPoint going, and a “band” warming up. Actually, it was just a woman playing the keyboard and singing with another guy. There were drums, too, but no one played those. The song that the two were singing when I walked in was a contemporary praise song, so I figured out that this service was going to be pretty laid back. I found a seat and barely had time to put down my purse and take off my jacket before one of the women sitting in front of me got up, walked back, put her arm around me, and told me how nice it was for me to come visit. Okay… Thanks!
After the musicians were done warming up, the lady came back and walked through the congregation, shaking everyone’s hand and saying hello. She introduced herself (Ann), and asked me about where I was from, etc. She told me she’d catch me after the service, and then she moved on to the folks down the row from me.
As Ann walked away, a woman on the row in front of me turned around and said, “Where are you from?” I told her the US, which she knew, and she said, “Where?” I told her NC, and I started to explain to her where it was. She said, “Oh, I’ve been there! I have some friends from back in the UK who moved there, and we have been to see them a few times. I went to, uh, is it Charlotte?” I laughed and told her that was where I was from. She told me what a wonderful city it was (go Charlotte!), and how much she likes visiting there. Apparently her friends went to State and ended up in Charlotte. Small world, huh?
After talking to her, I read through the bulletin. Actually, it was more an informational thing, not really a bulletin. (The service was pretty much directed by the minister, and all the stuff you needed was up on the overhead screen.) But I figured out that Ann was the pastor’s wife. And that the church service lasted about 90 minutes. Yikes! The more interesting part was the discussion of the staff: The ministers were listed as "All Christians at MBC." The Pastor was the only true church "staff." I thought it was kind of a neat thing to have out there for everyone to see. A couple of minutes later, a guy walked into the room, and headed right towards me. (I was obviously the only visitor.) I figured out he was the preacher before he got to me. “Hi, I’m Jeff. Believe it or not, I’m the minister here.” I introduced myself, talked to him for a couple of minutes, then he walked up to the front and got the service started.
It was a pretty good service. There were only about 20 people there, but it was nice. (Again, I don’t think people around here go to church.) This congregation was younger than the other church I went to. In fact, the people on my row were about my age. They had a little girl with them. Her name was Emma, and Sunday was her second birthday. She was hilarious. She ran around like she was all hopped up on sugar babies and Mountain Dew. She was fun to watch.
The music at the service was… interesting. In some ways, it was terrible. At the same time, it was absolutely wonderful. Ann, the main singer, had a really strong voice, but she kept singing harmony. The guy who sang with her was really quiet and not sure of his notes. So it was almost impossible to follow the melody to the music. Overall, it was not the kind of music that anyone would pay money to hear. But everyone there was really trying, and really into it. So it was absolutely wonderful to hear. It actually made me really miss playing at the 9 am services at my old church back home. I guess I could associate – I know I am not a very good guitar player, but it is so great to be a part of that time of the service. So to watch these two up there was really a great thing to be a part of.
The sermon was pretty good, and after the service, I walked out the front door where I was greeted by Jeff and Ann. Ann called my by name at least three times. You could tell she was really making an effort at it, which was nice. They both talked to me about where I was from, what I was doing there, etc. Jeff asked about my church life back home, and was happy to hear that I went to church almost every week. He told me to come back and visit any time. He also told me his work and home phone numbers were in the bulletin, and he asked me to call him any time, if there was anything I needed while I was here. Nice people. Before I could think about it, I told him I was sure I would be back next week. Now, I was thinking about visiting a couple of other churches while I am here. But I guess I will have to wait another week before I can go somewhere else. Since Jeff’s sermon was about Christian hypocrisy, and about standing up for what you believe and being true to your word, I think I should go back, since I promised. Besides, I am not one to say something and then go back on it, anyway. So I will have to wait a couple of weeks to go to the Catholic church where I plan to take communion and then run out screaming, “IT BURNS! IT BURNS!” I’m kidding!
I was pretty tired after church, and decided to stay in for the day. I had thought about doing the walk up to Manly Beach (one of the more famous ones around here). But it is a 10-K walk out (about 6 miles), then I'd have to walk back, and it was a little cold out. So I decided that I will wait for that little adventure until next week. Besides, I wanted to watch the final Olympic events, since Sunday was the last day for it.
Interesting enough, I was watching the men’s gold medal basketball game in the afternoon. With about nine minutes to go, in the middle of this close game, an announcement came over to announce that Eastern Australia would be cutting away for the news. What? Seriously? Yep, sure enough, they cut away to the news broadcast, promising to show the end of the game when the news was over. 30 minutes later, the coverage went back to the Olympics, and the game was over. So instead of showing the last nine minutes (which obviously would have been less than a 30-minute thing), they showed a five minute quick-and-dirty highlight reel of the last nine minutes of the game. Insane.
Sunday night was the closing ceremony of the Olympics. I am going to wait to talk about that one in the next blog post. This one is getting too long, and it is getting late! I need to go to bed so I can get seven hours in tonight!
So goodnight to you all, and I will be back tomorrow with some good stories, I promise!