13 Down, 1 To Go!

Another weekend has come and gone, which means that I only have one more week left to work here. Holy crap!
It has been interesting… People keep talking about my leaving. It came up Thursday night at dinner, as everyone was trying to figure out what kind of get-together we should have to send me off. I told them I didn’t need anything, but they wouldn’t hear it. So next week we will do the usual Thursday night diner group. And on Friday night, the office is hosting lunch (which I will not be going to) and drinks (which I will be going to) to send off Nate, me, and another woman who is leaving the office. It should be fun. Kim, the office coordinator, is quite excited that I will be bringing Sally with me on Friday night. She says that she’s going to get the good dirt on me now. I think I’m a pretty open book; she just hasn’t figured it out enough to start asking me the good questions!
I took it pretty easy on Friday night. Going out Thursday night and Saturday night are about enough for me now. I’m getting old…
Saturday night was a lot of fun. We had about 25 people show up for my friend Charlotte’s birthday party. We played laser skirmish (laser tag), with Great Britain versus the rest of the world. It was about an even split, with 11 or 12 on each side. After we got done, they posted our scores. The rest of the world kicked Great Britain’s butt! Although the funny part was when someone noticed that it said that the Rest of the Word team had something like 41 people on it. One of the English guys started giving us a hard time. I told him it was funny – all you have to do is tell people you’re skirmishing with Great Britain, and they all show up to help out.
So we did the laser tag thing and then headed over to a seafood place at Darling Harbour for a nice dinner. The food was great, and we had two big tables of people. Charlotte really liked her present from all of us, and she seemed to have a really good time. After dinner, we took her around the Harbour to a pub for some drinks. Of course, none of us had realized that it was midnight when we were leaving the restaurant. But no matter – the pubs keep going pretty late here.
So we went to a pub called Bungalow 8, which is pretty popular. I had been there once, for drinks after work one of the first Fridays I was over here. The crowd was a little different this time, but it was still fun.
A couple of entertaining stories from the night for you guys: The first was when I was walking into the club. They were checking IDs, but I’m not too sure why. I turned to one girl next to me and said, “Watch the bouncer get a little freaked by my license.” He didn’t really. But he looked at it, looked at me, and smiled really big. Then he opened his arm to invite me into the club and said, “Miss North Carolina, come on down!” I laughed at that one. Random, random guy, but still very nice for it being late in the night, and there was a long line forming behind us to get in.
Later in the night, a couple of us were walking back from a couple of rounds at the bar, and were walking back towards our group. We were out on the covered patio, which runs from the front of the bar to the back (along the Harbour waterfront). When I was walking up, I see I guy about 10 yards away run by at full speed, followed by a bouncer. Then a guy comes tearing across, and plowed right into me. He bounced off me and took off after the guy. I, in the meantime, got a brief round of applause. I managed to only spill a sip of my full beer when the guy slammed into me. Not that I had paid for it, anyway, but it was still the principle of the thing. Then we watch and see the guy jump over the fence at the back of the pub, and just stop. About that time, the bouncers grabbed him and escorted him off.
I don’t know what this guy did, but he should be arrested just for being stupid. He was way ahead of the bouncers when he jumped the fence, and had so many directions he could have headed after getting out of the pub. There are lots of other clubs and bars around there, so he could have ducked into one of those, or just run around the Harbour. Nope. He stopped and let himself get caught. Brilliant!
I spent Sunday hanging out at home. Later in the afternoon I went for a run, thinking that I brought my running shoes and clothes over here for a reason, so I should use them while it was so nice out! It was a short run, but it was kind of a final spin around the neighborhood, as I doubt I will get out much to see it after this weekend. Sunday was also the Sydney Marathon. I had debated running the 10-K portion of it. But when I looked online a few weeks ago, it was something like $75 to run, and you didn’t even get a t-shirt. Well, that’s stupid to run for nothing, so I decided against doing the race. Besides, maybe I’ll get in shape in the next year or two and come back to run the full marathon. May as well make it worth it, right?
I was going to run on Saturday, but holy crap, it was hot that day. I think it was somewhere around 88. No way I[m running in that heat! Besides, I had some errands to run on Saturday. One of which was probably my most crowning achievement of the past three months. I had to go buy a new travel pass (bus, train, ferry) for next week. The one I have had was a three month pass, and it officially expired out on Saturday.
Now, the three-month pass running out is not really my crowning achievement. The fact that with all of the places I have gone, all of the pubs I have visited, all of the things I have done here, I managed to hold onto that little card for three months. I almost washed it only once. (I managed to shut off the washing machine quickly when I realized where it was. Not even wet, yet!) I left it in coat pockets a few times, but I always figured it out by the next morning. So all in all, I am quite proud of myself! I was sure I was going to lost that thing somewhere during the course of my stay. I can’t hang on to car keys back home, but I manage to keep a stupid little swipe card for three months. Crazy…
Okay, this post is going to be pretty short. I have some stuff to go take care of. At some point in time, I need to clean up my apartment and start thinking about the monster packing job I have to do in the next few days. Yuck.
So I don’t have any kind of mX update for you guys. Sorry. I really don’t even have a good story to share. (I know, I know. What good am I?) But what I can give you is a reply to Tony’s post a while back about the annoying Wiggles. Tony, The Wiggles have been officially named the top Australian entertainer for the year ended 30 June 2008. They had $45 million in earnings in 2008. On the up side, that’s $5 million less than last year. Although they are blaming it on currency conversion differences. (It’s sad when you can just lose $5 million to currency conversion…) Kylie Minogue is #2 with $40 million, and Russell Crowe is #3 with $36 million.
However, I am offering a ray of hope for those of you subjected to these freaks. (Which I still say is your own fault for having kids, but whatever.) The comments in this release about the top paid Aussie entertainers states that The Wiggles have made most of their money while touring in the US this year. The good news? The group is planning to cut back its overseas shows next year and focus on touring Australia. The lesson here? If you value your sanity, don’t come to Australia next year.