Friday, June 27, 2003
Coffee anyone?
Day 5:
Wow, pretty amazing day…
Woke up at 10, ‘cos I didn’t want to waste the whole day lying around doing nothing. Got myself pretty and clean, packed up my stuff neatly (‘cos Nick – the guy whose bed I’m sleeping in – might be coming home tonight), and was about to get some brekky when Karen emerged from her room and said "Kaz wants us at her house at 11!" This was at about 10:50am.
Drove over to Kaz’s house with Cookie Dough and Menteke CD (‘cos Kaz – well both Karen and Kaz really – are into cool bands and liked the description I gave to our stuff) in hand. Got there, pre-heated oven. Spooned cookie dough onto a tray and put it in the oven. Put Menteke CD on… they liked it.
Then I noticed that Kaz had – amongst her numerous kitchen appliances such as bread-maker and blender – a fancy espresso coffee machine (though not as fancy as the one the have-nots must use on behalf of the haves in the Big Brother house…). So, getting back into work mode (oh, how fortuitous!) I made them coffees. It was cool. Then we ate cookies (mmm, yum! When I get my own place I’ll bake some for you guys and send them back… I’d love to send an uncooked pack, but I think it’d go bad on the way). They were good!!
We hung out there for a while – I didn’t have anything to do until 2:30 or so. We talked about heading south and camping somewhere soon, then spent a while looking at all the various WA placenames and laughing at them. I spoke to Stu and found out that Cris may not be keen on moving out with us anymore… We’re unsure about Kenny now too, so tomorrow we’ll probably have to go looking at two-bedroom places just in case. ‘Tis a shame, but oh well. We can probably get the West Perth townhouse if we want it too, ‘cos it’s through Mel’s agency.
Sarah picked me up to take me to work with her, ‘cos I wanted to drop a resume in at the Moon Café next to her work. The guy there said that it was impeccable timing, and they’ll be interviewing next week. Sweet, thought i…
Then I wandered around for a bit, bought a 2nd-hand shirt (striped, of course), and looked at other funky places to work. I dropped in at a very blue building which houses the Valentino Café. The guy said the boss was in a meeting but would probably call me soon. Then I went up the road to Morrison’s Jazz & Blues café (orange sign). The guy said they had a girl on trial tonight, but would call me if it didn’t work out.
Then I wandered into one of those government employment places, and put my name down for jobsearch etc. As I was filling out forms, Adam from Morrison’s called and asked me to come back so we could chat. Then the guy from Valentino called and asked me to come back to speak with the manager.
Morrison’s can only give me 2 shifts a week at the moment, on Friday and Saturday nights. This is probably not ideal, seeing as I’ll need to work about 20 hours to make rent etc. But I’m going back there tomorrow night for a trial. Yay, live bands while I work.
At Valentino I spoke to a French guy called Frank (I’m guessing it’s really Francois or something). He said that 20 hours a week was minimum, and I could work 50 hours if I wanted to. Plus he really wants a coffee guy, so it’s looking like pretty much what I’m after. I’ve got a trial there Sunday night. Not even a week in the town and I’ll be working twice – reminds me of Melbourne, except this time I was looking for work.
Sarah reckons that Valentino is a cool place too, so I may be back at work real soon. Which is kind of a shame if I want to go away, but oh well… can always take holidays later when uni goes back and do the backpacker thing. It’ll give me a chance to fake an accent for a while too.
So now things are looking good for living in West Perth or anywhere NoR. These places are all in Northbridge, which is an easy walk from Perth station too. So yay!
So I’ve come home for a quiet night – might watch Tron soon – and to organise looking at houses tomorrow. Hurrah for Day 5, and hurrah for things looking good for me in the little smoke. Stay tuned for Day 6 when everything will have changed…
Things I’ve learned: 6 years of café experience will get me a job real quick.
Rock and Tree of the Day: Coffee & Music
Wow, pretty amazing day…
Woke up at 10, ‘cos I didn’t want to waste the whole day lying around doing nothing. Got myself pretty and clean, packed up my stuff neatly (‘cos Nick – the guy whose bed I’m sleeping in – might be coming home tonight), and was about to get some brekky when Karen emerged from her room and said "Kaz wants us at her house at 11!" This was at about 10:50am.
Drove over to Kaz’s house with Cookie Dough and Menteke CD (‘cos Kaz – well both Karen and Kaz really – are into cool bands and liked the description I gave to our stuff) in hand. Got there, pre-heated oven. Spooned cookie dough onto a tray and put it in the oven. Put Menteke CD on… they liked it.
Then I noticed that Kaz had – amongst her numerous kitchen appliances such as bread-maker and blender – a fancy espresso coffee machine (though not as fancy as the one the have-nots must use on behalf of the haves in the Big Brother house…). So, getting back into work mode (oh, how fortuitous!) I made them coffees. It was cool. Then we ate cookies (mmm, yum! When I get my own place I’ll bake some for you guys and send them back… I’d love to send an uncooked pack, but I think it’d go bad on the way). They were good!!
We hung out there for a while – I didn’t have anything to do until 2:30 or so. We talked about heading south and camping somewhere soon, then spent a while looking at all the various WA placenames and laughing at them. I spoke to Stu and found out that Cris may not be keen on moving out with us anymore… We’re unsure about Kenny now too, so tomorrow we’ll probably have to go looking at two-bedroom places just in case. ‘Tis a shame, but oh well. We can probably get the West Perth townhouse if we want it too, ‘cos it’s through Mel’s agency.
Sarah picked me up to take me to work with her, ‘cos I wanted to drop a resume in at the Moon Café next to her work. The guy there said that it was impeccable timing, and they’ll be interviewing next week. Sweet, thought i…
Then I wandered around for a bit, bought a 2nd-hand shirt (striped, of course), and looked at other funky places to work. I dropped in at a very blue building which houses the Valentino Café. The guy said the boss was in a meeting but would probably call me soon. Then I went up the road to Morrison’s Jazz & Blues café (orange sign). The guy said they had a girl on trial tonight, but would call me if it didn’t work out.
Then I wandered into one of those government employment places, and put my name down for jobsearch etc. As I was filling out forms, Adam from Morrison’s called and asked me to come back so we could chat. Then the guy from Valentino called and asked me to come back to speak with the manager.
Morrison’s can only give me 2 shifts a week at the moment, on Friday and Saturday nights. This is probably not ideal, seeing as I’ll need to work about 20 hours to make rent etc. But I’m going back there tomorrow night for a trial. Yay, live bands while I work.
At Valentino I spoke to a French guy called Frank (I’m guessing it’s really Francois or something). He said that 20 hours a week was minimum, and I could work 50 hours if I wanted to. Plus he really wants a coffee guy, so it’s looking like pretty much what I’m after. I’ve got a trial there Sunday night. Not even a week in the town and I’ll be working twice – reminds me of Melbourne, except this time I was looking for work.
Sarah reckons that Valentino is a cool place too, so I may be back at work real soon. Which is kind of a shame if I want to go away, but oh well… can always take holidays later when uni goes back and do the backpacker thing. It’ll give me a chance to fake an accent for a while too.
So now things are looking good for living in West Perth or anywhere NoR. These places are all in Northbridge, which is an easy walk from Perth station too. So yay!
So I’ve come home for a quiet night – might watch Tron soon – and to organise looking at houses tomorrow. Hurrah for Day 5, and hurrah for things looking good for me in the little smoke. Stay tuned for Day 6 when everything will have changed…
Things I’ve learned: 6 years of café experience will get me a job real quick.
Rock and Tree of the Day: Coffee & Music
And hot on its heels - Day 3!!
Day 3 - abridged
Did dishes, went to perth, met up with Stu. Met Cris (potential housemate) and Kenny (new potential housemate) and Alex (girl who works at Clough – pronounced "Cluff" – where Stu works).
Got resume printed. This will be handy for Day 4…
Strolled around the city once again, ate a Junior Whopper (food a bit more expensive over here), went home. Looked in paper for houses and jobs – I can earn heaps if I wear lingerie!!
Called a few places, one café in Cottesloe (best beach in Perth apparently) sounded interested in me, so I have to get a resume to them by Friday.
Had a chilled evening with Karen in front of the TV – we watched The Ring, made Burritos, then watched Insomnia. A quiet day, and a nice change from the busyness of the previous 2.
Things i've learned today: I need boobies to really earn quick cash.
Rock and Tree of the Day: Bra & Burrito
Did dishes, went to perth, met up with Stu. Met Cris (potential housemate) and Kenny (new potential housemate) and Alex (girl who works at Clough – pronounced "Cluff" – where Stu works).
Got resume printed. This will be handy for Day 4…
Strolled around the city once again, ate a Junior Whopper (food a bit more expensive over here), went home. Looked in paper for houses and jobs – I can earn heaps if I wear lingerie!!
Called a few places, one café in Cottesloe (best beach in Perth apparently) sounded interested in me, so I have to get a resume to them by Friday.
Had a chilled evening with Karen in front of the TV – we watched The Ring, made Burritos, then watched Insomnia. A quiet day, and a nice change from the busyness of the previous 2.
Things i've learned today: I need boobies to really earn quick cash.
Rock and Tree of the Day: Bra & Burrito
Finally, Day 2...
Day 2:
Hmm, descriptions of my day have been long and arduous, and for that I’m a little bit sorry. But hey, at least you get to know what I’ve been up to in fanciful detail, so if anyone asks about me you can tell them all about it as though you were right there with me when it happened.
Day 2 was fairly eventful, so I now present to you a summary: Day 2 Lite, if you will. The Cliff Notes. The Good Parts version…
Perth, Day 2:
I feel like my days here are numbered. Had a quite good sleep last night. I was falling asleep on the couch during ER or something, so I asked Mel if I could crash in her bed (as a complete aside – does anyone else feel like when they write ‘if’ they have to press the ‘change’ button so it doesn’t say ‘he’? Or have I been writing SMSs way too much?), and she said ‘of course’ so I did. Woke up 12 hours later feeling much refreshed.
Got up, did my washing, which consisted mostly of the stuff I had been wearing in Sydney for the big weekend – minus the Maximus skirt. Hung it up on the clothesline, which apparently Mel et al don’t bother to use seeing as they have a drier (dryer?) and electricity is free. But hey, it was a warm sunny windy morning so why not huh?
Had brekky, shower (again, narrative structure – you’ll want to know that I was clean and fed for my big adventures), then walked to the station. It was a nice walk, but I noticed a few things along the way:
Firstly, the grass is really bouncy and squishy… kind of like it’s grown on that red running-track foamy stuff.
Secondly, a lot of things over here have a browny rusty tinge to them – even things that don’t rust like brickwork, footpaths, and trees. It goes up to about a metre off the ground, but it’s not consistently on everything. It’s kind of wierd, but also charming in its own foreign kind of way. I later found out that it’s a result of using bore water. Obviously some kind of chemical reaction… I don’t wear loud shirts and talk about microsleep, so I’m not about to regale you with interesting facts while avoiding answering the question.
Glendalough (pronounced "glendaluff") station is more of a real station than is Vic Park (discovered later it’s actually Carlisle Station, not Vic Park). It’s in between the two direction of the highway, so there’s these massive pedestrian overpasses. But for some reason – ‘cos they heave heaps of space, or to make it friendly for all types) the ramps are really really long. I’m not a good judge of distance, but I’d say they’re at least 50 metres long; and these are just the ramps leading up to the overpass. Wierd huh? Still, when in Perth…
The coolest thing about the Perth stations is the bike lockers – they’re these little yellow lockers which you put your bike in and then padlock. "But we have places to leave our bikes in Sydney!" I can almost hear you exclaim… But no, they’re just little bits of steel that you chain your tyres to… these are full on cages, and they’re free! How fucking cool is that?!?
And this station has a big wind-proof shelter around it – it’s kind of like the monorail stations in Sydney, but at ground level. It’s pretty impressive. Later that night, while we were driving past one of the funky stations, I remarked to the people in the car (Karen and Sarah) about how funky the stations are. Then I remembered about writing how sad the other station was, and I thought "how ironic…" only it’s probably not irony, just some other form of contradictory statement like hypocrisy or something.
Anyway, caught train to city, got off (is alighted getting on or off? I think off…). Then, instead of heading south of the station into the city, I went north into Northbridge-type area. Right next to the station is the Art Museum and the State Library and just across from them is PICA – the institute of contemporary art (work out the P for yourselves).
I looked in the library, and they have this constant rejected book sale thing. So I bought my first Perthy book – a compilation of horror/suspense short stories, including ones by Stephen King (he is so 90s) and Neil Gaiman, who is a current hero of mine and whose novel Stardust inspired me to write the fairytale I’m working on, called The Dark Forest. It was only $2.30 – bargain.
I had a look In PICA, where they have an installation or whatever they call them which is graduate major works or something. Some funky stuff, some really arty stuff. There was this one design project, where they’d designed an oval (top-down) paint can. Good idea, wouldn’t be too surprised if it caught on. Then there was this other thing, which was a few little black boxes and TV screens. The 2nd box had tis little camera inside, and table and chairs stuck down inside the box. Then there were these loose chair as well, so when you moved the box they rolled around and it all showed up on the screen. Very cool, very exorcist. I was a fan…
Dropped in at a theatre next door (could have been Blue something…) and saw that people were looking for sound/lighting ops for an upcoming production. Thought about it… Also saw that Curtin University are putting on a production of Carpe Jugulum in a few weeks. For those of you who don’t know, this is adapted from a Terry Pratchett (another hero of mine, as you present-givers will know) novel. Hoo-fucking-ray!! Must go see that.
Went home, picked up a milk crate on the way.
Was supposed to be picked up by Sarah at 5pm to go watch the sun set over the water. She and Karen picked me up at about 5:15 and went "waah, hurry, we’re going to miss it!!" We did. But hey, I’m sure they happen all the time around here. Apparently storms come in from the west here too, so I’ll get to watch a thunderstorm over the water soon too. Let’s hear it for nature!
We drove up the coast a little way to Sarah’s sister Jeanette’s house. She has a little girl called Larissa and a littler boy called Mark. They’re cute. I made them fly for about an hour, as did the nanny guy living with them. He kept throwing them onto the bean bag, which they loved, but I wasn’t sure I could get away with that. Had to stop after a while ‘cos I was worn out. But they got grumpy and wanted more. Larissa started jumping off my knees onto the bean bag, and after each time would stand up and ask "did you saw me?" until sarah corrected her, after which she’d ask "did you… see me?" and I would reply "Yeah I saw you." Then they had a bath (lots of water fights) and stole our chips and eventually went to bed. Sarah read Larissa a bed-time story, so I read Mark "The Three Bears" (I always thought Goldilocks had a title role, but apparently not…). That was fun. I love stories… Then we watched Lilo & Stitch, which is a cool movie.
On the way home, Karen offered for me to stay at her house for a while, ‘cos her housemates were away for the week. I accepted, seeing as that way I’d get a bed and a room for a little while. Yay for Karen. So we stopped off at Mel’s to pick up some stuff and then came here. I’ve moved twice in two days… not bad huh? Then we watched Mulan, which is okay, if not predictable… but oh well.
Went to bed in a bed, which makes it all okay… and there you have it. Day 2 in 1500 words or less (no footnotes).
Things I’ve learned: Bore water makes things brown. Playing with kids is fun. Perth doesn’t want to extend trading hours to allow shops to open on Sundays… Dick Smith just got a $10,000 fine for doing so…
Rock and Tree of the Day: Disney & Museum
Hmm, descriptions of my day have been long and arduous, and for that I’m a little bit sorry. But hey, at least you get to know what I’ve been up to in fanciful detail, so if anyone asks about me you can tell them all about it as though you were right there with me when it happened.
Day 2 was fairly eventful, so I now present to you a summary: Day 2 Lite, if you will. The Cliff Notes. The Good Parts version…
Perth, Day 2:
I feel like my days here are numbered. Had a quite good sleep last night. I was falling asleep on the couch during ER or something, so I asked Mel if I could crash in her bed (as a complete aside – does anyone else feel like when they write ‘if’ they have to press the ‘change’ button so it doesn’t say ‘he’? Or have I been writing SMSs way too much?), and she said ‘of course’ so I did. Woke up 12 hours later feeling much refreshed.
Got up, did my washing, which consisted mostly of the stuff I had been wearing in Sydney for the big weekend – minus the Maximus skirt. Hung it up on the clothesline, which apparently Mel et al don’t bother to use seeing as they have a drier (dryer?) and electricity is free. But hey, it was a warm sunny windy morning so why not huh?
Had brekky, shower (again, narrative structure – you’ll want to know that I was clean and fed for my big adventures), then walked to the station. It was a nice walk, but I noticed a few things along the way:
Firstly, the grass is really bouncy and squishy… kind of like it’s grown on that red running-track foamy stuff.
Secondly, a lot of things over here have a browny rusty tinge to them – even things that don’t rust like brickwork, footpaths, and trees. It goes up to about a metre off the ground, but it’s not consistently on everything. It’s kind of wierd, but also charming in its own foreign kind of way. I later found out that it’s a result of using bore water. Obviously some kind of chemical reaction… I don’t wear loud shirts and talk about microsleep, so I’m not about to regale you with interesting facts while avoiding answering the question.
Glendalough (pronounced "glendaluff") station is more of a real station than is Vic Park (discovered later it’s actually Carlisle Station, not Vic Park). It’s in between the two direction of the highway, so there’s these massive pedestrian overpasses. But for some reason – ‘cos they heave heaps of space, or to make it friendly for all types) the ramps are really really long. I’m not a good judge of distance, but I’d say they’re at least 50 metres long; and these are just the ramps leading up to the overpass. Wierd huh? Still, when in Perth…
The coolest thing about the Perth stations is the bike lockers – they’re these little yellow lockers which you put your bike in and then padlock. "But we have places to leave our bikes in Sydney!" I can almost hear you exclaim… But no, they’re just little bits of steel that you chain your tyres to… these are full on cages, and they’re free! How fucking cool is that?!?
And this station has a big wind-proof shelter around it – it’s kind of like the monorail stations in Sydney, but at ground level. It’s pretty impressive. Later that night, while we were driving past one of the funky stations, I remarked to the people in the car (Karen and Sarah) about how funky the stations are. Then I remembered about writing how sad the other station was, and I thought "how ironic…" only it’s probably not irony, just some other form of contradictory statement like hypocrisy or something.
Anyway, caught train to city, got off (is alighted getting on or off? I think off…). Then, instead of heading south of the station into the city, I went north into Northbridge-type area. Right next to the station is the Art Museum and the State Library and just across from them is PICA – the institute of contemporary art (work out the P for yourselves).
I looked in the library, and they have this constant rejected book sale thing. So I bought my first Perthy book – a compilation of horror/suspense short stories, including ones by Stephen King (he is so 90s) and Neil Gaiman, who is a current hero of mine and whose novel Stardust inspired me to write the fairytale I’m working on, called The Dark Forest. It was only $2.30 – bargain.
I had a look In PICA, where they have an installation or whatever they call them which is graduate major works or something. Some funky stuff, some really arty stuff. There was this one design project, where they’d designed an oval (top-down) paint can. Good idea, wouldn’t be too surprised if it caught on. Then there was this other thing, which was a few little black boxes and TV screens. The 2nd box had tis little camera inside, and table and chairs stuck down inside the box. Then there were these loose chair as well, so when you moved the box they rolled around and it all showed up on the screen. Very cool, very exorcist. I was a fan…
Dropped in at a theatre next door (could have been Blue something…) and saw that people were looking for sound/lighting ops for an upcoming production. Thought about it… Also saw that Curtin University are putting on a production of Carpe Jugulum in a few weeks. For those of you who don’t know, this is adapted from a Terry Pratchett (another hero of mine, as you present-givers will know) novel. Hoo-fucking-ray!! Must go see that.
Went home, picked up a milk crate on the way.
Was supposed to be picked up by Sarah at 5pm to go watch the sun set over the water. She and Karen picked me up at about 5:15 and went "waah, hurry, we’re going to miss it!!" We did. But hey, I’m sure they happen all the time around here. Apparently storms come in from the west here too, so I’ll get to watch a thunderstorm over the water soon too. Let’s hear it for nature!
We drove up the coast a little way to Sarah’s sister Jeanette’s house. She has a little girl called Larissa and a littler boy called Mark. They’re cute. I made them fly for about an hour, as did the nanny guy living with them. He kept throwing them onto the bean bag, which they loved, but I wasn’t sure I could get away with that. Had to stop after a while ‘cos I was worn out. But they got grumpy and wanted more. Larissa started jumping off my knees onto the bean bag, and after each time would stand up and ask "did you saw me?" until sarah corrected her, after which she’d ask "did you… see me?" and I would reply "Yeah I saw you." Then they had a bath (lots of water fights) and stole our chips and eventually went to bed. Sarah read Larissa a bed-time story, so I read Mark "The Three Bears" (I always thought Goldilocks had a title role, but apparently not…). That was fun. I love stories… Then we watched Lilo & Stitch, which is a cool movie.
On the way home, Karen offered for me to stay at her house for a while, ‘cos her housemates were away for the week. I accepted, seeing as that way I’d get a bed and a room for a little while. Yay for Karen. So we stopped off at Mel’s to pick up some stuff and then came here. I’ve moved twice in two days… not bad huh? Then we watched Mulan, which is okay, if not predictable… but oh well.
Went to bed in a bed, which makes it all okay… and there you have it. Day 2 in 1500 words or less (no footnotes).
Things I’ve learned: Bore water makes things brown. Playing with kids is fun. Perth doesn’t want to extend trading hours to allow shops to open on Sundays… Dick Smith just got a $10,000 fine for doing so…
Rock and Tree of the Day: Disney & Museum
The Search for a Better Place
Day 4 - (days 2 & 3 are running late... sorry)
Not much today…
Woke up early, headed into Perth again. Dropped a resume in at the Art Gallery Café. Then went to meet Stu and Cris to look at places to live. Went to visit a few in South Perth (SoR – or South of River).
The first one was supposed to be this bargain porn pad – 3 bedroom unit, executive style, 2 bathrooms one spa, down from $500 to $300 a week. Reality? Family apartment – huge master bedroom with ensuite and spa, 2 kids rooms. Fuck that.
The next one was a furnished 3 bedroom flat, also in South Perth. It was really nice, really big, great views of the river and the city. But the furniture… *shudder* Picture the furniture in your Grandmother’s house. Now imagine she gave it all away to charity. Now pretend that someone was really excited to see it, and paid heaps of money for it. Think of the furniture that that person must have had before buying the ugly granny crap, and you’re approaching the dressing table that was the feature of the master bedroom. That one off-white piece of flowery evil was probably the deciding factor in looking elsewhere… shame really, ‘cos otherwise it was a nice place.
So we headed back over the bridge to NoR territory. Melanie showed us a nice 2-storey townhouse in Northbridge. It was cool – gas stove, decent size rooms, pool in the complex. It looks like the one we’ll go with if we can get our hands on it. We’re not sure if Cris is in at the moment, but if not we can always go with Kenny. I hope… we shall see. The only problem there (for me) is that it’s unfurnished, so I may have to search out more milk crates while I get some stuff together. But what’s new hey?
Then I headed out to Cottesloe Beach, to drop in a resume for yet another café job. On the way I got cautioned by a TransPerth ticket man, because apparently my student card and my Sydney transport concession card don’t qualify me for a student concession. Fucked? I think so. But at least he didn’t give me a fine. Nice man…
Didn’t really hang out in "Cott" too long – just looked at the shops, didn’t see any other funky café’s, so I left again. The beach is about a 15 minute walk from the station, so I didn’t bother. Besides, I was wearing nice business-like clothing to impress people.
Stopped off in Subiaco ("Subi") on the way home. It’s supposed to be one of the funkier areas, a bit of a nightspot. I took my resume in to a few places, bought the Jaws novel for 50 cents in an op-shop, then went to Woolies. And that’s where I saw it…
I want to take you back a little way… maybe about 8 years… to a happier place. In this place – this wonderful wonderful place – there existed a niche market. And this niche was filled by two products: raw cookie-dough in sausage-shaped tubes, and snap-to-bake cookie dough. This was a happy time; there was no terrorism, no war, no reality tv.
Then, the clever north wind blew through the village, and everything changed. The cookie dough products disappeared, the market seemingly vanished, Corn Pops became caramelised… and the child within me died.º
But as I wandered lonely-ly through the ample aisles of Woolworths, what did I see before me in the refrigerated section?¹
Bake at home Cookie Dough, in a bigass sausage-esque roll. Heaven doth shine its shiny ass on me, huh? I was so excited! They had them in choc-chip and mini-M&M varieties. Cool or what?
But then… oh heaven how you mock me like a turtle… then I returned to the good house of Karen to discover that her oven is all out of whack. I met another Karen (Kaz, as she shall be known to me and others to avoid confusion) who said I could use her oven tomorrow. Hooray for Kaz!!
Not much else to report for the remainder of the day… We went to the shops, I bought more zip-offs (hooray) and a fleecy (on the inside) brown (two-tone) jacket (zip-up) with pockets (two – very important for total comfort and warming hands) and a hood (it even has a drawstring). It’s very comfy, and relatively inexpensive. Hooray for Westco!!
So there you go. Day 4 complete… well, almost.
Things I’ve learned: I must pay adult fare because TransPerth is discriminatory (the constitution would have issues with this, TransPerth being a state instrumentality and all – ask AJ).
Rock and Tree of the Day: Resume & Cookie
0. A few weeks later the child was buried in the ground. You won’t find any record of this… My father is an influential man (well, he’s under the influence a lot) and he had the papers bury the story. The court records are sealed because I was a minor, and the child was a miner.
1. If you haven’t guessed by now, you really have no idea of narrative structure.
Not much today…
Woke up early, headed into Perth again. Dropped a resume in at the Art Gallery Café. Then went to meet Stu and Cris to look at places to live. Went to visit a few in South Perth (SoR – or South of River).
The first one was supposed to be this bargain porn pad – 3 bedroom unit, executive style, 2 bathrooms one spa, down from $500 to $300 a week. Reality? Family apartment – huge master bedroom with ensuite and spa, 2 kids rooms. Fuck that.
The next one was a furnished 3 bedroom flat, also in South Perth. It was really nice, really big, great views of the river and the city. But the furniture… *shudder* Picture the furniture in your Grandmother’s house. Now imagine she gave it all away to charity. Now pretend that someone was really excited to see it, and paid heaps of money for it. Think of the furniture that that person must have had before buying the ugly granny crap, and you’re approaching the dressing table that was the feature of the master bedroom. That one off-white piece of flowery evil was probably the deciding factor in looking elsewhere… shame really, ‘cos otherwise it was a nice place.
So we headed back over the bridge to NoR territory. Melanie showed us a nice 2-storey townhouse in Northbridge. It was cool – gas stove, decent size rooms, pool in the complex. It looks like the one we’ll go with if we can get our hands on it. We’re not sure if Cris is in at the moment, but if not we can always go with Kenny. I hope… we shall see. The only problem there (for me) is that it’s unfurnished, so I may have to search out more milk crates while I get some stuff together. But what’s new hey?
Then I headed out to Cottesloe Beach, to drop in a resume for yet another café job. On the way I got cautioned by a TransPerth ticket man, because apparently my student card and my Sydney transport concession card don’t qualify me for a student concession. Fucked? I think so. But at least he didn’t give me a fine. Nice man…
Didn’t really hang out in "Cott" too long – just looked at the shops, didn’t see any other funky café’s, so I left again. The beach is about a 15 minute walk from the station, so I didn’t bother. Besides, I was wearing nice business-like clothing to impress people.
Stopped off in Subiaco ("Subi") on the way home. It’s supposed to be one of the funkier areas, a bit of a nightspot. I took my resume in to a few places, bought the Jaws novel for 50 cents in an op-shop, then went to Woolies. And that’s where I saw it…
I want to take you back a little way… maybe about 8 years… to a happier place. In this place – this wonderful wonderful place – there existed a niche market. And this niche was filled by two products: raw cookie-dough in sausage-shaped tubes, and snap-to-bake cookie dough. This was a happy time; there was no terrorism, no war, no reality tv.
Then, the clever north wind blew through the village, and everything changed. The cookie dough products disappeared, the market seemingly vanished, Corn Pops became caramelised… and the child within me died.º
But as I wandered lonely-ly through the ample aisles of Woolworths, what did I see before me in the refrigerated section?¹
Bake at home Cookie Dough, in a bigass sausage-esque roll. Heaven doth shine its shiny ass on me, huh? I was so excited! They had them in choc-chip and mini-M&M varieties. Cool or what?
But then… oh heaven how you mock me like a turtle… then I returned to the good house of Karen to discover that her oven is all out of whack. I met another Karen (Kaz, as she shall be known to me and others to avoid confusion) who said I could use her oven tomorrow. Hooray for Kaz!!
Not much else to report for the remainder of the day… We went to the shops, I bought more zip-offs (hooray) and a fleecy (on the inside) brown (two-tone) jacket (zip-up) with pockets (two – very important for total comfort and warming hands) and a hood (it even has a drawstring). It’s very comfy, and relatively inexpensive. Hooray for Westco!!
So there you go. Day 4 complete… well, almost.
Things I’ve learned: I must pay adult fare because TransPerth is discriminatory (the constitution would have issues with this, TransPerth being a state instrumentality and all – ask AJ).
Rock and Tree of the Day: Resume & Cookie
0. A few weeks later the child was buried in the ground. You won’t find any record of this… My father is an influential man (well, he’s under the influence a lot) and he had the papers bury the story. The court records are sealed because I was a minor, and the child was a miner.
1. If you haven’t guessed by now, you really have no idea of narrative structure.
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Interact
okay, well, seeing as i have a rock and tree of the day happening, i thought i'd make it interactive. So, i now have a messageboard happening (like a guestbook), so you can all add your own. Remember, the lamer the better.
go to:
http://pub75.ezboard.com/frockandtreefrm2
yay
ps. the message board can also be used for un-punny messages...
go to:
http://pub75.ezboard.com/frockandtreefrm2
yay
ps. the message board can also be used for un-punny messages...
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
The Arrival
Montage – pete’s party, yum-cha, opera house, gold calls at theatresports (“it’s a country”), frantic packing, airport, hugs goodbye, tray-tables stowed.
Cut to: Perth skyline.
The horizon is a wide expanse of flat land. Just visible in the centre is the city skyline. Zoom in on the skyline. 5 tall buildings, one of them with an angular roof… and that’s it. Seriously! I later discover that that’s the city logo: 5 buildings (one of them angular), a reflection of the 5 buildings (one of them angular) in the river at their base, and a happy yellow sun. I quite like it.
Distracted as I am by the lack of skyline, I barely notice the plane touchdown. It’s very smooth. So much so that no-one feels the need to applaud the captain for his efforts. I later detect a hint of sorrow in his voice as he thanks us in his announcement…
At the luggage carousel, a lovely lady with a little Beagle sniffer dog tells us she’d like to inspect our luggage. We present our bags, but little beagle-boy ignores them… good thing for us. Not so good for beagle-pup who missed the harvest of marijuana tightly vacuum-sealed in my Original¹ Space Bags. Woops! Oh well…
Got a lift with Sarah’s friend Karen from the airport to Mel’s place in Wembley. It’s a nice little 2 bedroom apartment, but I’m sleeping on the couch. I’m staying here until I find my own place. More about that later…
We (myself, Sarah, Karen, Melanie, and a guy whose name I believe is ‘Drain’) dropped the car at Karen’s house and began a journey into the city of Perth. We walked to Victoria Park station along lovely suburban streets in the sun. It felt like I was on holiday.
Vic Park station was basically a raised platform in between two sets of tracks. The only place I’ve seen a sadder excuse for a train station is between Sydney and Gosford, where there’s a tiny little platform – you have to be on a certain carriage to get off at this little station. That’s sad. Vic Park is marginally better, in that it’s long enough for a whole train, and there are people on it who believe that it’s a real live train station.
Train arrived, boarded train, disembarked at Perth station. Nothing much interesting (in the ‘worth writing it down’ sense) happened along the way. The fact that I got on and off the train is not in itself that interesting, but at least it serves some kind of narrative purpose: I am now in Perth, city of 5 buildings (1OTA).
Had lunch, walked around the city, the girls shopped, I followed them in a daze.² We got juice from a juice bar whose name I can't remember. I’m pretty sure it was a four-letter two-syllable name, but it wasn’t Viva. Similar though… it’s unimportant anyway. Suffice to say that it was good, but at $5 I think I’ll make it a special occasion thing.
We went down to the river to see the Bell Tower – apparently a tourist attraction. It looks a bit like the Sega World building, only much skinnier. They’ve got all these paving tiles around it with signatures of all the kids in WA primary schools in 2000. Great if you’re from WA…
It’s surrounded by parky grass and water though, so we went to sit on a bench and drink our juice. They’ve got black swans here, and we were watching them. Then a barefoot lady walked up to us and asked if we wanted to feed the swans, and offered us seeds which could have been wheat or barley. Sarah said “give it to him, he’s from Sydney” or words to that effect. So I was hand-feeding black swans for the next hour or so. I patted them, and they were soft. Especially their necks. I also heard a rumour that a pelican ate a chihuahua somewhere in WA, and the owner couldn’t save him. I’d like to see that – it’s not like pelicans are known for jaws of doom!
I met up with Stu, who I went to school with and was the bass-player for Menteke.³ We ditched the girls and went to a pub where he asked me to move in with him.º More about this when something develops dwelling-wise.
Caught a train to Glendalough (a much more satisfying station – more of this tomorrow in daylight) and walked home thanks to a helpful map drawn by Sarah. Picked up some dinner at the local shops on the way…
There’s a pub a few minutes from home, and they had a chalkboard outside the Bistro with the night’s specials etc. I had a look and thought “hey, I should go for dinner at the Ranch…” and it finally hit me that I wasn’t on some little holiday – that I had actually left Sydney and all my wonderful friends. I started to get sad…
I got home and no-one was there so I got my keys out. I remembered Mel having told me that the lock was a bit dodgy so just keep trying until you get it. I tried for about 10 minutes before I started to get rather frustrated. So I tried some more, thinking “this wouldn’t happen at home.” I eventually got the door unlocked – the key goes in upside-down and only about ¾ of the way, and then turns the wrong way. Freaking WA weird shit!
Heated up my dinner, sat down to chill and watch TV until 8pm (10pm Sydney) when I get cheap phone calls. Now, did I mention Max the psycho kitten? It’s psycho, and like most psychos it craves attention. So it spent about 10 minutes trying to get to my food and drink. I alternately pleaded with and admonished the kitten, and repeatedly pushed it away. Eventually it got wise and stopped trying to climb into my food from my lap. It sat on the floor, leapt up and stuck a claw in my finger, causing me to drop my half-finished food all over the floor. Max was happy – attention and food! I was upset… this never would have happened at home.
After cleaning up the mess I went outside to call sane normal Sydney people. Just before I got out the door, Mel’s room-mate Owen got home. He was a little wary when he saw me, but I think all was cool. But at this stage I didn’t really care…
Anyway, long story summarised, called home, friends, got sad, cried about everything I’ve left behind, cheered up, went back inside, spaced out.
Sat watching TV (2 hours later than the rest of you – do you realise that over here Rove Live isn’t?!) for a while, then went to sleep. Sleep is good.
Things I’ve learned: I’ve moved to Perth.
Rock & Tree of the Day: Cat & Bird
1. They were all out of chicken flavour.
2. Sleep or no sleep, girly shopping does this to me… it’s some kind of male defense mechanism.
3. For those to whom this means nothing, I was the drummer. The point is that I know him from Sydney. Also, by adding this information at the end I’m not ending the sentence with a proposition.
0. This is not strictly true – I just phrased it this way to demonstrate the ending of a sentence with a proposition. What actually happened is that we discussed our options vis-à-vis accommodation seeing as both of us were living under temporary and far from ideal circumstances.
Cut to: Perth skyline.
The horizon is a wide expanse of flat land. Just visible in the centre is the city skyline. Zoom in on the skyline. 5 tall buildings, one of them with an angular roof… and that’s it. Seriously! I later discover that that’s the city logo: 5 buildings (one of them angular), a reflection of the 5 buildings (one of them angular) in the river at their base, and a happy yellow sun. I quite like it.
Distracted as I am by the lack of skyline, I barely notice the plane touchdown. It’s very smooth. So much so that no-one feels the need to applaud the captain for his efforts. I later detect a hint of sorrow in his voice as he thanks us in his announcement…
At the luggage carousel, a lovely lady with a little Beagle sniffer dog tells us she’d like to inspect our luggage. We present our bags, but little beagle-boy ignores them… good thing for us. Not so good for beagle-pup who missed the harvest of marijuana tightly vacuum-sealed in my Original¹ Space Bags. Woops! Oh well…
Got a lift with Sarah’s friend Karen from the airport to Mel’s place in Wembley. It’s a nice little 2 bedroom apartment, but I’m sleeping on the couch. I’m staying here until I find my own place. More about that later…
We (myself, Sarah, Karen, Melanie, and a guy whose name I believe is ‘Drain’) dropped the car at Karen’s house and began a journey into the city of Perth. We walked to Victoria Park station along lovely suburban streets in the sun. It felt like I was on holiday.
Vic Park station was basically a raised platform in between two sets of tracks. The only place I’ve seen a sadder excuse for a train station is between Sydney and Gosford, where there’s a tiny little platform – you have to be on a certain carriage to get off at this little station. That’s sad. Vic Park is marginally better, in that it’s long enough for a whole train, and there are people on it who believe that it’s a real live train station.
Train arrived, boarded train, disembarked at Perth station. Nothing much interesting (in the ‘worth writing it down’ sense) happened along the way. The fact that I got on and off the train is not in itself that interesting, but at least it serves some kind of narrative purpose: I am now in Perth, city of 5 buildings (1OTA).
Had lunch, walked around the city, the girls shopped, I followed them in a daze.² We got juice from a juice bar whose name I can't remember. I’m pretty sure it was a four-letter two-syllable name, but it wasn’t Viva. Similar though… it’s unimportant anyway. Suffice to say that it was good, but at $5 I think I’ll make it a special occasion thing.
We went down to the river to see the Bell Tower – apparently a tourist attraction. It looks a bit like the Sega World building, only much skinnier. They’ve got all these paving tiles around it with signatures of all the kids in WA primary schools in 2000. Great if you’re from WA…
It’s surrounded by parky grass and water though, so we went to sit on a bench and drink our juice. They’ve got black swans here, and we were watching them. Then a barefoot lady walked up to us and asked if we wanted to feed the swans, and offered us seeds which could have been wheat or barley. Sarah said “give it to him, he’s from Sydney” or words to that effect. So I was hand-feeding black swans for the next hour or so. I patted them, and they were soft. Especially their necks. I also heard a rumour that a pelican ate a chihuahua somewhere in WA, and the owner couldn’t save him. I’d like to see that – it’s not like pelicans are known for jaws of doom!
I met up with Stu, who I went to school with and was the bass-player for Menteke.³ We ditched the girls and went to a pub where he asked me to move in with him.º More about this when something develops dwelling-wise.
Caught a train to Glendalough (a much more satisfying station – more of this tomorrow in daylight) and walked home thanks to a helpful map drawn by Sarah. Picked up some dinner at the local shops on the way…
There’s a pub a few minutes from home, and they had a chalkboard outside the Bistro with the night’s specials etc. I had a look and thought “hey, I should go for dinner at the Ranch…” and it finally hit me that I wasn’t on some little holiday – that I had actually left Sydney and all my wonderful friends. I started to get sad…
I got home and no-one was there so I got my keys out. I remembered Mel having told me that the lock was a bit dodgy so just keep trying until you get it. I tried for about 10 minutes before I started to get rather frustrated. So I tried some more, thinking “this wouldn’t happen at home.” I eventually got the door unlocked – the key goes in upside-down and only about ¾ of the way, and then turns the wrong way. Freaking WA weird shit!
Heated up my dinner, sat down to chill and watch TV until 8pm (10pm Sydney) when I get cheap phone calls. Now, did I mention Max the psycho kitten? It’s psycho, and like most psychos it craves attention. So it spent about 10 minutes trying to get to my food and drink. I alternately pleaded with and admonished the kitten, and repeatedly pushed it away. Eventually it got wise and stopped trying to climb into my food from my lap. It sat on the floor, leapt up and stuck a claw in my finger, causing me to drop my half-finished food all over the floor. Max was happy – attention and food! I was upset… this never would have happened at home.
After cleaning up the mess I went outside to call sane normal Sydney people. Just before I got out the door, Mel’s room-mate Owen got home. He was a little wary when he saw me, but I think all was cool. But at this stage I didn’t really care…
Anyway, long story summarised, called home, friends, got sad, cried about everything I’ve left behind, cheered up, went back inside, spaced out.
Sat watching TV (2 hours later than the rest of you – do you realise that over here Rove Live isn’t?!) for a while, then went to sleep. Sleep is good.
Things I’ve learned: I’ve moved to Perth.
Rock & Tree of the Day: Cat & Bird
1. They were all out of chicken flavour.
2. Sleep or no sleep, girly shopping does this to me… it’s some kind of male defense mechanism.
3. For those to whom this means nothing, I was the drummer. The point is that I know him from Sydney. Also, by adding this information at the end I’m not ending the sentence with a proposition.
0. This is not strictly true – I just phrased it this way to demonstrate the ending of a sentence with a proposition. What actually happened is that we discussed our options vis-à-vis accommodation seeing as both of us were living under temporary and far from ideal circumstances.
by the way
by now you've probably noticed that the newer messages are posted above the older ones. this is annoying, but i don't think i can change it. oh well...
Friday, June 20, 2003
Countdown...
Okay, 3 days to go... oh, the anticipation!!
Exams are over - yay! Partway through packing... grr!
I'm learning new things all the time: from the World According to Mum - they (the baggage handlers) are going to steal my new socks. Wierd fuckers, huh?
Other things i've learned (learnt?) today: space-bags, genuine original or otherwise, are way cool.
Things i must learn for next time: whether the correct word to use would be 'learned' or 'learnt'... i wonder how i can find out...
Other things to learn for next time: how to find out correct word usage. Anyone doing linguistics?
anyway... must get back to it.
=)
Exams are over - yay! Partway through packing... grr!
I'm learning new things all the time: from the World According to Mum - they (the baggage handlers) are going to steal my new socks. Wierd fuckers, huh?
Other things i've learned (learnt?) today: space-bags, genuine original or otherwise, are way cool.
Things i must learn for next time: whether the correct word to use would be 'learned' or 'learnt'... i wonder how i can find out...
Other things to learn for next time: how to find out correct word usage. Anyone doing linguistics?
anyway... must get back to it.
=)
Sunday, June 15, 2003
Greetings, and welcome to my blog. The adventures are set to begin soon.....
