Merry Belated Christmas, Happy Boxing Day, and Boy is Perth a Small World After All

Hope y'all had a good Christmas. Even though I was disappointed about not getting to go home to Springfield for Xmas this year, it's probably just as well. They're supposed to get like 12 inches of snow and when I chatted to my parents and my mum's side of the family last night, they were just going to drop the pressies off at the other side of the family's shindig and get the hell home before the storm totally set in, so I wouldn't have really seen like half my family on xmas. And my poor dad had a stomach flu right before xmas, which I surely would have caught. Plus, friends have told me that the weather in Sydney's been crapola since I left, so I am ever so happy with my decision to come to Perth.

The weather in Perth rocks. It's very hot, but better than the weird warm/cold/warm/cold weather in Syd lately. I've been taking it easy to far. I arrived her on Christmas Eve evening and met up with my friend Josh at the Globe. He text messaged me to ask if I was there yet and I messaged him to say I was in the back. 2 secs later I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and it's Drew from Karnivool, whom I met over a year ago in Tasmania at the National Campus Band Competition. And if that wasn't enough to prove that Perth isn't that big, it turns out I had already reviewed two of the three bands performing that night, at past National Campus Band Comp finals, El Horizonte, and Heavy Weight Champ. Do-do-do-do. It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small small world! :-) So I hung out with Josh for a while, the went home to my hostel which is very conveniently located in the city.

Yesterday, on Christmas Day, I went to the beach. I went to Cottesloe, which is absolutely beautiful. It reminded me a tiny bit of Sitges, outside Barcelona. It was much smaller, but very cute. The water was gorgeous and I was happy to be swimming in the Indian Ocean for the first time. Despite my re-application of sunscreen THREE times, (before I got to the beach, once I got to the beach, and then right after I got out of the water,) I stil got a minor sunburn. Nothing major, but I've got some colour now on my albino white boobage area. Either the sun is so strong, it just laughed at my 3x application of SPF 30, or my albino white boobs which have hardly ever seen the light of day in 25 years just couldn't take it. So, it's not a big deal, but I was annoyed cause I was so sure that area was safe. I'm happy to report that my back is still white as ever even though I had to apply the sunscreen to my back all by myself and the whole area is exposed to the sun. Go contortionist Lori!

So I stayed yesterday at the beach until the sun set and I photographed that - I had slight flashbacks to the time I thought I was going to die after photographing the sunset at East Point, outside Darwin (Northern Territory) and was trying to find my way back in pitch blackness. Lucky I knew my way back to Cottesloe train station!

Today I took it easy and just did the Swan River Cruise thing, which was nice and relaxing. I tried and tried to book a tour for today, but nobody was open yesterday to take bookings - just as well, I've been so tired, the cruise was just what I needed. I took pics of the awesome townhouses I would like to live in if I ever moved to Perth. ;-) Or maybe they could be my parents' retirement home. They keep talking about retiring in Oz and Perth is safely far enough away from Sydney....just kidding, guys :-)

Tomorrow I'm doing a 'Pinnacles at Sunset' tour. They pick you up at noon, and you stop and see/do a bunch of cool stuff before arriving in the desert at sunset to see the Pinnacles (these alienish looking rock formations in the middle of the desert). Then we dine on freshly caught fish (yum) and camp out overnight in sleeping bags under the stars. I've never camped out before EVER so I'm looking forward to it! In the morning, we go swimming at a beach and then we go sandsurfing and catch breakfast before heading back to Perth by noon on Sat. Saturday arvo I plan to go to Freemantle and Subiaco. Sunday I'm going to do a Southwest tour including Margaret River and Mandurah. Then on Monday, my last (sob) day here, I'm doing an Eco-boat tour of Rottnest Island , which includes fishing, snorkeling, seeing those cute little quokkas, and hopefully (fingers crossed!) , seeing some dolphins! Please, Flipper, come to Lori! :-)

p.s. Thanks to my work Secret Santa, I've read the most hilarious book in ages - Stupid White Men by Michael Moore. EVERYONE should read this! It is so fricking funny and it almost makes me want to hop on the next plane back to the U.S.A. to try to save America from itself .(My parents will like hearing this!) It is funny and inspirational and surprising and jaw-dropping. LOVE IT! Amazing job, once again, Mr. Moore!

Is this a bad sign, Roy?

Lordy...I kept putting off booking my hostel in Perth because my lovely friends, who I know are only trying to help me, were making me paranoid (Jamie!) by telling me to avoid this one dodgy area of town in particular. I kept studying my map, trying to judge if different hostels I liked seemed far enough away from the designated dodgy area, etc. Anyway, I knew it was bad to put it off because this is a hugely busy time of year for hostels in Perth and I was taking a chance by waiting so long...but after listening to me naming street names that I thought were far away enough from the 'dodge-zone', Josh took pity on me and asked some friends who were in town where they were staying and it was some very centrally located hostel right smack dab in the centre of Perth. It's a place I would have booked first, had it been available to book online. I am sadly becoming one of those people who will go out of their way to not have to make contact with human beings. I LOVE making reservations online. I can do it any time I like and not have to listen to people scolding me for booking at the last minute. ;-)

I desperately attempted to book this place online, but alas, their 'booking forms' (and I'm rolling with laughter at calling it that) and their 'contact us' forms (giggle giggle) aren't actually linked up to anything and are a big waste of time. I had to (sigh) call Perth and talk to a human being.

Me: Hi, I was wondering if you had any dorm rooms available starting from tomorrow evening...
Elderly Man Behind the Hostel Counter in a Small Town: You're going to have to speak up! I can barely hear you!
Me: I wanted to know if you had any dorms free from tomorrow night?
Him: Sure, what's your name?
Me: Lori.
Him: Sorry?
Me: Lori. Lorrrrri.
Him: Roy?
Me: No, not Roy. LORI. L - O - R - I
Him: Right, Roy.
Me: No, L as in Linda. O as in Oscar. R as in Rose. And, and I as in, um, Island.
Him: R-O-Y. Roy?
Me: No, no, I'm not a boy. It's L-O-R-I.
(sidebar: I probably should have just said Lorraine. I HATE the name Lorraine and Lori is not short for Lorraine, I'm just Lori, but I've had heaps of people insist on calling me Lorraine. Whatever, I don't really care about Lorraine at the end of the day, but I'm sorry, I draw the line at Roy!)
Me: (insert many spelling attempts here...10 minutes later....)
Him: L-O-R-I? Jesus f*cking Christ. How the hell do you say that?
Me: Lori, rhymes with story.
Him: What the hell kinda name is that?
Me: It's just a name. A girl's name.
Him: Right....

And it went from there. I have a booking. But I bet you anything I'm down there as Roy....the hardest part was that I was trying so hard not to laugh my ass off the whole time...too funny!

So we just found out today that we're doing Secret Santa at work...will I get a butterfly sticker? Only time will tell. We're working half a day tomorrow, then doing an office lunch, then I'm off to see Perth and parts of Western Australia, hopefully as Lori, and not Roy. ;-)

So much to see and do - I am SO looking forward to it!

(pssst, Mom and Dad, send me an email and let me know when I should call you guys on Christmas!)

Merry Christmas everyone!
Feliz Navidad!

Music, Dancing, Good Food, and Good Deads

This pretty much sums up my weekend. I went to see Gerling @ The Annandale on Saturday, with Claudine, Nigel, Todd, and Brooke - it was EXCELLENT. I was a good little girl and wore my ear plugs, so it was great and I wasn't deaf like everyone else afterwards. After that, we jetted over to Fox Studios to catch the last hour of Chad's DJ-ing - it was a cute dance floor and it was good fun dancing along to Chad's picks for grooves. Go DJ, Go DJ! ;-) After that we were starving so we drove to Coogee to grab some yummy pizza while Chad played DJ in the car. Great night indeed, and Claud ever so nicely drove me home - yay!

Tonight I was supposed to go see Andrew's band, Quarter Acre, play at the Hollywood Hotel. I promised him I'd be there and I really wanted to go, except that about an hour and a half before I needed to leave, I was laying on my bed, in the fetal position, praying for the cramps to stop, and waiting for 4 panadeines to kick in. I know, I know, this is all WAY too much information, but I swear, Andrew's gigs are all freakishly on par with my errr, 'female cycle' - what the hell??? I was going to suggest to him that his change the name of his band to '28 Days' - but that's already been taken. ;-) I have missed at least two gigs in the past because I started my freaking period like right before his show, and I just couldn't get up out of bed, so when it happened tonight, I was like, "WHY? WHYYYY?" But I was determined. Besides, I'd already used the PMS excuse too many times before - even though it was actually true! Anyhoo, no one's probably even reading this blog entry anymore as I've turned everyone off by discussing my cramps, but whatever. I'm glad I sucked it up as Quarter Acre put on an excellent show and I got to catch up with my friend Angela's sister Lucy, who is really sweet and told me all about her trip to South America (so jealous!) . Andrew was his usual hilarious self and we went out to dinner afterwards to this yummy Korean restaurant in the city. The food was fantastic and it's hilarious to see people's jaws drop open when they hear this red-haired white little aussie guy speak some good Korean! Hehe.

On our way to the restaurant, however, we came across a water tap that was beyond busted and basically, a 'river' was flowing down Campbell Street. Some of you may not know, but we're experiencing a major drought in New South Wales, so all this water being wasted was extra bad due to the current situation. What to do? We wanted to call Sydney Water, but didn't know the number and both of us were out of credit on our phones, so we walked to the nearest police station and reported the busted pipe and the raging river flowing down Campbell Street. The cops looked at us like we were on crack for a moment, but when they realised we were completely sober and just wanting someone to fix the water leak, they were like, "Cool, thanks, guys!" After our yummy dinner, we went back to check, and sure enough, the pipe had been fixed! So that was our good deed for the evening.

I'm so excited about my trip to Perth that I actually started packing yesterday, on Saturday. I never pack until the morning of a trip, pretty much, so you can tell I am more than enthusiastic. Big thanks to Jamie, Adam, and Lisa for their recent Perth tips!