Paint it black

Oh well, there's nothing really to write about except that it will be Queens birthday tomorrow so we got the day off.... I'm more or less happy about that I mean I would like to work to get some money but then again I can't be bothered to work... everyone in my flat is lazy including me and then I just feel like sleeping all day. It must be the hibernation time ;). And no one is really well, Chloe has got a headache, Caroline is still fighting with cough and me with some kind of weird cold. And the frenchie is drinking ;) but he's not teh kind to pass out... just sits around and has fun.
Well I am off listening to some music... there's nothing on TV, it's just as crappy as TV in NZ .. even i they have more channels here it's the same bore ;) hahaha. So I never watch TV here, except the new Simpsons ;).

"But Angie, Angie, ain't it good to be alive?
Angie, Angie, they can't say we never tried"
(Rolling Stones)

It's raining cats and dogs

Oh dear another day... it is raining so heavily that the streets are impassable. Where I work my shoes are soaked just by passing the street. Well I wouldn't mind in my Jandals but still I have to wear some "nice shoes" hahaha. Just to keep up appearance? for what? Nevermind it is quite funny. At work a nice woman (originally from Switzerland) was talking to me yesterday, today she came and told me another girl from East Germany applied to the company, told me her name and asked me if I know her. Hahaha that is too funny. It's like asking her: do you know this and that person from Sydney? Well chances are 1 to some millions... well nevermind she's such a nice lady. Another one was bitching at me today. I always thought she's bitchy the way she appeared. But now I know for sure. But well I don't care about what she has to say, so I just smiled and went away. I can walk away, but an asshole stays an asshole. Hehehe. I read the book "he's just not that into you" and it's so true. And so funny. Well Gregs advice is common sense but I know that it is so true. Women always make up excuses for the guy... so Greg's telling not to put up with anything because we all deserve the best. And the funniest (but of course very true) are:
Freaks should remain at the circus and not in your apartment. And: You already have one asshole, you don't need another one. Well, good advice!
Anyway I am off planning my trip with Charlotte... Dear I am so sorry. I don't know too. But don't worry we'll figure something out :)

Rainy day

Today must be the worst day since I arrived... it was raining all day and believe me Sydney is the same like everywhere... not pretty when it's raining. My job was annoying today and generally everyone seems depressed. Except Sha whose girlfriend arrived today from Japan :) how sweet. As for me I bought some good Aldi food (hahaha) and they had some kind of Italian crackers. Very yummy.
Unfortunately Caroline is sick... she is in bed and sleeping, couldn't sleep all night. She said she's gonna do her teaching tomorrow but maybe she will not go, if she's feeling too crappy.
Well apart from that no news, except some horrible incident. I told you about all the homeless people in Sydney right? Well there are not only many - there seem to be suicidal ones as well. I mean, in this weather, without a home and probably without hope in such a city I can understand that. Today on my way home I hear an old woman screaming, I just arrived and saw why. She tried to wake up a homeless old man who was lying on the side of the road near an entrance... his head covered with a plastic bag. I mean not only covered but the head fully inside! I got so scared that he was dead. Luckily after like 30 seconds of her screaming he moved his hands. She told him to take off the plastic bag and said that this is dangerous. I don't think he understood properly but finally he obliged. Well that was scary and I think this is the really sad side of Sydney.
I am off to eat something...

Weekend blues

(I wrote this last night but just posting it now... )
What a pity, the weekend is nearly over! I wanted to write something on Saturday but I just couldn't get my lazy self to go near the computer... hehehe. Anyway, the weekend was quite dodgy! Of course ... it was my weekend! hahaha just kidding. Well I have to say I miss the Family and Nathan and Olgun of course! So on the weekend I tried to get a little bit into the gay scene of Sydney. But it was more complicated than I thought! ;-)
Friday I came back from work and was bloody tired... every day I get woken up by this girl that lives above... that is so annoying. She gets up at 6 and seems to be jumping around until 6.30 when she finally leaves! I can't believe it is so annoying but it must be the house. Living with 25 people was easier ! ;-)
Anyway I passed out as soon as I came home and woke up somehow desoriented at 8.30pm. Caroline (my room mate) asked me when we should go out, but the weather was so crappy (raining!). I was too tired but as we had made the plan to go into a gay bar on Friday she was in the mood to go out. So around 10.30 pm she said I gotta go out and got me n the mood as well. After trying on a lot of clothes she found some good ones (dodgy enough?) to go out, she just couldn't decide how to wear her belt. Women's problems I say! I am quite happy not to mind. So we went out, because the rain had stopped, and walked all along into Darlinghurst. The problem was I had spend my last 6 dollars on my train ticket to work, so I had exactly 45 cents in my pocket, and I didn't receive the pin number for my bank card because that went to Pepe's address in Darlinghurst. So I dragged her to the old house there, to get my pin number and to be finally able to get some money with my bank card. Luckily Yvette and the dutch girl were there, and my letter as well. Equipped with my pin number we went to Oxford Street, which was easy to find... just walk along Palmer Street (where I lived before). Well in that moment I regretted moving. Darlinghurst is a better place if you wanna be in the scene... gay scene along Oxford Street and there's also Kings Cross just 5 min walk from my old place... hmmm. Anyway we even found the bar where I wanted to go - "Midnight Shift" - only to be stopped by the (gay) bouncers which told me they can't let me in with my shoes. Oh %$&# !!! In Auckland in all gay and latin bars no one cares if you try to go into with Jandals (yes what a NZ word... I know... also called flip flops hehehee). So I couldn't get in with my shoes, and I tried to convince the bouncer but he wouldn't let me go. And of course it is quite useless to shake your butt to a gay bouncer... hahaha. So I didn't even try. We went on and at the next crossroads is the Colombian Hotel - also a gay place. We managed to get in as the bouncers were busy checking other people out... and inside it was quite weird. Well I don't trust these Lonely Planet guides anyway, but at least they give a good overview over the places. The description about the Colombian contains something along the lines of "has a decor to die for". Hmm... well it's not bad (quite good) but under to die for I understand something else! Anyway it looked quite nice to us. A lot of weird people around, some kind of strange love triangle (Caroline said this), because there were 2 guys and a girl and the guys seemed gay but one of them always hugged the girl which was indeed a bit weird, with the other guy staring at him. Maybe he was bisexual who knows. None of my business so I didn't really care. Then it got funny when I tried to get drinks (just coke!) and the barman told me my card will not work there only credit cards?! How weird is that? Oh sorry we do not have Eftpos only credit card? Do these people know that the charges for credit cards are much higher than the usual Eftpos card? Anyway I went back up (upstairs is the cocktail bar) and Caroline went down to catch us 2 cokes. She got the coke and when she came back some kind of weirdo came around. Old crazy looking guy... and started asking us all these questions. Aka what are you doing, where are you from, why are you here, how long are you here... bla bla bla. He bored me and I told him thatI'm a stripper. Well the look on his face was worth it. Of course I had to dance a bit to prove it. The guy (he said he is an Editor... of what I forgot) started to try to chat up Caroline, which she didn't like and soon she turned to me for help, so we started pretending we were lesbians. She held my hand, and he asked for her number, so she said sorry, I am not interested. He asked "in me"? and she said "no in general in guys" hahaha that was funny. Another guy turned up and started asking us, and as I was dancing a bit his friend came over. He looked so gay and danced so well that we assumed he is gay. We had some fun talking to him, and finally the other guy buggered off. The gay asked us if we want a drink, and we said no. Two minutes later the same, so we said ok a coke. He was like "What? Drink your softdrinks at home", so he convinced us to get some vodka and coke. He told me to come over to the bar with him so we went off, and got come drinks. Well that is when things got weird, as he started hitting on us. When I gay guy passed and accidentially seemed to touch his butt he got quite pissed off and started shaking his butt, and said if he liked his hairy butt. We had quite a laugh but then he said "I'm not gay" and we couldn't believe it. He confirmed it again, and now it was not really funny anymore. Well Caroline wanted to stick to the lesbian part and we acted some more to convince them. It was quite dodgy because they started to dance and try to go near Caroline which she didn't like at all, so we soon left the bar and went home at 2am. These guys were so weird, surely one had taken something, as his eyes were weird and he was drinking loads of water.
Anyway Oxford Street is quite funny because they have rainbow flags everywhere, and a lot of funny shops: wig and weird clothing shops, and of course booze stores (oneos called "Lick-her shop" (isn't that dodgy), and a costume shop called House of Priscilla. Hahaha watch their website it's houseofpriscilla.com.au.
Saturday we were so tired again getting woken up early by the same girl. We went to Paddy's Market because I wanted to buy some fruit and Caroline was bored and just wanted to come with me. I bought some stuff, later we went to the Broadway Shopping Centre and tried to find something nice to wear in the gay bar (aka some funny ears, a magic wand or some wings ;-)) but we couldn't really find anything. When we got home we found our flatmates Thomas (French) and Sha (don't know how that is written but he's Irish) already quite drunk.
We made a funny picture session, and everyone agreed to go to the gay bar. Thomas had a pink T-Shirt which we urged him to wear, and because it was too big we told him to put it in his pants because the gay guys will be able to admire his butt. Hahaha that was funny but he didn't take it serious so we all had fun. Soon we found some Santa hats, a big Mexican hat (Miguel told me it's not Mexican! ok) and Sha found some reindeer ears to wear. Some funny pictures were created!

We left for the Midnight Shift and it was definitely full of gays. No straight men in there. That was great, but Thomas couldn't stand it anymore, after about 1 hour we left. Sha was happy and just dancing (enough Alcohol hahaha), and Chloe and Sha managed to get Caroline to dance. Unfortunely we couldn't go upstairs (there was another floor) because you have to pay $20 entry. Now that was too much for us and we moved on. Outside Thomas told me how he hated it to get stared at and checked out by guys! I told him now he knows how the girls feel when guys always check them out! Ha I don't think he found that funny. Anyway they wanted to move on and go to straight bars but I didn't see any drag shows yet and went on to Flinders Street, while they went to Darling Harbour. I found the Flinders Hotel, but there were only butch lesbians in there and a couple of dodgy looking gays, so I left (was a bit too weird for me). Then I found the ARQ which is famous for the drag shows.
I couldn't miss that and I have to say that the $10 entry are well invested. It is really a very nice place with a great lightning and sound system, and downstairs were drag shows on from Midnight until 1am. It was good fun and there were 5 people on stage at once, which is really cool.



The drag shows in the family are not so professional. Best was the entertainer, he came in the innocent schoolgirl look (hahaha) and made a lot of funny jokes. Both a lot of gay and straight people around, a couple of chicks in fancy dresses, probably a hen night and a lot of people wasted (on drugs and alcohol). It was great fun to go to the toilet and meet a lot of drag queens there (they have better bodies than a real girl hahaha).


One of them put glitter on all the girls, and said "a bit of glitter makes everyone look good!" Having learned my wisdom for the night I went out smiling and glittery.
A bit sad though is to see that some people take a lot of time on the girls loo. Doing drugs of course. It seems the gay scene is quite a lot into such things, the same as in Auckland. Anyway between two drag shows a guy came up and asked me where I am from and the usual stuff, turned out he was a catering manager in the Navy. A nice guy, danced very funny and asked me to watch out for his lager when he went to the loo. Now I assume he's gay (he was acting very gay) but as I was bit suspicious from the bad experience the day before I took my distance. It is quite sad as usually gays are great people and good to have fun with. But he told me he goes there often so if I go there again I'll probably meet him again.
I also met a gay couple from Adelaide (where the hell is Adelaide hahahaha), they were quite drunk but loved the drag show. They didn't manage though to get their admiration (in the gay bar no one cares where you are from hahaha).
After all the drag shows I was dancing with some other girls I met, and some old guy started annoying me. First he asked me if I wanted a drink and I said no I have one (as if he couldn't see!). Later I sat down and he came and asked me if I wanted to dance. Well I as pissed off and went upstairs on the other dance floor. Why do straight guys go to a gay bar? I mean I don't mind anyone going there but if he would have a bit of brain he would go to a straight bar where the girls are waiting to be chatted up. Guys I am not going to a gay bar to find a guy! I'm happy the guys are into each other and leave me alone. But some dorks don't seem to get it. Anyway I had a good night and came home about 3am. Chloe was already home but the others came 20 minutes later.
In general I think the gay scene really is quite big in Sydney. And the best thing is that people are more open about it and there are a lot of gay bars. One day I will check out the one where part of the movie "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" was made. Well that place is a must see, but otherwise I think I prefer not to go out too much here. It is so expensive and I went out so much the last months in Auckland ;-) I already caught up for it.
The funny thing is that I never saw the movie "Priscilla..."! I think I have to watch it now. Good to know that they are making a stage show "Priscilla..." now, and one of the drag queens from the ARQ will be part of that! They were quite proud. And the funny thing is that on Saturday night one of the guys that made the movie was in the ARQ as well. They even gave him the microphone and he said he works in Asia now and is just back in Sydney for some days. Funny what kind of people are going around. And I have to say in all the gay bars are a lot of Asian boys. Much more than in Auckland. But well in Sydney live much more people as well so maybe the percentage will be the same, who knows.
Today I woke up early again (fucking hell! 8 am!) I think I have to start sleeping with ear plugs.
I invited Miguel for lunch, as he is leaving on Tuesday morning. That is sad, the first friend I made in Sydney is already leaving. He said he doesn't like to go back because it is too hot in Mexico. Oh well I prefer 45 degrees to freezing my ass off here... but ok I can understand after 6 months here .. like a holiday (and some language school) he will miss his friends and of course in Mexico he has to work again.

Now I will go to bed soon... it is already 9.30 pm.
Oh and something else about Sydney... people are trying to be posh here. That sucks. At work I have to wear only posh clothes (where should I get these from?) and I have to wear closed shoes. After 1 and a half years of wearing Jandals I just don't want to go back into this. But I have to... and on Saturday I bought the most old-fashioned shoes in my life! They are so embarassing... wow I would never wear such a stuff if I wouldn't have to. But at least I can practice for later (hahaha) or maybe get used to wearing some shoes like that. I'm already starting to feel old. Or maybe better I am starting to feel that I am too young for this stuff. Or maybe I will never grow into this hahahaa. Anyway it is again so true: you only really appreciate something when you've lost it. So I miss NZ even more... even some managers go to work in Shorts and Jandals hehehe.
Good night everyone...

Life's a journey! Enjoy the trip !

Hi again... that's me... yes... I am trying to keep with with emailing everyone. I am so sorry if I didn't email someone yet. Actually I need Toto's email - can anyone help me? I am sure the frenchies can. Please send me Totos email at least you are living with him and Pili in Christchurch now so ... do your best! Let me know! Thanks a lot.
Apart from trying to catch up with emailing all my friends I need to catch up with all the pictures ... hahaha... some are too dodgy but well I am trying. All the ones from the Family, especially from the last night in the Family... Miss Ribena is waiting ;). I miss it so much! So tomorrow me and the girl I share the room with (she's in one of my pictures!) will go to a gay bar. Hopefully. She said she's never been but she would love to go. And I really want to see if Sydney's reputation for having a great gay scene is true. Nathan when are you coming to see me? :) It'll be much better to go in the gay bar with you.
So today was another day at my job... the third day if I remember right. Yes I have never worked in insurance before but there's always a first time. And it is quite interesting... I mean when you know it it is boring but as I said before it is the experience that counts. So after doing a lot of invoicing, filing and rate calculations I will be doing something else tomorrow. I can't see it happening yet but we will see. I learned some stuff like: that Australia has different GST rates in its states, NSW has only 5 % and WA has 11% ! And the Income Protection Insurance which my company is doing is calculated at different rates. Rates have just gone up so I have to make sure to use the correct rate for each calculation, and then there's something called EBA or similar (whatever that stands for) it means they guaranteed a rate to a company for a certain time, until the EBA expires. Or somethign like that ;). Anyway I still don't know what underwriting is. But maybe I will find out. Anyway very funny stuff seems to happen in Claims. Someone filed a claim for "infection of the skin of the penis caused by a bite" hahahaha. I can't believe it. How can someone claim something like that? The best thing is the people that work in claims have to call him up and check if the claim is valid. Hahaha. "Hi Sir, I hope you are having a nice day, so how's your penis today?" hahaaha. I don't want that job! That is just cruel and I am sure it is impossible not to laugh.
Anyway ... in the office... life is going on... nothing really important happened so far. People are all very nice, and an incredibly high number of girls work there. And most of them are very good-looking. That is not bad. In general in Sydney there seems to be a craze for fitness studios or however these places are called. Everyone from the office seems to go there. Someone asked me to go and I said that I have never been in one and I don't want to start now. Well they looked strange at me... but I can't afford to do that... I have no patience anyway to go everyday.. of even 3 times a week...nah. It is funny how interested everyone is in what I eat, or what I am doing, where I have been... probably nothing ever happens there so they are like the typical office ;). Well I know now how funny it was in Auckland. They lack the humour here! And I miss everyone from RH. You're doing good to have fun!
I am just thinking how to get another job to maybe work evenings as well. I mean I am tired enough from that office job and being woken up every morning too early but well.. I could use some more money. I think my camera is dying soon... too crappy. I am healed now from that company... next time it will be a Sony. Remarkably my Mini Disc from Sony still works although it fell down numerous times, I didn't keep it in a proper place and the display got affected in the plane but it is working, and that for 5 years now, so I will try a Sony camera. If someone wants to sponsor me a professional one i would be happy ;) hahaha... just kidding. Anyway next thing I spend a lot of money on will be another camera. My luck is that they die after exactly 2 years, when the guarantee time is over. Happened to my first one, 600 Euros died exactly after the guarantee expired. So just before flying to NZ i bought another one, and now this is like 1 year 6 months old and it starts making dodgy noises. Well that's life. I have to admit though I didn't keep it too nicely packed up while using it.
Anyway I watched the "2006 World Press Photo Exhibition" in the NSW State Library last Friday. AMAZING... if there's such a word for it. Most pictures are incredibly sad... you can't help it but cry. A lot of pictures of the devastated people in Pakistan after the earthquake (and I have a thing for Pakistan since my best friend is from there :) as you know). People after the tsunami. People after a suicide bomber attack... Incredibly moving pictures and I saw many people drying off the tears from their eyes... so it was not only me. Anyway if you get the chance to look at these pictures so do it! It takes about 2 hours but it is worth it. And it was free here... I would have liked to buy the book with all the pictures but it was $40 and another book to carry... I just can't afford that. I just wish I could travel a lot more and have a better camera and be more professional to make great pictures. Maybe I should skip that teaching stuff and study Photography ;) - I just love it. That's when I remember my friend Markel from Spain (Basque country! hahaha) who studied Photography in Bolton... and dod an exchange year to China... well yuo can see his website here he's fantastic!!! I am really thinking to buy a better camera...
Oh by the way if someone asks: I got the message from Nadine (thanks!) that Waseem's door is still always open (haahaha) but he changed rooms with Pili so now if you open his door there will be Pili inside (hahaha).
And: I didn't meet with Eneko - he sent me an email the next morning that he arrived at midnight and it was too late... he left 13.15 from the YHA hostel but then I didn't get his message that day... another opportunity missed at least to catch up for 30 minutes! How sad. Anyway Spain (or Basque country as he says... I say "Basque province!" hahaha) doesn't run away and hopefully we will meet another time. Who knows.
I am eating something now (dodgy noodles... cheap!). I guess if it wasn't for my mothers education I'd die of missing vitamins ;-). Just kidding.
Ciao

Dodgy job

Incredible how dodgy my new job is... hahaha... I got no clothes posh enough... hahaha... more stuff tomorrow it is late... but definitely.. I put the pictures up (finally.. I know I am too slow... after a day on the computer I just can't get myself to switch on my laptop at home! No geek stuff!).
Here's a link to some...
more stuff tomorrow.
view my photos here

New job

Hey again, I already feel like a geek doing all this posting stuff... well I guess without too many dodgy people around and me being just plain lazy or too bored to go out I got nothing else to do. (I know that's no excuse for geekiness... oh well we will see what I can come up with).
Started my job today, as expected it is plain posh deadly boring office job. How can these people do that for years and years and years... oh dear... anyway people were quite nice and apparently I am replacing someone who is leaving for 6 weeks to Europe... hehehe.. that is nice! But still an insurance company and of course office stuff with lots of girls, and lots of repetetive boredom... but I get money for it so why not. At the moment I don't understand anything - what the hell is underwriting? can someone enlighten me? but anyway it doesn't matter and I guess it is a good experience of what don't want. Has to be in life... if you're not sure what you want it is at least a great step forward to know what you DON'T want.
For now I am wondering again on how this all works out. Gotta get some more of it ;-). A great thing though is that where I work there is an Aldi! Woohoo. Found only 2 German products in there though - Haribo (yeah... had to buy some of course!) and some Marzipan stuff... yummy. But at least - all the stuff they sell is CHEAP which is really helpful. Now I know where I will do my shopping the next 6 weeks. Carrying it in the train will be a nightmare though... after all there's the rush hour back into the city when I leave. And with $5.6 each day the train is not cheap. I am still thinking to buy a bike again that would be great. Just wondering where I could find a cheap one that is not dodgy. Hahaha. I will see.
I gotta say something else: today I treated myself to another of these beautiful teas... hahaha.. but it was too dodgy even for me. It was called oatmeal and almond delight. And it was full of stuff what the birds eat... hahaha... I mean what can I say I expected that.. but not that much. The Wheatgerm tea and the Osmantus Pu-Erh tea I had in Auckland were not comparable! hahaha. Watch this here under promotions... http://www.easywaytea.com.au/
Anyway I think the stuff they have in AKL is similar but they offer different teas. It doesn't seem to be so commercialised as here in Australia. I recommend you to go to Dominion Road and treat yourself. Hehehehe.
Anyway I will go to bed now... it's 11 pm and I gotta get up in the morning.