How I Left My Brother

Kids,

Back in late 2010 when I went to Australia for nine months I spent a week with my brother in Sydney. Midway through my vacation on a Friday night we went to the Sydney Tower to see the illuminated city. I didn't get very good pictures and there were a lot of Asians but other than that it was cool.

The next day we had to change hotels so we dragged our luggage down to Travelodge Sydney after having breakfast. But our room wasn't ready so we had to find something to do.
We headed to the Botanic Gardens, where the weather was nice. We even saw some flying foxes before checking out arguably the most famous building in the world, the Sydney Opera House. We changed hotels and enjoyed the sun some more in Hyde Park. 

While reading a book I was listening to some music but my headphones were broken so I couldn't enjoy my music properly. I decided to head out to Paddy's Market to get a new cheap pair. After getting a passable pair for $15 I browsed the rest of the sellers and dreamed of the gifts I would buy for my friends and relatives before going back home.

After dinner my brother said that he'd be going out whether I'd be joining him or not. We found a sports bar called Cheers on George Street where we had some drinks and watched an NBA game. I retreated back to the hotel shortly after the game.

The weather had been very nice until Saturday and on Sunday it was raining almost all day. So we headed to inside. First we visited the Sydney Aquarium. It was actually my third visit there and I have to admit that by getting a big crocodile The Wildlife World had stolen most of the Aquarium's thunder. Where there used to be a freshwater crocodile was now a huge Great White Shark. Only it wasn't real. Not even taxidermy real. There were also a little too many people at the Aquarium so it was hard to enjoy. We didn't even get to see a platypus! I dreamed of buying myself one fluffy one at the gift store for $20 but knew I wouldn't be able to fit it in my carry-on luggage going back to Melbourne.

After the Aquarium I yearned for some fish & chips which I ordered from the foodcourt in Harbourside mall. My brotherman had some Sushi and we had some nice conversation. Then we headed to the National Maritime Museum. That visit was highlighted by a very educational shark exhibit. This time the plastic sharks didn't seem as stupid. Well worth the price of admission ($0).

On Monday we did one big walk down the Pylon Lookout at The Harbour Bridge. The admission was complimentary to all the bridge climbers and to my surprise my brother actually liked the visit even though he hadn't been very satisfied after the bridge climb. I took some photos but the weather wasn't nearly as nice as it was on Saturday or before, a fact that adequately translated into the pictures. We wound out the day by watching Arrested Development and 30 Rock on DVD back at the hotel.

Tuesday morning we had to check out of the hotel early but fortunately my brother's next hotel was only a block away and his room was ready too. We left our stuff there and went for breakfast at Subway. I'd spend six more months before returning back home from but by that time my brother would have moved to the States and it would be July of next year before we would meet again. We hung out at my brother's hotel room for a second but then I was off, back to Melbourne, back to Lilydale and back to my job at Rochford Wines.

I didn't feel very good but truth be told I hadn't felt as good in Sydney after my mom had left. I like my brother but he can be a very difficult person to be around. I'm not saying there are many people who would like to spend most of eight days with me but I know it wasn't ideal for him. And just when I'd gotten used to being quiet myself he would start talking again. Ironic, I guess.

But then I got on the train to the airport and I felt a little better. I checked in to my flight and sat down to read When The Game Was Ours by Jackie MacMullan. An hour later I got some lunch and felt better. I went through security, read my book at the gate and felt better. The flight was short and at Melbourne airport I felt even better. Then I got on my train to Lilydale in the city and kept on feeling better. I was also enjoying my book very much.

When I got to Lilydale Sascha was already there waiting to pick up Ana. I got into the car and told him I had a great trip even though I didn't feel like it when I was leaving Sydney. But in retrospect I think I did. Getting home felt even better and it had only been my home for two months. Can you imagine how good getting back to Finland felt? Well we'll get to that later.

So, my trip to Sydney had been a success and I'd spent more time with my brother since probably our teenage years. It felt good to be back at Lilydale and I was looking forward to working with a lot of nice people and to visiting Melbourne more often. Even though things were back to normal I had to admit that I missed my mom, my ex, my relatives and my friends back home. It wasn't very bad but I still wished I'd have bought that fluffy platypus to help me sleep a little better.

I also realized on that day that I was practically midway through my Rochford Wines employment. It was my 61st day since I started on the 1st of October and I planned on staying 61 more days until the 30th of January before heading to Tasmania and back to Sydney where my mom was supposed to start working in late January.

First I had two summer months, some concerts and events, Christmas and New Years to get through though.

But that's another story.

River Deep, (Blue) Mountain High

Wednesday:

- Booked a Blue Mountains trip for Thursday and a Bridge Climb for Friday
- Sailed to Manly
- Ate Pizza before going to Sea World
- Saw some sharks and um...
- Sat at the beach and read Larry Bird's Drive from 1989
- Went to dinner with mom for one last time. We ate Indonesian food with mom's co-worker and his wife

Thursday:
We woke up very early to go to the Blue Mountains. Our driver was Steve (STEEVE, HELLO!) and we were joined by three women from England, one older one and a pair of twins. Our first stop was at an Aboriginal Cultural Center. It was great!

We threw some boomerangs, looked at and tasted different kinds of plants and heard about Aboriginal culture. Our guide was Sunny and he concluded his presentation by playing some Didjeridoo. He had been playing for 30 years and he was very good. Then we had tea and moved on.

We headed up the mountain and started with some sight seeing in Jameson Valley, one of the three Valleys in the Blue Mountains. The place was called Flat Rock and there was nobody else there. That trend continued for the rest of the day too.

As far as Blue Mountain trips went, this one was pretty good. It was informative and secluded. The views were very good and as you can see from the pictures, they look very blue thanks to the oil vapor from the eucalyptus trees.

After Flat Rock we saw the three sisters and heard their story, which explains the bird with a million voices (kind of like the guy from Police Academy) kicking around the leaves in the depths of the rainforest. Then we headed down to Megalon valley and had lunch in a very nice place. Then we had one look of the last valley before heading back to Jameson Valley to check out some wild Kangaroos. Two of the females had Joeys (baby Kangaroos) sticking out of their pouches.

On the way back from the mountains, we watched a DVD about Australian wildlife and nature. It really made we want to go to Western and Northern Australia to see what it's like there as well as the desert. All in all I liked the trip very much. Brotherman wasn't as satisfied because he didn't have enough to eat during the day.

Today we slept in and bought a sh*tload of stamps before heading for the Bridge Climb. Our guide was Emma and she seemed very nice but she was a rookie. We had a full group of climbers, most of them from English speaking countries. I was the only one who was there for the second time. I liked this one too and I even got a Master's Degree, um, I mean certificate for Bridge Climbing.

A whopper meal later I looked around for Christmas/postcards, came back to the hotel and wrote them. We ended the day with a visit to the Sydney Tower (not nearly as good as the Eureka Tower in Melbourne) and grabbed dinner from Subway. Now we're watching crappy movies on TV.

I love Sydney and at the moment I'd rank the biggest cities in the following order: 1. Sydney, 2. Melbourne, 3. Brisbane. Melbourne and Sydney will get more attention later while Perth and Adelaide (and maybe even Canberra) have their chances of creeping in the rankings later.

We have no plan for tomorrow, but we will have to change hotels. Or we get to change hotels. Instead of sleeping in the same bed for three of five nights, we get our own beds for the last three nights of my stay.

Have a good weekend everybody!

My Name Is Luca

It's a wild life in Sydney.

Yesterday I woke up, ate breakfast and played some Super Mario Galaxy before leaving to the city and the airport. I left at 1 and my flight was at 4:30 so I had three and a half hours to get there. But what I had somehow forgotten about was that I had to actually be at the airport at 3:30. Well, after getting some lunch in the city, I checked in at 3:35 for my flight.

The flight went well. I read Superfreakonomics from take-off to landing -- okay, I did look out the window a lot -- and my ears only felt pressure during the landing. When we took off, I actually saw the shadow of the plain moving on the ground and thought that it would be kind of cool to be in that shadow for a brief second.

When we had landed and almost at the gate in Sydney airport a plane flew just above us and I saw its shadow going through us at great speed. It was quite cool.

I could see the city from the airplane window and I realized that i'd been to Sydney on one more occasion than I remembered. I did remember, of course, my first trip five years ago and my second trip two years ago. But I'd forgotten  that I'd stopped over at the airport in March of this ear on my way to New Zealand.

I took the train from the airport and when it came out of a tunnel at circular quay next to the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge I felt like I was in a movie, a painting or a dream. I just couldn't believe it was real. In the last two years I've seen pictures of Sydney, pictures I've taken, so many times that they had been bigger than my memories. That's why I think that pictures are overrated. If you have pictures of every Saturday night, what are you actually going to remember yourself? You're going to remember the picture first, not the funny thing that happened after it was taken.

Heck, if you look at these some of these pictures, they tell a lot less than a 1,000 words. Like the picture of an underwater crocodiles tells more like 500 words, 125 of which are lies.

Okay, back here. I got out of the train at Town Hall, navigated to my hotel and after I got my key, my brotherman came out of the elevator. Jumankeuta. Soon after we went to dinner with our mom at an Italian restaurant.

After dinner me and my brotherman went to have a drink at a sports bar and we talked about the NBA, The Wire, Thailand, Australia and a bunch of similar subjects.

Today we had breakfast at a wrap place across the street from the hotel. Then we headed to Darling Harbour, home of the Aquarium and the Wildlife World. We bought tickets that included entry to both as well as the Sydney Tower and Ocean World on Manly -- I didn't even know there was one.

As you might have guessed we went to the Wildlife World. There we saw a pooping koala, some feeding pythons, one f the worlds biggest crocodiles and some mice having a little too much fun in the dark.

We wound up the day with a monorail trip and some shopping. I bought a Larry Bird book, green Converses (no relation) and two seasons of Futurama. Then we had dinner with mom at a Indian restaurant in KIngs Cross. We'll see her  one more time tomorrow.

Well, that's it. I'll be back with more photos and memories of Sydney later.

G'bye! (I just made that up)

Holidae Inn

Party Time!

Tomorrow I'm finally going to Sydney for a vacation. I'll be spending most of the time with my brotherman, 2Pay, as we'll be sharing a hotel room (or two to be exact) for seven nights. Mom's also going to be there (Sydney, not the hotels) until Thursday. I'll be flying there tomorrow afternoon and back a week from Tuesday. I hope I don't annoy my brother too much...

My last three days have been quite boring so I'll share with you something that has nothing to do with me, but is really blogworhty. Rami, our Indian kitchen hand at Rochford, told Alex a couple of days ago why he's in Australia. Back home in India he started dating a girl. But this girl had an arranged marriage with someone else. Things with the girl progressed naturally like they would in the "western" world, which infuriated the "rightful" groom's family. So the groom's father paid someone to kill Rami. Fortunately he was able to escape before "the hit" and came to Australia with a student visa. Quite a story, huh?

Anyway, the last three days have been less than spectacular. Less than unspectacular. Friday was more of the same at work. But so was Saturday, and so was today because Helmut needed me outside. Okay, today was even more boring with too much walking and not enough to do since Helmut hired Vietnamese people to finish our job while we were checking if they'd done it properly. Which they mostly had.

Highlights from the past three days: I cooked my own food on Friday and ate it for lunch on the weekend. I also cooked on Saturday, planning to eat half of it today, but just as I finished Sascha came home, hungry. But it was okay, I have enough for dinner tonight. Besides, I think I've scored some big points in Sascha's book lately. I paid for Friday's KFC and cooked yesterday. Plus, since I didn't work the bar this weekend no will I next weekend he might actually "need" me back two weeks from now. For Blondie's concert!!! Also, I haven't been around him too much to get annoyed with him.

I also finished watching the Wire this week and it was the most satisfying end to a series I've ever seen. It might not be the best series in my book (In the top three with Oz and Seinfeld maybe) but without bad seasons, episodes even, and with a great finish it's right up there. I got to watch three straight episodes in the living room on Friday while Ana and Sascha were out shopping.

Lowlights include waking up in the middle of the night with difficulty of getting back to sleep and, well, getting pretty bored at work practically doing the same thing for five days straight.

Now I'm packing and doing my laundry while just enjoying life and the moment. I'm trying not to think too far ahead to December, January and February, how long I'll bare working in the same place (original plan is 11 more weeks) or how much money I can save up during those months but it's in the back of my mind all the time. I hope it stays way back there until I come back from Sydney.

I'll finish with a Working Holiday fact: I came to Australia 12 weeks ago today. Three of those weeks have been "holiday" -- One searching jobs in Cairns and two slumming in Brisbane/Melbourne -- while nine weeks have been spent working, two at Proserpine and seven at Rochford. And it seems like I'll be working even more the following five months with only approximately six more weeks of holiday planned (in Australia, three more after that naturally) unless I can lower my expenses at some point or get a better salary from my next job.

As unimportant as this post might seem to you, it was important for me to get out of the way, so I could concentrate on Holiday blogging for the next nine days. And you got a great story from a foreign culture out of it. Not a bad deal in my opinion.

Stay tuned!

Family Ties

So, where do I begin?

After all the excitement on Sunday night I couldn't fall asleep. I kept thinking about all the things me and my mom talked about and all the other people that interconnect with our lives in Finland. It took me until 2 am to fall asleep, 4 hours left before wake up.

We had some breakfast and after that we were whisked off on our tour. Our driver and guide was a very funny bearded, tall man called Tom. The bus we rode with was pretty similar to the ones we used for commute in Proserpine.

Before the actual Great Ocean Road we drove through a couple places of interest. The first place was Geelong, Victoria's second largest city with a population of 130,000. It used to be an important gateway during the goldrush in the 1850's. The ships grew too big for Geelong's sandbars and as they moved to Melbourne, so did a lot of the people.

The next place was Torquay, Australia's surfing capital. After the second world war, local surfers invented the wetsuit and started their own company Rip Curl. One of the guys wanted to start his own company, Quicksilver. Right after Torquay we stopped at Bell's Beach (portrayed in Point Break by an Irish beach) and took some pictures.



The Great Ocean Road's divided into tree parts, Surf Coast, Green Coast and Shipwreck Coast. Like Australian names, there's no need for explanation. After the beaches and a teabreak, we arrived at the official entrance to the GOC. After that we saw a lot of green and made out next stop at Koala cove. We saw some colorful birds and a couple of sleepy and hungry koalas.





We followed the green coastline until Apollo Bay where we had lunch. Fish and chips, plus a coke. Then we headed inlands and went for a hike in the rainforest, where Tom told us some facts and some half-made up jokes in his usual sarcastic way. We still needed to drive for one more hour in the beautiful green before arriving at the Twelve Apostles.





There was a lot of people there and an option to see the apostles from a helicopter too. We took a walk and wound up at the shore right next to the biggest one. It doesn't translate very well into my pictures, but they looked freakin' amazing. I took a LOT of pictures and even posed in some of them myself.





After the apostles we checked out Shipwreck Gorge where a sailor named Tom survived a shipwreck and saved the only other person, a woman, to survive. They never got married. After that we saw London Bridge which had actually fallen down a couple years earlier just before some school kids were about to go down there. Two people were stranded on the other side though, a fact that Tom elaborated on with another one of his funny stories.

Then we had three hours left to get back to the city. We stopped for dinner at a little town and we -- mom and me -- chose Subway. We were tired but we chatted most of the drive back and I couldn't stay awake for long at the hotel.

I slept well and after breakfast we packed our stuff, took it to the car and checked out of the hotel. We started our day by going to the Eureka tower, the southern hemisphere's highest viewing platform. My mom had never been there before, but I had, coming home from New Zealand in March. The views were good and made more sense this time, because I knew so many more places this time around.



Then we went shopping. Or I went and mom ended up shouting -- Australian for paying -- for me. Besides some DVDs and some clothes from JayJay's the main thing was my new backpack/suitcase, which was twice the size of my former backpack. I won't have the chance to use it in three months, but I did get to haul it around the city for the whole day after my mom left for the airport.

First I headed towards the aquarium but I had to get some food and visit the bookstore, preferably a Borders. So I walked to the borders in South Wharf mall, bought Superfreakonomics and had Subway for lunch. I was on my way back to the aquarium when I stopped at the Village Cinemas in the Crown Casino complex to see what was playing. It was 10 minutes before a showing of Machete so I bought a $11 ticket, some soda and went in.



The movie was fun and afterwards walking to the train station, rolling my suitcase behind me, I must've looked really out of place, like a serial killer or something. But I felt like I'd just come back from a vacation, a new beginning of sorts. I hadn't felt this good after or during my off-days before and during the downtime I'd realized that I should have spent more time in the city. After my trip to Sydney, I will. I took the train home and sent some pictures to the blog on my way. I also stopped at Coles and McDonald's before finally getting home. I unpacked my new stuff and fell asleep after twenty minutes of The Wire.



Yesterday was back to work. Work felt very good, I enjoyed working outside again and the weather was nice -- sunny and 23 degrees. In the evening I tried to stay up and watch some NBA but I retreated to bed at halftime.

Today was more of the same at Helmut's farm, but the weather wasn't very nice. It started raining after lunch and even though it wasn't pouring almost at all, it was very wet. My socks were soaked, my sleeves and pants got wet as well as my gloves, which are going to get thrown out after tomorrow. Ending the day felt awesome and getting home to put on some dry warm clothes felt even better. We have house guests, Axel and Maria, but them being German and all, there's no point listening them to talk and laugh. I'm heading to KFC for dinner and the I'll do some stretching so I can work outside without feeling it on my hamstrings as badly.

So, I saw my mom -- the first familiar face since Baabäk in Hong Kong -- for the first time in three months. Our time was together wasn't very long, but she'll still be in Sydney when I get there next week. I actually do feel like I just had a vacation and in just four days I'll start a real vacation with Brotherman in Sydney. It'll be great to get back there after two years and I'm really fortunate to have this opportunity to see my family here. If I'm unlucky, it'll be another six months before that happens again.

Well, I hope everyone, myself included, has a great weekend. My nephew -- Call me Don Sakari -- turns one this weekend. Congratulations! Don't party too hard.

Kept it koel!

Photo Essay: Eureka, Melbourne!

Photo Essay: Oceans Twelve. Or Seven

Big Momma's Boy

Things couldn't be much better. Currently I'm in a hotel in Melbourne with my mom. It's the first day since August 28th that I'm with someone who knows me, and someonewho speaks my language.

Work this weekend was a pleasure. On Friday we did a lot of preparing for a function on Saturday. I did manage to do a big no-no though. I drove a forklift down to the big marquee set up for the event (that was also used for Wednesday's or Thursday's function) and got it stuck in the pathway I helped make on my first working day the 1st of October. I got through it with weight on the machine but I couldn't make it out back over it. I hoped that we'd get it out with Richard before Helmut would see it but the other forklift didn't have enough horses in it's engine to get it out. Helmut wasn't pleased but he didn't scold us too badly. He used the tractor to get us out and after I repaired the damage I'd done to the pathway everything was alright. It was just a waste of time, nothing else. We did work pretty late and on the way home with Richard we wondered how people got anything like this done -- you know, getting forklifts stuck and all that useful stuff that we do -- before we showed up at Rochford...

Saturday started rainy and we did some more preparing for the noon function. When the guests started pouring in the rained stopped (pouring). I worked the bar with Graham, who wasn't very smart about it. I didn't have to do too much busy or unpleasant stuff. Before the function David almost killed me though. Not literally. We hurried all the plates down from the restaurant carrying too much weight in a impractical container and in a painful manner. My left hand was still a little numb going to sleep last night.

The function went great and nobody drank too much alcohol or soft drinks. I haven't taken a Responsible Serving of Soft Drinks course but dumb Graham kept pouring full 33 cl cups of drinks to kids of all ages, while I kept it at under 15 cl for anyone with facepaint and around 25 cl for other underage people. All of them seemed satisfied with what they got and the smallest ones were the most polite customers I've had. The kids were seriously cute and my favorite one was a three year-old girl who asked if she "could please have a wemonade?" After the function our staff diminished so David and finally myself and Darcy hauled the rest of the stuff away. It started raining but I just felt too good to care. It was fun. How did we get rid of the fryer that had made me get the forklift stuck? We started to carry it with Darcy but need a break pretty soon. I ran back and grabbed a trolley (nokkakärry in Finnish) and hauled it back with that. Easily -- Helmut had told me to use a ute the day before and David told me to use a pellet and a pellet jack. I really should do more things the way I feel is the smartest. My experience with Muuttopalvelu Niemi in 2001-2 seriously paid off. Should have put it to use 24 hours earlier though.

Boaz gave me a lift home and we decided to go to the cinema to see Skyline. We stopped at our place so I could change and then we watched some TV at Boaz before leaving. David also joined us. We all agreed that it was a stupid movie. Personally I wouldn't recommend it to anyone even though it had some cool moments. Mediocre but not positive.

At home I bagged my bags for my days off. One bag for the stuff I need for my getaway and my 40 l backpack with stuff I'd want to send home. We -- me and my mom -- are getting me a bigger one on Tuesday!

Today I worked the bar with David but I did get a trolley assignment. Or I made it one. I don't know if you remember the tables or trestles that me and Richard painted gray, but I had to get six of those from the marquee near the concert stage and get them up to the marquee next to the café. By myself. (Sascha told me to take my time, BTW I already like him more now!) The first trip I brought up one, with the legs facing forwards (I really should've taken some pictures of this) and carried it in from the door of the marquee. The second trip I brought in two tables and maneuvered them in the marquee with the trolley and on the last trip I brought in three (which was a bit too heavy to do pleasantly). By the time Graham came to assist me, there was nothing to do.

Me and David held fort in the bar and I even served some food and cleared the same plates later. AND I made two lattes while David was smoking with Sascha and brought them to the table myself -- no complaints. After the busiest part I started looking at the time to see when my mom would arrive. She said she'd come around three o'clock. I was afraid I'd start to cry. A little after three she sauntered in like nothing and it felt like running into someone your jot really surprised to see because it's natural and probable. Like seeing someone from SYK on Aleksanterinkatu or Wanha-Kettu or someone from TOKL in Klubi, Börssi or Dynamo. I was still busy polishing glasses but I got my mom a cappuccino for free. After that she looked around and took some pictures of the area.

David agreed that we had a good day and told me to go home so we left. I changed into more comfortable clothes and grabbed my stuff. I haven't talked as much as I did on the one hour drive in ages. Then again I hadn't had a conversation in Finnish in over a month. When we got to the hotel here in St. Kilda we just left our bags in the room and I got some presents from Finland, a book from my aunt (thanks!) and a Donald Duck pocketbook from my grandma (shoutout!). Then we headed out to eat in the city.

We took a tram, went through the CBD and found the exact same Italian restaurant on Lygon Street we had been to five years ago after seeing the Lion King musical. We still talked a lot and had a good time. I ate garlic bread, seafood pasta and chocolate ice cream. Then we headed to the river to find a bar and had one more drink at the local PJ O'Brien's before retreating to our hotel. I looked at some pictures that my mom had on a cd before I opened the TV, put on my peejays and started writing this.

We're going to the Great Ocean Road tomorrow and wake up's in six hours. I'm sorry for the lack of pictures in this post, but I've been too busy living the moments to recapture them. My mom did get some good pictures though!

I'll hit you back with another post soon, most definitely with pictures.

Holla at your playa!

Ps. Fun blogfact number 1: My last post (What becomes of the brokenhearted) is already the fourth most loaded post in this blogs history trailing the first official post, my first post from Hong Kong and my first post from Rochford. Thanks for reading, whoever you are! It's easier to write when I know people are still interested.

What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?

There has been fun and there's been some heartache. Monday and Tuesday were a little boring and I felt bad mentally and physically and I'm not sure which one caused the other. Going to work at 7 am on Wednesday I felt worse than I had felt in a long time. But once the day got going I realized that working outside is a million times more enjoyable than working at the bar. Thanks to a badly slept night I was a little tired at the end of today's work but I felt better once I got off work.

Highlights: I got to drive the ute to Lilydale on Wednesday morning. Later John taught me to drive and use the forklift. AWESOME! Today, Sascha asked me to do inventory on his locked storage room. I liked that because I got to actually use my brain to organize something and to do it properly. Tuesday night I watched some television. Going head-to-head were the Miami Heat vs. Utah Jazz overtime game and the premiere of Conan, Conan O'Brien's new late night show. I saw the best parts of both ie. Utah's comeback with a flurry of threes and the opening monologue of Conan. Today's lunch was awesome too.. It was a Parma, which in my estimation is a chicken schnitzel type of thing but with extra tomato under the crust on the file. Yum-may! Rounding out things the funniest thing in a long time was that picture of a license plate I took (it's okay if you don't get the joke).

Okay stuff: Richard came over yesterday and we sat outside talking. Had he not come I might have gone to the cinema with Boaz to see Paranormal Activity 2. On Monday I watched Insomnia. I'd totally forgot about the movie. I was most pleasantly surprised by Robin Williams performance and the simple but unorthodox plot. Oh, and Chris Nolan interviewing Al Pacino was a great extra. On Monday k finished The Wire's fourth season. I still think season two's the best so far. Also, I saw the biggest ants I've ever seen today.

Lowlights: I hate Sascha. He just annoys the hell out of me. In comparison, I actually like talking to Ana now.
1. He thinks that he knows me and makes snap judgments about my working style.
2. He thinks he's funny, but mostly it's the bad kind of unintentional, pathetic funny, if that. Or it's just plain annoying.
3. He speaks really shitty English, with sentences formed like the German language. He almost ruined Richard's visit by talking too much.
4. It might be because of his shitty English, but he uses a lot of superlatives -- "Australia is the worstest blah, blah" SHUT UP!!! -- and makes a lot of end-of-the-discussion statements. He must have said "that's the problem with Rochford" on at least three different subjects. He should learn to use phrases like "In my opinion", "One of the..." and "It might be that" and so on and so on. But now, he's just an asshole nobody disagrees with because he's the boss.

Or nobody disagrees with him because his opinion doesn't matter and he's a foreigner with horrible English. In my opinion, one of the reasons might be just his holier than thou Republicanlike worldview that makes him talk like that. But what do I know? BTW, he's also rubbed Boaz the wrong way lately. Not that I need support for my opinions but it's nice to know that someone else has noticed the mistreating ways of an asshole.

Oh, and I still have to live with him...

His weekend assessment of me did lead to him giving me an enjoyable assignment today, so it's not all bad and I'm sure my annoyance with him will dissipate in time.

In other news it's three more days and my mom will come to Rochford, from where she'll take me to a hotel in St. Kilda for a couple of days and we're also going on a Great Ocean Road tour on Monday.

I can't wait!

Everlong [Acoustic]

(I don't think a blogpost can be acoustic. An unplugged blogpost is a handwritten letter to every reader. An acoustic blogpost is a podcast?)

I really don't update my blog when I should. Like last Wednesday. That's when I went shopping and spent more than $300 of my hard earned cash on plane tickets to Sydney and back, Freakonomics, a couple of DVDs, a couple of t-shirts etc. Five days -- or an everlong -- later all that doesn't feel too important. I went to the Eastland mall, shopped and saw The Social Network in the cinema. The movie made me feel a little sick about Facebook kind of like Super Size Me did to McDonald's -- even though it always makes me go Gorsky for Big Macs.

On Thursday I stayed home, watched Gladiator and wrestling on DVD among other things, got my hair cut and, stayed lazy.

Friday I worked by myself in the vineyard trying to get some color on my pale torso (didn't happen) and finished early. I ate pizza for dinner and spent $45 more on DVDs even though I should be saving.

Yesterday was a not-so-busy day in the restaurant but it still was busy in the bar, as it always is. I felt tired all day but I took really good care of the bar before going home so that today would be easier.

It wasn't. It was a shitty day and Sascha really got on my nerves. The crux of the problem is that we don't have enough staff so us full-timers have to work twice as hard and also keep the others busy. Well, I'm full-time two days a week and I've got less than ten days experience working in a bar in my whole life while the others have been doing their jobs for a year or a lot more. So I suck at my job, I know. But that's a big problem for Sascha too.

But I'm not going to care too much. I'll try to survive the next two weekends before my vacation to Sydney and if he keeps treating me like shit in December I'll gladly change scenery and get a job somewhere else. It's not my preference but being called a slow girl is not something I want from my roommate either.

After a walk to "Maccas" and a Mega Mac meal later I don't feel like crying my frustration away. Numb, maybe?

Now I have two days off and I plan to use my hard earned $$$ for food only. Maybe, just maybe, I'll go to the movies, but I'd rather stay home, chill out, sit outside reading and watch DVDs on the couch. On Tuesday I might get to watch some NBA too. The next days off I'm spending with my mother and after that I'm in Sydney so the next time I can just relax in or around Lilydale will be after the Blondie concert in December.

Seven more days of Everlong and I meet the person in whom I spent almost as much time growing as I will have spent abroad on this trip. I doubt I'll gain 3,960 kgs during these months though.

Stay fat friends,
Sakari out

PS. One day, don't remember which, I was reading a bunch of stuff I've written on the Internet during the years. The best stuff was amusing and I don't feel like I have written anything funny in ages. This blog seems more like a dull diary than an entertaining read. I don't know if it's the language, the subject matter or what, but that's what I feel. I'll try to liven up my writing in future posts. I'm aiming for more clever and funny stuff. I should only write after doing or something funny...

Save It for a Rainy Day

Hi World,

Just as I feared, I haven't had a day off since I last graced your lives with my blog writing presence. Nothing really special has happened so let's get right to the interesting part.

My mom is coming to Melbourne in less than two weeks! She'll grab from work on Sunday next week and I'll spend my two days off with her. That's four off-days and eight working days away still. Oh, and a week later I'm going to Sydney with the scary Brotherman, 2Pay, himself.

But that's in the future. Currently I'm tired and I'll go back to the past to illustrate why.

Friday was nothing special. Sunny day, worked on Helmut's vineyard all day. Saturday was boring at first but then I was a bartender at a 21st birthday function held outside in a marquee (a tent). It rained buy it wasn't cold until late. I mainly worked with Krystal who can be a bit of a bitch, but I respect her and Eva the new German girl. We had fun working together. More about her later. We didn't work too late and got to eat some delicious left overs before knocking off. The Car Show was cancelled because of the rain, which had already caused flooding in parts of the Yarra Valley and elsewhere.

David gave me a lift home and we picked Ana up after buying beer from a drive-in liquor store. Literally. A drive-in liquor store that's open all night. I don't even want to imagine what would happen if we had those in Finland. David brought a six pack ad shared it with Ana who invited David over. David talked about his family, mainly his troublesome brother and we had a good time. Sascha joined us too and we we just sat in the living room chatting until 11 PM.

Sunday was a quite busy bar day even without the cars and I worked with David. It was a busy day and went quickly but I felt very stressed. Fortunately David caught on and told me to cheer up and said that we are a good team. That made me feel better but it was short-lived.

Sascha called me and Eva to talk with him and he had a "suggestion". He thought that me and her should switch apartments. She's staying with Alex and Elizabeth and works in the restaurant everyday and not just two days a week like me. And I wouldn't have to wait for a lift after work if I lived close by. It felt like he was throwing me out for a German bias.

I took some cardboard out and took my aggressions out on the cardboards before putting them in the machine. I don't want to move, I thought. It's my home and if I lived on the farm I'd be a slave to Helmut just like Alex. If you know me, you would've seen that I was angry and tired when I came back in. Sascha said that it was my decision and I told him that honestly I don't want to move. And that was it.

Now, I was still angry because Sascha had thought this idea was so great that he'd suggested in front of Eva. There was no reason to have her know of the possibility if it's my decision and afterwards I just wished she didn't think I'm a total a-hole for not moving out. I actually like her and would like to spend some time with her but I'd have to be in love to sacrifice myself like that. I've since talked to a couple of people about it and they agreed that Sascha shouldn't have involved Eva and that I have no reason to get out if I want to stay. We even talked about our arrangements with Sascha yesterday and it's all water under the bridge. Now if they would just watch movies that without German audio -- seriously, watching The Dark Knight with German dialogue. Retarded and just stupid, am I right? -- we might actually start having some fun together.

Monday I went back to work thanks to a lift from Boaz and even though it was a busy day in the restaurant I grabbed my jeans with me as "Helmut insurance". Smart move, since I worked outside all day with Richard, who gave me a lift home and his two cents on the apartment/Eva situation. Sascha was already home and we talked before they watched 8Mile in half English, half German and I watched some Wire and 48 hrs., a violent action film starring Nick Nolte and a pre-Beverly Hills serious (and seriously good) Eddie Murphy -- The bad guy was Dexter's dad, James Remar!

It was Melbourne Cup today but Helmut requested me to work outside with Richard which was fine. I was too tired to deal with customers anyway. Another rainy day I remembered to bring my own rain coat today. I worked really slow today but I did see the biggest spider I've ever seen and a real live echidna digging for ants beneath the bushes. I took a picture and video which I'll try to upload a to YouTube and embed on the site later. He was pretty scared of noise but showed his pointy face when I was silently filming him.

Mercifully the day ended, I have two days off now and in 30 minutes I'm going to the cinema with Boaz, Bree, Louise and Natalie from Cellar Door to see Red, starring Bruce Willis and older actors. Tomorrow I'll do my part of cleaning around the house and then I'm going shopping ready to spend $200 or more for some pretty important stuff like un-ripped jeans and plane tickets to Sydney and back.

Have a good one, laters!

Ps. You can read this post on a sunny day too, but it's been raining quite a lot so saving it would get you in the right mood.

Pps. Thanks to the holidays, there were a lot of families with kids at Rochford. Makes me miss my niece and nephew and also makes me wish I'll get to be a father some day. Hopefully not before at least nine months after I've returned to Finland but, You know, eventually.

UPDATE: Just came back from the cinema. Go see Red, it's good, fun, over the top action.