Random Stuff

So today I went and got my hair cut. It took me two hours. I am blaming this on the fact that some parts of Australia (like the hairdressers at the Barclay Mall, for example) appear to operate in their own time zone which has no connection to the rest of the world. I went in at 4:30 with my friend Irene, who assured me that I didn't need an appointment (even though she had made one). The place was packed! I got my name put on the client list and we sat down to wait. We were assured that the wait would only be half an hour. Well, Irene didn't get seen until 5:30 (her appointment was at 4:30); I didn't get seen until 6! All the time we were waiting, more and more people kept coming into the salon, hoping to get their hair cut, and the ladies in the salon kept telling everyone that the wait would be about half an hour. Gargh. Ironically, in the end I fared way better than Irene did - she was getting highlights done as well as a shampoo and cut... she didn't leave the hair salon until 7:30! Craziness.

I am still working on slide shows for summer camp. They seem to be taking me a ridiculously long time this year. I don't know why. Sometimes I wonder if I'm lacking in motivation because I am on holiday and so far away from home. Other times I'm sure I'm struggling because I still have no idea whether I have a job at camp next summer or not. In any case, I'm now working on the Week 4 slide show... then it's just down to the Passport canoe camp slide show and an easy-to-cobble-together promo slide show. I am still hoping to get everything done before I leave on my adventures on Monday morning. Wish me luck!

Jen made a big decision today that will affect our travelling and planning for the new year. For the past three months she's been supply teaching at a variety of schools around Melbourne, including a french immersion school. Well - the french immersion school loves her SO MUCH they basically tried offering her a permenant contract! Of course, that's not gonna work so well, what with her having to return to her real life in Canada and all... but she has accepted a shorter term contract which will see her working full time until at least the end of June. This is great - it reduces her stress about having to supply teach at icky schools, gives her more steady money, and the job itslef is one she's gonna love - she'll be teaching french, math, sport, and integrated studies. The school loves her so much that they're willing to let her have some time off in February when her Mom comes to visit us! As an added bonus for me, the school teaches half its subjects in french and the other half in english... so I'm going to go in and see if I can volunteer there for at least a few days a week when we come back from our January adventures. So congrats Jen!

Tonight we celebrated our friend Tarra's birthday. Her birthday isn't actually until tomorrow, but we've all got commitments tomorrow so tonight was the night of choice. Jen and I met Tarra downtown on Lygon Street and we wound up in a cute little cafe for some decadent cake and drinks. Let me explain about the cake. First, it was hideously expensive - almost $8 a slice! We split one slice between the three of us. It was Tim Tam cheesecake. For those of you who haven't experienced the joys of eating a Tim Tam yet, I can't fully explain this to you... let's just say it was DAMN GOOD cheesecake! I hadn't been down this stretch of Lygon Street before, and there are all sorts of funky shops that I am definitely going to have to come back and explore at some future time.

Tomorrow night we're having our house Christmas party. This could prove to be interesting, since the last time I looked, the turkey was still a solid, frozen lump. We gave up trying to defrost it in the fridge earlier today and now it is sitting in a bucket of water in our living room. I only hope it defrosts by tomorrow morning so we can cook it!

See - what did I tell you? All sorts of random stuff tonight.