I apologize for the sparse entries as of late. To be honest, there is still not much to write about unless you want to hear about the many jerks, idiots, and otherwise largely negatively memorable people that John and I encounter in our adventures in the hospitality industry. May I just make a note that many times throughout my day I am surprised at how many people actually make it through life with the way they are.
Instead, I can talk about Christmas! I assume you may have seen John and my "Christmas Lamp" on Facebook--our substitute for a tree. But, if not, I will share it on here. Pretty crafty, I must say!
Once again, John and I both worked on Christmas Day for lunch. We exchanged gifts that morning--just got a few nice things for each other that are useful and easily portable. But then it was off to work. You would be surprised at how many people don't want to stay at home and spend time with their families on Christmas. Most of them are lazy and don't want to cook so they go out to eat, or in my case, got to the Zoo. Even if the weather is crap. Our Christmas Day we were greeted first by indecisive weather and then a veritable storm in the afternoon. To my misfortune, it started pouring down rain right as we were trying to close my outlet in the Zoo, the only one indoors, and so everyone left in the zoo ran inside for safety and decided they wanted coffees and drinks, since they were there anyways. We managed to herd everyone out a half hour after closing time and had to subsequently clean the whole place again. I made it home and got off the train just in time for it to start pouring again!
But despite the weather, John and I made a nice Christmas dinner of glazed ham, corn pudding, caramelized garlic carrots, and a homemade caramel cheesecake made by yours truly. We put our new, tabletop convection oven to use! John made it home in much the same drenched fashion as myself, but once we were inside it was quite cozy to watch the storm from our 12th floor window while enjoying a nice Pinot Noir and our home-cooked meal.
However, just to further document the fact that Melbourne has crazy weather, I got some video of our Christmas hail storm that ensued!
A cyclone (or as you Northern Hempisherians call it, a "hurricane") was passing over the Northern Territory and we here in Victoria got the fringes of it--which was apparent by the stop and start nature of the storm all evening. At one point, during the calm part, we even got a nice Christmas rainbow!
A week later, and it was over 100*F. Or 40*C. Not kidding. And NOT pleasant. New Year's Eve ushered in short period of ridiculously hot weather. As John described to me in a text last night, "It's so hot my knees are sweating." The last remnants of the heat wave is breaking as I type this, as I watch the storm clouds approaching the city. A very welcome, sight, I must say, as the stress of the holidays coupled with the almost unbearable heat was putting people on edge. Considering the fact that city people are generally unpleasant to start with means that I am very glad the temperature is starting to drop.
However, John and I are hoping to finally get out of Melbourne on our day off and head to the beach to take advantage of the nice weather! Something to look forward to and maybe an adventure will come from it!
We also both spent New Year's Eve working, though I managed to clock off at 11 p.m. giving me enough time to race through Melbourne to be with John at his restaurant in Southbank by midnight. You know in those cheesy movies where someone races to be with their loved on at midnight, encountering various obstacles and holdups? That was what I felt like. First I had to make my way through the crowds at Docklands, where I work, to catch a tram into the city that was slow and crowded, squeeze through the crowds on the street that smelled like sweat, booze, and greasy food, to make it to the train station, where I had to squeeze my way through the very narrow crowded tunnel that connects the main city to Southbank. Then once I got to the bridge where you have to cross the river to get to his restaurant, I was told it was closed until 12:30. I, on the verge of tears that my efforts were all for naught, explained my situation to the officer, and was told there was another bridge a bit further down that still should have been open. So I dashed there and dashed across, on my way stopping to do a double take when, yes indeed, I saw my boss from the Zoo standing on the bridge with two other zoo coworkers! Random! I stopped and had a quick chat before darting off to the Ludlow Formation where I made it with time to spare! Didn't bring my camera, though. But you could see the fireworks that were set off at all the different parts of the city and it was really nice. Plus I got free wine and champagne. And my midnight smooch. :)
So, here's to 2011, which was pretty frickin' awesome what with living in NZ all, here's to hoping 2012 can compete!
