Day 130

Scarily heavy rain again today so it looks like we'll have to wait until New Zealand for our next beach day... hard life hahahah!

My email inbox was quite lively today:

1.Rosa Menendez, a lecturer from Lancaster Uni, had emailed asking me whether I could drop off my Field Logbook from the Spanish Field Course, so that she could use it to show this year's prospective students. Flattering but I had to laugh, as I replied saying that her office was a little bit of a journey for me at the moment :P

2.This second email was actually quite scary. My mum's watched loads of those heirhunter programs, where small companies find unclaimed estates and use family trees to help match up the money to some distant relatives. Everytime, I watched that program, I would say 'wouldn't it be great to get that phonecall saying some aunt you'd never met had died and now you're going to be rich'. Well, today I got an email. Heirhunters in Kuala Lumpur had contacted me, saying they would provide next of kin documentation (i.e. forged documents) that I am the sole descendent of one Mariek Warlow, who had left behind a cool US$12.2 million. Now whether they were going to take the commission and leave you to get arrested for fraud or ask for your bank details and simply do a runner, I have no clue but it was mega scary. In this case, I'm happy to stay poor thanks.

This evening, Brad announced that he would be driving us to the airport on Monday 15th; Rachel protested, talking about the cheap ticket we can get for the airtrain but he was not having it. Just talking about it, he looked teary eyed again! Apparently, he's taking the morning off to attend an Award assembly for Darcy anyway. Rosemaree was so proud, dancing around the kitchen showing us the letter of invitation and the award for leadership. Darcy just tried shrugging it off, saying 'it's not special or anything' but if only he could see Rosemaree grinning from ear to ear in the living room :D

Day 131

I'm missing bonfire night! I love this time of the year, sitting on a cold brick wall, craning your neck as you pray the rain holds off until after the parade, or dodging the falling sticks as we watch the Nine Elms Parade from a street corner :P Last year set a high standard as well, watching fireworks at Lancaster's castle-turned-prison followed by a trip to sugarhouse wearing a waterproof coat :P Somehow, I don't think Brad would understand if I chucked his antique furniture onto the barbecue (not to mention the bush fire risk), dancing around the garden and writing my name in sparklers :(

However, Darcy provided some entertainment of a different sort, asking ever so politely whether I was allowed any of Rachel's English Dairy Milk. His disbelief and indignation at this 'poor friendship' didn't come close to covering his disappointment that he couldn't persuade me to share lol After walking off, trying to look all deprived, he ran back in the room, to run a genius idea by me: 'we could always say the rat ate it, couldn't we? you remember that there was the rat in the house (only too well); Rachel will believe it'. Darcy wasn't brave enough to try this idea out and all that cam out of it was a post-it going onto the Dairy milk saying 'Rachel's. Hands off!)

Day 132

We went into the city to see the Myer Christmas Parade this morning. It was surreal! Amazing costumes, carols singers by the shop entrances, elves on scooters, a great addition to the traditional nativity scene with Mr Potato Head, fairytale characters (who posed especially for my picture... not that I look like a tourist or anything :P) and a very sweaty Kung Fu Panda lol. Seeing Santa pull up in his car(?) trying to shield his eyes from the sun was so strange, especially when he said 'Ho ho ho' with an Aussie accent! The whole of the Queen Street Mall was decked out and the Myer Christmas Display revealed to show animations from the Nutcracker but where were all the rainclouds, frost, black ice, coats, scarves and hats????!!!

We then followed Santa into Myer to do some Christmas shopping, which involved sniffing lots of white strips doused in perfume until they all smelt the same... the shop assistant asked whether we were buying it for our mum.... our answer 'kind of' must have confused her so much but didn't dampen the hard sell much lol. Eventually, we decided on an Elizabeth Arden Miniatures Set and headed across to the Priceline Pharmacy for exactly the same gift set but at a more normal price :P Then we headed to Target for a last attempt at finding a nice top for Rosemaree... and we found the perfect one! Bright prints, loose and floaty but a small size so she can show off all her weight loss! As I headed to the till with it, a Chinese lady came up and started stroking the fabric and complementing the pattern. I don't know whether she thought I worked there or what, but I ended up leading her back to the aisle, pointing out the different colours available and trying to explain what a 25% sale on women's wear actually meant = hard work lol. Buying Darcy his own Dairy Milk Bar, complete with post-it and ordering Brad a 'Disaster Area' sign for the 'true disaster area' (his own words) that is the shed, christmas shopping was complete. Now just to write a soppy letter and the card can be sealed ready for 'Xmas in Nov' next Saturday!

The afternoon was also a good one, as I found my lecture notes for 'jawed fishes'. I had searched high and low for these for about a month now and was just about to use the basic handout online for revision when they fell out my travelling notebook :D :D :D In the evening, Brad took Rosemaree out to the Fine Food and Wine Exhibition (only to get there after the closing time so they ended up going for sushi instead!), leaving me in charge of the TV. TOY STORY 1 WAS ON! I squealed through to Rachel, who was trying to suss out whether the lasagne was vegetarian - clearly overexcited from watching the parade with a bunch of little kids. Darcy came shooting out the bathroom to check whether everything was ok; he actually thought I was squealing because somebody was in the house and was coming to protect me from the intruder awwwwww <3 Although he seemed slightly confused at the real reason, he did come through to laugh at buzz Lightyear and approved my film choice with such an Australian 'riiiight. Fair play!' :D

Our routine (and random) panther walk to turn the internet off at night resulted in a casualty tonight, as Rachel got a bit eager and ended up taking a right chunk out her leg.... we couldn't find out what she'd hit in the dark so fingers crossed it wasn't anything antique lol. Round of applause though for keeping her cries of pain so quiet! :P :P

Day 133

I spent the day putting off revision until later tonight, so tidied my room, charged everything and anything (including my English mobile), planned most of Cairns (so excited!), distracted Rachel a fair bit from her revision and went on a huge walk up to Albany Creek and back via Everton Hills. Sneaking down the drive in my smelly hiking boots, vest top all sweaty, I had the biggest walk of shame ever, with Darcy, Brad and Zach all out in the garden, emptying the ute after the markets. Zach had apparently met 'the most gorgeous girl... really, her smile... just wow' at skateboarding but Rosemaree cut through his romance pretty quickly, saying 'there's no point her having a beautiful smile. She's not going to smile much, when she;s caring for you in a home; if you don't wear a helmet, you're going to get brain damage.' That was a slightly sombre moment and nobody mentioned what had happened to his last girlfriend Danielle...

After my walk, I was starving.... that's my only excuse for what followed. To be fair, I even admitted that I'd lost track of what I was putting on my plate as I was chatting and forgot all about the meat component of the roast dinner, barely finding room for it. Also, in my defence I didn't know that Brad's mum was visiting so when I left enough Broccoli for one person, I didn't realise it was going to be divided between hungry mother and son. Rosemaree wasn't going to mention anything, out of politeness until she asked whether Brad wanted more meat out of the oven. However, when he said he had enough and just took 'what was left', she couldn't resist slipping in 'what Sophie left'. Oh my God. How embarrassing can my life get? I was depriving a 51 year old man who'd been up since 3 in the morning to do the markets and his ancient mother of food just because I had the munchies and roast dinner is my favourite! Now I know Australian teasing is supposed to show they like you and they're comfortable around you but if the ground had swallowed me up right then, I wouldn't have minded.

After I finally cleared my plate, Rosemaree still bought some chocolate truffles out. Too embarrassed to take one with all the staring people watching me, I decided to save it until X-factor. Of course, I went to get one when they'd went through to the kitchen, only for Rosemaree to return as she'd forgot her wine glass. I didn't realise quite how aerobic I was until I jumped a mile in the air over the coffee table. Luckily, she just laughed. *Cringe!* Having Brad's mum joing us for part of X-factor was quite interesting, especially as her and Rosemaree clashed quite a lot. Rosemaree, though couldn't let things go and kept pushing it, slagging Andrew off when Brad's mum had made it quite clear that she liked him. When she ran out of defences for such and awful singer, Brad drove her home and Rachel moved over to take the prime position on the sofa i.e. Brad's place. When he returned, that gool old Australian humour resurfaced, as he asked 'whether the reason she didn't have her feet up (like everyone else) was the she couldn't quite reach the table' LOL. He then spent a good five minutes, deliberately faffing around at the coffee table, blocking the screen, only to scarper again when one of the contestants kissed teh guitar player to 'keep her performance fresh'. Th judges didn't say kiss though, they used 'pash'. Rosemaree and Rachel could'y believe i'd never heard that word... which led to a lengthy (and cheeky) description from Rosemaree. Pashing is normally more intimate than kissing.... Rosemaree then plucked up the courage, bursting out with 'it leaves you with chapped lips, basically' before telling us how difficult it was to watch Zach start pashing with all the girls... pash?! Rosemaree also provided more stories from this morning's markets including a guy wearing nothing but a dressing gown and a goggle mask, in an attempt to sell the stock... they were even hoping for rain, so he could demonstrate how to use the paddling pool for sale. Even more weirdly, there were several gothic transvestites wondering around...scary! Well, dinner time is always entertaining :P

That night, as if i hadn't been embrassed enough by my eating antics and poor vocab, i almost did a Tommy and walked in on Brad when he was in the bathroom. Now that would have taken first place for humiliation and i would have probably needed a hostel for my last week... :@

Day 134

Clinical Microbiology exam this morning went really well; despite being deafened for the first half an hour with wind rattling around the lecture hall like a scene from the Wizard of Oz! Eventually, the fake demonstrator (the guy I assumed was the demonstrator back in our first molecular biology practical... and I embarrassed myself by asking for help...) came up with the solution of using a bin to wedge open the door lol

After an orange berry fruit sorbet crush at southbank and a stop off at the city library for a new book(a huge Ian Irvine doorstopper), I returned home. Darcy, although due back, came back really late and sounded so moody when I said hello all chirpily. Just I was thinking 'what have I done', he starts crying. OMG. I am SO not equipped for this; I do not do crying! When my sister falls over, I tell her to brush her hands and get back up; I gave this little scrawny freckled kid a right go at earlier for splashing me as I had my smoothie... I am clearly not the comforting kind. But I was the only one at home and all 6ft of Darcy was shaking now so I asked what's wrong. Oh no. He is in BIG trouble. Darcy has lost his 1 month old latest edition itouch at school; after going through the 'what were you doing', 'when did you have it last' and 'did you tell the teacher' questions, I had no more wise words of comfort, especially when he whimpered 'I just don't know how I'm going to tell my mum'. God, I don't envy him. Telling any parent would be bad but Rosemaree, who didn't even want him to get it yet who forked out the money for it is not going to be impressed.

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Darcy: 'didn't you tell Dad i don't want to talk about it?'

Rosemaree: 'No, I just said you were feeling bad enough as it is'.

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Darcy on the phone: 'Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh OH OH OOOOOH'

Darcy then ran through to my room, grinning froum head to toe that his friend had found it. Apparently it had dropped out of his pants, as he stood up. He was trying to justify that they were loose pants, rolling his eyes in such a brotherly-sisterly way as Rosemaree shouted through that it was his fault for taking it to school. He owes his friend 'big time' and Rosemaree's already volunteered his pocket money as a reward but it's got to be worth it to have Darcy chuckling again at the TV with chocolate fingers in his han rather than loo roll.... WHAT A RELIEF!