The last week approaches

So, a few friends have completed their traipse-ing around the world, visiting family and friends at home, and visiting family and friends elsewhere around the world. When I think about it, my friends come from a vast number of countries, regions, backgrounds. Everything, really.

Right, so I did go to New Norcia last Wednesday with Gareth, Tamzin, my brother and Gareth's mum. The last time Ernest and I went, we were kinda forced into going. This time was much better - the company wasn't forced upon us, which is always a good thing! Heck, I have to say I haven't woken up that early these holidays, really! Haha. :P Anyway, it was a good day. The place is so interesting. There's so much history to New Norcia. And considering that it's the only (surviving) Benedictine, let alone, monastic, town in Australia and it's out in the middle of the bush! So, we took a guided tour around the town, which is kinda the only way that you can get access to most buildings. Then we also had a look in the art gallery after lunch. Lunch was a splendid affair. What was supposed to be 'a snack' turned into a beautiful lunch. There was bread from the museum store, cheeses, fruits, dips, the like. bon apetit!

I was supposed to go out and meet an old friend on Thursday, but he had to cancel because of something urgent. That's ok. I think we'll meet up sometime this week? This is a friend I went to primary school with, parted ways at high school, thought I saw at SAT testing at the end of yr12/beginning of the next year, then suddenly was in contact with again earlier this year. I tell you, it's all about the power of technology and the internet. Oh, and a fairly alright memory too!

On Friday, dad, Ernest and I went out for lunch. You know, a very casual affair. But we ran into a couple of people we knew. We had to do all these errands too. Which I might add, we didn't get half of them done! We were supposed to go to Karrinyup, but we never got there. The market was busy, my brother and I picked out apples and mushrooms. Then stopped by the supermarket to get what was cheaper there than at the markets. Then we figured that we wouldn't make it to Karrinyup on time, so we went to the Asian grocery store in the city. That took a while...!! So many aisles of much that I didn't know and probably don't want to know about! My cousin called, and told us that the rest of her family weren't coming back on Saturday, as planned, but early on Sunday morning. Then she asked if we could come by her office to help her take some flowers (that her boyfriend had sent) home to her place. (She couldn't manage it by herself). So we had to do this artful dart about the city to stop by QV1, where PWC is, go to their place, drop her stuff off, go back to QV1 and give her back her keys. Then try to head home! All while all the shopping is in the boot, and dad stressing that the frozen stuff is going to thaw!

Friday night I went out with nat to see WASO in their 'Espana' concert at the PCH. It was a pretty good concert :) We sat in the choir stalls (as students do!) and made comments (as you do!). We were going to go to the cafe after, but it was hideously busy, so we headed to Oriel's in Subi instead. Note: 'we' here also refers to four other friends of nat's, who are all musos at uwa. anyway, Oriel's is very nice. I have heard many good things about it, so it definitely was time to check it out! It's a restaurant/bar/cafe thingo..(kinda like Milan, really, although much bigger!) that is open 24hrs! How excellent is that?!? Anyway, we mostly ordered (variations of) coffee and cake. I had this Jaffa cheesecake, which unfortunately made me feel very sick. I'll tell you though, it was SO worth it! It was a HUMUNGOUS slice (rather too adventurous for me!) and it was very tall. There was a layer of chocolate on the top, a STACK of cheesecake in-between, all on a biscuit base, with three jaffas adorning the top. It was very delicious, just very sweet and very rich. Then on Friday night, I went back to my cousin's place to stay the night (with my brother too). We had a grand night!

Right, this cousin is like, 24, works at pwc and although would be a great mum, isn't my mum. So, you know, watching Scrubs till about 3am while dining on chips and lollies, all washed down with Coke zero, tucked away in bed, is not an issue! Much fun. We had to pick watches (Gucci or Kenneth Cole). Look at photos. Read magazines. You know, other random stuff. And what happens when you stay up till 3am watching Scrubs?

You find yourself awake at 7.30 in the morning for no apparent reason. (You are still incredibly tired, but surprisingly find yourself quite awake. Go figure!)
You are awoken by a phone call at about 8am.
You are awoken again by the cleaning lady calling at 8.30 to come upstairs. (They live in an apartment where you have to call before you can get upstairs in the lift..)
Your alarm goes off at 9am to tell you that dad's birthday is today.
Your alarm goes off at 9.30am to tell you to wake up. You hit snooze a few times.
Then you figure that snooze is just going to keep interrupting you at 5-minute intervals, so you might as well turn your alarm off, considering your cousin said that the plan was probably to get up sometime around 10 or 11 anyway.You drift in and out of sleep until the cleaning lady comes into the room so that she can clean the bathroom. You decide that 11 may be a good time to get out of bed. Finally.

We seriously lazed about for SOOO long! It was so good. We ate muffins (which I had made a few days before. Not the best of ideas, because I definitely didn't put as much lemon in as I should have. And we didn't have poppyseeds. Which was a pity, because I was going to make lemon and poppyseed muffins. Oh well.) We talked, we.....I dunno.

We finally got out of the house at about 2.50 to get some lunch...! We went to Taka, this place on the cnr of William and Murray Sts in the city. It's a good place - Japanese cuisine, and not expensive either! Then we walked around for a bit trying to find a cake to get for dad. We finally got a Black Forest cake from Miss Maud, which was a good choice in the end, because it was a tasty cake! (And not too dry). We had a look at the Kenneth Cole watch in Myer, because the photo of it didn't do it justice. Then we headed to Subi to get some bread (which incidentally, was from the New Norcia bakery), although they didn't have any of the sort my cousin wanted to get, so we headed to Cold Rock, this ice-cream place. Very cool. It's kinda like, you pick your ice-cream base flavour, then you choose your mix-ins, like brownies, maltesers, gummi bears, oreos etc. Then they mix it for you, and you have this personalised ice-cream (flavour)! Tres cool. Then we headed to the market. Yes, 2nd time in two days! My brother kinda put it like this:
"it's like penance"
my cuz: "Yeah, that's what my mum would say. So would your mum too, probably!"

We made it quick, we picked apples, other fruits and the like. We stopped by the bakery to get some breads and other pastry things. A fairly successful day at the markets/doing other errands. We headed back 'home' after that, but we all had to go out soon. We all had dinner appointments of some description.

So, on Saturday night, my brother and I did go back home. So a few things I have learnt from sleeping at my cuz's:
My cousins' bed is much higher than mine. Her bed is also much more bouncy than mine. And a double bed has LOTS of room to spread out. Bliss!

So, my cousins (all), plus their parents came back yesterday. We had them round for dinner last night, which was really cool. This is the first time in about....AGES....that just us nine have been together. And it's not going to be for much longer either. One of my cousins has got a job in London, probably starting next year, at BCG. The other one (the one at pwc) has applied to transfer to london and if she's going, will be going in a few month's time. The other one is at ormond, so, melbourne. i think my brother feels a bit left behind in perth! I told him he should travel, or go places. That would be really cool.

Randomly, I was thinking about cities I could see myself in.
I think I could really do Manchester, UK, or Boston. I don't know why. I'd definitely like to visit places like New York and London, but living for a long-term-ish thing? Maybe a bit too hectic. Outer suburbs maybe. Or maybe inner for a stint, because it seems exciting. But Manchester and Boston. They just seem like cool places I could really go for and do!

Anyway, I am pretty much busy all week. I have appointments to go for and ppl to see. The holidays aren't completely relaxing...oh well! Right, I should be off...adios!

p.s. oh, and i learnt how to play texas hold'em poker. i think i could really get into that. maybe that's a bad thing...?!?!