I live at the beach.
It Rocks.
Tonight, as there is only shite on the telly (now that it’s non-ratings season) I decided a DVD was in order and rather than get home and get comfortable I dropped Mañana off at home and went straight to Ezy to find the Island as recommended by Mañana.
Flick rang to see what my evening plans were so I suggested she meet me in Manly to go to the 3 Ducks for dinner. (3 Ducks is great, we should go there next time you’re up this way.)
We ate Penang Beef and Arabian Lamb in takeaway boxes sitting on the waterfront and finished it off with NZ icecream.
It was better than cooking at home…
We watched the Island which was better than the shite on the telly.
Which brings me to the point.
Get out there and do something different this week. It will remind you how good your life is after all.

My Lebkuchenherz that is.

This weekend was the annual Oktoberfest in Fairfield… (btw Fairfield is a looooong way from Manly – on public transport.)

I went with Dussel and Dorf who are clearly German, (Dussel is one of the card playing girls, and Dorf is her fiance.) We went together but for me it was like I was their guest in Munchen!

There were lots of Leiderhosen and Dirndls and a rather loud Oom Pah band, you’d expect that, of course. At least you would if you’ve ever been in the Hofbrau House.

I ate the food, Sauerkraut, Schweinshaxe (pork knuckles), Wurst(sausage) and Senf(mustard) on Kaiser Rolls. Then there was Schwarzwald kuchen, the true Bavarian dessert…

And Bier… DAB Bier actually, which according to those from Dusseldorf is the Fosters of Germany… But they would say that… DAB is from Dortmund… not Dusseldorf…

[ed I believe there was schnapps too…]

*giggle* Yep schnapps too… all drunk very moderately of course…

Anyway, back to my Lebkuchenherz Gingerbread hearts with sentimental messages are a traditional kind of treat at fairs and so forth and in order that I had the quintessential German experience Dorf could not leave without making sure I had one… In honour of the fact that Dussel and Dorf were, by this stage, wearing tiger paint on their faces (in honour of the West Tigers Rugby League team’s place in the RFL Grand Final -they won too) they bought one for me that said My Little Tiger…

After a rather prolonged journey back to the Fairfield station, with an Iraqi taxi driver who discoursed quite vehemently about the state of his homeland and the American interference there, we got to the station having metabolised a litre and a half of bier (at least) each… and found the loos closed due to ‘plumbing problems’…

Sheesh, I’ll give you plumbing problems…

So with 15 mins grace before the train arrived we scuttled across the road to the RSL, made good use of their quite luxurious facilities and hustled back with a minute to spare.

And not a minute to go back and retrieve my heart…

Well, I have been on a bit of a learning curve in the last 24 hours.
I have learned…

• that you can apply for Australian Citizenship online!!
• …that $120.00 is a bargain for living in a place like this for the whole rest of our life!
• …that the Ministry of Justice in NZ will send me my wicked secret nefarious past in document form at no cost!!!(Ok, so it’s going to be a very little document…)
• … that if I hadn’t been here for 12 months before the end of Jan 2001 I wouldn’t be able to apply!!
• …I have to go for an interview so they can prove that my english is legible/understandable (ok… that’s enough of the Kiwi accent jokes) and that I am going to be a worthwhile addition to the Australian cultural landscape!

I really didn’t expect this all to happen so fast… I really was just perusing online the possibility… and now the ball is rolling!!! Oh…. Boy!
In other news… my boss said that by my becoming an Australian I am improving the average iq of both countries… I haven’t been able to work out if he was being complimentary or not… what do you think?? (which probably illustrates the point… gah)