ohhhhhhhhh moving sux

no i don't mean from one city to another with my one little bag... i mean dragging someone elses stuff from one apartment to another. with inga back in australia, jer had to move out of the apartment and because i was here, i helped. my back now hates me more than it ever has (and it hates me a lot). so after dragging tables, dressing tables and all sorts of crap down 3 flights of snow covered stairs we are at Seb's place... now seb and jer's place. seb instantly made me laugh though, while showing me 'the entertainment of the house' he said i can 'play playstation or watch a movie - be careful it bites'... then it was 'or you can use the bed for all types of things... like watching a movie or sleeping (ahha seb)'... but the best was 'or you can caress my cat'. i dunno, maybe you had to be there, i'm sure the accent added to the humor so just go back and read that in a french accent and see if it's any funnier.

the weather isn't too bad at the moment, it likes to play games though. yesterday morning (when i woke up = 1pm) i heard myself say to jer, 'hey its a nice day today - not that cold, what is it -15?'... then i realised what i said, when is minus anything 'not that cold'. but then that same night i was cursing drivers for cutting infront of you when its your turn to cross at the lights. i mean seriously, they act like they are the ones nearly dying from hyperthermia walking through the snow covered streets at 9pm. allow the people battling frost bite to keep moving people! - damn canadians.

i might go caress the cat.... come on thats funny!!

all dressed up but too lazy to go

well inga is on her way back to australia by now. after frantically packing everything she has accumulated over the past year in one night... they (jer, inga and jer's friend seb) threw her bags into the back of a cab and headed to quebec city where her plane leaves from. me?? i stood in the lounge room with a dumbfounded expression on my face as i thought she was leaving the next day. cue tears as i realise i might actually miss her - and the look on her face at the fact she was leaving was enough to make anyone cry. so we hugged, hugged again, tried not to cry and hugged again and then i did the only sensible thing a girl can do in my position... sat on the futon and ate half a tray of brownies in an empty apartment.

it is now 3pm the next day, i spent half the morning planning all these wonderful things i can do to cheer up, go to mt royal and take some photos, go to some lake thing thats near mt royal and take photos, go to a museum, go shopping for a new skirt... all these things sounded great so at 1pm i got up, had breakfast, had a shower, put make up on, did my hair, got dressed, changed, changed again, went through jer's clothes and stole a few things, was finally happy with my outfit, put my shoes on, found my gloves, stood in the middle of the lounge room and thought... i don't know how to get to the mt royal - maybe i should wait till jer can come with me, come to think of it i can't remember which metro stop it is for the shops either, do i really want to go anywhere (yes you lazy bum just go)... (no don't bother you should stay here)... hmmm... i picked up a cd - tossed it in the air and said britney side up i'm going.... (flip flip flip and lands britney side down), well thats that. within 30 seconds the 5 layers i had painstakingly put together for the last 40 mins were now on the floor.

ugh... i'll put bon jovi back on and see if i can work up the will to go out again. who in their right mind would take notice of britney spears anyway...

all rise for the national anthem...

thankyou to an old civic customer of mine i was reminded that today is australia day (australia time). inga and i decided it was only appropriate to sing the national anthem. so we stood, faced each other, took a deep breath and then... cocked our heads to one side and stared dumbfoundedly at the floor when we realised we couldn't remember it. the next 5 mins went something like this...

[nat] hear our voices... no thats the old school song
[inga] yeah i did that too
[nat] oh say can you see... no thats not our country
[inga] start from the middle... advance australia fair (sung the way the last line is and therefore not leading on to anything else)
*silence* tick tick tick
[nat] australians all let us rejoice
[inga] yeah!!!
[nat/inga] for we are young and free.... (inga stuffs up a line soon after this but otherwise all goes well)
[jerome] (screamed from the kitchen) qu'est ce que tu fais??? (translation - what are you doing???)

now inga has an excuse that she can't remember the anthem, she has been gone for a year. me... i'm just stupid!

planes, trains and automobiles

and i was on all of them in that order

so i flew from london to NY and spent the night in penn station. believe it or not i actually got some sleep. the morning came and i got on a train to montreal which broke down halfway at saratoga springs NY state. so they put us all on buses and we drove to montreal. i finally get there, freeze my ass off walking the 3 blocks to inga's house from the metro station only to walk in the door and be told that we are going to quebec city. hmmm... no need to unpack then.

the quebec trip was purely so inga could say goodbye to some friends as she is on her way back to australia next week so we had a little dinner party at her friend franks house. i tell you what, these french guys know how to cook!!! and then they made a full on breakfast this morning of french toast and fancy scrambled eggs. they even brought me coffee in bed (couch where i passed out). it was a night of great food, great people, great wine, throw in a bit of substance abuse and you've got yourself a typical quebec-style party.

quebec itself is absolutely beautiful this time of year. true it is unbearably cold but the sky is clear and the sun - which has NO heat - shines over the city covered in snow. literally everything is covered in snow. and i'm talking like, peoples front yards have snow piles taller than their cars with a spot plowed for the driveway and the front door. the city streets have ice sculptures on random corners, also dusted with snow. the water surrounding the city is covered with mini glaciers and massive chuncks of ice/snow floating by, it looks like something you'd see on the discovery channel featuring antarctica. when the sun goes down and the sky turns pink and purple, all the little gas light posts turn on and the castle gets lit up and we were floating away on the ferry surrounded by glaciers... it takes your breath away. damn shame its so f#^*in cold!

i made a decision (swingin skirt like a proud 3 yr old)

so i'm off to the states!!!

well montreal first, inga is flying home on the 27th jan so i'm going to help her party out her last week in montreal (in -30 degree weather... me thinks the partying will be INSIDE the apartment). who knows, maybe i might accidently on purpose run into mr colin-i'm absolutely perfect-farrell again.

after that i'm going to mardi gra in new orleans and then over to the west coast to hollywood... 'everybody's got a dream in hollywood - whats your dream? hey mister... hey!' (movie??)

well after i booked my flight yesterday (for today - which i decided in 20 seconds on the phone to inga ) i was instantly happy and london didn't look so bad since i was leaving it. i had a good night in the pub at the hostel. i entered the 'games' night which turned out to be an eating competition. you had a group of 5 people and each took a turn with a round... i could have ended up eating crackers, apples off a string, pudding, searching through flour with honey on my face to find an object with my teeth.... but no.. i got the butter round. thats right.. butter. i had to eat 8 little packets of butter one after the other and whoever finished first won. i won. actually i did more than win i kicked arse! i now have a new talent to add to my - very short - list. i am the queen of butter eating. tell ya mum about that one!
we didn't win the overall comp though cos one of the girls in our team let us down on the pudding eating round. she gave up half way. it was almost as controversial as the rowing incident in the olympics!... almost... i mean there was 2 free jugs of beer riding on this comp!

gotta go... i'm off to the airport.. hehehehehehehehehehehehehe

london baby! - my arse!!!

ok so last you heard i was in miami and everything was great and i was having fun. well now i'm in london and things aren't great, i'd go so far as to say that things suck... and i am NOT having fun.

reason 1. i don't really like london anyway. i went to buckingham palace, saw the changing of the guard (takes 45 mins my god!), went to big ben, tower bridge or whatever the pretty one is, westminster abbey.. blah blah blah and i still don't really like it

reason 2. the italian consulate in australia said i could easily get my passport here, just go to the consulate here and ask them to request my papers from australia and when they come through i can get my italian passport and then i can legally work here. THEY FUCKING LIED!!! i spent HOURS at the consulate trying to do this and they flat out refuse to request my papers. they say i have to get them from australia myself and it has to be the original not a fax/photocopy. which means even if my mum can get them on my behalf and send them over its still going to be at least a month before i can work and i can't afford to stay here that long.

reason 3. its too bloody expensive

so my options are:

option 1. chuck a hissy fit and come home now. (highly likely at this stage)

option 2. chuck a hissy fit, go to america again and spend every last cent i have, plus some of dads and then fly home. (sounds better... this is now placed as most likely option)

option 3. act like an adult (doomed already), get mum to send my papers to an address here or in the states, go to the states and spend all my money plus a little of dads, get my papers and get my passport then get a job straight away and earn enough money to hopefully not only survive but earn more for travel before flying home again. (hmmm.... that sounds good too)

i could try for option 3 and then fall back on option 2 if it doesn't work out. UGH.. choices... too hard TOO HARD!!!!!!!

32 hours later - miami

actually i'm going to start before the 32 hours has passed, let me set the scene. i've been on a train for 10 hours already when i get off at washington to switch trains to continue to miami. get on the next train and get moved 3 times, each spot getting progressively worse until i'm sitting next to a mexican woman who kept screaming across me (i'm on the aisle) to her 2 brats across the aisle and refused my offer to switch seats (i wanted to window) so she could talk to them, no she wanted to scream across me instead (bitch wanted the window too). then her brats start playing computer games and dvd players with no earphones (and her husband works for amtrak so normal rules don't apply and noone asks her to turn it down or use earphones) so the incessant beeping is driving me nuts and i have another 22 hours to go. thankfully some drunk kid (19 maybe, legal age is 21) was storming up and down the train, abusing people he bumped into, fell and smacked his head then was convinced he was bleeding internally and was going to die. i say thankfully purely because it provided me with entertainment when they told him they were kicking him off the train at the next stop and the cops were coming. the guy was crying saying he wasn't going to get arrested for this and tried to get off a moving train - idiot - but the cops came on and dragged him off the train. it was funny.

on the bus ride from the station to miami beach it was practically entertainment. SO many cute guys but SO many to laugh at too. the first one had more gel in his hair than i would use in a week and had his white singlet shirt on inside out. but he still thought he was cool. the second was a teenager with t-shirts that were longer than most dresses girls would wear, ok that doesn't say much, the shirts were down to his shins. he thought he was cool too. guys AND girls with gold on their teeth and one girl had acrylic nails on her big toe. they were longer than my acrylic nails when i had them. there was a really cute builder that i couldn't take my eyes off, a cuban dancer looking boy that could almost look gay if he wasn't hitting on some other girls with his fly undone. and of course the old men with no teeth that think the girls next to them want to go home with them. was quite amusing.

miami itself is SO HOT!!! i went from snow to palm trees and its quite disorienting. i'm staying in the best hostel, it's old spanish style apartments converted into dorm rooms so each room has a bathroom and a fridge. i could easily live here if i could throw the other 5 people out of the room. the hostel is less than 2 mins from the beach, right in the middle of all the restaurants and shops and stuff and right on the ally where they have the markets at night and some entertainment. you walk out of the hostel and are surrounded by fairy lights, restaurant and jewelry stalls. i had dinner at a really nice italian restaurant cos apparently its the best and when i finished i was looking at sunglasses at a stall and met 2 musicians. one because he was an idiot and i was laughing at him but then his friend walked up and he was cute and not an idiot and helped me pick out sunglasses. we all ended up going to get a drink and it turned out they were here for some music convention and had a thing to go to in an hour that was pretty much business but i was welcome to come, and there might be some free booze. there wasn't many other options for me so even though i was picturing little set up stalls where people flog their product and some waitress walking around with wine on a tray i said what the hell and went. turns out it was a club that there was a line down the street for, we walked straight in and got given armbands that meant it was an open bar for us till 1am and we had access to all areas. at this point i was thinking i should hang out with musicians more often. turns out this guy i liked (richard) had played with air supply amongst other big name bands i can't remember (drank too much) and was in a movie they just made recently about ray charles (as a guitar player but he has dialog) before you go thinking i'm a sucker i was VERY prepared to chase him BEFORE i found all this out.

so here i am at the hottest party in town drinking free booze on a musicians arm with girls coming up to him trying to schmooze... and i was very happy i came to miami. he was a great guy, i had a great time and went to bed very late still rather tipsy but quite happy.

today i spent the day sitting on the beach watching the array of cute men parading themselves around on the beach. basically it was too hot to go anywhere else, and i don't think there are that many other things to do here other than chill.

having fun but leaving tomorrow as i fly out of NY on the 12th. ner ner boyface i'm going to new york again.. where are you by the way???

BOSTON

ok i'm doing 2 separate posts cos the 2 cities deserve independence.

boston wasn't my favourite city because basically, there isn't a hell of a lot to do in boston apart from drink and i wasn't intending to do that there. when i got there i met a drunk australian guy who then pulled another australian guy into the conversation and he ended up being an arrogant 'i'm here on business after just visiting my parents who currently live in europe' - so why are you in a hostel you tosser!! - kind of guy. he and the drunk guy clashed and thinly disguised insults were thrown but thankfully the arrogant one must get his beauty sleep and left. i stayed up for a while but when the boys started bagging out bon jovi i called it a night. bastards.

the next day i went to harvard square which is the home of... believe it or not... harvard university. i went in and the place was really pretty covered in snow (oh yeah did i mention it was snowing so much that by the time i walked 2 blocks i looked like a snowman?) so i went to harvard and used the bathroom purely so i can say... and whoever can tell me which movie this is from, cos i forget, gets something completely random and useless as a prize... "you went to harvard? me too!! yeah... i used the bathroom there once, it was real nice". then i went and saw phantom of the opera where i had to put up with the knowledge that 2 people were having sex in the back of the cinema, no joke. i could hear everything down to the undoing of the belt buckles. quite distracting i must say.

that night i went and had dinner by the harbour and ordered a lobster. i've only ever had lobster once and that was after my dad had prepared it and distracted the meat from the shell for me, and they were in half shells and only the tail too so i've never seen a whole lobster being eating before. before i realise what i've done and entire lobster is presented on a plate in front of me with a plastic bib and metal object that looks like a nut cracker. i looked at the lobster, the utensils, knew i was about to make a fool of myself in a restaurant/pub and remembered i'd seen something about lobster in my usa lonely planet guide. so what do i do? like the stupid tourist i am i get out the guide and read the instructions on how to eat a lobster before tackling it.
- use metal thingy (they didn't call it that) to crack open the claws and pry out the meat, dip the meat in the butter and eat.
- rip off legs and suck the meat out
- twist off the tail and remove meat in one piece.
so i did, and it was really good.

the hostel was right next door to a coyote ugly bar which i was thrilled about when i got there but on further inspection i realised 1. it was completely dead, 2. there was no dancing going on, 3. they actually had guys behind the bar... thats SO wrong!
so it sucked and i left.

bye bye boston and on to a 32 hour train trip to miami.. thats right 32 HOURS

happy new year!!!

well i got on the train to new orleans the next morning... got off the train in new orleans at about 10pm on new years eve, fixed myself up in the bathrooms at the station, put my luggage in a locker and went straight to bourbon st from amtrak. stayed out all night and got outragously drunk. i went back to coyote ugly and when the bartenders made the bouncer wave my cover charge i knew it would be a good night. while we are here can we all pay tribute to the coyote girls please as thanks to them i drank 3 times as much as i paid for, if she wasn't handing me a free shot she was getting the nearest guy to buy me a drink... much to the horror of his girlfriend standing next to him...

so there was more drinking, more dancing on the bar, there were no fireworks cos it was foggy and drizzling rain which sucked, there were hats and feathers and beads and cute men and all the joys that goes with that. so at 6am i head back to the station, stumble in at 6:30, ring my dear friend whilst still drunk from the station and then board the train at 7:20am still drunk for a 26 hour trip to washington DC. needless to say i ended up with a hangover somewhere between mississippi and georgia.

so i get to washington and once i've found my way to jamies house i pat myself on the back for remembering the trains/bus/stops and then walk 15 blocks to the nearest grocery store and proceeded to prepare a surprise dinner for jamies husband who was coming home that night from LA. i made a really nice rack of lamb and got many brownie points. i did manage to burn myself so badly on the hand that i slept with it on a towel covered in ice. its all fine now though.

today i went to the air and space museum which i had attempted to do 3 times last time i was here and when i finally got there today it was so cool cos they have a flight simulator in there. you get to be a fighter pilot. you sit in this capsule with a massive screen in front of you. they put a seatbelt and a thing over your head like you are on a massive rollercoaster. they shut the door and you have a control for the speed and a control for flying/missiles/bullets and you have 3 mins to go nuts. i made that thing do barrel rolls and do a 360 roll upside down. i shot tanks and other planes and everytime i got one (which was a lot) it goes "target destroyed" and i laughed and made it do another barrel roll. you literally flip upside down in the thing though, your stomach is left somewhere on the ceiling but its too much fun to care. when i came out you could get dog tags made up and so i got a corny set for me and one for my brother as well... he always wanted to be a fighter pilot. and i also got freeze dried icecream which is more on the strange than good side of things. then i went to dinner in a 'soul food' restaurant which is just southern food, like in new orleans. i'm craving that city again so i did the next best thing... ate jambalaya and bread pudding.

so tomorrow im off to boston, after that miami. hope you all had a good new years, write and tell me, i'll be able to check e-mail easily while im in the states but not sure about europe.