Stuff and Things

Life has been rather busy lately. I am travelling to a relatively far-away suburb to feed my aunt's cat every day, which on one hand is kind of a pain. But on the other hand it can lead to delicious nights of sex and silliness in a place that isn't within earshot of anybody's family members. That, I think we'll all agree, is a plus.

Kate Miller-Heidke = awesome performer. She played at the Gov on Friday and was grand. My friend and I first ended up in front of these incredibly annoying drunk girls who were almost drowning out the singing with their conversation, and by conversation I mean 'shrieked inane comments interspersed with warbling of incorrect lyrics'. I could ignore them but when my friend politely asked them to keep it down, they responded with the helpful, "IF YOU LIKE HER SO MUCH WHYY DON'T YOU BUY THE CD EY? HUAHUAHUA." Because... we bought gig tickets? As did you? We decided to squeeze our way into another spot, which was much better, except the guy in front of us kept farting. Seriously, these were stinkers. Lucky Kate Miller-Heidke was so engaging that the undesirable crowd members were mere blips on the evening. Her band was pretty hot too.

Then last night I went along to a quiz night, where I believe I was quite unhelpful, especially in matters of geography and sports. Perhaps I redeemed myself by knowing what the word 'nullabor' meant and how many tentacles (?) a squid had, but then again I did convince my team to write that an earthworm had zero hearts, which was... 5 hearts short. DW came along, which made all the difference in the world to my happiness, as I realised I tend to have a rather disproportionate reaction to my requests (for company, etc) being rejected. Seriously. Perhaps it's because I don't tend to ask a lot of people or rely on my friends all that much, and am lacking in practice or experience or something - but if I ask DW something and he says no, not because of inescapable commitments but because he just doesn't want to - it bothers me a lot. Nevermind, it ended well, and both of us amused over how his wilful oblivion to my irritation irks me even further. And then we decided at the last minute to stay at my aunt's house, and had a lovely lovely time with lots of random talking in bed. The end.

Not really. I have more to say. I'm tossing up whether or not to go to another quiz night on Tuesday night, a German club v French club thing. I do desire to be more social within the German club, especially since a girl I know from school is in it and I have, like, a friend to launch off from. (Mel, she's so springy!) On the other hand, I have a meeting on that same night at uni (inaugaral secretary of AUHSSS, yo) so I'll be in town all day, and have to bus it home late etc, and quiz nights are fine but they do tend to drag on... but on the other hand it'd be good to get to know some more people in the club... but on the other hand, I've kind of neglected uni work lately, and I probably should study, you know, sometimes. And if I don't go then I could watch DW's indoor soccer match, which is always a plus. But then again, if I do that then I'm not really studying either. But, it won't actually be long as the quiz night, and they might actually have a chance at winning these week.

Hm. Watch this space.

The majority of Aussies who stay a the hostel are loutish, but the ones who aren't tend to be endlessly interesting. There are three there at the moment:

1. A woman who's with her kids, a 7 year old and a 7 month old. The hostel is not child unfriendly, as such, but it's certainly an adult environment and rather unusual for kids to be staying. For a baby it's probably irrelevant, but for a 7 year old, I dunno - I mean, guests will be going along their business of watching scary movies in the common area, drinking, smoking, swearing, etc, without a second thought to their little companion. What if little Timmy goes onto the balcony and someone's smoking dope? What if he goes for a piddle in the middle of the night and there's a girl and a guy showering together? I'm ambivalent - on one hand (I'm very big on the hands today, aren't I) those potential situations sound bad, on the other hand, the world is an adult environement and on principle, I think giving kid-tailored explanations for adult behaviour is generally preferable to keeping a child in a bubble.

But whatever. The point about this lady is that she seems positively unaware that having children there is unusual, and maybe even inconvenient, for other guests. She doesn't seem to really get the place. Someone will turn off the random documentary playing in the background to put on a DVD and she'll get all offended and like 'excuse me, I was actually WATCHING THAT'. I'll go to grab the rags out of the dryer and come back to hear her bleating at the reception counter, "HELLO. HELLO. HELLO. HELLO." as if I am just hiding under the counter in spite.

Worst, or most amusingly, she does this weird humourless chuckle sometimes which seems to convey something like, 'lord, how embarrassing for you.' Eg. she comes in the back door of reception and demands more linen for her kids, and when I give her some she's like, "Not that one! It's all pilled, like it's about to fall apart." Rather than dispute this I gesture at the piles of quilts and invite her to choose, and her response? "Oh, they're all like that! Ooh - of course, right?" Then she chuckles dementedly as if she's just realised the 'inappropriateness' of her remark, like of course she's totally offended me by alluding to the fact that she's in this common place. Which it is. It's a HOSTEL.

2. The woman who I think may have Aspergers, based on my very unscientific observation of her manner. She has a very large, fat face and a deep voice, and she often comes to reception to ask questions disguised as ponderous thoughts. E.g. "Based on my experiences of Perth Zoo, which I visited in --- time, I would estimate that the price of entry to Adelaide Zoo, would be --."
Me: "I can look it up for you if you like - I don't think it's as expensive as that." (opens website)
Her: (continues talking about the facts of Perth zoo, before drifting into a rant about plastic bags)

3. The man who seems to be a twelve year old boy inside a grown up's body. He is super sweet, very nervous and openly confused. Yet as excited as anything to be in Adelaide, which is... refreshing. I talked him through check-in in lots of detail to reassure him, when he told me, "I get so nervous being away from home!" and he kept coming back with more questions and clarifications, e.g. "Could you remind me again where the boy's toilets are?" "So that other bunk in my room, that's for me too?"
"Yup, it's a private room, just you, nobody else."
"Wow! Thanks so much! Will somebody as cool as you be working tomorrow too?"

We can only hope, buddy. I took a photo with his disposable camera, of him standing grinning in front of the brochure wall.

Well, that's enough for now. Bis Spater, na?

- khere wants to share fuel and fun.