Los Campesinos!

I didn't go to their show at Lee's, but the fellow at my local movie store did, I gathered, as he was wearing a new-looking Los Campesinos! shirt. I asked him about it, he was all "YEAH it was Awesome! Were you there?" and I was all "No", wistful-like, so he was all "oh...uh...they weren't...that good."

Which tangents to the fact that I have bought the LC! album and am looking forward to listening to it in the near future. Also I am resolving a lack of hard drive space, but have almost killed my MacBook in the effort. Onwards!

Not a Doppelganger

I forgot to mention...

I was walking down Pitt St. in Sydney, on my way to a grocery store to stock up on Tim Tams before my flight home. As I walked, I glanced at the people to my sides, half in interest, half making sure I wasn't stepping on anyone's toes. All of a sudden, in glancing to my right (for you walk on the left in Australia), I happened upon a familiar face -- but not personally familiar. I did a quick double take, and in that moment, saw a characteristic hair flip and smile that I've seen on the screen in Firefly, Serenity, and Waitress.

Yes, I had just walked by Nathan Fillion. And to further prove it (because I could barely believe it), I checked and found out that there was a Serenity conference in town two days later, which he was slated to attend.

That pretty much made Sydney.

Back to it. Also, cookies.

I'm back. No jet lag, which was nice; just tiredness. I'll put some photos up at a later point in time.

In other news, Tim Tams are APPARENTLY sold in Canada thru the Loblaws chain. This needs some investigation, but I've heard it from several reliable sources. And also Wikipedia.

I baked cookies tonight -- maple syrup, coconut, dried cranberry cookies, at that. They are tasty but too crisco-y. I think next time I'll add more coconut and cranberries; maybe some chocolate. They're pretty much like eating sugar in cookie form, and I would say they're "om nom nom" worthy.

Quick Update

I only have 11 more minutes of internet time that I've paid for.

SO.

I'm in Sydney, went on a city orientation walk/tour thing, did the Opera House thing, went to the Museum of Contemporary Art (cool piece on the Inverse Ninja Law), saw some markets and shopping centres, Sydney and Darling Harbours, went to the Sydney Aquarium yesterday, slept a lot last night, need to find another book to read as I've polished off the two I brought and am almost done the one I bought (A Thousand Splendid Suns).

Brisbane was lovely; Australia had Labour Day on Monday so Sunday was ridiculous all over the country in terms of people being out and about, possibly some pictures when I get home.

JB Hi-Fi has ridiculously wonderful prices on CDs.

Sydney is more city-like than Brisbane, more bustling, tourists, smog-like, cars and buses and monorails everywhere. Everything's within a reasonable walking distance though.

I've seen a large number of doppelgangers in Australia of people that I know in Canada, I've done quite a few double-takes.

Went to the Gold Coast again before I left Brisbane; all in all, it's been wonderful. Now my time is bleeping warnings at me; more when I get home!

Translation

Lingo encountered so far:

singlet = tank top

thongs = flip flops, but also sometimes actual thongs

togs = bathing suits

hotels = pubs/bars, most of the time

Vegemite = food item similar in appearance to nutella, a by-product of beer-making

sunnies = sunglasses

tomato (pronounced toe-MA-toe) sauce = ketchup

lemonade = Sprite/7up (generally)