Thursday July 28th was my 4 weeks down under celebration day. It felt I have been here much longer because so much exciting stuff has happened exceeding all of my normal life standards. Or maybe my life has been very boring before? Earlier the week I had agreed with Ross that we will go and get me a washer and a TV to get all the big home appliances stuff done (telly wasn’t really my priority at this point but as I am very dependent on people with car I decided to have everything sorted out at once if possible). Ross had already done some research on where I would get the best deal in the city and had a plan in his mind. To give a little context for this shopping experience: Ross is very much into bargaining and I am very much a fixed price girl. I hate bargaining. I’d rather pay extra than live with the awkward feeling of arguing about the price. I don’t like arguing. I knew Ross’s price strategy beforehand and had prepared to step into uncomfort zone again with large-long-black-to-go-please. We went to this huge appliance store and before stepping out of the car Ross said “Anna-Maria, you stay quiet and I do the talking ok? Watch and learn”. Oh dear, here we go. Indeed Ross did all the talking, a lot of talking, he had a show going on and I just stayed quiet and gave compassionate smiles for the sales person who of course knew what was the deal there. I left the store 45-50 minutes later with a washer and TV and got them on a good price. On the way back Ross asked if the level of bargaining would be possible in Finland. I said no. He said “I have my own system you know. I can live in Australia or in Italy but I would be considered crazy in Finland”. I agreed. Jokes aside, I am extremely thankful for his help and saved 200 dollars too, worth new pair of shoes or a dress J
Early afternoon I had the new appliances at home and ready to use. Jippiiii. It’s amazing really how much joy one can get out of simple thing of having the opportunity to do laundry. I can do laundry! I can do laundry whenever I like! Welcome to 1960’s Ansku. I think I would make a good wife. I opened a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, run 2 programs to clean up the washer and felt more homely than ever before. Water is for frogs. Talking about water, it tastes a lot like chlorine here and the shitty taste has resulted in me not drinking it, not even in the form of tea as chlorine plus mint isn’t he most charming combination, same with coffee. Buying bottled water is very expensive and not ecological so at home I had to choose between chlorine water, bad tea/coffee or the white wine collection in my fridge. Obvious, the wine. This went on almost for a week until I got it in my head that I need to do something about it. Seven days and six nights to realize I cannot keep on drinking wine so much and need a water filter. It’s a long time you know. In reality I cannot think a proper reason why I didn’t get the filter in the first place so I guess we are back to the priority discussion again: in my world having a well cut hair and a fridge to cool down the wine is more important than drinkable water. Anyways, in my moment of house wife simulator I chose SB of course, so many reasons to celebrate that day. Around 6pm I got an offer to go and see three bands play at Zoo, the Tavastia of Brisbane. Line-up was supposed to be Rock, Indie and Blues Rock, not really my scene (except the indie) but I am always open for live music. End of laundry marathon, balance in the universe, I went to Valley to see a live gig as a young free lady should on a special Thursday night and enjoyed it a lot.
Believe it or not, still a story to go about the washer (amazing how much one can write about a darn washer to an Aussie blog...or maybe I shouldn't...will anyways) On Saturday morning I decided to do a bit of laundry before heading to the West End market. I had bought proper washer detergent, poured it into the compartment without using the measurement cup because it looked so small, selected the program and pressed start. All good I dressed up and packed my stuff for the market, went to see if everything is ok and saw the bathroom floor covered with foam. The foam came from floor drain, washer door (front loader) and dispenser drawer. Lots of it. Shitshitfuckfuck, this doesn’t look right. I stopped the program, had plenty of different buttons blinking but no idea what it meant, got very nervous, left the bathroom, decided to have a cup of coffee and a 10 minute timeout to figure out my next move. *Breathe* In real life I would’ve called my brother, but the time difference makes it a bit tricky. Dear bro is my first point of contact for my various emergency situations like solving problems that need more than four technical brain cells (I have four, had only two before joining Accenture), calming me down when I am super upset or giving me a reality check when I self diagnose a cancer or similar or just saying “no, I don’t believe you left the coffee machine on” if I am unsure about it on my way to work. Priceless. Miss you Antti! I also thought calling my new friends here wasn’t an option as the mess going on in my bathroom was quite embarrassing. I didn’t want to put my new friendships at risk because of being 31 years old and unable use the washer. I closed the bathroom door just in case the washer could explode or something, took another cup of coffee and realized I don’t have much options here. Girl, you gotta start reading the manual. *Shitshitfuckfuck I have to read the manual* It had no instructions in case of a foam party in your bathroom, but found instructions under header “to empty out of water”, great. To empty out of water did not fully empty out of foam and I needed to run the drain and rinse program two times to be on the safe side. Got very clean clothes, clean bathroom floor, coffee overdose and didn’t make it to market. Lessons learnt: use the measurement cup. Especially if it is very small.
Surviving the washer accident the rest of Saturday was booked for celebrating down under milestones: Marijke 6 months and Ansku 1 month. The plan was to dress up, eat well, have drinks and shake booty. Marijke had booked a table from a Japanese restaurant Sake located by the riverside. Excellent choice. We ordered a bottle of sparkling , told our very talented waiter to take care that the sparkling keeps coming (he took this quite seriously, kept an eye on us throughout the dinner and made sure our glasses were ¾ full all the time. We didn’t mind at all) and ordered tuna collection and dumplings for starters and sashimi, S express and popcorn rolls for main. My favorite was a small spicy tuna taco that was washed down with sake. I usually don’t like sake but here it was an icing on the cake to balance the spicy taco. The popcorn maki was also very innovative mix of crispy tempura and kind of smoky mayo. Beautiful, tasty and surprising. Just as good food needs to be. No room for dessert we enjoyed the eye-candy around and promised for the waiter to be back. So far Sake has been the best restaurant I have visited, it takes a bit of time and effort to find the good places here, like in any other city I suppose. Marijke and I agreed that this will be our once a month tradition, to dress up and eat well. She also has a target of checking one new restaurant a week and I took that as well…perfect target for a girl who likes good food and eating out. From Sake we headed for drinks first to Moo Moo wine bar (nice atmosphere but boring people) and then Jade Buddha (great view but not what we needed), realized that the booty shaking is not happening at Riverside and took a cab to Valley (for those interested I was not dressed according to Valley standard but wore my new and pretty maxi dress and super high heels instead). Rest of the night was pretty much spent on the dance floor. I guess it was around 3am we called it a night and took a cab back home. A good night with a good friend, starting to see the upside of leaving lots behind.
Sunday was the day after then. Every cell of my body was suffering from the day after. Luckily I had agreed a bit of a sightseeing for the day to make something out of it…I think we Finns are programmed to feel bad about having a hangover on a beautiful sunny Sunday? After lazy morning coffee at South Bank Kalle picked me up to Mt Coot-Tha, a “mountain” nearby with excellent view to Brisbane city. Up there I realized how wide spread the city is. CBD is very recognizable with skyscrapers, the wheel of Brisbane points out South Bank, TV tower my hoods in West End but otherwise the city is all flat. 10% of Brisbane looks like a city the remaining 90% is all suburb. Around 3.30pm I felt I was finally able to eat something and went to James Street at Valley, a weird combination of furniture stores, coffee houses and market hall in very industrial neighborhood. Worth to see. It was a pity I felt half dead as the various stores looked super interesting…all I could do was sit and have my third coffee and big bowl of Bircher muesli and hope I didn’t look as bad as I felt (I think I did, even with the “quick freshing up” before leaving out. Not all of us look gorgeous the day after as my dear Frederik does. *jealous*) After 4pm breakfast headed to have bbq with few Finns living in Brisbane, they had hangover too so I blended in easily (a sad fact to blend in because of hangover though). Tired and proud of myself to make through the day I came home around 8pm, jumped to my big cozy sofa, opened TV and realized Devil Wears Prada is on and passed out before seeing the end. Milestone weekend 1 - Ansku 0.
As you can see I am totally in the mode of being more tired on Monday mornings than on Fridays after a work week. I love the weekends as so much is happening and with tiny tiny steps I’m getting more hold of Brisbane. I am still green but not a tourist anymore, a big difference there. And to balance out the busy weekends my weekdays are dedicated for building life routines and settling down (well, for work too but not much happening before the project starts). This Friday I will also have my dear friend visiting me… 3 nights to go for a warm hug, life updates and exciting week ahead.
Hugs,
//Ansku
PS: I got lots of mail today. A postcard from France, Munthe Plus Simonsen fashion from Denmark (ordered online) and candies and Marimekko towels from dear mom. Felt like Christmas eve! I love getting mail, it narrows the distance and the personal notes make my heart smile <3 My dessert tummy is smiling too, thanks to aussie customs for not counting Fazer candies as prohibited goods.
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