The Irishmen and the Hungarian

One of my roomates Enda (who's Irish) is a bit mad. He's very chatty but usually he's saying something crazy like telling us about the time his mom threw hot water on his dad and then chased him down the road or how he'd never marry an aussie b/c she'd bring him fish and chips for Christmas Dinner and then he'd have to divorce her. Most of the time though b/c of his accent I don't even know what he's going on about to begin with. His favorite topic of conversation though by far is the Hungarian girl that works at the shop down the street from where he works. He works at Coogee Bay Fisheries which is basically just your regular takeaway shop and she works at another shop that's owned by the same people. Every morning he goes to see her and get coffee at her shop and attempt to have a chat (although as he's told us several times she speaks very little english) I'm sure that she doesn't understand one word he says b/c I do speak english and I don't understand him so I don't know how she could. Anyhow last week he went to the cinema with her and he even bought a new outfit beforehand, to say the least he's smitten with her. The only problem however is that apparently she has a big Hungarian boyfriend whom she lives with. Apparently her and said boyfriend are only still together b/c he helped her pay off her family's debts in Hungary or something and she can't break up with him until she pays him back. All very shady sounding to me, at some point she must have got across to Enda that her and big hungarian boyfriend don't even speak. So Enda will be sitting on the couch, or passing through the kitchen, or drinking a beer and just all the sudden say, "I don't get it like, how you can live with someone and not even talk to them, why would you be wit someone and not talk." or some variation on that sentence and he says it all the time, several times a day. So yesterday was Enda's day off (which doesn't happen very often, he usually works 7 days a week) and he had big plans for his day off, he was set to hang out with the hungarian girl and he planned to go into town beforehand and buy an english/hungarian translation book so he could say a few words to her in Hungarian. So last night we're all sitting in the living room drinking beer and Conner(my other roomate) had a friend over and we were all saying how none of us had seen Enda all day and did anyone know what happened with the hungarian and no one had heard from him all day. So around 9 or 10 in crashes Enda drunk as a skunk, comes into the living room and just stands there and sways for a minute then throws his cell phone across the room and says, "the whole lot of 'em can just go back to Hungary for all I care, f--k the hungarians." He wouldn't tell us what happened with the hungarians all he would say is that he's never marrying a hungarian girl either so now Aussies, Hungarians and Irish women are off the list. Then he proceeded to drink some more beer and pass out on the couch. Thus ends another sad tale of unrequited love.

Coogee Village

Let me tell you about the little hamlet where I live. It's a little place called coogee village and it's a pretty small and quaint little place if you don't count all the backpackers that invade every summer. Coogee is known for all the Brits that invade in the summer and down the road Bondi(the most famous beach in Sydney) is known for all the Irish, they call it County Bondi. Last night as me and 2 of my roomates left to go out around 10pm we rounded the corner and there was a guy passed out in the grass...so early for that, then my roomate (who's Irish) says to him, "R ye alright mate?" then the guy just gives us the thumbs up sign and lays back down, very classy. Every morning at the bus stop I stand there with this Brazilian girl that doesn't speak much english and since my portuguese is limited to "Qual su nome?" (What's your name?) and "No fala portuguese" (I don't speak portuguese) we mostly just wave good morning and then don't talk, although she is here to take english classes so every once in a while I am the test case for the new english phrase she's learned. We both take the bus about 10 min. away to Bondi Junction (where I work), where they just opened up a huge mall (most famous recently b/c Naomi Watts was spotted shopping here) but I like it b/c there's open air markets set up on Thurs./Fri. with all sorts of fresh fruit/veg and great food, then right down the road is one of the many entrances to Centennial Park (Sydney's answer to Central Park) and I can walk down there at lunch and sit in the sun and eat whatever sad excuse for lunch I have that day. Then after work it's back to coogee village and the beautiful beach and all the outdoor cafes. I will truly miss this place when it's time for me to go.

Just Because

"Just because she dances go-go that don't make her a ho no" Do you remember that song by Wyclef Jean, I think it was out like 5 or 6 years ago. Anyways I remember at the time I liked it then promptly forgot all about it until about 2 weeks ago when for some reason it became my upstairs neighbors' favorite song, she blares it and there's no rhyme or reason, sometimes it's at 9am, sometimes it's late at night or just randomly during the day and when I say blare I mean sometimes it shakes the windows in the house. Also sometimes it's accompanied by dancing or what I can only guess is dancing b/c it sounds like there's lots of stomping going on, then the song will end and sometimes that's it or sometimes you hear someone walk across the room and you know what's next..she's pressing repeat..and there we go again..that don't make her a ho no...so one night last week she decided to play it at like 10pm and it was so loud we couldn't hear our TV anymore so my roomate drunk Mary (so called b/c well she's always drunk) decides she's gonna go up and tell her to turn it down. So Mary goes up and music doesn't go down and Mary doesn't come back downstairs either, then about an hour later she comes in and says that they told her they'd turn it down if she drank a big glass of vodka and smoked a joint so always one to take one for the team she did, comes back to the house all kinds of messed up..but well we didnt' hear Wyclef for the rest of the night.

Happy 2005

Happy 2005 everyone..I did in fact survive New Years Eve and I had an absolute blast. It was definetly a good idea to be on a boat in Sydney Harbour, we had the best view of the fireworks and it was a great crowd of about 100 of us on the boat, open bar, DJ..awesome weather and views. As we speak I'm actually downloading photos of the night..lots of good ones I must say. They had fireworks at 9pm and Midnight with the Midnight ones being the best of course. The theme was reflections so they had a mirror of the fireworks going off at the bridge of the exact same fireworks on the other side if that makes sense..it was really awesome looking. Also got 2 new roomates yesterday both Irish and on Monday get one more new roomate who's also Irish so they are taking over the house!! Really sad to see my 3 roomates go, they've become like family in the last 2 months but we'll all keep in touch and I'll probably see them again before I leave Australia. Also I have lots of people to go visit in Britain now! Hope everyone has a great and prosperous new year...I haven't set any resolutions this year..kinda living my resolution right now so it'd be pointless. Look for the pics in your inbox!