Wind In My Head: Weight Gain
Wind In My Head
Friday, December 23, 2005
Weight Gain
Tomorrow we leave. Tomorrow, we swallow the blue pill and return to reality.So today, there has been frantic packing.
The problem with being away for the duration before Christmas is the need to do Christmas shopping here. That in itself isn't too bad except there is no the need to bring all of that back. And the almost budget airline that we took here allows us 20kg each. No more, no less. Actually AUD$17 for every extra kilo added. What I consider extremely expensive weight gain.
It's bittersweet to have to pack and leave. As Packrat woefully reminded me, we're headed back to small-mindedness. But I guess knowing that we have a plan makes it a little bit easier for me to endure going back. Add to that, I'm having extremely severe fishball withdrawl symptoms, that I strongly suspect I won't be able to quell till Boxing Day. The 6kg of ham we are bringing back is indication of the type of meals we're going to be eating till New Year's.
And on top of that, I think Packrat and I realised how we have outgrown student accomodation. Sleeping on a threadbare Ikea mattress on the ground with the springs poking into your back is just not something you can deal with when the incoming new year will see you round thirty. I think being a working semi-adult has spoilt us. We can afford air-conditioning, which makes 38 degree days like this bearable. And today is cloudy. So there are reasons to go home.
So what did we do here?
Slept a lot-slept too little-ate Krispy Kreme-walked a lot- lay long while Nguyen got hung-explain to countless people that they couldn't believe everything on the Australian media- got picked up- was freezing and hot, all in one day out-went to the Blue Mountains- stayed in a B&B that felt like Laura Ashley designed it-had strawberries in champagne-went horseriding-saw Packrat go swimming with his horse-cried some- laughed a whole lot- discovered grilled pumpkin-discovered mosquitoes in Oz-dreamt the bizarre- visited the Sydney Fish Market 3 days in a row- rented a 1.3 litre Hyundai Getz and a Holden 3.8 litre Commodore with a navigational unit-drank some wine- ate much sushi- discovered low fat burgers and cardiac arrest-inducing burgers-fed gulls-chased gulls-won $12 on the pokies-decided Virginblue was the way to fly domestic-bought hot sauce that was very hot-bought hot sauce that was disappointingly not hot enough-ate cherries- craved for more cherries-went to a protest rally- petitioned to John Howard and Kim Beasley jointly for something (not sure what)- went to a restuarant on its opening night and got superb service-tried to be Aussie and do a barbie but there was far too much wind and it was too cold-drank tea at a tea shop-visited tea shop at least 8 times (for free tea)- bought a lot of tea products for Christmas present- hunt for a box to put all the tea presents to bring back- was stunned and awed by the Lion King-watched an entire movie at the cinema in a bean bag- ate chick pea burgers- saw how one could make a souvlaki in 16 seconds with the help of TNT - custom make a bag at Crumpler - go to a Bo-ho market where people were selling Moroccan hash openly- discover Glycemic Index count on supermarket food, 9 grain bread that could slap Bonjour * bread around a bit- learnt how to cook clams in white wine- cooked a lot of clams- watch clams breathe in water- eat swordfish- overhear a conversation where the topic of discussion was "how to smuggle drugs into SEA" and the conclusion was to put it in Ziplock bags in an airtight container so that sniffer dogs couldn't suss it out. I mean, how dumb can you get???- visit the Shrine of Remeberance- talked a lot- held hands a lot- ate a lot of gelato- walk down the street and try different gelato stores-get sweaty soles because of the heat- watched the fire show- had smoothies in the middle of the night-shopped in the middle of the night-walked in scorching sun-walked in the rain-Christmas shopped in a foreign country-scratch head about how to bring Christmas shopping home-order Kosher meal for Packrat for the flight back- was hungry all the time- was full all the time-take 2 hours to write this post-....
The list goes on. Anyway, it's too hot to go on and our friend who is flying back with us is freaking out because her luggage is 12 kg overweight and she has AUD$480 worth of abalone that she has to check in.
* Cannot find website for Bonjour bread
Ondine tossed this thought in at 07:43
