tBlog

Ozzyland gets a big thumbs up for their hearty support of some really strange music. Both “Just a Song About Ping Pong” and “Shake & Pop” were in the top ten Videos of the Week this morning. Enjoy.

We live in a very tiny space. Technically it’s a “Double Share” designed for a student who is underage and living their parent or guardian. The best explanation I can give is that we live is an exaggerated hallway…the living space is also the office which is right next to the stand-alone closets which are in the hallway that is also the kitchen that leads to the bathroom (that is so compact that the door swings within an inch of the sink). The bedroom is the largest space, but it only seems large because there’s no door…so really it’s just a part of the hallway. It also helps that we’ve zipped the two twin-sized mattresses together and the bed is at least large enough to lounge on.

Kitchen : half-size fridge, 2 burners, a microwave, a one-basin sink (that’s big enough for 3 plates or one pot, bench space for only two of the following at once: electric grill, deep fryer, toaster oven, Santos

Office & Living/Dining Room : one large table (desk), one square table w/ 2 plastic chairs, ‘loveseat’ sofa

Bedroom : bed, television, bedside table

Stand Alone Closet : tiny.

To see the photos they entice people with in order to convince them to live here, visit the UniLodge @ ANU site.

Over the weekend, we stopped at a home-goods shop in civic to peruse the too-expensive glassware and outlandish kitchen gadgets. Sitting there, perched high atop the clearance table, was Santos. A hybrid somewhere between Dexter’s Laboratory and At-Home Starbucks, The Santos 3004 is a coffee brewing miracle (I’ve even used him to brew some delicious iced tea!). The secret to the whole process is the vacuum seal between the lower kettle and the top chamber, so that the coffee is brewed up top as the heated water is displaced by pressurized steam and then slurped back into the bottom half, bringing all the caffeinated deliciousness with it. Truly a brewing revolution to our mornings, Santos has sent the French press into a cupboard retreat. We were lucky enough to pick the lil’ guy up for $50… you can find them on the bodum website for $99.99 in the US. Even if you’re not coffee-inclined, stop by the bodum site and check out the demonstration video to learn just how exciting morning can be.

There are lots of fantastic things about living in the land down under, but it’s easy to find things that aren’t quite like home that don’t seem like they’re quite as nice…

…like melanoma. Each year, over 374,000 Australians are diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancer and almost 360 Australians die. Descending from the fairest-of-the-fair, I decided it might be a good idea to go and get checked out before I deep fry myself in tanning oil on the Sydney beaches this summer. I got the whole rundown on skin cancer, and will be having some ‘preemptive’ moles removed simply because the medical community is so used to seeing Americans come down under and winding up with cancer. Thumbs down, cancer!

High-priced Fun. We went to see the Simpsons Movie for A$8 apiece. This was at the cheap theatre…if we had gone to the nice theatre, admission would have been A$15. After the movie we went to Knightsbridge, a local bar, and had 2 vodka martinis, 2 margaritas, and 2 glasses of red wine. We spent A$75. Even if you’re planning on spending the night in-house and hanging around with friends, having a few drinks, the cheap vodka costs A$30. Absolut A$40.

Pits. The Aussies have no theory that seeds and pits are bad things. Thus, my martini came with three pitted olives (how does one go about tastefully spitting the olive pit back into your martini or into the nearest potted plant?) and the bunch of grapes Alex and I got at the market includes a seed in each and every one. I miss pimento and eating grapes by the handful.

I realize that it may be slightly juvenile to be posting this, it just happened to catch my eye while I was in Alex’s old 5 room multishare flat the other day and found it to be both intriguing and hilarious at the same time. I’ve been told that these were posted above the toilet in each of the flats upon move-in to help out some of the international students coming from nations where the norm is to squat over a hole and do your business. Thanks, UniLodge, for always looking out for everyone’s safety… “if the bowl breaks it can be dangerous and lead to serious injuries.”