Reign and Rain
Today is the Queen's Birthday in Australia - though not really. While the second Monday in June is annually observed as a Public Holiday in Australia (though not Western Australia or Queensland) has served as the day off in celebration of the reigning monarch's birthday, it is actually not aligned with the current Queen's birthday (in April), nor her two successors. The holiday was established back when King George V was ruling, and after his death in the 1930s, Australia never updated the date on which to celebrate - Western Australia celebrates the Birthday at the discretion of the Governor of Western Australia (it will be in October this year) and Queensland will actually be celebrating it twice this year (June and October) as they are switching times to observe it.
Regardless of how convoluted all of that sounds, the long and short of it is we had the day off today. As has become annoyingly common, it rained - a lot. Tiffany, Max and I decided to brave the weather and caught a bus to Paddy's Market for a bit of shopping (usually not open on Mondays, they were open for the Holiday weekend. We managed to make it to the market without getting too wet, and spent the next hour and a half wandering between the hundreds of stalls, each making small purchases along the way. I managed to pick up a pair of sunglasses for A$5 as well as a large Australian flag (which I had been wanting for a while to put in my room here, as well as back in the states) for another A$5. There are a few stalls that sell American sports jerseys, and I happened to find a few Saints jerseys (two Colston, one Bush). They were nice (obviously surplus from a previous year that had found their way to the Asian market) and at A$35 a steal compared to ones I can buy in the US. I waffled for a bit on the the black Colston jersey, and talked myself out of it; I do think I might go back and get it after checking the prices on ebay now - I have always wanted a jersey since I moved to New Orleans; never thought it would take me moving to Australia to find one at the right price!
After a lot of time around the various stalls, we headed over to the produce side of the market. I bought 2kg of potatoes, 2kg of onions and 4 capsicum for another A$5 (seeing a theme here?). After Max made one last purchase, we all headed out and parted ways. I made the short walk to Broadway in the rain - though managed to stay pretty dry as most of the walk is covered by awnings.
At Broadway I swung into Coles to grab a bit of meat and celery to make a stew with. When I left Broadway to head home, the rain was coming down pretty hard, and the trek back home turned into a soggy slog.
I got home, dried off, and my stew is now simmering away on the stove. The rain is relentlessly pounding our house, and I am more than happy to stay inside for the rest of the evening doing some picture labeling and reading through my internship paper.
Regardless of how convoluted all of that sounds, the long and short of it is we had the day off today. As has become annoyingly common, it rained - a lot. Tiffany, Max and I decided to brave the weather and caught a bus to Paddy's Market for a bit of shopping (usually not open on Mondays, they were open for the Holiday weekend. We managed to make it to the market without getting too wet, and spent the next hour and a half wandering between the hundreds of stalls, each making small purchases along the way. I managed to pick up a pair of sunglasses for A$5 as well as a large Australian flag (which I had been wanting for a while to put in my room here, as well as back in the states) for another A$5. There are a few stalls that sell American sports jerseys, and I happened to find a few Saints jerseys (two Colston, one Bush). They were nice (obviously surplus from a previous year that had found their way to the Asian market) and at A$35 a steal compared to ones I can buy in the US. I waffled for a bit on the the black Colston jersey, and talked myself out of it; I do think I might go back and get it after checking the prices on ebay now - I have always wanted a jersey since I moved to New Orleans; never thought it would take me moving to Australia to find one at the right price!
After a lot of time around the various stalls, we headed over to the produce side of the market. I bought 2kg of potatoes, 2kg of onions and 4 capsicum for another A$5 (seeing a theme here?). After Max made one last purchase, we all headed out and parted ways. I made the short walk to Broadway in the rain - though managed to stay pretty dry as most of the walk is covered by awnings.
At Broadway I swung into Coles to grab a bit of meat and celery to make a stew with. When I left Broadway to head home, the rain was coming down pretty hard, and the trek back home turned into a soggy slog.
.jpg) |
| A waterfall down stairs at the bottom of my street. |
Comments
Post a Comment