Chapter 54 - ONE WHOLE YEAR!!!

In which our hero has lived the longest she's ever lived in a place that's not home .... 

So, dear readers. Yesterday, February 11, marked exactly one year since I arrived in this fabulous land of Oz. It has been a fun adventure. I have about another year left. At least, almost a year. Semester 2 ends in November, and if I get a good job I'll probably stick around here for a while until I pay off my student loan thingy. If not, I'll go adventuring, visit the cousins in BC, then go home. It will be fun.

Strangely I can't think what to write. Since I've been here I've been to the beach more than I have in the past ten years. That's been nice. It's slightly frightening when the waves come in and you can feel the water sucking your feet out to sea, but if you hold your ground you eventually get walloped back to shore. I saw a jellyfish once on the beach,

but it didn't bite me, it just sat there. I also saw this mysterious alien footprint:

but it didn't bite me either.

I've seen a koala sleeping in a tree live and in the wild, and I've seen a cat sleeping on a bean bag live and in my house:

She also didn't bite me. Not then anyway. She bites me playfully sometimes when I rub her tummy. I think from now on you can assume nothing's bit me unless I say otherwise.

About a month ago we  had a massive storm one afternoon -- not the hail storm I told you about, but a different one. This one was just rain and wind. I was in the Helensvale Library at the time when it came up, and the sky outside went very dark, and the wind and thunder rattled the windows. I was emailing Mom at the time, so if you're reading, Mom, that's what I'm talking about. Anyway after the storm I was walking home with my bike, which I had luckily put under cover for the duration of the storm, and the sky looked like this:

Sunset after the January 6th storm.

Ah, yes. This is something rather important and exciting. Remember how I told you that I went on a Brisbane adventure with Glen and Christian on my birthday, and when I returned by bike was gone? Well, on December 8th I went to a place called The Tender Centre with Glen, where he had acquired his bike for about $60. I found one there that I liked, and put in an offer of $50 on it. The next day they called me and said my tender had been successful, so I went to get it. The thing is, though, and this will require you to use some Google maps skills, is I live in the north part of Gaven, and The Tender Centre is in Treetops, which is down near Burliegh. Now we are allowed to take bikes onto the trains here, but not on the buses. So I took the train from Helensvale to Varsity Lakes, then took a bus to The Tender Centre, collected my bike, which had slightly flat tires and a seat that was too high, so I couldn't exactly ride it, and walked it back to Varsity Lakes station. I think it took just less than an hour to walk. I then put myself and the bike on the train, and went back to Helensvale, where I went immediately to the bike shop to get some air in the tires and the seat lowered. The fella there said the seat post was fused in place with rust, so he put some kind of lubricant on it and told me to try loosening it in a day. I did manage to loosen it, and lower it, but now it won't hold still, despite the fact that I've tightened everything related to it as much as I can. So basically, long story short, I got a new bike. The total cost, including the 20% handling fee or whatever, and the $2 something else, was $62, which I think is pretty good. After I left the bike shop I went straight to K-Mart for a helmet. I'd already acquired a $10 lock from there before I went down to Burliegh to get the bike, but it wasn't exactly a top quality lock. So the next day I went to Bunnings, which is kind of like Canadian Tire, and got a u-lock and cable, for a total of $45. Now I have three locks, and my bike hasn't yet been stolen. Hopefully it never is.

The new bike. It's slightly big for me, but it works. It's fine while I'm riding, I just can barely touch the ground if I'm sitting on the seat. It's got 27' wheels, I think. It needs new tires because the current ones are quite likely original, which means they're like 30 years old, so they're a bit cracked on the side. The tubes don't leak, though, which is great, and Sarah recently acquired a new tire pump with a gauge on it so I can pump them up myself.

Now, you need to take note of the garage door there behind the bike, and the scale of the distance between the lines. It'll be important later.

There was one day where I went down to Burliegh Beach with the family because one of the kids had Nippers, which is like junior life guards. There was a plan for swimming, so I went dressed in my swimmers and with a t-shirt for some sun protection. It was my Princess Bride t-shirt, that Sharon bought me one summer at K-Mart in Rapid City. I love that shirt. Anyway, after getting rolled and buffeted by the waves for like, a while, and getting sunburned, we headed home. I went up to where the family had their picnic blanket, and washed all the sand and salt off me with the shower that was there. I placed my shirt on the fence right in front of me, with the intention of carrying it back to the car. A gust of wind blew it off the fence, and I thought to myself "You'd better pick that up, or you'll forget about it." Then I replied with, "No, I'll remember." I didn't. And I didn't realise that I'd forgotten it until we were about five minutes from home, so it was too late to turn back, and everyone was hungry and tired. So as soon as I got home I had a quick lunch, got changed into real clothes, and headed for the train station. I took the train to Varsity Lakes, then a bus to Burliegh Beach, then walked along until the Surf Life Saving Club, and there was my t-shirt, just lying on the sand. So I grabbed it and went back. Luckily the shirt is basically the same colour as the sand, so probably no one noticed it, or if they did, they assumed that whoever owned it was coming back for it. I was so happy to have found it.

While on that adventure I saw the following things:

A lovely flower in the sand.

A bus stop with my name on it.

I didn't go home after that adventure either. I went to meet my new friend Chris at Harbour town, then Christian and his friend Kim came, and we all went to see The Book Thief, which was great.

Now Chris is a whole other story. He was on the train on my birthday as we came back from Brisbane because he was coming back from work. We both got off at Helensvale, and he was waiting for a bus near the bike rack that my bike got stolen from. I said something like "Oh, #%@$!", and he said, "What? Is your bike messed up?", and I said, "No. It's not there." Then we talked for a minute or two until his bus came, and we Facebook friended each other, and then I didn't see him for like three months, mostly because it was getting into exam crunch time, and I didn't have time. Then finally, the day of my Burliegh T-Shirt Adventure, he called me and we arranged to hang out a bit before the movie. So we did. We also were getting a bit hungry, so we went to Woolies and bought two packs of mince pies, which were on sale for $1 and $1.50 because it was after Christmas. We also bought a thing of whipped cream, and then we sat down at a cafe table outside and had a dinner of mince pies. It was slightly ridiculous.

This is Chris. He's from Alaska. He'd never had mince pies before, but now he likes them. 

In other news, I put my head in a crocodile's mouth. Don't worry, it didn't bite me. It was dead.

 I saw a giant slug on the garage door. Remember how I said to take note of the scale of the lines? This is why:

 Here's the Wheel of Brisbane lit up with blue and red for Australia Day (January 26).

Here's Herbie the Love Bug in traffic ahead of us.

Here's a crow on a light post in the Westfield Helensvale parking lot, near the bus stop, at which I was waiting for a bus.

Here's two trees in a rain forest on Mt. Tambourine.

Look out! There's a Dalek in the library! (Part of Doctor Who Month (November) at the Gold Coast Libraries).

Here's a Star Trek pie I got from the Yatala Pie Shop. I think it's Star Trekkie because of that triangle thing, which is there to mark what kind of pie it is. It was actually chicken curry.

Here's a rhinoceros beetle I spotted walking across the street near my house.

And here's a giant vicious fire breathing dragon I saw at Movie World.

Well, OK. It's really about the size of a squirrel from nose to tail,  and it doesn't breathe fire. At least, I've never seen one breathe fire. Still, though, how fun is it having random lizards running around?

I think I will sign off for now. I'm not sure that anyone has realised that I'm doing these again, so it'll be a nice surprise for y'all when you discover it.

Tomorrow I'm embarking on an adventure with Christian and Maria. We are taking the Sunlander from Brisbane to Cairns, which is a journey of 31 hours. We're all in economy seats, which will be interesting. I figure it'll be about like road tripping to South Dakota, but without all the dog hair in my snacks. We're leaving tomorrow afternoon at 1:15, and arriving in Cairns at 7:15 p.m. the following day. I have recently managed to make my phone do internet things, so I might be able to put pictures on Facebook as we're going, which will be fun. We'll be there for three full days, then we'll leave Cairns at 7:15 on Tuesday morning, and arrive at 1:15 on Wednesday afternoon back in Brisbane. I may be out of email contact for that time, so hopefully nothing important comes up. I think the other two are bringing laptops/iPads, so maybe I can use them for a quick email check.

Anyway. Wish me luck on my adventure. I'll catch you later.