Monday, September 29, 2014

Pounding the Pavement

Pukari and I keep inviting people to join us at the ballroom dance class, but haven’t had any more luck.  Lightt & Lulu were able to make it this week.  Lulu said that by the time they got back home last week the pot on the stove had been ruined and there was smoke everywhere. Rith & Louie came Sunday night, but they just watched.  It’s definitely not as fun when you know you’re being watched, at least for me anyway; Pukari is used to it since he used to be in competitions.  I did manage to have some fun though; and had Rith not broken his arm the other night in a bit of a freak volleyball accident, he said he would have joined the class because it looks so fun.  Anyway, when we were done the four of us (Pukari, Louie, Rith, and I) all decided to have some dinner, which was perfect because I was starving before we ever left for dance but since I was in reception hadn't had a chance to eat anything.  Lightt & Lulu headed home, I think the dancing is tiring for Lulu, she's about 6 months pregnant and said the baby is feeling really heavy now.  We ended up going out for pizza and it was a lot of fun.  You don’t always get much of a chance to talk at volleyball because you’re concentrating on the game and you’re not always on the same teams and whatnot.  Rith is Cambodian, but has lived in Australia for the last 18 years or so and is living with some Thai friends here in Cairns at the moment, but his home is in Melbourne.  I never quite understood the whole situation, but that’s ok.  Pukari had to bring up the fact that I can sing, the downside to people coming to church with me, but I guess the upside is that I found out Louis is in the choir at his church.  Probably never would have learned that little tid-bit otherwise.  It was a really fun evening and hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did.  Rith and I did most of the talking, but then Pukari isn't much of a talker anyway and I think poor Louis was spending most of his time trying to understand what we were saying.  I think his English is really good, but then sometimes I forget that it’s still not his first language so we need to speak slowly and clearly.  I guess he got good listening practice anyway.

 I stayed up way too late Sunday night for the early start I had Monday (I was up at 5am), but it was a busy day so I didn't have too much time to feel tired.  As soon as my morning shift in reception finished Alicia came and we headed out to try and hand out our resumes to as many businesses as we could find that would take them.  She told me that she’d gone by herself the other day, but felt too nervous.  Since she knew I was on the job hunt as well she decided to ask if I’d want to tag along.  Having done it on my own previously, I could certainly sympathize, so we headed out together.  We spent over 3 hours walking all over town to hotels and businesses asking if they had openings and leaving resumes if they’d allow us.  Hopefully someone will call us for an interview.  We both had sore feet by the time we were done…

It was another late night due to the farewell dinner for Sam & Lisa (they're moving on from Cairns on Wednesday).  We started at 5:30pm, but I still didn’t crawl into bed until 11pm (and I really do mean crawl into bed).
 Dinner was at Kimchi & Richy, but you have to remember that BBQ simply means grilling, so there’s a little grill in the middle of each table.  Alicia did the cooking and when Agatha was able to get away (they’re short staffed so she’s been filling in) she joined us.  It was an incredibly enjoyable night; I haven’t laughed that much in a very long time.  Lisa is an absolute gem, and Sam is actually quite funny and sweet as well.  I’m a bit sad we didn’t get to spend a bit more time together while they were here, but it looks like I’ll be visiting them in January.  Agatha & Alicia’s mom is coming for a visit and they’re going to take her down to Tasmania to visit Sam & Lisa and asked if I wanted to tag along.  Lisa was so excited and immediately started planning an itinerary and pulling up photos on her phone of all the beautiful places she wants to show us.  We haven’t really worked out any of the details yet so I’m not sure if I’ll stay here until we go down or not (geographically it doesn’t quite make sense, but because of the Christmas holidays it might be smarter not to try and travel during December).  Anyway, back to the fun.  Agatha was definitely the life of the party and she was definitely on a roll.  Granted, I think the amount of sojyu they all drank definitely helped her antics.
There were several thumb wars as well and Alicia was the champ.  Despite all the laughter, there were definitely a lot of tears when Lisa gave Agatha & Alicia the gifts she had bought them.  Sam and I just sat there and watched while they all cried and hugged; Sam poured himself some more sojyu and said to me, “Women, they’re a rare breed.”  I just laughed and agreed with him, we’d had that conversation before.  The night didn’t end on that sad note, we ended up in front of the restaurant where Sam and Agatha had an impromptu (and possibly drunk-induced) dance off.  We all finally managed to go our separate ways because Agatha had to go back to work at the restaurant and Alicia was working the morning shift today.  I’m reminded of one of my favorite “old” country songs, “no matter what they say I’ve done, I ain’t never had too much fun.”

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