It's How Much?!

Salaam, and good evening to you my worthy friends.
Today's adventures were pretty mild, so forgive the blandness.

Woke up early.. AGAIN.. chatted with my man and hung out. When Anton and his wife Kalina came back from their daily run they invited me to go down to Freshwater Beach and go for a swim (hence, the picture). Some beaches like Freshwater beach, have a open pool where it's encased by rocks or cement or what-have-you and looks like a pool, but it's all salt water. When the tide comes in, it fills and cleans out the pool, when the tide goes out it leaves the pool above ground.. pretty neat eh?
So we went for a dip and the water was COLD, but you get used to it after 30 seconds of flailing around like a dying fish.
After snorkeling yesterday my vertigo was still bad so swimming today made it worse, so when we got home I went and took a snooze, did some stretches and exercises that are supposed to help with the constant feeling of being in motion.. and it helped a bit! I'm totally stoked, you don't understand.. I've been living with this BS since I was 12, and NOW, 15 years later I feel like I actually have some kind of control over the situation. Looking at a computer monitor still makes my head feel woozy-woo, but definitely not as bad.
So after all that I decided to walk down to the Freshwater shops and retrace our morning route, only a little slower, since Kalina and Anton were walking like 15mph and I felt like a 4 year old trying to keep up with a power walker.
It was pretty warm today, and HUMID, wow... after living in the desert for 3 years it really makes a difference. I feel like I'm in a constant state of wet. But there's pretty much always a breeze coming off the ocean so it's nice, the sun though is intense, hence the sunburn (YEEEEES mother, I wore sunscreen today!)

So I just walked around a bit, people watched at the beach and came back up to the shops to grab a bite... unfortunately here, you can't pay for everything with a card, even a debt card. It's cash or nothin.. it's like that a lot around Australia, stores and shops don't like paying the $ to the card companies, so they do only cash or they do a min purchase amount. Luckily Anton had given me a couple bucks for just such an occasion since I don't have access to cash until next week (SUCK!) Grabbed a DELISH chicken pesto wrap and smoothie at this cute little place.. but here's the thing, it was $13!! YEAH, I KNOW! 5 for the smoothie and 8 for the wrap! The wrap was large so I feel it was worth it, but the smoothie was MAYBE 16oz and pretty darn tasty, but in the US I see it selling for like 4 something vs a full 5. But this is the other thing about Australia that some of you might not have known, is that they do not have pennies. Nope, no one cent. They have 5 and up. So everything that you purchase is rounded up to the nearest 5 cents. It makes it pretty neat really, I kinda appreciate it. But if you think that leaves you with less coins to deal with you're mistaken. Because they don't have dollar bills. They have 5; 10; 25; 50; and 1.00 coins. So instead of pennies ya gotta buck. When if you think about it, makes being homeless pretty beneficial when it comes to handouts. In the US it'd take you like a week to save up a couple bucks when people are droppin pennies and dimes in your hat, where as here people are droppin fifty and twenty-five and one dollar coins! But yeah.. I don't plan on begging anytime soon, I'll survive.

Anyway.. I moseyed on into a market after lunch and found the neatest invention!! Hand baskets with a extension handle!! Yeah, so like the hand baskets that you pick up in any super market, but with a handle that extends like on a roller suitcase!! Totally awesome, two thumbs up and fun for the whole family!
K, so I wandered around and found the things on my shopping list, and found that happily they accepted cards, however I did have to walk back to the house, and uphill, so I didn't want to go overboard. So I got some stuff, which of course was all pretty expensive, ie- *looks at the receipt from today* $4 for a 1/2 gal (2L) of milk, and $6.30 for a box of cereal... and not even family sized! Uhg, so I grabbed what I needed and headed back to the house.
Chillin on the couch with Anton proved to be an enlightening experience as well since he was watching the Australian cricket games happening now in Tasmania. I was like "what the hell is cricket about anyway? and why does it take 5 days to complete a game?!" So he explained it to me (which I will spare you the same brain numbing confusion). And now I know the point of cricket. I still this it's retarded that it takes so damn long and that it requires so many points, but whatever.

Later we sat down to dinner, and I gotta say, I love Australia for their food. It's so much healthier than the State's! But Anton and Kalina are really good cooks, so much so that they managed to get me to eat 2 things that I've never eaten before in my life! Cottage cheese and beats. I know it seems like no big deal, but those of you who know me and how picky and difficult of an eater I am are probably shocked and amazed right now.
The beats were good, and the sauce that Kalina made yesterday with the cottage cheese in it was pretty tastey. It doesn't mean that I'm gonna go out and buy a tub, but it means that the sauce with the cheese in it tasted decent and I'd eat it again if the occasion arose!

*sighs* sooo, yeah.. that was my day mixed with a bit of book reading and fussing on the internet planning next weeks departure, that's about it.
So now I shall go shower, get ready for bed and zonk out with hopes of being able to sleep to a normal Dani hour tomorrow ;)

Cheers!
~The sticker shocked Quasay Australia Backpacker