Day 7

Since I was working the late shift, I slept in. That was nice. Although, 'in' is relative in my world. I would have to be up until 5 or 6 in the morning to sleep past 10 most times. Even then, I have been known to wake up wide awake after 4 hours of sleep. I don't know why. I tell myself it is because I got used to working the night shift, and keeping the room so dark (when I lived in Las Vegas, I put aluminum foil on the window and it was pitch black in the room even during the day) to sleep day hours. That means when light hits a room, I wake up. I have been known to have to turn clocks to face away if they have LED displays because the light would be bright enough to wake me up. Go figure!

So, at about 9:30, I got out of bed and went into the living room. I bought some Granny Smith apples, and sliced one up and had it and a Coke Zero for breakfast. Probably not the healthiest, but I was really just puttering anyway. Originally, my plan was to visit the Old Melbourne Gaol (that's pronounced "Jail" and means the same thing.) I am not sure why the Australians use what appears to be a Celtic spelling for Jail, but then they also pronounce Quay as "key" so I don't really ask. Australia was predominantly a prison colony at its initial founding (a factoid generally not to bring up with a native) and this was one of the first prisons in the country. There are urban legends about it being haunted, and claims of Photographs of Ghosts in the Gaol definitely fuel that fire. I am told you can take an evening tour by candle light and experience the paranormal for yourself. I was just going to kill some time during the day, as it was one of the sights I missed last year.

Then, I started looking at the heap of clothing in the closet in my room. Ugh. I decided it was time to do laundry instead. One of the reasons they have us stay at this chain is that it offers real apartment style living. That includes a stackable washer and dryer. Of course, that meant I had to wander out into the city and hit the closest grocery store. The predominant store here is IGA, which I found funny because generally in the states, an IGA is the grocery store no one wants to go to. So, now armed with my detergent and fabricsoftener softener, I was ready to do some laundry. Sounds simple enough, right? Apparently not. It turns out I left the city map I carry with me in the back pocket of one of the pairs of pants and ran it through the wash. That generally produces unwanted results, and I had to send almost half of that load back through to clear up the paper bits stuck to my shirts, pants, and the like. Argh! Then, I discovered I hadn't been as thorough as I had meant to be, and still had a few items to be washed. For some reason, one of those shirts got some "washer gunk" on it and had to be run through again as well. Grr! So, I missed the chance to go to the Gaol today. I'll try again tomorrow.

Since I was now somewhat stuck close to the hotel, I decided I'd just grab some fast food for lunch. The fast food I like closest to the hotel is Nando's, a chicken franchise that it turns out is actually a South African company (not that it matters, but what in the Hell do South Africans know about Portugese chicken?) Anyway, a tasty treat. I should point out the hot sauce, which isn't the hottest they offer is warm enough to make sweat break out on my forehead, which is usually my goal when going spicy. :-) Of course, that meant more chips (fries) but I let it go.

With laundry work going on, I settled in to watch junk sports on Television. Now, I used to believe the Americans were the kings of junk sports, but I was seriously mistaken. I started the session watching the Tri-country lawn bowling championships between South Africa and Australia. That's right, lawn bowling. And they were distinctly serious about it. Check out their site if you don't believe me. It went to a sudden death bowl-off, which apparently was a very tense moment, given the excitement in the announcer's voice. I will say I was impressed with how well they manipulated the path of the ball, though I don't know how much of that was slope and curve available underneath the pitch. The second was Premier league (they have a lot of premier leagues for their sports, implying a minor league and training leagues) snooker. Snooker is an interesting game, I suppose. Not for me, since I generally don't play American pool all that well.

I sent out my second and third postcard today. I should buy some more, and send them to my niece and nephew. I don't know if they'd get a kick out of them, but Sandy Berman told me everyone likes to get mail. The funny part is, I half suspect that they won't get there before Colleen leaves, and that means she'll get all of them at once when we both get back into country.

OK, going to sign off for the day. Day 8 tomorrow.

Cheers!