Sweets and Jellyfish

Last week I posted on my birthday, but now I can officially report how I celebrated it! Matt and I originally planned to have a nice dinner at TGIF's but as funds are low for the time I knew that wasn't going to work out. Conveniently, my supervisor Jennifer Clarke and the others in her lab offered to take me out to lunch on my birthday. We went to a nice Italian restaurant near uni and the food was amazing!! Italian food is my favourite! I had homemade spinach and ricotta ravioli, garlic bread, and a beautiful flan for dessert. I learned that flan is called cream caramel here and this actually led to a large debate because the Aussie's claimed cream caramel is not the same as flan. Having tasted it I would say there is no difference, but the only French girl in the lab later confirmed via the web it is definitely the same thing.

In the evening Matt and I went rock-climbing at a really small local place called the Bloc. We learned it's not a big rope-climbing place but focuses more on building skill and strength with bouldering. I've never been as big in bouldering because I burn out fast. Also, I love climbing not necessarily for the challenge but to get the top which is not really the purpose of bouldering. The rating system is different too and I felt so weak when I could only complete a route on the lowest level - number 1. My hands hurt a lot at the end, but I'm looking forward to future visits to improve my skills.

To top off the night we watched the movie Red 2. Sometime during the movie our cat shade suddenly perked up and headed toward the door. Not too long after we had a knock on the door and found a surprise birthday cake on our front doorstep! I was sad I didn't get up with the cat and catch the mysterious cake givers in the act, but I later had confirmed suspicions it was Brock and Kaytlin! It was a great day!

I originally figured I wouldn't get a cake for my birthday so I had already made plans to make cinnamon rolls. I have officially decided I am getting a lot better at making homemade cinnamon rolls! Not quite Cinnabon style but each time the dough is getting better.

The day after my birthday I went to meet with the Young Women presidency to make gratitude jars as examples for the young women the next week. It later turned into more of a fun chat between girls. To my surprise Cate had also gotten me a cake! Normally I don't really like cake but the two chocolate cakes I had for my birthday were really good!

Matt surprised me Friday night by bringing home huge rolls of carpet from work. It's brand new carpet that was going to be tossed! So we spent Saturday morning cleaning and cutting the carpet to fit our dining room. It feels so weird to walk on nice normal carpet where I'm used to walking on our pink disgusting carpet! Matt is also planning on using some large tubes from work and leftover carpet to build something really fun for the cat so stay tuned for updates on that!

We also were able to enjoy the weekend with some Super Smash Bros Brawl and movies. We've now unlocked all the characters in the game! Matt's now discovered even more fun things to do in the game. I am thinking that we will eventually have to buy our own game since this is the Butler's game with their Wii. As for movies we have watched The Lovely Bones which we both hated in the end (long story) and Kon Tiki. A long time ago my mom advised I read Kon Tiki and I loved the story of how just a handful of guys sailed across the ocean on a handmade raft! I definitely would recommend the book and the movie!

Australia day was this last Sunday which is basically the Australia equivalent of Independence Day in the US. For the first time ever I participated in singing the national anthem here titled Advance Australia Fair! As for any other traditions I don't really know, but I am told that it is a popular day for some serious drinking.

Since the Monday after Australia day is still a public holiday, Matt didn't have to work and I had plans to do an early morning hike with the Young Women. Unfortunately, the hike was cancelled but instead Cate, Racheal and I decided to organise the YW cupboard. It was crazy some of the stuff we found in there such as picture frames that looked from the 70's and tons of posters where most were duplicates. It was fun just to talk and make things look better.

Cate said she was going to Manly beach later with her friend Mariella. I asked Matt if he wanted to go but he wasn't too interested in join anywhere and he would be the only boy. In the end it became just a girl's day out at the beach with Cate, Mariella, Kaytlin and I.

The weather was beautiful and the water was great. My only issue was that the water was really dirty from all the storms we've had recently. Kaytlin was saying how she was glad there weren't any blue bottle jellyfish around. Surprisingly my biggest fear of getting in the ocean in Australia is not sharks, but jellyfish.

As Kaytlin and I went back to the water for a second dip in the water they announced over the speaker that some people had been stung by blue bottles and were advising if you get stung there is no immediate cure so to just remove the tentacles and wash with fresh water. I wasn't too worried since we were going into the main swimming area with loads of people. As Kaytlin and I got  about hip length in the water I felt something really itchy on my leg that began to sting. I eventually pulled my leg out and saw blue stringy things around my left leg! Naturally, swimming time was over and I walked out of the water and the rest of the strings had come off in the process. While walking back to our stuff we saw three blue bottles just lying on the beach. After washing it off it was still stinging pretty bad and eventually I got little puffy dots where the strings had been wrapped around. About an hour later the stinging had subsided and overall I decided it wasn't so bad. They made several announcements that there were at least 50-70 blue bottles just on the beach and if you didn't want to get stung you shouldn't be in the water. My favourite was when they said if you didn't want your kid screaming for the rest of the day from the pain then you shouldn't let them in the water! In the end it wasn't quite as bad as a bee sting or even a mosquito bite because those throb and itch whereas stinging pain you can just wait it out.

Cate, Katelyn and I

Mariella, Cate, and Katelyn

The puffy spots from the jellyfish sting on my leg

Other pain soon showed up from the beach trip. All of the girls had gotten burned even though they regularly reapplied sunscreen. I didn't feel burned at all but after I got home and had taken a shower the truth came out. My back was badly burned along with parts of my legs and my face. Katelyn and Brock came over for FHE later and I was lathered in Aloe Vera and I let her borrow my solarcaine for the very severe and painful burns.

Matt and I finished off the Australia day weekend with a classic Australia movie called The Castle. It has a lot of swearing unfortunately, but it's just a fun David and Goliath kind of movie that I saw years ago when I first came to Australia. It's been a wonderful week!