Party Down Under

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore: I have an accent?

If you get home and to bed before the birds wake up in the morning, that's not too late. Right? True or not, we got home just prior to 5am. Needless to say I haven't been up very long today. The house next door to Triona had an open house party last night to say goodbye to a guy who's moving out. It was an excellent opportunity to meet actual Aussies, and Triona also felt that it would be good to get to be friends with her neighbours. There's now a "gate" between their backyards, so they'd better get along! The "gate" considerably shortened the distance we had to travel to get from the house next door to Triona's to use the toilet or refill drinks, so we didn't complain.


Me, Ching and Triona looking through the "gate" back into Triona's yard


Heidi, Antonia, Me and Ching's ear

For a while, it was a little awkward and boring at the party because we didn't know anybody and everybody already seemed to know each other. Things improved when people started getting curious about the hole in the fence and the fact that the door to the next house was open with people in the kitchen getting drinks. This gave us the opportunity to introduce ourselves and chat away from the crush of the house next door and the loud music. A guy named Fergus is now supposed to be giving me a poster of Australian birds. And even if I don't see him again, Heidi probably will...

I'm beginning to think that there's some sort of law stating that everyone I meet has to have a close connection back to Canada. Even the Aussies. The one Aussie I actually had a real conversation with at the party has a mother from Ottawa. He's from Canberra, but admitted that like it was a shameful secret. For some reason nobody wants to be from Canberra, and the Sydneysiders laugh about anyone who is. Since he's spent a good deal of time visiting Canada, it was possible to talk about the similarities and differences between Australia and Canada, across a range of topics. Which of course opens up many other topics of conversation. Eventually we heard a guitar and singing coming from the living room and decided to investigate. Triona's Canadian housemate Derek was providing entertainment. I think Chris (the Aussie) was very amused when a group of people from Canada, Scotland and Germany started singing Semi-charmed Life. Ching has a recording of us on her digital. That'll be a keeper. About this time I thought I'd check my watch. Imagine my surprise when the hands said it was 3:30am. I wasn't the only one shocked. Times flies when you're having fun. We sat on the couch shivering and chatting for another hour and then decided we'd really better get home before the sun rose. Antonia slept over because she couldn't get home without the bus and the buses don't run at 4:30am. And yes, I will be filling in entries about who all these people are and how I met them. But I thought I'd better write something or I might just forget about this page.