Another full day

Well, we're wrapping up another full day here at in Sydney. We just got back from a welcoming reception for International students studying in Sydney hosted by the Lord Mayor of Sydney. It was held in the Town Hall building-basically a huge open hall with a MASSIVE pipe organ. The event started off with a bang and the food and drink were flowing. Perhaps a little too much! When the Lord Mayor and all the Vice Chancellors from the three universities in Sydney and the Grand Poo Bah got up to speak, barely anyone was paying attention. There was a small crowd in the front trying to listen but a much bigger crowd in the back talking very loud. It increased to the point that when the speakers were done and a choir from somewhere started performing, nothing could be heard. We left shortly after claiming sore feet and ears.

One highlight of the evening was a stone carving in the wall urging us to "Remember Nellie Melba!" We couldn't because we didn't know who she was but she was depicted as a naked woman with a goat on one side and a strange man on the other. On further research, Nellie Melba was a professional soprano in the early 1900's and is on the $100 bill. Why we should remember her and why she was naked with a man and a goat, we will never know!

~Mike

I had a very exciting and varied day! Since we had this important shindig where we had to be all gussied-up, Mike went ahead and gave me my birthday present. I am now the ecstatic owner of an Australian opal necklace!!!!!! It's light blue, in a white gold setting of a teardrop and also has a small diamond at the bottom. Mike also said some very romantic things but I'm saving those for myself ;-)

Life pre-opal was not very good today, though. I worked today and it was SO SLOW. I'm officially only trained to check in items, so if people don't return things, I've got nothing to do. The computer system is the exact same thing that we used in Bloomington, so I really am capable of doing a lot more but they don't seem to be able to understand this. To give me something else to do, one of the librarians showed me how to load a cart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As if I haven't been working in libraries for how long? I also encountered a very irritating situation of sexual discrimination? Harassment? (not sure which, but either way it's not recognized here so I couldn't complain if I wanted to). The interlibrary loans came around 1 and so, having nothing to do, I said "So I just take this box from you and give you our sitting behind the counter?" The librarian who taught me how to load a cart said "No, you're not qualified to do that yet." That through me for a second, just long enough for one of the maintenance workers to come from around the corner, move the box and hand the delivery guy our outgoing stuff. "What would you have done if there were three of them?" the maintenance worker asked me. "Moved them," was my suave reply. He looked at the other two men and said "She's got it all figured out!" and they all laughed.

ARGH!!!!!!!! Each box contained three or four books and a handful of CDs. The boxes at MCPL were three times as large and 5 times as heavy. I could've screamed. Punching the guy also seemed like a nice option...

On a more cheerful note, this morning at Circular Quay we encountered a new group of street performers. Three retired men, sitting on plastic milk crates, playing Dixieland! The tuba player had big puffy cheeks and sandals with really dirty feet; the banjo player wore a tweed cap and sunglasses and just plunked along; and the trumpet player had a row of mutes in front of him and wore tap shoes so he could set the beat. We're so disappointed we didn't have our cameras! They were actually really good, too, especially the trumpet player. He still had amazing control and really knew his stuff! We listened to them for longer than we should have :o)

Thanks to those of you who commented...Keep it up!! We're off to the park to eat shortbread cookies and watch the stars come out.
~Ruth Ann