Hoppy Eat-ster

Another rainy Saturday here in Byron Bay. I have the day off today so it would have been nice to spend the day at the beach with the Canadian girls, Brittny, Sophie and Amy while Stew was at work for 3 shifts between his two new jobs. Stew is working the deep fryer at Fishmongers, a fish and chip place and as a bus boy at Asia Joes, a little cafe next to Fishmongers. Sometimes Stew has to clean the octopus at Fishmongers which has been described as squeezing a milky sac out of their little heads....yum...but most days he's the potatoe boy making fries. People don't work much in Byron Bay--full time here is working about 25 hours. Stew might be able to get around 25 hours between his two jobs but I myself am lucky to be getting 12 hours a week at my new job at Subway--yes thats right, I am officially a sandwich artist!!. I was thrilled to get hired at Subway after eating so much of it since arriving in Australia and absolutely loving sandwiches. I haven't be able to get many hours but the pay is $19/hour during the week and $22/hour on weekends so luckily I don't have to work many hours to pay rent. I also get a free sub when I work 5 hours, woo hoo!

Our weather was much better the past week and we were able to have a couple beach days. Stew was surfing a few times and may have had one of his first in-water shark encounters. I was laying on the beach reading a Sophie Kinsella novel when Stew arrived back on the beach with a bewildered look on his face. He said while he was out in the water he saw a fin that was different from a dolphin and there were seagulls circling (which is usually a sign there are sharks according to locals). When I looked out I couldn't see a fin but definitely saw the seagulls and surfers pointing out at the water. These surfers are crazy though and sharks to them do not mean ending a surf session but merely just dodging the shark. Insanity. We talked to our roommate Noah about sharks around here and he said there are lots of sharks from the pass on to tallows and further on to Lennoxhead. The locals don't seem to be phased by sharks here but we still cringe at the thought of entering the water where a great white might be. Our friend's landlord said a 15 foot great white was spotted at tallows last week which is just around the corner from the pass.

I've been having a really good time here in Byron so far. I received some good news from home about my tax return money coming in which will help tremendously with our plans to go to Asia. We've made good friends with the Canadian girls and our roommates and have had some fun nights out on the town. We saw a reggae/dubstep concert the one night at the Great Northern Hotel and when in doubt always end up at the Beach Hotel for live music and beers. I've made some friends at work and been keeping up with my running so all is well currently. However, my Nike irun has decided to crap out on me which has thrown off a couple of my runs and made me run a lot further than intended because it was skipping. Last weekend I went out at 6:30am for a 12km run and my gps seemed to be taking a long time to clock a single kilometer. I knew something was up when I had been running forever and not even hit 6km yet but went along with it for an out and back run that took over an hour--not my usual time. I had a huge feeling something was up with my gps and tested it again another day on a route I knew was exactly 3km and sure enough the gps registered 2.34km. When I checked my 12km route from before online it proved to be that that awful run was closer to 14 or 15km! Either way, I have established that the gps is skipping and am looking into purchasing a new one for efficient pace tracking in the future.

Our plans have been changing slightly and we may consider going to Asia earlier but we need to sell the van first and find out more information. We just put the van up on gumtree for sale after cleaning her out and taking pictures for her advertisements. She looks great and we're hoping to get at least $4,000 for her. Once we sell the van we'll have some money to plan for Asia, head up north towards Cairns and figure out the remainder of our trip. After Asia, I am looking into a trip to Fiji for a week or so before returning to Australia. I haven't made any final decisions but have been dabbling with the idea of heading back to Canada in the summer rather than September. It will be Australia's winter here so the weather will only be really beautiful up north and I have been thinking about having a nice summer back home with friends and family. While it's just an idea for now, Barney's patio has been calling my name and i would love to be able to have summer with friends before the colder weather comes back. I must see Asia and Fiji first though!

My 25th Birthday is coming up and we are planning to have a party at our beach condo with our roommates and friends. Noah is going to be 33 in April (old man!) and our friend Sophie is also turning 25 like myself so we are going to have a 3-way birthday party one day during the week of all our birthdays. We have a great sound system and we're in the heart of Byron so it should be a prime party location as it has been in the past. I am SO excited because my birthday was fairly quiet last year though very enjoyable but this year I will be able to celebrate in a new country with a bigger group of people. I can't believe I'm going to be 25, but then again, I can't believe Noah is going to be 33 when he doesn't look a day over 26. Most of our new friends are travelers working in Byron as well whom we've met through Noah or nights out. Our house is always busy with people coming and going and it is very rare to be the only one home, which makes it a nice social atmosphere. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and have recently posted pictures of our apartment on facebook.

Looking forward to Easter weekend and Bluesfest coming to Byron as it will mean more working hours for both of us! Happy Easter to everyone and hope you all enjoy the mini-eggs that we don't have here! I will be dreaming about them. Last year I was in Calgary for dad and my birthdays and Easter weekend. We got to dye Easter eggs with Nana, go to Aussie Rules and visit the family for a delicious feast at Aunty Janes. I will miss Aunty Jane's delicious apple pie this year and will especially miss dying eggs with Nana. I'm not sure if Aussies dye Easter eggs but it would be worth finding out! either way, I love easter because of the chocolate, being able to wear pretty sundresses and it being socially acceptable to eat hard boiled eggs all day--oh and of course being an easter baby. Happy "Eat-ster" to all (thats for you mom!) and miss you! xox