Heaps

"Heaps": what Aussies say instead of the word, "loads," "tons," or "a lot."

Ex: "Yeah, there's always heaps of drunks on Swanston St. on a Friday night."

Highlights of the week:
Nancy arriving at Melbourne and staying with me for a couple of nights. I love her cooking and she made me enough food to last me for several nights. My Canadian roommate, Bobby, came back from his travels across Aussie and will be staying in the house for another few months. I'm glad to have his company because his extroverted, comedic humor always brightens my day. Visited some cool Melbourne landmarks, which I will definitely show Xtine once she gets here. Also finally got ahold of the boss and he paid me what he owed me in full, plus $100. That was because he failed to remember that he had paid me already for one of the days. Since he was such a bastard to me, I didn't feel compelled to correct his mistake. Yay for rent money!

Downers:
Nancy left for Tazzy today, which makes me sad because I really enjoyed her company. That lucky girl is going to be studying in Brissy for another 6 months, so I have no idea when I'll see her next. Thank God that she lives in Cerritos, which is relatively close to L.A. My friend Christine also left for the States this morning, which makes it worse because she's one of my really good friends in Melbourne. =( Luckily, she also lives relatively close by (maybe a 30 min drive on the freeway?).

Speaking of roommates, Bob and Zoe cleaned up the house today. I really appreciated their hard work, especially since the kitchen was filled with dirty dishes and the bathroom was just plain gross. It's really nice to finally have clean dishes and a clean bathroom. Now I don't want to appear ungrateful, but in a way I kind of felt that Zoe was obligated to clean up the mess. I mean, the reason why the kitchen and the bathroom was so gross was because her friends were always over, cooking/eating/spending the night at our house. This one girl, Amy, lived on our couch for at least a month. Therefore, I felt slightly miffed when I came home and Zoe went up to me and said, "Bob and I just cleaned the house. It looks nice, doesn't it? Let's keep it that way." I felt like saying, "I HAVE been trying to keep the house clean, tell that to your friends!" but of course, I just smiled, nodded and said, "Sure!" It didn't help when I went to the fridge to look for my leftover fried rice and Nancy's delicious soup and was confronted with empty shelves. Yes, that's right, the same soup I was ranting about in my Highlights section had completely disappeared from the fridge, pot and all. Zoe saw my alarmed expression and said, "Oh, I also cleaned the fridge and threw out a lot of food. I'm sorry if I threw out any of your stuff, but all the trashed things either smelled bad or was pretty old." Now that pissed me off, because Nancy made that soup only two days ago (it was a full pot!!) and my fried rice was brought home last night. What was this girl's definition of "smelling bad"?! Geez! I wanted to yell at her for throwing away the food that I had so carefully rationed to last, but couldn't really figure out what to say. "Um Zoe, that 'bad-smelling' food you threw out was actually fresh, and you just cost me a whole week's worth of meals"? All she could have responded with was "Oh, sorry," but the food will still be in the trash. Damnit, I just want Nancy's pot of veggie stew back. What a complete and utter waste. =(

Sorry you guys, I'm really trying hard not to complain in here because no one likes to read boo-hoo-life-sucks entries. It's just that a bunch of stuff has been stressing me out and I guess it's finally getting to me. I guess the biggest problem is just money. There's just so little of it right now and so much is needed. That's why whenever I plan out money-saving strategies and someone comes along and messes it up, it's really frustrating and infuriating. Whoever said money doesn't buy happiness has obviously never been poor. Anyway, I'll end this entry now before I get too bitter and angry. Hopefully, a good night's rest will clear my head. I may have to head to the market tomorrow and see if I can recreate Nancy's soup.