WOA: Canberra

World Of Australia
Quest: Post those backlogged adventures DING!
New Location Discovered: CANBERRA

First off, because I am the type of person to admit to horribly stupid stuff that I have done, I didn't know Canberra was the capital of Australia until I decided to move here. Much like Ottawa, they picked a location between their two heavy hitters (Sydney and Melbourne) and turned it into a capital city.

It has a the reputation for being a bit dull, which has been echoed by both my lovely travel book In A Sunburnt Country by Bill Bryson (So funny, and bizarrely entitled On Australia here. I find non-translated but totally different book titles very interesting) and by the various people I have met. I figured that, much like Ottawa, it was awesome when you got to know it, but didn't make finding the cool stuff easy.

The drive there was AMAZING. Not only did I get to see The Big Merino (yes, that is a giant sheep. Yes, I hugged it. Yes, there are MANY MORE giant things in Australia. And yes, you should come visit me)

but the landscape in Australia continues to be breathtaking and driving along the Australian countryside in our little convertible in the shadows of the mountains, surrounded by unfamiliar trees and SUPER WEIRD birdcalls (I kept insisting the car was falling apart. He kept telling me that it was a bird.) is a glorious glorious thing. Also,

Highway Driving Quest
SUCCESS

My ability to drive along Australia highways is totally getting better, especially since I am no longer frantically checking my lefthand mirror to figure out where in the lane I am. I forgot how much I enjoy country driving with the music blaring. Also, I have found all my old mix cds from highschool/undergrad, so the drives are particularly epic; Tenacious D is now stuck in my head.

We bummed around Canberra, played 500 (which is the Australian beloved card game equivalent to Eucher) until two am and FROZE. Dear lord, it gets down to freezing but they have no insulation and no centralized heating. WE WERE WEARING COATS INSIDE. I SLEPT IN SOCKS. I .. yes, I don't approve of this. Of course, back in Newcastle, I just went swimming at the beach in late Autumn, so my complaints sort of lose their weight, but still! I get cold when I sleep. /sulk

We also went to the Roller Derby game, because a)roller derby is AWESOME, b)they were playing our Newcastle team and one of our friends is on it (Her name is Beaver Destruction. As a Canadian, I try not to take offense. ;) ) and c) one of our 500 partners is sometimes a ref. Yes, the further I get from the Roller Derby Heartland of Texas, USA the more I see of it. Canberra's Vice City Rollers PULVERIZED our Dockyard Dames (seriously, I LOVE the names in Derby), and they should be very proud of how hard their blockers hit, but it was an awesome game none the less and the DJ was genuinely good.

We checked out the Tower thing, wandered the Museum of Australia (which told me things I did not know), I hung out in the Rainforest Gully of the Botanical Gardens (I was horribly allergic to Something/Everything in Canberra, but the Gully cleared my lungs right up. Also, Australian rainforest makes you think that you are about to get eaten by a dinosaur. The weird birds reinforce this), and we accidentally ate at Samy's Chinese BBQ, which it turns out is an institution. I have a knack for randomly picking iconic restaurants ( Chili in Washington D.C., Five Guys in an airport), for which I am extremely grateful.

So Canberra was grand, but I will tell you this now: it is not a walking city. There is way more road than anyone should ever need, and it tends to just spit you out in strange places, all the while you are surrounded by park which is surrounding suburbs and you are just trying to figure out where the city is. Plus, many of the pubs were closed at noon on a Sunday, which is just mean. So good times, but I prefer my beach.

Orchid Paintings

World of Australia Long-term/On-going/Very Big Quest

OIL PAINTING - Enough for a Cafe Show/ Fair Booth

Orchid Painting -Medium size - DING!

I've actually had some pretty good traction on this quest, so I figured I would share. I'm taking progress shots after each painting session, and it is very satisfying to see how it changes as I get the colours onto the canvas.

First I wanted to have the silhouettes down.

The start of the flowers, and deciding on the colours.

Almost finished. This is the stage when I'm nearly done and decide I hate it. It took me a few weeks to go back in, redefine my whites, muck about with the darks and sign it.

Finished. Rather enjoy it now.

Of course, photography of oil paintings is notoriously unreliable, and I am still of the school of point and click and maybe fiddle with the flash, so this is more of a gesture towards what the painting looks like, but still, a pleasant start.

Hair experiements

My hair is much longer than usual. This is probably because I have yet to call and schedule a hair appointment here in Australia (New Quest! Get Hair Cut). I figure I'm still in mourning for my wonderful hair stylist at Sublime Hair Studio, but I am also beginning to have difficulty seeing through my increasingly emo bangs. Anyway, this means I have enough hair to muck about with, and after a discussion about potential hair steampunk hair styles with a friend, it got me thinking.

Her hair goes down to her waist and there are a number of interesting vintage and regency do's available to play with, although admittedly sometimes her hair is actually TOO long for the look. Mine is  right under my ears, so most of the things we looked at won't really work. (For those of you with longer locks, Torrin Paige has lovely long hair tutorials on youtube. Plus, she is not annoying to watch on video, which turns out to be the exception not the rule for youtube hair tutorials)

I wandered over to Steam Ingenious which was talking about steampunk hair, but I'm not really anxious to go for wigs yet. I like my hair. Up to now, I've just thrown some hair gunk in (the good stuff. Like Thrill or Gooch), scrunched it around a bit and gone. Sometimes I've even used hair spray. I don't own a curling iron or hair blower, and I'd rather keep it that way, but with the extra length I find myself wanting to do things with a bit more drama. And if you want to try new things, ten minutes before you walk out the door is probably not the best time selection.

So now... now we experiment!

Experiment 1: BRAIDS

Wavy hair from putting my hair in braids (lots of them) when it is wet and leaving it until it is dry/I get impatient. I pinned them up using leftover bobby pins from when I was in ballet (yes, from when I was EIGHT). 

Tada! Wavy poofier hair. Add some hair gunk to make it stay, and this could be a fun base for hairstyle. I was worried about having too many kinks, but my hair is super fine and short, and also I suck at braids,  so I think I could get away with leaving it in braids for much longer.

Next time... The Gibson Girl? Or really, I may just try more braids. Also, blog photography takes effort. 

Baking Bread

So, I like to bake bread. My father always made bread and it is something I am actually good at (unlike say, cookies. I have a tragic cookie failure to tell you about later).

The bread I usually make is just the normal white bread recipe from my ancient Joy of Cooking, modified as I see fit, because it is a dough that I understand (except for that time I used all wheat flour and ran out on it while it was rising and maybe ended up with bricks. But whatevs! Usually it goes well. Unlike the cookies.).

But Australia, as you may have gathered, is hot. Not super hot, because evidently this is the Worst Summer Ever (hah! It is to laugh.), but warm to the point that they don't have furnaces (I know, my head exploded too. My mom was all "Would you like the quest CLEAN THE VENTS as an add-on to your vacuuming skill" and I realized that I did not have the pre-requisite item vents. It was odd. As is the way vacuuming is spelt. Better not type it again, it will just get weirder.) So I am waiting to break out the All Day Bake That Bread Event, but I do get very testy when I am recipe surfing and all the meal plans involve weird ingredients and kitchen implements I don't own and probably some type of eldritch knowledge because it shouldn't turn out wobbly, but the bread recipes have things like "Easy! Quick! No kneading!" What the hell internet? This is the one thing I would like to take at the Advanced Level. Or at least Intermediate (because yes, usually it is just me and the white bread hanging out. Why get fancy when it is so good and warm and yummy?) But I LIKE kneading bread.

ANYWAY, I figured I'd do a couple of lower level BREAD QUESTS to keep from going stale (hah! I am so funny.) and I came across a recipe for Beer Bread that involves Self-rising flour, which was the only flour in the house at the time (also I had no yeast. Setting up a kitchen = hard).

It turned out AWESOME.

RECIPE: Beer Bread

3 cups self-rising flour
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 beer

Mix. Put it in a loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees.

If you don't have self-rising flour (because seriously, who has that? Why do we have that? Being in a couple is weird) you can do it the way Farmgirl Fare does it:

3 cups organic all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder 
1 teaspoon salt

Personally, I like it with the little extra sugar. The best part? Trying it with different beers. I think my favourite so far is Corona with feta and rosemary, but the Guiness beer was interesting (and tragically popular with the ants, damn their eyes! Eye stalks? Visual Sensors!)

Victoria Day Picnic & Hat

Guys, I trimmed a hat! (like forever ago, but it seems I've been a bit busy moving to Australia, so you are getting this post a touch delayed)

I picked up this riding helmet at a flea market (because why not?) and actually got around to adding some ribbon to it for our Victoria Day Picnic on Victoria Island with the Ottawa Steampunks (we were kindly invited along by the Ottawa Goth Syndicate). You will notice I also added a brooch which I bought for I believe 50cents at either a garage sale or one of those work jewellery charity things. 

Add some goggles (Dear Girl Genius, thank you for your lovely goggles, they can jazz up almost anything [please note that I don't think they are for sale anymore, which is a shame]) and voila!

Okay, so I added a couple of extra elements, but really I am just pleased that I finally started in on the DIY part of Steampunk. Much as I love delving into my costume wardrobe and putting together random outfits out of pieces I've acquired over the years, it is also very satisfying to actually do something requiring a needle and thread. 

World of Australia: Where driving is hard

So I think I might be tackling quests slightly above my level.

I accepted DRIVE TO SYDNEY because I am an adult and can drive a car and this way my boyfriend can do some remote laptop work while we drive and BAM double productivity. However, let's take a look at my stats.

ME
Level 5 Pedestrian
Never owned a car of her own
"Walk through winter bus strike" badge
Metro experience - Toronto, New York, London, Montreal
Excellent bus map ability
Feats in "find ride" and "navigation/excellent company"
Disadvantage: Carsick

Five years worth of experience points have gone directly into pedestrian stats. Now let's take a look at the quest I accepted.

DRIVE TO SYDNEY
Highways with speed limits in Kilometers (I'm used to it in miles)
Roundabouts (Look at the cars to the right! But not to the left! FOCUS! DON'T DIE!)
Driving on the left (Don't go in the wrong lane. Don't go in the wrong lane. Oh god, how far right in the lane am I supposed to be? It feels like I am driving too far to the right, but it turns out I am too far to the left and I am now obsessively checking my mirrors)
Hills (Watch your speed! In Kilometers!)
and that convertible we got? Yeah, it is a manual.

Now yes, I wouldn't have been able to accept the quest if I didn't already know how to drive a stick-shift. But here's the thing: I learnt to drive manual in my dad's Fiat Spider for Prom. And since my ten year high school reunion is coming up this year (I would say this summer, but I'm now in Australian Autumn and it makes talking about the seasons like they are a sensible time mark very confusing. Also, no, I'm not going back to the states for it. ) that makes it a solid decade since I regularly had to change gears. And there are hill starts here. A lot of hill starts. Which means there is a lot of cursing on my part. And stalls.

I successfully got us to Sydney, but seriously? Why do I manage to pick the absolute hardest way to do a thing? Roundabouts in an unfamiliar manual car on the lefthand side of the road as my reintroduction to driving?  >.<

World of Australia (WOA!)

Moving to another country makes life feel remarkably like an elaborate MMORPG (which seriously, always sounds ridiculous when people say it. mehmorphg. Acronyms, why they gotta be that way?).

First there's the training grounds while you are trying to work you way up to level 10.

Choose your destination location - DING!
Inform landlord of departure - DING!
Give notice of leave to work
         Tell supervisor
         Tell big boss
         Fill-out Paperwork
         DING! Level UP!
Pack all material possessions
         Find group
         Pack all the things
         DING! Shared exp AND give prizes to group members because you have too much loot to carry
Sell couch - DING!
Move piano - DING!
Pack remaining items and get on plane - Yes, you totally rock at this game, look at you and your bad self, those rats did NOT see you coming.

Optional SIDE QUEST - LAS VEGAS - You will also rock at this side quest, where everything is pretty and awesome and seriously, you are just happy to not be dealing with that same tiny town hall anymore and there's a Combination Starbucks/Margaritaville and this game is AWESOME.

Now you have to try and get to the city. You're a big kid now, and suddenly that nice, totally at your level, training ground is gone and you have NO IDEA where you are or where you are supposed to be going. Also, the chat line is completely baffling or WORSE the damn FIJI airline PA system doesn't work so you don't know what time it is or why there are no soft drinks, and if you get the Ginger ale, be warned that it turns out it is more like ginger beer and will not do the nice hydrating job you were hoping it would. Be confused and also tired. Also, have no idea what time it is and be unable to find a clock. Maybe it is two am? How long have you been playing this anyway? Is it supposed to take this long, or have you frozen on the back of a flying thing?

So now the quests are trickier. The first one, your big introductory quest, the one you know you have to finish to open up all the other quests, is

APARTMENT FIND
Somewhere in this region is an apartment you want. Go and try to find it.
         Inspect apartments - Yes, totally killed attended 5 apartment inspections. Hmm, pretty minimal exp.
         Find the RIGHT apartments - Okay, so I killed inspected some apartments which were not the right ones, but look, some of them actually dropped the item I am looking for. YES, TOTALLY BEAT THIS QUEST.
        Get apartment - NO! You've brought the item back and had it appraised and it turns out that this is NOT the item that the quest guy wants, or you are not the person they wanted to bring it or something stupid.
         Go inspect more apartments - Really? More of them? I mean, okay, but pretty sure you looked at a lot of them already.
         More dropped items - Not as many as you'd like, honestly, what is with that, but okay fine, you will now run around this new area trying to match up the items with the person who is asking for it, because they are all different and want different applications and arcane rituals to even see if you get to complete this quest.
        Get apartment! -- NO!! More inspections and item running. By this point, the inspections aren't really getting you ANY exp and you are super worried that the item you are looking for just straight up doesn't exist. Also you aren't getting exp for discovering new areas because you were here LAST week and also getting discouraged because the chat lines are all filled with the same people competing with you for that lovely dropped item who are also getting discouraged and DEAR LORD YOU ARE GOING TO BE HOMELESS AND NEVER GET TO PLAY THE REST OF THE GAME SWEET JESUS WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??
       Get apartment - Ding!

wait what? oh, thank the lord, we actually have a place to live.

Begin awesome game playing... no wait, now you get to move in.

Okay, that's okay, this was part of the game you were looking forward to and dreaming of while running around doing inspections this will be fine. Unfortunately, you aren't at the health levels you were hoping for because a) this quest took WAY LONGER THAN IT SHOULD HAVE and b)

HEALTH LEECH DAMAGE-
You have an annoying illness! Have fun with this, sometimes you will be miserable and uncomfortable! Everything will be harder! That's fun, right?
        See if it will just go away on its own. Things have a time limit, right? No.
        Be glad you got that health insurance but still wait for it to kick in. Health level damage begins to also eat into your emotional mana bar thing. This is worrisome.
        Find doctor. -DING!
        Get antibiotics. -DING!
        Have leech damage come back. Seriously, why? WHY? YOU ARE SORRY AND WILL BE A BETTER PERSON, MAKE IT GO AWAY YOU ARE TRYING TO FIND A GODDAMN APARTMENT.
        Get antibiotics. - DING!
        Leech damage returns!
        This quest is still ongoing. Maybe I need to find some type of scroll? :(

Move-in
        Move boxes into apartment - Ding!
        Get bed - Ding!
        Buy awesome vanity table from garage sale - Ding! Also, emotional bonus of being referred to as "the young couple". Make sappy faces.
   
Take ongoing emotional damage from unpacked/crazy mess.

SIDE-QUEST - Australian Customs be Crazy
You successfully completed "Pack all the things". You selected "Pack imitation firearm" (guys, it is an old costume flintlock pistol.)
         Realize you totally should not have selected "pack imitation firearm" because Australia Customs be Crazy and you have to fill out a form.
         Too late now - Fill out form. DING!
         Get to Australia, be contacted by customs.
         Fill out another form. - Ding!
         Deliver form. - Ding!
         Deliver other form - Ding!
         Go back to that other person with another form who totally could have told you to do that in the first place and also seriously, you don't think you should need a firearm importation license from the police for you firearm but okay, fine, here, it is now three months later, take it- Ding!
         Go to the docks IN SYDNEY and get item. No, you don't get anything else. Just your item. Which was yours in the first place. Quest complete! The only bonus here is that you can now clear that goddamn thing out of your quest log, which was frankly getting a little crowded, because you also have

GET INTERNET!
        You have an apartment, now you can get the good internet! Yes! No....
        Get rare drop of NO LANDLINE. Apartment should have landline. Agent said there was a landline. What the hell? Also should have a working oven, but it turns out that quest was super easy and was just because you didn't notice that the item to complete that quest was there the whole time and really you are a little embarrassed that you had to ask for help on that one, but look, you didn't know that you needed to turn on THE TIMER as well as two other knobs to make it work. Right, back to the internet.
         Call internet.
         Find out no landline. Find out that possibly there is no AVAILABLE landline to you unit and you are doomed. But maybe not?
         Have guy come out to look at landline. Gonna get this quest done, booyeah, or at least find out what is wrong.
         Missing item, can not complete quest without key to phone box thing. Oh sweet little fishies, seriously?        
         Complain to agent/landlord.
         Told to contact property manager.
         Property manager needs agent to organize.
         Call agent.
         Follow-up with property manager.
         Go to pick up key and wait for landline guy.
         IS WRONG KEY!!!
         Call the goddamn locksmith.
         Get landline. DING!
         Wait.
         Call internet - told to wait.
         Wait.
         Call internet and fix problem in system.
         Restart waiting period.
         INTERNET! DING!! (yesterday guys, it showed up YESTERDAY)
         Try to get locksmith reimbursement. (I don't even want to LOOK at this quest yet.)

Ongoing health damage from massive amounts of dust
         Learn skill - obsessive vacuuming.

Outdoor sitting area - DING!
Outside plants/herbs - DING!
Hang pictures - DING!
Make buddy with whom to study japanese - DING!

Accept quest to organize Newcastle Steampunk Society
Accept quest to find out more about ZigZag Steam train trip awesomesauce thing.

Attend St. Vincent concert in Sydney - DING! Inspiration boost!

Live by Ocean - DING! Receive general stat bonus of awesomeness
       buy new swimsuit - EPIC DING! On sale, adorable, meets ability to not fall off in massive wave requirements, good quality
       Accept Plans to Go Surfing

Accepted - Plans to walk along coast in mornings so that you don't just lounge in bed until eleven.
         Woke up and walked at 7AM- DING
         DID IT AGAIN! - Ding.

So things are finally moving along. The graphics in Australia are fantastic, and the worldbuilding awesome (possum! On my fence! Last night! And evidently there are marsupial rats??). Wish me luck that I don't get another horrible quest until I've managed to replenish all my health bars.