Finito!

Today is officially my last day living at the Palace (aka Residence) in Sydney as I am off to Auckland tomorrow morning at the ungodly hour of 4:30am. Have been making the rounds this weekend, going out with and saying goodbye to everyone, including the four cockroaches who ultimately met their fate at the hands of me and my paper towels last night. I'll miss those little buggers.

It's been a good run, a great run in fact. I've become really attached to this place and the people I've met here and am very pleased to be able to be back almost every month for a few days for flights out of Sydney to other exotic destinations and so forth...hehe.

Yesterday I had a fabulous day- it started with the craziest dining experience ever in an area of town popular for "Yum Cha." I thought that being a semi-vegetarian and not eating seafood would exclude me from such experiences but no, I was not saved. Met up with about 7 fellow OR nurses including one Husband. Thank god our Asian Expert knew what to order as mysterious dishes kept appearing at our enormous table (I had to wave my Hello greeting to those on the other side). The place was massive and every square inch of space was taken up by people, noise, and mini chefs stationed throughout the place, cooking what appeared to be soap-like blocks of food. The food came fast and furious and I was overwhelmed by it all. I told Ruth it was the most stressful experience I'd ever endured dining in a restaurant. Our questions to Asian Expert were along the lines of Does it Bark and Is it Edible? Ruth had a grumbling in her belly shortly after the meal and loudly proclaimed that she thought it was the cat chasing the dog around the corner in her stomach...
Cute sidenote though - it was brought to my attention by Husband that a prepubescent teenage boy was gazing at me during the meal. Sitting next to me, Husband immediately starts belting out Olivia Newton John's "I Looooveee Yoooou, I honestly looovvee you" and forewarns me that should a bowl of steaming hot wontons appear my way, I would know who they were from. We were in cahoots most of the meal.