Monday

Finally the holiday season is over! It was fun, but with long working days. I've put in 12 straight days of work and about 60 hours this past week. I'm ready for a break. Plus I'm still hobbling around on my injured foot. Good news though, don't think it's broken.


The till (cash register) was under 800 dollars a few nights ago. I counted and counted and couldn't figure out where the money went. I naturally was worried...thinking its been jacked by someone who'd had there hand in the till. I was wrong, I just simply miscounted. I'm still getting use to the Australian currency, so I blame it on that, not my math skills. If you get a chance, google what Australian money looks like. When I first arrived and saw the money I found it extremely strange, to the point I didn't even think what I had been given was real. The money is bright and colorful, with 100's being green, 50's yellow, 20's red, 10's blue, 5's pink, 2 dollar coins are small and gold, 1 dollar coins are large and gold, and the increments of silver cents are 50's, 20's, 10's and 5's in decreasing sizes.

It's actually not only very easy to handle, but the material the paper is made of is indestructible. You can wash it, ball it up, or use it as a paper plane, and it'll still fold flat as new after your done. The 1 and 2 dollar coins are really neat too, although it actually adds alot of clutter in your pocket with the weight, it's much easier to deal with (and lose for the matter). I found a US five dollar note recently and I forgot how dull and bland our money is.

Best part about Australian currency is the rounding. There's no pennies, so they round everything up/down to the nearest 5 cents. It eliminates the headache of pennies. Also, the prices of what you buy already includes tax. So if a shirt cost 25 dollars, you pay 25 dollars, no more. It just makes things so much simpler. Not sure why we do it the way we do in America.




I still can't, for the life of me, figure out how to use a pay phone, or when to dial certain extensions when calling certain numbers. Here in Australia there are 8 (I think) major 'states', and each one has its own prefix of numbers. For example here in Queensland, the prefix for the calling a land line is 07-XXXX-XXXX. But from my personal experience sometimes the 07 isn't needed, just the last 8 digits, and sometimes not the 0, just the 7 plus the last 8 digits. I can't figure it out. Cell phones in Australia begins with 04 no matter of the location, so that's pretty simple. I don't consider myself technology challenged but even the phone system on the island gives me trouble when I try to dial an outside number.

There are also toll free numbers as well, like in the states, that begins with 1800. There are also numbers that are only six digits that can be toll free as well. The XX-XX-XX sequence of numbers and 1800 numbers don't require any prefix. Makes me glad that America has a far easier system of a 7 digit number with an area code.

On a related note, my blackberry and camera has been jacked. Someone came into our room and snagged our phones and cameras. So now if your wanting to get in touch with me, email would be cheapest method, unless you wanna get friendly and give my Aussie phone a shout...