December 16 - Australia: Cairns
First Long Run in Australia - Run #30
5:45am: Please don't let it be sunny and hot--I'd like to get to run for at least an hour without dying of heat stroke!
You would think that waking this early I would be able to get some running in before it got terribly hot, humid, and/or sunny. At least that what I thought. No, it seems that there is no beating the heat here. It seems that people here just deal with the heat, and if they want to go running most of them go at about 6am!
Since I've decided that I am getting acclimated to the climate here in beautiful Cairns, this morning's run was my first long run in Australia. Sunday is usually the day for long runs, so anything over an hour I would have been pleased with. What is there to say about today's run? Well, it's over! Other than that? Maybe where I ran...I figured that it would be best to avoid the path along the water since it was really sunny when I left and there is little shade along the water, so I headed toward the Gardens again since there are many mature trees around there. The run took me around the Gardens and Centenary Lakes, and then I ran down the path that I ran down a few days ago, which took me around a good sized hill and into a residential neighborhood where I turned around and headed back.
Once I was back I decided to take a dip in the spa. Being that it gets so hot here in Cairns, the apartments have a cold water spa instead of a hot tub. Pretty smart if you asked me--nobody would ever use a hot tub here! Relaxed and cooled off, I headed back to the apartment before Heidi was even out of bed.
Saint Monica's
Don't be shocked. Hell hasn't frozen over. But we actually went to church this morning!
We found St. Monica's Cathedral the other day when looking for the library, and I went in to find out what time the masses were. Between the church and the high school, St Monica's takes up an entire Cairns block. Inside the church, it reminded us of a church in Northern Virginia called "Nativity". This place clearly popped up in the 1970's sometime, and it boasts "the world's largest stained glass story" or something like that. On the two side walls of the church is a monstrous stained-glass scene. The various panels show scenes from the desert (with kangaroos and wallabies, of course), the mountains, the oceans, and the universe. Very artistic, in a retro-sort of way.
The church wasn't air-conditioned at all, so Jon was happy that he'd worn shorts instead of pants. He felt even better when - during the procession - we noticed that the reader was also in shorts. And the altar boys were wearing Tevas. While it was a pretty large church, the pews at the 10:00AM mass were barely full. Maybe 33%. The bishop began the mass by commenting on the incredible heat they've had the past few weeks, so maybe church won't always be this uncomfortable.
Then again, maybe it will.
The pews weren't pews, they were really shiny wooden boards stuck together. And when it was time to kneel we realized with horror that the kneelers were simply slabs of wood. No cushions. No plastic. Just wood. Now, I can picture my mother saying "Offer it up!" in a very Christian way, but I'm sorry. I didn't go through 4 months of knee therapy last year to ruin it on a wooden kneeler. I can be just as pious sitting on my butt. And looking around the church, most of the other parishioners were of the same mindset.
Next time we go, Jon and I were be sure to sit near one of the industrial-sized fans along the wall. We quickly realized that everyone else in church was much smarter than we were. There were definite "pockets" of people along the walls where the fans were. Barely anyone was in the middle, where we had chosen to sit. Silly Americans.
So I'm probably going to catch flack for going to church and noticing everything but the mass. But that's not true at all, I just figure that it's more entertaining to hear about the idiosyncrasies of the parish rather than the readings. It was interesting, however, because the bishop mentioned the "incredible conflict surrounding the Harry Potter movie".
Conflict? You've gotta be kidding me. Like we don't have ENOUGH religious fanaticism in the world right now.
Apparently the bishop agrees with me. He encouraged us all to read an article in the "Diocesan News" written by a journalist for the Melbourne Herald-Sun who is also a Catholic with young children. Curious what the conflict is all about, Jon and I joined the melee at the end of mass to get a copy of the "Diocesan News" leaflet. The journalist, Paul Gray, basically says that the people who are whining about kids and witchcraft are a bunch of ninnies. He continues on to say that we should be glad kids are reading instead of spending all their time in front of the television, which contains real-life news with significantly more evil than J.K. Rawlings. Amen to that.
Ouch! Sorry. Tripped over my soapbox
Our Lovable POS
So Jon and I took our little POS (Piece O' Shit - see yesterday's journal) to the grocery store because we're out of meat. I don't quite understand how - given my huge supermarket shopping spree last week - we STILL find things we need everyday. Will there be a day when we don't have to run to the grocery?
I neglected to mention yesterday that our POS has a radio. That's great, right? Except that it's stuck on one station. No matter how we try to tune the dial, and no matter how much the little needle moves up and down the radio, the station stays the same. Also, there's no power steering at all. So each time Jon turns a corner it's like watching a fight break out.
We also stopped by Deep Sea Divers to finally turn in all our paperwork so we can get wet. Ironically, Dean (the lead instructor) wasn't there today. So we left our stuff with Anna-Marie, who will be teaching part of our course, and said we'll be back tomorrow afternoon to finalize the details with Dean.
While I typed this afternoon, Jon busied himself doing something mysterious around the apartment. Unbeknownst to me, he'd gone down to the office and had spoken to Georgia, who said we could move into the townhouse anytime today. So Jon got some bee in his bonnet about beginning the move immediately. I tried to ignore all the noise he was making, but eventually realized that he was up to something fishy. It turns out that he'd decided to move everything but a few select items we would need this evening. And the funny thing is that he'd done an inventory of all the kitchen supplies and utensils in the townhouse to make sure it wasn't missing anything. (Remember that both units are in the same compound and run by the same management office). Sure enough, the townhouse didn't have a cutting board, a frying pan, and a few other essentials. The townhouse also had plates and bowls that were much smaller than the ones in the apartment. So what happened? He made "The Switch"! The large colorful pasta bowls, salad bowls, and plates made their way to the townhouse, and the next tenants in the apartment will have a lovely set of matching white dinner dishes (boring!).
Dinner
We made Beef Rogan Josh, an Indian dish, for dinner. We've discovered the "Asian" section of the supermarket, and have gone a little nutty with the spice packets. This meal - one of Jon's favorites while we were in India - was less than exciting. The spices weren't very good, and the dish was a little watery. But it was definitely healthier than the Thai-food-loaded-with-coconut-milk dishes we've been eating recently.
Movies of the Evening
Because this is our last night in the apartment, Jon called down to the front office to request two movies for the evening. At 7:00, we would see "Driven" with Jack Nicholson, and at 9:00, we requested "Memento" with Guy Pierce. The first movie was long and drawn out. For whatever reason, every cool actor on the planet decided to make a cameo in this flick: Jack Nicholson, Benicio del Toro, Mickey Rourke, Robin Wright-Penn, Vanessa Regrave, and it was directed by Sean Penn. Unfortunately, it really wasn't very exciting. At some point in the movie, Jack finally did something important which prompted Jon to comment, "You should have done that an hour ago Jack!"
We've seen Memento before and it's a great movie - the kind that you think about for days afterward, trying to make sure you've grasped everything. It was during this excellent flick that Jon fell asleep. At 10:30, he got up to go to bed and I followed shortly thereafter. We didn't see the end of the movie, but we know how it ends.