Hey, everyone! I ended up doing quite a lot this past week – with perhaps the pinnacle of the week being Australia Day. Australia Day is the country’s national holiday, but it has become increasingly problematic over recent years. I’ll get to that later.

Sunday Singles

My housemate Kory’s best friend and comedian Simone Springer hosts a weekly comedy show in downtown Perth called Sunday Singles. Aside from having plenty of laughs, the event has a matchmaking bit where contestants get called up to stage and laughter/chaos ensues.

Simone is so funny and the event was really enjoyable. She actually co-hosts it with Daniel Delby (a fellow comedian) and Daniel had a bit where he asked three people up to stage. My friend Brendon had seen this show before and since he knew what was about to happen, he urged me to raise my hand. While I was hesitant, I succumbed to peer pressure (not unlike my cliff jumping a few weeks prior) and I went up to the stage.

Daniel asked the three of us a couple of questions about ourselves and proceeded to sing a love song to each of us. It was ridiculous, and funny, and he may or may not have been joking about ramming me from behind like the Chicago Bulls.

Peter’s Pool

On another day off work, I decided to head back in the direction of Cottesloe Beach to head to a popular snorkeling spot called Peter’s Pool. I am so glad that I did!

I think the Cottesloe area may be my good luck charm, because this is the second time I’ve gone there where the visibility has just been really excellent even when it says online that it would be average or below.

One of my absolutely favorite parts of the snorkel was that huge schools of puffer fish kept swimming by me! There were hordes of them. I had never seen such a large school of puffer fish before! At one point, there were so many swimming past me, I was accidentally hitting them with my feet.

Snorkeling is always a unique experience and you never know what you’re going to get, so spotting things you’ve never seen before is a definite pleasure. During this snorkel, I got to see what I think is a white flathead and an Eastern smooth boxfish.

It was a magnificent snorkeling experience. I can’t wait to get back to Cottesloe area for some more snorkeling!

King’s Park Picnic

On the 23rd, it was our friend Candice’s birthday. Her fiancé, Yen, planned a surprise picnic at King’s Park so Kory and I headed there in the evening. They had gotten pizza, cake, and a little charcuterie board. With the sun setting and the city skyline next to us, it was a lovely evening.

Quite often, I feel like a traveler, a tourist, an outsider – something temporary and ephemeral. But there are certain glimpses I get where I’m afforded an opportunity to feel like I really belong among all these Australian locals, and this night was one of them. It just felt like… “I am here, with you.”

Australia Day

Next up, AUSTRALIA DAY 2023!!!!

Australia Day has been regarded as somewhat problematic in recent years because technically the day they’re celebrating is the day the first British fleet landed on Australian soil. Recently, people have been calling the date “Invasion Day.” Not unlike America, the natives’ lives were absolutely uprooted and filled with lots of suffering over the centuries as a result of colonization. Many Aboriginal people suffer from drug addiction, alcoholism, and homelessness.

With that said, there was an Australian Day celebration in Langley Park and since we had the day off work, Kory, Yen, Candice, and I went down there with picnic blankets to watch the fireworks and a drone show.

There was SO MUCH happening at Langley Park. Music was playing, people on dirt bikes riding off of huge ramps and doing tricks in the air, carnival rides, etc. We settled for a little more low key, just hanging out on the picnic blankets.

Once it got dark out, the fireworks went off and oh, my God were they impressive! Honestly, I think they might be one of the best set of fireworks I’ve ever seen. There were four or five sets of fireworks going off in tandem – lighting up the sky.

After the (first) fireworks show, the drones went up! I had never seen a drone show before. They had about 500 drones that were synchronized to form images in the sky. It was really cool! I’d be curious to see what that type of technology looks like in the next fifteen years, because I bet it will get really sophisticated.

They showed lots of images with the drones – the Australian and Aboriginal flag, planet Earth, the skyline of Perth, people playing sports, etc. At one point, they sang the Australian national anthem and also the famous cheer “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!”

And then… ANOTHER fireworks show!

Australia Day was A LOT. But it was fun! I’m so glad I went, despite the day itself having a complicated and controversial history.

Art of the Week

My buddy Matt signed off on my artwork for his band’s single! After a few iterations, he approved this one. He said he has three more singles he wants to make art for, so I’m looking forward to that. In addition to having a project to look forward to, it’s nice to be rewarded monetarily for my dedication to artwork!

Reflections

One funny moment recently – I was out to dinner with some friends and on the TV, the news was playing. On the news, they were discussing – and this is no joke – vegemite pizza. It was quite possibly one of the most Australian things I could have witnessed.

Another thing to be discussed… TAXES! It is currently tax season in America and since I got all my forms situated, I filed immediately. I like to get it done ASAP because then if I get a refund, I get that money back a lot faster than if I waited until March or April.

Taxes are relatively simple to do online when you just have a W-2 but when you add that along with savings and retirement accounts, AND income from working abroad? It gets a little more complicated. For a moment, I thought I was going to have to owe a bunch of money to the IRS but then I discovered they do foreign tax credits. I owed the state about $500, but I am actually getting a nice little federal refund. Any money helps while out and about traveling! It means I can prolong the adventure, or can splurge for certain things. I want to stop back to the states for a few weeks at some point, so having a tax refund would be incredibly helpful for plane tickets! We’ll see what happens.

I also FINALLY documented this damn Australian rat! I see them running around at night all the time but they’re always too fast for me. One day, I’m going to just devote an entire day/evening to getting a good picture with my nice camera.

I have today and tomorrow off work, then after one day of working, another two days. It is going to be HOT during this time. It’s 96 F today and will be 99 tomorrow. It’s all 95 or above for the next week haha. I will try to be by the water, where it’s cooler. Where it’s 96 here, by the water it’s 87. That’s more manageable!

I don’t have this week planned out much yet. All I know is that I want to snorkel at some point, and relax. I want to get back into writing some more, too. I had written a book during the pandemic and after a few failed attempts to get it published, I abandoned it. I want to reread it, do another edit, and then maybe try to send it to a few places again. Surely, I can get a finished book published SOMEWHERE – even if it’s utter shit, right?! There are some bad books out there haha. We’ll see what happens.

I can’t believe January is almost over! This month actually has flown by. I will almost have been here five months already.

I miss you all! Sending my love. Until next week 🙂

P.S. Nicotine update for those interested… I ran out of my nicotine supply and have spent the last 48+ hours without nicotine. I thought the withdrawal would be SO MUCH WORSE. Not to disappoint anyone who was looking forward to me being nicotine-free, I decided that despite the fact that it’s not good for me… I do like having it as a vice. I want to make it to the 72 hour period, but then will probably get back on the nicotine. I just wanted to see if I could make it to the “peak” of withdrawal. The thing is – I never really wanted to stop, but once I ran out of my supply, I figured I’d see what it was like without nicotine. It hasn’t been bad, but I just prefer to have nicotine as a vice.