2:51 p.m. - 2003-06-04
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest...
That just about sums this madhouse up.
I have a new roommate who is an old Hungarian woman. She is recovering from a tumour and sleeps all day and then gets up, chain-smokes and moans about how much she hates Australia. She isn't leaving until the Wednesday after next!It's so depressing. Last night I was doing my make-up and she just stood there staring at me the whole time. And she leaves plates of food in the drawers; cakes and half-finished pastries, which attract the flies. She seems to be quite attached to me, probably because I'm too polite to ignore her. I don't know how I will cope sharing a room with her for over a week. I'm trying to stay positive and turn K*risk*indl into a little project. I'm going to record all the crazy people on my MD. Because no one back home will understand how weird this place is otherwise. There is some real fodder to capture! I might even write an article for TNT magazine. If I can be arsed.
Don't know how long I'll be here for though. I think I'm in trouble for drinking on the premises last night. They don't allow it. I was desperate to go out, as it was a Friday night. I asked Chris from Canada to come with me. We decided to go out in Kings Cross. I invited Randy and to my surprise he said he would come along. Being a Christian I wouldn't put him down as the clubbing type. We went to the bottle shop and bought a $12 box of wine. Stupidly we drank it all and got very drunk. We were sitting out in the courtyard, in the shadows and as far away from the guesthouse as possible, so we couldn't be seen. Namely by Luke. We'd seen him looking out the window a few times and had to hide. At some point in the evening I had to go to the loo and made a dash for it. I didn't see him on the way in, but he caught me coming out. I should have pretended to be going to bed to shake him off, but I was too drunk to think sensibly. He followed me back to the boys and I gave them my best "I'm sorry" look I could. I really felt like I'd betrayed them or something. I sat down and Randy hid the wine box, but Luke had already spotted it. "Is that wine your drinking?"
"No, you're not allowed to drink on the premises"
"So what's in yer mugs then? It's alcohol isn't it?"
He tried to grab my mug and I told him it wasn't his business.
"I'm telling John!"
For someone who was desperate for companionship, he wasn�t making himself any new friends at this moment. He went to get John. I couldn't believe he was snitching on us. We weren't doing any harm.
John came out and didn't have a go, but just had a �word.� You could tell he was angry though. Luke stood behind him looking really pleased with himself. I'd had it with him now.
We were aiming to get into town before midnight but didn't leave until 1am. That's when Ben turned up, he'd just arrived from Johannesburg. He joined us but I was pretty pissed by this point, so I was oblivious to everything. Another strange bloke tagged along too, he just came out of the blue. The night was a disaster. We couldn't find a decent club and ended up walking around in circles until we were hungry and then sat on a bench to eat our chips. Then we caught a taxi home.
The next day I felt slightly hungover and went to the Botanic Gardens. It was a gorgeous day and I saw hundreds of flying foxes hanging in the trees. I felt incredibly sad and lonely, especially as the park was full of weekend lovers canoodling on the grass. I walked around trying not to cry and thought how much better it would be if I had someone to share the experience with. It's a really big factor when experiencing beauty. It leaves you empty if you're alone. Basically I was feeling really sorry for myself and depressed from the hangover.
I eventually dragged myself back to K*risk*indl to face the music. I composed myself before I walked in, and bumped into a new resident: Sister Margaret Ann, an old Irish nun. She introduced herself and asked me if I was a Christian. I said no, to which she replied, "well, you can always become one!" Later at dinner, she was telling Luke that he should go and visit some healing statue of the Virgin Mary to cure his cough...
I saw Ben in the kitchen. I'd forgotten all about him from last night and we hit it off. He's a really nice straightforward guy from Yorkshire. Really easy to talk to and normal. He asked me if I had plans for tomorrow and invited me to Bondi Beach. I didn't get an earbashing from John as expected, he had taken out all his fury on Chris who he'd seen first. Juda had also put in a good word for me and painted a picture of me as the innocent one.
Later in the evening Chris, Ben and I were out in the courtyard playing with Ben's Devil sticks (I know, but they are actually fun when you have nothing else to do apart from kick a tennis ball against the wall) whilst being entertained by Luke�s stories. Ben made me see a different side to Luke - he is actually hilarious. I set my Minidisc to record, it started off dull, but the more we humoured him the better the material. We were pissing ourselves, and he loved the attention. I think we may have started something now, he won't leave us alone. He actually believes his corny jokes are side-splittingly funny.
Bondi was nice, not that hot, but I felt relaxed for the first time since I'd arrived in Sydney. We talked about the big subject of lurve. I think Chris felt a bit left out. Ben moved into a new hostel in the City that night, so I met him the next day. We had a really good time walking around the Botanical Gardens and the harbour. At last I had someone to share it with. We walked and talked and sat on every bench we came across to kill time, we killed about twelve hours and only spent $10 each. We spent half an hour of that time looking for the perfect postcard.
It's not easy for me to be on a budget when I'm on 'holiday', especially being the gannet head that I am and always slowing down outside ice cream parlours. It was obvious Ben was trying to pull me, but even though I was initially interested (he was a gem amongst the K*risk*indl lot), he wasn't my type. It was nice just to be with someone.
I didn't get back until midnight and apparently everyone was wondering where I was (bless). Juda was still up. He heated me a pizza and made his wonderful fruit salad. He is a nice guy; I'll miss him, even though he tends to give a lot of unwanted advice. He was leaving the next day in a converted Land Cruiser with a bed in the back. We chatted until 2am and he tried to convince me to go with him. My excuse was lack of funds, Ben had suggested I do a spot of nude modelling. $100 - $200 per hour. Tempting. He gave me a number for an agency that he'd found in a backpacker�s mag. He made it sound like it was no big deal and that he wouldn't hesitate were he a big titted female. That's easy for him to say. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I am interested in the seedy side of life...especially now I�m living in such an oppressive Catholic environment.
2003-06-04
I didn't call the agency; I have some work this weekend anyway. Helping out two Italian hairdresser friends of Jades. They are taking part in a Hair and Beauty trade fair at Darling Harbour and need an English-speaking lady to help sell their products. Hopefully I'll get a freebie too. My barnet looks dreadful. It's $300 for three days cash in hand.
I didn't do any job hunting today except looking at the jobs board in the Travellers Contact Point. They were all crap. I did get my visa though and applied for my tax file number at last. I'm going to spend the rest of the week visiting art galleries. I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art today. For the third day in a row. The two days previous didn't really count because Ben and I didn't get there until 4pm on both days. There was an exhibition entitled Liquid Sea, which I wanted to see properly, particularly the films, by Frenchman Jean Painleve (b.1902). He made surreal films about sea creatures including 'The Little Seahorse' which amazingly featured a male seahorse giving birth. It�s the only species where this occurs. Weird. John was in a foul mood at dinner. A few people got the brunt of it. I kept my head down and went unnoticed this time.
I'm surprisingly calm at the moment. I think it's because I feel inspired by art again and I plan to throw myself back into it. Sometimes I forget I'm an artist.
The last two weeks have just been ridiculous. I can't really believe how everything has been the complete antithesis to how I expected it. I thought I was gonna be living a life as exciting and as colourful as a Mardi Gras Drag Queen�s. Instead, the highlight of my evenings is tea and cake, with Sister giving Luke Bible classes. I shouldn't be in a place like this. It's bad for my soul!
I will laugh about this one day. It is hilarious, just a shame I have no one to share it with. My coping strategy is to read philosophy. Seeing as I'm not religious, that's where I gain comfort. Chris is the only normal guy at K*risk*indl (i.e. not religious and smokes weed). Unfortunately I don't fancy him.
A new couple arrived last week, Daisy and Daniel. What a pair! She�s a Kiwi and he�s an Ozzie and they met on T�Internet. When Daniel went to meet her at Sydney airport, that was the first time they�d met in person. They�re a real odd couple: she�s short and fat and 30 something, while he�s really tall, skinny and 25 years old. I think I offended Daisy when I first met her, because when she told me her name I replied �like a little flower!� I couldn�t resist it. I�ve watched �Spaced� far too many times; it�s edging on the obsessive. We all get on well now and even though they are quite strange, they make me laugh. They are constantly taking the piss out of Luke, but he enjoys it. I think he enjoys any kind of attention. Most people just insult him or ignore him completely. Daniel has some strange eating habits. He won�t eat the evening meal and for breakfast he�ll eat a bowl of cereal dry and has Daisy going to and fro between the toaster and his plate making him shitloads of Vegemite on toast. Sometimes he�ll get through a whole loaf in one day. I�ve never seen more than one kind of food on his plate. It�s either just scrambled eggs, a plate of beans, or a whole packet of fishfingers. If he has 3-minute noodles he doesn�t bother cooking them, but simply empties the packet straight into his bowl and takes gulps of water from his �Matrix� beaker between mouthfuls of dry noodles. He is incredibly sexist and treats Daisy like a slave. I told her not to take too much shit from him so early on in the relationship (I thought they�d been a couple for years before I knew the story, I was shocked); otherwise he�ll take her for granted. She�s certainly more intelligent and quick-witted than he is. She can put him done verbally in a shot, but she�ll do anything he tells her to. Maybe she enjoys it.
