A New Milestone Has Been Hit...

What is this milestone, you ask? Well, I have been here in Sydney long enough to have developed some serious pet peeves. Are you ready? Because I need to vent.


1) I took 12 items of clothing to the dry cleaners, and it cost AU$129. Did you hear that? AU$129!!!!!! And I didn't take a gown or a comforter or anything major. Just a few pair of pants, dresses, a shirt. That is one thing and one thing only - HIGHWAY ROBBERY. And don't even get me started on how much more that costs in USD due to the dang exchange rate. Ridiculous.


2) My dry cleaners receipt said 13 items, but when I picked them up they had changed the slip to say there were only 12 items. The lackadaisical attitude of the Aussies meant that this was NOT a big deal to the dry cleaning lady, who insisted that I must have simply dropped off 12 instead of 13. No matter what logic I tried to apply to this situation, she wouldn't budge. But she was friendly the whole time, and not in a passive aggressive way, so I guess that's good. So now I have to wrack my brain to figure out if there is a missing item of clothing. Good gracious.


3) There is a lot of PDA (public displays of affection) here. Yuck. All day, everywhere, full-on make out sessions - subway at 7 am, middle of the street 4 pm. Enough already!


4) Like in the US (well, everywhere), people are in their own little worlds. And are addicted to their phones. So in the city, where sidewalks are packed and I just managed to learn to walk on the correct side, I am constantly slowed down by people who are obsessively focused on their phone and texting. They also do it while getting onto and out of the subway, taxis, food halls, gyms...everywhere.


5) Insects. They are everywhere. Sydney, like many major metropolitan cities, has cockroaches. DISGUSTING. I have black traps strategically hidden in about 10 places and about 60 bottles of industrial strength bug killer spray. Haven't seen one in a while but I am constantly thinking they are there. If they aren't, you can be sure some other insects or creatures are.


6) Dinner reservations are hard to organize. You have to actually either call the restaurant (eek! I have to actually TALK to someone live??) or queue up starting early in the dinner hour to get in to hot restaurants. They need to get with the Open Table or online reservation program - stat. Hmm, business idea for me?


7) Internet is really slow here. Painfully so. If I get cut off on my Skype calls one more time due to bad internet connections, I will scream and you will hear it.


There will undoubtedly be more, but I digress for now. I do feel better. So thanks!


I promise the next post will be more positive in nature. :)
Until next time xoxo