Anyways, I woke up today and was annoyed/ borderline pissed because some idiot was doing construction work starting at 830am. I decided to finally get out of bed at 9am and woke up to a message from JCU library saying that I owe them $60 for damaging one of the books I borrowed (I forgot to take the book out of my backpack when I put it in the laundry = water damage- note to self: books do not need showers and always check in the middle pocket for items even though you think there isn't anything in there). Then I went for breakfast and breakfast ends at 9am and surprise (not), my daily fruit and yoghurt favourites were already packed away (at this point I'm just like, nooooooo) and so I just toasted my bread. Clearly I wasn't having the best mornings of my life.
Then just like that, the lunch lady came out and asked me if I wanted to have some fruit and yoghurt and i was like YES PLEASE (without trying to look that keen) . Anyways, I decided to go to get a bikini with an Australian flag on it at the city mall. On the way to the bus stop, I ended up chatting for about half an hour with the lunch lady, who happened to tell me about her adventures in Canada when she was visiting Vancouver. She told me that the city mall was newly renovated. I ended up at a souvenir shop, got my bikini and chatted with the lady there for ages. She's moved around and lived in various parts of Australia so we were just talking about travels. She lives on Magnetic Island (which I thought was pretty neat). I was asking her about Australia and which parts of it are really beautiful and such (I wanted to plan for my midterm rural placement next year). Anyways, at the end of our chat, she gave me a raffle ticket and I continued browsing through the shop. She ended up giving me 2 more raffle tickets.
In the midst of exploring, I wandered off into this hidden photo gallery and in it I saw a brochure for a photography tution and inquired the guy behind the counter about it. Turns out that he was Ken Goldstein himself and the photographs there were all taken by him. (He's a professional photographer and one of his clients is Jupiters Casino so he does a lot of their special events- which I thought was pretty cool). I just said that I was just an amateur photographer and was thinking of buying a DSLR camera but not sure which one to get as a beginner. He then proceeded to give me an in-depth explanation of which camera he recommended me getting. He recommended the Nikon D3100 which cost about 700$ for the body itself in Australia, and when I told him I was going back to Canada in a few days, he suggested that I buy it there since it's cheaper (though he also does sell camera items). He also explained to me about camera bags and which ones I should get (he adviced me to stick with a brand called Lowe Pro) and the importance of getting a tripod and getting a good one but not ridiculously expensive (good value for money basically and based on necessity). I thought it was really cool that he didn't try to get me to buy the camera items from him. He also adviced me to stick with Canon and Nikon if I'm thinking of getting DSLR cameras since they are the only ones who produce professional quality products and also to always get lens from the same camera the body is from. He also told me about the private tution he offers- it's $400 for a full day (from 630am until 5pm). It is quite costly so I'm just thinking about it for now. He also offered to answer any questions that I might have when buying my gear (He just told me to look him up on facebook and just message him).
Anyways, by this time I was starving and bought myself a sandwich and while doing this, found out that the draw for the raffle tickets I got was happening in 10 minutes so I waited. WOO! I won $40 CBD dollars at the raffle that I could spend at any shop at city mall (I was super excited because though it was only $40, I NEVER GET THIS LUCKY!). I was thinking of getting some cook books and went to a used book shop and found that Jamie's 30 minute cook book was overpriced there. Anyways, in the same shop there was a tea store that I've never noticed before, so being curious, I started asking questions about tea and such. I ended up buying my mom 5 different tea blends with my CBD dollars (I feel compelled to describe these teas because I think they are such a treat! Hopefully my mom will feel the same)
1. Japanese Evening Mist - green tea with cornflower blossom, rose petals and calendula
2. Darjeeling- Black tea (apparently this is the champagne of tea)
3. Daintree & Wattleseed- Black tea blend (this is an Australian tea)
4. Blood Orange Tea- Green tea with orange (apparently it has a tangy taste)
5. Christmas Tea- Black tea with fruit, cinnamon, cloves and almond (seems suited to buy for the month of December)
I also got myself a cup of Japanese evening mist - it was super awesome.
She also told me about some workshops and tea tastings she will be doing next year. I think it's so exciting!!! Because of all this tea choosing shenanigans, I missed my 201 bus by 5 minutes and while waiting for the next one, the 202 bus came first so I took that. The bus driver dropped me off right across George Roberts (he actually asked me if I wanted to be dropped off there or at the actual bus stop!). Isn't that really nice?
I think it's just so awesome that I totally expected to have such a crap day and it turned out to be pretty damn good! People can be genuinely nice if you just take time to listen to them, even only for a little bit! I love Townsville :)
