December [week 4]
Laura & Mark - 20th December 1999
Laura got up at 5.45 again this morning, for the second last time! She worked until 3.30, but the day went quickly, especially when she had a special visitor for lunch: Mark. Together we bought lots of little presents for our parents before Laura went back to work, and Mark went off to work in Glenelg.
At 3.30 when she was finished, Laura met Paul for another driving lesson and this time it went much better for a change. With new confidence, Laura began to look forward to her test which was today reconfirmed for Friday the 24th of December (Christmas Eve).
When she got home from the lesson, she went to the supermarket quickly to buy some toilet rolls (we were getting dangerously low on our originally huge supply). She then went to Jetty Road to buy some extra wrapping paper (we have SO many presents to wrap now).
Mark came back from his collecting early, having only made 20 dollars. He decided that it was getting time to give up, as so close to Christmas, Glenelg was full of Scrooges and collectors.
Laura & Mark - 21st December 1999
The last driving lesson.
At 09.00 hours, Laura was marched solemnly to the car for her last lesson. And it went badly. Very badly. By the time it was over, Laura had certainly stopped looking forward to her test!
Never mind though, as she had work to take her mind off it, and there were only a few days left of that too. When she finished at 19.00, she caught the bus straight to Marion, where, tired and hungry, she waited for Mark.
As Mark didn't go to work today he went off to the Dutch Shop instead. This is the shop that Paul discovered and told Laura about, and that Laura visited on Saturday to buy a chris cringle present (all will be explained) and some treats for Mark. Mark went there to soak in the atmosphere just as Laura had, and to buy a little Christmas present for Gail: a decorative Dutch plate with a picture of a blacksmiths on it, complete with horses and men in clogs.
Then Mark went to wait at Marion for Laura ("how can they both be waiting in the same place?" you might ask).
When we finally met up, we made our first serious mistake since coming to Australia: we bought tickets to Inspector Gadget. At 21.00 we made our second serious mistake since coming to Australia: We sat down in the cinema, and watched Inspector Gadget.
By 22.30 the torture was already over and we began to get emotional. The entire homeward journey on the bus was taken up by a chorus of Gadget complaints which the bus driver thoroughly enjoyed. We think we put him off at least.
Our mission complete, we went home to bed.
Laura & Mark - 22nd December 1999
Mark went into the charity office to resign today and receive his last tiny pay check. Meanwhile Laura worked from 9.00 until 5.30. It was her second last day and she had no more driving lessons, life can't get any better, can it? Yes, it can. She'd read her schedule wrong and was only working until 17.00 today, a full half hour less than anticipated, and she sprung around the shop with glee. When the time came for her to go home, she went to find Sarah who was busy preparing a poster for the TV advert the following day. Cheap as Chips has a weekly TV advert, and apparently this weeks would be filmed at our store the following morning. So Sarah had to make a pretty "50% off all Christmas stock" sign. Laura went to help her for a while, and just before she left, Ellie (her manager) came in. Would Laura like to switch her 07.00-15.00 shift for the 13.00-21.00 shift the next day. "Why not?" thought Laura, as then she could have a nice lie in, so she agreed. This may also get her out of her Australian Television debut if she was lucky, so she caught a bus home to Mark to tell him all the news.
WE spent a lovely, relaxing evening together, as there was no longer any pressure of an early start the next day, We went for a walk and played some pinball, and played lots of card games in front of the TV.
Laura & Mark - 23rd December 1999
Wake up slowly. Get used to the daylight. Get up slowly. Make sure the shower is nice and hot. Have a nice cold drink. Prepare some pancake mix. Find the perfect balance between flour and milk. Cook them. Don't burn them. Dust them with icing sugar. Then dust with with lots more icing sugar. Enjoy.
A truly lazy start to the morning, and it felt wonderful. Then Laura caught the bus into work, and Mark came along too, just for the company.
Laura went off during her dinner break to buy Mark's Christmas presents, and some wrapping paper or he'd see them when he came to meet her after work.
Mark met Laura from work at 21.00 and that was her last shift at Cheap as Chips. Ever. He was an excellent gentleman as he pulled down the gate which locked one end of the shop up (or the shorter ones among us would have had to have fetched a ladder). Laura handed in her last worksheet and we left together. No need to say goodbye yet as we'd all be having breakfast together the next morning.
Mark and Laura caught the first tram they could to Glenelg, and as Laura had not had time for dinner (she was shopping and wrapping), we swung by Hungry Jacks for a snack before going back to the flat (after a game of pinball of course).
Once we were home, we realised how late it actually was, and although we weren't very sleepy, we thought it would be best to try to sleep as tomorrow would be an important day: Driving test day.
Laura & Mark - 24th December 1999
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA..............
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

When the alarm woke Laura and Mark at 6.30 this morning, Laura could feel the nerves starting to swell in her tummy. She got up quickly and hurried for the bus, she didn't want to be late for the Christmas breakfast. During the breakfast we would be giving and receiving our chris cringle presents. We each had to buy a present to the value of $10 and these would be numbered. The numbers would be put in one hat, and the names of everyone who participated in another. These would then be drawn, each person receiving the present with the corresponding number on it. Laura bought her present from he Dutch shop, where the wide selection of delicacies made  the choice difficult. She settled for a square plate in the Delft Blue style, with a Dutch winter scene on it, some Speculaas biscuits on the shape of a traditional Dutch woman (with hat and clogs), and some "Stophoest" sweets (just for effect).
We were having our Christmas breakfast with almost everyone from work, and it was also a chance to say goodbye to the casuals (like Laura). We ate at the pancake restaurant "Bertie's" just opposite Cheap as Chips in the town.
When it came time for the Chris Cringle, Laura got present number 13, some lovely smellies from the Body Shop (bought by Ben at the last minute, when his plan to give a copy of his CD backfired). Laura's present went to Josie, who hated the sweets, but liked the other things. We all had pancakes in some form or other for breakfast, although Laura didn't eat much as her tummy was doing plenty of backflips by now (the driving test was at 10.00am). The atmosphere was nice, and everyone said some sort of goodbye before some headed up to open the shop and others headed back home to bed (it was still only 9.00am).
Laura went up to the shop to have a short chat with Sarah, and then she went with Ben for a wander around the shops before going to meet Paul. We decided to go into the Reject Shop, to have a laugh at the "opposition" to Cheap as Chips. We looked around the store which had almost identical stock to ours, and laughed at how tacky a lot of it really was. Then we said goodbye and Laura headed for Central Market where she was to meet Paul.
Laura was early to meet him, and waited nervously on the pavement. Paul was a little late, which didn't help settle the feeling in her tummy. She got into the car and he drove her to the outskirts of town where it was her turn to take over. They drove around for almost an hour and he explained some of the route her test would take and what she would be asked to do, as Laura got more and more worried.
We then drove to the test centre, where the instructor who would test her was waiting. He replaced Paul in the passenger seat, and had a long chat with Paul about other students before turning his attention to Laura. He then introduced briefly what he would be doing, and it was ready to go.
The first task was to back out of the parking space. This in itself seemed so much more difficult to Laura as now it really mattered. Then they were off, onto the main road, and after a left hand turn at a traffic light, she was asked to do a U-turn on the dual carriage-way. This was the first part that she managed to really stuff up. She got the car around fine, but was sticking too far out into the street (silly girl). Never mind, pull out into the traffic flow and it was on to the next tasks. She completed with ease, the best three-point turn and parallel park she had ever done (both first time). But upon straightening out the parallel park, she couldn't stop her left leg from shaking uncontrollably on the clutch. This was nothing serious, just embarrassing and it didn't help the nerves. We then drove around a little more, and Laura could feel that she was driving terribly nervously (as always really). Then came the moving off procedure, which she did fine, until she stalled (oops). She was losing all hope as they drove back to the test ground for the final manoeuvre, but the driving instructor said that she wasn't dangerous and all she needed was confidence and practise. He said that Paul could not teach her anything more, as she knew how to drive, and in order to get the practise she needed, she needed a licence. He then announced that unless she crash before they finished the test, he would pass her. So she drove on quietly and completed the final angle park without difficulty. He told her to be careful when she was first driving, and not to try to get anywhere in a hurry, and then he signed a piece of paper which authorised her to get a licence. Laura couldn't believe how badly she had driven, or that he had still passed her, and somehow it wasn't the satisfying feeling she had hoped for. She didn't feel like she had earned her licence, but considering the only way she could improve was with a car of her own or more lessons (and there wasn't any time for more lessons), she was grateful. Sad that she had to feel grateful to the instructor for passing her, and angry at the thought of others as bad as her who might also be granted a licence, she sat quietly as Paul drove her to Marion.
Laura thanked him for the lessons, and the chats, and went inside to find Mark, and get her licence. Mark greeted her with a huge hug and a box of delicious Cadbury's chocolates, and that was just what Laura needed. Beginning to feel a little better, she enjoyed the process of signing the forms and having her photo taken for the licence. Then Mark took her mind off it by telling her about his morning. He had been to Marion early and bought Laura's Christmas presents (with the help of a few ideas from his mum). And then he'd bought the chocolates and sat down to wait for Laura to come back from her test.
Armed with a temporary piece of paper to say that she could drive, we went off to do a little shopping before going to the RAA to see if it could already be transferred to an ordinary licence.
We wandered around Marion, visiting lots of jewellers, trying to find some nice rings to buy for each other for Christmas. We eventually found some nice ones in the Silver Circle and after trying on lots, we each found one we liked (and that fitted).
Then we went on to town, eating some more of the chocolates on the bus. When we got there, we went past Cheap as Chips first, to spread Laura's good news, and then to see Gail and do the same. Laura was feeling much more excited about it by now, and was proud to tell everyone she'd passed. We took advantage of the computers while visiting Gail, and so passed on the news to our families.
Next stop was the RAA where Mark bought Laura the necessary "P" plates (required while driving in Australia for the first year of having your licence). In the meantime Laura filled out a form and within minutes she had an international driving licence in her hands. Now she really was pleased, and all the nervous quirks would go away with time, as is with all drivers.
Before going to catch a tram home, we went to do some more celebrating in one of the amusement arcades in town. We raced against each other with a skiing game, played some pinball, and Laura played a basketball game, from which she won enough tokens for two, matching, little cuddly animals, perfect for on the dashboard of our future car.
Then we caught a tram home, where we cooked our favourite: chilli con carne, and opened the cheap champagne we'd been saving for the occasion.
Laura & Mark - 25th December 1999
Time for Presents!  Laura woke up very early this morning as per usual for Christmas Day as she was excited about the festivities of the day to come.  She lay patiently, waiting for the Christmas spirit
to wake Mark from his slumber.  By 9am the spirit had intruded into Mark's dreams and he was brought to a state of consciousness.  Laura jumped over the top of him and grabbed his stocking full of presents.  The makeshift stocking was in fact a very long and very narrow plastic bag (acquired when purchasing some rolls of Christmas wrapping paper).  This was filled to the brim with cheap presents that Laura bought at Cheap as Chips for Mark to play with.  It was of course all done under orders of the great man, Santa, himself.  Mark ripped them open and laughed (as was the idea) at what some of them contained.  Among them were: a plastic bucket, spade and rake for on the beach; a plastic parachute man equipped with parachute; a pack of mini felt tip pens (in 12 colours); and of course the chocolate Santa to be found at the bottom of every stocking.
Then came the time to open the "proper" presents to each other, the contents of which will remain anonymous.  And finally, the long-awaited opening of the presents from "abroad".  Once all the excitement was over, we decided to get up slowly and play a couple of games of cards before heading downstairs for lunch. Wendy and Brian from the motel had invited us to "Christmas Dinner"
with them and their kids.  At 11.45am we headed downstairs bearing - as instructed - a cooked chicken.  We also brought a bottle of sprite and a mixture of sweets, chocolates and biscuits, just for good measure.  We sat outside as we waited for it all to cook and we chatted about the cold Christmas we were missing back at home.  After a while, Wendy noticed how long everything seemed to be taking to cook.  The stove was overloaded by the many saucepans and casserole dishes and so she moved the Christmas pudding to a stove in one of the empty rooms to relieve the pressure.  The veggies were coming along nicely now, and within a matter of minutes we were seated around the table, tucking into the plentiful dinner.  We had: roast turkey, roast chicken, ham, pork, roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, roast parsnips (we think), peas, carrots, gravy and champagne.  It was all delicious and our plates were emptied into our mouths in a flash.
Then it was time for the pudding: Christmas pudding!  As Wendy went to fetch it, what she found wasn't exactly what she'd expected.  It was burnt.  To a crisp.  When she came back to announce the disaster we noticed smoke pouring out of the window from the room in which it had been cooking.  As she brought out the reserve puddings of jelly, cheesecake and ice-cream the smoke continued to billow from the window.  The irony of the whole situation was that despite thick clouds of smoke that must have filled room 4, the fire alarm had failed to go off.  Whereas when we had cooked toast just a week or two previously in our room, the fire alarm had buzzed for what seemed
like hours.
Mark and I enjoyed playing with our green jelly, and then we enjoyed eating it with some ice-cream.  It was past 15.00 when all was finished and we went back up to our little flat.  It was still reasonable weather outside, though not hot enough for a swim, so we settled for a walk instead.  We walked along the beach-front promenade to the main square, where life seemed to be continuing as usual on this Christmas afternoon.  Hungry Jacks was open, the tram was running, and to our delight, the amusement centre was open too.  Time for some festive e-mailing and then, of course, some pinball.  After a trip past Hungry Jacks to get an ice-cream we walked slowly back to the flat.  Here, we lazed away the entire evening, watching TV, playing cards, playing yatzee and just generally laughing the night away.
Laura & Mark 26th December 1999
Boxing Day, and a real lie-in.  We didn't get out of bed until afternoon and we really needed it.  We spent the day doing as little as possible.  These activities included sitting, standing (on occasion), walking (only when absolutely necessary) and more sitting.  It was really beginning to feel like a holiday.
 
Laura & Mark 27th December 1999
Christmas was certainly over, but we were still giddy with the holiday spirit.  We decided against anything too exciting and intrepid today, and settled instead for a leisurely stroll.  We walked down to the beach and watched the beach volleyball competition.  The whole of this week, the Bay Sports Festival would be taking place on the beach and along the sea front.
This included events such as this beach volleyball tournament, the Bay Sheffield race, (a short sprint race, run every year, with the winner getting their name carved into a paving slab), a horse-jumping competition and an Australian football tournament. We watched as some top beach volleyball pairs (some of the best in the world), battled it out on the hot sand.  The number one seats in Australia beat a Queensland pair in a very heated battle. 
We filled the rest of the day up with ice-cream and relaxation and we were soon tired enough for bed again.
Laura & Mark 28th December 1999
Today is South Australia Day, so we went to investigate what that meant.  We headed for town, where along one of the main streets, a festival would be held.
North Terrace runs from East to West on the northern border of the CBD.  This was completely closed off for the day, and grass was temporarily laid along the length of it.  Families crowded along it, with the children using some of the sports equipment supplied.  There were stalls selling a whole range of foods, there was a place you could take a camel ride, and there was a concert just inside the
grounds of the university.  We have to admit though, we were not overly impressed, so we walked on to the botanical gardens. 
Just a few streets from the centre of the city, the gardens were surprisingly peaceful and elegant.  We walked through it to the Bicentennial conservatory, a large greenhouse in which a rainforest environment is maintained.  For $3 each we could walk through it and admire the flora,  so we did.  Armed with a leaflet so as to identify some of the plants, we wandered through the trees, both at ground level and at canopy level (thanks to a raised walkway).
After that, we strolled back through the gardens themselves and chose a "garden house" to sit in.  It was exactly like the one in "The Sound of Music" although we ignored the urge to prance around
the benches singing that we were 16.
We enjoyed the peace for half an hour before heading to a bus stop.  We discovered a bus stop from which we could catch a bus to Marion.  An hour and a bit later, we decided that waiting any longer would be futile.  We turned and headed for the centre of town where we decided to try a different cinema for once. 
It was Tuesday again and so the films were cheap and we went to Hoyts'Regent cinema to watch "Bicentennial Man".  We were disappointed to find that although the screen was big, the seats were terribly uncomfortable.  After the film we headed for Macdonalds, and while we were eating, we decided that we didn't want to go home yet.  So, off to the Greater Union city cinema to watch Bowfinger.
With bums as hard as rocks, but our film cravings satisfied we caught a tram home to bed.
Laura & Mark 29th December 1999
After a four-day break for Christmas, most shops were back in action today.  This meant that we could visit Laura's ex-colleagues at Cheap as Chips.  We caught a bus into town, but on the way, we
decided to go and visit Gail.  She had the whole week off, so we went to her house, hoping she'd be in.
We were lucky as we caught her at home before she had to take her parents (who were visiting) to the airport.  We had a lovely cup of coffee and a piece of cake while we chatted to both Gail and her
parents.  Just before it was time for them to go the the airport, Laura and Mark said goodbye and headed towards the centre.  We would meet up with Gail again on Friday as she had offered to hold onto some of our stuff for us.
When we got to town, we went to Cheap as Chips first, in order to have a chat with Sarah, and hopefully pick up Laura's letter of reference.  We found Sarah at the cash register and said "Hello"
before going on into the shop to look for Ellie or Kaye.  We found Kaye hidden away in Stationery and had a little chat before asking about the reference letter.  She apologised and told us that it was
not ready yet, but suggested that she go off and write it now if we had time to wait.
We agreed and were off to chat first with Sarah in the Candle section, and then with both Sarah and Josie as they put out some children's story books.  Mark showed off his reading skills as he read aloud to us the stories from some of the books.  We talked about New Years Eve plans, how the shop was doing and about our plans for the next few months.
When Kaye returned with a well-written and indeed typed out letter, we were very pleased.  We lingered a little longer, sharing some laughs with the Cheap as Chips crew.  Eventually we bid farewell to them and headed for "Man-to-Man" where Laura had bought Mark his Christmas presents.  We had to return his boxer shorts as he had ripped them at the seam, and his Hawaiian shirt had one button hole that was completely sewn up.  At the branch where Laura had bought it, they had no replacement for the shirt and little selection of other clothes.  We were directed instead to the main branch on Rundle Mall, where we spent a good hour finding some replacement Christmas
presents.  When we were finally finished, we caught a bus home, where we relaxed in what was to be our home for only a few more days.
Laura & Mark 30th December 1999
It is nearly the beginning of a new year and for us that means it was nearly time to be moving on.  We spent the day tidying and sorting and deciding on what to pack.  We bought some Champagne (cheap stuff of course) and just generally enjoyed the bad weather (cloudy and dull as it had been for a few days now).  We made a big pasta bake and ate it in front of some more useless summer-holiday television.
Laura & Mark 31st December 1999
New Years Eve at last.  After watching the World countdown for at least the last 365 days, it was strange to have finally made it.  The countdown clock in Adelaide had reached 0 days and just a few hours, when we had already it at almost 90 days.
We got up early just to prove that we could if we wanted to, and see about making the most of the last day of the millennium.  Mark did the washing while Laura cooked the breakfast, and then together we went to do some shopping for dinner, something to eat on New Years Day and journey food for on the way to Sydney.  On the way to the supermarket, Laura called the "Greyhound" terminal to confirm our tickets and everything seemed to be still on line for our departure.
We bought the ingredients for our fabulous favourite: Chilli con Carne, and carted it home along with the rolls, cheese and other delights for the journey.  Once the shopping was safely stowed away in the fridge, we went back to the high street.  Here we indulged for one last time this year in the pinball game "Demolition Man" and then we had a final ice-cream too.  We walked to the podium which had been set up for the evenings festivities and watched as one of the bands tested the equipment.
Returning to the flat, we cooked the Chilli con Carne.  Once the washing up was washed up, we put on our party dresses and went to see if the party had already started.  We decided that before we went to join them in earnest, we would watch Kiribaki celebrate its midnight on TV.  We stayed in long enough to watch New Zealand and then went to join the crowds watching the band on stage play a compilation of 60s songs.  As the whole area was a "Dry Zone" (which means no alcohol allowed), the party was a little slow to get off its feet. So, we returned to the Motel, where we stood outside with the others to watch the already drunk busloads of people wobble down the street to the "Dry Zone".  We went back up to our little TV to watch the disappointingly messy fireworks in Sydney.  Then we hurried down to the beach, hiding our champagne in our bag, to watch Adelaide burst into the new millennium.
As it came down to only a minute, the crowds of people on the beach were getting very excited.  There was a loud countdown from 10 seconds, as 150,000 people shouted into the night sky.  As the clock ticked over a roar went up, and there was muffled singing of "old lang syne" over the cheers.  Then the fireworks display began, and an accompaniment of popular music, moving through the decades rang out. The fireworks moved with the music as best they could, and the finale was quite impressive.
The 25 minute display over, Mark and Laura headed to the flat to phone home.  We called across the sea, to across the planet, to across the millennium, and satisfied that Y2K bugs were to remain a figment of someone's imagination, we went to watch some more of Australia celebrate on TV and went to bed.