Countdown: 12 days

Hello all! The titular countdown is to my birthday.... but is probably unnecessary because I imagine all of my friends have his/her own "Margaret's b-day" countdown, starting November 22 of every year.

Anyway. As always, I have much to say and not enough time to catch up on everything. I've included some random photos, too, so things don't get too dry. So, for the majority of my days I am occupied with work, but I try to make the most of downtime/days off. This includes exploring various aspects of Sydney life including the abundance of coffee shops, which they are obsessed with. Despite not drinking coffee, I usually manage to justify my presence in these establishments with skim hot chocolate and some kind of sugary creation. I have also been browsing at the various markets that pop up around the city on a weekly basis, and while I haven't bought much, I have come to a few realizations:
1. Most of this crap is over-priced and sells because people are of the mindset that markets are cheap and cool. And then you get home and it breaks and you realize it wasn't a bargain at all.
2. Chicks love markets. I guess this is true for shopping establishments everywhere, but it was especially apparent at this cool little market I went to in Paddington two weeks ago. It's set up inside a bar. All the tables and stuff are filled with people selling jewelry, clothes, purses, etc; it was a really cool set-up overall. The best part, though, was that the bar itself was still serving so you could see this whole congregation of bored boyfriends commiserating over a beer and wondering when their birds would be done. I LOL'd.

Another observation/rant is that EVERYONE who works in hospitality smokes. This makes things awkward for myself, a non-smoker, at my restaurant job, for the following reasons:
1. When asked to light the candles on the tables before dinner service, it was really embarrassing to tell my manager I don't know how to use a lighter.
2. I think it's massively unfair that smokers--and this is not just limited to hospitality jobs--are allowed to just go off, stand outside and smoke in the middle of a shift. First of all, is the addiction really so intense that you can't get through a six-hour shift without a fag? Second of all, when was it universally decided that tobacco is a permissible excuse to leave work for ten minutes? Would I be allowed to just be like, "I'm going for a Kit-Kat, be back in a few." I doubt it. What these breaks of theirs really mean is that they are being paid to smoke! We get the same hourly rate, and I am not skipping out everyone 90 minutes or so to smoke. I'm getting ripped off.
(I also feel ripped off in that the past 2 Saturday night shifts I have worked, I've gotten $5 and $2, respectively. Come ON Sydney diners!)

To the right here, surfer-in-training.
Oh-- one further note. I think I have kicked my Tim-Tam addiction for the time being. This has been accomplished by refusing to buy them or keep them in the house. I crumble in the face of Tim-Temptation (hahaha!), so it's been avoided altogether. The bad news is that I have picked up a new addiction to caramel slices, which are probably even worse for me. At this rate, I will be arriving home tipping the scales around 200 pounds. Awesome. Time to go for a LONG run.

Love and sunshine, Gossip Girl