To tip or not to tip

Apparently tipping is not customary. While some places have tipping jars/bowls, they don't expect much more than loose change. But if you're at a nice restaurant, apparently tipping is the norm. It's hard for us to differentiate between the two types of establishments. Even if we could, we always always always feel bad about not leaving anything. It almost seems rude! Even when there was hair in my food and we had to force the manager to acknowledge the issue and apologize, we tipped. :S

Breaking a sweat...but not really

I got my GymStick today! I only tried a few exercises and now my shoulders, arms, and back feel like jelly. My muscles gave out before I even broke a sweat haha. Good thing I got the one with "medium" resistance. I don't think I can handle "strong" because it's for "fit women" (and men and athletes). :S As I've always said, strength is not one of my strengths.

I also want to start running but it's harder than I thought because my knees and feet ache from walking around Sydney. As soon a I get home, I have to sit down and make Steben rub my heels. I'll start with working out for now until my feet get more used to the walking before I graduate to running.

Take a look...it's in a book...a reading rainboooooooooow

I rediscovered my love of reading. It was simply a matter of making time, which is surprisingly easy to do when you don't have tv. I also lucked out with some quality books.

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
The 10pm Question by Kate De Goldi (NZ)
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas (AUS)

I just started The Slap. I was very proud that I was able to find award-winning books by authors of the countries I visited. As a bonus, I bought and read them in their respective countries.

I also read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. I enjoyed it, just not as much as I expected because it wasn't an easy book to read. I don't think I've read a book written in language from that era since high school. I also read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. It's always nice to read a page-turner. They give you a different kind of satisfaction than quality literature.

I can't wait until someone visits me so I can share the books with them. If you visit me and are a reader, no need to bring books for the flight back. I'll hook you up!

My observations on Auckland thus far...

The weather is fickle. The sky can't figure out if it wants to pour or drown us in sunshine. It changes every 10 minutes. Either way though, it's COLD.
The people here are extremely friendly and love to chat.
Auckland reminds me more of home than Sydney.
Bus drivers have a really good relationship with their passengers. Everyone thanks the drivers as they leave. When the bus driver is done for the night, they say "see yous" to the whole bus. When they are just starting for the night, they say "good evening". One of the drivers got off the bus to make sure we knew how to get to the museum because she could see us looking aimlessly around. Precious!
They don't have pennies or nickels.
They have a closer relationship with their native people, the Maori, then we do with ours.
They do not have lactase pills.
The landscape is quite hilly.

My observations on Sydney thus far...

Men really like skinny jeans...a lot.
They don't have pennies so you lose money from rounding.
People inexplicably give us the wrong change regularly so we lose even more money.
Women are well dressed - no Lulu pants or TNA sweaters in sight.
Most things are 50-100% more expensive here than they are back home.
A very high percentage of retail space is dedicated to food.
There are lots of cafes that specialize in chocolates.
Meat pies are everywhere.
Lots of restaurants have the same menu but charge different prices throughout the day and week (i.e. weekend surcharge).

Care packages please!

I can't find any normal toiletries here! My facewash and toothpaste brands are nowhere to be found. Worst of all, neither are Always or Tampax!!! So I went with the most expensive sanitary napkins available, only to find it's little more than paper with tabs. I guess that's what "cottony feel with wings" means. SON OF A...!!!

I'll also run out of my regular mints soon. So if you come to visit, make sure you bring me pads, tampons, mints, toothpaste, and/or facewash. :)