Shakespeare and a Haircut

Today I bit the bullet and got my first haircut in Australia.  I know it's hard for some of you (as in you men) to understand, but going to a new hair salon can be extremely unnerving and very very scary.  After all, with a few exceptions, mistakes cannot be corrected.  I was also nervous about the fact that since Townsville isn't exactly a big happening metropolitan area (at least compared to Sydney/Brisbane/Melbourne/etc.), the likelihood of me finding a great stylist was slim to none. And I had a nightmare the other night where I'd ended up with the ever-so-trendy Emo hairstyle that seems to be popular here in Australia (see attached photo for an example if you don't know what I mean).

I'm a huge fan of the Aveda salon I went to in Tucson, so I had called awhile back and made an appointment at an Aveda salon in Santa Cruz where we're staying next weekend for Matt's brother's wedding.  But Matt thought I was being silly since even if I got a haircut there I'd eventually still need to find someone here for the remaining haircuts throughout the year.  Well, despite my stubbornness I listened to reason and made a hair appointment at one of the fancy salons here on The Strand.  I had to take a chance and I might as well just get it over with.

  

Well, the first 15 minutes of the appointment did little to ease my nerves.  I liked the girl a lot - she was very cute and had great hair which is always a plus - but as we were chatting away she asked me where Matt and I liked to go out on weekends "because she only sees young people out at the clubs." I swear my heart skipped 10 beats right then and thousand thoughts flooded into my head....so....is this the moment of realization that I'm not young anymore? But I'm only 30.  I wonder how old she thinks I am.  Does she think I'm 45 or something?  Do I really look 45? Maybe I should be wearing more sunscreen every day and stay out of the sun more.  Yes, that's it, it's too much sun exposure.  Or is it my clothes?  Do I look frumpy and fat? But I wore my nice jeans and shoes and halter top.  Surely it's not my clothes....Anyway, I was completely fixated on this for the remaining 2.75 hours of the appointment.  And clearly I'm still fixated on it because I'm writing about it on the blog.  Any thoughts? Yeah, the sun exposure, that's it.  

Now perhaps based on what I've just said you're expecting that I ended up with a bad haircut but after it was all said and done I spent three hours (yes, you read right) and a small fortune but got a really great cut and highlights.  I'll definitely be going back.  Even though she thinks I'm a grandma already.

The rest of this week has been relatively eventful.  Thanks to some of your emails we learned of the dust storm in Sydney and today we got some of their residual dust.  Nothing major, although it was enough to completely cover up Magnetic Island off the coast here.  It was kind of weird running along the Strand today and it looking like Maggie had really disappeared.  

On Tuesday morning I went with a friend to pick out Halloween costumes at the local costume shop Fancy Dress.  It's the earliest I've ever bothered to even think about a costume, and I'm quite pleased I won't have to spend the entire month of October stressing about it or scouring all over the town to find bits and pieces for a last minute costume.  It was a pretty weird place but had a decent selection of costumes (all rentals), and they even ask you who's party you're going to so they don't rent out two of the same costumes for the same party.  One of the benefits of being the only costume shop in a relatively small town I guess.

Later that night Matt and I went to trivia again.  It was a small group - just three of us - but we did pretty well.  It helped that a lot of the questions were centered on the U.S. and there was a DNA question in there, too.  The Aussie questions just kill us.  By the way, did you know that President Ford was born as Leslie Lynch King, Jr.?  

Wednesday night we went to see Shakespeare in the Park (Henry V) in the Queen's Gardens just down the street.   We weren't sure what to expect, but the show was absolutely fabulous.  And we even got to bring along food for a little picnic during intermission. It's always nice when you can bring your own stuff into a venue.  

I think that's about all we have to report right now.