Mo money mo problems

I've been meaning to write about money, proces and stuff over here. But before we get to that. Saturday marked the beginning of horse race season or at least there was a race. I found this out as I was riding the bus back to my flat. We stopped at the bus stop across from the race track and where met with a mob of suit/cocktail dress clad people. Which is somwhat surpriseing since it was gray and drizzling most of the day. Either way, I could have sworn I had joined a brewery tour. What then made the next 20 minutes on the bus even more entertaining was that the majority of the new bus riders were under 30 and Irish. Now this might not make much sense to you, but have you ever seen clips of UK soccer or rugby games? You see they sing. Sing alot, badly and loud. They sang rugby and soccer club songs, the Irish world cup anthem and several others that while I don't what they where, they were damn amusing.



So back to the money. Bills here are plastic. Yup. not paper or cloth but plastic. Which works out really good when you forget that there is money in your pocket at the beach. But it does really feel like fake money. Bills come in 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100s. They vary some in size and greatly in color. Coins are 5, 10, 20, 50, $1 and $2. The 1 and 2 dollar coins are gold, while the rest are silver. So no pennies. which makes sense. I read somewhere before I left that it now actually takes more or almost as much to make a penny than its worth. And somehow its still a good idea??



So on to the prices. (these are some of the items I have purchased but doesn't reflect everything I eat or anything) Like anywhere there are places to find cheaper and always places to pay more but these are some of the prices I have encountered (more or less).


Gas - close to 1.35 liter if not more (3.785 liters to a gallon or about 5.11 a gallon)
glass of beer - about 4 - 5.5
glass of wine - about 5.5 - 7
regular mix drink - 6 or 7
case of coronas - 50
case of domestic beer - 30/40
6 pack domestic - 14
6 pack import - 18
dress shirts for work - 59 to 89
cuff links - 59
brand name board shorts - 89
dry cleaning - 2.75 to 5 per shirt
cab rides - 5 to 90 (but about 30 gets me to the airport or to work)

gatorade or something similar (600ml) - about 2.50

package of kangaroo sausages (yeah thats right and they're good too) - about 3.50

loaf wholewheat bread - about 3 or 4

If you want to know how much something cost, just ask. Remember the exchange rate is about .87 Aus to 1 USD, but has been as high as about .94.

Other things:

Bats. Yup Bats. They have huge bats here. Not little cute fruit bats or even scary vampire bats. When you think of Dracula movies, those are some big bats. But even those like the junior high school version, the PG version of these bats. The bats here are actually called flying foxes they are so big. You can go to the botanical gardens and see them during they day. They're loud and are fairly active. Its a bit weird to see huges flocks of 'em take to the sky on some nights. Like being in some messed up Stephen King book.