Fairy Bread, Cherry Ripe, and A Debilitating Coughing Fit

Today was a less than productive day, though it's original intent was no for that. I slept until about 8:30 this morning before I started waking up. I ended up having a coughing fit that lasted about 2 hours, including showering and blow drying my hair. After this, I was too exhausted to do anything but collapse back into bed. I ended up sleeping until around noon. When I awoke, I was breathing easier, so I decided to re-start my day. I did research online as to when I would be doing something besides being an expensive hermit in Melbourne, and tried to book some activities. None of my cards were working to be booked, and it was still Sunday in America, so no answers to this would come until tomorrow anyway. I submitted for the website to contact me to book on the phone (after I called and was on hold for about 10 minutes). I ended up not running any of the errands I planned on running today, not getting anything booked because of my card, but at least I had a plan.

Something I need to bring up and educate my American friends about: Ok, the first week, well actually, the first day I was in Australia, I was at Coogee Park with my hostel having a barbecue on the beach. There was a class of children nearby, and they had snacks they were running back to eat between games. I noticed one of these snacks looked like white bread with sprinkles on it. I dismissed it as me being uber-jet lagged, I mean, I know I am in a foreign country, but who would feed white bread with sprinkles to children? I didn't think about it much again until about a week later when I was at the South Bank in Brisbane. There was another group of children, these were older, around middle school aged girls, but I noticed they also had a stack of what looked like was sprinkled bread. Maybe this was a real dessert after all? I mean, I couldn't still be jet lagged and imagining, although, I was beginning to get sick, maybe I was hallucinating? Anyway, I kind of forgot about it until today. I saw a bread commercial on TV. And the last frame of the commercial was a small girl eating a slice of bread with sprinkles on it. What the hell is going on!? Deciding I would finally get to the bottom of this, I did what I always do when I have questions about the world- I googled. What do I type? I hesitated, then typed "bread with sprinkles." I clicked on the Wikipedia page about sprinkles. I saw they had an entry talking about fairy bread. I clicked on this entry, and it explained than in Australia and New Zealand, children eat bread with butter or margarine spread onto it, then "hundreds and thousands" (what they call sprinkles) covered on the top. This is a real food. I am not losing my mind. Ok, this is very strange to me. For one, I can't imagine that being very appetizing. Sprinkles don't have that much flavor, so I just don't think it would be that good. Also, I thought my Nilla wafer sandwich cookies I used to make with canned icing and sprinkles was a ghetto dessert. But no, this is ghetto dessert. I just don't see it getting any lower class than using white bread, butter, and sprinkles, and calling it dessert. But I won't completely condemn it until I try it. I mean, I gave Vegemite a chance, right? (**shudder**)

I did have something today that was rather good. I had gotten this candy bar back in Sydney because it was called "Cherry Ripe," and me being the sweet sister I am, I thought Nathan Cheek would love it, if it was a cherry flavored candy bar. I hadn't gotten around to trying it until today. As it turns out, I think it is more a candy bar for my mother than my brother. It is basically a 'Mounds' bar, but it is flat and has slight cherry flavor and a couple of slices of cherry throughout, but the overwhelming flavor is coconut, not cherry. It was good though, but I do think I would name it "Cherry Ripe." Anyway,I guess I am done criticizing Australian desserts for the day, haha. It was good, just mis-named, I think.