DAY 10: COINAGE

Fact: It costs more than $.01 to make a penny. Fact: Australia doesn’t have pennies. Fact: This makes entirely too much sense for America to get rid of the penny. Fact: Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Gallactica. (okay that one is from The Office but I thought I’d throw it in there).

Australia has a .05, .10, .20, .5, $1 and $2 coin and a $5, $10, $20, and $50 cash.
You should notice there is no $1 cash. It makes things complicated. The issue is that you end up with a pocket full of coins anytime you spend any money. This means several things. You end up walking around jingling the entire day. I think this is how Aussies tell who the tourists are. The Aussies all have change pockets in their wallet or wear pants that are so tight they don’t allow any room for jingling. The other issue is that the coins aren’t real money. Yeah, it’s true – because they’re coins they can’t possibly viewed as real money. It’s confusing because in America if you have a pocket full of change it is more or less just junk. In Australia if you have a pocket full of change, you might be rich. Anyway, us Yankees inevitably end up spending this “junk” change on random things because we’re used to a coin the size of a dime being worth $.10 and not $2. All of us students laugh at the pile of coins we have collected not realizing what we have.

Anyway, this “junk” change came in very handy today. First, I was walking back from the library and walked past a bakery called Baker’s Bun or maybe it was heaven – I’m not sure. It smelled unlike anything that has ever blessed my nostrils. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I have inherited the doughnut gene from my father. We used to go to Dunkin’ Donuts or Krispy Kremes on the way home from Pacer games and that is where it started. Now, he is a regular (he swears he’s not but we know otherwise) at Daylight Doughnuts – a bakery near our house. Well, I was in luck. I had some change in my pocket and since it’s not real money, I had the opportunity to purchase a doughnut. It was .80 for one doughnut. The doughnut was small but worth every penny. I mean coin. It was honestly the best doughnut I have ever tasted. It was fresh, warm and had strawberry frosting. If Blogspot had an “upload a taste” option I would share it with you guys but believe me, the doughnut is worth a 15-hour flight. You should come. I unfortunately didn’t have a camera on me but I will snap a pic next time. There will be a next time.

Then, later in the night 6 of us guys gathered up our change and went to a little hole in the wall pub called Scruffy Murphy’s. It is a small pub but has become popular with us Purdue students. One word: Seven Dollar Pitchers. Most places, a beer costs around 8 bucks, but at this place you can get a pitcher for 7. So us guys used all of our change to make the most of this deal. After spending sometime at Scruffy’s, we gave in and went to a nicer place around the corner that is called 3 Wise Monkeys. It was really cool. They had three levels with the top level being a dance floor and live band. We had a great time.

So the moral of the story: I don’t know that there is one. Again, I’m sorry. I have now blogged about pants and coins in my last three blogs. If you hate me for wasting your time, I understand but next weekend we are going on a surfing trip so perhaps they’ll get more interesting. OR maybe I’ll just blog about the weather or something ;). Until next time…

Cheers!