Long Overdue... Oy Oy Oy

I know, I know, been a slacker when it comes to blogging…

It’s been a while since I posted a blog and it’s not that we haven’t been busy doing notable things, it’s just that we’ve been busy doing notable things…hmmmm. Rather than trying to recap everything that’s happened since my last entry I’ll let the photos tell the stories with comments (and no doubt a good amount of verbosity!)

Grocery stores continue to torment me

Gigantic produce and creepy vege...

The closest grocery store to our house has been under renovation for over a month now. It’s not like it’s all that convenient to begin with, but losing it means even longer bus rides with multiple stops. When we move, the highest priority with the new place will be proximity to a good grocer. I try to order online with home delivery which is a real crap shoot. Generally they ship under-ripened fruit and vegetables which is good from a spoilage point of view — pain in the butt from a utilisation point of view. I cook a lot and my preference is to buy my ingredients the same day I use them — freshness, flavour, quality… Buying in bulk and then guessing on how long it takes for a peach to ripen is not in my wheelhouse. Plus, you never really know what they are delivering. My celery bunches and green onions were ENORMOUS and would’t even fit in my ice box without first trimming them down — not even sideways! Final challenge, they really don’t deliver proteins so I have to go get them anyway. I finally settled on taking a ferry grocery shopping (yes, a boat) to a place not far from the ferry wharf. It probably sounds cools and romantic but come on…as the days get warmer, so do the groceries.

Date night lives!

Julie and I at the cheese fondue restaurant

One of the smartest things we did when we moved here (to counteract Julie’s tendency to be the most efficient worker in the world) is to install a Wednesday date night policy. We’ve fallen into a nice habit of going out to a new restaurant each week — exploring neighbourhoods and finding new gems for dining. It’s been great fun! Our most recent stop was fondue in the old post office building near Circular Quay. Julie’s workmates have been really helpful with suggestions and this place delivered in spades. We had a nice board of fondue items which including potatoes, breads, cured meats, and other goodies…and a nice pot of brie with truffles for dipping. Um, yum! Even better for Julie was the value as the place was listed in our Entertainment Book that she ordered when moving here. God, she loves those damn things! Sauce for the goose you ask? Thank you Jack Hasebe for your generous restaurant gift card that we used to pay the bill.

Football, I mean Oregon Ducks College Football

Watching the game on the computer from home

If you read this blog chances are good you also read our Facebook pages. It’s no secret that we are huge Duck fans. So much so that the possibility of missing Duck football in Oz actually factored into our decision when considering the move…sad, right? Anyway, we did move and thanks to modern technology (a sling box on Jack Hasebe’s Dish Network account) we are able to stream the games into our living room! How great is that? How the technology works is unimportant (except to Dave Fujii I am guessing), but how it affects our week is very telling.

First (and as a nice dovetail to date night) we pick the Top 25 games of the week and the best prognosticator is allowed to pick the date night event or restaurant. So far I’ve won 2 nights and Julie has won once. Second, it means that we are always home (and awake) from 11pm - 2am on Saturday night for College Game Day on ESPN. Finally, it means we spend time every Sunday morning watching the games.. odd times too. The Duck / Michigan State game was at 8am, the Wyoming game was at 4am — we were up, dressed in our Duck gear, yelling, screaming and high-fiving (I know, lame) in our living room. Our neighbours, who all think the American obsession with University Sport is odd, have to be wondering what the hell is going on? Are they fighting? Are they partying? Are they crazy? All of those? Who knows… who cares. We’ve got our Ducks!

Our 13th wedding anniversary

Opera House at night from our dinner cruise

It’s been 13 years since we officially tied the knot. Itching aside, it’s been a simply glorious time full of love and life. Without running on forever (and I could) about how magical it’s been let’s simply say that neither of us has taken a single day for granted during all of our thirteen years. We’ve cherished every day and fallen more completely in love with each and every day — it’s true — we’re blessed.

This was our best anniversary ever. On Saturday we took a three hour dinner cruise on the harbour in Sydney. The big paddle wheel boat was warm and comfortable; the views amazing; the food excellent. It was a lot of fun. They had showgirls, a magician, and a singer to entertain us as we cruised slowly around the harbour. Good fun! Julie was beautiful. We were home in time for Game Day!

On Sunday, our actual anniversary, we were up at 4am to watch the Ducks defeat Wyoming. We were sleepy and the Ducks first quarter was uninspired… By halftime the game was well in hand and we were still sleepy. We watched the game, napped for a bit afterward and struck out for the day around noon. We decided that it would be nice to find a rooftop bar/cafe to enjoy the warm sunny weather and just chill for the day. On the way there, we stopped at a cafe/wine bar that Julie had visited before and had some lovely food in a very neighbourhood (“swish”) setting. It was awesome. I had old bay prawns (100 of the the little guys that I ate shell and all), some bread with olive oil for dipping, and 4 wonderful raw oysters (sorry, Jack). Julie had a crab salad and everything I didn't eat… that girl can eat! Next stop was a rooftop down the street from lunch where we were delighted to discover live entertainment. It wasn’t “Beatles on the Rooftop” good but it was definitely very good. A young (nervous) girl singer and an accompanying guitarist. They played one emo song after another which really hits our sweet spot… yes, our iPod will make everyone cry…. From there we goofed and laughed, had some thai food for dinner and headed home. What a magical day befitting of our magical lives.

Australia meet France, France meet Australia. Mosman Village

Yesterday, Julie and I continued our never-ending quest to find the most suitable village/neighborhood/suburb for us to dwell. On hand was Mosman, specifically Mosman Village. Mosman is a large area, pretty much directly across the harbour from the Opera House. It’s next to Kirribilli (we visited that previously) and not that far (by car) from Manly Beach (also visited that area before). So what to say about Mosman….

We took a ferry to Circular Quay and thought we’d catch a ferry to Mosman. My knee was bugging me so we decided to cab into Mosman. It’s a pretty short trip across the harbour bridge though traffic made it a less than great experience. Still, we headed directly to the downtown area of Mosman known as Mosman Village.

Mosman is an affluent area within greater Sydney. The rub for many Sydney-siders is they consider it kind of “snobby” though we didn’t personally experience much of that. Of course, coming from Lake Oswego, Oregon, (where I quickly learned that yelling loudly at the refs during junior high school basketball is frowned upon :-| ) snobbery is something that is invisible to me. Does that mean we are snobs? Hmmmm…. makes me wonder. (not really)

Anyway, back to Mosman Village. First, it’s expansive. The main road (Military Road) seems to go on forever. It’s features a lot of cars on wide streets that are crowded with local boutiques and high-end designer clothing shops. Unlike Balmain (where we live now) there are very few pubs. It’s relatively flat for walking which I liked and has plenty to offer. The biggest problem is where it’s located… While Mosman is across the harbour from downtown Sydney’s CBD, Mosman Village is on the other side of the peninsula. Since we are living here sans-car that means a bus or a trolly to get to that area. The trade-off thus becomes, sacrifice water views in favour of shopping or sacrifice shopping for views. If you do the later it adds 30 minutes to any commute. Because of that we are going to rule Mosman out as a place to live.

Our experiences while in Mosman were great. I had the best crepe I have ever enjoyed (and I’ve bent to France) at a French-owned restaurant called Four Pigs. It was simply amazing. Buckwheat crepe with Smoked Duck, Cheese, Green Onions and some sort of savoury sauce. Oh god, it was good. Crepes Suzette for dessert (shared) wasn’t a bad way to end the meal either. We sat outside in a heated area and just loved it.

We shopped at bit without buying anything and finally ended up at a sports bar where Sydney was playing New Zealand in Rugby. The pub scene in Oz is quite different than the US. Notable differences include no bar stools. No tipping is another big difference though prices more than make up for the difference. People tend to go to pubs in groups and then sit with each other at a table. Everyone takes turns buying a round of drinks for the table so if you are a tea drinker, your coffee could end up costing you $50 if your with 5 other people. :-( People can get quite loud in the pubs and it’s almost appreciated. There are no waitresses/waiter so you go to the bar for everything you want. The American style of “hot” bartenders or food servers is clearly not in the plan. It’s not better or worse, just different.

It was a rainy day so we hung out there for a while before catching a bus back to Sydney CBD. We landed at The Rocks (reviewed that before too) and hung out there for a few hours as well. We love The Rocks…so much going on… so much to do. If you really need a “hot” quotient to make you happy have a seat at a sidewalk cafe and watch the parade of club goers all dressed for a night of decadence. Gheesh.

Today we are heading to an Aquarium to look at sharks and things just 5 minutes from where we live by ferry. Loving Sydney. Loving having Julie home everyday. Life is good.

About 7 more days of rain and 60’s and then it all turns for the beginning of spring and summer. Looking forward to that! Later blog stalkers.

Secretaries that STOP traffic

Meat raffle, Secretaries that stop traffic, Double Bay/Double Bay, and a Pneu Health update…. oh boy!

Double Bay Double Bay

Last weekend Julie and I struck out to explore the village of Double Bay. Mark (bro) had mentioned it as a place he had a coffee with one of his reps on a previous trip — he thought it was nice and relatively level. He had me at relatively level! So we caught the ferry to Circular Quay and then took the 10 minute ferry ride to Double Bay. Double Bay is (obviously) on the water — it might even be a bay? It’s an area of Sydney where money seems to begin settling in greater abundance — in fact, Double Bay is known as the village with the most exclusive/upscale shops in Sydney. There are only about 5,000 residents though the shopping area is quite large - obviously a destination for Sydney folks, especially those in the Eastern villages.

To give you a feel…. you get off the ferry on the wharf and are immediately greeted by a pub over water called the 18-footer club. It’s where folks drink and snack while waiting for their ferry - folks with 18-foot or greater boats are also allowed but only as members. ;-) It’s a hopping place full of happy people and some pretty exclusive shopping bags. You venture off the wharf, walk past a park, and within 4 minutes you are in the shopping and restaurant district. Lovely pubs and cafes, great shops full of famous designers as well as well regarded Sydney designers. The place had much wider streets than Balmain East (where we live now) and a much more ”current/upscale” vibe. There are plenty of beautiful homes and a fair number of apartments overlooking the harbour. All-in-all we loved it and moved it into the category of places we would move. The only drawbacks are ferry schedule (every 60 minutes) and a seeming lack of grocery near the apartment areas. On the upside, it close to CBD by ferry or bus, close to the beach (10 minutes) or Bondi Junction (western mega shopping area). Definitely a great place to spend our time here if it works out.

Meat raffle

As if to prove Balmain East is a bit less refined than Double Bay, on Sunday, we attended a meat raffle at the local lawn bowling club. $1.00 gets you 5 tickets in the raffle — we bought $5.00 worth and won 2 drawings. Conservatively, the meat was worth $60 - $80. The local group of lawn bowlers were away at a tournament so we had a great chance of winning one of the 12 drawings. Ummm, meat!

Health Update

I went to the Doctor on Monday for a follow-up. I’ve got about 3 more weeks of suffering ahead of me but the progress is definitely in my favour. She put me on some new/stronger medication, discussed allowable activities, and ordered me to two days of bed rest. Upon leaving I asked her, “what about sex” to which she replied, “I have patients until 3 o’clock but I’m free after that.”

Secretaries everywhere

I’m in the middle of my second day of bed rest and I hear helicopters and boat traffic and just a lot of commotion outside. I get up to see what is disrupting my slumber. As you can see from the photograph, Secretary John Kerry, Secretary Chuck Hagel and Prime Minister Tony Abbott are motoring past my sick bed with an armada of police in tow. Kerry and I shared a wave (seriously) and I went back to bed. Bizarre.

That’s all for now blog stalkers… things are good… weather not so much. WE CRAVE SUMMER!

Bros before.... well, everything!

Just said goodbye to my little brother. He’s off to his hotel and then tomorrow he’s on a plane back to his family in Wisconsin. It was such a welcome experience for Julie and I to spend time in Australia with Mark. Here’s a brief run down of the two days I saw him this week…enjoy!

Tuesday I saw him twice. I met him, and his Australian sales representative (Andy Knox) for lunch at Jamie’s Italian. Andy is a true Scot complete with a heavy Scot accent with quirky Australian words tossed in for good measure. He’s somewhere in his early 60’s and just a nice guy. Good sense of humour, hearty laugh, love of life. A real pleasure to join for lunch. How nice is it that we got to break bread together at Jamie’s Italian! I’ve long been a fan of Jamie Oliver though I’ve never eaten at one of his restaurants — I’ll be back.

Any restaurant where you get to sit next to hanging meat is a good place to eat!

For the starter course, we shared a bread starter, some baked mushrooms, and some crab and avocado bruschetta. All was truly wonderful — hearty, earthy and delicious. For our mains we each ordered something different though we sampled off each other’s plates. I had a truffle risotto (I know, right!?), Mark had a wild boar lasagne, and Andy had a pasta dish with venison and wild boar. We added a couple of sides for the table; posh fries which is basically french fries with parmesan and truffle oil (again, I know right!?) and some polenta with rosemary and parmesan. The sides and the mains were also wonderful. Finally, we also ordered dessert even though we were all pretty stuffed. I had tiramisu, Mark had lemon meringue pie and Andy had a brownie dessert. Truthfully, dessert was pretty marginal although Andy did manage to eat his entire brownie dessert. My tiramisu was one bite and done - really pretty bad.

I left Mark with Andy (they have to work after all) and headed home to await my grocery delivery. Mark wrapped his day and headed over to our place around 5:30 to spend the evening with us. I had the rather unenviable task of cooking dinner that followed Jamie Oliver. Suffice to say that no matter what I cooked I was not going to compete with Mr. Oliver. Still, my salmon with rhubarb sauce was pretty decent and the evening was simply great. Having my brother for 5 hours is something I don’t often get to enjoy and I relished every moment. Julie made a wonderful dessert to end the evening (Amaretti Peach parfait) and Mark headed out on the 9:43 ferry.

Today, Thursday, Mark returned to Sydney from Brisbane and made it over to the house for dinner around 6:00 pm. I made a shrimp, feta, pasta dish with peas and we had baclava for dessert. Julie made it home around 8:30 to join us for an hour and a half before Mark headed out again on the 9:43 ferry to his hotel. Again, it was wonderful to hang with my bro!

That’s about it. One of the things I love about Mark is the lengths he will go to, and the distance he will travel, to stay connected with family. That might be us in Sydney, Jenna in LA, frequent trips to the parents, you name it… he puts in the time and effort to be the best of our family. I’m blessed to have him in my life.

Bed time for me… have a good day blog stalkers.

Little Brother / Big Times

What a treat!

A wonderful weekend for this old blogger and his pretty little wife — my brother, Mark, in Sydney for the weekend leading up to a week full of work in Australia. It was simply wonderful as is the norm for Mark and I whenever we get together! The really neat thing for me about Mark — if he wasn’t my brother he’d be one of my best friends. He’s just great.

On with the details….

Saturday morning we met around 10:00 near his hotel at Circular Quay. Mark had just gotten off a long LONG flight a few hours earlier ( a flight without onboard entertainment — OUCH ), checked in at the Marriott, showered and met Julie and I for a day of making merry. We boarded a bus and headed down the coast to the town of Coogee. Coogee (Cud-gee) is south of Bondi and a favourite place of Sydney-siders to live along the beach. It’s just far enough south to miss the tourist crowds that jam Bondi beach and a lovely little place to be sure. The beach is full of large breaking waves and a nice boardwalk with plenty of shops and restaurants. We stopped for lunch at the Coogee Bay Hotel which claims to have the largest beer garden in the Sydney area. Lunch was pretty darned good even though I dropped a big piece of fried fish on my pant leg — how lucky for me there aren’t a lot of cats in Australia.

We ate a leisurely lunch and decided to tempt fate (fate meaning my bad knees and pneumonia riddled body) by walking north from Coogee toward Bondi beach, The walk (Bondi-Coogee beach walk) is a pretty famous 5 km trek famed for it’s beauty. It runs all along the ocean with some pretty amazing views and scenery. We stopped once for a coffee (Jeff) / beer (Julie and Mark) and had just a great time chatting, sight-seeing and exploring. Mark, “The Whale Whisperer” spotted a water spout from a whale and we had a lot of fun (pithy conversation included) exploring Waverly Cemetery. After about 3 1/2 km my knees were fried so we jumped a bus and headed to the train station in Bondi junction. We trained into the city and caught a cab to one of Mark’s favourite places “The Hero of Waterloo”. THOW is a really old pub with huge wooden beams and ancient stone walls and a trio of musicians that perform in the corner. The average age in the Trio has got to be 80 so it’s kind of quaint to be sure — we had a blast.

From there we walked a few shorts blocks back to The Rocks and enjoyed a few more beverages at The Argyle — a collection of restaurants and night clubs that are all super fun, really cool, and wonderfully swish. We laughed and chatted and just had fun kicking back enjoying the scene. Next door to The Argyle area was “Sake” — a Japanese fusion restaurant where we were lucky enough to snag a table. The food was so good — we just marvelled at every course — all 6 of them. One of the best meals I’ve ever had to be sure. Such fun.

We bid goodnight to Mark around 8:00pm and we headed home to recharge while he went back to the Marriott for some sorely needed sleep. He was a real trooper after that long flight. Harsdly even showed at all.

Sunday (today) we met again around 10:00 and headed off on a ferry to Manly Beach. Both Manly and Coogee are on our short list of places to live when our lease expires end of January. Manly is super lovely — probably the most like a southern California beach town of all the beach communities (except for maybe Bondi). Anyway, we went for a nice coastal walk sharing some sights that we’d seen before with Mark. It was awesome fun — sunny and brisk but not too cold). We settled in for a nice lunch beachfront and enjoyed some great conversation and a bit of work talk, etc. Fun, comfortable, just great.

After lunch we wandered about Manly looking at apartment buildings trying to get a feel for living there. Hard to say what will be available come summer (Feb 1) but it appears there are good options oceanfront that could really make for a nice lifestyle. It’s a relatively flat area which my knees would appreciate and there are plenty of grocery/shop/restaurant options too. Might be our leading contender thus far? We left Manly around 3:00 with every intention of hitting the fish market and making a nice dinner back at our place. My knees had other thoughts so we ended up simply ferrying back to Circular Quay, then a second ferry to where we live. We chilled there for about an hour and finally caught a bus into Balmain for an early dinner at the Monkey Bar. The Monkey Bar is a Parisian themed place near where we live and we had a really nice meal with some laughter and good conversation. A cab back home with a stop at the ferry for Mark and that’s it!

We might see Mark again for dinner on Tuesday, or Thursday, or both which will be wonderful too. I always say goodbye to my brother wishing we lived close to each other. I just love the little guy!

Nothing Pneu

Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated…

I’ve been sick lately so the blog (and the adventure) have suffered. I had a particularly ugly combination of pneumonia and a sinus infection. All the coughing, sneezing, nose blowing has exacerbated my hernia and completely zapped my strength. I’m coming up on the two week anniversary of all this joy and am thinking the worst is behind me? Hope so. Even still, I’ve probably slept 19 of the past 24 hours — a sign that I might have been put through the ringer even worse than I had thought. At least the days of 103+ / 39.6+ fevers are over! I’ll give it one more day and if the tiredness doesn’t ebb away I’ll get back to the Doctor for some blood work.

My brother arrives in Sydney early on Saturday — it’ll be great to see him. I’m hopeful my health and energy will be right for the visit.

Briefly, I know there is some interest in the Australian healthcare system so I’ll share my own experiences for all you heath care geeks (Michelle/Lesley) to consume. Once I decided to get to the Doctor I called and had an appointment within 10 hours. I headed to the appointment, filled out a very brief questionnaire (none of it insurance related) and the Doctor was seeing me in 5 minutes. We visited briefly, she did a quick examination, and then we discussed treatment.

The treatment discussion was interesting. It included all types of treatment — not just pills and traditional medicine. In fact, one of the things I was encouraged to take was an herbal remedy from Sweden for sinus issues. Acupuncture, massage, lifestyle choices… all of this came up in the framework of a larger discussion about wellness. In the end, I left with an Rx for an antibiotic, an Rx for an inhaler, and a note for a helpful herbal supplement. Easy, and I thought progressive.

Next stop was the drug store — here, they are called “chemists”. We walked into the chemist with two printed Rx's and we were met halfway between the front door and the pharmacy counter by the pharmacist. She took the script, grabbed the herbal medicine on the way back to the counter area, and we both went to the back of the store and had a quick seat. It took LESS THAN 3 minutes for the rest of the Rx to be filled and that was it! No waiting around (for no reason) for 30 minutes or more (Walgreen model) while they counted out little pills scraping them into a bottle with a special little knife and counting board — they simply grabbed the inhaler, grabbed the pre-packaged antibiotics, and done.

Payment for these services go something like this… Everyone in Australia is covered by Medicare — think single payor health care provided by the Aussie government. Medicare covers the lions share of treatments and the patient pays the balance at the time of treatment. As 457 Visa holders we have additional insurance paid by Julie’s employer which is standard with 457 Visas. The additional benefits we might receive we have to apply for which was really easy. You download the claim form, provide proof of payment, and mail it in. They reimburse us any additional benefit at some point. Not sure how long it takes — hasn’t been long enough to know for sure.

One of the worst parts of being sick is the television programming. I’ve alluded to the low quality of programming here before, and when you are captive on the couch with your sick station all around you, the programming is all the more important. At on point I was half delirious, too tired to even look for the remote, when the show changed to Charlie’s Angels. If that wasn’t bad enough, it was a special episode where the “angels” were solving a case on the friggin’ Love Boat. Burt Convey was the bad guy. OUCH!!!! I was so glad for that episode to come to an end until I realised the show to follow was “Mad About You”. Why couldn’t I get sick during the World Cup?

Later blog stalkers…. be good!

boats and betas

Haven’t done a blog for a while — probably proof that we have truly settles into a routine. Here’s the latest and greatest…

The REALLY BIG news of the week was the delivery of our container shipment from Portland to Sydney. It took 8 weeks and about $4500 (we didn’t pay for it) and low and behold, we have our possessions. I’d say half of the twelve boxes we received were Julie’s clothing; two were my kitchen essentials; one was my stuff (shoes, exercise materials, a few clothes); and the rest were things like wooden hangers, bedding, towels, etc. Intermingled in the shipment were also family photos and a few keepsakes.

Of all of these boxes, the kitchen boxes made me the happiest. Sure it’s nice to have family photos and my wooden eagle carving, but the kitchenware was really impactful to me on a daily basis. The kitchen that came with our furnished apartment had most of the necessary elements though the quality of the same was pretty poor. It’s as if they stocked the gadget drawer with leftover Easy Bake oven items. Now…I have my wusthof knives, all-clad pots and pans, as well as my specialised gadgets for zesting, paring, squeezing, peeling… you get it! I never would have believed that I loved my kitchen stuff so much! Oh yeah…cookbooks too.

Julie scored a lot of wrinkled clothes that are all laid out on the guest bed ready for her to sort and store. STORAGE IS GOING TO BE A PROBLEM! Small apartment….

In other news, I made my first trip to a medical provider. I severely loosened a lower tooth while eating a piece of toast with a poached egg….I know, right!???!! In any event, I called a local dentist after researching a bit on google and was in within the week. Now, for all of you people that think a single payor healthcare system is bad, or it doesn’t work, or whatever, stand by to be educated. THIS WAS A SIMPLE JOY! You fill out a very brief questionnaire and fork over your health card and in you go for treatment. At the end of you visit they swipe your health card and your benefits are reconciled on the spot. There are no claims reports, no explanation of benefits, none of that wasteful nonsense that is really intended to let the insurance company hold on to your premium payments (also known as their investment) for protracted periods of time. It’s all done on the spot like a credit card transaction, and the balance is then paid by you…simple, easy, no fuss….so much better!

As for the dental treatment itself it was slightly different than US dentists. Many of the same tools are employed and certainly modern dentistry is modern dentistry…. the biggest difference was with the cleaning. They (sort of) sandblast your teeth with a baking soda (?) formulation after they have cleaned your teeth with a cavitron. Messy but good and fast. They also provide a routine fluoride treatment as part of the service to help keep your teeth healthy. All-in-all, a better experience than I have had in the US where I had some of the finest dentists around.

Other than all of this rather boring stuff, things are routine. Julie’s mentor, a lovely man named James Dewar, has asked for our assistance beta-testing an exciting new project he is involved with called lifetile. The testing script came in today and I am looking forward to spending several hours putting this new site through it’s paces to make the actual product rollout better. There are a lot of other beta testers that I am joining though I like to think that my experience working with eCommerce sites, web development, web programming and social media integration strategies (including marketing) will make my insights valuable and slightly different than most and will be at least a benefit to the team. Very excited to be doing this beta testing. Very grateful to know Jim Dewar too.

I’ve been trying hard to understand and “get into” Aussie sports. I was truly surprised to find that I love watching cricket. What a great and exciting sport. I’d imagine I will like it more as I learn more about it. I’ll also talk more about it in a future blog for my fellow sports fans. Nearby we have a lawn bowling club (10 minute walk) so we are anxious to give it a try to see what that’s all about too. Footy is our obvious joint passion and we are hopeful to get to another Swan game in the next week or two… Julie will never really endorse Rugby though I still enjoy watching it - have for years. I also enjoy soccer where Julie really doesn’t… I’m sure she is just waiting for Duck football.

It’s Saturday morning and we have yet to decide where we will visit this weekend. We’ll pick an area and I’ll see you back here tomorrow. Later blog stalkers.

One last note: our cribbage board was in our overseas shipment…let the competition begin anew!

whales, swans, and youth

Our Saturday started with us doing all sorts of dirty things around the apartment. Once we finished cleaning, we started our day…

Whale watching

Sydney has one of the longest migratory periods in Australia. There are many varieties of whales that pass through here and today we were out looking for humpbacks. They are 50 ton creatures that migrate from their feeding grounds near Antarctica to the warmer waters of northern Australia where they mate and give birth. That’s about a 5,000Km commute; in fact, there have been records of humpbacks travelling as much as 18,000Km. Ahhh, the power of sex!

To quote George Constanza, “the seas were angry my friend”. We got out for the whale searching in what they claimed were moderate seas… they might have been moderate to an experienced boatsman but to your average potato farmers daughter (Julie) they were pretty heavy. Julie got a little green around the gills on the route back and asked that I leave her alone once we got back to shore. (Like she had to ask! I already cleaned enough stuff at the beginning of the day) She soon recovered with her intestines intact… Moving around the catamaran boat was challenging to say the least… the rocking and tossing was quite a workout and it trashed my already bad knee pretty significantly.

As for the whales…we finally caught up with a pair of males about 3Km offshore and 10Km south of Sydney Harbour. The choppy water made them difficult to spot, and even more difficult to photograph. We managed to hang with them for about an hour. For me, watching a pod of dolphins surfing the wake of a sailboat in the harbour was probably more fun…but I digress. Anyway, above are the better shots of the whales. I should have taken photos of the people standing on the bow of the boat for over an hour…soaked doesn’t begin to cover what they looked like. :-)

SIDE NOTES: When I describe our boat as a catamaran I am technically correct. However, it’s an 80 foot three story craft with twin diesel engines. On the topic of boats…Sydney has an unbelievable variety of watercraft. It seems that there are no two boats that are the same except for the harbour ferries. There are single person kayaks, sculling boats, small personal boats, skiffs, large personal boats, yachts, mega-yachts, ocean-going freighters, cruise ships, aw hell, there are A LOT of different boats in the harbour.

Swans "Footy"

It’s no secret that Julie and I are rabid Oregon Duck fans. In fact, we worry on a daily basis that seeing a Duck game (in 51 days) might be difficult in Oz. (Rest easy, we signed up for the online service that streams games around the world) We knew before we moved that we’d have to have some sort of a replacement sport (methadone for our heroin addiction) while we are in Australia. Julie’s workmate, Jane Lancsar, hooked us up with two Sydney Swan tickets. The Swans are one of two Australian Rules Football teams in Sydney. (The Australian love of abbreviating everything refers to it as “footy”) We arrived about an hour before game time at the Sydney Cricket Grounds. (Cricket is big here too — all sports are pretty big here.) Our working assumption was that we’d be able to score some dinner at the grounds before “footy”. We did that although the selection of foods was shockingly dismal. So…yes…we had fish and chips in our seats at the game. (The guy sitting next to me ate three meals….wow!) One last point of interest is the cricket grounds themselves….it’s patterned after Churchhill Downs so there is a mixture of architecture that is at best eclectic, at worst odd, but pretty fun and comfortable. It’s immediately adjacent to The Fox Studios where they make movies — in fact, one of the seating areas is named Bill O’Reilly (that falls into the “odd” category of the stadium.

Now I don’t want to bore everyone by describing the game of “footy” so I’ll bullet point the basics:

• The field is an oval.
• There are very few rules and the clock runs like soccer; with 4 quarters instead of 2 halves.
• You can’t pass the ball - you have to either bump it to people or kick it
• If you kick it and it’s caught you earn a “mark” which means you are free to kick or run or whatever from that spot without being hassled.
• If you run, you have to bounce the ball off the ground every 15 meters or it’s a penalty. It’s also a penalty to simply hold the ball.
• You score by kicking the ball through one of two goals posts; inner or outer. If you make it through the inner you get 6 points; outer you get 1.

The Swans are in first place. In fact, last night's game they tied the longest winning streak in team history for wins in a row (12). They smashed the lowly Carlton team last night 124 - 51 scoring nearly 50 points in Q3 alone. It was fun and exciting and COLD! It’s winter here and the last few days have been pretty cool — 14C/56F (<—guess conversion) Anyway, thanks Jane! We are already somewhat hooked on the Swans — hell, we even bought team scarves!

The last reportable moment was the bus ride back to Circular Quay from where we caught our ferry home. We got on the bus and sat in the middle of 10 local kids heading out for the night. The scarves we were wearing were real conversation starters — the fact that we left after Q3 and didn’t stay for the whole game was disappointing to everyone we encountered. As soon as we spoke they had a lot to say about America. Again, they knew about Oregon and even the Ducks; they talked about LeBron James and Michael Jordan; they covered various geographic places they’d visited. It was a dizzying experience where we had 10 people talking to us all at once about everything you can imagine. One young girl (there were 2 girls and 8 guys) shared information about Australia that I wanted to hear but I kept being pulled away by the rowdier boys. It was fun overall. The biggest shock (for me) came when they got off the bus near Kings Cross (Kings Cross is party central; red-light district; nightclubs, you name it, the Cross has it.) We continue to be amazed by how hard the people of Sydney party and how dressed they all get for a night of clubbing. It’s kind of cool to see young people caring so much about how they look when they go out for a night on the town.

That's a wrap blog stalkers. Have a great day!

a rather pedestrian post...

Not much to really report to you blog stalkers….it’s been pretty routine around here lately.

Last night was “date night” so I made the trip to Julie’s work building and waited for her to trudge out for an evening together. It rained last night, the first time in the three plus weeks we’ve been here, and the winds picked up and blew the litter all about CBD. Rather than getting caught out in the elements waiting to find a cab (even though cabs are plentiful and easy to find) we hopped the light rail in front of her building and headed to The Star. We goofed off there for a bit, had some Pad Thai, and got home relatively early for some much needed sleep.

In the three weeks I’ve been here I’ve had occasion to speak to multiple Aussies and have been particularly interested in their perceptions of America. The “gun rights” debate that is always main stage in American media confuses people that haven’t been to the states. I get the impression that people here assume there are gun toting Americans everywhere you go… you know, people walking around armed. It’s funny because one of the chief complaints the Aussies have concerns the stereotypical American view of life down under. Television commercials and movies have falsely informed the US populace that Aussies walk around prospecting for gold with a gigantic can of Fosters in one hand and a shrimp to toss on the barbie in the other. Not really a shocker that the media has created a false narrative in both directions. For the record, I don’t think I’ve even seen a Fosters or a shrimp on the barbie since I arrived.

One IMPORTANT distinction for my fellow Americans… Australia has very strict gun laws and as a result they don’t have the senseless mass shooting tragedies that have become far too common in the US. They simply don’t understand why gun rights (owning automatic weapons and banana clips) is tolerated in the states. Neither do I, nor do most people capable of higher reasoning.

On a personal note, I’ve been working hard to get my knees and legs in better condition for the past few weeks. I have an hour long stretching regimen every morning followed by a 30 minute strengthening program. I am already reaping significant dividends that have made me more mobile and cut the pain back significantly. It’s been a welcome change.

Big weekend on the horizon for us. Whale watching Saturday morning; an Aussie Rules Football game on Saturday night (Go Swans); a trip to the local mega mall on Sunday morning; dinner with Julie’s work mate and his spouse on Sunday night. It’l be good to have a busy, fun-filled weekend.

Finally, all the kids back home are doing well. Connor has been hanging in Portland for over a week. He’s got a good job interview in Bend when he gets back there later this week. Brandon is banging away on summer school and doing well. Jenna is working additional shifts at her hostess job while she waits for her big break. It’ll come. Dan is wrapping up his studies in Chicago and anxious for it to come to and end. Our container ship shipment of household goods arrives next week -- pictures of the family are in one of the boxes!

That’s it blog stalkers. Weather is here, wish you were all beautiful.

a different perspective

and now for something completely different…

Since Friday, Christina Barber and Annie Glenn have been our house guests. Tomorrow afternoon they shove off again for their respective locations: Christina back to Melbourne and her advanced studies in Speech Pathology, and Annie, back to Los Angeles to her full-time job. The two were buddies in undergraduate studies and remain close today.

Since we’ve spent very little time with them since their arrival (youngsters want to play, old farts want to rest) we took it upon ourselves to interview them for the blog. We thought they might provide different insights into life in Oz that you might find interesting…. we’ll see if it works?

Q: The coolest thing you’ve seen in Australia?
Annie: Birds
Christina: The Red Center (Uluru a/k/a Ayers Rock)

Q: Most unusual person you met?
Annie: Bart the tour guide. He loved his job, could say turtle in a lot of different languages, was super active and knowledgable.
Christina: Aboriginal guy who said she looked like a giraffe but not really.

Q: What about Australia would surprise your parents the most?
Annie: Indigenuity (the embracing of aboriginal beliefs and practices.)
Christina: ditto

Q: What do you miss most about US?
Annie: My bed.
Christina: Mexican food (Many of her answers involve food)

Q: What do you miss least?
Annie: Job
Christina: Americans (arrogance and indifference)

Q: Most beautiful thing you’ve seen in Australia?
Annie: Uluru sunset and rainbows
Christina: Red Center (Uluru area)

Q: Favorite animal in Oz?
Annie: Kangaroo and Koala
Christina: Cassowary (it’s a funky bird)

Q: What should you bring with you to Australia?
Annie: Warm Clothes
Christina: Money

Q: What does Kangaroo taste like?
Annie: Not a meat eater.
Christina: Deliciousness. Chicken/Beef combo.

Q: What surprised you that it cost so much?
Annie: Make-up
Christina: Seafood

Q: Best deals you found in your travels?
Annie: Tourist stores are pretty cheap.
Christina: Party Mix Candy

Q: Four oddest words?
Annie: Rubbish, Lolly, Blokes, Wanker (tr. Garbage, Candy, Men, Asshole)
Christina: Bogan, Pissed, Reckon, Ta (tr. Hayseed person, Drunk, Agree?, Thanks)

Q: Best time swimming?
Annie: Whitewater rafting on the Tully River and MillaaMillaa Waterfall.
Christina: Same answer. It’s MillaaMillaa is where they filmed the Herbal Essence commercial.

Q: Best Cultural Experience?
Annie: Learning about the aboriginal history including constellations in the Red Center.
Christina: The Red Center.

Q: Rowdiest thing you did?
Annie: Whitewater rafting.
Christina: Drank a whole bottle of port wine.

Q: Are American men or Australian men better looking?
Annie: American
Christina: Neither, but Sydney has the best looking men in Australia.

Q: Major fashion differences?
Annie: Lots more dreadlocks and 1980’s short shorts (on men). Recommends a greater investment in deodorant.
Christina: At least with summer clothing it appears that Aussies are stuck in a fashion cycle currently featuring 90’s fashions from the US.

Q: Three things that remind you of the US?
Annie: Fast food franchises, major retailers, TV shows
Christina: ditto

Q: Worst foods in Australia?
Annie: Vegemite
Christina: Chicken Parm (over-rated)

Q: Must do’s when visiting?
Annie: Uluru, Sydney
Christina: Cadbury Marvelous Creation Bar (you won’t regret it)

Q: Don’t do when visiting?
Annie: Great Barrier Reef, drink Goon (boxed, cheap wine), stay away from Red Center in summer (too hot and buggy)
Christina: Agree and don't drink goon.

Q: How much cash should you bring for a two week trip?
Annie: $3,000 on the eco-plan with planning.
Christina: $5,000 for a more upscale adventure.

There you have it… lovely girls… both of them!

Manly "Rocks"

It’s Christina Barber’s birthday today! We are lucky to be able to celebrate her birthday with her after they (Annie and her) are done exploring Syd. Happy 25th birthday Christina!!!

Manly beach. While the name might conjure up Venice beach-like visions of muscle heads throwing around barbells not much could be farther (or is it further?) from the truth. Lesley Robertson, as my resident grammarian, please tell me, “further” or “farther”? Manly beach is a quaint seaside area near Sydney filled with little shops and cafes and a world-class beach. This is off-season in Oz so the swarm of humans/tourists is low - still, there were a good number of people out enjoying the 70/21 degrees and sunshine.

Now, my son Brandon informs me that my blogs are too long for him to read so I am going to try a more visual blog with pictures including brief captions. Note to Brandon: College students that don’t like to read are probably destined to live life with a shovel in their hands. On to the pics of our day’s journey….

Our journey began with a ferry from Balmain East to Circular Quay (the main ferry hub for Sydney)

We passed under the harbour bridge where we got a good look at the Opera House from under the bridge. We also got a close-up look at the Aussie flags flying on top of the bridge and there were fit people doing the bridge climb (look like ants).

Entering Circular Quay we passed the very cool area known as “The Rocks”.

In Circular Quay we caught the Manly ferry (F1). This ferry boat is much, much larger than the little guys we normally putz around in -- three stories with a cafe, television, and like all the ferries wi-fi. The views from the boat were great. Here we have a reverse angle of the Opera House and Harbour bridge and a cool shot of a sailboat cruising by....

You arrive in Manly (after a 30 minute ferry ride) at Manly Wharf with a couple dozen shops and restaurants...all under cover...all pretty cool (if you're not from Sydney). You step off the wharf, cross the street, and enter the Manly Promenade. The Prom is about 5 or 6 block long, no cars (though wide enough for 4 lanes) and scores of shops, cafes, groceries, etc. It's awesome even though my photographs suck pretty badly.

The beach is wide and deep (no idea how wide but LARGE) with perfect sand, nice waves, surfers and amazing views. There are apartment buildings all along the waterfront road as well as stores, cafes, you name it. We're still considering this as a place to live.

Not far from Manly beach (15 minute stroll along the ocean) is Shelly Beach. Our friend Hilda suggested we walk down there and get a bit some nibbles and nosh at a local cafe. We did that although the cafe was closed for repairs we hung out on the beach for a bit and encountered this gigantic pelican. So huge! I'm a bit fixated on birds and this one certainly caught my attention. His eye had to be the size of a saucer and his bill held gallons and gallons easily.

We had a hankering for Japanese food and decided to have a nice meal in The Rocks area of Sydney. The Rocks is “high-tone” for our Japanese readers; swish for our Aussie friends; posh for our American viewers. We ate at a Japanese fusion place named “Sake” and enjoyed some truly exceptional Japanese food. Sashimi appetiser followed by wagyu beef carpaccio, pork belly skewers (kushiyake) and seared scallops in a ginger/miso cream sauce. Oh my - yum!

There you go blog stalkers. Back to Fishermen's Wharf today for lunch. Can't wait!

Fishermen's Wharf

After a visit to Fishermen’s Wharf it looks like Julie and I are about to become “pescetarians”.

I fell in love with this place — so many varieties of fish and other sea creatures that it made my head spin! I mean, really, who knew there were 10 kinds of octopus (seems like there should have been 8) and squid…. Oh My God! Stuff I never even heard of before…. I could cook a different item every day for 6 months and might still have things left over that I didn’t get to….

Let’s talk prices too. In the land where a grocery store steak costs upwards of $50 this place is a bargain. Imagine this, 1Kg of Ahi Tuna pieces for $10! That’s 2.2 lbs. for $10.00. Unreal. It really is the land of bargain proteins.

The Wharf isn’t simply fish purveyance either. There are restaurants that serve humungous portions of fresh seafood that make me hungry just thinking about it. Everywhere you turn there are people with decadent portions of food chomping away happily. It’s stunned me — I can’t wait to go back with Julie. Next time I’ll take my good camera and get some shots that really show this place properly. Note: Julie tells me that this is the largest fish market in the southern hemisphere… I believe it.

In other news, and for tomorrow’s blog, we have our first house guests. Annie and Christina are visiting us from California and Melbourne — two lovely, sparkling young women that we’ve enjoyed having….but that’s for tomorrow.

Today, for our Saturday exploration, we are heading to Manly. The whales are all about so we are hoping for a glimpse and definitely looking forward to returning to Manly for a good look around with residency in mind. Peace out blog stalkers!

randomgram

It’s the little things…

• Why does my kitchen dishwasher have a light that says “salt” that is seemingly always illuminated?
• Why is the board game Clue named “Cluedoh? in Australia
• Why is our water closet so small that you have to close the door to have room to sit? Seriously, the sink is so small I have to wash my hands one at a time!
• Why don’t they sell scallions in the grocery store? OR why do so many of my recipes call for scallions?

Pika and Pot

Of course (Linda) we named our two lorikeets. We went with Pika and Pot though in retrospect maybe Lori and Lawrence would be better names. Thus far we have not fed these little darlings, though, it seems obvious that someone that lived here previously did fed them. It could be too that they are simply accustomed to being fed by humans so they are incredibly trusting. Yesterday, I was sitting on the patio working on my laptop when Pika and Pot appeared. I pulled out my phone to shoot video of them literally 2 feet away from me and that drew them closer… apparently, they thought my iPhone might have been food? Not wanting a bird to poop on my keyboard, even a cute bird, I closed the lid to my laptop and sat back to watch them. Pot (the mentally slower of the two) decided that my laptop might be food so he hopped down on the table and licked it (yep, they have little black tongues). Soon Pika joined in and once they realised that a laptop is not food they hopped onto my arm and squeaked at me. It was really fun and funny. I love these little fellas.

Free-wheelin’ in the US

Even though we have moved to Australia, apparently our US Visa card has not. We were alerted by Chase Bank Fraud Protection today that there was suspicious activity on our card. Sure enough, someone in California has been using our account to eat at really unhealthy restaurants (Burger King, McDonalds, etc.) All toll, they have spent about $300… That’s the bad news. The good news is they will not live long and healthy lives eating like they do. More bad news, they will probably need angioplasty and no doubt will show up at the emergency room without insurance to spend the collective money of all of us. Now, I don’t want to rant on this for too long but let’s face it, there exists plenty of ways to track down where the CC number was stolen, and, to track down the people perpetrating the fraud. Heck, snap there picture and google facial recognition can probably ID them. If only there was a will amongst law enforcement to track these people down and bring them to justice. Long story short, credit card cancelled. Next step is to identify all of our direct pay accounts and provide them with the new card number. We’ve already changed our user passwords for all of our internet accounts… even my little blog here.

And more free wheeling’ in the US

When we moved we had to get new cell phones. The US standard with Verizon is CDMA and that is not compatible pretty much anywhere else in the world. I left my iPhone5 with Jenna with a box to mail it to Connor after we left so he'd have a new data phone in Bend. Of course, it never arrived. No doubt it’s still in California with whoever stole it from the postal system. Years ago, our Disney souvenirs got stolen in California from our checked luggage. Let’s be honest people… California continues to be one of the most overrated places on planet earth. This is just another reason to dislike it. I have many other reasons too but again, let’s keep this blog positive. :-)

Date night Wednesday

Tonight is our date night in Oz… that means I won’t be cooking and we’ll go out to eat. I’ve been eager to try and Indian restaurant right here in Balmain East. There is nothing better than really good Indian food. Fingers crossed!

Visitors coming

Traci, Julie’s cousin, first introduced us to Brian and Shireen Wright at her wedding, We’ve seen them now and again since then and have stayed connected via Facebook too. They’re really good people and have been good friends to us and the kids. Shireen’s sister is backpacking around Australia (she is attending University in Melbourne) with one of her pals and it’s been arranged that they will spend three nights beginning this Friday at our humble little place. I hope they are prepared for our spartan circumstances. Our US freight shipment still hasn’t arrived so we are essentially living out of a giant suitcase we call our apartment. They have to bring their own towels. :-) Still, it’s better and safer than a youth hostel and it’ll be good to make a few new friends in Oz.

Team USA in the World Cup

It’s been exciting for sure. I didn’t like it one bit to watch the US fall to Belgium. I give props to the whole team for the whole cup except for Bradley (#4) - the guy was simply lazy and out of the game too much. They could have used his good passing skills and decision making — pity he never showed up!

Grocery Shopping challenges

It really is the stuff you don’t anticipate… having to convert your ingredient measures to metric equivalents… searching online for green peppers to realise they are called green capsicums… searching for stuff online like a clothes line and FAILING until you understand it is clothes airer…. I didn’t even know that was a word. Eventually I’ll learn the new names and be fine, eventually I learn that metric system more fully…in the meantime… pain in the arse.

I guess that’s enough for now. Catch you later blog stalkers…

on the river...

Prior to our move to Oz Julie was faced with the unenviable task of finding us a place to live knowing that she was married to a very particular man (yep, that's, me). She was already faced with the pressures of a new, stressful job, all the while dealing with jet lag. She looked at several places and finally found our place in Balmain East. She did a great job. We signed a lease that runs through the end of January -- our thinking was/is that we can look around and find a different place together with the luxury of some local collaborative time. Yesterday we continued our exploration with a visit to Parramatta.

Now...I never really thought that Parramatta was an option. It's 1:08 on the ferry or 30 minutes on the train and that doesn't include local commuting time in town and then in CBD. It would have to be spectacular to justify a 1 1/2 hour commute. It was alright for sure, but certainly not spectacular. However, it was worth checking because where else can you get a 1 hour boat ride for $7.00? So now, the journey.

The Parramatta river flows into Sydney Harbour pretty near where we live. Closer to Sydney it feels more like a lake than a river. There are a lot of beautiful homes, a bit more modern than the areas on the harbour we've visited, and tons and tons of sail boats. It's lovely to be sure. About half way to Parramatta the scenery goes from homes to mangroves or even light industrial. The last 20 minutes is slow, no wake, narrow and pretty uninspiring. Along the way and before the narrow boring part, is the Olympic Village. It's an area we will still visit with living in mind. It's probably only 35 - 40 minutes by ferry to CBD and is reportedly wonderful. It's cool to see the impact of the Olympics on this city -- it really elevated it to another level with amazing parks and transportation infrastructure.

The town itself has a really nice wharf area with a park that seemingly runs forever around a canal that becomes the river... at least that's how it appears. Once you get away from the park the town could be anywhere in the world. There is a nice area with tons of restaurants on a street aptly named "Eat Street". We had wonderful Italian food, the gnocchi was especially delicious. We wandered about after lunch and headed to the train station to see what that method of commuting would resemble. It was a nice, smooth, comfortable train ride through some of the most boring scenery imaginable. (Central Washington comes to mind - definitely nothing near as boring as SF to LA)

We got back to CBD Central Station after a half and hour ride happy for the trip, and happy to cross it off the list of possible neighbourhoods. A quick word about Central Station, not the station itself, but a feature. Where we wait to transfer to the light rail from the train itself is a balcony overlooking a park. On the sidewalk near the park there is an incredible woman who sings opera out into the park. She's obviously been classically trained -- certainly was once a performer somewhere. It's amazing to stand amidst the grit and grime of a train station overlooking a park flooded with pigeons while beautiful music swirls all around you -- truly special.

We left Central Station still full from lunch and headed to the Star Casino. The Star is not just a casino, it's a meeting place with a lot of stuff going on in the building -- shops, restaurants, sports bars, a playhouse, etc. We spent many hours at the Star and gambled a bit... we didn't lose or win... just spun in place. The later it got, the louder the place became, as people packed in to visit the dance clubs. For everyone whose ever seen a store that sells party dresses and wonders (like me), "who would wear a dress like that and where could they possibly wear it?" The answer is the Star casino. With a legal drinking age of 18 the Star floods with people between 18 and 21. At the risk of sounding like a creepy old man... um... these young girls in their micro mini party gear are... um... I don't know what to say. I'll simply say, Connor and Brandon, there are better ways to spend your time than playing XBOX 360. :-) The trade-off is there are way too many boisterous teenage boys running about whooping it up... they irritated me.

I'll close with a photo of the prettiest girl I photographed all day. She's hot! Along the way to Parramatta there's a ferry stop called Kissing Point...we found it to be inspirational! ;-) Peace out blog stalkers.