Holidays, markets, picnics, and possums...

It's been awhile since our last post, so we thought we'd do a quick one to let everybody know what we've been up to. We've recently booked two holidays (vacations)- one for next week and one for the middle of April with Cara and Nick :) Next Thursday (my birthday!) we're flying to Sydney, hopping in a car, and then driving the coast to Brisbane where we fly out the following Wednesday- we don't have much more than that as we're kind of flying by the seat of our pants (that's our style). In April we're flying to Cairns with Cara and Nick to scuba the Great Barrier Reef!!!

Wednesday night we went to the last night market at the Queen Vic Market and Thursday night we went to the last night market in St. Kilda. I've got to say, Queen Vic's was much better!

Last night we had a picnic in the park with Tim and Carol. They brought bread, meat, cheese, and a large blanket. We brought salads, wine, and our picnic kit. It was a great night of eating, drinking, and visiting. The park that we were at has a lot of possums that came out at dusk, so of course we threw food to try to attract them. We had a couple hanging around us, so we decided to feed them out of our hands. Great idea until one bit me- fortunately they don't have rabies!

Anyway- that's all for now! Loving life, enjoying the weather, and having a great time taking advantage of this opportunity- cheers!

Oh yeah- I almost forgot- Bears fans. So I was walking home from work yesterday and I noticed the guy in front of me had a tattoo on his ankle of the Chicago Bear's bear head. I got right behind him and said, "Wow! A Bears fan huh?" He and his wife turned around and I explained that I saw the tattoo and was married to what I thought was the only Bears fan in Australia. Turns out he got into football in the early 80s (explains why he's a Bears fan) and has been a fan ever since. We walked and talked for a few blocks and then he gave me his business card and said he'd love to sit and chat with another fan. Even better- he's the general manager of a winery- what a great fit for Mark and I!

A few things she left out

First off, driving in Melbourne requires an engineering degree. The parking signs read like the plans for the space shuttle. They have this thing called a hook turn. this may be the most ridiculous thing ever created. If you want to turn right, you get in the left hand lane (mind you, you are driving on the left hand side of the road) pull all the way out in the intersection, then pull a bit more let to let the cars behind you go then slam on the gas to cross four lanes of downtown big city traffic. It was a tad intimidating. After getting out of the city, it was like driving in Eastern Montana. another crazy thing about Australians is they really have no suburban sprawl. It goes from city to nothing. We were on the main highway from Melbourne to Adelaide (2 major cities in the country) and in several points it went to a one lane road. When I say one lane I don't mean one each way. Literally just one lane. When you see another car coming you drive off the shoulder of the road onto the dirt, but don't slow down. Anyway, it was real cool to just be cruising through the country.

As for the sights Nikki hit the nail on the head. These cliffs were nothing short of spectacular! Just sheer cliffs and rocks that stick out of the ocean that were 50 feet tall. As for the Koalas I would like to again point out that Nikki was wrong (I'm not petty). I was telling her we'dsee one and she kept busting my chops about watching the road. Not only did we see one but we saw a bunch, and they were some cute little buggers.

On Sunday, we did want to do a bit of surfing (I have to before I leave Australia). I checked out the water first without the surf board, and there didn't seem to be sufficient waves. I'm gonna need some gnarly waves so I can totally hang ten dude. Swimming was still fun, I was a little worried about the killer jellyfish/sharks/snakes and such that are so common in Australia, so I wouldn't pee in the water, but outside of that all good.

On a side note, in my ever increasing world travel in search of odd urinating facilities I came across a very strange toilet/urinal? type thing. It was basically a hole in the floor in a stall. If someone has seen one of these and can work out the logistics please enlighten me. The only thing I could come up with was this a way to #2 while standing up.

The Great Ocean Road...

Now I can see why it's on the list of the 1000 places to see before you die. It seems like every time we came around a corner we were in awe.

We left after work on Friday (or at least after I was done with work) and drove the Princess Highway (I think) to Warrnambool. We found a nice holiday park (basically an RV park with cabins, powered sites, and camp sites) right by the ocean and set up the tent before venturing into town for dinner. We had a great dinner at a local cafe, took a walk along the beach looking at all of the stars, and then went to bed. The next morning we left Warrnambool heading back towards Melbourne, but this time along the Great Ocean Road. We stopped at all of the lookouts along the way seeing the Grotto, the London Bridge, and the Twelve Apostles (definitely the most well-known of all of the structures). The views were great and we couldn't have asked for better weather. We made our way to Apollo Bay where we did a little shopping, ate dinner (heart shaped pizza), and found another holiday park to set up camp for the night.

Oh yeah- we also took a little detour to a lighthouse before getting to Apollo Bay (okay- so it was a long detour). There were signs along the way to watch for roos, koalas, and echidnas so Mark told me to keep an eye on the trees since we hadn't seen koalas in the wild yet. I told him that we weren't going to find any koalas; we didn't even know how high to look. Moments later, I ate my words. A few cars had pulled over and people were out taking pictures of something in a tree. Of course we had to pull over, and what do you know, it was a wild koala! We sat and watched it for a good 10 minutes and took probably 100 pictures of it climbing and eating. It was awesome! By the time we got to the lighthouse, we'd probably seen 5 more koalas, although none as active as the first.

Today we planned on doing a little swimming and surfing (or at least something that possibly resembled surfing using a surf board) on our way back to Melbourne. The first beach we stopped at is known for surfing, but they were having a life savers competition, which was cool, but meant the beach was packed. We continued down the road a ways and came to a nice beach in Anglesea. Unfortunately it was a little cool out and the wind was blowing, but we thought we'd give it a try. We ate lunch on the beach (a very sandy lunch due to the wind) and then Mark went swimming. I decided it was too cold so I laid out and soaked up the sun (and sand- did I mention it was windy). After an hour or so, we decided we'd had enough and continued back to Melbourne. The roads were much windier today and again the views were spectacular. What an awesome weekend!

Happy Valentines Day...

Okay- I know it's a little early, but we're heading to the Great Ocean Road (see the picture in one of Mark's last posts) for the weekend and probably won't have internet access. So- I just wanted to wish everybody a Happy Valentines Day and ask you to think of us if you happen to be eating a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphys (this will be the first time in 6 years that we won't be celebrating Valentines Day with pizza).

UPDATE: Although it wasn't Papa Murphys, it was heart shaped, so the tradition continues!

Wildfires, Heat, the St. Kilda Festival, and a few things that piss me off

First of all, I've gotten a few emails asking if we are near the fires. The answer is yes. And it is real crazy. Last count says 181 dead and over 750 houses burnt down. Nichole went to a conference in Marysville, just outside of Melbourne just before we left for Christmas and now that town is gone. It is just crazy to think about. Our friends Tim and Carol are directly effected. Tim's childhood home is gone, and Carol's is right in the path. It is huge on the mind of Mebournians and all the Australians for that matter. It kind of reminds me of when I was a kid and Yellowstone was burning up. Only this is much worse. they are saying this is the worst disaster in the history of Australia. That is saying something.

I can certainly see why the wildfire spread so fast. Last Saturday was the hottest day in the recorded history of Melbourne. It was insane! 118 degrees! The strangest part was the wind 30 mph. It was like standing in front of a hair dryer. It burnt your skin. Normally on a hot day you like a little breeze. Not this one. You had to shield yourself from the wind.

The day after that scorching heat we went down to the St. Kilda Festival(temps in the 70's). What a cool experience. They shut down this whole neighborhood and had a huge music festival. Every time you turned a corner there was another concert going on. Mind you, some of them really sucked. There was one act that was the quintessential bogan (Aussie for white trash/hillbilly). The music was even worse than his look. We stayed throughout. I just couldn't believe this dude was for real. More importantly the food was fantastic! They had 100 different food stand set up with good fair type food. I've decided this is closest bond with the Aussies. Our food. Only in these two countries will anyone eat so many deep fat fried gut bombs...or stuff that has sat under a heat lamp for 12 hours. It is a beautiful thing!

Finally, being back into the swing of things has reminded me the few things that piss meoff about this place. First off, the money. Nichole swears by it. Thinks it is fabulous. I say it sucks. First off, they have no cool names (nickel, dime, quarter). Nah, it's 5, 10, 20, 50,$1, and $2. They don't even have a penny. That doesn't stop the stores from pricing everything at $4.99. You just round off. So,although it says $4.99 you have to pay $5. Isn't that silly. And the bills look like funny money. They are plastic and multi-colored. They are all different sizes which sucks when carrying a money clip. the only good thing I can say is,when you have a pocketful of change, you have about $20 (due to the $1's $2 coins). Finally,I hadn't thought about this but someone pointed it out to me the other day. Since there are no $1 bills,you just sit there at the exotic dance clubs. Not that it matters to me... I can't see why I would go into one anyway (in 7 years in Washington I never went to one). It is just the principle of the thing.

Another thing that pisses me off is public transportation. Sure it is nice, when you are on it because you can read, or listen to Ipod. The problem is waiting for them. They don't really run on time. They are kind of like the cable guy. You just wait and wait, and you're never quite sure if you just missed the last one or there is one right around the corner. Plus, I don't feel near as cool as when I'm crusing around in "the bad ride" (my '94 Dodge Ram).

I guess that's it. I suppose if those are my worst two complaints,it can't be too bad of a place. For anyone that is still reading this long-winded post, thanks. this is what one does, when he works 6 hours a week. Hopefully, next week the subwork picks up.

One last thing, I fixed the whole comment section so you don't have to got hrough all the crap of registering so feel free to throw out some thoughts.

cheers!

Check it out

I did a little overhaul on the old blog today. If you notice toward the bottom of this page you will find the current time in Melbourne. Feel free to call the same number we have had for the last 7 years. There goes that excuse. On the right you can find a handy dandy subscribe tool, so you can use your rss reader to just automatically download whenever a new post comes up. (Mom, this is way beyond your computer skills... stick to solitaire and just clicking the bookmark dad set up for you). I also threw in a Weather thing. But it seems to always come up with New York as the default, but if you are interested you can adjust it. However, if you are lazy, just figure if it is cold there it is hot here, and if it is hot there it's cold here. This is what a man who works 6 hours a week does all day.

Other side of the world

Leaving the States this time was a bit more sad. We spent so much time with friends and family it made me realize how much I missed them. I got to do a lot of building and house repair stuff that I really enjoy. So I was almost thinking what's the big deal heading back to Australia. In reality, the two main differences in the city is that they drive on the wrong side of the road and talk funny. And as for my job, these little demons are sent straight from hell. But then I got back here... life really does go different for us here. I mean really, little Ms. Perfect Nikki is blogging about drinking too much and walking around in her underwear! We've been back here for 5 days and we went to a barbeque, went to an Italian dinner with Tim and Carol, and partied it up at the night market. As for this weekend, we have the St. Kilda festival, a birthday party, and dinner scheduled. Next weekend, we are planning a trip down the Great Ocean Road. We are always going. Maybe it is life in the city, or maybe it is the fact that I worked 6 hours this week. Whatever it is, we are really are having a great time!

Better to be pissed than pissed off...

A little Aussie humor for you- actually I made it up myself after a rough day at work and a few glasses of wine. Feel free to use it the next time you need an excuse to drink after a rough day :)

We're back...

We left Seattle Thursday- still no renters in the house, but at least it's ready to go and we have a great neighbor looking after everything. We spent 5 hours in LAX- such a boring airport- and then boarded our flight for Melbourne. Surprise! We had a stopover in Auckland- we've now been to the Auckland 4 times and have yet to spend any time there. Surprise again! Qantas weighs carry on luggage and anything over 15 pounds has to be checked in. Even if you've never traveled with Mark, just knowing him you can probably figure out that he travels with a small electronic store in his backpack. His carry on weighed in at a whopping 25 pounds and was obviously not packed well enough to be checked in. Fortunately each passenger is allowed 2 carry on bags and they had extra bags for those with 1 heavy carry on to split it into 2 lighter ones. The flight was long- but we knew that- and bumpy. Every time I fell asleep, the turbulence woke me up. To top it off, the in flight entertainment wasn't working and the food really sucked. When we landed in Auckland they told us that we had to get off of the plane but that we could leave our carry on luggage on the plane. We got off of the plane and then realized that we had no idea when or where we were supposed to get back on it- they're pretty relaxed when it comes to traveling around here. Fortunately we're smart enough to figure it out and we made it back on the plane and back to Melbourne. Stuey met us at the airport and took us back to our apartment in the sweltering heat. Lucky for us we had missed the 3 days of record breaking heat- except that all of the stores sold out of fans during those days (thank god Tim and Carol had an extra). Needless to say we've spent a lot of time in the last few days walking around the apartment in our underwear :) I suppose I'll sign off now and leave you with that lovely image- cheers!