Adios Australia

So, I quite clearly dropped off the map with this blog. After reading lots of Ariel's blog about her time in Africa I can say I did a pretty poor job of blogging about my adventures. But, the truth of the matter is that I would rather be out experiencing life than spending the time to write it up here. And when I am home, I wanted to unwind. In short, as much as I wanted to keep up with my friends and let them know what was happening, maintaining this blog was a bit more of a chore than I had hoped it would be. Sometimes I love writing, but apparently not consistently enough to have an up to date blog of my adventures.

So what's happened since my last October post? Well, tons of stuff that I doubt I could remember half of it, but lots of good stuff. October was the month of the Sydney International Food Festival and Ginny and I went to a lot of festival dinners. Yes, it was expensive, but I loved the experience and it was totally worth it. We went back to Aria and had a 7 course meal where each dish and wine pairing was themed to state or territory in Australia. We also made it to Sushi e and Emmilou Tapas Bar. Not all in October but I did make it to all the 3 hat restaurants (Marque, Est, Quay). It's about $250 for dinner and drinks at one of those places. A good meal, but not something I need to do all the time. Marque was I think the most creative of the three, but they were all great.

November was a time of travel, first going to South Australia (Adelaide, Barossa Valley, and Kangaroo Island) with Ginny and her family. I really liked that trip. Kangaroo Island was much more awesome than I expected, with really cool geography to explore. We got to tour the Haigh's chocolate factory in Adelaide and well, I love chocolate, so that was fun. Their milk chocolate covered almonds are just amazing (I know, me preferring milk chocolate, its weird). I may have to see if friends from Australia can bring some to me. And I got several recommendations for places to go in Barossa Valley which panned out quite well. I got to Seppelts Field and tried the 100 year old port with Ginny's family. That's a crazy intense beverage.

Later in November Ginny and I went north (thankfully before the floods and cyclones) to explore Darwin and Litchfield National Park in the Northern Territories before heading over to Port Douglass and the Daintree National Monument in Queensland. After a few laid back days there, with unfortunately little exploring since Ginny was a bit sick, we went on my first dive liveaboard doing a 3 day trip aboard the Spirit of Freedom. We did the Cod Hole dive trip and in 3 days I did 11 dives. That was fun, and if I could do it again I'd probably stay on for the whole week. But it was also brutal. My body is not meant to be in water that often. I'd skip a few dives on a longer trip (I did every one).

After a brief stint in the US over the holidays I was back in Sydney and started the process of transferring back to the US. I originally made the decision to move back for my relationship and to have the option of going to a start up. Both of those fell through long before I moved, but somehow I still came back to the US. Really, I want to settle down and not be somewhere temporarily, which is how I'd seen Australia so far. If I stayed in Australia it was going to be for the long haul, until I really had a reason to move. It's a long way to be from my family and my old friends. Though now I'm a long way from my Sydney friends and I miss them lots. It's so boring not to be in a house of 5 people.

Over my last few months in Sydney I mostly just hung out with my friends, got to more good restaurants, and enjoyed life. Sadly I didn't make it to Japan (pre-earth quake) with 3 of my house mates because I was low on vacation time and work was crazy. But while they were gone I become better friends with Ann and Beth and I'm really happy about that. With the help of a few co-workers I got all my stuff back to the US with the exception of one box that should get here next month. Right before I left I did finally make it to the Blue Mountains, and went caving in the Jenolan caves with Brendan, Yasmin, and Nathan before meeting up with Christie and Ann for the rest of the day. That was awesome, and if I had the time I would have loved to go back for their more advanced Mammoth Cave. Maybe on a visit though they only do it once a month so it'd take some planning. I wonder if there is any good caving to do around California.

On March 21st I moved back to the US. Most of my stuff is still in storage, but I have all my things from Sydney (except furniture I left there). I'm subletting a room in my old house for a few months and trying to figure out what I want to do next. Well, I know what I'm doing work wise. But I don't know what I'm doing outside of work. Do I live alone in some small studio or one bed room, or go back into a share house? I value my privacy on one hand, but I really like having other people at home too. I interviewed for the master bedroom in a 3 bedroom apartment earlier this week and decided not to take that. Now I have an opportunity to talk to some people in another large 5 person house like I had in Sydney. Supposedly a large room in a house with two livings rooms, one and a half kitchens, and two and a half bathrooms occupied currently by a sous chef, life chef, nurse, and mechanical engineer. It actually sounds kind of fun. But I want someplace a little cleaner than my last house, where I'm not afraid to have nice things. I'll have to meet them and see what I think. On the flip side, I'm going to look at some studio apartments next week. And really, I have a few months to figure things out and a stable place to stay right now so there is no reason to stress out about it yet.

I hope to stay in touch with my friends from Sydney. I joined Xbox Live and have been playing Borderlands with Ann. So we'll definitely stay in touch through our mutual obsession with that game. Hopefully email, chatting, etc. will be enough to stay in touch with everyone else. I might play some Halo with the people at Sunday night dinner but I think the connection might be a little too laggy for Halo. It was, however, cheaper for me to get a round trip ticket than a one way ticket to go to San Francisco. So I have a flight back to Sydney in October. Maybe I'll visit then and buy another round trip ticket getting into a never ending cycle of visiting my friends in Sydney. There could be worse things.

I expect this to be my last post. No longer am I a Tasty, Tasty American in Australia. Now I'm just one amongst the throngs of techies in Silicon Valley. I may have amusing or insightful things to say, but they belong in another blog. I hope my friends enjoyed the posts I did make here. I may take this blog down in a little while after giving people a chance to read this final post. It was more a means of immediate communication with friends than something I feel the need to have publicly available on the internets forever.

That's it for now. Wherever you are my friends, know that you're always welcome to visit me. What I enjoy most in life is having fun with the people I care about, more than any single activity or hobby. I'll certainly be trying to visit you.

Wonder Fridge

A long time ago I posted about our Christmas in July and Kay's good use of our fridge. We took a picture that night, which much later I got a copy of, and then I started a draft of this post containing just the image. Now, months later, I can continue that post.

I like our fridge. It's evolved over the year, and is used for passing messages, cute artwork, doing homework, and just about anything else that might requiring writing stuff down. On the freezer below (not pictured) are some scribbles from when my nephews were visiting in March and felt like contributing. You'll see the top left is typically our grocery list. The top right used to track when we fed the cat, but isn't used anymore, though an improved drawing is in it's place. We have some baking and baked goods meters, though admittedly I think they are often out of date. Love the idea though. Ann typically draws dragons, which I love. She's got quite a bit of artistic talent. The dragon on the bottom right is still there, months later. Though in the past week Ginny colored him in.

Currently in the middle is the crazy map of how we needed to use the over to make our Christmas in July dinner. Mad props once again to Kay for such a super job on that. We've got a listing first of what everything is that needs to be baked, and for how long at what temperature. Then below that she worked out a timeline, which we updated throughout the day, of when everything could go in, including overlapping things with similar temperatures in the oven. It was a job well done! You can see everything I've been describing in this picture:

My last fridge couldn't be written on, and wasn't even magnetic. So sad. This is quite the improvement. I have a collection of fridge magnets back home, though not many are here. A lot are famous quotes though not all. I have a few favorites. One says "Don't make me come down there -- God", another has a fat chef who says "I like to cook with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food". I can agree with that one!

Extra slim, the new large

A few weeks ago I went shopping at DFO (Direct Factory Outlets) with Brendan, Christie, Beth, and Yas. I'm not sure why as I don't really need anything. Okay, that's a lie, I could use a jacket, and some decent slacks, and some new t-shirts. But for some reason I didn't feel like really getting much that day, but I still went shopping on what turned into a fairly massive outlet shopping trip. It was a success though as we got Brendan a hot suit and all the girls found some awesome stuff.

Brendan and I in our wanderings went by this store Rivers, which had some nice things, but nothing in our (very small) size. Everything was huge, and they mostly had only large sizes available. If they had a small, I'm guessing it would be too big for me. On one nice looking jacket they had this oxymoronic label. I'm not sure if oxymoronic is a word, but you know what I mean. Really, the picture should explain it all.

Can someone please explain to me how you can have a "Really Really X Slim Fit" jacket that is also XXL. I mean, I guess at any size something could have a slimming cut vs one that's not. But it just seems a little weird to call anything that is extra, extra large also really really extra slim fit. I just visualize this marketing guy saying "It's so slim it almost like you're wearing a medium." Well it provided some amusement for my day so it wasn't all bad, and I'm sure it would look good on someone.

In another store, Tarocash I believe, we saw this amazing wool jacket. I really liked it. However that jacket was an extra small that was really extra small, and fitted. I could zip it up, but it felt pretty tight on me when I did it, which is quite the accomplishment. Sadly, it was the only size they had so, no jacket for me. I'm picky about having things that fit. On a different clothes related note though, I've found this shop Marcs that has excellent dress shirts and their x-small fits me amazingly well. They aren't cheap but the fabric feels great and some of the shirts look very nice as well. I bought two before my last trip to the US to wearat various wedding related events and anything else dressy and I've worn them several times since. If I find any more shirts I like at Marcs I'll definitely be buying them.

Christmas in July

You might be thinking "Christmas in July?!?", and if you are, you probably aren't Australian. See, Christmas out here is just an entirely different affair. It's the middle of summer, people go out to the beach, barbecues are common, snow is no where to be found. Quite the contrast to the white Christmas stereotypes I grew up with. Not to mention most of these people aren't really sure what Egg Nog is.

So, in an attempt to closer identify with the stereotypical Christmas as put forth by our North American and European cultures there has arisen a movement to have Christmas in July, Sydney's typically coldest month. It still doesn't snow, but it's winter, and it is closer.

Okay, really it's just an excuse to party. And in that theme we had a special Christmas in July themed Sunday Dinner. There are lots of pictures, but to protect the privacy of my friends I shall not post them here. If you're friends with me, you can send me a message and I'll share them with you. Jono, in a surprise move, brought costumes for everyone, which made the party far more fun.

Ginny had to work during part of the cooking, but even without her assistance early on we managed to create a great dinner. Menu included:

• Spinach dip served in a bread bowl.
• 2 loaves of home made bread.
• 2 Roast Chickens: 1 stuffed with apples and onions, the other stuffed with lemons, and associated gravy.
• 1 Roast Leg of Lamb, along with some veggies it was cooked with, and associated gravy
• Mashed Yams (and lots and lots of butter)
• Roast potatoes
• Sauteed green beans with almond slivers
• Apple pie
• A ridiculously rich chocolate cake made from Brendan's favorite cupcake recipe.
• Mulled wine

We also consumed a few bottles of wine from Sandalford while cooking, from a case I purchased while I was on vacation in Western Australia. All in all it was a great dinner. And I finally got to use the roasting cookbook I'd bought around actual Christmas.

As you might guess from the number of times "roast" appears in the menu, not to mention two desserts and bread our single oven was a contentious, limited resource for this dinner. We actually cheated and made the lamb in a slow cooker.  Coming to the rescue in our time of need was Kay. Part way through the day I asked her to figure out the amount of time everything needed to be in the oven. She far surpassed this simple request and the next thing I knew our fridge had a detailed list of everything that was supposed to go in the oven, at what temperature in Celsius (some conversion was required), and for how long. In addition we had a complete timeline, starting with the apple pie that was already in the oven, on when everything should go in based on time we needed it for eating, and what things could overlap in the oven at various temperatures. This timeline was then updated throughout the day as we fell a little behind. I'm still in awe of her work there. It definitely helped organize us and get dinner out at a reasonable time (a little after 8). Kay was certainly not alone though, as Ginny, Christie, Yasmine, Ann Jono, and others I'm probably forgetting to mention all helped with the cooking which started in earnest at about 2:30pm. 

And of course, you can't have Christmas without having Brendan's birthday. So we managed to convince him to come back early from cross country skiing and wished him a hearty happy birthday in July, and hence the cake from one of his favorite recipes. Now we should all just get him a present.

I don't think my Australian friends read this blog, as I've never pointed them to it, but thanks should go out to all of them for a wonderful Sunday dinner, this time and in general. It's a great tradition and I've had a blast. Looking forward to more.

Thanks should also go out to my mom for the awesome bread book. She actually does read this blog. We've been making bread from scratch for the past month or so using a cookbook she brought from the US. I believe it's called "Artisan bread in 5 Minutes a Day". It's delicious, and definitely cheaper than buy the 6+ loaves a week we're making right now in large double batches of bread. So far we're sticking to pretty basic recipes, but if I can ever find rye flour in Sydney we'll start doing some more variations. I can definitely recommend the book. It takes more than 5 minutes to make the bread, but most of the time is waiting. It's probably not more than 5-10 minutes of active work a day, which is quite impressive and the recipe seems pretty easy. Kay has starting making the bread at her house, and a few people have been asking for the recipe.

If I can get a good picture of our fridge timeline, I will post it.

Customer Service

In June I'll be taking my first vacation inside of Australia to Exmouth and Monkey Mia with Whitney and Ted, which is about as far North-West as you can go and still be in Australia. In Exmouth we will do a few days of diving, and snorkeling with Whale Sharks. In Monkey Mia (about 8 hours drive south) we'll hopefully get to play with dolphins and maybe ride a camel. Overall, should be a nice vacation. Though a little pricey. Getting to the far reaches of Australia turns out to not be cheap.

In an effort to save some money I wanted to share a hotel room with Whitney and Ted, who were graciously willing to do that even though they are a couple on vacation (thank you!). Thing is, they already booked their entire trip including hotel room, rental car, diving adventures, etc. It was a nice little adventure of an evening trying to expand a million reservations to include me, and provides some nice perspective on customer service.

We had made reservations in two different Best Western Inns in Western Australia. One in Exmouth and one half way to Monkey Mia in a place that I think is called Carnarvon. Both reservations were made online, the first through Expedia and the second through Orbitz. I called both places trying to find out if we could upgrade to a bigger room. The Best Western in Exmouth was exceedingly friendly and helpful. Once confirming with Whitney (whose name the reservation was under) the immediately changed the reservation, and didn't charge any fees, etc. It was exceedingly easy, and gave me a great impression of the hotel and it's employees. The second Best Western we called in Carnarvon was much less helpful. They claimed that they knew nothing about reservations made through others online and we'd have to chancel or change our reservation through those sites if possible at all. This actually turned out to be fairly easy, as Orbitz allowed us to cancel and re-make the reservation at no cost. So, still not bad, but having just talked to the exceedingly friendly and helpful people at the other Best Western, I still had a worse impression of this one. I realize it is most likely a franchise, but I was surprised at the difference there. That said, we were able to change most everything with number of phone calls and emails, so I'd say it was an overall success. I did half of this while in the US, calling Australia with Google Voice, which was pretty cheap at two cents a minute, which was also pretty cool.

Now all that's left is to figure out our very last night of hotel, and actually take this awesome vacation. I want to go all around Australia and this is just the beginning. Hopefully Cairns sometime in July or September, and some weekend trips to places like Uluru or some of the major cities. Exploring here I come!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

In two days I will be embarking on another trip to the United States. While there I will visit California, New Jersey, Oregon, and New Mexico. I will travel on 10 planes, having bought tickets in 7 different transactions. This is not an unusual for a trip to the US for me these days. On my last trip I California, Oregon, Colorado, and New Mexico. Basically work, Ginny, and family. Still, I think you can quite easily measure the amount of time I've spent on planes in the last year in days, if not weeks. I'm beginning to appreciate good flights, fast security lines and the like. This trip will be the first time I ever fly premium economy, which on Quantas is supposed to be pretty awesome. We'll see if I get spoiled.

I'm already looking to buy heaps more tickets. I'm looking into a set of flights in June to go to Exmouth with Whitney and Ted, which will involve 4 flights (round trip Sydney -> Perth, round trip Perth -> Exmouth). Those are really expensive. And then once Ginny is here I want to go all over the place. Cairns, maybe Darwin and Uluru, New Zealand, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, and if I can places outside Australia like Venuatu, Fiji, Japan, etc. I realize New Zealand isn't in Australia though my last sentence makes it seem like it is. I associate it with Australia in terms of my visiting priorities. I'd love to get there in winter for skiing and then again in the summer for more exploring.

Basically, I'm just saying I'm flying a ridiculous amount. I don't know how consultants and the like do it. I'm really starting to value my own bed, and not having to constantly be getting my toiletries and clothes out of small bags. I really wanted to make my next trip as short as possible, yet it still ended up being 3 weeks, and if anything is more stressful because of how quickly I'm going between places. There are a lot of times where I'm not sure how I'm getting to or from the airport, but hopefully I can work it out.

Sadly I've also learned that the sharing of airlines miles is pretty bad. When I fly Quantas but use my American Airlines frequent flyer number, I only get like 1/3rd of the miles flown. That's a pretty crappy alliance if you ask me. Had I known better and consistently flown Quantas from day one, getting one of their frequent flyer cards, I'd be well on my way to some form of elite status and a free round trip to the US.

I've been learning the ins and outs of jet lag and handling it. Coming to Sydney from the US isn't too bad now. This past trip I adjusted fairly quickly. I was waking up at 7am every morning for a few weeks, even if I went to bed late, but most nights that was still a normal amount of sleep. Going from Sydney to the US is a little harder. This upcoming trip is a bit longer because I decide that taking two red eye flights in a row would kill me. Otherwise I could have done a Friday red-eye from Sydney to San Francisco, followed by a Friday red eye from San Francisco to the east coast, with a long layover and some connections on that end, followed by a busy weekend. But since I decided that might kill me I'm going to have a few days in San Francisco first to start to adjust to the US. And it will be nice to see my friends there.

Well, tomorrow night I have karate, so I should use the rest of tonight to actually start packing and getting ready for my trip.

Surcas

Depending on who you talk to you'll hear that Surcas is the Sydney University Recreational Clowing Around Society or the Sydney University Circus Arts Society. Anyway, it's their circus society. And they teamed up with Circusoc, the UNSW circus society to put on R & J, a circus version of Romeo and Juliet, which I went to see last Friday.

I really enjoyed the show. As with ballet or opera, the story was condensed and told mostly through action. There was almost no speaking during the show, except for a recorded voice reading some of the original Romeo and Juliet during transitions. But, as a familiar story (at least to me), it worked well. I could clearly identify the main characters. And interestingly enough Romeo and Juliet were a lesbian couple, adding a new dynamic to the show.

I've always admired displays of skill and coordination, so it was pretty easy to please me during the show. That said, the performers made obvious mistakes a few times. I was impressed however with how smoothly they incorporated the mistakes into the show and kept on going. It never really halted the show. Early on in the show Juliet, played by this woman Jess whom I've met briefly before, did a hula-hoop routine incorporating ballet and doing a fair bit of it en point. That was mind blowing. Later on she had a ciroc dance routine with a fair number of aerial maneuvers that was also fun to watch. There was a lot of partnered juggling. None of the jugglers had crazy solo's with large numbers of balls, but they did a good job coordinating between multiple jugglers and then wrapped up with two pairs of jugglers on different levels passing a fair distance across the stage it looked pretty hot; lots of clubs flying around.

All in all, a fun show, and I enjoyed it more than I expected. With a bit more practice it could become a really stunning show. Sadly with only 3 performances that won't happen this time. But there's always next time. Quite a few of my house mates have been active in the circus society at one point or another so maybe I'll even learn how to do some of this stuff. I'd love to learn some of the stick work, or maybe poi. Just need to not light myself on fire.

It's completely unrelated to this show. But later I came back and looked up some hula-hoop videos on the net, so I'll leave you with a link to this impressive video: http://www.spike.com/video/sexy-hula-hoop-girl/3314628?cmpnid=790&pt=sr&refsite=7118