Dana of Oz

Safety first...comfort second

2012-01-09T17:06:00.000+11:00

I was reminded today about the real role of a steward/stewardess on an air flight.

This morning, on my 6:30 am flight from Canberra to Brisbane, a passenger had a heart attack. Almost immediately after take off, the gentlemen approached the stewardesses and told them he wasn't feeling well. They sat him in the first seat so he could catch his breathe and then escorted him to the toilet when he looked ill.

The passenger passed out in the toilet and the stewardesses discreetly and calmly enlisted the help of two passengers to pull him out of the restroom and lay him on the floor. For the next 30+ minutes, until we could land, the stewardesses took turns performing CPR to help try and keep him alive. The pilot very quickly diverted to Sydney where they cleared the runway for us and had an ambulance waiting.

I am in awe of how well the ladies of DJ1207 handled the situation. They were calm and never hesitated to do what they thought needed to be done. I'm not sure I could have handled myself so well.

Unfortunately, I don't believe the gentleman survived but I can't be sure. My thoughts are with him and his family.

Next time you're on a plane, please remember that the stewardess and stewards of the flight are there primarily for your safety. In any situations while in the air, they will be your champions and your rescuers. Give them the consideration and respect that comes with that role.

Paper or Plastic?

2011-11-29T16:33:00.001+11:00

The ACT (Australian Capital Territory) government recently passed a law banning plastic bags b/c they believe they are detrimental to the environment. It's fantastic that Australia is trying to look out for the environment. They do this in many other ways as well - like asking everyone to limit their showers to 2 minutes and encouraging people not to use their dryers.

But back to the plastic bags. So what does this mean to me? Well, it means no more spontaneous trips to the grocery store without a very large purse. Gone are the days when I think to myself, "Oh, I need milk...oh, I should pick up some bread too...oh and maybe some ice cream." Cause now when I do that, it means that I have three choices: 1) buy the legal, biodegradable plastic bag for $0.20 each, 2) buy the reusable plastic bag for $1.00 each, or 3) carry it all in my purse. My purse is already heavy enough so that option is out. I already own a million reusable bags, I don't need another one. So, I guess I'm paying the $0.20 each for a couple of bags. That adds up with enough spontaneous trips to the grocery store. Adam and I now leave about 4 of the reusable bags in his car so that we never get stuck without them.

But this got me thinking - are plastic bags really that bad for the environment?

I've read around on the internet and it seems like there's a split decision.

It's generally agreed that while it's easier to recycle paper bags, the energy and cost to the environment is too high.

The energy and cost to make a plastic bag is quite low and they're very inexpensive. But apparently, even though they're recyclable, people don't generally put them in the recycling bin. Instead, they reuse them for other purposes and then throw them in the trash bin, thereby clogging up the landfills.

The reusable bags on the other hand, again don't take alot of energy to make and, obviously, they're reusable. The one thing that I did find interesting is that there's a concern around bacteria growth with the reusable bags. For instance, lets say you put ground beef in your reusable bag and it hasn't been put into a separate plastic bag because those are illegal, and the blood from the beef gets all over your reusable bag....there's a fantastic opportunity for bacteria growth and germs.

Hmmm...i think I need to go clean out my reusable bags. What do you think..paper or plastic?

Baby Brooks

2011-10-10T09:00:00.000+11:00

On the second half of my trip home, I spent about five days in Phoenix. I went to check on the house, to get some warmth (Canberra has been freezing), and to attend my friend Kim's baby shower. Kim found out she was having a baby back at the beginning of the year and she has been so excited. I think she was even more excited when she found out it was going to be a girl (look out Cooper Tew!). She's going to be a fantastic mom and Blaine...well, Blaine is going to be in for an interested ride with two Brooks women in the house.

I've been slowly building my portfolio of portrait photography (you know, in case I ever decide to quit my high-paying corporate job that flys me all over the world). I've done an engagement, a family, a baby, and now, thanks to Kim, I've had the chance to do maternity pictures.

It was around 114 F in Phoenix the day we decided to do pictures and I couldn't talk Dad Brooks into heading out to the park for pictures. It was just far too hot. So we settled on their backyard so we could go inside to cool off every now and then. As it turns out, we got a fantastic sunset and fantastic light.

I hope you enjoy the pictures! I think the pictures came out pretty well. Thank you Kim and Blaine for letting me capture this precious time for you!

Hello Cooper Tew!

2011-10-09T18:05:00.002+11:00

During my last trip home, I made a special stopover to North Carolina to visit with my friend Merritt and her husband Morgan. But the real reason of the trip was to meet the newest member of the Tew family - Cooper. I missed most of Merritt's pregnancy so when an opportunity arose to get to see her and the new bub, I did what I could to make that happen.

I got to meet Cooper right away - they brought him to the airport to pick me up but it was midnight and he slept through the whole thing - already a good sign. As it turns out, Baby Tew is one of the most chill babies I've ever had the pleasure of hanging out with. He hardly ever cried, he let me hold him without being freaked out that I was a new person. He was the best kind of baby -quiet, chill, and not mine.

If you follow this blog, you know that I've been trying to get into this photography thing. Lately I've been focusing on food photography b/c I've suddenly become very domestic. I think it's a need to nest that I can't fulfill b/c I live in a fully furnished apartment where, when I decide to move home, have to fit is a 5x5x6 crate. But I digress, this blog is about Cooper.

Mert was cool enough to agree to let me photograph her bub as I hadn't done babies before. Thankfully, the day we decided to do the session was gorgeous and we happened to catch some beautiful light. I'm not completely happy with them but the colors in them are very pretty and I think we were able to catch just how chilled out the kid really is.

Love the hat!

Honey Beer Bread

2011-09-25T22:30:00.000+10:00

For this week's baking experiment, I decided not to go with a sweet dish like I have the last couple of weeks. Instead, I decided to go for what looked like a very easy bread.

The bread recipe was really pretty easy - flour, a little sugar, some baking powder, beer and honey. Mix it all together and throw in the oven. Can't get much easier than that.

All the ingredients

Bake it up in the oven for an hour

Enjoy yummy warm bread!

Banana Oreo Peanut Butter Cupcakes

2011-09-17T17:55:00.001+10:00

While pinteresting the other day, I came across a recipe for Oreo Peanut Butter Brownies. They looked heavenly in the pictures and I decided I wanted to make them sometime. This afternoon while HA was playing some war game on the computer, I decided I would give the brownies a go. Unfortunately, I didn't have any brownie mix and the closest grocery store was already closed for the day.

After rummaging through my pantry, I found a banana cupcake mix I had bought a while back and decided that banana goes with PB and oreos, so why not give it a try.

The ingredients and recipe are pretty easy.

Cupcake ingredients

Mix everything together to create the cupcake batter

The next part is about figuring out how much peanut butter you want to use. The original recipe I found said to put PB between the oreos and on top. Australians aren't as fond of PB as Americans so I chose to only do half of the cupcakes with the extra PB.

Here's all the oreos ready for cupcake batter.

Now you have to add in the cupcake batter. Because the oreos take up most of the cupcake holder, I had to put the batter in, let it sit so gravity would fill in the gaps, and then refill it until all of the cupcakes are full.

Put the cupcakes in to bake for 20 to 25 minutes and then let cool.

They smell really yummy. I'm thinking the banana cupcake was a good idea. After a bit of cooling, I hand them over to my taster - more commonly known as HA in this blog.

I got a thumbs up from HA and a comment that more peanut butter could have been used (I'm slowly turning him into an American!). I was pleasantly surprised with my experiment. I would definitely make these again!

Two more passport stamps!

2011-09-16T11:17:00.000+10:00

HA's brother turned 40 in August and to celebrate, he and his wife hosted a party on the Indonesian island of Batam. HA and I were invited to the party back in June when I originally thought I was moving back to the US. I was very disappointed because I had been wanting to go to Singapore for quite some time. Thankfully, I was extended in Australia and was able to make the trip with HA.

Singapore is an island in Asia which has a total land mass of roughly 249.5 sq miles or about half the size of Phoenix, AZ. The average temperature is about 80 F with about 85% humidity. The island of Batam, Indonesia is about an hour's ferry ride from Singapore.

HA and I arrived in Singapore on Thursday evening. The one thing I will remember about the Singapore airport is that they have the EASIEST immigration I've ever encountered. On both departure and arrival, I did not have to wait in line and not once did I feel like I was going to be arrested (unlike when I come in Australia where I'm constantly afraid I forgot to declare something).

On Friday, HA and I took a later ferry to Indonesia so that we could explore Singapore a bit. Unfortunately, nothing opens in Singapore until after 10am so we had breakfast at Starbucks and then enjoyed walking around Little India to admire all the closed shops. We eventually gave up and went out to Orchard Road to do some real shopping. Orchard road is 6 km's of stores - including a number of American stores. The prices weren't any different than what you'd pay in Australia so HA and I didn't really buy anything.

My observations on Singapore:

1. It's super clean - like anally retentive clean
2. It's super quite - you never hear sirens or construction
3. It's significantly more green than I thought it would be. I had it in my head that it would be all high-rises with no green space - I was wrong.
4. You can get anything you want - there were a number of American and Australian stores and fast food joints (there was even a Long John Silver's!).

Rooftop garden on Orchard Road

From there, we hopped the ferry and headed out to the island. This Indonesian experience was very different from my Bali experience. There weren't as many people up in your face and it was a much more relaxed experience. The resort we stayed out was quite nice and right on the water. Our room had a view of the ocean and of the pool right in front of us. We spent Friday evening hanging out by the pool and having a nice dinner with all of the guests.

For Saturday, all of the boys went off golfing while the women stayed back to watch the kids and have massages. A good portion of GW and AW's friends have children as well so this meant alot of time hanging out by the pool to make sure they didn't drown. Once the boys were back, everyone started getting ready for the evening festivities.

AW, HA's sister-in-law, arranged for the party to be held on the pier which is a beautiful location. The party was fantastic. Everyone had a really great time. AW did a brilliant job with the organization!

The pier during the day

The walk out to the pier

Beautifully setup

On our way to the party

Lots of dancing

And even a little karaoke

On Sunday, we headed back to Singapore and had dinner with HA's family at a beautiful Japanese restaurant. On Monday, HA and I didn't have to leave until the evening so we spent the day doing a bit more exploring of Singapore. We rode in the Singapore Flyer, took a Duck tour, visited the Terracotta Warrior exhibit and tried to buy some electronics (but the prices were not any different from Australia).

The Watts family in the Singapore Flyer

The famous MerLion

Terracotta Warriors

Pop Art Exhibit

A big warm welcome to Costco Canberra!

2011-07-24T22:45:00.000+10:00

That's right folks - there is a Costco Canberra. And yes - that is an American Costco. Canberra has been introduced to the goodness that is Costco. In fact, Costco also opened in Sydney this past weekend as well. They've been getting all kinds of press coverage as Australians try to figure out exactly what Costco is.

Looks like an normal American Costco

This morning, HA and I decided to go out to Costco and have our first visit. This was HA's first visit to a Costco but he's heard about it from me, Max, and LB. Of course, I have let my membership run out as I didn't think I would ever be able to use it in Australian and it seemed silly to pay for a membership that I wasn't going to use. So, this meant that we had to get a membership first thing this morning.

This was the line to get a membership

Adam and I got there to what looked like at least an hour long wait for a membership. However, as we were standing there, a woman came around saying that if you had gotten your membership online, you could go to the front. So, I pull out the Iphone and promptly do our membership and we get pulled to the front of the line. Gotta love the Iphone. I don't understand why other people weren't doing this.

The one thing I wasn't counting on is that you have to have the same address on your driver's license that you do on your application. Of course, HA's driver's license hasn't been updated in years so we had to scramble to find a bill we could produce on our phones to prove that we lived there. I don't remember having this rule in the US but either way, the Iphone came to the rescue once again!

Once inside, it's exactly like an American Costco - exact same setup and variety of stuff to buy. The prices may be a bit more expensive but they are quite a bit cheaper by Australian standards. We shopped mostly for everyday stuff that you can buy in bulk and it won't go bad - razors, brita filters..things like that. The best line of the day was at the table which had bagels on it. For the non-Australian's reading this blog, you should know that it's very hard to find bagels in this country. Which led to an Australian man being overheard to say "Bagels? I've never had one. I wonder what they taste like." WHO has NEVER had a bagel?

Buying Australian wine from a Costco in Australia doesn't feel as exotic as it did at home.

The one thing I was super excited about was Stacy's Naked Pita Chips. These are my favorites and you can only get them at Costco in the US. I was secretly hoping they would be here but I didn't want to get my hopes up as they're an American product. But, happy day, they had them!! We bought two big bags!! They also have some other American products like Skippy peanut butter....and cheese....

Now you may be asking yourself what's so special about this cheese. Well, let me tell you...there are two very special things about this cheese. 1) on the far right, you will find a Pepper Jack Cheese. I have been unable to find Pepper Jack anywhere in this country. To my Australian friends - if I'm wrong, please let me know. And 2) there is ORANGE cheese!! All Australian cheddar cheese is white, which is natural - I won't argue that. But I will argue that their white cheese does not melt properly. We now own this particular cheese packet. Hopefully HA will agree about the tastiness (not to be confused with Tasty cheese).

We ended up spending quite a bit of money - as you do in Costco. But it was a fun day - like a little piece of America in the middle of Canberra. I suspect I won't have to go again for awhile but it's nice to know its there if I ever need a taste of home.

Self-Portraiture

2011-06-22T00:00:00.002+10:00

As part of the Project 52, one of the activities was Self-Portraiture. I've attempted it twice now and I've learned quite a bit. Self-Portraiture is much harder than you'd think it would be. I learned a few things that are applicable to both self-portraits and portraits of other people.

1. Lighting is key. This is important for any picture, but after my experience trying to take a picture of myself, I understand even more.
1a. I've learned my apartment does not have good lighting - especially at night when you have to use the overheads and the flash.
1b. Overhead lights do nothing to flatter a person in a portrait. It causes very odd shadows.

2. You have to figure out your good side. I always thought this was a figure of speech but, alas, it's true. You have to be able to understand a person's face to make sure you get them at the right angle.

3. Backgrounds are important. In my first series of self-portraits, I just used our wall as the backdrop. It's a white wall so I thought it would be ok. Unfortunately, with the lighting, the wall looks gray and gross. The next time, I used a chair as the background and it turned out better. You can buy special backgrounds for your studio or use nice fabric. It's important to look at all your surroundings when out take portraits.

4. Make-up is important. No amount of photoshopping will fix an oily face (or maybe it will and I just don't know how to do it).

5. Be creative. When you're behind the camera, it's easy to be creative because it's not you in the picture. You're not putting yourself out there. With self-portraiture, it's much more personal. You want to make sure you look good (especially if you'll be sharing on your blog) but sometimes that impedes you from experimenting. I didn't experiment as much as I could have. Maybe one day I'll talk HA into taking me out of the apartment so I can experiment in some fun locations.

I've include below a few of the pictures I took. I'm not happy with any of them but I've learned alot from them that I can hopefully carry forward into some other shots that I might do.

No Make-up, bad background - not good

After some post-processing. I look like I've been fake baking.

This one is for Mom so she can see I do this even when I'm by myself.

Lesson learned - do NOT lean back. Chin always up - I'm not 18 anymore.

Looking up and into the camera is always universally flattering. However, the overhead lights creating shadows under the eyes is not.

The Happiest Place on Earth

2011-06-20T21:08:00.002+10:00

My little sister Gene got married in May. HA and I flew out to Colorado to help her celebrate (which is another blog post). We booked a flight back to Oz to leave Monday night after the wedding. We booked a flight from CO springs to LA to leave at 7:30 at nigh and the flight out of LA then was scheduled to leave at around 10:15pm. I've taken this series of flights before and never had any issues - especially since they were all United flights and you on't have to change terminals in LA.

Unfortunately, our flight leaving CO Springs left nearly an hour late which meant that we arrived in LA right at 10:15. We jumped off the plane and the monitors said that they were still boarding so we hustled our way to the gate. When we get there, the gates are closed and they're no longer letting anyone on the plane. So after talking with the gate woman (we got a very nasty "Where were you? Why didn't you board the plane?"), they booked us into a hotel and rebooked us on the flight for the next day. Consequently, our from MayDay was meant to be on that flight with us as well. As it turns out, he missed his flight in Indianapolis so he was still able to join us the next day.

Hmmm...so a whole day in LA? What do you do with yourself? Well, naturally, you go to the Happiest Place on Earth! Especially when one of the folks in the group has never been! Adam and I checked our bags with the bell hop the next morning and grabbed a tourist bus to Disneyland.

Because it was a Tuesday and school was still in session, there was no one there! It was FANTASTIC! We were able to hit all of the big rides with very minimal waiting time. It got to the point where we were doing our bottom tier rides. I highly suggest Disneyland in the middle of the week during school.

Jedi Training

Our celebrity sighting - Santa on vacation

HA trying to be Prince Arthur

Hmm..Should I be worried?

The lady behind us couldn't take very good pictures.

We had a really great time and then also got to meet up with MayDay at the United Red Carpet lounge for a few drinks prior to our 14 hour flight.

Bali - Part 3

2011-06-19T23:40:00.000+10:00

Alright, lets finish this Bali series. I've been slacking in the blogging department. We've only got three days left for the Bali trip. We left off on Sunday where we visited the south part of the island and got to see one of the temples on the island.

The rest of the week was fairly quiet. I decided not to organize anymore trips, and to be honest, the rest of the folks I was with are not organizers. On Monday, HA and Boris decided to rent mopeds to tour the island. I was a bit worried for them but they wore their helmets (I wish I had a pictures of HAs - it was hiliarious). HA did have a run in with the law however. Apparently, it's illegal to be over the white lines in Bali so at a stop light, he got pulled up by the police. It is apparently illegal to drive a moped in Bali without an International Drivers license. The police officer told HA that he could pay 750k rupiah or go to court. HA wisely (in my opinion) decided to pay the bribe...I mean fine. While the boys were touring the island, the rest of us hung out at the pool and then decided to do a bit of shopping. Later that night, HA took me to nice dinner just the two of us. You can get fantastic food for very little money in Bali - one of the perks.

HA and Boris at Potato Head

On Tuesday, we hung out at the pool at the house all day. Then HA booked me, Boris, and himself into a spa for a two hour treatment. When we got there, we were told that two of us would have to do our treatments together in the couples room and the other would be seperate. I promptly told Boris he was either on his own or with HA. Wisely, I think, the boys decided the didn't need to do the treatment together. HA and I decided on a massage and then a scrub. I had a coffee scrub which was fantastic. The experience was a bit different than I'd experienced before but good - I won't go into the details here. Later that night, we had drinks at a beach club called "Potato Head" which was very cool. Unfortunately, we weren't able to have dinner there as they were fully booked, so we decided to have dinner at "The Living Room" - which again, was fantastic.

Dessert from The Living Room

Wednesday was our last day. We woke up to breakfast from Made, hung out in the pool and then went to the markets in Kuta. The markets were disappointing and none of us bought anything. When we got back from the markets, we headed out to an early dinner at Sardine. Sardine was highly recommended by multiple websites and the Lonely Planet book and I can completely understand why. The setting was more than beautiful and the food was fantastic. If you ever get to Bali, I highly suggest making a booking.

Sardine Restaurant

After dinner, we headed to the airport to catch our midnight flight. In order to leave the country, we had to pay a fee of 50k rupiah a piece - yes, we had to pay to leave the country. We also had to go through security with our luggage before even checked in. As we were leaving and we passed inspection, they put a security sticker across our zipper. We were also told that we either had to lock our bags or wrap them in plastic. It was a very strange airport experience. This is because of the Schapelle Corby story - google it to get the details. Either way though, I now have a Bali security sticker on my suitcase that won't come off.

We then got back to Brisbane and barely made our flight to Canberra - but we did. We all went home, took a shower and then headed into work. I'm glad we went to Bali but I don't think I'd do it again. There are many more interesting places to visit and Bali just wasn't that special.

Rice Patties near our house

The street we had to take to get into town

Bali - Part 2

2011-05-23T14:38:00.000+10:00

I know it's weeks later, but I thought I would finally post Part 2 of my Bali series. I hope you enjoy!

We left off on Saturday night when we got left in the not so great part of town and I wanted to buy a hooker. The next morning as Made (pronounced Ma-Day) made us breakfast, we talked about what we wanted to do. I really wanted to see the Ulu Watu temple. The Lonely Planet book raved about it as did multiple websites I had read. LP specifically suggested visiting the temple at sunset to get some great pictures. The rest of the group agreed to go to the temple with me but they wanted to do something else beforehand as well. We decided on doing some water sports in the afternoon then heading out to the temple. Made sorted out a car for us and we all headed off.

We directed our driver to the general area where we wanted to go and just told him that we wanted to snorkel. He dropped us off in an area that is surrounded by very fancy resorts. All of the pools and bars were only open to hotel patrons so we were having a hard time figuring out what to do. We finally came upon a water sports "hut" (for lack of better word - it was two guys running this operation out of a shack) and signed up for snorkeling, a glass bottom boat, and a trip to Turtle Island. The guys sorted us for masks and flippers (I saw them sanitizing everything so I felt much better about it). They pull up the boat and it looks like it's about to fall apart. It was a glass bottom boat but you really couldn't see much - the water was very murky. Our boat driver spoke no English and just kinda pointed and grunted to tell us what to do. Everyone except for MayDay tried the snorkeling. I didn't stay in very long. The water was murky and dirty. After snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, not much compares.

All of us snorkeling

More snorkeling

Then we hopped back in the boat and it proceeded to take us Turtle Island. Turtle Island is apparently a small branch of the Bali zoo. As we got off the boat, we were met by a guide who showed us all the animals and then sat with us as we ordered a beer. I very much got the impression that he batted for the other team as he thought HA and Boris were a couple (see picture below and you'll understand why) but then when he found out that Boris was single, he made a few comments about "liking boys too". I wouldn't suggest Turtle Island - the animals seemed cramped and it was very clearly a tourist trap.

Boris with a snake

Aren't they a cute couple?

All of us at Turtle Island

After Turtle Island, we high-tailed it back to the car b/c it was getting close to sunset and even though it was only 20 km to the temple, it was going to take 40 minutes. Our driver finally gets us to the temple and it was about a $3 fee to enter the temple - with this fee, we also were given rental sarongs as you can't enter the temple in short pants. We were also advised that women who are pregnant or menstruating cannot enter the temple - I haven't googled why yet though. As we enter the temple we greeted by an older guy that advises us that he'll be our guide. We just go with it as we have no idea what's going on. The "guide" walks us around and saves a shoe from a monkey (the monkey's steal things). Then he gets us into the Fire Dance and finds us all seats. It's at this point that the "guide" tells us that it was $50k rupiah per person for the guide. WHAT?? We couldn't really argue with him since he was like 70 and there were a ton of people around so we shelled out the $300k rupiah (just over $30USD). I figure, he probably needs it more than we do. This is where we get to see a traditional fire dance. It was actually really nice and I'd suggest seeing one if you can.

In our sarongs - notice no one has glasses on - the monkeys would steal them.

One of the temples

Another Temple

Part of the Fire Dance

More fire dance

After the fire dance, we told our driver that we wanted seafood for dinner so he suggested Jimbaran Bay. He picked a restaurant and dropped us off. As we walk outside, we see that the tables are set up right on the sand by the water and it looks absolutely stunning. You feel like it's so secluded and intimate. Then you look to your left and right and realize that there are twenty restaurants in either direction doing the exact same thing and you don't feel so special anymore. But we ordered some really good fresh seafood (the lobster was delicious) and enjoyed the scenery.

Couldn't get a great picture but this kinda shows what the beach was like

I just realized how long this blog is. I think we'll have to continue with a Part 3 for the rest of our week - stay tuned!

Quick Note - some of the pictures are from Finola - Thanks!

Bali - Part 1

2011-04-30T23:19:00.001+10:00

Australia still celebrates Easter as a public holiday. This means that each year, we get a long weekend with a Friday and a Monday off. This year, the ANZAC holiday fell on the same day as Easter Monday. Australia was good enough to give a five day weekend. When we realized this, a number of us decided it would be an ideal time to take a trip. We came up with a list of places we'd like to visit - all of them international. From there, we looked at how much each trip would cost and how long each flight would take. After all this deliberation, we decided on Bali.

We left for Bali on Thursday bright and early on a 6:30 am flight which worked out nicely cause then we arrived in Denpasar in the early afternoon. We were met by our driver at the airport and shuttled to our villa. Once at the villa we were met by our housekeeper, Made, who showed us around the house and then how to get to the beach and town. She handed us our welcome drinks and then discreetly left us.

Our villa was very nice. When I booked it, there were no reviews anywhere on the web so we were going into it completely blind. It ended up being a good choice.

Our pool area - each of the rooms led directly to the pool except for the master which was upstairs.

Our entrance - if we didn't lock the door, the local dog would stick its head in and drink from the pond.

Our living room

We spent the first afternoon in the pool and then headed into town for dinner. None of us had done much research on the area so we picked the first restaurant we came to which happened to be an Italian place. Yes, Italian in Bali. It wasn't fantastic but it was ok. From there, half of the group went home as we were tired and the other half went out for drinks. We had a massive storm that night. The thunder was so loud that it shook the house.

Day two we woke up and the housekeeper, Made, cooked us up a real nice breakfast and ordered the car for us. It was a rainy day so we decided to head to Ubud for the afternoon. Our car driver, Johnny, took us on the 20km drive which took over an hour. While we were there, we went to the Monkey Sanctuary which is also an active temple. A couple of pictures are below:

This is who greeted us

The littlest monkey that we saw

The temple inside the sanctuary

From the Monkey Sanctuary, we then wanted to get lunch so Johnny took us to really nice restaurant that was in a rice patty. The food was Indonesian, though I suspect a very westernized Indonesian. Once we were done with lunch, Johnny took us back into town to the markets. The Indonesians are very in your face at the markets. Constantly trying to get you to look at things and if you showed any sort of interest, they didn't want to let you leave. It was a bit much for me and I think most of the group was not in the mood to haggle so we quickly got out of there and headed back home.

We spent the rest of the evening in the pool and then had a very late dinner at Cafe Bali in Seminyak. The best Mi Goreng I had the whole time I was there was at Cafe Bali. The quote of the night was "Bintangs for everyone!" For those of you unfamiliar with Bintang, its the local beer for Bali and it wasn't too bad.

For Day three, we choose to go down to the beach. We spent most of our time on the beach in front of Ku De Ta, which is one of the prime beach clubs in Bali. The beach was much like the markets though, in that there were people walking up and down the beach trying to sell you stuff and if you showed any sort of interest, you were locked in.

Lunch at the Ku De Ta was actually really, really good. I had the burger and chips and it was fantastic.

After the day at the beach, we made reservations at a restaurant called Delicious Onion which is supposed to be really yummy. Notice I said "supposed to be". This is because Saturday night was a bit of a debacle. We had 8 people and, in Bali, you can't get a big taxi - you have to get two taxi's. So, myself, HA, GOM (aka Grumpy Old Man), and Mrs. GOM, hopped in a taxi and the rest of the group hopped into another.

We all thought the drive would take about five minutes. About ten minutes into the drive, we realize we're not in Seminyak any longer and we're seeing signs to Kuta (which is known for it's night clubs). We finally get to a populated road and the driver tells us that the restaurant is just up the street but he can't take us because the traffic. We fight with him for a bit but finally get tired of it and start walking up the street. We're not seeing the restaurant so HA asks a police officer who says it's just up the street to the left. So we keep walking...and walking.....and walking. Finally we stop again and realize we're no where near the restaurant. HA again asks another police officer who looks at him like he's crazy and proceeds to tell us we're about an hour away due to the traffic. We're flabbergasted. I pull out my iphone, turn on the data roaming and look at the map and sure enough, we're nowhere near where we need to be. The traffic is at a complete standstill and there's no way we're getting there.

We text our other group and tell them that we're not going to make it anytime soon and they should start dinner without us. We, in the meantime, find a bar which is showing the Liverpool soccer match for GOM. We proceed to have pub food for dinner which was absolutely disgusting, but on the bright side, very, very cheap. We had four dinners and about 12 Bintangs for $440k rupiah (about $44).

We finish up watching the game and decide to head back out on the street. We came across a bar which was playing some hip hop so we decided to go in. We have a few Bintangs and start people watching. This is my first exposure to the hookers of Asia. Maybe I'm assuming but there were a number of attractive, young, unhappy Asian women with frumpy, older white men. I made an assumption that they were hookers. There was one young woman in particular that broke my heart. The man she was hanging out with was drunk and loud and she looked like she hated life. I decided I wanted to buy her. This made the group crack up laughing - and here's why: before the start of the trip, I had told all the boys that they were not allowed to have working hookers in the house - yet here I was wanting to buy the woman for the night to save her from having to deal with the annoying Australian. Needless to say, I'd had a few drinks by this point but HA was able to talk me into leaving the woman alone. Please be aware that everything I've said here is an assumption - I don't know for sure that she was a hooker.

Me with a Bintang

Outside trying to catch a taxi

That sums up the first three days in Bali. Check out my next post to find out how we spent our last four days!

Project 52 - Week 15

2011-04-17T23:32:00.000+10:00

I follow a blog called MCP Actions which gives alot of tips on photography. A few weeks ago, they posted a blog on how to capture water droplets from a faucet. When I was reading it, I thought it sounded pretty easy. Of course, I should have known then that it wasn't going to be easy.

Tonight I had a bit of time so I thought I would give it a try. I set up my camera in the kitchen and spent the next ten minutes trying to get a drip from the faucet. That was probably the second hardest part of this whole project. I then started taking pictures. I used my wireless remote so as not to disturb the camera. I quickly found that I didn't have enough light in the kitchen so I had to pull in every extra lamp I could find. The kitchen started to look like a lamp store.

I found a few things to be aware of when you're doing this project:

1) You need alot of light for this project. You have to have a fast shutter speed to capture the droplet so if you don't have enough light, it just won't work.
2) You need a large memory card. You have to get the timing just right on these pictures so you'll end up taking alot of them.
3) Clean your faucet. You're taking pictures up close and personal - people will see the dirtiness!

These pictures ended up being alot harder than I thought they would be. I wasn't able to catch any droplets suspended in air. I think I just couldn't get my shutter speed fast enough. I'll have to try again during the day sometime when I have some extra sunlight coming into the house.

Watts Up with Adam?

2011-04-11T09:52:00.000+10:00

HA has changed his blogspot name. He wasn't getting good reviews on the old one so we found a new one. This all came about during our dinner with MayDay at an Indian restaurant. Maybe you should live him a comment to blog about that night. :)

Be sure to change your RSS feed to get his new blog - Watts Up with Adam?

Project 52 - Week 7 [Catch Up]

2011-04-09T19:29:00.000+10:00

I've decided that I'm going to try and catch up on my missed weeks for Project 52. It might take me a while but I'll eventually have 52 entries.

One of the reasons I wanted to learn to take nice pictures is that I love to capture candid pictures of my friends and family. I love the journalistic style of pictures where you capture a person in a very genuine moment. One thing I've learned is a good candid shot still needs a lot of preparation. You have to make sure your exposure is correct, the lighting is flattering, and the background/foreground will make a pretty picture. Alot of the photographers that I follow tend to take alot of these candid type shots. I love them.

So when my friend LB asked me to take pictures of her and her family, I had to study up on how I would shoot them. You may remember that I posted some pictures of her son, Silas, back in January. LB and family are moving back to the states on Monday so it became imperative that we found some time to take pictures. Unfortunately, our schedules have never worked out where we're both in Canberra at the same time. Thankfully, on their last weekend in town, we were able to make it work.

We decided to meet up at around 8am so that we could try and catch some of the morning light. But when we woke up, it was very foggy and overcast. I got up a bit early so I could go check out the location Leah had suggested and to see if the weather was going to cooperate. Thankfully, it was clear enough that I thought we could continue with the shoot.

Silas was very busy during the whole shoot. I think he liked the shots where he could run around the best though he sometimes didn't like it when I got in his way. He didn't much like the posed sitting shots but he cooperated for a few of them.

Below are some of my favorites from the session. Thanks to LB for letting me practice with her and the family and thank you for letting me post them to the blog.

This is probably my favorite one!

I had to include this one. Silas wanted nothing to do with the wet grass.

Project 52 - Week 14

2011-04-04T12:03:00.000+10:00

If you follow my blog, you've probably noticed that I haven't been keeping up with my Project 52. It looks like I've missed about 7 weeks. I'm trying to decide if I just write off those 7 weeks or if I should try to make those weeks up. What do you think?

This week for Project 52, the theme was Fusion. I didn't really like the theme so I thought I would do my own thing. However, after submitting my picture to the group, a number of comments have come back with ways that it can be applicable to the theme. More to come on that later.

This past weekend, our friend LC (aka Clarkie) came out to visit from Brisbane. We haven't seen LC in a long time so it was really nice to see him again and see what's been going on in his life. We have a tradition when LC comes to visit that we play tourist in Canberra. Last time he was here, we went to Parliment House and Questacon. This time, we decided to go to the Australian War Memorial as neither he nor I had been there.

The day in Canberra turned out to be really nice - probably about 75 and absolutely beautiful. This also meant that the War Memorial was very busy. Either way, it turned out to be a great trip. The musuem is very good. If you ever decide to visit Canberra, I would highly suggest visiting the memorial.

While we were there, I told some of the iconic images of the memorial and they turned out pretty well. For the most part, I was able to keep people out of the pictures but there is one with a man that just wouldn't move. Let's see if you can spot him. I decided to submit the picture of the Honor Wall with poppies as my Project 52 picture.

I've gotten a couple of comments with an interpretation on how this picture can be related to Fusion: 1) ANZAC is a fusion of words and 2) the fusion of life and death. Pretty interesting interpretations.

Here are a couple more pictures I took while I was there. The picture of the plane was HA's.

After our visit to the War Memorial, we decided to have lunch at the Belgium Beer Cafe in Kingston. That didn't go so well. HA is considering making a blog about our dining experiences - Out with Adam. Check out the blog and leave him a comment to encourage him to make his first post!

NIT Champions

2011-04-01T16:43:00.000+11:00

Congratulations to the Wichita State Shockers on their NIT Championship! When I was in college I wished every year that the team would be good enough for post-season play but unfortunately I was never that lucky. I continued following the team after I graduated - going to the MVC tournament every year and home games whenever I could. But they were still never good enough for post season play.

It would have been fantastic to be in NYC with other Shocker fans for this game. Maybe next year I'll be able to follow them in the NCAA tourney. Here's to hoping!

Go Shox!

Australian Grand Prix 2011

2011-03-29T17:59:00.000+11:00

This past weekend, HA and I and some friends all headed down to Melbourne (pronounced Melbin) to watch the Formula 1 opening race - the Australian Grand Prix. HA and I went last year with our friend Clarkie but had horrible General Admission tickets where we couldn't see anything. I told HA if I was to go again this year, we needed to get better tickets. So, HA worked with our friends Max and Mack to buy seats in the grandstand at turns 1 and 2. They were tickets for the entire weekend (Thurs to Sun) so we got to see lots of events.

The weekend started with us heading out to the track on Friday to watch practice sessions 1 and 2 (yes practice sessions). When I packed for the weekend, I based my clothing options off of the Iphone weather app which said it was going to be 65 and sunny. Well, Iphone lied. It might have been 65 but it was definitely not sunny. It was overcast, rainy, and windy. In other words, miserable and I didn't bring a jacket. HA and I ended up buying jackets to keep warm and I ended up buying a hat as well.

It was so cold that HA and MayDay had to keep each other warm.

Saturday we had a practice session and qualifying on the agenda. Again, the weather was miserable. I nearly went home from the cold. There were women walking around in shorts and dresses - I'm not sure how they dealt with the weather. The best part of Saturday was that we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant that's only located in Melbourne called Taco Bills. We went last year and really enjoyed it. Dinner was fantastic - some of the best homemade flauta's I've ever had - and the margarita's and tequila were flowing.

Fish bowl margaritas and tequila shots

The restaurant also handed out mustaches for everyone which lead to quite a bit of entertainment. In case you're wondering - the sombrero's were included with the purchase of the fish bowl margaritas.

Mr and Mrs MacK

On the way out of the restaurant, they offered to let us have a pinata. Due to the number of margaritas and tequila shots I partook of, I cannot remember the exact situation, but apparently, I wanted to take the pinata home rather than beating it senseless. The restaurant agreed and thus, JabberJaws joined our crew. He was named after a cartoon I watched as a kid even though no one else had ever seen this cartoon. JabberJaws lived up to his sharkly nature by attacking everyone.

Thus ended our Saturday which led to a nice long sleep in on Sunday. Sunday was race day but thankfully the race didn't start until 5pm so we had a good portion of the day to recover from the previous night. The race was relatively uneventful. There were no major crashes and the guy that started the race in first place ended up winning. The Australian driver, Mark Webber, finished in fifth place which was quite a disappointment and to top it off, he didn't do his final lap around the track. There's a debate on whether or not it was an issue with his car or if he was being a sore loser.

Cars entering turn 1 on race day

JabberJaws didn't make it to the race - he was recovering from the night before.

Engagement Session

2011-03-22T14:42:00.000+11:00

While I was home last week, my sister asked me to take some pictures of her and her financee. They had had some engagement pictures done right after he proposed but they were the standard studio pictures and JP wanted something a bit different.

I'm taking on this photography stuff and I do quite like it. Up to this point, I hadn't done much in the way of choregraphing shots. There were a couple that I did for the Project 52 (which I am totally behind on) but otherwise, I prefer to take candid shots.

To prepare for the "session" with JP and BL, I looked through the websites of photographers that I particularly like. The website I spent the most time on is a woman that I worked with in Kansas City who has now become a full time photographer. I absolutely love her work. Please go check her out - http://www.jamiemillerimages.com/. I downloaded some of the pictures with poses that I particularly liked so I could use them for reference.

I had hoped to take the pictures in CO Springs so that we could get an urban feel to them. Unfortunately, JP and BL had to work and so we had very little sunlight between when they got off work and when the sun went down. Given our time constraints, we decided to just do the "session" at my mom and dad's house. This meant I had to go back to my research and look for poses that were outdoors and a bit more "country".

When they finally got to the house, we immediately went outside and got started. We had a bit of trouble in that JP kept laughing...like laughing laughing. She couldn't just give me a pretty smile. I set them up in a few poses and got some shots but I was feeling very uncomfortable with the whole process. I wasn't real sure what to do.

After about 20 minutes, I had gotten a bunch pictures and headed inside. We reviewed them with Mom and she decided we needed more pictures. So we grabbed my laptop, which had my "posing guide" and headed back outside. I made Mom come with me this time to help we setup up the shots. We spent a bit more time outside and got a bunch more shots and had a few laughs as well.

I've done a bit of post-processing on some of the pictures and thought I would share them with you. Hope you enjoy them!

Project 52 - Week 6

2011-02-14T18:46:00.000+11:00

The theme for Week 6 was "Words". I'm going to be honest, I wasn't really feeling the theme last week and, well, I didn't even try to take some pictures.

However, this past weekend in Canberra, the multi-cultural festival was being held. This is one of HA's favorite weekends of the year, so on Saturday evening, we headed out. When I attended the event two years ago, it was fairly busy but not so overly busy that you wanted to shoot people. Unfortunately, I couldn't say that about this year. The festival was crammed with people - which is good for Canberra - not so good for someone who hates crowds.

My point is, this festival was very busy and parking in downtown Canberra is at a premium. On the walk home, HA and I were getting a kick out of how all the Aussie's were parking wherever they could - this includes on sidewalks and grass areas. Which led me to this picture. I took it with my iphone so it's not great quality.

Words - that people don't pay attention to

This is definitely an Aussie trait. They will park anywhere that is available without repercussion of a ticket. It can get quite funny.

Also while I was out walking the lake this weekend, I came across this:

You can't really tell in this picture, but it's clear that the trolley has been in the lake for some time - it's quite rusted. How it got pulled out of the water, I'm not real sure. But it's now sitting in the grass by the lake. I took this picture with the Hipstamatic app on my iphone.

Project 52 - Week 5

2011-02-01T21:52:00.000+11:00

This week's theme for the Project 52 was "Muse". I'm still experimenting to find my style and to be quite honest, to find the time to practice. The themes for the Project 52 don't come out in Australia until late on Saturday so that generally leaves me Sunday as a free day to try and take pictures. Otherwise, I have to take the pictures in the evening after work. I'm not quick to come up with ideas for the theme. Quite often HA will provide me with an idea. Getting good at photography is hard work and if you don't have an eye for the composition, it's very difficult.

This past weekend, I was in Sydney. Friday night I was at a concert for Grinderman and on Saturday, I saw "Love, Loss, and What I Wore" at the Opera House with my friend LB - which, by the way, I HIGHLY recommend. The show was fantastic - I would love to see the American version. While we were in Sydney, we also went to the zoo and Watson's Bay. Both areas of Sydney have phenomenal views. Every time I go to Sydney, I am so inspired and wish I knew how to take those breathtaking landscapes pictures that you find in stores. Sydney is one of the reasons I wanted to learn to take good pictures. So in that vein, I decided to have the city of Sydney as my Muse.

I'm finding that I like my pictures with a border - I feel like they make the picture pop more. At the same time, I think I need to keep playing with my style to find what suits me.

What's your muse?

Theme for Week 5

2011-01-31T09:46:00.000+11:00

This week's theme for Project 52 is Muse. I've got a few ideas in mind that I'm playing with. What suggestions do you have?

Project 52 - Week 4

2011-01-27T22:48:00.001+11:00

This week's theme with the MCP Actions Project 52 was Soothing Repetition. I wasn't sure if I'd participate with that theme this week but after some thought I decided to try and shoot for the theme. I spent some time looking through some of the pictures which were already uploaded b/c I didn't want to do something that someone had already done. There were a number of pictures around food - ice cream, soda, coffee - and there were things like brushing your hair.

I spent some time thinking about what would be repetitious and soothing. This brought me to running. I hadn't seen a picture for running uploaded yet and I know quite a few people that would call running soothing (certainly not me!).

I recruited HA (again!) to be the model. It was a beautiful day in Canberra again and HA and I went out to the lake to try and get a shot. I played with a few different perspectives. As it turns out, the one I liked the best was the very first shot I took. It's in black and white but I think that it works for the evening sun that's coming in from the side.

Next week's theme hasn't been posted yet! Stay tuned!

Project 52 - Week 3

2011-01-24T13:31:00.001+11:00

The theme for this weeks Project 52 was "Shades of Grey". I had this vision of finding someone with beautiful thick grey hair and getting an amazing picture. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone with grey hair. Or, at least, I don't know them well enough to be like "hey, can I take pictures of your grey hair?"

So I thought all week about what I wanted to do. I wanted to take a picture that would highlight the many shades of grey but also be something that wouldn't require traveling somewhere or alot of setup time.

On top of that, I didn't have much time this week. I had things scheduled for every night after work so it also needed to be a picture I could take at home and wouldn't need alot of natural sunlight.

So, Thursday night I took the easy way out and bought some beautiful gerber daisies from the supermarket and headed home to try and do something creative with them. Unfortunately, the boys called and I ended up getting drinks until late in the evening Thursday. I had plans to go watch the Australian Open that weekend so Friday rolled around and I was frantically packing so we could catch our plane. I took a few pics of the flowers, converted them to black and white and uploaded to Flickr so that I could have an entry. It didn't turn out too badly for a quick 10 minutes of work. What do you think?

This week's theme is "Soothing Repetition". I'm not sure how I like this theme. I may go my own way this week. Stay tuned!

Gravity...

2011-01-17T12:46:00.000+11:00

HA had a very cute idea for the "Illustrate a Song" theme this week and that was the song "Gravity" (you choose - either John Mayer's song or Sara Bareilles song - both are great). We recruited our friend MayDay to help with the project and set out on Saturday to shoot it.

Saturday ended up being a gorgeous day though hot by recent Canberra standards. HA was so keen on this particular photo shoot that I let him be the director. We weren't able to get all the shots we wanted as my shutter speed just wasn't fast enough but I don't think it turned out too badly.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to submit the picture b/c the deadline was midnight Friday US east coast time. I thought I would share it anyway.

Thank you to MayDay for being such a good sport about the photo shoot - I wouldn't be surprised if he has a few bruises.

This week's Project 52 theme is "Shades of Grey". I'll post once I have a picture to share.

My Favorite Shoes

2011-01-14T18:29:00.000+11:00

I'm part of the MCP Actions Project 52 and this week's theme was "Illustrate a Song". I've had a few ideas and have been taking lots of pictures so I can pick the one I like the best. One of the songs that I'm thinking of is Ruby Red Shoes by Sawyer Brown. I thought of this song because I have some really great red shoes that I like to show off (even though they kill my feet!).

I took some pictures last night and here is one of them.

Another song I was thinking of doing is Tall, Tall Trees by Alan Jackson. Thankfully, it's stopped raining enough to go outside after work and take some pictures (keep your fingers crossed that it stays that way).

It obviously wasn't that sunny outside when I took the picture. I've applied Pioneer Woman's Sunlight action to the picture and then a vignette.

Can you tell I've become a bit addicted to Photoshop? :) I'm trying not to use it too much though b/c I don't want to become dependent on it to make good pictures.

I've also made a new little logo for myself. I'm not sure which one I like better. Comments would be appreciated.

So which picture should I submit? Does anyone have any ideas for other songs I could illustrate?

Rain, Rain Go Away

2011-01-12T14:39:00.001+11:00

For those of you that don't pay attention to Australian news, you might be surprised to find out that Australia is currently experiencing some of the worst floods in the last century. Portions of Queensland have been experiencing flooding since late December but these floods were expected and, while damaging, were manageable. Early this weekend, the capital of Queensland, Brisbane, realized that they too would soon be flooded if the rain continued to fall. The peak of the flooding is expected tomorrow (Thursday) so what you're reading about now is not the worst that is expected (see article below).

HA's family lives in Brisbane and I have quite a few friends and co-workers who live in Brisbane. I spent my Christmas holiday there and joked that the city would flood if the rain kept at that pace.

Thankfully, everyone I know is safe and accounted for. HA's sister's property has flooded and they are cutoff from town but they are safe and have an evacuation plan if necessary.

Please keep Queensland in your thoughts and if you'd like to and are able to, donate to the relief effort:
Queensland Flood Relief Appeal

For more information and a picture into what's being experienced, here is a good article from The Australian:
Australian Flood Article

Project 52 - Week 2

2011-01-11T16:35:00.000+11:00

This weekend, I got to babysit for my friend Leah. Her son Silas is one of the cutest and most chilled out kids I know. He's 13 months old, but while I was babysitting, all I had to do was make sure he didn't put his finger in a socket. Otherwise, he entertained himself.

While I was babysitting, I thought I might practice taking some pictures. Photographing HA is easy cause he poses however I tell him to but children are a completely different story. They move around alot more and they decide when they want to smile.

I had hoped the weather would be nice, but, in true Aussie fashion, it was raining. I took some pictures of him in the apartment but alot of them had very messy backgrounds so they weren't great. However, I did get a few cute ones.

The one below is my favorite from the session. I think he was looking at HA at the time trying to decide if he was ok with him being there or not. Silas has very expressive eyes. In nearly all the pictures I got, you can look at it and make up what he's thinking based on his expression.

ISO:800
1/640
f5.3
Focal Length: 165mm
Add Color Pop 2 action by thecoffeeshopblog.com and an additional vignette

I'm also participating in a group Project 52 with MCP Actions. They'll provide a theme every week and you provide the picture. This week's theme is "Illustrate a Song". I'm still working out what I can do for this theme. If I come up with a picture, I'll post it later this week.

Christmas in Australia

2011-01-11T15:44:00.002+11:00

Because HA went home with me last year for Christmas, there was an agreement that I would stay in Australia with him this year. I made this agreement over a year ago not having any idea where I’d be living or where I’d be working. So as Christmas got closer and closer and I continued to live in Australia, I realized that I really was going to have to spend Christmas in Australia.

I began to worry about gifts for HA’s family. My personal motto on gifts are that they should be items that someone wants but would probably never buy themselves. I don’t like to buy the “easy” gift – perfume, dvd’s..they make great gifts, but where I can, I like to make them a bit more personalized. So, I asked HA for the rules around gift giving. His response – “We buys each person a gift". There were going to be 11 people at Christmas – not including Adam and I. That's alot of gifts to buy! So I set out buying gifts. I picked up a few in the US when I was home for Thanksgiving but the majority of my shopping had to happen in Australia. Unfortunately the shopping in Australia sucks….especially in Canberra. So given this, I ended up have a number of gifts shipped from the US. Even without much help from HA for ideas, I ended up with gifts that I felt good about.

Before I go much further here, I think it’s very important to explain that Christmas in Oz is NOTHING like Christmas in the US. In the US, there are constant holiday songs, all of the malls are decked out, there’s a Santa at every mall, and…there’s a spirit to Christmas. It’s not like that here. I didn’t hear one Christmas song on the radio, the only Santa I saw at the mall was skinny and sitting in front of a green screen so you could be photoshopped onto a beach, and the decorations in the stores were depressing. To help with trying to get into the Christmas mood, I purchased a little tree and hung some lights in the apartment which helped a bit.

So Christmas Eve rolls around and HA and I walk into work (we got to wear jeans!). We work for a half day, then go home to finish wrapping presents before we have to catch our flight. We end up having to take three decent size suitcases b/c of all our presents. We finally get to Brisbane after our flight had to circle for 45 minutes in the air. Unfortunately, we were so late that his brother and nephews had to go home to sleep so we couldn’t all have Xmas Eve dinner together. In my house, we have a very quiet dinner of chili and cornbread and then stay up playing board games. In HA’s family, they have turkey for Xmas Eve dinner – poached turkey. I didn’t even realize it was turkey until after dinner – I had thought it was pork. It wasn’t quite the traditional turkey dinner I’m used to but it was nice to have a bit of familiarity.

We got to stay in the "adult house" while we were there. Meaning we stayed with HA's sister at her house on the river. It was actually really nice to have a bit of quiet time. The three nephews were alot of work. I grew up with girls - I'm not used to having so many boys around. The picture below is of his sister's house on the one sunny day we got. I'd like to note that they live right on the Brisbane river which is now flooding. I've included a picture of the river as well. Since we were there, the water has risen 4 to 5 meters. Their house isn't on the flood plane and expect to be ok though.

Looking down to the river. Most of the land you see by the river has flooded.

On Christmas day, we get to his parents house mid-morning and very quickly get to opening presents. The three boys hand out the presents – at least that’s the same – the youngest handing out the presents. I quickly realize, though, that HA may not have given me the correct rules for gifts. I’m starting to notice that there are a lot of gifts being given by multiple people – primarily by the couples. Example: HA Sister and Bro-in-law gives me a gift. My suspicions are quickly confirmed when both his sisters say “why didn’t you go in on gifts together?? You didn’t need to buy each individual person a gift”. Hmmmm..at least I know if I do Christmas with them again.
After presents, dinner starts to be set up. As we had turkey for Xmas eve dinner, can you guess what we’re having for Christmas dinner? That’s right – SEAFOOD. Well, seafood and a lot of pork & ham. This is a tradition in the HA family – one that I think I struggled with the most. The seafood dinners weren’t new to me – we have one every time we go to visit HA’s family. But they were different. So we sat outside under the covered patio while it rained and had seafood.

Christmas dinner - notice on the top picture that the skin is pulled back from the pig leg.

Much of the rest of the time we spent in Brisbane was spent at his parents house playing the Kinect that I got HA. The boys really enjoyed it and it kept everyone entertained. I did get a break on Monday when HA’s mom scheduled a spa day for all the girls. That was really nice to get a massage and then relax with champagne in the spa.

This is HA and his nephew playing boxing on the Kinect. His nephew has a broken arm so everyone had to play with one had behind their back. His nephew beat everyone in the family.

HA also took me for a drive to the Gold Coast to have a nice lunch on the water and then a bit of shopping (thankfully it didn’t rain that day!). On the drive to the coast, we stopped at Yatala Pies which apparently are some of the best pies in the country (think savory pies – not sweet). The pie was pretty good. I had a steak pie with mashed potatoes and peas. It sounds gross but it’s pretty yummy.

Yatala Pie - Steak pie with mashed potatoes and peas

On Thursday, we said good-bye to HA’s family and headed on to Sydney for New Year’s Eve! But I’ll leave that for another post.

New Years Resolution

2011-01-04T15:14:00.001+11:00

For 2011, I have two resolutions. I don't generally do resolutions because no one ever sticks to them. But I thought I would give it a go.

Resolution 1 - Exercise more so I can feel better about myself
Of course I would love to lose some of the weight I've put on but more importantly, I want to feel better about myself. Whenever I exercise regularly, I always feel more energetic and confident. I do better at work and at my relationships. I think this is important. I don't want to focus on a number of pounds or inches to lose. I think that's just a losing battle. Instead I want to focus on setting a goal for the number of times I should exercise each week. Prior to the holidays, I was doing pretty well at getting some form of exercise around 3 times a week. I think that's fairly reasonable. To help me stick to my resolution, I've come up with a list of actions to take.

How to get there:
1. Hire a personal trainer. I had a personal trainer for awhile when I was in AZ. I found it very motivational to have someone to answer to each week. Trainers are cheaper here for some reason so that makes this action alot easier to act on. I've already got a list of three trainers to contact for quotes.
2. Go to bed earlier. Right now, I'm in bed anywhere between 11pm and 1am. This isn't good. This means that I can't wake up in the morning to exercise and I'm too tired after work. I'm going to try and be in bed by 11pm at the latest.
3. Log eating habits and exercise schedule. Whether or not I blog this info - I haven't decided yet. In the meantime, I have an app for the phone which will allow me to track all my food, exercise and weight. I'll start using it more regularly.

I'm hoping that by putting these online, I'll feel more obligation to actually do them since people I know read this and will probably ask on my progress.

Resolution 2 - Practice my photography
I've seen online that alot of photographers do a 365 project - meaning that they take or edit a picture everyday and post it somewhere online. I'll be honest - I'm not going to do a picture a day. So knowing that, I'm going to do a 52 project - one picture per week. I will take or edit at least one picture per week and post it to the blog. I'll include all the details on it and any actions/edits I might have done.

Mom - do you want to join me with this project??

So, here is Week 1 Photograph

Christmas Dinner Table

I thought HA's mom did a fabulous job of decorating the dinner table for christmas and felt it needed to be captured. My only regret with the picture is the background. I didn't think through the composition of the picture and captured the TV on the patio - not the best background possible. Here's the information on the picture:
ISO: 400
1/80 Shutter
f5.6 Aperature
I've applied two actions in PhotoShop Elements - Pioneer Woman Colorized and Pioneer Woman Fresh Color

Thanks Mom for turning me on to Pioneer Woman. She has a great blog for photography.

What's everyone else's New Year's Resolutions?

Oprah-stralia!

2010-12-15T11:20:00.001+11:00

The country has gone crazy! Crazy for Oprah! It's amazing to me the hysteria that this woman can invoke. From the moment she landed, all of the news stations have been following her around.

Yesterday, she filmed two shows at the Opera house. 350,000 people turned up to try and get tickets to the taping. There were only 6,000 tickets to give away. Hotel prices are tripled for this weekend and this is AFTER Oprah has left the country (I know b/c I was going to go to Sydney but it's too expensive now).

One of the television stations showed a woman burst into tears as Oprah drove by and waved to her. This woman had to be in her 30's. I thought only teenage girls burst into tears when Justin Beiber walked into a room.

On Sunday, HA and I were in Kingston getting dinner and there was a man in a suit with an earpiece. My first thought wasn't "oh, the prime minister must be around". No, no - my first thought was "wonder if Oprah is in town?"

This is crazy and the amount of tourism that will come out of her visit here will be on the crazy scale as well. I'm ready for her to go home.

Photography as a Social Experiment

2010-11-18T18:16:00.001+11:00

As part of my photography class, I have to go out into the city and take pictures of random people or things. I'm finding that people react very differently when they find themselves the subject of a random photographer. I'm wondering if a person's reaction is indicative of their personality? You find some people will cautiously look at you to confirm that you are, in fact, photographing them. Others turn directly to the camera and smile. And then there are the ones who get visibly upset, throw you a dirty look, and move so you can no longer photograph them.

Earlier this week, I went out to the bus exchange to get some motion shots and while I was there, I caught this guy on his way home from work. The shot won't work for my photography class but I love the way he smiled at me and gave off a very friendly vibe.

Happy to be going home

I've also started my own Flickr stream to capture all the photos that I like the best. I'm finding Flickr is a great resource for creative ideas (stealing ideas would be more apt). :)

Dana's Flickr Photostream

Lola has arrived!

2010-11-10T13:53:00.001+11:00

My new camera bag arrived today. Less than two weeks after I ordered it and only a week after they shipped it. HA and I picked it up today at lunch and I just very quickly opened it. It's beautiful. I'm so excited to get home tonight and load it up with my camera!

I'll post pictures later with a full review!

Watery Wednesday - Lake Burley Griffin

2010-11-03T14:41:00.001+11:00

For my Uncle Alan...

Taken with a Nikon D5000 in the evening. This is Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, Australia. The tower in the background is the Telstra tower. This was taken as an entry for my photography class.

Halloween in Oz Part 2

2010-11-01T12:51:00.001+11:00

I had my Australian Halloween party this weekend. Apparently, the folks putting on the party were a bit concerned that they had an American coming to the party so they really wanted to do everything up. And they did a great job. They had all kind of decorations and they even rented a bunch of B-Horror movies to show on the TV. At one point they had "Nightmare on My Street" by Fresh Prince playing (though I'm not sure if that was on purpose or not). They also carved their first pumpkin for the event. So there was a bit of a competition between my pumpkin and theirs throughout the evening. It was interesting overhearing the commentary. I didn't get a picture of their pumpkin for comparison but I was very impressed with Cai's very sharp and clean edge cuts.

I was very impressed b/c Australian pumpkins are very thick. I'd say the shell was probably around two inches thick. That made it very had to do any circular cuts. There were also a ton of seeds but the inside wasn't too terribly messy. Here's a picture of my pumpkin. What do you think?

Our costumes for the party didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. The costume I ordered was a bit short (you could see my bum) and a bit tight. Had I been going to a party where I knew everyone, I probably would have worn the outfit and just taking the crap I would have been given. But since this was a party where I knew about 4 people, I decided it was inappropriate and had to quickly throw something else together. We're having a 1920's themed Christmas party for work this year and when I was in the states in October, I bought a few props to go with my outfit. I used those with a dress I already had and did a very lame version of a flapper.

We took along our friend MayDay who also had to throw together a last minute costume. We went to the one costume shop in the city to try and find something but when we saw that the costumes averaged about $150, we quickly decided to come up with something else. MayDay, in his cleverness, decided he'd go as a cricketer. He was planning on buying the Aussie jersey for the Ashes anyway, so we did that and bought a cricket bat and some shin pads and he was ready to go. I suspect that the Aussie's at the party thought he was a bit lame but I thought it was pretty clever for an American to go as a cricketer.

Everyone at the party got into the spirit and wore costumes. Most of them were thrown together and included fake blood but there were a few good ones. One of my good friends, Boris, bought a Captain America costume (clever since he's an Aussie). He ended up winning the costume contest. I have pictures of Captain America on my camera but I'll have to load them up later. In the meantime, here are some pictures of me, HA, and MayDay.

Snap Happy

2010-10-29T16:58:00.002+11:00

When I was in the States for September, I bought myself a really nice DSLR camera. This purchase was triggered by our trip to South Africa where HA and I quickly got camera envy as all of our friends had DSLR's and their pictures came out 10x better than ours.

Because I travel pretty regularly, I'd like to start taking some really nice pictures to better remember everything. So, in order to do that, I've signed up for an online photography class. I'm really excited about it and I've talked HA into a photo shoot this weekend so I can turn in my first assignment.

The problem is, as I start researching photography and looking at other people's work, I want to buy all kinds of accessories. And today, I bought my first one. The camera came with the typical slr camera bag - big, bulky, square, unmanageable to carry around, and just plain ugly. So I started researching more...fashionable bags. Don't get me wrong, I want it to be functional too but if I'm going to have my camera with me so I can take a picture when a good opportunity presents itself, I want something I'm not embarrassed to be seen in.

That's when I came across Epiphanie camera bags. I fell in love immediately. They were designed by a female professional photographer and all the reviews I've seen have been very positive. On top of that, I would use this bag as a regular purse as well. So..I ordered one for myself and am having it shipped to Australia. I couldn't even wait until Thanksgiving where I could have picked it up from my folks for a much cheaper shipping charge. I can't wait to get it - hopefully it will live up to all it's reviews!

Halloween in Oz

2010-10-29T12:21:00.001+11:00

For the last two years, I've gone home in late October for a visit. This usually gives me a good taste of Halloween so I don't generally miss it when I'm in Canberra. This year however, I went home in October but it was for a wedding and it was too early in the month to get a real Halloween feel. This year I'm actually in Canberra for Halloween. It's a bit depressing. I'm not sure how the kids get by. There is no spending the month deciding what your costume is going to be. Most people have never carved a pumpkin.

So this weekend, a friend of a friend is throwing a Halloween party and has invited HA and I. She's even insisting that everyone come in costumes. Most of the Australians don't know where to start for costumes. They don't have many costume stores in Australia and those that they do have are outrageously priced (why am I surprised?) Given this, HA and I ordered ours online from buycostumes.com. They ship to Australia and guarantee delivery by Halloween (and still cheaper than buying them in a store). I'll leave it as a surprise for what we decided to do. Unfortunately we weren't able to do the outfits I really wanted b/c there weren't any stores online that carried the costume for HA. Maybe next year.

In preparation for the party tomorrow, I've bought a pumpkin that I'm going to carve. It cost $24. You read that right. Apparently, that's a good price. Another store wanted $25 for really crappy pumpkins and if you try to buy them in Cairns, they're $30. I had originally thought this was b/c they imported them from the US but, no it's because they grow them in Australia and they're out of season. I do wonder if it'd be cheaper to just ship them into the country but the Aussies are weird about importing fruits and vegetables.

So I'm trying to come up with a creative but easy pumpkin carving idea. I feel like there's some pressure as the only American going to this party that I should have a really cool pumpkin. Anyone have any fun ideas?

Next Blog>>

2010-10-01T14:25:00.001+10:00

Every now and again, I'll go onto my blog and click the Next Blog>> button to see what Blogger will return to me. I figure it's a way to potentially find new blogs to follow and it's interested to see the type of blogs Google aligns with mine.

Today I clicked the Next Blog>> button and was presented with a blog about quilting and furniture restoration. Hmmm...quilting? Maybe you could justify furniture restoration as I can have a crafty side to me, but quilting? I made one quilt square in my life for cute little Silas's baby quilt, but that came out crooked and I was a bit embarrassed by it.

So I clicked Next Blog>> again and was presented with a blog on "The Perfect Wife's Guide". I'm not married and when I was, or if I ever am again, I very much doubt that I would fall into the Perfect Wife category simply b/c I would never read a Perfect Wife's guide.

I'm not sure how Google does the blog alignments, but I suspect it's based on whatever is put into the labels of the blogs. I generally don't label my blogs which may be the problem. So, over the next few blogs, I'm going to start putting crazy labels in to see if makes any difference.

I'd love for you to visit my blog and then click the Next Blog>> button to see what's returned to you.

Why are we doing this??

2010-09-21T14:15:00.000+10:00

Last August for HA's birthday, I bought him a gift certificate from RedBalloons.com.au. Red Balloon allows people to purchase experiences rather than things. I bought him this gift certificate with the anticipation that he would use it to do the V8 Driving experience (similar to the Nascar driving experience). I knew it was something he wanted to do but would never buy for himself. Unfortunately, we were never able to coordinate a weekend in Sydney or Brisbane when they were having that particular experience.

So back in May, HA realized he needed to use these gift certificates before they expired (it's still legal for them to expire in Australia). So, he went through their website to figure out which experience he wanted to do. He settled on skydiving in Wollongong over the pacific and landing on the beach. This was something else he had always wanted to do so he was super excited about it. He asked me if I was interested and I said "Yeah sure, I'll call tomorrow to book in".

As work would distract me during the day and the office was closed after 5pm (as everything is in Australia), I never got around to booking in - not that I was too terribly upset about that. In the meantime, HA had talked our friend MayDay into joining him. So now, I was being badgered to book in on two fronts.

The weekend of the jump came and HA, MayDay, and some other friends all went to Sydney for the weekend (Wollongong is a short drive from Sydney). On Saturday morning, I made the mistake of saying "It's too bad I never was able to book in to join you" to which HA responds "well, give them a call and see if they still have space". Dang it - bad move on my part. So because I'm sitting right next to him, i have to call, and wouldn't you know it - they have an opening and I sign up.

The next day we wake up bright and early to drive out to Wollongong and we're hungover, of course. We get to the drop zone on the beach go in to let them know we're there. The first thing we do is weigh in. If you're more than 88 kg's, there's a surcharge and they have to match you with a person that can manage the weight. Then they take us out and have us put on parachute pants and a harness. They quickly give us a safety lesson which consists of: get on your knees, arms crossed, head back, and do everything your partner says! Ok, sounds easy enough. Then I meet my partner. She's about 5ft (if that) and about 90 lbs. Really, this woman is going to carry me and jump out of a plane with me?? I'm twice her size..maybe even three times her size. We will NEVER stop falling through the sky - I'm going to weigh us down! I take a deep breathe and remind myself that they do this for a living and know what they're doing.

They quickly bus us out to the air field and load us up into the plane. HA and I were able to be next to each other but MayDay was a few people in front of us. The plane takes off and we slowly circle up to our drop altitude. At five minutes before the drop, we all start harnessing to our partners and they roll open the door.

This is where things get interesting.

The guy closest to the door starts scooting over and then they are suddenly gone. It's as if they were sucked right out of the plane. It suddenly dawns on me that I'M JUMPING OUT OF A PLANE. I sub-consciously start to dig my feet in so we can't move. All of the people on the plane are one-by-one being sucked out and my stomach is doing flip flops. Next, I watch MayDay scoot up to the door. He's on his knees looking down and he looks absolutely terrified. I start screaming his name but he can't hear me and then he's gone.

My partner is slowly pushing me towards the door. She's half my size but she's able to maneuver me. I start screaming "Why are we doing this?? Do we really want to do this?? I don't think we should do this!" No one can hear me though. I look back at HA and he's smiling and laughing like we're at the carnival. I knew I was going to get no help from him.

The next thing I know, she's pushing my head back onto her shoulder and we are falling through the sky. After a few seconds, she screams at me that I can move my head and gives me a thumbs up sign. I know I need to signal to her that I haven't passed out so I give a thumbs up back. But I truly believe that i have stopped breathing. I don't know if i was saying it out loud or just thinking it in my head but I just kept saying "make it stop, I want this to stop, make it stop". In order to focus, I started taking deep breathes and trying to focus on one spot. I had stopped screaming, and I think breathing, but my partner kept tapping me on the shoulder and giving me an OK sign to make sure I was ok.

I'm beginning to think that I really am going to plummet to my death. I'm thinking my parents are going to kill me for not telling them that I did this. And who's going to call them? Does HA have my parents phone number? How will my body get back to the US or will they just bury me in Australia? Will there BE a body to bury?? And just when I've resigned myself, the chute is pulled and we start floating - literally floating.

Suddenly, this is ok. It's so peaceful and quiet. My partner takes off my goggles, that I now realize is wet on the inside - presumable from crying. If I was crying from fear or from the wind rushing onto my face, I'm not sure. But I'm suddenly having alot of fun. We do some spiraling with the chute and I get to see forever across the ocean. I realize THIS is why people skydive. Well maybe not - but this is why I skydived.

We slowly make our way to the drop zone. I can see that MayDay has already landed and is waiting for HA and I. I pull my legs up and land on my bum. As I'm sitting there getting disentangled from my partner, my body is fully shaking - my hands, my legs, my stomach. I'm afraid to stand up for fear that my legs will give out. MayDay joins me and he looks like I feel. We both agree that we don't ever want to do this again.

About this time HA comes bouncing up to us "Hey guys, wanna do it again?? Let's do it again!!" MayDay and I look at him like he's growing a second head and walk off. We capped off the day with a couple pitchers of beer and lunch on the water.

Skydiving was an experience that I'm glad I've done. I faced a fear and I made it through it. However, I don't think I'll ever do it again. I'm fairly certain I stopped breathing and my heart may have stopped beating at one point.

I didn't get any pictures done, which I now regret, but this may be what I looked like.

Ten Things that Frustrate me about Australia...

2010-08-03T17:27:00.000+10:00

I do love Australia..very much so. But I feel a bit guilty about my last post. I love it here and would love to stay but there are some things that really frustrate me. Sometimes I get so frustrated to the point of crying. So, to balance the scales and alleviate my guilt, here are my top ten things that frustrate me about Australia..in no particular order...

1. Shopping Hours - To this day, I hate the fact that I can't go shopping after 5:30pm on a week night. The only night where the stores are open longer than 5:30 is Friday night. Who goes shopping on a Friday night? I'm too busy getting drinks in the pub. Though..after the last couple of weekends, I'm not sure my knees and ankles can keep up with me on the drinking...but that's for another blog.

2. The grocery store - now, to be fair, I should let everyone know that in general, I hate grocery shopping. Always have and I imagine that I always will. BUT the grocery shopping in Oz just makes it so much worse. My very first breakdown from homesickness occurred in the butter aisle at the grocery store. I had been in Australia, and while homesick, I had been dealing with it relatively well. But then one day I was looking for butter and I just wanted Country Crock and wouldn't you know it, they didn't have it. I had to checkout and leave right then b/c I was nearly crying.

3. No free refills - that's right, no free refills even on post-mix (aka fountain sodas). Instead, when you go to a restaurant and you order a soda, they pour it into your glass directly from a bottle. On a positive note, Hungary Jacks (aka Burger King) in Sydney does offer free refills.

4. Qantas - yes, I said I loved Qantas but why do you have to be so expensive?? Getting to Cairns should not cost me $1000 return!!

5. Roundabouts - have they ever heard of a four way stop? The roundabouts terrify me. I never know what lane I need to be in to get off at the right exit. The first time I drove with Max, she had to keep yelling at me "left lane!" to make sure I knew where to go.

6. $1/$2 coins - they're sooo heavy. At least bills won't weigh down my purse!

7. Service - The service in this country is awful. Australia is not a tip-focused economy so this means that anyone in a service-oriented industry feels absolutely no need to actually provide a service. You can sit at a table in a restaurant for half an hour before someone notices you. And if you want any sort of help after you've been served your food - you can forget about it!

8. Yutes - Really? The El Camino? It's not a car, it's not a truck - they're made specifically for people that can't make up their minds and are stuck in the 70's.

9. You can't pay at the pump - You have a car and you want to fill up with gas. In Australia - you still have to go inside the station to pay. This country is great at letting you use your debit card just about everywhere (including cabs - its great) but yet, you still can't use it at the pump when you're filling up with gas!

10. No Mexican Restaurants - There are no good Mexican restaurants in Oz. We've found a couple that suffice a craving but nothing as good as you get in Phoenix. And when it comes to margaritas - don't even think about it. Very few places have tequila and if they do, it's generally the nasty Jose Cuervo stuff.

Ten Things I love about Australia...

2010-07-12T14:07:00.000+10:00

I was reading a blog yesterday that's being written by some friends as they drive across Australia. One of her blogs talks about how she loves Australia, but can't quite put her finger on WHY she loves Australia. So I thought I would try. Here are my top ten things I love about Australia..in no particular order:

1. Sydney - I know it's a whole city and it probably shouldn't count but i love Sydney. I think it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Granted, I haven't done that much traveling but I've been to a fair few and Sydney is just beautiful. Alot of people don't like Sydney b/c of she's overally beautiful but not me. She's sunny and the water glistens and who can say that the Opera House and the Bridge aren't breath taking?

2. Red Rock Deli chips - They have the best combination of flavors. My newest favortie is Sea Salt & Balsamic. So yummy!

3. Qantas - Qantas is the national airline for Australia. If you've flown anywhere domestically in Oz, you've most likely flown Qantas. Granted, they are usually the most expensive airline but I think they're generally worth it. I'm currently Platinum with Qantas - one of their highest frequent flyer levels and let me tell you - it is totally worth it. If you ever get the chance to enjoy the First Class lounge at the Sydney International Terminal, I highly suggest it.

4. Coffee - I'll never be able to go back to Starbucks. If i have to move home, I'm thinking of marrying my barista so he can go with me.

5. New Years Eve - Ok, so maybe this should sit in the Sydney bucket, but I love that they take New Years so seriously here. Sydney is one of the first major cities to tick over to the new year and boy do they know how to put on a show. The NYE that spent in Sydney is one of the best I've ever experienced and I would happily go back every year.

6. The Wine - they have really great wine here. I recently shared a bottle of California wine with HA and I could definitely tell the difference. Though I do love the Australian wine, I do feel like I need to admit that I prefer the white wine from the Marlbough region in NZ.

7. Banana Bread - Much like coffee, the banana bread is a staple in this country. I was never a big fan before I came here, but now I love a little blueberry/banana bread in the morning.

8. Weetbix - Weetbix is a cereal here in Australia. I grew to love it on my very early morning flights from Canberra to Adelaide. Now whenever the Weetbix commercials come on, HA likes to call me a Weetbix kid.

9. Diet Coke - Yes, I know you can get this in the US but I'm telling you, the formula is different here. It's less sweet. I'm addicted and if I have to move home, I'm going to need to get this imported into the US.

10. Finally - the people. Just as Kangaroo Chronicles says in her blog, the people here are very very friendly. Sometimes, it seems unreal to me how friendly they can be. And, I'd say that 95% of them really like Americans and always want to know where I'm from and why I could come here.

11. Just because I can - The Politics - I mean, come on, in a matter of hours, they had a new primer minister! You'd never get that kind of excitement in the US!

Negative Gearing and Australia

2010-07-08T13:10:00.000+10:00

HA and I have friends here in Oz that have been investing in properties throughout Canberra in the last couple of years. HA really wants to get into the invest property business and has asked me if I'd be interested in going in on a property together.

I've thought about it and I do think that buying a property in the CBD of Canberra would be a good idea. With so many government officials here and contractors for government agencies and the university, I doubt there's ever a shortage of people looking for properties.

My general issue with it is that the price of property in this country is OUTRAGEOUS. I couldn't afford to own my own home in this country. The apartment I live in, which about a third the size of my house in Phoenix, runs, easily, for mid-six figures. That's a one-bedroom, one-bathroom. What makes it even crazier is that salaries aren't adjusted for this higher cost of living. So given that, I'm not sure how my friends, who make realitively the same amount of money as I do, can afford their own rent, plus the mortgages of their multiple investment properties.

In theory, the investment properties should pay for themselves. Or at least I would think that's how it's supposed to work. But no so in Australia. In Australia, they do this thing called Negative Gearing. Here's how it works as I understand it - You buy a property that you plan on utilizing as an investment. The weekly mortgage is $750 but they're renting it out at $650 a week. Clearly there's already a $100/week loss. Then when they do their taxes, these losses are fully deductible and depreciation is taking into account. This will typically provide the owner with a much larger refund which then offsets the losses of the property.

So my question is - how is this a good idea?? I feel like I must be missing something about this whole scheme. If you read about this on Wikipedia, it doesn't sound like a good idea at all and apparently, this is illegal in most other countries. Am I missing something? Could I be an Australian real estate mogul but I'm too dense to realize it?

Running, running and gettinng no where...

2010-05-30T21:15:00.000+10:00

So two weeks ago, I told everyone that I wanted to start running to help lose some weight. It started off pretty well. For the first couple of weeks, I was running three times a week and going to the gym. But then over the last two weeks or so, I've been slacking off. I've got plenty of excuses but well, if I were really motivated, I'd find a way to make it work. I'm going to get back on the band wagon in the morning by going running with HA and Snowie.

I'm not sure how people do this running thing on a regular basis. I work late so by the time I'm done, the gym is close to being closed and it's too dark to run. So this leaves me with running in the morning. But as any of ou that know me know, I hate getting up in the morning. I'm so not good at it. But I'm gonna give it a try.

Just for the record, I have lost 2 pounds so far. Not exactly the pace at which I need to be, but at least it's something. Stay tuned..

Thoughts come clearly while one walks

2010-05-13T20:20:00.000+10:00

When I first moved to Australia, I dropped a bunch of weight. This was primarily due to the fact that I was walking EVERYWHERE. I love walking everywhere. I love not having to worry about filling the car with gas or scheduling oil changes. I love being able to leave whenever I want to without having to worry about traffic. It’s a lifestyle I quite enjoy.

There are some things that make all the walking really suck though. The biggest one is the winter. It really SUCKS to have to walk home when it’s cold outside. I wear a lot of dresses to work so during the winter, just to make it to and from work, have the choice of either a) walking in the freezing code or b) wear tights. Tights. Every time I wear them, I feel like I’m five years old again. What grown women wears tights? But its unbelievable how warm the tights are. And it helps that a good portion of the grown female population in Canberra wear tights as well. But it’s such a pain. This is definitely one of the reasons I live in Phoenix. No one wears tights in Phoenix. It’s too bloody hot!

One of the perks though of walking everywhere is that I lost a ton of weight. I got here and the weight just fell off. I was back to my early college weight and a size 10. I loved it. I felt so good about myself. But over the last few…five….months I’ve slowly put on weight. I partially blame HA. When I lived by myself, dinners consisted of a PB&J and a diet coke. Now, HA likes to have a full on dinner whenever we’re home. Sometimes we even have an appetizers. I eat so much more! So when my pants don’t fit anymore, I fully blame HA. :)

But to combat this, I’ve decided to start running. Urgh…I hate running but it’s a quick (or quickish) way to lose some weight. I decided it would do me well to post my goal up here so it’s out there for the world to see. I’m going to lose 15 pounds by July 15. Stay tuned people!

Travel Tip: Adelaide

2010-04-23T18:22:00.000+10:00

Just a quick travel tip for any of you going to Adelaide, if you need to book a cab, be sure to give yourself an extra 30 minutes from the time that you actually want to be picked up.

Last summer...sorry, I mean "winter" for all you Aussie's...in July/August, I was traveling to Adelaide on a fairly regular basis. The one consistency was that the cab was ALWAYS 30 minutes late picking me up. So I quickly learned to book the cab for 4:30 and get downstairs at 5:00 and things would be just fine. I'd make it to the airport in plenty of time and no stress.

Oh, how quickly you forget. I was in Adelaide for work this week. Yesterday I go to book the cab and I do it for 5:00. Well, needless to say, around 5:15, I remembered that the cabs never show up on time. So I start stressing cause the cab company keeps saying that the cab is on it's way and it never shows. Finally around 5:30, the cab gets there. And of course, b/c it's so late, we've now hit traffic (mind you, "traffic" is relative). It took just over 30 min to get to the airport when it's normally a 15 min cab ride.

I had just enough time to buy a book and get on the plane. No Qantas club for me. :(

One last tip on Adelaide - I wouldn't suggest the Hotel Grand Chancellor on Hindley. While it was generally clean and near restaurants, it just needs alot of love. Half of the shower curtain holders were broken and the ones that were working, didn't even match. The vents were covered in dust and god knows what else. I just chose not to think about what might be in the carpet. It was certainly not what I would equate with a four star hotel. But if you're staying in Adelaide, I would suggest the Medina - it's an old historical building so it has lots of character and it's very nice.

F1 or NASCAR? You decide...

2010-04-20T21:29:00.000+10:00

So one of the many things that I've been exposed to since I moved to Australia is Formula One racing. Each year in late March, Austalia hosts one of the races in Melbourne. It's a big deal and a major Australian event. So, of course, I felt it was my duty to attend.

I've been to a NASCAR race in Phoenix, and while it was very redneck, it was also a ton of fun. So, I thought maybe the F1 race would be similiar. So lets compare:

NASCAR - cars go in a circular lap
F1 - Cars drive a circuit which requires both left and right turns
Discuss: The level of difficulty is higher with F1 due to having to turn both ways

NASCAR - All fans get to sit in the stands and see the whole track
F1 - If you pay $600 for the weekend, you can get a sit in the stands and see the cars for the two seconds as they drive by
Discuss: In terms of a spector sport being watched in person, I believe that NASCAR wins hands down. While every seat may not be fabulous, you generally get to see a large portion of the track.

NASCAR - Non-race entertainment is generally limited to the shopping for souvenirs. At the Daytona 500, I think you can camp in the in field.
F1 - There are in field concerts on the day of the race
Discuss: Not sure which wins here as I thoroughly detest the type of music they were playing at the concerts at the F1.

So final decision - I vote NASCAR. Maybe it's the American in me but I truly believe that for an in-person sport, I believe that NASCAR provides better entertainment. I'm sure F1 has a higher degree of difficulty and there is more strategy, blah, blah, but if it's no fun to watch, then it means nothing.

6am Flights...Who thought that was a good idea?

2010-04-17T08:24:00.001+10:00

We're in Brisbane visiting HA's family. It's only 8am. That means we were on the plane at 6:30 this morning. Which means I was awake at 4:45. And anyone that knows me very well knows that I don't do mornings well. Poor HA has had to deal with my crankiness.

And because I'm going to Adelaide Tuesday morning, I have two more of these ridiculous flights. Booo!

So many places, so little time...

2010-03-10T17:59:00.000+11:00

Before I leave Australia, there are number of things I want to do.

1. Visit all the major cities
2. See "The Rock"
3. See something in the Opera House
4. Attend all the major Australian events
5. Go to New Zealand
6. See the Great Barrier Reef
7. Go on a wine tasting tour

So far, I've either done or scheduled most of these things. But there are still a few of these items outstanding. I'm now getting very close to the date they've set for me to go home. This time around, I don't anticipate that they'll extend me, or if they do, it won't be for long.

I've now gotten to a point where I need to decide what is really really important. So far, I've been to all the capitals with the exceptions of Darwin and Perth. I've spent time in Adelaide but it was for work, so I don't really count it. I haven't been to Uluru ("The Rock") or New Zealand or on a "good" wine tasting tour (Hobart doesn't really count).

How do you decide what's the most important to do when you've been given this amazing opportunity to live and work overseas? I feel like I've wasted my time - but at the same time, I've lived like an Australian rather than a tourist.

Now, do I risk the wrath of my boss and ask for lots of time off to finish out my list or do I prioritize them? And what about the money? Getting to these places won't be cheap.

I'd be open to any suggestions people might have!

Oh to be a Newbie...

2010-02-25T19:05:00.003+11:00

I've been reading through some of my old blogs and it's making me giggle how much culture shock I went through. I can't believe I thought Starbucks was better coffee. There's no way I believe that now. I'm a bit concerned about what I'm going to do when I move home and want a good coffee!!

And my first trip to Sydney. Now it seems like nothing to head off to Sydney. I know my favorite areas of the city - I have some favorite restuarants even. I love Sydney. I cannot suggest it highly enough to people. Here in Oz, there's a bit of a rivalry (ok, more than a bit) between Melbourne and Sydney. You typically like one city more than the other. I am, without question, a Sydney girl. I could live there very easily. If you've never been, I would highly, highly suggest it.

As much as I might complain about some things in Oz (commentating of the Olympics, no refills), I really do love it here. The people are generally very laid back and easy going people. The weather is good, there are lots of food options, and lots of traveling options.

This weekend there are around 10 of us renting a house in Ulladula. The house is right on the beach with it's own pool and it's own access to the beach. There's 12 acres of land and it should be pretty quiet. Which is good considering we're taking the Wii and the Wii fit board to have a tournament. It may just get a little bit crazy in Ulladula this weekend! :)

Next weekend is Canberra Day weekend so we get a public holiday (woo hoo!). I think HA and I are heading off to Sydney and the Hunter Valley for some wine tasting. At minimum, we'll be at the beach.

Stay tuned..I'll post pictures.

The Olympics

2010-02-19T18:14:00.001+11:00

One of the things that I find I miss the most about living here in Australia is my affliation to sports teams. I don't really "get" most of the Australian sports. Cricket is alot like baseball but goes for five days. I'm definitely not into that. Rugby (either of the leagues) and AFL are just confusing. See my first blog for details. So, in the nearly two years, I haven't really had much in the way of sports in my life.

So, when the Olympics started last week, I was kinda excited. Everyone loves the Olympics, right? The Olympic spirit and all that. So I was fully under the impression that it would be much like the US where the Olympics were played in prime time and you get to see everything.

You'd think after living here for nearly two years, I would know better.

No no...the Olympic telecast starts at 11pm and goes for three hours. Now, if this were live or even just a few hours delayed, I could probably get in line with that. But no...it's pretty much a 15 to 24 hour delay. Which means, if I'm reading any sort of media outlet during the day at work, I'll know the outcome before I get to watch it.

But again..fine, I signed up for that when I moved to Australia. What really gets me is the actual telecast and the commentating. HA and I were watching the mens mogals the other night where the Canadian won gold and the Australian got the silver. Wow! A silver medal for a country that is known for it's beaches...and really..it's an OLYMPIC SILVER MEDAL. Be proud..be happy. But alas...they spent the next hour trying to talk themselves into the fact that the Canadian should have won the medal. A literal play by play of the two runs. AN HOUR.

Ok, if it were the US that looked like it should have won the gold, maybe we would have spent an hour detailing it out as well. But then to make matters worse, they don't really show much of the olympics. Most of the show is commentating and talking. I just wanna see the action. Show me some figure skating..and not just one couple but the whole series of things.

Maybe over the weekend I can stay up and watch some of the olympics. I just miss being in the US and being able to be a proud American without coming off like an obnoxious American.

The traffic is gonna be miserable....

2010-02-11T21:42:00.001+11:00

President Obama is coming to town! Stay tuned for more information!

An Aussie Christmas...

2010-01-16T08:46:00.000+11:00

Its amazing the things you don’t notice around you until someone who isn’t used to them points them out. I’ve brought two Australians home with me for Christmas – HA and Boris. They’ve pointed things out to me that I would never have thought twice about but when I consider it, those things are uniquely American.

• HA loves the yellow school buses. It hadn’t dawned on me that they don’t have school buses in Oz – instead they use public transportation.
• I’ve gotten so much grief from both of them about the four way stops. They want to know why we don’t just use roundabouts and what happens when people pull up to all four stop signs at the same time. They won’t take my word for it that it never happens! They insist that there’s an intersection somewhere in the US where there are four cars sitting there waiting for someone to figure out who has the right of way.
• And everything is big here. You know, when you live here full-time, you just get used to the size of everything but when you come back to the US after being gone for so long, it can be amazing. The grocery stores in Oz are half the size, at most, to the grocery stores here. When I took HA shopping in Phoenix, I was even a little overwhelmed at all the choices. And the movie theaters – they’re huge too. Not to mention the drinks and popcorn. The boys loved it that you could buy this massive sized popcorn and then get a free refill.
• Oh and the refills! You don’t get free refills in Oz! That is definitely one thing I miss.
• One thing I do love those, are the highways. They are so well built and it makes traveling in this country so easy. The roads are straight and narrow and well maintained. Driving 700 miles, when the weather is good, seems like nothing.

I really enjoyed bringing some Aussie’s home with me for Christmas. Its refreshing to see your country through the eyes of someone who’s experiencing it for the first time. While, of course, there were things they didn’t like or didn’t understand, but for the most part, they seemed to enjoyed themselves. And for me, it just inspired me to love my country even more.

May-o-ween?

2009-05-13T21:23:00.000+10:00

So a month ago or so on the way to Sydney with my parents, I saw a sign for a pumpkin festival. I thought "woo hoo! Pumpkins in May? That sounds novel!". I had visions of corn mazes, hay rides, and human sized pumpkins floating around in my head. I got even more excited when I read on the website that there was going to be pumpkin pie! How great would that be? You don't normally get pumpkin pie in the US until October or November.

So, I talk HA and Max into going with me on Sunday - it was about a 45 minute drive (kind of a big deal when your typical universe is only where you can walk). The day comes and it's absolutely beautiful outside. 19 degrees and sunny. Who could ask for a better day for a pumpkin festival. The festival was in Collector, a tiny little town of 150. We get there and there are hundreds of cars - the town has probably tripled in size. It's $5 per car - pretty cheap..and with all these people, it must be good.

Immediately, there are boxes that say "Pumpkins $5" - sounds great! I'd love to carve pumpkins in may. Except...wait..these pumpkins...what? They're green. Green? And the other pumpkins...they're funny shaped...like peanuts. What is going on here?? I look around and sure enough there are cut outs of orange halloween pumpkins...but where are they? So I look at HA all confused.."where are the orange pumpkins?" and he looks at me like I'm crazy. Apparently, they don't have orange pumpkins. Deep breath...ok, well, there's still the pumpkin pie.

The three of head off to find coffee and pumpkin pie. I look through all the food stalls but I don't see it. We ask the coffee lady but she's not from around here so she doesn't know. Finally, I ask a little old lady and she doesn't know either. We see a stall with pumpkin sconces and whoa! they have the pumpkin pies! But wait..they look lke meat pie. So I ask the man "Are they sweet or savory pies?" And again, I get a look like I'm crazy. Apparently, they're savory pies. Great. Well, alright, we'll try one. So Max and I buy one and we look at it skeptically. I take a bite and...I get pumpkin and celery. Celery? Yes, you read that right. Needless to say, Max and I had HA finish it. Again, disappointed.

But we made up for it by getting a post-mix at the Macca's in Goulburn. Gotta love the McDonald's fountain sodas. A lesson for my American friends..fountain sodas are called post-mix...and Macca's is McDonalds. Getting post-mix is a bit of a treat since most restaurants serve soda out of a bottle.

Tasmanian Devils are nothing like the cartoon...

2009-04-05T14:59:00.000+10:00

So I talked about Tasmania in my last blog and I thought I would share my weekend with you. It was probably one of the funnest weekends I've had in Australia yet.

So my friend Max was in the Antartic for a month on a boat. Myself and two friends decided to go down and meet her when she arrived back in civiliation. The weekend started with a 6:30 AM flight from Canberra to Hobart on a Saturday. For those of you that know me, you know that I'm not much of a morning person. Being at the airport at 5AM hurt. We flew Qantas which is probably my favorite airline ever. The staff is nice and they serve full meals that you don't have to pay for. The US airlines could learn a few things from those guys.

The car we rented ended up being "upgraded" to a small tank. This car was massive - think Land Rover but bigger. Good thing the boys were driving. So we get to the dock area and meet Max. She's surrounded by half the boat (which doesn't surprise me) and so excited to be home. We catch a quick lunch with her and some of her boat friends and then cruise through the markets real quick. Turns out our hotel room was just across the street from her boat so it was so easy to get her luggage and checked into the room. We spent the rest of Saturday afternoon hanging out and catching up. Then we hit a Thai restuarant with some of the crew from the boat (mostly the helicopter pilots and their friends). I found one of my favorite white wines ever at this restaurant and am now hooked. I hope I can find somewhere in the states that sells it.

Here's a picture of Salamanca Square in Hobart.

Oh! Also on Saturday, we toured The Sea Shephard. Thats the boat used to try and stop the Japanese whalers each year. They were giving tours of the boat for donations and hyping their show that's on Discovery. It was pretty interesting to hear about some of their tactics and how the Japanese respond.

Sunday was a beautiful day - sunny but just a touch chilly - kinda like a nice autumn day. The four of us decided to go wine tasting so we headed up to Richmond from Hobart in our tank. I'm not sure how many wineries we hit but between the four of us, we bought 26 bottles of wine. Thankfully, they'll ship the wine to you so you don't have to figure out how to get it home. And it turns out that we were there on a great weekend. They were having some sort of event where wineries that aren't normally open to the public were having tastings. We then headed up to Richmond to have lunch. It's a cute little town with the oldest working bridge in Australia. We ended up going to an oyster farm for dinner as the boys are oyster fans. I however an not so I had a steak. One thing to know though - Tasmania isn't BYO. That was frustrating after buying 26 bottles of wine. Here's a picture of three of us at one of the vineyards. JC is missing as he's taking the pic.

Oh! I forgot the other great part of Sunday. Max became pretty good friends with one of the helicopter pilots on the boat and he offered to give us a quick tour of the area. It was very cool to get to see the coast of Tasmania and a the skyline of Hobart. Here's a picture of Max's boat from the air.

We lost HA on Monday since he had to go to work that afternoon. So the three of us decided to get outta Hobart and do some hiking. We drove up to the the Hartz Mtns and did a quick hike up to a lake. Here are some of the pictures. One of the prettiest areas I've visited in Oz yet.

We lost JC that night so Max and I had to rent our own car. This is where things got really interesting for me. Me, in my wisdom, offers to go rent the car. I get the counter and the lady proceeds to ask me for my license. This is when it dawns on me that I'M GOING TO HAVE TO DRIVE THE CAR TO MAX. In my head, I'm starting to panic but I'm trying to stay cool b/c I'm afraid they won't rent me the car if I act like a fruit loop. She hands me the keys and I cooly get into the car on the right hand side..so far so good. Then I reach over my left shoulder for the seat belt...and i reach...and I reach. Then i realize, Opps..wrong side. I laugh out loud and wave to the lady, who is watchin me and proceed to buckle up. I throw the car into drive and pull out of the parking spot. I go to turn left and suddenly the windshield wipers are on! Oh crap, wrong side. I pull out into traffic, repeating to myself "left side, left side, left side"...it became my mantra. by the time I get to Max, I believe that my hair is falling out from the stress, but at the same time, it was really fun. I felt like I was conquering a fear so I ask Max if she minds if i drive to the hotel. Thankfully, Hobart traffic on a Monday night is pretty light so there were no incidents. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of me driving so just use your imagination.

The next day, Max and I got massages at the hotel and then decided to drive to Port Arthur which is about two and a half hours away. I drove the whole way! Fun! On the way we stopped at a Tasmanian devil farm. They look like dogs - nothing like the cartoon. And they definitely don't spin in circles. I was a bit disappointed. Once we made it to Port Arthur, we toured the old prison grounds and then decided to take the ghost tour that night. It was pretty fun with the exception of the A-holes that used their flash cameras after being specifically asked not to. A couple of pictures for you. You should look up the history of the prison - it's pretty interesting.

Max drove back since it was dark and I was scared of hitting an animal. On that drive we saw signs for every possible type of Australian animal. Max has pictures - I'll upload for you later.

We got back to the hotel in Hobart around 1am and then left a little after 4am to catch our flight and then off to work.

One of the best weekends yet. If you want to see all the pictures, let me know and I'll send you the link.

Updates...Updates...

2009-03-27T04:01:00.001+11:00

So it's been awhile since I blogged....here's a quick update on things going on since the last blog:

* I spent New Year's Eve in Sydney and it was one of my favorite memories ever...really EVER. I was with great friends, in a great location, watching a great show. A group of seven of us bought tickets to a party on top of the Park Hyatt, which has a great view of both the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. From the roof, we had a phenomenal view of both fireworks shows. I would highly suggest Sydney to anyone that wants to experience New Years in Australia. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

* My friend Max spent the month of February in the Antartic. I got to experience life in Canberra without a girlfriend. It's not so much fun. They say there's a man shortage in Australia, but not if you're in Canberra - there are men everywhere.

* I flew back to the US to attend training in Chicago. Chicago in February is VERY VERY cold. I got to hang out with Mert though so that totally made up for it.

* The week after getting back from Chicago, HA, JC, and I went down to Hobart to pick up Max from her Antartic adventure. That was probably one of my favorite weekends in Australia yet. I should write a whole blog on just that weekend alone.

* HA and I went to Sydney for Sound Relief. Sound Relief was two concerts put on to raise money for the Bush fires and the flooding. The concert in Sydney didn't have a great line up but it was fun to go and spend the weekend in Sydney. The weather was still nice enough to hit the beach.

And now I'm in LA about to board the MayerCraft Carrier for the next five days. From there, I'll head to Phoenix for a few days. It'll be nice to be in my house for awhile - although weird at the same time.

I currently have a lady siting next to me that insists on talking to no one. I'm not sure if you all know, but I absolutely HATE LAX. I mean, I hate it, hate it, hate it.

Look forward to a blog on Hobart and my shenanigans on the MayerCraft!

Beach in November???

2008-12-09T13:49:00.000+11:00

I got back from Melbourne on Wednesday morning and left for Mollymook on Friday afternoon. Mollymook is a small town on the east Australian coast (near Bateman’s Bay for those of you that want to look it up). The Americans on the project decided to have a beach weekend and rented a house. There were five us there in a four bedroom house (the house was sooooo cheap and soooo worth it). The house wasn’t right on the beach but you got the best views of the beach and the ocean. I’ve got some pictures below.

Saturday morning was a bit overcast and chilly so there was no beach time. However, on the upside, as we sat on the balcony, we got to whale watch. Yes, that’s right, the whales came right into our cove and put on a show. It was pretty cool. That night we went to one of the hotels for pre-dinner drinks (gosh, I’m beginning to sound like an alcoholic). At the hotel, we got another outstanding whale show. The hotel was cool enough to lend out binoculars to everyone to watch. Hopefully you can see the whales in the pictures. From there we went to Cupid’s winery for dinner. There are some pictures below again. The sunset was phenomenal – just absolutely gorgeous. The food was great (wouldn’t suggest the vineyard’s wine though). Definitely a great night hanging out with my American friends.

Oh – we also had a “No Aussie Talk” rule in place during the trip. We weren’t allowed to talk like Aussie’s. It was good fun hearing the American version of words all weekend. You might wonder what words I could be talking about. Well, take the word depot for example. We pronounce it de-po. They pronounce it dep-o. Just little things like that.

Notice it rained this weekend??

The Race That Stops the Nation!

2008-12-09T13:32:00.000+11:00

I got back from the States on a Tuesday and on Saturday; I headed out to Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup. For those of you that don’t know, every spring in Melbourne, they have the Spring Carnival - essentially a week of horse races. It started in the 60’s when the race track wanted to find a way to get more women to attend the races. So they instituted a week of fashion shows and competitions. Each day at the race (there are four race days during the week) have a different theme and you want to dress differently for each one. On top of that, two states in Australia get the day of the Melbourne Cup off of work and it just so happens, I’m living in one of those states.

My friend Michelle and I got to Melbourne on Saturday and immediately get changed and head into the CBD for dinner and drinks (our flight was over an hour late and we flew Tiger Air – like Southwest but not as nice). We got into downtown just as the trains for Derby (pronounced Darby) Day were arriving. Everyone was dressed up with hats or fascinators and the men were in suits with bright ties and shirts. So fascinators – I got a couple of questions on this. Essentially, they’re lazy hats. They attach to your hair with combs or a headband. They’re typically made of flowers or feathers. They’re cheaper than hats and you don’t end up with hat head. We had dinner on the South Bank of the Yarra River and got to people watch. Then we went out and had a few drinks. We met a nice Australian that lives in the UK but was in town for work (the American accent – so easy to make friends)!

Sunday and Monday were full on shopping days. Neither Michelle or I had a fascinator so it was a mad dash to find one. On top of that Melbourne has GREAT shopping – a lot of stuff that you can’t find in Canberra or Sydney. Fascinators and hats are really expensive so we were trying to find ones that we liked but didn’t have to spend a ton of money on. Either way, I had a great time shopping.

Tuesday is Melbourne Cup day. “It’s the Race that stops a Nation.” There were over 100k people at this horse race. Michelle and I were smart enough though to buy tickets to a reserved section of the course so there were less people and we didn’t have to stand in line all day long to buy drinks or place bets. I bet on four races and won on two, but I won enough to cover the costs of the four bets. I can’t complain about that. We only ventured out of our reserved area a few times – most specifically for the actual Melbourne cup race. We found some elevated seats and watched the race. The horse favored to win was an American horse, so of course I bet on it. Unfortunately though, it came in near last. Quite a disappointment for everyone that bet on it. I got some pretty good shots of the horses.

Needless to say, after glasses and glasses of champers (aka champagne for my American friends), I was in a mood to go out afterwards. And the town gets crazy after the Melbourne Cup. There were people out everywhere. The atmosphere was amazing. Unfortunately though, Michelle and I had to catch a 7am flight so there wasn’t too much partying that night.

The Melbourne Cup is definitely one of my favorite Aussie experiences yet and if I’m here next November, I’m going again.

Oh – and it rained in Melbourne…I think you’ll see a pattern.

3 days to cross the Pacific and back

2008-12-09T13:29:00.000+11:00

I haven’t blogged in awhile so I’m going to add entries based on my weekends over the last month and a half or so.

So as part of my package to come to Australia, I get to fly home every two months. In October, I decided to take advantage of the perk. I was having some issues with the yard guy and wanted to check in on the house and, well, I was a bit homesick. However, work wasn’t able, willing, whatever, to have me be gone for too terribly long. So I went home for three days. Yes you read that correctly – three days. I think I was traveling for 60 hours to be home for 72. But I got to fly business so it wasn’t all that bad.

My suitcase when I left weighted 7 kilos and it was my massive, biggest possible suitcase. I think I had a pair of jeans, three shirts, and some underwear. When I came home, I was over the weight limit! Yes, that’s how much I bought or brought back from home! You don’t appreciate the shopping alternatives you have at home until you decide to live overseas. Canberra shopping is limited, at best, and the quality of the clothing leaves a lot to be desired. So I think I did nothing but shop while I was home. You can’t say that I’m not trying to contribute to the stimulating the economy!

I also caught up with some friends while I was there. The old project I worked for was having a party on Thursday night and invited me to join them. It was fun getting to catch up with some old work people and getting to meet the newest team members. Then on Friday, about 15 of us went out for dinner and drinks.

I love living in Australia, but let me just tell you this – there is a serious difference between American men and Australian men. It’s called “The Tall Poppy” syndrome. Essentially, Australians are taught not to stand out too much in a crowd, to not be too different or better…don’t be the tall poppy. So what this means – men at bars, restaurants, the grocery store, will never approach you. They’ll look at you and smile, but never approach you. If you really want to talk to him, you have to go to him. But in the US, as my US friends know, American men have no shame! They’ll talk to everyone – it’s all about being the best in the room. I haven’t decided which approach I like best yet. You can clearly see this difference once you come back to the US. Was a bit of a culture shock.

I got back to Oz on a Tuesday and headed straight to work. I think because the trip was so short, I never really got on US time so acclimating back wasn’t that tough. It was a good trip, and I’m glad I went. I was pretty homesick prior to the trip, but afterwards, I came to appreciate what I have going on in Australia. That being said though – I’m very excited to go home for Christmas! More Shopping!!

Just keep that Bono off my back

2008-10-09T21:52:00.000+11:00

Sorry that it's been awhile since my last blog. Thankfully life and work have picked up for me and I don't spend as much time at home. I'll try to be better about keeping you informed on what's going on.

It was Labour Day weekend in Australia this past weekend, so we got a three day weekend. It’s just the spring here so things are starting to warm up and the trees are turning green. I thought it would be a good weekend to have my first excursion outside of Canberra. My friend Michelle and I decided to head to Sydney for the weekend. Sydney is about three hours from Canberra when you’re driving. We booked rooms at the Amora Jamison (apparently the Accenture hotel of choice) and booked our round trip bus tickets (yes, the bus!). We decided not to plan anything specific to do in Sydney – we’d just see where things took us.

We left work early (we work on the same project but different teams) and caught the bus to Sydney. Thank god for Ipods – I don’t know how I would have made it otherwise. We arrived in Sydney a little bit after 7pm on Friday night. From the moment you step off the bus, you can feel the difference between Canberra and Sydney. Beyond the temperature and humidity difference, there were so many more people walking around. You immediately have the big city feel. It was great after being locked into Canberra for months. We dropped our bags off at the hotel and decide to have dinner at Darling Harbour. I didn’t take any pictures of Darling Harbour and I’m not real sure how to explain it. There were restaurants and bars along the water – all of them with outdoor seating. The ferry boats and yachts were lined along the dock, there’s an IMAX and the Sydney Aquarium there as well. Oh – and the monorail – all weekend, it made me think of Disney World. We found a seafood restaurant – I had the Barramundi which is the local fish. Very good – if you come to visit, we’ll be sure to have some. After dinner, it started to rain, so we made a stop to get some ice cream and wait it out. Once it cleared up, we walked around checking things out. I was a bit tired from work and the bus ride, so we called it an early night.

We woke up Saturday to overcast skies and a high probability of rain. We get dressed and head to Starbucks! FINALLY! Starbucks after two months!! They closed all the stores in Canberra so I’ve been having to get coffee from the local restaurants, which is fine, but there is something about Starbucks that is just…better, to me. Michelle and I decide to come up with rainy day activities and head back to Darling Harbour to see the Aquarium. Unfortunately, when we got there, there were a billion kids and the line was a billion miles long. Those two things together do not make a happy Dana, so we passed. We jumped on the monorail and headed to Paddy’s Market. Paddy’s market is a huge indoor swap market type thing. For the fam, think of Nassau in the Bahamas, right off the boat. It was just like that but with better stuff. I could totally have spent the whole day there but, there were a billion people, so again, after awhile, not a happy Dana. Here’s a picture of Paddy’s Market.

From there, we decided that the best rainy day activity is to, well, shop. So, we hit the shopping district and spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. We couldn’t buy too much because we had both brought small bags and we weren’t real sure how we were going to get it home. We were pretty tired from our strenuous day of shopping so we went back to the hotel and napped. From there, we made plans to meet up with some other ex-pat friends that live in Sydney for dinner. They took us out to Bondi Junction which is near Bondi Beach (but you couldn’t see the beach). To get there, we took the subway. This was probably the most advanced subway system I’d ever been on. It was two levels deep and the trains were double-decker. I felt very cosmopolitan. After dinner, we headed out to meet an Irish friend from work that was also in Sydney. He had us meet him at an Irish pub (go figure). We had to be wanded with a metal detector before we could go in. Even in the US, I’m not sure I’ve ever had to do that. The bar was ok though – nothing special. It was a pretty early night by Australian standards – we were home by 1am. Oh! I forgot a part…prior to heading to the Irish bar, we were going to have a drink at a bar in the King’s Cross area of Sydney. For those of you not in the know, this is the “red light district” of Sydney. Strip clubs line the street and men stand outside recruiting other men to come inside. Creepy.

Sunday, we slept in for awhile then headed off for more Starbucks. We then hit the market at The Rocks. It’s a pretty neat little market – lots of arts and crafts. A little more high class than Paddy’s. We stopped and had pizza for lunch and then headed over to Circular Quay to catch the ferry to Manly Beach. The only problem – we forgot it was daylight savings. So we missed our first ferry but thankfully, the people working at the docks were nice enough to let us catch the next one. Manly Beach is one of Sydney’s most popular beaches. Unfortunately, the weather was still crap so we only got to walk around. Thankfully though, there was a Jazz festival going on so we sat on the beach for awhile and listened to some music. It just happened that the NRL Grand Finals were in Sydney that weekend and the Manly team was playing. All the bars in the area were packed full of people watching the game. Which made it easy to get into a restaurant. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and got changed for a night out on the town. We headed out for a few drinks.

We were out late enough that on Monday we decided to sleep in as late as we could. Then we packed up, dropped our bags at the concierge, and headed back out. First we hit the Sydney Fish Market. There was food everywhere! And it was so good. I think it's one of my favorite places in Sydney. The weather wasn’t quite as crappy but still not great so we headed to the opera house. We needed to kill some time so we took a tour of the Opera house. Then we headed off towards the bus stations. Everyone in Canberra must have been in Sydney because there were four buses on the return trip.

Here are some pictures. I took more so if you’re interested, shoot me a message and I’ll end you a link to the rest of them.

Opera House

Sydney Bridge

Manly Beach

Sydney Fish Market

I've Been Tagged

2008-09-16T20:19:00.000+10:00

My Uncle has tagged me so in the spirit of blogging, I am participating.

Here is how it is done.

A) People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs & replace any question that they dislike with a new question. (note, you’ll need to pull the list of questions from Baloney's post above if you want to see which one I switched out). FYI, I'm too lazy to think of new questions, I'll just be using my Yogi's.

B) Tag 8 people to do this quiz. Hmmm...I'll have to think on this one.

1.How many songs are on your iPod? I have 1708 songs on my ipod.

2. What music would you want played at your funeral? Hmmm, tough one. I hope its fun music and people are celebrating my life.

3.What magazines do you have subscriptions to? None at the moment but when I move back to the US, I think I'm going to get Cosmo and maybe something worthwhile like US News.

4. What is your favorite scent? hmmm...fresh cut grass...no, no...freshly baked chocolate chip cookies!

5. If you had a million dollars that you could only spend on yourself, what would you do with it? Travel the world!!

6. What is your theme song? Independent by Webbie

7. Do you trust easily? Nope, prove to me there's a reason to trust you.

8. Do you generally think before you act, or act before you think? I think too much sometimes and take too long to make a decision.

9.Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days? Work is driving me crazy. They're so unorganized...too many priorities. There are only 24 hours in a day people!

10. Do you have a good body-image? Better than I did a year ago and definitely better than two years ago. But does a woman ever have a good body image?

11. Is being tagged fun? Sure, why not?

12. How do you spend your social networking (Facebook, etc.) time? Mostly facebook these days but some myspace still. I also write in my blog occassionally and read my Uncle Yogi's blog.

13. What have you been seriously addicted to lately? Sour Patch Kids, Turkish Pizza (OH MY GOD - YUM), Matt Nathanson

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is? Uncle Yogi - he's always struck me as type A, analytical, independent, smart.

15. What’s the last song that got stuck in your head? I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry

16.What’s your favorite item of clothing? Do shoes count? I love to buy new shoes! But otherwise, a tank top and some flannel pants

17. What is the perfect birthday cake? Something with chocolate...and maybe peanut butter

18. What cartoon character is most like you? Probably Dilbert, i don't really know any other cartoon characters

19. What items could you not go without during the day? My laptop, my mobile

20. What should you be doing right now? Fixing the workplan so everyone can enter their time on Thursday

Just call me Seppo

2008-09-10T11:28:00.000+10:00

I just love how non-Americans feel like it’s their right, no even their duty, to have an opinion on American politics and the American way of life. Wait, no, it’s not the opinion – it’s great that they have one. It’s the need to share that opinion with Americans – it’s that need for them to feel like they have the right to share that opinion with me. It’s the need they feel to ask me who I’m voting for and then tell me that America doesn’t have any good choices anyway, so it doesn’t matter who I vote for.

It’s the need for them to tell me how American capitalism has ruined the world and how we feel the need to push our beliefs and way of life onto other cultures. It’s the need for them to call me a “seppo” (look it up in urbandictionary.com – it’s not nice) even when they’ve only known me for 3 seconds. It’s the need for them to ridicule me because I’m not forced to learn the Australian governmental system when I’m in school.

I understand that the US has a huge world presence and therefore, what we do affects a large number of people. But you know what? We do A LOT of good too! We don’t just invade countries. We also provide a lot of humanitarian aide. Most of us in the US are good people. Yes we have some bad eggs, but that can be said about any country. And YES, some of our schools have metal detectors in them, but we’re trying to make our schools safe for our kids. And when the US is 5 times the size of yours, YES, there’s going to be more violence, because there are more people!

And I don’t believe that we always push our beliefs on everyone else. I think some of you people WANT to be American. For instance – Abercrombie and Fitch are HUGE over here – even though there isn’t one store in the country. Huh, clearly, we’re not pushing that brand but yet you want it. How is that OUR fault?

I realize that I’m in your country by choice but I don’t think I’m asking too much for some plain ole respect. If you came to the US and I talked shit about Australia, you’d call me a rude, ignorant American. So why is it ok for you to do that to me?

My Time Down Under - 10 Months and Counting

2008-09-01T00:56:00.000+10:00

Hello everyone! It's been awhile since I posted anything. Sorry about that - I'm trying to get acclaimated.

So you did read the title right. I'm here for ten more months - June 2009. After talking to my manager, we decided it would be better for everyone - me, Accenture, the ATO, if stayed longer. There isn't much value I can bring in four or five months. And hopefully, I'll be running the team by the end of the year. It'll be a good thing for my career. Work is ok. A little easier than I'm used to in terms of the workload. The hard part is figuring out the politics and seeing how much change I can implement. It's a slow process but it'll be good for me to learn how to manuever the politics of the place.

My social life is slowly picking up pace. I saw my first concert in Canberra. If you like Jack Johnson, you'll like Pete Murray. He just released an album and it's pretty good. I would highly suggest it and he's great live too! Some of the folks from work go to trivia night at one of the local bars on Tuesday's. I've been put in charge of all the questions about the US. Thankfully, so far, the questions have been pretty easy. I don't want to look like a ding dong.

Other than that, I've met a few more young people on the project. There aren't very many Accenture women, so most of them are men and I am the oldest by far! But they've been great so far. They introduced me to Canberra night life a couple of Friday's ago. Needless to say, it's not all that exciting and everyone seems to know everyone. But I do have to admit, it was exciting to find out that there is even a nightlife in this town! Usually when I walk around on the weekend, it's completely dead! I obviously didn't know where to go. Oh! One other thing to note - the drinking age here is 18!! I remember now why I don't like going to 18 to enter bars. I just can't handle all the youngsters!

I'll check in again later this week!

Bulldogs Bite and Bulldogs Roar!

2008-08-04T18:06:00.000+10:00

I attended my first Australian Rules Football game yesterday (AFL). The Western Bulldogs (Melbourne) vs. the Sydney Swans. The Bulldogs came out on top by around 20 points. It was a raging good time had by all!

To explain Australian Rules to my American friends and family - take the ball from NFL (but enlarge it a bit), the dribbling from basketball, the kicking and running from soccer, throw in some mass chaos - and WAH-LA! You have Australian Rules! I really have no idea the rules to the game. It appears there is no strategy or set plays...just throw the ball out there and try to get it to your end of the field - 18 men and mass chaos. It's a pretty tough sport. No padding but there's tackling. They don't stop play unless there's blood. One of the umpires got knocked out and they just kept playing around him. They allow random people out onto the field whenever they want - trainers, runners, and the water girl. One of the best parts to the game were the runners. These guys get directions from the coaches in the coaches box and then they run out onto the field and try to tell the players what they're supposed to do. I don't think I saw one player paying any attention to those guys.

The game itself had a high school or division II colllege football game feel to it. The stadium was pretty small - held about 13k people. No cheerleaders though or band section. The cheering squad is made up of volunteers who make the sign for the team to run through and have pom poms at either end of the field.

But I can chalk it up to an experience and I might go to another game. But I think I'm too American. I like my NFL.

Speaking of the NFL, I need to say this. Brett Favre - please do not come out of retirement. Take the multi-million dollar marketing offer from the Packers and stay retired. Go into broadcasting or get a reality show. Just don't ruin your legacy by coming back and getting traded. Don't do it!

Telstra Tower

2008-08-02T21:33:00.000+10:00

Today I decided to venture out and see some sites in Canberra. I decided on the Telstra Tower cause you can see it from everywhere in the city and I thought i could get some good pictures of the area for everyone.

The Telstra Tower is the communications hub for the Canberra area. It has a viewing deck and supposedly a exhibit on the history of telecommunications in Australia (couldn't find it though). I caught the "Tourist Loop" up to the tower. It's $3 for a one way fare on the weekends..seems a bit steep to me but i guess gas prices are affecting everyone. It was $6 to get into the tower. They have a revolving restuarant and a viewing area. The inside viewing area is nice, it has a coffee shop and a little gift shop and a 360 view of Canberra. I made my way up to the viewing area outside and it was FREEZING. The wind was blowing and it was probably around 40 degrees! Brrrr! I took some pictures on the lower viewing deck then went inside for some coffee (I had an hour to kill before the bus). I read my tourist book and had coffee to kill some time. I ended up sitting with this cute little old Australian couple. They're on "holiday" for the next "fort night". He couldn't hear very well so she had to keep yelling at him everything i said. Very cute.

I then decided to brave the upper viewing deck...but i couldn't handle it for too long. Sooooo cold! I do miss the Phoenix warmth! At least it doesn't snow here. Anyway, it was still a gorgeous day and the area around Canberra is beautiful. I'm not sure that the pictures relay that. I can't really compare the terrain to anything i know in the US. It's not like the rockies. In Colorado, it's all plains and then BAM the mountains. Here is seems more like a slow build up to the big mountains. Maybe it's like the Appalachins on the east coast. I don't know.

There are more pictures in my picasa album if you're interested.

I have to point this out. While I was waiting for the bus (which I almost missed!), I saw this car. Notice that the exhaust is by the windshield. I'd seen these cars on TV but never in real life. Just thought I would share.

Christmas in July?

2008-07-30T20:56:00.000+10:00

For the last three nights, when I leave work, I've had the same thought. As I walk out at 5:30 and it's dark, the lights are twinkling in the chilly air, I automatically think "Oh, it's almost Christmas" (followed by a momentary panic attack that I haven't bought any presents). Then I remember, that it's July. July! I think that's one of the hardest things to get used to - that the seasons are backwards. Inside of bundling up for a football game in October, I'll be breaking out the shorts and heading to the beach.

On a side note, I wanted to mention a few things that I've noticed around here. In the US, it's pretty common that men will hold open doors for women and let women off the elevator first. I'd say it's pretty much the standard. I haven't seen that here. Men don't hold open doors and they will push their way off of an elevator. Makes me appreciate American men even more!

Also, a case of corona - $60 Australian dollars! Crazy!

And to the family - if you wanna send DVDs or something, i wouldn't turn them away. I have like six TV stations and two of them are pretty much all sports - well, rugby anyway. The rest show old American shows or crazy Aussie shows. I need something to keep me occupied!!

First Day at Work

2008-07-28T21:27:00.001+10:00

So, today was my first day at work. It was a normal first day - mostly unproductive. They didn't have my user accounts set up yet, of course. So, they printed off a ton of power point presentations for me - mostly about the testing methodology. Yea, I wrote that in Arizona. So, I was bored most of the day. And then the jet lag kicked in about 3 this afternoon. I kept yawning. Finally one of the guys in the cube was like "Jet lag kicking in?" Umm, yes. And then the lady in the cube had her two kids with her. They hang out with her every day from 3:30 to 4:30. Oh joy. She even has a TV on her desk for them to watch cartoons. And she brings afternoon snacks that she heats up for them. How nice.

At least I'll be getting some form of exercise everyday by walking to work. I'm going to have to be one of those dorks that walks in her tennis shoes and then switches over to the heels. I walked all day in my heels today and my feet are killing me.

I'm not sure about this urban living. I'm used to driving to the grocery store and buying sacks and sacks of food and then driving home and unloading them. I can't do that here. I'll have to make short trips every day to get what i need. I even have a reusable bag.

I also had no idea how how it was to get broadband service outside the US. I'm finding that they measure everything here. I was told today that I have a cap of $5 a day for electricity usage. What the heck does that mean?? I have no idea what my normal consumption is. How am I supposed to know when I go over $5? And for broadband, you have to pay for how mucy you use. Unlike in the states where you just plug in and go. Here you have to gauge how much you're going to use. I guessed at 6GB a month. Who knows, I could use alot more than that.

Oh, and all the stores close here at 5:30. Yes, you read that right - 5:30pm. It's craziness. Oh, but they have LATE shopping on Friday nights. Woo-hoo! Wild and crazy Aussies! There's so much to get used to.

Apartment Pictures!

2008-07-27T21:04:00.001+10:00

Finally - Online!!

2008-07-27T15:18:00.000+10:00

I'm finally online! It may be dial-up but at least it's something. I'm finally in Canberra and slowly acclimating myself to the city. Getting here was a long day but it was good to know that I could do it.

The day started off crazy. I had to finish up getting the house ready - making sure everything was locked up, meeting the window guy for re-chalking, and just basic cleaning. Then it was off to pick up Merritt and drop her off at the airport. I think that's the first time I cried since this whole thing got started. Then it was back to the house to load up the car and drug up the cat. She didn't like it at all - it took about 15 minutes for me to get her to eat it. But once it kicked in, she was very cute. I wish I had taken a picture. From there, it was back to the airport. I dropped off my luggage and checked in. Then it was off to Terminal 4 to drop off Jillian and Zima. Zima was the chillest I think I've ever seen. When I tried to say good bye, she just laid there. Again, I cried...and Jillian laughed. I watched them go through security and then I dropped off the rental car and was off to Terminal 2.

The flight to LA was basic. I sat next to some high school girl going to China for some Christian thing. I did the whole "I'm reading and don't want to talk look". We left each other alone. Once in LA, my gate for Sydney was only a few gates down. This left me with alot of time to people watch. I love airports..for that simple reason alone - people watching. It's the best people watching ever. There was this guy, who I think was trying to dress like a woman, and he had the worst outfit on ever. A white button up and then these purple/black tie died stretch pants, it was awful. I was just hoping i wasn't sitting next to him.

The flight to Sydney was really great! I upgraded to Business class, and now I'm afraid I will never fly coach again. I didn't get on the upper level but, hey, I really can't complain. They were serving champagne as you were sitting down - nice. Then after take off, they were serving cocktails with warm nuts! YUM! And I didn't have to watch the movies in the pre-determined order. I could watch them whenever i wanted! Yea! So I watched Stop-loss. During the movie, we had dinner. This included a salad and appetizer - i thought the appetizer was dinner. But no, dinner was a filet migon with a baked potato and green beans! and it was good!! who knew that airplane food could be good? I decided not to have dessert - i was stuffed from the steak. I finished the movie and then laid out my chair completely. It was big enough that I was able to roll onto my side and then i was OUT. I think I slept for about nine hours. When I finally woke up, they were serving breakfast and there was only two and a half hours left to the flight. Breakfast consisted of fresh fruit and yogurt. Finally, it was time to land. I don't know how many of you have ever been on a 747-400, but the plane is HUGE. Let me reiterate - it's HUGE!! I thought for sure that it was going to be a tough landing. But NO - it was the best landing ever. So very smooth. I don't know if it was the size of the plane or the pilot but it was great. Unfortunately, after we landed we couldn't get off the plane right away. They had to spray us with some sort of Agriculture spray. Who knows, it was probably some strange Australian virus.

This is when things got interesting. I got my first stamp in my passport (woo-hoo!). And then I had to get my bags...all three very large bags. i finally get them and most of them are on a cart and I make it through customs (i had to give up my trail mix - who knew you couldn't bring cranberries into Australia?). I then find out that I have to take a bus to another terminal. Do you know how hard it is to push a cart and pull a bag behind. So anyway, i make it to the other terminal and get checked in (they waived the additional bag fee - you can thank me later Accenture). Then I get lost in the terminal. My ticket says Gate 35 but there is no gate 35. And it's not on the monitor. At this point, I'm about to cry but there are these really hot men in Cowboys jackets (I thought that meant American football, turns out it's a rugby team) and I didn't want to cry in front of them. So I buck up and find another set of monitors, and there's my flight - at gate 17. Whew. I end up sitting on the plane for about an hour b/c some dumbasses checked in but never got on the plane.

Finally! I'm in Canberra! The airport is something between the Manhattan, KS airport and the Idaho Falls airport. My family will know what that means. Basically - it's tiny. So i get the bags - again and find a cab. It still freaks me out that they drive on the wrong side. And I get to the apartment. I'll post some pics of it later. It's a nice apartment....very European. I think that's the best way to describe it. And it feels like a dorm. I've seen a few people in the building - mostly men (woo-hoo) and I've definately heard them - they were partying in the hall last night.

I walked around the city yesterday and today. The city center is nice. There's a huge mall with a Target and a Big W (aka Wal-Mart). I'm sad about the Target here. Deanna told me they weren't like the ones at home but i wasn't expecting this. It's more like Wal-Mart - no worse than Wal-Mart. I can't shop there. I don't want to ruin it for when I get back. The clothes are super-expensive but also super-cute. I may go broke. They have Subway, Starbucks, and McDonalds. They have what's called Hungry Jacks - which is really Burger King, I think.

So there you go. I'll post some pics later. And give an update on my first day at work. I hope everyone is well!

Time Zones

2008-07-24T15:39:00.000+10:00

Phoenix Time

Raleigh Time

Colorado Time

Canberra Time