Wednesday October 14, 2009: I was never very good with journal writing…

SCUBA Certification Course!
As those of you who actually check this blog know, I haven’t been very good at updating it for oh the last couple months. I know, you want to know what I’m doing, and I am not updating, what is wrong with me? Well I hate writing about what I am doing now, when I haven’t talked about what I’ve already done, I like to keep things in chronological order. Well since I am so behind, I’ve decided, screw it, there’s lots happening with me right now and I want to tell you about it! No worries, I will get back to talking about what’s happened (in particular my trips to Kangaroo Island, Melbourne, Southeast Asia, Perth and the Indian-Pacific across Australia, because I did keep a written journal, I just haven’t transferred it over to the computer yet. I am lazy and hate typing, what can I say? I want one of those programs that I believe exist where you can talk into a computer and it automatically types what you are saying), but right now I will update on what’s been going on since I’ve returned “home” from traveling.

I’ve been planning on heading up to Cairns in northern Queensland to visit my best friend Glynnis’ sister, Meghan, who is studying abroad up there this semester. Well if I am headed up to the Great Barrier Reef area I decided I wasn’t going up there without being able to scuba dive! I had heard that it’s better to get your certification before you go, so went to inquiry with the local dive company here in Huskisson. Unfortunately they want at least 2 people to sign up before they run a course and me being a single and it being off-season, that presented a bit of a problem. There was one other guy signed up to do his open water course over 2 weekends in the beginning of October. Perfect I thought! Sign me up! The shop was going to call back the other guy and get back to me on the specifics. So I went and got my dive medical which was required and started to get psyched. The course dates would allow me get me certification done and head up as planned to Cairns in mid-late October. Luckily I didn’t make any plane reservations… When I still hadn’t heard back a couple days before the course was due to start I headed back in to see what was going on. Liam, who I had been speaking with called the guy then (why hadn’t his been done already is what I wanted to know?) and it turns out the guy had fallen off a veranda and broke his back and leg! So no other person to do a course with, course cancelled. So now I am really bummed. I was told someone else had signed up to do a course at the end of October. Not really going to fit in with my time frame of going to Cairns. I told them I would get back to them. I got in touch with Meghan to find out when she’d be leaving and what her schedule was. Turns out after she travels to Perth in the beginning of November, she is back in Cairns to take a couple exams November 7-14, so if I want to come then, that would work. That actually would be great, since my parents fly in to visit for a few weeks, starting on November 18th. So I head back to the dive shop last week to say yup, sign me up for end of October. Turns out that person was showing interest for an Advanced Open Water Course, grrrr! The person I talked to this day was Julia, who I think is one of the people that runs the shop. She had talked to Liam and knew that I had come in a couple times trying to get into a course. I told her about my predicament (wanting to get the course done so I could go up to the reef the next month and what not) and she said, what the hey, why don’t we just run the course next week with just you and not have to wait for someone else. I was psyched and said, I’m in! Sounds great! So this past Monday I started my SCUBA certification course  I did however get my course book on Wednesday afternoon and had to read the whole thing, answer questions for each of 6 sections and watch a 2 hour DVD and answer 6 pages of questions in 4 days before I started the course. I felt like, I was back in school, answering questions, taking notes, studying. You know what, I kind of liked it. I enjoyed learning new things and it made me think that going back to school might be something I would really enjoy.

I rocked up on Monday morning all ready to begin my course solo and as it turns out someone else had come in a day or 2 after me and wanted to do the course this week, so it turned out to be 2 of us. Crazily enough, I knew the other person! When Tom and I go to the Bowling Club meat raffles on Thursday night, we usually sit with a family, the wife, husband (who isn’t usually there because he travels a lot) and the son and daughter. Turns out it was the 16 year old son who signed up to do the course (since it was the second week of his school holiday). That’s when you know you live in a small community. You run into people you know (even me, who doesn’t know anyone!) everywhere.
Monday morning we did theory and went over our answers to the study book and DVD questions. We also had to watch a few short videos that basically reiterated information we had already learned in both the book and the home-study DVD. We learned how to assemble the gear (the cylinder, the BCD, regulator, etc) then headed over to the indoor pool to do pool skills. We learned how to clear the mask and regulator. How to retrieve lost regulators, how to remove and replace both the weight system and the BCD/cylinder combo. About hovering, descending, ascending, sharing air, hand signals, all the stuff we might need out in the open water. Then at the end, we had to do a 200 meter swim (that’s pretty far, I don’t ever swim 200 meters at one time without stopping, it’s pretty tiring) then after the swim, we had to tread water for 10 minutes, talk about tiring! After getting back to the shop, disassembling the rig and learning how to clean the items, I headed home, utterly exhausted. I think my body was still tired from staying up all night on Saturday night. Yes, you heard me right, I stayed up all night Saturday to listen to the Virginia Tech/Boston College game (GO HOKIES, way to kick the Eagles booty!), which started at 3 am here and lasted till 6 or 6:30 or so. I then got about 4 hours of sleep that morning and took a short nap in the afternoon. So I think Monday when I got back, I was still recovering from my lack of sleep the Saturday before. I had grabbed some chicken and chips on the way home, so I munched on that, then fell asleep for like 3 hours, got up, watched a bit of tv, then went back to sleep for the night.

After all that sleep Monday evening/night, I woke up wide awake and refreshed on Tuesday morning at 7:30 am. Tuesday we were set to do our boat dives, which is unorthodox. Usually you do shore dives first, then move to boat dives, but the shop had a group that was going out for a boat dive on Tuesday so it was easier for us to go when they already had a boat going out. On the way out, we saw some dolphins! My first dolphin sighting in Jervis Bay! We got to our first dive site and headed in the water. Did some skills at the surface, then started to descend. I had some problems when I first tried to descend. I had problems equalizing my ears and they really started to hurt, I felt like my eardrums were going to explode. I was doing the hose pinch/gently blow and nothing! Plus I was a little freaked out. I’ve snorkeled before and the water doesn’t bother me, but when I’ve done that, you can see the bottom, you have some frame of reference. When we started to descend and we couldn’t see the ocean floor or any other physical reference, I must admit, it disoriented me a bit. I had to try and calm myself down. I returned to the surface because of my ears, calmed down and went to try it again. My ears were still hurting when I tried it again and though, man, I’ll never make it down, I wanted to cry it hurts so bad. Then I realized something that helped tremendously. I was forgetting to swallow, and when I did, I could feel my ears pop and boom, so much better. So I just have to remember to swallow and it helps a 1000%. Swallowing is actually harder than it seems. We don’t really realize it, but the air we drive has a certain amount of humidity/moisture in it. The air that the tanks are filled with is dry air. Besides feeling different when breathing it, it also hampers our ability to generate saliva, making it difficult to swallow when you have nothing to swallow. Once I realized though that swallowing helped my equalizing tremendously, I did much better. When we got to the bottom we did more skills. Flooding and clearing the mask, sharing air, buoyancy checks, respirator retrieval, etc. I did see a Port Jackson shark when I was down there which was really neat! We then did our controlled ascent back up to the surface then back to the boat. We had an hour till our next dive and we got bread, crackers and cheese and chicken soup on the boat. When we reached our second dive site and after descending (I did much better this time, although I still had major ear issues. Once you get past that point where it seems like your ears are going to explode and then they pop, it’s actually not bad, you just have to muster past that pain part first) we did more skills. Removing and replacing the weight belt, clearing the mask, swimming around a bit, practicing neutral buoyancy, that sort of thing, before heading back up to the boat. On the way back we spotted some humpback whales at the mouth of the bay. We stopped to watch them. There were at least 2 including a calf. They turned and swam towards out boat right along the coast of Bowen Island (an island at the mouth of Jervis Bay). We watched them swim by the left side of our boat and I was psyched after missing out on seeing any whales when I went on a whale watching cruise in July. So today I saw dolphins, a shark and whales, a pretty darn good day if you ask me! After getting back to the dock we unloaded, disassembled and cleaned our gear.

Wednesday we headed out to Murray’s Beach to do our shore dives. By the way, the water is COLD. About 17°C, that’s about 63°F, which may not seem cold, but trust me, as a water temperature, its freaking freezing. That’s because body heat is lost in water 25 times faster than it is in air. We had on (both yesterday and today) a neoprene undergarment, a hood, a wetsuit, booties, plus the mask, snorkel, fins, weight belt, BCD and cylinder. That’s quite a bit of bulk. We walked into the surf which was difficult. After getting a certain way in we had to put our fins on. I was having issues because my fins didn’t fit well over my booties, plus the waves were a decent size and kept crashing over my darn snorkel tube and I was getting water in my mouth, it was a mess. After doing our descent, we did even more skills. Removing and replacing the BCD/cylinder combo, more buoyancy stuff, making sure we were set on all our basic skills. I did see a lobster type creature (don’t know if it was an actual lobster or an animal that just looked like one) and a bunch of jellyfish, which honestly freaked me out a little bit. Now I though getting in was hard, getting out was even harder. Once I got to a certain point close to the shore, then I had to take the darn fins off, not easy. Then as I was trying to walk out of the surf, on the rocky, uneven ground, the waves were crashing at my back, coupled with the immense weight of the cylinder on my back it kept pushing me forward, causing me to fall onto my hands and knees. When I tried to get up the next wave would crash on me, pushing me forward again. Plus I was trying to hold onto fins with the one hand, which didn’t help my balance. At the end of the second shore dive, I gave up and just threw the fins onto the shore to get rid of them. So those last couples meters to get out of the water, I ended up just literally crawling out of the water. Not the prettiest exit, but it worked, scuffed up my hands on the rocks though, dag nab it. Man getting out of that water into the windy cloudy weather, was FREEZING. We changed out our tanks and decided to hop back in to get the second shore dive of the day over and done with so we change out of our wetsuits and warm up. More problems with the snorkel and getting water in it from the crashing waves, so I said screw it and just popped in the regulator. Did our last skills review and headed back up to get out of that cold water. After heading back to the dive shop and cleaning the gear, it was time for the final exam! 50 questions, of which some were from the home study materials that we hadn’t discussed since Monday, or even at all. Turns out we had to get a 90% to pass! So we were only allowed to miss 5 out of the 50! That’s not too many. Luckily I only missed 4 and I was actually kinda bummed about that. 2 of them, I had the right answer initially and changed it, grr! But still, I passed, yay! The other guys taking the course got 7 wrong, so he had to take the alternate exam, to hopefully pass that one. I left before he finished it, so I don’t know it he did, but I wonder what would have happened if he didn’t. Would he not pass and the last 3 days would have been for naught. I can’t imagine that happening. Funny thing is, he’s dived before, several times. Just has never been certified, actually his dad is a dive instructor himself! Some questions were things that we probably wouldn’t need to know. Like, how often does a cylinder has to by hydrostatically tested? I did know it was every 5 years. But really, in reality, how many people are going to have their own tanks? They would be a pain and difficult to travel with.
Actually in order to get the certification, I have to have done 5 dives. Which leaves me one short. With the course, another shore dive (or is it 2?) is included, but I can upgrade it to 2 boat dives for $85 AU, which is half the cost of a normal boat dive. I think I am going to do that though, get an extra 2 boat dives for half price while I can. The last dive, we don’t have to do any skills, just go for a swim and enjoy the experience. So I can just tag along with a boat going out sometime in the next few weeks before I head to Cairns on the 7th of November (have to buy my ticket tonight!). I figured I would rather do the boat dive then the shore one again, seeing as how I had so much trouble with the entry and exit on the shore with the waves. They do have a boat on Sunday, but that’s not a good day for me. The Virginia Tech/Georgia Tech game is a 6 pm game at home, which means it’s on at 9 am here. Well not on, but I am hoping to be able to find a radio broadcast of the game on the internet, perhaps on the GT student radio section. This is a huge game and I want to be there to listen to or at least watch the gamecast of it. So I decided to just tag along on a boat dive next week or weekend and then I get my certification card! Yay!

Other things that have happened since being back in Huskisson:
- Played in the regional NPL poker final and finished high enough to qualify for the state final for the 3rd time (to be played south of Sydney on Saturday October 17)!
- My parents booked their flights to come visit! They arrive Nov. 18th and are here through Dec. 11th! We are going to spend 5/6 days in Sydney. Come back to Husky for Thanksgiving, head to either Melbourne/Brisbane (they haven’t decided where to go yet) and South Island, New Zealand before heading home. I can’t wait to see them! This has been the longest I have ever gone without seeing them (it’ll have been almost 8 months when they get here). Even when I studied abroad in South Africa, I was only gone for 5 months.

Wednesday July 22nd-Monday July 27th, 2009

Not too much stuff going on these days. Wednesday I had planned on venturing out from Chris’s but it ended up raining pretty much all day, so I just did some laundry and did some cleaning of Chris’s place. I mean the least I can do after him having me stay there is clean up a bit. Friday I went on a wine tour in the Barossa valley, one of Australia’s most famous wine regions. It actually ended up being a gorgeous day. The scenery was spectacular, since SA has been getting so much rain lately (I later found out that it ended up being the rainiest July in SA in something like 10 or 15 years) the hills were so green and lush, it was beautiful to be driving through. There were some very nice people on the tour as well. We stopped at an inn in Nuriootpa for lunch where we had a choice of several different main courses. I choose the kangaroo filet. My first taste of kangaroo! It was good, like beef, but a bit more red and tender. I would definitely eat that again, yum!
Monday I had the intention of jumping on the tram and heading down to Glenelg for the day. Glenelg is a town 20-30 minutes away from Adelaide, it’s right on the water and has that summer beach town kind of feeling. Since the actual city of Adelaide is inland a bit, all the city people go down to the coast on the weekend on a nice day and Glenelg is a popular place for that. I said I had the intention because the day ended up being crappy, with it being rainy all day, so I scrapped that idea and just watched tv instead. Tom and I have gotten into watching the show “Chuck.” The series premiere premiered in Australia a couple months ago and Tom and I happened to catch it and are now loving it. I never watched it in the states, but I am obsessed now, it is a fantastic show! So since Chris is a bit of a technological geek he has this whole set up with his tv hooked up to his computer that has all these movies and and tv shows on it, so he has both the 1st and 2nd seasons of “Chuck” on the computer. So in these rainy, crappy days, I’ve been watching “Chuck” and getting through season 2, it’s been a bit of a marathon actually. I was determined to get through the 2nd season! Which I did, unfortunately Chris is missing the second to last episode of the second season! Which apparently quite a bit happens, so I’ll have to either download it or wait till it airs on tv here.
I did however book a 2 day Kangaroo Island tour. KI is an island just offshore from Adelaide and I’d heard good things about it. I really didn’t want to spend $350 for 2 days but everyone said it’s worth it and I figured while I was here, I should do it or I’d probably regret it. So I booked the trip and of course had to get picked up at 6 am! Yikes! Luckily they said they’d pick me up just a block or so from Chris’s place, that way I didn’t have to get up even earlier to make my way into the city (not that Chris is that far away, but hey, the less distance I have to travel, the better).

Tuesday July 21st, 2009: Change of location

Didn’t do too much during the day except pack up all my stuff to move over to Dave’s son Chris’s place. Dave’s 2 sons, Chris and Stephen live together but Stephen is off in New Zealand skiing for who knows how long, so Chris is letting me stay (although Dave may have guilted him into it) so Dave and Mary can have some QT. Dave, Mary and I headed off to play poker tonight (of which I didn’t do too well, boo) then Damien who had also come to poker took me and dropped me off at Chris’s.

Monday July 20th, 2009: Haigh’s chocolate

Since I am actually writing this blog in the middle of September, I can’t actually remember what happened this past weekend, but odds are nothing too interesting. I spent lots of my time in Adelaide just sort of hanging out not doing too much so that’s probably what happened over the weekend. On Monday I decided to go for a “tour” of Haighs chocolate factory. Haighs is an Australian high end chocolate company. I say tour in quotation marks because they sit you in a room and explain the beginnings of a company, then you go down a hall looking at some photos of the chocolate making process then look through some windows to people making various different chocolate treats. There really wasn’t too much to it and lasted about 20 minutes. I did however get to taste some chocolate and the tour was free, so not too bad of a deal there.

Friday July 17th, 2009 : Mt. Lofty and Hahndorf

Mary was working the 7 am – 7 pm shift today so I Dave and I went out on our own. First we headed over to his middle child’s (Damien) place. Dave and Mary had bought him and his girlfriend a clothes dryer because when they stopped by the other day they had laundry lines hanging across the living room to dry clothes on, so Dave and Mary decided they need a dryer. We dropped it off and Dave installed it for them. Dave and I then headed up to Mount Lofty which has a lookout point over the city. We looked down on to the city and saw off to the peninsulas to the west and east and apparently on a real clear day you can see Kangaroo Island. We however were not able to see the island even though it was a reasonably clear day. It was a nice day though and got a lovely view over the greater city area and the water. We then headed a little bit more east to the city of Hahndorf. Hahndorf is a city that was settled by German settlers and still has a German feel and look to it. Dave and I went to a German hotel/pub for lunch and I did it up right, German style. An imported German beer (300 mL, although I believe I could have gotten the 500 mL or even the liter, just like in Germany ;) ) and a lunch of sausage and french fries. We walked around the town a bit, popping into some stores and having hot chocolate and coffee at a cute little chocolate shop. It was quite a nice day in a cute town.

Real Quick Note

I know I haven't updated in over a month and I've done a lot since then, finished off stay in Adelaide, been to Melbourne, Kulala Lumpur, Laos, Cambodia and now I am in Bangkok, Thailand but I haven't really had an opportunity. I didn't bring my lap top to Southeast Asia (of which Melbourne was technically a first stop on that trip) so I have been using internet cafes. Not really condusive to writing long blog updates as well as getting other things done, research and e-mail checks and what not. I fly out of KL on September 10, then into Perth, in western Australia for a bit then back to Huskisson around the 20th of September and when I get back there I will catch up on everything I have been doing. I have been keeping a notebook though so when I do get back I remember what I've done!

I had gotten a couple comments of why the blog wasn't updated so I just wanted to let you kow I haven't forgotten I just haven't really had a chance, but it will be updated with all my travel stories eventually next month, I promise!

Love, C

PS - I am having a wonderful time!!!!

Thursday July 16th, 2009 : They say SA is the driest state in Australia…

I don’t know if I believe them. It was raining again today. So another vegging day, doing not much of anything. I know I should have been updating this blog, but I am lazy, so what, I’m getting to it now aren’t I?

Wednesday July 15, 2009: Harry Potter Opening + Kids on School Holidays = NO GOOD

Today Dave, Mary and I headed into Marion Mall to the movies. Dave and Mary wanted to see “Angel’s and Demons” before it left since they had just been to Rome and had seen a lot of the places featured in the movies. I thought about seeing Harry Potter but since it was opening day and kids are on school holidays, there were long lines. Not every showing was sold out, I actually probably could have gotten into a showing at like 1-ish (it was 11:30 when we got there) and I didn’t want to wait around for an hour and a half, nor deal with a bunch of kids. Plus here they give you assigned seats when you buy tickets, it’s not general admission theatre. So even if I had gotten into a showing around 1, I probably would have been up close in the first row, craning my neck. I figured, it’ll be out for a couple weeks, I’ll just see something else I’ve been meaning to see. So I saw ”The Proposal” instead. I’ve been meaning to see that and “The Hangover” but they hadn’t yet come to Husky. “The Proposal” is cute. I like Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds is just hot. Him half naked is worth the price of admission alone. After the movie Dave and Mary had some errands to run, so I decided to walk around the mall and catch public transportation back home.

That evening Dave and Mary’s oldest son, Chris came over for dinner. He works some computer job and is pretty much what could be described as a computer geek. He was talked about work and I didn’t know 90% of what he was talking about. He was nice though, must get that from Mary. I am actually gonna go stay with him for a few days next week when Mary has her next set of four days off, so Dave and Mary can spend some time together. Chris actually lives with Steven, the youngest son but he is off snowboarding in New Zealand for 2 months, so Chris has some space available. Don’t know if he agreed to take me in because he wanted to or felt guilted into it, either way I’ll be there next week for a few days.

Tuesday July 14, 2009: Rain

Rained and drizzled all day today so just hung out at the house and helped Dave unpack boxes that arrived yesterday from the house in Husky.

Monday July 13, 2009: Venture into Adelaide

Today was a nice day so I jumped on the train and headed into the city to just walk around and check it out a little bit. The city is pretty small and is flanked by four main streets on the outside, North, South, East and West Terrace. Outside of these streets is parklands. A whole green belt around the city. The main train terminal is on North Terrace so I got off and walked down Main Terrace a bit, then walked back through Rundle Mall, a bit shopping area. Did pop into one store and buy a new shirt. Wanted to get back on the train before 3 because it is cheaper, so didn’t walk around the whole city, I figured I’d do that another day. I have a couple weeks here, so I’ve got time. Tonight we headed to a free roll poker game that Mary frequents on Mondays. I did decent, went out in 5th place, got taken out by Dave, who eventually went on to win. I didn’t have much money though, so my blind ended up being all in and I got dealt pocket 8’s. But wouldn’t you know it, Dave flops trip Kings. Ahh well, still did half decent, 5th ain’t too bad.

Sunday July 12, 2009 : Onto Adelaide!

After waking up and being cooked a delicious breakfast by Marlene, we had our stuff packed and were ready to head the last couple hundred km’s to Adelaide. Before we left Alan was showing us some of the different types of grapes they grow and some vines still had edible grapes on them so we tried the grapes, right off the vine! Tasted pretty much like a grape. But of course my palate probably isn’t defined enough to be able to distinguish too much difference between species of grape. We drove the couple hours through some really nice scenic landscape. It consisted of vines, vines and more vines. We drove through a small section of the Barrosa Valley which is a famous wine growing and producing region here in South Australia (SA). I plan to do a day tour of the valley while I am here. We passed the major winery of Wolf Blass, which apparently is a big deal, maybe they export it to the states? Someone who is reading this, check it out and get back to me. Finally we were out of the plains and into the hills! We finally pulled into Adelaide early afternoon. Mary was sleeping because she was working the 7 pm- 7 am shift (she is a paramedic). Spent the afternoon unpacking and relaxing. Dave and Mary live right on the Port River, technically they live in New Port which is right next to Port Adelaide, which is northeast of the actual city. They do however live 100 meters from a train station that goes into the city in 20 minutes. They have 3 stories with 3 balconies that overlook the river. Now Port River actually has resident dolphins that live in the river year round and they come all the way to where Dave and Mary live so when it’s nice they sit out on the balcony in the morning and watch the dolphins swim by.
When Mary headed to work we headed over to Dave’s friends Mark and Rachel’s for a barbi and to watch the final day of the first test match of the Ashes. Had a good time at Mark and Rachel’s. They had some delicious food, lots of alcohol and a bit of a crazy house. 2 rabbits, 2 (maybe more) cats, a dog, and goodness knows how many kids (there were also neighbor kids over so I’m not sure how many were actually theirs, 4 maybe?) It was a good time.

The only downer was the result of the cricket. A tie. Yes, a tie, apparently that can happen in cricket. Each team gets 2 innings to get runs. There’s the batting team and there’s the bowling team. The batting team is trying to get runs and a batter stays out there as long as he’s not out. The bowling team (who is also fielding) is trying to get wickets (which is an “out” in baseball terminology). Like there are 3 outs in baseball, there are 10 outs or wickets in cricket. So a team stays out batting until the bowling team gets 10 wickets or 10 people out. Therefore if the bowling team isn’t getting wickets, a team could stay out for a day or 2 or more, all 5 days possibly, although they would probably declare, which is what happened in this cricket. So Australia batted first, got how many ever runs, then England batted and got how many ever runs. Then it was Australia’s turn again. They got to where England had gotten 6 wickets against them and instead of keep batting till they hit 10 wickets, they declared. Basically said, we have enough, we’re done. Because how it goes is if they get to the end of the 3rd day and no one has finished off the other team, it’s a tie. They don’t just end after 5 days and go, whoever has the most runs wins. Since England was batting last, Australia had to get their 10 wickets against England before the fifth day ran out or it was a tie. That’s why Australia declared so they would have enough time to get the 10 wickets against England. Well England was way behind and after Australia got a couple wickets England figured there was no way they would win so all they had to do was last till the end of the day to draw the tie. So instead of trying to really hit the ball far to get runs, they just had to block the ball from hitting the wicket posts. That’s exactly what happened, Australia got to 9 wickets but they couldn’t get the 10th wicket before time ran out on the fifth day so the teams tied, even though Australia had a ton more runs. So yea, they play for 5 days at 6 hours a day (2 hours, then a lunch break, another 2 hours, then tea break, then another 2 hours), that’s 30 hours of playing and no one wins! Crazy huh? That’s test cricket for ya. There are shorter versions, of the game 1 day and 20 over (an over is 6 bowls of the ball) versions which are more exciting because people have a shorter time to get runs so they really go for it in the batting.
So anyway, now that you’re fully aware of cricket, either that or just skipped that whole last paragraph, the point is, Australia and England tied, boo for ties! Dave and I spent the night at Mark and Rachel’s because he’d been drinking. We had planned for this anyway, since Mary was gone all night at work anyway. So my first night in Adelaide and I’m sleeping on an inflatable mattress! It was a good night though. Good food, good people, good times.

Saturday July 11th, 2009 : Are we in Nebraska?

We headed out early this morning to get back on the road across the plains. Not too long after we left we hit the Hay plains. Nothing but flat land all the way to the horizon in either direction. No trees, not even any tall grass since its winter. A few cows here and there, but not too much else. I would guess it’s very much what one would see traveling through the central part of the US, but since I’ve never been to any of those states, I can only speculate. We did have a bit of drama again today. Another flat tire!

The same tire as yesterday, well not literally, but the spare tire we used to replace the tire from yesterday. It wasn’t too surprising, I mean, who knows how old the spare was and what kind of condition it was in? Once again though, this happened as we were cutting close on time. Usually if things are open on Saturdays, they close at noon. This second blown tire happened at 11:15 am. There was no way Dave wanted to drive the entire rest of the way with no other spare and NOTHING would be open on Sunday. So another quick tire change and Dave was on the phone with his wife Mary, asking her to do some research as to what was in Mildura, the place we would be stopping that night. She was able to get a hold of a wreckers that had closed, but the guy was still there and he had a tire and agreed that if Mary paid via credit card over the phone, he would leave the tire outside (in a hidden from the street place) for us to pick up when we got there. So all we had to do was make it to Mildura without blowing another tire. Thank goodness we did make it. Whew! We were able to find the place and the tire so we were set for the next day in case we needed it. On the way in we drove past the Murray River, a huge waterway here, where we saw several houseboats floating their way down the river. As well as stopped by “Lock #1.” There are like 11 locks in the river used to control the river flow. We also passed fields and fields of citrus trees. We even stopped on the side of the road to buy mandarin’s for like $1.50 USD for a bag.

We spent Saturday night in Mildura because Dave’s in-laws live there. They’re not actually his in-laws, they are Mary’s brother’s wife’s parents. Did ya follow that one? At any rate, they graciously welcomed us into their home. Mildura is a city in the state of Victoria, that is covered with grape vines as far as the eye can see. All throughout this area there are grapes grown for both making raisins and sultanas (dried grapes, but they are a different kind of grapes than raisin’s, but taste the same. Even the cereal Raisin Bran is called Sultana Bran here) as well as grapes to sell to wine producers for wine. Not only do they sell the grapes to large scale wine producers but there are also wines the locals make. Marlene chopped up some veggies in like 10 minutes to throw together a soup for Dave and I because her and her husband, Alan were headed out to a dinner thing that evening. The soup was so good! I envy people who can throw together things in minutes and taste delicious. I wish I had that skill. Then again, she does cook things from scratch every day, out here on the “farm,” so I guess the more you do it, the better you get. Since I never cook (well rarely) it takes me longer and probably wouldn’t turn out as good.
They actually have grapes growing all around their house, for a couple acres. They used to have a lot more, but sold much of it off, after getting older and not wanting to deal with all the upkeep. We tried some of the local wine made by one of Alan’s mates, not bad. After Alan and Marlene headed off to their dinner Dave and I ate soup, drank wine, and watched more footy and cricket.

Friday July 10th: Left alone on the side of the road in nowhere New South Wales with a boat

Today Dave and I left for Adelaide. We were going to leave yesterday but Dave had things that needed to be finished and by the time they did it was noon-ish and since it gets dark at like 5, we decided to push off leaving till today. We got started out at 9 or 10-ish. The drive today was nice, you go up over the mountains and through Kangaroo Valley which is quite nice scenery. Then it’s a nice drive through some rolling hills. It wouldn’t be a roadtrip without some drama though right?

Well at about 4:15 pm, we got a flat tire on the boat trailer (yes, we were towing a sailboat). Dave had been kind of moving over to the shoulder to let people pass because he was going slower than normal while towing the boat and there was only one lane. He must have picked something up on the shoulder that punctured the tire then it must have gotten caught in the mud guard because this thing was shred-ed! I mean, totally torn apart, I took a picture, I had to. Dave grabs the spare, the jack and the wheel brace. Well turns out the brace was for the lug nuts on the truck, not the boat trailer, so of course it doesn’t fit! Since were only a couple km’s outside a small little town, Dave decides to go in and see if there are any service stations he can borrow a brace from. He doesn’t want to leave the boat alone on the side of the road for fear of looters…cut to me, standing alone on the side of the road with a boat, waiting who knows how long for Dave to come back. So yes, folks, I got ditched on the side of the road. We had pulled over in from of the guys little farm and he outside in the garden. It was an older gentleman with the cutest little dog. So I chatted to him for a few minutes, told him we had a tire, and jack but the brace was the wrong size, well of course he had one we could have used had we asked. But of course Dave was already gone. I chatted with the guy for a few more minutes, not understanding all of what he said (he had a really thick accent!) be he was very nice. Luckily I didn’t have to wait long for Dave to come back, he was only gone for 10 or 15 minutes. He came back equipped with one of those 4 sided braces that looks like a spoke. He then performed what I think may have been the world’s fastest tire change. Because you see, we were using the spare, so we didn’t want to drive a whole lot farther without getting a new spare. It’s now like 4:45 on a Friday afternoon. EVERYTHING shuts down on Friday at 5 and not everyplace, especially in the middle of nowhere Australia is open on Saturday. So we were trucking it to try and get the tire changed and get into the town to get a new one. First we drop the brace we borrowed back off at the servo’s (service station) then head to a wreckers (kind of like a salvage yard) and they didn’t have the right size. Then we went to a tire place and they didn’t have the right size. Then we tried a second tire place and got there just as they were about to close. Luckily they had the right size so they were able to fit the tire on the old wheel, we stopped at the car supply store next door (which actually was open till 5:30!), picked up one of the 4 sided braces and we were back on our way! We pulled into Nurrandera, our stop for the night at 7/7:30-ish. Grabbed dinner at the local RSL and headed back to the hotel to watch some footy (Aussie Rules) and cricket…

Yes folks I’ve learnt about cricket. I know the rules (not all, but a bit), how it’s played, what the point is. You see, there’s this big event going on right now called “The Ashes.” It happens every 3 years. It’s a competition between England and Australia. It is in “commemoration” of the first time Australia beat England in cricket. It was a huge event, seen as the end of English cricket, the “convicts” had beat mother England. Someone took and burned the wooden wickets and collected the ashes and now they’re kept in a small little urn. So now England and Australia play every 3 years for the right to be awarded this little tiny urn of ashes. Of course it’s more about pride then the actual ashes. Three years ago the Ashes were in held here in Australia so this time they’re being played in England. It’s 5 5-day test matches. So on this evening, we were watching day 3 of the first test match and Dave was teaching me about what the hell I was watching. Which was good because there is much more cricket watching to come.

Sunday July 5th : Out and about in Sydney

Checked out of the hostel early and decided to walk around Sydney before heading back to Husky. Walked through the botanical gardens to the peninsula next to the peninsula the opera house is on, so got some really good views of the opera house and bridge. Today was actually a really nice day, clear and not too cold, actually a bit warm. Then heading over to Circular Quay, a series of jetties next to the opera house where all the ferries across the harbor leave from. I sat in a café and had a coffee and a slice of banana bread for breakfast that cost about 3 times what it should have, but I guess that’s what happens when you sit at an outdoor café overlooking the harbor. I jumped on a ferry to cross the harbor to go over to north Sydney, where I walked around a fair bit. Not much was going on because of course it was a Sunday morning, but I can tell that even during the week this part of Sydney is more relaxed and low-key then the CBD. I don’t actually really like the CBD very much, it’s too busy and hectic and dirty. After walking around a bit I made my way down to the water’s edge and walked along the water back towards the harbor bridge. I came across a little amusement park for kids. Rather a quite large complex. It had ferris wheels and a bunch of other rides as well as games and what not right there along the “boardwalk” next to the water. It would be a great place to bring kids. I think it was called Luna Park and had great views over to the bridge and opera house, so of course I stopped to take some more photos (I think I now have about 20 million pics of the opera house from all different angles). I made my way to the base of the bridge and walked up a bunch of stairs to get to the bridge itself then started the trek across the bridge to get back to the southern side of the harbor. So of course got more wonderful views of the harbor, city and opera house, so more picture taking ensued. Walking across the bridge is really neat, if you are ever in Sydney, I recommend it. It’s not too long and you get higher up and get great views of the surroundings and of course it’s free and you can stop and take as many photos as you want. I got to the southern end of the bridge and headed down the stairs to head back towards Circular Quay to catch the train to central to get the train back to the south coast. I ended up passing through the area known as the rocks. Side note: they are building a new YHA there that will be in the most primo spot, on the water, with views of the bridge, Quay, city, opera house, hell of a sopt for a budget accommodation!). I saw a mall that I popped into and guess what I saw for the first time in Australia, a Coach store! I don’t think I’ve seen anyone in this country with a Coach bag except for maybe the occasional woman who is obviously from somewhere in Asia. I wasn’t even sure if they had them here, well they do! So of course I had to go in. Well, you think the prices in the US for Coach are expensive? They are even more expensive here! Say you are looking at a small wristlet that in the states would be $60 US, which of course, is already atrocious. Here it’s the equivalent of like $150 US for a tiny wristlet! How anyone would play those prices is beyond me! But at any rate, they do have them here, but apparently they are only for the super rich. I caught the train to head back to central and then in turn back to Nowra to be picked up by Tom. All in all, today was a pretty nice day. Much better than yesterday. The weather was good, I got to see some different areas of Sydney, take the ferry, get some good views of the harbor, etc. Even though I had only left the day before it felt good to get back “home” to Husky.

Saturday July 4, 2009 - Worst 4th of July ever.

Let me just apologize right now. I am finally finish and posting this on July 21st. I've started this post like 3 different times as you see by the commentary below. I am going to try and get quasi-updated in the next day or 2 with the past couple weeks. Of course things may be a bit of the shortened versions but I really don't do anything too exciting anyways, so you probably will only be missing my rambling.

I’ve actually had a lot to update about lately but I’ve been in a bit of a funk and in no mood to sit around for an hour at a time and just type. I am going to try and update though, even if it is only the reader’s digest version. I was supposed to leave for Adelaide today (this was written on the 9th), but things got a little behind with Dave’s check-out of his rental, so we are gonna leave tomorrow instead. So I guess I’ll use some of the extra time to update the blog.

4th of July weekend didn’t go exactly as planned. I took the train into Sydney Saturday morning, checked into my hostel near the train station and shortly thereafter headed out to Bondi where I was supposed to meet up with some people from a travel blog website I belong to, TravBuddy. I get to the hotel where we were supposed to meet and asked about the bar we were going to meet in. Turns out the bar doesn’t exist anymore, they got rid of it. Well, I didn’t get the organizers number because since I wasn’t coming late, I figured I wouldn’t need it. So I wander around trying to find the organizer who was supposed to be wearing a name-tag. Now there wasn’t that many people around but I see no one wearing a name tag. I could have gone up to everyone in the place, asking for Shaun (the organizers name) but I am just too shy to do that. Of course I hadn’t gotten Shaun’s number because I was there on time and didn’t think it would be a problem finding him (some people who planned to meet up later had gotten his number in order to later locate the group).

(Ok, so now I am writing this on July 21, 17 days after it actually happened, I’m a bit behind)
So instead I sat by myself inside the bar drinking a beer, watching rugby and footy (Aussie Rules) peeking at everyone who came in to see if they were wearing a nametag. No such luck. After sitting there till 6:30 (which had been planned for people to hit up the bistro to eat, of which I still didn’t see anyone coming in) I decided to just pack it in. At this point I was starving because I hadn’t eaten all day. I had passed a tapas place on the way in and those were really sounding good. So I walked up the street, passing numerous other restaurants, which looked decently full, but none packed. When I arrived at the tapas place and went in, I said it was just one and got the dreaded questions, “Do you have a booking?” Of course I didn’t, I didn’t expect to be there. So of course, the one place I want to eat, is full and you can’t get in without a booking. DAMNIT!!!!! Why can’t something just work out? At this point I’m at the end of the strip of restaurants and stores, almost at the bus stop. I didn’t want to turn around and find another place. I was just so dejected and upset I just wanted to get out of there. So I took the bus back to the depot at Bondi Junction, grabbed some McDonald’s right before they closed and trained back to the city. Now back at the hostel, it’s like 8:00pm. I thought about going to find a bar and just sitting or something, but I can’t bring myself to sit alone in a bar again for the second time today. So I literally was in bed at 8:30. Then just sat there trying to fall asleep.

I just kept thinking how it’s the 4th of July and people are back home, getting ready to watch fireworks tonight in the nice warm weather and how I’m here alone in Sydney in bed at 8:30.
It really was a loooong day. Doing so much sitting by myself, at the bar in Bondi, lying in bed at 8:30 pm, gave me a lot of time to think. It wasn’t good thinking. About what am I doing here, how I’ve applied for a bunch of jobs and got no interest back on ANY of them. How I feel so alone, not just here (although it is worse here not having at least co-workers to converse with) but also at home. With all but one of my good friends being so far away from Northern VA. Not having ever been in a relationship and wondering what is wrong with me, why don’t people like me, you know, typical self loathing things one thinks when depressed. I mean, I knew I wouldn’t just be able to stroll over, get a job and live this great existence, but this is not what I had in mind when quitting my job to move to the other side of the planet. I’m just homesick and bored and need a change. I’m hoping my trip to Adelaide cheers me up a bit, sometimes all you need is a change of scenery.

I know - I'm wayyyyyy behind PS - I need your thoughts on my next travel plans!

I apologize if you check this blog often. I know I am way behind on updating. I ned to write about my busted up trip to Sydney on 4th of July, my road trip to Adelaide and my time here. I will try to catch up in the next couple days, I promise.

In the mean time, I am thinking about heading to SE Asia for a month in August (Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Singapore, Vietnam (Saigon), Cambodia (Angor Wat) and Thailand (Bangkok, river Kwai and other various places). It's only a $200 USD round trip from Australia (I'm thinking out of Melbourne, into Perth, maybe into Gold Coast then up to Cairns to visit Meghan???), to Kuala Lumpur. Seems like too good a deal to pass up. It would cost like a $1000 USD (give a bit, depends on food costs) for 25 or so days. What do you think??? Give me your opinions people!

Wednesday July 1, 2009: Why Does Everyone Have A 4 Day Work Week?

I found myself asking this question when I saw on facebook everyone commenting they had a 4 day week. It took me a minute to realize, wait July 4th! It that a bit sad? I mean, I knew Independence Day was coming up soon but I totally didn’t connect the dots that it was this weekend. Which is weird because I actually have plans for this Saturday, the 4th. I am meeting up with some people from a travel website I’m on. I’m looking forward to socializing with new people.

Haven’t done too much the past couple days, just hanging out. Weather’s been nice though, it gets to high 60’s during the day. Today was a bit windy, but other than that, it’s been nice.

If I don’t write again, I wish everyone a HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!! Don’t drink and drive and enjoy the fireworks. I’ll be thinking of all my fellow Americans on that all important day.

Cheers, Cathy

Saturday June 27, 2009 : Back to Sydney for Poker

I woke up at 6:45 to catch my 7:30 am train to Sydney. Unfortunately, there was track work going on between certain stations, so I had to get off at Penrith station and take a bus to Granville where I would then get on another train to go the 2 stations to Guildford where I would get off for my poker tourney. So whereas the train between Penrith and Granville should have taken like 15 minutes, the bus took more than 45 minutes. I guess because it can’t go as direct of a route as the train tracks. I then caught the next train to Guildford, then of course had to walk uphill again, with all my gear to get to the club. On the map there was only like 2 blocks between the station and the club, too bad the blocks were forever long and there was several other streets that weren’t on the map I had looked at. I did make it in time though, that was my major concern. They make this big deal that registration ends and the game begins at 11 am sharp, so I would have been pissed had I come back to Sydney from the mountains and not made it in time. Of course we didn’t end up starting till 11:30 and they were pretty much accepting registrants right up till that time. Way to stick to the strict 11 am deadline. I ran into some other people I play with down in Vincentia on Tuesday nights and was able to snag a ride home. I realized the other day, there will probably be others there from where I live, that I can try and catch a ride home with. That way, I won’t have to take 3 different trains to get back to Nowra, where Tom would have to pick me up then drive the 25 minutes home. It would take like 4 or more hours total. Whereas if I caught a ride home with someone it would be 2.5-3 and I would get dropped off at my door. Thomas who I play with graciously agreed to let me tag along in his car. I did okay in the tournament, made it till after lunch when we were merging to one big group (as opposed to 2 groups, the upstairs and the downstairs).

Friday June 26, 2009: BEAUTIFUL Day in the Mountains

Since I went to bed so early last night, I woke up bright eyed and bushy-tailed at 7:30 this morning. There is complementary breakfast (or brekkie as they call it in Australia) starting at 8. So I grabbed some toast and coffee, got my stuff together and headed out for the day. Today I headed east towards Leura, the next town over. Once again, I started out going downhill. I swear the Katoomba train station (which my hostel is very near) is the highest point around. You go in any direction and it’s downhill. Which means, when coming home after a long day of hiking, you are always heading uphill, no matter what direction one is coming from. Anyway, I met up with the cliff walk trail which goes by some waterfalls. First I went by the Leura Falls, which I could partially see from the trail, at least the top of it. There are a couple other waterfalls that I think I could see if I started heading down a bunch of stairs, but I really didn’t want to walk back up all those stairs. So I just kept making my way around the cliff walk. There are a bunch of lookouts to stop at. Several looking out over the valley and several overlooking the main falls in the area, Bridal Veil Falls. Today was a gorgeous day. Bright, sunny, mild. I actually got overheated and had to peel off one of my layers. It was a great day for hiking. After all the walking yesterday and 4 hours of walking today, my feet were feeling pretty tired, so I headed back towards Katoomba. All uphill, of course. Stopped at Coles and picked up a chicken breast, a potato and come cauliflower to steam for dinner. I got back to the hostel around 1, ate some lunch and caught p with what is going on the world. You know, where celebrities keep dying. I also have been working on the blog, trying to get it updated. I would have like to spend more time outside, considering how beautiful it was, but I was tired, congested and my stomach was a little out of sorts. I am currently watching “Old School” and trying to figure out my plans for the next couple days. I’m heading back into western Sydney on the 7:30 train tomorrow morning to go to the state poker tourney, then I’m not sure what my plans are. I had originally planned to bring my stuff with me then head back down to Nowra on the train and have Tom pick me up. I am throwing around the idea of heading back here after the tourney, spending another couple days here, then heading home Tuesday. There are some caves 30 or so kilometers away, that can toured. Getting a tour picking up here in Katoomba, going out to the caves, touring the main cave and heading back. There is also some other hiking trails that can be done. So I’m not sure whether to head back, or go home. One thing that I am thinking about is next Saturday the 4th, I am heading back into Sydney to meet-up for dinner/drinks with some people I’ve met through a travel blog website. So I don’t know if I want to train back to Husky on Tuesday (what would be like 5 hours straight on a train) then get back on a train for another 3 hours on Saturday, then again on Sunday. There would really be no money saved by staying here while I am already here, as opposed to coming back at a later time, maybe during the spring. But then again, realistically, how many times can I say, I’ll come back and do something later. Time’s going to run out eventually.

Blog entry continued (July 1, 2009)
I ended up deciding to return to Huskisson after the state poker tourney. There’s no public transport to get to the caves, so if you don’t have your own car, you have to take an organized tour from Katoomba. Just to get the bus from Katoomba to the caves, is $50 AUD, for an under 30 km ride! Then you have to pay admission fee to the cave(s) of choice. There are like 8 caves and you can pay per cave to get admission. Admission to the Lucas cave, which is the best general, if you can only visit one cave, cave is like a $30 AUD admission. So if I returned just to go to that one cave it would have been like $75-80 and I didn’t want to pay that. I mean, the transport there is so overpriced! I you have your own car, you can drive there, which would obviously save a ton of money.

So after I returned from my hiking on Friday, I just kind of hung out at the hostel, watching tv, cooked some dinner, chatted with people. I ended up playing Trivial Pursuit with 5 other people that evening. It was interesting, because it was an Australian version from like 20-30 years ago. There were very specific questions about Australian history and culture and the questions were a bit outdated. I am however proud to announce that I took the victory. Those of you who know me well know I am competitive about everything, whether it be sports, board games, card games, trivia, I always want to win. So I was excited I was victorious, even though it was just a friendly game between fellow travelers. I packed all my stuff up nice and tidy because I planned to catch a 7:30 am train the next morning.

Thursday June 25, 2009 - Hiking in the Blue Mountains

Today I got up early and caught the 8:25 am train out of Sydney and spent about 2 hours on the train heading out to Katoomba. After getting off the train, finding my way to the hostel and checking in, I decided to get a move on and get started outside so I didn’t waste any time. I took off from the hostel around 11 or 12 and headed towards the end of town where the lookouts are. Now looking at maps of the area, if doesn’t look like too long of a distance from Katoomba main CBD to the lookouts but it’s farther than it looks and all downhill, which is fine heading there, but also means that after hours of hiking I will have to head back up this big hill after my legs are already jelly-like.
I hit the area where the trails start and the first lookout I stopped at, you could see down into the valley and off onto the mountains in the distance. Looking to the right, I could see Scenic World which is a tourist attraction that has a scenic skyway, which is a carriage that has a see through floor and goes from one side of the little valley to the other, that back again. There’s a cablecar you can take down to the valley below or back up. There also a funicular railway which is the steepest passenger carrying railway in the world. There’s also some historical stuff, which I’ll get into later. I then headed to the left, towards Echo Point. Echo Point is the main lookout area here. There’s a big tourist center and it’s where all the buses coming in from Sydney for the day stop at. There’s a nice lookout right to the 3 sisters, a big rock formation that’s a highlight of the Blue Mountains. There’s a whole legend behind the 3 sisters. How they used to be girls and then their father turned them to stone to protect them from some man, then lost the bone or whatever he used to change them and couldn’t change them back. I’m sure if I wasn’t too lazy I could google it and give a better explanation of the legend, but I am lazy, so google it yourself if your that interested. I then kept heading in the direction of the 3 sisters. Unfortunately it must have been raining here quite a bit the past week or so (as it has in Husky) because there were parts of the path that were pretty muddy. I tried my best not to get too dirty. I made it to the Giant Staircase, which is exactly what it sounds like. A big staircase that meanders pretty steeply down the side of the cliff to the valley below. It’s actually pretty narrow and steep. I had a hard enough time going down, and I must admit, laughed a little bit at the people coming up. Oh did I mention it’s 900 steps, 900 steep steps. There’s a bunch of places to stop along the way up and/or down with benches to take a break. If you were heading up, man would you need those. Dave had mentioned before that he went with his wife, Mary, and he said, if you go down to the valley, walk down, ride up. So I took his advice and I’m glad I did. I finally made it to the bottom of the Giant Staircase and met up with a trail to take me back towards Scenic World. The trail takes you right underneath the sisters, so you’re looking straight up at them. Then takes you past the Katoomba falls and over to Scenic World. Now down here in the valley, there are some attractions. Apparently their used to be a mine so you can still see and look into the mine. There are boards with info posted about the mine and tools used and statues. The railway was actually first built in order to bring coal up to the top of the cliff. Now of course, it carries people! I decided to take the railway up, as opposed to the cablecar. I could see the tracks for the railway and boy did they look steep! I saw a couple carloads of people coming down, screaming as they went. When you first get into the seat, it’s almost like your laying on your back, the seats are that tilted. Then when the ride starts and you head uphill, so straighten up into a “regular” sitting position. The train actually moves pretty swiftly. Then you hit a point where the incline gets even more severe, I was practically standing up! No wonder people screamed on the way down, I can see where it would definitely be exhilarating coming down, especially at the speed it goes. Of course the top is all caged and there’s a bar that comes down over the laps for the ride down, so no one goes flying out to their death. It also goes through rock at one point, so you’re completely surrounded by darkness. It was very cool. I would have liked to have ridden it down and also rode the other rides as well, but I really didn’t want to spend the extra money. I mean, I’ve been in a cable car before and I would just see the stuff I’d already seen. The skyway would probably be neat though. I would be an interesting perspective to be able to look straight down through the floor to the forest below. After arriving at the top at Scenic World, I spent some time wondering around. There’s a huge store, with souvenirs of all kinds, there’s a café, a restaurant, a little theatre. I did make a purchase. I picked up something I’ve been meaning to get, just to have on a hand, a poncho. It takes up like no space and when you’re traveling you never know when you might need one. I also had picked up at an outdoors store before I set off on the hike, a cheap pair of fleece gloves. I didn’t bring any gloves here with me to Australia but being here in the mountains where it’s a bit cooler, I figured, a $10 pair of fleece gloves wouldn’t be too bad an investment. Actually turned out a good plan. It was a nice day today, a bit cloudy and overcast, the sun wasn’t exactly shining through, but it wasn’t too too cold. At some of the lookouts however it was windy, especially at Echo Point. After Scenic World I trekked back towards Katoomba. Now not only was I south of town, I was also west. So I had even longer to go back. It was uphill the whole way. Just what one needs after hiking for like 5 hours, to head uphill for 30 minutes. I made it back into Katoomba CBD and spotted a Coles (grocery store), so headed inside to grab some dinner. I wasn’t really in the mood to cook anything major, so I just picked up a can of soup and some crackers. Something warm after a cool day. Plus, you know how I was sick a couple weeks ago, I thought it was gone. I wasn’t congested anymore, the sore throat was gone. Well the damn virus (or perhaps another one?) has reared its ugly head again. No sore throat, but sneezing and definite congestion and runny nose. So soup sounded pretty good. When I got back to the hostel, I pulled out my laptop and did some internet surfing and catching up with the action from State of Origin. (FYI – I am actually writing this on Friday the 26th). I met and chatted with some of the people here. Sat out by the fire outside, drank some complementary mulled wine, took a shower, ate my soup (while everyone else was actually, GASP, cooking. This one group of 3 people, I swear it took them 2 hours to finish their food from when they started. I don’t know what the hell they were making, but damn, it shouldn’t have taken that long! This is all stovetop, it’s not like they were baking something.) I headed to bed “early” probably about 10, but I think everyone else was still up, just hanging out. I had been up earlier than I had been in a while and I had gotten more exercise then I was used to, so I was pretty tired anyway.

Thursday June 25, 2009 - Witness to History

I am sitting here in a common room of my hostel in Katoomba, NSW in the Blue Mountains. I am waiting for my photos from the past couple days to load onto facebook and it is moving pretty slowly. I think it’s because the internet connection here is kinda slow, but hey, better that nothing. There is free wi-fi though, so I toted my laptop along with me so I could update as I go. (Yeah, I know, I don’t do that at home so why do it now? Well I have more free time…no tv.) Anywho… To catch up with what’s been going on the past few days. Poker on Tuesday, bad, bad and bad. I was not in a good mood coming home then I realized I had forgotten to set up to DVR “NCIS” and realized it was the season finale, that put me in an even worse mood. Unfortunately I can’t watch it here online because CBS (and NBC and ABD, etc) won’t let you watch things on their websites if you are coming from an internet connection outside the US or Canada. I think my only option might be to pay $# from iTunes to download it or just eventually wait and Netflix it, which is what I might do because who wants to pay $3 for something I’ll in all honestly probably only watch once?

Wednesday was a better day. Tom went to work for half a day then around noon-ish we headed out to make our way up to Sydney for the State of Origin rugby game. We pulled into the Holiday Inn, checked in then headed out to grab some grub because neither of us had eaten much all day. We hit up a bar/restaurant called “Cheers” that we had noticed last time we were in Sydney. They had a special going on for Origin where you could get a cheeseburger or chicken burger and a schooner of beer for $10. That’s pretty darn good. I also got a free beer bottle coozie  After we sat down, we were joined by some other Queensland fans who had flown down from Brisbane for the game. They were nice and Tom and I chatted to them for a bit. We heard on the news that the game was close to being a sell-out. I guess the Blues (New South Wales’ team) supporters knew they had to turn out in force to support their team, because Queensland won the first game in Melbourne. So if the Maroon’s (Queensland’s team) won this game they won the series and would become the first side to ever pull off the “four-peat”. Also, I think there was such a high turn-out due to that. People wanted to be a witness to an historical moment, should the Maroon’s win the game. The official spectator count was 80, 500. We were about 5 rows from the top, but were right on the 50 meter line. It was a lot of fun. We really got into the game and were jumping up and cheering. It reminded me how much I love live sporting events. The atmosphere is just so electric. The game got heated. There were a couple times where fights broke out and there were blows being thrown, the whole teams were brawling. I felt like I was at a hockey game! It was great! Apparently one of the guys on the Queensland team ended up breaking his jaw. Queensland pulled ahead early, than NSW fought back and looked like a better team in the second half. (Apparently like half the Queensland team had come down with food poisoning or something the day before and had been vomiting and suffering from diarrhea and had been on saline drips that day out of worry of dehydration, so you could see the fitness suffering). NSW fought back to 14-18 (after being down 0-18, a try is worth 4 points, then there is an “extra kick” which is called a goal that is worth 2 points. Both teams had scored the same number of tries but NSW had missed 2 of their goal attempts). So there’s only a little time left and NSW actually has hope, the stadium is coming alive again and then Queensland kicks it back into gear and scores a try with like a minute left and crushed the hopes of the NSW faithful. We had so much fun. It was so neat to be able to be there for a bit of history. That’s one of the good things about staying with Tom. If I had been constantly traveling I doubt I would have had this opportunity to catch this rugby game and see history made. Now I can check rugby game off my list of things to do. Plus it was at the Sydney Olympic Park from 2000, so now I can say I’ve seen that (at least a tiny bit of it).
I do have plans when I am in Adelaide to take a trip down to Melbourne and catch an AFL (Aussie Rules) game. If I am going to see AFL, I am going to see it in Melbourne, where the game started and the stadiums actually fill up.

I have to turn my computer off now because the hostel has a no computers in the lounge from 6-9 rule, plus my fingers are getting tired form typing, so I will finish updating later about my day of hiking today.

Monday June 22, 2009 - I actually saw sunshine today!

So after days and days of rain, there was finally sunshine today! Which meant I went out for a nice long walk/jog. I have been so cooped up the last few days. I never really noticed it till I was here, probably because I’ve never spent so much time inside before, but I can really tell how stale the air is inside. (I then stopped typing and got involved doing something else, so I never got to finish the though process) It was a nice day however.

Friday June 19, 2009 - Is the whole world raining?

Well it's been a rainy several days here. Which unfortunately means I haven't gotten outside as much as I've wished. It's all these sporadic showers. So it'll look nice and sunny out then I get my shoes and what not on and go outside and after a few minutes it'll start raining so I head home. Then later it'll let up, so I'll get ready to go out again, then the rain will start again. It's frustrating. The only way I get out of this house is going for walks and now I can't even get those done! It's also apparently been raining back home in DC, my mum and dad told me they got 1 inch of rain last night. Plus my plans for the day were ruined today. I had these plans for getting up and tuning into Fox Sports to watch coverage of the first day of the US Open, which was to begin airing here at noon, but due to the massive downpours happening on Long Island, play was called for the day after only 3 and some change hours. So they decided to scrap the airing of any of the tournament today. Boo. Now apparently they plan to start up again bright and early tomorrow morning trying to fit in the rest of the first round (like half of the players never even teed off) as well as the scheduled 2nd round. Apparently though it's supposed to continue the downpour tomorrow so who knows how much golf will be played tomorrow or even this weekend? I wonder how long this thing will drag on? So apparently rain has been a problem all over the world lately.

Tonight Tom and I head to the Regional Poker Tourney. As I mentioned before I have already qualified for states, so there's really no pressure for me, but Tom will try to finish in the top 15 (not including those already qualified for states) in order to qualify as well. I'll try to do as well as possible anyway though because there is always the chance to win money :)

Applied for a couple more temporary microbio technician jobs today. I'm just hoping I at least get some sort of response showing interest or anything. I haven't heard anything about any of the jobs I've applied for. It's a bit frustrating. I mean I am applying for 3-6 month temporary positions in the microbio world, sometimes jobs I am actually (IMHO) over-qualified for and nothing. No interest, or even invitation for an interview. Like I said, I think in some cases even though they are temporary positions and I already have a valid work visa, employers are hesitant to hire foreigners and would rather hire Australians. At least that's what I am telling myself. I just keep hope that one day I'll get lucky and someone will take interest...

Tuesday June 16, 2009 – I’m going to a rugby game and the Blue Mountains :)

I bought tickets to the second State of Origin rugby game that I was mentioning the other day! Yay! One of the things Craig told me before I left was that I had to go to an Aussie Rules game and I had to go to a rugby game. I’m gonna get to check off that rugby game. The game is Wednesday the 24th. I bought tickets for Tom and I so we’re gonna head up around lunchtime or so on Wednesday, go to the game then spend the night in Sydney. Luckily the next day in Sydney is some Navy send off thing that Tom was planning on going to anyway, so he’s gonna head to that then back home and I am heading off to the Blue Mountains for a few days. Apparently during the winter in the Blue Mountains is a winter yuletide sort of celebration, a Christmas in “June/July/August” sort of thing. So I am going to spend a couple days there then head back to Sydney Saturday morning for the state poker final I qualified for. I had originally planned on then coming back to Huskisson to try and do the SCUBA diving course. Thats not gonna happen though. I stopped by the SCUBA place and since it is the off season they don’t do the course every week. There has to be at least 2 people to do a course and there has only been interest from one other person for the foreseeable future, and that’s one person showing interest in July for part-time (over 2 weekends I think, as opposed to a four day Mon-Thurs thing). So I can’t do it when I want to because I am all alone…again. Man being a single really sucks sometimes! So because SCUBA diving is now off the agenda (at least for the next couple weeks), I have time to play with that last week in June. So if I come back to Sydney for the poker tourney on the 27th, depending on how much I did when I was at the mountains, if I didn’t get the things done I wanted to, I might go back to the mountains. Or maybe spend a few days in Sydney, or head north of Sydney a bit. Who knows, I may just decide as I do, depending on how things are going.

Friday June 12th, 2009 - Oops I forgot to mention...

I do have another plan. I am planning on getting my SCUBA certification. There is a place in town that you can do certifications through. It’s like $350 USD to do the full Open Water Certification, including all classroom supplies, all diving equipment, the open water dives, everything. And the open water dives are in Jervis Bay, which has really great diving. Some consider it the 2nd best place to dive in Australia after the Great Barrier Reef. Plus its seal season here, so I could be diving with the seals  Throw in possible dolphin and whale sightings on the boat and it’s a marine animal zoo of sorts. I have to get a diving physical then I hope to do the 4 day certification the last week in June. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. The place in Manassas it would cost $550 USD, plus the mandatory extra cost of buying your own snorkel, mask, fins and boot and the open water dives are in the quarry. So this is a much better deal, $200 cheaper and the diving is in a world class location. This way I can do something I’ve always wanted to and say I actually did something instead of sitting around watching tv! I’ll keep you updated…

Friday June 12th, 2009 - Playing Catch-up

First let me apologize for the laundry list of things I’m about to catch you up on. I don’t really do enough on a daily basis to update daily, so sometimes this “laundry list” is kind of the most efficient way to update.

Poker: You know how a couple weeks ago I mentioned that I won my first Tuesday night poker tournament? Well last week (June 2) Tom and I were on the final table and he took me out in 4th place enroute to a win. It was a bit of poetic justice seeing as though when I won, I took him out in 4th place. 4th place being so big, because they pay out to 3rd place. The 4th place finish did however give me enough points to bring me into 3rd place for the season and this was the last week of the season. That is huge because the top 3 at the end of the season automatically qualify for the state tourney. The state tourney is the tournament I went to play in up in Sydney 6 or so weeks ago. I got in then because I played in regionals and finished 6th and that’s how I qualified. This time I qualified directly from finishing 3rd for the season at my venue so I am bypassing the whole qualifying through regionals thing. Regionals however is next Friday night and States the week after up in Sydney area again. Then this past week (June 9th) I finished the night in 4th place again! Just outside the money for 2 weeks in a row! But it did give me a good chunk of points to start out the new season.

Sick: This past week or so I’ve been sick…boo. Just a little head cold thing, no swine flu or anything. I started out last Thursday with a bit of a sore throat, that developed into a congestion/runny nose deal. It kind of shot the whole weekend, being tired and sick. Dave, our next door neighbor and his wife (who flew in from Adelaide where they live) are off to Italy for a month to drive around the country then take a 12 day cruise in the Mediterranean. They left on Monday, which was actually a holiday here (it was the Queen’s birthday) and Tom drove then up to Sydney to the airport. I was going to tag along, then on the way back down, take the coastal route that we don’t usually take, but being sick I decided it probably wasn’t the best idea to be in a car for 6 hours feeling like crap.

Job: I haven’t heard anything back about any of the applications I put in, which is a bit frustrating. I mean, I worked for a leading US bioresources company for 3 years, I would hope that would at least get me some interest somewhere. Everytime I went to a conference in the states and told people I worked for ATCC I would get ooohs and awws and people were impressed, even international people. So why isn’t that helping me out here? Grr.

Travel: I am going somewhere! Shocker! Dave was giving me a hard time about being here for 2 months not really having done anything or gone anywhere (which isn't entirely true, I've been to Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra). He was like, why the hell are you even here if you're not doing anything. It's not that easy though. Things are expensive here. When you factor in transport (plane/train/bus), plus lodging, plus food, that alone adds up quickly, in addition to any local transport, any activities/places to do/see, it gets really expensive. I'll come back to that in a minute. So Dave, the neighbor, actually lives in Adelaide and he is here because he's in the Navy. He is now semi-retired and has jetted off to Italy for a month with his wife to go on holiday driving around Italy and going on a cruise. When he gets back at the beginning of July, he is driving home to Adelaide and invited me to go with him and stay with them for a bit, which I happily agreed to. I'll get to see some of the interior of Australia (Adelaide is about 14 hours away, driving straight through) and get to see Adelaide (which I've heard isn't very exciting but at least I can check it off my list). He’ll be there for about 3 weeks then is driving back here to spend a month or so I guess. So I can either hang out in Adelaide that come back with him, use Adelaide as a jumping off point for other places (from Adelaide I can either head up north, to Ayers Rock then onto Darwin, or head west to Perth and Melbourne isn't "that far" away...relatively). So that's my plan, head to Adelaide beginning of July. But I now have a month or so before that so I am trying to do something before then, spend some time traveling, but when I start researching things, it just gets more and more expensive. I thought about a trip up the coast hitting some spots in New South Wales, but factoring in trains/buses, lodging, food, actually doing things besides sitting in a hostel, and it would cost me more than I am willing to spend. I don’t want to drop 800-1000 for one week. So it’s not really a matter of not wanting to go places, its cost, things here are expensive. Like I said, I do have some options from Adelaide. I could jump on the Indian-Pacific Railway over to Perth, which would be a neat experience, it is sort of an iconic rail journey. Or take the Ghan up north to Darwin, stopping in Alice Springs (which is the nearest city to Ayer’s Rock). But of course those train journeys are gonna cost hundreds of dollars just for the transport. If I buy this $35 AUD backpacker card I could get a $600 AUD pass for 6 months unlimited travel on the Indian Pacific (Sydney-Adelaide-Perth), the Ghan (Adelaide-Alice Springs-Darwin) and the Overlander (Adelaide-Melbourne) so the only places missing on the pass would be Queensland (Brisbane and Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef) which are also places I want to go to, so to get to those places I’ve have to spend even more for transport. That price is just for a seat too (a reclining seat like an airplane seat, it might even have a tv in the seat in front like an airplane) not even a sleeper. So 2 days in a reclining seat, I don’t know if I could do that. At any rate, I am mulling over getting one of those. I am thinking about in this time taking a couple day trip up to the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney. I don’t think that would be too expensive. I want to go up to Sydney on the 24th to go to the 2nd State of Origin Game (State of Origin is a rugby annual 3 game series between players who originate from Queensland and those from New South Wales. It’s a huge deal, it’s like a “cross-town rivalry.” The first game was in Melbourne and won by Queensland. The 2nd game is the 24th in Sydney and the 3rd game is in July in Brisbane. The players play harder in this series then in regular games. People who play on the same team regularly throw caution to the wind and go for the jugular on each other during Origin. So I’m thinking about going to Origin on the 24th, doing a couple days in the Blue Mountains, then coming back to Sydney for the poker tournament on the 27th. We shall see.

Well that’s it for now. I am tired of typing, my fingers hurt, plus it’s pretty cold here so the fingers are going kind of numb. I guess I should go turn the heat up.

Sunday May 31, 2009 - Random thought about "Sex and the City"

So I’ve been watching quite a bit of “Sex and the City” reruns while I’ve been here and I just thought about something the other day. How the hell does Carrie afford to live her life? I mean, I don’t think it ever says how much she earns (before she inks the book deal), but she certainly spends a lot. She is always buying 400 or more dollar shoes, she has this extravagant lifestyle where she is always going out drinking and out to eat and eats take-out like it’s nobody’s business. I mean, how can one afford to pay rent, shop as much as she does (for designer shoes and clothes!), pay for cigarettes, pay for food, go out and drink all the time? Plus she then buys her apartment after the Aidan fiasco, true, Charlotte gives her the ring for the down payment, but she would’ve had to get a loan to cover the rest, and we all know she’s not exactly the ideal loan candidate. She has hinted that she doesn’t really make all that much writing the column, so how in the hell can she afford to live this extravagant lifestyle? True, she’s probably ridiculously in credit card debt up to her eyeballs, but still. People I know who live in New York with decent jobs, have to work hard to manage to pay rent (with roommates) and eat and still be able to go out every once in a while. Forget about expensive shopping and dining. It’s just occurred to me that Carrie Bradshaw’s life is completely unrealistic, in terms of finances. It makes some people depressed to see these fabulous woman on tv and the lifestyles they live, where in reality it’s completely unbelievable (at least for Carrie, Samantha probably makes a decent amount owning her own PR company and Miranda probably does well as a lawyer). Hmph, just wanted to get that off my chest, although will I still watch, of course, after all it is tv and we all have to remember tv is not reality.

Sunday May 31, 2009 - Back from Canberra

Yesterday we spent our day in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It’s about 2.5-3 hours away from Husky. We started out by grabbing some lunch when we got there about 11:30 am. We then headed over to the National Museum of Australia. It has exhibits concerning the history of Australia from Aborigines to colonization to present day. The building the museum was in was interesting, very modern and surreal. I felt like I had stepped out of a Salvador Dali painting. There was this big wooden curly-Q thing outside that looked like a roller coaster loop-de-loop. There was also this strange courtyard in the middle with some weird stuff in it, but I do believe it was called the “Garden of Australian Dreams,” so I suppose it was supposed to be a dreamland sort of thing. After the museum we headed to the Australian-American War Memorial. It was a tall obelisk with an (ugly) eagle on the top. If was built to memorialize the cooperation/help of the America with Australia during World War II. Then we headed to the Australian War Memorial. It is also a museum with exhibits on wars the Australian were involved in. I don’t think we saw the whole thing, but we did see the exhibits on WWI and WWII. It was actually pretty neat. There were all the cool little diorama things that were neat and much better than just seeing a 2-D picture of painting. There was also a pool of reflection with an eternal flame, flanked on either side by the names of the 102,000 Australians who have died in wars since the late nineteenth century. Then at the end of the pool is the dome of the hall of memory, which houses the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier. The whole inside of the dome is one huge mural, with 4 separate pictures, representing servicemen and women. My thought was, gee I wonder how many tiles were used to cover the inside of this dome, because it must be a hell of a lot! Oh, just was on the website for the memorial and here’s the answer to the aforementioned question concerning the number of tiles in the hall: The walls and dome of the hall are lined with one of the largest mosaics in the world, also the work of Waller, unveiled in 1959. The mosaic inside the dome depicts the souls of the dead rising from the earth towards their spiritual home, represented by a glowing sun within the Southern Cross. The figures on the walls – a soldier, a sailor, an airman and a servicewoman – recall the Australian experience of the Second World War. Over six million pieces of glass tesserae, or tiles, imported from Italy, were used in the composition; the installation was overseen by Italian craftsmen and took three years to complete. So there ya go!

After the War Memorial we headed to the Parliament building. We walked around inside and were able to see the House and Senate chambers.

We then headed to an ice hockey game. Yes, my first live sports event in Australia and its ice hockey, not Aussie Rules, not rugby, not even cricket…ice hockey. Turns out Australia has a national ice hockey league, consisting of all of 7 teams. There was a game in Canberra so we decided to check it out, it was only $15 to get in. The rink reminded of when I went to watch my high schools ice hockey games. Small place, no glass, just netting, hard wooden benches and freaking freezing. The game was pretty entertaining. Canberra lost though, to the Newcastle North Stars (Newcastle is up north of Sydney). Tom is definitely a vocal guy though, I had to keep reminding him, Tom, this isn’t NHL, the talent level isn’t as high. Also the guy who ran the zamboni between the 1st and 2nd periods was wearing a Detriot Red Wings jersey so of course Tom had to heckle him as he drove by, yelling out “Go Pens!” to which he received a dirty look. Then between the 2nd and 3rd periods a different guy running the zamboni was wearing a University of Michigan sweatshirt! Eww! I did eat a hot dog at the game and mmm, it was good. A nice good old style American hot dog! We headed straight home after the game.

Overall impressions of Canberra: There’s not much there. Smaller and not as much to do as DC. However, the good thing is like DC, everywhere we went was free to go into (with of course the exception of the hockey game). It actually reminded me of Brasilia. It’s a manufactured city, designed around a man-made lake, in the middle of the country because a capital couldn’t be decided from current major cities. I didn’t like it as much as even Brasilia though. It just seemed like there wasn’t really much there, it was too quiet, too unassuming. There was plenty there we didn’t see though. The national mint, the archives, and other things that I think would be worth a return trip.

Saturday May 30, 2009 - Driving to Canberra

I’m the car on the way to visit the nation’s capital of Canberra. It’s about 2.5-3 hours southwest of Husky. I figured now is as good a time as any to update the blog. Of course I am writing this in Microsoft Word and will later transfer it to Blogger, so I guess the blog itself still won’t be technically updated. The drive has been ice so far. First we drove through some mountains and I’m sure there would have been some beautiful views but unfortunately this morning when we left it was raining and foggy so we pretty much couldn’t see shit. One thing that amazes me is we are smack dab in the middle of fall and everything is still so green! Leaves aren’t changing, aren’t falling off the trees, which to me is weird. Next weekend is a holiday weekend here, it’s the Queen’s Birthday (yes the Queen of England) so Monday is a holiday and that’s the weekend that the ski resorts here in NSW and down in Victoria open for the start of the season, so I guess it’s also (whether official or unofficial, I don’t know) the start of winter. I wonder, when the Queen passes away and there is a new supreme head of the British Empire, will this federal holiday cease to exist and a new one (the King’s Birthday) take effect? Hmm, I wonder. Well let’s see, what’s been going on this week?

Wednesday (May 27) – I felt so disgraced about my poor performance Tuesday night at poker, I tagged along with Dave to the free entry Wednesday night league in Callala, determined to redeem a little bit of my dignity. Well I did even worse. Of course I had drank a few cocktails before I went, so I’m thinking that definitely didn’t help matters. After I got out (pre-break) I turned around to see if Dave was still in, but he wasn’t. I saw him over by the bar and went to see if he had signed up for a cashie, because if he had, I was going to as well. He had, so I decided to go sign my name up for the same game. Unfortunately, 2 women (who were at my table and were taken out the same hand as me) snapped up the last 2 spots in that cashie. Great, I went ahead and signed up for the next cashie and if it started relatively soon, I would play. It all depended though on how long it took to start and how Dave was doing in his game, I didn’t want to start when he was about to go out and then make him wait for me. Break for the tourney was called, but cashies play through the break and Dave was out of the cashie before the break resumed, so obviously he didn’t do too well in that game. We stuck around for a few minutes because at the break they redraw 3 people who got out before the break and they get re-entered into the game. Richard (the guy in charge) gets up and announces its ladies night again for the redraw. Dave gives me the hopeful eyes, like maybe I am one of the redraws. They announce 2 other women’s then the third name announced is… Dave Threlfo! Damn Dave, I guess I will be playing that cashie after all. Well, I did pretty good in the cashie. I didn’t get particularly good cards, but I was able to wait everyone out, until I was in the final 3. Now, it’s $10 to play, with 8 players, 10 x 8 = $80. The poker league keeps $10 to go towards tournament winnings throughout the year, then $50 goes to the winner of the cashie and $20 to the runner-up, there’s also points awarded but I’m not sure how those are broken up. So I am in the final 3 at the cashie with the significantly small stack when the guy in second place goes all in against the guy with the most chips and the second place guy gets taken out! So yay, I am going to get $20, because the other gentleman has like 20 times as many chips as I do, there is no hope for me. He then suggests splitting the money as long as he can get first place points, I say hell yes! I don’t give a crap about points (apparently you can gain points to qualify for some end of season shoot-out thing) but if we split money, I would get $35 instead of the $20 I would get for second place. So after playing $10 to play the cashie, I walked out with $35, making $25! So even though I feel like I had another no so great night, I still somehow managed to walk out making $25. I felt slightly better, after all making money, however slight is always a good thing.

Friday night we headed to the RSL to grab dinner during the Friday night raffle. We started chatting with the people sitting next to us and I big fear of mine was realized. They thought we were married. No we assured, we’re cousins. That’s one thing about always hanging out with Tom, I think people may think we’re a couple. I want to wear a shirt that says, “We’re not together. We’re cousins. I’m available.” Dave gives me shit about not going anywhere and says I should go down to the pub in Friday or Saturday night and try to pick me up a cute Aussie bloke. Well, that’s all well and good, but I am not comfortable going to a bar by myself but if I go with Tom, it would look like we’re together and then really, what’s the point? Same thing with Tom, it’s hard to pick up a woman when you’re with another female.

Tuesday May 27, 2009 - I rode my bike almost 20 miles!

This past weekend Tom and I had planned to drive the 3 hours west to Canberra, the capital of the country. Canberra is kind of like DC, it’s its own little capital territory. The weather forecast however called for showers, so we decided to push it off till next weekend. We did however head back out to Silos Estate winery north of Nowra to pick up some wine. This is the winery he had stopped at a few weeks after I got here to do a wine tasting. I had liked the Riesling when I tried it but didn’t buy any so I picked up a bottle and Tom picked up a couple bottles.

Monday I decided to be ambitious and take the bike out for a long bike ride. There is a bay to basin cycleway here where you can walk or ride from Jervis Bay down to the inland lake of St. George’s Basin. It’s about 11 km straight down to Sanctuary Point. So I could go down to Sanctuary Point and back the same way for a round trip of about 22 km, or about 13.5 miles. Or there is a loop where you go down to Sanctuary Point, go along the basin a bit, then back up another road back to Huskisson. The loop is 30.5 km or 19 miles, so of course I decided to go for the long one. It took me about 5 hours and I swear was mostly uphill. Some were steep hills and some were long, slightly uphill parts. There was some parts that were flat, but I swear there were only a few 100 m or so spurts where I didn’t have to cycle at all. For all the damn uphill I did, there should have been more freaking places where I could just relax and enjoy the ride without having to work too hard, but no. It took me so long because with all the damn uphills, I got to the point where at some points I hopped off my bike and walked along side it. When I finally finished I was exhausted, my legs and butt HATED me and my arms were hurting as well. I did however feel a huge sense of accomplishment, especially considering I biked 4 or 5 times since I’ve been here and before that it’d been maybe 8 months since I’d been on a bike. I’m pretty impressed with myself I even did it at all. I do have plans to do it again sometime though, maybe next week. However I do plan on doing it the opposite way around next time, since I feel like I went all uphill this way, we’ll see if it feels any different doing it the other way around. Still people…19 miles…props to me.

Tuesday night I went to poker and after winning last week, I followed that up with my worst performance to date. It was horrible, I had crap cards the whole night and I just didn’t play well. Let’s hope I can do better next week. There is a free to play poker tonight in Callalla (just up the bay) that Dave usually goes to. I think I will tag along (I did play there one other time a couple weeks ago) with Dave if he goes and try to redeem myself from my horrendous play last night. After all it is free and I have the chance to win money, so why not. I will have to DVR “Chuck” though. I didn’t watch it back in the States, but they started airing the first season here and I started watching from the beginning so now I am hooked. It’s a good, show I am really enjoying it!

Random thought: An acquaintance of mine (a friend of a friend) is going through a pretty tough break-up right now and she mentioned that before the actual break-up they were on a break. I’ve also been watching re-runs of “Gilmore Girls” where Logan cheats on Rory while they were on a break, with him thinking they had actually broken up. Then of course there’s the notorious “WE WERE ON A BREAK” involving Ross and Rachel from “Friends.” This got me thinking about people in a relationship who go on a break. Now I can’t say anything definitively because I’ve never been put in such a position, I can only speculate. But…WTF is up with breaks? I feel like whether on tv or in real life, breaks just don’t make sense to me. I mean, both people in the relationship have to be on exactly the same page. Are you allowed to fool around with other people, can you talk to each other, do you cut off all contact? What are the rules of a break? It seems like someone always ends up getting even more hurt, and things usually end badly anyway, I mean, what’s the point? From what I’ve heard, people only go on a break when things are bad and they’re about to break up anyway. So why not just break up, why pick an undefined length of time, with undefined restrictions to see if things change? Do things for most couples ever change? Or is it just a detour on the way to a break-up? And who else thinks me writing blog posts on relationships is a byproduct of watching too much “Sex and the City?” Now all I need is 3 good friends to go out and drink with.

Random thought about Kris Allen

Just caught The Tonight Show from last night, with Kris Allen. He said he played the viola for like 9 years! I mean, it's no violin, but the fact that he was a orchestra geek made me fall a little bit more in love with him. He totally should've busted out the viola on Idol! Talk about something new and different. If I was ever on Idol (assuming I all of a sudden stopped sucking at singing), I would totally bust out the violin playing on a country song or slow song or something. I think that would totally be cool.

Friday May 22, 2009 - Work Update

So I’ve been really conflicted lately about what I’m doing. I am going crazy being here and need to get out soon. When I originally moved here, I just planned on getting some part time waitressing/retail thing in Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane, you know, enough to cover expenses. The more I think about it though, the more that’s just not me. I want a “real” job where I can contribute, not just be some slacky. Plus I miss being in a lab. I mean, I left ATCC in September. I miss being in a lab, doing science. But there aren’t any short term (<6 month) science jobs here. At ATCC we would hire people for 3 or 4 months to cover maternity leaves, or short term projects, but apparently they don’t do that here. Even maternity leave covers are for 12 months. My current visa will only allow me to work for a certain company for 6 months, so anything longer is out of the question unless they sponsor me for a visa. I was on Kelly Scientific (which we have in the States too, that’s who we usually hire our temps thorough) checking things out and there were a couple permanent jobs listed. I started thinking about applying for a permanent job, I mean even if it’s permanent doesn’t mean I have to stay forever. But if I wanted to applying for a permanent job I feel like I would have to stay I would stay for a least a certain period of time, like 2 or 3 years. That’s a long time though. It’s a long time to go without seeing my friends (all of whom now that I’ve left the DC area after living there for 3.5 years after college, want to move there) and my family, especially my niece and nephew. That led to some serious thinking about what the hell am I doing here? Leaving a stable job with a reputable company during a recession to move to another country where jobs are scarce as well. What the hell am I thinking? I am an idiot. What am I doing with my life? I’m 26, alone, as of 2 months ago, living with my parents, now living with a cousin, have no job, no property, nothing. I see other people, friends, people from college and high school who are getting married, having kids, buying houses, “growing up” and here I am, drifting. It’s just that I feel like I should be so much further along in my life then I am. I’m afraid being here I am going to use up all of my savings, especially if I travel like I want to and not having income, and go home broke and have to start all over again. I refuse to go back now though. I don’t want to go crawling back admitting I was crazy. I’m here and I want to stay until at least the end of the year. Travel, see New Zealand, see some of Southeast Asia, see the rest of Australia. I flew all the way here, I need to make the most of it. Plus people keep asking me, have you found a job, are you looking? I know people are just interested, but it also makes me feel like they’re looking down on me because I don’t have a job yet and I should. I decided that if I was going to spend a year here then move back to the US somewhere besides the DC area and only talk to friends and family on the phone from somewhere else in the US, then why not just talk friends and family on the phone from here? So I decided, what the hell, I will apply for permanent jobs. Now I think I would be able to start working at a company with the visa I have but for a permanent job a company would have to sponsor me for a long term work visa. To do this, a company would have to prove that there are no domestic applicants that would be better candidates. Now some companies now-a-days aren’t even willing to consider foreign applicants so I have no idea is these applications would even go anywhere. I applied for several jobs through Kelly Scientific in both Sydney and Melbourne. Here’s a weird thing about companies here, it’s uncommon for companies to advertise openings directly on their websites. They all do them through these 3rd party companies, which I think is strange. I got replies back from the applications I put in for the Sydney jobs (which I think was actually for a company, BTF that I had already been communicating with directly) saying “your application had been unsuccessful in this instance.” Not even shortlisted, for jobs I’d be perfect for. I got these rejections like the day after I applied. Who knows why, is it because I’m an international applicant, or because they didn’t like my resume? Was I rejected by Kelly or by the specific company (on these stupid websites it doesn’t even say what the actual company you’re applying for is, just a city and what they do)? I mean, did the actual company see my resume or did Kelly reject me before even sending the resume on? Who knows? I still have a couple applications in for a company in Melbourne and I applied for a part-time (15-30 hours a week) job in Brisbane. It’s listed as a “casual” position so I’m hoping that may mean I have a better chance of at least getting shortlisted for it. I mean, damn people, I spent over 3 years at freakin’ ATCC, a place that when I went to conferences and told people where I was from they oohed and awed like I was some sort of modern day Marie Curie. Shouldn’t that at least give me some leeway here, make people at least interested in what I can offer. I am smart, have a great company on my resume, and damn it, I am a hard ass worker. I believe in finishing what I start, doing it all out the first time (because if you have to do it over, why waste the time the first time around?), I would be an asset to any company! I hope people see that when I do come crawling back to the states begging for a job. I do think the one company, BTF, had some interest in me. I sporadically sent them a resume just to get my name out there (even mentioned I’d worked with Biomerieux, whom they are owned by) and got a response from a PhD., mentioning they were going to advertise an opening the following week through Kelly and Seek.com.au. My resume must have sparked at least some interest for me to get any response at all, that was encouraging. But I think what killed me was that I only have a visa where I can work for up to 6 months and they wanted someone for longer and weren’t willing to sponsor someone for longer. This is the company that I “think” I applied for through Kelly and got the “your application was unsuccessful in this instance” reply. But like I said, I am holding out hope for the part-time casual job in Brisbane, as I mentioned I really liked Brisbane. Also I haven’t been rejected by the Melbourne company yet, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed. Damn I just want to have somewhere to go during the day, people to communicate with. I think I need to set a deadline for myself, say June 15th or 20th or something as a cutoff date where if I don’t hear anything about a job, I will just up and move somewhere and find a retail/server thing, or at least set out traveling, attempting to spend that savings. The only thing more depressing then sitting at home in the US going I wish or what if, is taking that chance and then not making the most of it. If I have to spend my savings to have an amazing, life-changing experience, then I should just take that chance. I bitch about not being in a place in my life where I think I should be, but I keep reminding myself that we can’t compare ourselves to other people. We can’t let people dictate who we think we should be. I mean, there are so many people back home who wish they were where I am, I shouldn’t be bitching. I made the biggest jump of all by leaving my job, friends and family and coming here, everything else should be cakewalk, right? I should let life take me where it wants. I have always believed that things in life always turn out how they’re supposed to, call it fate, destiny, desire, kismet, whatever. We are all presented opportunities, we just have to make the most of what is presented us. So I will apply to places, travel, let what will happen, happen. Life will work out and what’s meant to happen will. I’m just going through a bit of a funk right now and I know I’ll bust out of it eventually. At least I can say that I did something crazy by even moving here in the first place, not many people can say that.

PS - Sorry about the lack of correct grammar and punctuation and it being one big paragraph. I have been writing for like 8 hours trying to get this damn blog updated because I was like a week and a half behind and I am tired. It is after 11 pm here and I am tired and too lazy to make my grammar correct and make sense, so deal with it.