Hunter Valley

Veronica was talking to coworkers this past when she found out about the three R’s her Australian mates learn at school. They are reading, (w)riting, and (a)rithmetic. Yeah, dig on that retardation!

This past weekend Veronica and I were given concert tickets and a free stay at a Bed and Breakfast in the Hunter Valley, which is Australian wine country. The concert ended up getting rained out, but despite the rain we managed to have a great time.

Lucky for me my buddies at Video Australasia needed a driver for the week, so I have been able to occupy my days this week with something other than surfing and writing. And some extra money for the holidays doesn’t hurt either.

Veronica and I are getting excited about leaving for the States in two-weeks, we can’t wait to eat inexpensive, fatty foods again. Bring on the monster American portions!

Forresters Beach

Another weekend has come and gone, always a bit of a bummer. Friday continued the week’s tradition of grey skies and rain, definitely not a promising start to a weekend at a beach house. Veronica had to work late, so we ended up leaving our place for Forresters Beach at about 7:30. Even though it was rainy, luckily the traffic wasn’t bad, so we made good time and arrived at to the house in 2 hours. That night was long as everyone there was ready to party after a long week. Poor Veronica was extremely tired as she had been working almost 12-hour days that week, trying to finish two reports.

I woke early the next morning to go surfing with Magnus and an Aussie named Matt. The waves were windblown and a bit crap, but while in the surf we witnessed a waterspout about 200 meters out to sea. Amazing stuff I must admit, seeing as I have never witnessed a water tornado in all my time living near the ocean. After the surf we headed back to the house where everyone was taking it easy and making lunch. It had begun raining on us out in the surf, and the rain continued until about 4 that afternoon. Once the rain cleared the clouds parted and the sun made an appearance, definitely a nice surprise after a gloomy day. I headed back out for another surf with Aussie Matt, but again the waves were a bit junky and lumpy. After watching the sunset we had dinner, some delicious Lemon Garlic Chicken and vegetables. Afterwards everyone again hung out on the huge deck outside, but luckily it was a bit warmer than on Friday night when it was damp and cold.

Sunday morning we awoke to a gorgeous day. Not a cloud in the sky, crisp air that was a bit humid due to the hot sun and leftover moisture in the air. After an egg sandwich, Veronica and I decided to walk the length of the beach over to the next town Terrigal. It was a nice walk, however, since we had started it a bit late we decided before reaching Terrigal to head back to the house. Unfortunately, Veronica still had work to do on her reports, so we needed to get back to Sydney so V could go to her office. We left the house after having lunch a little past 1, and we made good time back to Sydney, arriving at V’s office at 3. After catching up on some emails while Veronica worked, I decided to go see a movie at the Rhodes Mall, situated right next door to Veronica’s office. ’30 Days of Night’ was actually quite entertaining, and the movie theater was empty save for 3 other people. We ended up staying at V’s office until 11 that night, but unfortunately she still did not finish her work. We drove home, arriving back in Manly at midnight. A long weekend, but good times nonetheless.

Both Veronica and I just read a book called ‘Marching Powder’ by Rusty Young and Thomas McFadden. It is the true story of Thomas McFadden, an Englishman who gets thrown into jail in La Paz, Bolivia at the most bizarre jail, San Pedro Prison. The prison is it’s own economy, where prisoners have to buy their own cells, restaurants are everywhere, and of course where cocaine is manufactured. A great read, pick it up!

A concert and a great movie

It has been an eventful week since the last update. On Friday Veronica got a letter from work officially recognizing her promotion, very cool. Saturday we went to the Enmore Theatre to see Fat Freddy’s Drop (a dub/reggae band from New Zealand) play live. The show was fantastic, although the theatre was absolutely sticky and humid, good times were had by all of our friends. Like a moron, I forgot the camera and thus no pictures were taken. I apologize.

Sunday Veronica and I took it easy, waking late and going for a tasty coffee in the morning. We headed over to our friends Jase and Brenda’s house in Freshwater, and hung out with them a bit. Then we drove back out to Newtown to go see ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ at the Dendy, what a freaking stellar movie. Long, like don’t drink anything before or during the film because you will have to pee like a Russian race horse at the end of it (trust me, personal experience on this one), but stellar nonetheless. Afterwards we went and had some tacos for dinner, capping off a pretty nice weekend I would have to say.

The weather turned nasty on Monday, so while Veronica went to work, I stayed home and did some writing. I didn’t have to go into work because I had gotten a call on Friday from my boss stating that he had moved everything out of the office, and to meet him at a new office in Edgecliff on Wednesday. The best part about this whole situation is that yesterday I find out at the meeting with him that we no longer have an office, and we will be meeting once a week from now on. Brilliant. When I asked why we had suddenly moved out when on the previous Wednesday he had stated that we would be staying for another month, he kept dodging and redirecting the question. It was bizarre, and when I pressed him he would only say that the head of the office was making him feel unwelcome and was trying to cheat us out of a future commission. Craziness, but then, what do I expect from a man who claims to have studied psychology and fancies himself an astute expert on the behavior of others. Now, I am no doctor, but this dude is severely paranoid, and some of his actions are borderline delusional. I can honestly say I am over it, and I might look for a job at a surf shop because this is crazy. Anyways, I thought I would give an update on the career front, Good stuff I realize!

Last night we went to a party at our friends Martina and Gavin’s place. Martina has two friends in town from Italy and today they are headed up to Byron Bay, but last night they had a bunch of friends over for some drinks and pizza. Good times, and again we forgot the camera, sorry!

This weekend we are headed up the coast to a beach house about 2 hours North. Don’t worry, we will remember to bring the camera so we can get some shots for you kids for the next post!

Cheers.

Invasion of the Flies

Well, this past week back in Sydney has seen Veronica spending a lot of time at work. She has working like a farmer trying to finish up a few reports, so this week my main contribution to our domestic bliss has been in making dinners. I have to say I am getting used to being a quasi Mr. Mom domestic type. Otherwise, I have been busy trying to surf as much as possible each morning before work. Mostly the surf has been pretty average the past month, but on Friday the waves started turning on. By Saturday morning the waves were pretty much epic, 3 to 4 and just barreling. Mike and I went out early to Dee Why/Long Reef on Saturday, and walking along the beach we were both in disbelief at how insane the waves were. Unfortunately my skills did not shine and I got beat out there. A humbling experience out in the soup for me, no doubt somehow brought on by my sour mood at not finding a job.

Veronica went for a long run that morning, and afterwards we went and had a coffee at our favorite coffee shop in Manly, Barefoot. We then went and met up with our friends to walk around the Corso and have some lunch. Later on, closer to sunset, we met our friends Gavin and Martina at the Bavarian to have a few mango beers (where both of the photos were taken). These beers, while quite delicious, are also a tad on the expensive side, which is why we consider these beers to be a treat and usually limit ourselves to only 2 each.

After the sunset, we headed over to our friend Andy’s place for a barbie. While we expected a bigger crowd, it ended up only being our close group of friends, and the night ended early as the boys were going out for a night on the town.

On Sunday morning Veronica and I both slept in. Since we had not been to Carlos’s Coffee in a while (one of the finest purveyors of coffee on the Northern Beaches), we took a drive over to Freshwater in order to quaff a tasty flat white. Carlos delivered his usual dose of caffeine goodness, and then Veronica went up to work, leaving me alone. I ended up going over our former flat mate Morgan’s house, and then we went surfing, after an extended shopping trip to surf shops looking for a pair of sunglasses. The surf was fun, and quite warm. It seems that very soon I won’t need to wear a full wetsuit in the surf, which is a shame since I just got my Patagonia suit a little over a month ago.

I finished reading an excellent novel “Absolute Beginners” by Colin MacInnes. The novel is considered to be the British equivalent of “The Catcher and the Rye”, and it turned out to be one of the best novels I have read in quite some time. It is actually out of print, but you can still find used copies of it on Amazon.com. I highly recommend anyone who loves literature to pick this book up as it is magic.

Monday is now here and the flies continue to get worse. Apparently they will keep getting worse in November, until they leave a little after Christmas. Suck.

The Big Merino

As I had previously noted in the last entry, Veronica and I were lucky enough to experience the visual splendor of a big ass ram in Goulburn. However, after some quick research it appears the giant landmark (which is 45 feet tall) is actually called The Big Merino. I apoligize for the mistake, and in the future will try my darndest to perform a little more research before posting. Hope you enjoy the picture of Veronica and "Biggie Merino".

More pictures from the Bush

The Outback

No doubt you are all wondering how our adventure into the netherworld of the Outback went, and I can sum it up in 3 words. Small, flat, flies.

The town of Hay is very small. Lonely Planet has it listed with a population of 2,200, whereas the sign introducing travelers to the town cites the population as 3,400. Regardless, the place is truly a one street town. I half expected to see some tumbleweed slowly rolling across the street, Grapes of Wrath style.

Our drive into the bush on Monday was long. Surprisingly, the countryside past Sydney is quite rolling and lush. It is only when you get around an hour or two away from Hay that the landscape completely flattens and starts turning a dull brown. We stopped for lunch at the town of Gundagai, and ate at the famous Niagara Café, which was listed in the Lonely Planet. The guidebook said that stepping into the restaurant would transport you back to the 1930’s; however, the TV and huge refrigerator’s dampened the nostalgic mood a bit. The food was good, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the place. The former Prime Minister had eaten a meal there in 1942, and they actually had a 50th year anniversary in 1992 celebrating the momentous day. Depressing to say the least.

Back on the road, we took a picture smack dab in the middle of road, just to show how little traffic there is on that stretch of road. Arriving at the Comfort Inn around 6:30, both Veronica and I were quite tired from having spent the day in the Ute. We opted to go grab a pizza from one of the two restaurants that were open in town.

The next morning Veronica woke early to go do her fieldwork. I stayed in the hotel room and worked on my assignment, and then met up with her for lunch at the Roadhouse (the Mobil’s on site restaurant). There we dined on fried chicken and chips (fries) and afterwards I felt as if I were about to have a heart attack. On my walk back to the motel I was swarmed by a group of flies. 10 dirty little buggers kept buzzing around my head, Africa-style. Unfortunately, that was what Veronica had to deal with all day on Tuesday and Wednesday. I really cannot stress enough how badly flies suck here in Australia. They have no fear, flying up your nose and into your mouth. It is now extremely obvious why 90% of the population of Australia lives along the coast. That night we dined at the Jolly Jumbuck Bistro, a delightful little restaurant that made a mean steak and chicken parmigiana. We actually ended up eating there on Wednesday night as well, because the food was good and there really wasn’t any other option

Wednesday Veronica finished work a little early so we took a stroll around the town. We visited the mighty Murrumbidgee River, and took a few pictures at Sandy Point. As you can see, I took a nice picture with a stuffed kangaroo, real classy indeed! The fire station is now a bookshop, the water fountain Veronica is under was built in 1882, which is perhaps the oldest water fountain I have ever seen. Exciting stuff I realize!

The drive back yesterday was again long, but we managed to have a fun time with our road trip. We stopped in a filed with a solitary tree surrounded by some very pretty flowers. Veronica reckons that the flowers are the national flower, however, I am not too sure, but I will be sure to check up on that. I forgot to mention that during the drive to Hay and back we saw a plethora of dead kangaroo’s on the side of the road. Apparently they get plowed over trying to cross the road at night. On a less depressing note, we stopped in Goulburn for lunch. The lunch was fairly good, but the highlight is the gigantic ram that the town is constructing right next to the Subway (restaurant). I don’t know what it is about Australian’s and their love of building gigantic creatures, but they get hog wild excited about that crap. To each there own I say! At least it made for a pretty kick ass picture, eh?

Well, it’s time to sign off, but I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Just had a fun surf this morning, and now it is time to head into work. Tomorrow our friend Jase is having his 40th birthday party; no doubt it will be a crazy time.

Silver Lining?

So it's been a tough day after all the drama, not gonna lie. But making it a tad bit more bearable is finding out my Argentina article "Southbound" has been posted on Absolute's website. The link is http://www.absolutemagazine.com/absolute.php?absolute=travel&id=144 . By no means is this consolation for the mental rape I feel I have undergone through this whole situation, however, this little victory helps out my bruised pride. :)

Hope everyone is well.

Cheers

I must have kicked a blind beggar in a previous life!

So, after patting myself on the back and annoucing to everyone that I got a job, I find out that in fact I did not get the job. Literally, I told everyone I had a job (I had a written offer) and I have now had it plucked from my grasp. The story goes that when I told them I would take the offer I reminded them that my contract states they had to pay a commission to my boss. A day later they said they could not afford to pay it. So I went halfway and said I would pay half the fee, and they still said no. I then told them I would pay the fee, so there should be no problem. That was on Friday, and they said they would make a decision today. And the decision was a resounding NO. The explanation given to me by Grace is that due to the fact that Tracy (the principle of the company) is on a 457 herself, she is supposed to hire citizens or permanent residents. Thus, they are now hiring the project manager for the Parramatta site, and he happens to be a resident. Mind you, when I received the written offer on Wednesday, the company and Tracy had already seen on my cover letter that I was on a 457 visa.

I feel like vomiting, I am in disbelief that this could happen a second time around. Which leads me to the title of this post, for truly I must have been a despicable human in a previous life. I know I'm not perfect, but DAMN, how many times can this happen to a frustrated job hunter? Anyways, I suppose I am gonna look back on this and laugh, however, the laughter isn't exactly with me at the present time.

This weekend we ended up going to a Sydney Kings basketball game. Pretty interesting, reminded me of a CBA game. The place seemed to be about half full, after all the Rugby World Cup is currently on. Veronica enjoyed hanging out with the mascot as you can tell from the picture.

I also included a picture of me in my new Patagonia wetsuit. I love this wetsuit, and it was so worth the nearly 3-month wait.

The picture of the eating baby is our friend’s Jay and Mischa beautiful little girl Rhea (sp?). These pictures cracked me up.

Anyhow, Veronica and I are getting really excited about coming home over Christmas. Good times.

Veronica's birthday and Kangaroo Valley

Well kids, it has been an action packed week and a half since we last made a post. After filing our taxes we drove down to Kangaroo Valley for the weekend to celebrate our friend Gavin’s 30th birthday. Good times. Gavin’s family has a ranch down there and it is absolutely gorgeous. Good food, good beer, and a great bonfire all contributed to making it a great weekend. Perhaps best of all, Gavin’s girlfriend Martina surprised him by buying him a Ducatti motorcycle (his dream bike). The utter amazement and shock on Gavin’s face was priceless. Unfortunately the trip failed to produce a single kangaroo citing. Kangaroo Valley my ass. (Sorry about the college talk family)

After recovering from the weekend the week was dominated with work and surfs in the morning. Incredibly, the Australian government wired our tax refund to us on Thursday, one week from when we filed. I am beginning to think that maybe John Howard isn’t such a bad guy. If I could vote I am thinking $5000 would buy my vote. Pretty pathetic I realize, but you have to forgive me, I spent two years in Chuuk where every single vote was bought with either a boat or a bag of rice. Apparently I have been influenced. On Wednesday (after enjoying a nice surf where I saw two dolphins out at Narrabeen) I received my Patagonia wetsuit in the mail from Momma Maria. I nearly wept tears of joy I was so happy. I tried it on and the large fit like a glove. The next day the waves were pretty fun and I had a great surf in my new wetty. I chalk this up to the lightweight neoprene that is super duper flexible. J

This past weekend was nice, largely due to it being a 3-day weekend, Monday being Labor Day. Friday night we went out for one of Veronica’s coworker’s birthdays in Double Bay. It was a good time, and even though we left at nine we still didn’t get home until after 11. If you are laughing about me whining about 11, your obviously not 30 yet.

Saturday we headed over to Brenda and Jase’s for an afternoon barby. Afterwards we headed home, cooked dinner and had movie night at home. We rented 5 movies for $10, and 4 of those movies were pathetic. Be forewarned, if you are in the video store and you see the movie “Heaven” with Cate Blanchett and Giovani Ribisi, run away as fast as possible. This turgid Italian art house film made me physically sick from its pretentious story, acting, and the worst, over the top cinematography. But I digress, since there were no waves on Sunday, Veronica and I ran some errands and then went to a friend’s barby to watch the Rugby League Championship. Manly was playing Melbourne, and Manly got annihilated. I was ecstatic due to the fact that one of the owners of Manly happens to be the real estate mogul who screwed me over with a verbal job offer that he never followed up with a written offer. Needless to say I felt that the universe had delivered some justice, so my loathing of that Napolean-esque douchebag has since simmered down.

Monday we awoke late, went and grabbed a flat white and a waffle, and then went shopping for Veronica’s birthday. We found a very nice dress and sunglasses, and then went and had lunch at the Barking Frog. After an extended lunch (this place is the slowest restaurant on God’s green Earth) we went home to watch a movie. As the sun was going down we took a nice walk around the Harbor, enjoying the nice weather before picking up a pizza for dinner.

Tuesday was Veronica’s birthday, and even though she was turning 29, I think it will be a birthday we will always remember. Veronica went off to work early and I went for an early morning surf. I ended up getting 2 really nice waves, and I had a sense that October 2nd was going to be a great day. I got into work and went and met with a client for lunch. The day was going along fine and I was leaving work when I was pulled into the office of the company next door (that happens to be a property developer). I had talked to them late the previous week and had sent them my CV. However, they never received my CV, but the 10 minutes I talked to them basically must have convinced them I was the right person, because I was offered the job without the company having even seen my resume. Yeah, I was almost speechless I was so freaked out. Already on a lucky streak I surprised Veronica by having some of our friends meet us at the Bavarian for her birthday dinner, and we had a great time. Like the moron I am, I brought the camera to dinner yet I did not take a single photo, I apologize!

Yeah, I’d have to say it’s been a good couple of weeks. Oh yeah. (Sorry about not posting any pictures, I've been trying to post this blog with the pics for the past hour and I've decided I am sick and tired of waiting.)

I love filing taxes!

Last night we did filed our Australian taxes over at our friend’s place. Surprisingly, it was one of the best nights I have had here in Sydney. How can you not have a great night when you find out that you are getting back almost $5000? Yeah, apparently it pays to be poor here in Australia. This should excite our families to pieces as they will now be getting Christmas presents rather than just hugs this December. For Veronica and I, well, this windfall is the equivalent of a financial miracle. Needless to say times have been a little lean since moving into our own place two weeks ago. Frugal has been the name of the game, counting each and every 5 cent piece, packing our lunches, and rummaging through trash bins for our other meals (jokes).

In fact, I was so happy that I completely forgot that earlier in the day, while talking to a property headhunter, I was offered another job, as a recruiter, but this time in property. I must give the shady, back handed vibe out quite well I suppose? Who cares for now, the Luttrell’s are no longer in the poorhouse! Viva el Australian Government!

This weekend we are off to Kangaroo Valley for a friend's 30th birthday. Should be good times, and our next post will definitely have photos.

Cheers.

FG, APEC, and our new casa

Much has happened since our last post (somehow this seems to be a recurring theme for this blog) and now Veronica and I have officially become a married, adult couple once again. Yep, we finally ponied up and got our own flat after 8 months.

This past weekend, which happened to be 3 days long due to APEC being held here in Sydney, we moved into our very own place here in Manly. (Don’t worry; we didn’t move to a seedy part of town, in fact we moved only about 100 yards away from our former place.) To say we were excited would be an understatement. Due to our fantabulous Ghetto Shopping Spree furniture spoils (described in detail last post), our clothing, and other assorted knick-knacks that have been collected during our 8 months here in Manly, the move took the better part of Friday.

After our lengthy Friday, Saturday morning was spent treating ourselves to a late wake up, whereupon we went to our new, favorite spot Barefoot for a flat white and a waffle. Unfortunately we still had to move two wardrobes that our friend Charlotte’s family was giving us. Since these two wardrobes are quite massive I had to wait for our buddy Morgan to help me with them. During this downtime, Veronica and I went shopping for a used refrigerator at a shop in Manly. It was rather shocking to see how much some of these secondhand fridges were priced at. On a cheaper note, we found some excellent prices at St. Vincent (a Salvation Army type store) and ended up buying a TV for $35. (Side note: the age old adage “you get what you pay for” has never rung so true to me before living here in Sydney). Once our shopping was over it was time to move the cumbersome wardrobes. The first wardrobe was moved over without problems, however the second wardrobe was dropped on its side after the door swung open and smashed my right index and middle finger. Luckily, I only got nasty cuts on both fingers as it could have easily broken a finger in different circumstances. Following the wardrobes, Morgan and I headed back to the 2nd hand refrigerator store where we picked up the affordably priced fridge that Veronica and I had picked out earlier. I won’t give you a play by play of the intricate delicacies that were harnessed in moving the fridge, but trust me when I say that old fridges are disgustingly heavy. If you have the means, or you have a weak back, invest in a new fridge. Or you could just pay an extra $30 to have the store deliver it. J

Our friend Johann was back in Sydney at the end of his month long vacation here in Sydney, so Veronica and I went into town to meet him and his girlfriend Kavita for dinner. It was nice to have a good dinner and hear about all the places Johann saw on his trip. I couldn’t help but feel a tad jealous, here Veronica and I have been in Australia for over 8 months now and I feel we have barely even made it outside of Sydney.

Sunday we finished unpacking all our bags and then we broke down the remaining boxes that we had used moving. The place, now uncluttered, felt like our home. We headed over to the mall to buy a few odds and ends at the dollar store. The weather was overcast and rainy, like it had been all weekend. The crap weather was kind of nice, as I didn’t feel horrible for not getting out for a surf.

We went to bed early so Veronica could have a good night sleep since she is working out in the field for the first 3 days of the week. I got up early as well Monday so I could get a surf in before work. The waves were chunky and disorganized, but there were some rides to be had at Manly Beach. I took a fairly savage beating on a nice, pitching wave. It would have been a great ride had I made the drop, but I completely buried the nose of my board in the flats after the drop, thus getting recycled up and over the falls. Good times nonetheless.

I thought I would give you the best “Bush-ism” of the APEC conference. Apparently Georgie started to pay tribute to all the Australians who are over in Iraq fighting for freedom. The only problem is, Georgie referred to them as “Austrians”. Apparently you can be a well traveled American and yet still be an utter retard in geography.

I want to end this post with a reference to the section of the title “FG”. If you look closely, you might be able to make out in the photo to your left the image of a Contents page. This is a book I checked out of the Manly Public Library last week, Jorge Luis Borges “Labyrinths”. Borges is a renowned Argentine writer who only wrote short stories, essays, and reviews, but not a single novel. However, or perhaps partly due to never having written a novel, Borges is looked upon as a literary genius on the scale of Kafka. Much like Kafka’s writings, Borges stories are quite intricate, and riddled with hidden meanings. But I digress, the reason I mention this book that I am reading is to share the laughter I experienced when I first opened the book and looked at the Contents page. Besides 8 stories on the first page of the Contents section, and on another 2 stories on the second Contents page, there are the letters FG written in pencil. Apparently whoever checked this book out wanted to share their colossal wisdom with other readers, because on the top of the Contents page our previous reader unlocked the secret of FG by stating FG = F****** Good. I know what you are inevitably thinking; truly this literary scholar of Borges has a profound sense for the written word. If it wouldn’t be such an outright copy of Max Fischer’s move in “Rushmore” to find out who had marked the school’s Jacque Cousteau book, I daresay I would go on the hunt to find out just who was behind the immortal description, FG.

It's Official: we have our own place and we are ghetto!

The last 2 weeks have been quite eventful. First, we had the pleasure of having Veronica’s sister Amanda stay with us for 10 days. Veronica and Amanda had a great time gallivanting around Sydney, visiting beaches, museums, shops, the Opera House and various other neighborhoods and attractions. Veronica had a fabulous time, after all, getting to sleep in and delight in enjoyable touristy endeavors is certainly much more fun than working. It was sad seeing Amanda leave last weekend, but she had to get back to Arkansas to start her senior year of high school.

Later that week Veronica and I decided it was finally time to get our own place. I mean geez, what married couple has a roommate? Oh yeah, poor travelers. We began looking for places on the Internet, and voila, on Thursday (not even 2 days later) we had secured a nice, one bedroom apartment only 150 yards from our current place. The rent is relatively affordable, but more importantly we still live not even 5 minutes walking to the Wharf. Being close to the Wharf is key since Veronica catches the ferry every weekday for her hellish hour and a half commute.

That Saturday the surf picked up to 3 to 4 foot. My buddies and I headed up to Avoca, 2 hours North of Sydney. The waves were titillating, delicious, it was so good it almost hurt. Yes, it was that good. I surfed until I was physically unable to surf any longer. The swell stayed around amazingly and I got to surf again on Sunday and Tuesday. The weather was perfect, making it some of the best surfs I have had here in Australia.

Finally, this past week Veronica and I had the pleasure of getting to go on our first Manly “Ghetto Shopping Spree” adventure. Every six months the residents of Manly are allowed to put old furniture out in front of their houses so that the trash collectors can collect it. Manly has a fair amount of “richies” who love to get rid of furniture that is perfectly good, just because it might no longer be in style. Since Veronica and I are moving into a new place and have no furniture, we went to town on our shopping spree. Even though I don’t fancy myself much of a shopper, I am completely down with Ghetto Shopping! Perhaps this is because it is free, but who cares, we got some dynamite stuff. Side note: Veronica didn’t want me to mention our shopping spree to you guy’s as she is a tad embarrassed by the whole situation. My wife realizes that one and all know that I am a bit of scoundrel, but she doesn’t want the World to think I have comprised her sanity, or taste. With that being said, I forced her to go on the Ghetto Shopping Spree. But don’t laugh, because if you’re coming to visit us over here in Oz, you will most certainly be basking in the delightful comfort of our “FREE” furniture!

I will admit, it is a tad bizarre to think that living in a upscale area has helped to transform both of us into furniture scavengers, but I am not that worried, I am too busy embracing the fruit of our spoils!

Amanda, Barry Bonds, and The Shins

On Wednesday morning, Veronica and I woke at the butt crack of dawn to drive out to the airport to pick up her sister Amanda. Needless to say Veronica was ecstatic that Amanda had finally arrived in Sydney. Once we got back to Manly we went and had breakfast at a new little café near our place that serves some delicious, yet tiny waffles. I headed off for work while Amanda, Veronica and our friend Brenda went around the Northern Beaches checking out the sites. That night Veronica and I cooked one of the 4 meals that we enjoy, chicken pasta with mushrooms and green peppers. Delicious.

That night before going to bed I watched the news. To my disgust and horror even the Australian news was showing that pathetic juicer break the homerun record. Major League Baseball has now hit a new low having that jerk hold its most important record. I did find it funny that a New Yorker caught the ball. It turns out he was on a layover on his way to Australia for vacation.

Last night Veronica and I got to go see one of our favorite bands, The Shins play at the Enmore Theatre. My sister Jill has seen them in concert before, and in her words the show was “an experience”. They started off playing “Sleeping Lessons”, which completely crescendos in a rollicking melodic jam that was insanely awesome. Next they played “Australia” and then some other jams. We were surprised when they started playing “New Slang” for the 7th song of the set, somehow I had thought they would end the show with it. Regardless, it was beautiful. The amazing part of their show is the band members hardly take any breathers. 30 seconds between a song was their longest break. For the encore, they came back out onstage and played a Pink Floyd cover. They followed that with another one of their hits before ending the show on “So Says I”, which completely brought the house down. I wish just words could convey how good of a time Veronica and I had at the concert!

SUPERSTAR!

Another two weeks has passed since our last blog post, indicating that I did not try hard enough to keep the postings up to date.

In all fairness, not much has transpired in the last two weeks. I finished my two classes last week, taking both finals on the previous Monday and Tuesday. More than anything, I would love to tell you that I aced both of these exams, however, I can’t give you that guarantee. Just like my undergraduate days at Baylor, I feel like the exams could go either way. Such an utterly crap feeling, no wonder I don’t miss school.

Veronica has been working all the time these past two weeks. Most of the hard work,, including working on Saturday and Sunday, was in preparation of Veronica’s sister Amanda coming to visit. Amanda arrives tomorrow, and we are extremely excited to show her a new city.

The only other new news is that I am know quasi famous. I use quasi in the loosest possible terms. This past Thursday I was out surfing out Dee Why/Long Reef before work when a surf photographer for www.realsurf.com took a photo of me that was posted on their website. Needless to say after my run of disappointment on the job front, I was ecstatic for something cool like this to happen. Most likely I have probably already emailed this photo to you, so I am sorry for the redundancy, but what can I say, I actually look stylish in this photo!

Can you smell that? It's called REJECTION!

As I write this latest post rage runs through my veins. I’ve just received the 60th rejection email informing me that a company doesn’t want to interview me. Yes, I do have a job, but I felt that since I finally was employed that maybe this was the turning point. Perhaps because all I’ve been doing for the past month is looking at mostly crappy resumes, I assumed that I had a shot at getting a position with a bank or an investment firm. Apparently I was wrong. I realize no one likes a crybaby, and I recognize the fact that I am crying all over the keyboard, but man, this sucks.

Of course I understand the relative unimportance of what has happened in the grand scheme of things. I have Veronica, we are both healthy, we love one another, both have great families, and we are currently living in Sydney, which is basically a dream come true. Perhaps writing this post right after getting the proverbial crotch kick wasn’t the best idea, but I figured sometimes some of you might want to read a post that doesn’t make our life sound like a Lonely Planet book.

Veronica has been doing good, working hard like the brilliant environmental scientist she is. Her long commute is beginning to take a toll on her though, but there is not much we can do right now since she is the breadwinner and her company is the provider of our all so important visa.

This past weekend Veronica and I both felt human again, because the previous weekend we were both pretty sick with a nasty cold. Friday night we had movie night and watched “Stranger Than Fiction” and “A Good Year”. After sleeping in on Saturday morning we took a nice long walk to our favorite coffee shop in Freshwater. That night we went over to Brenda and Jase’s place to watch the Wallabies (Australia) play the All Blacks (New Zealand). Good times were had by all, and the subsequent rainy Sunday was taken extremely easy. We went to the video store and picked up some more movies to watch.

The other big news is that we bought our plane tickets home for Christmas. We get to Dallas on the 16th of December and then fly out to Hawaii on the 4th of January. Needless to say we are extremely excited to see family and friends in 5 months.

Again, I apologize for the inconsistent nature of the blog, there is no excuse, but I promise to try harder!

Cheers.

Live Earth

We’ve had an eventful week, full of work, a massive all day live music festival aimed at stopping climate change, and dinner at Sydney’s supposed best Thai restaurant.

Well, my first week back at work went swimmingly. Swimmingly, what a terrific adjective, eh? Back to my first week at work, it was pretty similar to what I remember work being like which is to say that it was most unmemorable, in a good way of course. J

Friday night Veronica and I went to a Thai restaurant for one of her co-worker’s going away party. First off, the food was quite good, but was it the best in Sydney, how can you really quantify that? Regardless, the restaurant had some tasty cuisine, and more interestingly, some graphic Kama Sutra paintings all over their walls. The paintings, as you can see from the photo where Veronica is oh so elegantly showcasing the beautiful artwork, are quite funny.

On Saturday, Veronica and I went to Live Earth here in Sydney. Out of 7 concerts on each continent, Australia’s was the kick off concert for the worldwide event. While nearly all of the acts were Australian, we were lucky enough to have Jack Johnson as one of the headlining acts. While Jack’s set was short, it was a good time. And I have great news; because of Live Earth the problem of Climate Change has been solved. Yeah, that’s right, because of some rock stars and Al Gore, the world is now safe. Good times indeed!

I almost forgot to mention that Veronica and I spent July 4th at work, the first time I can actually remember working on America’s birthday. To make matters worse, Veronica and I didn’t even have a hot dog or a beer on the 4th. Adding insult to injury, we went and saw a French film as well. Sorry America.