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!