Sunday, February 25, 2007

The weekend baby






Veronica and I had a good weekend. Friday was a nice day at work because I did not get lost making any of the deliveries and pickups (however, I got lost after work and went the wrong way down a one way street, much to Veronica’s horror). Veronica had her 3rd interview of the week but unfortunately was 30 minutes late because she jumped on the wrong train (right number, but it was an earlier one so it went a different place, crazy). Despite this she still had a good interview, even though she is not really that interested in that particular position as she would be traveling 60% of the time.

Saturday we woke up semi early and walked the Spit Bridge to Manly Harbor Walk. The walk is beautiful as it hugs the coast, and we walked by many secluded beaches and even a lighthouse, not to mention a ton of multi-million dollar homes. It was 9 km long, and due to all of our picture stops it ended up being a pretty long walk. But it was definitely worth it as it was a gorgeous, sunny day with hardly a cloud in the sky. Afterwards, I had a delivery to make Saturday night down in Cronulla. Cronulla is a beach town South of Botany Bay, and luckily Veronica decided to come with me for the drive. I say luckily because I ended up getting lost on the way there and on the way back, so we spent at least 2 hours in the van. No big deal though as it was just an opportunity to see more of Sydney. J

Sunday we awoke late to a grey and rainy city. We headed to Candy’s for our mocha and chai and to read the Saturday papers. After going over to a friend’s house we caught the ferry into the city to go watch a movie, “Notes on a Scandal”. While riding the ferry back to Manly I got a text from the owner saying I could have today off since I worked on Saturday. It was at this moment when I realized how desperate I am for work as I almost felt sad by the prospect of not having to go in today.

The pictures from the previous post and today’s post are all of the hike, except of course the picture of me and my “rig”.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

A good week

Besides for our first week in Australia and our trip to Byron Bay, this has been the most interesting week. First and foremost, Veronica has been on 2 job interviews thus far, with one final interview tomorrow. My wife has been wooing these future employers, and apparently the company she interviewed with on Tuesday is ready to give her an offer! We are so excited, be excited with us!

In telemarketing news, on Monday I started my illustrious job. The first two days were “sales training”, and finally yesterday (3rd day) we were put on the phone. To say those first two hours of selling Accidental Death Insurance were brutal would be a gross understatement. The entire time my stomach felt queasy as I tried to hawk insurance over the phone. By the time I got my lunch break I had already got a zit on my forehead from making myself sick, not exactly a good start. Amazingly after lunch I started to improve, or rather not feel quite so miserable doing my job. The day ended with me not having sold one crappy policy, and the jackass who I could not stand one bit from my group had sold 4. Needless to say I was deflated, and walking the nighttime streets of Sydney while listening to my Ipod I eyed every pub longingly. I felt like Betty Ford. As I arrived at the Circular Quay to wait on my ferry back to Manly, I walked over to the Sydney Opera House. A nice breeze washed over me and as I looked out over the harbour to see all the lights bathing the Harbour Bridge, I stopped feeling sorry for myself. That view had been something I had dreamed of seeing for 2 years and I was finally seeing it, how could I be morose? A minute later my phone rang. Veronica was calling to tell me that our friend Morgan had a job for me where he worked, Video Australiasia. The job was driving a truck around making deliveries and picking up equipment for the next two and half weeks. I quit the telemarketing gig at 10 in morning and started my new job driving. I drove all around Sydney getting lost, it was one of the best days of work I have ever had! The best part is I make more money driving the truck around!

Sorry there are no pictures, but we just got new batteries for the camera, so we promise there will be all kinds of pictures next post on Sunday!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Valentine's Day (The Aquarium, Telemarketing and Jim Beam)





Another Valentine’s Day has come and gone. We went to the Sydney Aquarium on V-Day and saw quite a bit. The highlights of our visit were watching the seals have lunch, staring at a crocodile while it did absolutely nothing, gazing at some of the most gigantic Sting Ray’s ever, two platypus’ at play, and the giant nurse sharks. Unfortunately, the batteries in our camera died and we did not get to take any pictures of the sharks. The aquarium has really cool underwater tunnels that allow you to see the fish, sharks, and seals swim around. It was kind of scary at first because you realize that there’s all this water pressure on top of the tunnel. I mentioned that it reminded me of Jaws where the underwater tunnel gave way and Matt immediately told me that we were not discussing that movie any further. Alas, we emerged unscathed and moved on to the next exhibit, which was the touchable underwater starfish. I made Matt touch them first because I was a little apprehensive to touch such a thing. I tell you what, they really look like they would be soft and tender but they’re actually hard as a rock! Yup, Matt and I learned a lot that day. We actually figured out the difference between an Eagle Ray and a Sting Ray, the difference between an alligator and a crocodile (other than freshwater and saltwater), that the sharks we were viewing were actually 25% smaller (whoa!), and the difference between a male and a female shark. Now I emphasize that this last fact is really not going to help us much if we were to be attacked but at least we would know now.

We then went and had linner (lunch/dinner) at a harbour side restaurant in Darling Harbour. Unfortunately, the food was only sub par, but at least the view was good and the atmosphere better.

The previous day Matt found out that he had finally gotten a job. With a mixture of relief and sadness, Matt has now secured a position as a telemarketer. In much the same way as a person might describe themselves as a diplomat or a philanthropist, Matt seems to enjoy his new title as a Telemarketer. In all seriousness, we are just happy that there will now be income coming in so we can stop spending all of our travel funds here in Sydney.

Besides for the aquarium the highlights of the week are that I might finally be getting a good environmental job through a recruiter. The recruiter thinks there are at least 3 places that I have a good shot getting a job at. Cross your fingers! The other highlight is that Matt made his debut acting performance in a Jim Beam commercial last night. Our roomies/friends are cameramen and they needed an assistant/helper for the night shoot (7:30 pm to 5:00 am). Matt went and did that and ended up being asked to be a “background dancer at the party” during one of the scenes. No doubt this is a sign from above that our luck is slowly changing. J

The funniest thing happened on Wednesday night when we went to a “very dirty bar” that had karaoke night for our roomies birthday. I ended up getting carded at the door. The bouncer didn’t think I was 18! Needless to say the birthday boy talked the guy into letting me in. Sigh, to be 18 again.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

A weekend in the city






Veronica and I had a relaxing, yet adventure filled weekend of exploring the different neighborhoods of Sydney. We finally received our Quarterly Pass (a pass which enables us to basically ride any ferry, bus or train within the city) so on Friday we went back into the CBD (Central Business District) to get on the internet for free and go see a movie (Perfume).

Saturday morning began by buying the paper to look at the jobs section (Australia’s big weekend paper day is on Saturday, rather than on Sunday) and heading over to Candy’s (our favorite little café right by our place which is owned by an American) for a mocha and a chai. As most of you might know, I used to bag heavily on people who sat and read at a café, thus I have become a hypocrite. But in my defense, the beverages are just so tasty, and being unemployed sometimes you need something or somewhere to occupy your free time.

That night Veronica and I took the bus over to a random neighborhood that was showing “An Inconvenient Truth” for free at their local park. Getting to the park felt similar to searching for the Holy Grail as no one knew where the park was located. Some people who we asked claimed to know where the park was but then proceeded to give us dicey directions. After walking for more than an hour in search of it we finally hopped in a cab that weaved through multiple side streets before finally delivering us to the park in a manner of minutes. We were both ecstatic, if not slightly sweaty from our trek.

Sunday we hung out with Veronica’s friend Nhu (they were on the same trip through Europe 2 summers ago). Nhu picked us up in her car and we went to Bondi Beach (wow, that place is crowded!) to walk around and have some lunch. Afterwards we drove down the coast and visited Coogee Beach as well as Maroubra Beach. While driving back to Manly we stopped at Centennial Park (an enormous park, apparently the largest park in Sydney) where Veronica tried to play with the birds.

Thus our weekend ended and now we are looking at a very gray and rainy Monday. Tomorrow I have a job interview. Keep your fingers crossed so that I might realize my dream of becoming a telemarketer! Cheers.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

More pictures from Byron Bay roadtrip





Byron Bay






Sorry for the delay folks, but we have just arrived back in Sydney from a short jaunt to Byron Bay. Our friend Andy (who lives right next to us) invited us to go up with him to spend a long weekend in Byron Bay. Since Veronica and I were still unemployed, we thought it was a wise idea to go on vacation. What better way to ease our employment blues than with some sun, surf, and beautiful beaches?

Byron Bay is a 10-hour drive from Sydney. Saturday, we cruised out of Manly at 6 in the morning, and traversed through many beautiful little country towns that dot the coast of New South Wales. As we got near Byron, Andy made a slight detour to Lennox Head (a small town 25 km South) where we went to check out the town’s epic pointbreak. To our surprise, the point was breaking decently, and with only 12 surfers in the water we quickly got our boards and went down for a quick surf. The waves were quite fun and the water was crystal blue and warm (similar to Hawaii). It was such a rejuvenating session to experience after the coldwater beach breaks of Sydney. An added bonus was getting a glimpse of two eagle rays swimming in a wave right in front of us. Unfortunately, Veronica got a fire ant bite while doing a short hike around the headland. (Veronica thought the bite was quite severe and was afraid her leg might need amputation. Lucky for all this was not the case.)

After the short surf we continued on to Byron, where Andy dropped Veronica and I off at our accommodations, Arts Factory Lodge. I had found “Arts” in our trusty Lonely Planet, where it said that we could stay in a tepee. Naturally, I thought it would be a great idea to stay in a bohemian enclave since we were headed to the hippie capital of the Southern Hemisphere. When I had initially presented the idea to Veronica she was a bit skeptical, but then we had checked out the website to look at photos and we were both sold. It’s unfortunate that pictures cannot convey smell, because once Veronica and I settled into our private room (the tepee was booked full that first night, so we were staying in a private tent, then moving to the tepee for the last 2 nights) we were both utterly dejected. Perhaps it was because the tent smelled like stale urine, or the fact that we were paying $80 to practically camp, but nonetheless we both knew we had made a horrible mistake in staying there. Perhaps making the situation even worse was the fact that we had a lake front place. Lake is apparently a commonly misused term because the body of water behind our tent was barely big enough to be considered a pond. (And this “lake” emitted sulfur, so it perpetually smelt like a smelly fart.) Immediately I called up another backpacker hostel right near the beach and found a private room for $70 a night and booked it for the following 2 nights. As it was, Veronica and I felt quite dejected that we even had to spend one night in that steamy dung heap, but we ended up laughing about our situation over a great falafel dinner at a small restaurant called Orgasmics.

The next day we woke up and moved our bags to our new hostel. Afterwards, we drove around to check out the surf south of Byron. South of Lennox Head, at a beach called Boulders we saw a pod of dolphins riding waves and jumping around. It was a beautiful sight. We finally ended up at a beach called Broken Heads. The beach was beautiful, and even though the winds were onshore, there were still some fun waves on offer. Veronica enjoyed lazing on the beach and swimming in some warm, clear water (despite the strong winds blowing sand all over her). Unfortunately we did not take any pictures of Broken Head, I think partly due to all the sand flying around on the beach. After a big lunch we took a nice nap. Feeling refreshed we walked along the beach up to the tip of Cape Byron, where we climbed up the stairs to top of the rock to watch surfers catch waves at the top of “The Pass”, Byron Bay’s legendary pointbreak. Our dinner that night was curry, from a more expensive restaurant than the previous night, and it was quite lame. Lucky for us there was a Baskin Robbins to serve us up a little piece of Americana, and we indulged in some delicious cotton candy ice cream (if you have the means, I highly recommend it).

Our last day in Byron started for me with another surf at Broken Heads (so fun!) while Veronica went for a jog along the beach and relaxed at the hostels pool. After enjoying a delicious Subway sandwich (what can we say, it’s cheap!) for lunch, we went to the beach to hang out and swim. Besides for getting bitten by sea lice, we had an enjoyable swim where we saw some fish and a stingray. Veronica also saw a white jellyfish as we swam (the non-poisonous kind). We decided to go back to Orgasmics for another delicious dinner of falafels and fresh lemonade.

The drive back today was hot and long, but the good news is that Veronica and I both received phone calls from employers today. Hopefully soon we might be employed again.