A Good Day of Surf and Veronica Dressed for Safety

I thought I would share two new photos today. The first photo is from last night, Veronica is showing off her new field gear with our roommate Morgan (in the black t-shirt) and our buddy Andy (who is staying in the living room right now since he got kicked out of the old place as well). Andy and Morgan were cooking and obviously Veronica and myself were just trying to amuse ourselves.

The second photo is of the surf this morning in Manly. Andy, Morgs and myself went and had a brilliant session. The waves were glassy and hollow (so fun), definitely the best I have seen the waves look at Manly during our time here in Sydney. Andy got a SICK backside barrel, Morgs and I were extremely jealous! This picture does not really even do justice to how good the waves were this morning, but I only had 30 seconds to snap this pic as I was on my way to work after the surf.

Veronica is doing her first day of field work today, and it is also her first day to drive a car here in Sydney. We will give you an update of how it went tomorrow so stay tuned.

Veronica's First Week and a new apartment

Veronica has completed her first week of work, and as of Saturday we are now living in a new apartment. Life in Sydney is good.

(Veronica – So I have just finished my first week at work. My job title is still Environmental Scientist, but now I am working for a much larger consulting firm compared to the Hawaii firm. The people are nice and I take the ferry and a train to get to work. It’s nice because I can read my books or listen to my I-Pod. Matt and I are getting a car, but its use will be for weekend trips only.

I had a physical this past week and wow what a difference in the medical care from the US. First off, a physical is standard in my job. When I had my Hawaii physical last summer I was not impressed with the clinics facilities. A bit snobbish I know but what can I say? Here in Australia, medical care is provided to everyone, which I am pretty skeptical about. The clinic I visited not only looked run down but the technology was straight from the 70’s era. They had huge, loud machines that reminded me of silent films when people had to crank their engine up to start their car. And it got worse. The doctor was unable to get blood from either my left or right arm. He told me he had no choice but to go through the painful way of taking blood from the top of my hand. I nearly fainted. Out of the two tubes he needed to fill, he only filled half of one tube. Because of the pain and the slow drips of blood, the doctor told me he had enough to run all the tests. Whew! Looking back now, the Hawaii clinic was undoubtedly first class all the way. After telling Matt about my experience, we both decided we were not going anywhere near a hospital here unless it was an emergency.

Perhaps the scariest part of my physical was where the hospital was located, Bankstown. From what I can tell, this part of Sydney reminded me of Kalihi, or South Dallas. Yikes! )

Matt - It wasn’t all good news though as I got into my first accident driving in Sydney on Thursday night. Luckily I reversed into a telephone pole and didn’t actually hit anyone, but regardless I still feel like a first class moron. It wouldn’t be so bad if I had only dinged the car, but it actually shattered the back windshield! Yowsers!

Friday I had an interview with the owner of a commercial real estate firm in Sydney. I don’t have an offer, yet, but it is looking pretty good so far. I will be meeting with him again in 3 to 4 weeks when he gets back from a few business trips. We shall see.

Saturday was an insanely hot and humid day to move, but nonetheless everything of ours, and our roommate Morgan’s was moved in to the new place without a hitch. Our new place is pretty nice, and from the back balcony we have a view of the Harbour (very nice, I like! We will post more pics of the place later this week, once it is all set up). After finishing around 8 pm a storm moved in and brought strong winds and rain. We went and walked down to the Wharf to get some dinner from a place called Chat Thai. After a few beers at a Bavarian Brewery, right next door, we headed home for the night.

Morgan knocked on my door at 8 this morning to go surf. It was tough dragging myself out of bed because when I looked out the window it was still cold, grey and rainy. Surprisingly the surf wasn’t too bad, and after driving around checking a few spots we surfed a spot North of Narrabeen. It was cold, but the waves were decent. Still, I found myself dreaming of the warm surf of Hawaii.

Today marks 3 years from the day that I first took Veronica on our first date to Emilio’s. Unfortunately with the move and the bad weather I don’t have an awesome day planned for our anniversary. Horrible I know, but I have vowed to make up for my pathetic lack of planning. If anyone has any good ideas, please email those over to me pronto!

Before we sign off though, we went and saw a movie with our friends on Sunday night, Hot Fuzz. Oh man, the movie was hilarious, and it featured major homage to one of the greatest movies of all time, Point Break. But that’s actually not the point. Here in Australia movie tickets are $15. The reason for these outrageous prices is because everyone, no matter how brainless and easy their job, gets paid a living wage here. This is a great thing, except that the ticket lady tonight was practically brain dead. Same thing at fast food chains here, the workers make $36,000 a year, and yet they are completely worthless at their job. Seeing this crap almost makes my liberal rhetoric seem a tad hollow. Dear God I hope I am not turning into Dick Cheney!

Long Time

Well, it has been a while since we last gave an update on the recent events here in Sydney. First and foremost, Veronica finally got the official contract this past Friday for her job. Three weeks after her interview, Veronica is now employed and has completed her first day of work as of yesterday. Very exciting stuff to say the least!

A little recap: The previous weekend we met up with a friend from my Peace Corps days in Chuuk. Bill Jeffries is a maritime archaeologist that lives on Magnetic Island, right off of Townsville (which is in the Northern part of the State of Queensland). Much of Bill’s work in Chuuk is concerned with the preservation of the wrecks in the Lagoon. Needless to say Bill is quite the optimist. Since the expat community was small, and also because Bill lived right next door to Schmidtke, I became quick friends with Bill. Being a great guy, Bill would let me tag along on some of his dives when they had extra room on the boat. This meant the world to a poor, smelly Peace Corps Volunteer back in the day. Excited by the prospect of catching up with Bill after 5 years, Veronica and I took the train out to the airport hotel where he was staying. It was a great night to relive the the glory days of Chuuk. Unfortunately we forgot our camera that night, so no pics of Bill, and even worse, we missed the last ferry of the night by 3 minutes!

That was last Saturday. After sleeping in on Sunday, we awoke to a nice, sunny day. Veronica and I decided to head back to the secluded beach we had passed on our hike from a few weeks ago. Taking the bus back to the beach, we still had quite a hike in, but once we got to the beach we went for a nice swim in the cold water. Unfortunately the beach was much more crowded this day than it had been a few weeks prior. Still, it was a fun time.

This week at work was tough. I’ve really gotten depressed about my inability to find a job. This was amplified on Thursday morning when I found out I didn’t even get a 2nd interview with Google. On Friday, I delivered a camera lens to a downtown office that reminded me of OREXCO’s (the company I worked for in Hawaii) because of it's panoramic view of the water. Fresh from the Google let down, being back in that kind of office now as a delivery boy was disheartening. To top it off, later that afternoon I scratched and nearly broke my sunglasses. I snapped and had a nice 10-minute meltdown. The real kicker of the situation is that I really enjoy getting to drive around Sydney, and I am extremely thankful to have this job. Perhaps I am hung up on my perception of how other people see me? Whatever the case, it is quite pathetic.

That night Veronica and I hung out with our friends in Freshwater (Jase, Brenda and Guynes). It was a mellow evening and it made me feel much better. Saturday we awoke to rain, so we slept in again. After having lunch at one of our favorite places (Fresh) we came back to our room and watched a movie. Afterwards we headed over to Charlotte’s house (Morgan’s girlfriend) where we enjoyed a nice barbecue. Sunday was another gloomy day, so Veronica and I headed over to Candy’s for our "usual" chai and mocha to start the day. Then in the afternoon we headed into the city to watch a movie. The city was packed as it was the Harbour Bridge’s 75th birthday. We had tried to register to walk over it with the masses, but alas had tried a tad bit late and all the spots were already reserved. I guess that's why you don't try to do things the week of. Incidently, everyone who walked over the bridge for it's birthday was wearing a hideous lime green Bridge hat. Which makes me wonder, when did lime green make a comeback? Shouldn’t the color be burned or buried, or perhaps banished to a thrift store?

Last night I got back home from work to find our psycho landlord Jimmy hammering on the kitchen door. It seems he was putting a new door handle and lock on the door. When I asked him why we were being locked out of the kitchen for our last week Jimmy told me it was for security reasons. After explaining to him that what he was doing was illegal since we had paid rent, he told me to grab my food and get the f*** out. Ah, the joys of living in a place with a certified psycho. Thank God we move out on Saturday.

Sorry again for the delay in posting, I would love to give a good excuse but the real reason is that I am a slacker!

Opera House

On Tuesday night Veronica and I went to the Sydney Opera House to see The Gotan Project. What you must be thinking is, what the heck is The Gotan Project? Well my friends, The Gotan Project is a band from Paris that plays tango-electronica music. A strange combination to be sure, but there music is quite splendid indeed. Apparently the band is an international sensation, always selling out every place they play in the world. Sydney was no different as both of their shows were sold out. The band consists of a guitarist, accordionist, pianist, singer, celloist, two DJ’s, and 4 violinists. Their songs are elegant and seductive, and enrapture the audience (at least it did the crowd at our show). Apparently they had a song in “Shall We Dance”, the Richard Gere and J-Lo movie (which Veronica and I never saw).

Seeing a concert at the Opera House was fantastic. Actually, the whole night was fantastic. Veronica and I started out the night by having dinner at the Opera Bar and Restaurant which overlooks the Harbour. While the joint was a little pricey, the food and wine were both excellent. Combined with some good tunes in an ethereal setting, well, it was a magical night. And have you seen the pictures of Veronica? Look at how beautiful she looked that night all dolled up!

On Wednesday morning our friend Morgan found a two-bedroom apartment in Manly. He asked Veronica and I if we would like to move in with him. My only question was if the kitchen was clean. Luckily it is, so we decided to move in with Morgan. It seems it was perfect timing as Wednesday night our landlord Jimmy knocked on our door and said this is the last month we can stay here. Since Jimmy has gone nuts he has decided to kick everyone out so he can have some space. I won’t even go into how bonkers this kid is, but suffice it to say, it is funny how things work themselves out.

In even better news, Veronica found out yesterday morning that she had gotten a job offer with an environmental consulting agency! Pretty good stuff to say the least, now we just have to cross our fingers and hope that I can get a job, otherwise I will be a Mr. Mom with no kids. Come to think of it, that could be great for my surfing. Perhaps jobs are overrated anyways.

Mardi Gras in Sydney

Where to begin as so much has happened in these past 4 days? I guess we shall begin with our friend and flatmate, Morgan, getting kicked out of our place. Here is a very short recap. The reason this happened is because Jimmy (the landlord of our run down hotel) actually works at Video Australasia. (It is actually Jimmy’s job that I was filling in for as he has gone a tad bit bonkers) Jimmy has gone bonkers because he feels that Morgan picks on him at work, thus he kicked him out of the place on Thursday. Not only that, but Jimmy had a lawyer file formal complaints to the company against Morgan on Friday. Jimmy has dug his own grave and will be canned at work, because he lied on his timesheets. A sad situation.

On to lighter news though; Saturday night was the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade here in Sydney. Veronica and I strolled into town at around 6 as the parade was starting at 7:45. Bad move. Hyde Park was already packed with people jostling for position to see the parade on Oxford Street. As you can probably tell from the pictures we had a pretty crappy vantage point. Still, Veronica and I had fun people watching as at least half of the crowd was dressed up. The streets were packed with drunken 15 to 25 year olds. Perhaps it was the result of seeing all of these kids going crazy but I really started to feel old at that moment.

On Sunday I woke early to go surfing with my mates Andy and Jay. We headed out to Narrabeen to surf a sandbar pretty much to ourselves. Even though it was only 2 to 3 feet, the wave is pretty scary as it goes completely hollow most of the time. I slipped into a classic barrel but then blew it while in the tube. I was so bummed. Even worse than the blown tube is that Andy and I got mauled by sea lice. A sea lice bite is similar to a mosquito except that it itches way worse. The bites are all over my legs and stomach. I would include a picture except that the bites look disgusting, real disgusting.

Veronica and I went and had lunch at an ocean side place that we had wanted to try called the barKing frog. It was actually quite tasty, much to our surprise and delight. While eating there the first Australian Idol, Guy Sebastion, was sitting right across the way from us. Of course we did not realize this at the time. It was only when I went into work on Monday and I saw a video playing this guy’s song did I realize Veronica and I had eaten right next to a bona fide Australian celebrity. Needless to say I am bummed not to have gotten his autograph. L

Sunday was also Jay’s birthday so after going for a second surf in the arvo (afternoon) we went and had some beers at the beach and watched the sunset. Afterwards we went to a chocolate restaurant for some desert. It was a good end to a nice weekend.