Melbourne

Had a nice, short trip to Melbourne this past weekend. The VA Xmas party was Friday night, so Jamie and I flew down for that. Fun night that featured a long walk from the office in Port Melbourne to the Crown Casino in town. Cabs don't go around that neighborhood since there isn't much business, so I had a nice 90 minute walking tour of the burbs of Melbourne.

Veronica flew in early Saturday morning. Went to Pellegrinis for coffee, a famous Italian cafe/diner situated in the CBD of Melbourne. Very tasty. Did some shopping and walked around the city center taking in the sites. For lunch we headed to the State Library to eat at the cafe. Tasty. Hung out on the grass in front of the library, watching the trams and street traffic hustle along. Loved the murals painted on random alley walls that seemed to be everywhere.

We met up with Jamie's ex-girlfriend who took us to a few bars. The first bar was right on the river and pretty chill. The second bar was a 'Pop Up Bar', which means it is not a permanent bar, but rather a bar that is thrown together for a few months and is made of all recycled materials. No pictures of this bar because the stupid camera batteries died on the way there. Bollocks! Then headed over to Section 8, a bar set in the middle of an alley in Chinatown. Super cool and the bar is actually constructed from a shipping crate. And yeah, no pictures again. Perhaps the coolest thing we did was that night when we headed to the Rooftop Cinema. As the name implies, you actually watch a movie on the roof of a 7 story building in downtown Melbourne. Super cool layout up there with a bar, astroturf flooring and comfy chairs to viddy the movie. What wasn't cool was the movie we saw, 'Funny Games' with Tim Roth and Naomi Watts. Trust me, don't watch that pile of German directed brown doodoo. And no pictures of the rooftop cinema.

Sunday, after getting batteries for the camera, we headed on a tram out to St. Kilda beach. St. Kilda's reminded me of Venice Beach in LA. Very trendy, cool restaurants and shops, and tons of choppers. Amazing bikes looking like they came straight out of West Coast Choppers. Walked around the market, had lunch at a place called Big Mouth (tasty), and then perused the stores in the area.

Was quite impressed with Melbourne. It's definitely a cooler city than Sydney, with innovative businesses, shops and cafes with style and substance. If it wasn't for surfing I could see living there. But who am I kidding, I probably couldn't get a job in that city either.

Which brings me to the final note concerning 2008. Yesterday I received another rejection email for a job I applied for a couple weeks back. Like a complete jackass I had thought I would give it a go since the company was a client of ours, plus I had people there at the company that could vouch for me, and I was actually qualified for the position. I had told Veronica all I wanted was the opportunity to at least have an interview and I would be happy. Moral of the story, it looks like I should search for happiness elsewhere. And to add insult to injury, I still have not received the surfboard I ordered back in August!

So, as you sit down and have a delightful Christmas dinner with you and your loved ones, you will no doubt give thanks for all you have. Inevitably you will think about the less fortunate amongst us; those who don't have a home, a job, or food to eat. I implore you to please think about me as well. The fact that I haven't got my new surfboard yet surely puts me into the less fortunate category, right? :)

Merry Christmas. See you in 2009.

2 months later

Wow, I am terrible! Nary a post in almost 2 months. In my defense, I did warn everyone that the blog had begun to feel like an enormous chore, but still, a pretty poor performance nonetheless. Additionally, Veronica and I hadn't taken a single photo since her birthday, and I know how everyone really only checks the blog to look at the pictures.

But as you will have noticed, there are new pictures up. These pics are from Veronica's Xmas party (after party in Kings Cross), and I think they tell the story far better than words possibly can. :)

On a hokier note, I decided to make a Top Ten List of my favorite songs of 2008. Pretty sure I have mentioned a few of these songs in previous posts, but here they are and not necessarily in this order.

1) Department of Eagles 'No One Does It Like You'
2) Little Joy 'Brand New Start'
3) Okkervil River 'Lost Coastlines'
4) Vampire Weekend 'A-Punk'
5) Santogold 'L.E.S. Artistes'
6) Beck 'Vampire Voltage No.6'
7) Elbow 'Grounds for Divorce'
8) The Black Keys 'I Got Mine'
9) Cold War Kids 'I've Seen Enough'
10) Bon Iver 'Skinny Love'

And fear not, there will be future posts as V and I head to Melbourne next weekend for my work Xmas party.

Hitting the Wall

Well, I guess it was only a matter of time before this blog began to feel like a chore. Sorry for the hiatus, just been enjoying some beautiful spring weather here in Oz. Since Maria left we have been taking it pretty easy, eating at our favorite places, hanging with friends, and in general trying to savor our remaining time in Manly.

That's right, our time here is coming to an end. The plan is to leave here in March to go travel for 4 months. A bit weird, part of me is quite ready to leave, but the other half is pretty sad. Living in Manly is very enjoyable. Walking to your favorite coffee shop, being so close to the water and your friends is something that will be tough to give up. And for what, a crappy US economy when we arrive back to the States? I've never gotten political on this blog, BUT, if McCain and the hockey Mom win the election I might think about staying here as I will have completely lost my faith in America. So I am gonna hope that doesn't happen, because we really miss good Mexican food. :)

On to happier thoughts, had 2 great surfs this past Friday and Saturday. Narrabeen turned on, throwing big, meaty turquoise barrels. So much fun, and best of all very few people in the water. Most impressive though was that every surfer out were completely cool, no drop-ins, no snaking, just hooting one another into waves. Reaffirmed my faith in humanity a bit.

Veronica and I got hooked on "Dexter", perhaps one of the greatest TV shows EVER! Just finished Season 1 on Saturday night, and my oh my, what a fabulous show. I am so excited about seeing Season 2, I almost feel like a kid again with all the anticipation I have running through me presently.

Haven't taken any photos in a while, so alas, nothing to view with your peepers except for my turgid ramblings. I promise to write, sooner rather than later.

V's 30th B Day

Where to begin? Maria, Veronica’s mother, left Sydney this past Sunday morning. Drama ensued upon check-in at the airport because unbeknownst to Veronica and I, the clocks had been set forward an hour the previous night. (No mention when I read the paper on Saturday, or when we watched TV that night.) So, Maria had ten minutes to make her flight. But, besides for that little snafu, Maria had a great vacation here in Sydney. She spoiled us rotten, cooking up a storm, and no doubt I gained a few pounds throughout her stay.

We celebrated Veronica’s 30th birthday on the 2nd. The celebration was a low-key dinner at our favorite place, the Bavarian Bier Café, with our good friends Andy, Jamie, Jay, Martina and Gavin. It was a good time filled with tasty food, delicious mango beer and a drunken French chick thrown in to boot. The drunken French chick was courtesy of Andy, and here 4 separate pit stops over at our table provided everyone with some good laughs. The laughs were due to her telling us repeatedly, ‘I’m drunk’ and ‘You’re hot’ to different people at the table. Comical, yet bizarre.

I got Veronica tickets to the Cirque du Soliel show on Friday for her birthday. The show had been in Sydney for about 2 months. Since Veronica had wanted to go, but was a tad dismayed by the price, it was an easy present to give. And don’t you love it when you give a present that entertains the receiver as well as the gifter? Exactly! Great show, if you haven’t seen it, definitely check it out next time your in Vegas, or Paris. Highlights of the show would have to be the little Chinese acrobat who could rotate her entire body all around while perched up high on one arm. Nuts! The trampoline set with two guys was also very impressive, and a tad scary, since they performed without safety nets. Good times, and we enjoyed some delicious ferry floss (cotton candy). Hence the picture with blue tongues.

The rest of our long weekend was spent relaxing. Sunday night we went and saw “Waltz With Bashir’, an Israeli movie about a man trying to recollect his memories about his experiences in Lebanon during the conflict in 1982. The film is animated, yet there is nothing childlike about the topic or pacing. I highly recommend this movie; check it out if you have the means.

Monday we hung out with Jase, Brenda and Hunter over in Freshwater for most of the day. The sun finally peeked its head out in the arvo, so we took a walk around Manly. Katrina and Naomi, two of my coworkers from the Melbourne office of Video Australasia were in town, so V and I met up with them and Jamie at the Steyne Hotel, one of my least favorite places in Manly. This bar is a dirty cesspool of humanity, and it did not disappoint in showcasing the worst behavior mankind is capable of. Case in point, we were all standing at the bar, waiting on a beer, when a skirmish broke out between a small man and a big man. I literally turn around when I hear Small Man say ‘WTF?’, see him take one step forward, and Big Man (either a Maori or Samoan who looked like he played rugby) moves forward like a cat and throws a right, which connects squarely on Small Man’s mouth. Small man fell like tree and was knocked out COLD. The bouncers immediately had the Big Man in a bear hug and dragged him out of the bar. I’ve never seen anything like that before in my life. One-punch knockouts were the stuff of fiction I had reckoned. After last night I can assure you, that is not the case. DAMN!

A Wondrous Novel

I just finished reading ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’ by Junot Diaz last night. (Just in case you’re not down with the literary world, this novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008.) This post is to emphatically beg you to go to the bookstore, hop on Amazon, or go your library and get this book. Why? Quite simply this novel is the bomb diggity. The shiz-nizzle. A freaking modern masterpiece that is on the same realm as ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, except Diaz’s prose isn’t nearly as turgid as Marquez. Just as Salinger accurately imitated the slang of the 50’s in ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, Diaz has at the very least equaled the master by completely nailing the lingo of my generation. Most writers overreach on this point, thereby placing an unnecessary albatross on the narrative in their desire to be linguistically clever. But not here.

From the title you can infer that there will be no happy ending. Diaz weaves his story of a cursed Dominican family with crisp, snappy sentences. Not one word, sentence or paragraph is superfluous; Diaz has crafted a masterpiece that could be the archetypal blueprint for ‘Zen and the Art of Writing’. Everything has its place here, due in large part to his liberal use of footnotes. But don’t think the footnotes are simply following in the footsteps of Dave Eggers or David Foster Wallace. The footnotes in here help to elucidate the history of the Dominican Republic, therefore keeping the narrative flowing like a song from Motown.

I am thankful to my mother-in-law for two reasons here. First, she introduced me to Diaz by giving me his first book ‘Drown’ (an absolutely epic collection of short stories) about 3 years ago. When I heard his first novel was coming out last year before Christmas, I knew it would make a great gift. Since then I have searched in vain at the library and 2nd hand bookshops to find a copy. For damn near a year I have wanted to read this book, and let me tell you the wait was worth it. I was almost sad when I finished this book. For 5 days I had the pleasure of reading a masterpiece, and to know that I would not be experiencing it’s magic again for the first time just depressed me. Truly, this book rocks the casbah. Get it. Read it. Love it. And support a truly talented artist that will one day be mentioned in the same breath as Fitzgerald, Faulkner and Hemingway.

Kangaroo Island

This weekend marked the first time I had left New South Wales and traveled to a different state here in Australia. Veronica had been in South Australia for the week on a job, so we decided last minute to buy a ticket so I could fly out on Friday to meet Veronica in Adelaide.

Our destination was Kangaroo Island, about 2 hours South of Adelaide by car and ferry. The drive from Adelaide to Cape Jervis was simply awesome. Rolling, green hills falling into the ocean reminded me of photos of the Scottish Highlands. Before arriving at the ferry we stopped at a Wind Farm right on the coast. Simply incredible how hugantic those beasts are! After a 45 minute ferry ride we landed on Kangaroo Island. Drove off the ferry and literally 3 minutes later we arrived at our B&B. What a cool little island. Actually, it isn’t really that little. The island is quite narrow in parts, but it is pretty long from the East end to the West end. Apparently it is the 3rd largest island in Australia behind Tasmania and another island I have since forgotten the name of. Having arrived late afternoon we threw our bags inside and went and had dinner at the Penneshaw Hotel pub. Veronica and I have never been so impressed by pub food. Actually, every single meal we had on the island was delicious. Must be due to the fact that they try and use all local produce since the island is such a fertile place. After dinner we took a brief walk down to the beach and we stumbled upon a Wallabie. It had been a long day for both of us, so we went back to the B&B and promptly passed out.

Saturday morning we started early, getting in the car by 7:30 to head off to Kingscote, the largest town on the island. Grabbed a coffee and we then headed to Seal Bay National Park. The park is situated right there on the ocean, and it was cold! The microclimates on the island were freaky. Where we were staying on the North East end was sunny and dry, where as the Southern side of the island was cloudy, windy and occasionally rainy. Ended up taking a tour so we could go hang out with the Sea Lions on the beach. Since we only had one full day we were in constant motion. We next stopped to pick up a sandboard on our way to Little Sahara. I would love to tell you all that both V and I were poetry in motion carving up the sand dunes, but that would be a dirty lie. My first ride I hit my keester so hard I had trouble sitting the rest of the weekend. AWESOME! After finally brushing off all the sand we went and had lunch at the general store at Vivonne Bay. Tasty burgers. We then drove down to Vivonne Bay Beach, and wow, freaking nice beach. Apparently it was voted/named the best beach in Australia, but I don’t know who voted. Very cold, but it would be an awesome place to spend the day in the summer. From the beach we drove to Flinders National Park to see two major tourist attractions. First up were the Remarkable Rocks. Perched on a cliff above the Southern Ocean, these rocks had been carved out by the wind for thousands of years. Very cool, and yes, remarkable. Saw an insane, slabbing wave breaking underneath the cliff that looked positively scary. On the way back to the car we saw an echidna (Australian porucpine). Next was the Admiral’s Arch, where a huge colony of New Zealand sea lions hang out. By this time it was late afternoon and the weather was getting a bit nasty. Windy, rainy and cold, we practically ran to the attractions, took pictures and ran back to the car. Luckily, we finally saw some kangaroos that were alive on the drive back. Veronica and I were beginning to think that the only roos on the island were the road kill that dotted every road on the island. On the way back to Penneshaw we stopped at a winery and then traveled to the 3rd town on the island, American River. Yep, this place was named for the American’s that settled there to whale. Pretty, but not that impressive. That night we went to the Italian restaurant in Penneshaw and had a good feed. Driving back to our place we saw a penguin ambling quite nimbly across the road. Passed out early again.

Sunday we made our way to Prospect Hill, where Matthew Flinder’s first viewed the entire island back in 1803. Good views, and it was time to go catch a ferry back to the mainland. Made it back to Adelaide at lunchtime and had a great meal at Austral, a pub on Rundle Street (think of the West End Dallas natives). Our last order of business was to drive into the Adelaide Hills for a scenic tour. Very pretty place, green and lush, vineyards everywhere, and winding roads that were super fun to drive in our nice rental Holden Sport Wagon. I forgot how much fun it was to drive when you have a nice car. No disrespect to the White Chariot of course. Arrived at the airport on time and we got back to Manly a little after 10 pm. It was a great vacation, but it was way too short. Go figure.

Spring

Yes sir, it is Spring time. The frosty days of Winter are a thing of the past now (hopefully). Apologies for the lack of blogging. Work depression combined with a malaise of laziness has thwarted this stinking blog.

Veronica and I enjoyed getting to hang out with Chris and Andrea a week prior. Talk about good timing, they leave Houston in time for 2 big hurricanes to hit their area. We had fun showing them our favorite sites here in Manly. The usual places if you will; Barefoot, Fish Mongers, and the Bavarian.

This past weekend I went down to Bendelong, or Green Island, about 4 hours South of Sydney on a surf trip for the weekend. Fun times, bad weather, but we surfed a real heavy, slabbing left. Yeah, that is where the picture of me looking incredibly kooky is from.

Veronica is in South Australia this week for work. I am flying out on Friday to go meet her for the weekend. Should be a fun time.

Feeling good

This past weekend was nice and relaxing. Had dinner with friends and saw a good film. At this point in the week I would usually be quite depressed being away from Veronica, but not this week. The powers that be at work let Veronica spend the week in the office, so I am enjoying having my wife around. The simple things, eh?

I am so content right now I feel as if I am bi-polar. Adding to my joy is the surf session yesterday morning. Pardon my French, but that old whore Manly transformed itself from being a crappy beach break to looking like a bonafide World Class wave. Reeling, glassy, 3 to 4 foot pits running along the banks. I bore witness to Kai Otten (a local pro surfer, top 16 in the World) get 2 of the most insane barrels EVER! The second barrel I watched while paddling back out. Staring straight into the barrel I watched as he pumped and weaved through a LARGE pit. As he was speeding along through the tube another section threw over putting him incredibly deep. Understand that the dude was so deep I couldn’t even see him through the raging swirl of water. At that point I figured he was done, busily getting chewed up and rag dolled underwater. However, a half second later he flew out of the womb of that beastly wave at a blistering speed. Instinctively I sat up on my board, raised my arms and yelled something not quite appropriate for this blog. It was nuts, not only was I getting great waves but I had so much adrenaline coursing through me just getting to watch someone get a barrel like that. It was simply INSANE!

The pictures are of V and I making lemonade Sunday night.

Winter Funk

I cannot wait for winter to end. I surfed once this week. The water was so cold it made my feet almost go numb after only 90 minutes. Today is cold and rainy. Luckily it's Friday. Veronica arrives back in Sydney tonight after having spent another week in Dubbo.

I've made no secret that my work experience here in Sydney has been absolutely frustrating. But, these jobs have taught me some valuable lessons. Perhaps not taught me, but reinforced values that I was taught by my family. Simple things like don't lie, don't cheat, don't cut corners. It is astounding to be a continual witness to shady dealings, and the only thing that makes it bearable is knowing that our time here in Oz is winding down. Additionally, I plan to keep this experience fresh in my mind when I am back working in the States. No doubt this will help me stay slightly sane when I deal with the inevitable malaise a future job will bring.

Is it me, or did this last paragraph sound like a lame version of 'Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy'?

Read an interesting article in The New York Times today. A diabolical bike thief in Toronto who owned a second hand bookshop. This guy's life needs to be made into a movie cause it sounds captivating!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/world/americas/22canada.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin