Thanksgiving was of course this week and it was very sad to not be able to celebrate in the usual way! No turkey for me but I did manage to get away from the office for dinner and had a relatively American-ish meal in honor of the day: a burger and a beer. Not your typical Thanksgiving food but it did the job as well as it could. Friday night was our firmwide end of the year/holiday party. It was at the overseas passenger terminal which is down on the harbor right across from the opera house. It was a pretty cool spot actually and after torrential downpours all day the weather actually let up a bit and we had a nice night. Otherwise another pretty chilled out weekend. Sunday was a gorgeous day (the first weekend day that was nice in a couple weeks) and I had been thinking about going and taking a surfing lesson but I ended up having to go to work for a few hours which kind of killed that plan. Maybe I’ll get out there next weekend.
Now its time for the second installment of “A day in the life of Jesse, Australia-style.” I put up a few photos a couple months back of our apartment before we got furniture but now that we’ve been furnished for a good two months I decided its time to take a few more photos of our place when it’s not completely bare. Follow the link for the photos (and descriptions).
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=bqmhkbd.6ert4h49&x=0&y=9wwmes&localeid=en_US
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Week ending 23-Nov
We had yet another weekend in Sydney where the weather did not cooperate. Friday was a gorgeous perfect day and Monday is forecast to be a gorgeous perfect day, but Saturday and Sunday were cool, cloudy and rainy. Awesome. Pretty low key weekend overall…I went out with some work colleagues Friday after work and Saturday night a friend had a Thanksgiving party (a Thanksgiving party without any Thanksgiving food though) that was fun.
Since its another slow news week here, I’m going to bring the first installment (probably first out of one) of “A day in the life of jesse, Australia-style.” This week’s installment is my morning walk to work so you can see the sights I see each morning as I head to the office. It’s a lovely 20 to 25 minute walk to start the day (unless its raining in which case I take the bus). Pictures are in the link and in case you don’t want to follow the link, I’ve put a couple of the views from my office below. Not a bad view right? Its funny how quickly you can get used to something like that and start taking it for granted!
Since its another slow news week here, I’m going to bring the first installment (probably first out of one) of “A day in the life of jesse, Australia-style.” This week’s installment is my morning walk to work so you can see the sights I see each morning as I head to the office. It’s a lovely 20 to 25 minute walk to start the day (unless its raining in which case I take the bus). Pictures are in the link and in case you don’t want to follow the link, I’ve put a couple of the views from my office below. Not a bad view right? Its funny how quickly you can get used to something like that and start taking it for granted!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Week ending 16-Nov
Pretty uneventful week and weekend here in Sydney. I survived the workweek without all that much interesting to report. Friday I went out after work and found this great outdoor bar right in the CBD that was completely packed…pretty interesting crowd. The sky of course decided to open up and we had a booming thunderstorm which isn’t the best thing to have when you’re at an outdoor bar. Saturday night I met up with a friend and went to a pretty out of the way pub in a suburb outside the main part of the city. Definitely had more of a “local” type feel as opposed to pubs in Sydney where you get all different kinds of people from all over the place. Sunday was a day of errands and chores, but I managed to skype with my adorable nephew Kai who is speaking fairly coherently now and knows who his Uncle Jesse is. He gave me a “fist-bump” over skype. And michelle happens to be in Durango visiting my sister and Tod this weekend, so it was fun to get to skype with a group of some of my favorite people all at once, but I was extremely jealous that they were all together without me! Skype is a pretty great technology…to be able to have such great quality video from literally halfway around the globe for free isn’t bad. If any of you are on skype and want to skype it up, let me know!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Week ending 09-Nov: Golfing in the southern highlands
It was an eventful week last week in Australia (and the world I suppose). Tuesday was Melbourne Cup day which is the "race that stops a nation" I believe they say. It’s another horse race, the culminating event of the spring carnival and it’s a public holiday in the state of Victoria (where Melbourne is) and in other parts of the country businesses close down and people generally take the day off. So everyone dispersed from work mid-morning…lots of people went to the big track in Sydney where they were having a huge event and watching the race on giant screens, but I decided I'd had enough horse racing recently and wasn't particularly in the mood for a boozy Tuesday afternoon. I just find it interesting how into horse racing everyone here is!
Wednesday was of course the day of the U.S. election down here. Results started coming in around 11am and we had the tvs in our office on cnn all day. I don't think anyone really did much work because everyone was so into the election. In our department of 80 or so people, I'd guess there would have been maybe 5 or 6 that weren't backing Obama (telling about what the rest of the world thinks even if the U.S. is pretty evenly split). It was so exciting to see the outcome and I thought Obama's speech was incredibly powerful and moving. I met up with a few of my American friends in the afternoon and we did a little celebrating…it was a great afternoon!
Saturday Michelle abandoned me by flying back to the U.S. for almost 6 weeks. It was very sad having her leave, but I've been doing the best I can to cope. I've decided the best way to not let myself fall into a depression is be as social as I can (which often is not my first instinct, haha). So Saturday night I had a couple drinks with a friend from work who almost convinced me to stay out for a big night which would have been disastrous because I had to get up at the crack of dawn Sunday morning.
Sunday we had a big golf day/BBQ for work…we drove down to this country club in the "southern highlands" about 2 hours south/southwest of Sydney. I had to get up before 6am which was painful, but it was a great day so was worth it. Golfing was extremely fun and we played an "ambrose" style of scoring which means you're playing with a partner and you each hit from the same spot and take the best shot out of the two of you (and then both hit from that spot again). The format meant that when I was able to hit some decent shots it was good but all the times I was wide left or wide right or in the drink or whatever, my partner was able to carry the team (and thankfully my partner was a very good golfer). I played better than I expected and it was a gorgeous course and great day so was really fun. Makes me want to play golf every once in a while. After golfing we went to Mike's farmhouse (Mike is my boss) for the BBQ. He has a ton of land in the southern highlands and they raise horses (he stays in Sydney during the week and is only down there on weekends). A bunch of others from work who didn't golf met up and we had a great time…nice change of scenery from the city just being out in the middle of nowhere pretty much under the blue sky and sun with some food and grog. Overall it was a fantastic Sunday.
Wednesday was of course the day of the U.S. election down here. Results started coming in around 11am and we had the tvs in our office on cnn all day. I don't think anyone really did much work because everyone was so into the election. In our department of 80 or so people, I'd guess there would have been maybe 5 or 6 that weren't backing Obama (telling about what the rest of the world thinks even if the U.S. is pretty evenly split). It was so exciting to see the outcome and I thought Obama's speech was incredibly powerful and moving. I met up with a few of my American friends in the afternoon and we did a little celebrating…it was a great afternoon!
Saturday Michelle abandoned me by flying back to the U.S. for almost 6 weeks. It was very sad having her leave, but I've been doing the best I can to cope. I've decided the best way to not let myself fall into a depression is be as social as I can (which often is not my first instinct, haha). So Saturday night I had a couple drinks with a friend from work who almost convinced me to stay out for a big night which would have been disastrous because I had to get up at the crack of dawn Sunday morning.
Sunday we had a big golf day/BBQ for work…we drove down to this country club in the "southern highlands" about 2 hours south/southwest of Sydney. I had to get up before 6am which was painful, but it was a great day so was worth it. Golfing was extremely fun and we played an "ambrose" style of scoring which means you're playing with a partner and you each hit from the same spot and take the best shot out of the two of you (and then both hit from that spot again). The format meant that when I was able to hit some decent shots it was good but all the times I was wide left or wide right or in the drink or whatever, my partner was able to carry the team (and thankfully my partner was a very good golfer). I played better than I expected and it was a gorgeous course and great day so was really fun. Makes me want to play golf every once in a while. After golfing we went to Mike's farmhouse (Mike is my boss) for the BBQ. He has a ton of land in the southern highlands and they raise horses (he stays in Sydney during the week and is only down there on weekends). A bunch of others from work who didn't golf met up and we had a great time…nice change of scenery from the city just being out in the middle of nowhere pretty much under the blue sky and sun with some food and grog. Overall it was a fantastic Sunday.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Week ending 02-Nov: Derby Day
Michelle and I flew to Melbourne (pronounced by aussies mel-bin) early Friday morning so we could be around for the first couple days of the melbourne cup carnival, which is the country's biggest horse racing event of the year (and they take their horse racing very seriously!). The carnival goes from Saturday through Tuesday, with the Melbourne Cup race held on Tuesday afternoon. While that race is the biggest single race, Derby Day, on Saturday, is evidently the rowdiest, most fun day of the carnival to attend. We left Sydney at a time when the street outside our apartment was literally swarming with people who were just coming out of bars and clubs ending their nights as we headed to the airport to start our day (the fact that I couldn't imagine being out till that time and had absolutely zero desire to be so made me feel old). We got to Melbourne and I found my way up to our office there…a much smaller office than Sydney but pretty nice actually. Michelle and I meandered around the CBD a bit at lunchtime Friday and then in the evening before having dinner…the city definitely gives a different vibe than Sydney, a little more laid-back perhaps. Architecturally Melbourne has a bit more of a European flavor, but it doesn't have the iconic landmarks that Sydney has (the harbor, the opera house, the bridge). Melbourne does have a much more lively CBD, whereas Sydney's CBD largely shuts down in the evening after work, in Melbourne's there are bars and restaurants that attract crowds much later into the evening.
Saturday we got up and after having breakfast (have I mentioned that Australia in general doesn't seem to really be into the breakfast/brunch scene like the U.S. does…you can get eggs and toast in a restaurant but that's generally the only breakfast option) we headed off to the race track. The train station was packed with people getting on these trains, but luckily they had it pretty well planned so there were trains running like every 4 minutes so it didn't take long. The racetrack was much bigger and grander than Sydney's (where we were a couple weeks back) and the scene was similarly amped up…just thousands and thousands of people there to party and watch the races…guys in suits and ties (often crazy and colorful) and girls in dresses and with either some ridiculous hat or hair piece of some sort. I don't quite understand why it is that people do that for these type of events, but I find it extremely entertaining! We stayed at the races for the better part of the day, wandering the grounds, seeing the races, etc. It was cloudy for most of the day but the sun came out in the late afternoon which was nice. After a long nap, we woke up and it kind of felt like a new day which was a little bit trippy…we headed back out to do a bit more exploring of some of the outer neighborhoods north of the city and to have dinner. We ended up in the italian area of town on a street that is just lined with italian restaurants…reminds me of little italy in NYC in that at each restaurant you have someone out on the street trying to talk you into coming into their restaurant to eat. We found a place that was a little less pushy and had a nice dinner.
Saturday we got up and after having breakfast (have I mentioned that Australia in general doesn't seem to really be into the breakfast/brunch scene like the U.S. does…you can get eggs and toast in a restaurant but that's generally the only breakfast option) we headed off to the race track. The train station was packed with people getting on these trains, but luckily they had it pretty well planned so there were trains running like every 4 minutes so it didn't take long. The racetrack was much bigger and grander than Sydney's (where we were a couple weeks back) and the scene was similarly amped up…just thousands and thousands of people there to party and watch the races…guys in suits and ties (often crazy and colorful) and girls in dresses and with either some ridiculous hat or hair piece of some sort. I don't quite understand why it is that people do that for these type of events, but I find it extremely entertaining! We stayed at the races for the better part of the day, wandering the grounds, seeing the races, etc. It was cloudy for most of the day but the sun came out in the late afternoon which was nice. After a long nap, we woke up and it kind of felt like a new day which was a little bit trippy…we headed back out to do a bit more exploring of some of the outer neighborhoods north of the city and to have dinner. We ended up in the italian area of town on a street that is just lined with italian restaurants…reminds me of little italy in NYC in that at each restaurant you have someone out on the street trying to talk you into coming into their restaurant to eat. We found a place that was a little less pushy and had a nice dinner.
Sunday we headed south to the "southbank" neighborhood, had brunch and walked along the
river a bit before heading out on what turned out to be a journey of epic proportions to the beachside suburb of St. Kilda. The walk was longer than we had thought and it ended up being a hot and muggy day so we were pretty drained by the time we got there. We walked around a bit, saw the market, went to the amusement park (although none of the rides were enticing enough to go on) and saw the little harbour which was very pretty. But we were pretty much done for and couldn't stay outside much longer (for those of you who know michelle, you know she really doesn't function well in the heat). By that time we pretty much had to head back into the city and get our things together to get out to the airport for our flight back. It was a fun weekend and I liked Melbourne a lot, but I have to say I'm glad to be in Sydney…you just can't beat the sheer beauty of Sydney's harbour (although its probably not fair to judge Melbourne on a little less than 3 days there but oh well, I just did).
Some more pics:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=bqmhkbd.7kk2zuk1&x=0&y=tjfolp&localeid=en_US
Now its time to count down the days to the election!
Now its time to count down the days to the election!
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