Almost a white Christmas

Well, not for us ... but just a couple kilometers away by the crow's path, it hailed decent sized chunks! 

Anyways, I had told myself that I would write a bunch of stuff over the past couple weeks, but I, once again, have failed to do so.

Instead, I'm here to condense a couple things into one post.  As I'm sometimes overly long-winded when concise would've been much better, perhaps this is a good thing.

First: Snowball.  Ruthie and I are doing much better since the whole ordeal.  Still not awesome, as it isn't really a fun thing to have in your memory.  We continuously have our windows open, and every now and then I hear a noise that is very similar to the sound I hear when he fell out of the window and my heart skips a beat.  But other than that, we contributed to Snowball's emergency bills in hopes that would help some, and then relied on the kind words of friends, family, and even a random coworker to whom I'd only spoken two words to previously to get us through it mentally.  Aside from the empty feeling the apartment had after he was gone [amazing how quickly you can get used to having a fuzzball running around], the worst part was that it just kinda felt like child services had swept in and taken our kid from us.  Needless to say, we are not on good terms with the rescue.  For what it's worth, from stalking the rescue's facebook page, Snowball has recovered from surgery [at a bill of $4900], and is recovering at the home of one of the owners.  The poor guy has a long road of recovery in front of him, though.

Second: Motorcycle.  When Ruthie first called VicRoads, the local department of motor vehicles, she talked to a really nice guy and we had a great first impression.  We got the idea that maybe Australian bureaucracy wasn't nearly as bad as ours.  Turns out we were wrong.  Ruthie has now talked to at least four different people, and has received a different story every time.  We've gone from one end of the spectrum where we would only have to pay a nominal fee for an unregistered vehicle permit to the other end where we have to treat our vehicle as a permanent import, getting it officially registered.  So a week ago, we made an appointment with a local mechanic who does inspections.  He turned a blind ear to the pipes being too loud [thank goodness!] and only cited me for the bald back tire.  So now that I have my official Road Worthy Certificate, I can go through whatever hoop is next.  From what the mechanic was saying, I will have to take my motorcycle to VicRoads so they can physically see the VIN and engine serial [seriously, engine serial!?].  Ruthie was trying to get it so that we would have the motorcycle for this week between Christmas and NY, but there were too many hoops to clear before every thing shut down for the holiday.

Third: Vacation.  Speaking of everything shutting down for the holiday, I currently am off of work.  I left the afternoon of the 23rd and won't be going back until the 4th.  Courtesy of the Australian government, the entire facility is shut down, so I cannot actually do work if I wanted.  Fine by me.  Ruthie looked into getting us to travel some where, but since the entire country is off, prices are 500% higher and she looked too late so everything was booked.  Instead, we've just been lazy bums around the apartment for the past couple days.

Fourth: Christmas.  Christmas itself was super low key.  We got up Christmas morning and skyped to my parents' house where our families had gathered for dinner.  So with the luxury of technology, Ruthie at least go to see and say hi to her mom and brother and eventually-to-be sister-in-law.  While it poured rain outside, we stayed in, watched Scrooged, Christmas Story, and a couple episodes of Firefly.  Ruthie also decorated the flat a bit with the wreath and ornaments she brought from home.  She also managed to get us a tree.  But that's an interesting story.  First it's not like our Christmas trees back home.  That's fine, and we were totally expecting that.  What we weren't expecting was for the stump to be so incredibly soft that it wouldn't stand up in our base.  First we thought it was because the very bottom of the stump was crooked.  So we hacked and trimmed off the bottom.  And then we did it again.  So our tree turned out kinda small.  And then our tree fell over again.  So now it's decorated, with lights, and is propped up by the walls in the corner of the apartment.  It is truly, in Ruthie's words, a "Dr. Seuss reject".  But I still think it's kinda cute.

-EP

Rough day

So last night was not a very good night for us.  Ruthie and I were watching TV, relaxing, when I heard a noise behind me.  To our horror, Snowball had been sitting up in one of our windows and had fallen out down to the tile patio four stories below.  We quickly rushed down, and fortunately the apartment owner was there.  She let us in, and Ruthie got Snowball contained in a box and wrapped in towels while I scrambled back and forth between apartments and the garage to get everything we needed for a trip to the emergency vet.  The initial prognosis was that his back hook joints [first joint up from the paws on the rear legs, like our ankles] were dislocated or worse, and that there might be some internal damage.  He also spit his lip [but didn't break his jaw, which apparently is common with falls], and broke a front toe / tore his nail pretty deep.  But the latter were minor compared to his hooks and what might be inside.  The poor guy was so good at the vet, for as much pain and panic as he must've been in - he really hates new places.

Ruthie, of course, was, and is, devastated.  She blames herself something fierce.  The short of it is that she feels like she might as well have tossed him out the window.  Even though we both convinced ourselves that leaving the windows open was okay, and allowing him to be out on the balconies was safe.  I even managed to look down to the patio below just the day before, saw the awning the owner had stretched out and thought, Well at least if he falls, he'll land on that.  We're both pretty shaken up by it, but Ruthie's been taking it really hard.

I took today off, so that I could stay with her and try and help in any way I could.  Ruthie emailed her mom and Shane earlier this morning, and they both have since called her to try and console her.  I think that's helped some.

In the mean time, we've got an update from the vet through the shelter owners.  Apparently both hook joints are broken and he will need pins/screws as well as an external brace, therapy, and regular care through rehab.  Fortunately nothing internal is damaged.  Like I said, we learned of this through the ladies at the shelter.  As a bit of background, this isn't a big shelter - it's just three women who have gotten together to save as many cats as they can help.  I spoke with one lady last night when it all happened [Ruthie was in no condition to form complete sentences on the phone].  But today, another woman has been communicating with Ruthie.  My gut tells me that there might be some personality conflicts involved with the decisions regarding Snowball.  Ruthie and I tend to agree that it might have been worth putting Snowball down.  Even though the vet / surgeon gave a promising story, is it really going to be easy on Snowball to make a recovery with both back legs broken like that?  The one with whom I spoke last night seemed fairly pragmatic, so it makes me wonder that if I/we had continued to deal with her something different might have happened.  Instead a different lady stepped in today.  So the decision was made to proceed with surgery on Snowball and provide him with the rehab he needs.  The lady from the shelter looked to us, and out of guilt I think, Ruthie said she would take him post-op.  However, immediately after the conversation, she began to second guess herself, and I called back.  I tried to have a reasonable conversation with the woman about caring for Snowball and that we might not be able to do it, but she cut me off claiming she was late for something with work.  Since then the Facebook page has been updated to detail Snowball's situation and there's a line in there about needing to find a place for Snowball during rehab and after.  So I'm guessing they've cut us out.  Which is fine, but I'm simultaneously irritated and apologetic that things have gone down the way they did.  So we'll see what transpires over the next several hours to see if anything comes back from the shelter at us.  Last night we paid for half of the ER bill - $300, as it only seemed right.  If they throw it in our faces, I'll be really pissed - but I honestly don't think that will happen.

Poor Snowball.  The little guy has been just having a terrible month.  His former human loved him so much and she was so devastated to give him up, but Snowball seemed to be scared of the guy she lived with and/or the other cat.  Snowball developed a UTI, and then was forced to move.  He came here with all the new smells and people, and didn't come out from under the bed for two days.  In the week and a half he was here, he'd actually made significant progress, and was actually starting to cuddle with us.  He even let me hold him a couple times for a few minutes.  And now this.  Man, it's just so frustratingly upsetting.

-EP

PS - Ruthie pointed out to me that if anyone who reads this feels sorry for us / Snowball, you could donate to the shelter on our behalf with a statement like "Erin Maloney is not usually an animal killer."  Well, on further investigation, there's no actual way for direct donations - just an account set up for Snowball's care.  Contact one of us if you pity the guy [or us] enough to send money.

PPS - Here's is the FB link to the shelter - there's a post about him an entry or two down.  http://www.facebook.com/melbourneanimalrescue?sk=wall

On two wheels

Once again, since this blog has “bike” in the title of it, it’s time for me to wax non-poetically about transportation and how many wheels I use.

Most days, I use two.  Two wheels and no motor.  I’ve been riding my bicycle to/from work just about every day.  Which means that if we don’t go anywhere on the weekend [which I think has only happened twice since we’ve been here], I can go weeks without driving a car.  And it’s actually been kinda nice. 

Now, I’m not a fast rider by any means.  They tried to poke fun at me for my coworker passing me on the way in to work one morning, and I just openly admitted that I’m not a speedy rider.  For example, one of the super-fit riders said it would probably take him 7 minutes to get from work to our apartment.  It takes me about 17 [more often 20, as I’m not usually in a rush]. 

And while that’s been great and all, I’ve been itching to ride my other two-wheeled vehicle – the one with the loud, rumbly motor in it.  Unfortunately, we’ve hit yet a third speed bump in that road, and my poor machine continues to collect dust in the parking garage.  The mirrors finally arrived early last week.  I took the day off work on my birthday and put them on, refilled the oil, and got a bit of fuel.  Battery wasn’t strong enough to crank all the petrol through the bone-dry system, so it had to go on the charger.  But I haven’t gotten any further than that because meanwhile, Ruthie’s been back and forth to VicRoads [their motor vehicle department] on my behalf, only to find that instead of an easy bit of paperwork and a couple hundred dollars for a permit, now I may not be able to ride the motorcycle at all.  It has something to do with how the motorcycle was brought into the country and us lacking a carnet de passage.  It’s all a mess, really, and I’ve send messages to the people who might be able to help – but I’ve gotten no where fast.  This, aside from frustrating, is fine because VicRoads said their policy department was going to have to make a judgement on if we’d have to pay some sort of tax on the motorcycle and they would get back to us by letter in two to three weeks. 

Poor motorcycle.  Just sitting there, looking pretty – all dressed up [in dust] and no where to go.

UPDATE: 

I actually wrote this on the 25^th – the day after I penned the previous entry.  [I just totally failed to update the blog with this.  Whoops.]  In the mean time, we’ve received the letter from VicRoads stating that I’m allowed to apply for the permit, but no instructions or anything beyond that.  Ruthie’s made an appointment with them, so maybe she’ll make some progress the next time she goes in there.  Fingers crossed.

-EP

Time keeps on slipping, slipping

Right, so in my typical blogging fashion, I have fallen quite behind in updating TFAAB.  So, where do I start?

First, I’m at work, taking a break from crunching data [well, writing this at work, as I can't actually access Blogger here].  Work has been going pretty okay.  I like my coworkers enough to be social with them outside of work even.  On 11/11, I went on my first official pub crawl [organised through work], and even drug Ruthie along.  I killed two “first” birds with one stone and had our first attempt at the tram system that night, too.  Our journey worked out pretty good, with only one minor hiccup.  At our transition point, we got on the second tram in the wrong direction.  It’s my fault, as I was accustomed to DC’s system where the end point is what’s visible on the train, thus indicating which train to get on without solely relying on the direction in which it is pointing.  But a stop later, and we got re-situated.  Anyways, this was supposed to be a paragraph about work.  Whoops.  I kinda sorta made a big boo boo at work yesterday [although if you look at it in the right light, it’s a fault to be shared by two other people], and the good news is that they didn’t fire me. 

While I write this, Ruthie is texting me, telling me that her sewing class went well today and that she’s got a message to call the foster kitty place, so we might have a fuzzball soon.  Personally, I’m a bit mixed on the idea of having a kitty at our apartment, but Ruthie’s desperate for one.  So we’ll see what happens after she talks to them.

Well, back home it’s Thanksgiving.  However, as that’s not really an Australian holiday, I’m working.  The lucky bastards at the consulate get both Australian and US holidays, so they’re off.  This is important because it means the mail office is closed today and tomorrow.  And that is important because I’m desperate to get my copy of Halo Anniversary.  It was released/shipped on the 15^th, and it hasn’t arrived yet.  I was hoping it would be here by yesterday, but I guess now I’ll have to wait until next Monday at the earliest.

Speaking of mail, my parents sent a care package full of yummy treats the other week.  It was a combined anniversary and birthday package.  Although, now that I think more about the contents of said package, it really might have been only yummy to Ruthie and me: Oreos, Fudge Rounds, Marshmallows, and canned tuna [specifically white albacore in water].  The copious amounts of fudge rounds have been great, except I think they have been the source for our [or at least my] particularly rancid farts the past week or so.  Not that I’m going to stop eating them. 

Anyways, Thanksgiving.  Since there’s no official celebration here, and turkeys are like $60 a breast [not really, but damned expensive], Ruthie and I are going to go out for Chinese food Christmas-Story-style.  Also, I think we’ve met a few Americans through derby that want to get together for some kind of Thanksgiving style dinner – but really it’s all because one lady bought canned pumpkin for pumpkin pie. 

Mmmm …. pumpkin pie ……

Road trip to Sydney - day six (return day two)

Route: Goulburn to Melbourne by the Hume Highway
Distance: 740 km (460 mi)

Both yesterday and today, I was quite disheartened to pass the occasional sign that said Tourist Route N [where N is some number between 1 and 12 - although I’ve not seen routes 1 or 2 or 10, but I can only expect they exist as I’ve seen all other numbers up to 12].  But, as the priority was to get home, I have resigned to attempt to drive them another day.

So today was the big push to get home.  Google estimated the drive to take about 8 hours.  I made it in about 7.  Fortunately there was very little traffic, and I was in the driving zone, so we made good time.  And I didn’t even speed by that much.  I would say I averaged about +8km, and the speed limit was mostly 110. 

As an aside, perhaps it is because of the car being so small and all, or perhaps it is due the psychological aspect of being raised in mph where 3 digits was really fast, but every time I approach 100 kph, I have a hard time going much faster.  Folks, 100kph is only 60mph.  That’s like a turtle’s pace for back home.  But here, most people abide by the speed limit pretty well, and 100 or 110 is pretty common for the upper limit.  And personally, after I get to about 120, I don’t like to go much faster …

Anyways, Goulburn was a surprisingly large town [population ~24,000], but it had a much smaller-town feel.  And it worked.  By the time Ruthie and I got up slightly after the sun, and went for a walk down ¾ of the main business strip, the town was bustlin’.  During our walk, we found a rather large secondhand shop, where this old Italian lady talked Ruthie’s ear off - but not for naught, as we learned of a fantastic place to grab breakfast.  [She also judged us for staying at the Astor - the pub - motel last night, but whatever.]

Goulburn also featured a humongous two- or three-story sheep.  It was a merino wool store and museum.  We parked behind the balls and took pictures under it’s quadruple chin.  Good times.

We left the sunshine behind us, which is kind of bittersweet.  Sure, we were starting to bake pretty good a couple hours into our trip [I even managed to sunburn the top of my right knee from the sun beating in through the slightly rolled down window], so when we drove into the cloud cover, it cooled things down a bit.  But now that we’re back and it’s rainy, it’s bittersweet to miss the hot sunshine. 

So, yeah, we’ve made it back home safe.  Our apartment was still standing - no outlets that were left on went crazy.  I didn’t pull an Edward Norton in Fight Club and detonate my own apartment via my alter ego while gone.  And we even were productive upon arrival: unpacked everything, sorted clothing, and Ruthie started laundry.

Tomorrow’s agenda: nothing.  Ahh, that’s great to hear.

-EP

Road trip to Sydney - day five (return day one)

Route: Sydney to Goulburn by way of the Hume Highway
Distance: 195 km (121 mi)

This morning started off in the luxury that my middle-class Marriott budget can afford.  We wallowed a bit in our beds after the sun woke us with its bright rays reaching the 20th floor early in the morning.  Then a quick trip to the gym, and an awesome buffet, and we were out to start our day. 

Except that our day really had only one thing planned: a harbour cruise that started at 2.30p.  And it was only 12.  So Ruthie and I killed some time by walking a few blocks down the street to check out this “motorcycle superstore” we’d seen from the top of the hop-on bus yesterday.  I tried on some jackets and a bunch of helmets, while Ruthie drooled over riding boots and bought some new gloves.  I also picked up the oil and coolant necessary to get my motorbike running again once we get home.

After an easy trip on the free tourist bus down to the Circle Quay [pronounced “key”], we found our correct pier and started the wait for our boat. 

Sure we saw the Opera House and the Coat Hanger [as they call their famous bridge] the first time we were in town, but it was kinda cool just to sit in between them for a while and relax.  Then, of course, once the boat arrived, and we perched ourselves up top, we were treated to some killer views of both landmarks.  We were also shown roughly where Mr. Crowe resides, where Ms. Kidman used to live with Tom Cruise, and quite a few other luxury properties.  Of course, not to be outdone by the eight-figure properties were the stupid expensive yachts parked in all the various piers around the harbour. 

Upon concluding our wonderful afternoon on the water, we hightailed it back to our car to rush out into Sydney traffic.  Much like any other over populated city, we crawled along, going about 20km in an hour, as we started to feel our stomachs grumble again.

What turned into a random exit from the main road in order to fill up the gas tank ended up with an even more random trip to a Chinese place that had quite excellent food - and it didn’t even break the bank.  Seriously, dinner was half the price of breakfast.

Today also marked the first time in this trip that we’ve actually done any driving at night.  We have decided that we are tired of spending money and are ready to head home, so we’re making the straight shot via the inland route, Hume Highway, to Melbourne.  Our goal was to reach Goulburn tonight, so that we had a mere 8 hours [longest actual driving stretch of the trip] ahead of us tomorrow. 

Mission accomplished, and I even managed to talk Ruthie and Lorraine into ignoring their “sense of adventure“ and staying at someplace that wasn‘t called the Cockroach Motorlodge.  Okay, maybe “cockroach“ wasn‘t in its name, but the way I looked at it, it might as well have been.  Yet, at this point, I can still hear the music from the bar downstairs slightly through the window - so not perfect by any means.

So one more day, and then home, sweet, Melbourne.  Although, now we have a new thing to worry about when we get there: the fuel gauge is acting quite bizarre.  The random pull off to a petrol station was prompted by the fact that the trip odometer was only at 85km and yet the fuel meter was sitting at E.  As we pulled into the station, the needle dropped past E and then moved up to about a quarter tank.  Something’s fishy …

-EP

Road trip to Sydney - day four

Route: Wollongong to Sydney by way of the Grand Pacific Drive
Distance: 95 km (59 mi)

Following up on the bizarre mood last night, we almost didn’t make it into Sydney.  I was torn: while I felt like the closer we got to Sydney, the further I wanted to be from a big city, I had a hard time letting go of how anti-climactic it would be to drive all this way and not actually come into Sydney.  So after we waffled a bit, Ruthie finally made the judgement call to come on into the city.  After having failed to get on the internet from the hotel in Wollongong, we eventually stopped at a Macca’s for a bite and some free wi-fi, where we booked a room at the other Marriott in Sydney [at the time, I’d forgotten there were two], and started planning our time in the city.

We actually left Wollongong at a decent hour - a much earlier start than the previous day.  Which enabled us to meander just a bit as we finished our drive along the Grand Pacific Drive [we stopped for a bit at the Sky Bridge], and get into the city with plenty of time to do something this afternoon.

We got into our hotel, got settled, and booked a hop-on-hop-off tour bus trip, where we only hopped on and hopped off once - at the hotel - and set ourselves up for a harbour cruise tomorrow afternoon.

The bus tour was pretty good.  We sat in the upper seats, had a good audio tour, saw some sights, sat in traffic, and killed the afternoon pretty well.

Then we decided we’d go to dinner.  And what better place to go, than to Outback Steakhouse.  Turns out, despite my original impression that all the ones in Australia were only located in Sydney, it was actually a bit of a drive out to one of the suburbs to get to it.  Of course, the drive was made worse by the traffic and the fact that I made one wrong turn, and it took 25 minutes to correct because of said traffic.  But eventually we got there, and we stuffed ourselves like the Americans that we are. 

First, with the exception of a few of the sides [beetroot, for example], and the units [250g instead of 9oz], the menu was just about the same.  And it was  the first restaurant at which we’ve had American style service, where the hostess greeted us, seated us, and the waiter was there within minutes.  I would have to say that the food wasn’t nearly the same as the Outback back home.  I had the special, and it while it was tasty, it just wasn’t quite as flavourful.  Ruthie had her filet, and had the same comment.  Plus, they don’t have A1 or any steak sauce, so Ruthie was missing out on that.  The mashed potatoes were still damned good though.  And t he bread was just as tasty.  Unfortunately, they don’t let you pick two sides, and you have to pick soup or salad as one of your sides, so we all got a little salad.  I totally agree with Ruthie: I think I missed ranch dressing.  No dessert - we were way too full.

Back at the hotel, I made full use of the internet, stalked some people on FB, sent an email or two, and looked up Kindle Support, and phoned in the issue.  Ruthie will have a new Kindle in a couple weeks, and then all will be right in her world again.  They covered the replacement entirely, so all we have to do is get Ruthie a new skin to replace the one she’ll lose when we send the broken Kindle back.

As I wrap this up, I will close by saying, I’m glad Ruthie pulled the trigger and we got here.  Sure, it’s the most expensive part of our trip, but we expected that, and sure it’s a bit chaotic dealing with a foreign city, but it’s been fun.  Plus, the view from our 20th floor room is pretty good [not as awesome as the view from our first night here where we looked over the Opera House, but still good].

-EP

Road trip to Sydney - day three

Route: Batemans Bay to Wollongong by way of the Grand Pacific Drive
Distance:  288 km (141 mi)

We went 800km from Melbourne [and 10,000 miles from home] just to play mini golf.  Seriously though, we’ve seen a couple mini golf places here and there, and we’d been itching to play.  So we had the place nearly to ourselves [one other family for part of the time], and it was actually a decent course even with the lack of moving parts.  After a trip to Vinnies [a secondhand store, which landed me a new shirt and a couple cheap books - where cheap, secondhand books in this instance are $3 as opposed to new paperbacks being $30], the car wash [there was an incident involving a coffee sitting on a curb when I was parking that resulted with lots of splashing over the bonnet], the petrol station for topping off on both fuel and oil [noticed that the oil was a bit low before we left], we hit the road.

But not before we got pulled over for a random breathalyzer test.  At two in the afternoon.  I had heard that Australia pulls no punches when it comes time to test drivers randomly.  However, I didn’t think I would have to drive to a different state to get tested.  Needless to say, I passed with flying colours!

The morning started off with a jog and a nice trip around the corner to a café for breakfast on the water.  Aside from the sunburn, you couldn’t ask for a nicer morning.  I don’t know when it happened, but somewhere along the line, Ruthie got me - who likes his eggs scrambled, hard - to start liking eggs benedict.  So this morning was eggs benedict over wilted spinach with smoked ham.  

Heading out of Batemans Bay, we lost touch with the tourist routes but managed to find the Grand Pacific Drive, which has kept us off the main highway and in and out of coastline towns.  Just by looking out the window, you can feel that we’re getting closer to a big city.  Towns are getting closer together, and are more populated each time.  Traffic today was much heavier than it was yesterday. 

Additionally, it seems like as we get closer to more people, Ruthie and I are a bit more tense.  Perhaps it’s just the fact that we’ve been cooped up in a car for such long periods of time with each other [and Lorraine].  Or maybe it’s something bigger.  I’m not smart enough to figure that one out …

We got to see a heard of kangaroos by the roadside today.  Most importantly for the girls was the momma ‘roos with their joeys poking out of the pouches.  Lorraine was happy like a pig in shit.

Oh!  I forgot to mention yesterday’s big score for Ruthie.  We wandered the main street of Eden for a bit in the morning, and found ourselves drawn into the discount store by kitschy Japanese stuff.  So after spending a solid 20 minutes sifting through all the fun stuff, we finally tore ourselves away and wandered the rest of the aisles.  The next thing I know, Ruthie’s got a “garden wombat” tucked under her arm.  Ya know those monochromatic figures of wildlife with which some people like to populate their garden?  Well, now our garden [and in the mean time, our apartment balcony] will have a wombat.  [The lady ringing us up said they were pests - same could be said for squirrels, though, right?]

Speaking of Oh! moments - here’s a fun one: Ruthie opened one of the bedside drawers in the hotel room tonight as we were getting settled, and found a rolled up 5 dollar bill.  And sure enough, there was a white powder on the inside!  Tempting as it might have been, though, I washed it, and am now trying to flatten out the note in case the crease and curve are telltale signs. 

Another indication we’re approaching a big city: the prices of things are going up.  Sure we’re staying on a golf course hotel, but it’s actually the cheapest one in this town [that we could find easily].  Frustratingly, we’re supposed to have internet, but after the wi-fis downstairs weren’t working and I can’t get the hardline to cooperate either, it looks like we’re outta luck. 

Tomorrow, we try our luck at finding cool stuff in Sydney that everyone can enjoy.  Perhaps a bus tour or a harbour cruise, we’ll see.  Good news is that the weather has been damned perfect for the trip so far, and with any luck, it’ll keep up and the rain will hold off until we’re back in Melbourne. 

-EP

Road trip to Sydney - day two

Route: Eden to Batemans Bend by way of “Tourist Route” 11, 9, 8,  6, 7,  [missed 4], 5
Distance: 208 km (129 mi)

After a hearty breakfast in Eden, we set off for the day attempting to meander our way along the Sapphire Coast and see the ocean as often as possible.

The day’s highlights include stopping at a random inlet to kick some sand around; the Blue Pool, which was a salt water pool built into the rocks at one of the random towns; taking tourist route 6, to find Pam’s for some grub - where no matter what you ordered on your sandwich, you got meat, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, and onions; getting lost along tourist route 6; and passing tourist route 4 while trying to find tourist route 6, only to learn later that it would’ve connected us where we needed to go eventually.

Despite feeling like I was specifically told to visit Batemans Bend by two different coworkers, I am failing to see why.  Perhaps I’m biased by the fact that we went on the hunt last night first for Chinese, and then fast food, only to fail miserably.  Really, we were just looking for some takeout, but first the KFC failed when they sold neither baked beans nor those doughy pieces of heaven called biscuits.  Instead, I was informed that when I asked for two biscuits at the drive through, that “biscuits” are, in fact, breast pieces of chicken.  So we did actually get two biscuits according to KFC, but no doughy goodness.  What KFC doesn’t sell those buttery pieces of heaven?  I mean come on!  And so then we decided that after looking at the smallest five pieces of chicken ever, we might try our luck down the street at McDonald’s [or “Macca’s” as the sign says, even though I’ve never actually heard anyone say that], we ended up sitting in the parking lot waiting for our chicken salads for at least 15 minutes.  I mean, I expect McD’s food to be crap, but I at least like it to be expeditious crappy food.

In other news, Lorraine can add a whale to her animals spotted.  While Ruthie and I were down exploring the Blue Pool, Lorraine was up at the lookout with some randoms, and they pointed out a whale to her.  We also spotted a flock of kangaroos on a hillside, so I’ve told her she’s no longer allowed to plead for the animals to come visit when we pass signs. 

I saved this update for the last minute on Wednesday morning, and at the risk of making Ruthie mad at me for slacking while she gets the car ready, I will wrap this up.

-EP

Road trip to Sydney - day one

16 October 2011
Route: Melbourne to Eden by way of Marlo/C107 scenic route, stop at French’s Narrows turnout
Distance: 579 km (360 mi)

Ruthie set us a goal of leaving by 10a on Sunday morning.  We were pulling out of the garage at 10.20a.  So not bad.  But in true fashion for me, I rushed out the door forgetting a few things.  1. I left my book [just started Battle Royale] sitting beside the bed.  2. I brought a laptop, but none of the photos I need to work on [and I’m way behind on photos] are on this laptop.  3. Since this country has conveniently placed switches on every outlet, I had meant to run around the apartment and turn everything off - but I failed to do so.  But at least it’s only 3 things.  We have our atlas, and plenty of guide maps; we have Ruthie’s newly acquired dashboard compass that is so old, the liquid has vanished and the directional ball is a bit shriveled [don’t ask me why she bought it]; we finally have cupholders [they clip into the air vents]; Ruthie bought me a fuzzy seatbelt cover so that the thing wouldn’t dig into my neck all the time; I have cameras; and we have our sunglasses.

So far our only actual mishap has been the mysterious and very unfortunate breakage of Ruthie’s Kindle.  For reasons unexplained she set it down to look at something and when she picked it back up, the screen was all messed up, like something had cracked.  There’s no easily available internet at the hotel room, so I can’t see what the internets say.  But that makes two of us without a book - and it’s a bigger deal for Ruthie to not have one.

During our back roads driving into Eden, we finally saw some wild ‘roos.  Wallabies, actually.  Which makes Lorraine happy, as every time we passed a Caution Wildlife sign, she’d start calling for the kangaroos to come out.  *dramatic eye roll*  The first one we saw as I was in the middle of slamming on the brakes to not hit it - but the second one was nicely perched beside the road, and we were able to slow down and wave at it before it ran away.

The hotel we picked for the night, Twofolds Bay Motor Inn, is pretty decent.  There is a nice view of the ocean when you walk out the door.  We went in search of seafood for dinner last night, but ended up with just some pub food.  Still good, though.

The ocean, while still cold [according to Ruthie at least, I didn’t tempt fate by trying to touch the surf], is beautiful shades of blue.  Now that we are in New South Whales and as we work our way north of Eden, I expect/hope a lot more of the road will be closer to the ocean.

PS -  I am wearing shorts.  For the second day in a row.  This is very excites!

-EP

Back in Sydney

Nearly three months [about 6 days shy, actually] after our feet touched ground in Australia - Sydney to be exact - we are back.  This time, however, we're slightly more aware of how to drive on the wrong side of the road, and we've got a +1. 

So, here we are on a road trip to Sydney.  We left a mere 3 days after all of our stuff arrived from off the boat.  Well, off the boat, through customs, onto a truck ... minor details.  Fortunately, Ruthie did a pretty damned good job of getting our stuff organized before we left, so we don't have an entire disaster awaiting our return.

Of course, the thing over which I have been pining was with that shipment.  However, the mirrors to my motorcycle arrived broken.  So while I was bemoaning the unfortunate timing of the arrival with our departure, it kinda works out that my mirrors are [hopefully] en route while we're on this little trip.

So we're at about the midpoint, and all parties are alive - even though Lorraine swears she's going to die via lack of clean oxygen with as much toxic fumes as we produce.  But, while I've been internet-less, I've kept a bit of a journal, so I'll be posting those after we get back.

-EP

Noaaauuuuuuwwh

One of the frequent topics of conversation before I left for Oz was how much my diction and/or accent might or might not change.  I would have to say that I am much more easily influenced by the language of those around me.  I find new words and phrases novel and try to incorporate them into my speech.  Or at least that’s how I used to be before I came here.  Suddenly I am the one with the accents and using the funny words [or so they tell me – I think they’re all weird], and so I now find myself trying much harder to not integrate all the local colloquialisms into my regular speech.  Well, that’s not entirely true – I suppose it’s more that I’m attempting to be much more selective on what I integrate.  My actual pronunciations, on the other hand, are a battle that I refuse to let go. 

So far, I’ve only faltered twice on pronunciations and phrases that I find are silly, and they’ve just happened out of my mouth before I could stop it.  The first was the pronunciation of “banana” – they make all their a’s sound like the sheep’s sound: baaa.  The second was the common greeting, “how ya goin’”.  I refuse to acknowledge this as an acceptable greeting.  I can’t even logic how you get that set of words to make sense.  But, to my horror, the other day, I was busy meeting a lot of locals, and after the 59^th new person, and hearing “How ya goin?” 42 times in rapid succession, I greeted the 60^th person with that silly phrase and caught myself aghast. 

But with those two instances, I’ve been doing pretty well to be selective.  “Bogan” is a their term for “redneck”, except as far as I can tell a bogan is a redneck with a sprinkling of douchebag.  I’ve been trying to learn all the slang, derogatory terms for redheads to harass Shane, but so far all I can remember is “ranga” and “bluey”.  “Ginger” is apparently quite mild, and “ranga” is the next step up.  “Bluey” just happens to be another mild term that seems to fit Aussie sense of humour, so to me it’s a whatever term.  Pronunciation-wise, “Melbourne” is pronounced “melbun” and as only one syllable.  And most glaring is the way they say “know” and all its homonyms.  I don’t even know how to attempt to type out how their “no”s sound … there might be a u or even an umlaut in there and it's at least three syllables long. 

There are probably a few others, but at the moment, I’m drawing a blank.  If I find any particular gems, I’ll have to write them down for this thing.

-EP

As expected...

Ya know, I totally knew that the moment I hit the "publish" button here on this blog, plans would change.  There just seems to be something that happens where 90% of the time, the moment I think we've settled on something I tell someone about our plans, things go the entirely opposite direction. 

In this case, not necessarily the entirely opposite, as we might still be headed east, but I think the huge road trip has been postponed.  Ruthie talked to our postmaster today [after riding my bicycle - "push bike" down here - to the consulate since I had the car], just after his return from Queensland, and apparently the water there is still frigid.  Seeing as how the reason we were headed to the beautiful beaches of the land of sun, was to jump in the waters before the jellyfish swarmed.  Turns out that even though air temperatures up there don't drop below 20, the water temperatures certainly do.

So, instead, we're looking at other options: beachy and mountainous roads that don't necessarily require getting into the water; more, shorter road trips instead of one big one.  [Tomorrow, in spite of the dodgy forecast, we're off to the Grampians again.]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset that the huge road trip is postponed - there is still plenty to see and do within one and a half days from Melbourne.  But what gets me is that when I vocalize plans that are in the works, be it an email to Mom, or mentioning it to someone in passing at work, boom, the plans change. 

Ahh well.  That's how it goes.

In the mean time, very exciting news: the movers contacted us today.  As I was in the midst of a busy day, I forwarded them onto Ruthie, and it looks like we might have our furniture delivered by next Thursday.  [For the record, furniture delivery added to our change of plans, as it's easier to have Ruthie here waiting on the movers than me, since they offer no time window, I'm trying to save actual leave for said road trips, and plans for the massive trip included Ruthie and Lorraine leaving on Monday or Tuesday.]

So, if our furniture gets here on Thursday, October 13th, and it was picked up on Monday, July 18th, it will only have taken nearly two and a half months for us to get our stuff.  Well, they told us 45-90 days, so I guess 84 days is better than 90, right?

-EP

Off to the land of permanent sunshine?

Lorraine arrived on Monday.  And with her, she brought the good news of Ruthie’s unemployment being granted.  So this meant a few things.  One a sigh of relief since Uncle Sam has been seriously dragging his feet to repay me for travel expenses and get my foreign pay allowances sorted out.  Two, Ruthie felt like she could go shopping.  So what did she buy?  A ukulele.  Yes, the instrument that is key in one or three songs that make her cry within four notes.  So, after mocking her for a few minutes, asking her how she was going to be able to play while she’s crying, I picked it up and began to try to figure it out.  It’s been quite a few years since I’ve played a musical instrument – and never since I’ve attempted to play a guitar.  Sure, in my youth, I turned my violin on its side and picked at it a bit, but that doesn’t count for much.  So we’ll see which one of us actually learn to play this silly thing.

In the mean time, what Ruthie’s unemployment also means [as well as finally receiving word that Uncle Sam is working towards getting things sorted] that we can actually put together plans of a road trip.  Ruthie has the destination of Whitsunday picked, and I’ve started putting together a route.  Because I don’t have the luxury of two weeks off, it’s going to be kind of a piece-meal trip.  Ruthie and Lorraine will drive up via mid-country and more direct routes from Melbourne to Whitsunday.  That will probably take three days, at which point, I will fly into some Cairns, Townsville, or Whitsunday, depending on the price of flights.  Then we will begin our long journey down the [majority of the] east coast of Australia, including travelling the Pacific Highway between Brisbane and Sydney.  Or at least that’s the plan at this point.  I’m always hesitant to write down plans like this because it seems that I have a knack for spelling out how I foresee them, only have them be the complete opposite when the time comes.  

-EP