SueSue's visit part 2/2

The trip to the Whitsundays.

When originally trying to figure out something to do, we thought about driving some portion of the north eastern coast.  That quickly dropped out due to time and money limitations.  But in its place, Ruthie came up with a 2.5 day sailing trip in/around the Whitsunday islands.  Shortly after I got here, the Whitsundays [iconic for their white sand and vibrant blue waters] were quickly recommended and flagged as a place to go and see.  And so arrangements were made.  We were to fly our way to Airlie Beach [well, fly to Proserpine [via Brisbane] then bus to Airlie Beach], clamber on board a boat and then sail around for two and a half days.  Upon our return, we’d make our way into a hotel for the evening and then fly our way back to Melbourne.

First off, it was wet season off the shore of Queensland.  Granted, our timeline was forced a bit by fitting it into SueSue’s visit, but we either went to the Great Barrier Reef during Shark Season, Jellyfish Season, Wet Season, or Tourist Season.  I think [cyclones aside] wet season might’ve worked out just fine for us. 

Second, I think Queensland’s version of cold is 60°F.  I’m too lazy to look up the details, but really, it’s the land of warm winters and hot, sticky summers.  [From what I understand the reason Tourist Season exists is because southern Queensland has those perfect 80°F days and bright blue skies for multiple days in a row.]  This meant that despite the fact that it was wet season, the temperatures were still fairly high.  This also meant that the water was quite warm.  As in the air temperature would be 26°C and the water would be 28°C – so you were better off in the water while it rained anyways.

The downside to it being the rainy season: lack of brilliant light illuminating everything. 

The upside to the lack of sun, we didn’t immediately turn into lobsters.  This silver lining was further supported by the fact that when the sun did eventually burn off the clouds on the last day as we were headed back, it also managed to burn us despite our sunscreen.

So let me get the whinging over with first.  At this point in time, I no longer feel the urge to spend multiple nights on a boat in weather that produces choppy water.  While I didn’t actually get sea sick, I came close, and it wasn’t fun.  And Ruthie got even closer when she made the mistake of going below deck to our room for a bit while we were passing through some waves.  Also, I ended up with a pretty sleepless night the first night on the boat.  It was hot and humid in our room with little ventilation.  I don’t particularly remember there being a lot of rocking motion to the boat, but I definitely had my first insight into what it’s like being an insomniac.  The rainy season also meant everyone was crammed into the little tiny sections of the boat that were covered.  So after dinner, while everyone was being social, it also meant hot and sticky confines.  Which, combined with the lack of sleep [I also slept very little the night before we left due to nerves] meant that I ended up missing out on the drunken bonding that happened the second night we were anchored.  Oh well.

So that said, everything else was pretty awesome.  The adventure started with Ruthie and me riding the netting of the catamaran through the first “storm” we hit.  Mainly it was just rain and wind [or the speed of the boat].  We ruined our books by doing this and because of the high humidity it also meant one set of our clothes were unusable for two days, but it was well worth it.  The first mate prepared all our meals for us, and I have to say that I was quite impressed with the food choice and quality.  I don’t know exactly what I expected, but for being on a boat with 10 other people, it was quite the spread. 

The second day we snorkelled, did some stand-up paddle boarding, and snorkelled some more.  When we finally anchored for the late afternoon / evening, Ruthie and I took out the clear-bottomed canoe and tried to see things.  We were fairly unsuccessful in seeing much more than water, rocks, and some reef life [this is where the lack of bright, direct light comes in], but it was still worth the effort.  The stand-up paddle boarding was pretty exciting.  It was something I’d wanted to attempt for a while, and it was the captain’s mandate that we all give it a go.  After a fair amount of complaining from some of the other passengers about fears and possible lack of ability, in the end, everyone got out, and we had quite the parade along the coast of one of the islands.  The second day also had us set foot on land for a while.  We hiked up to a lookout, and then back down to the squeaky white sand of a beach while the tide was out.  While traipsing through the forest to the lookout, I managed to spot the biggest spider [sorry Mom] I’ve ever seen – like the size of my hand fully stretched out or even bigger.  We were later informed that it was called a golden orb, and while it was creepy, I wouldn’t claim it was particularly scary.  The furry ones are scary.  This one was just a skinny body with amazingly long legs. 

The third morning we woke up to sunshine peeking between the clouds and the rocks [Butterfly Bay was pretty enclosed – maybe 80% land and just the one way in and out].  We departed for another bit of the islands for our tactical turtle drop.  “Tactical turtle drop” was a phrase used by one of the other captains as he returned to his boat via dinghy from dropping his passengers in the water.  Apparently turtles frequented the area we were snorkelling, and so chances were high we might spot some.  Backing up a bit, we’d managed to see about 5 turtles or so from the boat.  A couple of times we sailed right over them.  And when we stopped for the second night, we spotted one surface a couple times about 15 yards off to one side of the boat.  But our tactical turtle drop was specifically geared to spotting some whilst snorkelling.  Ruthie and I started off by swimming one direction along the shore and seeing lots more fishies, but it was apparently the wrong direction because some of our co-passengers informed us they’d seen one down the shore in the other direction.  Before we made it that way, though, we went across the sandbar to the really shallow water and watched several little sharks swimming about. 

Let’s pause a moment and revel in that.  Sharks.  Granted, not great white sharks or man eaters by any means, but we were swimming right next to a handful of small reef sharks. 

I’d also like to take this moment of pause to discuss Ruthie’s [ir]rational fear of jelly fish.  On one hand, I can almost agree with her – or at least I can see where she’s coming from with her fear.  They are pretty bizarre looking, and in this section of the world, they are lethal.  On the other hand, it was very entertaining to watch her freak out, so I could help but laugh and mock her slightly.  Seriously, I think if we’d seen more than one jelly fish coming our way at once, she’d’ve gotten up and run on the water back to the boat.  [Fortunately, we only saw them one at a time … although at one point, two of those one-at-a-times came pretty close to each other, and Ruthie nearly broke plane swimming back to shore.] 

Back to our tactical turtle drop.  Not only did we see some turtles, but we swam with two of them.  I can only describe them as little and big.  And awesome.  And much to Ruthie’s pleasure, we watched one of them eat a jelly fish, only furthering her love for these fantastic and dinosauric creatures.  Let me point out that while we were snorkelling in Hawaii, we missed out on seeing turtles.  Apparently one was spotted, but it was a bit further away, and only a silhouette was observed.  So a turtle spotting was high on the want list for this trip.  So, heeding the advice of our co-passengers, we tried swimming in direction B from our tactical turtle drop, and before we knew it, we were swimming right over two of them.  They only stayed together for a few minutes before they split and went different directions.  But in that initial time, I managed to grab a few pictures [thank you GoPro], and Ruthie swam down close to them, and actually touched one on his/her shell.  After they split, Ruthie followed the big one, and I followed the little one.  I had passed off the camera to Ruthie before this happened, and I kind of wish I had gotten it back [but there wasn’t time].  Ruthie was having a hard time keeping up with her turtle, but mine was just being pretty leisurely as s/he swam away from me.  In the process, the sun managed to break through the thin clouds that had formed just at the same moment that the turtle surfaced.  So right in front of me I had the classic picture of a turtle with all his/her appendages out, brightly lit so all his/her colours were showing, on a brilliantly turquoise blue background. 

It’s hard to follow up with the excitement of the turtles, and so I won’t ramble too much longer.  But, we managed to set foot on shore again safely, get our shoes and flip flops back [the first mate took them from us as we got on the boat the first day], and head to our hotel.  For being something that Ruthie found on the cheap, we were all floored with how awesome it was.  One, it was an apartment style, so separate bed rooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a washer/dryer.  Two, it was up high enough that it provided a fantastic view out over the little bit of land that was between us and the water, and then out off past Airlie Beach.  Even after SueSue complained about the height of the hill we had to climb to get to the hotel, she had to admit it was worth the hike.  The washer/dryer was a blessing in their own because while we had all done fairly well to keep at least one set of clothes dry for our return trip, most of our stuff stunk something awful.  Clean sheets, clean clothes, delivered pizza, a hot shower, air conditioning, and a great view combined for a perfect way to wrap up our Whitsundays adventure.

-EP

SueSue's visit part 1/2

So SueSue has come and gone, and I totally failed to write anything while she was here.  Whoops.

But I like doing recaps anyways.  I’m well aware that I have a tendency to ramble on about minutia sometimes, and I always look at recaps as a way to force myself to condense.

So let’s see.  First off, I worked most of the time she was here.  This was fine because it saved me from the multitudinous trips to the market.  And Target.  I’m pretty sure there were a couple trips to Target.  As has become pretty standard for our visitors, Ruthie took SueSue out to Healesville to see the animals.  Upon their return, never mind the “magic moments” with the baby wombats and the kangaroos, apparently the vet working with the wombats was HOT.  At least there are pictures of the two of them with the wombats if not the hot vet.  Also becoming standard for our visitors, there was also a trip along the Great Ocean Road. 

In true SueSue fashion, we sent her off in the evening in search of her own favourite pub.  After the first night being a failure [in Port Spraytan’s defence, it was a Monday night], I provided her with directions to the older, off-the-beaten-path pub called The Clare Hotel that I’d been to only a couple weeks prior with a couple of my local video game nerds.  After watching a few of the train wrecks there, I knew it would be up SueSue’s alley, and sure enough it was.  She went two nights in a row, quickly made friends with the barkeep, and was hit on by a local, who claimed to be a former footy player and true enough asked her if she wanted some Australian in her.  Seriously, the stories this woman inspires. 

Back in the pages of clean, wholesome fun, we also introduced SueSue to some more locals via a diner at J&J’s, where they provided us with some home cooked kangaroo - pretty tasty, but different.  I’ve often heard various things described as gamey and the like, but I don’t know how to apply those adjectives – I would simply describe the ‘roo meat as leaner and less juicy [not in a bad way] than a regular steak.  And on the page of entirely new things, we also went to a footy game.  It was the first game of the preseason, where they have a little round-robin type thing where three teams play each other over the course of the night in three, shortened games.  Apparently they also try out different rules and scoring during the preseason, but that didn’t impact us any.  What surprised me was just how many players were on the field.  I realised pretty quickly just how big a regulation AFL pitch was, but when watching on TV [and without knowing the players], you just don’t really appreciate how many people the pitch can fit.  I think we counted something like 16 players per team.  Then there were at least six referees on the field, as well as what looked like a few substitutes.  And to their credit, those refs worked hard to keep on top of the action. 

Well, I think that might roughly cover SueSue’s time spent in Melbourne.  That leaves the trip to the Whitsundays.

-EP

EDIT – a quick check on Wikipedia tells me that footy is to have up to 18/side. 

Manic weather

Okay, so let’s get down to the weather.  First let’s start with the fact that 1 March marked the beginning of autumn.  And with that in comes some colder weather, and ultimately “winter” on 1 June.  Much like fall back home, days are varied between warm and cool, but what [still] gets me is that an actual day can vary between warm and cool.  A couple weeks ago, we had a few days’ worth of nice, warm weather, reminiscent of the summer weather.  The forecasters called for a change one morning as I was getting ready [it was a Thursday], and change it did.  The morning was a sweaty ride in due to the warmth and humidity.  About nine o’clock or so, the breeze picked up, and due to the higher humidity, it actually felt good.  About eleven o’clock or so, the temperature started to fall, and so did the rain.  Then after roughly three hours of cold, windy rain, the clouds disappeared and the sun shone brilliantly again.  The cooler temperatures remained, and even the locals were commenting that we started that morning with summer, went through winter over lunch, and ended up in spring or fall. 

Then Easter Monday made me regretting not having my camera handy.  I have had the idea in the back of my head that it might be neat to put the GoPro up on the balcony set for time lapse shots, and just let it roll for a day.  However, one can never really tell when it’s going to be a manic weather day.  Easter Monday started with my gut feeling that it was going to be one of those days: by the time I’d rolled out of bed to sunny skies, gotten some clothes on [it was chilly in the flat], and gone to the bathroom, the clouds had rolled in.  But I second guessed myself, and I didn’t have anything ready for the GoPro.  Two hours later, it was clear that I’d made a mistake by not being ready.  The weather was truly crazy: clouds, sun, clouds, rain, clouds, sun, rain, sun, clouds, hail[!], gusts of wind throughout all of this, clouds, sun, clouds, rain, sun, rainbow [double!], clouds, sun, rainbow, rain, sun, rainbow, clouds, sunset. 

I’ve had conversations with some of my co-workers who are also imports, and they all say the same thing: even though they’d heard about the crazy Melbourne weather, it was nothing like they’d expected.  I think days like Easter Monday would be better defined as “manically insane”.  And I still wish I could get a good video of it … maybe I’ll be better prepared the next time there’s a “feral” [friend’s word for it] weather weekend day.

-EP

I'm a slacker

Man, I am so far behind.  I feel like so many things have or might have happened, and I’ve got such a back log – mental constipation, if you will.  It certainly wasn’t my intention to leave TFAB this neglected for this long, but … well, honestly I don’t have any good excuses.  But here are some anyways:

A. My dog ate my homework.

B. I forgot how to read.

C. I’m lost in translation.

D. I was a dummy and thought if I waited long enough, Ruthie might actually dust this thing off.

E. I’ve been too busy.

F. I’ve been too busy at work which is when I have written several previous posts, and haven’t made the time to write anything while at home. 

For what it’s worth, I’m months behind in uploading my photos to FB, too.  Unfortunately, those don’t require as many words or digging through my memories to see what I thought about as it happened “Hey, I should write about that.” 

So, in attempt to force myself to get some things down on paper, I’m making myself a list.  [Apparently I’m on a list kick.  I’ve made myself a few at work, and I even gave Ruthie a honey-do list on Monday – much to her dismay, I’m sure.]

1. Update this blog again soon.

2. Update this blog again soon about one of the following things:

α. The mental list I’ve been attempting to build of Australian lingo and vocabulary.

β. Recap adventures with SueSue.  The trip to the Whitsundays might need it’s own post.

γ. Ramble on about the weather again [it truly is a country in which you can talk about the weather].

δ. It’s official: I’m an international goal scorer.  Although it seems that the days I score a goal we lose by quite a bit. 

ε. Despite my best efforts I’ve been informed I’m a bicyclist. 

ζ. More derby. 

3. Don’t let this blog wither and die [like our poor dried up aloe plant].

-EP

Old things in a new place part 2/2

Way back before we left, Ruthie and I looked around Melbourne to see if pottery courses were even offered.  They were, but we had no idea what my options would be.  Then we got settled, but it was more or less mid-semester, and there weren’t really that many good opportunities that I could see.  But then by word of mouth, I heard about a community centre not too far from where we live that offered pottery [and other art classes].  By sheer luck, I found out the info on the Friday before the first session.  Ruthie did me the fantastic favour of running over Monday morning to register me for the class.  [She also took the opportunity to register herself for a drawing class at the same time, which is cool.] 

Since then, I’ve had two classes [Ruthie’s only had one, though, due to scheduling].  I got there and obediently listened to the teacher, and worried that I might not be able to use the wheel at all.  But I had heard [again by word of mouth] that the instructor was super laid back and would let you work on whatever you want.  So when she was distributing clay to the class, I requested permission to bypass mould forms, pinch pots, and the like and just work on the wheel.  She said it wouldn’t be a problem and then we discussed what type of clay to use and a bit about raku.  She gave me some high-grog stuff, and honestly, I wasn’t prepared for it.  It tore my hands up a bit, but that’s okay.  I made three pots the first night, scrapped one immediately, and then scrapped one the second night [I wasn’t really that happy with it after the first night, but couldn’t quite commit to cutting it apart, but pulled the trigger the second night].  The second night, I trimmed the pot from the first week, failed one attempt with the sculpture clay, and switch clays.  Actually, I purchased a brown clay, but then the teacher had me try out this stuff called paper clay.  Kinda weird in that it actually has strands of fibre mixed into the clay.  One of my pottery books has section on it, but I haven’t done any reading yet.  Successfully made one with the paper clay, but I don’t know how satisfied I am with the clay. 

So two classes and two pots.  I’m doing my best to be super self critical and if I am not fully satisfied with how the pot comes off the wheel to kill it early.  I think I’m doing pretty good on that regard.  However, I’ve quickly learned that working with Gwalsh has spoiled me.  Down here, I’ve purchased a bag of clay, and that is my bag of clay.  When I scrap a pot, I am responsible for working it over some plaster and salvaging it for another attempt.  As opposed to simply horseshoeing it to let Gwalsh deal with it later. 

Now that I’ve got two classes under my belt, I’m hoping that I’m broken the rust off of the elbows and fingers and I’ll be able to get a couple that I’m truly pleased with out of this class. 

While I was wedging my clay on the second class, I fantasized about being a pottery apprentice.  How fantastically rough-but-worth-it it would be to be able to find some pottery master and just spend my time Mr. Miagi style: spend a month wedging clay, then another month centring clay, another month making the same cup over and over, and so on.  Sure, it sounds terrible to most people and very production-like to me, but in contrast to my once-a-week practice for a couple weeks out of the year, I feel like I would actually develop a style and a method and wouldn’t spend a couple classes struggling every time.  But, I chose engineering over starving artist for a reason…

-EP

Old things in a new place part 1/2

SueSue is here, and I’m sure there are things I should write about while/after she visits.  So before I create further mental backlog, I need to get some things written down.

Shortly after I got here, I learned about on-site volleyball.  With the onset of summer [and it’s supposed warmer weather], there are several teams [enough to make an A and a B league] and roughly once a week, I was heading out to the volleyball court [sand bit in the back corner of the installation] to have a “hit and giggle” as it has been described by our last-place team.  This has been fine and fun, but then I learned that a coworker was playing soccer once a week with another group of people around here.  I didn’t want to seem too desperate, and I had promised to play volleyball, so I stuck with it for 2011.  But when 2012 came around, it was time to get the soccer team together again, and I got the invite to join up.  So I threw the volleyball team over for my true love.  Since then, we’ve actually played two games and forfeit one due to lack of numbers.  Games are seven v seven, and we’ve only been able to bring four to the two games we’ve actually played [we picked up a few players that were loitering for those two we played]. 

Anyways, anticipating this return to the pitch, on my birthday, I went out and bought new soccer shoes.  Specifically, I bought turf shoes.  In neon yellow and purple.  Adidas [naturally].  They’re fantastic.  I’ve been joking with the folks around here that they’re my best attempt to harness the 16-year-old soccer player inside and my only source of skill. 

Shockingly enough we actually won our first game [and against last year’s champs!].  And I have to say, I was pretty pleased with how I played.  Definitely rough around the edges, but it felt great just to get out there, run around, and play some soccer.  It makes me wish I had been playing more over the past decade.  Our second game was a blowout against us of something like 1-10, but I scored our only goal, and the first of the game.  Additionally, I have been receiving quite a few compliments on my play.  Granted, we’re not really an exceptional team, and I’ve heard rumour that there are a few players scattered across this “league” that are exceptionally skilled.  But I have to admit, it does a boy’s ego well to hear these things.  Not to mention, I scored my fourth-ever goal.  Woo!

So that’s one old thing in a new place.  The next thing is pottery.

-EP

Motorcycle, finally!

I’ve counted it out: 97 days.  My motorcycle has been in the country for 97 days, sitting in the garage space in front of the Hyundai, collecting dust and not going any where. 

Then, on Wednesday 18 January 2012, after roughly seven months of not riding my motorcycle, I proceeded to give myself a cramp in my clutch hand by driving through the CBD to get to Vic Roads for our 8.30a appointment.  While Ruthie was actually more optimistic than me, giving us a 50% chance of the Aero finally getting registration and legally allowed to operate on the road, I had the sweaty palms reminiscent of college exams.  My main concern was that the guy who gave my bike a once over was a, going to have super hearing and able to detect as I brought the machine in that the pipes were too loud or b, ask me to turn the motorcycle on and rev the engine.  Mostly I think I was nervous because I didn’t want to get the mechanic who gave us the RWC in trouble.  Fortunately neither happened.  The guy only needed to visually confirm that the VIN and the engine number matched all the numerous documents that he had been given stating that’s what they were.  Then there were two phone calls that I couldn’t quite overhear from where I was sitting.  Then there were a couple more forms to fill out.  Then there I was handing over my credit card and he was handing me a license plate.  Huzzah! 

So, I finally am able to legally operate my motorcycle in this country.  I am very excites.  I took the motorcycle to work that day, and I put Ruthie on the back for a ride down the beach on the following Sunday.  We plan to keep riding it on good weather weekends.  I think this works out well with our goal to get out and act the tourists again.  We definitely have to work our way up into the longer rides again since neither one of us has ridden for very long in a long time [and Ruthie was a bit saddle sore after the first Sunday ride], but hopefully with all this crazy Melbourne weather, we’ll actually have another couple months to ride still.

-EP 

PS.  I penned this about a week and a half ago.  Since then, I've taken the motorcycle to work a time or two, and yesterday Ruthie and I took the motorcycle out to the movies.  Despite the sweating while riding due to the intense heat of this country, it's been good times with more ahead.