Pushie

One of the first things we noticed when we got to Melbourne [actually, I feel like we noticed it in Sydney, too] was the number of bicyclists on the streets.  While we were poking around the Melbourne CBD in our first few weeks, the argument could be made that using a bicycle in/around a major city is quite common in the US.  However, the noticeable difference was the number of cyclists that continued even away from the CBD.  I have no kinds of actual data, but it feels like if you put up a radius of 30km around the CBD, you’d still find a pretty high frequency of people using a bicycle as their primary means of transportation.  Don’t get me wrong there are still lots of cars.  And to/from and around the CBD, there is mass transit. 

Realising just how common it was to use a bicycle around Melbourne was the primary reason we bought me one before we’d even found a place to leave.  We’d decided that Ruthie would try and find us a place close to my work and I would do my best to ride the bicycle to work every day [leaving Ruthie the car].  Ruthie did her part and found us a place that’s 4km away from my work.  So I’ve been holding up my end of the bargain and riding to work just about every day.  True, once the motorcycle arrived and the weather was still lovely, I would ride that into work occasionally.  But for my part, I would say that I’ve ridden into work 9/10 days since I’ve started. 

Due to the fact that I am only riding 4km one way every day, I would struggle to call myself a bicyclist.  I certainly didn’t look the part for a long time, as I had a hard time finding my preferred clothing.  I often wore my dress pants or jeans with a leg rolled up in the first couple months.  But then I took a page out of a co-worker’s book and began leaving my dress pants at my desk and changing in and out of athletic clothes every morning/afternoon.  As it’s currently winter, I’ve adopted the style of wearing a set of cold-weather leggings underneath some athletic shorts and whatever shirt I feel like underneath my jacket or parka depending on the weather.  I’d like to claim that’s as close to the fully-clad lyrca appearance that I’ll ever get.  Well … in the summer, it’ll be athletic shorts and probably a quick-dry shirt, but still nothing skin tight.  I prefer leaving plenty to the imagination. 

While I attempt to remain firm on my anti-lycra attire, I have to say I’ve embraced the bicycle lifestyle a bit more than I’d originally expected.  I’ve now gone to see an indoor track race at a velodrome [where I saw bicycle legends such as Sir Chris Hoy and Anna Meares].  I passed on the opportunity to watch my co-worker compete in a cyclo-cross event, though.  But, at the suggestion of the same co-worker, I did participate in the Melburn Roobaix, which is a 40-kilometer “fun event” styled after the Paris-Roubaix.  And, also at the encouragement of the same cyclist co-worker, I’ve been reading The Enlightened Cyclist by BikeSnobNYC.  [Really, without said co-worker, I’d probably be much less … involved? interested? engaged? in cycling.]

Sadly, the part of the bicycle lifestyle I have not been able to escape embracing is the frustration with pedestrians. 

On my massive 4 kilometre commute to work, I ride on the whole range of available surfaces to bicycles: a dedicated bicycle lane separate from the road, a shared bicycle / pedestrian lane, a dedicated bicycle lane that’s on the road, the street, and if I so choose, the sidewalk [that should be pedestrian only].  I start my commute along a stretch of beach that gets a fair bit of pedestrian traffic – and due to it being a port which docks cruise ships, it’s safe to say a chunk of it is likely foreign.  I finish my commute in an industrial section, where there’s no room for me other than on the street – fortunately, it’s pretty a low level of traffic, and it’s often slower moving trucks, and everyone seems to be used to bicycles in that area.

You can probably guess that my gripe primarily focuses on the section of my commute that deals with stretch along the beach.  I get so worked up about people being in the bicycle lane that aren’t bicycles [or at least have wheels – there’s a few inline skaters].  So worked up, in fact, that if I know a cruise ship is in town, I’ll take the route home that requires me to ride on the road the whole way.  When the Queen Mary II came in and docked at our little harbour, it actually drew in spectators.  Spectators who then loitered, meandered, or simply stood in the bicycle lane.  Mind you, this is a bicycle lane that’s separate from the pedestrian sidewalk.  Mind you, this is a bicycle lane that has bicycle symbols painted on it every 100 meters or so.  And side lines.  And a dash line down the middle.   HOW DO YOU NOT REALISE!? 

It all came to a head one day [and this is now the reason why I ride on the road when I know there’s a higher chance for people to be around, like when the cruise ship is in] not too long ago.  Two guys in suits were walking along the bicycle lane [on my side], with their backs to me.  I rang my bell once, and while I’ve had to ring my bell multiple times before, this time I didn’t need to because they looked over their shoulders and looked at me.  AND KEPT WALKING.  They didn’t move over, they didn’t yield, nothing.  So, intending to harass them a little, I cut them off.  Except I cut them off a bit too close and shoulder checked the guy closest to me, causing him to drop his umbrella [I stayed upright on my two wheels, thanks for asking.] 

Since then, I’ve tried to do my best to remain calm, and simply go around people.  I still get irritated about joggers who are in the dedicated bicycle lane [there’s plenty of room for them on the pedestrian walk], but I just go around.  For the record, though, I also get annoyed by bicyclists, even the casual ones, who are in the pedestrian walk.  I would much rather pass a slow moving bicyclist than I would a fast runner – in the bicycle lanes. 

To that end, Ruthie’s pointed out that our section tends to be a tough mix.  There are bicycle rentals right out front of our apartment.  And there’s a dedicated off-street bicycle lane that runs the entire length of the beach.  There is also this whole slew of serious/regular bicyclists that also like to ride along the beach.  But the bicycle lane is a bit narrow, and it’s not so easy to ride along side your friend at a leisurely pace without taking up the whole lane [or even both sides].  It’s supposed to be safer to take the bicycle lane than it is the road, but I think it’s just a danger of a different form.  The slow moving bicycle goes unstable, and swerves into your path as you’re passing versus the car that cuts you off on the road; the kid that isn’t watching and runs out into the bicycle lane [and the parents who weren’t paying attention because it’s not a “real road”] versus the dude who throws his car door open into the on-street bicycle lane. 

So this has turned out to be quite a bit longer of a post than I’d expected, but suffice to say that bicycling in Melbourne is an interesting experience.  My goal is to continue cycling [as a form of commuting – not as a hobby] when I get home, despite Bel Air and Edgewood being less acclimated to bicyclists.  Hopefully by then, I’ll have accumulated enough brightly coloured garments and flashy lights that I’ll be easily visible and hard to miss.  Which will a good thing especially for that overly aggressive road rage driver who decides to target me when I ride down 40 one spring afternoon.

-EP

Wipe off 5

Speed kills right?  At least that’s what our departments of motor vehicles [and DARE] tell us. 

Down here, they’ve got VicRoads which is like our DMVs in that it’s state run, but then there’s the Transport Accident Commision (TAC), which … well, I’m not really sure what the TAC does except try and get people to not speed.  There are billboards everywhere posted by TAC with in-your-face messages about how accidents kill.  A lot of the messages I’ve seen have been targeted at motorcycle riders to a. wear safety gear and b. not lane split [which to the best of my knowledge is not illegal here except at red lights]. 

But for a while now, the TAC has been running TV spots encouraging drivers to “Wipe off 5.”  As in slow down 5 kph.  The ads are fairly graphic by American standards [without being gruesome], but they certainly get your attention.  Do they work?  Only TAC knows, I guess.

But what gets me is the general speed limit of the roads here as it is.  The 5-lane high way that goes across the bridge right by our house is often 80kph; then it drops down to 4 lanes and the speed goes up to 100kph [60mph]; then you turn off onto another highway and it goes down to 2 lanes and the speed increases again to 110kph.  All of this is on major highway-type roads, mind you.  But then you head out into the bush, away from the cities, either into the roads through rainforest parks or along the ocean, and it’s a double-lane-kinda-narrow-only-paint-dividing road and the posted speed limit is 100kph, with curve warnings of 30kph.  One, how the hell anyone can get up to 100kph on those roads is beyond me.  Two, why would you want to?  [Well, let’s be real, I know the answer to that one].  But, three, why is the speed limit on this twisty, windy road the same as the flat, straight, divided highway!? 

It just doesn’t really make sense to me, that’s all.  When the government is trying to encourage drivers to slow down to avoid accidents or at least avoid fatalities when an accident occurs, why would you have major-vein roads that are posted slower than the twisty, blind-corners ones?

-EP

A year in review, part 4

So, if there’s one thing that’s great about living in/just outside of a city is the close proximity to good food.  Given my particularly unrefined palette, I don’t even care about good food that much, and I can tell that there’s good stuff out there.  Plus I have Ruthie and some of the locals to provide more feedback.  Perhaps not surprising is the level to which the local cuisine is Asian oriented.  Of all the places we’ve tried in our neighbourhood, we’ve found a great Thai restaurant that delivers – and that’s usually the weak spot.  If I get home and Ruthie’s been out all day and she’s got nothing to prepare, it often ends up being Thai food delivered [which also means Thai food for lunch the next day, too].  Also on our list of local enjoyments: pho.  I feel like I’ve supposedly tried pho somewhere back in the States, but if I did, it certainly wasn’t like the pho we’ve had here. 

The pizza is different, too.  Everything about it is just a bit different, but mainly the pepperoni – there is no pepperoni here.  All “pepperoni” pizzas here come with a spicy sausage on them that just isn’t the same.  Unfortunately for us, there’s a Pizza Hut that delivers, and I’ve grown to like the pizzas here. 

Also, there is a dearth of Mexican food.  [Again, not surprising.]  There are apparently Mexican restaurants here and there, we’ve just not really had the opportunity to try them.  We did find the Chipotle equivalent though, called Mad Mex.  While the style and the service is very much like Chipotle, the food itself is almost more Mexican in nature.  I can rationalise this as Chipotle is much more Tex-Mex in nature, and that’s definitely a food subgroup that I wouldn’t expect to make it this far out into the world. 

Going back to the Asian influences on local cuisine, this also means there’s plenty of sushi around.  I can’t say I’ve had a whole lot mainly because Ruthie’s not so keen on it, but the sushi I’ve had has been pretty good.  Fortunately, we’ve had the help of some locals in finding good sushi joints.  We’ve also tried the experience that is dim sum / yum cha, where you get little containers of food brought around to you and you get your choice of what you want right then and there.  Often times, dumplings of various types and preparation are featured [or at least this is what we’ve noticed].  It’s definitely a dangerous style of eating because in the couple of times that we’ve done it, Ruthie and I both over ate and made ourselves sick. 

When it comes to food, the one thing that I am particularly excited about is desserts.  I’ve definitely got a sweet tooth.  Fortunately, things like green tea ice cream and bubble tea are readily available [well, within the city itself].  I’ll definitely miss those when we get home.  Other yummy goodness: lamingtons, vanilla slice, Tim Tams, and Anzac cookies. 

Oh!  And we’ve had kangaroo a couple times, too, which was on my list of things to try while down here.  As previously mentioned, we’ve ingratiated ourselves to some great local cooks.  So it’s thanks to them that we’ve had so much good food here.

Okay, so that’s been a pretty lengthy summation [6 pages in the Word document I use to type it all up] of our time here so far.  As it stands now, we’re over our half-way point.  So now it’s just a matter of making the most of our time left.  Fortunately winter, as long as it might be, is on its slow way out.  I can tell that the days are getting longer with the sun rise coming up a little earlier each day [winter solstice was on 21 June].  We haven’t quite shaken the cold on a regular basis, but it feels like maybe we’ve left the worst of the winter behind and soon the weather will be hot again.  Hopefully with the warm weather and sunny skies, we’ll find ourselves in different parts of the city [we’ve still got a lot of the city to explore, too!], state, or even country. 

We’re over half way done with our time in Oz, and my guess is that now that our time is on the decline things will start to feel like they’re moving quickly.  Especially looking ahead knowing that the last little bit will be so busy with getting everything ready for the move back home. 

So here’s to Oz 2012-2013. 

A year in review, part 3

Ruthie and I have discussed the pros and cons of roller derby in our lives a couple times since we started down that crazy path back in 2009.  What’s come up again recently in conversation both with her and with a couple co-workers of mine is the positive side effect of derby that comes in the form of an instant social network.  Savvy as she is, before we even left, Ruthie did some research into roller derby leagues in the Melbourne area in hopes that we might find and join a league.  Fast forward to now and not only have we found a league we like, but we’ve, once again instilled ourselves into the operations of the league.  Fortunately, this time, it’s much less draining.  The biggest relief to our system is that it takes 15-20 minutes to get to practice as opposed to the 55-65 it took at home.  With practices here running from 7-9p [as opposed to 8-10p], this means that even on a derby night, Ruthie can be in bed by 9.30p.  The other big non-stressor is the fact that this league has enough people who are actually interested in keeping it running [as well as very level-headed president] that it takes the stress off of any one person.  So even though I’ve recently accepted a nomination for the role of Head Coach of WestSide Derby Dollz, I can actually rely on a handful of people to help me get the job done. 

But all of that isn’t the point I’m trying to get at.  Instead, it’s the social side of roller derby.  It’s a hobby that provides quite the mixture of personalities, abilities, jobs, and socioeconomic statuses.  To that end, it’s pretty easy to find friends in such a mixed group.  And thus it’s of no surprise that we’ve become good friends a number of people on the league [although, let’s be real – as awesome as we are, not everyone can handle us, so we’re not friends with *all* of them].  It is this added benefit of derby to which I am most grateful.  Sure the exercise is good and all, but exercise won’t cook you a good dinner.  As it stands, we’ve currently ingratiated ourselves to two fantastic cooks.  So, with pretty regular frequency, Ruthie invites us over to their houses for a good meal.  Say what you will about her only working at riding the couch for months, she’s worked pretty hard at kindling some good friendships. 

Derby isn’t our only hobby though.  I managed to find a pottery studio.  I took a class, and lo and behold, it’s taught by a hippy.  While she’s pretty cool, it quickly became apparent that the thing I actually need for me to get better at my pottery is to find a more advanced session or something resembling more of a tutor.  After the first class, I’d fully intended to take the raku session since they are only allowed to have fires for certain times in the year, but due to being on a budget combined with being lazy, I never got around to it.  Maybe now that we’ve got a good hold on our budget and the winter is [supposedly] on its way out, I’ll sign up for another class.  Meanwhile, Ruthie’s found herself a pretty awesome sewing teacher.  Thursday mornings [if not Thursday afternoons and/or Tuesdays], Ruthie finds herself in the shed that’s been converted to a studio at the house of a fantastic Australian.  Ruthie’s also managed to become rather friendly with the other ladies in the class, which might mean that we’ll have even more cooks we can con into feeding us.  And, although I say this with hushed tones for fear of jinxing it, we might even have an in to the Australian celebrity scene through the wife of a Neighbours [daytime soap] actor. 

Since video games count as one of my hobbies, I’ll use them as the first example of the economic differences.  Currently, the average retail game opens in US markets at $59.99.  Here, it’s usually $100.  So take that one data point and extrapolate.  Don’t forget to factor in that for the majority of the time we’ve been here, the US dollar has been valued lower than the Australian dollar.  While we [meaning Ruthie] researched this before we left, we were still shocked by just how much of a difference existed the cost of living.  I’ve got two more examples.  Movie tickets here start at $18, unless it’s Tight-ass Tuesday, then it’s $11.  The cost differential between eating out and buying groceries back home is steep enough that if you’re on a budget, you rarely eat out; here there’re barely a difference, probably only about 10%. 

I think we’ve spent roughly three weeks to one month of total time with the American dollar being stronger than the Australian dollar.  This turns out to be a double-edged sword because I get paid in $US, but it’s based on a formula that reflects the differences in exchange between $US and $AU.  So in the times that the $US gets stronger than the $AU, my pay check drops a little.  Conversely, when the Australian market is doing better, my pay check goes up a little.  The fluctuations in the market also affect us when it comes to our rent.  We’ve been lucky enough to have the $US be stronger than the $AU when the rent was due once.  For that month, it was fantastic to look at the bank transaction and see less money than we paid actually withdrawn. 

Does travel count as a hobby?  We were lucky enough to spend the whole first week of being in Oz working our way from Sydney to Melbourne via Canberra and the inland route.  It was fantastic to get ourselves acclimated to the time difference, driving on the opposite side of the road, and the change in general environment.  Since our first night in Sydney, we managed to get back once when Lorraine visited.  That same trip to Sydney with Lorraine also involved a road trip along the south eastern coast of the continent, providing some lovely scenery of the countryside. 

We’ve also been out and about in the lovely state of Victoria to do some exploring of the country side around here.  A couple trips up to the Grampians as well as to the closer Dandenong range have provided us with some good motorcycle trips, hikes, and lovely views.  We lucked out in befriending a couple with a “country house” in a rural town about an hour outside of the city.  This has provided for a weekend or two of escaping to live in the country for a night. 

We’ve been down to Philip Island a couple times as well as to Queensland.  The problem is that this country is so big.  Ruthie and I have covered a good stretch of Victoria and New South Whales, and one city in Queensland, but that still leaves so much of the country untouched.  We both would love to traverse the centre of the continent [although Ruthie would rather do it in the style of Priscilla, just without the break downs] as well as getting up to the Northern Territory.  We quickly learned two things about travelling Oz.  One, Australia is the size of the US, so without a dedicated travel schedule and big budget to match, it’s hard to cover so much land.  Two, it’s expensive to travel around Oz.  More expensive, in fact, than travelling to some other countries, like Thailand. 

So while we’d both like to visit Tasmania [I mean, the ferry docks right outside our front door], the other states, as well as New Zealand … I just don’t know.  Time and money are now of the essence, and since neither grow on trees, I have my doubts we’ll be able to see a whole lot more before we leave this corner of the world.

Olympics

So, I've never really been one to watch the Olympics.  Hell, I barely make an effort to watch any sports.  Granted, I'll watch them if they're on, but I honestly can't remember the last time I actually made an effort ... anyways, the point is I've actually spent some time watching the Olympics this year.

I have to say, it's a bit of a novelty to watch the sports in a different country.  First, it feels like there is much more Aussie-centric coverage.  Sure, that's expected, right?  But I feel like even in the US, there's much more objective commentating and reviews.  Here, if the Aussies are doing something in a sport, they're going to be covering it.  Ruthie and I only have the free-to-air coverage, which is one channel [as opposed to the multiple channels of live coverage available on cable], thus leading to a bit of erratic coverage.  Erratic as in someone else is doing the channel swapping between the sports you're watching instead of you. 

So this means that we've seen a bit of Aussie basketball, rowing [crew? sculling?], slalom kayaking, swimming, gymnastics, water polo, and something involving a fancy horse [really? how is showing a horse considered an Olympic sport??].  Frankly, it's a bit like watching amateurs - especially with the basketball and gymnastics.  Ruthie managed to catch some highlights of the US basketball game and said it was an obvious difference in the game play, speed, and level of competition. 

Most entertaining, however, has been the enthusiasm the commentators have for their athletes.  Sure, Aussies love their sport, and they readily admit to it.  But for example, we were watching some of the rowing and the US was way out in the lead.  However, it was fairly close for second and third with AU in second.  The commentary went something like this:

In hum-drum, matter-of-fact voice: The Americans are out in front.  That's pretty expected.  But ...
In a much more excited, enthusiasm building voice: ... look at the Aussies go!  They're just half a length ahead in second place.  SOME GREAT ROWING OUT THERE! 
Americans in first, AUSSIES IN SECOND ...

I can't say it's enough to keep me watching the rest of the games, but at least it's been fun so far.

-EP

A year in review, part 2

So this blog is called Two Fools and a Bike on the notion that we’d be spending a fair bit of time on the motorcycle down under.  However, it’s pretty safe to say that I’ve spent more time on another two-wheeled vehicle instead.  When we got to this city, it was pretty quickly obvious that bicycles were a bit more accepted.  [Though, as time has gone by and I’ve learned a bit more, I’ve learned that there’s still the cultural triangular war of bicycles vs cars vs pedestrians that’s present in any location that “welcomes” bicycle traffic.]  We actually purchased me a bicycle before we purchased a car.  Ruthie specifically found us a place at a pretty close proximity to work so that I would have an easy ride to work: a whole four kilometres. 

While it’s very easy to say I’m a fair-weather rider when it comes to the motorcycle, I’d like to say that I’ve done my part to prove [to myself mostly] that I’m less of a fair-weather rider on the bicycle.  This has happened for a couple reasons.  One, Melbourne weather is crazy [see above] and while it might call for rain during the day, you just are never quite sure when it will hit.  Two, it’s only 4km.  Three, contrary to riding the motorcycle, riding the bicycle in cold or poor weather still requires exertion on the part of the rider – meaning my legs are pumping and my body does a better job of staying warm.  So if you combine all of those with the likes of my orange parka, and I reckon I can handle just about whatever cold rain Melbourne has to offer.  [I have yet to get caught in hail, though, so I bite my tongue on making that a more general “bring it on” statement.]  In looking back on the year, I’d like to take a moment to be proud of the fact that my ability to ride in poor weather has gotten better over time.  The first time it was bucketing while I had the bicycle, Ruthie came to get me from work.  The next time it was bucketing, I started my ride while it wasn’t, but then lost my ID along the route; an hour later, it had been found, I had taken a hot shower, toweled off, and Ruthie drove me to work.  Then the orange parka arrived and I learned of the driers at work – it’s been pretty easy since then, rain or no. 

As far as work itself goes, while I won’t discuss what I’m actually doing, it’s worth pointing out a few things.  First, there have been quite a few times where Ruthie’s been way more qualified to do my tasks than me.  To that end, there was a time when we tried to get Ruthie a job as a contractor here, but that never panned out.  Second, the nature of my work is pretty good.  I’ve had moments on both ends of the spectrum, where I’ve spent time wondering why I’m even necessary on to actually trying to get my head around the month’s challenge.  Through all of it, I’ve got a pretty love/hate relationship with my colleagues.  One, they’re awesome.  I generally have a good time at work because of them.  The level of camaraderie and good-natured jesting is really high, which means I find myself laughing with or at them at least once a day.  Two, I hate them because they all make me feel dumb.  Without going on too much of a tangent, the R&D nature of the work combined with the education system in this country, almost everyone has a PhD.  Generally it’s like being Walowitz on Big Bang Theory: I’m *only* an engineer *without* a PhD.  Third, while looking back, I can say work here was good and I learned a few things, but I have a hard time looking forward and guessing what I’ll be doing when I return.  Lastly, speaking of returning, I’m pretty sure the work culture here has ruined my ability for the 9-hour grind that I once knew.  In addition to most people here only working 8 hours in a day [fortunately due to their in-house system called Flex, I still try to observe a SDO schedule] with a 30-minute lunch break, they stop for tea at 10a and 3p.  I’m really going to miss those breaks when I get back to working for Uncle Sam. 

-EP

A year in review, part 1

As I begin to write this [any more this is a necessary preface since my writing has become very piece meal], it was one year ago today that Ruthie and I left the United States.  Well, technically, we’re in that magical zone of time where if you wanted to calculate it out to exactly a year, it would actually be tomorrow, by our current date scheme, we left on the afternoon of the 23^rd and that’s today. 

My grand design for this blog was that there would be routine postings about insights to Aussie life and how it was different from American life.  And then at the half-way point and the end of the trip, I’d come up with some sort of recap.  Obviously, the former has fallen a bit short of routine.  So this is my attempt to not fall short on the midpoint recap.  After my second afternoon of hacking away at the keyboard, I realised just how long this entry has become.  So I've made the decision to break it into installments.  Bonus: I just figured out how to write an entry and backdate it!  Thus this entry will be dated on the one-year mark.

Looking at the big picture, what’s changed?  In the US, we both had jobs; here, I work full time, and Ruthie kinda sorta has a part time job.  In the US, we lived in a two-story townhouse in suburbia; here, we live in a 4^th floor apartment at the border of a beach and the very fringe of a city.  Ruthie took one sewing class in the US; here, she’s taking classes every Thursday and occasionally on Tuesdays.  I regularly took pottery classes in the US; here, I’ve taken one.  We played on and practically ran a co-ed roller derby team back home; here we play on and I help coach a co-ed roller derby team [in this case, I coach more than I play].  In the US, we had two cars and a motorcycle as our primary means of transportation [with emphasis on the two cars]; here we regularly use one car, a bicycle, public transit, and a motorcycle [well the motorcycle gets used much less presently on account of it being winter].  A week-long snapshot of life in the US would consist of work, derby, video games, and being social; here it’s really not much different. 

It’s that last sentiment which I find pretty amazing.  We’ve travelled 10,000 miles away, and we’ve more or less continued on with the life to which we were accustomed.  Work, derby, video games, friends, hobbies.  Naturally, there is a fair bit of blending between some of those categories, but that’s okay.

If I’m honest, I’ll admit that we’re homesick.  It’s not an overwhelming feeling where you can’t focus on anything else, because if that were the case we wouldn’t still be here.  Instead, it’s more like a low grade ache kind of feeling, where things come up to distract your attention, but in the quiet minutes of nothing between closing the book you’ve been reading and actually falling asleep you realise you hadn’t thought about it all day, but it’s still there.  I’d say most often it comes up when Ruthie and I are driving in the car to or from derby, and most commonly it comes in the form of “I miss my mommy” or “I miss our girls.”  While those are Ruthie’s words, I can’t deny the sentiment. 

With that little bit of unpleasantness aside, I have one more whinge: the weather.  Having been raised in a region of the United States that’s supposed to have four seasons, this winter has to be the longest winter I’ve ever experienced.  It’s become pretty apparent that neither of us would survive places like London or Seattle where it rains frequently.  Winter isn’t particularly cold down here.  [This is actually a bit of a relief, since we expected it to be fairly warm most of the year and didn’t pack many heavy winter clothes.]  But I’ve decided that’s part of the problem.  At home, when it gets cold, temperatures drop to close to freezing or below.  In order to ward off that cold, you bundle up with your heavy coat, scarf, gloves, hat, what have you.  Here, though, it’s not quite as cold, so you’re in that weird place between not having enough layers and having too many.  Add on top of that the threat that it could rain on you at any moment.  Look, Ruthie and I have come to accept it for what it is [“weird” comes out of our mouth more often than not], but that doesn’t mean we’re all that comfortable.  I, for one, strongly dislike wind.  It makes my extremities cold, which I then torture Ruthie with, so she’s learned to be not so much a fan of wind either.   But all of that whinging also means that I’ve also procured myself some pretty cool new duds including a water resistant dark lime green hoodie and a traffic cone orange light weight parka. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum of cold rain is the sunshine.  During the summer [also weird to have the 4^th of January be so blazing hot like it was this year], you can barely spend time outside without risk of getting a sunburn.  All thanks to the lovely hole in the ozone that exists in this part of the world [apparently it’s worse over NZ].  This year, Ruthie managed to get a sunburn on her hands through the windscreen.  One doesn’t really think to apply sunscreen when just going for a drive.  Apparently application at all times truly is necessary.  Now that it’s winter and I miss the heat, though, the sun feels fantastic.  It’s not quite as burny during the winter, which is nice.  No, now that it’s winter, the sun is quite a welcoming thing.  Not only for the break in the dreary weather, but the literal warmth felt from it despite the cold air.  Sure, it’s lovely to see the sun on a cold winter’s day back home – but not like this.  Even on a sunny day, you’ve got to remain buttoned up against the cold winter’s day.  Here, though, you need layers.  Which is really the lesson learned for living in Melbourne: wear layers at all times.  During the summer, despite the heat, and now that the drought is over, you never know when the blazing sun will go away and you’ll need a light jacket for the evening or if it rains.  During the winter, they might call for rain, but it’ll be sunny up until, and sometimes even during, and immediately after, the rain.  So you’ll need an umbrella, or coat to don, and then back down to whatever was keeping you comfortable during the bright sunshine in 45°F.  Layers.

-EP