C is for Christmas and...

CRICKET!!! The day after Christmas in Australia is a public holiday - Boxing Day - and the highlight of Boxing Day in Melbourne is the Boxing Day Test Match. This year it was Australia vs. South Africa, #1 in the ranking vs. #2, which promised to be an exciting match (as exciting as cricket gets) since the second-ranking South African team just recently beat the first-ranking Australian team at their last meeting.

Those of you who follow cricket understand that it is a long game, and by long game I mean that a Test Match lasts up to five days, with each day of play lasting around 6 hours. We weren't up for a full day at the MCG, so we decided to head that way after the lunch break (yes, they have a lunch break, as well as morning and afternoon tea breaks!) With our GA tickets we ended up in the nose-bleed section on the 4th level, but it turned out to be a great bird's eye view of the game and helped us avoid all of the hoolligans in GA on the ground level. And we made it in time for the highlight of the day - Ricky Ponting scoring a Century. The play in which Ponting scored point 100 was great and Josh was quick enough to get it on film.

The rest of the game was a bit slow and the innebriated crowd was feeling it. The rowdy section started creating towers of empty beer cups and it caught on throughout the GA sections. The police did their best to break up the action, and there were a few folks taken out of the stadium against their will, but the plastic towers grew into snakes that spanned entire sections. We guessed those folks weren't actually there to watch the cricket! The day ended with Australia on 6 wickets (they get 10) for 280 points - we'll know sometime next week if they win.

Of course we had to hit the Boxing Day sales downtown before heading to the game. The equivalent of the day after Thanksgiving sales, the city was a madhouse and people were running everywhere trying to get the best deals. We fought the crowds and came out with some new board shorts and rash guards to take with us to Lord Howe Island. We head out early tomorrow a.m. and will be back next Saturday. As we will be out of contact until then, we hope you all have a Happy New Year!

C is for Christmas and...

CAROLS!!! On Christmas Eve we enjoyed a festive evening at the Sydney Myer Music Bowl singing along with Vision Australia's Carols by Candlelight. It was a fun family event, with many children and adults dressed up for the occassion. We brought along a picnic dinner and our concert chairs and had a lovely evening under the stars - eventually, it was after 9pm by the time the sky was dark since it's summertime! There were a few carols we didn't recognise, but for the most part we were able to sing along and enjoy the show. Of course we had bought the cheap tickets so we couldn't actually see the performers from our seats, but it gave us a good reason to try out our new (second-hand) lens. It's always a bit hard for us to get into the Christmas spirit here because of the weather, but this event sure helped! The evening ended with a few fireworks, a Christmas medley by the chiors, and a beautiful walk home.

***

Merry Christmas!

In A Fish Bowl

This past week we went to the Arana Holiday Party at the Melbourne Aquarium. We spent the evening in a space called the 'Fish Bowl' eating beautiful food, sharing laughs with colleagues, and being mesmerized by the fish - massive sting rays, nurse sharks, seven-gill sharks, wrasse, tuna, red snapper. Everyone had a lovely evening, which was a great relief to Kristi as she had the privilege of doing all the planning and coordinating (and creating the centrepieces!)

C is for Christmas and....

COOKIES!!! Kristi decided that it was about time to share some good old fashioned family traditions, and what better start than with Christmas cookies. We got a set of recommendations from Carmen and away we went to pick up ingredients and get baking. A few minor challenges finding Crisco and the right marshmallows but we persevered and soon enough had everything assembled.

The menu for this season was two cookies, a toffee bar, and a homemade fudge. As usual with cookies we had to try a few to make sure that things were going alright, and our Quality Assurance process made a difference this time when we found the first batch of fudge to be just not quite right. Adjustments were made and round two turned out much improved. Even with a few early quality checks, we still ended up with lots and lots of cookies to share. Kristi took a very large plate to her colleagues and there was still enough for three normal sized plates to share with other friends. Everyone was very appreciative with some very impressed friends and colleagues. Big favorites were the fudge and Peanut-Butter Star cookies though not a single plate had leftovers at the end of the day. Kristi did a great job baking and it was a lot of fun to share some of our traditional treats from home with our Aussie friends.

C is for Christmas and....

COFFEE!! After two years in Melbourne we decided that it was time to get serious about the coffee culture and learn more about the history and making of our favorite bean-based drink. William Angliss provided the location, the beans, the machines and our knowledgeable leader Melissa. We began with Melissa showing us how to make a good latte, and then on to the learning with a discussion on the growing and harvesting of coffee beans. Our first hands-on activity was in taking 'greens' from various places around the world and roasting them ourselves. We now have another fabulous use for old air-popcorn poppers! Once we had the right roast, we got to experiment with the coarseness of the grind and its influence on the brewed coffee. It was really interesting that coffee is beginning to go down a similar sensory descriptive road to wine - lots of comments about the aroma and different tastes of the coffees. What was really amazing was that you could actually tell the difference between a 100% Papua New Guinea (PNG) coffee versus a 100% Ethiopian - both were good, but the PNG was much more suited to plunger coffee and the Ethiopian more for machine-made espresso. Finally, it was time to try our hands at the big machines. We both started on a 'domestic' machine which proved a bit difficult but given time and practice it would have produced a decent cup. Josh just has to remember that first you have to turn off the steam wand and THEN you pull it out of the milk that you are heating - glad it wasn't our kitchen to clean up afterwards! We moved on to a 'commercial' espresso machine, which sped up the entire process and was super-duper easy to get going but also more demanding of the preparation and control. The main difference between a lower-end machine (ie 'domestic') versus the high-end seems to be the way it heats and stores water/steam and that is really about it. Levers, knobs, guages and such don't seem to be that important but if you can brew your coffee at the same time that you're heating up the milk it is a really big plus and a big increase in the price tag. By the end of class we had both made a decent cup that we could drink ourselves and had learned a lot more about coffee which will help us appreciate more in years to come as well. We're thinking of going back to take the next class which is much more about working and maintaining the machines, perhaps in the new year sometime. In the meantime, we would highly recommend the Angliss 'Coffee@Home' course to anyone interested in learning how to make and identify a good coffee, whether it is at a cafe or in your own kitchen.

December Already!

It it hard to believe that it is already December - where has the time gone?! We've caught up a bit on pictures so have a look at Flickr for some HBA Great Australian Run shots and our most recent exploits of dinner out in Eaglemont with Briony and Leo. Kristi works with Briony at Arana, and we've come to know them as being very well versed in the areas of food and wine. The menu for the night was a Red Curry Duck, so we brought the Pinot (Noir) and they provided the duck-centric extremely tasty meal. We had a great time catching up with them and look forward to our next meeting at the Arana Holiday Party in less than two weeks!

The Roaring 20's

This weekend we went all out for the Accenture holiday party at Central Pier in the Docklands - feathers, scarves, and all! Sadly we didn't win any of the door prizes, but we did enjoy the good food and live entertainment that took us through the decades. Next up we're looking forward to the Arana shindig at the Melbourne Aquarium.

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We celebrated a bit here by making pumpkin pie bars, which were a big hit with Kristi's colleagues...especially since she also supplied whipped cream in a can ;) Although we didn't have a proper turkey for dinner (tonight was salmon on the grill - yum!), we did make an authentic New Zealand beer can chicken a couple of weeks back. As we learned from a guy working at Selini winery, the chicken is seated on a can of beer during cooking (as shown) to ensure the meat remains moist and tender. That's as close as either of us have ever come to roasting a turkey!

Wet, Wild & Windy Corporate Games

This year's Australian Corporate Games weekend brought with it some of the worst weather of the year - pouring rain, gale-force winds, and hail! Saturday was the worst day - Josh ran his 10k in the cold rain and Kristi's netball team had to wait out a rain delay during an indoor game! Furthermore, bad planning by the beach volleyball organisers led to full cancellation of the event when courts were flooded (as predicted by the weatherman all week leading up to the games).

Unfortunately, netball was not a positive experience for the Arana ladies. Very few of the players had any experience in the sport and the seeding was not kind to the team. But they made of what they could with the refs calling 'Obstruction' left and right. Kristi was quite excited to have scored 1 of the 5 goals made by Arana during the day!

With beach volleyball cancelled it was a bit too early (and cold and rainy) for a post-game bbq, so instead pizza was ordered, board games came out (Blokus was a great new discovery), and short Pixar films were watched at one colleague's house.

Sunday brought better weather for the Accenture softball team. It was still cool and quite windy, but the rain stayed away and allowed the team to pull through with a silver medal for the second year running. Next year they'll be going for a three-peat!

Movember Year 2

The month is almost up and we've haven't shown any progress of Josh's mo yet! As you can see from the photo taken last week, he is going for the Fu Manchu look this year.

Josh is raising money on behalf of Movember, which supports prostate cancer and depression research. If you would like to contribute to the cause, please click here.

NZ Update

Just a quick note, we've finished posting all our New Zealand pictures from the most recent trip so if you haven't checked in a few days have a look at Flickr for the new stuff. Updates include Rotorua, Auckland, Waiheke Island and the Coromandel Penninsula - you don't want to miss out!

New Zealand North Island

Jim and Carmen took in the South Island of New Zealand on the own, but we were able to get away from the office and join them for a week-long tour of the North Island of New Zealand. Our first challenge was actually meeting up with them as they flew into Napier on Saturday morning and we were arriving in Auckland in the middle of the night Friday! We ended up driving from Auckland to Napier in the dark (thank goodness for no kangaroos!) and got to the airport just in time to watch their plane land, talk about perfect timing. Napier is known as the Art Deco capital of the world due to an earthquake that required the entire town to be rebuilt right around the Art Deco period (1930's) with most of the rebuild still standing today. Napier is also the center of the Hawke's Bay wine region of New Zealand, well known for red wine blends and chardonnays. We started with Art Deco on a walking tour of the town and moved on to a few tastings in the surrounding valley - honey, chocolate, cheese, and of course wine. Day two brought our first close encounter with the primary population of New Zealand, sheep! The history of sheep in the area was displayed through a shearing shed turned museum that was actually very informative and interesting.

From Napier we journeyed through Taupo (home of Ironman New Zealand) and took in the beauty of the peaks surrounding the lake over a cup of coffee at one of the local cafes. Onwards to our end for the day in Rotorua, home to geothermal activity, spas, and a violent volcanic eruption in 1886 which shaped much of the modern building and tourism of the area. Our first stop near Rotorua was at Wai-o-taupo, a geothermal park which has a walking track and signs to describe the various natural features of the area. From gurgling acid pools to geysers and bubbling mud pits the park had it all! Before calling it a day we learned even more about Rotorua history at the museum in the historic bath house. Our second day in Rotorua was when we put on our 'Tourist' hats and hit the big traps - all of which completely hit the spot and were great fun. Te Puia is a cultural and geothermal exhibition organised by the local Maori to introduce tourists to the culture and history of the Maori people in the area. The tour was fantastic and the various exhibits and demonstrations were interesting and educational at the same time, including some apprentice wood carvers and weavers learning the traditional crafts. Under overcast skies we headed over to the Agrodome for an adrenalin fix with the world-famous ZORB, with a sideshow provided by the local sheep. The ZORB adventure is wet, wild and hilarious fun that is recommended for all ages. Zorbing would have to be one of the lowest-impact methods of getting from the top of a hill to the bottom and words can't describe how much fun you have. The sheepshow was also fun and informative, giving us the chance to see 19 different varieties of sheep up close and personal, along with a sheepdog show and shearing demonstration. Josh has now decided that along with the chooks that belong in his backyard, there should also be a few sheep just for shearing and making into mittens. The end of our big day in Rotorua was spent with the Mitai family enjoying their Maori cultural show and banquet. The singing and dancing (including a haka) was really well done, even if our self-elected "chief" Bernie was a *bit* over the top in his part of the cultural exchange. Jim decided that he could maybe incorporate a bit of the haka into his normal courtroom routine, though only when the judge fell asleep.

The following day we hit the road to New Zealand's largest town, Auckland (population roughly 1 million). Of the 4.7 million people who live in New Zealand, 1 million are on the South Island, another million in Auckland and the rest are spread around Wellington and the rest of the North Island - all of which makes Auckland seem absolutely HUGE compared to anywhere else in the country. The rain showers didn't really quit the entire day so we took our time and found some good coffee in Hamilton, a fun deli near our accommodation in Auckland and then just stayed indoors with some wine, cheese and olives enjoying being warm and dry. Dinner was based on recommendations from Kristi's colleagues and was a fantastic Japanese meal with a 2liter 'tanker' of beer for the table. The following day (October 30 for those with a calendar) Carmen had arranged a tour of nearby Waiheke island for us so off to the ferry we went after breakfast to begin the days adventure. A calm and on-time ferry ride brought us to Waiheke dock where we met Christine who gave us a map and a timetable for the days events starting with a nice bushwalk along the coastline of the island. It was a beautiful way to see the different topography of the island and also work up an appetite! We finished our walk at Mudbrick Winery where Christine (and lunch) were waiting for us - a scrumptious meal with great views of the vineyard and bay leading back to Auckland city. In the afternoon Christine drove us around the island providing historical commentary and pointing out interesting settlements, houses and stopping for another winery visit and a woodworking artists studio. Both were outstanding and Carmen and Jim took home a couple pieces of art while Josh and Kristi settled for a few more bottles of wine. Back on the ferry to Auckland and our final meal in New Zealand with Carmen and Jim - time just seemed to disappear!

Carmen and Jim's flight took off early in the morning so off in a taxi they went while we waved from the porch - sad that the time went by so quickly but also glad to have been able to share so many adventures in such a short amount of time. We still had another couple days in New Zealand and had planned to visit the Coromandel Penninsula for a bit before returning to Auckland to run the 'Quarter Marathon' race in conjunction with the Auckland Marathon. A leisurely breakfast and only a few twists and turns getting out of town and we were back on the road. The Coromandel is known for geothermal activity, arts and crafts, and beautiful forest and coastline - our plan was to see all of that in a little more than 24hrs! Ticking off the 'geothermal activity' was a trip to the Hot Beaches where the tides seep through heated fissures and then into the sand - by digging just a few inches into the beach you can create your own heated footbath. After strolling the beach we picked a spot we thought looked good and started to clear the sand away, shortly figuring out which direction to excavate for hot water and which for cold, sort of a cave-man system of getting to the perfect water temperature. Relaxing with 100 of your closest friends only does so much good so we drove further to see more of the coast at Cathedral Cove. The buses in the car park were a bit ominous but the walk and beach was nearly completely empty and beautiful. In the pictures it is really hard to tell how big the cliffs really are - just keep an eye out for the tiny tiny Josh hiding in the shadow. Our final stop for the day was our accomodation in Whitianga WAY up on a hill overlooking the town and bay. The next day we set out to drive the rest of the penninsula and visit the Kauri's and the Driving Creek Railroad (on recommendation of brother Tim) to get our nature and arts fix. The only real challenge it seemed was that we were trying to share the road with over 1,000 cyclists that were working on completing the K2 Bike Race which runs completely around the penninsula. We took it slow, tried our best to stay out of the cyclists way and were really glad to turn off the main road in search of the Kauri and leave the bikes behind. Once on the little winding gravel road it only took us four circles and three trips up and down before we finally saw the car park we needed to get to the Kauri grove, which is one of the few groves of mature Kauri trees remaining on the penninsula after years of logging toppled nearly all of the majestic giants. We had honestly doubted Tim's suggestion of the railroad but in the end the view was amazing and only topped by the lively commentary of the trip's train conductor. The time spent at the railroad also meant that all the cyclists were off the road by the time we headed back towards Auckland.

We had decided to spend our last night in New Zealand at the Westin Auckland since Josh still had points from all the time spent working in Dallas, Texas many years ago. This turned out to be a great idea as the start for the Quarter Marathon the next morning was literally out the front door. We didn't leave our room until 15min before the start and were lined up ready to go with 10min to spare - no waiting in port-o-loo lines for us! The streets of Auckland were empty for the race and we really enjoyed the views of the bay and bridges along the run - though the pack of walkers that lined up at the front of the start were more than a little annoying as you were busy dodging them for the first 5k of the race. The proximity of the hotel was also good at the end of the run when all we really felt like was a shower and a decent breakfast since the race didn't even provide post-race bagels! Our physical activity done for the day we set out for a final round of shopping and site-seeing before our evening flight back to Melbourne. We caught the arts market, the Sky Tower and breakfast along the pier, generally just soaking up the sunshine that hadn't really come out for much of the trip. Getting to the Auckland airport wasn't too bad, though the shock of being over our checked baggage weight and having to pay to get our luggage home wasn't a high-note for the trip. Of course neither was being over the limit for wine imports once we arrived in Australia, but we paid the necessary taxes and fees and were home before we knew it. We've now had time to review the pictures, unpack all the gifts and souvenirs and start thinking that maybe we'll be around home for a bit. Time will still fly by and before we know it Christmas will be here and we'll be headed off for more travels - can't wait!

Once More to Mornington

Our most recent trip to the Mornington Peninsula (#3 in the last three months if you're keeping track) marked the start of Carmen and Jim's trip down-under. By the time they got to us in Melbourne they'd already biked and boated around Sydney and were ready for some Aussie wine-ification with the AussieKails! To fit the bill we headed back to Mornington for some adventures, starting with a wine tasting at Ten Minutes By Tractor - this was no ordinary tasting though. The tasting was hosted by Riedel Australia and was intended to show us how much of a difference the stemware you use to hold the wine can make by using four different Riedel stems that were created for specific wine varietals - Bordeaux (Cabernets/Merlot), Burgundy (Pinot Noir), Chablis (Wooded Chardonnay) and Sauvignon Blanc. The five of us had a fantastic time pouring wine between glasses and being amazed with how much difference the glasses did make - if anyone has the chance to participate in one of Riedel's tastings we would all recommend it. So after a few bottles of wine and an very tasty dinner overlooking the vineyard it was looking like the weekend was going to be a LOT of fun.

Saturday we awoke to a beautiful view over the vineyard from our accommodation and were able to make ourselves a very tasty breakfast before heading out to to show Jim and Carmen the wonders of the Mornington Penninsula. Starting off the day with some bubbly (an informative sparkling wine demo), then heading out to relax on a couple beaches before heading back through the vineyards for a few more tastings before dinner (again overlooking another vineyard!), made for a wonderful day of sun and surf.

Sunday began with a chef cooked breakfast at our accommodation and then it was time to get Jim and Carmen back to Melbourne to be ready for their next leg of the journey. They were off to the South Island of New Zealand for a week and then we'd meet them for a week on the North Island - which you can expect to see as another post in a bit!

Home Cooking Class

While Heidi has been visiting we have really expanded our food repertoire - including vegan (i.e. LOTS of tofu), fresh trout, and a large helping of Asian foods courtesy of Kristi's work colleagues. One of Kristi's friends has decided to provide us with an almost weekly taste of Hong Kong via various breads, noodles, and recipes that Kristi brings home from work. Another of her colleagues offered to teach us how to make Chinese Dumplings, a treat both to eat and to know how to make!

Lin and her partner, Niel, came over this week to begin our dumpling education. She and Kristi had already done all the shopping for ingredients and had decided that we would start with the basics of pork, carrot, and cabbage dumplings. Lin's partner happens to be a commercial chef in training so he kept a close eye on the operation and provided guidance on dicing, mixing, and shaping of dumplings as the night went along. Some of the interesting things we learned over the evening:

- Pork is the key ingredient in dumplings. Even in a seafood dumpling there is still likely some pork to add flavor and texture
- Dumplings are done cooking when they float in the pan of boiling water. If they don't float, they are probably stuck to the bottom.
- In China, dumplings are said to bring happiness to a family. They are very popular around Chinese New Years to help increase happiness for the family in the new year.
- It takes the making of many many dumplings before you get into a good rhythm and they start to look professional. Sometimes it may not be until the very last dumpling of the night.
- One kilo of pork goes a LONG way. Don't underestimate how many dumplings you might eat (we were told a typical man eats 40 and woman around 20), but we quickly learned that after 15-20 dumplings the untrained stomach gets to feeling quite full.

We took a few pictures of the progress, but with how fast everything progressed we didn't get nearly enough photographic documentation. I guess we'll just have to invite Lin and Neil over for another lesson!

On the Run

Time seems to go faster each week, already the Melbourne Marathon has been and gone again. You may remember last year that Josh was into Ironman training by now and Kristi had been running all through the winter in prep for the big race. This year, things have been a bit different but we also had different goals. Rather than run the full marathon, this year we opted for the Asics Half Marathon. Also, Heidi is still in town with us so our preparation has been a bit more varied than last years steady build-up. (Being in a different state each weekend has that affect on training I think). Pre-race we just relaxed and actually drove down to Torquay to soak up some sun and get away from the city for a bit - highly recommend sitting on a beach as a positive race preparation activity. We don't have heaps of pictures of the event, but it was all smiles at the finish in the MCG as you can see below. Overall the race went really well with everyone improving on their times compared to Sydney and both Heidi and Josh setting new Personal Best times for the distance (1:42 and 1:54 respectively). A great part of this year was post-race when the sun came out and we got to enjoy some time along Southbank for dinner and a gold class movie. Now we have to pick our next race - anyone up for a New Zealand marathon in the autumn?

Gone Fishin'

On our first trip to Tasmania last Easter we got a few recommendations to come back and try some fly fishing as Tassie has some of the best trout waters in the world. With that in mind, and Heidi's recent demonstration of fishing prowess in Alaska, we thought it would be a great weekend excursion. We were definitely right as it was a blast spending the weekend on the island.

Saturday was spent with Trout Territory Tasmania on Four Springs Lake just outside of Launceston. Josh and Heidi hadn't really fly-fished before and Kristi hadn't fished since university so we didn't have high expectations for the day. Our guide Gary took great care of us and with a few pointers we were off and casting. We were early in the insect-hatching season so not tons of active fish, but as expected Heidi hooked into the first fish of the day and it was a keeper brown! Soon after Josh got a good bite but couldn't hold onto him long enough to get into the boat. Grabbing lunch between drifts with some excellent sandwiches and snacks kept us energized through the afternoon. It was then time for Kristi to hook her fish, but again couldn't hold onto it long enough to get into the boat. We all had a great day and are really excited to try fly fishing more when we get back to Colorado.
Sunday was spent on the road through the Tamar Valley around Launceston for some wine tasting. Well known for Pinot Noir, we did find a couple Cabernets and even a fantastic Riesling through the day. On our way to the first winery was the biggest adventure of the weekend - Heidi and Kristi behind the wheel on the 'other' side of the road. No serious damages resulted and Josh was able to maintain composure throughout and be generally supportive of the experiment. Actually, both of them did really well and we ended up with a very clean windscreen ;)

Traveling with Heidi

Last weekend we took a bit of a break from the interstate traveling and instead spent some time around Melbourne, which rewarded us with a warm sunny Grand Final Saturday. We decided to forgo the footy action and instead made our way up to the Dandenongs and Yarra Valley. After brunch and denvonshire tea at Ms Marples, we enjoyed the beautiful forest scenery on our drive out to the Yarra Valley. While tasting some spectacular reds we played with Toby, a black lab puppy at Morgan Vineyards, and then we managed to catch a bit of the footy on the television while tasting the large spread at Seville Estate. We made one more stop at Boat O'Craigo before finding a yummy al fresco dinner (and more amazing wines) at Giant Steps and Innocent Bystandar. It was the end to a wonderful day around Melbourne!

Participation in Government

Today in Australia marks the Senate vote for the emergency 'Economic Stimulus' bill (aka The Wall Street Bailout). I thought I would share that this occasion marks the first time in my life that I have actually felt strongly enough about something to write to the congressmen (and women) of Colorado to voice my opinion. The interesting part is that it takes moving half-way around the world to get me involved in politics back home.

Surprisingly it is really easy to locate the websites for the various elected officials and even easier to write a quick e-mail using their own webforms. I'm proud to say that I was one of the people that was 'traffic lighted' on trying to access the webpage to send e-mail and am now one of the millions of e-mails waiting to be read. In all honesty I don't expect to influence my elected officials at all, but at least I gave it a go and can now say that at least I told them my opinion so that if I vote against them in the next election they'll know why.

Blackmore's Half Marathon

Although we knew we wouldn't be in peak shape, we decided we had to do the Blackmore's Half Marathon in Sydney so we could experience running across the Harbour Bridge! We waited so long to purchase plane tickets that we ended up making a very short trip of it - flying up early Saturday morning and flying back late Sunday night - but it turned out to be an absolutely lovely weekend. There was a little concern when Kristi took a nasty fall Tuesday prior to the race, scraping up hands and knees and experiencing foot pain, but she took it easy and is happy to report all went well during the run.

We were up at 4:45am Saturday to make our 6:30am flight and were in the Sydney CBD by 8:30am. Let's just say there's no real reason to have arrived so early since nothing was open and packet pick-up didn't start until 10, but fortunately we were able to chill at The Rocks Market for a while. 'Chill' is probably not the right word as it was a steamy day - a high of 34!

Fortunately Heidi had arranged for family friends Mark and Malika, with daughters Lana and Selena, to meet with us on Saturday. They took us out of town to Palm Beach, which was a wonderful way to escape the heat of the city and have a pre-race relax. We had a great time watching the girls play in the water and the sand, and we even had time to take a little cat-nap. Then we headed to Ms Maquarie's Chair in the city to watch the sun set and have a bit of a snack before heading to the hotel and hitting the hay.

Sunday morning we were up very early for the 6:20am race start...but apparently not early enough. One of the trains was cancelled so we ended up at the start line right as the whistle blew. Fortunately there were thousands of people running and we had time to make our way into the starting chute. The day was great and the run was nice - rolling hills and sun, starting by running over the bridge and ending by the Opera House. Nothing to complain about (except the terrible Aussie race directing - yet again they ran out of all sports drink and were having trouble keeping up with water, and keeping the dirt out of it!)

Heidi waited at the finish - she finished in 1:50 and we came in with a respectable 2:11 - and then we spent a while trying to figure out how much free stuff we could get at the Recovery Village. Back at our hotel we were able to watch the marathoners from our 6th floor window as we got ready for the day and they headed out on the last half of their race. We spent the rest of the day eating, shopping (Heidi got a cool new convertable shirt/skirt/top and Josh found Kristi the perfect RipCurl jumper), and walking all over Sydney. The day ended with dinner at a cafe on Darling Harbour and were able to spend a bit of time catching up with Kristi's colleague Cecilia and her sister Carolina.

When we got to the airport we found our late flight had been delayed even further (gotta love Qantas), but Kristi and Heidi were able to get quite a bit of homework done before enjoying a good sleep on the flight home. Another great weekend!

Canberra

While Heidi has been in town we have been trying to make the most out of our weekends. A couple of weeks ago we headed to Canberra to check out the the Nation's Capital City. We were meant to stay with some family friends, but unfortunately most of their family came down with the flu shortly before our arrival. Nonetheless, we were able to meet up with Brian (the dad) who took us on a bit of a tour around the city and joined us for a very enjoyable Vietnamese dining experience on Friday evening - there's nothing like vegetarian chicken, fish, and beef!

Saturday we started the day early with a beautiful 11-mile run around Lake Burley-Griffin then, after failed attempts at finding a proper vegan breakfast, we hit the supermarket for bagels, peanut butter and bananas, and enjoyed a lovely breakfast on Mt Ainslie overlooking the city. We spent the day in the sun walking around the city and checking out the Australian War Memorial, the Old Parliament House, Parliament House, and the National Gallery of Australia. We made it to the top of Black Mountain for sunset and then met up with Brian and (a somewhat recovered) Helen for a Thai dinner.

Sunday we took advantage of the morning sun to visit Floriade, which is a flower festival in the center of Canberra. Each year they have a theme for the flower beds, and this year the theme was 'Films That Shaped Our Nation' - our favorite was Crocodile Dundee! By the time the sky opened and the rains came, fortunately we were ready for a hot drink and a dry seat in the cafe. Then we learned about the history of Canberra at the National Capital Exhibition and took a tour of the Australian Institute of Sport where we got to see the training grounds for development of many of Australia's elite athletes.

The day wasn't long enough as we were only able to take a quick peek at Canberra Glassworks before heading to the airport. If we ever make it back to Canberra, it will be a must do on our list. Although everyone says there's nothing to see or do in Canberra, we had a wonderful weekend and are proud to say we have now visited all states and territories in Australia!

Pictures and Updates

I hadn't realised how long it had been since our last blog - we're really slow in getting pictures put together apparently! You'll notice the photo teaser from an upcoming blog about last weekend in Canberra too - more to come! For those of you that have checked Flickr recently you've probably noticed that we're finally catching up on the past few months. Of note, you can now peruse our wild adventures from the Top End of Australia.

For those unfamiliar, the Top End generally refers to Darwin and surrounding areas in the Northern Territory, The Kimberley in Western Australia and over to Broome also in WA. Looking back it was an amazing trip with so many little stories to tell and so many pictures to help with the telling - what we have on Flickr is just a small subset!

Our other recent Flickr post gives more information on our new Cheese skills. Since we're on a Vegan diet for another couple of days we haven't been able to enjoy all of the fruits of our labor, but our camembert is looking nice and white and fuzzy in the fridge just waiting to get munched! We also did some wine tasting with Heidi on an appropriately cloudy and rainy day which is in the same set.

Last but not least in the realm of updates, Josh has officially passed the WSET Level 3 program with merit. We haven't been able to figure out whether that qualifies him for anything in particular, but it is good knowledge to have and a nice wine confidence boost. More posting soon about our ongoing travels with Heidi - so far we've ticked Canberra off the list and this weekend head up to Sydney for a half marathon. Good thing we enjoy traveling so much otherwise this would start to feel like work!

One Happy Family

We've gone through the settling in process so many times now we're getting pretty good at it. Pictures on the wall, food in the fridge, barbie ready to fire, cleaning people all set....all in less than a week. Now that Heidi has arrived we're well and truly getting into the new place and thought we'd share the new view of the apartment. No issues or conflicts to report from our happy Aussie family, though we are having some difficulty getting from the kitchen to the living room at this point. :-) A few more comments about the apartment are available on Flickr. Our adventures in cheese and wine tasting will be coming shortly as well so stay tuned!

The New-er Digs

Third time is hopefully a charm for life in Australia, only time will tell. We have now completed our move into the new apartment and thus far it seems like it'll work - a bit of a squeeze but there are only a few boxes still searching for a home. We're now into a one-bedroom plus study unit at The Hallmark at Domain Interchange on St. Kilda Road. The area is a mix of nice and seedy - the Botanical Gardens are directly across the street, but a few of Melbourne's brothels are behind the building so we try to only focus on the green side of the street. The location does put us closer to South Melbourne Market, the CBD and both of our jobs, so it is quite good in that respect.

For the other life-updates, we've got quite the laundry list as we try to stay busy busy busy around here! Josh has now started a photography class through CAE in the city - he's having a blast learning more about f-stops, film speed and the new toy called 'white balance'! Many thanks to everyone for the help on Kristi's business development work and the feedback on 'Happy Hammies.' It was really good to get more ideas and input - who knows where it will end up! We're also very excited for Heidi to now be joining us in Melbourne for the next few weeks. She has already started adjusting from the warm of Arizona, mainly with the help of many of our sweatshirts and jackets! And last but not least we can actually tick one class off the list - we're both now proud PADI-certified Open Water scuba divers. Successfully completing our open water dives this weekend (in 10-degree water) was a challenge, but we're now free to explore 70% of the earth to a depth of 18 meters. We may look into doing an 'Advanced Open Water' course to allow us to dive to 30 meters, but it'll wait for a few months while we get more used to this first step. No pictures from this round of scuba, but be prepared to get very used to the creatures that live under the piers of Melbourne!

Watching the 'lympics

First off I would like to thank NBC for their relentless lobbying to change the times of the events to better fit the US television schedule. The rest of the world loves being able to watch the finals of events in the middle of the night/day rather than spread throughout the day :-P Obviously I'm not bitter at all about not seeing any of Michael Phelp's records live and only being able to watch the highlights on YouTube.

It has been a lot of fun to watch the events in another country though and get another perspective on global sport. I'm guessing nobody in the US was able to watch the Kookaburas take on Spain, or the Opals beat Brazil, or the marathon event of the Spirit taking the bronze medal against Japan. I'm also guessing that nobody has a clue which three sports those Aussie teams play. (Field hockey, women's basketball and softball, respectively). We've also seen more rowing, yachting, equestrian events, women's weightlifting and Judo than we ever thought possible in such a short timeframe. Less than a week left and hopefully we'll be able to make it to the end - of course if we have to sacrifice sleep and work productivity then so be it!

Kristi Needs Help

As part of my Business Development module for my massage course, I have to create a business name/logo and obtain feedback from at least 3 people. After *much* deliberation I have come up with the following and would like to request your feedback. This is obviously a quick Microsoft Word mock-up, but that's as far as my artistic talent takes me :)


If you are willing to help, please leave a comment or email with your responses to these questions:

1. What is your first reaction to the name/logo?
2. What message do you receive from the name/logo?
3. What would you see as an improvement?

Thanks for your help!

Up and Running

It now seems like forever since our post from Fitzroy Crossing, and in terms of kilometers thats a pretty close comparison. We had great fun on the rest of the tour, with some time at Cape Leveque in the remote near-isolation of a coastal beach enjoying the sunshine and capped off with a marvelous camel ride on Cable Beach in Broome just before hopping on the plane home. The flights and such were unremarkable, the luggage arrived, and we got home safe and sound.

Once home it didn't take long to get back into the real world - in our time away, our internet still hadn't been fixed and we were without connectivity for another three days trying to figure out what the problem was. Nothing is easy, but after 3hrs on the phone with the internet folks and another few hours on the phone with telephone folks we got it sorted and are now happily surfing (and blogging) away. Family, please prepare for phone calls this weekend as we try to catch up! (Josh's peeps probably on Friday night your time, Kristi's on Saturday)

The last tidbit to share is that once more our packing skills will be put to the test. Myra is going to be shocked that she will have missed two of our moves now! Due to some miscommunications with the housing people we have to leave the current place by August 18 and at this point don't have a place to move into! We're pushing to get another two bedroom/two bathroom place but apparently rents in Melbourne have risen a bit so we're being shown some smaller units. Visitors shouldn't panic, we'll still have plenty of space you just might have to wait for Josh to finish shaving in the morning before you can get into the bathroom. :-P

Pictures from the trip will be getting posted as quick as possible, we'll post a blog to let you know when they're up.

Only 50 Pictures Left

After a couple of amazing days exploring the Bungle Bungles by road, foot and air, we now find ourselves at Fitzroy Crossing. The tour we are on now is a drastic change from the previous tour in Kakadu. Instead of being the oldest and only married couple in the pack we are now the youngest (by far), and instead of being the only ones with steady jobs we are now the only ones that aren't retired. This isn't a bad thing though...we now get lovely sleeping accomodation, have chairs for lunch breaks, appetizers and wine around the fire before dinner, and get to stop and 'stretch our legs' every hour or so. We are having a great time getting to know our new tour friends and are sad to see it end tomorrow following a scenic tour of Geike Gorge (and a few more hours of driving). After that we only have a couple days in Broome before making our way back into the real world. It has been an amazing experience, with such beautiful scenery - often reminicent of spots in AZ and WY. We've nearly filled our 4GB memory card with photos to share, but no worries we have a spare 2GB card ready to go - no bug will go unphotographed if Josh has his way!

5 & 30 in the NT

Here we are looking down over the Darwin Mall on another beautiful sunny Northern Territory day. We have finished up the first leg of our journey and had a great time traveling through Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks. Highlights included sighting (and photographing of course!) 'salty' and 'freshy' crocs in a billabong, swimming in a babbling brook in Litchfield, inspecting massive termite mounds up close, and gaining a better appreciation for aboriginal rock art. In between all of that was quite a bit of riding in a 4WD safari bus, which was an adventure in itself once we went off-road and got to drive through a 1.2m deep stream teeming with crocs!

Yesterday was an anniversary/birthday that we won't forget. Not only are we rounding out our Australian adventures by exploring the Top End, more importantly we've happily made it to another set of milestones! After finishing up our three day backpacking tour we rocked up to the night market in Darwin in time for a beautiful sunset over the beach accompanied by some groovy didgeridoo playing and an enjoyable greek dinner on the waterfront.

Just a few hours until we're off to Kununurra, so the adventure continues!

Sunshine Here We Come

It hasn't been hard to predict the forecast in Melbourne for the past couple of weeks - a high of 14 degrees with a chance of rain...basically grey and rainy with some boughts of high winds thrown in. Needless to say, we are quite exited for our upcoming trip to the Top End! We've been frantically running around the past week in preparation, but the day has finally come and we head to the airport tonight for a 9:45pm flight to Darwin, yay! Josh has been guaranteed by his colleages that he will actually see the sun on our trip - Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks, Darwin in the Northern Territory, through the Kimberlys, and then onto Broome in Western Australia. And we won't forget to celebrate the big milestones coming up...but that reflection will have to wait for another day. For now we're off and will post again when we return in just over a week :)

Whee Wii!

While Tim and Rachel were visiting earlier this year, they took the time to go visit Game On at the Australian Center for the Moving Image (ACMI). Of course both of them thought it was a hoot and a half, so we put it on our short list of things to do in Melbourne since it was only in town for a limited time. The limited time has now come and gone, but we did make it - it only took us until the last Thursday night of the exhibit! All of the old games and consoles were fun to reminisce over, and Kristi played a mean game of Tetris on the old Gameboy (grey and green screens are where its AT!) The big draw for crowds though was at the display of the newest gaming consoles - the Playstation 3 (PS3), XBox 360 and Nintendo Wii. Luckily the games went fast and we didn't have to wait long to try them out. First up, the gyroscopic-based Wii where Josh was creamed by Kristi's bowling skills. Its really hard to win when your opponent just keeps hitting strikes! Josh then had a go at the PS3 and a fun dune-buggy driving game. Once you figured out how to not blow up all the time it was great fun with only a few very minor (yeah right!) crashes between laps. We decided to skip the XBox since it was another driving game, but the graphics really made it look like someone had videotaped the race track rather than drawn/programmed the entire thing.

After Game On on Thursday, we were all set for an outing with some of Josh's colleagues for more video games on Saturday. This time, we discovered the joy of Rockband and Singstar for the PS3. With Josh's musical training, and Kristi's love of music we had a lot of fun singing along to our favorite tunes and jamming out trying to mimic the Chilli Peppers. Some songs were more successful than others....Kristi's recall of Wilson Phillips 'Hold On' was shocking, and Josh's rendition of Britney Spears 'Hit me Baby' was inventive. Of course we lost track of time in all the fun and didn't make it home until very late, but there are already plans for another Rockband night in Melbourne and perhaps one in Denver once we return home!

Rove Rocks

This would be the post of 'you know you're used to living in Australia when...'

There are a couple of answers to this phrase that come to mind such as:
...you know that utes are not for utility, they're for picking up chicks.
...you know how many bottles in a slab and the correct way to pack your esky.
...barbies are not for girls or for playing dress up.
...you watch Letterman....at 5am.
and most importantly,
...you look forward to watching Rove on Sunday nights.

Not everyone in Australia enjoys Rove, but we do, so you get to hear about it on the blog. :-)

The interesting thing is that he always brings on a range of guests, asks very fun, entertaining and probing personal questions of them, and has surrounded his show with a group of comedians that give the show a sort of manic joy. Since the show is based in Melbourne, many of the regulars are also locals and participate in local radio or TV broadcasts of their own. Two of the guys that we've really enjoyed getting to know are Hamish and Andy. Normally mild-mannered radio hosts, they have joined Rove and each week end up with some sort of crazy and yet marginally logical plot to entertain and push the boundaries (check out Ghosting and Hamish and Andy in Afganistan). The main man Rove won't let you down either - just watch a few clips of $20 in 20 seconds, and we've also found Rove's opening monologues as podcasts on iTunes!

"Have you picked a team?"

One of the first questions that anyone who resides in Melbourne for a length of time (generally anything greater than one month) will be asked is 'Have you picked a team?' This question may seem trivial, and most inquirers will be satisfied with an impulsive choice just so long as you have actually made a choice. We may have mentioned it earlier, but it bears repeating - Australians, and those living in Melbourne in particular, absolutely and without a doubt love all types, variations, popular and niche, sports. The simple question above though, is unique to a single sport - Footy/AFL/Aussie-Rules. Mainly this is because it is the only sport with a significant number of teams such that choosing one does actually involve making a choice. As a comparison in Melbourne; Rugby League, Netball, Basketball and Soccer all only have one professional team. AFL has 9 teams currently in Melbourne (and surrounding suburbs), out of 16 total teams in the league. This does not take into account the minor leagues (VFL) which has even MORE teams in the Melbourne area.

For us, the question of a team to follow has taken over a year to answer. For the first year we had to assess the strengths and standards of each team, compare the team colors, team songs, mascots and of course the fans as some teams are associated with a certain type of fan (similar to the Oakland Raiders of NFL fame and fortune). In the end, it has come down to being able to connect with a footy team on more than just color, song and stature - we wanted to be able to actually know the team. Kristi helped with this immensely as there are two footy players in her massage class - and they both play for the same team. We watched a couple of games on TV to confirm that we could actually pick them out on the field, and once that was settled we decided to pledge our footy allegiance to the Richmond Tigers. This momentous decision accomplished, the next task was to actually attend a game in person - and luckily a great game was fast approaching between Richmond and Carlton. An even matchup with both teams solidly in the middle of the league standings, both needing a win to build momentum into the last part of the season, and held at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds - rated one of the best in Australia for footy atmosphere and ambiance. The game really didn't disappoint, as we cheered and groaned through three and a half amazing quarters of action. The final 10 minutes changed everything though as Carlton finally was able to string things together and pile on some points quickly, eventually overpowering the Tigers by 30. Though we're sad for the loss, we take comfort in knowing that at least now we'll have a response to the pervasive 'have you picked a team' question and we'll cheer them through the rest of our stay in Australia.

Movies in Oz

For those of you that have talked movies with us you probably noticed that our choices are a bit different than what is available in the states. In fact, when we talked to Ed, Myra, Carmen and Jim all in the same weekend and they had all already seen Iron Man, Narnia, and Indiana Jones, the only one that was actually available in Austraila was Indy! We had to wait almost a month for Narnia, and a few weeks more for Iron Man to hit the theatres. The same holds true for DVDs as all the releases are delayed by sometimes up to a couple months after US availability. We watched the US DVD of Ratatoulie before it had hit the Australia theatres.

So since we're going to be behind on movies we might as well be farther behind and just wait for DVDs. We LOVE our Blockbuster subscription at home so we're going to try out a Quickflix subscription while we're here. For those of us non-techie people that don't download movies from iTunes it's a good way to have movies at your fingertips without leaving the couch. We signed up today so will have another report when the first DVDs arrive but the couch is calling, the dreary weather is here, it's the perfect time to watch more movies at home!

Flat Chat

June has been such a busy month for us and it apparently flew by before we had a chance to do anything about it! On the work front Josh has ccontinued to settle into his new role and Kristi has been dealing with the aftermath of the Arana move - as we know, just because we made it through the actual move doesn't mean we're home free yet ;) Kristi's colleagues thanked her for her work in the fit out/move with this beautiful flower arrangement (along with a bottle of wine and a voucher for a massage, which she can't wait to use)! She was also fortunate to make some wonderful new friends in this move process, and had a celebratory 'We're Almost There...' girl's night out with the architect/interior designer (Virginie - left) and the furniture supplier (Odette - right) at Gingerboy last Thursday.

Outside of work we have both been spending many hours studying over the past weeks...Josh's WSET exam is this coming Monday (fingers crossed it goes well), and Kristi is happy to report that she passed her first practical massage exam and now is ready to provide relaxation massage services to anyone who is happy to be a practice dummy! Now she is on to athletic massage, learning all about pre-race, post-race and maintenance massage for athletes.

Besides work and study we have managed to fit in time to catch up with friends - many folks are off on holidays now so it was fun to touch base before they departed. And of course we've made time for a couple of new movies, most recently Ironman and Prince Caspian, and we can't wait for the release of Kung Fu Panda this week! It has been great to be so close to a nice movie theater (and it's an extra bonus that now Kristi can get in at student prices!)

Rugby Union

We're running a bit behind on posts to the blog, we always seem to be posting about last week! That being said, last Saturday we enjoyed our first experience of Rugby Union. This time we watched the Australian National Team (the Qantas Wallabies) take on the Irish at the Telstra Dome. A much larger venue and crowd, and also seats a lot closer to the action! We went with a group of Josh's colleagues and had an absolute blast. The game was a nice mix of action and entertainment, with some fantastic runs by both teams throughout the game. In the end, the Australians took home the victory after working hard to keep the Irish out of the goal in the closing minutes. We stuck around after the game to watch the interviews and ended up chatting with one of the Aussie players - turns out he's the same age as Josh, it just doesn't look like it when you see him.

We Came, We Saw, We Ate

Last weekend we enjoyed celebrating the Queen's Birthday by taking advantage of the extra day off to enjoy a short tropical get away up in Queensland - which was until now a large gap in our Australian adventures. We enjoyed two days of snorkeling and diving on the Great Barrier Reef and a third day soaking in the sun on the beach in Port Douglas before heading back to reality. We learned it was a wonderful time to enjoy Queensland - not too hot, not too cold, and not too wet (as in rainy)!
Some of the highlights of the trip included not getting sea sick on the boat trips to and from the reef, Josh seeing his first shark while snorkeling, seeing a Maori Wrasse that was almost as big as us, and getting to hold a pineapple sea cucumber. Our first day on the reef was spent just getting used to swimming again, and also trying out the Christmas present camera for real. When we went out to dinner our first night in Port Douglas, we realised that we could now recognise most of what was on the menu from our snorkeling of the day! Ocean trout (also known as a sweet-lip) looks just as good as it tastes ;) On day two we decided to switch boats and also try some introductory scuba (of course with more support from the underwater camera). Below is a short video clip that Josh was able to capture of Kristi's second dive of the day (we weren't allowed to bring the camera on dive #1 for safety purposes).

It was good that we relaxed while we could since the week back brought lots of activity for everyone. Josh ended up having to take his first sick day since moving to Melbourne, and the months of planning for moving the Arana office and lab finally came to an end with the actual move event happening on Thursday. The move went as good as could be expected and after a 12hr sleep Friday night Kristi was back to normal for the weekend. Josh recovered as well and is back into the thick of things with Accenture and the new teams he is leading. The next big adventure is a trip to the top-end in Darwin and Broome, can't wait!

Rugby League

Last Saturday night we joined colleague Dan to experience a Rugby League game. We watched the Melbourne Storm take on and white-wash the Canterbury Bulldogs at Olympic Park Stadium. We probably should have done a little more research into the game before, but we seemed to catch on pretty quickly. It was a fast-paced game with plenty of fireworks as the Storm tryed and tryed again. We had a great time and were especially glad we had the telephoto lens to play with as we were a bit removed from the action.

In the next couple of weeks we will be attending a Rugby Union game - Qantas Wallabies vs. Ireland. Should be a great game and we're keen to see the differences between League and Union (we're doing a little more research this time).

After the game Dan showed us a few tricks with taking night photos. We were happy with our first stab at 'Melbourne in the Dark'.

Growing Photogs

It has been now been many months since we printed any pictures to continue filling up our amazing Australia book (awesome templates courtesy of Kirsten!), so last weekend we made a point to find a local place to print. The people were great, the service was fast, and we'd almost forgotten how much fun it is to actually look at physical pictures rather than just see things on the computer screen. The same place also happened to have a few sets of tripod legs for sale and Josh *somehow* brought along the tripod head he'd already purchased just to see how it actually looked on a set of legs. We had a good time extending and collapsing a couple of models, which just happened to be on sale, so we left with our pictures and a brand new set of Gitzo legs - happy Josh!

With the serious week of work we had (Josh starting a new role managing a new team, Kristi going through final preps for moving her company into another office) there almost wasn't time to think. Luckily we did manage to fit in a couple of fun nights...we caught Indiana Jones on the big screen Sunday, and then attended the opening of Shine A Light at the IMAX on Wednesday.

This weekend we were back in Port Melbourne for some errands and Josh again *somehow* knew of a photo place that rented camera lenses. We now get to play around with a Canon 70-200mm L-series lens for the weekend! On our walk back to the apartment we had a lot of fun playing with the extra zoom. Even better was finding a crisp $10 note on our walk!

International Food Day

Today Arana had an afternoon celebration of international cuisine with a gold coin donation to raise money for the Australian Cancer Council. Everyone brought international dishes and then there was voting and awards for the best sweet and savory delights. Folks were not limited to foods from their own culture, but nonetheless Kristi chose to make All-American Martha Stewart Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies and brought home the bronze medal in the sweets category - a big THANK YOU goes out to the dude for the perfect idea! Those folks that came in last in the competition were given the wooden spoon award (an actual wooden cooking spoon), which is an interesting/odd tradition.

Josh's team had their own form of international cuisine as they headed out for Yum Cha at the Shark Fin House in Chinatown for lunch. As you can see, there were some interesting animal parts on the menu...crunchy chooks feet!

An Old-Fashioned Binge Weekend

When we looked at this weekend on the calendar, we knew it was going to be a doozy. Now that we've actually made it through, we can say for certain that it was - but we've survived, we've got bootcamp tomorrow and we're off into another week. (Not sure whether that is good or bad yet!)

Friday started the fun with a gathering of Josh's colleagues to celebrate the hard work that has been put in over the past 5 months, and to finally relax a little bit. Our little apartment held everyone pretty well - only slightly cramped. Plenty of food and drink - and we had a blast listening to our team Mix Tape guessing who had selected which tunes. This time is a bit sad for Josh as it also marks the beginning of the end of his first "real" team-leading experience. In the next month everyone will likely be off working on other things - but its been fantastic working with this group of folks and he's learned quite a lot in the process.

Saturday continued the theme as Josh started a full weekend of wine classes as part of his WSET 3 certification. He spent most of the cold and rainy day at Shadowfax Winery in Werribee touring, tasting and shivering with his classmates. A few good wines, and a few duds but lots to absorb in such a short time. The class continued all day on Sunday with even more wines (many more good ones in Josh's opinion) and luckily a drier day to enjoy.

In-between classes, Saturday night we were invited to an informal wine tasting hosted by our friends Greg and Jo. Cabernet Sauvignon was the order of the evening along with Indian food and some "magic" tricks demonstrated by the very creative group. Sadly the tricks didn't come out until after the wine tasting so we won't be duplicating them at parties anytime soon.

Aussie Music Rocks!

We've really been having fun lately listening to music by Australian artists and have found the ARIA awards to be a good source for discovery. Here is one of our favorites so far - Missy Higgins, the 2007 ARIA Best Female Artist.

Nothing Much To Report

We've been staying quite busy with our everyday activities (work, classes, boot camp) so there hasn't been much more exciting to report from Melbourne. Last week we tried our hand at a couple of culinary treats. We roasted our first lamb shoulder, thanks to the direction of Jamie Oliver, and we roasted chestnuts received from one of Josh's classmates. Both were a real treat!

This weekend we spent Saturday out and about doing shopping at the market and in the CBD. Then we enjoyed a night on the town with one of Josh's colleagues at The Corner Hotel watching The Audreys perform. A great concert, even if we were up way past our bedtimes!

Sunday brought time to catch up with the mums for Mother's Day and then many hours of planning upcoming holidays in Queensland/ Northern Territory/Western Australia. It was a perfect day to plan as the cool, gray day made the couch look much more inviting than the outdoors! After much debate and contemplation we're set to head to Cairns over the Queen's Birthday weekend in June and we have plans in the works for a Darwin to Broome excursion in late July/early August. Too much fun (too bad holiday planning can be such a chore)!

COEXIST

After a day of shopping for jeans for Josh (success!) we decided to head to the IMAX and see about the new film U2 3D. The film documents their recent world-tour and a portion of it was actually filmed in Melbourne! We highly recommend that anyone near an IMAX playing this film that you take a look - not only is the cinematography amazing (AND 3D!) but the message that they are promoting is creative, peaceful and insightful - and one that you have to see for yourself. This is the closest that you will probably ever get to Bono and when he looks at you it sends a shiver down your spine because he is really looking at YOU!