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'.