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)!