Nearly ruined my wetsuit...

Hello all!  The weather has been more consistently nice; with the exception of this morning.  Of course we cannot have pleasant weather on the weekends!  Not to complain, it will be too hot to handle in the coming months.

Tim and I have been swimming at Coogee regularly in the evenings after work.  The water is not bad once you are in (17-18 C), but it can be cold when you get out and the wind picks up.  It can be difficult to swim in the rough water, but it is fun to check out the sea floor while getting exercise.  There are lots of fish and I have identified Whiting and Blue Groper.  Whiting tend to hang out in big schools in the sandy shallows and the gropers like the rocks with a little more cover.  Whiting are a game species that I plan on going after as soon as I acquire a spear gun - I have a lead on a used one for a very good price!  Blue Groper are a protected species and must be released if unintentionally caught.  I won't be going after them!  We are looking forward to the warmer days when the sea is more inviting.  However, it is good to get a little exercise and "train" for the wedding cake island swim that happens on the last weekend in November.  Perhaps I will be ready for that?  It is 2.4 K in the ocean where the swell can be strong.  I believe I can make it, but it might be after all other swimmers are drinking cold beer on the beach!  We will see...


Last weekend we traveled 3.5 hours north to Bluey's Beach to celebrate Trevor's birthday.  Amy was on call and spent all weekend (in Sydney) dealing with a colic horse that sadly TTJ Sunday evening; so she was unable to come along.  We had an amazing time and try not to talk about it around her:)  Tori (Trevor's girlfriend and associate at REC) found this wonderful beach house that we hired for the weekend.  Tim, Liz, Illona, Mark, and Connie came along as well, so we had a good crowd of great people!  In the house, there was a framed newspaper article that had a picture of a surf school and a shark fin in the background!  Bluey's beach is known for good surf and surfing was on the itinerary for the weekend, but that framed article made the activity less inviting.

We stayed up late Friday night drinking wine and shooting the breeze after a fantastic bbq rib dinner, prepared by Tim.  Saturday morning the weather was overcast and spitting a few drops, but we headed for the beach anyway.  The boys were surfing and the girls were doing beach yoga.  Trevor and I were in a pretty good spot waiting for the next good wave when I looked in Trevor's direction and about 20 meters behind him I saw that dreaded sight - a distinct fin.  My heart started beating fast and before I ruined my wetsuit, the fin turned and the creature was clearly visible in the wave.  What the?!  You can imagine the relief when my mind processed that the fin belonged to a dolphin and the dolphin had friends with him!  The dolphins were actually surfing with us!  They caught the wave behind Trevor and swam out in front of me, catching the wave breaking directly in front of me.  At this time I was enjoying the experience, but a bit nervous when three of them had their beaks aimed directly at me.  They passed only feet from me and then continued up the beach.  What a wonderful experience!

Later that afternoon we played 9 holes on a golf course nearby.  We are not what you would call scratch golfers, but we had a good time making divots and shooting golfballs into the bush.  Most notable from the golfing adventure was the picture below - a mamma wallabie with a joey in her pouch :)

Bluey's Beach.  According to the local cafe, this beach got its name from a cow named Bluey, who fell off a cliff into the sea...interesting.

The boys of Bluey's.  We earned exceptional points in the surfing category.  This was on Sunday when the sun decided to come out.

A nice little par 31.  Three members of this squad qualiffied for the Australian PGA on this course.  Notice the intensity.

The mum wallabie with her joey!  She didn't mind us being there until we started getting close to take pictures.

Must get going for now.  We are celebrating Liz's birthday with a beach bbq at Coogee.

Updates from Downunder!

Sorry for the lapse in time since our last update, but it seems that we have sadly slipped into the daily grind...  We are healthy, happy, well and still enjoying the adventure, but the 'newness' is wearing off.  I no longer doctor up my instant coffee and the craving for a good cuppa drip is cured by a tasty TimTam.  Driving on the wrong side of the road is now natural and I've even submitted to the terrible driving culture by honking at the occasional lousy driver.  Not proud of that, but I guess I am adapting!


Anywho...we have finally put together the rest of our apartment.  We now have a sofa that completes our common area.  Our other bedroom is set up as an office, but ready to accommodate visitors.  There is a nice big futon so nobody will have to sleep on the tile floor or a blowup bed! Oh, and it has a tv as well.  Wouldn't you know it, the two biggest tv watchers you know have inherited two huge, bulky tvs...awesome.



There have been a few exciting things that have happened over the past couple weekends.  Amy had a weekend off, so we traveled to Wiseman's Ferry (a little town on the Hawkesbury River north and west of Sydney).  We spent the night in a quaint cabin on the river and woke up to some serious waterskiing action.  Apparently, we were there on a race weekend where boats were pulling two skiers for 15 laps and a total distance of 20 kilometers!  There were several crazy skiers decked out in loud colors, bouncing along at 40mph in the pissing rain.  It did not look tempting at all... They cancelled the rest of the day after the first race due to weather.


A week ago we attended the races at the Randwick race track.  Overall a fun time with successful betting!  We had free tickets to the "Members Area", which has a strict dress code and requires elbow grease.  I didn't bother to bring a suit jacket here (luggage was limited).  Two minutes after walking through the entrance, I was approached by the staff: "sir, you are required to have a jacket in the members area.  You can hire one at the cloakroom."  So, I made my way to the cloakroom and picked from their wide selection of 5 dirty, ugly, mismatched coats; likely left behind at the track from previous attendees.  The one I chose fit well enough and kinda matched.  Check out the photo below.


Amy's workmate, Jenny (and her husband Eden) showed us around and acquainted us with the track.  Eden gave me a tutorial on the betting boards and how to place bets with the bookies.  "Five each way on number two" - this was the first winner I had, placing $5 on him to win or finish in the top 3.  Jenny and Eden have a good friend who is a bookie, so he always gave us the best odds.  On the day there were 9 races.  We bet on 6-9 and ended up winning money on 3 of those races!  We made small bets, so didn't win big money, but it was fun to have a stake in each race.



Later that evening, we went out to dinner with the group of people from the races.  It was a quite pricey meal, but overall a good time.

 

Wisemans Ferry - The council decided not to build a bridge and the only way across the river with your car is on this auto ferry.

 

 Amy really captured the experience from the drivers side window.  We are parked on the ferry and it just started to shuttle us across the river.

 

 

Take note of the sign and the Holden Ute in front of us.  Apparently "el caminos" are the hot item in Sydney.  They honestly look like el caminos and only a serious bad mofo can drive one of these.  Oh, and if you drive one, you must be as loud, annoying, and self centered as possible.  The road was built for you, Mr. Holden Ute operator.

 

A fuel dock on the Hawkesbury river near Wisemans Ferry.  This was right out the door of our quaint little cabin.

  

We took the opportunity to see some of the country side and ended up at Settlers Arms Inn.  This is one of the oldest (if not the oldest) hotels in New South Wales.  It was built in 1836 and it has become a tourist stop.  We had a cheeky schooner there and got out of the rain.

 

We arrived back home from Wisemans Ferry and found this strange creeper bird on the windowsill of our bathroom.  Amy walked in and was shocked - "hon, come here; what the hell is that?"  hahah  He must have been sick or old, because he was lying in a pile of feathers the following morning beneath the window.

 A shot of the grandstands at Royal Randwick.  To the left is the paddock where they bring the horses by.  The shot is taken from the members area.

 

Number 2, Streama!  I picked this guy to win the second race we bet on - yep, there he is strutting his stuff in the winners circle! 

  

Amy and I with Jenny and Eden.  Jenny is a veterinarian that works with Amy and her husband Eden consults in the racing industry.  Very nice people.

  

 The paddock is directly behind us.  Check out that coat!  Had to give them $20 to rent that for the day.  It is close to matching the rest of my attire; however, it is a bit too big and had some stains.  I opted to collect my $20 at the end of the day and return their coat.

We had a pretty low-key weekend this weekend.  Amy was not on call, but we stayed in the eastern suburbs.  On Saturday night we attended the birthday party of my manager's fiance in Bondi.  They rented out this big place (the Bondi Pavillion) on Bondi beach, had a DJ, tons of pizza, and the best beer I've found yet - Golddigger Ale (aka Ned Kelly).  It was nice to meet some new folks and "plug into the social pipeline" lol.

We recently had a time change here so it is staying light out til about 7pm.  It's nice to get off work and have much of the day left to enjoy.  Amy was actually home 2 days before dark last week!  I was stunned.


Hope that everything is going well for you all and your updates are greatly appreciated - it's so nice to hear the happenings of home!  Please continue to email us and keep us up to date.



OHHHHHH!!  I keep forgetting!  Gotye (Aussie musician) has held the #1 spot for months with his song: Somebody That I Used to Know.  Check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY&noredirect=1 
Has this song made it to the states yet?