The Great Fiji Adventure

So the plan was, we'd get home from Fiji and have the weekend to relax, do the blog, get photos up and such. The hitch came when we both got really sick before we left Fiji and ended up spending the whole weekend in bed. This is a big blog but that's because it's full of photos, we hope you enjoy.

Let's go back a week. Two Saturdays past we drove down to Sydney with Andrew's parents, stopping at the big sheep on the way.

Back on the road with the sheep lurking behind us we soon arrived at Ikea, our main destination in Sydney. We spent an hour or two exploring the store since it's the closest we have to Canberra. From there we headed into the city centre so Andrew and I could check into the hostel we were staying in for the night, since we had an early flight Sunday morning it was cheaper and easier to get a hostel next to the train station for the night than try and get to Sydney in the morning. A relaxing lunch later and Andrew's parents headed back to Canberra and left Andrew and I to explore a bit more before crashing for the night. My big accomplishment was getting a small tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, the first I've had since leaving the states as Sydney is one of two cities that sell it in the country.

Sunday was an early morning to get to the airport, and since Andrew and I have had some bad moments with planes we wanted to make sure we were there early. One check in the V Australia staff kept asking me for a print out of my visa, which I kept telling them doesn't exist as an electronic visa, eventually the woman got a supervisor to look it up and print out the information. After that we were told at passport control where they informed us that immigration needed to talk to Andrew. We were a bit nervous but all they did was scan his passport and hand it back telling us to go on so we have no idea what it was all about but we were on our way so we didn't care.

The plane ride itself was relaxing, we sat back and watched movies the whole way and we were in Fiji before we knew it. We had a car take us from the airport the 2 hours to our resort.

Our bure

We stayed at Mango Bay Resort, a backpackers resort. The resort has 3 types of accomedations, dorm huts, safari huts for groups of 3-6 and beach huts for 2 which we had. Our hut was just a few hundred feet from the beach and right next to the pool and restaurant area.

View from our bure

The bure, as it is called, had a small porch with deck chairs, a queen bed with mosqueto net, which even looked amazing, our own bathroom and a shower in our private atrium out back. For a backpackers resort it delivers very well for couples.

our shower

We were pretty tired but decided to try out a few of the local spirits, Fiji Gold beer very tasty beer and Bounty rum was so good we brought a bottle home. After a poorly played, on my side, pool game and a few hands of cards we crashed a bit early since the traveling wore us down. We were woken up in the middle of the night from a group of drunk americans who arrived after us and decided to drink more and jump in the pool. Luckily we were tired enough we were able to fall asleep fairly quickly while they carried on.

Monday, our first full day in Fiji, we were awoken by the drums to let us know breakfast was ready, and promptly fell asleep for another 3 hours. We did manage to get up in time to go on a guided snorkeling tour where I managed to get two big cuts from the coral, it was pretty interesting though but the tide went out on us pretty quickly. From there the days start to blend together so I'll just tell you about what we did in no order.

Most of our evenings were spent having a cocktail at happy hour, playing cards and chatting with the canadians, germans or a few of the random american students we could handle being around (they were all doing study abroad in New Zealand, some from UC Denver, 2 from St, Mike's in Burlington which was weird, and a whole bunch of other places). Mom you would have been very impressed that we ate a lot of fish on this trip, yes, fish, and it wasn't fried.

Andrew in table tennis finals

Staff singing farewell song at dinner

Crazy crab dish I attemped to eat....it didn't end well, 

I just can't crack shells

One of the days we were taken to the local village, we walked there by the beach and were shown around by a local man who explained how the villages are set up, what vegetables were being grown, different rules/traditions such as you have to leave your door open during meals and if anyone wanders passed you invite them in to join your meal, not a bad idea :)

Andrew taking a picture of me taking a picture

Village middle from Community Centre

The villages are set up in such a great way, all the houses face in with a church and community hall in the middle, there are no roads through the village so everyone walks around, it's such a friendly place. Apparently when someone gets married or it is their birthday everyone in the village helps with the food and arrangements and everything, and if you're building your house everyone in the village will come and help you, you don't ask them to but they just do it. It's so great seeing a real community that sticks by each other and helps each other out.

Kava Ceremony

After being shown the village, including the school where people from 3 villages come to study and the Fiji rugby team practices (we saw them out there), we headed into the community centre for a kava ceromony with some cheif elders. It was all fine to the kava ceromony, we had one previous at the resort, the problem was there were only 9 of us including the village elders and the tide had come in so we had to wait for it to go out again before we could get back to the resort, this meant we drank lots of kava. It tastes a bit little dirty, kind of sour water, not really bad, just strange. It didn't effect Andrew much but for me after I'd drink my bowl my tounge would start going numb, which is apparently what happens to most people because it's a slight hallucinogenic, strange but I wouldn't do it again.





We also took a morning to go hike out to these waterfalls near a village close by. We were taken to the local village where we played with some cute puppies before hiking to the waterfalls, and by hike I mean we walked through some small rivers and such. It was a nice waterfall and a good walk through the woods.

While we were on our way to the waterfalls we stopped briefly at a store that said the name of an airport on it but looked very run down. Our guide pointed across the road where ruins were barely seen through the overgrowth and informed us that that was the first resort on the Coral Coast, it was a five star resort that attracted so many people the airport was built. Back in 1987 a cyclone hit and destroyed the resort, it was family owned so they did not have enough money to rebuilt and it has stayed that way ever since. With the closing of the resort the airport soon closed too. Since I have been looking, photographing and writing about ruins recently Andrew and I took a cab out there on the morning of our last dayto explore and photograph the ruins. 23 years of growth turned the resort into quiet a jungle, we had a hard time finding some things, we never found the pool, but after some wandering I managed to find the kitchen. The resort had a lovely bay with a great beach and it's a shame the resort is no more because it would have been the best in the Coral Coast. The photos will be on my photography blog soon, I will post the link as soon as I've gotten through the images.

Enjoying cocktails on our last evening watching the sunset

Thursday rained all day which was good because Andrews cold was running rampant at that point and he spent the whole day sleeping. I was still feeling healthy at that point but with the rain curled up quite happily with a book and spent the day reading. The sick saga began soon after, Friday I had just a bit of sore throat but it wasn't much. By the time our plane took off for Sydney a few hours later I had a fever so bad I couldn't stop shaking, I was popping panadol like candy and got a blanket from the stewardess. I was starting to feel better when a steward told me that because I was sick coming into the country they would have to tell customs. I was a bit worried because we only had 2 hours to get through customs, check in at the transfer desk and get to our gate for our flight home. Luckily most of the people getting off the plane in front of us were parents with small kids who had to wait for their prams so we flew down to passport control where we got through in lightening time without any stops so we made it to our next flight in plenty of time and home almost safe and sound, my fever took over again before we made it to Andrew's parents so I was a bit of a fright to see.

Last weekend was spent with Andrew and I sick and lying around, not a good weekend but this next week should be good.

Chaos reigns supreme

Life has been a bit chaotic recently for Andrew and I, although there hasn't really been much going on. I found out not too long ago that the 6 months I am allowed per company is drawing near for Ray White. Ben and I tried to see if there were any solutions, he even had me call and immigration lawyer, but there is no way for me to stay with the company without risking my future visa. So I've been applying for jobs like crazy but there isn't too much out there. Most employers have put a freeze on hiring since the election was announced last month, and now that the election is over but there still isn't a prime minister no one is going forward with jobs yet. I'm still pretty confident though that I'll find something soon.

To break the boredom of work Andrew and I are hopping in a car tomorrow morning with Andrews parents to drive down to Sydney. We're going to spend the day running around the city and sleep there for the night before catching a train to the airport in the morning and flying off to...Fiji!

That's right, Andrew and I are going to Fiji! We're going for 5 nights staying at Mango Bay where we're going to swim, lay on the beach, hike around a bit. It's going to be absolutely amazing and you'll see and hear all about it next weekend when we get back. Until then be jealous :)

The Snowy Mountains (Australian Alps) receive more snow than Switzerland (maybe not this year though)

No excuses, I'm just behind.

Last weekend Andrew, Will and I left work early to drop Coopa off with Luigi (Will's dog) to be watched by Pip (Will's wife) for the weekend. The two started playing as soon as we got in the door and didn't stop the entire weekend, Pip went to check on them at midnight on the first night before she went to bed thinking they'd be asleep but they were instead running around the backyard.

After dropping off Coopa the three of us drove down to the mountains to stay at Andrew's parents place in Jindabyne for the weekend. We got up early Saturday morning and had a big breakfast for energy before driving to the ski slopes. We spent the day skiing at one of the mountains in Thredbo called Perisher. The setting was really cool because you could see bushland and then just snow all of a sudden.

Andrew wore bib drawers, and we laughed

Will wore a helmet, and we laughed

Andrew found a great poster while we were waiting for the train

The mountain had some really good runs but by the end of the day my socks were digging into my feet and I was exhausted. We ordered some pizza and tried to see how long we could stay awake before crashing out around 10.

Sunday was a quick pack up then the drive home. Coopa looked as tired as us when we picked him up which makes me think they actually didn't stop playing the whole time we were gone. The three of us barely managed to stay awake to watch a movie Sunday night before all crashing out.

Last Wednesday I met Andy for dinner over in Woden and then we went to the local Southern Cross Club to see Thirsty Merc play. They looked like Nirvana (the bassist even had the Kurt Cobain hair cut) but danced like the Rolling Stones, there were a few times I even thought the singer was going to do the Mike Jagger walk. They sounded as good live as they do on their cd and Andy and I jammed out the whole time just feet from the stage. It was a great small venue that gave a great feel and view for everyone. And the opening band was great too, a group called Porcelain.

Thursday was Winter White Out for Ray White, my company. Between our office and three others we auction off 25 properties in one night. It was a massive event that we have been marketing and preparing for since before the beginning of July. The night went pretty well, fairly busy, with 11 properties being sold on the night and 4-5 more sold prior to auction. It's nice to have this finally behind us because hopefully that means the office will slow down a little bit so we can all rest and catch up with the other properties.

Friday I got to leave work early since I work late at the auction and relaxed at home with Coopa for a bit before dressing to meet Andrew in the city for dinner. He surprised me with a very nice steak dinner at Kingsleys Steakhouse a meal my father, a lover of steak, would have greatly enjoyed. From there Andrew took me down to the Convention Centre where he had gotten us tickets to Bill Bailey, who I have been listening to since I first lived in London back in '05. It was great to finally see him live and such an amazing surprise for Andrew to spoil me like this, I could completely get use to this.

Saturday we did a massive clean of the house along with many loads of laundry and grocery shopping to round out our required activities for the weekend. After taking Coopa to the dog park, I tried my hand at Gail Tuscany's pumpkin curry soup, and if you've never tried this get to Harvest Market and give it a go. I think I did a pretty good job and Andrew and I have already finished off the pot of it I made.

Sunday I got up early to see the Belconnen Sunday Market before going to Andy's where I was promptly served pancakes before taking a few photos of Jayden (soon to be on my photoblog). I then went home to hid from the rain and enjoy the rest of the weekend with Andrew and Coopa. Hopefully this week and weekend will be slow, it'll never happen but we're going to give it a try.

Awesome salmon dinner Andrew made compared

 

to the picture of said salmon from the recipe book ( can you tell I don't know how to work this new version of blogger)

In America, only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, and in Australia you have to explain what a writer is

A busy busy weekend for Andrew and I this past week. Friday night I met my friend Sara and her friend at our local cinema to see the new Twilight movie, yes, I admit to being a fan, of the books at least, the movies are kind of average (sorry Laura). But it was not too bad, better than the second movie and it was nice to go out with the girls for a bit.

Saturday my friend Shelley Ray came over and we took some photographs in my studio and then headed down to Pine Island, the local park where Andrew and I go swimming during the summer. I got some great photos that can be seen on my photoblog here.

Later that night Andrew and I drove over the Shelley Ray’s house in Gungahlin, which I didn’t realize is practically on the other side of the country. It wasn’t that bad but we did have to drive past the airport to get there and through the countryside, at one point we were worried we were heading towards Sydney by accident because that far out my GPS went a bit crazy.

Shelley Ray lives in this amazing two storey townhouse with her partner Alex. The place was so unbelievable, they are the first owners having bought off the plan and it worked really well for them. They have a huge alfresco dining area off the big living room, and a smaller (not by much) family room and meals area with their kitchen and a back deck. Pretty much their entire downstairs is split into two rooms running the length of the house. Than 3 bedrooms upstairs, another tv/computer area, balcony, a very large walk-in closet in the master bedroom plus an ensuite....and you can tell I’ve been in real estate too long when I give that much of a description of my friends house.

Alex made sheppard’s pie for dinner, he put them in individual ramekin dishes which made them look very fancy and they tasty delicious. After dinner we sunk into the giant couches in the lounge room and chat for a bit before digging into the mouse Shelley Ray had made, another delicious dish. Andrew and I are going to need to step things up a notch to try and keep up with this kind of cooking. It was a really nice night, and not just because this means I officially have multiple friends (which I’m so excited about) and we’re already planning our next outing.

Sunday we headed up to Bruce (north side of Canberra) to go to the Sunday afternoon Raiders game with Andy and Aaron. The Raiders were playing Newcastle which Andy is a fan of, she even had her son Jayden dressed in a Newcastle Knights hat and scarf, but he’s a smart boy and clapped when the Raiders scored. We all had to give Andy a bit of a hard time as half time ended with the score Raider-40, Newcastle-0 with the final score ending Raiders-52, Newcastle-18. It was great to be able to cheer the Raiders on to such a win.

After the game we drove over to my friend Scott’s house so that I could take some photographs of his dog Jasmine, it is part of my new side business photographing pets and doing a bit of family portraiture. It is pretty fun and there aren’t really many people in Canberra who do pet photography so I should do pretty well. Those photos can also be seen on my photoblog.

Finally we headed home to enjoy the nice warm dinner I had put in the crockpot before we left that morning and relax watching The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas, really good and pretty sad.

I’d say it’s been a normal week but that’d be a lie. Tuesday night we went over to Bonnie and Damon’s house for dinner and to hang out, Damon made a nice hot curry. I really enjoy being fed by other people.

Last night Andrew and I went out to this funky little bar in the city called Phoenix Bar so that he could jam with Anthony, his friend his been playing with the past few months. They were the second act on and did a really good job, not to be biased but they really were the best ones of the night and got lots of cheers. We hung around with Andrew’s friend Bobby for a few drinks before remember we all had work in the morning and dragging ourselves home.

Today is proving that architecture classes at Philly U at least prepared me for something, getting by on little sleep, and I’ve made a strong recovery for the day although I predict I will fade quickly through the afternoon. Luckily I’m leaving work early today to head down to the mountains with Andrew and Will so we can go skiing on Saturday, which is what we shall talk about next week :)

Cupcake Day

I will write a longer blog tonight about the chaos that was this past weekend, but right now I just wanted to give everyone this link. It's for the RSPCA's Cupcake Day that I got my office to participate in. If you can donate, or if you're in Canberra come by on August 16th for a Cupcake it would really mean a lot.
http://www.fundraise.rspcacupcakeday.com.au/ray_white_belconnen

Canberra: The Muscial

I just had to share this with you all, just found this video about Canberra that I had to share with everyone back home, it's from a sketch comedy show and it's called Canberra: The Musical. Enjoy!

4th of July Aussie Style

It's been a bit busy these past two weeks, we had our fence put in, worked on our lawn, got a skip to trash as much stuff as possible and just cleaned for two days.

This past weekend though was the main event, what we've been waiting for and leading up to for weeks now, our housewarming 4th of July party. The actual cooking started on Friday with my full size watermelon which I cut a hole in and added some vodka to flavor.


Our fridge was looking quite nice with the vodka watermelon and meat taking up our bottom shelf.

I even attempted a flag cake for the occasion.


I did a bit of decorating for the party while Coopa enjoyed the sun waiting for people to arrive.



The lovely watermelon all set to eat. So Andrew's Aunt Karen showed up and gave me a lovely surprise, an American flag she has had for about 30 years, she couldn't disclose where it came from, she could only tell us is that she did not steal it. It's a real, cloth flag and pretty nice so we're hoping the embassy isn't on the lookout.


Bobby came prepared in his Red Sox's jersey so I had to lend him my stubbie holder to complete the outfit.

Claire and I
The day progressed from ping-pong to beer pong by the end of the night, it seemed like a pretty good idea except that our ceiling is low and people have a habit of jumping when they get a ball in the cup, the above was taken after his second hit on the head, he just doesn't learn.



So that was our 4th of July party one day early. We had about 20 people over, cooked a bunch of meat and ate lots of food. It was a great time, even our neighbors came by to say hi and give us a bottle of wine.

Sunday was a relaxing day after that to get us ready for this next busy week ahead of us. So more to come as soon as I wake up.