The Sydney Opera House roof weighs more than 161,000 tons.

This week Andrew and I signed a year lease on a fancy new townhouse that we get to move in to. It is two stories (which is very rare here), with 3 bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. There is also a two car garage that connects directly into the house. The bedrooms and bathrooms are downstairs with the lounge, dining room and kitchen are upstairs above the garage, which is nice because that means there are no rooms on top of the bedrooms in case someone needs to get up early or stays up late. We're really excited about moving it and can't wait to be in there.

We moved out yesterday, and it was way too hot but we got it done. Now we are staying with Andrew's parents until we can move in next Wednesday. It's quite a full house at the moment which makes things real interesting.

Last weekend we all went down to Sydney for Saturday because for a few weeks every year they put sculptures along the beach/cliff side between some of the beaches. We got there early and wandered around looking at all of them before having some lunch along the beach.

Some of the sculptures and views along the beach walk:

Bondi beach

this straw was one of our favorites

the little man on the left on the rock is actually a scultpure

The eyes were cool and creepy all at once

There were a few of these all made out of wire, it was really intricate

This isn't actually a sculpture but the home of a homeless man with the best view in Sydney

From there Andrew, Kate and I went in to the city to see some of the sites before meeting back up with the parents for dinner in the harbor at this great seafood place that was right next to the bridge looking at the Sydney Opera House. It was an incredibly long day, I kept dozing off on the way home and we all collapsed pretty quickly once we got home.

Andrew's favorite sculpture

We found these cool bridge cages in an alley as part of a city wide installation of art:

Opera House close up

Our restaurant is where the red arrow is pointing on the right of the bridge

The view from our table

Since we were so exhausted we spent the rest of the weekend relaxing which was nice for a change.

Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.

Not too many changes but I have bought a car (yay!). It's a Mazda that is older then I am, an '82, cute little red hatchback, although it has yet to be named. It took me a little bit to get used to because it has a manual choke which I've never dealt with before so I actually flooded the car the first time I tried to drive it from home.

Work is still going well. I love getting paychecks so that's all good :)

Last weekend Andrew and I saw two houses on Saturday, not too bad but not exactly what we are looking for. I had to work Saturday night so that was a bit of a bust but we made up for it on Sunday by visiting a local vineyard. Last weekend was a big festival at all the vineyards with jazz and open houses so we went to the closest one for the afternoon. They had use try about 20 different wines and explained the whole process for to us. After the tasting we picked up a little picnic hamper and sat out in the sun on the grounds of the vineyard and listened to the jazz band play while we ate locally made quiche and spicy zucchini spread. It was kind of romantic, which is different for us, but really nice.

This week I started going to jazzercise with Andrew's mom. It's a lot of fun, hard to keep up with all the moves but good exercise and a good social activity too so I'll definitely keep it up. We're getting ready to head to Sydney for Saturday which should be good fun. Not much else to tell, hopefully more soon.

There are more than 150 million sheep in Australia, and only some 20 million people.

Quick correction from last week: Andrew's car is a manual, not automatic

Another busy week coming to a close. Last Saturday Andrew and I went to the wedding of one of Andrew's best friends, Will's, sister. It was a lovely ceremony outside at one of the local universities. That evening I went out Kate for a night with the girls. We had dinner and went to a few drinks. It was really nice to have girl time. And at the end of the night we were a bit hungry again so we made our way to the glowing light of a 24-hour Mcdonald's. Much to our excitement they told us that we couldn't come in but had to walk through the drive-thru instead. All through college you'd hear stories of people trying to do this at McDonald's and getting yelled at and now we were told to, we giggled all the way through line in-between cars and two guys on bicycles ahead of us. Definitely a good way to end the evening.

Sunday Andrew, Simon and I went on the mission of finding me an automatic car...we were sadly defeated. Then we went over to Will's parents house for a bbq to celebrate the wedding from the day before. Everyone was very nice and welcoming and I felt right at home. Will's parents have built an elaborate backyard perfect for gatherings. The excitement of last weekend was they got to test out the new outdoor pizza oven they just had installed. There was also a pool, a nice sculptural water feature. My favorite part, hands down, was the porch. It was a nice wide two-story porch, we were on the ground level sitting around a table made from a large metal tub which could be filled with ice and drinks as there is a hole in the middle to grab the cold drinks from. The chairs were also made from metal tubs, cut with arm rests and comfortable padded. Added to that, on either side of the table, attached to the second floor were two heaters so we stayed nice and toasty while it rained around us. Very nicely done.

Monday was my first day of work down at Canberra Motor Village as a receptionist. I've done four shifts this week and already received my first paycheck. The work isn't too bad, I answer phones, take reservations, answer questions, check emails, check people in and out and deal with general questions. The staff is all pretty young which is cool, and everyone is friendly. It's nice to have something to do with my day and to make a bit of money, pay is actually pretty good in Australia as the average casual rate is $20/hr, and that's just for a weekday, it goes up on Saturday, up even more on Sunday, and even more on public holidays. A good start I'd say :)

Tomorrow Andrew and I are off to look at two apartments and hopefully pick one of them as our future place, and I'm going to go check out two automatic cars, one of which will soon be mine. Things are very much settling in to place, now I just have to settle in with a group of friends, I've joined a book club but there won't be a meeting until mid-November, a photographic society but their last meeting until February is mid-November so I'll wait to join, and even a knitting club which I'll start going to as soon as I've decided what to knit next, any suggestions are welcome.

More to come once things have been sussed out.

First week in a foreign country - amusing titles are set aside

flying out of Sydney along the coast

flying into Canberra

My first week in Canberra flew by. I spent a few hours in the Sydney airport relaxing and refreshing myself after my 16-hour flight over from LA. It was a quick 26-minute flight over to Canberra. I sat at the back of the plane so I was the last person off. Andrew said that he would be the first person I saw when I got into the airport so I excitedly looked for him as I came down the escalator even though my plane got in about 10 minutes early. I started walking down the terminal looking for him, he was easy to spot wearing the same jeans, jacket and sneakers he had in London. He was using an internet terminal to kill time until my plane came in so I snuck up behind him. He felt really bad that he wasn’t there waiting because he had flowers and a stuffed kangaroo for me.

We loaded everything and headed over to the house. We’re renting a room in a townhouse with Andrew’s friend Simon. The first day we really relaxed, I didn’t unpack much. We met Andrew’s friends Bonnie and Damien for drinks before going out to dinner just the two of us. Bonnie is on the verge of giving birth any day now, she was actually due on Friday but as far as we know still hasn’t had the kid.

Saturday we had breakfast with Andrew’s sister Kate and his dad Paul. His mom is over in New Zealand right now taking care of her sick mother. After breakfast Andrew and I went to explore some of the city before joining Kate to go to a dog park with Kate’s golden retriever, Austin, and their parent’s little dog Jessie. The dogs had a good time running around with other dogs, it was a really nice, large park for them to run off the leads in.

Sunday was my birthday, yay! So Andrew made me breakfast before we grabbed Kate and went over to one of the nature parks Tidbinbilla to check out some animals. Sadly most of them were hiding but we did see a lot of cockatoo which was strange to see out in the wild. There were also emus that run away when you try and get close and a whole lot of kangaroos. On our way out of the park we stopped so I could get close to the kangaroos. They are weird; they lie around like bums, looking kind of similar to deer when they lie down. They didn’t seem to mind us getting close at all, except for the mamma who had a joey in her pouch. We stayed until we got to see them bounce away which makes me the most excited, see the videos at the bottom of this entry. One our way home we stopped at the largest alpine slide in the southern hemisphere and all took a ride down it, loads of fun.



Lots of kangaroo photos:

Emu

My birthday present from Andrew

the flowers Andrew got me from the airport

Monday I had two interviews so Andrew and I drove around a bit in between. My first one was with a golf club as a waitress/beverage/food attendant, they offered me a part-time job but I need something full time so I said I’d think about it since I had a few other interviews. My second interview was with a recruitment agency and the recruiter and I really got on. I really impressed him a lot and he’s on the lookout for jobs for me in the creative/design field doing any kind of work just to get my foot in the door. I actually had a good time chatting with him and left feeling like he’s going to try and find something that will work for me.

Tuesday morning I had another interview with a place called Canberra Motor Village for a receptionist position. After that we were a bit boring, Andrew had to get a haircut so I ran around the mall killing time and then we bought new video games, one being the Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe game which is so much fun. We also had a little cookout down by one of the lakes where they have free bbqs so we got to eat sausages with a nice view of the lake out in the sunshine.

Cook out by the lake

Wednesday we decided to do a quick drive down to the coast to a little town called Batemans Bay. We had some fish and chips and I yelled “mine” at seagulls Finding Nemo style, before we went to find a beach I could put my feet in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. It was fairly cold but it’s early in the season and there were people on the beach who had been swimming. The day was a bit overcast but I can imagine how beautiful it will look on a sunny day, the landscape looks just like that beach screensaver that comes standard on every computer. We decided to drive down the coast a bit to see some other beaches, there was a great secluded one with a tiny car park so not many people would be able to park there. There were already some surfers out taking advantage of the small waves, which will be great once I get better and get my own board. It was a quick ride back up very windy hills, most over 90 degrees, it was lots of fun to go through but I was glad I wasn’t driving on those sharp corners.

Yummy fish and chip meal we shared

Me going (a bit) into the Pacific Ocean for the first time:

Andrew had to go back to work Thursday so Mr. Walker picked me up to take me around the city a bit. He decided it would be a good chance for me to drive around and he has an automatic car so that made it easy. We went to the top of a hill in Canberra where there is a radio tower that you can go up in and get a birds eye view of the whole city. Mr. Walker took me around and pointed out different parts of the city to me. From there we drove down to the National Library and had some coffee out on a terrace overlooking the main lake. We drove into the city and parked to go meet Andrew for lunch, great burrito place down in the city.

Then Mr. Walker took me on a tour of the embassy area so he could show me the US Embassy which is at least 4 times the size of all the other embassies which only take up one building and the US one takes up such a large number I couldn’t even count them all. When I get a free day I’m going to go check out the inside and see if I get any special benefits for living here, like Thanksgiving dinner or a 4th of July celebration or something. We ran a few errands after that so I know a good fruit and vegetable market, where the local library and grocery store is and how to get home from both.

Friday I got to drive Andrew’s car around for the day, an automatic. It was quite interesting but I managed to make it around without killing myself or anyone else so that’s good. I met Andrew down in the city with some of his friends for drinks. It was good fun and the beginning to the chaotic weekend we have ahead.

The Land of Volvo's and hippies

So I was home for about a month, filled with packing, unpacking and a lot of traveling to catch up with people before leaving.

As we speak I am sitting in Virgin Blue's Lounge while waiting for my very last flight that will finally get me to Canberra. I have been traveling since leaving Mom and Dad's around 1:30 Wednesday afternoon and I am ready to be done already, this is more travel then I have ever done before. But soon I will be able to send everyone updates from fun and exciting adventures from the other side of the world, I may be farther from Santa Claus now but I'm closer to penguins so it's kind of a toss up.

This is a map of Australia that Andrew sent to me, just so everyone can get an idea of my new country. We live over near Danni Minogue on the east coast.
I'll be sending some updates as soon as I can. It was great to see everyone I got a chance to see while I was home. Don't forget everyone is welcome to come and visit so I can have friends :)

"Are you saying that england doesn't exist?" "It's far too silly a place to be real"

Long long overdue but that's what moving countries does to you. My last few days in London were filled to the brim. I got back to London from Dublin on Wednesday and headed straight for the gallery our show was at to help take down the photographs. Once I was done there I headed over to the Duke to meet up with my friend Matty and to say goodbye to our chef Simon as they, along with my friend Ivan were heading off on Thursday to NYC and I wouldn't see them before I left. Since the England/Croatia football game was on I stuck around to watch that and have some drinks before Jemma joined me at the bar, we were slumber partying for two nights at her place before Mom and Dad got back to London.

Thursday I mailed off my photograph to Andrew's, not really sure what I did after that until I met my friend Paul around 5 to have some beers and hang out for a bit. Then it was off to see the Master of Photo Journalism's show which opened that night in the same gallery ours was in. I barely walked in the door and grabbed a beer before our tutors decided we should go get a beer at the pub next door before heading out to dinner. A group of us from class got together to take a few of the tutors out to dinner so we grabbed the drinks at the pub first before sitting down to a goodbye dinner with them. It was really nice to get everyone together. Headed to the Duke after that, surprise surprise, Jemma has finished working for the night so we sat for a drink before heading back to her place.

Friday I met my friend India for breakfast and we wandered around a bit before I dropped my stuff off at the B&B before meeting my old flatmate Paddy from when I lived in London back in 2005. We wandered a bit before going to one of my favorite mexican restaurant, Wahaca's. It was so delicious, I tried their chocolate ice cream for desert, since it's authentic mexican they add chili to the chocolate. It was a strange combination because the chili made my throat hot and the ice cream soothed it, really tasty. I met up with Mom and Dad and, surprise surprise, headed over to the Duke to meet Uncle Scott for a drink and grab some dinner at this great seafood place around the corner called The Seaport. Uncle Scott and I went there once before with Andrew and it was just as good the second time around. The owner was even nice enough to give us nightcaps to top off the meal.

Saturday we grabbed my bags from where I stashed them at Radi's house, realized how brutal my bags were going to be and hailed a cab back to the B&B. We tried to go together to the whiskey shop Dad loves over by Baker Street and while Mom and I made it just fine Dad had...issues. It started when he couldn't get on the bus because he didn't have enough money on his Oyster card, we didn't realize this until we were upstairs on the bus. We looked down and saw him on the street waving to us. We double checked with him that he'd meet us down by Baker St. The first problem was that the next bus only went part way instead of the whole way and Dad didn't hear this and since he was sitting up top the driver didn't notice he was still on until they got back towards where we got on. So Dad got off and hopped the next bus, the problem this time was that Dad didn't realize the bus was only going to say "George St" not "Glouchester Place for Baker St" so he ended up a ways past us near St. John's Wood. He walked over to get the tube back to Baker St only to discover that the line that runs through there was closed for the day, so he finally caught a bus back to Baker St and met up with us. It was quite amusing, at least for Mom and I. After we finally made it to the whiskey shop I directed Mom and Dad to the Duke so they could drop off their whiskey and went to meet up with Paul again for some time in the London sun.

I met Mom and Dad to check out this thai place that Paul and his flatmate John swear-by called Monkey and Me, it was a worthy destination and perfect for my last London meal. It was then time for my lovely leaving do at the Duke. We had a really great time, they set up a nice spread of snacks for me and everyone. My parents hung around with Uncle Scott for a while chatting with Bev and some of the regulars. Some of my classmates came along which was really cool and James, my old flatmate, hung on til the very end with us.

Me, Jemma and Carly, Duke barwenches

Me and Jemma

Me and Clyde, one of my all time favorite regulars

Me and Norah

Me and India

Jemma, Tom and me

Me and Paul

Me and James

James

Tom taking me for a spin on the dance floor

Jemma and Paul

The last ones standing

We were going to try and make it all the way til 5:30am when I'd have to make sure Mom and Dad were up to get to the airport but by 4am we were falling asleep on the bar, so Paul walked James and I to the bus stop, from there I took James to Victoria Station, we were just in time for him to get the first train back home and I headed to the B&B to get an hours sleep. Luckily I am a light sleeper and woke up to discover Mom and Dad's alarm didn't go off so the girl who barely slept roused the troops and got them moving out the door. We dragged everything to a cab, piled it all in and happily sat back to ride in peace to the airport. Checking-in went smoothly for everyone and all the bags were under the weight limit, both surprises and reliefs. Since we were flying different airlines I left Mom and Dad and headed towards my terminal and onto my plane where I sat back and relaxed for the first time in days with nothing to do besides sleep, eat and watch a few movies, I loved every minute of it.

As I was walking off my plane I saw Mom and Dad's plane pull in next to mine so I met them quickly on the other side of passport control, we grabbed our bags and headed out to meet Aunt Deb who fed me before we drove the 4 hours home. I just collapsed after that incredibly long day of partying, sad goodbyes and traveling.

Filling in on the time in the states will come along soon.