Quick update

So, a quick recap of our week before last before I move on to the good stuff from this past week, yes I know I'm behind, I don't know if I'll ever be ahead again.

So, two weeks ago, Monday, Andrew's car get stolen from the bus parking lot while he's at work, they find the car later that night and it turns out when the people stole it they decided to do a little B&E with it, so the car was used to cart away stolen goods, such a good feeling. We still don't have the car back but Andrew is a little worried it's going to feel weird when he drives it again, I'm sure the guys messed it up so I won't be that surprised.

Tuesday, they turned out electricity off because they lost our paperwork from November applying for electricity in our townhouse and decided that 4 months later was a good time to take some action. Andrew had even spoken to them earlier that day and straightened everything out because we got a letter but since it was in their system to turn ours off a technician was already on its way, something they failed to tell Andrew. After repeated phone calls and promises that someone was coming we finally got power back sometime on Wednesday. It really syched me up for my first day at the new job getting ready for work in the dark.

I started the new job Wednesday, I wasn't in my office but at the main office which is just down the road from here so I could get trained in their software and what exactly I need to do. The girl who was training me, Andy, was really nice and incredibly helpful. Luckily she had been on maternity leave recently so she had a whole binder full of typed notes she handed over to me that gave me a step-by-step on every task. It was a good couple of days to slowly ease me into the Ray White company. My office is part owned by the main office and part owned by this guy Ben.

Friday afternoon I finally got to head out to my office for a few hours to figure out the phone systems, the printer, where everything is set-up and get my space the way I want it. It's a very small office, we've just added a 7th realtor to our group which is very exciting. Because it's so small I sit at the front and do a bit of reception work as well since we don't have the money or space to hire one.

Last weekend Andrew and I went to see a few more houses, one of them being in Gowrie (the suburb his parents live in) and out of our price range. Sadly, prices are so out of control here that we realized we have to bring our price range up a bit. We decided that we actually really like the place, even if the current owner hung sheets all down his driveway, over the garage and put umbrellas in the bushes, plus sat in the garage while the open house was on, he was the first thing you saw when you walked down the driveway so it was a bit weird. We ended up talking to him a bit because he had put giant roll down metal security shutters on all the doors and windows that completely lock the house and I just wanted to make sure it wasn't for an actual security reason. He is a real nice guy and was happy to answer all of our questions.

On our way home that day we decided to talk to Andrew's parents about the actual possibility of raising or price range a bit so we could make an offer on the house.

Well, I'm off for a 30kms bike ride now, I'll fill in on last week and this weekend tonight when I'm home.

Melbourne has the second largest Greek population in the world, after Athens.

Two weekends ago was so much fun. Andrew headed off to the Gold Coast for his friend Will's Buck's Weekend (their version of a bachelor party) and I ran away to meet Rod and Liv in Melbourne. After a 3 hours delay I landed safely in Melbourne to see the end of Satan's revenge on the city, which was what I'm calling the massive storm that hit the city. Roofs collapsed, cars were destroyed, train stations were closed and streets were flooded. It was chaotic, and was the cause for my massive delay and it taking me another 2 hours to get from the airport to our hostel.

The hostel was really nice, we had a room for just the three of us just down from the bathrooms, with a flat screen tv and plenty of room to move around, and since it was a hostel it was incredibly cheap, we might give it a try if we meet in the city again.

After I was given time to dry off the three of us headed off through the rain to meet with some other friends of ours, Mick (another Aussie) and his girlfriend Pil(a Dane like Liv) who just moved back to Melbourne from London recently and a few of their friends. The bar we went to was so trendy we walked past it 3 times before we saw the birdcage hanging over the door that was the only sign for the Red Hummingbird.

After a few drinks there Mick led us to the italian district to a restaurant owned by an acquaintance of Mick's father. The food was absolutely amazing, I had a massive bowl of delicious pasta and split a small pizza with Liv and Rod, we just couldn't help ourselves, it all smelled so good. I am surprised that we managed to walk out of there once we were done eating, I just can't get over how good it was, and not expensive at all. If anyone is heading to Melbourne eat at Cafe Trevi. From dinner we walked a few doors down to a nearby bar for some pool. Everyone was disappointed that Andrew had to miss out so we're going to plan another weekend soon.

Saturday Liv and I did a bit of shopping meeting up with Rod for meals before the three of us hopped a free trolley down to check-out the Docklands where we looked at a photography gallery and had some ice cream while wandering around the shops and waterfront. We relaxed in the room for a bit with a few beers and Uno while we waited to see if the storm was going to hit again, which it of course did as soon as we stepped outside.

Because of all the rain we were running from shelter to shelter be it a doorway, bus stop or even a tree, so we decided to turn it into a rain pub crawl and stop at bars along the way to stay dry. We started at this cool Hawaiian bar where we partook of the happy hour cocktails, I went for a Mai Tai which was very good just not as good as the ones Dad makes, they must have used less rum.

Mai Tai's in the rain, so good

From there we went to a brew house to try some locally made beer before grabbing a quick dinner of fast food and locating an irish pub with live music. We stuck at the pub longest, mainly because of the live music and the ridiculously cheap beer.

Brewhouse:

Not a bar but a really tasty treat

There were lobsters, crabs, fishes and we have no idea what the one on the top left is, if anyone has an idea. They were all in the window of an asian restaurant

Irish pub:

Monday was our last day and Liv and I were very excited about getting to go to Ikea, it is the closest one for her and my closest one is in Sydney so this was my first time to get to go since being here. We had the best time and it was really hard for me to control myself and not buy things since I wouldn't be able to get it home with me. They dropped my in the city on their way out of town so I could try and see some things before heading to the airport. As luck would have it soon after they left me it started pouring rain again. I started walking towards the train station. I decided to avoid the rain for a bit and hid out in this great little pub called Insigna right across from the Aquarium. It has incredibly comfortable couches and a great decor and was very hard to leave though luckily the rain had stopped by that point.

This past week was sadly my last one at ASADA since my contract was ending and as I'm not a resident I'm not allowed to stay. Luckily I've been getting a good amount of interviews and Thursday I was given an offer from one of the main real estate companies in Canberra. They have just opened a new office and have asked me to come in and run the office, kind of scary to think I am going to be in charge of people, weird. We'll have to see how it goes.

This past weekend we had drinks Friday night with some of the kids from my work and than went home to meet some of Andrew's s friend to watch some football. Saturday we had to do some house hunting, it's a very grim market out there right now and so far we haven't found anything as much as the place that we went to auction for on Wednesday. We were really excited about the auction and thought we had a very good chance of getting it, the bank evaluated it at $375 , the place ended up going for $422, so absurd, only two people bid and everyone else stood around in shock. But we continue on, this weekend we'll do some more looking. So everyone fingers crossed that we find something soon that we like. Until...well probably Sunday cause I know I'm super behind with this.


ps- we're on fire....or they were doing some backburning and the wind picked up
I know the bottom two pictures may not look very impressive but there are houses, towers and mountains hidden in that smoke, I'll take a non-smoke picture tomorrow for comparison

You fling yourselves into the sea when you're not walking around audibly crackling in the heat. And the sea is full of jellyfish and sharks and....

...and other things that hate you."

Getting close to being a month behind, I think I need to get better at this.

It's been a pretty busy few weeks. The other week Canberra had an annual multi-cultural festival. Andrew and I went down Saturday because they just filled about 5 blocks full of stalls that were serving food from all different countries. We decided to be smart and split every thing we got so that we could eat more, it was a good plan, next year we think we'll skip breakfast and stay there through dinner because everything we ate was sooooo good.

Our downfall, no idea what it was but it's a delicious Mediterranean and full of spinach,
feta cheese and some kind of ground meat. Our tasty desert

That night I went out with some of the girls from work for karaoke to celebrate two of the girls birthdays. It was such a good time, everyone was singing and dancing, they're really fun girls.

Last weekend was of course Valentine's Day. We decided to keep it pretty low-key. Saturday night we went out for dinner to a Japanese restaurant called Iori, it has a reputation for being the best Japanese restaurant in the city and after eating there we could see why. We each got a platter, mine was different kinds of chicken plus miso soup, and Andrew's was different kinds of salmon and crab hot pot. We were so stuffed and happy when we left, it was top notch.

After dinner we went to Damon's to watch the first Australian Rules Football game of the season, Andrew is a big fan so he was really keen to get together with his friends to watch it.

Sunday morning we slept in before having a homemade brunch and then we proceeded to watch movies and play video games before I made great steaks, not as good as Dad does but I'm off to a good start. We finished the meal with cupcake size chocolate chip cheesecakes I made, yummy.

This weekend we decided we were finally going to spend a weekend at the beach. We drove down Saturday and put up a tent in this nice eco-resort right next to the ocean. It's the same place that Andrew's parents used to take him when he was younger, although it has grown a bit since he was last there. We managed to get the tent up all right which was pretty impressive since it was our first time trying. The ocean was not too cold so we got to swim for quite a while, the beach was deserted too so we had it all to ourselves. After getting slammed by waves for a while we explored the tidal pools for a while.

tons of seaweed piled all over the beach

Weird metal canister that was on the side of the beach

Andrew was trying out my camera, learning how to adjust setting and such

The cool thing about this place is that there were kangaroos all over the place and they were so calm, they didn't even move when you got within two feet of them. I was going to pet them but got a bit too nervous, next time though because later I saw some kids petting them, and if they didn't get mauled I certainly wont. It was so neat to look up and just see a kangaroo bounding through the campsites, I couldn't stop giggling.

All sorts of wildlife running rampant - kangaroos, a kookaburra, more kangaroos and a blue bottle jellyfish

The beach Sunday morning

Today was so hot that I felt I was melting a bit. I sat by the ocean for a while waiting for Andrew to wake up. The heat caught up with me when we were packing up the tent, even sitting there eating breakfast I actually had sweat dripping down my face, Andrew thought it was kind of funny but I was not enjoying it. After packing up the tent we decided we had earned another swim before going home.

Tonight was something called Troc Fest, it's a short film festival that is shown all across Australia at the same time. Everyone gets picnics and lawn chairs and sits around on the grass watching the movies.

January 26, Australia day, is the anniversary of ships arriving in Sydney carrying a load of Convicts.

This past weekend Andrew and I kept pretty busy. Saturday we bummed around a bit before going to see the WNBL Canberra Capitols play the Sydney Heat. I'm not too into basketball but by the end of the game I was on the edge of my seat cheering along with the rest of the crowd waiting to see if we would make it through the semi-finals. We won by two points in overtime, it was amazing! On the way out we decided that if they get a home game for the finals we'll be there.

Sunday we were going to go to the beach for the day but we got halfway there and saw that it was still so cloudy, I checked and it was going to be cloudy, slightly drizzly and only a little warm all day. We decided to head back instead of wasting our time driving down on a crappy day. Instead we spent the day relaxing at home watching movies.

Monday for pre-Australia day we went over to the Walkers for a bbq before heading to Parliament House lawn for Day 1 of Australia Day celebration. They announced Australian of the Year and had 6 or so bands play. We were pretty excited in a dorky way for Hailey Warner, she was runner up Australian Idol this year and Andrew and I were cheering for her during the competition.

I have to say that people give Americans crap all the time for being patriotic but we are nothing compared to an Aussie on Australia Day. Any day of the year you can walk into an Aussie bar anyhow and if you yell out "Aussie Aussie Aussie" the entire bar will answer you back with a resounding "Oi! Oi! Oi!". I have never seen such patriotism as I did as the celebrations Monday night. There were shirts (tee, tank, halter), hats (bucket, baseball, straw, jester, cowboy), stickers, tattoos, flip flops, sneakers, shorts, underwear, bras, bathing suits for me and women, towels, coolers, kuzzes, tents, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, buttons, coloured wigs, flags of all kinds, small flags, car flags, flags made into dresses, shirts, skirts, capes, really little flags, bunting, beach balls, balloons, blow up kangaroos, inflatable number 1 fingers, inflatable bats, umbrellas, and that's just what I can remember seeing last night. It's beyond absurd. And these are normal people, on 4th of July there are some people who go all out and will wear hats, shirts or something but this crowd was covered with it, our group was overflowing with Kate and her friends covered in flags of all kinds.

Andrew and Nathan relaxing before the show

Look at all the crazy Aussies

Andrew all Red Sox-ed out

It was a whole lot of fun to listen to all the music and just relax in the warmth for the evening. They even did a flyover with their equivalent of the Blue Angels, it was really cool to watch.

Tuesday for actual Australia Day we decided to sleep in before heading to Pine Island to swim for a few hours. The day was nice and relaxing, as most of our days are, swimming then down to the city to meet Dave for a drink before watching the massive amount of fireworks going on on the river.

Down at Pine Island

Good first Australia Day in Australia all around. The half week back at work was really slow and painful but completely worth it for last weekend.

Dropbears are an evil species of koala that fall from trees and attack humans.

The evil strain of koala don't actually exist. The story was created to fool Americans.

I'm slowly catching up with myself, only a week and a half behind now, yay!

Last Saturday we got up at the crack of dawn for Damien to pick us up at 6:30 and make the longer drive down to Thredbo, which is about twenty minutes past Jindabyne where the Walkers have their lake house. We were going to Thredbo for the Thredbo Blues Festival. Andrew and Damien have been going to this for years, and they've been getting their early for years just so they can get "the perfect seats" which are on the tops side of the pool surrounded by umbrellas in view of the bands. I have to admit it was a good spot to sit but the two of them were so nervous the last half hour of the drive that we'd get there and someone else would have taken their spot, discovered how wonderful it is up there and beaten us there. Apparently the panic is a yearly tradition as well. Andrew and I left Damien to park the car so Andrew could run up and secure our spot, make sure we were safe for another year. When I rounded the bend to the pool at 9:30am it was completely empty except for Andrew and the people setting up for the festival.

The festival didn't actually start until 11am so g [the g was Andrew's contribution to the blog, he felt left out], so people didn't start showing up until 10:30 or so. We did end having a great view of everything though, and were covered by shade for most of the day. The first band sounded like we were in a dentist office so we ignored them. The second one, Gail Page, absolutely blew our socks off. She had 3 guitars and at one point had another one of the performers for the day come play as her second pianist. They were just incredible.

The boys by the pool

It was a bit chilly, hence the hoodie

The crowds around the pool, the bands were playing at the red and white stripped tent

Andrew loves making faces behind me when we try and take a nice photo:


The boys were very excited about Bondi Cigars, who were the last ones to play poolside, so we took a quick dip in the pool while we waited for them to come on. Another great band to listen to but at the end of the day I still think Gail Page was my favorite.

After the last band at the pool we decided to ditch our pool gear at the car and go to one of the bars that had three more hopefully good, acts on. Andrew broke my only pair of shows on the way to the car and they were beyond repair, a good reason as to why girls should always bring two pairs of shoes everywhere they go. Luckily Damien saved the day with his Chuck Taylor Converse that he lent to me so I wouldn't be barefoot.

We did a bit of dance and jamming with the bands until probably 1 at which point I was done for, so Andrew and I headed back to the car to crash while Damien stayed on til the end with the last band. We had figured sleeping in Damien's beast of a SUV wouldn't be a problem because of it's size but the back seat wouldn't fold down. So it was either cramped falling off the back seat, or half sitting up freezing in the front seat, I tried both and it did not provide for a good nights sleep. We've already decided we're booking a room soon for next year so everything isn't sold out like it was this year.

Damien was lucky because he has a swag that he brought along with him. A swag is some weird combination of cushy roll-up and sleeping bag all in a one and waterproof. Damien took his portable, sleep anywhere swag and threw it up on the roof. It made for pure entertainment the next morning when cars drove by and saw him up there.



We packed up pretty early and made our way to Jindabyne for breakfast before heading the rest of the way home. The rest of the weekend was spent lying on the coach, eating take away pizza and watching movies, the best way to spend a Sunday in my book.