My ranking for Week 2:
Ladies
Megan Corkrey
Allison Iraheta
Mishavonna Henson
Jeanine Vailes
Jasmine Murray
Jesse Langseth
Guys
Adam Lambert
Nick Mitchell / Normal Gentle
Kris Allen
Matt Breitzke
Kai Kalama
Matt Giraud
I would hope Adam Lambert and Megan Corkery will be the top vote getters. I would love to see Nick as the third vote getter.
Going to the phones.. Gotta vote for Nick.. :D
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Car Troubles
I apologize for the lack of detail in this blog.. I've been pretty sick since sitting in my car in the cold for hours but I wanted to post something since lots has happened..
Saturday night I went to see Ryan Adams and the Cardinals with Kaitlyn. The show was very good, and I had a great night until the ride home.. My car died on the way home and we were stranded on the side of the road for hours.. I called AAA around 1:30am and the didn't show up till after 4:00am!! Jessie came and picked us up and we headed home. Even with the death of Sonic I had a very good night. I posted some really good pics from the concert on flickr and one video on youtube.
Sunday I met up with Holly at Mohegan Sun, we ate lunch and had fun in the arcade for a few hours..
I stopped by Patrick Subaru on Monday before my doctors appointment and found out my engine had died and needed to be replaced... I spent the rest of Monday and most of Tuesday deciding what to do about my car.. In the end I decided to replace the engine and hope for the best.
Yesterday at dinner I ate a bit and slept a lot..
American Idol Week 2 is on tonight. I will probably post another blog later tonight with my picks for this round.
----
My dad put up an online database of his movies that he has for sale. Here is the link.. http://www.invelos.com/dvdcollection.aspx/GomezAddams
If you want any movies they are $2 per movie, if the movie is a set then it's $2 per disc in the set. Email me if you want to buy any...
---Diversion of the Day
http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/2009-02-17/index.html
Saturday night I went to see Ryan Adams and the Cardinals with Kaitlyn. The show was very good, and I had a great night until the ride home.. My car died on the way home and we were stranded on the side of the road for hours.. I called AAA around 1:30am and the didn't show up till after 4:00am!! Jessie came and picked us up and we headed home. Even with the death of Sonic I had a very good night. I posted some really good pics from the concert on flickr and one video on youtube.
Sunday I met up with Holly at Mohegan Sun, we ate lunch and had fun in the arcade for a few hours..
I stopped by Patrick Subaru on Monday before my doctors appointment and found out my engine had died and needed to be replaced... I spent the rest of Monday and most of Tuesday deciding what to do about my car.. In the end I decided to replace the engine and hope for the best.
Yesterday at dinner I ate a bit and slept a lot..
American Idol Week 2 is on tonight. I will probably post another blog later tonight with my picks for this round.
----
My dad put up an online database of his movies that he has for sale. Here is the link.. http://www.invelos.com/dvdcollection.aspx/GomezAddams
If you want any movies they are $2 per movie, if the movie is a set then it's $2 per disc in the set. Email me if you want to buy any...
---Diversion of the Day
http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/2009-02-17/index.html
Saturday, February 21, 2009
1985
I am sitting on the couch watching Tom Seaver's 300 win on the new MLB Network. This game was in 1985 when Seaver played on the Sox, when I say the Sox I mean the White Sox. Back in 1985 they were trying to redifine their team so they dropped "white" off their name and uniforms and were just the Sox. They wore a pretty bad uniform that year, I can't say it was the worst uniform, but it was pretty bad. It's pretty cool watching this because they are giving alot of historical side notes, during commercial breaks they give commentary on the game from today's perspective. One thing I found very interesting was the Dwight Gooden pitched his first game in a Mets uniform that same day which back then would not seem significant but looking back at it in that way is.
Anyway, this is not meant to be a blog about me watching an old baseball game... so...
....
Thursday and Friday were all about trying new restaurants. Wednesday night me and Jessie had decided we would eat at the Thai restaurant in Putnam and on the way would pick up a menu to the new pizza place (Palmieri's). We went in and grabbed a menu and while there the guy behind the counter gave us each a very small piece of the pizza to try. After eating it both of us were upset that we had already called in the Thai order.
-small tangent--> The announcers in 1985 were speculating on the future of Tom Seaver, one of them said that he thought Tom had a good head for managing, the other said that Tom Seaver belongs in the broadcasting booth. They discussed it for a few minutes and both agreed that they would love to see Tom in the broadcast booth someday. If you don't already know.. Tom Seaver is one of the Mets announcers on SNY.
Back to our regularly scheduled blog.. Thursday night I asked Jessie out for a pizza date at Palmieri's. They have a BYO policy so we went down to Putnam Liquors and got a Malbec Cabernet blend by a company called Paladin to drink with our pizza which ended up being a really good wine. We split a pizza and it was OMG good! I don't usually rave about Pizza places, especially ones outside of NY. Pyzzz is good brick oven pizza, Someplace Special has good greek pizza but nobody in the New England area has ever had what I would consider good "New York" pizza. It's actually always been kind of a joke when you see places that boast "New York style pizza" or "Brooklyn style pizza", usually you end up leaving the place wondering if they've ever tried pizza in NY. Palmieri's does have the dreaded "New York style pizza" sign on the door but for them it's deserved. Not only do they have New York style pizza they have amazing New York pizza! I will be going back there again and again..
After dinner we snuggled on the couch and watched a few episodes of Scrubs from a few weeks ago. Kate Micucci was a guest star in the 2nd episode we watched playing a possible love interest for Ted. They did an amazingly cute song called "Screw You", which is my diversion of the day. I looked Kate up on Myspace and she is as super cute as her character and her music is really fun. "Screw You" is one of her songs, another of my favorites of hers is "Dear Deer" which I will post as a 2nd diversion for today. I am giving you two because I had not blogged nearly enough lately.
Before dinner on Thursday I went back to the tattoo place and I showed Dave what I liked about each drawing and gave him some thoughts on how I would like to see the tree drawn. I went back on Friday before dinner and got his new drawing. I am not going to say what I think here yet, I would like you to give me your opinion (don't worry, your opinions are not going to change mine but I would like to hear them).
....
Friday night Lynz came over with Anja and we went to Yamato which is a new Japanese restaurant in Dayville. I can't really talk about the cooked food but I can say they had good sushi. The miso soup was good and the salad was ok. The really odd thing about this place is that it's a "steak house" meaning you would expect cooking tables, instead they have a cooking counter in the back with two chefs. The counter is open to view (if your table has a view of it, ours didn't) but it's not the same as having the chef at your table. I don't know if they were doing any tricks while cooking because I couldn't see the cooking area. I would like to go back again and this time get some cooked food to see what it's like. I was going to get some cooked food last night but I decided to just get sashimi instead which was well cut and came with a ton of daikon.
After dinner we came back and watched a bunch of Cheers before heading to bed. I posted this and then saw a notepad document up behind the window with an quote from Samuel Mayday Malone that I wanted to post. He was talking about being out with a girl and refered to it as "a wild night of friend making." I like that phrase.. Thanks Sam... :D
--Diversions of the Day
Screw You
Dear Deer
Anyway, this is not meant to be a blog about me watching an old baseball game... so...
....
Thursday and Friday were all about trying new restaurants. Wednesday night me and Jessie had decided we would eat at the Thai restaurant in Putnam and on the way would pick up a menu to the new pizza place (Palmieri's). We went in and grabbed a menu and while there the guy behind the counter gave us each a very small piece of the pizza to try. After eating it both of us were upset that we had already called in the Thai order.
-small tangent--> The announcers in 1985 were speculating on the future of Tom Seaver, one of them said that he thought Tom had a good head for managing, the other said that Tom Seaver belongs in the broadcasting booth. They discussed it for a few minutes and both agreed that they would love to see Tom in the broadcast booth someday. If you don't already know.. Tom Seaver is one of the Mets announcers on SNY.
Back to our regularly scheduled blog.. Thursday night I asked Jessie out for a pizza date at Palmieri's. They have a BYO policy so we went down to Putnam Liquors and got a Malbec Cabernet blend by a company called Paladin to drink with our pizza which ended up being a really good wine. We split a pizza and it was OMG good! I don't usually rave about Pizza places, especially ones outside of NY. Pyzzz is good brick oven pizza, Someplace Special has good greek pizza but nobody in the New England area has ever had what I would consider good "New York" pizza. It's actually always been kind of a joke when you see places that boast "New York style pizza" or "Brooklyn style pizza", usually you end up leaving the place wondering if they've ever tried pizza in NY. Palmieri's does have the dreaded "New York style pizza" sign on the door but for them it's deserved. Not only do they have New York style pizza they have amazing New York pizza! I will be going back there again and again..
After dinner we snuggled on the couch and watched a few episodes of Scrubs from a few weeks ago. Kate Micucci was a guest star in the 2nd episode we watched playing a possible love interest for Ted. They did an amazingly cute song called "Screw You", which is my diversion of the day. I looked Kate up on Myspace and she is as super cute as her character and her music is really fun. "Screw You" is one of her songs, another of my favorites of hers is "Dear Deer" which I will post as a 2nd diversion for today. I am giving you two because I had not blogged nearly enough lately.
Before dinner on Thursday I went back to the tattoo place and I showed Dave what I liked about each drawing and gave him some thoughts on how I would like to see the tree drawn. I went back on Friday before dinner and got his new drawing. I am not going to say what I think here yet, I would like you to give me your opinion (don't worry, your opinions are not going to change mine but I would like to hear them).
....
Friday night Lynz came over with Anja and we went to Yamato which is a new Japanese restaurant in Dayville. I can't really talk about the cooked food but I can say they had good sushi. The miso soup was good and the salad was ok. The really odd thing about this place is that it's a "steak house" meaning you would expect cooking tables, instead they have a cooking counter in the back with two chefs. The counter is open to view (if your table has a view of it, ours didn't) but it's not the same as having the chef at your table. I don't know if they were doing any tricks while cooking because I couldn't see the cooking area. I would like to go back again and this time get some cooked food to see what it's like. I was going to get some cooked food last night but I decided to just get sashimi instead which was well cut and came with a ton of daikon.
After dinner we came back and watched a bunch of Cheers before heading to bed. I posted this and then saw a notepad document up behind the window with an quote from Samuel Mayday Malone that I wanted to post. He was talking about being out with a girl and refered to it as "a wild night of friend making." I like that phrase.. Thanks Sam... :D
--Diversions of the Day
Screw You
Dear Deer
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
American Idol Season 8 Week 1
Quick Recap... Last night at dinner I was told that I write blogs that are silly long and as I said then the reason the blogs are so long is because I don't blog frequently enough so the tend to get very wordy... I have not blogged since I was in the air on Friday so I have a few days to recap but I will do them in the quickest way possible...
Landed Friday night and got home real late... Woke up lazily on Saturday and got ready in time for Lynz to come over for lunch, went to the Courthouse for my regular "welcome home" meal. Normally I would do dinner there but Sara is now doing a raw diet.. Speaking of dinner, Sara and Ryan came over and we (me and Ryan) had rice pasta with sausages and Jessie's raw sauce. Jessie and Sara had zucchini instead of pasta with the sauce.
Robyn was supposed to come up for Sunday but her car was not going to let her get here. Instead I went with Jessie, Sara, and Ryan to a vegetarian restaurant for a late brunch. We got to brunch at 3pm so it was basically our only meal for the day.
Monday I met Kaitlyn for lunch at the Amherst Brewery which had some good food and good beer. I had the Heather Ale which was very tasty, but not nearly as tasty as the beer that Kaitlyn got me which was a Raspberry Barleywine Ale from Berkshire Brewing. I just looked it up on BeerAdvocate and it's apparently an alias for their Raspberry Strong Ale. Monday night Jessie went out with a guy she met on OKC and hung at the house and caught up on TV..
Tuesday night was our family dinner and all the regulars were there and one new addition in Hoyle.. I can't really say all the regulars.. Matt and Sile were not there again, they are down in NJ right not because Matty just left EMC for a new job and is training this week.. Rowan was also not there because he was off with his Renae in Canada. Speaking of Renae, her and Joe got tickets to come with us to go see Toad. Last night I made a raw dish.. I should post the recipe on the Tuesday night blog but that would require logging in there so here goes...
Corn (1 pound)
String Beans (little pile)
Wax Beans (little pile)
Apples (2 whole apples sliced into thin wedges)
Bean Sprouts (big pile)
Shitake Mushrooms (1 package)
Sesame Seeds (approx 2 tablespoons)
Pistachios (1 bag of raw - crushed)
Grapefruit Juice (2 grapefruits worth of juice)
Speaking of recipes, Sara made a raw mushroom burger patty out of Jessie's Living Cuisine book. I need to photocopy the recipe for Drew but I need to take the book from Sara first unless she wants to type it up for us.. :D
....
See, that was a quick little blog to get you all up to date... I know I missed some stuff but I wanted to keep it short... Oh, one more thing.. I had my cousin create me an Australian voip number which forwards to my cell phone. Unfortunately the number he got me has a problem on it and tech support is currently trying to fix it.
....
I am sitting here watching last nights American Idol. This year they are doing the top 24 very different. They narrowed it down to the top 36 before bringing it to the votes. They then took the top 36 and split them into 3 groups of 12. Last night the first group of 12 went and of those they are going to keep three, top girl, top boy and the next top vote getter. Now, I'm currently watching the elimination episode but here is my ranking from last nights...
Very good guys
-Danny Gokey
-Stephen Fowler
-Ricky Braddy
Good guys
-Anoop Desai
-Brent Keith
Eh guy
-Michael Sarver
Very good Girl
-Tatiana del Toro
Eh Girls
-Ann Marie Boscovich
-Alexis Grace
-Jackie Thonh
Bad Girls
-Casey Carlson
-Stevie Wright
My vote for who should stay
-Danny Gokey (top male vote getter)
-Tatiana del Toro (top female vote getter)
-Stephen Fowler (third most votes)
Who actually stayed
-Alexis Grace (had to be the third most votes)
-Michael Sarver (OMG! He was the worst guy)
-Danny Gokey
I really can't believe Tatiana didn't make it in. She was really the only girl who was even worth having in the competition from last night. I think that her changed attitude might have burned her.. In her audition and in the Hollywood weeks she was quirky and fun, in last nights episode she was all demure and serious and tried saying how that was how she really was. My guess, she watched herself on TV during the last weeks and decided she needed to change because American would think she was too off the wall to be an American Idol... /sigh
Landed Friday night and got home real late... Woke up lazily on Saturday and got ready in time for Lynz to come over for lunch, went to the Courthouse for my regular "welcome home" meal. Normally I would do dinner there but Sara is now doing a raw diet.. Speaking of dinner, Sara and Ryan came over and we (me and Ryan) had rice pasta with sausages and Jessie's raw sauce. Jessie and Sara had zucchini instead of pasta with the sauce.
Robyn was supposed to come up for Sunday but her car was not going to let her get here. Instead I went with Jessie, Sara, and Ryan to a vegetarian restaurant for a late brunch. We got to brunch at 3pm so it was basically our only meal for the day.
Monday I met Kaitlyn for lunch at the Amherst Brewery which had some good food and good beer. I had the Heather Ale which was very tasty, but not nearly as tasty as the beer that Kaitlyn got me which was a Raspberry Barleywine Ale from Berkshire Brewing. I just looked it up on BeerAdvocate and it's apparently an alias for their Raspberry Strong Ale. Monday night Jessie went out with a guy she met on OKC and hung at the house and caught up on TV..
Tuesday night was our family dinner and all the regulars were there and one new addition in Hoyle.. I can't really say all the regulars.. Matt and Sile were not there again, they are down in NJ right not because Matty just left EMC for a new job and is training this week.. Rowan was also not there because he was off with his Renae in Canada. Speaking of Renae, her and Joe got tickets to come with us to go see Toad. Last night I made a raw dish.. I should post the recipe on the Tuesday night blog but that would require logging in there so here goes...
Corn (1 pound)
String Beans (little pile)
Wax Beans (little pile)
Apples (2 whole apples sliced into thin wedges)
Bean Sprouts (big pile)
Shitake Mushrooms (1 package)
Sesame Seeds (approx 2 tablespoons)
Pistachios (1 bag of raw - crushed)
Grapefruit Juice (2 grapefruits worth of juice)
Speaking of recipes, Sara made a raw mushroom burger patty out of Jessie's Living Cuisine book. I need to photocopy the recipe for Drew but I need to take the book from Sara first unless she wants to type it up for us.. :D
....
See, that was a quick little blog to get you all up to date... I know I missed some stuff but I wanted to keep it short... Oh, one more thing.. I had my cousin create me an Australian voip number which forwards to my cell phone. Unfortunately the number he got me has a problem on it and tech support is currently trying to fix it.
....
I am sitting here watching last nights American Idol. This year they are doing the top 24 very different. They narrowed it down to the top 36 before bringing it to the votes. They then took the top 36 and split them into 3 groups of 12. Last night the first group of 12 went and of those they are going to keep three, top girl, top boy and the next top vote getter. Now, I'm currently watching the elimination episode but here is my ranking from last nights...
Very good guys
-Danny Gokey
-Stephen Fowler
-Ricky Braddy
Good guys
-Anoop Desai
-Brent Keith
Eh guy
-Michael Sarver
Very good Girl
-Tatiana del Toro
Eh Girls
-Ann Marie Boscovich
-Alexis Grace
-Jackie Thonh
Bad Girls
-Casey Carlson
-Stevie Wright
My vote for who should stay
-Danny Gokey (top male vote getter)
-Tatiana del Toro (top female vote getter)
-Stephen Fowler (third most votes)
Who actually stayed
-Alexis Grace (had to be the third most votes)
-Michael Sarver (OMG! He was the worst guy)
-Danny Gokey
I really can't believe Tatiana didn't make it in. She was really the only girl who was even worth having in the competition from last night. I think that her changed attitude might have burned her.. In her audition and in the Hollywood weeks she was quirky and fun, in last nights episode she was all demure and serious and tried saying how that was how she really was. My guess, she watched herself on TV during the last weeks and decided she needed to change because American would think she was too off the wall to be an American Idol... /sigh
Friday, February 13, 2009
While in the air back from Sydney..
Would you believe I had not been on the internet long enough to type a blog?? Well, it’s sorta true.. I was on the internet while at work but I never had a block of time that I could just sit and type till now.. When is now? On the plane from Sydney to SF..
….
Lets hop in our Delorian, fire up the flux capacitor and bring us back to Monday evening..
Class went a bit longer than I wanted on Monday so by the time I got back to the hotel is was already late. Me and Jessie decided to go upstairs to the executive room and get a drink and some appetizers while we figured out plans for the night. Plus side to the executive room is that we could both use the internet because they had free wireless upstairs and only one wired in the room. First of all, while on the subject of appetizers let me just say that in most other countries they don’t call them appetizers, they call them “entrees” and they call the main course the “main”. At first this seemed odd to me because we are so used to calling our main dish the entrée but it makes more sense to call the first course the entrée and the main course the main course because after all that is what it is… Anyway, back to the story… We ended up eating lots of cheese and bread and having a few glasses of wine while we decided what we wanted to do. If you’ve been looking at Flickr you will have noticed a bunch of pictures from the Aquarium so it’s pretty obvious where this story is going, but we found out that the Aquarium didn’t close till 10pm so we jumped on the ferry and headed over.
The Ferry ride was nice, it was raining but I stood outside at the very front of the boat taking wonderful pictures and seeing the beautiful skyline all lit up. Jessie sat inside by a window and every time the ferry would stop I would run over to her window and give her a little kiss.. It was like a drive up kissing window.. :D
The Aquarium was really cool actually, I’ve been to a bunch of them in the past but it was nice to see the different creatures they have on the southern hemisphere. One of the really cool things was they had Dugongs which are the original “mermaid”, they say that ship hands used to see them in the water and think they were seeing mermaids. I have a few pictures of them and you can clearly see they don’t look like mermaids, well maybe the tail does.. They however amazing looking creatures and they were feeding them massive amounts of lettuce which was cool to watch them eat. They had a walk above them so you could look down into the water and they had one of those glass tunnels you could walk through too so you could see them from the in the water angle. Speaking of in the in the water angle, they had a shark walk too – big deal everyone does now right, but they also had a coral reef exhibit and they had a glass walkway there too. That one was super cool because it not only had a glass ceiling and walls but a glass floor, it was very relaxing to stand there completely surrounded by fish.
We purchased a two park pass which included the Wildlife Park, when I scanned my ticket at the Aquarium it said it was an invalid ticket type for Mondays which was stupid because I had just purchased it. Ironically it didn’t scan correctly at the Wildlife Park either so I ended up giving to Ange to use at both places as long as she uses it before 30 days is up.
After the Aquarium we went to City Extra which is a 24 hour restaurant that serves decent food. I had the fish and chips snack again (see pervious blogs) and Jessie had Potato Wedges which she says were “eh”.
….
Nothing left to see on Monday so.. Onto Tuesday Marty… Tuesday was not at all what it was supposed to be.. Jessie made last minute plans to hang out with Nigel who we met at the Poly meet up on Sunday. I got out of work and went to Scruffy Murphy’s which is a really big Irish pub in Sydney. Someone from Ireland should come there and show them how to be an “Irish Pub”, the only thing that made them an “Irish Pub” was the name and the Guinness. They had techno dance music on and Cricket on the TV, they had slot machines in the back and served regular pub fare for food. I’ve felt more in Ireland at “Irish Pubs” in America. I had a Guinness and then went shopping to kill more time till Ange got out of work. Me and Ange went to a Korean restaurant and had some really good food, she played me some Australian music by her friend but I forgot to get a copy of it. Maybe she can rip it and mail me a MP3 CD of them and George (who she played for us on Thursday). The house Ange lives in does not have heat which is an odd concept for us Americans, it also has really, really high doorknobs. The doorknobs are at face level which is really odd when you’re half asleep looking to open a door.. A few of the doors and windows have this odd creature on the stained glass, I posted (or will post) a pic of it on my flickr site, check it out and let me know what you think it looks like.. :D
….
Wednesday.. Ange dropped me off at the train and I got to work a little late, stupid trains.. Ironically I found an awesome way to get to work on Wednesday night for Thursday, there is an express train that runs from Central to Epping and only stops twice on the way. I wish I had seen that in the beginning of my trip… /sigh…
Anyway, after work I went over to Ange’s house. We had planned to get together on Wednesday and ended up having Tuesday and Wednesday because of Jessie’s impromptu plans with Nigel on Tuesday. That night Ange took me to an Italian restaurant that she apparently takes all her dates to, I felt a little “on display” with the waitresses and waiters sizing me up. One waitress actually (not so smoothly) walked by, put a tray down and turned to take a long sizing up glance at me.. I had a great eye fillet with mushroom gravy and Ange had a chicken dish. I’m having a brain cramp as to what type of chicken it was, I know she was going to get the Chicken “in-pajamas” (parmesan), the “in-pajamas” thing came from a commercial they used to air in Australia. I’ve obviously never seen it but it was pretty cute when she was describing it. After dinner we went back to her place and I played her a bunch of music on my iPod before heading to bed. One other thing about her house, she has a four poster bed with almost see through white cloth hanging from it that you can let down to have it make a little sanctuary. Me and Jessie have always talked about wanting a four poster like this and I have to say it was really nice. I think it would be too big for our bedroom with the bed we have but it maybe something to look into.
….
Thursday Ange dropped me off and for the first time I took the express train which worked out really well. I got to class just before 9am but didn’t leave her house till almost 8. The day before we left her house at 7:30 and I didn’t get to work till about 9:15.. Thursday was the last day so I got out early and headed back to the hotel, when I got out I texted Jessie and she was just at the hotel so she decided to wait for me before heading out. We had a really good time at the hotel before heading out to the Wildlife Park. That place was awesome! I’ve never seen a Koala bear actually awake! Every zoo I’ve ever been to that has had Koalas had a habitat that they said they were in but I never saw one other than maybe one asleep way up in a tree. This place had them out in the open air with you, they even had a spot where you could pay to pet one and have your picture taken with one. We didn’t pay but we did get to see them really close up, they are such cute animals. Speaking of cute animals, we also saw a sugar glider and these rabbit eared bandicoots that looked like Mieu (the cat from Phantasy Star I). Also on the cute scale, but not on the same level, I finally saw a real Kangaroo, they had a bunch of them in this prairie and they were really cool looking. We also rock wallabies and an overgrown guinea pig looking creature that was running around like crazy, there was a lady from Australia who told us it was the most active wombat she had ever seen.
After the Wildlife Park the food frustration struck.. Jessie had looked up an Indian restaurant she really wanted to eat at and a micro-brew house that looked cool. We decided we would eat an early dinner at the Indian place and then do late night entrees at the brew-house. So, we went to the Indian place and found they closed from 2:30pm till 6:00pm, since it was only 4:30 we decided to do the reverse, go get entrees and beer at the brew-house and then come back for a later dinner. We walk all the way to the stupid brew-house to find them closed for a private function!! ARGH! So…. We decided to head back to the Indian place and kill some time in the mall shopping till they opened. Got some really cool stuff including a drizabone hat and a wool liner for my duster. We got to the Indian place a few minutes after six and Jessie got some really spicy lamb chops and I got goat curry. It was the first time I had goat and it was good, the lamb was very good as well and I would say it was bordering on what I would call too hot. We also had a mushroom naan which was very good. After we ate we started to head back and it started to pour! It rained so much we ended up jumping in a cab to go back to the hotel and we left puddles in the taxi! Unfortunately in order to get a taxi we had to first walk across the Harbourside Bridge and I walked through a puddle that no shit came half way up my shin!
Got changed at hotel and I grabbed my duster before heading back out to the brew-house. We met Ange there and had a few beers, it was the first brew-house I’ve ever been to where non of the beers were good. Just so you never accidentally go there, it was called Red Oak brew-house and it was BAD, I really can’t stress that fact.. I tried three different beers and Jessie tried three and they were all bad. I had the Christmas Cheer which looked great on paper, the Irish Red and the Honey Ale. Jessie had the St Nicholas which was an unfiltered Belgium ale, a blackberry wheat and the chocolate stout. We left there and went back to City Extra to have some late night snacks and some good beer. Me and Ange split scones and Jessie had banana crepes, I also had a James Squire Amber to make up for the bad beer I had earlier in the night.
….
Well, I guess is the end of this blog… My battery is about to die so I’m going to save this before it’s too late.. I am hoping to post this while in SF so everyone can read it while I’m in the air to Boston…
....
Uploaded pics to flickr from the last day or so.. :D
….
Lets hop in our Delorian, fire up the flux capacitor and bring us back to Monday evening..
Class went a bit longer than I wanted on Monday so by the time I got back to the hotel is was already late. Me and Jessie decided to go upstairs to the executive room and get a drink and some appetizers while we figured out plans for the night. Plus side to the executive room is that we could both use the internet because they had free wireless upstairs and only one wired in the room. First of all, while on the subject of appetizers let me just say that in most other countries they don’t call them appetizers, they call them “entrees” and they call the main course the “main”. At first this seemed odd to me because we are so used to calling our main dish the entrée but it makes more sense to call the first course the entrée and the main course the main course because after all that is what it is… Anyway, back to the story… We ended up eating lots of cheese and bread and having a few glasses of wine while we decided what we wanted to do. If you’ve been looking at Flickr you will have noticed a bunch of pictures from the Aquarium so it’s pretty obvious where this story is going, but we found out that the Aquarium didn’t close till 10pm so we jumped on the ferry and headed over.
The Ferry ride was nice, it was raining but I stood outside at the very front of the boat taking wonderful pictures and seeing the beautiful skyline all lit up. Jessie sat inside by a window and every time the ferry would stop I would run over to her window and give her a little kiss.. It was like a drive up kissing window.. :D
The Aquarium was really cool actually, I’ve been to a bunch of them in the past but it was nice to see the different creatures they have on the southern hemisphere. One of the really cool things was they had Dugongs which are the original “mermaid”, they say that ship hands used to see them in the water and think they were seeing mermaids. I have a few pictures of them and you can clearly see they don’t look like mermaids, well maybe the tail does.. They however amazing looking creatures and they were feeding them massive amounts of lettuce which was cool to watch them eat. They had a walk above them so you could look down into the water and they had one of those glass tunnels you could walk through too so you could see them from the in the water angle. Speaking of in the in the water angle, they had a shark walk too – big deal everyone does now right, but they also had a coral reef exhibit and they had a glass walkway there too. That one was super cool because it not only had a glass ceiling and walls but a glass floor, it was very relaxing to stand there completely surrounded by fish.
We purchased a two park pass which included the Wildlife Park, when I scanned my ticket at the Aquarium it said it was an invalid ticket type for Mondays which was stupid because I had just purchased it. Ironically it didn’t scan correctly at the Wildlife Park either so I ended up giving to Ange to use at both places as long as she uses it before 30 days is up.
After the Aquarium we went to City Extra which is a 24 hour restaurant that serves decent food. I had the fish and chips snack again (see pervious blogs) and Jessie had Potato Wedges which she says were “eh”.
….
Nothing left to see on Monday so.. Onto Tuesday Marty… Tuesday was not at all what it was supposed to be.. Jessie made last minute plans to hang out with Nigel who we met at the Poly meet up on Sunday. I got out of work and went to Scruffy Murphy’s which is a really big Irish pub in Sydney. Someone from Ireland should come there and show them how to be an “Irish Pub”, the only thing that made them an “Irish Pub” was the name and the Guinness. They had techno dance music on and Cricket on the TV, they had slot machines in the back and served regular pub fare for food. I’ve felt more in Ireland at “Irish Pubs” in America. I had a Guinness and then went shopping to kill more time till Ange got out of work. Me and Ange went to a Korean restaurant and had some really good food, she played me some Australian music by her friend but I forgot to get a copy of it. Maybe she can rip it and mail me a MP3 CD of them and George (who she played for us on Thursday). The house Ange lives in does not have heat which is an odd concept for us Americans, it also has really, really high doorknobs. The doorknobs are at face level which is really odd when you’re half asleep looking to open a door.. A few of the doors and windows have this odd creature on the stained glass, I posted (or will post) a pic of it on my flickr site, check it out and let me know what you think it looks like.. :D
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Wednesday.. Ange dropped me off at the train and I got to work a little late, stupid trains.. Ironically I found an awesome way to get to work on Wednesday night for Thursday, there is an express train that runs from Central to Epping and only stops twice on the way. I wish I had seen that in the beginning of my trip… /sigh…
Anyway, after work I went over to Ange’s house. We had planned to get together on Wednesday and ended up having Tuesday and Wednesday because of Jessie’s impromptu plans with Nigel on Tuesday. That night Ange took me to an Italian restaurant that she apparently takes all her dates to, I felt a little “on display” with the waitresses and waiters sizing me up. One waitress actually (not so smoothly) walked by, put a tray down and turned to take a long sizing up glance at me.. I had a great eye fillet with mushroom gravy and Ange had a chicken dish. I’m having a brain cramp as to what type of chicken it was, I know she was going to get the Chicken “in-pajamas” (parmesan), the “in-pajamas” thing came from a commercial they used to air in Australia. I’ve obviously never seen it but it was pretty cute when she was describing it. After dinner we went back to her place and I played her a bunch of music on my iPod before heading to bed. One other thing about her house, she has a four poster bed with almost see through white cloth hanging from it that you can let down to have it make a little sanctuary. Me and Jessie have always talked about wanting a four poster like this and I have to say it was really nice. I think it would be too big for our bedroom with the bed we have but it maybe something to look into.
….
Thursday Ange dropped me off and for the first time I took the express train which worked out really well. I got to class just before 9am but didn’t leave her house till almost 8. The day before we left her house at 7:30 and I didn’t get to work till about 9:15.. Thursday was the last day so I got out early and headed back to the hotel, when I got out I texted Jessie and she was just at the hotel so she decided to wait for me before heading out. We had a really good time at the hotel before heading out to the Wildlife Park. That place was awesome! I’ve never seen a Koala bear actually awake! Every zoo I’ve ever been to that has had Koalas had a habitat that they said they were in but I never saw one other than maybe one asleep way up in a tree. This place had them out in the open air with you, they even had a spot where you could pay to pet one and have your picture taken with one. We didn’t pay but we did get to see them really close up, they are such cute animals. Speaking of cute animals, we also saw a sugar glider and these rabbit eared bandicoots that looked like Mieu (the cat from Phantasy Star I). Also on the cute scale, but not on the same level, I finally saw a real Kangaroo, they had a bunch of them in this prairie and they were really cool looking. We also rock wallabies and an overgrown guinea pig looking creature that was running around like crazy, there was a lady from Australia who told us it was the most active wombat she had ever seen.
After the Wildlife Park the food frustration struck.. Jessie had looked up an Indian restaurant she really wanted to eat at and a micro-brew house that looked cool. We decided we would eat an early dinner at the Indian place and then do late night entrees at the brew-house. So, we went to the Indian place and found they closed from 2:30pm till 6:00pm, since it was only 4:30 we decided to do the reverse, go get entrees and beer at the brew-house and then come back for a later dinner. We walk all the way to the stupid brew-house to find them closed for a private function!! ARGH! So…. We decided to head back to the Indian place and kill some time in the mall shopping till they opened. Got some really cool stuff including a drizabone hat and a wool liner for my duster. We got to the Indian place a few minutes after six and Jessie got some really spicy lamb chops and I got goat curry. It was the first time I had goat and it was good, the lamb was very good as well and I would say it was bordering on what I would call too hot. We also had a mushroom naan which was very good. After we ate we started to head back and it started to pour! It rained so much we ended up jumping in a cab to go back to the hotel and we left puddles in the taxi! Unfortunately in order to get a taxi we had to first walk across the Harbourside Bridge and I walked through a puddle that no shit came half way up my shin!
Got changed at hotel and I grabbed my duster before heading back out to the brew-house. We met Ange there and had a few beers, it was the first brew-house I’ve ever been to where non of the beers were good. Just so you never accidentally go there, it was called Red Oak brew-house and it was BAD, I really can’t stress that fact.. I tried three different beers and Jessie tried three and they were all bad. I had the Christmas Cheer which looked great on paper, the Irish Red and the Honey Ale. Jessie had the St Nicholas which was an unfiltered Belgium ale, a blackberry wheat and the chocolate stout. We left there and went back to City Extra to have some late night snacks and some good beer. Me and Ange split scones and Jessie had banana crepes, I also had a James Squire Amber to make up for the bad beer I had earlier in the night.
….
Well, I guess is the end of this blog… My battery is about to die so I’m going to save this before it’s too late.. I am hoping to post this while in SF so everyone can read it while I’m in the air to Boston…
....
Uploaded pics to flickr from the last day or so.. :D
Monday, February 9, 2009
From the Ocean to the Mountains, Australian Style
Saturday morning me and Jessie went for breakfast up at the Quay, she had a salmon, egg and spinach sandwich on a bagel and I had a BLT which served on Turkish bread. She was not very impressed with the bagel, but liked the sandwich as a whole. The BLT however was great, I really like Turkish bread which is crunchy but also soft and how could you not love a sandwich of back bacon! After breakfast we grabbed the ferry and headed over to Manly to hit the beach.
Although it was very warm out the water was crazy cold.. We got to the beach and found an empty spot close to the water to put our towels (newly purchased) down. There were two girls sitting down feeding the birds so we asked them to watch our stuff for a few minutes while we went into the water, they said yeah and laughed giving us 5 minutes, no make that 2 before we get back. Me and Jessie walked down to the water and I got my feet in up to the shins before retreating back to the towels, Jessie actually got in and went swimming for a few minutes before joining me at the towels. We ended up chatting with Sara and Irina for awhile, Sara is from the Netherlands and Irina is from Russia via Spain. They met at the university over by work where they work. When they were getting ready to leave I asked them to lunch on Monday which Sara accepted, we were to meet today at 12:15 at the escalators.
Me and Jessie soaked in the sun for a bit longer before heading out to the upstairs bar that overlooks the beach where we had a beer each before heading back towards the city. Jessie had been talking to guy Mik who lives in SF but spent some time in Sydney, he recommended eating Turkish Pizza over at a place called Saray's. We went over there for dinner, most places in Sydney are BYO (Bring Your Own) which is really good because you can usually buy an entire bottle of wine or beer for the same price you would normally pay for one glass at a restaurant. Before dinner we went to a bottle shop and got a bottle of sparkling shiraz, being American I never thought of red sparkling wine before but it was really good and I'm actually surprised now that we don't have sparkling reds in America. Armed with our sparkling shiraz we went in and got some pizza. Jessie got a lamb pizza and I got a egg and sausage pizza, they were both they were both so much better with the addition of a tzatziki style sauce Jessie got to "dip" the pizza in. I say "dip" because we really just smothered it on and enjoyed. Jessie also got one of the grape leaves because we were watching the lady make them fresh, it was the first time I've ever had one of those that was spicy.. It was so good.
After dinner Ange called, her evening ended early and she was still up and very awake. She met us at the hotel and we ended up driving with her up the Rocks to park and walk back to the hotel. I thought the pub on the Quays was still open but it was not so we went back to the hotel bar which was just calling last call. Jessie got a beer and I got two beers since it was last call and we all hung out and chatted while we drank our beers. Afterwards I walked her back to her car and she drove me back to the hotel. I know she's probably reading this right now so I won't say too much, but.. OK, I know, when has that stopped me before... Ange is a very cool person, I had a blast talking to her on the phone the other night hanging out with her in person was even better. It felt very comfortable for the three of us to hang out, it was like she was an old friend instead of someone we just met. I'm hanging out with again on Wednesday night and really looking forward to it.
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Speaking of looking forward to it... I was speaking with Robyn today and she is having problems with her car, it seems to be overheating.. After about 15 minutes of driving the car starts getting hot, the heat gets up to middle bar and then the check engine light comes on. Apparently the vents in the car are still blowing cold air but... I didn't get to talk to much about it with her because I just found out this morning but I had to run to class so we had to cut our conversation short. She is going to check into the cost of bringing to the dealer but if this does not get fixed she may not be coming up this weekend! I'm not very car savvy, anyone who is have any ideas? I would really hate to have her not come up, but I would hate it more if her car died on the way.
/sigh
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Sunday we got up early-ish and headed up to breakfast before catching the train to the Blue Mountains. We took the subway from Circular Quay to Center Station and purchased round trip tickets to go from Central to the Blue Mountains (Katoomba) which was a complete waste because they didn't have a swipe thing or a collector at the Katoomba station and we didn't need them to get back either because once back in the city limits we could use our regular week passes. We had to wait awhile for the train and once we got on it was way to air conditioned, we were frozen by the time we got out there. Warmed up quickly once we were back out of the air conditioning. Grabbed the Big Bus Tour around the Blue Mountains and got off and Scenic World which had a open glass floored sky ride over the ravine to a restaurant & shop. From the restaurant you can take a 415 metre railway that runs at a 52 degree decline into the valley floor. Once on the floor there is a 50 minute walk through the brush before heading back up in another sky ride. The walk was amazing and took us a bit over the 50 minutes, my foot actually started to feel really good while I was walking down there in the woods, so much so that I was not limping towards the end! It didn't last long, I would say once we were back into town I started to limp again.. Maybe I just need to live in the woods.. Anyway, at one point on the path there was a gazebo they called the rainforest room, it had pews and a podium which would have been the greatest place ever to teach a class from. We took bunches of pictures yesterday and I posted what I considered the best ones from my phone.
We left Scenic World and met Kate from Canada on the bus heading back to the train, she was very cool and was in Sydney for awhile but was heading home soon. We got off the bus and the three of us went to a market before she left and got the train that we missed because we were still looking at stores and I was getting food when it came. We ended up getting off the train early and grabbed a train into Newtown to go to the Poly meetup. We met a few cool people there and had some good conversation before heading to dinner at Thai Tanic, I know lame name.. We had a good time chatting over dinner and one of the guys, Nigel, drove us back towards the hotel. He lives in Manly and made the offer to take us snorkeling, I think Jessie is planning on taking him up on the offer which should be really cool for her.
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So, Jessie and Ange have been chatting and Jessie mentioned Elizabeth's username. I wonder what Elizabeth's reaction to a girl in Australia stalking her is going to be...
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So onto today... Sorry for the long blog but not much time to write when you're living it... You know the line, "Don't dream it, be it".. That line is still just as much true today as it was when Tim said it in 1975. Remember that and you'll never want for excitement and enjoyment in your life..
Not much going on here, just watching students do labs.. I went to lunch today, got to the escalator at 12:10 and much to my pleasant surprise Sara showed up pretty much right on time! We chatted while we ate and then went and sat outside on a bench and chatted some more till I had to go back to work. We are going to meet tomorrow too.. She has a boyfriend back home and is not interested in doing anything while here in Sydney but loves meeting new people..
I have no idea what the plan is for tonight, I will text Jessie when I get out and see if she has any ideas.
---Thought of the Day
"Don't dream it, Be-ee it"
"What Spirit is, man can be"
Who needs the Bear Necessities when you can have it all!
"I want it all, and I want it now"
Although it was very warm out the water was crazy cold.. We got to the beach and found an empty spot close to the water to put our towels (newly purchased) down. There were two girls sitting down feeding the birds so we asked them to watch our stuff for a few minutes while we went into the water, they said yeah and laughed giving us 5 minutes, no make that 2 before we get back. Me and Jessie walked down to the water and I got my feet in up to the shins before retreating back to the towels, Jessie actually got in and went swimming for a few minutes before joining me at the towels. We ended up chatting with Sara and Irina for awhile, Sara is from the Netherlands and Irina is from Russia via Spain. They met at the university over by work where they work. When they were getting ready to leave I asked them to lunch on Monday which Sara accepted, we were to meet today at 12:15 at the escalators.
Me and Jessie soaked in the sun for a bit longer before heading out to the upstairs bar that overlooks the beach where we had a beer each before heading back towards the city. Jessie had been talking to guy Mik who lives in SF but spent some time in Sydney, he recommended eating Turkish Pizza over at a place called Saray's. We went over there for dinner, most places in Sydney are BYO (Bring Your Own) which is really good because you can usually buy an entire bottle of wine or beer for the same price you would normally pay for one glass at a restaurant. Before dinner we went to a bottle shop and got a bottle of sparkling shiraz, being American I never thought of red sparkling wine before but it was really good and I'm actually surprised now that we don't have sparkling reds in America. Armed with our sparkling shiraz we went in and got some pizza. Jessie got a lamb pizza and I got a egg and sausage pizza, they were both they were both so much better with the addition of a tzatziki style sauce Jessie got to "dip" the pizza in. I say "dip" because we really just smothered it on and enjoyed. Jessie also got one of the grape leaves because we were watching the lady make them fresh, it was the first time I've ever had one of those that was spicy.. It was so good.
After dinner Ange called, her evening ended early and she was still up and very awake. She met us at the hotel and we ended up driving with her up the Rocks to park and walk back to the hotel. I thought the pub on the Quays was still open but it was not so we went back to the hotel bar which was just calling last call. Jessie got a beer and I got two beers since it was last call and we all hung out and chatted while we drank our beers. Afterwards I walked her back to her car and she drove me back to the hotel. I know she's probably reading this right now so I won't say too much, but.. OK, I know, when has that stopped me before... Ange is a very cool person, I had a blast talking to her on the phone the other night hanging out with her in person was even better. It felt very comfortable for the three of us to hang out, it was like she was an old friend instead of someone we just met. I'm hanging out with again on Wednesday night and really looking forward to it.
----
Speaking of looking forward to it... I was speaking with Robyn today and she is having problems with her car, it seems to be overheating.. After about 15 minutes of driving the car starts getting hot, the heat gets up to middle bar and then the check engine light comes on. Apparently the vents in the car are still blowing cold air but... I didn't get to talk to much about it with her because I just found out this morning but I had to run to class so we had to cut our conversation short. She is going to check into the cost of bringing to the dealer but if this does not get fixed she may not be coming up this weekend! I'm not very car savvy, anyone who is have any ideas? I would really hate to have her not come up, but I would hate it more if her car died on the way.
/sigh
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Sunday we got up early-ish and headed up to breakfast before catching the train to the Blue Mountains. We took the subway from Circular Quay to Center Station and purchased round trip tickets to go from Central to the Blue Mountains (Katoomba) which was a complete waste because they didn't have a swipe thing or a collector at the Katoomba station and we didn't need them to get back either because once back in the city limits we could use our regular week passes. We had to wait awhile for the train and once we got on it was way to air conditioned, we were frozen by the time we got out there. Warmed up quickly once we were back out of the air conditioning. Grabbed the Big Bus Tour around the Blue Mountains and got off and Scenic World which had a open glass floored sky ride over the ravine to a restaurant & shop. From the restaurant you can take a 415 metre railway that runs at a 52 degree decline into the valley floor. Once on the floor there is a 50 minute walk through the brush before heading back up in another sky ride. The walk was amazing and took us a bit over the 50 minutes, my foot actually started to feel really good while I was walking down there in the woods, so much so that I was not limping towards the end! It didn't last long, I would say once we were back into town I started to limp again.. Maybe I just need to live in the woods.. Anyway, at one point on the path there was a gazebo they called the rainforest room, it had pews and a podium which would have been the greatest place ever to teach a class from. We took bunches of pictures yesterday and I posted what I considered the best ones from my phone.
We left Scenic World and met Kate from Canada on the bus heading back to the train, she was very cool and was in Sydney for awhile but was heading home soon. We got off the bus and the three of us went to a market before she left and got the train that we missed because we were still looking at stores and I was getting food when it came. We ended up getting off the train early and grabbed a train into Newtown to go to the Poly meetup. We met a few cool people there and had some good conversation before heading to dinner at Thai Tanic, I know lame name.. We had a good time chatting over dinner and one of the guys, Nigel, drove us back towards the hotel. He lives in Manly and made the offer to take us snorkeling, I think Jessie is planning on taking him up on the offer which should be really cool for her.
----
So, Jessie and Ange have been chatting and Jessie mentioned Elizabeth's username. I wonder what Elizabeth's reaction to a girl in Australia stalking her is going to be...
----
So onto today... Sorry for the long blog but not much time to write when you're living it... You know the line, "Don't dream it, be it".. That line is still just as much true today as it was when Tim said it in 1975. Remember that and you'll never want for excitement and enjoyment in your life..
Not much going on here, just watching students do labs.. I went to lunch today, got to the escalator at 12:10 and much to my pleasant surprise Sara showed up pretty much right on time! We chatted while we ate and then went and sat outside on a bench and chatted some more till I had to go back to work. We are going to meet tomorrow too.. She has a boyfriend back home and is not interested in doing anything while here in Sydney but loves meeting new people..
I have no idea what the plan is for tonight, I will text Jessie when I get out and see if she has any ideas.
---Thought of the Day
"Don't dream it, Be-ee it"
"What Spirit is, man can be"
Who needs the Bear Necessities when you can have it all!
"I want it all, and I want it now"
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Great weekend in Sydney
This weekend was really great. I will post a real blog tomorrow while at work, but I wanted to let you know that I posted a bunch of pics from yesterday and today on Flickr just now so check them out.
I tried to post new stuff to Youtube but it's timing out from the hotel, I will try again from work tomorrow.
I tried to post new stuff to Youtube but it's timing out from the hotel, I will try again from work tomorrow.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
James Squire.. Master Brewman
When you think of Australian beer I would like you to think of James Squire.. Last night me and Jessie went to his brewhouse for dinner which is off King's Wharf. It was very beautiful walking along the wharf with the casino across the water and the sun just winking out for the night. I took a picture but I don't think it holds the true beauty of the scene.
For food I had a rump steak that came with 2 big grilled prawns. The prawns where still in their bodies and they were so tasty, the meat was grilled perfectly but needed a bit of salt to bring out the flavor. It seems to be a trend here with places not using enough salt, either that or I'm just a salt junky... Jessie had the Kangaroo which she said was the same as beef, I still hold to my statement that it's a cross between venison and beef.. Dessert was holy jeez amazing. I had a Forest Berry Brulee which was a creme brulee that had raspberries inside it.. In America I've seen creme brulee with fruit on top, but it was so much better with the fruit already in it. Jessie had the James Squire Waffles which is vanilla waffles, caramel banana & homemade toffee icecream. I had a bite and wow was it good, it was like the perfect banana fosters but better!
For drinks... I started with a Highwayman which is a semi-unfiltered Irish Red, my 2nd beer was a Craic which is a Guinness type beer but with a more coffee flavor, my 3rd beer was a return to the classic Amber Ale. I've now had four different James Squire beers and I have to say that I loved each one...
I want to try more of the Coopers beers. I really love their Pale Ale but as of right now James Squire is my favorite Australian Brewer.
For food I had a rump steak that came with 2 big grilled prawns. The prawns where still in their bodies and they were so tasty, the meat was grilled perfectly but needed a bit of salt to bring out the flavor. It seems to be a trend here with places not using enough salt, either that or I'm just a salt junky... Jessie had the Kangaroo which she said was the same as beef, I still hold to my statement that it's a cross between venison and beef.. Dessert was holy jeez amazing. I had a Forest Berry Brulee which was a creme brulee that had raspberries inside it.. In America I've seen creme brulee with fruit on top, but it was so much better with the fruit already in it. Jessie had the James Squire Waffles which is vanilla waffles, caramel banana & homemade toffee icecream. I had a bite and wow was it good, it was like the perfect banana fosters but better!
For drinks... I started with a Highwayman which is a semi-unfiltered Irish Red, my 2nd beer was a Craic which is a Guinness type beer but with a more coffee flavor, my 3rd beer was a return to the classic Amber Ale. I've now had four different James Squire beers and I have to say that I loved each one...
I want to try more of the Coopers beers. I really love their Pale Ale but as of right now James Squire is my favorite Australian Brewer.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Big Bus Tour...
I got back to the hotel and Jessie was in the shower, I joined her to clean up and afterwards we got dressed and hit the big bus tour. The big bus tour is a double decker open air bus, they have one in pretty much every major city and we like to do that tour in each city/country to get the lay of land and some cool history about the area.
So, we grabbed it at Alfred and George right here in Circular Quay. Took it around to Hyde Park and got off so I could get my laundry. The place I dropped my laundry closes at 6pm so we wanted to make sure we got it early, the entire bag of laundry cost me $8 AUS which is less than the hotel would have charged for 1 shirt! We decided we were hungry and hit a pub by the laundry, the pub had Guiness on draft as well as James Squire's Amber Ale. I had two James Squires and Jessie had a Guiness, for food I had fish and chips and Jessie had a BLT which of course was served with back bacon so it was awesome! The best part of the meal was talking to two random people about movies. Craig is a really cool guy who works at Mex Bar which is a restaurant down the road, his flate mate (can't remember her name) works at the pub we were at. He was on his 2 hour lunch break and the four of us ended chatting while we ate.
He mentioned Heath Ledger's first movie which is called Two Hands. It was an Australian movie that was filmed here locally, it may mean that we have to rent it and watch it on my PC since I can change the region on the PC. After lunch we got back on the bus and took it around the rest of the way and are now back in the hotel. Neat things I learned today.. The first ever game of cricket was played at Hyde Park, the Cathedral at St James was never finished because in Australia they had a tax law that only applied to finished buildings so to get of taxes they never "finished" the building..
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Weekend plan as of now.. Tomorrow - Take the ferry to Manly and go to the beach and probably a steak house. Sunday - Take a train out to the Blue Mountains and check out that area. Depending on when we get back on Sunday we may go to a Poly Meetup in Newtown.
So, we grabbed it at Alfred and George right here in Circular Quay. Took it around to Hyde Park and got off so I could get my laundry. The place I dropped my laundry closes at 6pm so we wanted to make sure we got it early, the entire bag of laundry cost me $8 AUS which is less than the hotel would have charged for 1 shirt! We decided we were hungry and hit a pub by the laundry, the pub had Guiness on draft as well as James Squire's Amber Ale. I had two James Squires and Jessie had a Guiness, for food I had fish and chips and Jessie had a BLT which of course was served with back bacon so it was awesome! The best part of the meal was talking to two random people about movies. Craig is a really cool guy who works at Mex Bar which is a restaurant down the road, his flate mate (can't remember her name) works at the pub we were at. He was on his 2 hour lunch break and the four of us ended chatting while we ate.
He mentioned Heath Ledger's first movie which is called Two Hands. It was an Australian movie that was filmed here locally, it may mean that we have to rent it and watch it on my PC since I can change the region on the PC. After lunch we got back on the bus and took it around the rest of the way and are now back in the hotel. Neat things I learned today.. The first ever game of cricket was played at Hyde Park, the Cathedral at St James was never finished because in Australia they had a tax law that only applied to finished buildings so to get of taxes they never "finished" the building..
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Weekend plan as of now.. Tomorrow - Take the ferry to Manly and go to the beach and probably a steak house. Sunday - Take a train out to the Blue Mountains and check out that area. Depending on when we get back on Sunday we may go to a Poly Meetup in Newtown.
Iced Coffee?
Problem with not blogging at least once a day while I'm on the road is I forget details.. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the place I ate on Wednesday night. Oh well, maybe I'll look at the receipt at the hotel and add the name in later as a comment. Anyway, Wednesday I wondered around the city some more and ended up eating a really awesome pizza that had lamb, onion, cheese and tzatziki sauce. The place had a minimum charge of $20 AUS for using AMEX so I had two Cooper's Pale Ales with it..
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Thursday I decided to try the bus route to work instead of the train. The night before I found out that there was a 6:54 bus from Circular Quay that would get me to work by 8:00am. I left the hotel and decided to grab a coffee so I went to the local shop next to the hotel. I ordered the Iced Coffee because I loves me the Iced Coffee. I was NOT expecting the Spanish Inquisition! They grab a plastic cup, they walk over to the freezer and scoop out Vanilla Ice Cream, then they pour milk in and then hot espresso, after the espresso they put whipped cream on it (without asking) and sprinkled coffee powder on top of the whipped cream! I was just standing there watching them make it dumbfounded. It was ok but it was not what I would ever consider an "Iced Coffee", I would consider it more a coffee flavored milk shake or ice cream float.
Walked to the bus and had no problem getting to work, actually got into the building a few minutes past 8:00. Class went good and by 2:30 I was ready to head back which was good because I needed to figure out the laundry thing.. OK, well, I had already figured it out at this point... The hotel wants to charge an ass-load of money to wash stuff, they wanted to charge $6 AUS per pair of underwear!! I found a drop off/pick up laundry on Cathedral street so I figured I was getting out in plenty of time to go back to the hotel, shower and drop of laundry and then call Lucy to figure out what time we were meeting. Well, my adventures in leaving work continued yesterday in real bad fashion. I got to the bus in time to get the 2:45 bus which of course didn't show up... I got on the 3ish bus and it took like 90 minutes to get into the city, at one point the driver slammed on the breaks so hard everyone in the bus went flying, I was sitting down and slid forward in my seat slamming my knee into the seat in front of me. I ended up getting off the bus before he got to Circular Quay and walked the rest of the way! Called Lucy and we decided to meet at 6:00 which left me not that much time.
I took a quick shower, packed up laundry and jetted over to the Cathedral St to drop of laundry. Dumped that and walked as quick as my lame right foot and now bruised and swollen left knee could take me across the city to meet at the movie theater. I got there with a few minutes to spare even so I went into the Albion Hotel Bar and had a glass of Beez Neez Honey Beer while waiting for Lucy. She showed up and we checked the movie times, there was nothing playing right away so we decided to go eat first. While we were looking for a place to eat we found a Cafe & Board Game place called Norita, we walked upstairs to check it out and found they only had coffee, and desserts so we moved on. We ended up eating a Spanish Tapas place and had some really good food, we had grilled bell peppers with garlic and oil, prawns in garlic butter, deep fried little fish (bait) and sausage in a wine sauce. Everything was ok, better once salted! The bait was probably the best thing we had, nice and crunchy and fishy.. The prawns were probably the only one that was "eh", I think they used frozen prawns.
After dinner we walked back to the movies and nothing was playing for hours that we wanted to see so we walked to a different movie theater which had crap playing. So, we started walking back figuring we would go see a later movie but needed to kill time. We ended up going back to Norita to get some coffee and maybe play a game. I was amazed at the selection this place had, they had simple games like Jenga and Rush Hour, they had card games like Uno and they also had hard core board games like Axis and Allies and Settlers of Catan! After much thought we ended up with Rummicube because she had never played it but likes Rummy.
We left Norita and she walked with me most of the way back to the hotel before heading home. I got back to the hotel and chatted with Ange for a few hours on the phone before bed.
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Sorry for the long blog... But I was slacking in the updates.. I am sitting here at work, the students just finished the course so I'm going to pack it in and meet Jessie at the hotel!
---Diversion of the Day
http://xkcd.com/539/
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Thursday I decided to try the bus route to work instead of the train. The night before I found out that there was a 6:54 bus from Circular Quay that would get me to work by 8:00am. I left the hotel and decided to grab a coffee so I went to the local shop next to the hotel. I ordered the Iced Coffee because I loves me the Iced Coffee. I was NOT expecting the Spanish Inquisition! They grab a plastic cup, they walk over to the freezer and scoop out Vanilla Ice Cream, then they pour milk in and then hot espresso, after the espresso they put whipped cream on it (without asking) and sprinkled coffee powder on top of the whipped cream! I was just standing there watching them make it dumbfounded. It was ok but it was not what I would ever consider an "Iced Coffee", I would consider it more a coffee flavored milk shake or ice cream float.
Walked to the bus and had no problem getting to work, actually got into the building a few minutes past 8:00. Class went good and by 2:30 I was ready to head back which was good because I needed to figure out the laundry thing.. OK, well, I had already figured it out at this point... The hotel wants to charge an ass-load of money to wash stuff, they wanted to charge $6 AUS per pair of underwear!! I found a drop off/pick up laundry on Cathedral street so I figured I was getting out in plenty of time to go back to the hotel, shower and drop of laundry and then call Lucy to figure out what time we were meeting. Well, my adventures in leaving work continued yesterday in real bad fashion. I got to the bus in time to get the 2:45 bus which of course didn't show up... I got on the 3ish bus and it took like 90 minutes to get into the city, at one point the driver slammed on the breaks so hard everyone in the bus went flying, I was sitting down and slid forward in my seat slamming my knee into the seat in front of me. I ended up getting off the bus before he got to Circular Quay and walked the rest of the way! Called Lucy and we decided to meet at 6:00 which left me not that much time.
I took a quick shower, packed up laundry and jetted over to the Cathedral St to drop of laundry. Dumped that and walked as quick as my lame right foot and now bruised and swollen left knee could take me across the city to meet at the movie theater. I got there with a few minutes to spare even so I went into the Albion Hotel Bar and had a glass of Beez Neez Honey Beer while waiting for Lucy. She showed up and we checked the movie times, there was nothing playing right away so we decided to go eat first. While we were looking for a place to eat we found a Cafe & Board Game place called Norita, we walked upstairs to check it out and found they only had coffee, and desserts so we moved on. We ended up eating a Spanish Tapas place and had some really good food, we had grilled bell peppers with garlic and oil, prawns in garlic butter, deep fried little fish (bait) and sausage in a wine sauce. Everything was ok, better once salted! The bait was probably the best thing we had, nice and crunchy and fishy.. The prawns were probably the only one that was "eh", I think they used frozen prawns.
After dinner we walked back to the movies and nothing was playing for hours that we wanted to see so we walked to a different movie theater which had crap playing. So, we started walking back figuring we would go see a later movie but needed to kill time. We ended up going back to Norita to get some coffee and maybe play a game. I was amazed at the selection this place had, they had simple games like Jenga and Rush Hour, they had card games like Uno and they also had hard core board games like Axis and Allies and Settlers of Catan! After much thought we ended up with Rummicube because she had never played it but likes Rummy.
We left Norita and she walked with me most of the way back to the hotel before heading home. I got back to the hotel and chatted with Ange for a few hours on the phone before bed.
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Sorry for the long blog... But I was slacking in the updates.. I am sitting here at work, the students just finished the course so I'm going to pack it in and meet Jessie at the hotel!
---Diversion of the Day
http://xkcd.com/539/
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Australia Day 4 completed and Day 5, so far..
Let me restart and recap the rest of yesterday and today.. I was re-reading the last blog and although it's a good account of my time with Lucy it's not a good telling of the rest of the day..
After Monday's adventure in getting to work I decided to get up and leave earlier. I left the hotel at 6:30ish and got as I got to the train station the train was pulling up. I jumped on to find it was a semi-express which got to me Epping in about 40 minutes. I got off the train and the bus was just pulling in! What friggin timing.. I got to work a little after 7:40 which was really ironic because the doors didn't open till 8.. /sigh
For lunch I went to (hold your surprise) a Japanese restaurant in the food court and got 6 pieces of sushi, 1 maki roll, 1 eel hand roll and a gyoza all for $17 Aus. It was very good, not as good as in Japan, but duh... Before I left I got an outside door pass so I can now get there before 8am.
Anyway, you know the rest of yesterday so onto today..
....
Left the same time today and got to work around 8:15.. That's not the annoying part, but wait.. For lunch I went over the food court and, I know, I know, I almost don't want to say but... I ate at Hungry Jacks... Ah, ha! You don't know what Hungry Jacks is!! My secret is safe... For now... :(
I got out of work real early today (2:30ish) and walked to the bus. Now, the bus said it was coming at 3:11 and it was 2:48 so I figure I'll sit and wait.. While I was waiting I saw a bus go by for Circular Quay but I figured it would be quicker to wait for the bus/train than take a bus all the way. Well, the stupid 3:11 bus ended up being a 3:26 bus and when it got the train station the next train was not for almost 20 minutes. While waiting I ended up chatting with a girl named Xai, her mom is from China but she considers herself Australian not Chinese. When the train arrived, much to my horror, it was an "every stop" train.. /sigh
Good news was that me and Xai talked on the train for about 30 minutes before she got off (the train you dirty bastards). Finally got back to the city at 4:45! Called Lucy and found that she has a basketball game tonight so had to push our date till tomorrow.. It's now almost 7:00 so I am going to head out to eat, I have no idea what or where yet. I guess I'll end up wherever my feet take me.. :D
Oh, I do know I'm going to walk up to Circular Quay and check the bus schedules to see how long it would have taken to take the stupid bus. I may do that tomorrow..
After Monday's adventure in getting to work I decided to get up and leave earlier. I left the hotel at 6:30ish and got as I got to the train station the train was pulling up. I jumped on to find it was a semi-express which got to me Epping in about 40 minutes. I got off the train and the bus was just pulling in! What friggin timing.. I got to work a little after 7:40 which was really ironic because the doors didn't open till 8.. /sigh
For lunch I went to (hold your surprise) a Japanese restaurant in the food court and got 6 pieces of sushi, 1 maki roll, 1 eel hand roll and a gyoza all for $17 Aus. It was very good, not as good as in Japan, but duh... Before I left I got an outside door pass so I can now get there before 8am.
Anyway, you know the rest of yesterday so onto today..
....
Left the same time today and got to work around 8:15.. That's not the annoying part, but wait.. For lunch I went over the food court and, I know, I know, I almost don't want to say but... I ate at Hungry Jacks... Ah, ha! You don't know what Hungry Jacks is!! My secret is safe... For now... :(
I got out of work real early today (2:30ish) and walked to the bus. Now, the bus said it was coming at 3:11 and it was 2:48 so I figure I'll sit and wait.. While I was waiting I saw a bus go by for Circular Quay but I figured it would be quicker to wait for the bus/train than take a bus all the way. Well, the stupid 3:11 bus ended up being a 3:26 bus and when it got the train station the next train was not for almost 20 minutes. While waiting I ended up chatting with a girl named Xai, her mom is from China but she considers herself Australian not Chinese. When the train arrived, much to my horror, it was an "every stop" train.. /sigh
Good news was that me and Xai talked on the train for about 30 minutes before she got off (the train you dirty bastards). Finally got back to the city at 4:45! Called Lucy and found that she has a basketball game tonight so had to push our date till tomorrow.. It's now almost 7:00 so I am going to head out to eat, I have no idea what or where yet. I guess I'll end up wherever my feet take me.. :D
Oh, I do know I'm going to walk up to Circular Quay and check the bus schedules to see how long it would have taken to take the stupid bus. I may do that tomorrow..
No Day 4 blog?
You may be wondering where the day 4 blog went.. Well, here it is on Day 5.. I was planning on writing a blog last night after work from the hotel but...
So, as you may or may not know I messaged a few girls on OKCupid before I left for Sydney. All of the ones that I messaged before I left had not logged for awhile and I was beginning to think they would not log on in time for me to hang out with them.. Anyway, yesterday morning one of them finally logged on and I ended up chatting with her a bit and then yesterday afternoon another one logged on and we ended up chatting while I watched my co-instructor teach. We had made plans to hang out tonight and I left work to head back to the hotel.
I get back to the hotel and logged on to type a blog before going to the hot tub before dinner and she was back online. She was supposed to go to help her mom last night but that fell through. Chatted for a bit more and went to meet her for dinner. Her name is Lucy, she is lucygoo on OKCupid.
We met at Thai Nesia in Darlinghurst, the restaurant is bring your own alcohol so we went to the bottle store next store and got some beer (I forget the name of it but I asked Lucy and will post it when I get the name from her). We shared sea salt & pepper barramundi and a soft shell crab dish which were both very good. After dinner we went to a pub and a had a few more drinks before she drove me back to the hotel.
We are planning to hang out again tonight.. :D
---Diversion of the Day
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/community/50_reasons/index.php
So, as you may or may not know I messaged a few girls on OKCupid before I left for Sydney. All of the ones that I messaged before I left had not logged for awhile and I was beginning to think they would not log on in time for me to hang out with them.. Anyway, yesterday morning one of them finally logged on and I ended up chatting with her a bit and then yesterday afternoon another one logged on and we ended up chatting while I watched my co-instructor teach. We had made plans to hang out tonight and I left work to head back to the hotel.
I get back to the hotel and logged on to type a blog before going to the hot tub before dinner and she was back online. She was supposed to go to help her mom last night but that fell through. Chatted for a bit more and went to meet her for dinner. Her name is Lucy, she is lucygoo on OKCupid.
We met at Thai Nesia in Darlinghurst, the restaurant is bring your own alcohol so we went to the bottle store next store and got some beer (I forget the name of it but I asked Lucy and will post it when I get the name from her). We shared sea salt & pepper barramundi and a soft shell crab dish which were both very good. After dinner we went to a pub and a had a few more drinks before she drove me back to the hotel.
We are planning to hang out again tonight.. :D
---Diversion of the Day
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/community/50_reasons/index.php
Monday, February 2, 2009
kangaroo!
Today was the first day of work in here in Sydney. Now normally I try to go to the office on Saturday or Sunday when I first arrive in a new place, well I didn't do that because I was too busy wandering Sydney to bother going to work. Well, that was not the best idea..
I woke up around 6am today and left around 7am figuring I had two hours to make it to work. Well, I walked to the train station got on the 7:20 train. I arrived at Epping Station at 8:15 figured I didn't have time to walk, plus my leg is sore from all the walking over the weekend, so I jumped on the bus to the industrial park. First off, the bus was flying so I couldn't read any signs of the stations we were blowing by. I remember Matt telling me that the EMC building was right by the mall/food court so when we past the mall I hit the button to get off which dropped me off a few blocks away from the mall. I ended up calling Matt because I had no idea where the building was and the directions I had suck. Matt got me to the building, go to the mall so that you are standing in front of Subway, walk across the street and walk between the Nortell building and some university housing complex. Behind the Nortell building there is another building, EMC is in there! Oh man, I'm glad Matt was available to get me there today.
I arrived with about 5 minutes to spare before 9am start time. Apparently a bunch of students must have cancelled out because there are only four this week plus another instructor who is co-teaching. The classroom has a really old PC for the instructor PC and no student PCs and/or laptops. The instructor PC is so slow that when I hit the next button on Power Point it takes a good 20-30 seconds for it to proceed, which is actually pretty funny but also pretty sad. Anyway, class went well and I was done with lecture before lunch which is normal for Monday MDS class. Went over to the mall food court to eat lunch because that's what they do here. The mall food court has an ice skating rink, I took a picture... After lunch the students did labs and I was out around 4ish. I got back to the hotel around 5:30 and relaxed a bit before heading out to eat. I went down to Darling Harbor and ate at a steakhouse called The Meat & Wine Co.
When I left the hotel I thought I was going to get a Wagyu Ribeye, but after looking over the whole menu I ended up with the Kangaroo Fillet. Kangaroo is VERY tender and tastes like a cross between Venison and Beef. It was very very good but the portion was small. Imagine you order steak tips, now take four of those tips and put it on a plate with potatoes and sauce, that was the size of the dish. Don't get me wrong, it ended up being a good size, I actually got dessert because I was still a bit hungry when done. I also had two glasses of a great Shiraz, one with dinner and one with my chocolate pistachio dessert.
Back at the hotel and getting ready for bed, I will upload pics to flickr before bed so when you read this there should be some cool day 3 pics.. :D
I woke up around 6am today and left around 7am figuring I had two hours to make it to work. Well, I walked to the train station got on the 7:20 train. I arrived at Epping Station at 8:15 figured I didn't have time to walk, plus my leg is sore from all the walking over the weekend, so I jumped on the bus to the industrial park. First off, the bus was flying so I couldn't read any signs of the stations we were blowing by. I remember Matt telling me that the EMC building was right by the mall/food court so when we past the mall I hit the button to get off which dropped me off a few blocks away from the mall. I ended up calling Matt because I had no idea where the building was and the directions I had suck. Matt got me to the building, go to the mall so that you are standing in front of Subway, walk across the street and walk between the Nortell building and some university housing complex. Behind the Nortell building there is another building, EMC is in there! Oh man, I'm glad Matt was available to get me there today.
I arrived with about 5 minutes to spare before 9am start time. Apparently a bunch of students must have cancelled out because there are only four this week plus another instructor who is co-teaching. The classroom has a really old PC for the instructor PC and no student PCs and/or laptops. The instructor PC is so slow that when I hit the next button on Power Point it takes a good 20-30 seconds for it to proceed, which is actually pretty funny but also pretty sad. Anyway, class went well and I was done with lecture before lunch which is normal for Monday MDS class. Went over to the mall food court to eat lunch because that's what they do here. The mall food court has an ice skating rink, I took a picture... After lunch the students did labs and I was out around 4ish. I got back to the hotel around 5:30 and relaxed a bit before heading out to eat. I went down to Darling Harbor and ate at a steakhouse called The Meat & Wine Co.
When I left the hotel I thought I was going to get a Wagyu Ribeye, but after looking over the whole menu I ended up with the Kangaroo Fillet. Kangaroo is VERY tender and tastes like a cross between Venison and Beef. It was very very good but the portion was small. Imagine you order steak tips, now take four of those tips and put it on a plate with potatoes and sauce, that was the size of the dish. Don't get me wrong, it ended up being a good size, I actually got dessert because I was still a bit hungry when done. I also had two glasses of a great Shiraz, one with dinner and one with my chocolate pistachio dessert.
Back at the hotel and getting ready for bed, I will upload pics to flickr before bed so when you read this there should be some cool day 3 pics.. :D
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Chinese New Year!!!
So, my friends who live in NYC tell me you would have to be a fool to go near Times Square on NYE, well shit! Apparently don't try to go anywhere in Sydney on the Chinese New Year! Now I know what you're going to say, Chinese New Year was Jan 26th right? First of all, you didn't know that.. Almost no American knows that.. Secondly, sure it was Jan 26th (I just looked it up) but apparently today is when the celebrate it in Australia. They closed off Pitt, George and Castlereagh between Bathurst and I don't know where, and the areas that people could walk in were friggin packed. People were buying things called "peek-a-view" which were mirrors in a long triangle shape so you could hold it up and look over everyone's head.
It wasn't all bad of course.. I got to see a lot of the floats and people standing around getting ready to start the parade which was very cool. I decided not to ask the guy at the hotel about steak houses because I wasn't sure anymore if that's what I wanted so I decided to wander. I walked all the way down Castlereagh (when it was open) to it's end and then walked down Broadway figuring I would certainly find something to eat on Broadway.. I know when you hear Broadway you immediately think of NYC and the gloriousness that is Broadway, but here Broadway means just that, it's a broad way.. There were no restaurants or theater houses on Broadway.. /sigh
I decided to walk back up George because there was a place I had remembered seeing the other day that looked interesting but I couldn't get there because I hit a wall of people and a closed street! OK, over to Pitt because I know there are plenty of good restaurants on that street, closed! Oh crap, now what? I could go over to Castlereagh and head up to where the block stops and then head back to Pitt to see if I could still hit one of the restaurants. Denied, Castlereagh was also closed! Well fuck.. Over another street to Elizabeth and up that? Elizabeth was open but also dead (hold your snide comments about Elizabeth being open and/or dead). I walked up Elizabeth (again hold your comments, I don't want to hear anything about "Cavernous" or "roomy") to the St. James train station and jumped the train to Circular Quay. The train station at St. James was empty, I mean zero people, I took a picture..
Anyway got out at Circular Quay and ate at City Extra which is a 24 hour dinner type place. I had fish and chips and a James Squire Amber Ale, that James Squire makes some good beer. The fish and chips were available in two sizes, I got the small which was four little pieces (about the size of a buffalo wing at the Courthouse) and a small amount of fries which was just the right size. Sitting there eating my fish and chips overlooking the harbor and Opera House I was reminded how much I love British colonies. You know everyone gives Dianne crap for being a, I forget the word for it, fan of Britain but she is right. I love my time in London and I love Singapore and Australia for their British influence, and no it's not because women with British accents are hot. Speaking of hot, I miss my women back home...
Back at the hotel hanging out with my good buddy James Squire.. Got another Amber Ale at the bar downstairs and am drinking this while typing this blog.
Well, it's time I made like a record and got out of here.. Till next time... :D
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Oh, one more thing.. I just did spell check and realized I wanted to say something else and instead of inserting it where it makes sense in the narrative I figure I'll throw it at the end.. They had that big TV running at Circular Quay with tons of people sitting and watching the Australian Open outside on the make shift stands. If you don't know what I'm talking about I posted a pic on flickr yesterday of a section of stands in the street, that was set up so that people could sit outside and watch the Open on a big-ass TV. It was kinda cool to see that many people watching an event like that on TV in the cool night air.. OK, I say cool but it was like 70 which is cool for here considering it was like 90 during the day today..
It wasn't all bad of course.. I got to see a lot of the floats and people standing around getting ready to start the parade which was very cool. I decided not to ask the guy at the hotel about steak houses because I wasn't sure anymore if that's what I wanted so I decided to wander. I walked all the way down Castlereagh (when it was open) to it's end and then walked down Broadway figuring I would certainly find something to eat on Broadway.. I know when you hear Broadway you immediately think of NYC and the gloriousness that is Broadway, but here Broadway means just that, it's a broad way.. There were no restaurants or theater houses on Broadway.. /sigh
I decided to walk back up George because there was a place I had remembered seeing the other day that looked interesting but I couldn't get there because I hit a wall of people and a closed street! OK, over to Pitt because I know there are plenty of good restaurants on that street, closed! Oh crap, now what? I could go over to Castlereagh and head up to where the block stops and then head back to Pitt to see if I could still hit one of the restaurants. Denied, Castlereagh was also closed! Well fuck.. Over another street to Elizabeth and up that? Elizabeth was open but also dead (hold your snide comments about Elizabeth being open and/or dead). I walked up Elizabeth (again hold your comments, I don't want to hear anything about "Cavernous" or "roomy") to the St. James train station and jumped the train to Circular Quay. The train station at St. James was empty, I mean zero people, I took a picture..
Anyway got out at Circular Quay and ate at City Extra which is a 24 hour dinner type place. I had fish and chips and a James Squire Amber Ale, that James Squire makes some good beer. The fish and chips were available in two sizes, I got the small which was four little pieces (about the size of a buffalo wing at the Courthouse) and a small amount of fries which was just the right size. Sitting there eating my fish and chips overlooking the harbor and Opera House I was reminded how much I love British colonies. You know everyone gives Dianne crap for being a, I forget the word for it, fan of Britain but she is right. I love my time in London and I love Singapore and Australia for their British influence, and no it's not because women with British accents are hot. Speaking of hot, I miss my women back home...
Back at the hotel hanging out with my good buddy James Squire.. Got another Amber Ale at the bar downstairs and am drinking this while typing this blog.
Well, it's time I made like a record and got out of here.. Till next time... :D
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Oh, one more thing.. I just did spell check and realized I wanted to say something else and instead of inserting it where it makes sense in the narrative I figure I'll throw it at the end.. They had that big TV running at Circular Quay with tons of people sitting and watching the Australian Open outside on the make shift stands. If you don't know what I'm talking about I posted a pic on flickr yesterday of a section of stands in the street, that was set up so that people could sit outside and watch the Open on a big-ass TV. It was kinda cool to see that many people watching an event like that on TV in the cool night air.. OK, I say cool but it was like 70 which is cool for here considering it was like 90 during the day today..
Get Shoes (check)
I left this morning with one task.. Get new sneakers and maybe new sandals.. Well, I didn't get either sneakers or sandals but what I got are even better!
I left the hotel around noon so I decided some lunch was in order before I did anything else. What did I eat you ask? Movenpick ice cream! That's it you ask? No sir, I had a lactaid.. :P
Ok, so seriously.. I left and as you know I can never walk down the same street twice so I headed a different way to the shopping area on Pitt St. Now I know what you're thinking, if the hotel and the shopping area are both on Pitt St why didn't you just walk down Pitt St.. Well... Because I don't like to walk down the same street twice, that's why they call it exploring.. Anyway, so I decided to walk over a few streets before walking down and I saw this amazing castle looking thing in the distance so I walked over to that, it turns out it's the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.. Well, I'll be.. Anyway, so right next to the SCoM is the Royal Botanic Gardens which is free and very beautiful (pictures up on Flickr).. Speaking of pictures, so I got real creative with my camera phone today, I saw this really cool fountain that I wanted a picture of me at so I found a park bench and propped my camera on the top of the park bench using bark I found on the ground to wedge it into place so that the fountain was in view, set the timer and ran over to the fountain. I was amazed at how good it came out on the first shot. I ended up carrying around that bark for most of the day in case I found another use for it but I didn't.
By the way.. Wearing my sandals was a A+ idea, I was actually walking my normal speed today for the first time since surgery! There was no pressure on the blister because the sides of the sandals are open and the Achilles was not being bothered because of the way the strap sits on my leg does not touch either cut. To think I almost didn't bring them this trip. So, I'm not getting rid of those, I'm going to have someone redo the insides so I can wear them barefoot again. In the meantime I just have to get over my Cliff Claven picture.. I mention this now because it was when I was leaving the Gardens that I came to the realization that I was walking my normal speed and had no pain.
So, after the Gardens I walked down to Pitt St so that I would arrive at the beginning of the shopping district. The first store I went into was a outdoors type of store sorta like an EMS, I tried on a few sneakers and nothing was playing nice with my Achilles, she recommended I go over to Kent St by Town Hall because there are a few more outdoors stores over there that carry a few other brands. Well, Kent St would be next, after I Pitt St that is. So on I go into store after store after store looking at bunches of shitty sneakers. I went into this one mall and almost got lost, you go in at street level and go downstairs under the buildings like in Singapore and Montreal and just like there it's multiple malls combined with different directories. I did find a LUSH in that mall which was cool, it made me smile.. I've now seen LUSH in Canada, USA, England, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Singapore and Australia! Anyway, I ended up leaving the mall on George St because I got turned around inside the mall. I walked back to Pitt and continued my journey looking in store after store after store.. I got all the way to the end of Pitt St which by the way is far past the end of the official shopping area before heading over to Kent with my heart full of hopelessness.
I got to Kent and found the stores the lady was talking about, I went into the first one and BAM I found the best shoes ever! I'm not kidding either, these things friggin rock. They have an outer rubber part which comes off so when your shoes are all muddy and snowy you can take the rubber off and walk around inside without having to take the whole shoe off. The back is very low so it does not touch either cut so my Achilles is fine as well. They are made by Patagonia and called Toast & Jam, that link will bring you to them on Onlineshoes.com. I got the Velvet Brown color so I can wear them as work shoes as well. I left that store and continued to walk up Kent St back to Circular Quay before heading back here to type this blog and upload new pics.
It's about 5:30, I think I'm feeling steak tonight.. I'll keep you posted so until then, what.. You know maybe I need like a tag line.. Like "live long and prosper" but cooler, you know that way I can say till then "..."! Seriously I think that would be cool, post your ideas and we will see...
Sorry for no diversions of the day, I have not had time to "play" on the internet and find anything although Lynz did send me this really cool video of Obama slamming the heads of companies for giving themselves bonuses! Crap, where was that link...
OK, here it is.. Thanks to Google Chat log files..
---Diversion of the Day
I left the hotel around noon so I decided some lunch was in order before I did anything else. What did I eat you ask? Movenpick ice cream! That's it you ask? No sir, I had a lactaid.. :P
Ok, so seriously.. I left and as you know I can never walk down the same street twice so I headed a different way to the shopping area on Pitt St. Now I know what you're thinking, if the hotel and the shopping area are both on Pitt St why didn't you just walk down Pitt St.. Well... Because I don't like to walk down the same street twice, that's why they call it exploring.. Anyway, so I decided to walk over a few streets before walking down and I saw this amazing castle looking thing in the distance so I walked over to that, it turns out it's the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.. Well, I'll be.. Anyway, so right next to the SCoM is the Royal Botanic Gardens which is free and very beautiful (pictures up on Flickr).. Speaking of pictures, so I got real creative with my camera phone today, I saw this really cool fountain that I wanted a picture of me at so I found a park bench and propped my camera on the top of the park bench using bark I found on the ground to wedge it into place so that the fountain was in view, set the timer and ran over to the fountain. I was amazed at how good it came out on the first shot. I ended up carrying around that bark for most of the day in case I found another use for it but I didn't.
By the way.. Wearing my sandals was a A+ idea, I was actually walking my normal speed today for the first time since surgery! There was no pressure on the blister because the sides of the sandals are open and the Achilles was not being bothered because of the way the strap sits on my leg does not touch either cut. To think I almost didn't bring them this trip. So, I'm not getting rid of those, I'm going to have someone redo the insides so I can wear them barefoot again. In the meantime I just have to get over my Cliff Claven picture.. I mention this now because it was when I was leaving the Gardens that I came to the realization that I was walking my normal speed and had no pain.
So, after the Gardens I walked down to Pitt St so that I would arrive at the beginning of the shopping district. The first store I went into was a outdoors type of store sorta like an EMS, I tried on a few sneakers and nothing was playing nice with my Achilles, she recommended I go over to Kent St by Town Hall because there are a few more outdoors stores over there that carry a few other brands. Well, Kent St would be next, after I Pitt St that is. So on I go into store after store after store looking at bunches of shitty sneakers. I went into this one mall and almost got lost, you go in at street level and go downstairs under the buildings like in Singapore and Montreal and just like there it's multiple malls combined with different directories. I did find a LUSH in that mall which was cool, it made me smile.. I've now seen LUSH in Canada, USA, England, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Singapore and Australia! Anyway, I ended up leaving the mall on George St because I got turned around inside the mall. I walked back to Pitt and continued my journey looking in store after store after store.. I got all the way to the end of Pitt St which by the way is far past the end of the official shopping area before heading over to Kent with my heart full of hopelessness.
I got to Kent and found the stores the lady was talking about, I went into the first one and BAM I found the best shoes ever! I'm not kidding either, these things friggin rock. They have an outer rubber part which comes off so when your shoes are all muddy and snowy you can take the rubber off and walk around inside without having to take the whole shoe off. The back is very low so it does not touch either cut so my Achilles is fine as well. They are made by Patagonia and called Toast & Jam, that link will bring you to them on Onlineshoes.com. I got the Velvet Brown color so I can wear them as work shoes as well. I left that store and continued to walk up Kent St back to Circular Quay before heading back here to type this blog and upload new pics.
It's about 5:30, I think I'm feeling steak tonight.. I'll keep you posted so until then, what.. You know maybe I need like a tag line.. Like "live long and prosper" but cooler, you know that way I can say till then "..."! Seriously I think that would be cool, post your ideas and we will see...
Sorry for no diversions of the day, I have not had time to "play" on the internet and find anything although Lynz did send me this really cool video of Obama slamming the heads of companies for giving themselves bonuses! Crap, where was that link...
OK, here it is.. Thanks to Google Chat log files..
---Diversion of the Day
It's legal to drink at 15!?
I just went up to the executive level for breakfast and while there I was reading a newspaper article on drinking. They just did a report here that says one or two drinks in a night can actually be good for you but to make sure you stop at four. I guess that's not so weird, what is weird about it is that in the article they recommend that people approaching the legal drinking age should not have more than one drink a night. I found it odd that they listed that in there and reading on further I found out that in Australia the drinking age is 18, ok no problem right, and that people aged 15 - 17 are allowed to drink under parental supervision. I guess they figure that if they have two years of drinking under supervision they will be more responsible when they are allowed to drink at 18..
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Last night I walked down Pitt st to find something to eat, I was surprised to find most of the retail stores closed at 7pm. I don't know why that surprises me since most Ireland and Germany were the same way. Anyway, I ended up looking at bunch of different places till I saw the menu of Edinburgh Castle which had prawn and calamari risotto. Feeling in a seafood mood I went inside, I know when am I not in a seafood kinda mood. Anyway, in this place you go up to the bar and order your food/drinks, they give you a table marker and your drinks and the guy brings the food over. I had a Blonde ale and it was very American-ish which was sorta disappointing. The food however was great, took a picture but it was too dark to see so I didn't post it. Speaking of pictures, I did some work on my Flickr site last night to include the Sydney pictures. What I had to do was create a new 2009 Collection and then in there put the previous 2009 collection, now named 2009 Monthly and the Sydney Collection into it. Inside the Sydney Collection I have a set for each day. To keep things consistent I did the same thing with the 2008 Collection so that Japan is now under 2008 and I have a Monthly Collection for 2008 as well.
Back to the restaurant.. They had techno music playing and had Cricket on the TV which was really cool, apparently the Australian National team is away right now but they return home on next Sunday for a day/night match. I am really interested in going but the tickets are $85 a seat and I don't really think Jessie would want to sit in a Cricket Pitch all day. I'm going to see if there are any local teams I can go see today, but at least I got to see some on TV last night if nothing else. It's not as boring as everyone made it out to be but then again that was watching one hour while eating and not watching an entire day long match.
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I've never had a blister on my foot and let me tell you it really really sucks! Especially since it's on my right foot which is already a problem since it's still stiff and the muscles are not back to full strength yet. I guess it's probably because I have not done this much walking on that foot since November but I think a big part of it is these sneakers which are not the most comfortable things to wear. When I got them a few years ago they were very comfortable but since I've been visiting the foot doctor they have not been, they didn't work well with the inserts that I had to wear and they certainly don't work well now. The back of them rubs against the lower cut and creates aggravation there, because of that I am walking odd in them. Now that I have a blister wearing them is nothing but annoying. What else did I bring? My work shoes which are ok, they also rub a little against the cuts but not as much as the sneakers and my really old sandals. I wore my sandals to the pool yesterday and that was actually comfortable but the part flat part your foot sits on is all ripped up so they will not be comfortable to wear for an extended period of time, plus I won't wear my sandals with socks and with my blister and cuts I think it's important for me to wear socks. Plan for today is to look for new sneakers and maybe new sandals.
I just tried on my sandals with Thorlos and they are the most comfortable of the three pairs of shoes I have, the work shoes are a close second and the sneakers are really not comfortable at all. I guess I will wear sandals and socks, at least the socks are green so it's not too bad. I just have visions of Cliff Claven walking around in sandals and white socks to shake out of my head and maybe I'll get over sandals and socks. I can't wear them without socks because of the bottom part being all ripped up. I don't know if I'm describing the ripped up part correctly, I just took a picture to show you what I mean.
----
Last night I walked down Pitt st to find something to eat, I was surprised to find most of the retail stores closed at 7pm. I don't know why that surprises me since most Ireland and Germany were the same way. Anyway, I ended up looking at bunch of different places till I saw the menu of Edinburgh Castle which had prawn and calamari risotto. Feeling in a seafood mood I went inside, I know when am I not in a seafood kinda mood. Anyway, in this place you go up to the bar and order your food/drinks, they give you a table marker and your drinks and the guy brings the food over. I had a Blonde ale and it was very American-ish which was sorta disappointing. The food however was great, took a picture but it was too dark to see so I didn't post it. Speaking of pictures, I did some work on my Flickr site last night to include the Sydney pictures. What I had to do was create a new 2009 Collection and then in there put the previous 2009 collection, now named 2009 Monthly and the Sydney Collection into it. Inside the Sydney Collection I have a set for each day. To keep things consistent I did the same thing with the 2008 Collection so that Japan is now under 2008 and I have a Monthly Collection for 2008 as well.
Back to the restaurant.. They had techno music playing and had Cricket on the TV which was really cool, apparently the Australian National team is away right now but they return home on next Sunday for a day/night match. I am really interested in going but the tickets are $85 a seat and I don't really think Jessie would want to sit in a Cricket Pitch all day. I'm going to see if there are any local teams I can go see today, but at least I got to see some on TV last night if nothing else. It's not as boring as everyone made it out to be but then again that was watching one hour while eating and not watching an entire day long match.
----
I've never had a blister on my foot and let me tell you it really really sucks! Especially since it's on my right foot which is already a problem since it's still stiff and the muscles are not back to full strength yet. I guess it's probably because I have not done this much walking on that foot since November but I think a big part of it is these sneakers which are not the most comfortable things to wear. When I got them a few years ago they were very comfortable but since I've been visiting the foot doctor they have not been, they didn't work well with the inserts that I had to wear and they certainly don't work well now. The back of them rubs against the lower cut and creates aggravation there, because of that I am walking odd in them. Now that I have a blister wearing them is nothing but annoying. What else did I bring? My work shoes which are ok, they also rub a little against the cuts but not as much as the sneakers and my really old sandals. I wore my sandals to the pool yesterday and that was actually comfortable but the part flat part your foot sits on is all ripped up so they will not be comfortable to wear for an extended period of time, plus I won't wear my sandals with socks and with my blister and cuts I think it's important for me to wear socks. Plan for today is to look for new sneakers and maybe new sandals.
I just tried on my sandals with Thorlos and they are the most comfortable of the three pairs of shoes I have, the work shoes are a close second and the sneakers are really not comfortable at all. I guess I will wear sandals and socks, at least the socks are green so it's not too bad. I just have visions of Cliff Claven walking around in sandals and white socks to shake out of my head and maybe I'll get over sandals and socks. I can't wear them without socks because of the bottom part being all ripped up. I don't know if I'm describing the ripped up part correctly, I just took a picture to show you what I mean.
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