Blue Mountains Burning

There has been a bit of wild weather the last couple weeks: snow on the East coast from Victoria all the way up into Queensland. It is the start of bushfire season, so large areas of forest have been burning in New South Wales (between Queensland and Victoria). Giant icebergs have been sighted about 80 km off the coast of New Zealand, but I believe they melted before they hit land. To put it into perspective, the icebergs would have come from Antarctica, which is at least a couple thousand km away. For whatever reason they sent a crew out on helicopter and they jumped out onto this floating, melting and cracking iceberg so that they could, I dunno, tromp around on it and look like adventurous Kiwis.

The weirdest environment I've experienced so far was the other Wednesday when I walked out of my office to wait for my shuttle ride home. It was about 38ºC (100ºF) and a strange smell was in the air. It smelled like a really strong campfire and sure enough that is what it was. The Blue Mountains just to the west of Sydney had gone up in a blaze. This is the closest I have ever been to a forest fire, and with the strong smell, heat, humidity and haze I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I didn't know how near or far it was from me either; coulda been 5 miles or 50 miles. So I got the idea that I was right at the edge of the fire (one can see the Blue Mountains for the rooftops) because of the conditions above. 25 minutes later when I got home, the temperature had dropped 20-25ºF and the sunset was amazing that night. What an odd place this is.

It took three years....

... but I finally understand cricket. The sport, not the bug that makes funny noises. The sole reason for this is so that I can watch the Ashes and understand why people are cheering or jeering as we watch during lunch hour. I still do not understand or even know about all of the customs, traditions, rules (there are 42 laws of Cricket) or the massive amount of terminology. To give you a rought idea of what happens, think of it as baseball, except: there are only 2 innings per team per game rather than 9, in a test at least, which is what the Ashes are. Instead of 3 outs per team per inning, there are 10 outs per innings (innings is both singular and plural) per team. So when ten people get out, that teams innings is over, and it is time for the opponent to stand infront of the wicket. There is only one base, rather than 4. This means you have really high scores! You do not have to run if you hit the ball. So there you have it: a ball is "bowled" at you, you take a crack at it, if you hit it you can run, or not. You are up to bat until you are "dismissed" and then the next 9 people do the same thing. Ten people get out and the teams switch. If you are really good at batting you can bat for over a day straight. Then you have the bails that fall off the wicket, a maiden over which is really good for the bowler but not the batsman, and edge to the wicketkeeper with his funny looking gloves, a change of bowler every six bowls which is called an over, the "square leg," tea time, lunch time and so on. Confused yet?

Anyways, it's the Ashes right now, which is Australia vs. England. It happens every 18 months. It started Thursday and the series consists of 5 tests. A test is about 5 days of cricket. The name of the series comes from the trophy you get when you win: a tiny little urn that is believed to hold the burnt remains of the two wickets from the second series between England and Aussie. It is the only sport that happens between now and the holidays. Aside from First Division Footie and NBL.

For hilarity I recommend reading the section of Bill Bryson's "In a Sunburned Country" where he describes listening to a Cricket match on the radio. Once you have a decent understanding the game takes on a new meaning. I actually like it a little bit. And it is even more exciting than baseball! Sorry Bru.

Or you could just use www.wikipedia.org

Strangest thing that's happened

Last weekend I went out for a housewarming party in Bondi; it was for my friends friend. If that makes sense. It started off a bit awkward as most parties do as I didn't really know anyone there and it was a bit "clique-ish" but as the time went on everyone loosened up a bit and everyone was enjoying themselves, as working holiday makers tend to do when alcohol and a good atmosphere are combined. My friend Barez asked everyone what the strangest thing was that had happened to him or her since arriving in Sydney. He shared his story (being felt up by an old Asian crackhead while eating a hotdog) and everyone had a laugh. I thought a bit and had nothing to say, everything had gone smooth with no outrageous moments occurring as of yet. Ahh the power of foreshadowing! Hours later, near dawn my friend Polly and I were just sitting on the couch chatting away when some bloke (I think he lived at the house) came up to me and told me to drink some wine (it was white). I obliged him and thought he would go away. But he hung around and kept talking to me, and it got a bit hostile. At this point I thought he was just playing around and taking the mick because I didn't have a drink. To be fair I was already well drunk and had been up for 20 some hours, and was the end of the work week. Two can play at this game I thought so I shot back a response about he was drinking white wine at a party (seriously what guy does that?). Turns out he had been quite serious and had some issues with me throughout the entire night and "bitched me out" I guess. By that I mean he just talked out of his ass for a while as I sat there with a confused -and drunken- look on my face. He then proceeded to, I kid you not, slap me twice, ask me to leave and tell me to put my feet up on the couch. Anywhere else that is a fight, but as an invited guest to someone else's house, me being really pissed and tired, I couldn't be bothered to get worked up over it and then get kicked out. I had met some good people that night and took the high road rather than doing something stupid. All of this came out of nowhere! And the slaps were, I don't know how to describe them, well they were weak as fuck! In the end I just ended up laughing in his face saying "Did you just slap me?" We left a few minutes later to greet a rising sun and caught a taxi home.

Few days later I ran into Barez on my way to work and explained to him the whole chain of events that occurred after he had left. He told me that apparently that guy was on ecstasy and had a thing for Polly. I guess that explains but I didn't think E made people aggro like that. The rest of the party was great, but that wanker killed it.

So that would be the strangest thing to have happened, yet.

Australian Place Names

These places actually exist:

Wooloomooloo
Kirribilli
Wagga Wagga
Monkey Mia (there are no monkeys!)
Borroloola
Manjimup
Oodnadatta
Coolangatta
Warrnambool
Wollongong
and believe it or not - Lake Disappointment

There are lots of others too and I can barely pronounce almost anywhere in this country. Australia's most famous beach is arguably Bondi. Pronounce it - it's not Bon-dee. Pretty much anywhere in Sydney is like this for me. Asking for directions or talking about where I went gets a few laughs =)

Proper Update

Hello all. Today marks three weeks that I have been in Sydney. I spent a week hanging out and doing some touristy things before starting the job and flat search. I had my first week of work last week at a company called IPMG. It is pretty much a big Print and Media company that is family owned. I work in the Treasury/Finance department with a couple other people. Most of whom are not Australian. There are lots of poms (is this term deragatory?) and kiwis working here. Aside from a few other people in my program, I have not met too many people from the US. I am pretty excited to have this job because it is definitely much more along the lines of what I want to do career wise than what I have been doing the past 2 years. It will look really good on my resume and the pay is pretty good to boot! Basically what I do is handle a lot of banking tasks and responsibilities for the company as a whole, plus a bit of foreign currency work as well. I have a big office and it makes me feel important =)

A bit over a week ago I moved into a share house in a subrub called Newtown. It is pretty hip and trendy and I'd compare it to Uptown of Minneapolis or Grand Ave in St. Paul. I live with two Aussies and a dude from Boston in a terraced house on a pretty quiet street. It really isn't all that quiet though. Not only do I live about 100 metres from the train tracks, I am right under the flight path for Kingsford Smith airport (the big one here). It really is quite nice though and my flatmates are cool. I live in a tiny little room that is completely unfurnished. I have been sleeping on the floor for the last 8 or 9 days! It isn't so bad, especially now that I know a bed is coming in a couple of days - 80 bucks delivered! My rent is incredibly cheap and I have almosst no transportation costs because I can catch a free shuttle to work not far from my house so this means lots of disposable income, meaning more travelling! I think maybe the oply complaint I have is that the washing machine is shit. And I guess this is common in OZ. You put dirty clothes in and you take out somewhat cleaner clothes that are completely soaked (no spin function?) have fuzz and detergent residue all over them. It also rained on my socks that were trying to dry this afternoon.

Ive started running again finally and have been searching out where the pick up ultimate games are but with no luck. I think most of my weekends will be spent on or around the beach. Or at the bar, but the beach is a lot cheaper! The address to my house is now on my facebook profile and my mobile number is there too, if you ever need to reach me other than by email - which I don't check that often anymore.

So there you have it. I have settled into a routine pretty quickly and am really enjoying myself down here! I think I am incredibly lucky to have everything fall into place the way it did and so quickly as well. Apparently this is not the case for a lot of people who move to Sydney.

Keep the emails comin! Go Democrats!

This Weekend

It is early Sunday afternoon. The weekend has been hot and sunny, probably upper 70s/lower 80s. I am going to the beach.

On My Way

I think I've been enjoying myself a bit much the last week and a half. Most nights are spent in the bar(s) with all the people I have met. Most days are spent wandering about Sydney or sitting the park or sitting on the beach. It is all very nice. I do however have a place to live now! And am quite happy about that because long term hostel living is not for me, even though I enjoy meeting other travellers.

I was told before I moved to Australia, that when I get to Sydney I would have a very British experience. The person who told me this was not wrong. I have met so many English, Welsh and Scots the last 2 weeks that I've come to realise they are all over here and not in the UK. There are ofcourse Dutch and Germans in large numbers too.

Still no job. Meh. That will come soon enough. I do look forward to working again though. Earning money and planning my travels (and then doing said travels) is just as good as getting pissed and sunning on the beach. A few long hiking treks through the bush, a few islands, NZ, surfing and a white sand beach holiday look promising. If I only had more money and another month.... so much to do here!

I have seen my first few bits of wildlife too! Loads of Blueys (blue bottle jellyfish - not killer) were washing up on shore when I was at the beach wednesday and yesterday I saw hundreds of giant bats hangning out (hahaha!) in central Sydney. As long as I don't see any snakes, or spiders that are the size of my hand I should be OK.