Two big events on boxing day every year - the cricket test (this year against pakistan, should be a walk over after attrocious show on previous matches, and Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
So this year we went for a look, walked up to one of the inner harbour view points and saw the amazing trail of 116 yachts, surrounded by what looked like every boat in sydney.
Even the 'commuter ferries' were standing still, being used as giant view platforms - so much so that the 3 that were infront of us were listing as all passengers went to the one side to watch the spectacle!
Sunday, December 26, 2004
Christmas by the Beach, Aussie Style
Chilly event this year, 20deg odd - brrr... not actually particularly amazing weather at all, v. ordinary - grey, windy, chilly. Funnily los of locals (most poms i'm sure) braved the day to ensure they had "xmas at the beach" - no-one i saw was sat in their car facing the sea, drinking hot soup from a thermos flask, but it had similar connitations.
We partook in a nice barby slapup breakfast, some pressies, bit of a walk, quickly hooked up with some mates (the orphans as they're known on xmas day when no families to celebrate with), me I'm lucky enough to have a surrogate family over here in the shape of rochelle's parents and brother from canberra. The result, a spectular feast of seafood starter (lobster, oysters and prawns), followed by a rest then roast beef - yummy. Desert, a 'traditional' pud with custard... can't really go wrong. Oh and booze, different wine each course, including fabulous sparkling shiraz... can recommend it! (all drunk out of great high-class glasses, one of many presents)
To top it off, superb presents all round, including new all in one (lounge getting cluttered with 5 remotes), barby tools for the 'professional', powderfinger cd (something not familar to the poms back home, but brill band), golf bag and the west wing on dvd - great!
Anyhow, a few shots of the goings on can be found here... XMas Oz Style
We partook in a nice barby slapup breakfast, some pressies, bit of a walk, quickly hooked up with some mates (the orphans as they're known on xmas day when no families to celebrate with), me I'm lucky enough to have a surrogate family over here in the shape of rochelle's parents and brother from canberra. The result, a spectular feast of seafood starter (lobster, oysters and prawns), followed by a rest then roast beef - yummy. Desert, a 'traditional' pud with custard... can't really go wrong. Oh and booze, different wine each course, including fabulous sparkling shiraz... can recommend it! (all drunk out of great high-class glasses, one of many presents)
To top it off, superb presents all round, including new all in one (lounge getting cluttered with 5 remotes), barby tools for the 'professional', powderfinger cd (something not familar to the poms back home, but brill band), golf bag and the west wing on dvd - great!
Anyhow, a few shots of the goings on can be found here... XMas Oz Style
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
The bendown under abode...
so everyone's been asking for a look see into our apartment... here is a snapshot Where we live!
couple of videos as well, but got to figure how to make them manageable...
couple of videos as well, but got to figure how to make them manageable...
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Google takes over the world
As many people know I've recently become very keen on the entrepreneurial approach to business, itching to "break the mould" and all that, and this is only exemplified when I see a company like google just come up with such useful, well thought out & brilliantly executed ideas such as the desk bar http://toolbar.google.com/deskbar/index.html. Simply useful.... the thing is i know the internet is full of useful ideas, but when google has such power, they still manage to focus on the end user and value it can bring... very jealous
Saturday, December 04, 2004
And they're out of the starting gates....
So i'm new to this, but why not, seem to forever spend time composing emails of all the events that have happened, so this 'should' allow me to just jot down things as they happen...
My email distribution list has got to the point i'm starting to get spam rejects, so this gives people their own 'pull' power, so to speak (Ad, I don't think it'll help your pulling power ;-) ).
Life downunder is just too fruitful to let its anecdotes, highs and lows not go noted.... i hope it brings some smiles to those around. I've even decided to blog some historical events which gave noted responses over the years, true not all are down under, but its all about educating and making people smile.
My email distribution list has got to the point i'm starting to get spam rejects, so this gives people their own 'pull' power, so to speak (Ad, I don't think it'll help your pulling power ;-) ).
Life downunder is just too fruitful to let its anecdotes, highs and lows not go noted.... i hope it brings some smiles to those around. I've even decided to blog some historical events which gave noted responses over the years, true not all are down under, but its all about educating and making people smile.
Whitsundays, a quick report
looking at the aquamarine coloured water on the 3rd day we thought we'd set anchor with the most spectacular view we would see, the shallow tropical waters just the most incredible shade compared to the sparcely clouded sky. We were wrong, the colours were far more dramatic as a the massive storm clouds rolled in from the horizon.... it was quite a sight, but was really a teaser. Over the evening we experienced a massive thunderstorm which was literally on top of us. On a yacht you're actually quite safe as long as you're not sanding on deck soaked to the skin, or touch the mast! So in the swaying galley the storm built up around us and provided a quite spectacular lightening storm, a little scary I admit but thrilling at the same time. Amazing lightening for hours.
Typically, the region hadn't had rain fall for 6 months until we arrive and they have one month's worth in 2 days! It did provide a good excuse to seek refuge for the 2nd predicted day of storms, however they didn't materialise where we were, but we did view a fair old light show from the bar of the local yacht club in hamilton island. this is one of the oldest most developed of the islands, and we did think it'd be a bit touristy and certain areas were pretty bad - huge pools with bars in the water and lots of people drunk in lounge beds, right next to a gorgeous beach! but the marina is a real treat of oohing and ahing at some magnificant yachts. A great little cafe on the marina front provided a great view and no cooking in a swaying kitchen!
Our provisioning for the rest of the trip had been provided by a local company based on a pre-order which was great, the only problem was we kinda underestimated the weights for some of the vegetables and forgot about certain items in warm cabins - the latter resulted in interesting situation of an exploded carton of spicy pepper & pumpkin soup all over one of the aft cabins (not the one we were sleeping in) - Lesson one, despite a pretty pitiful fridge, keep as much as you can in there! The former resulted in about 10 times as many zucchinis as required - we found many original recipes and bbq alternatives for this truely amazing versatile vegetables :-)
So post quick stop overnight at hamilton island, we had some of the best locations imaginable, secluded bays, stunning white beaches - whitehaven beach being the one where we stopped for lunch (see photos that will come via a web link, promise!) - ignoring the tourists crowded onto one end, we sailed up the other end which is deserted - truely stunning, the type of silicon sand that squeeks when you walk on it. If the winds had of been more favourable we'd have stayed there over night. as it was, just a day trip this time!
Next major stop which served several nights stopovers due to its extremely sheltered location was a bay call macona bay - about a mile in length so extremely sheltered, only 3 odd meters deep with even greener / blueier water (photo of me with toes out!) the only problem was zero visibility due to stormy weather. We had a couple of very relaxed nights sleeps here, with glassy water at night and the next morning. To make up for the lack of snorkling and sea life we'd seen (apart from some cool turtles saying hello every now and again and a few manta rays) we popped to the north side of the island to a well known reef and weren't dissappointed - true 'barrier reef' stuff, lots of fish, amazing colours, really amazing - oh and a cool photo of snorkel marked faces whilst in the dingy (official name - tender for those sea farers!)
Generally the weather was amazing, with constant winds, not too much tide and just easy sailing, although I think rochelle would complain she built up too much in the way of arm muscles operating the winches! The great thing about cruising, is there really is no hurry and we made the most of the relaxing and general very very laid back activities. Only 2 of us on the boat lead to some interestign times but in general it was no problem to handle between us.
Touching down back in sydney was a bit of a shock as it was 17deg, and you kinda get used to average 25-28 deg. To our surprise it seems sydney actually had a week of rain, which was great as the place looked very lush.... shame we missed it....
i think we both learned we wouldn't mind a yacht one day.....
Typically, the region hadn't had rain fall for 6 months until we arrive and they have one month's worth in 2 days! It did provide a good excuse to seek refuge for the 2nd predicted day of storms, however they didn't materialise where we were, but we did view a fair old light show from the bar of the local yacht club in hamilton island. this is one of the oldest most developed of the islands, and we did think it'd be a bit touristy and certain areas were pretty bad - huge pools with bars in the water and lots of people drunk in lounge beds, right next to a gorgeous beach! but the marina is a real treat of oohing and ahing at some magnificant yachts. A great little cafe on the marina front provided a great view and no cooking in a swaying kitchen!
Our provisioning for the rest of the trip had been provided by a local company based on a pre-order which was great, the only problem was we kinda underestimated the weights for some of the vegetables and forgot about certain items in warm cabins - the latter resulted in interesting situation of an exploded carton of spicy pepper & pumpkin soup all over one of the aft cabins (not the one we were sleeping in) - Lesson one, despite a pretty pitiful fridge, keep as much as you can in there! The former resulted in about 10 times as many zucchinis as required - we found many original recipes and bbq alternatives for this truely amazing versatile vegetables :-)
So post quick stop overnight at hamilton island, we had some of the best locations imaginable, secluded bays, stunning white beaches - whitehaven beach being the one where we stopped for lunch (see photos that will come via a web link, promise!) - ignoring the tourists crowded onto one end, we sailed up the other end which is deserted - truely stunning, the type of silicon sand that squeeks when you walk on it. If the winds had of been more favourable we'd have stayed there over night. as it was, just a day trip this time!
Next major stop which served several nights stopovers due to its extremely sheltered location was a bay call macona bay - about a mile in length so extremely sheltered, only 3 odd meters deep with even greener / blueier water (photo of me with toes out!) the only problem was zero visibility due to stormy weather. We had a couple of very relaxed nights sleeps here, with glassy water at night and the next morning. To make up for the lack of snorkling and sea life we'd seen (apart from some cool turtles saying hello every now and again and a few manta rays) we popped to the north side of the island to a well known reef and weren't dissappointed - true 'barrier reef' stuff, lots of fish, amazing colours, really amazing - oh and a cool photo of snorkel marked faces whilst in the dingy (official name - tender for those sea farers!)
Generally the weather was amazing, with constant winds, not too much tide and just easy sailing, although I think rochelle would complain she built up too much in the way of arm muscles operating the winches! The great thing about cruising, is there really is no hurry and we made the most of the relaxing and general very very laid back activities. Only 2 of us on the boat lead to some interestign times but in general it was no problem to handle between us.
Touching down back in sydney was a bit of a shock as it was 17deg, and you kinda get used to average 25-28 deg. To our surprise it seems sydney actually had a week of rain, which was great as the place looked very lush.... shame we missed it....
i think we both learned we wouldn't mind a yacht one day.....
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