Family trip to Australia - For you, Nanny Ree

Pictures from Bens camera thus far. Enjoy!

The Royal Ranwick Races - Ladies Day

So given my lack of time, but abundance of photos, to try to keep you updated with the happenings in my life, I have decided to just add photos and offer basic explanations. Hope this works out for everyone. This last Saturday kick started the Spring Carnival for the Ranwick Races. It was ladies day which doesn't have the same specials as when I went to Pats game (where there was free drinks for ladies) but nonetheless every one dresses up nice, a lot of people wear fancy hats (I opted for the more budget friendly headband with feathers in it) and drink champagne. I only bet once because they were giving out free bets for signing up for something or other, so naturally I bet it on the horse with the worst odds. I figured, if you really have nothing to lose, GO BIG! At least on the outside chance that if that horse came out in front, you'd see a huge payoff. Well, when my horse entered the ring, I realized that was not going to happen. He was fat, even for a horse, and I'm pretty sure he only had three legs. Regardless it was a great time. Also, when you look through the pictures below, you'll see that I found Waldo at the races as well (or Wally as they refer to him over here).









I should also note that Sunday drinks are quite popular in Australia. Below are a few pics of me, my friend Alex from work (who requested a specific shout out in my blog. Hi Alex. Consider this your shout out), and a few of his friends that he introduced me to having a lazy Sunday at Rivisi's in Bondi Beach. It's no daiquiri deck in Siesta Key village but, hey, it'll do.

I left my heart in San Francisco

Just saw this and wanted to share. Watch it with the sound on. It was so good I swear I started to tear up a little bit...

http://laughingsquid.com/the-unseen-sea-a-beautiful-time-lapse-video-of-san-francisco/

Can't wait to come home!

Double Denim Day

So a few weeks ago, I initially had planned to go out of town with some coworkers to Kangaroo Valley. It is a sleepy little area about two or three hours outside Sydney where we were all going to stay in a big cabin, cook huge meals, and probably go hiking and canoeing. It seemed like something I could get on board with...until Pat told me his rugby club was having a double denim day. That changed everything!

Double denim, also known as a 'Canadian Tuxedo' is the practice of wearing denim on the top and denim on the bottom to achieve and delightfully tacky (great, did I just use Hooters motto in my description?) ensemble. It is generally worn in jest, though there are a select few (particularly in America) that wear this without any sense of irony. They generally have mullets, as well.

Instead of trying to explain how awesome this whole phenomenon is...I'll just show you...












Sadly, Pat is leaving next week for his tour in Argentina so I made sure to become friends with pretty much every other guy on his team to ensure I will always be included for any event like this one.

And the group that went to Kangaroo Valley? They said they had a great time canoeing and even saw a wombat. To me double denim > wombat everytime.

Love from the brother :)

HI Emily!!! How are you doing? I was just thinking about you and thought I would write to tell you what a great person you are and how fortunate I am to have such a loving sister!! I love you and miss you!!!
Ben

Looking forward to going back...

With all of my dates of traveling while I'm home booked, I am getting more and more excited to coming home. The other night I spent the evening showing a coworker YouTube clips of Bay2Breakers and telling him about Florida football and I ended up getting really happy that I was going to be back amongst all of that soon but sad because it will only be temporary.

My official itinerary reads like this:

Oct 15 - Boston
Oct 23 - Sarasota
Oct 29 - San Francisco
November 6 - Back to Sydney

Incidentally it just works out that I get to hit the three major places I've lived in my life where the majority of my friends are still at. Merri is going to be out here in November and then another friend of mine is coming in December so those are events to look forward to as well, but really I don't think there is going to be anything like coming back. Even though I will be couch surfing my way around the country I know I will be more comfortable on lumpy hand me down couches as long as I'm around the people I love. As thrilled as I am to be coming back, I already am getting sad that I know it is only temporary and I will have to return once the trip is over.

Getting on the plane to leave the first time was one of the hardest things I've had to do. I knew how much I was giving up, and I knew that I was essentially trading in a really good life that I'd built for the complete unknown. It hasn't been easy. It rained the first four months I was here. I've had countless frustrations setting up banks, dealing with the systems over here and other things that are par for the course when moving to a different country. Things didn't work out as I'd hoped and I feared stepping on that plane may have been the worst mistake of my life. I struggled to figure out why I had done this and given up everything that I knew and loved for something that was so uncertain.

Then I saw a quote the other day that I loved. "Don't be afraid to give up the good for the great." -JD Rockefeller. It struck me particularly because I knew I was giving up something really good when I left San Francisco. And I was scared, but I did it anyway knowing I would always regret not doing it and wondering what if. Even though my time here hasn't been an amazing tropical vacation where I'm hugging Koalas, drinking Fosters and essentially living in a Chippendale's calendar as one may have hoped at its onset, I have faith that something great will come of this. Already, I appreciate my family and friends in a much greater capacity than I might have been capable of even after having them in my life for years. Some friends have continued to be supportive and in my life so much in spite of the distance. With others the communications have somewhat faded but I now know there are people who will really be there no matter what and thats a wonderful feeling.

Even more than that, the quote represents not letting a fear of losing what is comfortable and safe and at least trying for something greater. Pat talks about how he is so frustrated to have his degrees from a great University and be doing menial work (He works for a golf course to supplement the money he makes from Rugby) but he knows that this is the only way he has the chance to really go after a career in rugby, and that is something he knows he'd always regret if he didn't at least try. David Page is doing the same thing in L.A. in trying to become an actor.

For me 'the great' that I'm going after isn't as discernible as theirs. I'm not even sure what it is. In someways I wish I knew and others I know my life to this point has somewhat been governed by random chaos and events out of my control leading me from one place to another, so maybe I should just trust that everything will work itself out as it should and always has.

That's not to say that I've landed in the proverbial 'Bush' that the namesake of this blog refers to. I'm fine and I'm going to be fine. I know that no matter what, I'll move forward and find my way and I know that I'll give it everything I have in me before I bail. I don't want you guys to be concerned. I'm just being reflective of my time here thus far and how it hasn't quite been smooth sailing, but how I have faith that something great will come of it. And until then, I have coming home to look forward to.

Ode to Coach

Unfortunately for you, my loyal readership of three, I haven't been doing too many exciting, adventurous new things lately. However something did happen that made my inner penny pincher very, very happy.

Too often I end up getting the short end of the stick when it comes to my retail purchases. I am probably partially to blame because I can be impulsive, buy something the second I see it instead of shopping around and end up with an over priced, poor quality item with no warranty or receipt. And if I do have a warranty or receipt I'm often too lazy to use it.

About a year ago, fed up with all the poor quality purses I always purchased falling apart on me, I decided to invest a little bit more and get a designer Coach purse. Not wanting to spend a ton on it, I went to the outlet stores in Napa Valley and found a great little bag for a little over $100, a great price for a Coach bag. I was excited, not only because I was now an owner of a Coach bag, but also at the prospect of having a bag that could hold up to my lifestyle.

Sadly not even a year after my initial purchase, my bag was already showing signs of weakness, fraying where the straps met with the body of the bag, Evidence it could not hold up to the endurance I expect and need out of a bag. Fortunately for me, Coach guarantees their products for the natural life of the product. All you have to do is send it in and they will fix it for you. A little before leaving for Japan, worried my poor baby wouldn't be able to make the trip, and I kissed it goodbye and sent it packing for the Coach Day Spa for bags in Jacksonville, Fl.

Weeks turned into months and Coach had given me no sign that they had received my bag at all or that it was being treated. I had a tracking number on it and I knew it had arrived safely. I decided to follow up with Coach and I sent them an email with the tracking number, and some details about my bag and see what was going on. After an email exchange back and forth involving me sending some pictures of my missing baby to them (cause I didn't know the exact make or model) I got the Dear John letter that I had seen coming....My bag was nowhere to be found. I barely had time to register my grief for in the next sentence in the email they informed me that they would be issuing me a credit for the current value of my bag $324USD plus tax (!!!). Despite its discounted price at the outlet store, my bag was worth a lot to me and it made me very happy to see that Coach recognized our special bond, and was even able to put a monetary value on said bond.

I eagerly hopped on the Coach website to peruse their selection and find the bag that could best assuage the pain of my loss. I narrowed the selection down to a list of a few, sent it off to some friends and got their feedback and was all set to pick one out. I logged onto the Coach website, ready to make my purchase, and there it was...A bag that I had somehow missed before. It hadn't even been on my long list of options that I had pored over the site looking for. Instantly, I knew we were meant to be. All other selections went out the window. This was the one for me.



Isn't she beautiful?!?

So I obviously got the bag, and thought I couldn't be more happy about it until yesterday when I decided to go into the local Coach store to buy some spray to protect my pretty little girl. When I was in there, I noticed my new bag was on display. Curious, I had to check the price they were offering it for in Australia. $720. For a split second I considered returning my princess to the Coach store in Australia, taking the money and exchanging it for American dollars (which is about .90 to the dollar right now) repurchasing my bag from the U.S. website and then pocketing the difference.

However I decided against it. I mean, really, how often does a love like this come along?

I love you, Coach.

Client Entertainment

In Australia, I go on far more in-person client events than I ever did working in SF. Naturally a good percentage of these are also fun events meant for us to get to know the clients a little better, build relationships and also have fun. Unfortunately for me, these 'fun' 'events aren't ones that I would consider universally fun...particularly because so far they have been in fields that I don't excel in...or to put it more bluntly, that I suck at.

Example 1: Golf

I know that golf is a sport all business people should learn. I now realize that, Dad, you in fact were not trying to torture me by making me take those Sunday morning golf lessons (when it was about as hot as the fifth circle of hell and I was sweating out Milwaukee's Best from the night before) but were instead trying to arm me with the skills I would need to engage in this social aspect of doing business. Perhaps I should have paid more attention during those lessons. Maybe I should have just not drank so much cheap beer the evenings before. Regardless of why, the lessons didn't stick. We have now gone golfing twice with clients. My excitement the first time going out was quickly eclipse by my realization that not only was this not going to be an easy game to pick up but also my hand-eye coordination in terms of hitting the ball was on par with that of a pot smoking chimp. When I did occasionally manage to hit the ball, it usually ended up in some sweet spot like this...



Seriously...how is anyone supposed to hit that???

And that is only when I was so lucky to be able to locate it after I hit it. I was actually able to defy the laws of physics multiple times on that course by somehow hitting the ball with a forward motion and making it take off on a trajectory backwards. Sadly, I feel these talents would be much more well received in a class room than they were on the golf course.


Example 2: Cooking

This week, we took our clients to an italian bread making class where you make bread and drink wine while socializing. I know what you're probably thinking. I'm italian. I like bread. I love wine. This should be a good experience. Well, on a scale of 1 to golf, I will say this wasn't quite at golf level, but I won't be trying out for Master Chef anytime soon either.

They made the whole experience relatively painless by pre-measuring all of the ingredients for us, walking us through every step, providing us with wine and pretty much only leaving us responsible for the kneading and shaping of the dough. I guess that makes your job a little easier in guessing where things went wrong for me. While everyone else's dough looked smooth and round like a cantaloupe, mine more closely resembled jaba the hut. Below are a few pictures I snapped with my camera during the class.




Though we baked some of the dough in class, they had us wrap up the rest of ours so that we could take it home and bake it. During the class, even wrapped up the dough continued to expand. By the time the class was over, my little jaba the hut had grown legs. I was pretty sure I could walk him home.

Last night I remembered my sad little pile of dough in the fridge, and with the help of my flat mate, I attempted to bake. The result? Surprisingly good. See for yourself below. That is an 'E' I etched on the top of it. I must say, when given premeasured ingredients and almost fool proof instructions to bake it while being closely supervised, I'm not half bad at baking!



I hope our next client event we can do something more up my alley...like beer olympics. I would totally rock at that.

R Party

Last weekend, to celebrate our U.S. Ambassador Rachel's Birthday (Ambassador program means she's over here working for 3 months with Google), our friend Hazel decided to host an 'R' themed party (since Rachel's name begins with the letter R, for those of you that needed it spelled out). We were all instructed to dress as something that began with the letter R and to replicate one of our favorite brunch places in SF, we had brunch and mimosas. It was a great time and there isn't too much more to tell than that, but I thought you'd appreciate seeing some pictures of the costumes and how it went.

To clarify, yes, I wore two costumes. I did a mid party costume change because I couldn't decide between the two...and because I love dressing up. (I was a ref and 'Robin' the superhero)

The other people you see in the pictures are a 'ranga' (It's aussie speak for a red head, derived from the word 'orangutang'), 'risky business' and a 'roo (or kangaroo, for those not fluent in Aussie).

Enjoy!