Vegas Baby

I know I'm currently in Australia, but I just found out that I'll be going to Vegas for a few days in September. Yeeeeeehaaaaaa! Can't wait to spend some time with you AM (and buy some Trexis).

Jetlag

That is my excuse for all the recent spelling errors Middlechild. J3 just informed me of them, but I'm not going to bother to change them.

The last three days of my trip have been in Melbourne with J3, we've done alot of walking! Melbourne is a very beautiful city. I highly recommend it.

Note to you

AM I miss you, whereever I go I wish you were here with me. I hope you had a good day at work and the heatwave will end soon. I laugh everytime I see someone in a winter coat with their scarf and hat on. But I have to admit it is quite chilly in here without socks on. I'll call you in a little bit, cuz I think you're still at work. Lots of love. J.

Day 2 Highlights...point form.

I hear J1 and T talking so I guess they are awake now, it must be from this incessive drilling going on at 8am.

Here are some of the things we did yesterday.

Weather, in the mid teens, with amazing sunny breaks, we got windburn from being up on the bridge.

1. Called AM, good to hear your voice. I miss you.
2. Went for a walk 10am-5pm (when I insisted we take the train home) Crocs are my friend.
3. I need to actually find out where we went...thru a park (High Park?) took lots of photos, walked to Circular Quay, many pics of the opera house! Not so good cuz it was sunny at the time and high noon. Lots of silhoette shots.
4. Walked quickly thru the Rocks, to get to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, we were going to walk across it, but only made it to the pile-on where we went up to the top and watched the USS Kitty Hawk leave Sydney Harbour. Side note: they said that the 5500 crew spent over $10 milion dollars in Sydney in 5 days. Wonder what they spent it on.
5. Went to Darling Harbour for lunch at Wasamama, photos at a later date.
6. T found me a wool shop, but Romni kicks its butt.
7. Went thru the QBC building to the train, and came home.
8. Walked thru redfern and took graffiti pictures.
9. Played more Wiii, had a nap, tried to deny I took a nap.
10. Went back to the grocery store for some Kangaroo meat for the cats, and decided to get some Butter Chicken take way in Newtown. Ate, watched Muriels Wedding on tv and went to bed.

Today is Day 3...time for breakie, and figure out what we are doing today, cuz its raining again. Blah.

Sydney Day 1 - highlights.

Weather - rain, at times torrential. Not as cold as I thought it would be, I think it was in the mid teens.

1. Got out of the airport! Whooooooooooooooohooooo. Saw J1 and T (for the first time) Double Whooooohooooooooooo! Immediately talked to the folks on the phone, and confirmed out lunch plans.

2. Went straight to their new digs, it is awesome! Had a Lamington (white cake, dipped in chocolate, and covered in coconut) and a coffee, unpacked, showered and changed and headed off to see the folks.

3. By 11:03 am I was hugging my Mother for the first time since September 2001. It was awesome to see her, it has been way too long. Followed by my Dad, who I saw Jan 2006 in Winnipeg, great to see him too, under way better circumstances.

4. Went for dimsum in Eastwood, of course we chose everything off the first few carts and then realized we may have had too much food.

5. Back to my folks place for a few minutes so they could open thier gifts from myself and AM. They loved everything. Thanks AM for the Blue Bombers cap, Dad was wearing his TTC one all day long...I think its his favourite.

6. The three of us then went grocery shopping, I was getting tired, we went to a mall and I was facinated with the food court. Note: Australians have a way of making Signage and Graphics make food, even unhealthy food, look good for you. I bought more Timtams than I know what to do with, six flavours that I don't even know if I'll even try! Gifts for my coworkers I guess :)

7. T made a great Chickpea Veggie Casserole, note to self I have to buy one of those oven casserole dishes with a lid.

8. Played Wiii, Bowling and Shooting (and some face recognition game which I suck at) until I was ready to pass out. I think I did pretty well seeing as I had been up since around 3am Sydney time.

I may remember more when I see my photos.

Highlights and lowlights of my trip to Australia...so far!

Good Morning Everyone (it is morning here).

I'm blogging from Sydney, more specifically from J1's spare bedroom along with Puppy (the cat) who seems to need some loving, cuz she keeps climbing onto my lap with her cold paws (of course I sit in fear while she's on me) so it may take a while for me to post this blog.

Pictoral blogging has been my choice, but since I don't want to download the 1GB card I've already filled up on J1's computer, pictures will have to follow in three weeks.

I've decided to blog now because I know I will forget everything that I've done while I was here by the time I get back, even with the photos. So here is my update:

Day 1 or Day 3 or 3 days of travel-

I chose to fly Air Canada from Toronto-Vancouver-Honolulu-Sydney. Which was the most direct way for my buck. All in all the trip was successful other than these few things. Which mostly had to do with the first leg of the trip.

a)There was a crabby old woman (and drunken burping husband) sitting behind me. She complained and insulted everyone and anything she could possibly think of on the plain. She made a kid turn off his PSP before we even departed, she actually got up and searched the cabin for the person and still complained about it afterwards.
b)I had to listen to these two (you know who you are 35H&K)for the entire flight because my headset console along with the gentleman beside me were broken and there was "nothing we can do about it now" apparently. Even though one flight attendent said they'd just reset it.
c) Some poor girl barfted all over her sister (even sadder) and her father two rows up and to my right. The cabin immediately smeltled of toilet and puke, perhaps the cabin crew is used to this smell becaus it took a while for them to do anything about it. And what they did do was pour coffee grounds all over the seats, and because the flight was full, put blankets over them so they could sit back down. Needless to say, the coffee only masked what was really going on there.

Then when we landed at Vancouver, we were all told to get our luggage even if it was checked all the way thru to Sydney and that we would have to go thru US Customs for the 1.5 hours we were going to be there to switch planes. It was stressful because we felt like the connecting time wasn't very long, plus they sent us to the wrong baggage area (we needed to be in the US side) which happened to be on the other side of the airport, now everyone was hussling and breaking a sweat just to get over there and fill up the forms and take our shoes off.

VS I took pictures of all the unpaided airplane food for you. The last two things were kind of gross (and that is coming from someone who actually can stomach airplain grub).

I sat with the same Indian family all the way here, we must have bought our tickets at the same time. We also found out that we are travelling on the same flights up until Vancouver, but then I get to come home on an earlier flight. I hope they are having a great time in Melbourne visiting his brother, then off to Brisbane, then back to Sydney. Plus I hope they actually made it to their connecting flight.

Sydney airport was a disaster. I don't it should take so long just go get out of the airport. First when we landed we were quarentined for about 30 min. They sprayed "non-toxic" stuff all over our carry-on luggage (I saw them holding their breath!). When we finally got off we had to go thru the customs lines, which were about 20 other flights backed up by 7:30 in the morning. I didn't get to breath a breathe of fresh pouring rain air until after 8:40ish. J1 and T were patiently waiting for me, I was almost afriad they weren't there because it took so long (we arrived at 6:45) but they thought they had missed me.

Should have turned on my cell phone, but I'm too cheap to pay the $2.00/min roaming charges here...I even called Fido and asked them if I could just buy a phonecared here and swap it out, but it turns out my phone is locked and it can't. Thanks J1 for all her efforts in trying to get my cellphone working.

This is the morning of my third day in Sydney, looks like rain again today. Thought there was a drought here? At least they got 85% of their July rain already in the first week. On a positive note, yesterday was gorgeous.

On Vacation

Blogging will resume in August.

All lit up

Someone decided that the CN Tower should be lit up with LED lights. I've only seen it a couple times, but there is an array of colours. Some of the colour combos they were testing out made it look like an eyesore, but on Canada Day, it was almost entirely like this the whole night.

My 15 minutes with nature produced these photos

Pretty Clouds

June produced alot of awesome looking clouds. I've found a new and easy subject to capture.

Crime Pays

I foiled a break in attempt on the 4x4 parked out back. There wasn't much damage other than 2 broken antenas (1 from the Cater's minivan and 1 from the 4 Runner) and alot of internal door scratches. The guy who was trying to break in was carrying this newspaper, he dropped it on the ground after I yelled at him out the window. We reported it to the police, but they didn't really care, they just viewed it as yet another crackhead behind our building doing something they shouldn't.

Canada Day Moon

Heart Shaped Leaf