Casey's Big 3-0 Surprise

The sparklers on this carrot cake nearly set off the office fire alarms on Friday. Whoops!


Tuffy was rummaging through the wild west show bag before Casey (Texas) even arrived.

Casey sporting his wild west cowboy hat whilst drinking a sensational margarita.

Cass threatens to shoot. And with that scary face, who wouldn't back down?

Robo, Sharon, Greg, Sam, Rocco, Cass, Keithy, Casey, Tuffy, and Fi.

Tuffy and Sammy show there macho men side as they suck down chili beer. I believe the quote was "it tastes like burning".

It took a while to blow the candles out on this lemon meringue cheesecake. White powdered sugar was flying everywhere.

Tuffy arranged a surprise dinner party at Coyote Cafe on Nicholson St to celebrate Casey's 30th birthday. I was the decoy having made plans to take Casey for a mexican birthday dinner at 7PM Sunday. Everyone else was to arrive at 6:30PM, but there were many stragglers. Unfortunately, timely Casey overestimated the time required to walk to the restaurant, and arrived TWENTY minutes early. His arrival was more of a surprise to the five or six of us already there than to him. Despite our blown cover, it was a happy surprise for him to be surrounded by so many friends. Of course, he was overjoyed with the bag of goodies in his seat and delightfully wore the cowboy hat. Okay, I'm not sure he was overjoyed or delighted, but he was definitely a good sport. The margaritas were sensational - best I've had in Melbourne for sure and in my top 10 ever. This is a huge discovery in a city where good mexican food is hard to come by. The food was alright - it was an Australianized version, better than I'd had before but still not up to Texas quality. The slow service was the thing most related to mexican style. Tuffy's girlfriend Fi brought a yummy lemon meringue cheesecake for non-chocolate eater Casey.

The boys went out for a drink after dinner and I returned home to the non-stop party at my own house. There was one group in the lounge and another in the courtyard with a music DVD competing with the cranked up stereo in the neighboring kitchen. When I headed to bed that night, I tried to block out the sounds of Jade's stamping foot and clapping hands directing Dan to walk the kitchen runway to her beat. It amazes me how much the boy practices walking.

Royal Melbourne Show

Dan's not only modeling, but also styling all the models' hair

A few of the "real" professional models

Dan starts his strut down the runway

A snapshot of rides at the show

This is what prize winning cows look like. Huh?!


What style! Her ear is covering her blue eye shadow - a real looker!

Each year, the Royal Melbourne Show takes place at the horse racing fair grounds over an 11 day span. It's a county fair type event with rides, livestock, dog shows, fashion shows, vendor booths, fair food (cotton candy = fairy floss), and infamous showbags (described later).

As a finalist in the model competition, Dan walks the runway for the fashion show held at 1PM, 2PM, 3PM and 4PM daily. The 10 finalists follow about 20 professional models that cycle through several wardrobe changes. I accompanied Dan to the backstage model area Sunday morning. As his underpaid assistant, I worked wonders with the straightening iron. The hair style of the day was a puffed mane - yuck. The models were all very sweet and talkative, some of them eating ice cream, and others throwing away the bread from their sandwiches. They immediately assumed I was the next supermodel. I had to correct them; despite my good looks and obvious charm, I am simply committed to engineering. There were two stylists hired to do hair exclusively, but the models were lined up with special requests for Dan, despite the other two being available to work. It was sweet to see how much they really admired Dan and respected his styling skills. It was great to get an inside peak at what goes into putting on a fashion show, seemingly a whole lot of hurry up and wait.

Phill met me at the show around 12:30 and we toured around all the attractions, whizzing by most of it and stopping for the odd cow or singer or billboard. Phill and I were surprisingly fascinated with the livestock pavilion, the cow and goat showings in particular. It's so hard to understand what goes into the judging rationale for these things. We watched Dan walk the runway twice, at 2PM and 4PM. I did a little bit of hooting and hollering at the end of the show. The models smirked, as we had agreed before the show that I would be the audible cheerer.

A showbag is similar to a ready-made trick-or-treat bag filled with complete garbage and sold at bargain basement prices. The mile long lines of people waiting to enter the showbag pavilion were atrocious and enough to offset Phill and I. I'm sure we missed out by stopping by one of the smaller booths along the perimeter of the fair. I purchased a couple showbags including a Wild West themed showbag for Casey's birthday dinner. He's nicknamed Texas here, after the Texas Ranger. This enormous bag bursting with a cowboy hat, rainbow Indian headdress, spurs, four guns (one of which lit up and had sound effects), a pick up sticks type game, and other miscellaneous junk cost a whopping $12. It was amazing to see how much junk they stuffed into one showbag. Another $10 bag I bought for the primary chocolate lover and provider at work was filled with various chocolate lollies and a stuffed bear.

Lygon St

Dan, Jade, Will, Joe at Il Gambero on Lygon St

I started the morning at Vic Market bargaining for some new runners (tennis shoes). After starting to walk away nearly ten times, I finally scored some $120 Asics for $85. I headed to the gym to give my new shoes a workout but the gym was practically empty and it was a beautiful sunny day so I decided to walk home, about 6 km from the city. It was a nice walk, one I should try to do to and from work more often during the week. When I got home, I actually turned on the footy game to see how the other semi-final games were going. I know, ridiculous! I actually enjoy footy a lot more than American football. I could get into it, though I still haven't chosen a team to barrack. Maybe next season.

Saturday night, I went to Lygon St with Dan, Jade, Joe, and Jade's friend Will. After a stop at the clearskin factory for some cheap but tasty BYO wine, we headed to Il Gambero. I'd only eaten on Lygon St twice previously but we went to one of the two restaurants I'd been to - must be a local favorite. We had a real Italian waiter which is actually rare along this stretch of Italian restaurants and gelati. Jade, Joe, and Will left fairly early, but Dan and I carried the torch. After finishing up on Lygon St, we went to The Retreat (a bar on Sydney Rd not far from our house, where I'd seen Tuffy play about a month ago). We met a few of Dan's friends and made some new ones. Surprisingly I also saw three coworkers that night, one on Lygon St and two at The Retreat - made me feel like such a local.

Strike

Our group took over the middle section of the bowling alley (four lanes).

Henry and I went gutter for gutter.

Maria, Mel (who I walk with at lunch sometimes), me

Andrew, Robo, Cass intent on the footy game at Oxfords

Mr Jigga jamming out at Miss Libertine on Franklin St (Sam is in the gray/green shirt in the middle)

URS treated each workgroup to a mid-year social function. The water team elected to go bowling at Strike. There were about 25-30 of us who made our way across the city, traded in our shoes for some silver velcro gangsta bowling shoes, and launched heavy balls towards the pins. I was more than a little rusty. I bowled 10 gutter balls within one game, with one fluke strike. Despite a disastrous but not ultimately worst score of 52, my game was on an upward swing at the end. However, I had no chance to redeem myself with a second game. Instead, the entire group retreated to the karaoke room, where each and every person proceeded to sing. At first no one volunteered, but most unexpectedly, a quiet, reserved, workerbee of the group boldly sang with extreme enthusiasm, volume, and swinging of her body. Her very bad, VERY BAD singing (we're talking worse than Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend's wedding kind of bad) inspired the group to rip through a myriad of 80's pop rock mixed with the occasional Britney Spears rendition.

After the bowling function ended, a group of us continued onto Oxfords pub to watch the end of the semi-finals footy game, and from there, onto Miss Libertine's, where our coworker Sam had an EP launch (CD release) for his band Mr Jigga. It's an electronica band, but very vocal and instrumental, with musically complex and interesting songs. I danced for hours straight through their awesome performance. It was one of my most fun nights here.

Happy Birthday to my sister Katie!!!

Shapes

I joined Shapes Health & Fitness Monday night. It's located in the Banana Alley Vaults across the river from the office. It's on my way to work and home from work - no excuses!! It's a funky little place comprised of several long tunnels with hidden passageways (I sometimes cannot find the arched cut out doorways in the curved walls linking the tunnels together). One tunnel is lined with cardio equipment, another with weights, another with classrooms, and a fourth with locker rooms and the spa area. I've been smothered with loads of personal attention since joining. I attended a Thai kickboxing class Tuesday night with only three other people - two guys who'd been doing it a while, a petite cute girl who'd only done it once before, and me. I took great satisfaction in destroying the teacher's initially low expectations of me. Those many years of body combat/kickboxing classes were not wasted! My technique was strong and my intensity stronger. Hiya!! The instructor barely spoke English but kept shouting "face!", "when I say face, you like this", indicating that we move into a defensive position guarding our face from attack. Thursday night was an even more intense experience as I was the sole participant in the hip hop dance class. I initially thought that I would be in for some major humiliation, but then chucked that thought aside and realized I was getting some premium one on one training. Dancing queen has acquired some new moves!!

A Model in the Making

Dan and Jade went to watch Jade's boyfriend Joe in a modeling show Friday night, and Dan got pulled out of the audience and asked to participate. Both Dan and Joe made it into the semi-finals which were Sunday morning. Dan made it to the FINALS with a total of 10 people including him. He's the only guy - the rest are all girls. He is spending the next two weeks training and doing runway walks. The winner of the ten remaining contestants is awarded a one year modeling contract with Vivien, the largest modeling agency/magazine/whatever(??) in Australia. Who does this happen to??? My other roomie Heath's band was just signed and he'll soon be in the money. I'm hoping some of this wild success is going to rub off on me a little. It's pretty exciting, huh?!

Williamstown

View of the bay and the Spirit of Tasmania Ferry from my temporary digs in Port Melbourne


Phill provoking Tyr


Botanical Gardens in Williamstown


Cute cafes and shops opposite the bay in Williamstown


A view of the city and bay from Williamstown (my Port Melbourne house was located just beyond the huge blue NYK barge on the left)


Phill, Dana, Cassie, and Louise

I finally caught up with my old flatmate Phill. I can't believe it's been so long since we've seen each other. We met near the end of the tram line in Port Melbourne and walked along the beach with Tyr. We gave Tyr a little more of a run around in the back yard before heading off for some adventure. We decided to drive (yes, me driving the manual) to Williamstown. It's just across the bay from Port Melbourne, but you have to get on a highway to get there). Phill and I walked around the Williamstown Botanical Gardens, then along the cafes and shops opposite the port. We headed from Williamstown to Cassie's apartment in Pahran. She made her yummy veggie lasagna for a bunch of us including Phill's friends from England and Ireland. Wine was free flowing, conversation was lively, and it was a fun night.

Eureka Tower

A glance up the Eureka Tower on our way to the event

Mingling at the bar on the 89th floor - a great venue!

More mingling

View of the city in daylight (Flinders Street Station, Federation Square, and CBD)

Same city view at night

A snapshot of the bubble cube that "breaks through" the building walls

A city view from the skydeck waiting for The Edge

A dorky picture of the picture they tried to sell us


Funky space age toilets disguised behind a curved wood door

This flat slate bench slanted only slightly towards the wall with no sink basins whatsoever

The Melbourne URS office hosted a networking event for URS young professionals and our clients and colleagues from potential clients. The event was held at the Eureka Tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere and only a few feet from the URS office. The bar is situated on the 89th floor, one level above the observation skydeck. We arrived in time to take in the 360 degree view in daylight before the sun set followed by the city lit up for the evening. The venue was among the best I've seen with a great angular floor plan, warm red walls with great lighting, an oval wrap around bar in the center of the room, and of course floor to ceiling windows. The Eureka Tower offers a ride called The Edge, in which a bubble cube "breaks through" the wall of the building. The cube starts opaque and turns completely transparent in a split second (including the floor of the cube), leaving you hanging 300 meters over the city. All the while, music simulates the break through, followed by creaking and crashing sounds to warn of a drop to your certain death. My description of it was far more entertaining that the ride itself, which was disappointing. It may have been scarier in daylight, but it was rather anti-climatic to everyone in our group who tried it. The evening was great. There were about 130 people (many of whom I talked to - a real shocker I know). A lot of my colleagues had invited their uni friends that worked for potential clients so it was more of a party with friends that serious schmoozing. When the free food and drinks ceased, a bunch of us continued the evening at Blvd, the bar next to the office.

Socceroos

Casey and I went to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to cheer on the Socceroos playing against Argentina, the world's second rated soccer team. Being the incredible sports fanatic that I am, this is something I had only ever dreamt of, hoped I could one day achieve, and on this day my dream was realized, right here in Melbourne. Okay, so I wasn't quite that excited but I was trying to hype myself up a little to match the $150 ticket price. For anyone who really cared about sports, it would probably be a drop in the bucket, but for me, it was an expensive little experience, an "oh yeah, I should probably go to a soccer game while I'm in Australia" kind of thing. I was actually blown away. Their incredible speed and fancy footwork was impressive to watch, and I enjoyed the game far more than I expected. I was immediately drawn to Argentina's #19, Messi. Within seconds, I, Jen Sorenson, picked out one of the world's top rated soccer players. What sports prowess. How DO I do it? The Socceroos took an honorable 1-0 loss to Argentina.

Tyr

Tyr and I spent some quality time together today, romping around at the dog park and along the beach. I practiced driving the manual a little more and boldly made a trip to the grocery store. No stalling and no honking – what success!!

Drivers Ed

Rafa, Emily

Anne, Erin, Rafa

Richard, Anne

Emily, Oliver

The people I’m dog sitting for kindly left their car for my use while they’re gone. Only one hiccup. It’s a manual. Having driven stick shift only once in my life (in drivers ed when I was 14), I needed a refresher. Uber patient Casey came to the rescue and taught me the basics. He didn’t even complain (too much) of whiplash or having to repeat “shift to 2nd”. He thought it best we give the car a break so we went for ice cream on Bay St (the main road of Port Melbourne). We went for a few more practice spins and the driving instructor retired for the day.

I went over to Emily’s house for a BBQ. She also lives in Port Melbourne, about a 25 minute walk from where I’m staying. It was a really relaxed, comfortable afternoon and evening with not a single Australian – two Americans, a Costa Rican, an English guy, a French girl, and a Kiwi (New Zealander) – oh yeah, and a 2 week old baby who made the rounds.

Red Hummingbird

Rafa, Steve, Mark


Robo, Tim


Dills, Cassie, Sarah


Narelle, Andrew, Jon

In good URS form, following Friday Night Drinks, a huge group of us went out to bid farewell to Steve (guy in the middle of the first picture). He’s the guy that I met Monday night when we went to see “Once”. Yes, in typical fashion, I like to befriend people who are leaving. He’s off to work with Youth Ambassadors in Vietnam (similar to the Peace Corps). We went to a bar on the corner of Russell and Lonsdale called Red Hummingbird. They had a tasty signature drink with pummeled strawberries, and for only $14, it too could be yours. It was a great bar though, with good ambiance and an open-air rooftop area with a view. When I was ready to call it a night, I had to direct the taxi driver to my temporary digs in Port Melbourne. Ummm…. turn here, okay wait, turn there. I’m sure he appreciated my last second directions but I was impressed I even knew how to find the place.