Return to San Antonio

I slept all of one hour on the 15 hour flight from Melbourne to L.A. The screaming (and kicking) two year old behind me was quiet for two hours at most. A layover and flight to San Antonio later, my dad picked me up at the airport. We went straight to the high school where my mom and sister both teach to surprise them. Then...we went to surprise Jack.


Jack's unconditional love and excited greetings never cease to amaze me. Of course, I'm not sure he could be any happier than he is with my family, three walks a day, and filet mignon for dinner. Hotel Sorenson is top end, let me tell you. Psycho Mom and Katie leave for the gym at 4:45AM. When they return, hot breakfast is on the table. While they eat breakfast, Dad prepares their lunches. Then dinner awaits them that evening. Any requests? Just give it a day.


The paw, Katie's favorite position. Jack looked lean as ever and even taller than I remembered.

Wicked

Dan and I went out for a night at the theater to see Wicked at The Regent. Dan had only been to one musical (Phantom) when he was 8 years old, so it was high time for him to return to the theater and I'd been hearing good things so my curiosity was peaked. Ozmopolitans in light-up martini glasses were all the rage inside the theater.


I treated Dan to the show as a thank you for his generosity in keeping me looking good. He cuts and colors my hair and it is so great having a hair stylist housemate. Ironically, he also cuts the hair of the lead actress in this musical, Eltheba, the wicked witch. He said she has green paint inside her ears every time she comes in for a cut. That's right...Dan, hair stylist to the rich and famous...and me.


The show was very entertaining, telling the story of the Wicked Witch Eltheba and Good Witch Glinda leading up to their making as the wicked and good witch of Oz.

Footy Finals

Footy finals are the Superbowl of Australia. This Saturday marked the biggest and final footy game of the season between the Hawthorn Hawks and Geelong Cats(two Melbourne AFL teams). Geelong was the grand champion last year and had only one loss all season. Despite their favored position and initial lead in the game, Hawthorn came out kicking and won by an impressive margin. All over Australia, backyard bbq's were hosted to cheer on the game. I went to my favorite new hangout at Mel and Waz's.

Mel and Waz have been working furiously to finish off the patio in preparation for this bbq to usher in the warm weather and start of beautiful Melbourne summer. He even set up a TV outside to watch the game in the glorious sunshine.

Ian, me, Mel, and Bel warm the wood benches between the nearly completed planters lining the perimeter of the deck.

Grill Master Waz cooked up satay chicken, chili shrimp, chicken wings, homemade burgers, and sausages...and Mel worried there wouldn't be enough food.

The serious footy viewers collected inside to view the big screen without glare from the sun. I was outside.

We celebrated Mhairi's 29th birthday with a chocolate mud cake full of sparklers.


Here's the Hawks celebrating their big win.

I played the didgeridoo for the first time Saturday night. The didgeridoo is commonly claimed to be the world's oldest wind instrument and originates from Aboriginals in northern Australia. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet, "drone pipe", or aerophone. It's a 1-3 m (3-9 ft) long hollowed wooden instrument with a low bellowing droning sound. The trick to playing it is that you have to master continuously blowing into it while breathing in at the same time.

Riverland

I met up with Fi and Raf at Riverland Bar after work on Thursday. It's located beneath Federation Square on the Yarra River, and it was completely slammin'. I'm slacking on the picture front, so I ripped these off the internet but the place was completely packed out - wall to wall people. And when we're paying $15/pint, that's saying something. Location is everything.


There's the brown Yarra River in the front. All the wood balconies are lining the edge of Riverland Bar with Federation Square in the background and more city behind that.


One of the balconies overlooking the river.


After a few drinks at Riverland, we went for dinner at Time Out in the middle of Time Square (under all the orange umbrellas).

Taken Out

Jade had her own podium just like this, but I had to rip these pics off the website because they didn't allow us to bring in our cameras or phones.


Hottie host James strutted around right in front of us all night.

Tonight Luke, Dan, Brendan, and I went as Jade's guests to Studio 5 to watch the taping of a Television show called 'Taken Out'. Taken Out is a dating show in which one guy is surrounded by 30 women, who have a choice to stay in the game or reject the guy at key intervals after he reveals information about himself. In the end, he selects three from the remaining women to ask deep and meaningful questions and then be 'taken out' on a date.

Jade and Dan both auditioned for the show and were both asked to participate. Both I must mention are happily in LOVE with their partners. So...not exactly the typical contestant profile. Jade went for the fun of it under the proviso that she was not allowed to actually go on a date.

Jade was absolutely the hit of the show. Her dramatic flair, wild sense of humor, and nonchalance kept host James coming back to her for more and more. She first stayed in for a surfer hottie and when asked why, responded something about "it's just a date, it's not like he has to have a personality". The host responded with a question of if it could be a long lasting connection to which Jade said, "yeah of course - it could go 2 or 3 weeks". When she later rejected him, her explanation was that he looked like someone who smells like cabbage. She somehow managed to expound upon this statement and it became a focus of the show - what would this guy or that guy smell like. She had a way of drawing in the guys, the host, and the crowd. The girls in the audience behind us thought she was hilarious and wondered how she could possibly be single - this as we sat next to her boyfriend Luke.

High Vis Night

Friday night was "High Vis" night at World which meant 2 for 1 drinks. Ah, look at that good lookin' URS crew. What people won't do for a free drink...

Yum Cha at Mel's

Mel organized a girls weekend at her house to cook yum cha (otherwise known as dim sum) and have a game night. Friday night, I left the city with Mel and Waz and we met up with Les for a yummy Italian dinner, then watched a movie back at their house. Saturday morning Les, Bel, Mel, and I headed all around Hoppers and Werribee visiting asian grocers and traditional supermarkets to collect all the ingredients for our cooking extravaganza.

Mel, me, Les, and Curtis (Kathy and Shane's son) preparing various fillings for dumplings.

Eight of us sat down at Mel's new dining table to devour our prawn, chicken, and pork dumplings, chicken and vegetable spring rolls, and bbq pork steamed buns. I have to say we were pretty impressed with ourselves and the quality of our concoctions. I made a wickedly spicy chili dipping sauce from chilis Mel grew herself.

We moved onto a competitive round of Pictionary, where Mel and Bel dominated. Waz and I gave them a run for their money, especially as we gained momentum.

Shane, Enrique, Bel, Mel, Kathy, Les, and Waz gear up for another round of speed drawing.

Crazy times for the drawing world!

These avid drinkers (Enrique and Shane) were disappointed with my poor 'American' representation (aka self-control).

Shane just couldn't resist going for an arm wrestle after he got a glimpse of my boxing guns. I held my own, leaving him a bit embarrassed. Ah shux.

Can I please be paid to talk?

Here's me facilitating a workshop for Melbourne Water to promote Water Sensitive Urban Design in the councils around Melbourne. I'm right in my element, getting to be the center of attention, and being paid to talk.


We had about 80-90 people at the workshop. I did some schmoozing and came across three people that were friends of friends. Small world.

Corporate Cup

Mel, Jill (hidden), Emily, Kelly, Mhairi, Penny, and Alex waiting for the URS crew to head over to the Tan, a 3.9 km track around the Botanical Gardens. Our office signed up 5 teams (around 30 people) to complete the Corporate Cup, a corporate running challenge every fortnight through November.


Mel, Mhairi, Emily, me, and Kelly talk strategy before we set out for our first lap. Awards are based on both speed and improvement, so we figured a slow first time would be a smart way to go.


Here's the official time booth where we signed in and out.


This is the Shrine of Remembrance, one of the landmarks around the Tan.


We're in the homestretch here, not long to go now. There's a massive hill about 1km into the track, but after we conquer that, it's a slight down slope the rest of the way around. We'll have this thing beat in a couple months.