April Happenings

Hi all! Greetings from Australia! It seems like I haven't written in a while - so much so that I finally started a short list of things I wanted to remember to mention, which definitely signals a need to update the blog. I spent about 3 hours on the phone today with friends Mark & Bhavna, and then Brendan, so I feel pretty good and caught up with what's been going on in Portland. Fantastic to chat with all of you today.

Overall, things here are going well. We've had a few pretty chill weeks with not a whole lot to report. I've been working both at the shop and subbing. Andy's been working. We've definitely entered autumn, as we finally started turning the heater on in our apartment on a fairly regular basis, and today I've had it on all day while I've been home. I've had 2 different strains of a cold and a solid, 4-day bout of the flu (affectionately referred to as "gastro" down here), so I guess that's a pretty good indication of a seasonal change as well. We saw the band Flogging Molly one night, attended a show that was part of the Melbourne International Comedy Fest, ate the best lasagna I've ever had at our neighbor's (it had bacon in it!), explored a new region on the outskirts of Melbourne called Williamstown, I attended the dawn service for ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day at the Shrine of Remembrance, and we've rolled our first games of Aussie 10-pin bowling. When I put all of that down in writing, a pretty full month, but pretty chill. Now, on to my list-

At the top: Hooray to my brother, Steve, his wife, Michelle, and my 10-year old niece, Cami, for they are the next loved ones to have purchased flights to come visit us in Australia!!! They will be arriving in Melbourne on December 28 and will be here for about 2 weeks, before spending 4 days on their own in New Zealand and then heading back to the states. We will all be celebrating the arrival of 2009 in grand style in Sydney, a New Year's Eve celebration & fireworks display that I have always longed to see and be a part of. So, you know where we'll be if you want to join us.
My nephew, Alec, will not be coming with his family to Australia, but will be spending the time with my parents. I've heard rumors that they will be seeking out some sort of trip to find a pirate ship somewhere in the US to make up for his missing out on this big trip to Australia. Hmmm...

Last week I subbed for 2 days in a 3rd grade classroom. The school was celebrating their 30th birthday, so it was a pretty hectic couple of days. I am still trying very hard to believe that their regular teacher was actually sick and unhappy to miss out on the chaos that any primary school "All School Celebration" brings along with it. I did have the rare opportunity, however, of seeing the school's band, made up of 5th and 6th graders, sing a live version of Sweet Child of Mine, which was surprising, interesting, and actually quite good. Weird experiences just seem to keep happening down here.
Like another topic on my list - the fact that a Nicholas Cage movie was being filmed about 10 houses down from us on our street this past Monday! We're anxious to see the film Knowing sometime in the future and spot our neighborhood.
And today the taxi drivers of Melbourne protested the lack of security provided them by shutting down one of the main intersections of downtown, and then taking their shirts off! We are still trying to figure that one out, as was our regular morning talkshow host.

Possibly the quirkiest thing about Australia that I've witnessed recently, and an amusing indication of the time-warp into which we have immersed ourselves, was on the news last week - a special report called Supermarkets of the Future. The report went into detail about the new, do-it-yourself checkout lanes that were being introduced in select "Supermarkets of the Future" at various locations around Australia. I had a good laugh to myself about this. Here I was, somewhat anxiously waiting to see just how cool an Aussie Supermarket of the Future might be, and all I got was DIY checkout lanes. Oh, well. Looking back, those were pretty cool when introduced in the US (about 10 years ago). You just gotta love Australia.

I've included a few recent photos. Happy Spring!

Love, Christy




from Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan:
...the sense that all life, properly understood, is a savage dream in which one is shuffled about, taken by the tides & winds & the knowledge - constantly in danger of being lost - that one is only ever an awestruck witness to everyday wonder.

Trip to Ballina & Byron Bay for AusWeb

Hi boys and girls,
I've already e-mailed a few people differing versions of text below, but we were out late at the Flogging Molly show last night so I'm lazy (plus the sun is shining so I need to get away from this PC soon).

Well, I can now check off 'become an international speaker' on my list of things do to. We just got back from Ballina/Byron Bay, which is about a 2.5 hr flight north of Melbourne. I presented a paper at a mostly techno type conference (i'm kind of the 'normal' guy that represents real people at these type of things). All in all it was a good time - met some really fun people from Melbourne that I'm certain we will be hangin out with more in the future. However, the trip was very bizarre for several reasons:

1) It poured rained for 4 days straight so poor Christy didn't really get much beach time
2) The first night we were there I hung out with fellow conference attendees drinking. One of these folks, a crazy drunkard that was at the conference with his girlfriend, came pounding on our door at 1:15am. I tried to ignore the first 18 times he knocked, but when the knocking started again 5 min. later and I angrily got up to see what the hell he wanted, I opened the door and no one was there
3) A 16 year old boy died from a shark attack at the beach about a 1/4 mile from where we were staying. We heard the ambulance go by the resort the morning it happened
4) We went to the this place called an RSL - can't remember the acronym, but kind of similar to a VFW. The one we went to was much fancier than most - actually it was very similar to Vegas - a huge cavern of a place with cheap grub, cheap drinks and gambling. At one point some random dude pulled up a chair, made some smart ass comment about being Russian after I told him I was American, then he took of his shoes, propped his feet up on one of our buddy's chairs and passed out.
5) While at the conference we received a rather alarming e-mail from our neighbor in Portland stating that it appeared that our tenant had moved out. To make a long story short, this was indeed true, and our property management company is working on finding new renters.

Your Aussie lingo lesson for today - grunter: pig
ex: 'This kid is as fat as a grunter - git im orf the junk tucker'

My recommendation for your daily dose of rock - this guitar will melt your face if you're not careful....


Bye for now,
Sweany