Vacation and more vacation

At the beginning of February, Natalie and I went on our first official Australian vacation.  In the two weeks we planned, we were going to see more Australia than what the average Australian has seen (you don’t visit your backyard).  First, we flew to Melbourne, where we met with David, a friend from Canada visiting Australia.  He tagged along the whole trip.  Then we drove on the great ocean road.  The great ocean road offers breathtaking sceneries.  Before we stopped in Adelaide, we made a halt at Mt. Grambier, a crater in which the water turns turquoise for half of the year.  Furthermore, we visited lovely Adelaide before taking a ferry to Kangaroo Island.  We spent three nights on Kangaroo Island, where we saw a few animals in the wild like echidnas, kangaroos, wallabies, guanas, pelicans and koalas.  Then we returned on the mainland and finished off with the Barossa valley where we visited many wineries, Wolf Blass among others, and where I discovered the pleasures of fortified wine.  Finally we flew from Adelaide back to Sydney.

A week later, we hired a beach house at Fisherman’s bay.  That’s close to Nelson Bay, about 250km north of Sydney.  The main attraction was the beach.  32 km long (!!!) and 1 km wide.  Behind it, golden sand dunes.  And to top it off, we were 9 people; mostly from work.  We had a stunning deck that had a view on the ocean; it was majestic.  We arrived quite late the first night, mostly due to poor planning, but we made it up by partying until 4 am.  Then we woke up 4 1/2 hours later to take advantage of our weekend expedition.  I reserved quad biking on the dunes for Natalie, David and myself and then I went to the store to buy groceries for big breakfast and for the evening feast that Natalie and I were “hosting”.  After breakfast, we went to the dunes for quad biking.  Once again, we were pleasantly surprised.  We drove about 30 min on the beach and through the dunes with a stop midway at Tincity.  It is a real city where some families live.  The surroundings: desert and beach.  It used to be a fishermen village but its size dramatically reduced over the years.  That city is famous since a few Hollywood moves were partially shot there, MadMax and the desert scene in Star wars amongst others.  When we arrived to destination, we had a delimited sand area in the dunes where we were able to drive our quad bikes.  It was a first for me, so I enjoyed it.  I even dared to take a jump, where all the wheels lifted off the ground; I believe I was the only daredevil of the group since I did not see anyone take that jump, aside from David.

When we came back, Natalie and I prepared some of our classic meals; drunken chicken,  southern medley and sweet potatoes fries.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy the meal.  We finished the night off with desert and drinking games (goooo spade!)

The next day, we needed to chechout by 10, so when we left, we went to Shoal bay; about 20 min from where we were staying and went to a quiet beach.  I should mention that Stockton beach (32km x 1km) was closed because it had massive waves and washed up thousands of blue bottles (poisonous jelly fish) that hurt like a &%@# when you step on them (apparently).  As I was saying, it was a beautiful day, so we enjoyed the weather, played soccer, volley ball and freeze bee.  From the feedback, everyone had a fantastic time and I am really glad that I organized that weekend.

Lost in translation

This morning, while I was on the train, I saw a 40ish year old Indian or Pakistani man wearing an interesting sweater.  It said in large print “Handsome is an understatement”.  When we saw that, Natalie and I burst out laughing!  I mean, he looked like a very normal guy, but something tells me, his English speaking buddy did not give him the full correct translation

Merry HOT Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy new year everyone!

This is the first Christmas Natalie and I are spending in Australia and I must admit, it’s a bit strange. People have been telling us that it does not feel like Christmas in a warm country (my sister and my parents can attest, as they spent Christmas 06 in Madagascar), and they are absolutely right. You don’t get this cozy feeling when looking at your Christmas tree. Don’t get me wrong though, I am glad I get to spend Christmas in such a different environment. Australia has tons of Christmas decorations that showcase a Santa wearing sunglasses, thongs (or flip-flops) and Rudolph is a Kangaroo with a red nose

For this first Christmas, Natalie’s parents came to visit us; they are our first visitors in Australia. Natalie’s mom has been here for 3 weeks and her dad has been here 2 weeks. Since they made the 24h+ trip, we wanted to make their stay exciting. Last week, we rented a car for the whole week and we drove 2h north to the Hunter Valley (see this map for the places we visited). The Hunter Valley is a wine country with more than 60 wineries in a 20km radius. Since there is a lot to see in the Hunter Valley, we rented a small cottage for 2 days, smack in the middle. While touring the wineries, we discovered Brokenwood. When we were in Wyndham, one of Australia’s oldest wineries, the tour guide was telling us about the different quality of grapes. The younger less tasteful grape trees are picked by machine, the older more intense flavor grape trees are hand picked and so on. The better grape is used for the vintage wines, and the more abundant lesser quality grapes are used for the cheap wines (we used to get all the time). While explaining that to us, she mentioned that Brokenwood uses only the best grapes, hence they make less wine but is it ever good! We immediately drove to Brokenwood, tasted some of the wine and bought a case! Soooo good!

When we were coming back from the Hunter Valley, we stopped in Nelson Bay since we were relatively close. While we were there, we also stopped at the sand dunes which turned out to be breathtaking!! It’s a 32km beach; clear blue water and golden sand dunes in the back. I was seriously stunned by the beauty of the place! We really need to come back later this summer with some friends and rent out a beach house.

The next days, we celebrated Christmas. I made barszcz, uszka and pierogis; traditional Christmas eve meals. Natalie’s mom made ham; a traditional Canadian Christmas eve meal. Yes, I broke the family tradition by eating meat during Christmas eve, but hey, the pope lifted the restriction a while ago Speaking of ham, we came close not being able to enjoy it. When we went shopping for the food, we also went to Kmart. We left the cart full of meat unattended while we went to look at other things for about 30 seconds. When we came back, the cart was missing but we could hear someone walking fast with it. It turns out some white trash woman tried to steal our Christmas meal but we caught up to her and got the food back. Nothing much happen, no police no fights. We told the store workers but they did not seem to comprehend a woman wanted to steal something. Oh well.

Christmas eve was nice, aside from the Charlie incident. He decided to try some chocolate covered coffee beans. Yum…but poisonous! This is not the first time our survival challenged dog ate something that could kill him in a few hours. Having some experience, we gave him hydrogen peroxide, which was supposed to make him puke. But no, he was simply wagging his tale. Natalie called a few vets and it turned out that our vet was open. We rushed him to the vet that gave Charlie a pill to make him hurl. The pill was given to Charlie through his eye!! Yes, she popped a pill, behind Charlie’s eye! Sooo weird. Well one thing is for sure, it worked! He totally emptied his stomach and looked like poop for the next 15 min. That’ll teach him…. as if.

During Christmas day, we made a seafood feast; scallops, prawns and lobster. Other than that it was quiet. In the next days we went to a few beaches just to make sure Nat’s parents got to visit the surroundings. Natalie and her parents just came back from Newtown for some shopping. I am totally shopped out from yesterday so I decided to stay home write this. On that note, I am going so Happy new Year everyone!

I am just a statistic

3 days ago, my Xbox360 died.  Yup, three red rings meaning hardware failure.  This is the first time I experience something like that with a console and I thought it was a big deal, but after reading this article I realize that I am merely a statistic.

Australians have the best town names

I was playing around with Google Maps since they recently released a new terrain feature.  I wanted to see if the blue mountains showed up elevated which they did.  Then I wanted to see if Google Maps would show the outback as red.  When flying over the outback, you really notice the red sand, it’s quite impressive.  As I was scrolling across the northern territories, I zoomed in randomly to Lajamanu, to find out that the neighboring town is called (drum roll) Hooker Creek!  I wonder what’s the story behind that name

Surfer’s paradise

Last week, Natalie and I felt a little spontaneous.  Natalie was going to Brisbane for a business trip, so she called me during work suggesting I get a flight up there.  She suggested we spend a weekend in Surfer’s paradise.  I heard that the place is tacky but I figured we see it at least once.

Upon arrival, even though it was dark, we noticed the never ending strip of high rise hotels on the side of the beach.  It reminded me of Cancun.  The first day, we went out for dinner and passed out (we are getting old!).  The next day, we went to a water park, to balance out that age thing, and we came back in time to experience the beach before sunset.  The next day, we also went to the beach after checking out of our hotel.  I should mention that we were 1 minute from the beach and we had a breathtaking view.  The gold coast, which includes Surfer’s paradise is actually 30km long.  Yeah, a tad more impressive than Oka beach or the beach on Île St-Hélène.

Surfer’s was also the first place where I really experienced the Australian friendliness.   It seemed that every stranger picked a conversation with you.  Although it was a bit awkward, it was cool how people were friendly.  One of the random conversations I had was right when we were leaving Surfer’s.  A young guy was asking me where we were from, and then he was asking me what I though of the beach.  I told him that I thought the beaches were gorgeous; he gave me a strange look.  I said: “umm, well, what do you think about the beach?” and he responded: “They’re shit!”.  He turned out to be from the north (north = hot by the way).  Like I mentioned earlier, it’s all about perspective

A pedestrian in Sydney

Natalie and I were coming back from Newtown, carrying multiple bags of decoration for our upcoming Halloween party.  Unlike most Sydneysiders, we walk to most places we need to get to, or we take public transport.  Being a pedestrian in Sydney is a bit awkward.  For example, if you do not press the “I want to cross the street button” the pedestrian sign does not come on and cars have the right of way.

Like I mentioned, we were walking with many bags for quite a while and we got to a light.  We pressed the button a second too late and we had to wait about 2 more minutes at the light.  Natalie said “screw that, it’s stil technically our turn to cross”, so we crossed when there was an opening; to our surprise, we got honked by 3 cars and 2 people started screaming at us saying “it’s not your turn to cross for god’s sake!”.  We were really offended.  They have it so backwards here.  I thought we should encourage people to walk instead of using polluting cars.  But no, if you don’t drive here, you are a second class citizen.

Don’t get me wrong, we still love Sydney, but treating pedestrians like dirt is something we will never get used to.

Go Habs Go

Just listened to the hockey game on the (internet) radio. I had a simple dev job to do so instead of listening to music, it was hockey.

Really glad the habs won, it’s cool being able to follow the games live, even if it’s only on the radio and Ron Fournier is a rambling idiot, how come he still has a job?

Blue mountains and vikings

A week ago, it was Natalie and my 7 year anniversary.  We went to the blue mountains.  It’s about and hour and a half away from Sydney, towards the mountains.  They get their name from the bluish hue they give off, this is caused by the light hitting the eucalyptus oil which is evaporating from the eucalyptus trees .  The place is lovely.  I was not expecting much but I was impressed.  At certain view points, it seems that the forest is eating up the land; it’s mesmerizing.

During that weekend, it was also the first time I drove in Australia, hence on the wrong side of the road.  It was a bit nerve racking.  Turning was not that bad since I was really reminding myself left short, right long.  The problem was sitting on the right side as a driver.  When I was sitting on the left side, I did not concern myself with that side of the car.  But the situation was very different sitting on the right side.  I was not aware of the left half of the car during the first few hours of driving, so I kept on swerving in the left lane.  Thankfully, Nat was there to help me correct my position on the road.  Within an hour of driving I was doing fine.

During the last month, a co-worker was also living with us as he needed a temporary place.  This week is his last.  He’s a big Swedish guy, hence the viking.  The month went actually very fast, he was not intrusive at all, so that worked out well.  We’ll have our place to ourselves again, but only until the beginning of December, when Nat’s parents are coming.  One of Natalie’s co-workers says that it’s nice to have people over but it’s even nicer to see them leave and have your place to yourselves again, but I don’t know if I agree with this.  I don’t have a problem having more people in the house.  I still feel that I have my privacy, since we have two floors and more people make it more lively.

I am still alive

I have not written anything in a long time; but I saw this coming for a while.  I knew this would happen when I would get more comfortable here in Sydney.  We have been here 8 months and 12 days already and I must say that Sydney is really growing on me.  The city does have it’s flaws but it does possess some priceless qualities.  The harbors are stunning and full of life.  Every time I jog around there, every time I take the ferry to the northern beaches and even when I take the train towards the north I cannot help but to be smitten by the splendor of opera house and of the harbor bridge.  Darling harbor is even nicer in my opinion.  It does not possess the iconic landmarks of circular quay but it is filled with cool restaurants, bars, the aquarium is there, and they even have a pirate ship.  It does have a less touristy feel to it, although their presence is unmistakable.

Oh, might as well write a quick update of what’s been going on lately.

My hockey season ended as we were eliminated in shootouts.  It’s always hard to lose like that, especially since we were only 7 (a “teammate” left half way through the game… and lost respect of these 7 men forever).  In addition, we were losing 3-0 in the 3rd period, we managed to come back 3-2 and I scored the tying goal with less than 5 min to go.  It was lots of fun and the new season starts on Oct 28th; I cannot wait.

Work has been… ummm… interesting.  Lots of turmoil due to another company buying the firm I am currently at.  The rooted the old management out and they want to have a lot more permanents, this means replacing some contractors.  But I am not worried, there are lots of other projects I could be employed within my consulting company. It also seems that I am building up a pretty good name for myself, to the point where some principal consultants are asking me to consider coming onto their project.  Furthermore, I am doing some work within the office at the moment, in particular, I am managing the setup of a build server for an internal project.  I might also mentor them for automated testing, as I am gaining a guru status in the field.

A co-worker of mine moved in last week, since he broke up with his long term girlfriend and they did not keep the apartment.  He should be here for 4 weeks.  So far so good.

We got a bed and a bbq.  Very exciting stuff!  I am cooking most of my meals now and since it’s outdoor temperature all year long, the bbq will be quite busy.  Nat even got Mastering the Grill, abbq cookbook; can’t wait to try out some recipes.

Well that’s it for the update, I’ll probably write something about next weekend; it’s going to be our 7th year anniversary and we are going to celebrate.