Continued Flatmate Drama

Ok so this one is very low drama as compared to the last one. However I am bummed to say the least.

My flatmate - Katie - who has been absolutely fantastic to live with, has moved back to Brisbane. This is brought about by missing her family and being offered a job back home. While this is sad and I think she should give it more than two months, I realise the desire and she hasn't been a jerk about it.

Luckily, I've had a great response to my post of the flat and found a new flatmate this weekend. So thus we start the cycle again. Hopefully my next flatmate, Anne, will last a bit longer.

Busy Busy Busy

Right so I'll try to cut through all the un-fun stuff (aka working way too many hours than reasonable) and highlight the key things from the last couple weeks.

Where I left off I had a weekend of a pub crawl with friends and coffee fest... that theme has continued for the last couple weekends.

Firstly there is a fantastically eclectic little pub in Darlinghurst called (very fittingly) The Local. Two weekends ago they had a Moose and Mounty beer fest on which myself and another friend supported our neighbor to the north in. Some of the beers were quite tasty, however some were just down right disgusting. The worst was one which was a smoked amber which smelled like a camp fire and tasted like a fire mixed with bacon... yuk!! The worst thing is that the taste stayed with you.

Afterwards, we headed to a couple of the local trendy bars after some yummy Mexican food. :)

The next week added some spice to the mix with my flatmate who moved in two months ago deciding she missed Brisbane and is moving back... more on that later. The work week was crazy busy with 3 major workshops and meetings which I helped with.

On Saturday we continued our AGSM drinking culture with a pub crawl through the Rocks. Saturday and Sunday were spent relaxing in the sun, showing the flat, and being completely useless. After busy weeks I get the urge to sit around and to nothing at all on the weekends - it's a nice thing to be able to do every now and then. I managed to balance it with a dinner with a group of friends on Sunday night.

While this blog makes it seem like I have at least a mild amount of alcoholism... while I wouldn't deny this I am taking at least a week off to just let my body recover a bit.

My next blog will hopefully be about more happy topics. :)

Roller Coaster Week

This week has been a doosey. It started out with a weekend of great weather and fun times. Last weekend was the Aroma festival - which is a essentially lots of coffee, lots of chocolate, and other things which are very good to eat but bad for the waistline. :) They were also making a mural of Marlyn Monroe with different types of coffee so we were able to get a bit of art with the good eats.

Just some of the yummy stuff

The making of Marlyn

A great view - the Opera House and Camels... :)

After a great weekend the work week was a bit of a nightmare but I won't dwell on that - am moving onto the great weekend weather we had AGAIN.

Now I must say that it almost feels like the weather can't make up its mind. Today I was in a t-shirt and jeans, whereas during the week there were a couple days when I had to wear my big wool coat because it was so cold. However I'm not going to complain too much as long as the weekend weather is nice. :)

Yesterday I went and did a pub crawl with some friends from MBA school. We checked out an area of town which I've never really been to so it was good fun. As you do on a pub crawl, I drank more than expected but was luckily able to stay awake till past 10 - so a good 8 hours of moderate drinking. I must say I'm happy I can still hang some what like I used to.

Today I went to Bondi and had brunch with a couple girlfriends from work. Afterwards we walked along the beach and while we were very tempted to get in we didn't. If we had we would have missed the whales which were playing just off the shore.

Now more on Spain... as many of you might know my neice is going to study abroad in Spain from August till January. I've decided to go visit her over the Christmas and New Years break - YAY! :) I went to Spain back in the day but I think we spent maybe a total of 6 days between 3 cities so it was pretty hectic. As the details play out I will keep everyone posted, but for now am super excited!! :)

Knee Update

Right, so I realise it's been a while since I've done a update on my knee so here goes. In summary - all is going alright. Not fantastic but good.

There is still quite a bit of fluid which is limits my range of motion. I'm allowed to take my brace off when I'm at home or just around the office but still have to wear it in public or when I sleep. But I've become more ruthless with my physio as I'm past the point of caring and just want it to get better.

My physio is limited to 6 different exercises focusing on muscle strength in my quad and hamstring, but the thing that is really limiting me is the range of motion (hence the new approach). I can tell my physio isn't too happy about the lack of progress, so am taking the approach that as long as it doesn't hurt after I do the physio it should be all right.

I'm seeing the physio once a week and will see the surgeon next week - so hopefully I'll hear that all is going well.

On the work front things have been busy, busy, busy with me doing the work of a couple people until a new team member joins me. But I'm doing some really cool stuff which is exciting.

There are a couple other updates - Spain and Aroma festival on the weekend - but am completely knackered so will blog about those later.

Quick Trip to Melbourne

As a reward for a good year my team was flown to Melbourne for a day of some business and lots of play. After an early flight 6:20 AM we made our way to central Melbourne and a conference centre at Federation Square (think Trafalgar Square but in Melbourne).

During the day we were able to hear from the curator of the Tim Burton exhibit which is in town from the MOD in NY. After the talk we were allowed to go visit the exhibit which included many drawings, models, pieces and film strips from his variety of movies. While that type of thing is typically just up my alley - it's winter holidays for the schools so the exhibit was packed with kids and I was more afraid of getting a good bump and being knocked over. (My brace makes it easy to walk straight but any kind of sideways movement is increasingly more difficult.)

Later in the day we had an even more fascinating talk from Professor Mark Barry who is the architect working to finish the Sagrada de Familia in Barcelona. Now to provide the back story - I loved, LOVED this building and this architect when I was in Barcelona. He thinks so off the wall and creates things which you will never see anywhere else. Professor Barry spoke about how he is trying to work to determine what the original plan was for the building and then spoke about how they are going about putting that into place. With some of the modeling they are doing they are actually using aeronautical engineering programs.

The current schedule is for the Pope to officially open the main space of the church in November of this year, however there is a large central spire which isn't completed so the full building won't be completed until 2016 or so...

An inside picture of the church

After the day we had a great night out on the town only to realise that we were staying in one of the best hotels in the city. While we were sharing, the rooms were still absolutely amazing. We had a large bathtub which had a TV and windows to the outside. If only we weren't sharing rooms it would have been a great way to end a drunken night. :)

The Park Hyatt in Melbourne

I am now trying to figure out when I might be able to do another short trip. I'm trying to crunch the financials to see if I can make it to Spain for the holidays... but right now the potential outlook of being out of a large part of my debt by then is very appealing. Hopefully I'll be able to find a way to pinch some cash somewhere to make it happen.

After coming back yesterday I've had a relaxing and productive weekend. I finally bough a deck brush to clean the balcony - which was looking more like part of the bird's home than mine. I've also bought some paints and finally have an idea of what I want to paint for my living room and potentially my bedroom. :) Tonight I'm going to dinner at my friend Gloria's place, so will be trekking back to Kingsford - then it's back to work I go.

The Drama that is My Life

Oh where to start. I guess my knee is an obvious place to start.

Things with my knee are going well - my surgeon was happy with progress and said he'd didn't need to see me for another month and that I'm in the hands of my physio. This was good news to my physio who was bit daunted by the initial list of very prescriptive directions my surgeon provided. I'm still doing the initial set of lying down exercises but have started doing a series of lunges and other exercises to start getting the strength back in my muscle.

I'm no longer using my crutches and am able to walk around home without my brace on - which is awesome!! I can't wait to have the brace off. My new nickname at work varies between Robo Cop and the Bionic Woman depending on who it is (personally I prefer bionic woman). Oh well - at least I'm making progress and slowly getting back to it. Now I just can't wait for the wounds to heal so that I can get back into the pool - or once I have 100 degrees of bend and can ride a stationary bike.

Now to the drama with my now old flatmate... So I thought everything was all good with my flatmate, however things got a bit weird. Following a couple of small things that just didn't sit right he told me on a Tuesday night that he had just signed a new lease and would be moving out on Saturday (4 days!). He then proceeded to demand his full bond in return, regardless of if I was able to find someone to move in following his timeline. After telling him in so many words that he wasn't getting his full bond back and wouldn't be getting a penny till I received the bond from the new flatmate - he proceeded to take the keys hostage after he moved out.

I've now changed the locks and now have a new flatmate who has just moved in today. She is really nice and I think will be a much better fit.

This has all be going on while I've been completely drained with my first week back to work, so I've been exhausted on all fronts. Hopefully things will settle down a bit in the next couple weeks and I can focus on getting my knee back to normal. Fingers crossed!!

Progress is Slow but it's still Progress

It is now Day 5 after my surgery and progress is slow but somewhat steady. The swelling continues to go down, however my knee is still quite large. The oh so important range of motion is getting a bit better. I have a couple exercises to work on this but what I can do is mainly move my leg as far as I can until the swelling makes it uncomfortable.

The maximum I can do for my exercise to pull my heel up as far as I can along the floor

The weather has been amazing (60 degrees and cloudless skies) so we've been trying to get out to the local park when we can to soak up a bit of vitamin D. When we're not doing that we're confined to my flat and have been playing a number of games - Uno, Scrabble, and Battleship have been the main games so far.

One thing I find a bit weird is that I was prescribed more anti-inflammatory drugs than pain killers... so when I go to the doctor next week I'm going to have to ask about that. Its not that the pain has been all that bad during the day, but at night it's a killer as I have a whole 3 or 4 positions I can sleep in since I have to wear my brace, so the pain just compounds the uncomfortable factor.

From the surgeons instructions it looks like I'll be in the brace for at least 6 more weeks and potentially with the crutches for nearly as long. I'm not too excited about the prospect of this, but it is what it is and I guess all I can do is be a good little patient and try to beat the odds and get better quickly.

First Full Day back from Surgery

The surgery went well. I was ve ry impressed at the efficiency and care that the hospital had. Granted I was the first surgery of the day for my surgeon, but I 'check in' at noon and by 12:30 I had already met with the anesthesiologist and nurse and was being taken back to put my gown on. Once back in the 'sterile area' my knee was given a Betadine bath and my surgeon came and said hello. Then within 15 minutes I was wheeled to the prep area to have my IVs and initial dose of drugs. The last thing I remember was being wheeled into the theater and asked to shimmy across to the surgical table.

I woke up later with a brace on my leg and it would have been about 3 hours later. The surgery only took about 30 minutes but for some reason that's how long it took me to come to. Once I was awake and alright I was taken to my room in the main hospital area where my mom was able to come see me again.

The pain was pretty intense but I was given a morphine drip with a lovely little button I could push every 5-10 minutes to get another hit. The nurses were recording how much I was taking of the morphine and I think the first hour I pushed the button 16 times but only got 11 pushes of drugs.

Shortly after arriving in the room it was dinner time, to which I was treated a dinner of veal, cooked carrots, green beans, mashed potatoes, a cup of soup, a roll, and a strudel dessert. I was only able to have a couple bites as I was pretty loopy with all the drugs, but I must admit I was pretty impressed with the food.

As I was so exciting and was pretty much just awake for my blood pressure to be taken mom went back to the hotel fairly early and I attempted to sleep. The night was ok aside from being woken up every hour for my blood pressure and the constant beeping of my IV machine.

The other traumatic experience was trying to pee in a bed pan. Now I've debated on whether this should be censored from the blog, however as it was such a weird experience I will leave out the gorey details and stick to the main bit. The main point is that I was unable to get out of bed, but was also told if I didn't pee I would be given a catheter. Now I DID need to pee, but peeing in a bed pan is not exactly comfortable.

Having never been in the hospital I always wondered how the whole bed pan thing works - well essentially the scooted a pan under my bum and then sat me up in the bed and I was expected to pee... while in bed... in a pan. Fortunately for me, after a couple tries, I was able to go because the doctor was about to come in and give me no choice. It is however an experience I don't want to repeat, so am glad to be home and able to hobble to the bathroom when I please.

Alas, I am now home and the swelling in my knee is starting to go down. Here are a couple pictures which taken from my new nesting point to help you get an idea of how big my knee is.

My swollen knee last night
My knee this morning - it's hard to tel but it's not AS swollen
Then there is the massive brace I have to wear when I sleep or walk... I know you're jealous! :)

Picking up the Pen... er the keyboard

My sincere apologies as I realise it has been over a month since my last post. The last month has been a bit of a blur - with taking 2 weeks off to go to my nephew's graduation and now having knee surgery and trying to fit some work in around those two vacations.

For the first two weeks of June I was in the states as my nephew graduated from good old Richland High School - yay Tyler! Tyler is now awaiting further information on when he will begin boot camp and then enter into the air force.

The trip was very relaxing and great as I was able to see friends and family which I literally haven't seen in years. The one thing which is probably blog worthy is the fact that I think I discovered I may be allergic to vodka. This was discovered as two days in a row I turned bright red and splotchy after drinking vodka - with the second day it beginning to travel down my throat. After taking a Benedril and switching to water the red went away... I'm not completely convinced so am planning an at home experiment once I'm off my pain medications to see if it is in fact a vodka allergy. I'll keep you posted. As I'm typically a Jack Daniels or rum girl I'm not too stressed about it, but it is a bit of a bummer.

The only other potential thing to mention is the fact that I had the worst hair cut I've ever had. The girl was trying to give me some extra layers and texture... however she also almost cut me with her scissors - literally! While she was working on the bottom bit of my neck line she somehow managed to snag some skin in her scissors! I was a bit shocked, but she became very flustered and apparently rushed through the rest of the cut as she was so distraught... this ended up with one side of my haircut being an inch longer than the other and there being areas of completely random layers throughout my cut.

Needless to say i went back to have it fixed, however my cut is now a good 4 inches shorter than it originally was. I'm not too stressed because at the end of the day it's hair and will grow back, but am not all that impressed overall and my mother is no longer having her cut her hair.

Today I go into surgery to fix my torn ACL. I 'check in' at the hospital at noon, which means I had to get up at 530 to have my last bits of fluids and food before I start my fast (it's 7:15 and I'm already hungry again). So over the next two weeks I'll have much more time on my hands and will be able to post more updates. My mother has come to Australia to take care of me so it's great to have her here. When I leave the hospital on Thursday I go straight to the physical therapist to get my exercises I'm supposed to do and then the real pain and work begins.

So look forward to more updates over the next couple days as I try to keep myself and my mother busy and entertained.

Beautiful Autumn Days!!

Firstly, let me just clarify - it's not Fall it's Autumn here. This is another one of those words you learn not to mention as it invites all sorts of harassment by anyone willing to give you a jab.

Call it what you want, the weather has been fantastic! This weekend I've been taking my time to do random returns and errands around Sydney. Yesterday I took the train out to Rhodes (aka the home of Ikea) to return some things I decided not to use. But today was the topper. I had to go to Manly to sign a new contract for my appliances and so decided to make a day of it. While Manly beach is known for it's surfing and long sandy beach - it is it's sleepy sibling do the South which I was more interested in. Shelly beach is about 1K south of Manly and is sheltered so there are no waves. But this isn't why I wanted to go to this beach. This is the home to a very nice aquatic reserve which has thousands of fish.

The beach had a bit more people than this but you get the idea :)

Given the swim I did earlier in the year was a dark and stormy day and we weren't able to see anything I wanted to give it another go on a nice day and see how it is. It was AMAZING!!! There were so many fish! Plus the water wasn't too cold.

Initially I started out doing a proper swim until I realised just how many fish there were around me. At which point I slowed down to enjoy a bit more of the scenery... which this was great the cold eventually got to me so I had to get out but it was a fantastic overall. I must admit I will give it another go next weekend if the weather holds up and the water isn't too cold.

Here are a couple of the fish I think I saw...

I think I saw a small Blue Groper

There were literally schools of these swimming around

Here is a picture of the schools and how they'd literally swim right past you

There were some of these too

It is days like this which make it fairly easy for me to say I won't be moving back to the states for a bit longer. :)

Farewell dear friend, you shall be missed...

We've been to fun places, met great people, and made some great memories. But alas, fate is not on our side. You have been taken from me and I am forced to move forward without you. Yes I will have to start over - take new pictures, retake those records made, and forge a new bond.

However, there will be others - because while you were near me virtually every minute of the day you were just a phone. Yes, dear iPhone - when that person decided to take you away from my comfortable and safe purse on Saturday night you began a new life.

I wish you a safe journey and a loving owner.

And now I look to see if my next companion will be a iPhone or another... we shall see.

Delayed End to Final Swim...

Today was supposed to be the final swim of the season - however the ocean gods decided it was not to be.

To start off the course had to be changed simply because the waves out the back were just too big. They were having trouble keeping the pontoons (or cans) in place to mark the course in the deeper water so they brought the course in. At first I was happy with this as it would be a course which I have swam before, plus the obvious advantage of not having to swim in the extremely deep areas.

I was all set to swim the 2.4 K, however as the 1K group was going the 4 rescue boats, jet ski, and 20+ surf life rescue people in there there were quite a few people who turned back.

Before I tell you what happens next, I'd like to just educate you on the Bondi rips. There are two permanent rips at bondi - the North Bondi rip and one at the south which is called the Backpacker Express as that's where all the backpackers get stuck. With the new course using the Northern rip to get out of the waves much faster. However the danger with this is that, if the waves are big enough you will be pushed against the rocks which are on the other side of this rip.

So with this group of people, there were some which decided about 20 meters in that they didn't want to continue, and were promptly swept into the rocks... not good! Then to complicate things even more, a massive wave came in a swept one of the pontoons out of it's secured location and into the rocks. Luckily, the pontoon didn't hit anyone on its way to the rocks.

However this turn of events was a blatant sign for the organisers to cancel the race... which they did. I must admit that I wasn't too sad as there was a pretty decident rip right where we were set to swim back to the beach. So this would have proven to be a very challenging race to say the least.

The plan is for them to reschedule the event to next Sunday, however I have a bachelorette party on Saturday night so I might not be capable of swimming. I will keep you posted on how things go. :)

In the mean time, my knee is feeling good due to my limited drinking which also means I have saved money and spent less time standing in line at the bathroom at the bar. :)

General Update

Things are chugging along here, and I figured I'm overdue for a update.

The Flat

I've furnished the living room area of the flat as all the old furniture was my old flatmates. I ended up simply making a couple trips to Ikea and am pretty happy with the results. My flat has blue carpet so I was pretty limited with what I could use without making the room too dark... so it is a very black and white decor which surprisingly works.

I allowed myself the luxury of the chase as I figure I'll more than justify it during my recovery time

My favourite part is the new HD TV :)

The second wave of furniture will come when I am able to pay down some more of my debt, so for now I still have the old dinning table

As far as flatmates go - I have a new one (obviously) and while it did take me a while to find one I also stepped out of the mold a bit. My new flatmate is a lawyer from Perth, who just moved to Sydney in January. His name is Raury and so far we are getting along great. The new part is that I typically live with girls, so this is a bit of a new adventure. So far we've sorted out the cleaning schedule and are getting all the little things sorted out so things are going well. :)

Swimming

Monday is the last swim of the season - a 2.4K swim at Bondi beach. It is a different course (picture below) and has us swimming out further than normal so that will be interesting. The group which swam today said they saw large sting rays and some other sealife before they hit a large pod of stingers. So my hope is that the sting rays and fishies are around with out the jelly fish.

The typical swims stay inside the two points, so it's quite a bit further out...

My Knee

My knee has been bothering me a bit more these days - so I am taking drastic measure and not drinking. I'm also noticing certain things which make it ache/hurt like crossing my legs. So sorry mother, but I won't be able to sit as lady like as I should as it hurts my knee. I think it has something to do with the whole fact that it puts pressure on my knee in the direction in which I don't have the ligament supporting.

I have my surgery scheduled for the 23rd of June after I get back from the states and luckily my mother is going to be able to come take care of me/keep me company while I'm recovering during the 2 weeks off.

Until then, I am allowed to swim, cycle, and run (but only in a straight line). Which makes things interesting, but at least I have some things I can do.

The Verdict Is In

I have torn my ACL. :(

If you are like I was and have heard about this surgery but have no clue what it means... allow me to enlighten you. The ACL or anterior cruciate ligament is the ligament which essentially the ligament which holds the femur and shin bone together when you bend your knee forward - so it's kind like your brakes. It also provides you knee with support when you do any sideways or pivoting type motion. Without this ligament I have to be extremely careful with any sideways movements especially when my knee is bent. If I'm not careful the bones can slip out of place and cause all sorts of pain and suffering on my part.

Lovely I know. I feel like I'm an old lady who could break with any wrong move - literally!

So what does this mean for me... I can almost walk normally. I say almost because I know I'm not extending my knee completely but to everyone else I look normal. No soccer, basketball, or virtually any other sports... but the worst of all is I can't dance or wear heels (especially no heels when drinking as this typically leads to dancing). I can swim (as long as I am extremely comfortable going in and out of the ocean), cycle, and run in a straight line. So again at least I have my swimming. :)

I do, however, need surgery if I ever want to do any of the above again without the potential of my knee giving way. As it is it feels unsteady and every now and then it feels like the torn ligament bits are saying hello to their friends in places they aren't supposed to be, and I can tell you it is as uncomfortable as it sounds.

The challenge comes in that I have a trip back to the states end of May early June, so if I do the surgery now I could be almost normal by the time I go home. However if there are any complications with the surgery it could compromise my ability to fly. Additionally, there are 3 of our 8 team members from work currently on vacation for the next 3 weeks so if I leave our team will be severely strained in a time when i can do some good stuff. So, I have scheduled my surgery for the Wednesday after I get back from the states.

Until that date I'll be playing it very carefully to make sure I don't do anything to make the situation worse.

Today in Sports News.....

So for over a year I've been involved with a couple basketball teams and all has been well and fine - not injuries, good fun, etc.

A couple months ago I decided to join the Deloitte soccer team which plays at the same building as my basketball league - in fact on the basketball courts. However since I've been playing there have been a couple too many injuries for my liking. It all started with the first game where I was kicked in the calf which cause a massive bruise and knocked knees with a guy which caused a bone bruise and fluid to form... The next couple games I was a bit more tame with no injuries.

Last week we had a bye so played a just for fun game against the Partners and Directors at Deloitte. During that game one of the Partners forgot he was wearing glasses and did a header - promptly cutting a gash on his nose which got blood on my jersey.

This last Monday it all went down hill.... I knocked knees with someone again - prompting a swift return of my previous bone bruise. Then to top it off I managed to do something to my knee when going to play defense against someone and something just wrong happened.

Two doctors later I have an appointment for an MRI next Thursday and the surgeon estimates I have a 70% chance of needing surgery. NOT COOL!

I've obviously not playing soccer or basketball but my doctor does want me to do a bit of swimming - sorry at this point I have to look for the bright side, even if it is one of those small sunny patches on a very dark day.

As I know more I'll post more, for now I have an xray of my knee which looks normal from what I've been told and am attempting to walk normally without hurting myself (which was the doctor's orders).

Ocean Swim Update

After my initial swim I have continued to train for and participate in ocean swimming. As it's been a bit part of my free time I figured it was about time I wrote something about it. :) Today was an amazing swim in the actual Harbour. The swim started at the Opera House and ended at the Opera House. For those who know Sydney it essentially went to Mrs. Macquarie's chair and back in the little inlet/lagoon area next to the Opera House.

The race started and ended from the pier just below the Opera House

It was funny because when you look at the water the waves look pretty small, however they were actually pretty big when you were in the water - or they at least felt big. Through my training group I've managed to find a girl who swims at the same pace as I do and we were swimming by each other the whole time. The only annoying thing was that there was a guy swimming between/around us that was swimming drunk. He literally kept bumping into both of us and it was very annoying.

Now there are couple unique things about swimming in the harbour. One is that the water is very murky. We can typically see the floor of the ocean and fish swimming around, however I don't think we could see more than two feet in front of our hands.

One of the earlier waves

In terms of providing the times they were very prompt... Now my first time pretty good by most standards and I finished 2K in 41 minutes, so when I saw a time of 31 minutes I knew something was off because I did not swim that much better. Across the board all the times were fast so the course must have been very short.

Final Snapshots from Tasmania

To pick up my very drawn out story... we left St. Helens on Sunday morning and set off to the Bay of Fires before heading to Launceston. Now when you plan our trip to Tasmania there are certain things which people rave about seeing. On the East coast it is Freycinet National Park and the Bay of Fires. We'd already made the loop through Freycinet so the Bay of Fires was our next thing to look forward to.

Now it's called Bay of Fire because there is a kind of algae/fungus/stuff that grows on the rocks that stains them orange. And they are really stained - I was walking around bare foot and it didn't come off on my feet.

Anyways, we were very much looking forward to some awesome scenery. Now maybe we were tired or jaded but we weren't all that impressed. We found a lookout point and snapped some pictures and were set to take off. However I will say that I do enjoy these pictures the most of all from the trip. :)

The orange rocks

Yes it was a bit cold but and windy but it was still nice
The beaches were great

We took the opportunity to take advantage of the beach when it was empty

After taking in the scenery we left to go to Launceston. We were looking forward to an easy country drive... little did we know it would be all two lane roads and about a hours worth of hair pin turns up and down the steep hills - and I wish I was joking on the amount of this kind of driving it was. There were points at which I seriously felt like I was getting dizzy from during back and forth down the road.

While the driving wasn't exactly the best, the views were spectacular.

View from the top of one of the hills I was talking about

The country side

Ok, so this is a random one... this was an information center at one of the very small towns which is very environmentally conscious

Once we got to Launceston we were happy to return to the land of nice restaurants and civilisation. After getting lunch by the water we went up to the Cataracts Gorge. This is an area where the Tamar River comes down to the ocean and was damned to create some recreational areas back in the 20's. The area was very awesome. There is an outdoor lap pool, an exquisite lawn area, and some decent hikes. Now we still were a bit over the hiking so we took the easy paths, but it was still a great thing to see.

I also learned something while we were at Cataracts Gorge. There was a Tasmanian Tiger which used to roam the area. However, like with many rare species, it was hunted into extinction and can't be found anywhere.

View of the lawn and swimming pool

The valley goes like this for as far as we could see - pretty spectacular

A painting of the Tasmanian Tiger

The city of Launceston did offer more civilisation than we were used to, however there wasn't enough to warrant too much of description. So I will close this series of posts.

Tasmania Part II

So to pick up where I left off... Friday night Marieke and I headed to what was the only open pub in the little town we were staying in or at least the only one which looked 'safe' enough to go into... or so we thought. It only took about 15 minutes for one of the natives to become curious about these foreign things invading on their territory. (Now I will pause here to let you know most of the other people traveling around were in motor homes and close to or well past retirement age.) We were going fine, and he was kind enough to answer all our questions about the idiosyncrasies of Tasmania... until he pulled out the Nazi comment. To which my German travel companion gave him the bird and informed him that it was time for him to leave.

He did sulk back later on in the night and made amends, however that was the first and not the only spark to fly that night. As the night continued more of the natives became curious and realised the foreigners wouldn't bit and began to come chat. However give it is Autumn (not fall) here it was getting cold and we eventually decided to move inside. No more than 5 minutes of moving inside one of the guy proceeds to get in a fist fight with someone else, is kicked out, the police called and all seemed like a usual occurrence! Marieke and I took this as our queue to go back to the hotel.

I'm not sure if you can read this, but to give a perspective on how small this town was the sign at the school yard said that "John Dick with repair swings Saturday March 6th"

One of the interesting things was the small beers they served

So moving onto what we were really in Tasmania for - seeing the country. :) Saturday we drove up to St. Helens and given the weather was rainy and overcast we decided to head inland and check out a couple of water falls and a 'major' dairy farm. The dairy farm was the must see spot in the area, so we were excited to get there and check it out. For those who have traveled the states, this would be more of a cozy farm type place. The food was okay, the service was poor, but the scenery was lovely and they did have a cheese cake to die for! :)

After finishing up at the dairy farm we headed on to a couple of water falls in the area. Given it had been raining they were spectacular and a great choice.

The view from the dairy farm

The first of the two water falls - St Columba Falls - this was by far the better of the two

This is Halls Falls, which was more of a brook type thing

This is me, just before I slipped and fell - luckily I saved myself and only got my foot wet

Now we were hoping for an improvement in our hotel, as the place the first night was essentially a small mobile home with a very hard queen bed. The hotel in St. Helens was definitely an improvement in the overall quality - however I think their interior design was done in the 70s as the carpet was a funky (and I mean funky) orange/brown/yellow swirl type design and the halls, rooms, and everything had this amazing wood paneling. It put me in a very Saturday Night Fever mood and I couldn't resist the cheesy picture. :)

Tasmania was Gorgeous!! :)

Last weekend I treated myself to a well earned vacation and went to Tasmania with a friend. Our initial plan was to spend the first night in Maria Island, the next at Freycinet National Park, then the Bay of Fires. I have a ton of pictures and think this is the perfect opportunity to do some proper posts so I'll be breaking this up into the different days.

Thursday Night - Friday

Weather forecast: Sunny on Friday with rain developing on Saturday and Sunday

I arrived in Hobart at about 7:45 PM and was off to dinner with my friend Marieke who arrived earlier in the week. We headed to Salamanca Market which is an area right down by the water with a whole bunch of nice restaurants and pubs for dinner. The weather was a brisk type evening which was perfect for walking around and checking things out.

After a nice dinner and quick stroll we set the NavMan for Swansea and away we went. The road wasn't very impressive given the dark night, however we managed to find the city after about an hour or so of driving. When we finally got to Swansea we began to realise just how small town Tasmania is... the main road had one phone booth, a bakery, a church, a Yield sign, and a fire station - and no hotel to be found. So we were at a bit of a loss as to where our hotel was. Luckily there was the phone booth as all cell phone coverage ended about 10 minutes outside Hobart. :)

When we finally were checked into the hotel (around 10PM) - after calling the night clerk to open the lobby to give us our key - we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the room. For $100 AUD we had a queen bed, two twins, microwave, fridge, dining room set, and a renovated bathroom. Compared to the local surrounds this place was a gem. As Friday's plan was to hike on Maria island we had an early night.

Friday morning we were off to the ferry after a quick stop at the bakery. Our hopes were that the town simply seemed smaller at night... however we were wrong. The bakery was the only place open for breakfast and the ferry that left at 9:00 AM didn't come back until 5:00 PM, and the island has no food and no roads... Given this new knowledge we decided to skip Maria Island for another (more well equipped and prepared) trip and head up to Freycinet National Park a day early (especially given the weather forecast).

Now I went to Tasmania without any preconceived notions or ideas - my friend had done the research and most of the planning and for all intensive purposes I was tagging along. However I was very surprised at the sheer beauty of this little island. In the blink of an eye it goes from farms with grazing sheep, to gorgeous beaches with the bluest water I've seen in a very long time or possibly ever, to rugged mountains which reminded me the rock formations in Arizona.

Freycinet is known for Wine Glass bay which is a gorgeous beach which is only accessible by foot or boat. So given we forgot to pack our boat we hiked in. :) Here are some of the pictures from our hike.

Marieke and I in the obligatory self portrait

The view from the sand

One of the inland lakes

Beach walk to Hazards Beach

Of all the places we stayed, Swansea was probably the smallest town, however it offered the best nigh life... so to add a bit of a cliff hanger I'll save that bit for the next post.

And I thought it was hot in January...

I'm not sure if it's made the news in the states, however Monday was the hottest night in 13 years. Yes I said 13 years!!!!!

Now add to that the humidity, lack of air conditioning, lack of bug screens (which means I get unwanted visitors at night), and you have a very unpleasant and restless nights sleep. :(

The upswing is that I'm going to Tasmania tomorrow evening and the high is 50F which will be much better than the heat we've been having. As always I'll take lots of pictures, and try to post the narratives.

My appologies on not posting the names of the cockatoos - however I've been working long hours and haven't been able to interact with them much. Call me old fashioned but I want their names to come to me from them. :)

Any who... it's a cool night and I'm off to try to get a good nights sleep.

My new "Pets" and your challenge :)

When I moved into my new apartment/flat, it was very apparent that there is a different set of local wildlife, and more particularly birds. Being close to the harbour there are a number of different local birds, but the most popular ones are the cockatoos and laurakeets. Apparently, the last person in my room was feeding the laurakeets and had a local group which would come by often.

However, I've managed to attract bigger and better birds. There are a couple of cockatoos which have realised I keep sunflower seeds and will feed them if they come. They're extremely smart and a bit greedy, but not many people can say they have 'wild' birds as pets which will eat out of their hands. I say 'wild' because they are very socialised living in Sydney.

My challenge to you is to help me come up with names for them. :) Please comment on what names you think I should call them and my flatmate and I will choose from the lot. There may be a prize for whoever the makes the chosen suggestion.

Our two friends telling us they want food

One bird...

Two birds...

Now Rachelle (my flatmate) and I were becoming a bit suspicious as the birds were very greedy and seemed to ALWAYS be around... but tonight it all became clear. There are two sets of birds which come around!! Shortly after this picture the dominant pair proceeded to scare the others away and eat both sets of food I put out.

Three and four!!