All posts by Jon

3rd Australiaversary

Random Musings

It is hard to believe I arrived in this strange land three years ago!  Time flies when snakes and spiders are trying to kill you.  Just kidding, I’ve only seen one snake and while I see a lot of spiders around, none seem to move at all.  Of all the things I thought I might generate a phobia of in Australia I would never have picked birds.

That’s right, birds.  I am now slightly terrified of birds.  All it took was continued swooping over 3 holes of golf by a small bird to now make me think every bird I see flying is going to come straight for me.  Sara can attest to my flinching. Birds here are also very plentiful and make so much noise.  There are magpies, angry cockatoos, squawking lorikeets and whatever the bird is that makes a “car alarm” noise.  They like to start when the sun comes up, which is 4:45am in Brisbane in the summer.  Woo.  Give me a pregnant poisonous snake under my fridge any day.

I promise I’m not trying to steal your eggs.

Even after all these years its hard to get onboard with the lingo. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to just say “G’day mate” to a stranger and just don’t think to do it.  It still surprises me when someone says it.  I do say “Cheers” a lot now.  I also got called out recently by an American visitor for saying “windscreen” instead of  “windshield”.  So some stuff is sticking.

Things I miss:

  • People – that’s a no-brainer
  • Retail competition – there’s just not enough people here to have to the Walmarts, Targets and Amazons or more than 2-3 types of any given product
  • Funny ads – not a lot of creativity in the TV commercials here
  • Central heat / AC – why Australia, why?
  • Stable housing location – after not moving for 11 years, we’ve moved 3 times now
  • Cheap beer – but the craft beer offerings are getting better
  • Good weather radar – radar is terrible here and not very useful locally
  • Normal, non-swooping birds

Things I don’t miss:

  • Prescription drug and political ads
  • Snow/ice (cold weather in general)
  • Traffic
  • Crowds
  • Signing credit card receipts
  • Tipping and tax added after the total
  • Dollar bills, bland money
So colorful

Things I’m indifferent about:

  • Which side of the road / car to drive on – I believe I’m masterful at driving wherever.
  • Long flights – after 7 transpacific flights, what’s another 14 hour flight?

So, I haven’t gone full ‘Straya yet, but I’m slowly getting there.

G’day mate!

Blizzard of Oz

Adventures

After returning from NZ to Brisbane, Jeff and I re-packed our stuff for a trip starting the next morning to see Sydney and Melbourne with a drive between to ski in Australia. Sara would be left behind in Brisbane to decompress from Handel overload and to start getting familiar with the area to figure out where we should live.

Using my Qantas points, I booked us business class tickets from Brisbane to Sydney and Melbourne to Brisbane. With the business class tickets you get access to the business class lounge before the flight. Anyone who knows me knows I love free stuff and airport lounges have so much free stuff!

We arrived into Sydney where I had booked the same hotel Sara and I previously stayed at since it is in a great location in Circular Quay and easy to get to with public transport.  Our room was ready early so we were able to drag our bags and Jeff’s skis in and set out to explore Sydney.

Traveling “light”

We grabbed a beer at the Opera House and then jumped on a ferry to Manly.

Ripper day

Jeff took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to swim in the seasonably cold Pacific Ocean.  We tossed the Frisbee a bit on the beach before Jeff decided to try Australia’s Mexican food.  He thought it was acceptable, I agreed, but I hope he doesn’t now think it is easy to find good Mexican food in Australia.  It is not.

Frisbee!

We headed back to the city to explore the casino and a few more neighborhoods of city.  I think Jeff got a pretty good 24 hour tour of Sydney.

Obligatory Sydney photo

The next day we got some breakfast and then headed back to the airport to collect our rental car for the 6 hour drive up to the Snowy Mountains.  We stayed in a small town called Jindabyne which was just outside of the national park the ski area is located in.   Jeff counted 25+ kangaroos “sleeping” on the side of the road.

Scenery

The next morning we were up early to head to Thredbo to get in some Australian spring skiing.  They’ve had a good winter snowfall-wise and even had some late season storms to leave us plenty of snow with some fresh powder when we arrived.

Makin’ freshies in the pow pow

The weather was all over the place that day – sunny, cloudy, snowy, rainy.  The one constant was the wind.  It was quite blowy.

Jeff making turns

We made it to the “Highest Lifted Point in Australia” – so we’ve got that going for us.

Not sure it was worth the t-bar ride.

All in all it was a great day of skiing in Australia – I had very low expectations going in.  We got a lot of runs in and the snow was much better than anticipated for so late in the season.

Cozy lift

Another day, another long drive, this time to Melbourne.  It was about 7 hours to get from Jindabyne to the hotel I chose in South Yarra.  Upon arrival, we visited a few of my favorite haunts for dinner and drinks.

Drinks at the Local Taphouse

The next day was a busy one full of trying to visit friends.  We started by meeting up with Dorota and Wojciech for some lunch at the South Melbourne market.  Then we met Tiff, Andy and Sofia at another great spot that Andy found.  After that it was off to show Jeff another one of my favorite Melbourne spots – the Stomping Ground brewpub.

Next we went to St Kilda so Jeff could see where we first lived when we moved to Australia and the scary clown we had to go by every time we went for a run.

Before we headed out the next day, we toured a bit around Melbourne, taking in the street art and views by the river.

Where’s Jeff?
A nice day for exploring Melbourne.

After our exploring we headed to the airport for our flight, enjoying lots of free food and drink at the lounge again!

Sara picked us up at the airport, then the next morning we took Jeff back for his flight back to the US.  It was a great visit.  Who will be visitor #5?