Monthly Archives: July 2015

Bushwalking in the Dandenongs

Adventures

After many weekends without a car, it was time to rent one for the grocery / Costco /beer store chores. We took the opportunity of having a car to head over to the Dandenong mountain range for a nice day hike.

We settled on a 6.7 kilometer loop hike that included Olinda Falls.   The book we have stated it might be “muddy after rain” – that was an understatement.  We parked the car and immediately descended into the ferns.

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About 2 kilometers later we were at Olinda falls.

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After the falls, we continued along Olinda creek.  Then, in typical Australian fashion, we were met with poorly marked trail conditions and made a guess as far as which way to go.  Luckily we chose wisely.  See below, isn’t the trail obvious?

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It was amazing to be so close to the city (~50km) yet so isolated and alone.  Not many others out bushwalking on a blustery winter day.

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Picking a team

Random Musings

As my mom likes to say, you can pick your nose and you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose. But what about picking a team? I decided I like the AFL and I’d like to start cheering for a team because I think I’ll like it even more if I care about the game results. Normally, I’d be set because of my credo of going for the home team. I’ll allow for a soft spot in one’s heart for the team from where one hails, BUT I think sports are about community and in order to really be a local one should go for the home team. Unfortunately, 9 of the 18 footy teams play in Melbourne so there really isn’t a home team. There goes my belief system…

Jon and I went to the St. Kilda Bowling Club last weekend and with footy on TV, I took the opportunity to find out how other people picked their team. For most Melburnians their team tends to be the team their family has always barracked for and often they don’t know anything about the origin. I met an American with the same dilemma and found she looked at the teams in Melbourne and then looked at which ones were any good and then checked out the colors (must include blue) and mascots (ideally Australian) and settled on the North Melbourne Kangaroos. I am very pro-kangaroo, but somewhat anti-blue (it’s Duke blue) so it’s an option – just not a great one for me.

Jon takes this decision much more seriously than me so he’s been going over the pros and cons of various teams since we arrived. He’s pretty set on a team with Melbourne in the name which narrows it down to two and he also likes kangaroos so he may join our American pal in going for North Melbourne. Then again, there is a St. Kilda (where we live) team, but they aren’t really a St. Kilda team other than in name only so does it matter? I should also add that I feel bad for any team Jon or I pick, particularly if they are any good as they will inevitably become a terrible, nail biting, heart attack inducing team that only wins in the worst possible way. (What is the footy equivalent of being up by 21 points and losing?)

So… where does that leave things? Heading into Round 15 of 23 at which point the “final series” aka playoffs start. Each round is confusingly called *something* final – Qualifying/Elimination Finals, Semi Finals, Preliminary Finals, and finally the Grand Final. Hopefully I can make a decision before the season is over in October!