[FINE PRINT]

2011-12-30T20:28:00.040-05:00

In 2012

Strive to

Eat Well

Keep Clean

Keep Warm with Friends

Have Fun

Find a Passion

Find the Meaning of Life

Find Work you are Cut out for

Get an Education

Do Good Deeds

THE FAMILY VISITS AUSTRALIA

2011-05-10T22:24:00.020-04:00

This post is brought to you by Jessica's step-mother.

Jessica has given me permission to write about

the wonderful hospitality we received when we visited Jessica and Nick in Sydney.

From the time Peter and I were picked up at the airport to the time we said good-bye we were treated like special guests. They even gave us their bedroom! The four us hiked and drove and dined and drank wine and enjoyed a play and visited the sights of Blue Mountains.

Important Sydney Sight #1, Sydney Opera House.

We saw it from all angles. Looks bigger in the pictures.

Nice setting though, thrust out into the harbour. We took a lot of pictures.

In Sydney we travelled a lot by train which was fast, efficient and inexpensive.

Jessica and I also visited Salvos and Vinnies. Salvos, the only nickname in the whole of the continent of Australia that does not have and Y or IE at the end of it is short for The Salvation Army Thrift Shop. Vinnies is St. Vincent de Paul Society. In Salvos I learned the meaning of the word, Manchester. Not 'The Manchester' or 'Manchesters', it means 'bedclothes & etc.' These products traditionally came from the cotton mills of the English city of Manchester, hence the name.

Important Sydney Sight #2, Sydney Harbour
Bridge. You can pay over $200. to walk across the top.

Jessica plays netball and because we were cheering, her team did really well.

Meanwhile, Nick has abandoned capoeira and has taken up hockey, playing for Canada.

Nick's parents generously entertained us on two occasions. You can get a better feel of a country when you are in a home rather than a hotel and are out shopping for groceries and petrol and going to the dump, er, landfill. Thanks Nick! A highlight of the trip!

The four of us spent a weekend in the Blue Mountains walking through the forests, visiting old mining towns like Leura and Katoomba. I bought raw wool ready for spinning at a craft fair.

These locks with promises of devotion to lovers or in memory of lost ones are attached to a bridge on a lovely stretch of seaside highway near Coalcliff.

Here is Peter putting together Jessica's bike on the stairwell, by an open window, in the apartment building. The door at the ground level of the stairs was always open. Here is the thing about buildings in tropical countries - one never knows where the line is that marks out and in.

In places that have more defined seasons, where there is a temperature difference of 60 degrees F from summer to winter, we have to close the door and shut the windows. There is a point where you say, this is in and here, we are out. The floor surface changes at the door sill. There

is not just a wide opening with no change in grade or surface. I think this is what defines a culture. Some may say it is dance forms that mirror confines of space that shape us. No, it is the ability to move indoors without moving a door. That and in Canada we skate on water.

Peter's niece, Charlotte, who studies at University of Wollongong, came into Sydney to visit. It was the only day that rained. (They are definitely the same family aren't they?)

With Jessica's friend Jasmine we enjoyed Tarell Alvin McCraney's play The Brothers Size with Mayne Wyatt, above in the foreground. Watch out for him! You will see him on the stage again!

The bower bird lures the female by building this lovely stick structure and displaying blue treasures, so she can exclaim, "Oh my, you are so rich you can build this opulent home and can afford to toss coloured objects willy-nilly. You must carry the superior genes I desire to fertilize my eggs." She falls for that and then learns she has to build a new nest for herself because Mr. Bower Bird is off luring other naive females with his fake nest. I may have anthropomorphised a bit based on my single experiences, but that is all in the past now as I have had 26 happy years with Peter. (He made me write that last bit. It's been 15 happy years.)

These carpets are seen on car

dashboards. Cosy huh? Those Australians,

with their egg-laying mammals,

drug-hazed tree-dwellers, and Easter Bilbys.

These fellows, dressed in wigs and sports gear, assembled at a bar in Sydney, and are off for a day of male bonding.

Best Anniversary Weekend Ever!

2010-07-05T00:56:00.004-04:00

I love anniversaries! Love is in the air... the couple snuggles and canoodles (love the word "canoodle" too!) and life is happy and glorious; it's kind of like your own personal Christmas! July fourth not only holds a special day in every Americans' heart, but in mine too because it's my anniversary with my looooove. Not only did Nick and I get to spend the weekend celebrating our first year together but we got to share part of it with my good friend Lori, with whom I backpacked around Europe in 2006! She and her bf were in Sydney just for that weekend before they made their way up the coast. It was so exciting to see Lori in Sydney and to meet her lovely significant other too. We had just the best day!

We met up in the Rocks and after a walk through the markets we opted to go to the famous Pancakes on the Rocks restaurant for brunch. I'm assuming word has spread about this restaurant as, despite it's being spread over 2 floors, it was packed and there was a line out the door! Hungry, (especially the boys... aka ravenous beasts by that stage!) we decided to sit down on the outdoor patio of a french restaurant with harbour bridge views. The maitre d blinked at me in disbelief (in that confused look of disdain that only ze French can pull off) when I enquired about the possibility of getting a table inside without a reservation; luckily they had an outdoor patio. Since it was the middle of "winter" and "only" about 18 degrees, we had our pick of the tables. After tucking in to a glorious brekky, we set off on our quest to climb the bridge tower. This is the little known but great tourist attraction that I first discovered when my friend Jen was here. Lori, her bf and Nick (who despite being from Sydney had never been up there) were just as taken with the view.

After the climb we walk across the bridge (a first for all of us) and were treated to just the most spectacular rainbow over the Sydney Opera House. (I think that was a little divine anniversary present for me and Nick!)

Determined not to miss out, and having worked up another appetite, we set off back to Pancakes on the Rocks and although there was still, STILL a line, it was shorter and we got a table fairly quickly. After tucking in to some enormous pancakes drowned in ooy gooy chocolaty goodness we had to say our heartfelt goodbyes and our visit was over. Short and oh so sweet it was to see eachother and for Nick to get to meet a couple more of my friends. As I'm still having trouble with my camera, I'm grateful to Lori for sending these to me over email.

The weekend continued the next day when Nick and I went to Apparatif for dinner. It's an elegant and delicious Spanish tapas restaurant in The Cross and also where we went on our first dinner date. We booked a table by the fireplace and indulged ourselves in course after course of mouth-watering morsels. It was so great to re-visit the place where our beautiful relationship began and reminisce about the past year and the joys that we've experienced together.

The last memorable event of the weekend was when Nick presented me with my anniversary present- a beautiful silver Tiffany necklace. I was so happy and surprised and I absolutely adore wearing it!

The weekend was definitely one to remember.

Coolest Proposal Ever

2010-06-23T20:50:00.001-04:00

Coolest Proposal Ever

Not that I'm in the market for a proposal (yet...) , but if I were, this would blow me away! You gotta watch this...

July 5 2010

2010-06-06T22:54:00.007-04:00

Go Sharks Go!

Original! Impromptu! Fun!

Three words to describe my recent date with Nick to watch a "footy" game. We are so not a movie and dinner date couple, in fact in one whole year of dating we've never been to the movies on our own! The closest we've come was back in January and Nick treated me and his wonderful mother to a date at the movies to see Avatar. I remember thinking when I met Nick and he took me ice skating for our first date, (remember we're in Australia here, ice rinks are about as common as dog sleds in this part of the world) that this guy would definitely keep me guessing!

Not surprisingly then, one evening in late April Nick suggested we travel to the nearby town of Cronulla to watch a live Rugby League game. Now let me pause here to explain that like soccer in Italy, or ice hockey in Canada, rugby is practically a religion here in Australia. Not only are there countless teams and leagues in almost every city and town, but there are 3 types of rugby from which to choose! Rugby Union, Rugby League and Australian Rules Football are all variations on the theme and, confusingly for a foreigner, are all referred to by the generic name of "footy." I suppose if you are in the know, you'll know what type is being referred to, and if you're not, then it probably doesn't matter. The differences are, I'm sure, not subtle, but for a novice "footy" spectator such as myself, it was exciting just to be present at a live game, even if I didn't really know what was going on. I thoroughly enjoyed not only the athletes' on-field performances, but also the half-time show, cheerleading performances and myriad shark mascots parading around the field. The entire spectacle was very entertaining, made even more so by the fact that the home team won the game! The whole crowd launched into a rousing rendition of there team song as the players basked in the glory of their first win of the season. Not even the rain could dampen our spirits as Nick and I got swept up in the frenzied excitement of the crowd!

It was a great evening and I hope to go again soon. Go Sharks Go!

June 20 2010: MILO!

2010-06-06T22:49:00.004-04:00

I'm determined to get back into blogging more regularly: there are, after all, so many exciting things going on in my life. I'm just at the point in exams where there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Instead of studying, I thought I'd drop in for a quick hello, and to share one of said exciting things:

I have an [informal] list of answers for when I am posed the "what's-different-in-Australia?" question and I have another item for the list...

This one is a beverage.

It may look like unstirred cocoa powder floating atop a glass of milk, but no! It's called "Milo" and it's a malted chocolate drink that people (in my experience, mostly boys) drink instead of chocolate milk. The weird part is that it's consumed without stirring the powder into the milk... After the powder is poured on top of the milk, they let it sit there so that it absorbs the moisture and goes all lumpy and then they eat it with a spoon. Bizarre! My boyfriend, who has texture issues with fruit (ie. he will only eat apples if they're crunchy and not powdery, soft or too crunchy) loves this stuff. I can handle the taste (it's kind of like liquid Malteasers) but I can't get past the lumpy, powdery texture... oh well, it must be an Aussie thing.

Netty! [June 17 2010]

2010-06-06T22:40:00.008-04:00

It was a stunning sky. As though stuffed with iridescent cotton wool, the fluffy blue-grey clouds occupied my attention when my mind should have been focused on what was happening on the ground below.

The afternoon of my very first game of netball ("netty" in Australian) was a cool, cloudy Saturday in April. I'd brought my favourite two-person fan club (Nick and Jen) and was so excited to try out this brand-new (to me) sport. At the very least, I thought to myself, I'll get to wear this spiffy new netball dress! Had I not become so comfortable in a bathing suit from playing all those years of water polo I might have been just a wee bit self-conscious. The "dress" is more like a bathing suit with a gratuitous little frill. The frill is meant to pass as a skirt but it certainly does not hide much in a fast moving, outdoor game (hello breeze!)

Nevertheless, I forged ahead into the game. It's a bit like basketball however the net does not have a backboard, and instead of dribbling the ball, it gets passed from player to player up and down the court. I managed to stay on my feet (most of the time) and even got an interception! With the support and encouragement from my loyal fan club and Nick's sister (whose team I play on, along with Nick's mum but she was away on business) I made it through the game not only in one piece, but loving a new sport! Ever since injuring my shoulder I've really missed playing water polo so hopefully I'll be able to turn netball into my new team sport!

The hardest part was remembering all the rules. What is considered normal defense in basketball is called, "interference" in netball; needless to say I got a few penalties. Luckily I also managed to get the hang of it and have been looking forward to my weekly game ever since!

Out and About in Sydney

2010-06-06T21:34:00.008-04:00

I just love having visitors, the only downside is eventually they have to leave :( As I'm knee deep in the study trenches (exams next week, yikes!) I needed something to cheer me up. I took a quick break to peruse through some photos from Jen's last stop in Sydney.

It was a great day! The weather was perfect, and we strolled around the historic Rocks area of Sydney where all the old convict-era buildings give you the feeling of having stepped back in time. It's also home of the famous Harbour Bridge climb. The climb is definitely on my bucket list but for now, we contented ourselves with calling into the bridge climb gift shop and checking out the wall of celebrity photos. I couldn't help but smile at Steve Irwin's classic pic:

We then ventured across part of the Harbour Bridge via the side-walk-in-a-cage to get to a little known secret tourist spot: Take a look!

The bridge tower climb ($10) is a great alternative to the bridge climb. Otherwise at the very least it just might hold you over until you can save the dough ($200+) for the real thing!

Jen, the two Norwegian girls Jen met on her travels, and I did the climb and I'd venture to say the view probably wasn't that different!

We didn't get to wear the funky jumpsuits the bridge-climbers get to sport, but nonetheless we all had a great time admiring the 360 panoramic Sydney harbour views and getting some pretty good happy-snaps too!

I've never been one to miss a Kodak moment (as you know) so it was great that Jen and I passed so many iconic Sydney landmarks during our last days together...

Miss you Jen! Come back soon!!!

10 Things I've Learned About Living In Sydney

2010-05-14T08:08:00.008-04:00

10. There is no need to tip at bars, restaurants, spas, taxis, anywhere! It's really not an expectation, and in light of the (much higher) prices, I'm hoping that the workers' wages reflect that the tip has already been "built-in" to the price of the item or service.

9. Take water everywhere you go. It might be due to the hotter climate, but I seem to become dehydrated much more quickly here in Sydney than I remember when I lived in Canada. It was a rare occasion that one saw me humping a plastic Nalgene bottle around, but here a bottle of water has been permanently added to the leaving-the-house checklist that now goes: "keys, wallet, phone, water!" Luckily I just acquired one of those nifty BPA-free metal numbers that keeps me safely watered all day long!

8. Never, and I mean never leave the kitchen with crumbs strewn around the counter top. Leave even one little rogue crumb and one might as well put out a welcome mat for cockroaches; no matter how elegant or upscale your home, these nasty little beasts find a way into your kitchen if there's even one speck of food left out overnight.

7. When summer is over one must still dress for summer so as to not roast/ melt (take your pick) if outside between the hours of 11am and 3pm; however, one must also take a sweater, jacket, and scarf for the rest of the day so as to avoid freezing off one's hiney both outside, and inside where without any central heating or sunlight, it's always freezing between the months of April and September. It really is a different type of wardrobe thought process, and one that I'm still getting used to! (Yes, I'm embarrassed to admit I have been caught purchasing a sweater at the campus bookstore after leaving the house at noon in 26 degree weather in a tee shirt, only to come out of class at 5 pm to 12 degree weather. Brrrrr!!!)

6. When people are what I would consider rude, they are not actually trying to be rude, it's just the way some people here are. Lemme explain: Whilst the vast majority of Aussies I've met in non-social situations (ie waiters at restaurants, colleagues at work) have been unfailingly polite and obliging, there are a few who have been so, shall we say, direct, that it's really caught me off-guard. Over the past year and a half, I've come to realize that what I, as probably a typically overly polite Canadian, (ie. saying "I'm sorry" to people bumping into me,) would consider inappropriately abrupt, this manner is just a culturally different way of communicating: I've learned not to take it personally.

5. Look closely and you'll see some interesting animals, even in the city! Australian culture is generally very similar to that in North America: McDonald's, Hollywood movies, Subway, Nike shoes, the list goes on. In fact, the culture is so similar to what I'm already used to, that, other than adjusting to the climate, and the seasons belonging in the opposite months, I haven't had too much culture shock at all. So, it always surprises me when something really is different. Lately I've been learning about all the little woodland creatures/ city pests that Australia doesn't have, and the ones they have instead. Whereas North America has squirrels, chipmunks, skunks and raccoons that roam around our parks and yards, Aussies have possums, billbys, bats, and massive cockatoo and parrot birds that make so much noise at dawn and dusk they seriously drown out normal conversation. Neat eh?

4. Learn the different names for things, and if you're not sure, ask. I learned this the hard way when, for the longest time last year I couldn't figure out what my housemate was talking about when she referred to the "bench" in our house. "The keys are on the bench; your mail is on the bench." To my knowledge we possessed nothing in our house that resembled a bench. Stolen park bench in the living room? Nope. Salvaged pew from the church that burned down as a hallway decoration? Nope! Nope, no benches around the house anywhere! One day I realized she was actually talking about the kitchen counter-top!!! Oh dear. What a confused little bee I was! (In saying that, my housemate last year was also from New Zealand and I didn't realize for about a week that when she said "J(i)ssss" she was actually talking to/ about me.)

3. It's a losing battle trying to get people to take their shoes off when inside your dwelling. It's just not something aussies are used to, and they seem to take offence when you request that they remove their dog-crap, puke covered, festering, dirt-encrusted shoes before they walk all over your carpet that you would like to be able to pad around on bare-foot in the morning, or before climbing into your bed with the freshly laundered sheets. Nevertheless, if I ever have my own house here, there will be a big sign on the door, or perhaps a custom made doormat, informing guests that while they are more than welcome in my home, their scum covered, train station grime infested shoes are not!

2. It's so warm that it's still technically possible to swim in the ocean or in outdoor pools here in months other than summer. Wahoo!!!

1. Always always bring an umbrella where ever you go, and never ever leave home without an umbrella. I don't know how to say this with enough oomph and emphasis but it is not unusual to leave the house when there is not one single little cloud in the sky, and no rain in the forecast, and to be caught brolly-less in a torrential downpour two or three hours later. To avoid rocking the 'drowned rat' look, I would highly highly recommend to any visitor to Sydney to have at least a cheap brolly in their purse, because even though most sidewalks in any shopping area are covered (due to the need for either sun or rain protection most days of the year) it rains so hard that even running for two seconds between awnings to cross a road can leave you as sopping wet and bedraggled as if you'd decided to go puddle jumping in the local bog. Seriously, bring an umbrella.

Wakeboarding... ezz greeat successssss!

2010-05-09T03:33:00.005-04:00

The upside of being foreign and having no friends is people feel sorry for you and invite you to do cool stuff, like go wakeboarding on their friends' awesome boat, and join them for breakfast at their awesome waterfront house.... ok I'm exaggerating a wee bit; I know I have lots of friends here, but I'm continually surprised at the generosity and friendliness of folks here in Australia. A few weekends ago, Nick and I were invited by a new friend of mine to join her, and her husband and another couple for a day out on the water. We were super lucky to catch a clear, calm and warm day, which is an increasingly rare occasion as "winter" is fast approaching.

It was an awesome day, made even better by the fact that Nick, who had never ever tried wakeboarding before, totally killed it on his first try, and was even throwing down jumps!

If I hadn't witnessed how nervous he was before actually getting in the water, I would never have believed that it was his first time! What a successful day!

Bugga!

2010-05-04T22:01:00.005-04:00

If only the internet at my new residence would let me upload pictures! I don't know what the deal is so I apologize for my lack of posting lately. It's really frustrating because we all know how much I luuuurve sharing my photos with y'all.

So in lieu of the interesting photographic posts I've been sitting on until this uploading snag gets resolved, I'll share with you some new vocabulary I've come across whilst living down under...

When I moved to Sydney a little over a year ago there were some turns of phrase and/or words that were so odd to me that I never thought I would start using them myself. Well one year later it turns out that I was wrong! Recently I've caught myself using some of these very same words/ phrases:

Bloody: as in "where is the bloody remote control? I need to change the bloody channel on the bloody tv!" (Yes, this is one that is at a definite risk of overuse.)

Bugga: as in "bugga! I've just accidently deleted my entire essay!"

Mate: as in "hey mate, how ya goin'?"

How ya going: see above, instead of "how are you doing."

Toilets: Instead of 'bathroom' or 'washroom', as in "Where are your toilets?" This one is especially surprising since I've always cringed when hearing the ungenteel word "toilet." What is wrong with saying restroom or washroom??? Most of the time I still say 'bathroom' but I have slipped up a couple of times and said 'toilets'. Nooooo!

The One Word I Will Shoot Myself If I Ever Accidentally say it:

Youse: As in the plural of 'you' aka the title of an email I received from a classmate this morning:

does this mean anything to youse?

Noooooo! What is the world coming to when supposedly educated, learned law students are using this grammatical abomination???

Welcome to Sydney Ladies!

2010-04-13T22:37:00.009-04:00

Of course, the moment I've been waiting over a year for- one of my bestest friends from high school arrived in Sydney with her sister. They've been travelling around the world since last year, and were in Asia when I went back to Toronto over Christmas. In any case, the reunion this year was amazing and we were very fortunate to be able to spend some great quality time together.
We packed so much in to the girls' short time in Sydney...

No trip to Sydney is complete without a visit to Bondi Beach...

We added to the Bondi Beach excursion by parking at Bronte Beach and walking the magnificent coastal walk to Bondi...

Not to be outdone by Bondi Beach, Nick took the girls and me to his hometown beach in Stanwell Park! Towels and surfboards in tow, we left Nick's house and a mere 5 minute walk later we were on one of the South Coast's best "secret spots" (that's surfing code for places only locals know about.) Nick was nice enough to show me and the girls a great time surfing and bodyboarding and generally having a blast getting jiggy with Mother Nature's wild side!!!

The expert comes back to shore after showing us some of his killer moves!

Nick and I walk towards the waves with Rach and Josh close behind...

Time for Jen to show us what she's got!

There's no better way to work up an appetite than surfing; luckily just around the corner is "The Kiosk" a local well, kiosk that sells everything from hot chips to homemade wattle seed ice cream.

My all time favourite item from the menu, which also happens to be the BEST post-surfing meal ever is the "Lot Burger." Now folks imagine a BIG bacon and egg breakfast and the toppings from your favourite Hawaiian style pizza combined with the best burger you've ever rested your greedy little lips on, and that my friends is the Lot Burger. The whole thing is topped off with the obligatory slice of Aussie beetroot and it takes a mean appetite and a sold set of chops to make even a dent in this behemoth. I must admit, the ease and speed with which I put these babies away earned me my nickname "Guts" from my delightful boyfriend.

Miss Jen certainly certainly did give me a run for my money!

Speaking of making absolute piglets of ourselves, the girls and I happened upon a dangling donut eating competition while we were at Sydney Uni's Frosh Week. Not to pass up the chance at a free donut, the three of us elbowed our way to the front of the line and took our positions in front of the dangling donuts. The rules didn't sound too hard. Just eat the donut without using your hands: Well! Easier said than done. Turns out that swallowing a massive piece of donut while your cheeks are full of yet more donut is painful, and almost impossible. The most disappointing part was that I couldn't even taste the darn donut. I sure could feel it sitting like a led ball in my stomach for the rest of the afternoon though. I guess some lessons are learned the hard way, and that certainly was one of them!

The one redeeming factor from the ordeal was the next booth Jen inhaled some helium and sang a rousing chipmunk rendition of "twinkle twinkle little star" to win a free red t-shirt. She was quite chuffed at the prospect of an upgrade from the red t-shirt she's been wearing for the past 8 months.

Jen is set to come back to Sydney for a couple of days next week and I can't wait to see her! Rachel is off in the outback working on a ranch so she won't be joining us but hopefully I'll get to see them both before they head home in a couple of months.

February 2010 Highlights

2010-03-16T06:36:00.018-04:00

G'day! We meet again!

Since landing back in Sydney I've hit the ground running. There was so much to do when I first arrived! I could write a novel to catch up on everything since my last post, but there a few highlights that are definetly worth a mention.

Meeting Nick's brand new baby niece, Ciara, who was born just a week before I landed was incredible.

She was so so tiny and gorgeous, and her mother even let me have a cuddle!

She is a bouncing 8 week old baby now and still oh so good to snuggle with :)

Another definite highlight was the trip Nick and I took to the Hawksberry river for a five day camp-out music festival. The vibe was amazing and Nick and I danced each night away to an awesome line up of bands. The festival is big on organizing dress up events and Nick and I took full advantage of the opportunity to do a little facepainting...

... ok a lot of face painting!

I wasn't about to spend the free time I had before uni started hiding from the sun inside like I did last year, and made sure I hit the beach for some 'Triple S' fun (Sun, Sand, Surf. Yes I made that up myself. Yes, I'm a nerd.)

I pulled my best version of "Blue Crush" and almost* surfed pipe! (*By 'almost', I mean I stood up in white water. Yay!)

More importantly, Nick and I and a few friends had a great time at the beach!

Moving right along into some cultural highlights... celebrating Chinese New Year with my friend Jane was waaay cool, and the costumes, singing, dancing and chinese lion dragons were worth braving the torrential downpour to go and see:

Then of course there was Valentine's Day. Not a day that's been very pleasant for me over the past year or five, but this year was pure bliss!

Nick planned an awesome day for us to spend together. We packed a picnic and drove into the Royal National Park, (where we'd gone on one of our first dates.) There, despite the overcast skies and slight drizzle we rented a canoe and went for the most surreal and dreamlike paddle up a tree-lined canal. The weather was actually a blessing in disguise as the water, and park in general was pretty deserted and felt like our own slice of paradise, just for us to enjoy.

Along the way Nick in all his orthinological glory, pointed out the myriad speciese of birdlife, presenting themselves along the bank. (A bird is on the branch just to the right of my head.)

Spotting the usually shy liar bird through the trees was an especially delightful treat, and we giggled at its machainery-sounding robot noises interrupting the silence of the earily still and quiet wilderness. I also admired some wonderful wildflowers and plantlife as we stretched our muscles paddling along, enjoying our weightlessness in the canoe as it glided across the water.

We pulled into the dock just as the drizzle turned into rain, and upon disembarking from the canoe, dashed over to an undercover picnic area to devour our well-earned feast. We had decided on a medditerrainian theme of baquette, olives, feta, sliced meat, and grapes and boy did it it the spot! Of course we had to give a nod to the Brits, and opted for a carten of custard for dessert. Turnes out a hollowed out grape filled with cold custard is super tasty!

Thanks babe for such an amazing Valentine's Day 2010!!!!

Oh My Gosh! Look who's here!!!

2010-03-16T04:20:00.012-04:00

[I'll give you a hint...]

But first some updates!

Where have I been you ask?

Ok folks, I know it's been a while since I've blogged but I have lots of reasons for having been so busy. Firstly, the last couple of weeks of my trip to home to Canada was a whirlwind to say the least! In completing my goal of catching up with every friend I have (and their parents too,) it was a bonefide race to the finish. An "Amazing Race" one might say, since it was so amazing to get to see all of my beloved friends whom I miss so so much!

I have to show you this photo of my girlfriends from Oakville and me at Tenleigh's "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party. I swear the second hand stores put in a special order just for us cause we managed to pull off some doozies!

Speaking of dressing up, I had a great time getting together with my Brock girlfriends for a Christmas Pajama party! It was so great to be there, and to see that the girls haven't changed a bit (well okay maybe some have a tiny bit; see below.) I love going home and being able to slide back in to old friendships. Of course I wish there was a cosmic black-hole through which I could go home to see my friends every other weekend; however, on the upside, I have wonderful memories of this year's visit, and am very satisfied in the fact that I at least got to congratulate one friend on her engagement and another on becoming a mum-to-be!

Of course I can't forget to mention the absolutely fantastic parties put on by my friends Kristen and Sean. Their apartment has the most amazing view- perfect for midnight noise-making to bring in the New Year!

Now not to worry, I know what y'all are thinking... but I did do stuff other than raid Goodwill and party. Yes, to balance out the parties, Kristen and I enjoyed some very refined and civilized socializing with our friend Mara and her cute little toddler. Seeing adorable Skylar again was great as the last time I saw her she was a wee new-born at my going away party. My- they grow so quickly!

Of course no trip would have been complete if I hadn't of tried to outdo myself in a feat of culinary genius. Ahem, since Masterchef's roster was complete, I decided to recruit my Aussie mate, Jessie as guinea pig for a homemade feast of bruscetta, pancetta caesar salad, creole chicken chili, and New York cheesecake with raspberry sauce and blueberries (yes, the cake was homemade too of course!)

I served up the meal on our finest china, and, as Jessie was preparing to make the move back to Perth, we toasted both of our returns to Australia. Jessie, I hope we get to see each other again soon (PS please don't make me eat any Vegemite)!

Lastly, I absolutely HAD to go to my favourite Vietnamese restaurant in Toronto, I've mentioned it before here, and it was even better than I'd remembered. Kristen, Sean and I were joined by our out-of-town friends Jess and Di for an oh-so-scrumptious and drool-worthy dinner of rare-beef pho and rice-paper spring rolls. Topped off with copious amounts of tea and laughter, I left the restaurant with that satisfyingly stuffed feeling that I can only get with Asian food.

Well that's it for the post-trip round-up. More very soon (I promise!) on how I've been keeping busy since arriving back in Australia. Ta-ta for now!

Farewell North Toronto C.I

2010-01-20T20:23:00.009-05:00

So it's been a wonderful trip home to Canada for the holidays. Thanks to the generous hospitality of my parents I've been able to make the most of my time at home, enjoying both some much needed rest and relaxation as well as the chance to catch up with all the friends I've missed while I've been away at law school this past year.

One of my first excursions was taking my dog Bailey on a trip to my old high school, North Toronto C.I. When I started high school in 1997 the building was decrepit and falling apart; the clanging, banging noises emanating from the radiators would (sometimes mercifully) drown out the teacher's voice and most of the windows wouldn't open: not ideal for writing June final exams on the third floor of an un-air-conditioned building.

Despite the peeling paint and the crumbling plaster, I loved the history and character of the school's architecture. The location was great too- how many people can say they went to school within walking distance of some of the best restaurants and shopping in the city!

Since the building, located at Yonge and Eglinton, happens to be on the Toronto District School Board's most valuable piece of property, the solution to the building's condemnation was the Board's striking a partnership deal with condo developers. In exchange for building two huge condos in what was the school's baseball field, the developers are footing the bill for a new school building. While I know the students need and deserve a better learning environment, it is still sad to say goodbye: the original building is slated for demolition once the new school opens this summer.

The original North Toronto C.I. was completed in 1912, and the new building is going to incorporate some of the "heritage components" of the original building. Still, I'm sad that I will never again be able to visit my high school and walk down the halls recalling memory after memory of five years spent growing from an awkward, shy teenager to young adult. As tumultuous and full of angst as those years were, I do enjoy being able to go back and think about how far I've come.

So farewell original building, North Toronto C.I. I'll miss getting to include you in my "blast from the past" tours of Toronto.

Happy 100th Birthday Grandad!

2010-01-07T10:58:00.018-05:00

[A Beatles cover band busking at dusk; Cambridge, England 2009.]

Phew! We'll it's been a whirlwind trip home so far and I'm so excited to blog about it. I've been saving up all my little adventures to share with my devoted readers (yes all 5 of you.)

First stop after I landed at home in Canada was back to the airport for a family trip to England!

This is my Aunt and Uncle's farmhouse where we stayed for the week. I have so many fond childhood memories of staying here and playing in the haystacks in the barn. It was great to be back!

I finally got to see all of my siblings (first time we've all been in the same room since 2007) and all of my cousins!!! We're missing a few cousins in this picture (6 to be exact) but we were all together the next day for my Grandfather's 100th Birthday Party!

It was so lovely to be able to come together as a whole family to celebrate my Grandfather turning 1 Century old. Don't you think he looks great? I hope his longevity genes run in the family!

My Aunt organized a wonderful birthday party. The location was a gorgeous canal-side restaurant. The view reminded me of our family trip to England when I was 15, where we spent two weeks traveling around on the canals in a narrow boat.

One of the most exciting things about the trip was when the Royal Mail arrived with my Grandfather's birthday card from the Queen. The Queen of England sent her own postie to deliver the card right to the front door! There was a slightly humorous mix-up because, so on the edge of our seats were we waiting for the mail to be delivered, that when we finally saw a man delivering mail we all crowded into the doorway and threw open the door with huge smiles on our faces. The man looked quite shocked and furtively handed us his windows and doors sales pamphlet. Upon realizing that he wasn't the Royal Mailman our joyful expressions deflated an we let out a collective groan of disappointment. Mr. Windows and Doors looked very confused and a bit apologetic until we explained that we were anticipating mail from Her Majesty. Luckily we had no more false alarms and the next guy was it!

No one was more excited to have a card that Her Majesty had physically touched and signed than the Birthday Man himself. When asked if he knew why he got a card from the Queen, my grandfather poignantly replied, "it's because I've been a very good citizen all my life."

I had terrible jet lag due to England being my fourth timezone in eight days (Sydney, San Francisco, Toronto, London) so I kept falling asleep every time I sat down on a lounge or went somewhere in a car. How embarrassing! Finally towards the end of the trip I became acclimatized to the new time. Just in time to go home again.

One of the nice things about visiting my rellies in England is shopping in the quaint nearby town of Cambridge (yes, that Cambridge, with the famous university.) Well-known for the plethora of cyclists, bicycles are so common place that hardly anyone bothers to lock theirs up!

There was also a gay little market. Stalls of gorgeous pottery and artwork and lots of delicious looking British sweets like lemon drops, fresh fudge and strawberry sherbert. Drool.

I'm standing next to the market with my younger cousin. This is right before we tried to meet up with the rest of our group at the end of our shopping trip. We'd arranged to meet at the 'Mac' store. To us that meant the Computer 'Mac' store; to my sisters it meant the Make-up 'Mac' store. What a fiasco! Thank goodness there was a (and by "a" I mean exactly one) cell phone amongst the group of seven of us so finally we were able to rendez-vous but not before there was some serious teeth gnashing!

All too soon it was time to say goodbye... three of my siblings flew back to their respective corners of the earth (China, Manitoba, New Brunswick) and the rest of us departed back to Ontario, taking with us only our pictures and memories of a wonderful trip!

I'm Baaaack!

2009-12-14T15:39:00.005-05:00

Season's Greetings Everyone!

Apologies for my looong hiatus. I've been jet-setting around the world visiting family and friends and have hardly had a moment to catch my breath! Thankfully, the suitcases have been unpacked, the presents purchased and wrapped (well most of them), the Christmas tree trimmed and the cookies baked so I have a moment to relax and reflect on the year that has past. It's hard to believe that this time last year I was getting ready to embark on my big adventure to law school in australia and now it's all over. It's almost overwhelming to think about the past year, moving to Australia, finding a house, starting university, catching swine flu(!), meeting my incredible boyfriend, graduating first year law, and then my post-semester travels. What a busy year!

After leaving Sydney I flew to California to visit my best friend from elementary school and her hubby in their gorgeous new flat in San Francisco. We had just the best time shopping and enjoying the festive atmosphere of the season! My favourite day was the day we drove to Palo Alto for a tailgate party and a football game. Tossing the old pigskin and tucking into a yummy bbq of burgers and sausages filled the void of North American culture I'd been missing while living in Australia.

Lets not forget the bag of chips that was large enough to fit a medium sized toddler. Gotta love Costco! The weather was a perfect sunny and 10- 15 degrees and aside from this total tool who was sitting in the row ahead of us at the football game, the company was perfect. At least Stanford's spectacular come from behind win deflated his (the moron in front of us') sails. Every time we cheered for Stanford he'd turn around a glare, even when his team was winning! I guess we showed him who got the last laugh! After Stanford won, we all flooded down onto the field in the new, and amazing, state of the art stadium and listened the the (rather eccentric) band's on-field revelry.

What a day to remember!

Season's Greetings Everyone!

Hopefully I'll be back soon to tell y'all about my other trip, this time to jolly 'ol England!

Merry Christmas!

First Year: Done and Done!

2009-11-28T01:21:00.011-05:00

That's a wrap folks! First year is in the bag- well I think it's in the bag- apparently marks are released mid-December, however barring any unforeseen disasters I will be starting second year law school next March. Needless to say, as of the invigilator calling "time" on the last exam, it was time to PARTAY!

We made a bee-line to Manning pub and proceeded to enjoy a few cold ones in the warm early afternoon sun... It was a perfect ending to a perf... well interesting year!

There were many ups and downs, but thankfully mostly ups! Just to name a few....

Obviously moving to Australia to go to the University of Sydney to start my dream of going to law school...

Next, finding an awesome house close to uni, and lucking out with some inexpensive second hand furniture (except for a brand new, comfy bed- thanks Mum!) and new friends looking for a willing recipient of some no-longer-needed household items...

Then, finding gainful employment in Sydney and, while I was there, making some great friends whom I'm so glad I met!

Being treated to a fantastic weekend away in the Blue Mountains.

Meeting a group of amazing girls at uni and being able to help, support and learn from each other every step of the way.

And last but not least... meeting my wonderful boyfriend Nicholas! He and his family have been so wonderful to me. We have so much fun together and as Nick will soon be back from Darwin, I am looking forward to us actually living in the same city next year!

Lastly I have to say a BIG Thank You to all of my family and friends who without their love and support, I would not have been able to do any of this. In particular my Mum, Dad and Stepmum who kept me in the loop this year at home with lots of emails and phone calls and a computer to do everything on! And, my best friend's in-laws who, not only believed in and supported my idea of going to law school in Australia, but offered to adopt Bailey (my puppy). If not for being able to feel secure in the fact that my darling baby was in such competent and loving care, I wouldn't have come to Australia. I hear she is doing great and has finally graduated to level 2 of puppy pre-school!

Cheers to one down, two to go!

Half Way There!

2009-11-13T00:59:00.005-05:00

2 down... 2 to go! I have an exam tomorrow. Yes on a Saturday... then, one on Monday and then I'm free free free until next year!! Wow- I can't believe I'm almost there. It still seems like a huge mountain to climb but in just three days it will all be over. I can't believe it! Some parts of this year have flown by, others have crawled (hello being sick with swine flu for three months!) but overall it's been an amazing experience! I am so looking forward to my trip home to visit my wonderful friends and family and then to come back and catch the last month of Australian summer. Wah hoo! The weather right now is GORGEOUS so it's going to be quite an adjustment to arrive in Toronto in the middle of winter. There is lots of snowboarding to be done so I am looking forward to that but I will miss the beautiful sunshine, long days and hot weather... not to mention my new friends here in Australia (both human and canine.) Check out Nick's dog, Tiki (above)- he's a little camera shy but so cute!

Gotta keep my eye on the prize until Monday when I can enjoy a little less of this

and a little more of this!

See y'all on the flipside!

Cinema in the Park: Breakfast at Tiffany's!

2009-11-10T17:37:00.011-05:00

Is anyone else one of those people who, when discussing movies is always hearing "oh my goodness, you haven't seen 'X ' ?!?!" (insert classic film everyone has seen). Well as someone who just saw Dirty Dancing and Pretty Woman for the first time last year, I can safely say that I am definitely one of those people. In light of this you can imagine my delight when Nick's Mom and sister invited me to their local town Breast Cancer benefit- an outdoor screening of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Not only was I excited about getting to enjoy their lovely company, and contribute to a very worthy cause, but I got to cross another classic film off my list!

The setting for the evening was a little grassy parkette at the end of the road from the house (a very convenient location!) In terms of the screen, I wasn't sure what to expect, but as a point of reference, after the home-theatre sized screens at the local Newtown cinema in Sydney, something similar in size would not have surprised me; however, lo and behold, the screen was HUGE! The sound and picture quality was excellent and made for a very enjoyable "movie in the park" experience.

Nick's mom and sister were very organized and prepared with picnic mats, pillows, throw blankets and lawn chairs and even a backpack picnic basket with compartments for the plates, cups, cutlery etc.!

After setting up we settled down to scoff our yummy picnic of barbecued chicken, bread rolls, veggies n dip and cookies and brownies for dessert.

After dining at our very civilized and lady like picnic (complete with cups of tea with dessert) we settled in to watch the film. It was most enjoyable! One of those movies where I wonder what took me so long to get around to watching it! Audrey Hepburn was utterly fantastic as the main character and I found the movie very funny and entertaining to watch. What I really liked about it though was how layered the film was with symbolism and poignant lines. One of our favourites was when Holly is referred to as "a phony, but a real phony." Such great script writing! I guess that's why some people say things like "they don't make 'em like they used to..." Well I don't know if I'd necessarily agree with that being a universally negative thing (after all I love a good Jen Aniston chick-flick once in a while,) but I can see what they're saying.

All in all a great evening. The only sad part, (besides having to quash the urge to high tail it to Tiffany's myself) was watching the film made me miss my youngest sister Sophie, who often dresses up as Audrey Hepburn for Halloween and I think, bares a striking resemblance!!

Feelin hot hot hot!

2009-11-03T08:01:00.005-05:00

Happy (belated) Halloween everyone. Amidst the days getting longer, the tropical heated breeze and the odd presence of Christmas greenery and carols in the mall, Halloween was a mere blip on the radar. If it wasn't for all the photos of friends' costumes and Halloween parties posted on facebook, I probably would have forgotten about it all together. Such a shame as it's one of my favourite celebrations! Here are a couple of pictures from last year:

A pumpkin I carved at the Crawfords' house. At $20 for a pathetically small carving pumpkin here, I was happy to look at a photo of a jack-o-lantern and call it a day.

This is me being a kind of burlesque cow girl last year. Classy as usual.

Ah well... there's always next year. More importantly, with Halloween out of the way it's now the official start to the Holiday season!

Incidentally November started off with a bang. 37 degrees today!!! I felt like I'd fallen into an oven. I can't remember the last time I experienced that high a temperature. It was unbelievably hot! I arrived at the library at 9am and was already sweltering. When I emerged from the air conditioning at 7pm it was still hot hot hot. I was so happy to have brought my swim suit. I swam at the outdoor pool next to campus until it was dark out and thankfully a tiny bit cooler for the walk home.

Lots more studying to do so that's all for now.

Happy Travels Kristen, Jen and Rachel!!!

2009-10-28T18:21:00.003-04:00

Arn't good friends just the best? Last night the stars aligned and two of my bestest bestest friends since high school who are travelling in Egypt, just happened to be in an internet cafe when I was on Skype here in Australia! What are the odds of that happening? Not high, especially since I'm generally not on Skype unless it's a pre-planned appointment, and it was about 1 am...Anyhow, I was so thrilled to get the chance to chat that I didn't even feel tired. One of the things I love about really great, old friends is that no matter how long it's been since the last time you saw each other or even emailed, when you do talk it's like everything is exactly the same and you don't skip a beat. It was so nice to see them (on video) and hear their voices; although I still miss them terribly I think it was just enough to hold me over until we're together in person: December, when I'll get to see Kristen in Toronto, and next February when Jen and her sister Rachel, also a great gal and a good friend, will be making their way down under as part of their 'round-the-world tour.' I'm so looking forward to showing them around Sydney. I'm already devising an itinerary:

-Bondi Beach for some celebrity spotting and budgie smugglers!

-Glebe for brunch in a funky cafe

-Newtown for some Asian food and people watching

-The Rocks Saturday Market

-The City for the Opera House tour (I've heard it's well worth it)

-Coogee to Bondi Coastal walk (Did it once and I'm dying to go again!)

-Oxford Street for a little of the nightlife that I hear so much about but never get to go...

-Walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge (cause I've always wanted to...)

-Any other suggestions??

Until then, Good Luck Girls and Happy Travels!!

Top Ten Reasons Nov 25th can't come fast enough:

2009-10-25T03:08:00.002-04:00

Ok so no offense to Australia but, in the words of lovely Dorothy- there's no place like home!

I'm booked to fly to San Francisco on November 25th (25th November if you're Australian) for a week and then home after that and I am starting to get to the point where I'm making X's on my calender... I haven't even started studying for exams (which are in 2 weeks- eep!) but already my mind is already daydreaming about getting home to my loved ones back in Canada :)

It's been a while since I've made a top 10 list, so here it goes...

Top Ten Reasons I am Looking Forward to Flying Home:

10. My Stepmother's homemade culinary delights: Bread, marmalade, cookies, steam pudding, trifle, Yorkshire pudding, did I mention trifle? mmm trifle...

9. The weather matches the season (although winter isn't my first choice) I won't constantly be confused by the awkward clash of weather, season and holiday- Easter in the fall??? I don't think so.

8. Snowboarding!!!

7. Starbucks. I know I'm gonna get flak for this one 'cause the "funky" "independent" cafes serving "real" coffee is something Sydneysiders pride themselves on to no end, however as a non-coffee connoisseur I think Starbucks tastes great and for my four bucks I get a beverage that's not only hot (as opposed to the luke-warm temperature everyone serves here, ostensibly because that's how coffee is "supposed" to be served) but a cup is larger than the size of a thimble and lasts more than 3 sips.

6. Driving. No more vomit commit bus for me!!! Up until 2 weeks ago that was just a nickname for the late bus. Horrifically, it actually came true when, one morning on my way to work, just after I'd gotten on, someone puked ALL OVER the floor of the bus. I was sitting in the back where everyone had pushed to to get as far away from the smell (which was at the front) as possible. Still the stench was excruciating and I had to stay on for about 15 minutes of it cause had I gotten off I would have been late for work. It was so bad the driver put the bus out of service so that people wouldn't get on but he continued the route for passengers already on the bus. That was the longest 15 minutes of my life!

5. Canadian beer!!

4. Partying with all my friends- you know who you are!!!

3. Seeing the parentals.

2. Reuniting with my Bailey- I miss her soooo much! I miss her new mom and pop too and they've been so amazing with her for which I am eternally grateful!

1. SLEEPING.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-10-18T06:05:00.015-04:00

Guess who made another appearance this weekend?! Nick flew down from Darwin for his second whirlwind trip and I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. We had a very full weekend planned and certainly made the most of every last moment :) First, I picked him up at the airport and whisked him off to Glebe for breakfast at one of my favourite cafes- Clipper! The shabby chic decor (think vintage bikes on the wall and mismatched dinnerware) and long communal bench tables match the homemade tone of the menu- lots of yummy porridge with fruit compotes and free range egg options. We decided to enjoy the beautiful weather and dined outside, basking in each other's in-person company in the warm sun (hey five weeks is a long time to have to deal with temperamental skype connections and buzzy phone lines!)

That evening, after a roast lamb made by yours truly, we went to Star City Casino's Astral Bar. Located up on the 17th floor, we were treated to stunning panoramic city views, incredible cocktails (my ginger pear number was delicious!) and an amazing band too! My friend Tom, whom I met through one of the first girls I met here in Sydney (he's her boyfriend) is a jazz pianist and his band was playing at the Astral Bar the evening we were in Sydney. It was a perfect choice for our night out on the town. As it was a Thursday we were one of the only parties there, but the bar didn't feel empty; how could it with the vast lights of the city below sparkling through the floor-to-ceiling windows? The waiters were wonderful and it felt like the band was playing just for us. We even started an impromptu dance floor where Nick twirled me around in my new pink dress... with the surrounding lights of the city and the old fashioned glamour of the bar I felt like I'd stepped into a 1940s movie!

After a perfect evening out in Sydney (Nick didn't even bat an eyelash when, due to my directional challenges, I took us along the...ahem... scenic route to get back to the main road) we packed up and took the train down the coast to Nick's house.

Nick's family very generously offered to host Thanksgiving dinner, their first one ever! I was very grateful to be able to have Thanksgiving dinner with such lovely people and thankful not to have to miss out on my favourite dinner of the year. The turkey Nick's sister ordered from the local butcher was beautiful and it was lots of fun getting right in there and cooking together. Nick's mom is a great cook- everything tasted delicious! For dessert we made a traditional Steam Pudding which was utterly divine, especially with the warm custard poured over top. mmm... drool.

After such a lovely (and filling!) dinner we were looking forward to the evening's events. Nick made plans for us to see a concert at the Brass Monkey in Cronulla. We arrived early (can you tell this guy's a good influence on me or what!?) and so had time for a lovely walk along the beach and some lollies from the local store.

The Brass Monkey had a great atmosphere; warm, intimate and friendly, and we topped it all off by scoring really good seats! There were three different acts and they were all really good but the final one, an indie folk band called Dead Letter Chorus from Newtown in Sydney (aka my neighbourhood) was amazing! Nick bought me the CD so that I can listen to their songs when I'm studying for exams and trying to remember what it feels like to have fun.

On our final day together, we took a lovely long walk down to the beach near Nick's house. Imagine growing up five minutes from here.... No wonder it's so hard to say goodbye! Well all good things come to an end and so our weekend was over. Even though it will be three and a half months until our next in-person hello, I'm very happy and grateful that Nick was able to visit for the weekend and I hope he enjoys and makes the most of his last couple of months in Darwin before moving back to Sydney (yay!) next year.

Ahoy Matey!

2009-10-06T04:18:00.008-04:00

All Aboard?

Have I mentioned lately how great it is to live in this amazing city? At the drop of a hat one can go from staring glumly at her not-quite-yellow, not-quite-green walls to bam! On a boat in the middle of the ocean in a varsity sailing regatta! I was one such lucky person this week as a last minute drop out helped me change my mind about not entering this year's regatta with the university sailing team. What can I say? The team needed me, the forecast looked ok and my assignment wasn't that interesting, so I said yes! Yes to one day of unbelievably perfect sunshine and 14 knot breezes and yes to one day of less than perfect weather but a fun time nonetheless. Not knowing what to expect I left my camera at home on Day 1 of the race so all the pictures are from rainy and overcast day 2, but I think the clouds give a nautical mood to the photos anyway.

I was really impressed with the Yacht Club- The Royal Prince Alfred. It was nautical and cozy yet new and spacious and didn't have that musty, damp feel common to some clubs.

The outdoor picnic and patio area was a really pleasant place to sit and have a hot latte after my 2 and a quarter hour public transport ride to Newport at 6:30 in the morning aka before the rain started! (But it's not as though I would go around hinting that I'd like a car... I mean maybe if Christmas were around the corner or something I would but.... hey wait a minute.... lol. If only people here drove on the right side of the road!!)

Where was I? Oh yes, the regatta. Skippers Afloat was our home away from home for 2 days as we waiting in the middle of the ocean bay for our turn to race. My partner and I completed 9 races on day one, and 1 on day two before it was called off due to high wind conditions.

Other (larger) boats certainly enjoyed the big wind. There were some amazing catamarans zipping about around our little pacer dinghies.

At first we had four fleets out, but ended up with two by the end due to broken bits n' pieces.

Our fleet out on the water.

Our fearless 'Skippers Afloat" skipper steered us through the storm using the trusty steer through the window technique! I say, a couple of windshield wipers would go a long way on this boat!

As you can imagine, the 60 hungry sailors devoured our catered lunch each day with fervor I usually reserve for Thanksgiving dinner. Fortunately I clawed my way to the table before the ham was gone 'cause I think I would have starved rather than be forced to eat some of this stuff: Vegemite. No offence to the Aussies who love it (and they all do- must be genetic) but it smells like stale beer which I have to brace myself just to pour down the drain, never mind putting it in my mouth!

Lots of nice boats to admire, but it makes me miss sailing at home with my Daddy.

I'm supervising the hauling up of the anchor. Hey someone's gotta do it!

And after all that I got to make the 2+ hour journey home again. At least there was some pretty scenery to look at on the way out to the bus stop.

Trips n' Things

2009-09-26T18:11:00.004-04:00

Good news! In just three weeks Nick will be on his way home for a visit and I am soooo excited! It's somewhat unexpected to find myself not only with a boyfriend in Australia but a (temporarily) long distance one at that, but I am loving every minute of it. Nick and I have so much fun together, just look at us here- having a gay time eating our Gaytimes! (Australian ice- cream on a stick, covered in smashed cookie). Nick bought us these at a gas station when we were on our way back to Sydney from his house down the coast- so sweet!

It's great to have something to look forward to as I am currently in the midst of trying to finish two assignments which are due in the very near future whilst keeping all of my work commitments and not losing touch with all of my new friends. As they say "keep your eye on the prize," I suppose the prize being finishing my first year of law school. I still don't feel like it's possible for me to be ready for the four exams I have in November but I know I'll get through it. The trips I have planned for the end of the year to San Fransisco, London and then home will be enough motivation for me to survive. Here's hoping!!!

ARMAGEDDON!!!

2009-09-22T20:34:00.002-04:00

So this morning: An unbelievable strange red light filtered through my window at 7am. I blinked twice to see if I was still dreaming, and then panicked, having decided that there was something seriously wrong with my my eyes. When I looked away and my room seemed it's usual colour, my next thought was Y2K is here, just a few years late! HOLY CRAP WE'VE BEEN NUKED! Luckily for my eyes, and the existence of the continent but unluckily for my lungs, it was what is being called a "red dust storm." What they heck is that? I remember signing up for heat, and I'm learning to deal with the rain and recently the extreme temperature swings, but a dust storm? Last I checked Sydney was not a desert! Anywho it's unfortunate timing since last night I wandered into the kitchen for a late night glass of water only to find the floor swarming with little black baby cockroaches. I swiftly grabbed what I thought was the Mortine (roach kill spray) but actually was oven cleaner!!! I didn't notice until this morning when the fumes from the previous evening's massacre were still hanging heavy in the air. Gag ME!!! Of course this happens to be the first day in history where opening the windows is ill-advised. Choosing between a layer of red dust over everything or noxious air fumes, I figured dust+ fewer toxic fumed might be a bit better than no dust + copious toxic fumes so I opened the french doors but jeez! I feel like going back to bed and waking up with this all having been a strange dream.

Beautiful Beautiful Sydney

2009-09-20T08:38:00.008-04:00

Although this not the first time I've moved to Australia (it's the second), leaving my many and dear friends in Canada was still very difficult. My only consolation was the expectation that, like my last trip to Australia, (studying at the University of Wollongong for one semester in 2005,) I would meet some nice people but not make any real, lasting friendships. This, I mused, would make it all the more likely that I'd enjoy the Aussie experience before being on my merry way home again. Well. Lo and behold I couldn't have been more wrong! No offense to Wollongong, but the friendships I have made while at Sydney Uni have far exceeded anything I ever imagined or could have hoped for.

I feel as though I am not just a visitor anymore but that I belong in this big beautiful city. It's like even thought I'm foreign, I still fit in with the glamorous sydneysiders to whom spectacular sunsets and whale and dolphin sightings are an every-day, no big deal occurrence. Of course I still incessantly take pictures like a tourist but my friends just grin and pretend to object (but deep down I know they like the pics!) For me, getting to know this city as a local has been a much more satisfying and deep experience than the weekends where I'd take the train in from the Gong (usually alone) to explore. This past weekend was no exception. Two of my besties from work and I went to Darling Harbour at dusk for a night out on the town. It's quite a glamorous area and I can see why! Everything was just that little bit more posh and polished than what I'm used to in grunge-chic Newtown. Highlights included enjoying a pre-dinner glass of vino at sundown, our table overlooking the spectacular view of the harbour.

Eating the MOST amazing half rack of pork ribs I've ever had. Hurricanes Restaurant is famous for their ribs and even fix you up with a full torso bib! The meat simply fell off the bone it was so tender and the sauce was finger- and plate- licking delicious!!!

Luckily the bib protected my (new- on sale!) dress and I was good to go out for a dance at Bungalow 8 to work off all those ribs.

One of the girls introduced me to my new favourite drink- Vanilla vodka and orange juice. Yum! It's like dessert in a glass!

Pinch Me!

2009-09-15T08:26:00.017-04:00

In light of my latest hospital visit (last night, 7 hours, don't ask) I feel the need to report on something fun. I may be allergic to law school at this point (seriously, if RPA Hospital gave out frequent-flyer miles I'd be able to get a free boob job or something by now) but I am certainly not complaining about my amazing boyfriend! He was home from Darwin for the weekend and we filled every bright sunny moment of it with bright sunny memories :)

First, I picked him up from the airport. (Please excuse my appearance- Nick took the red-eye so it was 7:30 in the morning.)

Did you know that in the domestic terminal a non-passenger can still go right up to the gate?! Of course I got "randomly selected" at security for a bomb search n' swab, but I passed with flying colours! (no pun intended.) After Nick greeted me by sweeping me off my feet Hollywood style, he gave me a present from Darwin-a gorgeous piece of aboriginal art. It's a crocodile and some lilies and I love it!

Next we left Sydney for the trip down the coast to Nick's house. Ahhh fresh air at last! We rounded up the doggies and took them for a run on the beach before heading out for a scrumptious lunch.

Since the restaurant was out of the item I'd ordered, the chef concocted a special dish- raspberry and custard french toast with marscarpone cheese- just for me! It was utterly delicious.

I was impressed with the coffees we'd ordered too. Nick's Cappuccino was a decent size (as opposed to the thimble sized coffees that usually get served at breakfast places here) and my latte was positively tall! Nice latte art too.

Being the great guy that he is, Nick didn't complain once while I browsed around a couple of cute boutiques. I love going to the shops in new places. Even though I rarely buy anything it's fun to see what's for sale and dream!

The next day we lunched with a couple of Nick's mates at this amazing restaurant overlooking the ocean. The main seating area is outside in this lush green garden and the tables look out right to the cascading cliffs and crashing ocean waves. What a stunning sight!

That evening we drove back to Sydney for a party with students from my law faculty. We ate dinner at Prague- a Czech restaurant in Kings Cross. The food was tasty but very... dense, as I suppose is to be expected. I quite enjoyed my dish- a combination of meat, a sweat creamy sauce, sour dough bread, cranberry sauce and whipped creme, but having tried it once, I probably wouldn't need to order it again. We met up with my classmates at Hugo's Bar in the cross and danced the night away!!!

The next day we went back down the coast to watch Nick's mom and sister play in their Grand Final Netball Match. I'd seen snippets of netball on TV but never watched a whole game before. All the matches on TV are in an indoor arena so you can imagine my surprise when we pulled up to a mass of outdoor courts! The sun was beating down on us, it was about 30 degrees and I'd not come prepared to sit in the sun! Thankfully I managed to locate some sunscreen (well Nick fetched some for me) so after that I was fine. The game was super exciting! Our team lost but it was a pretty close game until the very end.

On Nick's last morning we (Nick, his mom and sister, and I) hiked up the mountain next to the beach near the house. Again it was a hot sunny day (winter? What winter?) perfect for a hike in the woods.

We brought 3 of the doggies who were bursting with excitement in the car ride to the entrance of the trail.

At the top we enjoyed the magnificent view- including a pod of dolphins gracefully gliding in and out of the water in the distance.

On our way down Nick spotted this huge Goanna Lizard in a tree!

After having worked up a sweat and an appetite, a dip in the pool and a classic Aussie barbie for lunch hit the spot!

Ahhh... perfect company, weather, activities, food... What more could a girl ask for?? It was sad to say goodbye at the airport and although I miss him right now, it's only 6 short weeks until Nick is back again. I am already looking forward it :)

Best Jogging Bail Ever

2009-09-08T04:48:00.004-04:00

I had a one month streak of staying out of hospital going but alas, all good things come to an end. This time I managed to inflict more injury upon myself whilst jogging! Jogging!!! I guess I didn't actually have to go to the hospital but still. Another incident.

There I was, jogging along, in the zone, and not even listening to music OR wearing sunnies (sunglasses) yet I still didn't see the speed bump in the path. Maybe this was because it was a BLACK speed bump on a BLACK running path. Not one sign or yellow stripe to speak of! When I fell it was like someone had tackled me around the ankles- all at once I dove into the pavement and skidded to a stop in the spread eagle position- face included. How embarrassing! A woman jogging with her dog ran over to me and asked if I was ok which was nice. I said yes but I was definitely choking back tears. I was in so much pain! Peeling myself off the ground (slowly) I assured her that my ego was probably more hurt than my knees (and hands, and face), which was true, but I still hurt all over. Upon inspection I noticed both hands were a mess, bruised, scraped and stabbed (since I was carrying keys). I somehow scraped the top of my right shoulder and the bottom of my chin. Both knees are really cut and bruised but the left one is worse. I could barely drag myself home. Feeling better today but still can't put any pressure on the left knee. Hopefully there is no permanent damage!

I think I'll be sticking to the treadmill from now on...

Me New Spectacles!

2009-09-03T08:39:00.003-04:00

Ok so not the greatest picture ever but you get the idea... I took this before having the glasses re-fitted so they were slipping down my nose a bit too but in any case here we are, the new and (hopefully) improved geek-look! My previous pair, a much-loved Oliver Peoples design circa 2002 had long seen their day come and go and it was high time for a new pair. The store didn't have a lot of choice (kind of a running theme in this country I've noticed) but I managed to find this pair of Ralph Lauren glasses that I'm very happy with. In fact I've been wearing them out of the house quite often! Unlike the old pair, these glasses have the right prescription which, lo and behold- makes a colossal difference. Talk about seeing through a whole new pair of glasses!

Blue Mountains Mini-break part 2

2009-08-27T08:48:00.006-04:00

In a valley, what goes down, must come up and our mode of choice was this cable car. Crammed in like sardines we listened to our overly enthusiastic tour guide.

His pommy-turned- strained Aussie accent was almost as bad as his ranger hat and boots- so did not work next to his sallow, pasty skin. His banter was not remotely witty and seemed to be appreciated only by the non-English speakers on the ride...

Fortunately the magnificant views were enough of a distraction so keep me happy for most of the five minute ride to the top.

After such a big day in the mountains it was wonderful to retire to Lu's Nana's house... a cozy cottage-like home with plenty of blankets and a cute little pup to cuddle! The air was so fresh, I couldn't breathe deeply enough to satisfy my lungs' thirst for it. Upon our arrival we were greeted warmly and ushered into the dining room for dinner- a yummy homemade chicken casserole. Living the student life sure makes me appreciate a home-cooked meal! We had tea and homemade ginger biscuits for dessert and then cozied up in the barcaloungers to watch a bit of tv before bed.

The next day we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before setting out for the Jenolan Caves. The trip was especially meaningful because my friend's parents had first met there when her dad was working as a tour guide and her mom was a visitor (from Canada!)...awwwww!

The caves were magnificent!!

This park seem to also have their own fashion-challenged members of the ranger-team. I thought the thongs were quite ambitious given the temperature was only about 14 degrees. Also, who wears short shorts? This guy!!

Lastly we took a lovely walk around a place known as the "Blue Lake" due to the limestone deposits in the water. No trick photography- the water is really that colour. Stunning!

All in all a spectacular trip. Thanks Lu!!!

My Blue Mountains Mini-break Part 1

2009-08-21T21:27:00.014-04:00

A few weeks ago before departing for her big adventure in the states ("overseas" as they call it here... overseas being short for "anywhere other than Australia") my friend invited me to spend the weekend with her and her Nana in a beautiful area west of Sydney where the famous Blue Mountains are located. We stayed in her Nana's lovely home in the city of Bathurst for two nights. The crisp fresh winter air was just what my lungs had ordered! I was thrilled to be able to escape the city for the first time since last March and I thoroughly enjoyed every last moment of the trip.

Upon leaving the Sydney traffic in our dust, we set out on the open road for Katoomba, eagerly anticipating a visit to the Three Sisters, a famous rock formation at a place called Echo Point. The Aboriginal dream-time legend of the Three Sisters is rather interesting. According to the legend there were three sisters who had fallen in love with three brothers from a different tribe but under tribal law they were forbidden to marry. Upset, the brothers conspired to capture the sisters from their tribe. This gave rise to a major tribal battle and placed the girls in grave danger. A witchdoctor from the sisters' tribe sought to protect the sisters by turning them into stone, with a view to reversing the spell upon the conclusion of the battle. Unfortunately the doctor was killed in the battle and as the only one capable of undoing the spell, the girls were fated to remain in their magnificent rock formation forever!

Not only did we see the Three Sisters, but we also hiked in and around the beautiful subtropical rain forest in the area. Among other things, it is particularly famous for being the location of discovery of the thought-to-be-extinct Wollemi Pine tree. As one of the oldest and rarest species its 200 million year old plant family dates back to the beginning of the Jurassic period aka the age of the dinosaurs! The tree's discovery by a bushwalker in 1994 was of international significance and has been called the botanical find of the century. Its unique and unusual history is the reason for the fuss and for the fact that, unless you are one of a select group of scientists, do not expect to get to see one of these 1000 yr old trees in the wild: their location is as closely guarded a secret as the Coca Cola recipe!!

This one here, the largest in the wild and known as "Bill," has roots that are thought to date back to the Roman Empire. Now that is one old tree!

We also learned about coal mining in the area and even took a ride on a coal-train- turned- tourist -train down the side of a cliff. We elected for the front row seat with looks great in the movies but is actually pretty scary!

Luckily we managed to regain our composure for a happy snap at the end....

There's lots more to say so stay tuned for my next post where I will share the details of the rest of the trip!

One of those days...

2009-08-16T09:28:00.005-04:00

You know when you have just had one of those days? Well multiply that by a week and you have how I feel. Somehow I feel this picture of Bailey encapsulates my sentiments exactly. Between work, school, volunteering, social engagements and housework/ cooking/ shopping - trying to keep all the balls in the air is so overwhelming sometimes I feel like curling up into a ball and staying in bed! But the show must go on. At least we've been blessed with some gorgeous weather over the last few days. I took full advantage of the sun's fabric-drying ability and laundered ALL of my bedding. "So what" you say? Well just to re-cap, Australians have little need of a dryer most of the year which for most, including my housemates, translates into not owning one at all. This makes drying sheets in the winter time an aggravating week-long process which is tricky if you only own one set of sheets. Not to even mention duvet covers or doona covers, as the Aussies call them.... Yay for the sweet smell of fresh breeze wafting that is now throughout my room (a nice break from stuffy, musty dampness). Almost makes me forget about all the reading I need to catch up on. Almost, but not quite.

.... Has it really come to this- where clean laundry is the highlight of my week?

A Royally Great Weekend :)

2009-08-06T03:42:00.009-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I was treated to simply the most daahhling weekend. One of the best I've had in what seems like forever! The sun was shining, I didn't have work or uni and best of all I had amazing company (wink!) Nick and I went to this beautiful tapas restaurant in Kings Cross, an area of Sydney known for its "ladies of the evening" as well as the vast array of restaurants and nightlife. We ordered a selection of yummy tapas... a spicy egg and chorizo dish, a tangy anchovy and crusty bread number (I was an anchovy-virgin but I actually liked it!), a delectable lamb skewer and some yummy prawns. Of course it wasn't all meat... we had some veggies too (which I haven't managed to imitate just yet but I'll keep trying; who knew broccoli could taste so good?) In fact the whole meal was delicious and I loved how each time we'd finish the waiter would materialize with the next divine morsel. I also liked how each dish was just the right size to get a satisfactory taste of each thing while leaving room for the next plate!

The next day Nick and I took full advantage of the first glorious sunny day in two weeks and hiked around Royal National Park. Just half an hour south of Sydney, it's the world's second oldest national park, next to Yellowstone in the USA and was established in 1879.

The foliage was beautiful, even in the "winter" but true to Aussie- form, a bit dangerous! I was reminded of this as I attempted to employ a branch to regain my balance after sidestepping a muddy puddle and was given a painful stab in the fingers; the soft looking leaves were anything but! I'm sure those sharp prickles served an ancient evolutionary purpose but at the time it was a reminder of the fact that everything still in existence in Australia has had to overcome a such a harsh climate and myriad of predators that it's either poisonous, sharp, or hungry (or all three).

At one stage we decided to pause and look out into the ocean. To our delight and my utter and complete surprise we saw whales!! There was a pod not too far away breaching and swimming around and we got to watch the whole thing. It was soooo cool. I loved when they blew the water out of their blowholes- the noise was so loud!

It was heaps funny trying to get just the right happy snap. How did we do?

We bumped into a man who was out for his post-hip replacement hike. I tell ya- Aussies have the best attitude to life... "she'll be right" they say and off they go.

One of my favourite parts of the hike was crossing this beautiful little creek.

... and then walking along the rocks at the ocean's edge to go back to our starting point. The fossils and rock erosion are so interesting to look at. At the end we mountaineered up the rock face (with the help of a strap attached to the rock)...

and next, headed to a tiny nearby town for a bite to eat.

The sun was setting as we devoured our fish n chips from a cardboard box sitting on a wharf, watching boats sail past.

Ahhhh..... blissful peace.

I baked!

2009-08-05T10:30:00.002-04:00

I Have no idea how I found time to do this but I actually baked something! It was great to once again get to use my wonderful birthday presents given to me by my wonderful new friends here in Sydney.

As usual the trusty Martha didn't let me down! I baked this yummy orange tart from a recipe from marthastewart.com.

I cheated a bit and used store-bought puff pastry but that's only because I don't have the right tools to make pastry from scratch.

Laurf!

2009-07-10T08:42:00.004-04:00

Funny story to share: I was at work, dutifully manning my post behind the desk when a woman came in, three children in tow. She proceeded to ask my colleague some questions regarding swimming lessons. Unfortunately one of her three children was not happy to sit tight for a few moments and insisted on wandering off. Throughout her enquiry she would have to interrupt to beckon the straying child back from the automatic gates he found so amusing. With a very stern "Sam! Saaa-am come here this instant!" the nagging stern-ness of which every mum is an expert proved only momentarily successful. In the same reproachful tone the mum called out to her son just as the next person, a handsome twenty-something walked in. Approaching the desk he stopped, wide-eyed and dead in his tracks. The look of shock and bewilderment on his face sent all of us into fits of giggles as he informed us that his name was Sam! (Obviously wondering what on earth he'd done wrong and how this mum knew his name, he quickly realized the blonde little boy next to him was the reason for the confusion.) The poor mum turned bright red and we all had a good chuckle about the funny coincidence. It's moments like that when the tedium of the hourly-wage day-job sometimes feels worth it.

Rain Rain GO AWAY!

2009-06-29T08:04:00.007-04:00

Can I just say that the weather network SUCKS the big one for forecasting rain in Sydney? I arrived at work enjoying a bright sunny day, only to venture back outside four hours later to collect my bike and cycle home at the start of yet another unexpected and unforecast torrential downpour. When I say torrential I mean like dry to drowned rat in 3.5 seconds, ankle deep in water, and, if lucky enough to be inside, the roof sounds like it's going to cave in. One block into my ride I was well on my way to being drenched and, having just recovered from a string of illnesses and injuries, I didn't want to risk something else going awry. I jumped onto an approaching bus and then scrambled into the train station. For the record being relatively wet, cold and carrying a bike in Central Station during a downpour is not a fun situation. Of course my train had just left (of course it had) and so I waited for 30 minutes (don't even get me started on the train schedule) while the throngs of people gathered on the platform. I managed to squeeze onto the train and tried to avoid making eye contact with the people glaring at me. Come on people, give me a break! The train has three floors and if people who were mobile actually sat/ stood somewhere other than right by the doors I'm pretty sure we could all fit just

fine.

I guess I should be used to this by now (or at least have learned to carry an umbrella no matter what.) Last weekend's downpour left my friend and me sopping wet from from waist to toe, our heads mercifully protected by Sarah's industrial strength umbrella and my flimsy reject store buy. We ended up having to buy dry socks and make the best of the hand dryers to dry our boots so as to not spend 2 hours sitting in a movie theatre soaking wet. Luckily the hand dryer idea worked out and we were okay. I am just so over all of this rain!

When I was in Australia in 2005 it rained twice in six months. Twice. TWICE!!! I'm not exaggerating. I know drought is bad and there were water restrictions everywhere but I am just not used to all this rain. I'd take a nice minus 5 snowfall over this any day. Maybe not minus 25, though...

Sigh... Why is the grass always greener on the other side of the fence?

RIP Michael Jackson and Law (In)Formal: Black n White Theme

2009-06-27T04:57:00.011-04:00

It's happened to all of us: Hearing news so time-stopping and jaw-dropping we will remember forever where we were and what we were doing when we first heard it. Yesterday my number grew from 2 to 3. First the death of Princess Diana- whilst in my bunk bed at band camp, I was awakened at 4am by the noise of my counsellor coming into the cabin, having been out all night. Seeing that I was awake, she whispered the news to me. Then 9:11 - walking into the dining hall in residence my first year at uni, noticing that the usually noisy room was silent; everyone gathered around the big screen TV, eyes glued to the screen's images of the collapsing tower and frantic New York City emergency workers. The whole room was full of first years who were silently chewing their breakfast whilst hanging off every word the anguished reporter spoke.

And now this: the untimely death of Michael Jackson. Despite his legal and personal troubles his legions of fans will always remember his amazing, unparalleled talent for singing, dancing, and song writing and his legacy for changing corporate music attitudes towards black recording artists - he was the first black artist to be played on MTV. I was introduced to his music in Grade 5 (1992) by my music teacher. I remember her enthusiastically teaching us the words to a few of his songs and showing us the Black Or White music video. Been a fan ever since! Also my sister Jane has this HIDEOUS Michael Jackson mask that's been a trademark of hers for forever... it's a standing joke in our family that she'll turn around and be wearing it at any given moment. No matter how many times she does this I always jump at the sight of it.... it's seriously freaky!! It's weird how for the past two weeks I've been going around wearing my "MJ Glove," that is, the white cotton glove the burn unit nurses gave me to wear over my hand. It probably wasn't 100% necessary as my hand is healing well but I just couldn't resist wearing it one last time at the Law Formal last night as a tribute to the late, great, King of Pop.

What a fun night! The formal was black or white themed (creepily appropriate all things considered!) and I got to wear the most gorgeous black dress from Country Road (a chi chi Aussie brand).

My friends Nissa and Bec came over for a glass of wine before we took the train to the Ivy.

We took some glamour shots (I, personally, haven't been this pulled together in quite some time!)

and we danced the night away!

Update on the burn

2009-06-25T01:42:00.002-04:00

Hand Update: My hand is doing well. The bandages are off and the scarring doesn't look too bad! I'm being very diligent with my vitamin A oil and antibiotic cream application. The good news: hopefully I won't be permanently horribly disfigured. The weird news: I finally know exactly what causes the old lady smell/ retirement home smell. The bad news: I now smell like said old lady. Oh well at least I am on the mend!

Nothing like some retail therapy to feel better. With some birthday money I saved I bought the most cozy pjs ever!

I have the top too but can't find a picture!

Well better get back to the books!

My burning desire that didn't turn out as planned...

2009-06-17T09:02:00.010-04:00

Hey y'all.... sooo it's been a while and let me tell you why:

Top 5 reasons for my hiatus:

5: I came down with a nasty lung infection. Trust me- you do NOT want to be the person who sounds like they're hacking up a lung on the bus during a swine flu outbreak. And you thought you knew what being glared at felt like after cutting in line at Wonderland. Well let me tell you something, even the ferrel looking homeless people with varying degrees of festering sores and livestock in their hair were shooting me get-off-the-bus death stares. The anxiety about coughing on the bus actually made the coughing worse to the point where I started avoiding the bus altogether. I even switched temporarily to the more expensive, yet within walking-with-groceries distance grocery store just so I wouldn't have to endure another episode of humiliation. Sigh. Even my classmates and teacher stayed just a bit farther away from me than they did each other... luckily it wasn't too serious and I got better just in time to...

4. Catch the sniffles that my housemates lovingly brought home... Yes the old immune system wasn't at its finest and just as the coughing/ fever/ nausea subsided on came the runny nose and sneezing!!! Luckily I didn't feel like I'd been run over by a mack truck like I did before so I was able to study for my exams. Which brings me to number...

3! EXAMS. First round of first year law exams and they don't call it the weeding out year for nothing. Yikes! The competition is INTENSE and I literally camped out in the library for three weeks to prepare for the two exams I had to do (they gave me an extension for the third due to the material I missed from being sick (see #5)

2. Other than the above mentioned items the intense amount of rain (aka daily monsoon type downpours) has made it pretty impossible to do anything remotely worthy of mentioning, oh other than a pretty cool garage sale I stumbled upon one Saturday a while back. I was thrilled to find the two things on my mental list of things to find...namely a birthday present for my house mate Anna and something in which to make coffee (at $4 a pop at a cafe I figured I'd recover my expenses in no time.) Anyhoo, I was delighted to find both items at this little sale, nay they were practically the only items AT the sale. The present was just perfect. Anna was very excited to be taking her first overseas trip to New York City where she and a girlfriend were celebrating their 30th birthdays but she didn't have a stitch of luggage to speak of! Imagine my excitement to discover the perfect black luggage set, reasonably priced ($15 for 2) and in excellent condition! The set comprised a larger size case with an expandable zip-out part and a smaller one that I think would just about make carry-on. Both had wheels and handles and I will never forget the look on Anna's face when I presented them to her. She was so shocked but very thankful. I hope they are working out for her as she is still living it up in NYC as we speak!

And now for numero uno: Next we (the 'Royal "We"') purchased an Italian espresso maker, a type of which I had never seen before. It looked very elegant in its stainless steel and black finish and even had a milk frother to boot! I had been using said espresso machine without incident for about three weeks when the unexpected occurred. Just after finishing making my coffee I added a bit more water to the leftover already boiled water in the receptacle, to make steam for the milk. After completing the procedure and just as I was about to sit down to an impressive vanilla latte I heard a whistling sound, presumably from steam escaping from the seams of where the water receptacle joins the base of the machine. I thought I would just remove the lid to release the pressure and stop the annoying whistling. As I was unscrewing the lid I heard an ear-splitting bang and was stunned to realize the lid had exploded off the top of the machine (landing in the laundry room next to the kitchen,) along with all the boiling water and steam from inside of the machine. My whole right hand and wrist felt like it was on fire and I immediately ran over to the sink. The 15 minutes under the tap helped a bit but I was still in excruciating agony. To my horror I realized I was pretty seriously burned and should probably get myself to emergency. A quick call to the parentals confirmed the reason for the explosion (something about purified water and superheating...) and the decision to go to the hospital. Needless to say I had to ask for ANOTHER extension, this time for my exam that was meant to be today (the accident happened yesterday). On the bright side after the treatment at the burn clinic today they wrapped up my hand/wrist and then gave me a little white cotton glove to wear overtop. Next time I am walking with my black umbrella (which will be tomorrow as rain is forecast for the next century) I may have to break into a moonwalk (dance, a la Michael Jackson, in case you didn't catch the reference).

Failing that...

I was thinking, maybe I'll go find a ladder to walk under whilst spilling salt and watching a black cat cross my path... perhaps then this bad luck will move on. Until then I am still studying, well into the Summer Break* whilst my classmates are on the 48 hour countdown to Summer* as we speak.

*I know I know, technically it is "Winter" however it's still too warm to wear a toque, or even a jacket, other than that of the rain variety, and in light of that AND the absence of Christmas and New Year's I just can't make myself call July's school hiatus, "Winter Break." Sue me ;p

Blog

2009-06-01T09:51:00.004-04:00

Sorry Loyal Readers. I've fallen off the blog-wagon! I've been up to my eyeballs in readings/ note-takings for my exams which are in two weeks and there is no end to the study in sight. The only thing keeping me going at such an intense pace is the occasional day dream about how amazing it will feel to complete my first semester of law school and to plan my month of fancy-free exploration of this amazing city in which I've been the ultimate hermit. It's shameful how little advantage I've taken of the amazing things to see and do that are right on my doorstep! Ok so I've had a glimpse of the Opera House here and the odd dinner in The Rocks there but mostly I've stayed within a two kilometer radius of my house since I began school in February. Top of the list to see? BONDI!! Obviously swimming won't be on the agenda until it warms up (Septemberish I've been told) but I'm still keen to go down on a sunny day with a picnic and a new magazine and people/ surfer watch at the famous beach! I'm also excited to use my student card to get free or almost free entry into the bevy of museums and galleries around Sydney. There are so many of them - should keep me out of trouble for a month until semester two starts in August!

Cupcake Shapes!

2009-05-23T03:42:00.003-04:00

To celebrate the conclusion of this semester's classes I put a few of my birthday pressies to good use and baked some miniature cupcakes for my class. As I had to fit them on to a baking tray they baked in the shape they were squished into on the tray:

Not picture perfect but I love the asymmetrical results. I call them cupcake shapes. Cupcakes are all the rage right now, even the Martha litmus test proves it- all week she has been featuring new cupcake flavours on her show in anticipation of her new line of product- Martha's Cupcakes. (Yes, I keep abreast of Marthaworld via her website). They all look soooo yummy but one really needs an electric mixer to make most of the recipes which my somewhat make-shift kitchen doesn't have (yet, maybe I will acquire one if the garage sale gods smile on me any time soon.) Anyway I managed to improvise and whipped up this batch of banana cupcakes from a random online recipe. They were ok, but mostly served as a pretty good vehicle for the yummy sour cream icing I made as a topping. I have to say, they were a hit! My classmates finished off every last one and I think I may have scored some much needed class participation marks from my civil procedure professor!

Kittens!

2009-05-21T03:41:00.007-04:00

Congrats to one of my besties Anne at The City Sage and her hubby on the arrival of their two adorable kittens, Sophie and James Bond!!

I'm sure the two adorable kitties are keeping them busy but just in case they wanted a new game to play, I thought I'd offer this suggestionclick here

Maroubra Beach

2009-05-18T09:57:00.003-04:00

One of my favourite things about Sydney is the bounty of gorgeous beaches within a half hour drive of, well, anywhere. Yes everyone knows about Bondi but there are so many more gorgeous beaches that are just around the corner! This Sunday I was lucky enough to get an up-close view of Maroubra Beach, a beautiful, vast expanse of rocks, sand and ocean. Although it was a bit chilly to go for a dip, there were still plenty of diehard surfers willing to brave the chilly ocean. My new friend Georgia and I lunched at Pool Cafe, before stopping for a happy-snap by the beach. I thoroughly enjoyed my buttermilk pancakes with fruit compote,

but next time I will have to try the mushroom and Turkish toast combo that Georgia ordered- it looked divine!

Thanks for a great day Georgia!

Happy Birthday to ME!

2009-05-12T01:47:00.006-04:00

I have to say I think I may have outdone myself for my birthday celebration this past Saturday night. I wanted a fun Aussie BBQ with a cool relaxed, loungy vibe for people to mix, mingle, dance and eat. I have to say the whole night was a smashing success! I couldn't have pulled it off without the help of my new friends: Nissa, who woke me up at 8am Saturday morning for a trip to the local market, and the mall for supplies, Lucinda (pictured above) and her bf Daniel for doing the music and clean-up, and my housemates Ramona, Dominic, and Anna for helping with the lighting and clean-up.

To get the mood right I bought some cellophane and we covered the potlights in the ceiling to get a blue and red light-effect- it was so cool! Nissa and I also decorated the party room with balloons and streamers for a really fun, festive vibe. We even put balloons at the door to help guests find the house- so 1985!! I wore a vintage strapless pink dress with a big bow in the front- very "birthday girl" I thought!

For dinner, guests started out on ore douvres - tortilla chips (NOT easy to find here), salsa, homemade guacamole, crusty baguette with dip, and a cheese platter. For dinner we had homemade gourmet burgers, shrimp and scallop skewers (fresh from the Sydney Fish Market), market-fresh sweet corn, homemade potato salad and a garden salad. My friend Kathy also brought some delicious vegan dishes to round out the spread. For dessert Nissa made some divine brownies from one of my favourite Martha recipes, and a vegan chocolate cake. The boys even pitched in- making themselves very useful at the barbecue!

Lucinda and another new friend, Chad were amazing DJs- mixing a blend of Australian dance music, with some French techno, and mellow beats. I couldn't believe it but we even had a bit of a dance floor going! Overall about 35 people attended the party and I had a GREAT time. We concluded the evening with popping party poppers and present opening, all in all a great night!

Three Random Pictures

2009-05-05T10:35:00.004-04:00

Howdy... we'll I'm officially overwhelmed. It's work work work and I'm meant to be planning my birthday party this weekend. It's nothing too over the top- just a barbeque- but still, I like things to be just so and I get anxious about the prospect of doing a half-hearted job. Hopefully I will still be able to pull off a reasonably decent evening for my friends. I have lots to blog about but I'm too tired to do it properly at the moment so I leave you with three random pictures I selected from my iphoto library...

Bailey and me in my friend Kristen's old apartment. It was the cutest little place above a bakery in Rosedale.

A beach in Wineglass Bay, Tasmania. I took this while traveling there in 2005.

My dad behind the wheel of our rental car in Cuba two Christmases ago. Has it been that long since that wonderful trip already?

My Massive Weekend

2009-04-28T20:06:00.007-04:00

G'day to all my loyal readers. Apologies for being awol the past week or so. I've been very busy job hunting and trying to get "me head" around contracts. My how judges love to write in such a way that makes English sound like another language! To make up for my utterly lack-luster (ok "academically productive") weekend last week, this past weekend was filled with fun! First up was a reunion with a mate from Oakville, Missy, whom I know through a couple mutual friends and from taking her amazing fitness classes at Goodlife in Oakville. (Oh how I miss my spa-like women's gym in Oakville!!) She was in Sydney for the weekend and of course we just had to say hello! We went to a German Pub in The Rocks (the oldest part of Sydney where many original, convict-built buildings are still in use) for a 'bier', followed by a stop at a gourmet chocolate shop where I treated myself to one luscious chocolate truffle.

Next we wandered down to the harbour to take in the magnificent Opera House and Harbour Bridge. (Did you know the Aussie government originally set up the Australian Lottery to raise funds to build the bridge?). It was great to see her but sad to say goodbye after such a quick visit.

Next up was dinner with my new friend Jane. Jane was one of the first people I met in Sydney and we hit it off right away! She has amazing taste in art, decor and clothing (as evidenced here in these paintings and her clothes which I am wearing). Her jazz musician bf came over and we all sat down to a divine Thai curry Jane whipped up while I was playing dress-up in her closet.

My new uni friends gathered at our mate Angus' new house in Paddington for his house warming party. The house is gorgeous. Think stone floors, high ceilings with ornate crown molding, arched doorways, beautiful furniture and artwork shipped over from Zimbabwe and even a famous guy next door!

You never know what you're going to see when out and about in Sydney. Saturday was no exception as my route took me via Circular Quay where this contortionist was demonstrating how she could put her legs behind her head and rotate herself around in circles on a disk. I moved on just as she was about to squeeze herself into a small box atop a ladder. I'm a bit leery of stunt shows after watching the youtube video of the escape artist who almost drowned whilst performing a stunt at a basketball game half-time show.

That night was my friend Bonnie's 21st birthday party. In Australia 21sts are a really big deal and people go all out for the celebration. We listened to speeches and watched a slide show while devouring the huge spread of lasagnas, schnitzel, garlic bread and brownies. Yum! There was music and dancing and even an impromptu sing-along! I loved the Polaroid camera. The images made me think of a classic 1970s scrapbook.

Finally my weekend ended with La Galette! A gathering of friends at my mate Christophe's flat to eat galette, which apparently is a french pastry dish. Hidden inside is a little token and whoever gets that in their slice is the "king" and gets to wear a crown. Not to be one to show up empty handed, I baked a lemon cake using my new-to-me silicon cake dish bought at a garage sale a while ago. Works really well!

Just Ordered: Dog Bark Kit.

2009-04-16T01:41:00.006-04:00

The dog drama. It's been 2 months since I first moved here and while I LOVE my house I am not loving the dogs across the ally. Rather, I'm irritated at their owners' flagrant disregard for neighbourhood peace and quiet. Every time they leave the house these owners leave their 2, very easily excited dogs, outside in the backyard. Each time someone walks by the dogs bark and yap and cause an unholy racket, sometimes for hours on end. This of course, is occurring at all hours of the day. I've even been woken up at 6am on a Saturday morning for Christ sake! After two solid hours of barking yesterday afternoon while I was trying to work, I'd finally had enough. I went round to the house to find that I couldn't even knock on the door due to a large gate with a deadbolt preventing access to the front yard area. (Probably to keep people like me out.) Incidentally another neighbour, also at his wit's end was investigating the noise and recommended we call the council to lodge a complaint. I followed through this morning and I am eagerly awaiting my "dog bark kit." Also, they promised to send these people some "tips on keeping dogs quiet." I wait with baited breath to see the results. Stay tuned!

HAPPY EASTER!

2009-04-11T00:29:00.006-04:00

Well it's a little sad that I'm away from my family during Easter but I'm consoling myself by eating all the chocolate that's being distributed here in Australia. I'm shocked at how big a deal Easter is here. I feel like at home Easter is kind of a blip on the radar for kids and the people who design store displays. Here it's a full on cultural holiday with bakeries inviting customers to "beat the rush" and "order your Easter hot crossed buns today!" We get a whole week off uni (news to me as of 5pm last Wednesday when it came to my attention that we didn't have class next week.) Everyone from my Contract Law professor to my pilates instructor has been handing out chocolate and there are celebrations aplenty- fairs, picnics, and boozy nights out on the town (not me of course, I'm too busy studying.) Yesterday (Friday) I was half thinking that I'd perhaps visit the fish market as I had the day off and it's something that has been highly recommended to me to explore. That idea was quickly given the kybosh when I heard on the news that Good Friday is the Sydney Fish Market's busiest day of the year, with over 50 000 visitors expected. Of all the days to think to go it had to be Good Friday! lol. Sufficed to say that plan is taking a raincheck. I did make my weekly trip to the market this morning and came home with a suitcase (my new shopping strategy) full of fresh fruits and veggies and my very favourite yogurt. I combine this award winning yogurt with fresh passionfruit for the most divine snack in existence. Here, take a look.

Simply combine these ingredients and...

Voila! A healthy and scrumptious snack!

To all my friends and family at home, (and anybody else who reads this)- Happy Easter! I miss you!!!

Your Morning Smile

2009-04-04T19:10:00.004-04:00

My absolute favourite book about Australia- "In a Sunburned Country" by Bill Bryson, has a particularly amusing section about the unusual place names in Australia. On the topic, here is a favourite quote from the book; it puts a smile on my face every time I read it.

"In the late afternoon, I stopped at a roadhouse for gas and coffee. I studied my book of maps... Then, having nothing better to do, I leafed through the index and amused myself, in a very low-key way, by looking for ridiculous names, of which Australia has a respectable plentitude. I am thus able to report that the following are all real places: Wee Waa, Poowons, Borrumbuttock, Suggen Buggen, Boomahnoomoonah, Waaia, Mullumbimby, Ewylamartup, Jiggalong, and the supremely satisfying Tittybong."

I highly recommend this book to everyone, regardless of whether or not you plan to ever travel to Australia.

One warning: Read in public at your own risk; I've read it twice and both times had to eschew reading it in public as it unfailingly, and embarrassingly led to loud and uncontrollable fits of laughter and guffaws. But I digress.

Reading my copy of today's Sydney Morning Herald, I was similarly amused by the following anecdote from the Column 8 section, similar to The Globe and Mail's Facts and Arguments:

"More on compass points and peculiar place names, from Stuart Prosser, of Otford. "John Flower of Potts Point may be unsurprised to learn that a friend of mine from the north-east of West Sussex was mightily amused to learn that Woomera is situated in central north South Australia."

LOL!

The Great Unveiling

2009-04-02T10:28:00.006-04:00

The outside of my house... see the front window behind the tree on the right? That's my room!!

Voila!

After two months of varying degrees of rather make-shift arrangements, I think my room is almost fully furnished.

Check out my thrift store find: A Louis Vuitton waste paper basket!!

My new side table is working out well. At $5 at a garage sale, I thought it was a steal!

Closets galore! Storage space to hide almost everything. Also my fabulous desk. $20 second hand I might add. All I need now is a chair and I'll be set.

Here it is everyone...the moment you have all been waiting for. I finally took some pictures of my room! I love it. It's got a great window with a nice breeze, high ceilings, plenty of closet space and although it's on the first floor of our two story house, my room is not under any of the upstairs rooms so it's pretty insulated from noises within the house. Good thing too cause I get plenty of that from the neighbourhood dogs vociferously greeting each other every morning at 7am, 6am on weekends.

Graffiti- Eyesore or art?

2009-03-31T09:02:00.007-04:00

Today has been just one of those days... it poured with rain, and I mean POURED!!! On my walk home from school, had I not ducked into a grocery store, I would have been drenched faster than if I were in my shower with the water on full blast. The gutters on King Street were flooding, giving rise to enormous waves of spray from cars speeding past. Of course this just happens to be the day after I hang my (only set of) sheets out to dry... groan. Worse, the forecast is not exactly conducive to them drying anytime soon.

I suppose that it could have been worse; for most of my time outside today it was only lightly spitting. Not that anyone wielding their huge pointy umbrellas whilst wading through the throngs of students walking across the bridge at uni would know or care. Heaven forbid they get one droplet of rain on themselves for the sake of not poking out everyone else's eyeballs.

And another thing. What is up with people having out of control conniptions in public??? Once again I was forced to nervously skirt around a couple engaged in some kind of flagrant domestic dispute outside the bank this afternoon. The one with the leg amputation was maniacally waving her crutch around in an apparent effort to emphasize whatever point she was making to her equally irate partner. This is only the latest example in a series of volatile public displays near where I live. Needless to say, Newtown is quite a 'lively' neighbourhood. For my readers in Toronto, I feel like it's Queen West meets College and Spadina: cool, trendy restaurants and stores, mixed with thrift shops, dive bars and some very 'eclectic' folk. There's also plenty of garbage and graffiti, which, while I concede has merit as a subcultural method of political commentary and artistic impression (the graffiti, not the garbage), it still takes some getting used to. While I'm trying to be open-minded, I can't help but see it as a symbol of a lack of presence of law enforcement, which is not the most comforting thing for a newcomer. Here are some photos of the park I walk through twice daily. What do you think?

On my daily commute to school (on foot) I walk through this pretty park.

It's a beautiful park during the day, but as with most inner city parks, a bit on the dodgy side at night time.

The afternoon picnic is a regular weekend event for many groups of people in this park.

Hecs is the name of the Australian student loan scheme. I thought this was rather clever.

To Market, To Market!

2009-03-29T00:46:00.007-04:00

Sydney is known for its abundance of fabulous farmers markets, and the Eveleigh Market is no exception. My trip there this weekend was a completely and utterly fantastic study break! Sydneysiders love the fresh-from-the farm produce and gourmet delicacies available right from the artisans' kitchens. Although I stuck to my basic grocery list I did indulge in some liberal sampling! Delicious cheeses, fresh fish, refreshing, tangy juices, brilliantly coloured flowers and unusual Australian spices were just some of the sense-awakening offerings. I also found it was a great way to talk to some real local Aussies and peak into the vibrant farming culture. I also like that market shopping is a great way to support local farming practices, and the food is wonderfully delicious to boot! I am certain that it's not all in my head: the food actually tastes better. The fruit is sweeter and tangier, the veggies more flavourful, and the yogurt much more smooth and fresh-tasting than its mass-produced, grocery store counter-part. I've never tasted anything better! Topped with sliced fresh peaches and passion fruit- it's like a taste explosion in my mouth!

The array of fresh food was amazing! These lettuces (3 heads for $5- bargain!) were picked the previous evening. Sure beats veggies that have travelled on a truck and then sat in a warehouse for a few days.

mmmm cheese. It was so hard to resist this stand, but alas I satisfied myself with a morsel from the sample table.

Loaded up with fresh fruits and veggies for the week. The gorgeous weather made the half an hour walk with the heavy bags a little more pleasant.

A Few Garage Sale Finds :)

2009-03-25T22:58:00.003-04:00

Last Sunday was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and people were having garage sales!! Now on the whole I've managed to stay far far away from anywhere I might be tempted to spend money but I am in the market for a few essentials. I figured a garage sale might be a safe bet for scavenging a few necessities at a manageable pricepoint. Low and behold I found some great deals! Ordinarily I find yard sales to be hit and miss. Most of the time there's a reason why the hosts are getting rid of the stuff on sale; however, luckily the items at this particular sale were treasures! I wish I could have bought it all but alas I am on a tight budget.

I couldn't resist this nightstand, it's a really nice glass top with and interesting metal base. An welcome departure from the standard, boring ikea "wood" nightstand I would have thought I'd end up with. The lamp too was a great deal as it had been an unwanted gift and was brand new.

I know it seems strange that with all the reading I have for school I'd want another book but I sometimes find it difficult to "switch off" at the end of the day. I find reading a chapter of this book to be very soothing and soporific. I have to thank Anne over at the City Sage for her blogger book love series which mentioned this book. What a find!

So all in all a very productive trip to the garage sale, although I am still without a chair for my new desk. Hopefully my hosuemates don't mind my borrowing the dining table chair all the time!

The Uninvited Houseguest

2009-03-22T07:04:00.004-04:00

I always like to treat others as I'd like to be treated myself. Ergo, upon sighting a most unexpected visitor at 4am the other morning, I elected to trap and remove the creature rather than smack it with a very large object. Notwithstanding the fact that 4am corpse disposal was not be high on my list of welcome tasks, I still thought it was ultimately the most fair arrangement for both parties. Luckily since my assignment had trumped room cleaning I had a selection of potential receptacles handy in the debris on my desk. An empty coffee cup did the trick and after some time and slight misfortune (see below) I successfully corralled the spider into the cup and granted it rather unceremonious egress out of my still open, but soon to be shut window. As the temperature has now crept back up to mid to high 20s (even at night!) I am struggling to reconcile my fear that it, or another family member might again seek to enter my room with the stifling heat of an unventilated bedroom.

Result of tripping over a yet-to-be-assembled bed frame leaning up against the wall, and subsequently having it fall down onto my ankle during the trapping phase of the operation.

New Bed!

2009-03-17T10:36:00.002-04:00

Apologies for being incommunicado of late. All of a sudden law school has turned into a lot of work. Imagine that! Most recently, I was forced into sequestering myself in my room for 4 days to write two, 2500 word essays. They were meant to be a "take home exam" but would more accurately have been named "four days to work a miracle" because that's what the fact that I actually finished it was. We have now begun torts. I have a feeling there will be lots of bad jokes involving the word "tortuous" floating around. Stay tuned...

On a lighter and brighter note, here's a pic of my new bed! As some of you may know I endured quite the misadventure during my first attempt to secure appropriate sleeping facilities when I first moved into my house. I originally bought a second hand bed, a disastrous ordeal from start to finish. A good friend helped me pick it up from the seller's' apartment way out in Maroubra Beach (a suburb about 45 minutes away.) Well, unfortunately as we were trying to fit the bed frame into the hatchback it, being less than high-quality, Ikea particle board, snapped at the leg joint! Luckily, a friend's dad who is quite handy with tools, offered to repair it for me. Then, whilst attempting to sleep with the mattress on the floor, I was completely unable to sleep at all. I eventually gave up and slept on the couch. As that wasn't the sort of arrangement that would do permanently by any means, I decided enough was enough and purchased a new bed from the department store. It was bottom of the line, and on sale so didn't quite break the bank but I figured it was worth eating canned tuna for a few weeks. I have to say it's been absolutely divine compared to the horrendous experience of the first mattress. After some investigation, it turns out that the couple who sold the mattress to me lied about it's age and value. At least all's well that ends well. Lesson learned.

Just Bought: A (cheap!) subscription to The Sydney Morning Herald

2009-02-27T10:23:00.006-05:00

OK folks here it is, the revelation of a lifetime... I do not, I repeat, DO NOT have a television! For the first time EVER, I am not living in a place with a TV! A travesty I know, however there's not much I can do at the moment. Overall not having a television is a minor inconvenience; still, I am of the opinion that being up to date on current public events and news, especially in the economic, political and legal spheres is, in fact, essential to my understanding of and ability to contextualize the academic material we are covering in class. Thus I decided to take advantage of a very inexpensive offer on hand at The University of Sydney "O-Week" event. This three-day event is basically for first year and new students to learn about the different clubs, societies and athletic teams on campus. In addition to concerts and club/ society information booths the event includes a few select companies that cater to student needs and interests. The Sydney Morning Herald was one such company and they had masses of "lollies" (candy) on offer to tempt us over to their booth. Usually I'm pretty good at getting the candy while eschewing the sales pitch but this deal was too good to pass up. In light of my lack of a TV, or radio reception for that matter, I decided that this was the best chance I was going to get to have easy access to the latest news on a daily basis. (I know, there's always the Internet but it's not quite the same...)

On a side note, as I was showing off my first issue to my table of friends (and one guy from another class) at this Friday's Afternoon Happy Hour with the Profs event, the new guy indicated that he was actually IN the paper. Sure enough, there was an article in the arts section reviewing a recent poetry event in which he was a performer. As it turned out, I was quite surprised that he would direct us to this particular article as the content of which included his being described as " without a doubt the strangest person [the author] had ever met" and "...he's either the real article or Charles Manson..." This I thought, was an unusual approach to introducing oneself to a new group of people.

In any case I think he was pleased that someone other than himself had brought up the topic of the Sydney Morning Herald. What are the odds that on the first and only day that I even make mention of a newspaper, let alone have one on my person, I would be sitting next to someone actually written about in the paper?! Uncanny!

My last thought on this matter is, while I really enjoy reading newspaper articles, I often find that I gravitate more towards the "lighter" sections such as arts, travel or life; not especially useful to my (hopefully) expanding legal intellect. Ergo, I am inspired to make an especially concerted effort to read and at least try to understand the Financial and Legal sections of the paper so that I might not only be more aware of local and international news in these areas, but also to further develop my enjoyment of, interest in, and ability to comprehend the until now, intimidating and thus unexplored regions of the newspaper. Go me!

Merrily We Roll Along...

2009-02-22T00:32:00.008-05:00

I'm in awe of one of my new housemates... Anna is so organized and she always looks 100% put together, even at 8 in the morning! In the mornings I am often treated to sharing one of her scrumptious fresh, homemade "juices" concocted from a few fresh fruits and veggies. Put through a grinding machine, voila! we have fresh juice! It's noisy but the result is worth it... the yummy, and healthy juice gives me a much needed vitamin and energy boost for the long hours in class and studying at the library.

Our latest housemate bonding moment was a project- making homemade rice paper rolls of the variety one can order at a Vietnamese restaurant. It was super easy and the result was a bunch of healthy, tasty, easily transportable rolls which I gobbled up for lunch the next day. Here's the technique. Thanks Anna!

Thinly slice a variety of veggies. We used red cabbage, carrots, red pepper, onion, and avocado.

Chop some fresh mint

Quickly dip a piece of rice paper in water

place a few slices of each veggie in the center of the paper.

Roll, folding up the ends.

Serve with Sweet Chili sauce

Enjoy!

Ups and Downs of my First Week of Law School!

2009-02-20T19:52:00.002-05:00

Monday...

First day of school! I was a tad on the nervous side (my stomach was in knots the whole day!) but tried to put on a brave face. I arrived at the downtown Sydney Law Faculty (having walked passed the Opera House on the way!) a bit on the frazzled side, but nevertheless tried to glide into the room packed full of undergraduates exuding an air of effortless calm and sophistication... (after helping myself to the breakfast spread in the lobby of of course!) Oh ya, I wasn't late! (for those that know me well that's a pretty monumental achievement.) In fact I wasn't late for anything the whole week!

We were greeted with the usual welcome type messages and then after a short intermission, sent off to our first small group seminar. Yikes! This was the nerve wracking part as we were told right off the bat that participation will be graded. Sounds easy? Not so much- it has to be the right KIND of participation. An uninformed or worse, irrelevant comment is worse than saying nothing at all. A pretty tall order for a bunch of green newbies who don't even know what a ratio is yet! Anyhoo I survived the day, speaking once during the seminar, face bright red the whole time, and even met a couple of friends.

Tuesday...

Our first lecture on precedent. Pretty interesting and the best part? Typing the notes on my new Macbook laptop! I had no idea I could type as fast as someone talks and unlike the hand and wrist cramps writing furiously in lectures used to give me, I was able to type everything without so much as a finger twinge! We had a full day including two, two hour seminars in addition to the lecture. It is very very important to be prepared for the seminars. This requires hours and hours of reading and digesting the information enough to be able to participate meaningfully in the discussions.

Wednesday and Thursday

Another few seminars and a lecture on statutory interpretation. Even though it's only the first week I can already tell that law is a MUCH better fit for me than teaching ever was. Each case we look at is like a puzzle- even though there are tricky parts and some things take a bit longer to absorb than the latest chicklit novel, it's really interesting to work through the problems and satisfying to come up with the right answer. I am also really enjoying the company of my classmates. They are bright, funny and interesting and help me stay on track with the readings!

Friday....

A rather long day- again two, two hour seminars and then a two hour screening of a documentary film on the Mabo case, a landmark Australian Aboriginal land rights case. After such a long day, not to mention week, some of my classmates and I retired to a gorgeous downtown bar/ restaurant. Although we were the only students amidst the corporate crowd we still fit in pretty well as people here generally dress much more nicely and I've tried to follow suit (no pun intended...) We kicked back for a beverage and I shared a scrumptious made-to- order tomato and chorzio pizza. The prices were good too which was a delightful surprise in light of my experience with prices in Sydney thus far.

Overall a smashing first week!

Rainy Sunday Surprise!

2009-02-16T02:19:00.005-05:00

Attended: Sydney Opera House Concert to raise money for victims of the Victoria bushfires.

This past Sunday morning I woke up early to attend a 6am concert performed by 100 members of the Sydney Philharmonic Choir in support of the bushfire relief effort. I was more than happy to donate some money to the fundraiser and really enjoyed the concert as well.

The sight of the choir arranged on the steps of the opera house was mesmerizing, eclipsed only by the spectacular backdrop of the dawn sky behind the sails of the opera house roof, and the equally awe-inspiring grandeur of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The lone soloist standing atop the steps, tails of his contrasting white suit fluttering in the breeze stole the show with his haunting, perfectly-in-tune voice. An invisible cello soloist provided the only instrument to the otherwise acapella performance. I'm not sure why he was situated under the stairs, out of general sight, but he added a nice layer of depth to a fabulously cohesive performance. The musical selections were, for the most part, somber; however, the hour long set concluded with an up-beat melody- an appropriately symbolic choice; signifying hope and determination to move forward from unbelievable catastrophe.

To watch another short video clip of the concert click here.

An unexpected bonus to the already enjoyable concert was bumping into my friend Christophe. (What are the odds that in a city of 4 million, I would chance upon one of the 3 or 4 people I know in Sydney?!) He was on his way to breakfast after the concert with 3 of the choir members, (one of whom is a work colleague,) and they kindly invited me to join in! We made the short walk to the historical Rocks District of Sydney, just next to the ferry harbour, and I was treated to some tidbits of local knowledge along the way. Particularly, the implications of the unfortunate importation of the now very unwelcome Indian Minor bird and some interesting convict history. It amazes me that 1) so much of Sydney's vast harbourfront area was built by convict labour and 2) that the stonework and masonry is still in such good condition. I wish I'd remembered my camera to take a picture of (amongst other things,) the huge pulleys that still adorn the fronts of the former shipping warehouses. We ducked into a building with particularly nice stonework and settled into our table at the Rock Pancake House. Mindful of my pennies I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu which unbelievably was only $6.95- a short stack of buttermilk pancakes. The two sizable slabs came topped with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream and a dusting of icing sugar and were de-lish! My only complaint would be that the claim of "maple syrup" was resolutely false! The sickly table syrup almost got the better of me but, as I used it only sparingly, didn't take too much away from an otherwise yummy breakie! (that means breakfast in Aussie speak)

What an unexpectedly wonderful way to start a rainy day. I love the little things in life like that. Helps to keep a smile on my face during those inevitable difficult or stressful times that occur in the early stages of a big life change, (such as oh, pulling up anchor and moving across the planet.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-13T22:48:00.005-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. This year I bought myself a Valentine's Day present. A house to live in. Thus today is...Moving Day!

Never a dull moment around here and this week has been pretty par for the course. On Wednesday my friend Christophe very generously offered to assist me in retrieving a bed that I'd purchased second hand from some people out in Maroubra Beach (a quaint beach suburb about 40 minutes away by car, 1.5 hours by bus which I, unfortunately, found out the hard way.) Anywho, Christophe in his zippy new (to him) Hyundi hatchback whisked me off to the beach whereupon we picked up the used Ikea mattress and bed frame. Just as I was about to breath a huge sigh of relief that the whole thing fit in the back of the car we heard a tow-curling, cringe inducing, "CRRAACCKK"... almost too afraid to look, I surveyed the damage. BOTH legs of the headboard had just snapped off! So much for my $250 "investment" (I had thought I would be able to sell it when I leave and at least get my money back.) AHHHHH! Nevertheless we brought it back to my new house and luckily, the girl who is moving out offered to help me with trying to fix the bed. Her dad is quite good with tools and fixing things etc. so they've taken the headboard to try to repair it, which I really really appreciate. For what it's worth I've learned my lesson about buying second hand Ikea furniture.

I guess things could be worse. I could be in Victoria where bushfires have been raging for a week. Whole towns there are living in tent cities, trying to come to terms with not only the loss of their houses and possessions, but even their family and friends. The devastation has affected not just the people of the area, but hundreds of animals too. The news coverage has been very thorough, mixing horrific footage of incinerated towns with heartwarming stories of bravery and selflessness.

This is a now famous picture of Sam the koala, being given water after a firefighter discovered him, injured, and thirsty. There have been so many stories of heroism amidst the devastation and I think it's really important that people everywhere know about this story. I know Australia doesn't get much press coverage in Canada but maybe if you are reading this and can spare a few dollars to the relief fund, you will donate some money.

I know I will be.
The fundraising effort here has grown to over $50 million and it's really nice to see a whole country pulling together to help these people who have lost everything.

Top 10 Best and Worst so far...

2009-02-10T23:59:00.004-05:00

Best.

10. The friendly people. Even strangers are always willing and eager to lend a hand. I've been given countless directions by smiling strangers, offered rides places by complete strangers (I know what you're thinking but really the nice lady offered me a ride after I asked her for directions!) and eaten the free (well donation only) food given out by the Hare Krishna Food for Life Truck.

9. The variety of cultural/ ethnic foods. Jam packed together in every neighbourhood is a smorgasbord of Italian, Portuguese, Brazilian, French, Australian and every type of Asian food all sharing the same street! It really is a wonderful break from the cookie cutter fast food joints that proliferate at home. Even the smattering of McDonald's restaurants look out of place amidst the glorious bounty of international offerings here in Sydney.

8. Gus, my consummate host who rescued me from what was about to be two weeks at a hostel. Ugh!

7. The wonderful fruit here... overflowing piles of grapes, bananas, mangoes and strange looking fruits that I've rarely seen before (starfruit?)

6. Sunshine. So much of it (well until two days ago)

5. You can order beer and wine at movie theaters. Wow!

4. The beaches. There are so many and they are GORGEOUS!

3. Aussie Barbies (BBQs)

2. Wine seems to be the only thing that is less expensive than at home.

1. THE WARM WEATHER!

Worst.

10. Everything is so expensive. Seriously not exaggerating on this one. About $1000 a month for a ROOM in a house? Seriously? yes. Train tickets range from $3.20-$8.00 depending on the distance and that's just for a local, one way trip within Sydney. 2L (the largest quantity you can buy) of milk is $5.

9. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way. Ever.

8. Having to take public transportation. Hot, smelly, crowded, late and in the case of the buses VERY slow.

7. Beer does not come in pints (despite this, it still costs the same as a Canadian pint). A "Schooner" is the size of a happy meal softdrink and lasts about as long as it takes for a cat to get pregnant.

6. High density of deadly animals. Hard to get a good night's rest knowing hundreds of angry plants and animals could be plotting my death at any time. So far I've only seen a handful of roaches and a jellyfish, but still. A navy diver did lose his hand and most of his thigh in Sydney Harbour yesterday. Bet that shark was pretty full after that juicy meal.

5. Lights at some crossings take FOREVER to change

4. People laughing at the way I say out and house.

3. Crime and dodgy people everywhere. There's been a rash of ATM bombings all over the city recently and last week there was a biker gang hangout bombing that even though it was about half a km away from where I'm staying, still brought down plaster and made a light fall out of the ceiling.

2. No weekly US gossip magazines. Am seriously missing my US weekly etc. What will I do not knowing what happens next to Brangelina?!

And my number one top thing driving me crazy?

1. There are no street signs anywhere in this whole $^%&$ing city! I am not lying. On numerous occasions I have been attempting to follow my google map directions whilst hauling a#$ on FOOT and come to a large 4 lane intersection with streets branching off in all directions (sydney is more like a spider web than a grid; very difficult to navigate) and have not seen even ONE stinking street sign. It is SO frustrating and infuriating. Not only that but sometimes roads are called one name by some people and another name by others. Curses!

Happy Birthday Bailey!

2009-02-07T01:48:00.008-05:00

It's my puppy Bailey's 2nd birthday today and if I were home I would be having a birthday party for her just like last year! I know I know- it's crazy to have a birthday party for a dog, but why not? My friends and I use every other excuse in the book to throw a rager! Not to mention Martha Stewart who has no qualms about throwing a New Year's party for her cats.

Anyway I thought I'd dedicate today's post to the little birthday-pup! I love you and I miss you Bailey!

Bailey's homecoming...

Bailey, 8 weeks, trying out the new digs aka her crate for the first time...

I want my mommy! Bailey's not too impressed at my first attempt to make her dinner.

Bailey at about 10 wks old. Getting acquainted with the laundry basket. Awwww...

Cuddle time with me!

Bailey is quite the little adventurer too!

Bailey at about 5 months old. Her first sailing trip!

Taking a dip up north with her buddy Russel.

Not only does she love to get out and about, but is the life of the party too...

Silly face.

House Hunting in Sydney

2009-02-05T18:54:00.003-05:00

I've only been here a week but it seems a lot longer than that. Every day has been an adventure of some sort, mostly, but not always, of the good variety. My numero uno priority was to find a place to live, which despite all indications to the contrary, I have actually managed to do! Let me explain. I don't have much to compare to by way of experience finding shared accommodation but from what I have heard, and experienced in the last week, Sydney is one of THE hardest places to find decent shared housing. The first place I "rang up" (phoned) explained that they'd had over 20 people express interest in the place but invited me for an "interview" anyway. I really, really liked the room: large, big window, wall to wall built-in closet, own bathroom. I liked the other people in the house too aka we got "on" (along) well, so that was my number 1 choice. However, as there was so much competition I wasn't certain of my chances so off I went to explore some more options. Next was a rickety, run-down old two-story with paint peeling off the concrete walls and only one indoor bathroom to share between six people. There was another hole, I mean "bathroom" accessible by going through the kitchen, out the back door and around to the side of the house. No thank you! Can you imagine having to dart through the backyard and kitchen in a towel, especially in winter? Jeez Loueez. The kitchen was also a mess which wouldn't ordinarily bother me so much but kitchen mess in Sydney= critters of the MASSIVE COCKROACH variety. Seriously people, they are everywhere. I've killed two all by myself so far. My family will be delighted to know that I am now a kitchen-cleaning freak, obsessed with wiping counters!

As the market here is so competitive I was actually psyching myself up to live in that dump when I visited my next house- a gorgeous flat right next to the university and central station. It had everything including cable tv, furniture, and even a pilates machine but my "roomie" would have been a 45 yr old Persian man. Although he seemed nice, I just wasn't sure how comfortable the situation would have been for me. Next I looked at this cute little hole-in-the-wall house in a quiet neighbourhood about 5km from the uni. It was actually quite large inside and had a large rambling backyard, quite unusual for Sydney. The occupants were lovely too. Two working professional guys in their 20's and two cute kitties! Not only was I delighted with the wine and cheese platter they offered me during the interview, but also with how polite and pleasant the guys were. The house was cozy and comfortable and I added it to my list of top choices.

Lastly, after a rather harrowing late-night bus ride to close to the outskirts of the city I visited a very nice flat on a main road atop a store. It was big, bright and comfortable and I enjoyed the company of the Aussie gal and Kiwi guy that lived there. Alas, the room wasn't available until the end of February and it was so far away from uni I'd spend over two hours a day commuting. Not the best situation.

Luckily, after a second interview at the first house, I got offers from my top two choices. It was a really tough decision because I enjoyed the company of both sets of housemates and as the prices for both places were the same, it came down to location. The first house is within walking distance to the uni and so I chose that one. I am delighted to be moving next weekend into a clean, modern, comfortable house with my 3 new housemates! One is a lovely girl from New Zealand and the other two are a German couple on a working holiday in Australia. What luck to find such a good house on my first try! I am glad to have seen so many places though to really appreciate what I ended up with. Now all I need to do is track down a bed. Will post some pictures soon!

Freshwater Beach Trip

2009-02-02T19:36:00.006-05:00

A wonderful weekend in Sydney just past and I am delighted to report that I took full advantage of the sunshine! A friend Chris, whom I met during my last trip to Australia, picked me up and whisked me off to Freshwater beach. A glorious display of sun, sand, surf and sexy bods greeted us as we joined up with Chris's international group of mates. (I have some serious work in the gym to do if I'm going to even come close to looking like the girls here.) Although it was 3pm by the time we found parking, the sun was still hot hot hot and I enjoyed basking in it while catching up with my old friend and meeting some of his crowd. Although I consider myself a strong swimmer, the waves here are something else but luckily they were a manageable 1-2 meters- perfect for bodyboarding! This is where you catch a wave while lying down on a small foam board and surf down the wave lying on your stomach. It's really fun and Chris and I enjoyed racing each other (while handily avoiding running over myriad other swimmers, surfers and bodyboarders!)

After the beach we retired to the comfort of a friend's beachside flat for a good ol Aussie barbie (barbecue.) The food was fantastic! Grilled lamb, sausages and chicken and the most utterly delicious feta salad made with the host's French grandmother's secret vinaigrette recipe. We chowed down while watching the Australian Open men's final. What an exciting game!

I'm currently hard at work finding a permanent residence so I'll keep all you keen readers up to date on that adventure!

Ciao for now.

Lucky lucky me!

2009-02-01T17:06:00.006-05:00

It's day 4 of my new life in Sydney Australia and so far things couldn't be working out better. I've had some amazing luck so far, starting off with meeting my Australian hostess with the mostess-Gus! (short for Augusta) A mutual friend put us in touch the day before I left and Gus was so kind to offer to host me for my first few days in Australia. Oddly enough she was dropping someone off at the Sydney airport the morning of my arrival so all she had to do was expertly pick me out of a crowd (which she did, as the "girl who had enough luggage to look like she was moving to a new country" lol ) and whisk me back to her place. I'm staying in her fantastic flat in the heart of little Portugal and a short walk from little Italy. I have my own room and a very comfortable bed which has been a godsend to help me get over the jet-lag. Sydney is 16 hours ahead of Oakville so it's been quite the adjustment to get on the time schedule here.

I kicked off my trip with a walk around Circular Quay and was blown away with the size of this absolutely enormous cruise ship moored at circular quay. I felt like I was in Honey I Shrunk the Kids standing next to that enormous ship.

The Opera house of course, was spectacular, it's white sails shimmering in the midday sun.

On a whim I decided to take a ferry trip to Manly Beach and was pleasantly surprised at the nice little beach town that leads to the gorgeous expanse of open ocean. Where's a surfboard when you need one!? Alas I didn't even have a bathing suit with me so I satisfied my urge to plunge myself into the warm ocean with an ankle-deep beach walk.

Thank goodness for the instructions written on the curb sides no doubt for hapless north Americans such as myself who would otherwise join the ranks of the Darwin Awards. Running over too many tourists would be bad for business I guess.

For every rose there is a thorn and I am missing my friends, family and puppy.

My Totally Bomb Farewell

2009-01-29T22:29:00.018-05:00

As we all know I have temporarily moved to Australia. Before I left however, I had the most perfect farewell bash a girl could have asked for! I am so touched that so many people came out last Saturday evening for dinner and/ or drinks and dancing. Friends from as far away as London, Toronto, Brampton, Oshawa, Hamilton, and my sister who goes to school out in New Brunswick all gathered together to wish lil 'ol me goodbye. My newest friend who just moved here (I guess I should say Burlington as technically "here" is Sydney!) from Australia also had a friend from her hometown visiting and it was wonderful to meet her too. I feel so blessed to have such good friends to miss and I am going to miss all of them so much.

As was to be expected I wasn't the first to arrive at the restaurant (although I had every intention of being early, an unexpected pre-restaurant gathering at my house, although very much welcome, derailed that idea) and when I arrived, I was delighted to see my friends mingling and socializing, a la an impromptu cocktail hour. I joined right in ordering my favourite drink, a pina colada!

No party is complete without favours so I was thrilled to have had the time to make these for my friends.

A delectable chocolate chip cookie recipe from the always trustworthy Martha Stewart and some sand and shells from Whitehaven beach in Queensland Australia, that I'd saved from my trip there in 2005 made for the perfect favour for my party.

The tropical contents even matched the decor of the restaurant!

As we all know I will use any opportunity I can for an excuse to play with stickers and I was thrilled to find the perfect ones to decorate the bags. Martha Stewart's Bon Voyage themed stickers along with some surfboard and flip flop stickers. So adorable!

The dinner party was great. Great company, great food and, other than almost knocking over a ceramic vase while catching the overloaded coat rack when it broke in half, there were no untoward incidents! This is a picture of one of the tables. My bad for not getting a picture of the other table!

We had the same smooth sailing during the after dinner drinks and dancing at Joe Dogs. I have to hand it to my guy who piggy backed me almost the whole way to Joe Dogs cause my stilettos just weren't up to the task of walking in the snow. Many more of my friends from Oakville met us at Joe Dogs and it was fantastic to dance and party with so many friends in one place! Our group was definitely the life of the party as we lit up the dance floor song after awesome song! Great music was such a treat as I find it so hit and miss at dance clubs. Some highlights from the evening definitely include

1) meeting my friend's new baby girl

2) delivering my very first ever speech-a nerve wracking challenge but I really wanted to do it. In the end it went fine and I was so touched and surprised by my friends' reactions- Jen laughed and cried at the same time!

3) this guy at the restaurant who had an UNBELIEVABLE mullet. Seriously, his hair looked like one of those Russian fur hats

4) finally and most importantly, getting to spend time with amazing friends, who, regardless of the time since we last saw each other, be it a year or just a day or two, are each so special to me in their own way.

Thanks for coming out guys! I miss you already!

See You on the Flip Side...

2009-01-27T00:50:00.004-05:00

I can't believe the day has finally arrived! In a few short hours I will be boarding a flight to Sydney Australia. While most loose ends have been tied up (most recently, finding a place to stay- thanks James!) I am still in the throes of packing. I started packing four weeks ago. Yes FOUR weeks ago, and I'm still somehow not finished. Granted I was asked to empty my room which, for a pack-rat like me was no small task, but still, with every van-load of stuff I've carted away, I seem to come back to more stuff in its place. It's like some law-of-physics defying cosmic joke. I literally cannot seem to clear out my stuff.

During the mass clear-out I cleaned out the basement storage room. From it I either gave or threw away almost every toy, stuffed animal, doll, book, magazine, craft, art supply or board game I ever owned! I swear, the Apocalypse could have arrived and any kid trapped in my house wouldn't have wanted for something to do for at least a year.

A little dusty perhaps. Thank goodness Toronto has given each house a huge recycling bin!

I also have a lot of elementary school work and all of my high school and university notes, just in case I ever wish to read my Grade 2 journals (possibly) or re-learn Grade 11 Chemistry (not likely). Sorting through all of that will be a project for next time.

Right now I'm still trying to come to terms with having to part with almost half my wardrobe and most of my winter clothing. I know it's irrational and I can't quite figure this out but I am feeling nervous at the thought of going anywhere without my full set of thermal underwear and a snowsuit. How quickly and easily I've forgotten what warm air feels like. I can even comfortably wear my jacket in the house it's that cold here right now. I'm now going to go take the fleece socks out of my suitcase. And maybe the fuzzy sweaters. But maybe not.

The basement storage space. Requires some contortionist moves to get in and out.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

2008-12-19T13:28:00.010-05:00

What better way to ring in the New Year than with a new haircut! (Ok and maybe just one glass of Veuve.) I decided to take the plunge and go from blonde (well, to be honest, quasi-blonde) to card-carrying brunette! I was nervous at the idea of such a drastic change but by the time I had negotiated the almost zero visibility blizzard, first gear all the way, to to Downtown Oakville I was just glad to be sitting in that salon chair in one piece! There's nothing like walking into a fancy salon wearing snowboots and gators, covered in a layer of snow and knowing that no one is judging you. The weather was THAT bad. I know I know we Canadians love to go on about the weather but how can you not take notice when the only souls brave enough to go outside are suited up from head to toe complete with ski goggles? It IS quite a sight to drive the snowy roads alongside snowboard-wielding teens trudging along, determined to find a hill on which to practice their tricks. Only the beams of the slow moving vehicles penetrate through the foggy, snowy air; the streets blanketed in an ever thickening white layer, with a muted stillness that makes me think of the twilight-zone. Anyway here are some before and afters of the new "do." So far the response from family and friends has been unanimously positive :)

Before....

...and after. Ta-da!

Oh Boy! Ontario Gets Its Winter On...

2008-12-19T12:18:00.015-05:00

Driving home a couple of weeks ago. I just love the constant "storm watch weather forecasts" on the radio every 30.5 seconds... here's an idea- look outside the window! It's snowing! We know that!

After last winter finally ended sometime around Canada Day (ok, maybe it was a leeetle bit earlier than that but not by much) I remember thinking to myself, "it really can't get any worse than that." Not so fast Miss Optomistic! This winter is shaping up to be even more of a cold, blustery, snowy "Canadian" winter than last year! Only this year I'm prepared.... no more getting caught sideways halfway up our (very looong, uphill) driveway.

To explain: This is just one of more than a few winter-related predicaments contributing to my bias against last winter... It was a snowy Sunday in March, the day before my first day teaching Grade Three. I had been offered my very first teaching job, taking over a maternity leave, and after supply teaching for 9 months I was sooo excited to be able to try out life as a "real" teacher. I arrived home after the gym, and was about halfway up the driveway when the car suddenly started sliding sideways! I tried to straighten out but that only made it worse and I lost the ability to move the car all together, sideways or otherwise. Completely alone at the time as the rest of the family was living on temporary assignment in Brazil, I began to panic.
What to do?

Just then my hero appeared at the top of the hill. Clouse, our soft spoken yet very kind next door neighbour, emerged through the blowing snow, brandishing, to my utter delight and relief, the perfect weapon of ice destruction- an enormous bucket of salt! Clouse offered to not only give me the entire bucket of super duty salt, but also to help me spread it around the car. After about an hours work, we finally made enough slush so that the tires could gain traction and I could realign the car with the driveway. I thanked Clouse profusely and spent the next 3 hours in the dimming light, hauling 5 inch thick ice blocks over the side of the retaining wall so that I could back the car down to the edge of the driveway. After that I just started parking at the bottom of the driveway and walking up to the house. I will always be eternally grateful to Clouse for coming to my rescue that day.

Anyhoo, we are in the midst of another blizzard today. Not even our usually all-season cat is willing to brave the weather. She has a lot in common with my Pilates teacher who cancelled the class today! Not too happy about that. Now I just feel trapped inside the house. These photos don't do the blizzard justice as it is much more howly and snowy than this looks, but here is what it looks like from the doorways of our house. I was too chicken to go outside...gotta love snow squalls and a minus 19 degree wind-chill....Global Warming my you know what!

Front-door view

Backyard. Look closely- the pool is almost full of snow!

Camera Play

2008-12-14T15:31:00.011-05:00

As we all know, I love taking pictures! Here are a few scenic shots from the balcony of our suite at Blue Mountain from last weekend. Now that I've calmed down from the injury I'm remembering some of the really nice aspects of our mini-vacation to Collingwood.

We were treated to a really beautiful snowfall. The twinkling snowflakes floating silently from the sky made strolling through the resort really peaceful and beautiful. We made a decent effort to salvage what was left of Saturday post-hospital visit, choosing to repair to Windy O'neil's Irish Pub for an evening beverage. I had almost as much fun playing fashion police to the tucked-in plaid shirt crowd as I did listening to the rousing live band or drinking $100 tequila shots (ok they were $10 which is still highway robbery).

We also lucked out getting a fireplace in our room. It was so cozy sitting by the fire enjoying this fabulous view...

Not to mention the outdoor hot tub...

The nice folks at Customer Service offered us two free lift tickets since we didn't get to make much use of the ones we'd bought, so I'm hoping to make one more trip before I leave for Australia... here's to not having to take any more pictures looking like this...

A Series of Unfortunate Events

2008-12-08T16:31:00.009-05:00

So this weekend. It was one calamity after another as a friend and I attempted a first snowboard trip to Blue Mountain...

Since our weather has been getting colder and snowier, and as I will be leaving soon for desert-like Australia, I had been thinking lately...why not take one last stab at a snowsport I love but only learned how to do last year? Having been a skier since I was 8, I tried to learn to snowboard in high school and then again in university but both attempts were met with utter and complete failure. It was only last year when my bf spent a very patient day teaching me that I picked it up. I was thrilled! I went twice last year and this was to be the first of what I hoped would be my get-in-bikini shape activity for the weekends up until my plane takes off in January. This fantasy was not to be realized, due to a very unfortunate bout of bad luck.

You know when things just start off badly and then go downhill? (haha, no pun intended.) Well we started the trip with a ginger ale spill in the car. Small, I know, but a harbinger of things to come. Next was the realization that my snowboard boots were at my friend's cottage. The hour long detour wasn't the end of the world but still, the second fly in the ointment. After a few stops along the way to make some last minute equipment purchases, and yet another beverage spill we were on the hill. The weather was great, cool but not too freezing, but the snow was rather sticky and I spent a very frustrating 20 mins essentially crawling across this through-way to get from one set of hills to another, easier set so that I could practice carving. As we prepared to go for our third run down the hill my friend realized that a strap of his binding had broken off.... geez I though to myself, what else could possibly go wrong? What happened next was worse than all the inconveniences thus far combined with my worse fears. I was carving nicely down the hill when I caught my front edge and took what didn't seem like a major spill. I wasn't scared as I dove towards the snow but my outstretched arm apparently was not up for the impact and as the familiar crunchity crunch sound echoed through my right shoulder joint, I knew what had happened. I had dislocated my shoulder. Not to worry I thought to myself as I laid on the hill, my arm splayed awkwardly out to the side and hoping that I didn't get plowed over by another novice boarder/ skier. At first I wasn't overly concerned since this a) wasn't the shoulder I'd had surgery on a year ago and b) every other time I'd dislocated my left shoulder (yes, there's been more than a few) I'd been able to pop it back in on my own. My lackadaisical attitude to my predicament gave way to moderate concern as my attempts to reduce the dislocation were ineffectual and ski-patrol was nowhere in sight. Finally after a good 15-20 minutes we were helped by the ski patrol but by then I was doing as much self-talk as possible to reduce the shock I could feel myself slipping into. What had initially been light pain was getting worse and worse as the muscles surrounding my joint went into spasm. Not even the stretcher ride of shame down the mountain or the jarring and painful ambulance ride moved my shoulder back into place. The nurses at Collingwood hospital were great and I was seen remarkably quickly by the doc who fixed me up with a pleasant combination of compassion and matter-of-factness. Even though everything happened quickly my shoulder had still been out for over an hour and a half by the time all was said and done and so I was pretty out of it. When I started to feel better (thanks to some prompt iv pain meds and Danny's arrival to the hospital to keep me company) I noticed that virtually all the patients in the crowded triage area were casualties of unfortunate skiing or snowboarding mishaps. I guess things could have been worse but it still was a huge disappointment to me. I hope that it heals quickly and that I can get another day in before I have to leave. Fingers crossed!

Our first and only on-hill pic. Kinda reflects my sentiments exactly... "aaaaahhhhhhhhh!!"

Australia Countdown

2008-11-27T11:42:00.001-05:00

Ladies Night Out

2008-11-27T10:10:00.007-05:00

What do you get when you combine one chocolate fondue fountain, two pole dancers, three belly dancers and 25 cans of hairspray all under one roof at the Oakville Convention Center? Ladies Night Out of course! The who's who of Oakville's social elite all gathered last night for an evening of taste-testing, shopping and people watching in the glamourously decorated venue. Upon entering the room, My friend, her mother-in-law and I were swept up in the feeding frenzy that was swarming the tasting spread. The offerings were worth the mild indignity of being knocked off balance by more than one feisty octogenarian making a beeline for the tirimisu. Wild mushroom and goatcheese baguettes, not to mention the silky smooth liquor did hit the spot as we made our way through the throngs of bespeckled socialites armed with their pointy elbows and shoes. I was actually body checked at the wine tasting table, sending my cake fork into a crowd of leather and cashmere. Everybody's enourmous bags didn't help matters. Apparently carrying a large bag makes you look smaller. I'm not sure this "reason" justifies lugging around a suitcase, unless one needs to tote their border collie along with them. Anyhoo, after we were able to make our way through the crowd were were spat out into the great room just in time for the first of two fashion shows. This was followed by a belly dance performance and a pole dancing show.

we all signed up for a free belly dancing lesson. It looks like such a fantastic workout and you get to wear bells to boot! I got my hair done by the runway models' stylist. Not sure I'd wear this look again but it was fun for one night.

Just Bought: Plane Ticket

2008-11-26T11:02:00.009-05:00

Bailey nosing around in the Frightful Weather in our front yard this week.

The weather outside is frightful but I'm delighted to report that I'll soon be saying sayanara to this Canadian winter! In exactly two months I will be getting on a plane to Australia and I couldn't be more excited. I leave Toronto on January 27th and with only one stopover in Vancouver, I arrive in Sydney only 21 hours but a full 2 DAYS later on January 29th. Ahh the miracle of time travel....How I manage to lose an entire day of my life just by getting on one little airplane is a bit beyond me. If only there was something I could do to go back in time. How great would THAT be? I could take back all those hours spent moping over stupid boys, an ill-timed confrontation with a jellyfish, and my entire 7th grade wardrobe. But I digress....

Of course my departure will be very bitter sweet as I have to leave my dear friends behind, but I've devised an ingenious solution: Use the powers of persuasion I will learn at law school to convince my friends to come to Australia!

Here's a picture from my trip there in 2005. I think it looks like one of those green screens where you sit and they superimpose the background onto the photo later. I swear this is real though! And no, I do not wear all white outfits anymore.

My Hot Saturday Night Date

2008-11-17T20:12:00.015-05:00

They say a photo says a thousand words so here's my 21st century silent film: I call it

"The Silent Blog"

Bloggity Blog Pictures Presents....

in collaboration with Pathetic Single Gal films...

"From Cabbage Patch to Cabbage Roll: My Life Thus Far"

Written, photographed and Starring Jess as herself

Bailey the dog as herself

Cabbage Rolls as themselves

Special Thanks to the Town of Oakville without whom this sorry excuse for a Saturday night would never have taken place.

Black. Fade in to opening scene...

***Intermission***

Ta Da!!!

"The End"

....Fade to Black

I've been tagged!

2008-11-17T19:19:00.004-05:00

Meandering along the eastern beaches two weekends ago in Toronto. My Mom and I were treated to a gorgeous sunny day and we took full advantage of the gorgeous morning to walk Bailey. See the lifeguard station in the background? That used to be my summer job office.

And now for my bigger news!!!

Drumroll please!!!

I've been tagged! Thank you to Anne at The City Sage for the nod :)

So here goes my seven things...

1. I have been employed, off and on, and in various capacities since I was 14. My first real part time job was as a table-wiper/ cashier at Lick's. (Yes I had to sing, no I didn't like it.) I was fired (yes, fired!) because one of the managers at the time had a crush on me, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, the other manager. Within a week of her being transfered to our location she had accused me of stealing. This, of course was a complete fabrication of the truth. I never ever would steal from an employer- besides, anytime a till was short the difference would come off our paychecks anyway. Even though she had zero proof, (and why would she since she was lying) I still got fired.

2. I am allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. Peanuts are in a separate family than tree nuts. They are a legume. I am not allergic to other legumes.

3. Somehow on my dad's side I am related to Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. I am not sure of the exact lineage but I have been told that this is true.

4. I am obsessed with cookbooks. I have an entire bookshelf full of them. The entire Ina Garten Barefoot Contessa series. A smattering of Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson and a plethora of books dedicated to every sub category of food one could thing of... summer picnics, coffee drinks, steamed vegetables???? (Not sure what I was thinking with the last one but in case you're wondering it's called Simply Steamed.)

5. I am pretty obsessed with Martha Stewart. I have most of her cookbooks and almost every magazine printed after 1999. I am less devoted to her show (mostly cause I do, on occasion, go to work and it's at 1 in the afternoon,) but it's still a good thing and I watch when I can.

6. I took ballet lessons when I was about 5 and was so terrible. I never got to move up to the next level, but still year after year my mom would sign me up. To this day it's the only physical activity I can recall her not saying a stern "don't do that, you'll hurt yourself."

7. I've read every John Grisham book he's ever penned. Law School? scoff! I already know how to be a lawyer.

Better late than never eh?

2008-11-11T15:19:00.003-05:00

Ok so in anticipation of having (getting) to don a bikini in about T minus 10 weeks or so I thought I'd get down to business of trimming the extra layer the summer patio season was so helpful with. Seeing as how Australia is enjoying summer at the moment, I will not be needing the extra warmth and so with that in mind I have decided to try to eat more healthily. (Is that a word?) My first challenge: Incorporate more veggies into my diet which is currently mostly dairy and carbs. So here was my first attempt. Baked salmon on a bed of sauteed eggplant, shallots, zucchini and mushrooms served over a bed of steamed kale and collard greens. It was mostly delish except for the greens which were very bitter. Not a bad start if I do say so myself!

Romeo and Juliet or Why I Hate Trucks

2008-11-09T13:24:00.021-05:00

Jess goes to Stratford II took place this past weekend as my mom and I ventured to the Festival Theatre in Stratford for the second last night of Romeo And Juliet. In contrast to the consistently Elizabethan setting in the Taming of the Shrew, this edition of the Shakespeare classic opens surprisingly during modern times. After Act I the play drop-kicks us back in time to the traditional Elizabethan era until the end when we rocket back to the present day. This makes for an interesting juxtaposition of Shakespeare's brilliant dialogue spoken by vespa-riding, machine-gun wielding actors.

While the costumes were nice, I couldn't seem to tear my eyes away from the massive technicolour sun/ moon globe thing hanging over and completely dominating the stage. My favourite character was the slightly bumbling Friar Laurence (for those of you possessing a less than passing memory of Grade 9 English class, he's the guy who helps Romeo after his banishment and is the mastermind behind the ploy to help Juliet fake her death.) Stratford veteran Peter Donaldson does an excellent job of making his character and his scenes endearingly funny and likable amidst the doom and gloom of the rest of the play.

As memorable, if not more so than the play itself was the torrential downpour through which I had to drive to get there. Notwithstanding the lack of streetlamps on the single lane, non-divided highway or the omnipresent tailgating mack truck lights in my rear-view mirror, I was completely terrified by the lack of visibility out the front windshield. Driving old lady style; white knuckle death grip on, and my nose peering over the steering wheel, I realized the rain was coagulating on the window because it was covered in a thin film of grease! A combination of squirting wiper fluid at short intervals and blasting heat on the window made it just about possible to see, but of course in the process I had no choice but to turn the car into a stifling, suffocating sauna. Things were further complicated by the 7 car pileup on the highway and without the benefit of a map, GPS or sense of direction (not to mention ability to see out the window,) my attempts to find an alternate route out of Kitchener were fruitless. After driving in circles for 20 minutes and a quick pit-stop at Tim Horton's we conceded defeat and got back on the arrested highway. Luckily time wasn't of the essence as we'd left early. We past the accident scene and found the turn-off for Stratford. On the narrow, dark highway I was sure that each time we were overtaken by one of the enormous mack trucks flying past, either the encroaching behemoth would hit us, or else the massive blinding wall of spray it kicked up would render us trapped in our hot dark metal deathtrap, skidding off the road and ending up crushed in a twisted metal wreckage. Nerves shot to hell we arrived in Stratford, mercifully in one piece. The excitement didn't end there though. As I turned into a strip mall and headed down what I thought was an alley leading to a parking lot of a restaurant, I was startled to discover that it was an UNMARKED exit to a drive through! Seriously there was absolutely no sign whatsoever. Luckily the driver of the SUV I almost drove into wasn't going very fast. Boy did I back out of there quickly!

The way home was only slightly better. We spent about 30mins at the gas station trying to scrub the grease off the window (getting drenched in the rain and soaked in the puddles of course.) The windshield was slightly less opaque, however it was after midnight and I was really tired. Both my mom and I agreed that should we ever decide to undertake such an adventure again, we'd book a hotel room. Lesson learned!

Pet Pics

2008-11-06T20:16:00.003-05:00

Ok ok I know no one cares about other people's pets, mine or otherwise but I thought this was cute. A cat in a box. It would be even better if the cat's name was Jack...but it's not, it's just Puss. It's a thing in our house... despite any intentions or attempts to name otherwise, all of our pet felines have been called simply, "Puss."

My Bailey on the other hand was named after my favourite liquor: Bailey's Irish Creme! What do we think her new face-cut? Now if only I could find time to take her for a paw-i-cure...

Vote Vote Vote!

2008-11-04T13:17:00.009-05:00

Will the sun rise with a new Democrat President?

No offence to our friends to the south, but this is the first time I have regretted not being American. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Anti-American... quite the contrary. I find Americans to be polite and friendly, they certainly have an enviable sense of patriotism and national solidarity and let's not forget Hollywood! Where would I be without my weekly gossip fix from the myriad gossip magazines? Even my bestest friend is American! Still, I've always felt very lucky to have been born in Canada. Today though I wish wish wish I could vote in what is sure to be a most historic election. Today either the first black president will be elected, or else the oldest first term president and women VP. I am by no means a political expert, quite the opposite in fact. Still, even I am aware of the plunge the USA has taken in the past 8 years in virtually all areas. I shudder to think what will happen to the USA if there is another Republican administration. Having said this, everyone is entitled to their own opinion so all I am saying is, if you are American and can vote then go! Get out there and exercise your Democratic right to vote. I agree with the Australians in that I think voting should be compulsory; however, it is a right in North America that many others in our world still to this day do not share. So please, take some time, even if you have to line up for a long time to vote. Your vote counts and it is worth it!

The Taming of the Shrew

2008-11-03T11:40:00.005-05:00

***Blonde moment alert*** The Taming of the Shrew: A Shakespeare play NOT about a small woodland creature but rather about the gender politics of marriage starring a bitter and angry young woman who's transformation we see in the context of a play within a play. Apparently not unusual for the time but a novel and interesting idea for me! Having studied a number of Shakespeare plays in high school I was familiar with the genre but not at all familiar with this play in particular. I had never been to the world famous Stratford Festival and I was lucky enough to be invited this weekend by some good friends with connections! Our complementary seats were in the lower area of the theatre which made for a good and close view of the stage. The costumes were phenomenal... talk about boot-ay on the women! On their rear ends one could easily put a doily and a vase or a few books and a pair of nice book ends. I guess Shakespearean men preferred their women with some junk in the trunk. My how times have changed... but that's a topic for another day. Back to the play- the singing was fantastic and once my fellow play watchers explained to me what the heck was going on during the intermission I was able to follow the second half very nicely. Subtitles wouldn't have gone unappreciated though... In any case the whole day was fantastic, culminating nicely with a dinner at a real farm! In fact I enjoyed myself so much that I am going back this week to see Romeo and Juliet. Thankfully this is one of the plays I studied in high school so I'm anticipating not feeling so lost this time.

Musicians play the fanfare to let folks know that intermission is over. One of my favourite parts of live theatre is the live music... so captivating!