Thanksgiving 2011

Table is set and manicotti is served

This past weekend we had out friends around to celebrate Thanksgiving.  It was a first for some of our guests and we took the time to explain its origins and traditions, as well as how America's indigenous people are so much better off today than they were when the Pilgrims arrived.

Best part of the turkey

We enjoyed a feast of manicotti, turkey, sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows, greens, and ended it all with an apple pie and passionfruit cheesecake.  The manicotti and sweet potatoes were the biggest hits with the newcomers at the table.  Amy and I were saddened and dismayed that people grow up around the world without ever thinking of combining sweet potatoes with marshmallows.  My friend, you have never truly lived.

Mmmmm....beer

A special batch of cappuccino stout was also brewed and served for the occasion.

We even had some NFL piped in over the internet thanks to Amy's brother, James and we got to explain the comparatively byzantine rules and play structure to our local rugby fans.

Sunset over Manly, the pilgrims should have kept on sailing

Sunset looking inland

We were treated to a beautiful sunset as the clouds broke from a week of rain just in time for our guests to arrive.

Dig in!

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Go Manly!!!!

 
This past weekend, our local rugby team, the Manly Sea Eagles won the 2011 Grand Final!!!!

We were on hand at a local pub to watch the game and enjoy the subsequent jubulation and it was AWESOME!!!!!

After the glorious victory (24 points to 10), the crowd could not be contained, the bar rolled out ever "eagle" related song in existence and people were chanting and singing and dancing on tables.  I took some video, below of the crowd in action.

Although we did already have our looting locations scouted out, no rioting broke out.  I guess we will have to wait until Australia wins the Rugby World Cup in a few weeks.

GO MANLY!!!

Bug Surf Day

Zooooom!

This past week Sydney was deluged by 5 days of apocalyptic storms as winter made its presence known.

Fearless


Nice section at North Steyne

The only bright side out of this was when it eventually stopped, we were treated to some of the best surf conditions we have seen.

Paddleboarder riding the bommie Sunday morning

Hardcore surfers braved the gigantic swell and we went down to the beach a couple of times to witness the death-defying awesomeness.

He looks so small next to the gigantic wall of water chasing him

In addition to the beach breaks being larger than normal, the Queenscliff bommie was breaking as well in epic fashion.

Catching one last wave at the bommie as the sun goes down

At one point on Sunday, there were 3 helicopters and 2 boats out searching for a missing surfer. We saw them pull a surfboard out of the water but no body. Hopefully the poor guy made it to shore.

Try, try again

A few weeks ago, we had the good fortune of having our friend Webs down on the beach with us while we were surfing. Webs had his camera and these were the results:

Prepared to battle nature

Paddling out to the break is everyone least favorite part of surfing

Me on the left with a friend, Dan about to drop in on me.

Drop in (verb) - to intrude on a wave that another surfer is already riding

This is generally considered extremely poor form and should be avoided at all costs when you don't know the person who you are intruding upon. However, we were pretty stoked to have caught the same wave. Celebrations and high-fives followed.

Same wave

Same wave, I'm the last one standing, Dan in water below

It's been a good week

The first autumn swell has hit and the waves have been massive this week. Good enough that 10X world champion surfer Kelly Slater was in the area earlier in the week. We managed to go bodysurfing 2 days after work and had some great rides both times. On top of that, Amy's parents arrived on Thursday and brought many gifts from America with them, including a new camera from Chris' mom and dad.

The above picture was taken with the new camera on Friday evening before going out for dinner and drinks as the sun was setting. The double rainbow was actually so big that I could not get it in a single frame. I took several photos and put them together with Photostitch.

We are off tomorrow for boating and fishing with the Legrands and then if the weather holds out, some hiking on Sunday.

Visitor #1: James Legrand - Part 2

James with a frosty one

One of the other adventures we took James on while he was with us was to take a local SCUBA dive. We were originally supposed to do a wreck dive up the coast but due to rough conditions brought on by a strong southerly swell, we were rescheduled to dive the Queenscliff Bombura (which I have written about here) and North Head, which is the northern arm at the entrance to Sydney Harbor.

North Head:

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The diving was good and we saw lots of fish including Morwongs, cuttlefish, wobbegong sharks, leatherjackets, blue groper, snapper, and puffer fish. It was also cool to dive the Bombie, something I have seen the effect of on the surface but never been able to investigate the cause of that massive wave. It was amazing to see so much sea live just minutes from where we live. You can see Manly in the video which was taken from the boat.

James flashing the "Still Not Drowning" signal

About to go under at North Head

During the surface interval between dives, we were treated to watching the coast guard doing training of helicopter rescues. That was pretty cool.

So Much Santa

Santa and two beers

So it's been a bit odd getting ready for the holidays as the weather gets warmer. We have compensated by putting Christmas ornaments on the palm trees in our apartment and being extra good in case Australian Santa is as vigilant as the one we are used to.

There must be a lot of beer at the North Pole

This past weekend, we got into the Christmas mood by going out for the Manly Santa Pub Crawl and it was AWESOME.

Yes, SuperSanta made an appearance

Probably around a thousand people get dressed up in the holiday theme and go out to the bars in Manly. We drank amongst reindeer, xmas trees, angels, elves, and of course Santas.

All I want for Christmas is for this guy to not take that box off

It was disorienting walking into a bar, looking for your friends and all you can see are santa hats (or bellies, depending on relative heights).

It was a great way to drink our way around town as well as get into the holiday swing. Early to Merry Xmas to everyone!

Beer helps Santa get through the winter nights

There's no such thing as sharks

When we were initially telling our friends and family that we were moving to Australia, a common line of questioning went a little like, "Don't they have deadly spiders/snakes/sharks there?" We would typically laugh this off in a brave and glorious fashion. Recently it has been brought to my attention that at least one of these creatures is actually lurking just out of view, waiting for us to drop our guard.

Here is an article from our local newspaper: The Manly Daily

Has a pretty clear picture in there of someone surfing with a large fin behind them. This is in the area where we went surfing today. The waves were great.

Additionally, after talking with someone about where we had been spearfishing last weekend off Long Reef, they directed me to this clip:



We've managed to avoid being eaten thus far, so why not press our luck?

"Treat every breath as your first and every day as your last"

-Hilltop Hoods

Sunset Oct 21

The days are getting longer as spring rolls in. I was able to catch this sunset last night.

Video showing Freshwater beach, Manly, and the sun going down.

Fishing Victory

And tell your friends that they're next

On our most recent fishing expedition, we had the shocking divergence from our normal failure by actually catching an edible fish! It was a Flathead, landed by James and we could not contain our disbelief at this boon. We took it back home and fried it up. It was thankfully delicious enough to justify further fishing ventures.

The end result of our feast. Mmmmmmmm.

The next day, I went out with James to try out the rocks between Freshwater and Curl Curl beaches. This was a significantly less successful venture. We basically took turns throwing bait and tackle directly into the ocean’s laughing maw as we got snagged again and again immediately after casting our lines. It was a nice place to have a beer at least.

Then, after we had given up hope at our own success, something strange and serendipitous happened. We struck up a chat with an equally frustrated fisherman that was a little ways down the rocks from us. As it turned out, he had recently moved to Queenscliff – into Amy and my old apartment. After we realized this, he said that he remembered me from when he was shown the apartment. He even recalled that we had just gotten back from Vanuatu. How random is that? Anyways, after he expressed an equal level of frustration at the futility of continuing fishing at this spot, he offered to drive us to a spot of our choosing to continue fishing – we were in no condition to drive ourselves.

Sunset at the Spit Bridge

We ventured onward to our spot from the previous weekend – the Manly spit bridge where we finished up our fishing for the day under the setting sun.

Movin' on up

It's moving day today to our new place. For everyone who's been debating a visit because of the lack of two bedrooms it's your lucky day. Not only do we now have two bedrooms, we also overlook two beaches from our wrap-around balcony and Chris is eagerly pursing all of the necessary parts for a keggerator!

Here's the new Manly direction view - from the front part of the balcony. More pictures and the Freshwater view to follow once we're a bit more settled.

Here is a video of its awesomeness, pre-move:

Tasting, Climbing, and Footie

GOAL!!!!!

This past weekend Amy and I ventured forth to try out 3 new things.

These lines would move faster if everyone would push harder

The first was trying the offerings of the various restaurants in Manly at the Manly Food and Wine Festival. We ended up trying out some Thai food and a couple of glasses of wine before giving up on the lines. the food was good though and it was situated right on the beach which made it a great stroll. We sat on the seawall and watched surfers ride the waves and tourists roast in the sun.

Spiderman's got nuthin' on me

We followed up the food and wine fest with some exercise and ventured out to the rock climbing gym Climbfit. We went with some friends, some of whom were veterans. Amy had never tried this before but took to it well once I tricked her into thinking that I wouldn't let her fall. Yeah, yeah, I'm watching. Just jump already.

Do a flip!!!

We capped off the evening with a barbecue of entirely too much food and just enough beer and wine. I have been eating leftover chicken and sausages all week. Mmmmmm....

Sunday's new venture was an Aussie Rules Football game. You may have seen this on Sunday afternoons in the NFL offseason on ESPN2 or some other random, space filling time. Taken at a glance the sport resembles a pack of large men chasing a greased football around a gigantic field, occasionally kicking it and frequently waylaying eachother with reckless abandon. Upon closer inspection.....it pretty much looks the same only even more awesome.

Go for the weak spots- eyes, throat, groin, etc.

I simply cannot understand why this sport is not more popular. The athletes are all gigantic and run miles every game, the gameplay is like a cross of keep away, soccer, and one of the better scenes from Braveheart. Also of note is when the ball goes out of bounds, it is returned to play by a referee who faces away from the players and blindly chucks the ball as high and hard as he can back onto the field. The only real oddities are that it is played on a cricket oval and the game length - 2 hours. Neither of these however should be a real impediment to its growth. Seriously, people are choosing cricket and baseball over this? There is no justice in the world.

Guy on the left is clearly throwing an elbow

Big Surf Day

Catch the wave or die trying

Winter is rolling in which means 2 things. 1. It gets slightly colder 2. The surf is picking up. This past Sunday had the biggest surf of the year thus far with swells up up to 10' high on the Manly/Queenscliff beach. If Amy and I went out in this, it is likely we would perish but it made for good watching as the pros came out of the woodwork and put on a show. All weekend the beach was lined up with spectators, ooohhhing when someone pulled off a nice ride and grimacing when some poor soul got crushed out there.

A brave soul ventures forth

We took a hike out to on the rocky headland just below our apartment with out mate Webs to check out the waves and surfers and took some pictures along the way.

It was a truly impressive set of sites. To start off with, the surf was big enough that the Queenscliff Bombura (Queensie Bombie in Aust-speak) was breaking. Let me take a moment to explain what this is and the significance of sighting it is.

The Bombie is a monstrous wave that breaks about a kilometer off the beach only when the surf is truly huge - anywhere from 8 to 16 feet. That means that it doesn't even bother getting out of bed most days. But, when it does come out to play, it is when the surf is big enough to be treacherous for newbies and a calculated risk even for experts. Just to get out to it, you need to paddle for a kilometer or if you are smart/lucky, take a boat and then when you do, you are running the risk of injury or death.

Tooling around in the Queensie Bombie

Although we saw some surfers in the vicinity, the only people that were actually playing around it in were some members of the Surf & Lifesaving Club who were riding down the face of the wave in a zodiac raft.

Looking, judging

We hiked around the headland from the Queenscliff side to the Freshwater side to take a look at the surfers there. This is a sweet little walk that has you stalking through a cave and scrambling over a field of broken boulders.

Hiking around, Freshwater Headland behind me

By the time we made it back to Queenscliff/Manly, the sun was setting and the waves were still pumping. It was an awesome and beautiful sight watching the sunset reflecting off of the clouds and water with the surfers shredding below us, one that I will remember for a long time.

Exploring Sydney

This past Saturday, Amy and I took the opportunity to join Debs and James on a trip to the city (note: not The City as a point of clarification for my NYC peeps) to check out some points of interest. Our ferry trip in was eventful in that there were huge waves and an armada of ships out to welcome home Jessica Watson, a 16 year old Aussie girl who was due to arrive home in Sydney that afternoon.

The city pulled out all the stops for her, making it a big PR event and giving her a hero's welcome. It was cool to see the myriad of boats out and people seemed really proud of her.
We didn't have to travel far before one of the ladies was detained on a shopping related errand. James and I ducked into the nearest bar, Bar 333 for sanctuary. We watched rugby and a bit of American Ice Hockey (Bruins vs I don't remember) oddly enough. Not a bad bar overall but a bit posh for our basic needs of shelter from shopping.

We ventured forth from there to what was probably the fanciest mall I have ever been in, The Queen Victorian Building complete with a giant victorian clock to grab a quick bite and then made our way to 3 Wise Monkeys, an English style pub. This was more our style and we luxuriated here among the dark wood and tasty beers.

Next was a stop in Sydney's Chinatown for lunch and...more beers. Chinatown is small but packed with places to eat. We found a great, random spot for lunch and sat out on the veranda, watching the crowds of tourists shuffle by.



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Lunch was a smorgasborg served family style. We gorged on calamari, chicken (satay perhaps? I realize that is not chinese), and a beef dish as well as eggrolls and another battered, fried concoction. It was a good find for random stumbling.



After lunch, we walked off our food hangovers at Paddy's Market, a place where we had heard one could find good deals on various goods. Although I won't dispute this I will say that this must be the place to go for knockoff American baseball jerseys, ugg boots, ninja weapons, and what looked like inferior quality electronics. If you have the good fortune of being in Sydney and having the opportunity to go to Paddy's famous Market, feel free to avoid it. Call me instead. We'll go surfing.

We now ventured onward to Darling Harbor, a large area in Sydney that often holds festivals and expos. We planted ourselves in the final bar for the day, the nautically named Helm Bar with a lovely view of the boats in the harbor and watched the sun go down over a few additional beers. This was a classy joint that wasn't too pretentious and was a great way to spend some time before we boarded the ferry back home to sweet Manly.



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We ended the evening in Manly - or "God's Country" as James calls it, I find it hard to disagree - at the delectable Ashiana Indian RestaurantAddress:‎ just off the Corso, which is the main strip that run between the ferry wharf and the beach. Here in addition to some great food, we enjoyed those last few beers which led to a rueful next morning.

In this and other matters, let my epitaph read: