Well, it's the last two weeks of this epic trip of mine & I'm wondering where the time has gone!? It's gone by so fast, but I've had some really fantastic adventures, & now tomorrow I'll be having another one first thing in the morning with Derek. For my birthday, he's treating me to the Harbour Bridge Climb. This ought to be interesting, considering that my lower back muscles have been acting up this week, but I'm going to go & do it anyway, muscle spasms be damned!
Arriving in Sydney has been a bit eventful. Last night didn't really go that well, as the room I'd gotten, turned out to be horrible for noise. I'd fallen asleep a bit early, but got rudely woken up around 12:30am to the lovely sound of industrial garbage trucks picking up & emptying loads of garbage. This went on about every 15-20 minutes all night long!!! Who does that in the middle of the night!?!?!? Around 2:30am, I'd had enough, so I marched down to the lobby to speak to someone, only to be told they couldn't do anything then & there & to speak to a manager in the morning. Fine. Needless to say, it was a very sleepless night!
In the morning however, after explaining the situation, I was told that they would move me to a quieter room. Whew. After that, even though I was still mad about the situation, I took myself out for a long walk, & went to Darling Harbour which is lovely. I ended up spending the day at the aquarium which I loved; I really have a new found respect for sea creatures who are just completely awesome. Then I went the the wild animal place next door & saw again, koalas, wombats, kangaroos & lots of other interesting animals & creepy crawlies, thankfully behind thick glass windows!
Tonight, I came back from seeing two more of my message board friends, Karen & Tabatha, who were both lovely, we all came together bearing small gifts for each other which was great. Tabatha got me a personally autographed to me cd from one Mr Nick Seymour of Crowded House...WOW!! I think that definitely made my night. Tomorrow night, after the day climbing bridges, Karen & Tabatha & I will be heading off to the big gay/lesbian mardi gras thing that's on this weekend, that will be fun. In the coming two weeks, there will be at least one more meet up with one more person, a harbour cruise which I'm looking forward to, the Sydney Opera house area, there's still a lot more to do before I return to the land of ice & snow, which I hope will maybe be on it's way out by the time I get back.
Lisa xo
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Reflecting So Far
With a little over two weeks left to go on this trip, it's certainly gone by a lot faster than I thought it would; but I've had the best time. The weather has mostly been perfect, I really can't complain about the rain, for one thing because at least it's warm, & for another, because I know I'd get a lot of grief about it from back home, rightfully so!
I've seen & done a lot of great things up to this point, met a few really nice ladies along the way who have been fantastic hostesses of their cities, the few low points have been few & far between & the highs have been fantastic. So Sydney is next on the agenda, & among other things, I have the Sydney Harbour bridge climb to look forward to on my birthday, March 1st, which Derek is giving to me for my birthday so I'm really excited about that! I'm really hoping that the next two weeks go as slowly as possible, because I want to really savor being in this really excellent country. What is it about warm weather that just makes you feel really happy & upbeat??
Lisa xo
I've seen & done a lot of great things up to this point, met a few really nice ladies along the way who have been fantastic hostesses of their cities, the few low points have been few & far between & the highs have been fantastic. So Sydney is next on the agenda, & among other things, I have the Sydney Harbour bridge climb to look forward to on my birthday, March 1st, which Derek is giving to me for my birthday so I'm really excited about that! I'm really hoping that the next two weeks go as slowly as possible, because I want to really savor being in this really excellent country. What is it about warm weather that just makes you feel really happy & upbeat??
Lisa xo
Monday, February 25, 2008
Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo
Hi all, just back from the tour to Australia Zoo. It was a pretty full day, & a fast one, I can't believe how fast the day has gone by. It's quite a legacy that Steve Irwin has left for his children & for everyone to enjoy; I think I barely scratched the surface of his zoo, which is really quite large, but I pretty much saw lots of crocs, a few snakes, lots of beautiful birds, among many kinds of animals there, also my beloved koalas again & I've had my 2nd snap with a koala which was awesome! I also got a picture taken hand feeding an elephant, there were also some camels too. It did rain a tiny bit, but overall it was a good day again today.
The Crococeum was interesting too, that's where they brought out the snakes & crocs & birds, the keepers also did a great talk on conservation of the animals. One of the things I was a bit surprised about was just how "commercial" the gift shops were, not that I bought much, but there's just about everything under the sun, with the faces of Steve, Terri, Bindi & Bob plastered onto just about anything & everything you could imagine. Generally though, it was definitely worth the trip to Beerwah, where the zoo is located, about an hour outside of Brisbane, you'd definitely be hard pressed to try & see all of the zoo in one day, but it's definitely worth the trip.
The Crococeum was interesting too, that's where they brought out the snakes & crocs & birds, the keepers also did a great talk on conservation of the animals. One of the things I was a bit surprised about was just how "commercial" the gift shops were, not that I bought much, but there's just about everything under the sun, with the faces of Steve, Terri, Bindi & Bob plastered onto just about anything & everything you could imagine. Generally though, it was definitely worth the trip to Beerwah, where the zoo is located, about an hour outside of Brisbane, you'd definitely be hard pressed to try & see all of the zoo in one day, but it's definitely worth the trip.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Surfer's Paradise Sunday
Hello hello, well today was spent with another message board friend, Elisabeth, who generously offered to spend the day chauffeuring me around to show me the Gold Coast & Surfer's Paradise; & it was a paradise! Looking out at the ocean was magnificent, it wasn't nearly as unbearably hot as it was yesterday, but it was just warm enough to have the ocean lapping on my feet feeling like bath water, which felt A-MAZING! I think that it's been the most peaceful, calm & serene that I've felt up to now, so I think it's safe to say that I've satisfied my "beach lust". I even managed to find a few broken pieces of shells that wash up on the shore. Of course it very much reminds me of Miami Beach, with the many high rise condos, appartment buildings, & tacky tee shirt shops (which were great too by the way, I found a couple of beauts!). There is definitely a lot of money in this area, so after we had our beach walk, Elisabeth & I were ready for lunch, which we decided to have at one of the many surf clubs in the area. It was really nice to sit out on the verandah & gaze out on the ocean.
After that, I thought that I'd like to see the tacky shop area just long enough to pick up a few suvenirs. By around 3:00pm, it was time to head back to Brisbane city, which was about the length that it takes to drive from Hamilton to Toronto, so not a bad drive.
Tomorrow I'm off to the Steve Irwin Australia Zoo, which I'm really looking forward to, but it's supposedly going to rain. I'm hoping that it'll hold off for a while but if it does rain, I certainly won't shrink! The QE2 cruise ship is currently docked in Sydney harbour for the weekend, & then it's supposed to be sailing up here to Brisbane, unfortunately, I think I may well end up missing out seeing it but I've been hearing quite a lot about it in the news lately.
Another little anecdote to share with you all. Here at this internet cafe & I suspect at lots of others, I tend to see a lot of young men (teens, early 20's) in here every day, all day playing on these weird & sort of violent looking video games. I suspect that they play in teams, because some of them are wearing head sets to communicate w/ other players, or they're here w/ friends. Seems like a weird way to pass the time during the day. That's almost as strange as seeing some of these guys walking around on the sidewalks & coming off of buses & trams barefoot.
Things that make you go hmmmm.
That's all for now, dear readers, tune in tomorrow as they say.
Lisa xo
After that, I thought that I'd like to see the tacky shop area just long enough to pick up a few suvenirs. By around 3:00pm, it was time to head back to Brisbane city, which was about the length that it takes to drive from Hamilton to Toronto, so not a bad drive.
Tomorrow I'm off to the Steve Irwin Australia Zoo, which I'm really looking forward to, but it's supposedly going to rain. I'm hoping that it'll hold off for a while but if it does rain, I certainly won't shrink! The QE2 cruise ship is currently docked in Sydney harbour for the weekend, & then it's supposed to be sailing up here to Brisbane, unfortunately, I think I may well end up missing out seeing it but I've been hearing quite a lot about it in the news lately.
Another little anecdote to share with you all. Here at this internet cafe & I suspect at lots of others, I tend to see a lot of young men (teens, early 20's) in here every day, all day playing on these weird & sort of violent looking video games. I suspect that they play in teams, because some of them are wearing head sets to communicate w/ other players, or they're here w/ friends. Seems like a weird way to pass the time during the day. That's almost as strange as seeing some of these guys walking around on the sidewalks & coming off of buses & trams barefoot.
Things that make you go hmmmm.
That's all for now, dear readers, tune in tomorrow as they say.
Lisa xo
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Happy Happy, Joy Joy!
Check this out from yesterday: http://www.koala.net/photo/2202016831en.htm
This was a totally amazing experience, I highly recommend it! :-D
This was a totally amazing experience, I highly recommend it! :-D
Friday, February 22, 2008
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
Wow, wow, wow, WOW!!!! What an awesome day! The trip was only 9 minutes out of the down town area, so not very far away. My moment with my koala was soon upon me, & I couldn't wait. Well, it was worth the wait, because the very first thing I did as soon as I got there was go & scope out where the pictures were taken. I paid my $15 & fulfilled one of the things I've so wanted to do. It was the coolest thing ever! Now, koalas are surprisingly hefty, but so cute! We had been warned by our bus driver before hand not to squeeze him too hard, otherwise, he'd pee on you, luckily I got through it un-peed on! I wish there was a way to show you the pictures here, but let me just tell you, there's definitely a look of unbridled joy on my face.
While there, I also saw a number of native birds, like Lorikeets, parakeets, kookaburras & parrots. I also went into the kangaroo pen with my little $1 bag of 'roo food intent on hand feeding them. At first, I only saw a couple of babies that I couldn't get quite near, there were also a pair of massive looking emu's around. But then, over another little hill, there were loads of them along with lots of other people feeding & taking pictures of them. So, over I went, & these kangas must know the drill, because as soon as they saw me with my little bag of food, they decided that I was there new best friend! But again I'd get the food out & with a flat hand, start feeding them which was the coolest thing, I'd always been a bit nervous of getting kicked or boxed by one of them but they were surprisingly friendly, which was a good thing. I got a lot of great pictures of them & the koalas today. After Lone Pine, we went for a drive up to the scenic view of Mt Koot-Tha which I'd seen the previous day with my friend Elissa, but it was nice to see it again, although it was a lot hazier today than it was yesterday because of the extreme heat today. I'm not bragging here but it was around 34 degrees here today, which would translate I assume to the high 90's. I'm just saying is all.
When I got back into the city today, the only thing I could think of was a burger, because I was so hungry; up until now, I've been resisting going to McDonalds, but today I caved. It was the best tasting hamburger I've had in a while. I won't be making a habit of this!
The next tour on my adgenda is going to be the Steve Irwin Australia Zoo, then I can cross that one off too. On Sunday, I'll be getting together with another friend, Elisabeth, who's going to take me out to the coast to see some of the beaches, which I'm looking forward to seeing.
Hope all is well, thanks for reading.
Lisa xo
While there, I also saw a number of native birds, like Lorikeets, parakeets, kookaburras & parrots. I also went into the kangaroo pen with my little $1 bag of 'roo food intent on hand feeding them. At first, I only saw a couple of babies that I couldn't get quite near, there were also a pair of massive looking emu's around. But then, over another little hill, there were loads of them along with lots of other people feeding & taking pictures of them. So, over I went, & these kangas must know the drill, because as soon as they saw me with my little bag of food, they decided that I was there new best friend! But again I'd get the food out & with a flat hand, start feeding them which was the coolest thing, I'd always been a bit nervous of getting kicked or boxed by one of them but they were surprisingly friendly, which was a good thing. I got a lot of great pictures of them & the koalas today. After Lone Pine, we went for a drive up to the scenic view of Mt Koot-Tha which I'd seen the previous day with my friend Elissa, but it was nice to see it again, although it was a lot hazier today than it was yesterday because of the extreme heat today. I'm not bragging here but it was around 34 degrees here today, which would translate I assume to the high 90's. I'm just saying is all.
When I got back into the city today, the only thing I could think of was a burger, because I was so hungry; up until now, I've been resisting going to McDonalds, but today I caved. It was the best tasting hamburger I've had in a while. I won't be making a habit of this!
The next tour on my adgenda is going to be the Steve Irwin Australia Zoo, then I can cross that one off too. On Sunday, I'll be getting together with another friend, Elisabeth, who's going to take me out to the coast to see some of the beaches, which I'm looking forward to seeing.
Hope all is well, thanks for reading.
Lisa xo
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Just a Quick Note
Hello dear readers....Just a small reminder, please remember to leave your names in the comment box along with your comments....You don't have to register or sign up in order to leave comments, just click on "anonymous" & do the word verification thing...I'd just like to know who's talking back at me....Thanks much!
Lisa xo
*Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary tour tomorrow, can't wait! Details of how it all goes down to follow - stay tuned!
Lisa xo
*Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary tour tomorrow, can't wait! Details of how it all goes down to follow - stay tuned!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Wednesday in Brisbane
Today was spent w/ another new friend, Elissa, who generously offered to drive me around Brisbane to show me some of the sights. We went to the Gallery of Modern Art which is located on South Bank, across the river from where I'm staying, where we took in a really extensive exhibit of the artist Andy Warhol, which was very interesting. I find a lot of his portrait stuff facinating, but then there's some of his other works that you look at & just wonder how it could be considered art, but it's all interesting just the same.
After that, we walked along a path which led to other galleries & museums, saw quite a few native birds & some water dragons which were really neat, there was one particular one that was really big, bigger than the other ones; then stopped to have a bite to eat. After that, Elissa took me to a look out area atop the Mt Coot-tha mountain; despite the fact that it was still partially cloudy & still looking like it's going to rain, even though it hasn't yet, the views from the top were fantastic, & I did manage to get some great pictures of of views of Brisbane city & beyond & with a little help from Photo Shop when I get home I should be able to make them stand out a bit. After that, Elissa drove me through the Botanical gardens, where we got out to have a bit of a walk & look around. The gardens are really beautiful, with lots of great, green plants & trees & my new favorite flowers, the Frangipani trees that have the beautiful, fragrant blooms on them. Those are the types of flowers that they make Hawaiian leis out of. After that, it was time to part ways but there is a chance that we will have another visit early next week before I head off for Sydney.
Tomorrow, possibly another meet up w/ another new friend. I'll let you know what happens then. For now, I'm off in search of a bite to eat. Bye for now,
Lisa xo
After that, we walked along a path which led to other galleries & museums, saw quite a few native birds & some water dragons which were really neat, there was one particular one that was really big, bigger than the other ones; then stopped to have a bite to eat. After that, Elissa took me to a look out area atop the Mt Coot-tha mountain; despite the fact that it was still partially cloudy & still looking like it's going to rain, even though it hasn't yet, the views from the top were fantastic, & I did manage to get some great pictures of of views of Brisbane city & beyond & with a little help from Photo Shop when I get home I should be able to make them stand out a bit. After that, Elissa drove me through the Botanical gardens, where we got out to have a bit of a walk & look around. The gardens are really beautiful, with lots of great, green plants & trees & my new favorite flowers, the Frangipani trees that have the beautiful, fragrant blooms on them. Those are the types of flowers that they make Hawaiian leis out of. After that, it was time to part ways but there is a chance that we will have another visit early next week before I head off for Sydney.
Tomorrow, possibly another meet up w/ another new friend. I'll let you know what happens then. For now, I'm off in search of a bite to eat. Bye for now,
Lisa xo
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
So Far
Hey everyone, spent another day today walking around getting the lay of the land, it still hasn't rained yet but it keeps threatening to, but at least the warm breezes will make it easier to take. Well today I think I've had another really good day, because I've booked my first tour for Brisbane, to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, & I'm very excited about this one! I can't wait to go & see the koalas again up close & get to hold one & get a picture taken with them, this is definitely one of the major things I've wanted to do, so I'll be able to check that off my list. After I booked it at the tourist info centre, I walked out feeling incredibly happy for some reason, because I'm here & I really do think that living well & feeling so happy is a great, albeit slightly weird feeling, but I'm not complaining.
Tomorrow, I'll be meeting up w/ another message board friend, who's generously offered to show me around via a car, so I'm looking forward to getting out a bit beyond the really nice but "concrete jungle" of my immediate area. Later on in the week, I'll also be booking another tour to go to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, another "biggie" that I'm looking forward to as well. I've also done a bit of retail therapy, which is always good; I picked up the prettiest sterling silver bracelet this morning & a new pair of "sunnies", aka: sunglasses. I definitely think I'll be coming home with more than one suitcase by the end of this trip!
More in the coming days, bye for now
xoxo Lisa
Tomorrow, I'll be meeting up w/ another message board friend, who's generously offered to show me around via a car, so I'm looking forward to getting out a bit beyond the really nice but "concrete jungle" of my immediate area. Later on in the week, I'll also be booking another tour to go to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, another "biggie" that I'm looking forward to as well. I've also done a bit of retail therapy, which is always good; I picked up the prettiest sterling silver bracelet this morning & a new pair of "sunnies", aka: sunglasses. I definitely think I'll be coming home with more than one suitcase by the end of this trip!
More in the coming days, bye for now
xoxo Lisa
Monday, February 18, 2008
BRISBANE
Just a quick little post to let you all know I've made it into Brisbane, about an hour ago. So far, it's not raining...yet, the sun is actually out a bit & it's hot & humid. My hotel room is pretty nice, it's a bit bigger & has more tv channels than the one in Melbourne, not that I'll be watching much tv except at night in bed. The hotel internet access was very pricey so I shall not be making my postings & checking emails from there. The nice girl at the desk told me about a place, which I'm at right now, that is very reasonably priced, on Queen Street, is only a five minute walk from the hotel, which is not too bad at all. If my postings become a bit sparse, it'll probably depend on how much I feel like coming down here to use the web, but I promise to try to be consistant!
So at the moment, all I really feel like doing is finding something to eat, this Queen Street area seems to be a popular place to shop & eat, so I have a feeling I'll be spending a bit of time getting to know this area. Won't be doing much else tonight beyond getting my bearings & settled & seeing where I am exactly. In the coming days, I'll be looking in to day tours & hopefully, fingers crossed, getting up to see the Steve Irwin zoo & maybe Lone Pine Koala sanctuary.
Oh, one little quirky story I have to share with you all. Once I got into Brisbane airport & out & got my shuttle arranged, as I sat waiting for it to come, along came this little old lady, she seemed friendly enough & we struck up a conversation. It seems she'd been out hiking & visiting around & was now going to stay in Brisbane for a bit. We talked a bit about where I was from, what I was doing & blah blah blah. Then we got on to the shuttle & we were off; while my head was doing the swivel thing, looking around at everything, I happened to glance down at the nice little old ladies' legs. They were the hairiest things I've ever seen in my life! Now, after you've all had a good laugh at that, you're probably asking why I'd mention something like that. It's just one of those weird, funny strange things that I happen to notice. You can all roll your eyes now.
Until later,
Lisa xoxo
So at the moment, all I really feel like doing is finding something to eat, this Queen Street area seems to be a popular place to shop & eat, so I have a feeling I'll be spending a bit of time getting to know this area. Won't be doing much else tonight beyond getting my bearings & settled & seeing where I am exactly. In the coming days, I'll be looking in to day tours & hopefully, fingers crossed, getting up to see the Steve Irwin zoo & maybe Lone Pine Koala sanctuary.
Oh, one little quirky story I have to share with you all. Once I got into Brisbane airport & out & got my shuttle arranged, as I sat waiting for it to come, along came this little old lady, she seemed friendly enough & we struck up a conversation. It seems she'd been out hiking & visiting around & was now going to stay in Brisbane for a bit. We talked a bit about where I was from, what I was doing & blah blah blah. Then we got on to the shuttle & we were off; while my head was doing the swivel thing, looking around at everything, I happened to glance down at the nice little old ladies' legs. They were the hairiest things I've ever seen in my life! Now, after you've all had a good laugh at that, you're probably asking why I'd mention something like that. It's just one of those weird, funny strange things that I happen to notice. You can all roll your eyes now.
Until later,
Lisa xoxo
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Last Night in Melbourne
Well, I'm now in my final hours staying in Melbourne, tomorrow will be a busy travel day off to presumably wet Brisbane, but I'm all prepared, well sort of, I went & bought a cheapo umbrella! So some of the observances I've noticed while out walking around the town, twice today, I've seen guys walking down the street with no shoes on - who does that!?!? I guess that's a new "cool" thing to do, but I guess it must really make me old because I couldn't imagine doing that & wondering what the heck's on the bottoms of their feet, but that's Melbourners for you I guess!
And the women in this town are very interesting dressers as well, I've noticed a lot lately that young women mostly, & teenagers, have adopted wearing think leggings underneath skirts & shorts. When it's done well, it actually looks pretty cool, but I don't think that this is one trend I'll be taking on any time soon, hahah. Another trend, that seems to be very universal as I know I've seen this back home, are young women who may be decidedly on the heavier side deciding to leave the house wearing something skimpy-ish. Again, not something I would ever do, but, that's what makes everyone individual & I guess they've just embraced their curves.
Actually, young or old, the people watching has been really very interesting. I have yet to see one really unattractive looking Aussie, they're all very pretty & good looking I have to say. Because my stupid wonky leg was still giving me a problem, I really didn't do too much on the last day here, mostly because walking at the best of times has been a bit challenging, so I mostly just wandered through the South Gate market again, & this time, I even made a few purchases that I'm quite pleased with myself about. There truly are some really exceptional & creative people selling their wares down there & it was really great to see. There were also a few performers doing their thing for the crowds which was fun to watch. As I sat & watched this one young guy doing acrobatic things, I happened to notice a little boy holding a dragon/lizard type animal, I didn't happen to get a picture of it, although I wish I had, I just wasn't sure whether or not his mother would've appreciated it.
So this is about all there is for Melbourne, my next dispatch will be from Brisbane, if I haven't washed away somewhere.
Lisa xoxo
And the women in this town are very interesting dressers as well, I've noticed a lot lately that young women mostly, & teenagers, have adopted wearing think leggings underneath skirts & shorts. When it's done well, it actually looks pretty cool, but I don't think that this is one trend I'll be taking on any time soon, hahah. Another trend, that seems to be very universal as I know I've seen this back home, are young women who may be decidedly on the heavier side deciding to leave the house wearing something skimpy-ish. Again, not something I would ever do, but, that's what makes everyone individual & I guess they've just embraced their curves.
Actually, young or old, the people watching has been really very interesting. I have yet to see one really unattractive looking Aussie, they're all very pretty & good looking I have to say. Because my stupid wonky leg was still giving me a problem, I really didn't do too much on the last day here, mostly because walking at the best of times has been a bit challenging, so I mostly just wandered through the South Gate market again, & this time, I even made a few purchases that I'm quite pleased with myself about. There truly are some really exceptional & creative people selling their wares down there & it was really great to see. There were also a few performers doing their thing for the crowds which was fun to watch. As I sat & watched this one young guy doing acrobatic things, I happened to notice a little boy holding a dragon/lizard type animal, I didn't happen to get a picture of it, although I wish I had, I just wasn't sure whether or not his mother would've appreciated it.
So this is about all there is for Melbourne, my next dispatch will be from Brisbane, if I haven't washed away somewhere.
Lisa xoxo
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Last Full Day - Melbourne
Hello all, well today being Sunday, this will be my last full day in Melbourne, in the last couple of days, I've been continuing to wander around the streets of M town looking around at this & that & checking it all out. I've spent a lot of time around the South Gate area, which is right down by the river, & across from Federation Square. There's lots to see & do (& eat) down there, with lots of great photo taking possibilities. I've also met up with a few message board friends which has been great, they've been fantastic hosts, showing me around various Crowded House related notable areas, in particular, one of the houses that Neil Finn used to live in!
I also went to a couple of movies at night during the week, since I'm really not into going to pubs or clubs alone, even though I know I probably could, those of you who know me, know I'm not into that so it was all good. The closest movie theatre just happened to conveniently be right around the corner from my hotel so I went to see Charlie Wilson's War, which wasn't bad, 27 Dresses, which was okay & Dan in Real Life, which I could barely sit through.
Being Sunday, I'm going to go back down to South Gate today, as they have their market open, which I did see last weekend, but I want to take a closer look at things. I'll also have to try & wrestle w/ my bulging suitcase, not that I've bought much of anything really, just that I brought waaaaaay more than I needed, I don't know what I was thinking! The weather, I promise I'll try not to rub it in too much, has been really nice, pretty tough to take...Not! So I guess that's about all I have for now until I get into Brisbane some time tomorrow & settled in. I hope everyone's staying safe & warm, I'm thinking of you all as I put my face up into the sun.
Lisa xoxo
I also went to a couple of movies at night during the week, since I'm really not into going to pubs or clubs alone, even though I know I probably could, those of you who know me, know I'm not into that so it was all good. The closest movie theatre just happened to conveniently be right around the corner from my hotel so I went to see Charlie Wilson's War, which wasn't bad, 27 Dresses, which was okay & Dan in Real Life, which I could barely sit through.
Being Sunday, I'm going to go back down to South Gate today, as they have their market open, which I did see last weekend, but I want to take a closer look at things. I'll also have to try & wrestle w/ my bulging suitcase, not that I've bought much of anything really, just that I brought waaaaaay more than I needed, I don't know what I was thinking! The weather, I promise I'll try not to rub it in too much, has been really nice, pretty tough to take...Not! So I guess that's about all I have for now until I get into Brisbane some time tomorrow & settled in. I hope everyone's staying safe & warm, I'm thinking of you all as I put my face up into the sun.
Lisa xoxo
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Valentines' Day in Melbourne
So yesterday was the day of hearts & flowers, since I really don't care for this day, I decided I was going to avoid all of that stuff, which wasn't easy since every second person I saw walking down the street had bouquets of flowers in their arms. Anyway, I went to check out an Aboriginal art gallery, they are in the process of closing their shop & were selling things off, they had really beautiful pieces of art, some of which I would have loved to take home with me but unfortunately, the prices of the pieces stopped me from doing that. It really amazes me how interesting & detailed the art is, with many different colours, patterns & textures used.
After I left there, I decided I was going to head back down to the South Gate area & look into the river cruise. Got on the cruise which was an hour long, up & down the Yarra River. While mostly seeing a lot of the industrial sides of it, the captain of the boat also pointed out all of the development along the Docklands areas too. In London England, they have the "Eye" farris wheel, well apparently Melbourne is going to have their own version of it & I happened to see that it's well on it's way to being built, to be completed perhaps later this year or early next.
The captain also mentioned a sky deck that was well worth seeing too, which is located in the tallest condo building in Melbourne. That would be my next journey, which was well worth seeing. It's 88 floors off the ground, & the view turned out to be excellent. As I'd gotten off the boat, the sky was opening up & the sun coming out finally, so the view was as far as my eyes could see in any direction. I now have well over 700 pictures, the newest ones being the awesome views of Melbourne in every direction!
After I was finished with that, it was finally time to stop & have a bite to eat; you'd think that with all this walking I'm doing, I'd be hungry all the time, but my appetite is still a bit wonky, not that that's a bad thing. I decided on a small pizza, one which had chicken & corn on it, it turned out to be quite tasty, I also thought I'd finally get myself a drink, I had my usual, a strawberry daquirie, which turned out to taste a bit different than I'm used to, more alcohol than sweet, & no sugar rimmed glass, but I did manage to drink most of it, so it was fine. On the way back to the hotel, I decided that I wanted to indulge in something sweet & chocolate, so I stopped at one of the food kiosks & picked up a very decadent slice of chocolate cake - yumm!
Today (Friday) I'm off to meet another new friend, Ron, later this afternoon, & I think some time after that I'm going to try & get in to see another gallery down at Fed Square, the Centre for the Moving Image, which holds all things in the manner of audio/video/film/art. I may also take another run through the National Gallery because at the Aboriginal shop, one of the nice ladies working there asked if I'd seen the collections, which I must have missed, so I'll be checking that out too.
After I left there, I decided I was going to head back down to the South Gate area & look into the river cruise. Got on the cruise which was an hour long, up & down the Yarra River. While mostly seeing a lot of the industrial sides of it, the captain of the boat also pointed out all of the development along the Docklands areas too. In London England, they have the "Eye" farris wheel, well apparently Melbourne is going to have their own version of it & I happened to see that it's well on it's way to being built, to be completed perhaps later this year or early next.
The captain also mentioned a sky deck that was well worth seeing too, which is located in the tallest condo building in Melbourne. That would be my next journey, which was well worth seeing. It's 88 floors off the ground, & the view turned out to be excellent. As I'd gotten off the boat, the sky was opening up & the sun coming out finally, so the view was as far as my eyes could see in any direction. I now have well over 700 pictures, the newest ones being the awesome views of Melbourne in every direction!
After I was finished with that, it was finally time to stop & have a bite to eat; you'd think that with all this walking I'm doing, I'd be hungry all the time, but my appetite is still a bit wonky, not that that's a bad thing. I decided on a small pizza, one which had chicken & corn on it, it turned out to be quite tasty, I also thought I'd finally get myself a drink, I had my usual, a strawberry daquirie, which turned out to taste a bit different than I'm used to, more alcohol than sweet, & no sugar rimmed glass, but I did manage to drink most of it, so it was fine. On the way back to the hotel, I decided that I wanted to indulge in something sweet & chocolate, so I stopped at one of the food kiosks & picked up a very decadent slice of chocolate cake - yumm!
Today (Friday) I'm off to meet another new friend, Ron, later this afternoon, & I think some time after that I'm going to try & get in to see another gallery down at Fed Square, the Centre for the Moving Image, which holds all things in the manner of audio/video/film/art. I may also take another run through the National Gallery because at the Aboriginal shop, one of the nice ladies working there asked if I'd seen the collections, which I must have missed, so I'll be checking that out too.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
New Day, Another Big Walk
Here is what's gone on for the last two days. Yesterday, Tuesday February 12, 08, I met up with another internet friend, the lovely Robyn, who I met on the same message board as the others. She was just getting over the flu & a cold, but she was so good to meet up with me & show me the very pretty St Kilda area. So off we went, on my first major tram ride, that was fun. When we got there, as I looked out at the ocean, it reminded me very much of a couple of different things. The beach area reminded me a bit of Miami, although there wasn't a hord of people out on the beach at the time. Then there's the main drag, which really reminded me of Queen Street in Toronto, particularly the Beaches area, because it had tons of funky little shops & cafes. Probably the best part though were all the cake shops;. I pretty much drooled my way down the street!
I took pictures of all the yummies, so you'll all see what I mean later, we decided to have lunch at a place called "Big Mouth", which was not bad, it had all open windows & while it was a tad breezy, it was nice to sit & watch the people & traffic going by. We had desert at this little cafe that served absolutely nothing but chocolate, I was in heaven. They had chocolate fountains in the window, so that pretty much sealed that decision. We decided on this thing, it's best described as deep fried elephant ear things, only in curly strips, & we had a warm pot of milk chocolate to dip it in. TO ~ DIE~ FOR!!!! It was also very filling, but it was so good!
Later on, we came back into the area I am staying at & walked around a bit more, then it was time for Robyn to take off & I was ready for a bit of a rest. Now I have to tell you all something. My eating habits have gotten a bit weird lately. It seems that, while I'll eat some cereal for breakfast, I seem to either skip lunch entirely, or have it late in the day & then I don't eat dinner. If I happen to be hungry enough to eat dinner, which hasn't been too much lately, it's been a bit difficult to actually find something other than Thai, Vietnamese, or Chinese food to eat. All the little alley way eateries are either busy, or don't have anything that appeals, or the more formal looking restaurants, I'm just not dressed right for. Or, I've also found that if I've spent the entire day walking around, I've usually been too tired to bother eating anything & I've just wandered around aimlessly. Yes, I know that's silly. Anyway, it hasn't really occurred to me to mind. Last night though, at around 9pm-ish, I finally decided to just go to the Thai place that is attached to the hotel. With the exception of two other tables, it was not busy. After my experience there, I can see why. There were two girls serving last night & it seemed to take forever to get any service. I'd decided on what I wanted, but then I changed my mind & almost didn't get to make that choice because flagging down the girl who initially served me was a bit difficult. Needless to say, I think that was my first & last visit.
Wednesday February 13, 2008:
So today, I thought that it might be a good idea to just relax & take it a bit easy, since it wasn't shaping up to be a good day weather-wise. I figured it would be a good day to do some laundry, not that I've run out of clean undies or anything, but just a good idea to keep on top of it. Then I realized I would need some detergent. I don't know why I never thought of that before I left. So I ran off to Coles grocery store to buy some, along w/ dryer sheets & zip lock bags. I bought the smallest amount of stuff I could find. Came back & did my laundry, then I thought I'd go check out the hot tub (thanks Dad). It did seem to help with the sore leg for a while, so I may have to do that again. After I cleaned up & had a shower, I watched some of the reconsiliation ceremony on tv, which is a very big deal around here today. The new prime minister was making his "I'm sorry" speech, it was quite interesting, later, after I went back out again & down to Fed Square, I noticed that there was a rally going on as well as a really big crowd down there.
When I did go out, I decided I was either going to a) look into the river cruises or b) try to find the Melbourne Aquarium. I did both, I'll try to do the river cruise tomorrow, but the aquarium was a bit more of a challenge. I stupidly ended up walking down St Kilda Road a fair ways instead of walking down Flinders' Street, which took a good 45 minutes off my day. It was a nice walk & all but it was one of those, "geez, I'm so dumb" moments. So I got back on the right track finally, after badgering a man on a cel phone, who kindly directed me the right way. It was worth it because the aquarium exhibits were really cool. There were many pretty, colourful fish, some small & some really huge fish in the tanks, along with turtles, sharks, eels I think. There were also more than a few sting rays. There were a couple in there that were utterly enormous! The way the tanks were situated, it enabled them to swim over our heads. It's really mind boggling to have a huge sting ray floating serenely over your head, you definitely wouldn't want to have an encounter with one of those things in the ocean! I also saw species of jelly fish, but no box jellies, which they didn't seem to have.
After the walk back to the hotel again, I had a rest for a bit then decided to make myself get out & find something to eat. I didn't stray far, there is a small place on the corner of Little Collins' Street & Swanston that I decided to try. The fetticcini bolognaise (sorry, I know I may not be spelling that right) wasn't bad, I definitely think I'll go there again. And it seemed I went & got an appetite back, because I went across the street to another place for a spring roll & my first piece of dim sum, both of which were good too. I was tempted to get a piece of a gooey desert the first place had, but I'm being good. For now.
Good night for now.
Lisa xo
I took pictures of all the yummies, so you'll all see what I mean later, we decided to have lunch at a place called "Big Mouth", which was not bad, it had all open windows & while it was a tad breezy, it was nice to sit & watch the people & traffic going by. We had desert at this little cafe that served absolutely nothing but chocolate, I was in heaven. They had chocolate fountains in the window, so that pretty much sealed that decision. We decided on this thing, it's best described as deep fried elephant ear things, only in curly strips, & we had a warm pot of milk chocolate to dip it in. TO ~ DIE~ FOR!!!! It was also very filling, but it was so good!
Later on, we came back into the area I am staying at & walked around a bit more, then it was time for Robyn to take off & I was ready for a bit of a rest. Now I have to tell you all something. My eating habits have gotten a bit weird lately. It seems that, while I'll eat some cereal for breakfast, I seem to either skip lunch entirely, or have it late in the day & then I don't eat dinner. If I happen to be hungry enough to eat dinner, which hasn't been too much lately, it's been a bit difficult to actually find something other than Thai, Vietnamese, or Chinese food to eat. All the little alley way eateries are either busy, or don't have anything that appeals, or the more formal looking restaurants, I'm just not dressed right for. Or, I've also found that if I've spent the entire day walking around, I've usually been too tired to bother eating anything & I've just wandered around aimlessly. Yes, I know that's silly. Anyway, it hasn't really occurred to me to mind. Last night though, at around 9pm-ish, I finally decided to just go to the Thai place that is attached to the hotel. With the exception of two other tables, it was not busy. After my experience there, I can see why. There were two girls serving last night & it seemed to take forever to get any service. I'd decided on what I wanted, but then I changed my mind & almost didn't get to make that choice because flagging down the girl who initially served me was a bit difficult. Needless to say, I think that was my first & last visit.
Wednesday February 13, 2008:
So today, I thought that it might be a good idea to just relax & take it a bit easy, since it wasn't shaping up to be a good day weather-wise. I figured it would be a good day to do some laundry, not that I've run out of clean undies or anything, but just a good idea to keep on top of it. Then I realized I would need some detergent. I don't know why I never thought of that before I left. So I ran off to Coles grocery store to buy some, along w/ dryer sheets & zip lock bags. I bought the smallest amount of stuff I could find. Came back & did my laundry, then I thought I'd go check out the hot tub (thanks Dad). It did seem to help with the sore leg for a while, so I may have to do that again. After I cleaned up & had a shower, I watched some of the reconsiliation ceremony on tv, which is a very big deal around here today. The new prime minister was making his "I'm sorry" speech, it was quite interesting, later, after I went back out again & down to Fed Square, I noticed that there was a rally going on as well as a really big crowd down there.
When I did go out, I decided I was either going to a) look into the river cruises or b) try to find the Melbourne Aquarium. I did both, I'll try to do the river cruise tomorrow, but the aquarium was a bit more of a challenge. I stupidly ended up walking down St Kilda Road a fair ways instead of walking down Flinders' Street, which took a good 45 minutes off my day. It was a nice walk & all but it was one of those, "geez, I'm so dumb" moments. So I got back on the right track finally, after badgering a man on a cel phone, who kindly directed me the right way. It was worth it because the aquarium exhibits were really cool. There were many pretty, colourful fish, some small & some really huge fish in the tanks, along with turtles, sharks, eels I think. There were also more than a few sting rays. There were a couple in there that were utterly enormous! The way the tanks were situated, it enabled them to swim over our heads. It's really mind boggling to have a huge sting ray floating serenely over your head, you definitely wouldn't want to have an encounter with one of those things in the ocean! I also saw species of jelly fish, but no box jellies, which they didn't seem to have.
After the walk back to the hotel again, I had a rest for a bit then decided to make myself get out & find something to eat. I didn't stray far, there is a small place on the corner of Little Collins' Street & Swanston that I decided to try. The fetticcini bolognaise (sorry, I know I may not be spelling that right) wasn't bad, I definitely think I'll go there again. And it seemed I went & got an appetite back, because I went across the street to another place for a spring roll & my first piece of dim sum, both of which were good too. I was tempted to get a piece of a gooey desert the first place had, but I'm being good. For now.
Good night for now.
Lisa xo
Monday, February 11, 2008
Best Day Yet!
After a false start, I was off on my day tour of the Great Ocean Road area. Everyone, let me first start off by saying....If you have never been to Australia yet - GO! This tour turned out to be the best thing I've done so far....Every inch of Great Ocean Road is just ridiculously breath taking! The tour was A-MAZING, & Chris, the tour guide, was funny & informative, he had lots of stories to tell & was a terrific host for the day.
At this point, I think I now have well over 400 pictures, a lot of which was taken on Great Ocean Road today. I saw the 12 apostiles, London Bridge as it's known, I even got convinced to go on the 10 minute helicopter ride, giving me a birds' eye view from the sky of everything we'd just seen from the ground!
Never in my life did I ever think I'd do that but I did & it was such a blast! There was just a small group of people in the van, so it was totally manageable. There were lots of stops along the way, & at one of them, we got to see a couple of wild koalas up in a tree, which was so cool! We also saw lots of beautiful colourful parrots in trees, surfers in the waves, at least one wild kangaroo, a guy up in a motorized sail up in the sky, a lighthouse at Split Point, lookout areas all over Cape Patton, another area we drove through. There are just too many little places to mention but as I said, I've got a ton of new amazing pictures to share with you all once I get home. Along the way, there was also lots of farm land, tons of cows, & some sheep, we also saw a couple of eagles. At one point, we made a stop at a rain forest area for a 20 minute walk through which was just long enough (for me-hah) to be interesting & again, I've got some really cool pictures from in there too.
I have to tell you all something. I absolutely love the smell of salty sea air. There's something so powerful about it, I think it does something almost calming to your senses, between that & the breeze, by the time got back to the city, I'm feeling pretty mellow right now. And between smelling the sea air & watching the waves crashing in the surf, I'd say that today was definitely the best day I've spent here in Melbourne yet, & I still have a week to go.
All the best,
Lisa
At this point, I think I now have well over 400 pictures, a lot of which was taken on Great Ocean Road today. I saw the 12 apostiles, London Bridge as it's known, I even got convinced to go on the 10 minute helicopter ride, giving me a birds' eye view from the sky of everything we'd just seen from the ground!
Never in my life did I ever think I'd do that but I did & it was such a blast! There was just a small group of people in the van, so it was totally manageable. There were lots of stops along the way, & at one of them, we got to see a couple of wild koalas up in a tree, which was so cool! We also saw lots of beautiful colourful parrots in trees, surfers in the waves, at least one wild kangaroo, a guy up in a motorized sail up in the sky, a lighthouse at Split Point, lookout areas all over Cape Patton, another area we drove through. There are just too many little places to mention but as I said, I've got a ton of new amazing pictures to share with you all once I get home. Along the way, there was also lots of farm land, tons of cows, & some sheep, we also saw a couple of eagles. At one point, we made a stop at a rain forest area for a 20 minute walk through which was just long enough (for me-hah) to be interesting & again, I've got some really cool pictures from in there too.
I have to tell you all something. I absolutely love the smell of salty sea air. There's something so powerful about it, I think it does something almost calming to your senses, between that & the breeze, by the time got back to the city, I'm feeling pretty mellow right now. And between smelling the sea air & watching the waves crashing in the surf, I'd say that today was definitely the best day I've spent here in Melbourne yet, & I still have a week to go.
All the best,
Lisa
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Chinese New Year - Year of the Rat
It was another gorgeous sunny day today, so I spent time walking up to the National Library on Swanston Street, I brought a newspaper with me & decided to sit in the sun for a bit which was nice. Later on in the day I would go back & into the library to have a look around.
When I got back to my hotel, I met up with another new friend, Reanne, & off we went down to Fed Square to walk & talk, then over to the outdoor market at SouthGate which was really nice, there were lots of lovely wares on display for sale, a few things I came close to buying but in the end just looked at it all, really great stuff though. My friend Karen will be happy to know that I've finally tried my first Lambington cake, which is this chocolatey cake thing with chocolate icing & jam in the middle, very tasty! Nearby was another nice art gallery, the name escapes me at the moment, when I recall it later I'll post what it is. After that Reanne & I parted ways, she showed me what to do on the tram, which I decided to take after my leg started acting up again.
When I got back up to my area, I was going to go have a bit of a rest, but I heard all this fire cracker noise & started walking towards it. As some of you might know, they're celebrating the Chinese New Year, so there were lots of people around Chinatown, so I went to have a look & was rewarded by seeing all the colourful dragons & the drummers. They were also setting off the fire crackers & you wouldnt' want to stand too close to them because wow, when they go off it's extremely loud! I managed to take quite a few good pictures of the dragons too, so there will be lots to see of that.
After a while, having grown tired & a bit hungry, I decided to finally make my way back to my hotel & have a rest, which was much needed. I picked up something to eat & bring it back & had a good rest. Spoke to mom for a bit when she called. I think I'm going to have an early night tonight because tomorrow I'll be off on the Great Ocean Road day tour which I'm looking forward to. Will report on that soon.
When I got back to my hotel, I met up with another new friend, Reanne, & off we went down to Fed Square to walk & talk, then over to the outdoor market at SouthGate which was really nice, there were lots of lovely wares on display for sale, a few things I came close to buying but in the end just looked at it all, really great stuff though. My friend Karen will be happy to know that I've finally tried my first Lambington cake, which is this chocolatey cake thing with chocolate icing & jam in the middle, very tasty! Nearby was another nice art gallery, the name escapes me at the moment, when I recall it later I'll post what it is. After that Reanne & I parted ways, she showed me what to do on the tram, which I decided to take after my leg started acting up again.
When I got back up to my area, I was going to go have a bit of a rest, but I heard all this fire cracker noise & started walking towards it. As some of you might know, they're celebrating the Chinese New Year, so there were lots of people around Chinatown, so I went to have a look & was rewarded by seeing all the colourful dragons & the drummers. They were also setting off the fire crackers & you wouldnt' want to stand too close to them because wow, when they go off it's extremely loud! I managed to take quite a few good pictures of the dragons too, so there will be lots to see of that.
After a while, having grown tired & a bit hungry, I decided to finally make my way back to my hotel & have a rest, which was much needed. I picked up something to eat & bring it back & had a good rest. Spoke to mom for a bit when she called. I think I'm going to have an early night tonight because tomorrow I'll be off on the Great Ocean Road day tour which I'm looking forward to. Will report on that soon.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Melbourne
Well I've been here for a few days now, I didn't do too much on the first day, just wanting to get used to the area & all. The hotel seems nice, it's located in a really good area. The last two days were spent doing a lot of walking, up & down the main streets having a look around. Yesterday I walked down to Federation Square which was only a few blocks away, it reminds me a bit of Younge & Dundas Square in Toronto, where lots of people hang out, & performers play there too I think. I went all through the National Gallery which I really enjoyed, saw lots of different art by many great artists, mostly Australian I think. Walking up & down Swanston Street is really interesting, with lots of shops & cafe's, the people watching is exceptional. It really does remind me a lot of NYC, because everyone seems to have a really unique sense of what is fashionable to them.
One of the things that was a bit of a shock is the prices of things. Yesterday I went & had pancakes for breakfast, just three pancakes & a small glass of apple juice mind you, ended up costing $14.50! Wow! So, I think I got smart, I happened to notice an IGA Express & decided to get some milk & cereal stuff, that will be breakfast from here on out I think, hahah.
I've done more walking in the last two days than I have in awhile, but it's been fairly easy & good then to get a sense of my surroundings. My hotel is bounded by Bourke Street, Collins Street, Swanston Street & they've all been fairly easy to navigate.
Met up w/ a girl named Alana yesterday, nice girl, interesting to talk to. There'll be a couple other meetups with other people too. For Monday, I've signed up to go on a day tour of Great Ocean Road, which I'm looking forward to, so it seems as the week rolls on, it's shaping up to be a pretty good experience.
Today, on Sunday, I believe they're doing Chinese New year celebrations, so I will probably go & have a looky-loo at that today. Chinatown is really colourful & interesting to see. I've also been through the shopping arcades which are quite attractive, although I'm really not buying anything, since it's all a bit more pricey than I would like to spend. Dad should get a good laugh out of that!
That's about it for now, but I'll be back after I do the tour for a full report on that. Bye for now!
Lisa
One of the things that was a bit of a shock is the prices of things. Yesterday I went & had pancakes for breakfast, just three pancakes & a small glass of apple juice mind you, ended up costing $14.50! Wow! So, I think I got smart, I happened to notice an IGA Express & decided to get some milk & cereal stuff, that will be breakfast from here on out I think, hahah.
I've done more walking in the last two days than I have in awhile, but it's been fairly easy & good then to get a sense of my surroundings. My hotel is bounded by Bourke Street, Collins Street, Swanston Street & they've all been fairly easy to navigate.
Met up w/ a girl named Alana yesterday, nice girl, interesting to talk to. There'll be a couple other meetups with other people too. For Monday, I've signed up to go on a day tour of Great Ocean Road, which I'm looking forward to, so it seems as the week rolls on, it's shaping up to be a pretty good experience.
Today, on Sunday, I believe they're doing Chinese New year celebrations, so I will probably go & have a looky-loo at that today. Chinatown is really colourful & interesting to see. I've also been through the shopping arcades which are quite attractive, although I'm really not buying anything, since it's all a bit more pricey than I would like to spend. Dad should get a good laugh out of that!
That's about it for now, but I'll be back after I do the tour for a full report on that. Bye for now!
Lisa
Friday, February 8, 2008
Last Days in Jesmond, Newcastle
I'm here in Melbourne but just to update you on the last two days spent with Derek, Wed & Thurs were a gift, because it actually got sunny & hot long enough that we were able to go out & actually see some great stuff!
Derek & I went to Blackbutt Koala Reserve on Wednesday, I finally got to get up close to a koala & they're even cuter than they are in pictures. I also so many beautiful & colourful birds, such as Kukaburras, Lorikeets, owls, & a peacock. There were also emus & kangas sunning themselves lazily in the sun. Later, we went for a walk through a trail which was lovely & peaceful, & quite long. There was a bit of an incline so I was huffing & puffing a bit, but the shade of the trees kept it from being too hot.
Thursday, we went out to Nelson's Bay, which once again had many gorgeous views of the ocean. By this time Dereks' lovely girlfriend Linda came up from Sydney for the weekend & joined us. In Port Stephens, we looked out at a look out called the Tomaree Radar Station, really beautiful 360 degree views from up there. Then we went to another area, a mountain called Tomaree Head, in Tomaree national park, where it was decided that "we", meaning all three of us, were going to go walk up to the summit, 161 metres up. Yes, I did it too, I really huffed & puffed a lot doing this, but it was a challenge & I did it okay, despite having to stop & sit a few times. The pay off was well worth it however because again of the 360 degree views from the top. I won't be disappointing any of you, I took loads of pictures, & having reviewd them, they turned out fantastic!
Once we were down from the mountain, we sat on the grass under a tree near the water & ate a lunch of sandwhiches that Derek & Linda had made up before we left. He then decided that he wanted to go for a swim, so we drove down the road a bit to a beach area. Now I hadn't thought to bring my suit with me, but I did stick my feet in, & it was shockingly like ice water! I don't know why I thought it would be warmer, given that it is summer, but it was quite refreshing anyway. It also felt really great to feel the sand squishing in between my toes!
At the moment, I'm almost out of internet time, which is a bit pricey at the hotel here in Melbourne, so I will continue the end of Newcastle in a day or two. Til then,
Lisa xo
Derek & I went to Blackbutt Koala Reserve on Wednesday, I finally got to get up close to a koala & they're even cuter than they are in pictures. I also so many beautiful & colourful birds, such as Kukaburras, Lorikeets, owls, & a peacock. There were also emus & kangas sunning themselves lazily in the sun. Later, we went for a walk through a trail which was lovely & peaceful, & quite long. There was a bit of an incline so I was huffing & puffing a bit, but the shade of the trees kept it from being too hot.
Thursday, we went out to Nelson's Bay, which once again had many gorgeous views of the ocean. By this time Dereks' lovely girlfriend Linda came up from Sydney for the weekend & joined us. In Port Stephens, we looked out at a look out called the Tomaree Radar Station, really beautiful 360 degree views from up there. Then we went to another area, a mountain called Tomaree Head, in Tomaree national park, where it was decided that "we", meaning all three of us, were going to go walk up to the summit, 161 metres up. Yes, I did it too, I really huffed & puffed a lot doing this, but it was a challenge & I did it okay, despite having to stop & sit a few times. The pay off was well worth it however because again of the 360 degree views from the top. I won't be disappointing any of you, I took loads of pictures, & having reviewd them, they turned out fantastic!
Once we were down from the mountain, we sat on the grass under a tree near the water & ate a lunch of sandwhiches that Derek & Linda had made up before we left. He then decided that he wanted to go for a swim, so we drove down the road a bit to a beach area. Now I hadn't thought to bring my suit with me, but I did stick my feet in, & it was shockingly like ice water! I don't know why I thought it would be warmer, given that it is summer, but it was quite refreshing anyway. It also felt really great to feel the sand squishing in between my toes!
At the moment, I'm almost out of internet time, which is a bit pricey at the hotel here in Melbourne, so I will continue the end of Newcastle in a day or two. Til then,
Lisa xo
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Another Sunny Day For Awhile
Just a quick post before I roll off to bed tonight, we got lucky & had another nice sunny hot day today, we took off for Nelson Bay to have a look around, I also climbed up a steep (sort of) mountain, courtesy of Derek. Also saw him do a speech with his Speechmasters group. When I have more time I"ll fill in a lot more details. Next up: MELBOURNE (hopefully with my luggage!)
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Brand New (Sunny!) Day
Wednesday, February 6....
So the rain stopped long enough last night (Tuesday) so that Derek could take me for a scenic drive down to the ocean & popular beach area near where his old house was. Despite the fact that it was still looking pretty stormy & the sky was still threatening burst open again, we were able to park & walk down the path & over to where the restaurant, Eats on the Beach was, where we ate dinner outside. The views are spectacular, I'll have to see what I can do about trying to post some pictures, but I may have to wait until after I come home to do that. Anyway, after dinner we drove a bit more & went to his friend Jeff's house & had a visit. His house was gorgeous & far more what I'd be used to than Derek's abode, it works for him though & that's okay, I certainly can't complain too much, he's been a great host so far!
This morning was great because for at least the better part of the day, it was sunny today! Derek went off to work for a few hours to do stuff, leaving me to once again putz around trying to find out the whereabouts of my missing suitcase.....Apparently, I was too dopey to notice that it had actually arrived last night after we'd gone out for dinner! Honestly, it was parked right outside my room where I am sleeping & this morning, I walked right past it without even noticing, so needless to say when I finally discovered it, I was doing a happy dance knowing I'd have more clean undies!
When Derek arrived home around noon, the plan was that we were going to drive out to the BlackButt Reserve to see some koalas & other cool & interesting creatures. I wasn't disappointed, we saw many beautifully coloured birds, some big some small, & almost all of them very vividly coloured. The day was sunny, with some clouds & hot, so it was a great day to do this. Once we'd gone through all of the exhibits, we went for a walk on the trail that's there, it was great until it started going up & down a lot, it wasn't long before I was huffing & puffing & hot & sweaty, for a minute there I thought Derek was secretly torturing me, but in all it was a good long walk.
Once we finished with our walk, there was a small koala presentation, one of the men working there had a female koala named Susie . He spoke about the species, & the few of us who were there got to come up closer to her & give her a scratch behind the ears & feed her a bit of her bottle. I have to say that while I didn't get to actually hold her, seeing them up close was really cool, they really are the cutest things to see, & she was very gentle & passive, & seemed perfectly at home having so much attention lavished on her.
Once we were done with Blackbutt, off we were again, we stopped by a small bakery to pick up a desert for our dinner at Louises' house. I picked out an apple cake with that really great confectioners icing on it & apple pieces in the middle, it would later turn out to be a good pick, eaten up by everyone. When we went back to the house, I decided I needed to pick up a few things so Derek drew out a map of how to walk over to the mall that was about a 10-15 minute walk away. While I was gone, he was going to mow his very tall grass in the backyard. Not that he found anything wrong with the length of his grass in his estimation, but he took enough ribbing about it to finally decide it needed a trim!
So off I went & made it there in good time, I went into the "Big W" store, which I'm told is the Australian Walmart. I picked out the few things I needed & I even ended up buying a really nice pair of fancy looking strappy (not too high) heels - Mom, I think you'll approve when you see them - at their Payless shoe store. With that, I decided to get out of there before I did some real damage. By the time I'd made it back to the house before the sky opened up & poured again, I could hear the rumbling in the sky as I walked back, so I went as fast as I could despite having gotten a small blister on the bottom of my foot from my "hike" earlier in the day.
After I'd changed clothes & Derek cleaned up a bit, we went off to Louises' house for dinner & for me to meet her girls, Ester, Acacia, & Mariah. They're all very cute, & very talented in arts & crafts, like their mom, they're into doing ceramics, Acacia set out to show us all of their creations which were really excellent. And they showed off their menagerie three cats, a dog, a very friendly & affectionate python (!!), & a fish tank of fish. Then we ended the night playing games on their X box which was a lot of fun.
So that's today in a nutshell, not sure what I'm doing tomorrow but I'm sure it'll be just as fun as today was, although it's supposed to rain again tomorrow.
So the rain stopped long enough last night (Tuesday) so that Derek could take me for a scenic drive down to the ocean & popular beach area near where his old house was. Despite the fact that it was still looking pretty stormy & the sky was still threatening burst open again, we were able to park & walk down the path & over to where the restaurant, Eats on the Beach was, where we ate dinner outside. The views are spectacular, I'll have to see what I can do about trying to post some pictures, but I may have to wait until after I come home to do that. Anyway, after dinner we drove a bit more & went to his friend Jeff's house & had a visit. His house was gorgeous & far more what I'd be used to than Derek's abode, it works for him though & that's okay, I certainly can't complain too much, he's been a great host so far!
This morning was great because for at least the better part of the day, it was sunny today! Derek went off to work for a few hours to do stuff, leaving me to once again putz around trying to find out the whereabouts of my missing suitcase.....Apparently, I was too dopey to notice that it had actually arrived last night after we'd gone out for dinner! Honestly, it was parked right outside my room where I am sleeping & this morning, I walked right past it without even noticing, so needless to say when I finally discovered it, I was doing a happy dance knowing I'd have more clean undies!
When Derek arrived home around noon, the plan was that we were going to drive out to the BlackButt Reserve to see some koalas & other cool & interesting creatures. I wasn't disappointed, we saw many beautifully coloured birds, some big some small, & almost all of them very vividly coloured. The day was sunny, with some clouds & hot, so it was a great day to do this. Once we'd gone through all of the exhibits, we went for a walk on the trail that's there, it was great until it started going up & down a lot, it wasn't long before I was huffing & puffing & hot & sweaty, for a minute there I thought Derek was secretly torturing me, but in all it was a good long walk.
Once we finished with our walk, there was a small koala presentation, one of the men working there had a female koala named Susie . He spoke about the species, & the few of us who were there got to come up closer to her & give her a scratch behind the ears & feed her a bit of her bottle. I have to say that while I didn't get to actually hold her, seeing them up close was really cool, they really are the cutest things to see, & she was very gentle & passive, & seemed perfectly at home having so much attention lavished on her.
Once we were done with Blackbutt, off we were again, we stopped by a small bakery to pick up a desert for our dinner at Louises' house. I picked out an apple cake with that really great confectioners icing on it & apple pieces in the middle, it would later turn out to be a good pick, eaten up by everyone. When we went back to the house, I decided I needed to pick up a few things so Derek drew out a map of how to walk over to the mall that was about a 10-15 minute walk away. While I was gone, he was going to mow his very tall grass in the backyard. Not that he found anything wrong with the length of his grass in his estimation, but he took enough ribbing about it to finally decide it needed a trim!
So off I went & made it there in good time, I went into the "Big W" store, which I'm told is the Australian Walmart. I picked out the few things I needed & I even ended up buying a really nice pair of fancy looking strappy (not too high) heels - Mom, I think you'll approve when you see them - at their Payless shoe store. With that, I decided to get out of there before I did some real damage. By the time I'd made it back to the house before the sky opened up & poured again, I could hear the rumbling in the sky as I walked back, so I went as fast as I could despite having gotten a small blister on the bottom of my foot from my "hike" earlier in the day.
After I'd changed clothes & Derek cleaned up a bit, we went off to Louises' house for dinner & for me to meet her girls, Ester, Acacia, & Mariah. They're all very cute, & very talented in arts & crafts, like their mom, they're into doing ceramics, Acacia set out to show us all of their creations which were really excellent. And they showed off their menagerie three cats, a dog, a very friendly & affectionate python (!!), & a fish tank of fish. Then we ended the night playing games on their X box which was a lot of fun.
So that's today in a nutshell, not sure what I'm doing tomorrow but I'm sure it'll be just as fun as today was, although it's supposed to rain again tomorrow.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Monday Morning Reflections
Monday morning, Derek & I went off to the grocery shop for a few things early this morning before Derek had to go off to work so that I could have a bit of breakfast & buy a couple of things. I'm sitting on the computer for the time being, watching out the window looking at Derek's chooks, which I was expecting to be these small cute things, but these girls are actually quite big! There are birds flying around, making lots of noise, & it's been raining off & on, it's pretty humid, but there's a bit of a cool breeze too.
At some point, I'll be getting together with Louise, Derek's friend, I'm sure she'll be glad to take me around to buy a few articles of clothing to change into, that'll feel really good! Not much else to do yet, I may take a nap at some point because I'm still acclimating a bit.
A few interesting tidbits, did you know that what we call the pound key (#) at home on a phone is called a hash key here? There are a quite a few "roundabouts" here in Newcastle, what we call traffic circles at home. As I looked out the window of the room I'm sleeping in, formerly their lounge room, which is in the front of the house, I noticed one of those big fat spiders just hanging out there. Thankfully there is a screen in the window so I'm safe at the moment, hahah. We're just keeping a respectful distance, that spider & me. Derek says it's not one of the poisonous ones at least. Whew.
No pictures yet, but stay tuned, hopefully I'll get out sometime soon & start snapping away.
At some point, I'll be getting together with Louise, Derek's friend, I'm sure she'll be glad to take me around to buy a few articles of clothing to change into, that'll feel really good! Not much else to do yet, I may take a nap at some point because I'm still acclimating a bit.
A few interesting tidbits, did you know that what we call the pound key (#) at home on a phone is called a hash key here? There are a quite a few "roundabouts" here in Newcastle, what we call traffic circles at home. As I looked out the window of the room I'm sleeping in, formerly their lounge room, which is in the front of the house, I noticed one of those big fat spiders just hanging out there. Thankfully there is a screen in the window so I'm safe at the moment, hahah. We're just keeping a respectful distance, that spider & me. Derek says it's not one of the poisonous ones at least. Whew.
No pictures yet, but stay tuned, hopefully I'll get out sometime soon & start snapping away.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Made it - Here I am!
But first, I have been in airport hell!
Hello friends, yes, I'm finally here in Australia, got in at 2pm Sunday, it's been a painfully long three days, forgive me if I ramble a bit, my brain & stomach are feeling a bit strange at the moment.
So far, the start of my trip has been a bit of a disaster. Let me explain. Original flight - cancelled due to major winter blizzard. Second flight, rebooked with Air Canada, delayed. Why you might ask? Well, it turns out that there was no co-pilot for this flight. The original one was over his flying time limit, so they had to find another one. Only problem was, according to the pilot, there were non available & sorry folks you'll have to sit on the plane unil the next available one comes along. Joy oh bliss.
Two & a half hours later, at 9:15pm we take off, after having sat on the plane since 7pm. It gets better from here, just wait. So we get into L.A. some time around midnight, as expected, the connecting flight to Sydney is gone, & we're told we have to go the customers service desk for our next plan of action. Being that it's after midnight, nothing of course is open. Long story short, I'm told by the ever so (NOT!!) helpful Air Canada person that, "sorry, the best we can do is advise you to get yourself to the Qantas desk & get yourself on to a standby flight, which will be available either late Saturday night or Sunday night at the earliest, bye bye". Say whaaaaaaaaaaaat?????
By this time, it's after 1am, & I have no clue what I'm going to do, I'm basicially following the herd of other people wandering aimlessly around too. After I've gone & gotten my suitcase, & wandered down towards the street level exit, I airport people with a radio that I see wandering around where the terminal for Qantas is. She explains to me that I could just go & walk down around the corner where it is. I say, "not at 2 o'clock in the morning I won't!" & basically give her a look like she's an idiot. Once I got on the shuttle bus w/ the other people, I see that it wasn't just a mere, "walk around the corner" it would've been a good hike to get there!
I decide that I'm going to get myself to the Qantas counter & park myself there, rather than go to a hotel, which I flatly refuse to pay for. There's nobody else around, except for the odd cleaning person, or some other weary traveller. So I sit down & stare at the empty Qantas counter, watching the scroll go by in bright neon red. And I have a quick, 10 second sob to myself wondering wtf I'm going to do. I go to the payphones I passed a few minutes earlier & decide to call home. It took me three attmepts because apparently when dialing through the (barely even helpful) operator, you have to choose a long distance carrier. By the third attempt, I lost it on the poor operator, screaming at her to just put it the hell through! So I get through to Dad, who listens patiently while I cry hysterically, trying to explain the situation. Since I have no cel phone, he can't get back to me, so we each decide we'll both see what we can do on our respective ends.
By about 3am, I notice this man wander by to where I was sitting, near the Qantas counter. He introduces himself as Noel, an Aussie, who as it turns out just so happened to be an airport official out of Brisbane who's flight also got screwed up. Long story short, we both seem to manage get booked onto another late arriving flight out of New York, which we're told was leaving at 4:30am. Now, We're told by the lady who booked us, drop your bags over at the American Airlines counter when it opens at 4am. Okay, so we go over, & we get redirected back to the Qantas counter! Grrrrrr, this is getting beyond ridiculous at this point. So this nice Noel person & I go running back to Qantas, hurriedly dropping off our luggage explaining that we have to catch this 4:30am flight. Might not have been the best idea at the time, considering what was to come later.
So we get up to the gate area, because we were told we'd have to go back through the security screening process. It's corrdoned off. We see a bunch of bored looking "officials' standing around, yet, not one single one of them willing to help or answer any of our very anxious questions. They curse us out under their breath at our exasperation at them! Needless to say, I'm so not impressed with the ever so lovely staff at LAX. When they finally bother to open the line up, the bored looking girl who takes my passport & boarding pass to check, very deliberately looks me up & down & then back at my passport. Yes, I think incredulously honey, it IS me!
So we finally get to the gate, Noel finds out that the flight will in fact leave at 5am, because it was delayed. So we get on the plane & off we go & hallelujah I'm on my way, finally! Now, I did manage to get some sleep on the flight from Toronto to LA, on the LA-Sydney portion, I slept kind of off & on, as best one can on such a long flight. I will say having my Jysk travel pillow was worth it's weight in gold, & a sleep mask is invaluable. During the flight, I am finding the turbulence a bit hard to bear, it's like being on a roller coaster & those of you who know me, know that I don't have an iron stomach for that. I do manage to get through the flight though without having to be sick or anything, thank God for small blessings.
So I finally arrive, I'm here, yaaay! But, my run of bad luck isn't done with me yet. Remember the suitcase thing at the Qantas desk in LA? Well, just to add insult to injury, yes, I am without my suitcase!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
I can only hope that the rest of my trip will go just a bit smoother than how it started. I am now brain fried & a bit dizzy from it all, my stomach still feels icky & best of all, I've got nothing but the clothes on my back to sleep in until God knows when, but hopefully in a day or two I'll get my bag. I hope.
Oh, & as far as I am concerned, Air Canada is still poo!
*As of Tuesday February 5...I've been checking up with the Baggage Services place...The bag arrived in Sydney & as of about 1pm Newcastle time was enroute out here to Newcastle to me, so I'm feeling much more relieved now & hopefully it'll arrive to me soon. And a feeling a bit silly for getting all up in arms about it, oh well, onwards & upwards!
Hello friends, yes, I'm finally here in Australia, got in at 2pm Sunday, it's been a painfully long three days, forgive me if I ramble a bit, my brain & stomach are feeling a bit strange at the moment.
So far, the start of my trip has been a bit of a disaster. Let me explain. Original flight - cancelled due to major winter blizzard. Second flight, rebooked with Air Canada, delayed. Why you might ask? Well, it turns out that there was no co-pilot for this flight. The original one was over his flying time limit, so they had to find another one. Only problem was, according to the pilot, there were non available & sorry folks you'll have to sit on the plane unil the next available one comes along. Joy oh bliss.
Two & a half hours later, at 9:15pm we take off, after having sat on the plane since 7pm. It gets better from here, just wait. So we get into L.A. some time around midnight, as expected, the connecting flight to Sydney is gone, & we're told we have to go the customers service desk for our next plan of action. Being that it's after midnight, nothing of course is open. Long story short, I'm told by the ever so (NOT!!) helpful Air Canada person that, "sorry, the best we can do is advise you to get yourself to the Qantas desk & get yourself on to a standby flight, which will be available either late Saturday night or Sunday night at the earliest, bye bye". Say whaaaaaaaaaaaat?????
By this time, it's after 1am, & I have no clue what I'm going to do, I'm basicially following the herd of other people wandering aimlessly around too. After I've gone & gotten my suitcase, & wandered down towards the street level exit, I airport people with a radio that I see wandering around where the terminal for Qantas is. She explains to me that I could just go & walk down around the corner where it is. I say, "not at 2 o'clock in the morning I won't!" & basically give her a look like she's an idiot. Once I got on the shuttle bus w/ the other people, I see that it wasn't just a mere, "walk around the corner" it would've been a good hike to get there!
I decide that I'm going to get myself to the Qantas counter & park myself there, rather than go to a hotel, which I flatly refuse to pay for. There's nobody else around, except for the odd cleaning person, or some other weary traveller. So I sit down & stare at the empty Qantas counter, watching the scroll go by in bright neon red. And I have a quick, 10 second sob to myself wondering wtf I'm going to do. I go to the payphones I passed a few minutes earlier & decide to call home. It took me three attmepts because apparently when dialing through the (barely even helpful) operator, you have to choose a long distance carrier. By the third attempt, I lost it on the poor operator, screaming at her to just put it the hell through! So I get through to Dad, who listens patiently while I cry hysterically, trying to explain the situation. Since I have no cel phone, he can't get back to me, so we each decide we'll both see what we can do on our respective ends.
By about 3am, I notice this man wander by to where I was sitting, near the Qantas counter. He introduces himself as Noel, an Aussie, who as it turns out just so happened to be an airport official out of Brisbane who's flight also got screwed up. Long story short, we both seem to manage get booked onto another late arriving flight out of New York, which we're told was leaving at 4:30am. Now, We're told by the lady who booked us, drop your bags over at the American Airlines counter when it opens at 4am. Okay, so we go over, & we get redirected back to the Qantas counter! Grrrrrr, this is getting beyond ridiculous at this point. So this nice Noel person & I go running back to Qantas, hurriedly dropping off our luggage explaining that we have to catch this 4:30am flight. Might not have been the best idea at the time, considering what was to come later.
So we get up to the gate area, because we were told we'd have to go back through the security screening process. It's corrdoned off. We see a bunch of bored looking "officials' standing around, yet, not one single one of them willing to help or answer any of our very anxious questions. They curse us out under their breath at our exasperation at them! Needless to say, I'm so not impressed with the ever so lovely staff at LAX. When they finally bother to open the line up, the bored looking girl who takes my passport & boarding pass to check, very deliberately looks me up & down & then back at my passport. Yes, I think incredulously honey, it IS me!
So we finally get to the gate, Noel finds out that the flight will in fact leave at 5am, because it was delayed. So we get on the plane & off we go & hallelujah I'm on my way, finally! Now, I did manage to get some sleep on the flight from Toronto to LA, on the LA-Sydney portion, I slept kind of off & on, as best one can on such a long flight. I will say having my Jysk travel pillow was worth it's weight in gold, & a sleep mask is invaluable. During the flight, I am finding the turbulence a bit hard to bear, it's like being on a roller coaster & those of you who know me, know that I don't have an iron stomach for that. I do manage to get through the flight though without having to be sick or anything, thank God for small blessings.
So I finally arrive, I'm here, yaaay! But, my run of bad luck isn't done with me yet. Remember the suitcase thing at the Qantas desk in LA? Well, just to add insult to injury, yes, I am without my suitcase!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
I can only hope that the rest of my trip will go just a bit smoother than how it started. I am now brain fried & a bit dizzy from it all, my stomach still feels icky & best of all, I've got nothing but the clothes on my back to sleep in until God knows when, but hopefully in a day or two I'll get my bag. I hope.
Oh, & as far as I am concerned, Air Canada is still poo!
*As of Tuesday February 5...I've been checking up with the Baggage Services place...The bag arrived in Sydney & as of about 1pm Newcastle time was enroute out here to Newcastle to me, so I'm feeling much more relieved now & hopefully it'll arrive to me soon. And a feeling a bit silly for getting all up in arms about it, oh well, onwards & upwards!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Away I Go......I Think!
MAYBE! Har de har har! Apparently Mother Nature is saying not so fast!
The day has finally come; my bag is packed, (fully-oy vey!), I think I've got everything I need (snow shovel maybe?) for this amazing trip I'm about to go on. And I'm leaving in the middle of a blizzard! Figures, but, I'm going to think positively. What is it they say, it's not the destination, but the journey along the way that's so interesting. Well okay then. I'd love to know who "they" were who said that in the first place!
In the last week or so, everyone's been asking me, are you excited? you must be getting so excited. I am, it might not seem like it, I think at this point, I'm more anxious than anything to just get going & get there already. I think once I leave L.A. & this continent & get closer to the other one, I'll get more excited. I think I'll be positively giddy to be in a warmer neck of the woods at this point, but I promise I'll try not to rub it in too much for those of you left behind in the currently frozen tundra that is Southern Ontario at the moment.
And so with that, let the adventure begin. Stay tuned folks, I'll be in touch soon!
P.S. Don't forget to leave your names when you post any comments please
The day has finally come; my bag is packed, (fully-oy vey!), I think I've got everything I need (snow shovel maybe?) for this amazing trip I'm about to go on. And I'm leaving in the middle of a blizzard! Figures, but, I'm going to think positively. What is it they say, it's not the destination, but the journey along the way that's so interesting. Well okay then. I'd love to know who "they" were who said that in the first place!
In the last week or so, everyone's been asking me, are you excited? you must be getting so excited. I am, it might not seem like it, I think at this point, I'm more anxious than anything to just get going & get there already. I think once I leave L.A. & this continent & get closer to the other one, I'll get more excited. I think I'll be positively giddy to be in a warmer neck of the woods at this point, but I promise I'll try not to rub it in too much for those of you left behind in the currently frozen tundra that is Southern Ontario at the moment.
And so with that, let the adventure begin. Stay tuned folks, I'll be in touch soon!
P.S. Don't forget to leave your names when you post any comments please
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