Second Day in Sydney

Can you say "Jet Lag?"

Surf School

May need to enroll Liz in this

Don Johnson @ the Opera House

VISTAS

Beautiful vista of the Blue Mountains

Liz & Logan at overlook in Blue Mountains

Elizabeth having lunch overlooking the Blue Mountains

From Wine Bottles to Blue Bottles

Some of the finest wines in Australia come from the Hunter Valley, as do some of the prettiest countrysides.

Our trip to the Hunter Valley of Thursday (Australia Day and no work for Liz and most of the nation) was quite an event. Chris, Stephanie, Liz and I all packed into the Holden Astra and took a 2 hour drive north. Two of the distinguished wineries that we visited were Audrey Wilkinson and Tempus Two and they could not have been more polar opposite. Audrey Wilkinson was tucked back off the main road, away from the hustle and bustle on a dirt road. Atop a mountain overlooking the Hunter Valley, Audrey Wilkinson had some nice wines and a great old-world atmosphere.

Tempus Two was on the main road, right in the hustle and bustle. The feeling was as if you were pulling up to Dulles International. No trees and practically futuristic. There was no overlook and inside the atmosphere was more like a club than an old-world winery. With pulsing music and low lighting, it was hard not to feel as if you were in Miami or something. We stopped here because it is famous (according to Chris) and Chris insisted. Liz and I had a glass of wine and grabbed the Frisbee and tossed it around on what was the front lawn of the winery (more like a field).

The drive back was gorgeous, going on a side road (not the freeway that we took to get there). Among the many meadows and hills, fruit stands and cafes dotted the landscape.

Friday was great. Elizabeth got back from her trip to Brisbane around 2:45 so we started the weekend early by heading to Manly (our new favorite over Bondi). The beach is bigger there and the density of burned tourists isn’t as high as Bondi. It was a gorgeous day with not a cloud in the sky. I rented surf board while Liz read on the beach. This is where the story gets painful.

Blue Bottles are a type of Jelly Fish that will come into the beach area when the wind blows from the north. This particular day the wind was blowing from the north and I was out amongst them. No big deal right? Not all Jelly Fish sting. Oh contraire mi amigo. Blue Bottles sting. The float atop the water like big blue bubbles. Blue Bottles wouldn’t be that hard to dodge if it weren’t for their stingers that range from 3-10 feet long. I got entangled with a 10 foot stinger that wrapped from the top of my back around my arm, down my side, and around my hamstring and quad. They are hard to get off when they are that big because there is this stinger with tiny suction cups that is like a thread. I was in pain and there is nothing I could do about it. You are supposed to wash off with fresh water after you take out the stinger, or take off the stinger. I didn’t because I had an hour to surf before needing to return the board to the surf shop, so I stayed out in the salt water. The pain subsided as I proceeded to catch some of the best waves I have ever ridden.

After dinner and watching some great tennis, I started to break out in welts where I had been wrapped with the Blue Bottle stinger. Let me just say it was a very itchy night as I awakened Elizabeth with my frantic scratching (and probably a little snoring).

The next day we went to Manly again but we didn’t get in the water. It must have been the first time ever that I have been at the beach and had not jumped right into the ocean. There were Blue Bottles floating around too. I was scarred and wanted to save myself.

Liz and I did happen across two big sporting events that day at Manly. One was sea kayaking races with the Aussie teams all wearing speedoes. My dad would have fit right in. It was amazing watching them attack the waves head on as they paddled for the buoys on the horizon. The other was team rowing (in huge row boats). One guy steered as the other five cranked on oars. There must have been 20 teams with their boats on the beach. Their team names were plastered on the rear of their speedos. There were a few female teams as well. After about 20 minutes we had had our fill of men in speedos and walked back up the beach, tossing the Frisbee on the way.

Sunday, today, we are heading to the Blue Mountains—the major park just west of Sydney by about 150 kilometers.

Mini Glossary of Terms

Trading Hours=Hours of Operation
Vegemite=Yeast Extract (black and an acquired taste)
Coriander=Cilantro
Capsicum=Bell Pepper
Way Out=Exit
Thoroughfare=Highway
Blue Bottle=Jelly Fish that stung the bageebees out of me!!!
Snag=Sausage
Jumper=Sweater

Happy Australia Day

Happy Australia Day!!!

Australian's aren't working today. Why not? Well it is Australia day mate. This day is our equivalent to the fourth of July. What is happening today you may ask. Well, there is the passing of a torch for the Olympics that has been going on for a few weeks now, passing it by the Opera house and onto the harbour. At the Opera house there was a crowd of 200 surfers wh0 all jumped in the water and paddled underneath the harbour bridge. This is quite an honor since no one can go under the harbour bridge in such a capacity.

By the way, all of the above was viewed from the comforts of Liz's company appointed apartment, via television.

Onto our blog. Yesterday was quite a day. First let me mention that a good friend of Taits is here visiting Sydney and staying with us, adding a new flair to our stint. Stephanie is travelling around this part of the world, coming from Tanzania where she was a Peace Corps volunteer. We heard quite a lot of great stories from her, as well as photos of her hike up Mt. Kilimanjara (Liz and I are going to do that next year with Tait). Whilst Stephanie took a walk around the city, I went for a ride with Chris around the city and up to Manly (60K). It was wet. Raining the entire way. My feet were blue after the ride because the water that was coming in my shoes was mixing with the liner of the boot (blue). I looked like a blue footed boobie when I got done (for those who don't know what one is, they are like ducks with blue feet--seen in the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador).

They day weather lessened a bit and when it did it was time to go pick up Elizabeth from work. We headed out to Manly where the girls did a nice walk along the beach. I went to rent a surf board but they were closed (as we arrived around 6 PM). So it was body surfing for me. Great fun but with the sun glistening on great waves I was wishing I had a surf board. After a few thrashings, and a few ducks under the waves to avoid oncoming surfers, I went in. We took a small tour of the town and headed to the Wharf where there were two great restaurants facing the harbour (Manly not Sydney). We watched the sunset over the water as we sipped on our own wine (you can bring your own bottle of wine to most places for a small corkage fee). From Cajun Red Snapper with a Cucumber Pineapple Chutney to an Atlantic Salmon over baby bok choy with a soy vinagarette to my Fish Cakes with a sweet and tangy Thai sauce we, the meal was tasty. Top it all off with ice cream and a topping buffet. Believe it or not, you can add what you want in any amount you want. Elizabeth and Stephanie (our visitor) stood next to the buffet, ate, & refilled quite a number of times.

Alas, home to catch the Federer vs. Davydenko match and catch some rest. Today we are off to the Hunter Valley to tour some of Australia's best wineries. Chris, Stephanie, Elizabeth, and I are all hopping into the Holden Astra for a 2 hour trip north. We opted not to eat too much this morning because they day will be filled with eating cheese and sipping fine wines (not to mention the Vegemite I packed and some crackers--learning to love one of the world's best source of Vitamin B). We are off on our first road trip in Australia. We will send you an update after our trip.

Love to y'all,

Elizabeth and Logan

Here is our Mini Glossary of Terms

Mini Glossary of Terms

Take Away=Take Out
Boardies=Board Shorts
Cheers=Anything relating to 'Thanks,' & 'Bye.'
Good on Ya=Good for you
Hotel=Bar
Bloke=Person

On and Off the Beaches

I realized that it was time for Mrs. Williams to have an initial viewing of our blog spot- to validate the stories, scenarios, and descriptions surrounding our life! In this review, I decided that it was also time to become a "blogger"!
Our second weekend on the Australian continent encompassed three trips to the beaches. Friday, Logan and I met for a run at Manley Beach, taking us along the ocean and up the cliffs that overlook the water to the right and several beaches, coves, and surfers to the left. The finale of the return run led to an immediate plunge into the refreshing sea. We enjoyed an extraordinary picnic on the beach, thanks to Logan's culinary prowess and desire to MAKE (from scratch) sushi.
Because the gracious corporate accomodation terminates on February 4th, Logan and I were forced into "The great Aussie apartment quest". Wow, this is a different process that what the US puts one through! In Oz, an appartment will show for about 15 minutes, and you must come during this slot and immediate turn in an application and one week's lease if you are serious about the property. If there are two places you want to see during the same slot, most likely you will not be able to accomplish this. Fortunately, we are pleased to announce that we were victorious (we think) in "winning" a flat! It's modern, new, very open, one bedroom, big balcony on which we'll entertain precious friends that visit, has a bathroom which simultaneously serves as the laundry room, and a parking place! Our new nest is located within minutes of this hip area, filled with cafes and coffee shops. The neighborhood is called Crows Nest. We now have a definite address where all those letters, post cards, and packages can be sent :)
Living in a city situated on the coast provides a distinct atmosphere for parties, I'm learning. A typical soiree starts in the afternoon on the beach. Leaving the beach, you grab something tasty to throw on the barbie (ie honey soy kabobs) and head to the surfers' pad. Feel free to rinse off, but there really aren't any requirements on dress. A friend of ours hosted the "Endless summer" themed party on Saturday, complete with a DJ. Loads of fun as we continue to meet exciting people, hear their stories of how/ why they arrived in Australia, and simply soak in this culture!

Sydney's Likeness to California's Top Spots

We failed to cover the following in the last post: How many of you have been to Carmel, Ojai, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Laguna Beach, San Francisco, or Santa Cruz? If you haven't, then none of this will make any sense to you and you may need to refer to the chamber of commerce of the forementioned towns & cities. If you have, then you will most likely get what I am talking about and be very keen on coming and visiting.

Just outside of downtown Sydney, to the north (where we are staying) there are some amazing little suburbs similar to those of the areas listed above. The smell of eucalyptus in the air, fresh cut grass, a slight oceanic breeze, and narrow streets dotted with great eateries, shops, & the like (very similar to Carmel). There are no stoplights, and pedestrians have the right of way. As I mentioned about the eucalyptus smells, the trees are everywhere alongside palm trees, buganvia, and citrus-like shrubs and trees. The streets are quiet and the homes and town houses are hugged by nice gardents and patios. It is hard to believe that within a 5 minute walk you can be on the train, and 10 minutes later you are crossing the Harbour Bridge and arriving into bustling downtown Sydney. We have yet to explore the city a great deal but find it to be similar to the San Fransiscoes, Seattles, and others, and not quite as crazy as Manahattan (hardly any honking, cleaner streets, more parks (nothing as big as central), and you still get the international feel.

Well, that is what I feel the last blog missed out on. Once we get our digital camera back we will post some photos to help you get a better understanding of Sydney.

Oh, and if you haven't been to the places mentioned above like Carmel and Santa Barbara, you really should!!!!

Ta Ta for Now!!

Logan

DRAWKCAB GNIVIRD

LOOK RIGHT BEFORE TURNING LEFT!! OR WAS IT LEFT BEFORE TURNING RIGHT?

G’Day friends and family,

Elizabeth has officially started work!! She loves her colleagues and the work atmosphere. She did say that her office is completely open along with all of her other colleagues. Not much privacy, but that apparently isn’t an issue for the Aussies. There is a dishwasher in the lounge, along with cartons of milk for all to use (breakfast anyone?). Upon receiving information about her work car, Liz found out that she can use the company gas card for every fill up during our stint here, literally. So that means weekend trips, no gas expense to us—gas is pricey here mates!! She received her car on Monday but was a little reluctant to drive home because of the “backward” driving here. All of her coworkers were asking her if she was going to drive. Apparently it was quite the buzz at work. She left it in her space and trained home.

While her first day of work was spent getting acquainted with Quintiles Australia, mine was spent setting up our cell phone, looking into banking, and sending out a few dozen resumes. After hours on the computer I made my way by train to Chris’ pad in an area called Surry Hills (downtown, we are on the other side of the harbour bridge called North Sydney). We biked (he happens to have an extra road bike, we ended up not bringing ours) to Bondi where our new friends have quite a quiver of surf boards and went for a surf. It is pretty awesome just putting on your shorts and carrying your board down through the little village, past all the shops, barefoot and shirtless to the beach which is just a 7 minute walk. The surf was big but there wasn’t much form, took a lot of spills.

Elizabeth and I met back home around 6:45ish. She stopped by a killer Asian market in the adjacent building next to her office (quite convenient) so we cooked up a great meal we call Thai Bowl (a version of Dougal’s Recipe) with bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, baby bok choy, baby corn, cashews, fresh bean sprouts, tofu, tempeh, all over a bead of rice noodles and topped with a hearty dose of peanut sauce. We will be eating a lot of Asian food while we are here. Cheap and healthy.

Yesterday I met Elizabeth at work (after researching about 250 places to rent, 60 places to work, and watching the Aussie Open—great coverage). It was time to drive the Astra home. That is right, an Astra—10 bucks to anyone who has heard of one before. A silver, 4 door Astra with 400 Kilometers on the odometer. Brand spankin’ new. It is our equivalent to a Ford Focus (remember those hip commercials about 5 years ago, with the retro post college groupies?). Liz drove and did a great job. It was odd LOOKING LEFT BEFORE TURNING RIGHT OR RIGHT BEFORE TURNING LEFT? It is an automatic so having the shift on the left wasn’t too hard for her.

We found our way easily to an area called Kirribilli. We met with an agent to look at a 1958 apt. space that overlooked the Sydney Opera house. Good price but apt. was a little dusty and ‘80s if you know what I mean. The building was one of two buildings in Sydney that was constructed with an open air common area in the middle of the complex. A better description would be of those hotels that when you walk out the door you are out side, looking down to the 1st floor or up into the sky. Astro turf carpet on the balconies, the works. However, the area was very nice.

We headed home, went for a nice run through an area we hope to live in called Crows Nest. It has the most restaurants per block than any other area in Sydney.

Elizabeth has her first work trip on Thursday to Melbourne--Bummer that she couldn’t roll over the weekend as we aren’t headed to see the Aussie Open this year—too much to handle. Did I mention great coverage??? I think I did. She did find out her days off and we are going to have a 4 day weekend in April.

So, here we are, waiting by the phone to see if anyone dare call us in Sydney Australia. Remember, when it is 12 PM here on say Wednesday it is 5 PM PST or 8 PM EST there on Tuesday.

Here is our mini glossary of NEW terms

Cheers

Mini Glossary of Terms

Arvo=Afternoon
Hire=Rent
Lift=Elevator
Zed=Letter Z
Filter Coffee=Drip Coffee
Cheers=Bye, Hello
Too Easy=convenient (i.e. that is too easy, referring to a meeting place and time)
Sepo=Derogatory, short for septic tank, referring to Americans
Ring=Call

NEW CONTACT INFORMATION

Phone: 0416467102
Address: 1101/77 Berry Street
North Sydney, NSW 2060
Australia

Wizards of OZ

G'day Mates!!

This is our first post since being in Australia (known here as OZ). We will refrain from using the Aussie slang in this text but will give you mini glossary of terms at the end.

14.5 hours on the plane was not all that bad. 4 movies, 3 meals, and 7 hours of sleep later we arrived into Sydney. My good friend Chris (who is studying medicine at the University of Sydney) was there to greet us, make sure we got to our hotel alright, and take us on an 8 mile walking tour of the city. This we definitely needed, although our legs felt dead. First off we headed accross the famous Harbour Bridge (they have climbing tours on the top rungs) where we saw great vistas of Kirribilli (where the Prime Minister lives), the Opera House (as seen in every photo ever put in books about Australia), some gorgeous parks with lots of activity (music, dance, tourists like us). We had breakfast in a neat outdoor cafe (most are neat and outdoor and offer Asian fair).

We quickly learned to look right instead of left before crossing the streets as they drive on the opposite side (and fast I might add) of the road. We toured some neat suburbs such as Surry Hills, North Sydney, Chatswood (where Elizabeth's office is), & Central Sydney.

There is a great Metro system here as well as bus system, although we haven't been on the bus.

The city has a great European feel with many foreigners, amazing architecture (brick), small streets, and music coming from pan handlers.

We had a great meal in the evening at a place called Thai Riffic and crashed early (we made sure we didn't rest all day--which may come as a surprise to many of you, ha ha) and slept through the night.

Yesterday was quite exciting. We toured the city even more, finding our apartment where Quintiles will be putting us up for 3 weeks. We searched out her new office by Train and foot, found a great market (similar to Whole Foods), had Sushi for lunch (lots of Sushi here), and trained it to the MediBank International Tennis Tournament here in Sydney at the Olympic Park. The matches were rained out so we toured the facilities (golf, aquatic, and more). Great venue with lots of activity, hard to believe it has only been there for a decade, maybe more.

We me some new friends and hit a swanky bar called the Cube for dinner and drinks. We toured Hyde Park (the Sydney festival is going on this month) where we heard music and saw faces being projected on the trees (produced by an artist who we think is in a mental hospital now).

The weather is in the 80's and today we're heading to the beach. Haven't see the ocean yet but looking forward to it as we will meet more of Chris' friends at a BBQ where there will be surf boards aplenty (haven't surfed in awhile).

Well, Elizabeth is asking if I am ready to go running and quit typing so I will ablige her & my body and sign off. Oh, below is our a mini glossary of terms learned thus far.

Cheers,

Elizabeth and Logan


Mini Glossary of Terms

Heeps=Lots
Breki=Breakfast
Uni=University
Barbie=BBQ
Keen=Fond
Give Way=Yield
Single=One Way
Cheers=Thanks
No Drama=Don't Worry

Oregon Adventure

Good day friends and family.

Well, Happy New Year!! This year has started with a bang here in Central Oregon. From shredding the slopes to cross country skiing across a 100 acre meadow in front of my folk's new house to back country skiing in the Cascade Mountains, we've had a blast.

The new news is that our Visas have not yet come through and we may be stuck in Oregon for another week or so, bummer. However, that means that we can get up and downhill ski again, go snow shoeing, play more tennis, and of course spend time with family.

We hope you enjoy these photos that are attached. They are all taken less than 5 miles from our house in Sunriver.

Lots of love,

Logan and Elizabeth