A Few Disadvantages

I have found at least three disadvantages to living in a sunny country near the sea:
1) Everything not rust-proof will rust, and very quickly.
2) The strong UV light bleaches very quickly.
3) When the weather is bad (fortunately not very often) the noise from the waves is very loud.

Chain Thriller

I am reading a chain thriller on-line, sponsored by Borders Australia. Borders is one of my favourite bookstores and I have all James Patterson books he has ever written, so a good combination. James wrote the first chapter about a week ago, after selecting 30 people to write a new chapter each day, and he will then write the last chapter. It is surprisingly good and quite scary. It helps that it is set in Sydney. If anyone is interested click here: http://www.borders.com.au/chain-thriller/home.asp It would be nice to know what my reading friends think about it. The chapters are short enough to fit in while the pasta is boiling or similar. We are now up to chapter 11.

No Wind

This morning I drove Little Car to Pittwater. I had a sailing voucher from the boat show to redeem and was hoping to get some sailing done. Parking was a problem as usual. Where are you supposed to put the ticket when you do not have a roof? I found some tape, but it doesn't stop anyone from taking the ticket off.
I got on a boat, but unfortunately there was not much wind, so we basically sat on the boat for 2.5h and all we managed to do, was motor out to the main water, sail around Scotland Island at near standing still speed and then get back. However, decided to join the club anyway, so now I can sail anytime I like from Friday to Monday.
I did bring the camera, but it was on the wrong setting and all pictures came out fuzzy, so will take new ones next time.

Fixer-upper

We went to look at an apartment for sale: see Details here There were so many people there during the 15 min or so of open viewing, we have a feeling it will be gone long before we have even investigated the process for getting approval by the Foreign National Investment Board to buy it. But it was exciting. It need all floors and walls re-done, a new kitchen (if allowed) a wall knocked down and a few more things, but it does have a view and is on the next street from our current place. It is obviously not as big as where we are now, but it does have 3 bedrooms and I might be able to squeeze in most of my books.

Sunset over Sydney

I was working late, so managed to take the attached picture of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge at Sunset, on my way back home on the ferry.
It is a bit irritating they let so many tourists on the ferries during commuting hours, but at least you know when a picture is worth taking.
There is a bit of wind today so the salt-water spray from the sea is making the keys on my keyboard a bit sticky.
Work is back to being what it should be (hard), but at least I get a relaxing trip home on the ferry.
I am doing a sailing course on Sunday, 3 hours of introduction to sailing. The weather is still supposed to be good. Hope to drive Little Car up to Pittwater. Whilst eating lunch today I read in the Midget & Sprite club magazine that someone had driven a frog-eye AH Sprite along route 66. Perhaps I can drive Little Car across Australia at some point...

Fishy

Somehow I managed to persuade colleague Richard that came down from Melbourne, to go back via Manly the other day - so we took him out for beer and dinner (actually he paid hmm ;-0 - thanks Richard, let me know if Trevor has any concerns). Not sure where to go - we eventually settled for Garfish after "decent sized beers (0.5 litre)" at the Bavarian Beer Cafe. Garfish had changed their menu so I did not have anything exciting, but a reliable Ocean Trout. Richard on the other hand had a whole Barramundi! with bones and eyes and everything!

Better to check first

I walked all the way into central Manly (around 20 minutes) to buy some "smoked pancetta" that I really like. I have the normal problem of trying to buy Swedish/Danish style, thin sliced streaky bacon. All they have here is the British style "back bacon" or if you are lucky all of it in one go, back+streaky, but those are 45 cm long and still too thick to be nice and crispy. However I did find some of the smoked pancetta in the fridge on Tuesday and was trying to remember where I bought it. I thought Coles in Manly as I could not think of any other place so I hiked out there this morning to buy some more for lunch. Unfortunately I could not find any.
I bought some other stuff I cannot get locally on the north side of the beach, but was a bit disappointed.
When I got home I checked out the packet with what was left from Tuesday and it clearly states "Made for Aldi" at the back. So, it pays to do your research before you go and using the famous Swedish saying "vad man inte har i huvudet får man ha i benen" i.e. if you do not think things through - your legs will suffer" - I now have a choice. I can go back again in 32+ degrees with tired legs - or I can have something else for lunch!

Thoughts on the Ferry

(Written off-line on Monday evening on the Ferry home - and then forgotten)

I will probably regret writing this, but 2.5 months into an extremely busy start of the year, things are quieting down to something manageable.
I have around 3.5 days of chargeable work a week and with bits and pieces I will make it to the required 85%. My OSS Project came around at a nice time, and although it will be a lot of trouble to get through, it is steady work until mid July at least. I am not really supposed to work on it, as it belongs to a different division, but being a small office I am happy to chip in anywhere I may be needed.
I am also working out a nice routine of going to the office on Mondays only. Tuesdays and Fridays I work from home, Wednesday & Thursday I see the customer.
This week my colleague Richard is here from Melbourne holding a training course and took me out for dinner tonight at the pub where we normally go for lunch if I am in the office. It was nice seeing him as we don't meet much and he updated me on the Melbourne gossip. Tomorrow& Wednesday he will train my customer Optus on the Traffic Management stuff. I will try to attend part of the afternoon session on Wednesday as I am out there anyway.
Currently it is just before 9pm and I am sitting outside on the back of the ferry going home. It is a temperature where just wearing a business shirt, whilst sitting on a seafaring vessel feels just on the edge of being too little, so probably around 18. But it is a nice evening and the neon lights of Sydney and North Sydney are disappearing in the background. The Harbour bridge need some light bulbs replaced but still looks good. There is no wind. The harbour waters are almost flat.
All in all a good start of the week.

Culinary experiences

After a disappointing dinner at the Italian on Thursday - (I usually only go on a Friday as the Friday waiter is so much nicer). He is American so has probably service built into his genes.

Saturday was Derek & Helen's house-cooling party. They are moving from a large 3-bed apartment with an astonishing view of the Pacific Ocean and large terrace, to a much smaller 2-bed unit in need of refurbishment. But they are buying the new one and have finally managed to get into the Australian housing market. Due to Australia laws on foreign nationals buying property and also how the tax deduction is calculated for temporary residents I cannot buy a property at this point, but have to wait until if/when I become Permanent resident. But nothing stops me looking ;-).

Anyway it was a very nice party and Helen cooked Salt & pepper squid among other things. This prompted me into having it at the usual Sunday visit to the Manly Fish Cafe for lunch (see picture).

I also managed to extend the weekend's culinary experience with a bottle of Magner's Irish Cider. Due to extreme import duties they are around 15 dollars each (7 pounds / 75 kr) - so it is nothing I would do everyday. However it was such a nice day sitting at the Steyne Hotel rooftop bar that I could not resist the temptation.

Quite a nice morning

Early this morning around 8-ish I struggled into my wetsuit jumper and I headed off to Shelley beach for some snorkeling. The water is not cold but if you plan to stay in for a while it is good to be protected.

It was really nice. I saw quite a few large Groupers (see picture) - the bright blue ones are male and the females are greenish along with another 20 or so varieties of fish. It is no wonder there are so many sharks about, there are thousands of fish in that little bay alone. The groupers are large, more than a meter long but not threatening. I really liked swimming alongside it seeing what it was doing.

After an hour or so I headed back into Manly and had breakfast at the Whitewater cafe. The service was crap, but my pancakes with ice cream and strawberries were not bad (some extra strawberry jam would have been nice).

All in all a nice Saturday morning.

Tonight I am off to Helen and Derek for their "moving-out-party". Luckily they live 10 min walk away!

Autumn is here

Autumn officially started on 1st March. It is actually much more pleasant. The weather is close to European summer. 25-ish instead of humid 30+ and it makes a big difference, especially walking to work with a heavy computer bag.
I am pretty sure what to expect of March, after all it was the holiday here two years ago in March that made me end up here... and it was a very nice holiday! However April and May, I am not sure about. Judging from what it was like arriving here in June, makes me think - that is when we need to go on Holiday somewhere else.
Writing this, I realise I have been here for 9 months now - and not really left Sydney. That is the reality of working rather than being on holiday. When the weekend arrives - we are really too tired to go anywhere.

Seafood Feast

Saturday I got invited to Charissa's where Terry was cooking a seafood feast!
We had deep-fried squid, oven-baked Red Snapper, Steamed Lobster & Octopus, with Chips & Salad. Very, very nice!
Afterwards we went into Sydney to watch the Mardi-Gras parade, stopped at a pub for a beer - and got stuck there. I left after quite a few and went home, but heard that my host couple stayed on and missed the parade as well.

Comedy

We went to a comedy event in support of the Victorian bush-fire victims and the Queens land flood-victims. There were 18 comedians doing roughly 10 minutes of stand up comedy each, for free. The theatre venue was donated for free and all proceeds from the bars, plus of course 100% of the ticket price were donated.

The show was quite OK. Some were very good (even I understood the jokes) and some were less good, but that is what you get. There were comedians from Australia, the UK and also a guy from the US.

It took about 3 hours all in all and we had to walk very fast to catch the last ferry home. Derek thought it was at 11.30, but luckily it was 11:45. Apparently there is a bus after that, but I have not found out yet - I am too old to stay out late on a work night ;-)

Invaded by cruise ships

Sydney is being invaded by cruise ships. There are 28 scheduled this month! This weekend the Queen Mary II arrived, but was too large to dock at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, so they had to stay at Garden Island. Along her, there were two other ships when I came into Circular quay this morning. One was anchored in the middle of the harbour and one at the terminal. They have built a new larger docking area for cruise ships, but did not think far enough. Most of them are too big to go under the Harbour Bridge.

I think it would be nice to go on one. But not a long cruise. I think they do none from Sydney to Brisbane or something over a weekend - that could be fun!