Mitch and his Bike

About a month ago Mitch and I were sitting in the house after school watching Myth Busters. It was a typical re-run. Almost every TV show is. Instead of sitting there mindlessly watching, I decided to take Mitch out with his bike. This day was special though... We took off his training wheels.
He was really excited but a bit apprehensive. We headed to our nearby park that had a slight downhill grade. Nothing major, but just enough to keep the momentum going on the grass.

After two tries, he was off without any help from me. It was heart wrenching to watch as he wobbled about, steering almost uncontrollably, hitting bumps in the grass and gaining speed that I was sure he couldn't handle. But he did. And he did it well.


What a milestone... He was so proud of himself. We went home and celebrated with a big bowl of ice-cream.

This video is his 4th solo ride... My boy is growing up.

Rain in the Summer Time

It's been pretty hot the last few weeks. One of the things I enjoy is the way the weather seems to regulate itself. We'll have 4-5 days of bruising heat with humidity and then a storm will blow in and cool everything off with a nice gentle rain.

For those that remember old school Disneyland, the rain in Summer here is like sitting in the Tiki Room, only without the animated talking birds. The sky will be clear and blue and within ten minutes, dark clouds will roll in and rain will fall. Flashes of lightning accompanied by heavy rolling thunder break the sound of the consistent falling rain. Birds continue to sing, oblivious to natures change. It's very peaceful and soothing. And then an hour later, the rain will stop and the clouds move on leaving a clear sky.

The clip below is 1 minute 20 seconds of the rain, thunder and lightning taken from our backyard. No spine tingling drama here.... just the sounds of the rain and thunder. The tranquility is broken at the very end by our phone ringing.

On the road to Canberra

It's been some time since I've posted - and now that the holidays are over and things have settled back into a groove, I'll be a bit more consistent with my blogging, so keep checking back.

Back in December, I made a work related trip to Canberra. Canberra is the Australian National Capital and is located about 4 hours south by car. I was up and on the road by 4:30am to make the 9:00am appointment. Once I was out of the city, the countryside opened up and what I thought would be a long boring drive turned into a rather pleasant sightseeing tour.

I drove over a small rise and this view unfolded... A vast open valley that went on for miles and miles. It reminded me of Interstate 10, driving through New Mexico. Just endless land with no buildings in sight - just sheep, cows and an occasional kangaroo lounging in the shade under a far off tree.


Another photo after passing through the valley. The sky is such a crisp, crystal clear blue which the camera can't capture.


We have our roadside attractions in the US... and so do the Australians. This giant ram was located near a gas station and you could see it for several miles. It's calling is to lure unwary, tired drivers into it's junk food goodness located in the shop nearby. Also, what a great photo op and heck, it made me pull over.... I just hope the investment in the big ram was worth it. It's going to take a lot of cups of coffee, bags of chips and cans of soda to pay it off.


Once I arrived in Canberra, I had to take a photo of the Capital building. I thought it was sort of anti-climatic. I'm not sure what I expected... at least some sort of "WOW" factor. As I got closer, it turned into more of a "WHAT?" factor.


The drive home - My first attempt at posting an .avi file. It's three minutes of driving the road back to Sydney taken in the the Great Wide Open. Also taken with the movie setting on a digital camera - so the quality isn't going to be very good. The music however, is. Enjoy.

Collaroy

Yesterday the three of us went for a drive and found a small cafe/restaurant in Collaroy. It was really hot and humid and it was good to get out of the house. There is something about eating outdoors when the weather is so nice... it gives the meal a completely different feel and vibe. Very relaxed and comfortable.Collaroy is a beach town on the upper North Shore. It sort of reminds me of the small beach towns of Southern California back in the 1960's. Low key, right on the water, tranquil and quite. We found a parking lot almost on the sand - there was ice plant growing in the dunes and mature plumeria plants were planted along the streets. The three of us walked along the sand and Mitch got completely wet playing in the sand and surf. It was so nice, I promised Mitch we'd come back the next day...
Today the two of us went back and played in the sand and surf. We built a massive sand castle and found lots of shells. You wouldn't know it by looking at the photos, but it was a hot 101 degrees today. The water was in the mid 70's and a nice breeze was blowing in from the ocean. All in all, a really nice day.

Drive-Thru Liquor Stores

The Australians are known for being fairly laid back - it's a cultural thing that is woven into almost every aspect of their daily lives.

So, it's been a rough day at work and the last thing we want is for the populace to get stressed out at quitting time. After all, it's time to chill. Some will stop by the bottle shop on the way home and pick up a slab of stubbies. Pop a few in the Esky and they're good to go. But hold on a minute... Having to park your Ute in the Car Park, get out and walk on in can be disruptive and downright time consuming. There has to be a easier way...


Ah, problem solved - Drive-Thru.

Jacaranda's in Bloom

Now that November is upon us, I feel like Spring is officially here.

Today, November 12th, 2009, it was a warm 83 degrees with winds blowing in from the East. Around 6:00pm, clouds began to form and we had a wonderful spring shower shortly after. Lightning, thunder, the smell of damp earth, then it passed through and was gone, leaving the sky clear and bright with stars twinkling down at us. As I sit here writing, the crickets are singing, the cicadas are buzzing, frogs are croaking and Kookaburra's are laughing in the distance. It's loud outside - granted, all the windows and sliding glass doors are open, but some folks might complain about all the racket... not me. For me, it's music.

When I die, I want to have a Jacaranda planted as a remembrance for me. They are blooming now and I never get tired of looking at them. Look at the photo below and tell me that it isn't one of the most wonderful things you've ever seen. Granted, a photo doesn't do it justice, but it's as close as I can get.

(Definitely - click this for a higher resolution)

(By the way, if you get this blog via e-mail, I'd highly suggest you bookmark it on your web browser so you can return later and see the embedded links. Did you see the actual link to the horse race on the last entry? You'll also be able to double click the photos for a higher resolution. Evidently, some attachments don't come through on the e-mail list - only text)

So here is the direct link - Bookmark it!

http://thedtdownunder.blogspot.com/

It was such an awesome day, Mitch and I decided to make some paper airplanes and try them out in the back yard after school. Here is Mitch letting loose on one of his favorites - note the toes up, flick of the wrist and wide open mouth! He was totally diggin' it.

At the moment, Mitch is totally in to making paper airplanes. We've got several dozen about the house in different states of hap hazard folds, some colored brightly with markers, some not. All have a common link - the first fold. Most don't fly, but some do just out of sheer willpower by Mitch and his right hand. Watching him build them and explaining the intricate details of each fold, the aerodynamics of blue color pen as opposed to red, is really fun and enlightening. The funny thing is, it all makes perfect, logical sense to me.

One last photo of the Jacaranda flowers....

The Melbourne Cup

Remember the OJ Simpson trial? And the day the verdict was read?

I do... not so much the date and time or what I was doing, but more of the lead up and actual reading of the verdict. Somebody had brought a TV into the office... and at that critical moment, when it was read, the earth as I knew it stood still. Our office - 170 people, were crowded around that stupid TV, waiting. We had a call center in the office that handled about 50 calls every minute... and now, during the verdict, it was silent with not one incoming call. Apparently, we weren't the only ones watching it unfold. All of Los Angeles was glued to the tube.

Why did I bring this up you ask? Well, here in Australia, there is something similar that brings most of the country to a standstill for a few minutes, just like the OJ verdict. People go to work and do their things, however, every year at 3:00pm, on the first Tuesday of November, everything stops. It's called the Melbourne Cup.

In the state of Victoria (Where Melbourne is located) the first Tuesday of November is a state holiday. Businesses are closed and people party like it's 1999. Here in Sydney and elsewhere around the country, at 2:55 almost everything grinds to a halt. People huddle around TV's brought into their offices, some head out to bars and pubs and call it an early day. And at 3:00pm, the eyes of the nation are glued to a three and half minute horse race.

This is Australia's moment to shut down - even if it's only for less than four minutes. Just like the Super Bowl, there are hours of lead up with all the pomp and circumstance. Speculations are made, discussions about the jockeys and what they ate for breakfast, where the horses are from, etc. It's actually quite exciting to watch, especially the last sprint to the finish.

Once it's over, it's over. People go back to work and life carries on.

"Nevermore"

"And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted - nevermore!" - Edger Allen Poe

(Click the photos for higher resolution)

Halloween in Oz.

We took Mitch trick-or-treating on Halloween. It's not like the US. It is a holiday they are just starting to get - at least the younger generations. Here, you've got to find houses that are celebrating. There may be a balloon hanging from a mailbox, or a paper pumpkin hanging from a porch, or even something as simple as a small streamer dangling from a tree. The house in the photo above was over the top by Australian standards. The owners were having a full blown party and I'm guessing a lot of the decor was flown in just for the occasion. It looked really cool and they had real pumpkins! Being spring, they aren't in season and they cost anywhere from $25.00 - $35.00 each. I like pumpkins and all, but I can't justify forking out that much for one.


To give you an idea, take a look at the photo below - would you see two 11-13 year old boys dressed as Teletubbies in the US? I think not - and the costumes don't even fit. Oh the horror...


Mitch was dressed as Obi-Wan-Kanobe. He's really into Star Wars right now so Ana made his outfit.... It turned out great and he seemed to enjoy it. Considering the number of houses he hit, he got a pretty good haul. He was even happier that our suger-sprite, which lives under our house, would have enough food to make it through the summer. The house below was not typical in decor either - It was decked out pretty well. The owners were from Canada... that explained it.

While walking through some of the neighborhoods, I couldn't help but take more photos of the flowers.
Some houses just placed candy in a bag and hung them out on a fence. Here is one - note that nothing is wrapped! Who knows what has been groping around in there? Or what? They still haven't gotten the idea about wrapped candy... and just to take it one step further, guess what Mitch got in his bag? A carrot stick... no lie.

(Click on the photos for higher resloution)

It's getting warmer... and Spring is in the air. Winter in Sydney is pretty mild and a lot like Los Angeles so it wasn't too bad, however, I'm not one for the cold and dark. I prefer the sun and warmth of summer so I'm excited about the season changing.


Flowers are starting to bloom, and the Jacaranda trees are turning purple. The bees are buzzing and the Kookaburra's have become our morning alarm clock.

I'll post more later....

Gordon Cemetery

I was in Gordon this afternoon on business and drove down a street I hadn't before. It's right off the Pacific Highway - opposite of the train station. Off on the right is a small church which I've seen before, but never from this approach. Low and behold behind the old church is it's cemetery.


Most of it was overgrown and a lot of the graves haven't been attended to in years. The oldest one I saw was from 1886. The latest from August 2009. However, there are very few new ones. The majority are from around 1905 - 1920, or so it appears. It was hard to tell as most headstones are made of sandstone, which tends to eroded over time.


I always find old cemeteries intriguing, yet sad. Sad because of the inscriptions on the headstones... One example here: "Aggie, Beloved daughter of Harold & Simone. She left this earth on Sept 18, 1905 aged 8 1/2. She will be forever in our hearts."


However, this cemetery was sad for two reason. The tragic deaths of many young people and that it was so neglected. Trees had grown and matured right in the middle of some graves, pushing the headstones off to the side and leaving them at odd angles. Some graves had collapsed inward and had become piles of cement and stone.


Time and nature marches on...

Another Dust Storm

Earlier this week, Sydney experienced a dust storm. I don't know if it made world news, but it was really something to witness. We woke up to an Orange world... Normally, in the morning when I'm drinking my coffee the sky is bright blue with small white puffy clouds scattered about.

This is what the sky looked like outside the front of the house.

(Click the photos for larger resolutions)

Red dust from the interior had been whipped up and then blown East. From what I've read, the last time something like this happened was 70-80 years ago. Quite unusual... Below are photos that appeared on a website here in Sydney. They capture how surreal it was much better than my photo -

The Harbor Bridge

This was taken at Balmoral Beach

Later in the afternoon the storm was gone and blue skies prevailed. Since, we've had several days of nice clear skies - back to normal. But we woke up this morning (Saturday) and it was back. Not nearly as bad, but dusty with orange skies again. Hopefully it'll blow out by this afternoon.

Back Burning

It's that time of the year...

Back Burning has begun. The forests need to be cleansed of underbrush - so they (fire departments?) start the process by walking through the overgrown brush and light the dried leaves and brush on fire.

There is never any warning - and they always seem to start them right after I hang the laundry out to dry. I can't tell you how many loads of cloths have had that nice "Campfire" smell added after the fact. It makes me wonder if that can be marketed into a fabric softener? Naw, I didn't think so...

Seriously, the smoke can get bad at times depending on which way the wind is blowing. These are free burns too... they aren't monitored and they just let them run their coarse. Several have lasted for weeks and the smoke will engulf us for 3-4 days at a time.

Last week I had to go see what it was all about. I drove over to the local burn (about 5 minutes away) parked the car on the side of the road and wandered into the forest. Keep in mind, these aren't raging wild fires - just smoldering forest debris where the fire crawls along at a snails pace.

(Click the photo for higher resolution)

I guess I was expecting to see more. I had these visions of blackened earth with that silent stillness about it. However, it was quite the opposite. Cockatoos were squawking, Kookaburra's were laughing and the large trees smiled and mocked the fire that was tickling their bark. Just another seasonal burn to the creatures that live here - and just another day...

Bantry Bay Track- NSW

The start of the Bantry Bay Track....

I wound up walking all the way down the track which was pretty difficult in some spots. Lot's of rock stairs and large drop-offs. I knew coming back up was going to be a workout. My goal was to get down to the start of the bay behind me.

(Click photos for higher resolutions)

One of the markers of the Bay Track - down where another trail intersects. At this point, you can see the trail starts heading up - this is a typical looking part of the trail where rock climbing is the norm.

Almost at water level, I'd gotten to the end of Bantry Bay but still had a long way to go. I think my next paddling trip will be here. It is completely quite with little wind and the water has a deep blue color to it. The buildings on the far side are old WW1 bunkers where the Australian Navy stored shells and powder. Now closed to the public... Bummer. Any ghost's lingering about?

As the trail curves along the water, you get glimpses of the boats anchored in the bay. It's a very pretty place.

Finally, at the end of the trail there was a cool picnic area with benches and fire pits. I'll be going back here in the near future... the hike was fun, the scenery outstanding, and a place to relax once you're there.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth - You've gotta have it. This photo wouldn't be on the blog without it. Pretty little thing, isn't she? Lorikeets are all over the place. She flew down while I was hanging out the laundry.

(Click photos for higher resolution)

Bandwidth, again... - It's something that is totally taken for granted in the USA. You pay for internet broadband and it's there. It's unlimited and always on with the click of a mouse. Simple enough, right?

Here in Australia, it's a tad bit different. You pay for it by the GB (Gigabyte). What does that mean you ask? Well, instead of having unlimited access, your connection is monitored and regulated by the amount you use. Our initial plan gave us 15GB a month which under normal circumstances should be adequate. But since I work from home and download some insanely large files to FTP sites, our bandwidth has always just been hovering at our limit. One month (April I think) we ran out with one day to go and our connection slowed down to dial up speed. Something like 9600 baud... that was tough.

Last month however was a shock - on the 14th, we effectively came to a stand still. I called our provider and they confirmed we had "run out" and were at dial up speed. So I upped our plan to 30GB per month - effectively adding another 15GB for the remainder of the month. Cool.

On the 26th we ran out again! OK, something was up... but what? I called the provider and asked for some detail on usage. All of the heavy usage was happening in the middle of the night - via some sort of file sharing software, even though our computers are powered off then. Come to find out, some hacker had been tapping our broadband. I'm not sure of the mechanics of it yet, but if you do streaming or file sharing your broadband modem can stay open even if the PC's are off. Weird... I can see why "stealing" broadband is done here. $100 a month for 30GB's is a lot of cash just for internet access.

We now turn off our modem at night - I even power it off randomly during the day.


Last Sunday we took a trip to into the city. On Sunday's you can purchase unlimited travel passes for trains and ferries. The best part - it was only $7.50 for all three of us. With passes in hand, we caught the train at Gordon station and cruised into the city. We got off at Milson's Point and then took the ferry over to Darling Harbor. I took this picture from the ferry as another was leaving. Typical of the scenery - I love the colors in this photo.



After we spent the day in Darling Harbor, we caught the train at Wynyard Station and headed back to Gordon. I travel in and out of Gordon Station quite often and I always mean to take a photo of this plaque (See below). However, I never have a camera with me. This day was different, so here it is.

It is a memorial to all of the men from Gordon who served in the Great War - WW1. Names with small crosses next to them are the men killed in action. It's a very humbling thing to see... What I find amazing is that these monuments are all over. Truly, in every small town, all over Australia. They are well taken care of and respected. Each time I come across one (where ever I may be) I stop and look to read the names. Finding whole families, six or seven men all with the same last name, Fathers, Sons and Uncles, and all with crosses next to them sends a chill up my spine. It's hard to fathom - all the men of a particular family, gone. What that must of done to the families in these small towns can only be imagined...

Civilization came to visit

It's hard to believe we've been here almost a year. Once the shock of it all set in, I started to miss some things. But that isn't what this post is about...

It's about a little slice of civilization paying a visit. Yes, Mr. Joe Crow himself...

Cuervo is one thing. However, the mixer here is another. But then again, if you've never had a real Margarita this stuff would be the shizzle. The Aussies we made drinks for thought they'd found Nirvana - we didn't have the heart to tell them they were drinking Cuervo and green syrup.

The marketing of this product cracks me up. Take a closer look at the labels. El Rebozo? Is he the clown we all know and love from 1960's TV?

(click the photos for higher resolution)

Anyway, it was a nice slice of home - on ice. Nothing like La Cabana in Venice, but enough to remind me of what is North of the border.

Back in May, Mitch and I took a stroll....

(Click photos for high resolution)

I use the above photo as wall paper on my laptop. This is where the trail starts, in East Linfield. The combination of rocks, gum trees and blue sky captures the beauty of the area.

The area in the above picture is a small feed that comes from the hills and dumps into the river by the Roseville bridge. We're probably 10-12 miles from mouth of Sydney harbor and you can see how it's low tide. When the tide comes in, the lower rock formation on the left gets covered and the trees on the right turn into a swamp.

This sandstone eye looked really freaky when you got up close. The eye itself is probably about a foot long with the whole formation being about 4-5 feet wide. There is was, just in the side of the cliff by the trail, watching us walk by... watching... watching....


Mitch and I had reached our destination... which wasn't really any sort of landmark. We just got tired and took a break before turning back. In the background is a very large park which is called the Roseville Bridge Picnic Area. It's a really nice park with lots of built in BBQ's, tables, small boat ramps, etc. There was no way for us to get to it from here, unless we of coarse we did the backstroke. No thanks!


Just one of the many cool rock formations that are along the trail.
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Mitch, Kevin and I

Just thought I'd post a recent photo of my me, Mitch and Kevin. This was taken at the Artillery Museum up on the North Head of Sydney Harbor. Kevin was here for the month of July and since Mitch's school was on Winter Break at the same time, I took some time off from work. We spent everyday doing something different and kept ourselves very busy. It went by far too quickly. Even though it's posed, I like this photo.