It has been a great couple of weeks here down under! The weather has finally changed a little bit... instead of a balmy 80+ degrees it has been in the low 70s the past few days. Absolutely beautiful! If this is what autumn (they don't call it fall down here) is like in oz then I love it!
Last night we celebrated our friends' engagement and two birthdays. It was a great night out. Starting at a restaurant on the harbour and moving to a fun little bar in town. After being here for nearly six months, it feels like we finally have a good group of friends to hangout with. It makes me feel much more settled... it has definitely taken me longer than Charlie.
I can't believe Easter is coming up this weekend! As of right now we are planning on staying in town. Although, we have been looking at last minute hotel deals... we'll see if something comes up!
After Easter Charlie heads up to a town called Tindal in the Northern Territory. I think he'll get to experience the real outback up there. The base is super isolated and has some fun places to see on the weekends. Hopefully he'll take some pictures. While he is gone I am going up to Brisbane for a couple of days with a girlfriend of mine. It should be fun and definitely nice to get out of town to see something new!
That's about it from here... we love and miss you all!! Happy Spring!
4.05.2009
3.26.2009
Sydney!!
We FINALLY took a trip down to Sydney a couple of weekends ago!! It's about time since we only live 2 1/2 hours away and it's taken us 5 months to visit! We travelled in style down there in a seaplane! It was an amazing way to get there. Charlie took a half day on Friday... we went and lunch on the water and then hopped on the plane and headed down to Sydney. In all it took us 45 minutes to be in downtown Sydney. The ride down was not only quick but GORGEOUS.. even though it was overcast. Charlie gets to see the coastline everyday when he's flying, but for me it was a completely new and exciting view of the country!
After landing in Sydney we caught a ferry over to Circular Quay (ie Opera House, Harbour Bridge). It was such a fun ride over there! The homes on the harbour are absolutely stunning! I think I took a few pics, but they really don't do them justice. Once we got off of the ferry we were able to walk to our hotel and check-in. We stay at a place called The Grace Hotel. It was in a perfect spot right in the CBD (downtown) and equal distance between Darling Harbour and Circular Quay.
We headed to Darling Harbour to check it out on Friday afternoon. It's extremely touristy. Tons of restaurants, an aquarium, shopping, and an IMAX Theater right on the water. We walked around, had a pint and then headed to hotel to change for dinner. I had made reservations at the Sydney Cove Oyster Bar... it was right on the water and had fantastic views of the Harbour Bridge. Very nice!
I think we ended up walking about 15 miles on Saturday. We went from one spot to the next to check off all of the things we wanted to see. We started out the morning in an area called The Rocks. It's the most historic part of the city and it's gorgeous, with lots of cafes and cute boutique stores. They have a market every weekend and Charlie and I ended up buying a print for the house. After breakfast at the Chocolatiere (Mmmmmm, delicious) we decided to walk around Circular Quay and get an up close look at the bridge... it's definitely more beautiful from a distance!
Our next stop was the Seafood Market! Mmmm, more food ha. This time we had tuna sashimi chosen and sliced right in front of us and fresh pacific oysters shucked to order. MMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmm. It's doesn't get any better than that! We took our food over to Darling Harbour and had a nice picnic lunch... although the seagulls tried really hard to ruin the little picnic.
Finally after a looong day of wondering around the city we decided that we just wanted to sit down listen to music and have a nice drink. We found a FANTASTIC little spot right next to the Opera House that had nice Spanish style band and great cheese. We will definitely be going back there... hopefully next time we will be heading to the Opera like the rest of the crowd there... ha, we were a little under dressed.. oh well!
Well, those are the highlights from the trip! Definitely a long winded blog.. sorry! It was just such a great weekend. We are looking forward to exploring more of the city when friends and family are in town!
We love and miss you all!!
After landing in Sydney we caught a ferry over to Circular Quay (ie Opera House, Harbour Bridge). It was such a fun ride over there! The homes on the harbour are absolutely stunning! I think I took a few pics, but they really don't do them justice. Once we got off of the ferry we were able to walk to our hotel and check-in. We stay at a place called The Grace Hotel. It was in a perfect spot right in the CBD (downtown) and equal distance between Darling Harbour and Circular Quay.
We headed to Darling Harbour to check it out on Friday afternoon. It's extremely touristy. Tons of restaurants, an aquarium, shopping, and an IMAX Theater right on the water. We walked around, had a pint and then headed to hotel to change for dinner. I had made reservations at the Sydney Cove Oyster Bar... it was right on the water and had fantastic views of the Harbour Bridge. Very nice!
I think we ended up walking about 15 miles on Saturday. We went from one spot to the next to check off all of the things we wanted to see. We started out the morning in an area called The Rocks. It's the most historic part of the city and it's gorgeous, with lots of cafes and cute boutique stores. They have a market every weekend and Charlie and I ended up buying a print for the house. After breakfast at the Chocolatiere (Mmmmmm, delicious) we decided to walk around Circular Quay and get an up close look at the bridge... it's definitely more beautiful from a distance!
Our next stop was the Seafood Market! Mmmm, more food ha. This time we had tuna sashimi chosen and sliced right in front of us and fresh pacific oysters shucked to order. MMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmm. It's doesn't get any better than that! We took our food over to Darling Harbour and had a nice picnic lunch... although the seagulls tried really hard to ruin the little picnic.
Finally after a looong day of wondering around the city we decided that we just wanted to sit down listen to music and have a nice drink. We found a FANTASTIC little spot right next to the Opera House that had nice Spanish style band and great cheese. We will definitely be going back there... hopefully next time we will be heading to the Opera like the rest of the crowd there... ha, we were a little under dressed.. oh well!
Well, those are the highlights from the trip! Definitely a long winded blog.. sorry! It was just such a great weekend. We are looking forward to exploring more of the city when friends and family are in town!
We love and miss you all!!
 |
| Sydney March 2009 |
3.10.2009
long time no post
It's been waaaay too long since we last posted... but nothing too much has happened so neither of us have been motivated to write... sorry! My mom wrote me the other day and told me it's time to post again.. so here it is : )
The past few weeks have been pretty normal weeks for us. I think both of us are getting more and more used to life here in Australia. I am still searching for a job... and definitely getting fed up with it. I'll go through stages of sending out lots of applications and then wait to hear back (of course I never do) and then motivate myself again to send more out.. etc, etc. Hopefully I'll hear back from one of the businesses soon. I have run into several people who are in the same boat as me, which makes me feel a little better... I guess.
When I am not busy looking for a job, I am usually hanging out with my little buddy Stella. Thank goodness for the dog! She is an excuse to go for walks on the beach, harbour and any other scenic spot in Newcastle. Although walking her has definitely become a challenge since she has developed a bad habit of constantly pulling on the leash. It was fine when she was a little puppy, but she is growing very quickly and if we can't break her of the habit I am sure she'll pull me over one day. Not good. So we are working on that.... I'll let you know how it goes ; )
This weekend will be our first weekend away from Stella... WOOHOOO! Ha, now that she has finally gotten bigger and has all of her vaccinations, Charlie and I are heading down to Sydney for the weekend! It's our first time down there... other than driving through the city a few times during our December vacation debacle. We are definitely looking forward to it!! We are flying down on a sea plane and taking the train back up. The plane cuts the trip down from 2 1/2 hours to a 1/2 hour... which is nice on a Friday afternoon. So we should definitely have lots to write about after this weekend.
We are hoping to take lots of weekend trips in the next few months. I have added a little section to the right of the page that has our travel plans on it AND dates that people are planning on coming to visit us! Eddie is our first official visitor in July!!! Everyone should follow his lead and book a trip! : ) You can fly from the east coast now for $826.... CRAZY... Ha. I always feel like I am a Travelocity commercial when I start talking about ticket prices!
That's about it from here! Love and miss you all!!
The past few weeks have been pretty normal weeks for us. I think both of us are getting more and more used to life here in Australia. I am still searching for a job... and definitely getting fed up with it. I'll go through stages of sending out lots of applications and then wait to hear back (of course I never do) and then motivate myself again to send more out.. etc, etc. Hopefully I'll hear back from one of the businesses soon. I have run into several people who are in the same boat as me, which makes me feel a little better... I guess.
When I am not busy looking for a job, I am usually hanging out with my little buddy Stella. Thank goodness for the dog! She is an excuse to go for walks on the beach, harbour and any other scenic spot in Newcastle. Although walking her has definitely become a challenge since she has developed a bad habit of constantly pulling on the leash. It was fine when she was a little puppy, but she is growing very quickly and if we can't break her of the habit I am sure she'll pull me over one day. Not good. So we are working on that.... I'll let you know how it goes ; )
This weekend will be our first weekend away from Stella... WOOHOOO! Ha, now that she has finally gotten bigger and has all of her vaccinations, Charlie and I are heading down to Sydney for the weekend! It's our first time down there... other than driving through the city a few times during our December vacation debacle. We are definitely looking forward to it!! We are flying down on a sea plane and taking the train back up. The plane cuts the trip down from 2 1/2 hours to a 1/2 hour... which is nice on a Friday afternoon. So we should definitely have lots to write about after this weekend.
We are hoping to take lots of weekend trips in the next few months. I have added a little section to the right of the page that has our travel plans on it AND dates that people are planning on coming to visit us! Eddie is our first official visitor in July!!! Everyone should follow his lead and book a trip! : ) You can fly from the east coast now for $826.... CRAZY... Ha. I always feel like I am a Travelocity commercial when I start talking about ticket prices!
That's about it from here! Love and miss you all!!
2.15.2009
Less than perfect weekend weather
Hey guys - sorry for the blog-hiatus, but since it's a rainy Sunday afternoon and since I'm avoiding 50 pages of mind-numbing reading for work I thought I'd chime in to newsreel. We're smack dab in the middle of our fourth month in OZ and settling into the house and the culture nicely. I've refined my impression of Australia to be much more like the U.S. than Britain but still way more into left field than Canada. Hopefully that should tell you exactly what to expect when you make your way down here.
Yesterday was Valentines Day and Nina and I both vowed to stave off the Hallmarkism of the holiday and instead of Chocolates decided to focus our hedonism on wine instead. We braved the low front that has been plaguing the area with low clouds and steady rain and drove our way out to the Hunter Valley in search of some new wineries and places to take all of you when you decide to visit (are you getting my drift, peoples?). We started off at a place called Brokenwood and tried a few whites and reds (I'm quite the sommelier) and our first tastes of the famous Hunter Semillion which is similar to our rieslings although a bit drier. It was great although we didn't get a great vibe from the staff. We bought a few bottles nonetheless. Next stop was Tamburlaine and an old man who tried to get us to join their wine club. Blah blah blah - just give us the wine, buddy. It was good and we dropped some coin for 2 bottles of Merlot. I know, I know - I vowed not to drink the stuff after I watched "Sideways", but this stuff was actually pretty good, and it's the only wine in Hunter that's purely organic so I felt like I was doing the Earth a service.
The last stop was Audrey Wilkinson winery where the staff was extremely friendly, and had it been a nicer day, I'm sure there would have been an amazing view of the valley and surrounding mountains. We got another white and bubbly from here, had some grub and peaced out back to the homestead. In the tradition of the Schwarzes we spent some more cash in an off-the-cuff entertainment center purchase and trucked a sizeable piece of wood home in the back of the car. A good day, minus the weather.
What, may you say, have I been doing since my last post? Flying and dealing with the dog for the most part. Stella is getting much larger as you can probably see from the Facebook photos and the ones on here, and is a bear to deal with. Let's just say we enjoy her sleep as much as she does. Being a Boxer/Kelpie mix she has a TON of energy which I can normally get rid of with a game of "try and kill the broom" or "fetch the stick and run with it past me". However, with the cruddy weather over the last few days we've been housebound aside from bathroom breaks and her energy has been boliing over. We had pupy pre-school today and she was the kid in class that you just knew was going to be held back. Her puppy ADHD was uncontrollable and it was almost embarrassing tohave her around other dogs. Of course, right after we got home she fell asleep for 4 hours. Go figure.
Work has been good, and we just finished up two weeks of air-to-air gunnery which means we loaded the jets up with 250 bullets (20mm cartridges in our cannon) and went out to shoot at a banner (30 feet x 6 feet) being towed 1200 feet behind a learjet. We flew out with either 2 or 4 jets and took turns coming from outside and behind the banner to empty our cannons. We'd shoot from about 1500 feet away from the banner, and after allwas said and done the learjet would drop the banner off back in Williamtown (our airbase) and all the pilots would gather around and count the bullet holes like old men playing bocce. Fortunately for us our ordinance personnel spent countless hours actually dipping the bullets in paint so we could tell who was good and who needed improvement. I was happy to somewhere near the peak of the bell curve for the most part.
The squadron is great and everyone has been really friendly and accepting of my American accent during briefs, debriefs and over the radio, although I've had to have Air Traffic and other pilots repeat themselves quite often due to miscommunication. It's all part of the job though and I'm completely happy with our decision to come down here to Australia.
Well, that's the job and the dog in a nutshell - we've been enjoying the beach, the weather (aside from the last few days) and the people down here and are ready for anyone and everyone to get their butts down here to pay us a visit. The flights are cheap and the beer is cold, so make your reservation and we'll get some shrimp for the grill.
Yesterday was Valentines Day and Nina and I both vowed to stave off the Hallmarkism of the holiday and instead of Chocolates decided to focus our hedonism on wine instead. We braved the low front that has been plaguing the area with low clouds and steady rain and drove our way out to the Hunter Valley in search of some new wineries and places to take all of you when you decide to visit (are you getting my drift, peoples?). We started off at a place called Brokenwood and tried a few whites and reds (I'm quite the sommelier) and our first tastes of the famous Hunter Semillion which is similar to our rieslings although a bit drier. It was great although we didn't get a great vibe from the staff. We bought a few bottles nonetheless. Next stop was Tamburlaine and an old man who tried to get us to join their wine club. Blah blah blah - just give us the wine, buddy. It was good and we dropped some coin for 2 bottles of Merlot. I know, I know - I vowed not to drink the stuff after I watched "Sideways", but this stuff was actually pretty good, and it's the only wine in Hunter that's purely organic so I felt like I was doing the Earth a service.
The last stop was Audrey Wilkinson winery where the staff was extremely friendly, and had it been a nicer day, I'm sure there would have been an amazing view of the valley and surrounding mountains. We got another white and bubbly from here, had some grub and peaced out back to the homestead. In the tradition of the Schwarzes we spent some more cash in an off-the-cuff entertainment center purchase and trucked a sizeable piece of wood home in the back of the car. A good day, minus the weather.
What, may you say, have I been doing since my last post? Flying and dealing with the dog for the most part. Stella is getting much larger as you can probably see from the Facebook photos and the ones on here, and is a bear to deal with. Let's just say we enjoy her sleep as much as she does. Being a Boxer/Kelpie mix she has a TON of energy which I can normally get rid of with a game of "try and kill the broom" or "fetch the stick and run with it past me". However, with the cruddy weather over the last few days we've been housebound aside from bathroom breaks and her energy has been boliing over. We had pupy pre-school today and she was the kid in class that you just knew was going to be held back. Her puppy ADHD was uncontrollable and it was almost embarrassing tohave her around other dogs. Of course, right after we got home she fell asleep for 4 hours. Go figure.
Work has been good, and we just finished up two weeks of air-to-air gunnery which means we loaded the jets up with 250 bullets (20mm cartridges in our cannon) and went out to shoot at a banner (30 feet x 6 feet) being towed 1200 feet behind a learjet. We flew out with either 2 or 4 jets and took turns coming from outside and behind the banner to empty our cannons. We'd shoot from about 1500 feet away from the banner, and after allwas said and done the learjet would drop the banner off back in Williamtown (our airbase) and all the pilots would gather around and count the bullet holes like old men playing bocce. Fortunately for us our ordinance personnel spent countless hours actually dipping the bullets in paint so we could tell who was good and who needed improvement. I was happy to somewhere near the peak of the bell curve for the most part.
The squadron is great and everyone has been really friendly and accepting of my American accent during briefs, debriefs and over the radio, although I've had to have Air Traffic and other pilots repeat themselves quite often due to miscommunication. It's all part of the job though and I'm completely happy with our decision to come down here to Australia.
Well, that's the job and the dog in a nutshell - we've been enjoying the beach, the weather (aside from the last few days) and the people down here and are ready for anyone and everyone to get their butts down here to pay us a visit. The flights are cheap and the beer is cold, so make your reservation and we'll get some shrimp for the grill.
2.12.2009
Visit Down Under!
So I just wanted to let everyone know that there are some AMAZING flight and also hotel deals (you have a place to stay though!) going on down here right now. We would LOVE to have some visiters! Anyway, for all of you in VA Beach, MD, Central VA (Richmond) tickets are only $1000 including taxes (and yes, I did say ONLY because they usually are twice that from the east coast). The great fares are through to September... so who wants to visit?!? : ) Just thought you all should know!
2.10.2009
Alien Pup
So, over the past week Stella's ears have changed and I am not at all happy about it =( It all started one night when she was lying on her bed and I pointed out to Charlie that her right ear looked funny. It only took a couple of days until her other ear followed suit. I have been worried that they would stay like that OR they were turning into Kelpie ears - pointed and straight up (see below). Anyway, after doing a bunch of reading I stumbled on some posts about puppies like labs and other breeds with floppy ears that had the same problem at the same age. I guess when they are teething all of the calcium goes to their teeth not their cartilage....
Soooo, I am hoping that it is a result of TEETHING not Kelpiness. Ha. We'll see though. Either way she is still cute... I just miss her floppy ears... she kind of looks like an alien with them sticking out to the side. We have her final vaccination on Friday, so hopefully the doc will confirm it's lack of calcium... if it is she's getting calcium pills... haha... just kidding = )
Kelpie Pup - big ears
Before the ear folding - cute little pup
After the ear folding - cute alien pup
Soooo, I am hoping that it is a result of TEETHING not Kelpiness. Ha. We'll see though. Either way she is still cute... I just miss her floppy ears... she kind of looks like an alien with them sticking out to the side. We have her final vaccination on Friday, so hopefully the doc will confirm it's lack of calcium... if it is she's getting calcium pills... haha... just kidding = )
Kelpie Pup - big ears
Before the ear folding - cute little pup
After the ear folding - cute alien pup
2.02.2009
day trip
Sometimes I still cannot believe that we actually LIVE in Australia! Today I drove down to Sydney to go do some furniture shopping and it was NBD (No Big Deal, Jen that's for you and James). It's amazing to live so close to one of the world's most famous cities. Anyway, I didn't even go downtown, although I did drive right by Olympic Park, which was neat.
I am hoping to finish up decorating the house in the next few weeks... at least get all of the big stuff done, so we can finally feel like it's ours (well, ours for a couple of yours that is).
Back to decorating... and of course assembling since I bought a bunch of stuff from IKEA : )
Love you all, pics to come!
I am hoping to finish up decorating the house in the next few weeks... at least get all of the big stuff done, so we can finally feel like it's ours (well, ours for a couple of yours that is).
Back to decorating... and of course assembling since I bought a bunch of stuff from IKEA : )
Love you all, pics to come!
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