Merry (Belated) Christmas!

I know it's a few days late, but Merry Christmas Everyone!

My Christmas was a good one and consisted of drinking too much in Glenelg on Christmas Eve and a very hungover first half of Christmas Day. But despite the hungness we still openned our pressies, had quiche and coffee cake for brunch, and the turkey was in the oven all by 10:30am!!

Sunset Bar at Glenelg Marina, Christmas Eve

More on the turkey... on Christmas Eve we were aimlessly wandering the market trying to decide where to get a turkey from and as we passed by probably the most expensive exclusively fowl selling stall we heard the man behind the counter yell 'Everything in this window $10!' Surely he didn't include the giant turkey sitting there in that low, low price. I asked him how much the turkey was, he told me half-price and chucked it on the scale... the baby was 6.7kg, more than most babies haha, and should've cost nearly $80! He said we could have it for $35! Sold! Of course it was the only thing that fit in the oven the next day, but oh well!

 Oven hog

  

Around the time the turkey was beginning to roast our English friend Rob and his pseudo g/f from Tiawan came over for the day. We all played a bit of beach cricket and football and volleyball throughout the day and ate our giant turkey with all the trimmings (except cranberries, forgot about those) at around 5pm on the table on the back patio, overlooking the dunes and ocean. Oh yeah, did I mention this was my first attempt at turkey and it came our perfect? When we started carving it it was looking a bit dry but after the first slice or two oh boy was she a juicey one! We also had Andy's made ahead gravy (a la Jamie Oliver), roast potatoes, roast carrots and parsnips, and stuffing. For dessert we had coconut and white chocolate cream peach shortcake. I felt stuffed for the next two days and we still have a ton of turkey in the freezer.

Christmas Dinner

Watching the sunset on Christmas Day

The Ashes

The newly completed Members stand at the Adelaide Oval, ready just in time for the Ashes 2nd test!

Last week Andy and I took Friday off work and went to watch the cricket. This wasn't any cricket, it was The Ashes, second test. It was at the Adelaide Oval in North Adelaide and we went for the first three days of the five day test match. England emerged victorious on Day 5, bringing the series score to 1-0 (the first test, in Brisbane, was a draw). We had General Admission tickets which meant we could stand or sit on the grass of The Hill. We ended up standing for half of each day and sitting in 'silver' seats for the other half. No one was checking tickets so the worst thing to happen was being asked to move by the actual silver ticket holders, but that didn't happen because we chose our seats well hahaha. The new Members stand was finished just in time for this test but alas it was always a third or a quarter empty! It looks good though.

The first two days were days of excess: plastic cups and plastics cups of mid-strength beer, XXXX Gold (the only beer they serve on the grounds, still $6.20 a pop for 3.5%), sun and heat (it was clear, blue skies Friday and Saturday, and well above 30 all three days, 38 (That's 98F folks) on Saturday.) and of course the Barmy Army . They sang some lovely songs, like We All Live in a Convict Colony to the tune of Yellow Submarine, and More Sense Of Humour to the tune of Waltzing Matilda:

Once a jolly Aussie sat down at a cricket match

Sat in the shade of the BARMY ARMY
And he sat and he sighed and then the poor Aussie cried
Why have the Poms got more humour than me?


MORE SENSE OF HUMOUR
MORE SENSE OF HUMOUR
WHY HAVE THE POMS GOT MORE HUMOUR THAN ME
Cos I'm thick as a brick
I'm a seventh generation skip
That's why the poms got more humour than me


And so the Aussie sits there
And he starts to think a bit
Thought he'd make a song
That his mates could enjoy
So he thought up a song
And it didn't take him very long
(Falcetto) AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE
OI OI OI

Source

Many of them were dressed up (see the horse below). I believe that it is the Amry to blame for making a day out at the cricket a great one (the atmosphere they create rivals music festivals, watch video below), although I'm sure going with a diehard cricket-fan-from-birth, who could answer all my dumb questions, helped... and also that our team was winning.
Sunday was a sober day, even the smell of beer made me want to vomit, but we witnessed Pietersen bat a double century (big deal in cricket) before rain ended the third day at the tea break.
It was a great weekend overall and I will definatly welcome another weekend of cricket in the future even though I am a hurting unit this week :)

 Horseman on The Hill amongst the Barmy Army on Day 2

 (it was at least 36C at this point)

Day Two with our free Vodafone radios

The Historic Scoreboard on Day 3

Amongst the Barmy Army

30 Days has Movember...

Today is December first and last night Andy got rid of his mustache. The mustache I made him grow for Movember. I documented its growth daily and watched it flurish into an impressive, manly stache. I know I should've set up a prostate cancer page for the cause, but didn't even think to do it until about Movember 15th! Next year, next year...
So now, without further ado, here is Andy's Movember:

 Movember 1st

 Movember 2nd

 Movember 3rd

 Movember 4th

Movember 5th

 (must've been laundry day, haha)

 Movember 6th

Movember 7th 

 Movember 8th

 Movember 9th

 Movember 10th

Movember 11th 

 Movember 12th

 Movember 13th

 Movember 14th

 Movember 15th

 Movember 16th

 Movember 17th (haircut!)

 Movember 18th

 Movember 19th

 Movember 20th

 Movember 21st... lookin good.

Movember 22nd 

 Movember 23rd

 Movember 24th

 Movember 25th

 Movember 26th... the sleeping mustache

Movember 27th 

Movember 28th

 Movember 29th... gave it a little trim

Movember 30th!
(It was gone 30sec after this pic was taken)

An Ode to my Old Shoes

To My Dear Old Shoes,
My Men's Nike Free 5.0s,
I don't remember what year I bought you in, maybe 2005, but I know you weren't used until 2008.
You helped me begin training for my first half-marathon, but were replaced by better runners early on.
But I chose you to come to Australia with me because you are light and not bulky.
You were with me ever step of the way.
We ran in every major city I visited: Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Melbourne, and Adelaide.
You came to Tasmania with me and we did the hike down to Wine Glass Bay, where you got wet and turned into Cat-o-ninetails shoes. But you dried quickly and that's why you were my favourite shoes.
You've been to Byron Bay, Bay of Fires, the South and North Island of New Zealand, Kings Canyon, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kuta Tajuta (The Olgas), Darwin, Bali, and Tully! You've worked on a banana farm!
You also got to go to Malaysia, Thailand, and Laos with me. And back to Canada again.
At that point you were still in okay shape and got to come back with me. But then I started running again and you started to look your age. You helped me at the beginning of my training for my second half marathon but alas, once again you were replaced by younger, more supportive shoes. By then you had a hole in only one heel.
Then I started reading meters and things really went downhill.
You've read thousands of water meters too and helped to make me the best water meter reader in Adelaide.
You now have holes in both your heels. And your insoles are wearing thin. Your insoles also got chewed up by a dog when they were left out to dry. You have no more grip on your soles and last week I slipped on a fence and it left a nasty bruise. That's what has made me decide your time has come.
But your time to retire has come. 
You've had a long and full live.

Goodbye.

See the holes?

They kept my feet cool

Full of grass burr thingys

Worn insoles

Tired

No tread left

Summer

Summer's here. It was 30C/86F on Sunday and 36C/97F on Monday and Tuesday.

At last.

Spare Parts

This has been on the news a few times and I really wish it was coming to Adelaide.
What it is is 'spare parts,' i.e. prosthetic limbs, recycled into art.
"

Spare Parts


Tue 9 Nov - Sun 5 Dec 2010


Spare Parts is an exhibition that will bring together a diverse range of artists all using pre-loved prosthetic limbs as their canvas.


As an exhibition Spare Parts will create and promote about 40 individual pieces of art and parallel to this, a positive and open conversation about prosthetics.
All too often prosthetics are considered a taboo subject, and Spare Parts aims to celebrate both their beauty and purpose.
The diversity of artists is a very important component of the exhibition as is their interpretation of each limb. Those involved range from a world class graffiti artist, tattooists, a poet, painters, comic artists, to one of Australia’s most popular up and coming sculptors. Beyond the traditional scope of “what is art” Spare Parts will also include a fashion designer, a milliner, a jeweller and a cobbler.

"
At the moment it only appears to be in Brisbane at the Brisbane Powerhouse. sad face.
Anyways, this exhibition has inspired me to do some artwork, so I now have a few projects on the horizon ;)

Beach Saturday

Tomorrow will be my first 'Beach Saturday' of the summer... that's if the forecast is correct with it's 27C (80F) and sunny prediction.

[ I hope I'm not jinxing it with this blog post. ]

OMG

Today I saw a real, live, wild Koala bear.
It was drinking from a puddle in a parking lot... of a funeral home... in the middle of the suburbs.
I only noticed it because I saw some lady bending down taking pictures with her cellphone and that's when I saw what she was taking pictures of a koala bear.
Needless to say, it made my day.

Two Year Anniversary

Today marks the two year anniversary of my initial entry into Australia on a working holiday visa! (I'm on bridging visa now) Just thought I'd share that with the world. It was also two years and a day ago when Barak Obama was elected US Prez.

In other news Bell Canada finally caught up with me and are cutting off my free cell phone plan... two years and almost two months after I officially retired. My Mom had been using it since I left and she's going to have to start paying for a mobile now, bummer! But with that being said two extra years on the free plan ain't too shabby!

How Far?

Yesterday I worked for under 6 hours and read water meters for over 600 houses. I was moving pretty fast and sort of impressed with myself, so I finally did something I'd wanted to do for a while: map my route and see how far I'd actually walked...
Well.
Shit.
I was quite shocked to see I'd walked roughly 11.8 MILES aka over 19km!
No wonder my feet hurt after work.

Happy Halloweeeeeeeeen!

Boo!

Good news: I made a jack-o-lantern today! It's the first pumpkin I've carved in 2 years (The last one being in Ktown 2008 before I left) Anyways, earlier this week the pumpkin situation was looking bleak. The grocery store was selling real, North American style pumpkins for $22 each! A few days later the price was down to $15... and then today it was just $5! I didn't think it'd get that low and I was preparing for no pumpkin carving, but dang I was excited to see that $5 sign! I think Andy must've thought I'd seen a ghost the way I jumped, gasped, and stopped walking all at once, haha. Evidently carving a pumpkin is like riding a bike and now we have a spooking and scary Jack-o-lantern on the kitchen counter. I also roasted the pumpkin seeds (I'd do another pumpkin just for the seeds, ha).
Anyways, that's the extent to my Halloween festivies this year... unless I buy another pumpkin tommorrow ;)

Nothing New to Report

Welp. Nothing much has happened in the last two weeks around these parts. It's slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y getting warmer. We're supposed to have our first 30 degree celcius (86F) day on Thursday and have had a few 27s so far but it's been inconsistent and the weekends have been the coolest days of the week (E.g. Thursday and Friday were 28 and then today, Saturday, it's 19) Balls.
The most exciting thing I can tell you about is the epic thai meal I prepared on Thursday night. It smelt and tasted like Thailand (minus the background garbage/sewage smell, haha). It was coconut poached chicken thigh, sweet potato and red pepper, with jasmine rice cooked in chicken stock, and then topped with satay sauce (I cheated a bit on this cause I used thai red curry paste). Shit it was good.
This afternoon we're heading to the pub for some rugby league four nations, but that's as exciting as it gets round these parts.
Oh wait a tic, yesterday we went to part one of our two part medical for our perm res visa. It consisted of peeing in a cup, sight test, weight and height taken, chest Xray, and blood test. The blood test nurse told us not to lift anything heavy, not even a handbag, for one hour afterwards. Well I scoofed at that and then forgot... and then at the grocery store, still within the hour, I picked up a 3L jug of milk and carried it around then waiting in the checkout line realized I was doing heavy lifting and switched hands. Well..... let me tell you, the nurse's advice should've been taken more seriously. I now have a large 'track' mark in the crook of my right elbow and a tender bruise :( Oh poor baby.

McLaren Vale Half Marathon

Soooooo a week ago Andy and I got up early and drove south to McLaren Vale and I ran a half marathon- 21.1km/13.1miles!
As you may recall I ran an unofficial half marathon in June of 2008 and later that summer did the Ktown tri. After starting my travels I hurt my ankle in Hawaii and didn't run for 4 months, got back into it a little in 2009 but then landed the manual labour banana job of my dreams and couldn't be bothered. So after probably 6 to 8 month of nothing I started something. I've been back at the running thing since mid April now and had been following a half marathon training plan since August with a half marathon as my goal. When I started the new job, the one where I walk over 5 hours/day, my training plan sort of went out the window. But the walking allowed me to maintain my fitness and I still did a few short runs during the week and of couse the required long one on Sundays.
All that brought me to McLaren Vale. I chose this half marathon because I wanted to do one before the new year and this was the last one in South Australia until April. Also, McLaren Vale is a wine region and I thought I could probably squeeze in some wine tasting afterwards!
We arrived to the Information Centre, the start and finish of the race, early and I had time to have a nervous poop and stretch at little. Then we all lined up and some guy said GO through a loudspeaker.

Dynamic Stretch on a beautiful Sunday morning

GO!

At the beginning a lot of people ran past me and at the first turn on the course I took a glance behind me to discover I was near the end! This struck panic through me but I stayed with my slow and steady pace.

Eventually I started to feel pretty good and it was at about this time that I reached the turn around point at the 13km to go point. So I picked up the pace and started passing people, people that had passed me early on that were now going very slow or even walking. It felt good. I continued at my stronger pace and although it was probably a little too strong I kept going.

With less than 7km I passed Andy at the side of the course and he got a few snaps of me...

Less than 7km to go!

Believe it or not I am running in this picture, not walking haha

About 1.5km after my photoshoot the course passed the start/finish area and did another little out and back for the last 5km. It was about 10am when I got to this part and it was turning out to be the warmest day of the spring so far- about 25C and B-U-T-full! This last part of the course was through some sort of valley between big hills though and there was no breeze, just the dry heat of the sun beating down on us. It is also where I was for 10:10:10am on 10-10-10! The last 4km took forever and my legs were screaming for me to stop. But when I saw that 1km to go marker I gave it everything I had left and went hard to the finish line.

Approaching the end!

I ended up coming 143rd out of 233 21.1km runners. My time was 2 hours, 1 minute, and 2 seconds. I would've liked to go under 2 hours, but close enough I suppose!

Done! Where's my gawdamn commerative wine glass?!

After a bathroom break and lots of water and some fruit and an amazing apricot slice bar thingy, oh and a brutal ant bite that I still have a mark from, we decided to figure out where to have lunch. We asked at the info centre desk and the lady suggested (she would've recommended but they're not supposed to do that she said, haha) a winery called Ekhidna. The setting was lovely and we talked to the owner as he let us taste his wares. We started with their new beers: all preservative free and only available at the winery on tap. Too bad because they were really good! We then sampled a fee whites, including Riesling we liked so much that we took home a bottle, and then Andy tried a few of the reds (I was driving).  Then we had a lovely lunch and the effects of the mornings effort started hitting me hard. I was tried. So we called it a day and vowed to plan a full weekend in the Vale sooner than later. There are many more wineries to visit and a plethora of great restaurants to eat at!

Vineyard at Ekhidna

Andy and I waiting for our lunch

Mmmm, Mmmm.