Merry Christmas from Chiang Mai

We spent our Christmas Eve playing with elephants. I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe Christmas, wherever you are! 

Good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.

Last night we went to the Nerd Cave to play some boardgames with friends. It's essentially a community center for people with nerdy interests. Michael and I are baffled as to how this place exists/stays in business because we can't see how they make much money. They provide a space for people to play boardgames for free, computers set up for gaming (which cost a small fee to get a pass to use), and they have a DDR machine and a small handful of arcade games. They sell a few game-related items and candy and snacks, but that's it. I think when I was 15 I had a business idea for a place like this, where people could go to hangout until late at night, where they didn't feel pressure to spend money. There are couches and tables and even a minimal kitchen with a microwave. The Nerd Cave reminds me of a "grown up" version of the YAC from my adolescence, without the middle school dances on the back porch. It's in a decent second-story location very close to Central Station, so the rent can't be that cheap. In theory it's a nice idea, but I'm not sure it's a long-lasting business model. It must work because of people's love for the idea of a place like it, and that's how it gets its support. I feel like we should donate some money to them or something. Also, I'm not even sure if anybody really works there. There are usually two guys hanging out at a desk playing Magic the Gathering or something, and they say "hi" when you walk in, but they could just be anybody, or volunteers. In any case, the fact that this place exists makes me happy because it is essentially an anti-consumerist business. 

Tonight Michael and I are attending an advanced screening of Big Hero 6 at the Moonlight Cinema in Centennial Park. We will get to use our picnic backpack for the first time.

As the holidays creep closer, it still feels not at all like the Christmas season.  We are preparing for our trip to Thailand and Laos, where we will spend Christmas and New Years. My current expectations are that I will fall in love with gentle giant elephants, Christmas and New Years will be loud with fireworks, and that I will eat pad thai, pad see eu, and mango with sticky rice every day. I am also anticipating the city life to be overwhelming, in a sensory way: the smell of exhaust, lights, everyone trying to sell you tourist things, hustle and bustle. If we can't enjoy the same traditional family Christmas I've come to enjoy for the last 30 years, then why not go 180 degrees the other direction and do something completely different. 

Since we will be travelling for the next two weeks, my blog updates will be inconsistent. Happy Holidays, everyone!

December Events

The Melbourne Hat tournament ended up being a lot of fun. I don't know if it quite lived up to the high expectations that were set, but we certainly had a good time. My team came in 5th, which is better than one can usually expect out of 24 teams. Michael's team didn't fare as well, but he had a decent time too. The fun thing about a hat tournament is you end up getting playing other teams that you have friends on, and we ended up seeing quite a few familiar faces.

This tournament also supplied a lot of meals, the best being breakfast on Sunday morning. Fried eggs cooked into toast with a side of bacon really hits the spot when you've burned a lot of calories and have a lot more to go. 

The Saturday of the tournament was very sunny. I always wear and reapply sunscreen, but this time it was such a long sunny day that I ended up sunburning a little of my scalp near my hairline, because who puts sunscreen in their hair. I learned my lesson; there's a reason Australians are known for wearing hats all the time. 

Switching gears, if you've watched the news lately, you've heard about the crazy siege that went down in Sydney yesterday and early this morning. Personally, I was affected very little by the ordeal, other than the fact that most parents picked their children up early from the center. Michael was downtown when everything happened, and was mildly inconvenienced. He wanted to workout at his gym but the gym was fairly close to Martin Place and was closed. He left work early and was unable to take his regular bus home, but was able to catch a train after a slight delay and work the rest of the day from home. 

Obviously it's sad that this happened, period. It hits close to home when it literally happens close to home, something many DC area natives like us faced during 911. My heart goes out to all who were affected and I am happy and proud of everyone involved with #illridewithyou. I would participate but my commute is not long enough to help anyone. It would be more like #i'llridewithyoutwobusstopsthenyoureonyourown. 

I noticed in my groupon email today that the Lindt Cafe (where everything went down) still has a deal right now available to buy. I wonder if the cafe will be able to bounce back from everything, or if they'll be shut for some time. 

Anyway, this time next week we'll be in Thailand. Hopefully the rest of the week will be smoother than the start.

Door to Door

Michael and I have started using Box Fresh, a fruit and veggie delivery service, and it's kind of wonderful. It's similar to a farmshare, like many of some of our DC friends subscribe to. The difference that I like about Box Fresh is that you don't need to sign up for a certain number of weeks or months. If you want a box one week, you order it. If you want to set it up to come every week or every other week, or some other frequency, you can do that too. You can see ahead of time what will be included in next week's boxes, and decide based on that. The produce comes super fresh, so I don't have to dig through a bin of avocados to find the perfect one, and everything lasts several days (and some items a few weeks in the fridge). 

We end up with some fruits or veggies we might not otherwise buy, and then have to get more creative with our cooking/prep. Sometimes the creativity goes well, like discovering kale is really good in smoothies. Sometimes it does not go so well, like discovering that arugula is awful in smoothies. 

The most wonderful thing about this for me, personally, is that I don't have to lug it all home like I have to do with almost all of our other groceries. They just appear at our apartment, like magic.

Frisbee Players in Hats

Just a quick post to say we're still alive, just busy as usual. This weekend we will be away for a big ultimate frisbee hat tournament, which we have been told by several people is one of the most enjoyable annual tournaments they have ever been to. Needless to say, we have high expectations. 

ABC's

Art and Adventure. Boats and Birds. Cars and Cocktails.

Saturday, Michael and I went to the Sydney Olympic Park area, which has several parks within it. The whole area is very bike-able, and we were able to see some of the old wrecks in Homebush Bay which now have trees growing on them. We were also able to do the Brick Pit Ring Walk , which is supposedly home to some rare frogs we couldn't hear because of the incredibly loud Sydney 500 happening very nearby. We peaked over the fence to watch the cars whizzing through the tight curves for just a few seconds. We saw a wide variety of birds in the nearby marshes and mangroves and made it back to the train station, yet again, just in time before it started pouring and storming.

Today we had ate lunch at the Royal Botanical Gardens and Michael (with some help from a park guide) sighted a badass powerful owl, the largest species of owl known to live in Australia. 

This was the first owl either of us had seem in the wild, so it  was a pretty exciting (yes, I know we are nerds). 

While there, we also visited the POP art exhibit at the Art Gallery of NSW, featuring art from Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring, etc. After Michael left for frisbee practice I went on to the Chuck Close exhibit at the nearby contemporary art museum. They were nice exhibits, but overpriced (I say that as someone from DC, the land of free museum). 

We topped the weekend off having a drink with neighbours at the annual building holiday party, a very informal affair that is still going on in the hallway as I type. 

Blue Mountains II

Michael and I spent another weekend in the Blue Mountains. He has updated his flickr bird album with all the birds we've seen lately. Here are a few photos from our hikes.

The first hike we took was down the Furber Steps and back up the Giant Staircase.

This waterfall is taller than it looks. The little specks on the rocks in the middle are people.

The Three Sisters in the background.

Here are a few from the Grand Canyon Track.

We also enjoyed another refreshing Devonshire tea at Bygone Beauties/The Treasured Teapot and a lovely breakfast at The Yellow Deli. Check out the "Why Yellow Deli?" section on their website. Anyway, last time The Yellow Deli got everything perfect, but for some reason they went too heavy on the butter today. Apparently they had people come and stay with them for three months from the other restaurants they run in the US in order to get all the restaurants on the same page. The woman who told us this sounded like she really enjoyed the people and would miss them, but it made me sad to hear this because even hippy commune restaurants have to deal with "corporate" coming in and changing things that don't necessarily need to be changed. I forgive you this time, Yellow Deli, but don't lose your Hobbiton-esque charm. Don't let the Americans make you put too much butter in everything when it already tasted fine to begin with.  Luckily my green chai with rice milk was unscathed.

Thankfulness minus the fullness

It's strange not to be home with family and friends for my favorite holiday of the year. For me, Thanksgiving is about relaxing and celebrating the fall harvest and being grateful for everything and everyone in your life (and not about the ridiculous idea that the Pilgrims and Native Americans were best friends and sat down and had a meal together). I also like that it is the least consumerist holiday, even though it is immediately followed by Black Friday craziness. It kind of celebrates something that the rest of the world makes fun of Americans for - eating too much and getting fat. I like to think that the idea is that it's a special day that you over-eat, you're not supposed to over-eat every day, if that makes it any better. 

Even though I can't celebrate with the people I wish I could see, I am reflecting on how grateful I am for all the opportunities we have had and continue to have. I am grateful for our family, friends, health, and education. I'm grateful for a lot of other things too, but you get the idea. 

Weekend Times

This weekend I've been cat-sitting for our trivia friends. Here's a selfie of us together:

We also celebrated our frisbee friend, Ali's birthday at Milk Beach, which is along the bay (as opposed to the ocean). The Napoleon Dynamite themed party was more up the hill from the beach since the sandy area is actually quite small. Here is the gorgeous view:

Also this weekend, we participated in the Game of Zones at the gym Michael belongs to. Basically it is a special event where they randomly put together teams of eight people and have them compete in the different kinds of challenges in each different area of the gym. To my surprise I was on one of the teams that tied for first. 

Today we saw Mockingjay, party 1. I think if we had not read the books we would have thought it was fine, just with less action than the other two movies. However, since we read the books, we know that they padded the movie with some extra stuff to lengthen the Mockingjay story into two parts. I hate how this is the popular thing to do now - splitting one movie into multiple parts just to prolong the hype and make more money at the box office. They're doing it with the Hobbit movies too. All in all, though, it was a good way to spend the hottest part of a hot day when you don't have AC at home.

If only the weekend could last longer. 

Won't you be my neighbor?

I feel like I heard a story or read an article at some point about one factor contributing to happiness being how many people you know that live within a close distance to you. I have tried to google it but can't come up with anything close. The closest related thing is an NPR story I listened to a few years ago about getting to know your neighbors that was quite cute, but not the original story I'm still trying to find. If anyone out there knows what I'm talking about, please send the link. 

Arachnaphobia

This is the second time in a week I have seen a large spider on my walk back home from the train station at night, but this one was sitting completely still. It was in a shadow in the middle of the brick sidewalk, so it was hard to identify, but judging by this horrifying chart it was likely one of the ones in the left column, probably the female trap door spider. Maybe I won't wear flip flops walking in my neighborhood at night so much anymore. Bring on the nightmares.

November Sun

Here's a rundown of the week so far...

Monday night, as usual, our trivia team did well enough to tie for fourth place and then lost the tie-breaker. Sigh. On the plus side, the host was sympathetic to the fact that we always do so well and then blow it at the end. He gave us a few free drink vouchers anyway. Perhaps being in the host's favor is as good as being smart enough to actually come in at the top. Almost. 

Last night, Michael and I were on rival teams in our Run Hard frisbee league. My team won, but his would have done considerably better if he had been able to arrive on-time. 

Today I had to ride the train an hour to the suburb of Blacktown for my suitability interview to teach in the NSW public school system. This is not an interview for a particular position, it is just to ensure that you generally know what you're talking about when it comes to teaching so you may be added to the list of approved teachers who can be hired. The day was pleasant enough, although, I hope to never need to go to Blacktown again for any reason.

Random recent discovery: my private health insurance pays for part of the cost if I get a massage. Awesome!

...and that's a rap. 

Bowling with a View

Yesterday for a friend's birthday we went to Clovelly Bowling Club, which probably has the most spectacular view of any bowling club around. They take caring for their brown grass very seriously, and don't let you walk on it with shoes or carrying glasses. One thing that made no sense, having bowled at Paddo Bowls near us, is that the lawn bowling balls are all almost the same color at Clovelly. It was dark brown vs. black. Paddo has contrasting bright colored balls, so it's no question which team is winning. We played the battle of the sexes, and it ended up being a very close game (probably because people on both teams were accidentally bowling with the other team's balls because they couldn't tell the difference). We finished off the night at the Beach Burrito Company in Coogee.

LOL

Last night we went to go see the comedian Arj Barker, and he was pretty funny. It had been a long time since we had been to a comedy performance, and it was actually Michael's first time seeing standup. The venue The Juniors, a large club with gambling and four restaurants in it. The one thing I saw at this club which I hadn't seen at any others was a room full of mahjong tables, and people were playing at some of them. The Juniors is in/near a Chinese neighborhood, so I thought that was cool, not to mention a smart business idea on their part. 

In other news, I got us little taco trucks to help us celebrate Taco Tuesdays.

Zip

Michael and I now have fitbit zips. As if Michael didn't have enough things to be competitive about from day to day, now there's one more thing. On an average day, though, I beat him by thousands of steps. 

We recently discovered the Dough Collective, which is a really good bakery located dangerously close to my work that always has delicious free samples. They have some unusual flavors like hokkaido azuki, Japanese roe, multigrain lychee, and chocolate walnut, as well as classic cheesy bread and scones. It's a good thing I'm tracking my steps so I can burn off all those extra calories.

Sculptures by the Sea

This was the last week of Sculptures by the Sea along the walk from Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach. I like that in Sydney art goes beyond the bounds of museums and galleries. Imagine any one of the below sculptures with just a white wall behind it - something would be missing. 

Michael at the giant frying pan

I like lists, among other things

A great weight is removed from my shoulders when I am able to find pet-sitting for an upcoming trip. With all our short trips lately we haven't had to worry about it. We just put out the auto-feeder, an extra litterbox, and some extra water usually. My super sweet ex-coworker offered to help us out when we go to Thailand for the holidays and it just makes me want to do summersaults around the room - if my right knee wasn't super swollen and kind of permanently charlie-horsed. 

A guy ran into me last night during frisbee, his knee hitting me in the quad just above my knee. I can only bend it slowly and not all the way for now. I'm hoping it's just swollen from the hard hit and not a worse injury to a ligament or something. I figure (hope, anyway) if I was able to finish the point I can't be too seriously injured. 

In other random news, when I was on my lunch break today outside of the Bondi Junction train station there were Haribo people giving out free little packs of Star Mix. As Haribo and I have a long-term and happy relationship, this moment came in at a close second to making my week (second only to finding a pet-sitter). 

Third in making my week was discovering icreamy gelato. I usually get the lychee coconut sorbet, but they also have other good flavors I've tried like black sesame and white chocolate miso. They have a popcorn flavor I haven't brought myself to try yet. They can't beat Messina's daily specials, but their flavors are pretty solid. 

Right now I'm missing trivia with some of our frisbee friends, where Michael is right now. It's at a pub that is best accessible my biking, otherwise it requires lots of walking or taking two buses, none of which I was up for tonight with my knee in this condition. It's okay, we came in fourth (earning a free bottle of wine) at our normal Monday night trivia, so I got my fill for the week. I think this goes 4th on the list of things that are making my week. 

So, to recap:

Making My Week
1. Pet-sitting for long trip acquired
2. Haribo
3. icreamy
4. 4th place in trivia
5. Making this list
100+ ( The last possible thing on the list, or the beginning of an opposite list). Hurting my knee 

Is it bad that two of the top three things I am happy about this week involve eating delicious sweets? Don't answer that. It reminds of something I saw on Etsy recently:

 "Eat like no one is watching. Or dance. Whatever."


 

2nd Tuesday of November

We are nearing the halfway point of our time in Australia (halfway, unless we decide to extend our time by a couple of months or longer). I can't believe how fast the year is going by, mainly because the holidays and seasons I usually use to mark the passing of a year have been completely out of whack. Today we am missing election day, which gets replaced by Melbourne Cup day on the Australian calendar. Although, one could argue they have similarities - they are both heated races with sometimes cruel outcomes that make the public want to consume alcohol.

PAX AUS

We spent this past weekend at the only (one of four) Penny Arcade Expo outside of the US. This was the first convention both Michael and I had attended that wasn't somehow related to one of our jobs, and it surpassed our expectations. Everyone was just so friendly and creative, and we never got bored. Here are a few pictures...

Waiting in line to get in the first day. In the "Queue Room" there were big banners hanging from the ceiling with holes in them that said different things like "20 pts.", and lots of beach balls floating around. 

Michael got the high score at the app game, Nippy Cats, and won me a T-shirt. He actually topped the 47 and topped out at 119, but I wasn't able to get a picture of the chalkboard then.

Q and A with Mike and Jerry from Penny Arcade.

 

 

The Classic Gaming area had a huge library of classic games on systems from Atari to Sega Saturn to I don't even know what. It was really cute to see a dad teaching his young kid how to play the original Donkey Kong. 

Michael in the semifinals of the Bomberman94 tournament (third from the left)

 Cards Against Humanity panel

Drag Sailor Moon characters playing JS Joust, our favorite discovery of the expo. 

Melbourne skyline

In other new news we are an Aunt and an Uncle even moreso; our new nephew Sam was born just a few days ago. I don't know when we will be able to meet him, but we are looking forward to it.

Out with the old and in with the new.

My 7 1/2 year old Macbook has finally kicked the bucket. There is a chance I could save it, but at this point it's not worth the hassle. It had been with me back in the days when I drove cross country and lived in Portland, OR, and it has treated me well living abroad. I am now the proud owner of Macbook Air that will hopefully last at least another 7 1/2 years.  Eventually I'll need to get an American adapter for it or just use a converter all the time, but I can deal with that later. It's rare that I have the latest model of something electronic, so I'll enjoy my new toy for a little while.

October = Spring

This weekend has been pretty quiet. Michael was finally able to complete his Advanced SCUBA certification. He had been signed up three previous times, but they had all been cancelled due to the instructor getting sick or weather conditions. It's probably a good thing it got postponed all the way from winter to spring anyway, so he didn't freeze. 

Our frisbee team had a little end of season get together at Bronte Beach. Michael earned the title of MVP Male, and I got runner up in the "Most Casual Player" category. It has been an enjoyable season, but it will be nice to have our weekends back for a while. 

Today I actually went to the Rocks Market  while it was happening - not when they were setting up or breaking everything down, like all the other previous times I'd been there. I discovered the Super Bee store, which is pretty awesome. I tried a sparkling honey drink and couldn't help but buy some Tasmanian leatherwood honey, which has a little kick to it.  Quick fact: unlike North America and Europe, Australia is unaffected by colony collapse disorder.

On Sundays, public transportation is essentially free if you own an Opal card (like a SmartTrip card) If you take a certain number of rides during the week, I think it's eight, everything after that is free. If you haven't reached that number of rides there's some maximum amount you'll be charged on Sundays, I think $2 something. For some reason a lot of locals have held out as long as they possibly can before getting Opal cards; I guess they're afraid of change. In reality, it's cheaper and easier than continuing to use the disposable ones. I could just go ride ferries around all day on Sunday if I wanted for really cheap or free. 

Another weekend is winding down as the warm weather sets in. I wish Sydney had an equivalent to Markoff's Haunted Forest, our favorite seasonal place to go at home this time of year. 

Tax Receipt

We had to pay Australian taxes this year. Since we are not citizens or even permanent residents, we don't have to pay as much as them. We received a receipt in the mail that breaks down exactly how much of what we paid goes to different categories within the government. For example, $39 of what we paid goes to "Recreation and culture", $307 goes to Education, etc. Welfare is further broken down to how much goes to the unemployed, those with disabilities, etc. I wish they did this receipt thing in the states, just because it reflects the idea of government accountability. It also makes the idea of paying taxes at least seem to have a more tangible outcome. Our money didn't just disappear to be used miscellaneously by strangers, we know exactly where every dollar went (with the caveat that we trust that the receipt is accurate).

Australian Mixed Nationals, Castle Hill, and Magnetic Island

We went up to Townsville for Australian Mixed Nationals this past weekend. Our team broke seed and came in 4th in the tournament. The highlight of the weekend was this picture taken of our teammate, Zac. This picture immediately went viral on facebook and now reddit, at least in the ultimate frisbee community, spawning re-enactment photos and a photoshop battle. Some of my photoshop favorites are the violin player, the inept translator, and jazz hands. We can now say we have been present moment a meme came to life. Zac was even publicly recognized during the awards ceremony at the end of the tournament.

Our team, warming up with Castle Hill in the background: We were able to pay a short visit to the hill, which is apparently 10 feet short of being called Castle Mountain. The hill overlooks all of Townsville and Magnetic Island. After the tournament we took the ferry over to Magnetic Island and enjoyed some time on the beach with the remaining teammates who hadn't flown back to Sydney yet. 

View of Magnetic Island from the top of Castle Hill.

Townsville

Apparently Townsville was actually named after a man named Robert Towns, and not just the fact that it is town. Here is Michael doing his Powerpuff Girls impression.

Horseshoe bay at sunset (at Magnetic Island).

Townsville, here we come!

I'm starting to get back into the swing of things after laying low for a few days. I can't believe that tomorrow Michael and I are supposed to fly up to Townsville for Mixed Ultimate Frisbee Nationals. It just seemed like a plan that was a ways off, but now it's in the immediate future. 

Nothing to see here

There's nothing much to report since I've been sick for a few days and acting like a hermit. 

Michael's 30th Birthday Skydive

We had to do something special for Michael's birthday this year, so we jumped out of a plane. Here are a few pictures.