I give them 3 snaps

Since it's been very rainy, we've been watching a lot of movies lately, two of them being Interstellar and John Wick. 

Interstellar was entertaining so long as you ignore 100 questions that pop up in your head about the nature of physics and time travel, and a few plot holes. It was long, so it was enjoyable to watch in the comfort of one's own home. 3.5 out of 5 Stars.

John Wick was violent and/but had a fun energy about it. I like the implied backstory and the main character's motivating love for dogs. The violence takes it almost too far a few times. 3 out of 5 stars.

Soy Chai

Sometimes after you're married for a few years, you stop telling your husband some of the minute details of your day away from him. For example, you might not tell him that you've recently started frequenting a local cafe to get your favorite soy chai tea with honey about three times a week while you're out running errands. Then, when you go to said cafe together for the first time in four months, your husband looks really confused when the waiter knows your name and what you want to order. Play it cool, Ronny, play it cool.  

Coastal Track

From Saturday to Sunday we did the Coastal Track in Royal National Park. We took the train to Cronulla, the ferry from Cronulla to Bundeena, and then hike the whole 26km, stopping overnight at the North Era Campground along the way. There was a lot of variety in the terrain, from rocky clifftops to sandy beaches, to rolling green hillsides, to palm forest. 

The start...

Lunch break

About 1/6th of the way into our hike the first day, I mildly twisted my ankle, which is why Michael carried both of our bags for a little while afterwards (as you can see in the pictures). 

At one point, several kilometers in and surrounded by vegetation, we thought we were far from civilization. All of a sudden we started hearing voices - not just a few other hikers coming up the trail, but quite a din. We rounded the corner and found ourselves at Wattamolla, where a few hundred Australians were enjoying their Australia day weekend sunbathing, swimming and floating, and BBQing. There were some cliffs (I'm estimating they were 35 ft. above the water) where lots of people were jumping, and Michael couldn't resist the urge to go too.   

Eagle Rock Lookout

- End of Day 1 - 

We woke up here (It's hard to see the tents in the valley on the left side of the photo)

One thing that nobody warned us about, nor any of the websites we read to prepare, was that there is one segment of the hike toward the end in the palm forest where there are little LEECHES. We found a few inching up our boots when we stopped for a minute. Having seen Stand By Me as a child, I was horrified and disgusted. We thought we removed them all, but an hour or two later I found two hitchhikers on me, and was even more disgusted. I checked myself, boots, and gear thoroughly about 50 more times and immediately washed all our clothes once we got home, but I'm still kind of afraid one will just appear in the apartment in the next few days, and I will just have to set fire to everything we own and salt the ashes. 

We were supposed to go out on a friend's boat today, but the outing unfortunately was canceled since it's rainy. 

Happy Australia Day!

Sweet As

This past weekend I took a day-long Beginning Beekeeping course at Centennial Parklands. I learned enough to start my own beehive and harvest honey, if I only had a backyard and $1000 to burn. It's knowledge I will hope to put to use at some point, I'm just not sure when yet. 

A big caveat is that beekeeping is very specific to the area where you live. In Australia, the beekeeping season is much much longer than it is in the US, and one can harvest honey more than one time a year. In the states, the season is shorter because of the colder winters, and there are also many more hive-destroying diseases, fungi, parasites, etc. 

One thing they stressed is not to use pesticides in your garden, something that I've always agreed with. Pesticides can go into the pollen and then affect the bees. I wouldn't want honey that had traces of pesticides in it. Go with more organic methods to keep pests out of your plants, or don't keep them out at all (Are they really hurting anything more than the pesticides would?). 

The instructors also poked fun at the kinds of neighbors that don't want to live near a beehive - the NIMBY problem. The thing is, often they've found if you don't tell your neighbors and act discreetly about your hive, but then present them with honey 6 months later and explain the hive has been there for some time, they react much more positively. It's hard to argue having a hive nearby if they already haven't noticed it for some time. Plus, there is the benefit of having bees to pollinate all the gardens in the neighborhood.

One thing that I didn't realize is now important tracking the Queen's activity is. Queens occasionally screw up and it can affect the temperament of the whole hive. Replacing a queen that's doing a bad job can completely turn everything around. A lot of regularly checking and maintaining a hive is making sure the queen is just doing her job and hasn't gone AWOL. 

Another thing I didn't know is that if you move the hive over just one or two meters, it can completely confuse the bees and the ones that are returning literally can't find it. Silly bees. They also communicate in pretty elaborate ways to give directions to each other, and they'll headbutt someone talking if they think they're giving erroneous directions to shut them up. 

I didn't get stung once during the training; it's still been 25 years since the last time I was stung. The bees were mostly amicable and only started to get a little testy after we'd had their hive open for a while. That just means they just buzz around a little more and louder, but that's about it. I accidentally crushed a few when I was moving around the parts of the hive, but they say that's inevitable no matter how careful you are, since there are literally thousands of them.

The class ended with us harvesting and tasting some of the honey castings (honey with a little bit of harmless wax still in it) with bleu cheese and rice crackers. It was a delicious end to the day.

525,600 Minutes

Firefighter meeple recently made an appearance on Michael's scooter to say, "Happy one year anniversary of living in Australia!". 

A lot has happened in a year. We've found our niches in many hobbies we already had and found some new hobbies (as if we needed more). We have a nice tiny apartment in a pleasant neighborhood with our two cats. Michael continues to work for the same company; I had worked for most of the year and now have a few leads on potential new jobs. We've both been back to visit the states separately, to see family and celebrate milestones with friends. We've welcomed friends and family who have visited Sydney. We've travelled to new countries: Fiji, Thailand, Laos, and Singapore. We've been able to travel some within Australia, getting to play at Ultimate Mixed Nationals in Queensland, check out Magnetic Island, drive the Great Ocean Road, and hike in the Blue Mountains. We'e gone skydiving and learned how to surf. We've found some favorite cafes and gelato places.

I like to think that 2014 was just us "getting started", so if we were able to do that much, I can't imagine what 2015 has in store. Perhaps we won't necessarily do more, but I'm hoping the things we do will be of greater quality. What I mean by that is now that we have found our niches in so many different areas, we know what we like and can get the most out of it. It's still fun to certainly try new experiences and restaurants and meet new people, but it's nice to not have to put as much effort into finding what's good. Instead of trying a new restaurant and hoping it's good, we can try more places recommended to us by people we know or go to places we already know we enjoy. Instead of showing up on the first day of a frisbee league and meeting a lot of nice people, we see familiar faces and catch up on what our friends have been up to and maybe make plans with them. Instead of having to find the right place to go to get whatever random item we happen to need, for example a new blender, I already know when and where to go and can complete errands efficiently without getting too frustrated.

Family and friends' lives back in the states are carrying on without us. It's kind of refreshing to think that when we do eventually get a chance to catch up in person again, we will have a lot to talk about. We will all be a little bit different, but mostly the same. 

Yes, we're still working on our Australian accents; no, we haven't perfected them yet. 

Victory

I think this is a record number of posts in one day for me! I just had to announce that it was my first day back to twilight sailing in many months and our boat came in first place in our class with only 5 people on the crew! I was the least experienced, and therefore, can take the least amount of responsibility for winning, but it was nice to get a win under our belts and enjoy a nice sunset out on the Sydney harbour with friends.

Mood Indigo/L'écume des jours

I've been a fan of film director Michel Gondry for several years. I loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind, Block Party, and countless music videos he's done. 

I just watched Mood Indigo, and it was by far the strangest work I've seen of his. At times in the beginning it was whimsical and strangely humorous, and then it starts to drag on a little bit and literally grow dark and the colors turn drab. I would give it 3 out of 5 stars for its uniqueness, but I think it's just so visually outlandish that the story only loosely connects throughout the whole film. Also, I like how the mood of the film and imagery changed from the beginning to the end as the characters struggle more, but I find it hard to find the meaning in it. Is it just to be depressing, or is there more to it than that?

If anybody else has seen it and wants to share their thoughts, I'm all ears. 

Birdman

Michael and I recently saw Birdman. The most notable thing about it, in my opinion, was that almost all of it is one-shot. I can't think of any other movie that has attempted this. It was fun and strange and the ending was open to interpretation. I guess I would give it 3.5 stars out of 5 - better than your average movie, but I wasn't in love with it. 

A Very Manly Sunday

Yesterday we took the ferry out to Manly and had lunch at 4 Pines Microbrewery. 

Firefighter meeple even made an appearance before the end of the meal.

We checked out the Manly Sealife Sanctuary, to which we had free tickets from our grocery reward program. The aquarium was nice enough, but it was quite small and I wouldn't go back or recommend it over other tourist activities in the area. We also took a walk over to Little Manly Beach and Little Manly Point before taking the ferry back. It was a nice way to spend a drizzling day.

Assassin Variation

When Michael and I were walking down a little street in Luang Prabang, we randomly found a larger than average red firefighter meeple just sitting in the middle of the road. Nobody was around to claim it, so we did. Being boardgamers, it seemed like a sign that the universe had bestowed it upon us. 

We now have an Assassin-like game where whoever's turn it is has to surprise the other one with the meeple in a unique way, and the other recipient cannot see how the other person placed it there. For example, I most recently placed the meeple in Michael's protein powder and he discovered it a day later and started laughing.

It's Michael's turn now. I can only imagine that the surprises will escalate and become more elaborate from here. 

Funemployment is a misnomer

You may have seen this video lately of Jimmy Fallon finding out he blew a chance to date Nicole Kidman years ago without even realizing it. I'm kind of obsessed with it because (1) his reaction is hilarious, and (2) it's an interesting idea to think of how your life could be drastically different had you made one different choice at some point in the past.

In other news that is not really new, I just haven't talked much about it, I am currently unemployed. I chose to quit working at the childcare center so that I could be in a better position to find a job I like better for the remainder of my time here in Australia. Ordinarily I wouldn't recommend quitting unless you have something else lined up first, but for the particular situation I was/am in I think it was the right choice. Hopefully it won't be too long before I find something good. So far I just have one small lead, but I'm not sure yet if it will turn into anything.

I am joining Michael's gym, something I never thought I would ever do. My goal for as long as I'm not working is to workout at least four days a week. If I have the time, I have no excuse not to. It has also been nice to have some free time to act as our travel agent and book our upcoming New Zealand trip, as well as work on some Shutterfly albums. 

Anyway, it's nice to be back in Australia after being away for two weeks. I didn't realize it, but I missed it here a little bit.

Appreciative and Thankful

Michael just shared with me the blog of one of his new frisbee teammates (If you look at it expect to cry, start at the beginning in 2008, and it's long). It's eerie how much it starts out like my blog. It starts out as his wife's blog as they are living abroad in Sydney. He is a frisbee player and they travel like Michael and I do. The blog chronicles her diagnosis with ALS, and her decline - truly heartbreaking. It obviously resonates with me because of the parallels between our lives and theirs, and how they dealt with the most difficult things a couple can go through with positivity is really inspiring. It's also nice that the ultimate frisbee community gets some shout-outs for being so warm and helpful during their tough times.

The blog kind of reminded me of the book, Love is a Mixtape, although the stories have obvious differences. Anyway, reading it just really reminds me how lucky we are, and just to be appreciative and thankful.

I hope everyone's new year is off to a happy and healthy start for the most part!

Asia Trip Highlights

We just got back from two wonderful weeks in Asia: Thailand, Laos, and Singapore. We crashed the "familymoon" of our friends, Andrew and Arielle, and got to know Arielle's family a little bit. These are the highlights (there's just too much to say and show, I have to condense it).

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Our first night in Chiang Mai we browsed the night market and went to a fish spa.

We also ate lots of mango and sticky rice. Like, every night. 

And drank from coconuts.

We visited Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary for rescued elephants. Michael, below, feeding a new friend some fruit.

Ronny, below, with Lek the founder

 We also enjoyed visiting Catmosphere Cafe and having a light meal.

Luang Prabang, Laos

We stayed at Lotus Villa, which had a delicious breakfast, free wifi, and free bikes to use. 

Look at me, I'm a bear standing up for no reason. This guy was at the Bear Rescue Center just outside of Kuang Si Waterfalls.

Kuang Si Waterfalls

Sign before going to the falls:

This is one of our all-time favorites, having seen waterfalls in the US, Canada, Costa Rica, and Australia. As you walk up, there is a series of smaller falls and pools leading to the big cascade. The water is a fantastical aqua/seafoam color.

Mt. Phou Si

If you go around sunset, this place is ridiculously crowded. It's like people have never seen a sunset before.

Laotian BBQ/hot pot

Monks, below, collecting their daily alms.

La Banneton Cafe was our favorite lunch spot. The French influence has certainly lasted here, deliciously.

We actually helped forge knives from scratch with this dude. 

Big Brother Mouse

Love this place! They publish books to help children learn and love to read, and they have times every day where English speakers can just drop in and converse with locals to help them practice their English skills. We were able to talk to local crafters, hotel workers, and monks.

Some books are recognizable in any language.

Bangkok, Thailand

Buddhas at the Grand Palace.

The Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. It's hard to tell from the photo how gigantic this statue is.

Komodo dragon in Lumphini Park. These things are everywhere there.

We also got to visit the Thai Red Cross Snake Farm. They do snake venom (and anti-venom) research there. Unfortunately, it was a holiday so we did not get to see any of the venom milking or handling. Here is the incubator with some cobra eggs waiting to hatch.

Not pictured: New Years fireworks along the river. I'll post some vide of that in the future.

Singapore

We just had a short layover in Singapore, but there was enough time to leave the airport and visit the pretty downtown waterfront area and see the free water/lightshow. Our impression was it is a very clean, modern, and pleasant place (just don't accidentally litter or jaywalk).

Eventually we'll get around to posting the GoPro footage. Happy 2015!