Hats Off!

The other highlight of our weekend in Melbourne was a party to celebrate the culmination of Adam's PhD. It was a Sunday afternoon affair (I'm quickly learning that Sunday is a BIG day for socializing and drinking down here...not sure how those who work on Monday do it), and Adam had reserved a very cool outdoor spot called Sentido Funf in the Fitzroy area of Melbourne. One of my favorite parts of the celebration was the name: PhD + Submission + Summer = Party + Cool Hat (for me).

Within the first 10 minutes of being at the party, I dropped a glass on the tile patio and I like to think that got the party started! It was all downhill from there, ending in another trip to the Night Cat and another late night. Per usual, I slipped out and headed home a bit earlier than the rest of the crew, but I still put in a good 12 hour showing, so I'm not ashamed!

Check out the photo bomber in the background

Taking a sip of Filo's spare

Here's the 'normal' shot

The photo bomber has become our friend somehow...

With the guest of honor

Smile and say 'sports management'

Adam feels the beat, Filo not so much

Good times, great hat

Congrats, Adam!

Filo made it back to our cozy accommodations probably an hour or so after I did...I was completely asleep, but upon hearing the lock turn and the door open, I opened my eyes and greeted him with 'HI! I think we got some good ones tonight.' I suppose I was referring to my pictures? And I guess I was trying to pretend that I hadn't fallen asleep? Filo's comment the next day when we revisited this was 'your mouth may have been moving, but the rest of you was asleep.' Never said I wasn't just a little odd...

Our trip concluded with a trip to Bridge Road for some shopping, and I returned to the Gold Coast with a few new frocks that I am excited to debut. An all around brilliant weekend in Melbourne!

Game, Set, Match

Over my three stays in Australia so far, I have found that the city of Melbourne is one of my favorites. I'm still trying to figure out how to pronounce it without the 'r' however. Anyway, when the opportunity was presented to me back in December to get on board for a weekend in Melbourne to check out the Australian Open, I was all in! I arrived in the city first as Filo and Sharon had this thing called 'work' that they were tied up with, but once we joined forces on Saturday morning and headed to the tennis, we had a great time. We even got to meet up with our friend, Adam, in the beer garden inside of Melbourne Park beforehand for a few delicious Heinekens (and hats).

Hats earned the hard way - Heineken trivia

Sharon and I sport our new hats

Relaxing in the beer garden

Still can't believe we met Federer!

Making our way to Rod Laver Arena

Andy Murray schools his (slightly better looking) opponent

Kim Clijsters on the return

Sharon snapped this shot after a micro-nap in the stands

Melbourne Park

After enjoying the Andy Murray and Kim Clijsters matches (third round, I believe), we headed out for the night, met up with some of Sharon and Filo's friends, and made a long day of it! Please take note in the photos below that Filo has some difficulty taking a picture without including part of his finger in the top left. This led to jokes for days to come...

Finger shot #1

Finger shot #2

My finger obscuring a shot of Filo's finger...trippy

Night one at the Night Cat

And in case you were wondering, we stayed in the most quaint of rooms while in Melbourne. Only second to the room that Jaime and I stayed in this time last year, when we could literally reach out and hold hands! This time, a high five was sufficient.

Self portrait

Introducing...

...my new Australian boyfriend!

Sure, he makes me walk a few steps behind him, but it's his keen sense of style that keeps me coming back for more!!

Oh and By The Way, Happy 2011!

Oops, I completely skipped over the fact that we celebrated a new year when I was writing my catch-up post the other day. As for me, I had a big New Year's Eve, followed by spending the first day of the new year lying in bed, clutching my head and thinking 'why do I do this to myself?' Alas, I've now recovered, and am finally able to see some humor in the pictures from my big NYE. Happy New Year to all of you...may this be our best year yet!

The look of concentration during a game of flip cup

The winning team gloating

Sparkly shirt - check. Tiara - check. Glowstick - check.

Ringing in 2011 with Emy, Mandy and Allison

Giddyup!

On my third day living on the Gold Coast, I’m happy to report that the sun continued to shine and the skies continued to be clear and blue. This may not sound like a big deal, but I’ve been told that it has been raining and nasty here for most of the last month, so this is a welcome change. I can neither confirm nor deny that it is due to my arrival, but sure gives you some food for thought, doesn’t it?

One of the added bonuses of the great weather is that Magic Millions, the annual horse racing event on the Gold Coast, was well attended, including by yours truly. One of Kevin’s friends from Brisbane came down, was able to score media passes for us through his legendary connection, Wayno, and the rest is history. We mingled, drank, people watched and placed a few bets throughout a very enjoyable day at the races. I actually placed just one bet - on a horse aptly named ‘Combat Kitty’ - and she ended up finishing second! My bet had been small, but I nearly tripled my money. Not a bad return, and I chose to quit while I was ahead.

Dan and Filo reading up on the odds

After the races with Julie and Kiersten (in my best mime makeup apparently)

After the conclusion of the races, we split with the guys in our group and had an enjoyable ladies’ sushi dinner on Chevron Island. We were eventually reunited with Kevin, Liam and Dan, and below are few shots from our table...please take note of Dan on the end taking pictures of the photographer. Classic.

Magic Millions group shot

Get in there, Kevin

This time with everyone!

A Minor Misstep

Correct me if I’m mistaken, but I think there is a poem that talks something about following footsteps in the sand. What the poem neglects to mention is that while following these damn footsteps, you should carefully watch where you're going, because sometimes random sticks/stumps/hazards are sticking out of the sand and if you are as graceful as I am, you will inevitably kick them. As a friendly warning, keep a special eye out for SoDs (sticks of death) when you are strolling the beaches Down Under.

Thought briefly that this might be my last snapshot ever...

You probably think that I’m being dramatic, don’t you? Well, you would be right. But it hurt like hell and that, mixed with slight dehydration after walking for two hours and mild disorientation, sent me into a bit of a tizzy. As I hobbled up the path from the beach to the road, I felt as though I was the star of an episode of ‘I Shouldn’t Be Alive.’ In my head, I saw myself getting on my hands and knees, sunburned and dehydrated, crawling through the burning sand to safety, where my toe would eventually be wrought with gang green and fall off. Someday I would be found alone in the park, surrounded by dingoes sniffing at my dead body. In reality, I made my way to a bench where I sat down and temporarily felt sorry for myself, riddled with thoughts like ‘Great. Now what shoes am I supposed to wear when we go out tonight?’

I’m happy to report that after cleaning up and surveying the damage to the toe from the SoD, it is fairly minor. More importantly, it hasn’t deterred me from returning to the gorgeous beach, exploring my new home town or drinking beer with friends. All good!

On a brighter note, I managed to capture some nice images on my walk before things took the downhill turn. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Very short building (obviously named after Ryan Seacrest)

View of Surfer’s Paradise

A look toward the Spit

Nothing But Blue Skies From Now On

Here goes: Australia, take three. My first trip here was about vacation, exploration and new experiences. My second was a slice of life Down Under. This time, it’s all on me to make this the most exciting, adventurous and memorable year of my life!

To bring you up to speed, I decided shortly after I returned from my trip in August that I wanted to find a way to move here as soon as possible. What drove that decision, you ask? I think it was the fact that I simply didn’t want to leave at the end of my trip. And it wasn’t because I had a stressful job I had to go back to or I lacked friends or a good social life in Austin. Quite the opposite, really. I had a world of opportunity as far as my next career move, a beautiful house, amazing friends and family and the cutest little dog in the world all waiting to welcome me back. But, there was a nagging voice in the back of my head telling me that I had to find a way to move to Australia, and this was the time in my life to do it. It felt like a now or never situation, so I chose now!

January 11 arrived quickly, and I packed my bags, said a very tearful goodbye to my family, friends and Bailey, and hopped a plane to Brisbane. My timing, as always, was impeccable. If you’ve been following the world news, you know that Queensland has suffered some catastrophic flooding, and Brisbane got the brunt of it at about the exact time that I arrived there. The city seems to be completely crippled, and people are still digging out of it and trying to salvage what they can from their flooded homes. It’s very troubling to see, but I have to say that I got lucky and had no issue getting from the Brisbane airport to my new home on the Gold Coast. Power outages kept the train from running, but I got on a bus as a back-up and arrived in Main Beach without incident.

So here I am! I live less than a block from the beach, walking distance to shops, restaurants and bars and have had a chance to catch up with fun friends down here. I can already tell it’s going to be an amazing year, as soon as I figure out how I’m going to support myself, that is. I swear, the job search starts tomorrow :)

A view of my building from the beach

Look Who's Back

Forgive me for the lapse on this blog. Between the holidays, some minor medical setbacks, and preparing to move abroad, I’ve been pre-occupied to say the least! If you are following my adventures on this blog, you most likely already know that I have made the move to Australia, am nearly one week in to my adventure, and life is good. More on all of that to come...

Let me quickly fill in the gaps for you. In November, I turned the big 3-0, and celebrated by throwing myself a boat party in Austin. My attitude is that if you don’t celebrate yourself, who else is going to do it for you? So, I assembled a crew of fun friends and we hit the waters of Lake Austin, decked out in our finest Florida themed attire. Being a Florida native, I’ve been teased by my friends in Austin for the last eight-ish years. And rightfully so...Florida is the birthplace of most of the ridiculous news stories you hear in the US. I challenge you to start paying attention to the most insane stories you read on cnn.com or any news site, and odds are 95% of them originated in the Sunshine State. From people smuggling monkeys on airlines in their ponytails, to people forcing their grandmothers to smoke crack, Florida continues to outdo itself. So, with this in mind, I asked everyone to dress as their interpretation of Florida, and I was NOT disappointed.

After the birthday festivities, it was just a short time until my family flew in for Thanksgiving at my place. This was a real treat as I am usually the one who travels for all holidays, but I was able to leverage my impending move to get them out to Austin. We ate, drank, went to the zoo, watched football and celebrated for five great days!

I then traveled to Florida for Christmas, where I got a chance to catch up with friends and family for just under two weeks. It was relaxing and very enjoyable. Of course, a major highlight was spending time with my niece, who is turning into a very entertaining and enjoyable little lady. By the time I see her again, I swear she’ll be driving! Oh wait, from the looks of things, she already is...

My last two weeks in Austin were jam packed with packing my house, moving everything into storage, organizing all of the details for my move overseas and saying too many goodbyes. My friends put together a going away gathering for me, and we were joined by our good friend Roger Clemens. But more importantly, everyone came out to say goodbye (for now) and wish me luck, and it was a very special night. Why am I leaving these great friends again??

So farewell temporarily to Austin...I’ll see you soon and hope everyone remembers and keeps a spot warm for me there!