Marathon Take 2

26 miles on trails. Pretty pretty pretty good. Of course, I don't have the skills to really explain the power of where I ran so I borrowed some words from DandyRunner.com. Here you go...

"... immortalised set of running trails in beautiful temperate rainforest just an hour's drive from Melbourne....In winter it can be quite daunting to emerge from the car, with the mountain often shrouded in low-lying cloud or misty rain. But that's all part of the adventure. Once you're in the forest and running, who cares about the mud and the rain and the cold! And in summer the forest is a cool, leafy respite from the hot plain below...Once inside the forest and running, you enter another world. Everything becomes much quieter, even your footsteps are hard to hear as you are running on forest detritus for much of the way. The only sounds are those of your lungs sucking up the air and the occasional lyre bird calling out to a mate...If you have arrived with the intention of doing your long run, it is easy to cover 25 kilometres minimum and not retrace your steps over the same trails...Most of the running is along gently undulating trails that wind through the forest, sometimes following mountain creeks and waterfalls. The amazing thing is that you hardly feel you are running uphill at all."

My race experience was phenomenal. The idea of running a marathon through mud, over hills, and up to waterfalls with only about 5k on actual roads was a tad daunting... The event started with a ton of overnight rain and the anticipation of lots of mud. I'd love to say the race began without a hitch but of course the race leaders missed the very first turn and we added an extra hundred meters or so to the course. Starting in last place and having the course take an abrupt U-turn put me in first place, which was nice.

Once we got on course we slipped and slopped through mud

about an inch deep. While concentrating on each step I almost missed the wallaby bounce past us. From miles 5-10 we attacked the rolling hills of the forest climbing about 1000 feet. The park was devastated by a wild fire two years back. But the resiliency of the forest was in full effect, with the brightest, thickest undergrowth I have ever seen. Fern fronds out the wazoo. The bright green undergrowth, the burnt shells of tree trunks and the steady mist left hovering above left an eerie calm over the race. Near the top of the climb we came to a 1/2 mile single track climb up to Keppel Falls. It was well worth the climb.

The next 5 miles were basically downhill. Then 5 hills of muddy rolling hills leaving me only 6 miles to go. I finally stepped onto cement at mile 20 only to immediately start a vicious 2.5 mile climb of about 800 feet. I walked a ton but still passed multiple runners... This climb led to Steavenson Falls (decent photo from 2009 race).

After the falls, I turned around and completed the last few miles back into town. 4 hours and 43 minutes of running fun. Also, a special shout out to Dom, my running friend who I partnered up with around mile 16. The race was much easier to finish with a running partner! And of course a special thanks to Kelly who dragged herself out of bed at 4:30am, tackled the 6 mile waterfall climb race, cheered me on, fell asleep waiting for me to finish and ended the day a fine hue of red.

P.S. Already thinking about a 50km race (first race longer then a marathon) in February.

It ain't called Mt Easy

Go! No go! Go! No go! 2 months of the same debate. Typical corporate world crap. No problem. Except when the debate occurs first thing in the morning, NY time! That's midnight for me, which is sad.

Adam and I hoped to leverage a "free" vacation day around Melbourne Cup Day, on which the entire State of Victoria shuts down for a horse race. We planned a lovely 4-day overnight hiking/camping trip, followed by 2 days of wine tasting, in the Grampians. Of course, my client decided that this was the week of "Go!" After postponing our vacation and Italy's debt blowing up, my client went from Go, to Maybe Go, to Thinking about Going, to Not sure about Going, to No Go. I went from sane, to partially sane, to partially insane, to predominantly insane, to I'll find you $3 Billion myself, leave me the f alone.

We rescheduled an abbreviated version of our vacation for last week, only to have my favorite above-referenced client decide at 5pm the night before our departure to "Go". Luckily for me (and Adam), I have an amazing colleague who offered to help out so we could take our mini-getaway. I kind of guilted her into it by telling her that Adam had already packed "snack-packs" for us! Adam picked me up at the office at 8am after an all-nighter and we finally made the 4 hour drive to begin hiking and wine tasting in the Grampians .

We did a couple shorter hikes Thursday afternoon, then headed to the campsite and settled in for the night. We started our overnight hike up Mt Difficult on Friday morning. I hadn't had much time to put any effort into planning this trip, and given the fact that most parts of Victoria we've seen so far have been fairly flat, I had a notion that a hike up Mt Difficult would be more of a "bush walk" (as they often say here). Not so much.

The first 500 meters or so was a bush walk. Then we came upon a rock wall. I looked around for the yellow arrow trailmarkers to see how we were supposed to get around this rock wall, only to find that we were supposed to scale it. We eventually conquered that and shortly thereafter I traded the big backpack to Adam in exchange for the small pack that he was carrying. About 5 steps later, I took all the water out of the small backpack and added that to the big pack, which had previously only held a couple of sleeping bags (feathers), a couple of pillows (cotton), and a tent (cloth with a few metal poles). Oops, I guess I should have gotten some sleep in advance of this trip.

We continued on, often ascending very steeply, until we encountered an essentially flat section of the trail (relief!) that turned out to be crowded with various boulders, rock formations and crevices (hmm...kinda wishing I never saw the movie "127 Hours"). It turned out to be our favorite part of the hike, trying to figure out whether it made more sense to crawl through the crevice or scramble over the rock formation, risk leaping off a big rock or cautiously sliding down on our butts.

We made it to the Mt Difficult Bush Campsite just as it started to drizzle, dropped our packs and headed for the summit. By the time we scrambled to the top (sans trail), the drizzle had turned into more of a ferocious wind and thunderstorm. We snapped one quick picture and headed back to the campsite.

Lots more stories to tell, just ask away. Here are some ideas if you don't know what to ask about:

Aboriginal Art

Olive Oil

Sparkling Shiraz

Town Hall Film Festival

Kangaroo named Lemon Tree

The Balconies

Waterfalls

Flying Foxes

During my training for the Melbourne Marathon I met some great people and I now have my first Ultramarathon friend, Cathy. Cathy is part of my running group that does interval work on Tuesday nights. She wears her Garmin, runs perfect splits and seems to use no effort getting from A to B. I had the honor of being invited to one of her weekend runs, which I attended this past Sunday.

The day started with a 10km bike north through the city. The roads are much better at 7am on Saturdays... We met in an empty parking lot next to a golf course on the Yarra River. There were 13 runners of all shapes, sizes, and ages. Of course the morning started with sarcastic jokes about people being slow, lazy or showboating which seem to accompany every close running group (or for that matter any sports team). Our plan was to run an "easy 20k" trail run along the paths of the Yarra River. Only in a group of Ultra runners can a 20k trail run be called easy. Not only was it an easy run but for some it was also a recovery run (recovering from the 100k run they had run the previous weekend. Loco.)

I was a little intimated at first but started running with an older guy with an awkward gate who was carrying a few extra pounds. I'm thinking of all the runners here I should be at least be able to hang with this guy. We started talking about what races we have done and realized we had both done the Melbourne marathon. We commiserated about the wind, weather, etc both wishing we had performed better. Unfortunately for my confidence his disappointing time was 3:20. He was targeting under 3 hours. Oh-oh.

After 5k or we came to the top of the hill with a nice lookout over the river and we all took a break to regroup. After catching my breath I realized the lookout wasn't designed for the river but instead to view the flying foxes. There were thousands of them! Most of them were fast asleep but a few flew a little to close for my liking. This is what those buggers look like:

After the flying foxes we all settled in and I felt like an aboriginal on the move. Pretty sweet feeling... Well this is already getting to be a long story so I'll wrap it up with this. Survived the 20k run and was invited to join Cathy and the Flying Foxes (unbeknownst to the group, I've given them this nickname) at her next race, which happens to be a long one (shocker). It's in about 5 weeks... https://sites.google.com/site/marysvillemarathonfestival/home/course/42-2km-marathon

Yes another marathon. Yes on trails. And maybe I'm crazy.

Melbourne Marathon

We ran the Melbourne marathon last weekend, 42.195 kilometers of fun (and pain).

Kel:

They'll call me freedom, just like a wavin' flag.

As work had been extremely busy throughout September, my training had really suffered and I was simply hoping to cross the finish line. The race started at the “G” (aka, the MCG, as in the Melbourne Cricket Ground (Australians love to shorten words and use acronyms as much as possible)) at 7am and headed through the CBD (aka, the Central Business District), out to St Kilda (aka, our ‘hood). We turned into Albert Park, a course we’re quite familiar with as it’s a block from our apartment, popped back out in front of our place and headed for an out and back on the beach road. We passed our apartment again around 30k (aka, ~18 miles), and I was quite tempted to call it a day and crawl back into bed. But I persisted and journeyed back to the G. Ks 30 through 38 were extremely difficult, but once I realized I only had 5k left, I put the World Cup theme song (“Wavin' Flag”) on repeat and kicked it into gear while “singing” the lyrics and attracting quite a few odd looks. I crossed the finish line in 4:26:37, 9 whole seconds faster than my previous best time! I hobbled around until Thursday, when my legs finally decided to start working again. I’m still suffering from toenail issues. Gross.

Adam:

Awesome journey but still looking for the destination.

I developed some great friendships with the other runners in my training group. I didn't miss a long run. I banged out my tempo and interval runs. I felt absolutely great and am closing in on my college fitness level (less some fast twitch muscles). The 4 month journey of training gave me plenty of confidence for race day.

On race day I banged out 5:30km like it was my job (3hr 50min pace) for 30km. Spot on for my training, talking to all the other runners, and feeling great. However there were a few warning signs that the final destination of 42km wasn't going to be so easy... 1. A fairly consistent set of 25km gusts blowing the water stations over. 2. Not having enough saliva to eat a cookie waiting for me at the 28km mark. 3. Cramps. Damn you cramps! They seem to own me every marathon. And this race they were especially bad over the last 10km making the final hour of the run (or, in my case, hobble) an ugly mess.

Although I am very disappointed with the "results" of the destination, I am more satisfied with the journey of disciplined training, developing new friendships, and watching Kel cross the finish line with a new PR. I have a few more marathons in these legs and one of these days I'm going to solve those damn cramp issues...

We’re looking forward to tracking Dad, Sis and Damen as they run the Marine Corp Marathon on October 30th. Rest your aches and pains until then and have fun on race day!

Xoxo,

k&af

The 49ers

I know football season just started but don't worry this isn't another fantasy football article on the 49ers. This is about the town of Bendigo, the home of the Australian gold rush. Kelly and I rented another He-on-day (aka a Hyundai) and journeyed two hours north of Melbourne to check out how the Gold Rush town was holding up. Although the gold mines are still open for tourists the main draw for us was the plethora of restaurants focused on locally grown produce and the exhibit at the Art Gallery: The White Wedding Dress: 200 years of Wedding Fashion.

Main street Bendigo is right off a Victorian Colonial style Hollywood movie set including the Court House, Town Hall, Post Office, Bank, and the Local Watering Hole.

After a quick walk through the 1850's and a snack at the local market of fresh bread and olive oil we were off to check out the wedding dresses. Here was my analysis of the exhibit: "Lots of white, crazy long tails, and very uncomfortable looking". Pretty insightful on my part. Here was Kelly's take, which is likely a little more meaningful...

“I’m certainly no fashionista, but I seriously can’t imagine how some of these
dresses were ever stylish. And some of the corsets that women donned back in the day -- their waists would have been less proportional than Barbie! I’ll definitely be taking the more comfortable route with my wedding dress. Some of the “tails” that Adam mentioned above, also known as trains, were quite magnificent and many of the veils were absolutely beautiful. Gwen Stefani’s dress was my favorite; Dita Von Teese’s not so much (she wore it to marry Marilyn Manson, if that says anything). Adam was a good sport and didn’t ask once if I was ready to go yet. I’m looking forward to wedding dress shopping when we’re home in December.”

Me again. After some tasty snacks and a few glasses of wine in town we headed to the outskirts of town where we stayed at a great little winery, Domaine Asmara. We crashed in the 2nd bedroom and enjoyed a nice family style dinner with Andreas, Henni and their son Benjamin. Andreas cracked open a few bottles of wine including their newest not yet released Cab Franc/Cab Sauv mix, which Kelly and I happily

indulged. Great wine is the perfect way to carbo-load as Kelly ran an awesome 20 miler the next morning!

Sunday was filled with two ridiculously fresh meals split by a visit to Australia's oldest working pottery. Kel and I spent some time on the throwing wheel crafting a cup and a bowl. After they are glazed and fired we'll have some home made mementos from our great little weekend in Bendigo.

Love

Adam and Kelly

PS Spring has sprung.

Everyone Counts

Australians only seem to take a few things seriously:

1. Sport: Aussie Rules Football and Rugby

2. Chucking Sickies: Using sick days to chill on the beach

3. Food: Beetroot on burgers, throwing a shrimp on the barbie (they actually do that, but Foster's is not Australian for Beer), and meat pies

4. Utes: The front is like a car, the back is like a truck, the front is where you drive, the back is where you...

5. The Idea of Surfing: They love to talk about it, drink in the parking lot and watch it, but not many seem to actually know how to surf

And one that I was not expecting: The Census

You need to scream, shout and beg to get any waiter service at a restaurant but if the thought of the census even creeps into your head then the "Census Guy" just magically appears at your door. He has visited the apartment at least 10 times over the last 3 weeks dropping off forms, reminding us to fill them out, attempting to collect the forms (multiple times) and warning us of the hefty fine if we failed to hand it in ($110/day fine starting Sept 1 if you fail to submit it). With the threat of the fine, Kelly and I officially became Australian "statistics" as we submitted our form yesterday and hopefully never have to hear from the Census Guy again.

So unlike New York City, which claimed to have missed at least 50,000 people in the 2010 census costing them desperately needed federal funds (suckers) everyone counts Down Under.

If I were king of the fore-e-e-est

We packed A LOT into 9 days (and still had a little time to relax)!  Here’s the rundown:

·         Flew to Cairns, rented a car, drove to Port Douglas.
·         Disregarded the warning sign that the bridge over Mossman Gorge was out and thus had part of the Daintree Rainforest to ourselves for a little hike.  (The bridge was just fine.)  The Daintree Rainforest, at 120 million years old, is the world’s oldest rainforest.  The trees and their root systems were unbelievable.
·         Traveled the Daintree River in search of some salties (saltwater crocodiles).  Apparently we were supposed to see the 3.7m male croc who inhabits the area, and apparently we were the only boat in 2011 not to see any crocs.  
·         Indulged in a 6 course meal in the rainforest while listening to aboriginal stories and tunes on the dijeridoo. 
·         Visited a wildlife sanctuary where we held a koala named Glenn, petted wallabies and emus, saw the cassowary (giant flightless bird), a tree kangaroo, a giant salty and his giant teeth!

·     Crossed the Daintree River by car ferry and continued on the twisty and narrow road to Cape Tribulation.  Warning signs of cassowary crossings everywhere, and this bird definitely would have done some serious damage to our golf cart-esque rental car.  Fortunately we didn’t encounter one (though it would have been pretty cool to see in the wild!).

·         Camped for three nights on the beach in Cape Trib.  Saw a couple of amazing sunsets, beautiful blue Ulysses butterflies, and had wild turkeys and a lace monitor lizard as daily guests to our campsite. 

·         Visited an exotic fruit farm and tasted the following fruits:  West Indian Lime, Pommelo, Abiu, Black Sapote, Davidson Plum, Longan, Yellow Sapote, Solo Papaya, Rollinia, Soursop.
·         Sea kayaked around the Cape.  Tried to surf with our kayak (we need a little work on that).  Saw a giant sea turtle. 
·         Returned our rental car and took a ferry to Fitzroy Island on the Great Barrier Reef.  Whales were migrating in front of the resort.
·    Adam visited the outer reef during the first day of my dive course.  
·    Saw the clown fish go in and out of the anemone (it really is just like Finding Nemo).  

·    Heard the whales when I was 20 feet deep. 
·    Encountered a 4m tiger shark on my fourth and final certification dive.  Luckily he wasn’t hungry and we have all of our limbs. =)
·    I completed my dive certification!  

The cassowary's claws, the croc's teeth, and the tiger shark's mere presence reminded us that we were much more cowardly lions than kings of the forest.  

We had an amazing trip that only could have been better if it was shared with friends and family.  


Love, 
Kelly and Adam

Career Expo

As you might expect, my early "retirement" of exercise, watching sports, and reading was not really sustainable. On a day where my body was too sore to move, the only sport to watch was cricket and I finished reading my latest book, I came across an ad for a Career Expo. I thought I'd check out what kind of careers were available Down Under. There were about 150 organizations participating in the Expo. I perused/scanned/smiled at nearly every booth and quickly realized they wanted me to pay them and not the other way around (i.e. schools, volunteer programs, websites on job searches, etc). Of the 150, one, and only one, was an actual employer looking for future employees: Wagamama. http://www.wagamama.com.au/home/.

Both of my sisters, at one point in their lives, have been obsessed with Noodles (or Noodle Oodle Os as we like to call them) but I never before realized there were career opportunities in Noodles. Sign me up!!! From Math Teacher, to Investment Banker to Noodle Guy. Another smooth transition appeared ready to take fold. After some serious thought I realized it would be best to leave my sisters to the noodles and instead I signed up at the Australian Institute of Fitness. Although I like a noodle as much as the next guy, my real passion is fitness. So in two weeks I start a new path in fitness which I'm equally excited and scared about.

I went for a long run today with a new playlist on my iPod. After a particularly hellish week at work and korean fried chicken and beer for dinner last night (that's what Adam wanted for his birthday dinner), I definitely was struggling at first to put one foot in front of the other. But my new playlist kept me going. Actually, it wasn't the playlist so much as the memories that came about from certain of the songs. As I recalled these memories, I forgot about the hellish week and my stomach forgot about the fried chicken.

It's My Life by Bon Jovi. Amber and Jess, do you remember when this song came on at the Virgin Megastore in Paris and Amber sprinted to the register to buy it? I got a good chuckle thinking about our priorities at age 16. I think we passed on visiting the Paris Opera House so we could go shopping.

Crazy Game of Poker by O.A.R. I don't think I even need to comment on the memories this song stirs up. Love to my 506 girls (and Rob Konrad).

Shenendoah as performed by The Boss and the Seeger Sessions. This song reminds me of the best date I've ever been on. With my dad. Wedding secret revealed, Dad - this is the song I want to dance to with you.

Loving and missing everyone very much,
Kel

Middle of Winter in Melbourne

Long run, sun tan lotion, penguin sightings, sunset on the beach... Not too shabby.

A Nature Lesson

We are settling in nicely to our new apartment.  We even have a pet.  His name is Harold and he is a nightly visitor to the trees outside our porch.  Harold is a possum, not to be confused with an opossum (as I was, see blog post dated April 23).  According to the world’s most accurate research source, Wikipedia, a possum is “any of about 70 small to medium-sized arboreal marsupial species native to Australia…” To answer Jessie’s question in the April 23 comments, Harold is different from the North American variety of opossums in that he has a furry tail instead of a bare tail.  Additionally, possums are herbivores, while opposums are carnivores.  Here is a picture of Harold:

Great Ocean Road Pix...

The 12 Apostles

Sleepy Fuzzball

A big hug for a big tree

Fore!!!

Moving Day

We have officially moved into our permanent home in St. Kilda, a Brooklynish suburb just outside of Melbourne. And by permanent, I mean for the next two years (you can start breathing again mom). For me, the best thing about our home is that we have leaves in the living room. This is my first home in 7 years where I’m so close to life. The life of the tree in the courtyard, the life of the park down the street, the life of the beach a short walk away, and the life of a wife sitting next to me. A bit of culture shock with the lack of delivery options but still plenty of good eats here in Melbourne and especially in St Kilda. Although I did just have a burger that claimed it was the “Best in Melbourne” by some clown on Master Chef, that was barely an upgrade over McDonalds. I digress. One of the many benefits of having a lawyer and (former) banker partnership is that you never have to worry about staying on task. Kelly and I were able to unpack in about a day and half. Most people I know live out of boxes for weeks but we now have only empty boxes and full drawers.

This was also my first move where I couldn’t fit everything I own in the back of a small van. I like to pride myself on being a minimalist but even I have a collection of “stuff”… But the great thing is that all of that “stuff” is pictures of the many great adventures we’ve had or cool personal priceless mementos. We have a Terracotta warrior, a heart from Sasha and Sam’s wedding, and a homemade box from my mom. We’ve already hung pictures of the Boundary Waters, Everest, the Great Wall, the Galapagos, marathon finish lines, Quandry Peak with Ga, the 78 Brown crew, my Dad swimming in his first Olympic Tri, Shortie busting a move at Squid Roe, the Boo’s senior picture, Kel enjoying a fine evening with her college ladies and as a bridesmaid for both Sis and Amber. We also have shelves (yes multiple) of pictures of our family from all sorts of special occasions. I know our new home is very far away but we are surrounded by all off the great memories from our friends and family back home. We miss you all very much and hope as many of you as possible can visit and add to the life of our new home we’ve built down under.

Adam

P.S. Pix coming soon...

Kangas, Koalas, Kockatoos Oh My!

Adam here!

This was a weekend of firsts. It was the first time I saw Kelly this week (S&C has been running her over), our first Aussie holiday (thank you Queen for having a birthday) and our first true adventure down under.

Kelly and I rented a car, which is only significant because they ride on the "wrong" side of the road here. And in case you would ever forget there are plenty of signs to remind you along the way. We adventured along "one of the world's most scenic roads": The Great Ocean Road. We passed beautiful beaches, the home of Quiksilver Surfing, a golf course covered in kangas, brilliantly dense rain forests, giant eucalyptus trees, sleeping koalas, humbling geological seascapes, giant waterfalls, squaking cockatoos and fabulous vistas. Yes all of this was on the same road and covered in 3 days!

Each little section of this weekend's journey has its own unique story. If you'd like more details, feel free to throw some comments up on the blog and we can provide an additional thought or two.

Pix to come over the next few days as my USB cord has yet to be unpacked...

Missing everyone. Keep in touch.

Adam

Check that...

Sorry for the delay in posts, folks! Work has been extremely busy and I unfortunately had to do more apartment searching. Two days after signing the lease on the beachfront property, I got a phone call from the management company informing me that the bank was foreclosing on the apartment! This was an episode of extremely bad luck for me considering that Australia really wasn't impacted too much by the global financial crisis and their housing market has remained stable. The management company informed me that I was welcome to still move in, but I could be asked to vacate on 14 days notice. No, thank you. If there is anything I hate more than giving up an apartment with a huge terrace on the beach, it is moving (which might sound surprising since I've had 9 different addresses since graduating college...) So I cancelled the lease and got a full refund. Feeling bummed, I took a weekend off from the apartment search and ventured out again last weekend. I found a beautiful apartment about five minutes from the beach, two minutes to the park and thirty minutes door-to-door to work. When Adam arrived yesterday, we signed the lease!

And, yes, you read that correctly...Adam's here!!!!! I couldn't be happier. We're off for a run in the botanical garden, but we'll write again this weekend. Stay tuned...things will be much more exciting now!

Beachside living!

From the stories I heard from other associates, I was anticipating the apartment search to be a lengthy, complicated and annoying process. And I was wrong. I looked at four apartments, three of them were awful, one was great. I applied and was approved the next day, and signed a lease yesterday!

The first place I looked at, advertised as an extra large two bedroom on the beach, was an extra large two bedroom a few blocks from the beach. It was also miles from the tram stop, old, musty smelling and so extra large that our furniture which filled our NYC one bedroom quite nicely would have filled about a corner of this place.

I moved on to apartment number two: a two bed on the third floor of a ten story older building across the street from both the beach and a tram stop, in the low end of our price range. It's never a good sign when the rental agent, as she is unlocking the door, mentions how she is trying to convince the owner to repaint and recarpet. Ugh, this place was a dump. Sorry, honey, our price range just moved up a few notches!

Apartment number three was actually a house, a seemingly adorable, ivy-covered, Victorian townhouse, five minutes from the tram and ten minutes from the beach. The owner left out the fact that it was next to a very popular homeless shelter. He also left out the fact that adorable, ivy-covered, Victorian townhouses feel like dollhouses on the inside. I mean, I know I'm not petite, but I did not fit in this house. The stairs were so narrow that only one-third of my foot fit on each step. The sinks were so small you could hardly wash your hands. One bonus was that the owner was the first person to guess that I was American instead of Canadian!

Fourth time's a charm. A townhouse-style two bed on the beach with a huge terrace, perfect for BBQing! It needs a little bit of fresh paint and, like most apartments in Melbourne, is unfurnished meaning that it doesn't have appliances. Otherwise it is perfect (I hope)! The lease starts June 1, our sea shipment is scheduled to be at the port on June 6 and will have to clear customs, but we have temp housing until June 17, so the timing should all work out well! Happily accepting visitors once we are settled!

On another note, is it weird that I never liked American Idol when I lived in America nearly as much as I do now? Have the top 5 ever been this good before? It's pretty funny when Seacrest is announcing the phone number to vote, a big pop-up covers the screen saying "you cannot vote from Australia." Glad to know that all those millions of people who don't vote for the president but do vote for the idol are actually American!

Xoxo, Kel

Solo

Last week when I went to see Rock of Ages, the ladies who sat down next to me looked at me like I had five heads when I told them I was not saving the seat next to me -- that I was, gasp!, there alone.  A few days later, I sat down at a restaurant, took out a book and waited for someone to take my order.  After a few minutes, I had to call the waiter over.  He said he was waiting until my guest arrived.  Is it really so strange to sit at a restaurant alone?  What about attending a show alone?   It's not like you're conversing during the performance, so why does it matter if you're solo? 

I guess I kind of understand the restaurant. If you're eating alone, why not just pick something up and go home to dine in the company of your television.  But you know what?  It seems like Sex and the City, Family Guy and The Simpsons are the only shows that are ever on, and maybe I don't feel like eating with Mr. Big or Peter Griffin or Bart Simpson! So, to my waiter who kindly rubbed it in that I'm a weirdo who eats alone, have a little sympathy and bring me another glass of wine.

OK, that's all for my rant. I really don't have to deal with the funny looks too much longer. The other day I got amazing news that Adam can come earlier than we had originally planned.  He'll be here in three and a half weeks!  Until then, I'll be working, exercising, apartment searching and, if I dare, dining out solo. 

Welcome to Oz, friends and family!

Well, I've been down under for just over a week now. Here's a quick recap of my journey and first week:

Saying "see you later" to my friends and family throughout the days and weeks leading up to my departure was quite possibly the hardest thing I've ever done. I sort of had a bit of a breakdown the night before I left (Adam might say it was a little more than a "bit of a breakdown")but once I got to Newark Airport I was feeling a little better. I was at least able to hold in the tears, and when a cockroach the size of mouse wandered about a foot away from my backpack as it sat on the floor beside me in the airport terminal, I may have for a moment felt somewhat relieved to be leaving NYC. Unfortunately I've since encountered a worse critter, but we'll get to that later...

My journey consisted of three flights: Newark to LA, LA to Auckland, Auckland to Melbourne. My plan was to stay awake on the flight to LA so I could sleep on the overnight flight to Auckland. Fortunately I was seated next to a really nice businessman and we chatted for a good portion of the flight. It turned out that he had spent two years in Tokyo early in his career. He was so excited for my and Adam's adventure and told me several times that his two year stint as an expat in Tokyo was the best two years of his life. I am taking this encounter as a good omen.

This flight was my first experience flying in first class. Wow, I didn't know that air travel could actually be somewhat enjoyable and airplane food could actually taste good. I had my first meal of the journey on this flight; five courses commencing with lobster and ending with a made to order ice cream sundae. Oh, and the waitress kept my wine glass full the entire time...

I landed at LAX and had about an hour and a half layover. It was a good thing I had that much time because the terminal was full of scaffolding and temporary walls and there was not a Continental employee or a departures board to be found. When I finally figured out that I needed to get to the international terminal, I asked the only airport employee I could find how to get there - a completely unfriendly (actually a miserable) TSA worker. This helpful person directed me to exit the terminal, walk through two parking garages and "I couldn't miss it." As I was about to enter the first of the two parking garages (at ten PM with no one in sight), I heard my mom saying "stay safe", so I turned around and hopped an airport shuttle bus until I saw the sign for Air New Zealand. Phew, I was on my way.

I walked into the international terminal to hear my name being paged. At least I thought it was my name, but with the New Zealand accent, it was hard to tell for sure. So I hurried through security as my name was called repeatedly and ran to the gate. The lovely lady at Air New Zealand just wanted to remind me that as a first class passenger I was welcome to take advantage of the Air New Zealand lounge. Well, don't mind if I do. Just like my first first class flight, my first visit to an airport lounge was also quite nice! I consumed more food and wine even though I was still full from dinner on flight number one.

I boarded the flight to Auckland, and though I was ready right away to convert my seat into a bed, I left it as a seat long enough to eat another multiple course dinner LOL. The flight attendant then helped me make up the bed and I slept on and off for the next 9 hours as the plane traveled (and bounced a bit) across the Pacific and the international date line. Before we landed in Auckland I ate a big breakfast (are you seeing the theme yet!). Another four hour flight (and another breakfast) later, I finally arrived in Melbourne!

I was very productive during my first day as I was trying to stay awake and adjust to the time change. I settled into my temporary apartment, bought an iPad, opened a bank account and bought some groceries. I think I only made it to 6pm, my eyelids had enough at that point. I spent the rest of the weekend exploring the city a bit.

I started work on Monday. The office is very busy right now which is a good distraction from loneliness. I'll definitely have a lot more responsibility than I had in NY, and I've already realized that I'm going to have to grow some thicker skin as the Aussies aren't afraid of being blunt. I think there will be lots of late nights, but hopefully very few weekends, which is a welcome change from NY.

Today I treated myself to Rock of Ages. It was awesome, and shoutout to my 506 girls, the performance of Don't Stop Believin' brought back great memories of Cait's 21st birthday at DKE!

My Aunt Lou has an acquaintance from Indiana, Becky, who recently moved to Melbourne with her husband and two young boys. I got an email today from Becky inviting me to Easter dinner. I nearly cried. I was planning to work tomorrow just so I wouldn't think about being alone on the holiday. But now I'm taking the 2pm train to Sandringham to have roast leg of lamb with strangers, and I couldn't be happier.

I realize this post has run quite long. I'll try to write more often and keep them shorter in the future. As a disclaimer, since I spend a good portion of my life wordsmithing and proofreading, I don't plan to do the same with this blog, so please forgive me for typos and grammatical errors.

Lastly, obviously this blog is going to be my way to tell you about what is going on down under, but if you know me, you know that I hate attention and self-centeredness, so please comment or send emails telling me what is going on with you!

Love, Kel

Ps. As to that critter I mentioned earlier, I met my first Australian opossum on the sidewalk the other night. Yuck!