Winter Wonderland

Ah, The Equator. So far away, and yet still you make your presence felt. I'm sitting in a country that is nominally in the throes of winter, experiencing the worst weather it is likely to get all year. I'm at about 37S latitude, which is roughly the same south as San francisco is North. But oh, do they have it figured out down here.

Today the high will be 20C (68F). and it's the dead of winter. The weather will only improve from here on out, which means that my five minute walk to the beach will soon include a surfboard. Nothing says "waking up and getting ready for work" like an hour of surfing at sunrise.

I've also joined a gym, which overlooks that very same beach. Going to soon be back into my install routine which is Work, Work, Work, Gym, Pasta, and party on weekends. Going to be fun. And Maui is just around the corner.

Also, this weekend is the last regular season game of the AFL, which is the Australian Football League, and then next weekend begins the 4 week playoffs. I'm already hooked on this sport, and for $20 general admission, you can't beat it for a weekend's worth of entertainment. I just hope there's a lot of local games.

Organized Mayhem

Ah, Australia. So interesting, so unique, so very, very, very far away. I've been here now for 4 days, and as such have had time to sample some of the local culture, climate, and cuisine.

My adventure started with the flight from LAX to Melbourne. Having flown to England many times, I felt I was prepared for a long flight. I knew how to amuse myself, when to get up and walk around, when to try to sleep, etc. Sadly, I was not prepared. The plane was equipped with the new Video on Demand service, which means each seat is equipped with a private screen, and you can start, pause, fast forward or reverse whatever movie you want to watch from the extensive list of titles available. I really like this feature. However, after watching 3 movies, eating dinner, trying but failing to sleep for an hour, my internal clock was telling me we must be getting close to Australia. So i switched over to the Flight Progress screen on my tv, only to discover we had almost reached Hawaii, and still had another 9 hours of flying left. I shed a tear, then went back to my movies. I watched another 4 movies before i landed. Yes, that's correct. LAX to MEL is a 7 movie flight.

Having landed, collected baggage, and escaped the airport, I was driven to my flat. Thanks to some of the wives and girlfriends that accompanied employees over here earlier in the year, we have a couple of really good rental properties here. My place is a 3 story townhome, with koi ponds, balconies, a good kitchen, and cable TV. It is also conveniently located next door to a pub, and 2 blocks from Starbucks. It's like I never left Seattle.

Except I had left Seattle, and nowhere was that fact brought home more succinctly than the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, where I watched my first Australian Rules Football game. Aside from Irish Hurling, this is the most violent game I have ever watched. At one point, one player was down on the field with a pretty solid injury, four others were involved in a flat out brawl, and play continued. In fact, each team has "runners", team members which are not actually players but are on the field to either bring water to the players, carry instructions from the coach to the players, or break up fights between the players. Apparently the five referees aren't interested in breaking up fights, and since any contact is legal, it's not exactly against the rules to elbow someone in the face. It's a very strange game.

Today I'm back to work, waiting for my parts to arrive from Seattle. Mentally, I feel like a giant wave is curling over, poised to crash on the beach. And I think there are only two options available in this situation: surf the curl, or get smashed on the beach. So, I'll go grab my wetsuit and board, and do what I do best.