HFDU - 21st Edition

Originally sent: March 3, 2005

Hi everyone! I've been so slack lately with my HFDUs (haven't sent one since before Christmas and my trip to America!), that I'll have to resort to bullet points this time around. Hopefully this will somewhat relieve what would otherwise be a very painful read…….

• My trip home was fantastic! I caught up with lots and lots of people, did a whirlwind your of Houston, Dallas, and Austin, and caught up on all of my Mexican food cravings. I had a great time driving around again, and flew up to New York to spend New Year's Eve with a girlfriend who lives up there. I enjoyed the time with friends and family, especially Christmas and all of the shopping afterwards. My trip was the perfect length - enough to get everything in, but not too much to where I got bored and wished I was back in Australia again;
• When I returned home to Australia, B was of course waiting with open arms and I was glad to be back and start my normal life again. Strange that I say now that Australia is my normal life, but I suppose that would happen after 1 1/2 years!;
• I flew up to Sydney for 2 weeks to work on a special project and really enjoyed my time up there. We spent Australia Day (National holiday) working, so we got treated to dinner by the partner at the Top Restaurant in Sydney. I ate many things that I had never eaten before in my life, but it was a great experience and a well-deserved treat;
• The Australian Open was the last 2 weeks in January and B & I had grounds passes with C & B (our Scottish friends), so basically, that means that we got on to the grounds but not actually into the arena where the tennis is played. Instead, we sat in a beer garden with hundreds of others, eating, drinking, chatting, and watching the match on the big screen. It was a perfect day and I actually preferred to be out in the beer garden where I could breathe out loud, rather than in the arena where I would literally have to hold my breath in order to not distract the players;
• B & I drove along the Great Ocean Road (I did it once in Nov 2003 in my car) on his motorbike. It was a test for me as it was a long time on the back of the bike, and I had to pack extremely carefully so that everything we took could fit in the bag that sat on the back rack of his bike. I LOVED IT!! It was so enjoyable on the bike, even though I suffered from helmet hair and a sore bum most of the weekend. We stopped for 2 nights along the Great Ocean Road and did some amazing walks through rainforests and played around in the cute towns along the way. It was a completely different experience from when I drove in the car, and B was having a ball driving the bike the entire time;
• Other weekends have been filled with friends BBQs in the good weather and catching up on movies in the bad. We even went to the drive-in theatre one night! I have only been about twice in my life during high school, so it was great fun. The sound actually comes through a radio station rather than outside speakers, so you actually have a lot of privacy. We've also caught a movie at the Moonlight Cinema (outside, under the stars, at the Botanical Gardens). It was a great experience and B's first exposure to Ferris Bueller's Day Off!;
• We took C & B (the Scots) down to B's holiday house in Lakes Entrance for a weekend of fishing and relaxing. The mornings were full of fishing in the surf and the lakes, the afternoons were full of naps and reading the gossip in magazines, and the evenings were spent prawning (big shrimp) in the lakes, having a BBQ, playing Cranium, and enjoying the fact that we were out of the big city. I caught 2 fish on the weekend, one of which was a 9 lb trevally! You can bet the photos of me and the big guy are up on the website, as well as many others. We ate the fish that we caught in the morning for lunch, the fish that we caught in the afternoon for dinner, and the prawns that we caught at night for lunch the next day :-) Talk about being self-sufficient!;
• I just celebrated my birthday (for those who don’t know how old I am I'm not telling!) and C and I had a nice joint birthday dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse (like Fogo de Chao) with all of the girls. The boys were a bit jealous that they weren't invited, and looking back, it probably didn't make much sense that we ate that much meat without the boys! B & I went to a comedy club and dinner for my birthday and out to dinner at my favorite Nepalese restaurant for Valentine's Day. Let me just say that I'm feeling very old these days……..;
• I've started a belly dancing class and absolutely love it! I really didn't know what to expect, but I'm taking it with a couple of girls that I know, so it makes it social as well as a chance to get a bit of exercise. We’ve been to 5 classes now, and actually have a bit of a routine started. We have a recital coming up at the end up class that we are all a bit excited about!;
• As part of my New Year's resolutions, I decided that I would begin donating blood on a regular basis. Sooooo, I stayed true to my resolution and had an appointment at the Red Cross at the beginning of February. It was a bit of an ordeal, but after I recovered from the needle injection, I enjoyed watching the blood being sucked out of me and going into a nice little bag. Unfortunately, what normally takes about 8-10 minutes to donate the specified amount of blood took me 15 minutes! The nurse said that I must have small veins or something. I must say that I was not amused.;
• This past weekend a group of 10 of us went up to the Grampians National Park to enjoy a weekend away. It's about a 3 hour drive from Melbourne and we rented a huge house that slept 13, so it was fully furnished and stocked up for us with the basic necessities. We spent the weekend horseback riding, bushwalking (hiking), riding bikes, lazing around, playing board games, and enjoying the ever popular Aussie BBQ. Unfortunately B couldn't go as he had a weekend away at footy camp for pre-season training, but I had fun with the others anyway.;
• A couple of long weekends are coming up - I think a Labour Day, Easter weekend, and Anzac Day, so hopefully I will have a chance to get some more fishing and relaxing in. This weekend is the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix, so I'll be hearing the buzz of the cars driving around the track all weekend as I'm only a few kilometres away;
• Our softball team has made it into the finals, so next time I send an email, hopefully I can say that we have won the Grand Final! The season has gone by so fast, but I guess time flies when you're having fun. There is always the end-of-season softball party to look forward too…...;
• Most of you probably don't know that I'm coming back to the States at the end of the year or beginning of 2006, or at least that's the plan. I'm not sure exactly where or when, but Australia will have to put up with me for a while longer. That being said, everyone who intends to visit needs to make plans soon as I'm not here forever and I would love for you to come over!
  

Okay, that's it for now. I'm sure I've left out heaps of what's been going on, but that's what I get for waiting nearly 3 months since my last Edition. I'll try to be better about it, but no promises! I would love to hear about what's been going on with each of you.

HFDU - 20th Anniversary Edition

Originally sent: December 13 ,2004

Hi everyone - just one more email before I head home for the holidays. It's the 20th Anniversary Edition, which means one of two things. Either I have provided all of you with some entertaining stories and information over the past year and a half that I have been in Australia, or I have nothing better to do with my time than act like what I do in my life is important to all of you. Probably a little of both, but at least you have all learned bits and pieces about Australia and me that you didn't previously know!

The last month has been quite busy. I started it off with a hens night and wedding. A girl that I work with got married to a guy who used to work for my company, so there were lots of work people at the wedding. The hen's day/night involved a group of ladies bused out to the vineyards for the day and then back into the city for going out later that evening. It was a great time! The boys had their buck's day/night on a chartered boat fishing in the bay, and I trust that they enjoyed their time as well. The wedding was very enjoyable as well. There are actually a lot more differences in "wedding etiquette" than I would have thought, so it was a learning experience for me. Customs and traditions are just different, for example, there are wedding cars (typically old Rolls Royces, mustangs, etc.) that take the wedding party all around town to different spots for photos in between the wedding ceremony and the reception. There is usually about 2-3 hours between the wedding and the reception to allow for this, but then the reception offers a full sit-down meal and plenty of dancing late into the night.

One weekend we had Corporate Games, which is a weekend event that gets all of the large corporations from around Melbourne together to complete against each other, with the proceeds going to a selected charity. My company had over 100 people participate and we won in several events. I participated in the 5k run, and was honestly just happy to finish! Our footy team won the premiership which was exciting, even though it meant that I was at the field until 6:30 that night cheering on B & the boys. B & I also spent a weekend at his family's holiday house in Lakes Entrance, about 3 1/2 hours away from Melbourne. We sent the weekend surf fishing (which required us to get up at 5am), boating & fishing in the lakes, fishing in the river, and playing cards with the family at night. At our campfire at the river, I made B s'mores for the first time with ingredients from the USA Foods Store. He was impressed :-) I caught one fish (an Australian Salmon) and 2 crabs, so I was pretty excited. We ate them for lunch!

Our softball team is going okay, but we have already lost 2 games, which puts us at just over .500. We look really good this year though, as we found a sponsor and have some great shirts and caps to play in! I still really, really enjoy playing and definitely will for as long as I'm in Australia. I took at business trip to Adelaide for a couple of days, which was really pretty uneventful, but it earned me some more Qantas frequent flyer points which is always a bonus! I don't mind getting away from my normal life every now and then, and the hotel that I got to stay in was fabulous!

Myself and K from Boston cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for 8 and it turned out really well! We made roasted chicken (turkey is REALLY expensive), mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, salads, homemade dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. It was yummy and the Australians and Scots enjoyed it as well. I didn't expect it to affect me as much as it did, but it made me happy, and a bit sad, that we were celebrating Thanksgiving. It made me realize that I was away from my family and friends who really understand Thanksgiving, but I did made everyone go around the table to say what they were thankful for, and they actually all participated! It was overall a great evening and the weather was perfect for drinking wine on the balcony.

I've just completed the granting of my second wish for the Starlight Children's Foundation and it was so rewarding! My little "D" wanted a motorbike, so we arranged it for him and we threw a BBQ at his grandparents house where he had his bike delivered and got to ride around on it. He was a natural! Because he doesn’t have full use of his right hand, they had to modify the bike so that the throttle was on the left side, as well as the brake, so it was perfect for him! He was so excited and was riding around making motorbike noises. I have also kicked off a Teams for Dreams program for Starlight within my group at work. We are aiming to raise $5,000 to sponsor a wish child as a group, so I've organized a trivia night, auction, and other smaller fundraising activities so that we can grant a wish together. I was surprised at how involved the group has gotten as I thought everyone was pretty apathetic towards helping out, but I have been pleasantly surprised!

This past weekend we had our Group Christmas Party at a local pub. We started at 12:30pm with lunch and awards/announcements, etc. and most people didn't finish up until 3am! I must admit that I left early with a few people to go to dinner for one of our friends birthdays, but the energy in my group never ceases to amaze me! Of course, the stories once back in the office are always entertaining :-) I had a bit of bad luck last week when my handbag was stolen at a restaurant by an old lady. It was more of an inconvenience than anything, except she's got my mobile phone with everyone's numbers programmed in there. It also had my Texas driver's license (luckily not my passport!), but a lady called from a town about an hour away on Friday saying that she found my wallet in her garden! Strange, but at least I'm getting back my driver's license.

At this time next week I'll be home, shopping, catching up with everyone, and eating plenty of Mexican food! I'm actually a lot more in the Christmas spirit this year, and Melbourne seems to be more in the spirit as well. It'll be strange to be away from the home that I have known for the last year and a half, but I'll try not to miss Australia too much while I'm back in the States :-)
I wish each of you a happy holiday season and best wishes for 2005! Hopefully I'll have the chance to catch up with many of you in the coming weeks.

HFDU - Travels around Tasmania

Originally sent: November 13 ,2004

Hello everyone! As mentioned in the 19th Edition, this is a separate email covering B & I's trip to Tasmania. I wanted to make this separate so that I could spend some time explaining the interesting things that I learned about Tasmania, which is one of the seven states/territories of Australia. Just so you can get an idea about the size of Tassie, you can drive from the northern tip to the southern tip in about 5 hours, and probably the same driving from east to west. Tassie is well-known for its variety of beautiful landscape and with a population of only 473,000 people, most of it is untouched. Approximately 1/2 of the state is National Parks, so Tassie is very well preserved.

First of all, I did take a trip to Tasmania last December, but I was only there for a short time and didn't get to do any of the tourist things and driving around the entire state. So B & I decided to make the most of a long weekend and took the ship (the Spirit of Tasmania) from Melbourne for our 10 hour cruise along the Bass Strait between Victoria and Tasmania. The Bass Strait happens to have the largest concentration of great white sharks in the world! This is because of the seals and penguins that reside in large quantities in the area.

The Spirit of Tasmania offers daytime and night-time sailings, and carries your car over as well. B has a love for water and boats, so we decided to take the daytime crossing on the way over so that we could actually enjoy the trip over and see the water as we were sailing. If you remember from my last trip over, I got a bit seasick, so I was determined not to this time! I was well-equipped with motion sickness tablets and B's theory of keeping our stomachs full seemed to help as neither of us got sick in the slightest. The daytime crossing was enjoyable and relaxing. I think we spent about a third of our trip over outside on the decks watching the water and enjoying the pleasant weather. The rest of the time we wandered around the various decks, watching a bit of tv, reading, snacking, and chatting.

We arrived about 7pm and spent the first night about an hour from the port in Launceston, the 2nd largest city in Tassie with only about 70,000 people. The next morning we went just outside of Launceston to a place called Cataract Gorge. Cataract Gorge has the longest single chairlift in the world (or at least that was the claim) so B and I hopped on and rode across a little valley with a lake that ran in between some beautiful hills and cliffs. When we made it to the other side we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of several wild peacocks. The males were strutting their stuff with their tail feathers fully extended and dancing! It was quite a sight. We made it back across the little valley over a suspension bridge. Overall a beautiful little excursion before we were off to the country for the day.

Freycinet National Park is supposed to have some of the most splendid views of Tasmania and it sits on the east coast. B and I made it there early in the afternoon and went for a bush walk (hike) up to the lookout over Wineglass Bay. The hike consisted of pretty much straight uphill steps for about 40 minutes and proved to be a bit difficult for me! But, we made it there and the effort was well worth it. The water was bright turquoise and you could see to forever! Photos of Wineglass Bay have been added to the website. After our visit to Freycinet National Park, we headed down to Hobart for the evening, which is the largest city in Tasmania with 128,000 people. It's situated on a bay and has a quaint small-town feel, but the amenities of a medium-size city. We took ourselves out for a Greek tavern meal and definitely enjoyed the nice weather. At this point, we were still stunned at the natural beauty that we had seen so far in Tasmania.

The next morning we headed about an hour south of Hobart, about as far south as you can go in Tasmania, to Port Arthur. For those of you who don't know the history of Australia, it was originally settled by the English and used as an island prison basically for all of the English convicts. They were sent over on ships from England, and a lot of them were dead before they even arrived in Australia because of the conditions on board the ship. Port Arthur was set up as a place to keep the "worst of the worst" as there was virtually no escape from there. The prisoners were told that the waters surrounding Port Arthur were shark-infested, and the only escape was a piece of land called EagleHawk Neck that connected Port Arthur to the mainland but was only 100 meters wide. So there was a chain of dogs that spanned across this 100 meters so that the convicts could not escape. Anyway, B and I headed down to Port Arthur's complex (on Halloween - which was a bit eerie), took some good photos of the old penitentiary and learned a lot about the history of the place, which was actually quite fascinating. We took a boat cruise around the area and were told that if we headed about 6,000 miles further south to the closest piece of land, we'd be at the South Pole!

Later that afternoon we headed back up towards Hobart to Mt. Wellington. The views from the top of Mt. Wellington were incredible. We were lucky to have a sunny day so that we could to forever (again!). The drive up was a bit windy, but we tolerated it with some Halloween candy that mom had sent over for B and I. The Aussies don't really celebrate Halloween, so no one would have noticed by little black t-shirt with orange pumpkins that I was wearing. I felt quite festive! From Mt. Wellington, we were on our way to try and get to Lake St. Clair by sunset so that we could see it with a bit of sun left. We made it, and it was such a stunning sight. It's basically a lake that was created up in the mountains by a dam, so it's full, and full of life. In fact, as we were walking back to the car, we saw a Tasmanian devil crossing our path! It's very rare to see them in the wild, so we were quite excited once we realized what it was. The rest of the evening consisted of a long, windy drive to Queenstown, which would be our stop for the night.

Queenstown is a copper mining town situated in the middle of barren hills. We literally just slept there, and made our way to Strahan in the morning. Strahan is a little town on the east coast of Tasmania. While we were there, we went on an adventure jet boat ride that included a drive up the mountain in a 4-wheel drive. B & I had a great time, enjoying the fast ride, the spins in the water, and the climb up the mountain. At the top we walked around a bit and stood in a lookout station that displayed the vast pine forests below. It was eye-opening to ride up the river in between the large mountains and hills, and not see a single element of life. The river was biologically dead because of the mining waste that had contaminated it. The history of the region was very interesting and our guide was certainly good at portraying images of the past.

After our morning in Strahan we headed up to the highly popular Cradle Mountain National Park. Again, along the way there are many different landscapes so the scenery during the drive never gets boring. Once at Cradle Mountain, we did a couple of bush walks around Dove Lake and enjoyed the lovely afternoon. During one of our walks we saw a native echidna (Australian version of a porcupine), which again, are very hard to spot on the wild. We were just lucky, and the little guy was busily digging for worms, and absolutely adorable! We then headed back up to Devonport where we hopped back on the ship for the evening crossing back to Melbourne.
Overall, an amazing trip from a nature and history perspective.

There are a few other tidbits of information to share:

- Due to the low population in Tasmania and the vast expanses and variety of nature, there is a huge population of wildlife. About every 1 kilometer, there was a piece of road kill on the side of road, usually wallabies or possums.

- Driving at dusk, we probably saw about 20-30 live animals along the side of the road, including wallabies, possums, another Tasmanian devil, and other unidentifiable creatures. That requires a lot of caution and quick reactions when they come hopping across the road. B's reflexes were tested when a wallaby hopped in front of us and he managed to avoid most of it, only nipping it's tail!

- The roads are extremely windy in Tassie, which made B very happy, but me very carsick. So, in order to let him have his fun around all of the corners, I just took motion sickness tablets the entire trip. It seemed to work most of the time, and everyone was happy :-)

- There is no mobile phone coverage in most of Tasmania because of the many hills, mountains, plateaus, etc. It was sort of nice to be separated from the rest of the world for a few days!

Well, this email has certainly been longer than expected so I hope it was at least a bit interesting. I realize that these emails are time-consuming to read, so feel free to request that you be deleted from future editions - I promise my feelings won't be too hurt :-) Take care everyone and enjoy the upcoming holiday season!

HFDU - 19th Edition

Originally sent: November 6, 2004

G'day everyone. Welcome to the 19th Edition of HFDU! The last month has been action-packed and very busy. It must be the warmer weather that gives us here all the energy to keep busy! So what's been going on in sunny Melbourne lately???

We have had a large influx of secondees in the office here over the past couple of months, so there are lots of new faces around. I'm happy that one of them is another American from Boston, as I've been able to reminisce with her about all things American. It's been enjoyable seeing her first impressions of Australia as it reminds me of when I had first arrived…..over 16 months ago! We have another secondee from Scotland that has just come over with her husband, which brings our secondee count in the FOS Group up to 3 Scots, 1 Irish gal, 1 Swiss guy, and me. It's easy to bond with other secondees as we are all in similar situations and have the same desire to travel around, mostly to places that the Aussies have already been. But I also make a conscious effort to spend time with the locals.

I have spent some good quality time with a couple of other Americans - K & J are an American couple who have moved to Melbourne permanently (they've been here 6 years) and they just had a little boy at the end of May. I introduced B to proper fajitas and margaritas when the 4 of us got together one Sunday afternoon at K & J's house and had a bit of a Mexican fiesta on their patio. It was lovely! We had all bumped into each other the day before at the USA Foods Store as we were all picking up goodies for our "fiesta". Let me just tell you, it really increased my craving for proper Tex-Mex! I'll be eating plenty when I'm home in about 6 weeks :-)

B & I attended the Phillip Island Grand Prix a few weekends ago. This is the motorbike Grand Prix rather than cars, so you guessed it……..we took his bike down and were in the midst of hundreds of other bikes on the way down (about 1.5 hour ride) and on the way back. It was a memorable experience, being part of a whole group of motorbikes, and being around people who are "normal" like we are, but who enjoy riding bikes. There were also the hard-core Harley riders, who were interesting to be around :-) Sitting around the track, watching the motorbikes going around a lot faster than my eyes could keep up with, and being around this crowd, was fantastic! I felt like I was totally out of my element, but I enjoyed every minute of it. The World Champion Valentino Rossi won again, but the race was an "edge of your seat" one as he had to battle for his win. When I load up more photos to the website I'll be sure to include ones from the day at the track, one of which has me with the track (and Valentino Rossi riding in the background). I told B that if I ride with him too much more, I'll have to get my own leather riding jacket :-)

B's footy season ended with their Grand Final win in September, but we had the Footy Presentation night this past month, where they give all of the awards from the year and recap everything that went on. We got to watch a slide show of the many photos that were taken from the year, and B made the "Greek Team of the Century" - of which he was very proud (and so was I)! It was a bit sad for footy season to be over, as that's what had occupied my Saturday afternoons and evenings for 6 months, but it'll come around soon enough I suppose. On the subject of Greek, my Greek language class is seriously kicking my butt right now! It's become quite hard, not only because it's a hard to language to learn, but also because I haven't been putting in the time each week to practice and learn as I should be (the weather's just been too nice!). But, I only have 2 more classes in this course, and then the next course doesn't start until February so that'll give me a nice break. I'm still quite proud of myself for even attempting the class in the first place!

I was invited as a guest of one of my clients to a "Business Chicks Breakfast" which actually turned out to be quite enjoyable. Although it started quite early in the morning, it basically was intended for business women to network, win door prizes and raffles, and eat a great brekkie before heading off to work. The Spring Racing Carnival came around again, so Melbourne's been going crazy with all of the horse racing. It's probably the biggest fashion event of the year, with all of the ladies wearing the best frocks and the biggest and most extravagant hats to match. In fact, a lot of ladies by the hat first and then find a dress to match. I didn't attend the races this year as B & I went away for the long weekend (Melbourne Cup Day is a state holiday for Victoria) and the weather on the other days was rainy and cold. But it's still fun to have the races around because everyone is in a betting mood and usually quite festive when the races are over.

I had a bit of a hiccup this last month when I came down with a nasty case of tonsillitis. I honestly can't remember the last time that I was that sick, and I was out of work for a week. It was absolutely miserable! And B was out of town working in Sydney that week, so I went an entire week without seeing a single person that I knew, as I could barely talk and certainly wouldn't have wanted to make anyone else sick! The only time that I left the house was to go to the doctor's office to get my prescription and shots. But, I'm all better now and have decided that I would not wish tonsillitis on my worst enemy!

With the nicer weather here, I've been trying to think of things to do outside, and have come up with a list. So whenever I decide to do something outside for the day, I look at my list and select something from there. A couple of weekends ago, B & I spent the afternoon at Luna Park, which is an amusement park on the beach. It was basically us and all of the families with children, but we enjoyed ourselves and acted appropriately, eating hot dogs, fries, ice cream and cotton candy (which Aussies call fairy floss). The rides are the same as American rides, but the roller coasters here weren't all that great as the park is not a "big" one - more of a local one.

Now getting into elections……Australia just re-elected it's current prime minister John Howard. It was an experience being over here during the election. It's very similar to an American election with the tv advertisements, but the difference was that I really didn't care as I have no clue about Australian politics, or the issues that people are really concerned about. The other big difference is that voting over here is compulsory, and you'll get a fine if you don't vote. The Aussies are used to it, so it really doesn't phase them. The funny thing is that the government gets to decide on when the election is. The current prime minister can pick any time within a given timeframe (I think it's a 3 year term and they can choose the election date any time within the last year of their term) for the election day, so it usually ends up being when he's on everyone's good side. Very interesting…….

There was also quite a bit of coverage of the American Presidential election, which was surprisingly pretty unbiased. I think the thing that irritated me the most was when the Aussies start talking about American politics like they know everything about it, or that it directly impacts them. Most people here seem to be anti-Bush because of the war, but that’s all they talk about rather than any other issues because that's the only bit that they are exposed to. I tried my best to avoid getting into those discussions as I'm not the most politically savvy person anyway!

Okay, I've just realized how long this email is, so I'll try to wrap up. Just a few things that I want to mention:
- softball season starts next week and I'm very excited! B's playing this year too, so that'll make it even better.
- we are 2 episodes away from the final Sex in the City (I know we're behind) and it's very exciting! People who have just come over from Europe or America already know the ending so we have to make sure to keep them quiet. We are also nearing the end of Friends as well, which will be a tragic day!
- I'm coming home in 6 weeks! Have made plans to squeeze in visits with as many people as possible, and have booked a trip to NYC for New Year's Eve. Woo hoo!
- B's got me watching the Simpsons now. I had never watched an episode before he came along. That's quite an achievement!
- I still love Australia and think the Aussies are fantastic people. I still can't emphasize enough that I think anyone who's ever thought about coming over here absolutely should. It's taught me a lot about people and life, and definitely has changed me….I think for the better. The funny thing is that the more I love Australia and feel at home here, the more patriotic I feel towards the States as well.

I've got to send a separate email covering B & I's recent adventures in Tasmania, but I'll give you a break from reading and do that in a week or so. I hope everyone is well and getting excited about the holiday season. I'm sad that I don't get to be home for Thanksgiving, but I trust that all of you will enjoy the holiday and the Christmas shopping the day after! I look forward, as always, to hearing from you, and to seeing many of you over the Christmas holidays.

HFDU - 18th Edition

Originally sent: October 4, 2004

G'day all! I hope this email finds everyone well and looking forward to cooler weather. I, on the other hand, am absolutely ready for the sun to start shining and for afternoons on the beach and on the lake! It just doesn’t seem to be coming fast enough. My HFDUs seem to be getting further and further apart, so I must admit that I'm losing energy in typing about everything, finally, after 15 months. But, hopefully now that I've gotten around to it, it'll be a somewhat entertaining and informative edition.

Probably the most significant thing that's happened since the last edition is B's footy team (the Bulleen Templestowe Fighting Bullants) winning the Grand Final in their division. It was a momentous occasion, as the Bullants had not won a Grand Final in 21 years! So as you can imagine, the mood was merry and there was much celebrating to be had (until about 6am the next morning to be exact!). I was so happy for the boys and especially B, who was absolutely over the moon. I've put a photo on the website of us just after the game. The weather on the day was horrible, raining for most of the morning, leaving the field a complete mud pit, but the boys didn’t seem to mind and just plowed right through. Then during the presentation on the field after the win, it started hailing. I guess I can be an optimist and say that at least it didn't hail during the game. So, the Bullants have moved up a division for next year and footy season is finally over!

I've also now attended my second company Ball, which I must admit, was a bit disappointing compared to last year. I think it's because I had higher expectations, but I still shouldn't complain, as it was a great night of dining, dancing, and hanging out with some good friends from the office. The theme was "Illumination" so there were lots of glow sticks involved, of which most ended up around people's necks. I've also had my second end-of-audit lunch, which I still must commend my company for. It's so nice to be able to take an afternoon off in reward for all of your hard work during the audit, and spend it with the other members of the audit team. At this particular one, we met up with a team from another audit on their lunch, and had double the fun! We ate at a restaurant that overlooked the bay, and it was a bright & sunny afternoon, so just perfect. I wish I could do that every afternoon!

I just had my 4th visitor come over and explore the great city of Melbourne. I feel truly blessed that I have friends and family who come visit me as it brings little pieces of home to Australia. She was very independent, did lots of exploring, and saw some of the most beautiful landscape in Victoria. I think anyone who spoke to her would be convinced to come over for a visit, as I know she had a wonderful time and is ready to come for another visit! Speaking of visits, I've got my flights booked to come home for the holidays (18th Dec - 4th Jan), so I'm definitely looking froward to catching up with those of you who I can. I think I'll be eating as much Mexican food as possible during my 3 weeks home, as well as iced tea, good margaritas, and several other food items that I've been craving over here. Strangely enough though, I'll probably miss going down the road here and picking up a lamb souvlaki. It's funny what you get used to living in a different place.

What else has been going on…….B & I took one of our friends little girls to see Shark Tale last weekend. She kept talking about it for about a week before the show and still talks about it. I don't think she really understood the movie, but she liked going with us as it was something fun & different for her. I also went to see the display of the Impressionists at the National Gallery of Victoria. Melbourne has had the pieces on loan from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris since June, and of course I put it off until the 2nd to last day that they were here so it was very crowded. It was neat to get to see some of the famous pieces in person though, although I must admit that other than the few that I knew, not a whole lot else appealed to me. I felt that I should go though…..since they were here.

I've officially completed my 5 years with my company, and was awarded with a choice of anniversary "gifts". After much thought, I settled on a telescope! I've wanted one for quite some time, and this was the perfect opportunity. The stars in the country down here are absolutely beautiful, and hopefully B & I can make use of the telescope on trips to his family's holiday house, and on our upcoming trip to Tasmania. We're going over a long weekend, and taking a couple of extra days off. We're taking the cruise ship over with the car, similar to what I did over last Christmas with my friend "M", but we are going for 5 days this time and are actually getting to do some exploring. Tasmania is supposed to have some of the most beautiful scenery around, and since there aren't heaps of people living there, most of it is untouched and unbelievable! I can't wait!

I actually just got back from a weekend in Daylesford, the spa capital of Victoria (if not Australia) with my friend C. We decided to leave our men for the weekend, and spoil ourselves at the spas. It was such a lovely weekend - lunch by the lake, a paddleboat around the lake, before our 2 hour spa session Saturday that included a massage and facial . Then we just relaxed until we went out for a nice dinner in town. Sunday was much of the same - a late morning with breakfast on the balcony, lunch in town, then another 2 hours at the spa consisting of a full body mud wrap and reflexology on my feet! I don't think that I have ever been so relaxed for such a long period of time. It was very hard to come back to work after being spoiled like that for the weekend! Funny thing is, B was probably just as happy and relaxed, spending 8 hours fishing on Saturday and another few on Sunday, and his would have been at a lot lower price than mine :-)

Well, I think that's about it for now. Softball season is just around the corner, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. B is playing this year too so that will be an added bonus! Busy season is starting to draw to a close, so I'm enjoying more early evenings and the increasingly warmer weather. Hopefully I'll have a nice Aussie tan when I come home for Christmas :-) I hope everyone is well. Please keep in touch and let me know how you are doing. I can't believe that I've been here 15 months already…..and that I'm supposed to come home in just 7.

HFDU - 17th Edition

Originally sent: August 19, 2004

Hi everyone - I feel like I haven't sent an email in ages but it is busy season after all! Hopefully this will still be an interesting email despite the long hours that I've been working lately. But what can I say, I needed a break from auditing and decided to say hello to all of you.

As you all know, the Olympics are happening right now in Athens. Let me tell you, it's a completely different experience over here! I never get to watch gymnastics because the Aussies aren't good at it so they don't broadcast that part of the Olympics. It's all swimming, swimming, swimming right now, and I was amazed to learn that the Aussies get up in the middle of the night to watch Ian Thorpe swim, rather than watching re-runs in the morning! They just seem to think it's more exciting to watch it live when you don't know who's going to win. I'm perfectly happy watching re-runs over breakfast :-) I do miss watching the Americans, but am still happy to see them climbing up in the medal count daily.

The Greeks seem to be satisfied with their Euro 2004 soccer win - and Melbourne, having the 2nd largest Greek population outside of Athens in the world, was extremely chaotic after that win several weeks ago. B was up at 3am on a Monday morning with his mates in the middle of the city watching the final game, on a big screen in the streets of Melbourne with the rest of the Greek population in Melbourne. I don't know what it is about the Aussies and live events - they seem to watch them and participate no matter what the hour is! Speaking of Greek, I've officially started a Greek class on Monday nights at an adult education center and have been going for about 5 weeks. I've really enjoyed it, and B enjoys listening to all of my new phrases and hearing my progress from week to week. I'm happy to stretch my brain a bit and learn a new language.....after all, that was initially one of the challenges that I was looking for coming overseas. And I thought that I wouldn't get that chance in Australia!

My friend from home, A, was over here for a couple of weeks and we had a great time! I enjoyed having some girlie time and showing her a bit around Melbourne. Although, she rented a car and travelled a bit around the countryside by herself as I had to work and she wanted to see some of the fantastic scenery in country Victoria. B was a good tour guide to her while I was in Greek class, and she got her fill of footy attending both B's weekend game and my company's Footy Day. We ended her trip with me being "sick" for the day and we drove through the nearby mountains and winery region. I think she mastered driving on the left side of the road quite well and reminded me that I was going to have some trouble driving in the States when I come back in December for a visit.

Speaking of that visit, B and I will be coming back to the States for 3 weeks over Christmas. He's never been to the States so he's quite excited about the trip. I don't know where all we will be going besides Texas (I've left that up to him), but I'm sure that he'll select some interesting places, and likely ones that I have not been too before as well! It'll be good to have some real Mexican food and get some shopping done. Any special requests from Australia need to be made early to ensure adequate allocation of space in our luggage on the flight over :-)

What else has been going on.......B & I and another couple went to Circus Oz a few weeks ago and it was fabulous! I ran a 10k race, completely unprepared, and survived the whole thing without walking, but I couldn't really walk for the next two days after that. I probably should take it a bit easier in my next race! We finally had the Apprentice Grand Finale over here about 2 weeks ago and I won the betting pool at work with Bill as my selection, so I won a bit of money. It was a bit frustrating though, because so many people already knew who won and I was trying to get them to keep quiet while I watched religiously every week.

My Scottish friend "C" and I are going to start rowing on Sunday mornings once a month at the local rowing club. For $10 you can row with them for the morning - I know it's crazy, but we both thought that maybe it would tone up our muscles (what muscles?) a little bit. Hmmm....we'll see! I organized a secondee drinks night for all of my company's employees on international rotation in the Melbourne office and it was great to meet everyone from all over the world. I think we have about 12 countries represented here and it was nice to meet others who are away from home as well. Although, I honestly feel like a local now, except when I still get made fun of because of my "accent" and the way I say "tomato". I met my second Starlight wish child and he is such an adorable little boy. He's 9 and has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, but his wish was for a motorbike, so we did some research and found one that would be suitable for him. It doesn't get delivered until late November, but I can't wait to see him riding around on it for the first time!

We had our annual company and Chartered Accountant Footy Days this past month, and my company was again victorious over the other accounting firms on Chartered Accountant Day. B's footy club had it's 30th Anniversary Gala this past weekend and it was a great night. B made the "Team of the Decade" for 1994-2004 which was a significant achievement. I was so proud! We enjoyed getting all dressed up and spending time with non-work people. Once he sends me some photos from the night, I'll put some of them on the web. You may have noticed, but I haven't been so photo crazy over the past few months. I just can't be bothered to drag my camera everywhere anymore, but hopefully the best moments will still be caught on film :-) We have our annual company Ball coming up in 2 weeks, so I'm sure that there will be some good photos from that evening as there were last year!

Well, that's about it from down under at the moment. It's trying to become spring slowly, but the mornings and evenings are still very cold and we've had some pretty cruddy, rainy days lately. I am looking forward to better weather as that means the end of footy season, which means more motorcycle rides with B, more weekends away with B, more fishing at his family's holiday house.......can you see a trend here? Hope all is well with everyone and thanks to those who have been keeping in touch with me. Pass along those photos and emails......they make my life over here a lot easier.

HFDU - Family Fun

Originally sent: July 8, 2004

G'day everyone! I hope this edition of HFDU finds you all well & enjoying the summer back in America - or wherever you happen to be. I'm pretty sure that everyone on this email list is located in the northern hemisphere, so hopefully the weather is a bit warmer for everyone than it is for me here in Melbourne.

This email will sum up the time that I spent with my family over here. It was great to see them and get to spend time with them, just like back in the good ole' days. It was a bit strange at first, with my two worlds colliding, but my family actually transitioned very well into the Australian culture (although mom could never get over the fact that "lemonade" over here is Sprite!) & enjoyed all of the tourist activities. B & I picked them up at the airport on the Sunday morning & took dad & my sister "A" a few hours later to an Aussie Rules footy match. What a way to welcome them to Australia! I think the afternoon was enjoyed by all, even though it was cold & rainy. Dad got to experience meat pie at the game & A was glad to be back at the MCG.

I worked the next week while they saw the sights during the day, but we managed to sneak in fun dinners and activities at night. Dad got to eat kangaroo like he was so much looking forward to, B & I met them for dinner along the river, we made a trip to the Casino, & then they were off in the rental car on the Great Ocean Road for a couple of days. Since I had already been, we put mom behind the steering wheel to have a go at driving in Australia. I think she did pretty well, although my sister may have a different idea! No major incidents though & everyone made it home safely.

On the weekend, dad enjoyed grocery shopping with me & seeing all of the differences between American food & Aussie food in the store, & we made a trip to a giant liquor store so that Amy could stock up on Australian wine to take back home. I think she ended up with about a dozen bottles to bring home, which makes the suitcases quite heavy when you load them all up! A & I also went out with a few girls that weekend so A could see a bit of Melbourne nightlife.

On that Sunday, the Masons made a trip down to Phillip Island, about 2 hours away, to stay for the night and observe the infamous penguin parade. Phillip Island is home to the smallest breed of penguins in the world, the "little penguin" or what Melburnians call the "fairy penguin". We watched them make their daily waddle from the ocean to their homes in the sand hills at dusk, and they were absolutely adorable! Unfortunately we were not allowed to photograph them, but trust me when I say that they were definitely entertaining! B rode his motorcycle down to Phillip Island that afternoon & attended the penguin parade with us to spend a bit more time with the family. We also took a trip to the seal rocks & the Koala Conservation Center on Phillip Island. We got right up next to a male koala sleeping on the handrail & also saw a mom & little joey eating & playing. I think dad really enjoyed seeing the native Australian wildlife - & the fresh fish & chips that he ate for lunch :-)

When we got back to Melbourne, B treated us to a proper Greek dinner at a Greek tavern. I've developed a real liking for Greek food (except for octopus & whitebait) & I think the family really enjoyed it as well. Dad, A & I drove up to the Healesville Sanctuary the next day where they got to see a bit more of the native Australian wildlife, & we all got boomerang lessons (& did quite well I might add!). A & dad will be coming home with boomerangs so beware! The whole family drove up to the Dandenong Mountain Ranges & took a ride on the 100-year old Puffing Billy steam engine. It was FREEZING cold on the trip, but the scenery was beautiful. That night, several of my co-workers met us all for dinner before we headed off to northern Queensland the following morning.

I was instantly relieved of the cold weather in Melbourne when I got off the plane in Cairns, in northern, tropical Queensland. It was such a treat to be in warm, humid weather in the middle of the Melbourne winter! We stayed at a lovely resort just north of Cairns in a town called Palm Cove. Since I was only up there for a few days, I had to squeeze in everything possible during my time there. One day dad, A & I took a trip to the Daintree National Park & Cape Tribulation. I say this with complete honesty - it was one of the most beautiful (if not the most beautiful) places that I have ever been. The endless miles of tropical rainforest (with no scary animals mind you) colliding with the ocean and the Great Barrier Reef, were just breathtaking! I took lots of photos, but they just don't do the place justice - at all. We went on hikes through the rainforest, did a cruise down the Daintree river where we spotted crocodiles on the banks & a python coiled up in a tree, & visited a discovery center that taught us some amazing things about the rainforest.

My last big adventure on this trip was A & I's excursion out to Green Island & the Great Barrier Reef. I got a bit seasick on the 45 minute ride out to the island, but was fine after my feet hit solid ground. I did an introductory scuba dive along the reef, which basically means that they take you a little ways out from the island, give you a crash course on scuba diving (in about 15 minutes), & then throw you into the deep blue! It was a bit overwhelming at the beginning & I actually thought that I wouldn't be able to do it because I couldn't get used to the fact that I could breathe underwater, but once I calmed down & started seeing the fish life & the reef, I had an amazing time. It was great swimming right alongside the fish - some were huge, most were very colorful - and I got to play with several "Nemos" & feel their sea anemone home! I think I must have been smiling constantly while I was down there & snapping photos like crazy. Luckily it was just me & the instructor though, so he wasn't bothered by my excitement & curiosity. We also saw a moray eel poking out from his rock & I was just trying to make sure that my fins didn't end up in his mouth :-)

All in all, the Cairns trip was thoroughly enjoyable & gave me the opportunity to see another amazing, beautiful part of Australia. Having my family up there was a huge bonus, & we enjoyed just relaxing & hanging out together as a family of four again. They have been in Sydney all week enjoying the sights there, but finally fly home tomorrow after three weeks away. I think this will definitely be a memorable trip for us all!

My next exciting milestone is a visit from my best friend AP in just over a week! I'm ready for some good quality girl time & she's just the person to spend it with me :-) Until next time, I hope that you all are doing well & aren't completely bored by my emails. Thanks to those of you who have been emailing me, keeping me updated on your lives, & sending photos. It makes my life over here seem not so far away home.

HFDU - Outback Special

Originally sent: June 7, 2004

Hello everyone! Well, what can I say about my adventures in the Outback - they were amazing! Made even better by the fact that I got to experience everything with B. And this trip definitely warranted it's own HFDU email - the Outback Special. For those of you who are new to these emails, "HFDU" stands for "Hello From Down Under". It was the title of my very first email that I sent out once I got to Australia, and the name just stuck. So, what did B and I get up to in Australia's "Red Center" (it really does look like Mars!)?

Our first night was spent in a little country town, but it was literally a sleeping spot for us as we had no time to wander about the next day since we had to get to moving. We had thousands of kilometres to cover and lots to see along the way. The first point of interest was when we stopped in a town called Bordertown (near the border of Victoria and South Australia) and snuck a peek at the white kangaroos that the town is famous for. They are literally albino kangaroos, and they were very intrigued by us as they immediately hopped over to the fence to see who we were and what we were doing there. Photos of these little guys will be posted on the website. They really were a sight to see!

We continued along our way to Adelaide (capital of South Australia - about 1 million people) and made it there by mid-afternoon. Keep in mind that we're still not in the Outback yet, just doing lots of driving to get there! We spent the afternoon & evening in Adelaide just wandering around, and enjoying our last night in a big city before heading to no man's land.

The next morning we took a drive through the Barossa Valley, which is my favorite wine-producing region in Australia. It's the home of many famous wineries, including Jacob's Creek, which I think exports to the U.S. so some of you may have heard of it or drank some Jacob's Creek wine at some point. Once we left the Barossa Valley, we started heading up north and getting more into the country of Australia. One of the first things that B told me about on the highway was Australia's notorious "road trains". Imagine a normal 18-wheeler in America......then add on up to four more semi-trailers! You're literally driving down the highway and a truck passes you with up to five semi-trailers. They are huge, and are everywhere, although the largest that B and I saw was four trailers. They do this because driving around Australia, particularly in the Outback, is long and arduous, so they try to be efficient and have one driver take along as much as possible. I've also taken a photo of a road train alert sign so be looking for that on the website as well.

One of the things that we specifically planned on not doing during this trip was having to drive through the Outback after the sun went down. This is because the kangaroos (who are nocturnal) tend to bounce right in front of your car, and if you're traveling along at more than 110 kph (~68 mph) it's hard to do much about it when you can't see them. Also, there are heaps of sheep and cattle in the Outback that are not fenced in and tend to wander alongside or on the road. But, because of many reasons, we ended up driving a few hours in the dark on our third day. We managed to make it safely to Coober Pedy without hitting anything, but we did see a few roos and sheep on the way up. Unfortunately, a couple staying at our hotel were not so fortunate and hit a roo on the way up, so they were busy trying to figure out what to do with their car!

Coober Pedy is an opal mining town with lots and lots of red dirt. That's about all you see, because a lot of the establishments (hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, etc.) are underground. This is because of the immense heat in Coober Pedy in the summer. It regularly rises over 40 degrees C (104+ degrees F) and there are hardly any trees to provide protection. B & I actually stayed in an underground hotel that was an old opal mine. It was very cool and photos are on the website, along with photos of the town. Coober Pedy produces more opal than any other place in the world, and along with two other towns, supplies about 85% of the world's opal supply, so you can imagine that opals run in these people's blood. We took a tour of an old mine, and it was very interesting. The miner's used to live underground as well, and we took a tour through an old underground home. All in all, Coober Pedy was a very interesting and very barren part of the South Australian Outback.

There are a few more photos related to Coober Pedy up on the website:
- a sign seen a long the highway that warns people about the opal mine shafts that are hidden. In other words, pay attention to where you are going or you are likely to fall down into one!
- the endless piles of "ant hills" that actually represent the exploratory digs for opal. When driving along the highway, you can literally see these as far as your eyes can see!
- a photo of me next to the "dog fence", which is the longest man-made fence in the world! It spans 5,300 kilometres (nearly 3,400 miles) across the Australian Outback to separate the native dingo from many of the sheep. The plan was to build the dog fence and then kill all of the dingos on one side so that there would be one side that was safe for the sheep. Obviously it is not perfect, but the theory has worked well.

We continued travelling up the highway, getting deeper and deeper into the Outback, and the dirt was become more and more red the further north that we got. I wasn't fully aware of the true meaning of "the Red Center" but I certainly am now! We would drive along and see dirt so fine, and so red in color, that it looked like paprika. Literally. I had to get out of the car at one point and just sift it through my hands. Once we crossed the border between South Australia and the Northern Territory, a big smile grew on B's face and it didn't take long for me to remember why.........there is no speed limit on the highway in the Northern Territory. And boy did we take advantage of it - in a completely safe manner of course - when I climbed into the back seat with the camera ready to snap a shot of the car doing 230 kph (143 mph), I was sure to hold on tight and not distract B as he was maneuvering the car past shocked bystanders on the side of the road! It was exhilarating to say the least! And we were again made aware of the danger of driving at night by the high number of dead cows and kangaroos that were on the side of the road the next day!

Needless to say, we made it to Ayers Rock Resort quicker than planned, and had some time to settle in and relax a bit before the evening got started. For those of you who don't know what Ayers Rock is, it's the largest monolith (single rock) on the world. It's as well known as the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge to Australians, and lies almost smack dab in the middle of Australia. It's believed that 2/3rds of the rock is actually underground. It holds spiritual significance to the Aboriginal people and stands out like a glowing giant in the middle of the otherwise flat Australian Outback. Because of the popularity of this rock, an entire community was created about 25 kilometres away that houses about four hotels, a petrol station, grocery store, post office, campground, and other bare necessities. It's formed in one big loop and reminds me of a large "big brother" type complex. It's the only settlement for hundreds of kilometres, in fact, there is a sign that states that there is no fuel for 815 kilometres after this community - and you guessed it - I have a photo of that sign as well :-)

Anyway, B and I really enjoyed this little community, known as Yulara, and the place that we stayed was enjoyable as well. It was called the Outback Pioneer Resort and definitely complemented the feel that you really were in the Outback! I think our favorite part of this hotel was the Outback Pioneer BBQ, which offered lots of different raw meat that you selected and then cooked yourself on their large grills. Just to give you an idea of the food that they offered.......kangaroo skewers, emu steaks, lamb shanks, crocodile skewers, and the normal beef burgers, steaks and chicken. We had a great time grilling our meat, drinking beer and enjoying the Outback!

The next day we actually were making the quick trip to see Ayers Rock (known as Uluru to the Aboriginals) and the nearby Olgas (another rock formation known as Kata Tjuta to the Aboriginals). Considering that this area gets about 30 days of rain per year, we were very unfortunate that two of them were while we were there. That meant was that we didn't get to climb the rock or see the magnificent changes of color of the rock at sunset, but we enjoyed it anyway. As part of learning about the history of the rock, the Aboriginals have set up a Cultural Community Center that was very interesting and informative. B & I took a stroll through there and learned about how the Aboriginal people used to live. We also drove to the Olgas and went for a quick hike through a gorge. There are several beautiful photos of Uluru and Kata Tjuta, but the photos can't really capture the splendor of either of these rocks!

After our two nights and days at Yulara, we headed further north to Alice Springs (known as "the Alice" to the locals), which is the only decent size city in the Northern Territory Outback. It was refreshing to be back in a city and get to walk around shops and eat at cafes. Before we left Melbourne, I had read about this restaurant in Alice called Bojangles. This place is an Outback saloon of sorts and B & I decided to go there, if for nothing else, but for the extensive and interesting menu. Just in short, these are the things that we actually ate while at Bojangles:
kangaroo, camel, emu, crocodile, bush pig sausage, wallaby sausage, buffalo sausage, and razor back ribs - can you believe it? I was so shocked that I actually tried everything that I had to call my dad that night and let him know! Only in Australia........

Bojangles also had a live radio station and live web cast on while we were there, and B & I were lucky (or unlucky?) enough to be interviewed live while we were there. After B told the host that I was from Texas, I was asked if I could do a little boot scootin' to the Shania Twain song that we had requested, but I somehow got out of it, thank goodness!

The next day we tried to fit as many things as possible - trips to the nearby Simpsons Gap and Standley's Chasm (where I hand-fed a rock wallaby, after eating one the night before!), a trip through the National Transportation Museum (where B got to read all about the road trains) and a camel ride (after eating one of those the night before too!). We did an hour long sunset camel ride through the Outback. My camel was an ex-racing camel affectionately known as Greyhound. B's camel BJ, was....well..... just HUGE! When you look at the photos of us with the camels, his looks nearly twice the size of mine. We really enjoyed the ride and got to see some wild kangaroos hopping along side us for a bit. Alice Springs was a nice end to the holiday part of our trip - now we just had about 2400 kilometres to drive before we got home!

The next two days were straight driving. We clocked up about 1,250 kilometres (~777 miles) the first day, which was about 14 hours, taking into account the stops for fuel and food, and a bit of sightseeing. It's a good thing that I like B so much :-) The next day was much of the same, but at least we knew it was the home stretch.

Overall, our 8 days in the Outback were spectacular! So many people only want to go to exotic, tropical places for holiday, but there is no feeling like driving for hours through the Outback without passing another car, or looking out into the horizon, and seeing nothing but red dirt. It was amazing for us to be together in one of the most inhospitable environments in the world. You hear about the Outback in movies and books, Survivor did a show there, the Crocodile Hunter makes a living there, and we were standing in the middle of it! If anyone gets a chance to take this trip, I highly encourage it. You can fly to Ayers Rock from any major Australian city for about $600 round-trip, or do what we did and experience the great Australian Outback in a car. Just make sure that it's not going to break down in you! :-)

I hope this email finds you all well and that it was at least somewhat interesting to read about our Outback adventures. My family is over in less than two weeks now, so the next email will probably be discussing our adventures at the Great Barrier Reef. Until then, take care and let me know how you are doing! I always enjoy hearing from everyone.

HFDU - 16th Edition

Originally sent: May 20, 2004

Hi everyone! Well, I must admit that over the past month, much of my time has been spent catching up with B and making up for the 5 1/2 months that we spent apart. But, I did manage to squeeze in a few fun things and hope that you find this Edition of HFDU at least a little bit entertaining :-)

After my 10+ months in Australia, and in KPMG's Melbourne office, I had yet to attend one of the official "end of audit" lunches that the office is so famous for. That is until the lunch that occurred at the end of April! I'm still shocked at the effort that the Melbourne office puts in to events. We had 30+ people at the lunch, from all divisions of my company who worked on the same audit. The best thing about it is that it started about 12:30 and didn't end until about 10 hours later, so I only had to work half a day and then got to relax and enjoy myself with my co-workers for the rest of the day. Me and one of the managers were responsible for allocating awards to other staff members (for doing something memorable/entertaining during the engagement) and they were quite the hit of the afternoon! I think the lunches are a great way to reward all of the hard working team members and let us know that we are appreciated. After we left the restaurant we ended up at the pub downstairs and continued the festivities, and have plenty of digital camera photos to show for it!

The granting of my first wish for the Starlight Children's Foundation is now complete. My little girl and her family just got back from their trip to Australia's Gold Coast (where the Disneyland-type theme parks are located) and I am meeting up with them soon to see photos and hear about all of her experiences. B and I met with them just before they left and gave her some goodies for the trip, and she was so excited to get to ride on a big plane for the first time! In the meantime, I've been allocated my second wish child, who I think will prove to be a bit more challenging as his illness is a bit more severe. But, I think it will make the process that much more rewarding when it's complete and he is happy!

This past weekend I helped host a baby shower for a girl on my softball team and it was a great girlie afternoon. A lot of the food that I made was American food that I would have prepared for a shower or party at home, and the Aussies just loved it! I was amazed at how popular some of the stuff was! Unfortunately, I couldn't eat any of it because I was participating in World Vision's 40 hour famine. I started my famine on Friday night (after a full night of dinner & drinks!) and couldn't eat until 40 hours later on Sunday afternoon. For those of you who know me well, you know that I LOVE food, so this was a bit of a challenge for me - especially since I was making all of the food for the baby shower! I did make sure to keep back some of the goodies so that I could enjoy leftovers on Sunday afternoon when my famine was up :-)

And B was really supportive too because we went down on Saturday night to his family's holiday house on the coast and he didn't eat the entire time we were down there, until I could eat. That was a big help, but I'll tell you, I didn't realize how much energy food gives you! B and I were fishing on Sunday (at about 38 hours into the famine) and I could hardly walk through the sand on the beach because I had no energy! But, I made it and managed to raise just over $200 for World Vision thanks to the generosity of my co-workers. Oh, and can you guess what my first meal was at 2:30 on Sunday afternoon? McDonald's - 2 cheeseburgers, large fries, and a large coke. My stomach wasn't real happy with me but my tastebuds certainly were :-)

In an effort to work that meal off, and all of the other yummy food that I seem to constantly eat down here, I'm running my first 5k in Australia this weekend. One thing I really miss is the Houston office's running club, which ensured that I ran at least one 5k every month. Me and my friend CT have been running on Tuesday and Thursday nights at a nearby park in an effort to shed some weight and get more fit, so entering a race has kept us somewhat motivated. We also signed up for a 10k in July to motivate us to keep running! The only problem is that it's turning to winter very quickly and it gets bloody cold at night some times!

My family comes to visit in 4 1/2 weeks and I absolutely cannot wait! They will spend a week and a half in Melbourne with me, then we all fly up to Cairns (home of the Great Barrier Reef) for 5 days, and then they'll end their adventure in Australia with a few days in Sydney and I'll come back to Melbourne. I'm very proud of them for making the big trip down under and hope that this also encourages others to come for a visit as well :-) My best buddy AP comes a month after my family, and I'm really looking forward to that as well. As I have said for the last 10 months, one of the things I miss the most from home is my girlfriends, so we'll have lots and lots to catch up on!

Oh, and B and I leave in a week for our trip to the Outback and we are very much looking forward to it. We will be taking lots and lots of photos (as requested by my father) and will definitely share many of them on the website. It's supposed to be a phenomenal place, full of culture, really big kangaroos, and lots of adventures! I can't wait to get back and tell you all about it!

Okay, so the moment you've all been waiting for (okay, not really). What have B and I been up to over the last month? It was so good to see him again after so long, but it was very difficult at first because EVERYONE wanted to see him! But, our schedule is back to normal now and we get to spend more time together. I've become a resident "footy chic" at his footy club on Saturday's as he has a game every weekend. I've met the other girlfriends/wives and have a good time chatting with them during the games. I love watching him play - he's so passionate about it and it makes him so happy :-) We actually have a Ladies Luncheon at the footy club in a couple of weekends and it'll be a great time to enjoy girlie time at the club and apparently we will be handing out "awards" to the boys, although I don't know what for. His team is 5-0 so far, so every game proves to be a good one.

I took B on a surprise date to a night at "The Producers" which is a show straight from Broadway, that apparently has won the most Tony Awards ever! It was sooooooo funny and we laughed out loud on several occasions. I think because we are both accountants that it was a bit more humorous to us :-) He took me on a surprise date as well, and re-created our first date. It was so sweet. We went to dinner at the same restaurant, and then went salsa dancing at the same place that we did on our first date. We had just as much fun as we did nearly 9 months ago! It's so nice to have him back and get to have a normal life again, and we are definitely enjoying making up for lost time.

What else have I been up to? Hmmmm.......went bowling one night with B and his mates, which is always entertaining. I've been regularly attending trivia night on Wednesdays at a local pub, and every time I go I feel more like an idiot. But we have a good time and I've luckily got some smart people on my time who keep us in the top third of teams there. Now that B is back, he adds a male perspective and gives us a sporting advantage! It's been very cold at night here, but the days are still mild and enjoyable when it's not raining. The Outback should be nice & warm, as should Cairns. I've also begun mixing my vocabulary a bit - saying half Aussie things and half American things, and it's a bit humorous actually. I never thought that 10 months would have such an impact on me, but the Aussie phrases are definitely catchy!

I hope that all is well with each of you and am very jealous that you all get to watch baseball. Especially with Roger Clemens pitching in Houston, I'm sad that I have to miss the season. I've actually moved up to 6th place in my group's footy tipping competition (out of 51), which is pretty good for a "yank" with no past footy tipping experience! I think a few of the guys in the office are a bit perturbed, but it's all just good, fun competition in the end :-) I'll keep you posted on the Outback trip and would love to hear from each of you on what's going on in your lives. Take care and enjoy the summer!

HFDU - 15th Edition

Originally sent: April 12, 2004

Hi everyone-- I know I was supposed to wait until B got back to send my next update, but honestly, once he gets here I don't think that my mind will be on much else! And there have been lots of things going on over the past month, so I decided to send another update now rather than later.

A few weeks ago my group at work had its annual retreat in the "High country" of Mansfield which is the homeland of the notorious outlaw Ned Kelly. It was held on a Sunday and Monday, with the thought being that the employees give up a day and the firm gives up a day to spend time together, relax, and get to know everyone better. We were divided into teams and had such events as a scavenger hunt throughout the town of Mansfield, crab soccer, dart competition, Group Idol contest, and other team building exercises.

The theme for the entire retreat was western, and Sunday night we had a "hoe-down" celebration where we rented out the entire local pub complete with dancing and singing country music. A great time was had by all, and it was definitely entertaining to see the partners up dancing on old whiskey barrels! I felt right at home with the music & the atmosphere, and still was amused at the Aussies' idea of Western attire, although some of them looked quite good!

On Monday we rented out the local golf course and played a 9-hole Ambrose event, which was my first experience swinging a golf club at other than a Putt-Putt Golf Course :-) I've decided that I'm not a very good golfer, but that if I had some practice, it might actually be enjoyable. It involves a lot of walking though! We also had a Group BBQ one Friday night after a group meeting down on the river just outside the city, which was a good way to meet all of the new starters ("grads") who came straight from university. We have a few resident masters of the grill in our group so the food was delicious and a good time was had by all.

The next weekend was the end of the season softball bash at one of the players apartments near the beach. It was a good night, hanging out casually with the softball team and closing out the season on a good note. As Wednesday nights are now free from softball, a few of us on the team have decided to start going to trivia night at one of the local pubs. We had our first go at trivia last week and actually did a decent job, although I felt like a complete idiot because most of the questions are related to Australia and the one question that related to the U.S. I got wrong (what is the capital of South Carolina? I said Charleston -- it's Columbia)! The host of the evening was giving me a hard time once he found out that I was American & I didn't know the correct answer :-) But, we will become regulars there and prove that we are worthy of playing from now on!

I spent St. Patrick's Day with 3 Irish women and we had a great time -- I drank Guinness beer for the first time and proudly wore my green hat (courtesy of the Irish pub). I also spent my friend AS' birthday with her celebrating at a genuine Greek tavern. It was an absolute blast -- I felt a bit like I was in the middle of the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"!! Once you are there you are there for the evening. The meal is a feast really. A set menu with about 10 courses (saganaki (fried cheese), char grilled octopus, whitebait, Greek salad, oysters, crabs, fish, dips, lamb, beef, chicken, then dessert), and in the middle of eating you take breaks to dance, Greek style, with the live band playing the festive Greek music. It was a great evening and introduction into the Greek culture. It warmed me up for spending time with B's family when he gets back (in 3 days!!!).

My friend "C" from my firm's Houston office (on rotation in Sydney) was in Melbourne for training and decided to stay the weekend and spend it with me. It was fun to have a houseguest again and show her around Melbourne. We went to the Social Club drinks night together and then to a farewell party for a couple from Germany who have been working for my company here for 2 1/2 years. I really enjoy having friends come and visit as I actually feel like I live here and can show people around and give them suggestions of things to do! Which I guess is a good thing, because my best friend AP is coming over to visit me in July! Her sweet husband surprised her with a plane ticket over here to see me for her birthday, so we're going to have a great 2 weeks of girl time when she gets here :-) I absolutely can't wait!

Speaking of girl time, I had a Girls' Night In at my apartment a couple of weekends ago and we ordered pizza, drank wine, and watched chic-flicks :-) I'm trying to squeeze in all of this time with my girlfriends before B gets back because he & I will have to catch up for 5 1/2 months of being apart!

Footy season is in high gear now, and I've already been to 3 games. I'm hooked! I joined my Group's footy tipping competition (betting) and am actually doing pretty well up against all of the Aussies who have been doing this for years. I'm pretty impressed with myself, and am learning a lot about the footy teams in the process. I've selected the team that I'm supporting from now on -- the Richmond Tigers. It's B's team so I thought since I had no basis to choose any other team I may as well choose the team that he supports. Although, they lost in an embarrassing way today & as I was at the game, it was a bit hard to watch! If anyone is interested to learn about/read about/or just get general information about footy, you should check out www.afl.com.au for tons of interesting stuff. It's honestly a religion over here and Melbourne alone supports 10 of the 16 teams in the league.

I've just completed the long Easter weekend and am getting ready to go back to work tomorrow after 4 days off (Good Friday is a public holiday in Oz -- as it should be in America!). I spent Thursday night through Saturday afternoon at Bells Beach (about 1 1/2 hours away) for the professional surfing competition (Rip Curl Pro). I've never hung around surfers in my life, and I've confirmed that they are not my type of people, but the weekend was good fun anyway! The girl that I went with (one of the Irish women) was not satisfied getting into the "general public" parties, she had to get us into the V.I.P. parties! So we managed to get into the Rip Curl V.I.P. party on Thursday evening & the Globe/Tracks V.I.P. party on Friday evening thanks to her charming ways :-) We had a great time, just dancing the night away and laughing at all of the surfers and their groupies. The actual competition was quite enjoyable to watch, much to my surprise. I thought that I would get bored watching the same thing over and over, but each surfer really did have his own style and it got quite intense close to the end of each heat.

On Saturday night back in Melbourne, I spent the evening at the Greek Orthodox church with AS and her family. I really wanted to spend Easter in a church and AS & her family were kind enough to invite me along. Keep in mind though that this is a large Greek family & that they had all been fasting for the past two weeks, so after the midnight mass, we headed back to the house for a full meal at about 1:00 am! After getting to bed after 2:30 am, I had to be up again for the proper Easter Sunday feast, complete with lamb on the spit, chicken, quail, beef, sausage, and then all of the veggies, salad, & sides that go along with meal. I've never seen so much meat in my life! I honestly felt like I was in the middle of the movie, complete with "Christos Anesti" (He is risen) & the response "Alithos Anesti" (indeed He is risen). I felt like a natural Greek & all of the Greek elders were quite impressed with my Greek "accent". B spent Easter in Greece in his mother's village so he got to enjoy the genuine Greek Easter celebration. Easter is the biggest holiday for the Greeks as the religious significance is so huge compared to any other holiday. I really enjoyed being a part of it, even though I understood absolutely nothing at the service as it was all in Greek!

Well, that's enough of my life until the next edition. I would love to hear about what's going on in each of your lives right now! Any vacations planned for the upcoming summer??? I'll be enjoying B's return for the next few weeks until we are off on our trip to the Outback together at the end of May. Please keep in touch and know that I think about everyone often!

HFDU - 14th Edition

Originally sent: March 11, 2004

G'day everyone! Well, I suppose it's about that time again. It seems like forever since my last email, but it's only been a month and a bit. I've managed to keep myself quite busy down here, enjoying the nice summer weather and taking advantage of all of the Aussie holidays.

The most recent holiday was Labour Day, which meant that we got a long weekend. So, I went with three Irish women (and boy are they feisty!) down the coast a couple of hours to Sorrento (was there at Christmas), Portsea, and Queenscliff. All quaint little seaside communities that have lots to offer. I stayed in a youth hostel for the first time in my life and actually thought it was a good experience. I don't think that I have slept on the top of a bunk in many, many years, but it was cheap and we enjoyed ourselves, even on the night when a hen's night and buck's night (bachelorette and bachelor party) were staying at the same hostel . That made for an eventful evening, or rather, morning!

The girls and I just hung out on the beach, read books, waded in the bay, went for hikes along the water, shopped a little, and just relaxed. It was exactly what I needed after a busy week at work! And Pajy performed like a champ, blessing us with the sun when the sunroof was open and keeping us dry when it was raining. This was also the weekend of the Australian Grand Prix, so needless to say, there were a lot of people around. If you haven't noticed by now, Melbourne is the sport capital of Australia -- 10 of the 16 footy teams are based here, Australian Open, Australian Grand Prix, Spring Racing Carnival, and the Commonwealth Games are coming in a couple of years. We went to lunch on Friday and clear across town you could here the Grand Prix cars doing practice runs on the track! It was very cool!

I also had to go up to Sydney for 3 days for work, so me and the girl that went up with me stayed over the Friday night and had a great weekend in Sydney. It really is a beautiful city, and a must see if you come all the way down to Australia! It's much more like America, whereas Melbourne is more like Europe. But both cities are great and offer different atmospheres. Speaking of America, a couple that I worked with just transferred to another Big 4 Accounting Firm in San Francisco in February. For some reason I get proud and excited when others go to America. Another guy was sent to Chicago for 3 months for training for his new job and he was so excited to get to the States. It really is a neat experience for the Aussies to travel to the States as they typically would travel around Europe first.

Work has been going well. I've been pretty busy with a deadline that is coming up, but managing to get everything done and still enjoy my weekends. I have been walking to my client at least 2-3 times per week to get in some exercise. It's about 4 kilometers away and takes me about 35 minutes. Most of the walk is along the river so I really don't mind all that much, and my new mobile phone has a radio so the walk goes by very quickly when I'm listening to that! The weather has been pretty good lately but we did have a couple of days of 100+ heat, and when most apartments have no air conditioning, you just hope that they only come a day at a time so that the bricks don't heat up! It's pretty miserable at times, but at least it's not humid. One day it was so hot that I just hopped in Pajy and drove around with the air conditioning on for an hour or so to cool down! I can't say that I have ever had to do that before, but I was thankful that I had the option.

The Yarra Valley wine region just had its annual Grape Grazing Festival. I went up on a bus with about 20 other people (co-workers and friends) for the day and we toured 3 different wineries. You hire buses because with all of the wine tasting, your blood alcohol content goes past .05 pretty quickly and the government is very strict over here about drunk driving. Anyway, you buy a day pass and get a wine glass that you carry around with you everywhere. The atmosphere is so casual and very festive, and everyone seems to end up at one particular winery that ends up being more like a concert than a day at a winery. Only on this day, do you see some of the strangest people drinking wine -- people who you never would imagine drinking wine! The bottles are pretty cheap though and they just keep them coming so everyone definitely enjoys themselves. I will definitely be attending next year as well :-)

Our softball season is officially over. We made it to the Grand Final for Wednesday night, but played horribly and ended up losing pretty badly. That was only the second game that we lost during the whole season, and we had beat that team just 2 weeks before. Regardless, we had so much fun during the season and I'm so glad that I got the opportunity to play. Most of us are going to start playing Wednesday night trivia at a nearby pub so that we can keep the spirit of our team up! Our end of season bash is coming up in a couple of weeks, so I guarantee that I'll have some good stories to tell after that night is over! Speaking of bashes, my birthday was a few weeks ago, on one of the 100+ days, and I had a nice night out with the girls going to dinner and to a bar afterwards. It was good to catch up with them, and a fun night, despite the fact that B and I were spending our first Valentine's Day together, apart. He was so sweet though, and sent me a nice box of goodies for my birthday/V-Day, and my parents and best friend "AP" were very, very thoughtful and sent me flowers at work, so that made it a little easier to get by being away from everyone that I love :-)

It took me about 8 months, but I finally woke up one morning and decided that I was a bit homesick! I just want to pick up people from home and bring them over here! Although I have met some great friends over here, they've known me for a few months, whereas my friends from home have known me for many, many years, and my family has known me forever! But, that will hopefully be cured by my family's visit in June and my planned visit home sometime later this year. I definitely have food cravings too, like Tex-Mex and cheap margaritas, ribs from Houston's, Chick-Fil-A (strange, I know!) and my dad's famous Mason burgers. I think I'll gain about 10 pounds when I ever do get home as I'll be eating all the time! And it's weird to think that the city of Houston just keeps on going day after day, and it will have changed so much by the time I come back for a visit. It'll be good to get back home. B says the same thing -- but he's FINALLY back in 36 days! Can you believe it? It's really gone by quickly but I miss him so much and just want him home. He's exploring around Europe at the moment and last I heard he was in Munich, headed of for the Austrian Alps and Italy next. Must be a tough life :-)

A few things that still make me smile:
- Sausage and mashed potatoes are affectionately known as "bangers and mash".
- I still feel like I do a bit of a sidewalk dance with people when facing them head on walking on the street. There seems to be no general consensus as to which side you go to, so everyone just "dances" until you make your way past one another.
- I'm no longer the new kid in the group as the entire class of new grads just started. I'm just an old secondee now!
- The Aussies still like to argue with me on how to pronounce things saying they are closer to the "Queen's English". I simply state that Americans have no desire to speak like the Queen, that we are happy to speak American :-)
- Some people think that Texas is next to Canada, and that the United States is part of Central America. I gave several of them a geography lesson!

Well, that's about it for this Edition. Next time up you'll be hearing about our Group Retreat, Easter, and B's return :-) Until then, best wishes to everyone and please, please, please keep in touch. You should know by now that I love to hear from everyone and it always makes me smile in the morning to get an email from home!