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!