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.