HFDU - 23rd Edition

Originally sent: May 30, 2005

Dear all,
As I type this, I'm just remembering that I'm missing out on yet another U.S. holiday (Memorial Day), but I've grown accustomed to all of the Australian holidays, such as the Queen's birthday, Anzac Day, Australia Day, and Melbourne Cup Day. However, we go through a dry spell without any holidays between mid-June and early November, which makes the winter seem even longer! So I hope all of you have done something exciting over the long weekend and relaxed a little bit.

Speaking of long weekends away, B & I went on a road trip over Anzac Day weekend from Melbourne to Sydney, stopping in Canberra (the nation's capital) along the way. The trip from Melb to Syd is typically about 10 hours, but we added a few hours on the side trip to Canberra. Because B had his footy game on Saturday, we didn't leave Melb until 1am!! And, with the 8 hour trip to Canberra, if we had left at 8pm, we would have arrived at 4am and there would have been nothing open. So, needless to say, we were a bit delirious for a while after the long drive in the middle of the night. B was fasting for Greek Easter, so he made a "homebrew" which was basically REALLY strong coffee with rice milk instead of cow's milk. I never tasted it, but it certainly smelled lethal! He was so wired the entire trip up, I didn't worry at all that he was going to fall asleep.

Once we got to Canberra, we made a quick stop at Parliament House and went on a guided tour. It was interesting to be able to park underneath what would be the equivalent of our Capitol Building, and walk straight in with minimal security checks. I enjoyed learning more about how the Australian government works and have posted photos on the web.

We also took a trip to the War Memorial, which was also interesting, but by that point, I just wanted to sleep! When we finally made it to Sydney, we crashed at the hotel for a few hours before going out for a nice dinner. On the way back to Melb, we picked up B's best mate G who was up visiting is girlfriend in Sydney, and he rode back with us. We stopped in the Blue Mountains for a quick peak at the Three Sisters lookout and also drove through Bathurst, which is a country town that is home to Australia's biggest road race. The track is actually a public road, so of course B had to take the car for a few laps around just for the thrill! Overall a memorable trip - if not for the sights that we saw - definitely for the delirium that we were experiencing with minimal sleep!

There have been several birthdays over the past month or so since my last email. And continuing with our tradition, we go out for girls nights when one of the girls has a birthday. The last one involved about 15 of us going to a Spanish restaurant for tapas & sangria (yum!) and then to a club for some dancing. It was good fun :-) We had another impromptu girls night that involved dinner, drinks at the Vodka Bar, then dancing at a venue that is probably meant for 18 year olds. But all of us, being in our upper 20's, had a ball anyway, and my friend KD even won the podium dancing competition!

B's birthday was also in May, and I planned a surprise party for him at a restaurant. He had never had anything like that done for him, so I thought it was about time! It was good because I was able to gather all of his mates from the different "areas" of his life - footy mates, uni (college) mates, his brothers, work mates, and others. He had absolutely no idea and was genuinely surprised when we walked into the restaurant and there were 20 of his closest friends & family there for him. I scored big points for that one :-) B & I actually went to see Star Wars on the night of his birthday and were both pretty happy with Episode 3. B especially loves Yoda so was very excited every time he saw him with the light sabre!

Another night out involved a secondee dinner with 7 couples (B was the only Australian!) at a nice Chinese restaurant where we had a feast and probably drank way too much. We then headed to a local pub to complete the evening. It must have been very interesting to other people to see a large group with 6 Scottish people, 3 Americans, 2 British couples, and 1 poor Australian. I'm sure that they were wondering what we were all doing together. Good ole work for bringing us all together :-)

One of the British couples (actually from the Cayman Islands) is expecting their first baby at the end of June, so a few of us from the office (we work with her husband) threw her a baby shower. Luckily, her mom is living in Melbourne at the moment, so she has a bit of family here. Basically the shower ended up being a time for all of us to eat, drink, talk about girl stuff, and watch LR open all of the great baby gifts! I'm sad that I have had to miss births back home during my time in Australia, but at least I don't go through too much withdrawal of being around kids.

B resigned from our company and as tradition has it, everyone who leaves has a "leaving lunch". They are typically held on Fridays, as those are most peoples' last day, and also a better excuse to not return to work from the lunch. B would have definitely not had it any other way but to go out big, so we had lunch, then we stayed at the restaurant/pub until about 4pm, then went to the bar downstairs from the office to meet up with the others that actually did go back to work for more celebrating. It was a loooong afternoon, and was then topped off with a co-worker inviting everyone to come to a club and listen his band perform that night.

B's footy team is not doing so great this season, but he has managed to get "Best on Ground" for a couple of games so far. He's playing really well this year and still manages to be the favorite of all of the old men at the footy club. That means that they love me, by default, so I get treated very well around that place! We had the Ladies Day Luncheon again a couple of weekends ago. Another great afternoon of hanging out with all of the ladies (I seem to do that a lot lately!) and voting on such things as which guys on the team had the "Best Arms" or "Best Overall Package". B came second place in the "Guy that you would most like your daughter to bring home" survey! I was very proud - and you should definitely like that mom and dad :-) The footy club also put on a "Booze Cruise", which means that they hired a boat to drive up and down the Yarra river for 4 hours while we ate, drank, and danced the night away. It was good fun as well!

My belly dancing classes are going really well, and we are putting the final touches on our performance that happens in mid-June. The costumes arrive this week, and I am getting very excited (and nervous) about showing off my belly in front of about 350 people! Luckily, only about 10 people will know who I am, as I have banned anyone from work other than my CLOSE friends from coming to watch. It would just be too strange……

I'm also leaving for my Hawaiian holiday with my sister this Saturday, so hopefully I'll have a bit of a tan by the time the performance comes around. I was just thinking - Hawaii is about as close to half-way that you can get between Australia and the U.S. It takes A about 8 hours from Houston, and me about 9 1/2 hours from Sydney, so anywhere closer to half-way would be in the middle of the ocean. We are both very lucky to be able to do this, and are definitely looking forward to it. I'm ready to get out of winter for a bit and soak up some sun!

I learned again what a small world it is when I was telling B about a Greek girl that works out at my client and whom I have to deal with for the audit. Once he heard her name, he instantly asked more about her, as he thought it was a girl that he went to Greek school with for 10 years. It turns out he was right! And even wilder than that is that she also knows B's best mate G because they are both from Crete and used to take Greek/Cretan dance lessons together! They were amazed that an American was the link between all of them, who had not seen or heard from one another in 10 years. So we all met up for drinks one night and they were able to catch up and talk about old times. What a small world indeed.

A few more tidbits:
- I finally made it to the Immigration Museum and the Melbourne Aquarium. The Immigration Museum was especially interesting as it taught me heaps about the history of Australia.
- The leaves have fallen and the weather has finally turned cold & dreary. I love it! On my (almost) daily walks around the local footy oval, I really enjoy the cool dry air and the crunching of leaves. Sounds cheesy I know, but I strangely reminds me of fireplaces and hot chocolate :-)
- We are currently planning a weekend away in the snow, so I'll keep you posted…...
- Have I mentioned lately how much I love Australia? Being that I only have 8 months left here, anyone else who wants to come visit better make plans soon! I haven't had a visitor since last September, so am definitely up for some company. And you really shouldn't pass up the opportunity to see such a wonderful place when you have a free place to stay! And if a trip to New Zealand, Egypt or Spain interests you at all in about Feb/March of next year - let me know!!

I hope everyone is well and even though I may not always respond with a personal email, I love hearing from all of you and keeping up to date with your lives. Enjoy the summer! (And sorry for the long email. If I was more diligent, they would be smaller and come more often!)