Bryan Wins!
This photo was taken last Friday on our way home from work.
When she read my blog she said "All of these benefits make it seem stupid for me to ride the bus!"
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The Great Race Part II
This photo was taken last Friday on our way home from work.
When she read my blog she said "All of these benefits make it seem stupid for me to ride the bus!"
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Pop Culture part II
The world is so small - technology is shrinking it.
I was in Canberra today for a meeting. I went with another KC expat. We were in the airport waiting for our flight back to Sydney this afternoon. I saw some video on his laptop. I couldn't hear the sound, just caught glimpses of the video.
I noticed that whatever he was watching had scenes from the neighborhood where we live.
Hey, that's Shelly Beach! That's the 16 foot Skiff Sailing club at the end of our street. That's our street. That's Shelly Beach again. Interesting. I wonder what he's watching?
Kim and I were at Shelly Beach on Sunday just before I left for Canberra (your Saturday). And sometimes we go to the Sailing Club for food and drinks (because a MO drivers license gets you in as an out of town "guest"). If you read my blog about the sidewalks - the 16 foot Skiff Sailing Club is at the end of that road I was walking down. 2 blocks from our place.
He turned to me and saw me looking at his screen:
"Hey, this is where you live isn't it?"
"yeah - I wonder why they were filming all of this stuff there"
"It's the Amazing Race. This episode is from Manly".
"What episode?"
"This one"
"Which one, what are you watching?"
"I"m connected to my Sling Box right now. This is KC local TV. It's Sunday Night back there and this is the live episode."
"It's not a recording? It's not some local Australian low-budget version of the Amazing Race?"
"No. This is the current US episode that is on TV right now in KC. Look! It's not a recording".
"But that is my street! Right there! See!!!!!! They are sailing to pick up clues on floating buoys in front of our building!" (If you saw the episode you know what I'm referring to)
"Yeah, I thought that was where we took the kayaks out".
What are the odds? What are the odds that I have seen exactly 2 minutes of US Local Broadcast TV since December - and that 2 minutes would be of our home as seen in KC and linked to my eyes through a fragile link of technology connections?
This is hurting my head. I wish I was making this up!
I was in Canberra today for a meeting. I went with another KC expat. We were in the airport waiting for our flight back to Sydney this afternoon. I saw some video on his laptop. I couldn't hear the sound, just caught glimpses of the video.
I noticed that whatever he was watching had scenes from the neighborhood where we live.
Hey, that's Shelly Beach! That's the 16 foot Skiff Sailing club at the end of our street. That's our street. That's Shelly Beach again. Interesting. I wonder what he's watching?
Kim and I were at Shelly Beach on Sunday just before I left for Canberra (your Saturday). And sometimes we go to the Sailing Club for food and drinks (because a MO drivers license gets you in as an out of town "guest"). If you read my blog about the sidewalks - the 16 foot Skiff Sailing Club is at the end of that road I was walking down. 2 blocks from our place.
He turned to me and saw me looking at his screen:
"Hey, this is where you live isn't it?"
"yeah - I wonder why they were filming all of this stuff there"
"It's the Amazing Race. This episode is from Manly".
"What episode?"
"This one"
"Which one, what are you watching?"
"I"m connected to my Sling Box right now. This is KC local TV. It's Sunday Night back there and this is the live episode."
"It's not a recording? It's not some local Australian low-budget version of the Amazing Race?"
"No. This is the current US episode that is on TV right now in KC. Look! It's not a recording".
"But that is my street! Right there! See!!!!!! They are sailing to pick up clues on floating buoys in front of our building!" (If you saw the episode you know what I'm referring to)
"Yeah, I thought that was where we took the kayaks out".
What are the odds? What are the odds that I have seen exactly 2 minutes of US Local Broadcast TV since December - and that 2 minutes would be of our home as seen in KC and linked to my eyes through a fragile link of technology connections?
This is hurting my head. I wish I was making this up!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Sidewalks
I left home very early today because I needed to be at the office for a call to the US. It was still dark outside and I've never walked to the wharf at that hour.
When I left our building - without even thinking about it- I walked right past the sidewalk and stepped out into the very middle of the road and started walking down the hill. I was soon startled by a noise behind me as another guy was following right behind my footsteps. A bit further we had to move slightly to one side of the road to let another guy pass by us. He was coming up the hill towards us. Walking right down the middle of our quiet, tree-lined street. And a bit further a car came by and we stopped and gave it room to pass, then continued on our original course.
Why were we all walking down the middle of the street at 6:00 am in the dark? Not even to one side of the road - right down the middle. And why didn't any of us think that was an odd thing to do? And why wasn't I worried that there was a guy shadowing me in the dark?
Afraid of muggers lurking in the bushes? Nope. I wish.
Yes, Anna and Tyler both got it right again. Spiders! They build their webs and string them across the sidewalk from the branches of the trees and bushes. Big spiders ** perched in the middle of webs sticky and thick and right at face level. You can't see where they are in the dark.
Sometimes on our evening walk home up the sidewalk (too much traffic to walk in the street) we pass inches beneath the spiders lurking in what remains of the top half of their webs where the bottom half has been taken out by the unlucky morning dog-walkers, delivery boys, visiting surfers, or good Samaritans who bring their brooms out to clear a path as a courtesy for the rest of us. Sometimes you can see the outline of the head of the tallest person who obliterated the bottom of the web.
** Travis - don't worry these are not poisonous funnel web spiders.
When I left our building - without even thinking about it- I walked right past the sidewalk and stepped out into the very middle of the road and started walking down the hill. I was soon startled by a noise behind me as another guy was following right behind my footsteps. A bit further we had to move slightly to one side of the road to let another guy pass by us. He was coming up the hill towards us. Walking right down the middle of our quiet, tree-lined street. And a bit further a car came by and we stopped and gave it room to pass, then continued on our original course.
Why were we all walking down the middle of the street at 6:00 am in the dark? Not even to one side of the road - right down the middle. And why didn't any of us think that was an odd thing to do? And why wasn't I worried that there was a guy shadowing me in the dark?
Afraid of muggers lurking in the bushes? Nope. I wish.
Yes, Anna and Tyler both got it right again. Spiders! They build their webs and string them across the sidewalk from the branches of the trees and bushes. Big spiders ** perched in the middle of webs sticky and thick and right at face level. You can't see where they are in the dark.
Sometimes on our evening walk home up the sidewalk (too much traffic to walk in the street) we pass inches beneath the spiders lurking in what remains of the top half of their webs where the bottom half has been taken out by the unlucky morning dog-walkers, delivery boys, visiting surfers, or good Samaritans who bring their brooms out to clear a path as a courtesy for the rest of us. Sometimes you can see the outline of the head of the tallest person who obliterated the bottom of the web.
** Travis - don't worry these are not poisonous funnel web spiders.
Lavender Street
Work has been very busy. Not much time to blog recently.
We realize that we tend to indulge a bit too much in "pop culture". People magazine, US Weekly, etc. etc. We get really exicited if we see famous people. It's a bit embarrassing to admit - but hey, just keeping it real. Some of the old-time blog readers may remember my story about when we encountered Fabio in his chartreuse suit in Whole Foods in London... he was running away from a mob of autograph seekers. Only they weren't even chasing him! It looked staged to me.
Along these lines - we learned something last night that has Kim a bit annoyed with me today...
Before we decided on our apartment we had narrowed down our choices to two... one very cosmopolitan high rise near the office and the beach place in Manly. I persuaded Kim that we would enjoy beach living better and she went along with me.
What we leaned last night is that the high-rise apartment, the one we didn't chose, is 2 floors directly below Nicole and Keith. Some friends told us that last night and I didn't believe them. So I googled it today... Even though they are probably not here very often - it is true. You should have seen Kim's face when she found out it was true. She is pouting now. Having visions of how our life would have been ... us drifting off to sleep while listening to soft guitar-strumming love songs and good night lullabyes coming from above...
If you don't know who Nicole and Keith are - good for you. I'll come up with some better material when work slows down a little...
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/people/nicole-kidman-splashes-out-on-sydney-penthouse-apartment-20090529-bpaj.html
We realize that we tend to indulge a bit too much in "pop culture". People magazine, US Weekly, etc. etc. We get really exicited if we see famous people. It's a bit embarrassing to admit - but hey, just keeping it real. Some of the old-time blog readers may remember my story about when we encountered Fabio in his chartreuse suit in Whole Foods in London... he was running away from a mob of autograph seekers. Only they weren't even chasing him! It looked staged to me.
Along these lines - we learned something last night that has Kim a bit annoyed with me today...
Before we decided on our apartment we had narrowed down our choices to two... one very cosmopolitan high rise near the office and the beach place in Manly. I persuaded Kim that we would enjoy beach living better and she went along with me.
What we leaned last night is that the high-rise apartment, the one we didn't chose, is 2 floors directly below Nicole and Keith. Some friends told us that last night and I didn't believe them. So I googled it today... Even though they are probably not here very often - it is true. You should have seen Kim's face when she found out it was true. She is pouting now. Having visions of how our life would have been ... us drifting off to sleep while listening to soft guitar-strumming love songs and good night lullabyes coming from above...
If you don't know who Nicole and Keith are - good for you. I'll come up with some better material when work slows down a little...
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/people/nicole-kidman-splashes-out-on-sydney-penthouse-apartment-20090529-bpaj.html
Monday, February 7, 2011
Laughing Kookaburra
I think I could fill a blog with material if someone just followed me around with a camera to film the stupid stuff I do...
This happened about 30 minutes ago:
1. Laughing Kookaburra lands on our balcony - Kim was in the middle of telling me a story and I heard it's talons clink against the metal and ran to see what it was.
2. I grabbed my iPhone and tip-toed out to the balcony to try to get a close-up. Or at least record him laughing.
3. A second one lands with a flourish and startles me backwards, my left arms reflexes up to protect my ear during the initial move of Joe's Jungle Cow serpentine escape sequence, the camera shakes... and then... well, you can listen to what happens next ...
p.s. and I just noticed that Gwen put a comment about my arm shaking in the previous videos - how could she know this was about to happen to her nephew? Wildlife photography is tricky and dangerous business!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Entry to Sydney Harbor
This picture is Kim sitting on a gun turret atop the South Head, protecting the entrance to Sydney Harbor. Behind her you see North Head (where we live). The water in between is the entrance, or Head Waters. I have to explain that because we never learned that kind of terminology growing up on the US prairie.
The gun turret is similar to many that we saw in Normandy. This one was originally built in the mid 1800's and upgraded a couple of times.
I can imagine that, at this point, as Beth is reading this blog post to Ken, he is rolling his eyes and saying "See, I told you! This blog is just another of those ego-centric, look at us, facebook things that Bryan shouldn't be doing. Pretty soon he will be tweeting pictures of what they had for lunch yesterday and drivel like 'oh, our plane is delayed and we are waiting in the airport...'"
To Ken, I respond... au contraire mon frere, au contraire! Let me explain that there is actually something about this photo that I find quite blog-worthy...
You see, mon frere, I happened to read the plaque nearby which explained the history of why, in 1840 or so, the Aussie's decided they needed a gun in this spot to protect their harbor from unwanted visitors.
It was originally built in response to a specific threat from a specific "enemy". Hmmmm..... 1840... would that be the French? Nope. Japan? Nope. China? Nope. Any more guesses? My niece, Anna would certainly blurted out the answer immediately - because she would say "He wouldn't put it in the blog unless the answer was America". And she would be correct, of course. I never can keep her in suspense for the twisting plot turns of my story-telling. She is always a few steps ahead of me.
Anyway - an American explorer names Charles Wilkes led A US Exploring Expedition to see if there was anything cool to see or do down here. Or maybe they had some trouble-makers on board and they just wanted to drop off at the local prison on their way to explore Antarctica. Regardless of their purpose - on the morning of November 29, 1830 they decided to sail between the heads and check out Sydney. The next morning the town was "shocked and horrified" (quoted from an actual news accounting of the event) when they woke up to see the foreign ships at anchor floating in their precious harbor (and King's Road full of American sailors defiantly singing Yankee Doodle Dandy in a drunken stupor I suspect). As I now live and work amongst the proud and pragmatic people of Sydney - it doesn't surprise me at all that the next thing they decided to do was to put a big gun on the head to force us to at least ask permission to enter.
Kim and I had to ask permission AND show proof of health insurance. They added the second requirement later...
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
We had a visitor stop by our patio today. I was standing in the kitchen by the window when he landed there. He hung around for a while -even after I tried to shoo him away because I thought he was coming in through our open window... He liked Kim - she was at another window in the next room and he scooted down the rail to watch her. She got her phone and captured this video. Notice how she couldn't resist saying "hello" to see if it would talk back to her? Isn't that the same impulse we all have? Actually that was my second impulse - my first impulse when he startled me in the kitchen was to do the flailing arm wave protecting my head and high-step zig-zag run to get the hell out of there (aka the Joe Geris Wild Jamaica Cow scramble maneuver).
Sulphur-crested Cockatoos are native to Australia and Tasmania only. We have a bunch of them in our neighborhood and when they get excited they screech like pterodactyls. It's loud and harsh.
Disclaimer - the link takes you to a video of the exotic bird that Kim took and uploaded to LyonBarry's account - no grand production comedy today. I don't want anyone clicking on the link and being disappointed "big deal, it's just a bird video - we have birds where we live".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K91fOZWi1GA
If you want to hear what they sound like- This is a recording of one - imagine when 5-10 of them get going outside your window:
http://ibc.lynxeds.com/sound/sulphur-crested-cockatoo-cacatua-galerita/screeching-tree-branch-then-flight
Sulphur-crested Cockatoos are native to Australia and Tasmania only. We have a bunch of them in our neighborhood and when they get excited they screech like pterodactyls. It's loud and harsh.
Disclaimer - the link takes you to a video of the exotic bird that Kim took and uploaded to LyonBarry's account - no grand production comedy today. I don't want anyone clicking on the link and being disappointed "big deal, it's just a bird video - we have birds where we live".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K91fOZWi1GA
If you want to hear what they sound like- This is a recording of one - imagine when 5-10 of them get going outside your window:
http://ibc.lynxeds.com/sound/sulphur-crested-cockatoo-cacatua-galerita/screeching-tree-branch-then-flight
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