Holidays Continued

A few interesting things have happened over the week... I’ve been in contact with Carolien as she traveled the South Pacific on her most recent adventure. She has been crashing at my place for the past few days. It’s been cool to hang out with her again in country #4 (the others were Chile, Argentina and Holland).

Surfing with Krista

My brother and I have been going to the beach a lot to body surf. Growing up in the Eastern US and vacationing in the Atlantic/Caribbean, you don’t get real waves like you do out here. We can go out in chest deep water and catch a wave for 20 yards by just paddling as it approaches and then stretching out. Sometimes you get tumbled over the top of the wave if you don’t catch it exactly right which can be scary if you don’t get a full breath. Then you come up for air and another wave is slamming down on top of you. But once you’re used to the wave periods and intensity, you can figure out the best place to catch them. It’s almost as fun as surfing, but 1000 times easier.

Other than that, I have been seeing Krista pretty regularly over the past few weeks. The way I looked at it, we have nothing to lose. The chances of us staying together after I leave are pretty slim, but it’s still worth the effort. It took some convincing on my part to give this a shot, but I think she feels the same way I do. Besides, she’s a cool chick and it’s nice to have someone around that knows how to surf.

Best Songs of 2010

It's the end of the year and time for me to review my top 10 songs. Check out last year's list for a look back. A few of these songs came out in 09 but they didn't come on my radar until after my last list.

10. Snowden - No One In Control


9. Mike Snow - The Rabbit


8. Mumford and Sons - Hold On To What You Believe


7. Civil Twilight - Something She Said


6. Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition


5. Jukebox the Ghost - Empire


4. The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You


3. The XX - Islands


2. Florence and the Machine - Dog Days Are Over


1. Lissie - Everywhere I Go

 

Honorable mentions: Passion Pit - Little Secrets, Band of Horses - Laredo, Kanye West ft. Dwele - Power, The Foals - Blue Blood, The Decemberists - Down By the Water, La Roux - Bulletproof, Girl Talk - All Day (entire album), Cheryl Cole - Three Words, Duck Sauce - Anyway, Cee-Lo Green - F&^* You

Guilty Pleasures: Far East Movement - Like a G6, Usher - OMG

So what do you think? Did I miss anything?

Christmas Week

As mentioned in a previous post when I almost got deported, my parents and brother came to Sydney this week for Christmas. My friends Daya and Sarah tag teamed to take care of Zabba. I got a few weeks off of work because the project was shut down for the holidays, so I could take them anywhere they wanted to go. I met everyone at the Marriott in Circular Quay and we proceeded to hit all of the highlights… ferry ride to Manly, coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee, Harbour Bridge pylon climb (see the video below for the view), Featherdale Wildlife Park, plus dinners at Din Tai Fung, Madang Korean Barbecue, Chili Box, and I’m Angus.

 A traditional Christmas in Australia is spent on the beach eating seafood. I bought fish, scallops and shrimp at A Fish Called Coogee. We cooked everything up at my flat and went down to the beach for a picnic wearing Santa hats. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect – it was about 85 degrees and sunny the entire day. We threw some Frisbee and spent the afternoon jumping in the water.

After a whirlwind 6 days my parents headed back to the US while my brother stayed for NYE and our planned trip to the Whitsundays.

Facebook Hack

I found this cool Facebook hack today that lets you get really creative with the new site design.  There's even a template available if you're any good with Photoshop.  I don't have any really good pics to use at the moment, but here's a screenshot of my current one (took about 20 minutes to crop together).

 

Here are some more examples of people that are way more creative than me.

Porcupine's Dilemma

Have you ever heard of the Porcupine’s Dilemma? It’s an analogy to problems with human intimacy, and goes like this: A group of porcupines are trying to stay warm in the winter by huddling together. The closer they get, the more they prick each other with their quills. For this reason they have to keep their distance, sacrificing warmth for comfort. The human comparison is obvious, but real. What do you do when you want to engage in close relationships but are unable to because of unavoidable circumstances? Closeness causes ‘mutual harm’ which causes tentative interaction with others which causes weaker relationships.

This is the discussion I had with Marianela, an Argentinean friend I made through Mark (my Cairns friend). We were at a get-together at Marianela and Julia’s house and somehow came upon the topic of how we both traveled a lot and were single. In my case, I’m in Australia for a limited time only. Why try making connections when I’m leaving in a few months? She said that you just have to be open because anything can happen.

Cue the hot girl.

Krista went to grad school with Marianela and came late to the party. She had a bit of an Aussie accent but was actually from Finland. She spoke 6 languages, was studying marketing and surfed. Yes, I had found the elusive surfer chick. We hit it off from the beginning, but she is hesitant. Porcupine’s dilemma, story of my life.

Sydney's First Annual Epic Water Pistol Fight

Kill shot - right in the ear

My friend Ben found out about a water pistol fight in a Sydney park. People were supposed to show up in green, white, blue or red shirts packing the gun of their choice. 15,000+ people RSVPed to the Facebook event including a handful of my friends. We all decided to not join one of the teams and wear whatever. I went with a black rashie (plus snorkel, just in case), Nathan went shirtless, and Ben went as a gay urban cowboy.

We based ourselves out of Steph’s apartment since she lived across the street from the park. The weather was perfect – a bit hot and very sunny. When I showed up at noon, everyone else was in full preparation mode. They were filling half a dozen canvas shopping bags with water balloons (called water bombs here in Australia – I kind of like that term).

We lugged everything over to the park where I would estimate a few hundred people were gathered. We seemed to be one of very few groups that didn’t adhere to the dress code and had the foresight to stock up on bombs. Note for those doing this in the future - guard your water bombs carefully or else others will steal them.  A few of the organizers got the teams together to play games of capture the flag, protect the base, I don’t really know because I wasn’t paying attention. We were walking around smashing people with balloons from close range and giving kill-shots with our guns (eyes or ears). Yes, I targeted a few people under the age of 12. No, I am not ashamed.

The people involved in the fight were mostly from the early 20’s, I-like-Twilight-and-Harry-Potter Society, others from the I-Loved-The-Matrix-and-I-Still-Wear-a-Trench-Coat Club. There were a few parents with kids and others our age. We felt a bit out of place, but part of that was on purpose. I had a naked baby doll companion and switched my backpack to the front to serve as a carrier. There’s a quick story about how I acquired the baby…

Dan and I went to a house party in Bondi a few weeks ago. The host pushed everyone out relatively early so we made our way down to the beach for a few drinks. After some wandering, we made our way to some loud music coming from the Bondi Pavilion. We ended up crashing a 90’s theme party and we stuck out like sore thumbs. We got to talking to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, eventually taking her baby because she was smashed and kept dropping it (she was playing the part very well). After a few minutes, Courtney went to sit down while I was still holding the baby. The party wasn’t that great, so I told Dan we should leave. “What about the baby?” he asked. “Don’t worry about it, let’s get out of here.”

We ended the night at the kebab stand at 2 am with a plastic baby doll. We got quite a few weird looks, but I knew it would come in handy someday. That day, as it turned out, was the Water Pistol Fight.  I named her Carlita (after Carlos from The Hangover). But anyway, back to the story.

Using Carlita as a human shield

I had the baby strapped to my chest and I was walking around with Brokeback Ben, so we were quite the targets for all of the other participants. That made it all the better, because people would seek us out to soak us. We were also causing quite a bit of havoc by disrupting their structured games. There was also a guy in an authentic storm trooper outfit that got a lot of attention. The key to the whole day was the fire hydrant that was partially opened to give us an unlimited supply of water, with enough pressure to serve multiple people quickly.

There are a few YouTube videos of the day that I’ll try to find and post. I’d love to bring something like this to Piedmont Park in Atlanta. If we can get access to a water hose or other source of water for refills (and there isn’t a water shortage), I’ll be all about it.