DESPERATION (OR ME AND MEL)

you know you're desperate when you watch "conspiracy theory" on a friday night. you know australian tv is bad when they show "conspiracy theory" on a friday night. and you know they're only showing it because it stars the horrid but australian mel gibson. i've posted previously about the one good show on australian tv which is danish and for the most part that assessment holds. they show "unit one" (said danish show) on sbs, the only decent channel they have here, of the 4 that we get. sbs has some other decent programs, interesting documentaries and foreign movies. that's really as good as it gets. so it's hard when you're tired on a friday night and your boyfriend's at his office holiday party so you just want to veg out with a glass of wine and sit in front of the tv but you only have 4 options and the best one is "conspiracy theory". (or in the example of the other night, "christmas with the kranks" which i should be embarrassed to admit but i'm not because i know you've all been there.)

to be fair, without cable tv in america, you would only have 4 or 5 channels and they're mostly bad as well. although we have become HUGE "heroes" fans recently - by renting season 1 on dvd - and they show that on the seven network here and on nbc at home which are both free channels. so there you go.

SUMMER HOLIDAYS

we just can't get used to the idea of christmas in summer. they're putting up trees and lights all over the city. david jones, the big department store here, has animated window displays of the nutcracker. but since it's 80 degrees and everyone's in shorts, the effect's just not the same. as a result, we have had no holiday spirit.

but last night we went to a pub in the suburb of rozelle called THE 3 WEEDS HOTEL and it had the cozy christmas-in-the-north feeling that we've been missing with a dark, woodsy, yet modern, central kitchen meets matt murphy's feel. with a tree to boot. and good pub food served on cutting boards. i think if we're ever truly missing winter, we can just duck into this place for a pint, sit by the fireplace (fire or no fire), and pretend it's cold outside.

THE BLUE MOUNTAINS AREN'T JUST BLUE

SPARKLE THE COW

i wrote a postcard today pretending to be a cow named sparkle. i sent it to new jersey. sparkle began her six month world tour here in australia. she leaves for india tomorrow. the end.

GOODWILL TOWARDS MAN

tonight we went for a run - yeah, i know it's dumb when couples go running together, but whatever. our route took us through hyde park, down macquarie street, into the botanical gardens, and then around ms. macquarie's point to bennelong, i.e., the opera house. half of this route was along the water so we had a view of the harbour at sunset. it was a beautiful night and the sunset was pretty spectacular (spectacular enough for me to ignore my physical anguish).

we walked home from the opera house, stopped to get thai food at our new favorite neighborhood restaurant, SPICE I AM, and then having spent $25 of the $30 we carried with us, popped into a bottle shop to see if we could find a bottle of $5 wine. we were initially optimistic. but after 5 minutes of surveying the bottle shop we couldn't find our three-buck-chuck so we resigned ourselves to a can of coke. it was at that point that the proprietor asked if he could help us find anything. we explained our dilemma but he said they had no $5 wine. after a short think, he told us to pick whichever wine we wanted and that we could pay him the difference next time we stopped by ("you look like honest people"). how rare in this world, in a big city, for a store owner to be so gracious. it made our night (not that it needed much more making). so after picking up a $7 semillon sauvingon blanc, our night was complete.

STUPID BEACH

neither of us are beach people. we love the ocean, the sound of the waves, the breeze off the water, and relaxing in the sun. but the process of packing up a car, driving an hour or more to some crowded beach, and sunbathing in the sand all day, just really isn't our cup of tea. sure it's fun to do it once in a while, and it's definitely something you have to do during a new england summer. but unlike many, we can't do it every weekend.

sydney offers something a little different. here, we can go to the beach without actually going to the beach. almost all of the beaches have a grassy park behind the sand, they have little cafe kiosks offering more than fried food and ice cream, and they usually have a row of shops and restaurants nearby. plus, you have the added entertainment of watching the surfers. but the best thing is...all the beaches are within a twenty minute bus ride, which eliminates the sense of commitment that comes with a day at the beach in new england. and to top it all off, sydney's beaches are breathtakingly beautiful.

ART BUYER

it's not often that we go to 'the rocks' (faneuil hall-like, pretty but touristy, historical section of the city) and it's not often that i buy art, but tonight, i did both. we went to the rocks for its "friday night markets", just for a stroll and maybe a drink, and came away with a beautiful little print by hoang nguyen of STUDIOOAT. it's part of a series of the 4 seasons that when viewed together is both charming and arresting. i just got one...can you guess which season? here it is.

HOW J SPENT SUNDAY AFTERNOON

TO ALL MY PEEPS AT PH (OR DINNER AT ARIA)

we've been without internet for over 24 hours now and sadly it's quite isolating. so now i'm in an internet cafe as i've desperately been wanting to report on the much anticipated dinner at ARIA which we ate courtesy of my friends at prentice hall.

it all started with a strawberry basil martini and finished with a phallic-looking but delicious chocolate mousse. in between we had tempura'd king george whiting fish (we skipped the crisp-skinned jewfish), roasted chicken with gnocchi, whipped potatoes with truffle oil, and a very good tasmanian pinot noir, recommended to us by our very own sommelier (ok, not our very own, but a sommelier nonetheless). this was maybe the finest dining experience i've ever had. we got dressed up for the occasion, had a fantastic view of the opera house, and even got to see fireworks over the harbor for reasons we're not sure...did you guys set that up too?







anyway, just wanted to say thanks again and you were all there with us in spirit (even if you didn't want to be).

and while i'm addressing you all...i've been meaning to show you this, as it's hanging on a door next to our apartment building. strange, no?

SIDEWALK ETIQUETTE

i've never intended this blog to be a forum for culture-bashing. on the whole, my opinions of australia and its people are positive. everyone i've met is extremely nice and gracious. the city and country i've seen are exceptionally lovely. you know i'm a fan of the food. i just have one small pet peeve and here is my plea:

people of sydney, please, before you come barreling out of a doorway and onto the sidewalk, look. make sure you're not going to plow into someone who's innocently strolling down the path. and especially look if it's a rainy day and you want to open your umbrella before you step out onto the unsheltered sidewalk, that the umbrella's not going to open up into my face. thank you.

as i said, this is not meant to be a cultural complaint. it's just something we've noticed that happens quite a lot in this city. and a simple request so that no one gets hurt.

BUSH FLIES

need i say more?

WHAT'S THE CAPITAL OF AUSTRALIA?

it's gray and pouring rain in sydney and i'm cozy inside, drinking a cup of coffee, and loving it. do i write too much about the weather? maybe i'm just homesick this week.

what follows is a visual smattering of our excursion to canberra, australia's capital, and its surrounds. although it's the capital, canberra doesn't really feel like a city. it's quiet for one. and it seems more like a big suburb with lots of green - or should i say bush - and a repertoire of every style of 20th century architecture making up the various administrative buildings, embassies, museums, and malls. many of the houses are from the 1930's and are really charming. there is also a nice little lake that cuts through the city and which i had the pleasure of biking around.

one of the highlights of our trip was going out at six in the morning to the base of mount ainslie, a ten minute walk from where we were staying, to see kangaroos. and there were heaps of them! it was our first glimpse, apart from the occasional roadkill you see on the highways here (apparently they are like the white-tailed deer of australia). another highlight was driving out to a village called wee jasper - and it was wee. the drive was beautiful as we wound up and down mountains, through valleys, and across farmland that stretched for miles. oh yeah, and we may have seen a few sheep.

finally, on a walk into the city one afternoon, we stumbled upon a chocolate cafe called KOKO BLACK. the iced coffees were another highlight of our trip.

NORTHERN SOUL

back from canberra to a cold and dreary sydney. it was actually quite chilly our last day in canberra and i must say this weather feels much more natural to our bodies. so many things here are opposite to what we know. the most obvious is that cars drive on the left and the steering wheels are on the right. but there are small things as well that take getting used to - things that you would never think of - like that escalators go up on the left side and that you walk up them on the right. that flowers and trees here are blooming earlier in the north and that the sun goes down earlier in the south. and they call the northeast here "the deep north" for reasons i'm sure you can guess (but that's just what i've been told).

the hardest opposite to adjust to has been the seasons. that we are nearing summer in australia. my body is getting ready to hibernate and settle down for a long winter's nap but the usual warm sun and blue sky here are forcing me back out. i can't bear to look at the women's magazine headlines that read "get set for summer", "how to be bikini ready", and "the hottest swimsuits this season". i just went through all that.

it's not that i don't appreciate the good weather here or that when in boston it's 10 degrees fahrenheit with a -15 degree wind chill factor, it will be 85 to 90 in sydney. i love warm summer nights, being able to sit outside at cafes, picnics, swimming, etc. but my physiological makeup is just confused. and it won't help matters that when we return to the northern hemisphere, it will be spring then summer for the third time in a row. i might need to go up to the north pole for some r+r. for now, i will enjoy the cool and rainy week that it's supposed to be in sydney.

NOT THAT ANYONE CARES

but in case you do, sorry no new posts recently. i'm in canberra at the moment visiting a childhood friend of my mom's. cool story actually, she was an exchange student at my mom's high school and they became good friends but fell out of touch after the late sixties and then got back in touch a couple of years ago. so now i am here, watching wild parrots and cockatoos out her window! will post again next week!