Flushing a Toilet Down Under

Many people have asked me the question whether or not the toilets here really flush counter-clockwise.  To be honest; no they do not.  Most of the toilets here are made by Caroma and are flushed with more of a Yellowstone geothermal bubbling effect.

I was fortunate enough, however, to recently have my bathroom sink clog.  Kara prescribed a healthy dose of hot water to clear the drains.  Pretty soon i had our largest pot (size small), electric kettle, and a mixing bowl full of hot top water going.  After dumping all three into the "washbasin," the bowels of our plumbing glurked, and some bubbles rose to the surface.  I realize I'm making this sound far too epic, but it was literally like Lord of the Rings when they are under ground and all of the ?orcs? wake up and start beating their drums.  it has to do with the way the drains are set up here.  ANYWAYS the water started to flow, and as if straight out of a science center demonstration, the water created a vortex spinning--you guessed it--counter clockwise :)

Ode to my Keepcup

I was wandering down Little Bourke Street a few weeks back after having visited one of the coolest cafes in Melbourne--Brother Baba Budan—and stumbled upon a neat little design shop.  In the window were about 10 or so keepcups.  I poked inside, had a look around to find the usual: interesting wallets, pens, clocks, etc. and all at a ridiculous price.  Keepcup, however, was much more compatible with my price range:  $15.  It’s really just a plastic cup though, the novelty ceramic one at Urban Outfitters was about the same price, and so is a standard Thermos.  It’s cute, looks more like a computer icon than a cup, but in the end I couldn’t justify getting this cup more than any of the other neat-looking-but-overpriced things in the store. 

Fastforward to last week.  I’m sitting at the galleria—a food court in the mezzanine of a nearby office building—and sitting ontop of the trashcan are two keepcups.  I casually walked up to the trashcan…looked around, and even waited for a couple of minutes before declaring it officially someone’s discarded garbage and my new found treasure.  Apparently the galleria was giving away free keepcups with a 10 dollar purchase.  These cups had never even been used and still had the booklets inside.

But I digress.  These cups are awesome.  It wasn’t until I put the lid on it this morning that l realized how awesome this cup is.  I mean, some serious thought went into designing this cup.  I’ve been using a mug at the office until recently, and admittedly have discovered that repeated refills of coffee and tea leave an undesirable brown stain on the mug.  Not so with the keepcup; it’s glossy finished plastic surface is immune to staining and washes very easily.  The cap has a removable swivel cover for your standard Australian sippycup lid, which also happens to have a radial groove cut into it which allows air in when you drink.  I don’t think I can explain how cool this is, but because the air travels up through the cup, between the cover and the lid along a radial grove, it takes some pretty tough shaking to get any hint of spillage.  Additionally, the inside rim of the lid gets tighter in two stages.  You can easily rest the lid evenly on the cup without pushing much, but once you have done this you can push down on any one point of the rubber lid safely because the lid has already been properly seated.  The cup inside has line markings, by the ounce; and with its compact sizes reduces my dependence on caffeine and American-sized portions.

I understand that I haven’t written in a long time, and for all this waiting all you get is me raving about a plastic cup.  It’s a cool cup; come visit me I’ll show you the cup; and while you will ultimately decide it’s kinda neat but not worth an entire blog post.  I promise, however, there are neater things in this city than keepcups.  

Great Ocean Road!

Happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans!! To celebreate turkey and breaking bread with the indians, david and I are going for a road trip! (That makes sense, no?)

Next week, I am working the great victorian bike ride. It's 5,000 bicyclists riding on the equivalent to highway 101 in california. It's a beautiful road, and I'm sure it will be crazy with all of those riders. I am going along in a camper van, feeding the bikers coffee and churros along the way! I'm excited..it will be a fun way to see the scenery! I'll take lots of pics, I promise.

Here's a link to the Great Ocean Road...if you are curious. Tongiht we are staying at Apollo Bay at the nicest Hostel in Australia...oooooh. I'll take pics of that too.

Laters!

Little Places

The best thing about Melbourne is all of the nooks and crannies. All of the best cafes and restaurants aren't out in the open..they are in some random alley or on the 4th floor of some rickety looking buildings.

So here is the start to my long list of delicious places here in Melbourne!
Camy Shanghai Dumpling House
David's favorite. Of Course.
Right in the middle of downtown, you hook down this lane, and here you are, at this tasty dumpling hut. Dumplings are CHEAP and come steamed, fried, filled with meat, or veggies. So we are both happy going there.
Best part? You can get dumplings 'take away' and take them next door to this bar that is set up in a parking lot...

Section 8
No really. It's in a parking lot. Shipping Pallets are stacked together for seats, and there are great, rando decorations all over the place. It's great because the crowd is always a total mix (laborers, school girls having coffee, us..) and always busy on weekends.

My other fave is the Rooftop Bar. Yep. That's the name.
First, I would recommend NOT taking the elevator (it seems like you will die in here..so scary) but. there is a cute bookstore on the way up..so it's a good place to browse (and catch your breath) if needed!
Once you get up to the top, they have the sitting section decked out in astro turf and beach chairs. They have great beers...and hipsters!! :)

More to come! But those have been my favorites in the city...so glad we are living in the CBD (Central Business District)

SALE!

As we recover from yesterday's Melbourne Cup (pics to come soon!) I wanted to point out that there is a SALE on Qantas. Maybe you guys want to check out some low low deals to Melbourne, hmmm?

Qantas Deals

Funky Curry Apartment

Alright. I can't believe it, but David and I spent our first night in the apartment! It's been a really interesting experience getting a home here in Aus..they basically leave everything to you to figure out.

Fridges and washers are not included in your apartments. It's byo. This caused for a comical fridge move.. David wheeling a second hand refrigerator across the bridge and to our apartment. That's a whole other post though. It was too funny.

But what wasn't funny? Our sick apartment. We got the keys last Thursday, and we were promised the place was professionally cleaned. Professionally cleaned must mean throw a party and then RUN from your apartment. Needless to say, I cried when I saw the place.

Then, positivity kicked in (and David's good words) and we got to work scrubbing the curry smell out of the walls, mopping food off the floor, un-blackening the grout, and getting the mystery smudge marks off everything. A week later, my arms and legs are sore, I have gone through 3 sponges, a bottle of wall cleaner, a grout brush and a mop, but the apartment is live-able!! YAY!

It finally feels like home. A minimalist home..but that's what this trip is all about, right?

So here are some pictures of the new digs!! Get excited all you future visitors!! (Pls note: we have an extra bedroom - the rumpus room - but it's really messy so there's no pic of it. But I promise we have rooms for guests!!)

The bathroom. I should have shown a picture of my fine handy work on the grout.


The rando 'hallway' from our bed to the balcony


Our sweet bedroom!


Living Room/Dining Room/Parlor/Game Room


Kitchen (complete with my splurge of a Bodum french press). Sorry the picture is dark!


Our first dinner last night! Ironically, David really wanted to cook Indian food...

Hit the ground runnin'

 It's kind of nice to be doing the city thing again after a month off up in Surfer's.  We recently got the keys to our new apartment at 708/547 Flinders Lane (The complete address is followed by "Melbourne, VIC 3000" for those of you wishing to send cookies, formal business attire, and large sums of cash), and over the last weekend we spent at least 5 or 6 hours wandering through the labyrinth that is IKEA.  I am proud to announce that we were able to purchase a new table, chairs, essential kitchenware, a shelf/dresser, pillows, a big assortment of cups, and a Swedish table runner for under $560.

To our great relief, IKEA delivers.

In addition to our massive furniture delivery today was my first day at work.  I work in a very small office that mostly does building inspections but also some project management and provides an enormous variety of building and property reports.  To make things short, I will be attending my first field trip on Wednesday, we have a beer fridge, and it is written into the company manual that after work on Fridays the office goes out to the local pub for drinks.  Oh Australia.  Best of all, I couldn't help but post my 10-15 minute walk to work every morning.

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The Torches at Crown Casino

From the Melbourne Ministry of Tourism

just throwin it out there. (courtesy of qantas)

Sorry to let down those of you who know how much we paid for our round trip airfare to Brisbane last year, but it seems like we flew both ways for the price of one way.  I've been trying to check back every once in a while, and it seems like $1200 has been as good as it gets.  It seems too that Bing's fare predictor isn't such a pro at working internationally, but Kayak has one that gives you a price chart based on departure date over a one month period.  For anyone curious, here are some things that are going to be happening in Melbourne:

January 18-31: Melbourne Open Tennis Championships

January 23-25: Australia Day

March 25-28: Formula One Australian Grand Prix

These are just the few that I have heard of recently.  Depending on your preference maybe you will plan for or around them.  There are also TONS of music and wine+food festivals here as well as sporting events and races!

click here for an events calendar from the city of melbourne

We miss you guys and hope we will see some more familiar faces soon!

A Taste of Melbourne

We got the keys to our new apartment yesterday!

We are quite excited to get our own place..and you should be too because now you can start planning your visit Down Unda!

To woo you to our fine new city, I thought I would share this week's Daily Candy article about Melbourne. Read on..enjoy..and COME VISIT!!

Daily Candy Goes to Melbourne

A Belated Welcome to Melbourne

Melbourne Victory vs Gold Coast United

Last month on the 26th, Manny took us to our first Australian soccer experience!  The Melbourne - GC United game foretold our future as the Melbourne Victory was triumphant.  It was awesome getting to visit a game and paying 6AUD for a beer rather than 10USD.  While not quite onpar with the Sounders, I'd say the crowd is definitely got it together!

 

 

 

Manny cheering through a sandstorm aftershock

So Missed

So you may remember a couple weeks ago we got a shout out on RadioMETRO from our favorite DJ RemmyG.  We were sitting in the parking lot of a Coles (supermarket) jumping up and down as we heard it over the radio.  Disappointed that we didn't catch it on video, we made sure to make up for it with a grand tour of the radio station...

Holiday - 1, Work - 0

So we have been out of internet for at least the past week.  I'll be working to upload random bits to get the blog updated!!

Goodbye Gold Coast!!

Tomorrow bright and early, we start our drive to Melbourne! We rented a car for 3 days...that's 3 days to drive 21 hours.

On the dockett:

The world's largest Avo (avacado)...australians are huge on giant statues of things)

We'll be driving down the coast, hitting some smaller towns north of Sydney (staying in Newcastle..the town where they sent the convicts that even Sydney couldn't handle way back in the day)

Driving through Sydney

Seeing/Staying in the nation's capital, Canberra

Wine Tasting on the way to Melbourne (hopefully)

We'll post as we can along the way! I just found out our rental car is manual (hi, manual and on the other side of the road, with a steering wheel AND clutch on the opposite side) But next stop, Melbourne!!

Evo!

Ahh what a day yesterday. We had the pleasure of hanging out with the one and only Evan Wheatley. As we are wrapping up our days on the Gold Coast, Evo showed us all around the town by water!


We saw tons of fancy fancy houses, had the best fish and chips (wooot for Pete's!) and even a Kangaroo that was hanging out on the beach!

Osu!

This week I had the chance to train with the Nerang Kyokushin Dojo.  It was so great to go across the world and still be able to train with Kyokushin.  It's kind of like being able to come to Australia and have a McDonalds...except the name hasn't been modified into "Maccar's."

 

photo-op with Sempai Josh and Shihan Tony Bowden

...It was sand in the air

maybe some of you have already heard about this over the news, but we had a sandstorm on wednesday!  this is the view from the balcony of the house and that palm tree you see coming half way into the shot is usually out of view.  along with our first sandstorm was our first genuine Australian meat pie!  Kara actually ate her entire half of the pie too! 

apparently Goldstein's is the place to get your meat pie, and apparently you want a giant heaping mound of mashed peas.  i'll have to admit it was pretty delicious.  not pictured, is the mixed mangoes and yogurt we got from the fruit stand across the way.  yum!  with all the new foods here and all of the foods we miss i think we are brainstorming a giant list of food business ventures that we can either bring to or from Australia :P

take coffee sippy cups for example.  just about every cafe you go to, they will have sippy cup lids.  i really meant to post this sarcastically but i wouldn't be half surprised if i was taking a sunday walk along phinney ridge and saw sippy cup lids for all the yuppie toddlers up by the zoo.  bleh.  i will close this post with another senseless photo of the amazing endless beaches on the GC.  ;)

there's something in the air at the moment...

sitting at the pool yesterday after a hard night of partying, i came across this awesome article in FRANKIE -- one of Romena's magazines.  just feels great to see other people going through similar situations as us.  reminds me of my friends that will be trekking through Nepal in October, going back to fight forest fires, or moving to Australia like me :P  anyways check it out, hope the photo comes through legibly.

So Famous

Today, on 105.7 metro radio...David and I got a shout out from the best Radio DJ on the coast, ROMENA G!

'and I just wanted to give a shout out to my friends David and Kara who have just arrived from the states and are enjoying the BEAUTIFUL Australian sunshine..as they should be'

We were screaming in the car...Romena is the best DJ ever. Now we are just getting tired from all the autographs and photos people want to take of us...

Now out to the infamous Surfer's Paradise night scene..we heard there are some crazy fights and crazy outfits to be seen. I can't wait.

The Best Doughnut in the World

Today was a big day. We went to Byron Bay...and I met the best doughnut in the world.

Byron Bay is the ex-hippie/hippie town. So, there are some traces of 'back in the day' (LOTS of veggie restaurants, aura readings and people dancing with the waves on the beach) but most of it has been replaced with tourists shops (3 cheers for the Byron Bay Hat Company)

David became a true hippie/hipster by sporting his patented Beach Bummaire Look. Please note the popped collar Polo and the white 'man skirt' that can be whipped off as soon as you hit the beach. I'm telling you, people. Watch for this fashion at Australia fashion week.

David striking a pose in an urban setting:


Keeping with our retirement duties, Dave-o (David's Aussie nickname) and I grabbed a 'flat white' (espresso with milk NOT foamy milk) and headed to do a crossword puzzle at the beach. And Byron is GORGEOUS. We read that surfing is big here because beaches are on all sides of you...so no matter the weather, there is decent surf.

(that's the famous Byron Bay Lighthouse..beyond that is the 'Most Eastern Point of Mainland Australia'

Here's another view, from the same spot on the beach!


And then. The best part of the day. My encounter with the best doughnut in the world. He was at the Byron Bay Organic Doughnut Company. You order your Doughnut, they will inject (yes! INJECT) your organic filling of choice, and then you devour it. I barely let David have any bites...

Here is me with my blackberry filled delight:


Another tiring day on the Aussie Circuit! :) We were hoping to make it up to the truly hippie town of Nimbin..but there was just too much fun to be had at Byron Bay. I guess we'll have to wait until next year's Mardi Grass...

backwards driving

a quick video review of driving in our backwards Holden Commodore

a fine day for skin cancer

today we decided to make a day trip out to Byron Bay.  after finding a great parking spot near the beach and town, we stepped out to find that we had parked right in front of the skin cancer clinic.  mama gibson and mama ka, this post goes out to you.  we have purchased our hats and yes you are right, it is wayyyyy cooler and we are way happier with our new lids.

...and now for a proper introduction

[the uncut unedited unplanned version]

The Great American Send-Off

We had the best day in L.A. the day before we left (best layover ever, thank you very much Mr. Ramirez)

Jandro took us all over the city...to some lesser known L.A. Highlights: Caribbean food at Cha Cha Cha, The Observatory made famous by James Dean, Michael Jackson's Star ..still complete with flowers from fans; Olvetta Street, My Father's Office and their delicious beer (and amazing burgers I hear) and lots. and lots. of L.A. traffic.

Thank you Jandro for a wonderful send-off from the USA!!

a picture is worth a thousand words so here are 8,232

so today is our first weekday on the G-C.  it's been a hard knock life so far, as we just spent the last weekend mainly sitting on the beach.  the beaches here are perfect and it is hard to believe that people actually live here.  Richenda's mom has been kind enough to offer us her room while she is in Europe for the next several weeks as well as her car.  i've definitely been having a blast driving on the left side of the road and we've started each weekday so far with a drive into surfer's paradise at about 7am to jog along the beach.  the room we are staying in has its own balcony overlooking the river with a nice cool breeze coming in through out the day.  i just wanted to post some photos you guys have probably been itching to see...

 

first photo on Australian soil (airport gate in Brisbane)

our first meal at 9am with Manny: hot dogs with tomato sauce, mustard, and cheese at Donut King

the view from the bedroom balcony

 

yes we have already visited a motorcycle store--my girlfriend and an mv augusta :D

 

having an ice cold bottle of Toohey's at the beach

 

 

 our wonderful hosts Manny and Romena (Mikey not pictured)

 

having the freshest fish and chips by the beach

 

at burleigh getting ready for a short hike by the beach followed by a swim--YEEAAAA!!!!!

Project Runway...AUSTRALIA

While DKa was trying to tape the American Football on cable last night..we came across my favorite show, Project Runway, Australia!!!

I had the biggest poolparty..and we watched the final 20 minutes.

Too bad they are down to their last episode...and that they don't have anyone as charming as Tim Gunn.

Plus, the Mikey, Romena and Manny tried s'mores last night (I smuggled in from U.S.A) and they loved it. Word.

Project Runway and S'mores...Australia is just heaven, isn't it?

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Arriving in the G-C

after spending our final american days in los angeles, 14 hours on a plane, and an entire day exploring the town, our first post will be communicated in list form:

first...
-drive on the wrong side of the road
-meat pie served up hot from a gas station (incl. kara)
-never-ending beach at surfer's paradise
-australian grocery store experience (rice crispies = rice bubbles)
-australian cellphone

and now it is 4:30am PDT and we are proud that we have stayed up until 9:30pm local time.

promise to write more soon!...