Commando in Sydney

OH happy day, my darling youngest brother arrived. But not without mishap. Apparently one of his bags got lost, so he spent two hours at the airport waiting for help or for it's arrival to no avail. The bad news--no underwear, the good news -- he was delayed long enough that he got to miss church. I did convince him to wash his underwear in the tub last night for re-use today (thanks mom!) and he is now busily drying them in the bathroom with a hair dryer. Ah, life in rustic Sydney at a 5 star hotel.



Once Garrett did arrive he was pleasantly surprised by, I quote, "His facebook friend Loren" who again served as tour guide. It was a beautiful, beautiful day and we wandered through Hyde Park, the botanical gardens, and over to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.



We stopped for lunch at a lovely cafe where we learned that not leaving tips does contribute to worse customer service. We had to ask 4 different waiters for water to drink before it was finally brought, and I believe we could have sat for hours waiting for our check w/o some serious prompting.

We were entertained by the little Yugoslavian GM who kept coming to our table to chat us up as he busily sat guests and taught us how to be effective sales people. All while kicking poor little seagulls to get them out of his area. He told us one particularly disturbing story of abuse to a seagull by one of his waiters, and how he had to hide it from his customers by pushing it in to the ocean. His quote, "I don't know what ever happened to it." Hello? It died. Odd.

Later Garrett and I stopped at the QVB and some shops across the street to see if we could find him more underwear (in case his never arrive) but he said he would rather go commando than buy some that weren't Fruit of the loom boxer briefs. And I assure you, none of the stories carried what he wanted. Although there was a lovely selection.



Garrett and I were happy to stay at the lovely Hilton (thank you points, thank you Gina) where they have a "magic" button on the phone. You press it and they bring you whatever you want. So last night they brought us the sweet DVD point break which Garrett and I enjoyed while eating our toasted ham and cheese sandwiches and wedges. Also provided by "magic."



We turned in around 8. There was a moment of discord in our joy when Garrett went to the bathroom at around 1am and turned on the lights. I screamed at him and he said, "How am I supposed to pee without light???" In the morning we laughed about it together, although I gently suggested he try sitting next time. I mean waking up in the middle of the night when you're jet-lagged makes it a challenge to go back to sleep. But bottom line, I do want him to hit the toilet.

We woke at 5am and it's time for me to end this post since Garrett is just wrapping up his morning bath. 2 more hours and we're off to Cairns and lovely Dunk Island.
Cheers!

The Rocks, The Harbour, and Manly (very) Beach

Yessterday I was lucky to get in touch with one of Sydney's finest tour guides, Loren Scott. She took pity on a poor, lonely traveler and volunteered to come down to my hotel, pick me up and show me around the city. Isn't she lovely?

The added benefit of this is that I had a real live Aussie accent at my disposal to really start nailing down the finer points of my new accent. Yes, Lisa, I can do this.

First we wandered down to a place called "The Rocks." It's where they used to keep the prisoners/first settlers and they turned all the little cells in to stores and all kinds of vendors set up on the street now as an open market. It was quite cute--and brilliant as we say here.



We grabbed some lunch at some sort of all pancakes all the time place (crepes too) which was quite delish, and then went down to the harbor to take a ferry over to Manly Beach where I did some last minute Christmas shopping and saw the second most famous beach in Sydney. One odd phenomenon was the fact that we saw about 100 people wandering around dressed up as Santa. I take back everything I've ever said about people in Australia not celebrating Christmas properly. If this doesn't say Holiday spirit, I don't know what does.



The ferry was nice because you could see the opera house and the bridge from the water view.



The weather had taken a complete 180 turn and was now about 100 degrees and sunny so my backpack was creating major back sweat and, well, my ferry ticket in my back jean pocket (I know- gross) was no longer functional when I went to go get on the ferry, and I was forced to ask the operator to let me through, "Because my ticket was too sweaty to work."



I guess the moral is be careful what you wish for when it's raining, but hey, I'll still take the blinding heat and light over the rain.

Garrett should arrive bright eyed and busy tailed in about an hour so I'm anxious to see him and announce that he is about to go to church with Loren. This should go over well! :) Then she's going to tour us around a bit more, but really, how much can he complain that I'm putting a gorgeous, single young lady in his path?

Not-so-ugly Naked Guy

(no appropriate picture can be shown here.)

Remember Ugly Naked Guy from the TV show Friends? He lived in the building across from Rachel and Monica and used to keep his shades open and run around naked in his apartment grossing out (and intriguing) the friends?

I had an Ugly Naked Guy experience this morning. Only not really ugly so much as just naked. guy. I was talking on the phone to BD about a project and was standing on my patio looking at the building across the street. It was maybe 50, 100 feet away--I'm not good with measurements, but the point is it was close. The building is called Harbour Court, so I thought it was a court of law. Imagine my shock when I see in the window directly across from me two round, white buttocks.

For some reason, the guy across the way was naked and standing naked in front of his window. FOR A LONG TIME. Shaking his bootie. I have to admit, I was a bit mesmerized and stood there waiting to see if he would get embarrassed and walk away. Finally, mostly because BD was shaming me, I walked away.

It was quite a way to start the day. Beautiful sunrise and a full moon all in the space of a couple hours. Oh, turns out that Court is just a name they use on buildings around here. I saw a bunch more driving around town. Nothing law-ish about them at all. But I can tell you harbour court should have been in session for a serious case of indecent exposure.

First Morning

Jet lag isn't horrible. I'm sleeping at night, just more nursing home hours than young person traveling the world hours. I fell asleep at 7:30pm last night. The good news is that means I woke up at 3:30 am, giving me enough time to be out on the beach for a 5:30am sunrise.

It's a nice idea that in December I can walk across the street at 5:30 in the morning and be warm watching the sun rise. Here are some pics.








My Hotel:




On the agenda today? Open air markets, Christmas shopping and if it gets sunny, the beach!

G'day Mate

At 7:30am this morning I touched down in Sydney. Bless. Truth be told the journey around the world was worth it as soon as I got to the customs desk and the young man held out his hand for my passport and said, "G'day."

I looked back at him, smiled, and said, "G'day Mate."

He didn't look up from my passport and replied, "You're not from around here are you?"

I couldn't believe he figured it out. I mean I thought it came across quite naturally. Clearly my US passport was the giveaway.

So the good news is, I'm in OZ, the bad news is, it's raining. It NEVER rains here. No beach for me as I gaze out my window at Bondi Beach right across the street. No worries though, as they say here, I just took advantage of the rain with a much needed workout and a visit to the spa where the lovely Thai lady got rid of 35 hours of cramped seating, 3 months of stressful work, and put me in a hot tub with a view of the beach. I feel much better.

And here's my other keen observation so far. Australian accents are all it takes to be hot. I have run in to various hotel employees that I'm quite certain I would not find remotely attractive in my home country, but as soon as they open their mouths and G'day me--the gigs up. Talk about your rugged hotness, I'll put some shrimp on the barbie for these fellas and I don't even like seafood. So to speak.

I plan to master an Australian accent before I return so that I can completely dominate the male population going forward. Forget "The Rules" "He's just not that in to you" and "The Secret." I've got yer best-seller dating secret. Learn how to say G'day, no worries and n'oi and you're in like flynn.

Cheerio. Time to crash - jet lag isn't horrible, but it's 7pm and I'm tired. G'night.

So sleepy

Just a quick update (cause I have 3 hours to kill) on my travel adventure. I just landed in Seoul, Korea after, oh, about 22 hours of travel time. Soon I look forward to boarding another flight to Sydney for another 10 hours. Hardly daunting at all. I've been trying not to sleep so that I can get over the whole jet lag thing real quick-like. I'm excited cause I get to sleep on this flight since it will be night time in Sydney. I'll let you know how this awesome plan works.

Nothing too exciting to report yet. Mostly I just noticed how silently people travel. No one spoke to each other in the business class cabin the whole flight, and then as we all crowded in to the airport and moved en masse to the terminal I noticed again how silent it was. You would think someone in this huge group of people might say something. I had an impulse to just burst in to a loud Christmas Carol or shout, "G'day mate!" and see what kind of reaction I got, but decided to hold out for Australia where such behavior might make more sense.

So that's it...slowly progressing toward the other side of the world...

Hotness as a noun

Every time I go on facebook or some other online site there is inevitably an ad similar to this one.

Two things:

1. Is this header really hysterical or am I? How would you like to have your picture posted with the header, "Rugged, blue eyed hotness?" Is he on a menu somewhere, cause I'll take two.

2. Do people really bite on this? Cause I assure you, I've done online dating sites and if Mr. Rugged Blue-eyed hotness is on there, I somehow missed him.

Santa is OLD

Driving home from the mall yesterday, my niece Keely started talking about Santa and how "really, really, I can't even tell you how old" he was. I wondered what her perception of old was, so I turned to her and said, "Well how old do you think Santa is Keely?"

"Probably about 28."

I never thought the day would come when I would be older than Santa Clause.

Yikes. I was quick to inform her that her mother was 33, which made her a LOT older than Santa. She seemed a little stunned by the information and then said, "Well, he might be 99."

Lucky Number 4

When I was little, my favorite Dr. Seuss book was "Wacky Wednesday." It was entertaining because everything in the book was out of place and backwards and you had to find all the wacky things on each page. It kept you surprised and interested.

Much like Michigan sports this year. In a shocking turn of events, yesterday Michigan basketball beat number 4 ranked Duke, and beat them soundly. It was a close game most of the way, but Michigan mostly owned the lead and by games end had won by around 10 points...not two. Michigan hasn't beat Duke in 11 years.

Last year Michigan beat no winning programs and hardly beat losing programs. In one year Coach Beline has turned around the program and beat two number 4 ranked teams - UCLA and Duke. I'm starting to think 4 is our lucky number. And a ranking I wouldn't mind ending up at come selection Sunday. Coach Beline--let me be the first to extend to you a warm and extended welcome to Ann Arbor. (As did the packed Crisler arena fans when they stormed the court post game.)

(Quick sidebar--he also runs a clean program which is rare. I saw Brian Townsend, a friend of ours who is his assistant coach and he told me a lot of interesting stories about how the program has changed and what kind of work ethic has been installed. Making RIGHT choices can in fact pay is the moral of this story. What does not pay is my current moisturizer. Townsend also mistook me for my mother at first glance.)

Meanwhile, Michigan football has never looked worse. NEVER. It was the most pathetic showing I've ever witnessed. And this my friends is touted as a "Football town." No one cares about the silly basketball program. Check out the facilities and you'll see for yourself.

So that's the good news. Michigan basketball is doing it's best to turn sports around here in to it's own version of Wacky Wednesday with some exciting games and high hopes for the future. Go blue!

Facebook - Ultimate Connector

I am simultaneously thrilled and distraught. Oh, and also shocked at the power of facebook.

This past weekend I clicked on to my favorite online social networking site and saw a message in my inbox. "Is this theee Shauri Quinn originally from Ann Arbor, MI? BYU freshman year 19**?" No date needed there. Point is, it was one of my best friends from my freshman year of college. A friend I haven't seen or talked to in over a decade. AND HE FOUND ME ON FACEBOOK.

Sure, all caps seems a bit dramatic, but that's not even the crazy part yet. I was getting ready for a work trip on Monday to Ephrata, PA. If you've heard of it...well, you're from Lancaster county or a geography freak of nature. Turns out, Chris is living in the town right next door to lovely Ephrata.

I don't know--I can't believe fate didn't take a step in to the picture on this one--I mean what are the chances I'm going to this tiny little town, and that the day before I go a long lost friend finds me who happens to live there?? I heart facebook.

Except sometimes I don't. Like when a few days later that ex-boyfriend finds you. You know the one. The one that your family likes only slightly better than Jeffrey Dahmer, and that you became that person you wish you hadn't to be with this guy. There is nothing like opening up your mail and seeing his face stare back at you with a semi-creepy message attached. And let me add this tidbit--he spelled my name wrong. If you date someone for two years and you search for them on facebook, don't you think you should at least know how to spell their name?

So I'm left with the dilemma...to respond or ignore? That is the question.

The distress of this minor dilemma however, does little to mar my joy at finding Chris and Dave Baird...two of my favorite people in the world and to see what path their lives took and to relive awesome past memories like Chris' foot fetish. "Nothing like toe cleavage." Odd? Clearly. But still endearing.

I am grateful for a trip to Ephrata at just the right time and the power of facebook to connect us.