Reunion In Sydney - 15 Years in the Making...

I just had to write about the most unexpected and amazing reunion I've ever experienced and it all happened yesterday. A little background:

As you may know, I grew up in Singapore and as a result, made friends from all over the globe. One such friend was Henry Armstrong (seen here at Max's birthday party with sister Westerly) - a Singapore born Aussie that lived in the same condos as I did. Henry and I became fast friends and played together all the time. Some of my fondest childhood memories are running around our complex playing made up games, swimming in the pool and going on mini-adventures around the island together. It was a sad day when Henry and I had to say good-bye.

Ever since that time, I've kept Henry in the back of my mind, always curious as to where in the world he might be. I hadn't assumed that he would be in Australia at all - seeing as most people leave Singapore and head off in a totally random direction. I looked for him every so often on MySpace but to no avail. About a month or two before I left for Sydney, I decided to join Facebook and became totally addicted (like everyone else). For some reason, it wasn't until I was here in Sydney that I decided to search around and see if Henry might be on there. To my surprise... he was! I found him in 3 seconds after 15 years of absolutely no contact. Now the strange part - he lives just a few hours outside of Sydney and has for years BUT he had JUST signed on to Facebook himself right around the time I did. Sooooo amazing!

It wasn't long before we were in touch and decided to meet up. Well, last night Henry and I met for a drink at the Blah Blah Bar. He looks EXACTLY the same (+15 years). It was so amazing! We both just laughed for about 15 minutes but immediately fell into reminiscing mode. We caught each other up on families and our lives but mostly talked about our favorite memories from The Peak and SAS. It still blows my mind that we were sitting there - catching up. We even started telling this random lady next to us about our story - she was impressed. :)

So that is the story. We certainly plan to not lose touch again and feel pretty certain we'll be hanging out again some day. Not to sound completely cliche but - what a small world...

Cheers,
B.

Best Farewell Ever

Wow - just when you come to think you've grasped how amazing your friends are they end up doing something so surprising it leaves you honored to be even associated with them! That's how I feel about Bel and Rich! (And Mel, Dennis and Mark) :)

The day starts out with a raging rainstorm which pretty much just made me roll over and go back to bed but poor Bel was probably freaking out due to her surprise being outdoors! I made my way over to Warringah Mall for the first time after the rain stopped. This was good as I was able to take a bus I had never used before and see a little bit more of my surrounding area. I indulged in some serious retail therapy and checked in with Bel to see what plans she had cooked up. I got a few hints - dress warm, bring music and Mel, Dennis and Mark would be picking me up at 5p. I was so excited and had no idea what she was up to!

I rushed home to fix myself up - carefully straight-ironing my hair (later realized to be a huge waste of time) and got ready to go! When the gang picked me up I had no idea where we were going but we headed towards the Sydney Harbour Park I had just visited a few weekends before. Mel had the great idea to blindfold me with my scarf! We parked and they helped me walk to the surprise spot. And then the big reveal! Bel and Rich had set up this amazing spread of cheeses, olives, strawberries and chocolate, smoked salmon and cream cheese and lots of champagne all on the cliffs of North Head! We could see the city across the harbor and the sun was set low in the sky. It was amazing! I couldn't believe they had done all that for me! As decoration - they had the Aussie and American flags laid out on the table. The wind was amazingly strong - I just couldn't capture it in the pictures!

After the sun set, we packed up and went to Bel and Rich's favorite bar - The Skiff Club. This reminded me of the Changi Sailing Club where we used to belong in Singapore. It's a great bar with a deck overlooking the Manly Harbour and all the boats! We found a spot out on the deck and apparently had a three hour photo shoot after I looked back over the pictures! What a great night!




After way too many champagnes - Mel and I attempted to go see a band but completely missed it! Oops - so we basically just turned around and came home again. The end of the night is extremely hazy so even if we had made the show - I probably wouldn't have remembered! Ouch!




So this is now my favorite memory of this exchange! This has been such a fabulous experience and it's still not over. Mom, Dad and Becky get here in two days to explore Sydney and then continue on with me to New Zealand. How did I ever get so lucky? :)

Cheers,
Bridget

Reconnecting with Nature

As I entered a few important dates into my Outlook calendar the other day, I suddenly realized "Holy Crap! I only have 3 weekends left!" This came as a surprise for me as I was just coasting along - enjoying the days and weekends as they passed by. Well - not anymore! I had to take a good look at my To Do list and start making some serious progress! First on the list (recommended by just about everyone I came across in Manly) was a stroll through the Sydney Harbor National Park aka North Head. The same comments resounded with each recommendation, "the views are amazing!"

The walk to the park from my apartment is about 15 minutes and there isn't much to the park until you get to the main attraction (which are the cliffs!) As I walked through I was hopeful that I would some across some endangered bandicoots but to no avail. All I found was this mouse! But at the time, I couldn't really remember what a bandicoot looked like, so I snapped a picture just in case. Stupid mouse!


The views from the cliffs are magnificent! Extremely dramatic in every regard! The entire experience was dramatic actually - as I headed out on my walking tour I knew that I was playing with fire or I should really say water. The ominous clouds did not lie as they unleashed their fury right as I reached the cliffs. Luckily, there happened to be this tiny concrete hut (the only shelter, period, for quite some time) right there. I dipped in to the hut to hold out for clear skies with 4 other soaked tourists. When the clouds parted the sun came out and it was a beautiful afternoon from there on out.

As I headed back to town, I suddenly saw this little path almost covered by brush. I decided to continue my adventure and headed down the path for a little exploration. By the time I came to the end, I saw it was well worth the very muddy trek down. I came to some gorgeous cliffs not guarded by safety fences or walkways. Yes, very smart seeing as I was by myself! But I did manage to get some amazing shots! I didn't dangle my feet over the edge or anything so I figured I played it pretty safe. :)

















So, that's one more thing to strike off the list. I still hope to do some kayaking around Manly and get to Hunter Valley for some wine tasting! Time is of the essence!

Cheers!
B.

Bowling, Drinking and Running

Yes, that is the order we did it in too. It's not highly recommended - we'll it isn't recommended unless you can space the running part out a few days! This weekend was Dennis' birthday so we had big plans to go to the horse races! I have never been to a horse track before so I was all excited about the experience. Well, apparently there has been a serious outbreak of the equine flu here - bringing the entire equestrian industry to a standstill. No races, no shows, no transporting horses in anyway. They are saying that it will not only affect The Carnival which is kind of like our Kentucky Derby in the States but possibly the Olympic hopefulls for 2008 in China. Pretty serious! So, needless to say, we needed a sudden back up plan for Dennis' birthday. What did we do instead??? Bowling!!

Now, it seems bowling is not that big here because just about everyone except for me had not been bowling in 10+ years.. if ever! On top of that - we lucked out with a cosmic bowling night. We started at Bel & Rich's place for drinks and apps. After much champagne - we headed out to the bowling alley for some serious competition! We had a blast! The girls dominated the 3 game series - showing the guys how it was done! Of course, we ended up closing the place down and headed back to Bel & Rich's for some late night celebrating and much needed pizza. At this point - the furthest thing from Bel and I's mind was the 13k race we had to run the next morning...at 8am. It was a long night.

And then suddenly it was morning! Where did that come from? Ouch... we awoke - half drunk - very tired. Should we forget the race? Roll over and go back to bed??? No, becuase we are dumb. We dragged ourselves out of bed, put our numbers on and headed off to the race. We started on beach - sun shining, waves crashed, head pounding... We managed to actually run quite a bit of the race. More than I expected actually! There were some spectacular views as we ran along the coast. I wish I had brought my camera on this one! At least you can see our course on the left. We finished the 13k's (little over 8 miles) in 1 hour and 49 minutes. That put me at 1023rd place out of out of 1593 at 7.15 km/hr. I love that they posted all these stats! Yeah - we definitely walked the hills. Funnily enough - this race is called Pub2Pub. We ended The Arms - a great pub overlooking a picturesque harbour - but the last thing we wanted was a drink! We ended up heading home after a scrumptious pub breakfast to sleep off the damage we did the night before! The rest of Sunday was spent snoozing on the couch - much needed and I felt, well-deserved!

City 2 Surf 2007

I did it! On Sunday, 12 August I ran my first 14k race - The City 2 Surf race from Sydney to Bondi Beach. Well ok, I didn't exactly "run" the entire thing. There was some walking involved but I am very proud of Dennis, Bel and myself! Bel and I ran quite a bit and finished the race in about 1 hour and 50 minutes. Dennis left us in the dust! A 14k race is roughly about 8.7 miles which was officially the longest run I had ever participated in. This was the 37th annual City 2 Surf run with just over 64,000 people entered. Intense! I have run the Peachtree before and there were a few similarities but overall - this was a far more challenging run. The Peachtree is overall pretty flat with the one large challenge called "Heartbreak Hill". The City 2 Surf is extremely hilly the whole way through - and also has a "Heartbreak Hill" starting around kilometer 5. It stretches 2k's and is one of the steepest hills I have ever seen! The hill lasts FOREVER!!!

So, here's the breakdown of the whole experience! Bel and Rich picked me up around 7:15am (much later start than the Peachtree) and we headed into Downtown Sydney. The race started near the famous Hyde Park. We were in the HSBC section meaning - we weren't star athletes in the first section (aka Kenyan) and we weren't pram pushers in the 3rd section. We crammed into our section and it wasn't long before you started to see the festive runners - dressed up in everything from gorilla suits to nothing but speedos. Nice. Right before we started - our entire section began to strip off jackets and pants to get into their running gear. Where did all those clothes go? They all tossed them to the sides - the sides of the streets, fences and bus stops were covered in clothes! Apparently, everyone wears something old over their running gear and then "donates them to charity" by tossing them over the crowd onto the side walks. A charity then comes by and picks it all up.

Finally the horn sounded for our section and we were off. It was so crowded - we probably shuffled along for the first 5 minutes before we could even break into a swift walk! The race was pretty challenging the entire way through. There were plenty of hills which kept us struggling! By the time we hit the bottom of heartbreak hill I was already getting tired! That hill was a KILLER! MUCH, much steeper than the Peachtree and MUCH, much longer. The race wound up the large hill keeping you guessing as to whether it ended just around the next bend or kept going for eternity! Apparently, someone keels over every year on the hill but I think we made it through this race with no fatalities! Hurray! For perspective - we started in the city behind us and here are Bel and I - ALMOST to the top of heartbreak hill!

As with the Peachtree, people came out to watch the runners and cheer them on. I have to say, the Peachtree has this race beat when it comes to sideline support. There were a few bands along the way as well as neighbors standing in their yards with hoses spraying the passing runners - but the fanfare didn't really compare to the Atlanta race. I do believe City 2 Surf wins in the racer costume department though. People in Atlanta were likely to get arrested for some of the outfits we saw - plenty of budgy smugglers (speedos) and a few true to form Borat's in his famous green bathing suit - ugh!

Just has my legs were about to give out - we finally rounded yet another massive hill and began to descend into Bondi Beach. The finish line emptied right on the beach boardwalk and it was beautiful! The weather was amazing - sunny and clear skies. The ocean was super blue and made for a spectacular finish line! We met up with Dennis at the end and he got us into a sponsored tent! Yay!! Free food and drinks were the perfect reward for all our hard work. A few champagnes later and we were on our way to Michael O'Donnel's house - an NRS AD we work with. He lived about 2 blocks from Bondi Beach and was hosting a big BBQ in honor of the race. A few drinks there and we caught a cab back to Manly. But - no rest for the weary - we headed straight to Bec's house - a good friend of Bel's for a roast! So yes, we managed to eat back everything we had burned off during the race. By the time 8pm rolled around, Bel and I were fading fast. Rich was kind enough to take us home and I literally crashed into bed at 8:30p and was dead to the world!

It was a great weekend although I wish the race was a Saturday because now I am at work when I would much rather be sleeping in and nursing my incredibly sore legs! I guess it's better to just push through the pain!

Oh yeah - Bel and I also managed to raise about $400 through friends sponsoring us for the orphanage in Kenya that NRSI supports! It was well worth the effort on our part and we had a great time doing it!

My Melbourne Weekend

My Melbourne weekend was a big success. I started the adventure on Thursday after visiting our lovely venues. Molly (my co-worker from NRSI) drove me into Melbourne. After hearing countless horror stories about the location of my hotel (ie: "Oh, King Road? That's the strip club capital of Melbourne!", "Sure, I know where that is... isn't that the slums?", "Oh yeah - that's where the prison is") yeah, it was actually just fine! Molly went in with me to make sure all was right and I checked into my TINY little room shown here. It was literally just big enough for the bed but that's all I needed it for anyway.

Thursday was just getting started. I got in touch with my new swing pal, Darren, and we decided to meet up for dinner before dancing. Dinner was definitely interesting. We talked about dancing and then moved into traveling and that opened up the whole "American Aggrievances" conversation. I must have spent the entire dinner apologizing for all of the US's shortcomings. He hates the food, the government, the customs, the people and their attitudes, the US's involvement in the war and how they forced Australia to be part of it and the list went on and on! By the end of the dinner, I was SUPER ready to get to the dancing part of the night. Once we got to the club - the mood relaxed. I met up with another guy that I met on Facebook, Matt and he was super nice. Darren is on the left and Matt is on the right. Everyone at the club was really cool! It was funny - I must have been asked a dozen times "Where is that accent from?" For some reason that caught me off guard! I would say Georgia.. and I would still get blank looks sometimes. I danced a TON and had a great night. They definitely know how to dance - Everyone is tri-lingual here - Lindy, Bal and Charleston. Very impressive!

Friday I got to play tourist and actually I was on a mission that day. I had a ticket to the Footies (Australian Football which looks a lot like rugby don't tell that to an Australian) that night compliments of the paper we are working with and didn't realize it came with a dress code! I had a ticket in their suite and there were no jeans allowed! Oops - that's all I packed for the weekend! So, that was my cue to take advantage of Melbourne's famous shopping opportunities.. and there are plenty of them! I bought an entire new outfit with the help of a nice sales girl - totally in Aussie style. The biggest thing going here are these sweater dresses and yes girls... leggings. I had to do it! So, now I am officially Aussie-trendy.

That day I also had a great time taking the free trolley that runs around the entire city. It's called the City Link and even has a little recording that tells you the highlights of each stop. I definitely have to give it up for Melbourne for it's great public transport.

Later that evening it was time for the Footies! The stadium was right behind my hotel so I could walk there. A short walk past the very impressive train station and I was at the Telstrum Stadium! It was the Bulldogs vs. the Eagles (guess who I rooted for?). Our suite was really nice! We had a tasty free dinner and free drinks all night long. Yeehaw! I got a few more lessons on football (you can't have too many) and met some really cool people. Later that night a few of us continued the festivities at a club called CQ. It was really fun, really big and totally 80's! After all the that dancing it was back to hotel for some serious rest!



Saturday was another day of playing tourist. I tooled around the city for most of the day, hoping on and off the tram. I made my way over to Eureka! which is the tallest building in Australia. It's part offices, part apartments and VERY tall. You can go to the top to see all of Melbourne - so I did! It was a beautiful view - right around sunset so I hope the pictures come out! After that, I rushed over to The Docklands which is an up and coming area in the city with some funky art. First there was this bridge that was inspired by traditional fishing nets and then some strange modern art - yes, that's a cow in a tree.










Sunday was a last ditch effort to shop still I dropped so I hit the direct factory outlets for one more go! I finally made my way over to Flinders Street station to catch the train back to Dandenong! All in all, it was a great weekend get-away and opportunity to see a beautiful city!

Surfs Up!

It has been a week-long celebration of everyone's favorite Aussie - Belinda Thackray - so Thursday kicked things off when I was lucky enough to be invited to the Thackray family birthday dinner. I was really looking forward to seeing Bel's parents again so we started the night off with snacks and drinks at their house. I absolutely LOVE Bel's parents. It's so cute - her mom calls me "Pet" - it's adorable. "Would you like some more wine Pet?", "Are you warm enough Pet?". It kind of reminds me of Wallace and Gromit for some reason. Is that weird? We then headed to this great little Thai restaurant for a delicious feast. Most of the restaurants here are BYOB so Bel's dad brought some tasty wines along with one of my new favorites - sparkling shiraz. It's pretty tasty. I also got to meet Bel's Grandmother who is 92 and as bright as you or me. She was a real treat and wished me well on my stay here.

Bel's actual birthday was on Friday. After work we all headed to the Blah Blah Bar for some "drinkies" as Bel would say! This is a great little bar about 3 blocks from our office. Again, not sure if I could back there by myself but I actually did end up back there again before the weekend was over! That was a great night. I got to meet a few more of Bel's friends and family. You'll probably start hearing some names over and over so I'll point them out to you! On the left (from left to right) is Melinda, Dennis and Bel and over on the right is Bel and Mark. Dennis, Bel and Mark have been friends since they were about 15 years old! These guys are super nice and hopefully I'll be hanging out with them quite a bit. Actually, by the end of the night Dennis was nice enough to let me in on some plans for Saturday evening - there was a HUGE rugby match on - Australia vs. New Zealand - which is one of the biggest rivalries going. So Friday was a big success - good times.

On Saturday I woke up at a decent time and decided to go for a run. As I was running along the beach I decided to do a little investigating on this idea I've been toying with. I really wanted to take some surfing lessons while I was here even though it's the middle of winter. Who cares!!! Everyone else is still out there, surfing everyday so I figured I could handle it! I stopped into a surf school to check out the dates and times and before I knew it, I was signed up for a class that afternoon. It worked out perfectly, the sun was out, it was decently warm and the waves weren't out of control. I have to say, after you finally manage to get the thing on, wetsuits are pretty amazing! I couldn't believe how warm those things keep you. So, the four other students and I toted our 300 pound practice boards down to the calmest part of the beach. The practice boards are HUGE and made of this dense foam stuff. It was like hauling a dead body down the beach - so heavy! We had a quick lesson in paddling and standing up on the board on the beach and then we were off in the water. The instructor would hold the back of your board while you laid down and basically just give you a good push right as the wave approached. Then you paddled like mad and hoped you caught the wave! I managed to get up three times including my very first try. I was pretty excited! I also ate it many a time and was massacred a few times by oncoming waves. I had no idea how hard it was just to paddle out there! I definitely need to work on the upper body strength. I made the decision to go back a few more times and hone my skills before I leave. And yes, today my entire body is aching!

Later that night, I met up with Mark, Dennis and one of their friends at The Oaks which is this amazing bar in Neutral Bay (the other place I almost moved to). It is a huge converted hotel. A lot of the old sleeping rooms have been converted to private pool rooms and there were huge lounge areas everywhere. Everyone and their mom was there to watch the games. We managed to find a room with heat and a television so I got yet another lesson on rugby. I am starting understand however there are about 3 different versions of rugby going on at the same time -all with different field shapes, scoring and rules. Dennis is keeping me on my toes by constantly quizzing me on the rules and scoring. He says I'll have a written exam before I leave! Besides the 2 different types of rugby going on that night - Australia was also playing Japan in soccer so it was a sports bonanza! After watching the main rugby match, we decided to change locations and low and behold - ended back at the Blah Blah Bar! We watched most of the soccer match there before finally calling it a night.

Sunday has been a catch-up day. I ran first thing in the morning and then came back to "chore time". I cleaned the apartment, did the laundry and now have to pack for Melbourne! I am really looking forward to my first Aussie program. It's a newspaper which I am not that familiar with so it should be interesting. And then my first chance at dancing in Oz on Thursday! I can't wait!

That's all for now.
Cheers!
B.