Portuguese chicken and outlets

First off, I have no idea how I spelled Portuguese right on my first attempt. Seriously, you people don't realize how lucky you are that there's spellcheck.

It's lightning and raining outside. I just got back from the gym. Before that I was at Blackbird. Whenever you work past 7:30pm, you get $25 towards dinner. Back in the States, we have a similar policy, but it's $10 if you work over 10 hours (I guess it's an IRS thing, or at least that's what my firm tells me to avoid sounding super cheap...). Well, I worked late, so I decided to cash in on that. So here's my $23 chicken burger.

 

It's actually a Portuguese burger. I've seen that advertised around the city. From what I can tell, it's a chicken burger with certain spices on it and a mayo/chipotle sauce. It's quite tasty. Now, those fries... not so much. Oh, and worth noting, that's tomato sauce, not ketchup. Ketchup isn't readily available, which is a sad thing. Tomato sauce just isn't the same...

 

Before jumping on to the next titular topic, I wanted to show a pic of a train seat.

 

This is from an older train car

What's cool is that the back seat flips. So you can always be facing the direction the train is going. Pretty neat, huh?

 

Anyway, I thought I'd share some photos of some plugs. Now, I gotta be honest, I had a heck of a time taking a photo that does justice to Aussie plugs. They seem so big and cartoon-y.

 

 

 

Obviously, a North American plug is on the right

 

How the heck did plugs not become a universal thing? I understand languages evolving over time back when the world wasn't so small. Driving/riding horses on the opposite sides of the street. Preferring different tastes based on local food sources. But I feel like plugs are a relatively new invention? Obviously, we're stuck with these differences, but it just strikes me as odd

 

What's also odd/cool are the outlets.

 

 

I don't think I've seen an outlet without those little switches. They turn the power on/off. Kinda cool if you want to cut power to, say, a toaster without having to unplug it. Although I'm not sure how big of an impact they have?

 

I'll end with another installment of something I like to call, Wow! Sydney's Expensive!

 

 

Monday

Editor's Note: This has got to be the lamest post yet. It's like the writer is trying to blog about a workday...

Got home a little bit ago from the gym. I suppose nothing really to report from there. Although there was a girl who had a personal trainer, but she kept texting in between sets. This appeared to really annoy the guy (understandable).

Worked until about 6:30pm today. Starting to kick off my Australian busy season. Should be pretty busy the next two weeks.

After work and lifting, I cooked up the remaining kangaroo burgers I purchased (I had frozen half). I've determined that it isn't my favorite meat. Pretty strong flavor. But not terrible.

I also booked my hostel in Christchurch tonight. Now I just need to finalize my itinerary of things I'll be doing. Walking around will be a little trickier. I won't have a functioning cell phone over there. It will be just like old times back when I was studying abroad in Barcelona. Should be a good adventure.

And speaking of phones, my prepaid plan expires today. I assume in 47 minutes I'll no longer be able to text or use data. But not to worry. I can easily recharge it online in the morning.

Art Gallery of NSW

Whew. The final of my 3 part Sunday posting. Worth noting, today marks my 4th week in Sydney.

Today was a slower pace day. I talked with my fiancee and sisters in the morning. I then made my way over towards the Art Gallery of NSW. Along the way, I stopped inside the St. Mary's cathedral I blogged about earlier. Beautiful inside. No photos allowed, so just trust me on that.

The Art Gallery was really cool (and free!). Had some Asian and European art, but I focused on checking out the Aussie art. I also got to go on the 1 hour free Australian art tour. Very informative. With art, I really need to know the context, history, etc in order to really get a lot outta viewing it.

The first piece I noticed on my own was this one:

Wallabies!

The next paint that struck me was this one, The Cockatoo,  1895

What struck me about this one was I swore I've seen a similar European painting but with a duck instead of a cockatoo. My initial guess was that it was a type of Australian copy, or rather, painting in that style/tradition. I did some quick research and I think I was wrong. Looks like Jean-Baptiste painted rabbits.

But my initial suspicion of Australian painters following European traditions was correct. During the tour, we learned that landscape paintings became the calling card of Australian paintings, given the "unique" landscape (compared to Europe) but often painted in a European style.

The tour guide then took us to another wing. She asked us to look left and then look down to the right. She asked this little boy if he noticed a difference between the paintings from the left and right. I know what I first thought of.

To the left

To the right...

The correct answer was that there were more "humans" in the paintings to the right, but more animals and landscape to the left. The left is what became more traditional Australian subjects. The paintings to the right were from Australian painters who went to Europe and tried to make it big there (aka, paint more European type stuff).

The last thing she showed us was some aborigine art.

You'll note (or maybe not) that there are a lot of dots in aborigine paintings. That's because traditionally a wood utensil is used to paint, so the paint is just kind of dotted on there.

Wrapping up the museum, I went to the modern and post-modern area. I got to see Richard Serra. Studied that guy in school. He was a famous minimalist who often used industrial materials for his artwork.

Probably the coolest thing, though, was this installation on the bottom floor. I should have taken a picture or at least got a name. But I didn't. It was a room you walk into. There was a warning about it being dark and tight spaces. You're supposed to tell the guard that you're going in. I went in, and wow, it was spooky. It was small, dark, and just the way it was designed made you want to turn around and leave. Like you're in a small, abandoned basement. However, I told myself I couldn't turn around because the guard knew I went in. I made may way through the first tiny room (talking 6' X 5' maybe) and opened the first door. Darkness. Hmm... Do I go left or do I go right? Left ended up being the right answer. You turn another small bend and there it is! That has to be the exit! Whew, it was. I step out and she goes "you made it." Yep. Although, I felt a little guilty. At the point where I needed to figure out if I should go left or right, I broke out my cell phone (only for 1 second!). Oddly, I felt like I should have told her that, but I didn't. We talked about the installation a little bit. It was cool to get the guard's perspective. Her take is that it's designed to get that apprehension and fear going. She's seen all kinds of people walk in and seconds later come out the front. But wow, I made it all the way through (ughh! making me feel so guilty!). Pretty cool. Really heightened your senses.

On my walk home, I saw the weirdest thing. I didn't get the best photo. Just took a snapshot.

Building in the back is the gallery

There were about 6 - 8 guys standing on the grass or on a soap box talking (with others around). I couldn't really figure out what it was, but made me think of Athens or something back in the day with all the philosophers talking and arguing. There was a guy talking about Christianity, someone talking about Communism (maybe?), about atoms (Atheism?), matter and atoms, unions (again, maybe? Wow, I really should have paused a bit longer).

Afterwards, I went to Cole's, worked out, did some laundry, and posted on my blog. Exciting day. Bedtime soon to get ready for a big week. Should probably book a hotel in Christchurch, though...

Oh, and it was brought to my attention that in order to leave comments, you had to sign up. give you SSN, your first born, etc. I changed the default setting to let anyone post without opening an account. Because nothing could go wrong with allowing the Internet to post freely...

Blue Mountains

Morning came early on Saturday. Had to catch a 8am bus to the Blue Mountains. 4 of us purchased a Groupon tour for $71.50 each. Seemed like a good enough deal for a full day tour. The bus left from the Star Hotel/Casino. Dang, I had a heck of a time finding where the buses where. But alas, found it finally and we were off.

The Blue Mountains are about a 3 hour drive outside of Sydney. Along the drive, we had a very talkative tour guide. Learned about various bridges we drove over, areas of Sydney, history, and even the controversial "White Australia" Policy that ended about halfway through the last century. Looks like racism is pretty universal. The goal of the policy was to have only immigrants from Europe.

Our first stop was at Echo Point. This is home of the famous Three Sisters rock formation. Legend has it that three sisters were turned into stone to keep them safe from the bunyip (Aussie version of big foot).

Three Sister (on the left)

The first thing we did was check out the $10 aborigine show (~15 minutes). It seemed pretty touristy, but when would I get to see some aborigine stuff?

 

Playing the didgeridoo

Hearing the didgeridoo was pretty cool. Something to keep in mind, not all aborigines played the didgeridoo. Similar to the Native Americans, there are all kinds of different aborigine tribes throughout Australia. Each with their own language, customs, etc (although I gather there are similarities).

 

Also got to see boomerangs (although not in action). My favorite is the hunting boomerang. It doesn't return. It's just big and heavy to break kangaroo, etc legs.

 

We got to see some dancing, too. They even called up 4 male volunteers to partake in a kangaroo dance. I didn't volunteer, but sitting in the front volunteered me. I had to hop around and act like a kangaroo. I'm pretty sure this one wasn't an ancient aborigine dance. Probably just to get the tourists to look ridiculous. But it was a fun show. The performers were clearly having a good time.

 

Some more shots from Echo Point.

 

 

 

 

Check out all those eucalyptus trees. Really a beautiful sight. And if you look closely, you'll note a blue haze (more apparent in the first photo). That's where the Blue Mountains get their name. That haze is from light reflecting off eucalyptus oil/water in the air.

 

 

We next drove up to the Jenolan Caves. The world's oldest cave, according to our friendly tour guide. 300 million years old.

 

Tight fit through the mountain to the parking lot.

 

 

We got to climb up those stairs.

 

Just kidding. That ladder is for workers to change the light bulbs.

 

Here's me looking super cool with my sunglasses on:

 

 

I was done taking photos. But then the guide said we had to take a picture of the broken column. It's the most famous part of the cave.

 

Formed by either the top or bottom shifting

Cool cave. Outside the cave was the blue lake. Gets its name from its color. All the limestone creates a blue hue.

 

 

 

 

Now it was time for the 3 hour drive back to Sydney. Got back to Sydney around 6:30pm. Thankfully we made it through all the tight curves in the mountain.

 

 

Photo doesn't do it justice. There were some tight curves

Last fun fact: Australia is flattest continent. Might be the oldest, but everything is just worn down. The tallest mountain is only about 2,000 meters. In the States, I think we call that South Dakota.

 

After getting back, 3 of us decided to grab some pizza at The Australian Hotel. I blogged about this place earlier when I first ate kangaroo. We got the saltwater crocodile pizza, a caesar salad, and coat of arms pizza. The latter had emu and kangaroo. Both of these animals are on the Australian coat of arms. They're on it because these animals stand upright and can't walk backwards. Also, every single Aussie will tell you "we're the only country in the world that eats the animals on our coat of arms!" That fun fact gets a little less fun over time...

 

We then went to the Shangri-la hotel. On the 36 floor is a fancy bar. Great view and great Manhattan cocktail. Of course, it better be. Cost $21.

 

We walked around the Rocks a bit more then met up with some people in Cockle Bay. I didn't stay out too late, though. Headed home for bed.

Cole's Tuna

It's been a couple days since I've posted. So this Sunday night, I'll do a couple posts. Here's my post related to Friday.

Earlier in the week, I purchased some 90 cent tuna cans for lunch. Pretty good deal. As an added bonus,  there's a ton (tonne?) of different flavors. Never had/seen flavored (flavoured...? no...) tuna before.

 

 

From the top: Japanese style, lime and cracked pepper, spring water (nothing fancy), and rosemary and sun-dried tomato (tah-mah-toe).

 

For lunch on Friday I had the Japanese style and lime & pepper. To be a little frank, flavored tuna is a little weird. I'll keep trying different flavors, but I don't think I'll miss these when I return home to the States.

 

Next week I'll be working on a large public client. It's one of, if not the, largest jobs in the office. So in that way, it's cool I'm on it. However, it will be long hours (which will be a BIG change of pace for me). On top of that, I've agreed with my manager to get the work assigned to me done by Thursday. That way I can take Friday off and go to New Zealand! Yep, I slightly impulse-decided I'd go to New Zealand this upcoming weekend. It looks like the best weekend for me to go. If I'm going to NZ, I kind of need a Friday off. Otherwise, I only get a day and a half there.

 

I was thinking of going to Auckland (shout out to my sister who studied abroad there), but everyone told me that it's just a city. Most suggested Queenstown in the south. That's where a lot of skiing is. I don't really feel like going skiing, though. What's this? How about Christchurch? Made Lonely Planet's top 10 cities to visit in 2013 (check out who's #1). Gotta admit, I had no idea it was wiped out by an earthquake in 2011. It's rebuilding and is supposed to be pretty cool. So what the heck? Besides, it was cheaper to go there and soon I'll be able to say I was in NZ. Yet another bonus: the cheapest flight was Emirates Airlines. Tickets were only $430 and apparently this is one of the most luxurious airlines in the world. Glad I booked last minute.

 

Anyway, after work there was the end of the month party. Had a couple beers (they served James Squire Amber Ale, so I didn't have to settle for more Peronis) then went for Thai food. It was at a place called Shark Hotel (bars are often called hotels because back in the day you had to have rooms if you served alcohol). The restaurant was in the back and is called Holy Basil (bah-zil). Great food, especially the fried ice cream at the end. Reasonable price for drinks, too. We then had the great idea of going to Bar Century. Talk about a dive bar. Full of drunk backpackers, too. Wouldn't make my recommendation list, but it was a fun night out. Didn't want to stay out too late. Headed to the Blue Mountains on Saturday morning (I sense another post coming up...)

 

 

 

 

Royal Baby and Shopping

So it's been a couple days since the royal baby was born. From my American observation, the people in the Common Wealth of Australia... don't really care that much. I mean, it made the news, but I haven't heard one person bring it up or talk about it.

Today is Thursday and that means the stores stay open. There's some great shopping in Sydney. It just strikes me as so strange (I guess un-American?) that the mall and shops close down around 6pm on most nights. But on Thursday, they stay open until around 9pm. Woo hoo!

Today I was on a mission to find a tux dress shirt. I went looking last week at a place called Myer (kind of like a Macy's). They had the shirts, but my size wasn't in. When I was talking to the guy, explaining that I just needed a shirt because I was renting a tux back in the States, he kept using a word I wasn't getting. And I couldn't get it through context. I finally had to ask him and he said "hire." Ooooohhhhh! Hire a tux. In Australia, they use hire instead of rent. I talked to a co-worker and he confirmed this. During this conversation, in bewilderment, he ask, "what do you say when you want to go to a video store and get a movie?" I said, "we say we went a movie." Blew his mind. I guess you would rent an apartment, but other things you would hire. For us, you only hire people.

Anyway, so I thought I would look for more tux shirts options. I think I found I place that would have what I want. Ironically, it was closed today, but I have time to go back.

One store I went to was called David Jones.

Most annoying store ever (Editor's Note: The writer seems to be forgetting about Abercrombie). Similar to a Nordstrom, there are different departments/designers. Unlike Nordstrom, the employees there actually work for the designer, not the store David Jones. So they aren't too terribly helpful (nope, no tux shirts here. What about over there? Nah...).

Moving on, I went into the Queen Victoria Building. Apparently, at one point this building was almost torn down. However, some guy bought it up and turned it into a high-end shopping mall. It even has these cool clocks in it.

I was going to delete this photo, but I took this right at 6 o'clock. The bell startled me. Kinda a cool idea, no? Ehh... maybe not. Here's a clearer photo.

My next mission was to figure out my ring size. I gotta order my wedding band soon. I ended up going to Tiffany's. They use American sizes and I learned I'm a 7. Good knowledge to have.

I then made a quick stop by the St. Mary's Cathedral. Really gorgeous looking church. And I must say, impressed with my phone's low light setting.



That fountain is supposed to be a French-style fountain. According to the tour I took that first week, the guy who had it built was obsessed with all things French.

Ooooooo!

Flying Buttresses!

Time for bed. Gotta rest up. Another office party tomorrow. Time to celebrate the last Friday of the month (goodness, parties ALL the time in this office).

Food Courts

Yes, it's a slow day. It's hard to find exciting topics for each day when you work during the day and, because it's winter, it's dark by 5:20. But alas, I should document the food courts.

Similar in concept to a mall food court, throughout the city there are these food courts that have many different types of restaurants you can order from. Someone mentioned to me that they didn't think there were similar types of food courts in the US. I mentioned that we do have them in malls, but not so much just out and about like here (these food courts are mostly at the base of office buildings). However, after careful consideration, yes, there are indeed food courts in San Francisco (see? I told you I'm not a great observer). However, I'd agree that there aren't as many in the US. And likewise, there don't appear to be as many "stand alone" restaurants here. Please note that this is probably wildly inaccurate.

One cool thing that I can say for sure I've never seen in the States? The tupperware you get when you order from most places.

Gotta collect 'em all!

Now, my apartment didn't come with tupperware, so I've been keeping these as I get them when I eat out for lunch. Let's say you go to a Chinese place. You'll pick a size (I'll take a large for $9) and they'll cram a bunch of Chinese food in it, close the lid, and hand it over. These babies even say they're microwavable! Pretty fancy.

In other news, apparently there was a gruesome murder in Ohio. How do I know this? Because it was on the Australian news channel (ABC - Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Why would Sydneysiders care about a murder in the US? To be honest, the US makes the news a lot (perhaps I would have noticed this in Barcelona, but the language barrier may have posed a problem). My current theory (still being sorted out) is that the USA is kind of like a celebrity. A celebrity in the sense that the world likes to hear what life's like there (think movies, TV shows, Disney) and likes to see the stupid stuff we do. Kind of like how we're like with Kanye. We like to hear that he's a terrible father. And we like to see Kim Kardashian like this. And like Kim Kardashian, not sure why we're a celebrity. However, I do know that Michael Moore documentaries and the TV show Cops (which I see on all the time here) probably doesn't help in the image department.

Hotpot and Baxter

Yesterday (Monday) wasn't too exciting of a day. Did some laundry. Cleaned up the place. And booked flights to Melbourne. I plan to see an AFL (Australian Football League) game while I'm there. AFL is really big in Melbourne compared to the rest of the country (maybe like how NASCAR is big in the South?).

Today after work I met up with 5 others and we had Taiwanese hotpot. It was really tasty and a pretty good price ($17 each). Dang, those red chilies were hot...

Afterwards, we went to The Baxter Inn. A few people mentioned this place to us. It has tons of different scotches.

To find it, you have to go down this little alleyway, turn right, then walk down these stairs. It's a really cool vibe. Almost like a speakeasy-type feel.

The place has scotches/whisk(e)ys from all over, but mostly from Scotland (that may be a duh to those who know a lot about scotch). Times like this I wish I knew more about this type of liquor. Thankfully, one of my co-workers used to work in a scotch bar and pointed us towards some to try.

Of course, when it comes to drinking whiskey, you can't really have a bunch of tastes... I tried the Highland 12 year old scotch and the strongbrake....? Can't really remember what the last one was. My co-worker ordered it. It was something like that, though. Both were pretty good. Seemed to have a slight smoky taste to them. Yeah, I should learn more about scotch. But maybe I'll save that for when I'm 50.

Vegemite



I made some breakfast at my place today. Made a ham and cheese omelet. Oh, and finally tried Vegemite.

 



 

mmm MMM!

From talking with people (who informed me that foreigners do not like Vegemite), you should just put on a little over some butter. I followed this advice and took a bite. I think the next picture sums up the experience.

Yeah... turns out yeast extract doesn't taste that great. To be fair, it wasn't horrible. Just inedible, if that makes sense. It's super salty. I think a hint of smokiness, but not in a good way. Not sure what I'm going to do with the rest of the jar. I'd offer it to a co-worker, but apparently most Aussies don't particularly enjoy it, either.

After breakfast I met up with some more people and went to the Aroma Festival.

There were about a million people at this thing. I started off with a long black coffee for $2. It was tasty. Then I tried a flight of some geisha coffee.

I took a sip and thought I accidentally ordered tea. I asked the guy, and he said geisha coffee is naturally a very different coffee varietal. However, I talked with someone else, and they said this coffee was infused with honey, jasmine, etc. So I'm a little confused. Definitely not what I'm looking for in coffee, but interesting to try.

Finally, we stood in line for over an hour and a half for some spiced Mayan coffee.

It was tasty, but not worth the wait (I doubt any cup of coffee is, but I was just standing talking with people, so no huge deal).

Afterwards, I finally made a quick trip to the botanical gardens. I'll have to go for a run in there.

It's basically just a big, gorgeous park. Lots of plants, ponds, and trails.

Walking home I found this which was a little interesting. These Common Wealth countries really are all about the Queen of England.

Her majesty Queen Elizabeth II planted this tree in 5 Feb 1954

I then had some pizza at Pizza e Birra in Surry Hills (area in Sydney). It was really good. And now I'm back home. Time for bed to start off my Monday.

Featherdale Wildlife Park (and American party)

So last night was our (North) American party (one of the secondees is Canadian, so had to be inclusive). Before the party, we wanted to buy some beer and red cups. Everyone sees these red cups in American college movies, so it is a HUGE stereotype that we drink out of them. And thinking back to college, yeah, I guess that's pretty spot on.

At the liquor store, saw this 1L of Smirnoff.


That's the "special" price?

I think I've already established that alcohol is expensive here, but dang.

 

Thankfully, we were able to find some red (brand name: Redd) cups at this store. We'll be able to have a "true" American party now. I looked around for the cheapest beer and found this.

 

$30 - It's a BIG deal!

I'll just get it out of the way. It's terrible beer. It says "Product of USA" on it. What the heck? I've NEVER seen or heard of this beer before. I'm guessing it's like their version of Fosters. In the States, we have this "Australian" beer called Fosters. It does not exist in Australia.

 

The party was a pretty good success. Taught the Aussies some American drinking games, like flip cup and king's cup. I think I might even had snuck in a "USA!" chant in there.

 

Rewinding a bit, around 11am, a secondee and I hopped on a 45-ish minute train to Blacktown. That's where Featherdale Wildlife Park is. Highly worth the visit.

 

It's smaller than the zoo, but you're right up close to the animals and they are MUCH more active. Even the koalas. The secondee took some sweet photos of us petting and feeding the animals with her camera, so I might post those later once I get copies from her.

 

Wallabies!

 



 

They are tamer in here, so we got to go right up and pet these cute things (I think I've decided wallabies are my favorite Australian animal).

 

Their fur kind of feels like a raccoon



Of course, the ultimate experience was to pet a koala (there were TONS of koalas at this park).

 

 

I didn't find them to be quite as soft as they look or you'd think. A little knotty. And oh my goodness. They have HUGE claws. All animals in Australia have huge claws.

 

 

If you look closely, in the bottom left of the koala there is a little ball of fur. That's a baby in the mom's pouch.  It was darker and they were in the back, so it was hard to snap a photo.

 

You know how we have cow tipping? I suppose here is a good spot to mention my idea of koala tipping. Maybe it's because I'm a terrible person, but if you see these guys just wedged between 2 branches, you'd want to just give them a little push, too.

 

Moving on. We even got to see and pet a dingo.

 

Diet: Babies

Cute little guys. Apparently pure bred dingos are pretty rare. Many have mixed with domestic dogs.

 

After the wildlife park, we picked up the booze (as mentioned above) and stopped at Max Brenner. It's a chocolate cafe. Ate an amazing waffle covered in chocolate.

 

This morning there is the Aroma Festival at The Rocks. I'll be hitting that up soon after some breakfast with some coworkers (going to have a "long black" coffee. Which I've now learned is the same (I think...?) as an Americano).