2 Weeks and Sydney Observatory

Holy crap. I leave two weeks from today. Two weeks seems like such a short amount of time compared to the 3 months I'll be here. What a trip.

Before I left Sydney I really wanted to visit the Sydney Observatory. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, the constellations are completely different. No Big Dipper or North Star?! But, alas, they have the Southern Cross (which is on their flag).

Now, seeing how this is at night and I only have a phone, I couldn't really take photos. But here's the first telescope we looked through. It's about 140 years old (oldest operating telescope in the Southern Hemisphere).

Our guide was Carlos. His deprecating humor, Spanish accent and knowledge made him a great guide. We first stepped outside and saw the full moon and Southern Cross. We then looked through the telescope pictured above and saw Saturn (very faint) and Venus (incredibly bright, even to the naked eye). One unexpected cool thing about being in a small observatory dome is the echos. On the other side of the room, Carlos' voice will boom. But then I'll hear the little boy whispering to his mom as if he's in my ear. Crazy. Like you have voices in your head.

We then went to another observatory. This was a more up-to-date telescope (aimed with a computer, not by hand). We saw a cluster of stars that were 1,600 light years away and 60 light years wide. It appeared as a bunch of pinhead white dots. Next we saw Neptune with its blueish hue. Finally, we looked at the full moon. Wow. That was bright to stare at, but I got to see the craters up close.

Lastly, we went and saw a 3D movie that gave a bit more perspective on just how freaking huge the Universe is.

Overall, it was a lot of fun. However, I was hoping to learn more about the Southern Hemisphere constellations but still worth the trip.

Tomorrow I leave for Cairns (pronounced "cans"). There I'll see a rain forest and the Great Barrier Reef. I'll write up this last trip of mine probably on Monday.

The Winery

Today after work a few of us went to a wine bar in Surry Hills (area of Sydney). This was to keep up with the Wine Wednesday tradition.

We went to The Winery. A fun and cool place. Complete with cowhide chairs and love seats to sit on. Great, hip vibe.

I ordered a bottle of Shiraz from Barossa. Fruity, with a raspberry/cherry flavor with a lot of spice (black pepper I'd say). Really enjoyable and easy to drink.

Gotta love that low light setting

I also ordered a little bit of food. We then started having fun and taking pictures. Seeing how it was really dark, I realized we needed another light source. So I used the candle in the middle of the table.

Towards the end, the waiter informed us that they were having a free Riesling tasting. Well, we couldn't turn that down, could we? It was great and informative. I don't typically like Rieslings because they are a little too sweet from me. However, I learned that German Rieslings (the most typical/traditional type) are sweeter, but Aussie ones are dryer. We tried an Aussie one, California one (from Monterey) and a German one. I really liked the Australian one. It was nice and dry and mineral-ly. Great wine.

So another successful wine night. Tomorrow we go to the planetarium to see the Southern Hemisphere! Then I gotta pack for my weekend trip to the Great Barrier Reef!

Frankie's Pizza

Today after work I met up with a buddy to head to Frankie's Pizza. Wow, this place really surprised me. One part tries to be an old fashion Italian pizza place. But you walk through a door and the other part becomes a type of metal-music playing bar. And the beer they serve is great. They even had the Green Flash IPA (one of my favorite beers; hails from San Diego).

With the pizza I ordered I also asked for a Red Duck Pale Rider.

This was a tasty pale ale. Of the American pale ale tradition. Red Duck brewery is from Victoria. Success! I found a truly tasty Aussie micro brewery (although I noticed this place also served some NZ beers, too).

I struck up a conversation with one of the bartenders (had long, rocker-style hair and tattoos. He definitely fit in with the theme of Metallic posters). He mentioned some other good places I could go for some beers and that Frankie's was getting a new shipment in next week. Loving this.
I then tried a Grifter Pale Ale (Sydney brewery).

Wow! So tropical and floral. A fantastic beer. I should have never lost hope. There's good beer to be found everywhere.

Yes, I indulged and capped the night off with a Prickly Moses Red Ale. Very caramel-y. Not my favorite of the 3 (that's probably the Grifter), but a good beer.

Well, it just took 2.5 months, but found awesome beers in Sydney!

Rain

Well, I'm still getting used to waking up on a Monday and checking my fantasy football scores once I get into the office. Thankfully, this week was much better than my 0-3 week last week. Vick is rewarding me for trusting in him one more year (please stay healthy) and Marshawn Lynch turned in a dominating performance. If all goes well on MNF, I should be 3-0 for the week (I'm in 3 leagues).

Not much else to report on today. Just wrapping up one job while waiting for another client to get its act together. Just some rain today. Glad I brought an umbrella (brelly) to work. Although heading to the gym I got soaked.

Eating bugs

As I mentioned in my post about my first trip to the Sydney fish market, bugs are lobster-like creatures. I've never seen them in a supermarket before, so I figured I better eat them before I leave Australia.

Each one cost about $8

Three of us decided to cook them up for a Sunday dinner. So off to the fish market to pick up 3 bugs. It's nice because they offered to cut them in half for us. Heck, they even packaged them up for us.

I found this recipe that inspired us.

First we blanched them for 1 min.

Then we fried up some butter, garlic, mushrooms, and olive oil and pan fried them for 3 minutes.

When the time was up, we popped them into the oven for 5 minutes at 450 degrees (about 230 degrees Celsius).

And then, of course, the plating.

Not as good as lobster, but tasty. Weird little creatures, but glad I tried it.

Robbery, Beach, and Sports

I was working from the office on Friday and someone mentioned there was a robbery at Westpac. Westpac is a major bank here (the bank I use. They have a deal with Bank of America, so no transaction fees for me). Turns out someone ran a car into an ATM and made off with some cash
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/masked-bandits-ramraid-westpac-bank-in-sydney8217s-cbd-were-8216in-and-out-in-two-minutes8217/story-fnii5s3y-1226718404502

The crazy thing is, that's the ATM I've used (first one I used in the city, actually). It's across the street from the office.

For dinner, a group of us went to The Grill. A fancy-ish burger joint. Wow. This burger (and the seasoned fries) was the tastiest I've had west of California. It was a lamb burger with goat cheese and humus.

And they had Tabasco sauce!

Moving on to Saturday, a group of us was supposed to go to Bondi Beach. However, the forecast changed and the weather was now supposed to be kinda crappy and rainy. However, on Saturday afternoon it seemed nice enough so we ended up going anyway.

So, after some good sushi at a decent price, we headed out.

Mmmm... sushi

As you can tell from the picture below, we were fooled. Not really a beach day.

It was windy and not that warm. In fact, I was shivering half the time. I think the only people there were Irish tourists. But, hey, we made it there.

Don't have to worry about the towel blowing away with so much sand... And yes, my towel screams tourist

After freezing and being sandblasted at the beach, we went to an AFL game. It's the playoffs and it's the #1 seed Sydney Swans vs the Carlton Blues (#9 seed but became the 8th and final playoff spot after the Bombers were DQed for PED use. I saw the Bombers and Blues play in Melbourne).

Our seats were pretty good and as before, a fun game to watch.

One of the best parts is listening to the fight/team songs at the beginning, and then the winner's at the end. Straight out of the 1950's. Hilarious. (We are the red and white! We stay with you day and niiiight)

Sydney dominated the game, especially in the 3rd quarter. However, they took the 4th quarter off and the score got closer, but never really in doubt.

86 to 62

A co-worker from Scotland and I then went to a bar near the stadium to watch an English Premier League game. It was Manchester United versus Crystal Palace. Not much of a game (Man U was in full control).

After this, I got home around 12:30am. As you may have guessed from the previous post, I then watched the Nebraska vs UCLA game. It started at 2am. I set my alarm for 1:45am but somehow slept through it and woke up at 3:30. Nebraska was winning at halftime. Yes!!! This is going to be good! I went to the bar I planned on watching it at, but they didn't have ESPN 2. So I went to the casino.

I had them put the game on and that's where my depression kicked in as I watched our offense stumble and our defense give up 38 unanswered. *sigh*

Afterwards, I thought about staying up and watching the Alabama vs Texas A&M game, but decided 5am was early enough. I went back home. The weather matching my mood.

Oh well...

I'm writing this on Sunday from outside Wine Odyssey Australia, a cute little wine bar I actually visited at the beginning of my secondment. I'll post about my Sunday later.

Nebraska

Ugh... so I woke up and headed to the casino to watch the Nebraska versus UCLA game. I didn't wake up at 4am to watch us give up 38 unanswered points and lose. This is depressing. I'm headed home for bed. A better, more uplifting post to follow.