GeoTagged, [S28.64282, W153.61023]
We're here for the night.
Amy
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Coffs harbour
GeoTagged, [S30.30159, W153.14087]
The calm before the storm...
This is coffs harbour, one of our stops along the way with a great hostel everyone was really friendly.
We're on our way to Byron Bay today hoping the weather stays sunny and warm.
Keep the comments coming we love reading them.
Amy
Monday, July 6, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Dolphins
GeoTagged, [S32.68408, W152.16897]
Don't know how well you can see them in this picture, but we took tons of photos with our good camera, so we'll post some of those when we can
Jesse
Dolphin and whale watching
GeoTagged, [S32.71885, W152.14541]
We're off to dolphin and whale watch on a catamaran called Imagine and who knows we might even get to sail!
Amy
End of the week recap
Well it's the end of the week, not a full week of travel, only the 6th night of travel, but a good time for a recap nonetheless.
First night, Phillip island, saw the penguins and koalas. Second night half way to Sydney in a small little town. Saw some kangaroos there. 3 nights in Sydney, those went by fast, there is tons to do in Sydney, and we did as muchas we could without spending too much money. It was an expensive 3 days regardless. Now we're in port stephens and will be keeping our eyes peeled for some mammals of the sea and some dolphins too.
It's still not that warm, haven't made
It far enough north yet. You can walk around in a tshirt, but it would be really cold if you got in the water.
The hulk (our car) seems to be doing ok and maybe he'll make the whole journey to cairns. Hopefully he does, well I'll keep posting, but I think Amy needs some incentive to post more.
We're at this really cool hostel right now which you can see in the previous post, well you can see part of it. It's interesting enough to deserve it's own post and since we have two nights here, I'll leave that till a later date.
Jesse
First night, Phillip island, saw the penguins and koalas. Second night half way to Sydney in a small little town. Saw some kangaroos there. 3 nights in Sydney, those went by fast, there is tons to do in Sydney, and we did as muchas we could without spending too much money. It was an expensive 3 days regardless. Now we're in port stephens and will be keeping our eyes peeled for some mammals of the sea and some dolphins too.
It's still not that warm, haven't made
It far enough north yet. You can walk around in a tshirt, but it would be really cold if you got in the water.
The hulk (our car) seems to be doing ok and maybe he'll make the whole journey to cairns. Hopefully he does, well I'll keep posting, but I think Amy needs some incentive to post more.
We're at this really cool hostel right now which you can see in the previous post, well you can see part of it. It's interesting enough to deserve it's own post and since we have two nights here, I'll leave that till a later date.
Jesse
Hostel in the jungle.
GeoTagged, [S32.75988, W152.10394]
That's a picture of the outdoor kitchen. I thinkni would love it in the summer, but it was a little chili while cooking up burgers for supper.
Jesse
Nobby's beach Newcastle
GeoTagged, [S32.92397, W151.79187]
We stopped here for lunch, saw some surfers and boogey boarders and one guy who might have been attempting germ warfare. It was a nice place to stop.
Jesse
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Sleeping Amy
GeoTagged, [S33.88343, W151.20093]
When Amy updated the oher post it got rid of the picture for some reason so here is Amy sleeping so that the next to previous post makes sense
Friday, July 3, 2009
James cook's HMB Endeavour
GeoTagged, [S33.86871, W151.19949]
It is a bit bigger than Revenante. Haha. I didn't get to go inside, but I took a whole bunch of pictures from the outside.
We went to Bondi beach this morning on a tour bus. We didnt stick around there, it was really cold and very windy. There were still a lot of crazies on the beach surfing though.
Not sure what we have planned for tonight, maybe have a look at the casino, it's supposed to be really nice. Don't think I'll gamble, but it might be fun to have a look around. I can't really afford to lose any money.
Jesse
My Internet is frustrating on my phone for looking up stuff on NHL.com so anyone who wants to share about who montreal picked up let me know.
Amy sleeping
Waiting for the laundry to finish
Update
(Jesse took this picture without my knowledge)
Amy
Update
(Jesse took this picture without my knowledge)
Amy
Oops
Here is the bird I was inquiring about earlier, not sure why it didn't post the first time. Anyway, off to Bondi Beach
Jesse
Our hostel
GeoTagged, [S33.88152, W151.20587]
This is the hostel in the middle of Sydney. It's quite large. That is all
Jesse
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Sydney!!!
We arrived in Sydney. It took a while, we were tired and grumpy and just wanted to get somewhere where we could put our feet up.
We did arrive and fit our car into the tinyiest little parking spot at which it will stay until we leave Sydney.
We're staying in downtown Sydney at a hostel that is massive. It's really a hotel, but it has everything a hostel would. (kitchen, laundreu, etc. ) it's 8 stories and has a pool and a sauna.
Trying to figure out what we should see tomorrow, so for all of you who have been here before, tell us your tales, where should we go? We'll do fine on our own, but want to hear from you too.
Don't have a photo to geotag right now, maybe tomorrow.
Jesse
We did arrive and fit our car into the tinyiest little parking spot at which it will stay until we leave Sydney.
We're staying in downtown Sydney at a hostel that is massive. It's really a hotel, but it has everything a hostel would. (kitchen, laundreu, etc. ) it's 8 stories and has a pool and a sauna.
Trying to figure out what we should see tomorrow, so for all of you who have been here before, tell us your tales, where should we go? We'll do fine on our own, but want to hear from you too.
Don't have a photo to geotag right now, maybe tomorrow.
Jesse
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Little tourist town
Tiny little town, said there were only 35 people there, but there were around 30 shops so I'm skeptical
Jesse
Canada Day with the koalas
Let's backtrack for a second. After our first night stay on Phillip island we went the the koala conservatory. We saw a whole bunch of koalas that Amy got great pictures of with her good camera. The above picture is just from the phone, we'll try to post more pictures later. It was pretty cool, the koalas were just lazing about. It was really windy and I got a video of what it seems is a koala holding on for dear life as the tree branch sways with the wind. In reality, she probably Didnt wake up. I say she because in the whole conservatory there is only one male (pictured above). An interesting life he leads: sleep 20 hours a day, in the waking hours, eat eucalyptus leaves and get drunk, and has his choice of over 20 women.
Anyway, back to adventuring, I think we'll find some kangaroos today.
Jesse
Hostel #2
GeoTagged, [S36.88915, W149.91549]
We got another private room because it wasn't very busy, hoping this is a recurring theme. Merimbula is the stop and apparently it has some beautiful things to see, we're about to check out and eat breakfast, then we'll see what this place has to offer in the daylight. We wbt exploring last night looking for a greasy spoon for supper, but everything we found was prohibitively exensive. (we didn't want to pay
more for supper than we did our room. ). Did anyone catch the 5 setter between roddick and hewitt? If anyone did, was it a great match. Anyway, off to adventure, tomorrow night, Sydney!!
Jesse
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Beautiful drive
GeoTagged, [S37.88227, W147.97262]
Taking the Princes Highway with lots of great scenery and cute little towns.
Amy
Lunch in Rosedale
GeoTagged, [S38.15173, W146.78600]
Stopped for lunch in a small town called rosedale, in a nice little park.
Jesse
This ones not real
GeoTagged, [S38.40034, W145.02879]
The march of the penguins
Well they call it the penguin parade. The little penguins or fairy penguins come back from a day out fishing, come in with the tide (get tossed around by the wake, they're a foot tall and weigh one kilo.) and go home to their borrows.
We got there an hour before they'd started coming up the beach. Waited out in the rain and nasty wind all bundled up and eventually when dusk came a whole bunch of them started to come up. It was really cute. They would come in groups and if one of the penguins got swept away by the waves, te group would wait for the other little penguin. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of them. They don't allow any photography when the penguins come up so I was only able to take a couple out of focus and low light pictures which don't look good right now, hopefully I can edit them on the computer and post them later.
Jesse
Monday, June 29, 2009
first hostel
GeoTagged, [S38.45386, W145.22456]
It's a caravan park/ hostel place and they're not very busy so they upgraded us to a cabin which is fantastic. We paid for a shared dorm style and got a cabin with a full kithchen bathroom bedroom tv, etc. Very nice diggs for the first night of our trip. Hope it doesn't spoil us.
Jesse
We're off
Our place has been inspected and the keys handed in, our adventure has now begun! First stop Phillip Island to see the little penguins.
X
X
Sunday, June 28, 2009
All packed up and nowhere to go
GeoTagged, [S38.15080, W144.33233]
Everything is packed and we're almost off. We leave tomorrow. Nowhere to go yet and not much to do, but our friends were kind enough to invite us over for dinner which is good since we don't have a functioning kitchen anymore. ( it still works, but it's been cleaned and we don't want to mess it up. Next stop Phillip island. I will blog from there so you can see where we are.
Jesse
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Follow us wherever we go
GeoTagged, [S38.14455, W144.33715]
I'm just testing this but if it works, everytine I post a picture it will be "geotagged". That means that you'll e able to know exactly where it was taken. It will come with geodata that will give our GPS coordinates. You cab then put this in to google earth and zoom to where we are. Hope this works and have fun following us.
Jesse
Onward!!!
Well we are almost done here in the small city of Geelong. Two more nights at our apartment and it’s off to make friends with the penguins. That will be our first stop. Phillip Island.
Had a garage sale and set up a stand at a market to try to get rid of all of our stuff before we take “the Hulk”(That’s our big loud angry car) up the coast. We got rid of a lot of stuff and we’re going to have to give away the rest, but we got some money for it so it was alright.
For those of you who have enjoyed the new format of this blog, it is alas at an end, temporarily. Since internet connections may be few and far between on our trip (I really have no idea) and I can’t blog to this page from anywhere else but my computer, we will be reverting back to solely the original blog at www.ehmeetsgdaymate.blogspot.com. When we get back to Canada, I will probably update this blog with a heap of pictures, but until them, follow us on the other blog. (We can blog from our phones to that one).
Well That’s it for now. We’ll try to update frequently as we travel up the coast. Oh and for those of you who smash at the volume controls when you open this page because you’ve heard that song too much, you also get a break from reverting to the old blog.
Jesse
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Thursday, June 4, 2009
I'm a TEACHER
(my fellow Grad. Dip. Ed. (Primary) Graduates) So I've done it...I've finished my Grad. Dip Ed. course which means I'm a qualified TEACHER!!
Alright so I suppose I should fill you in on what I've been up to in the past few weeks:
Well first of all was Jenni's wedding, which was AMAZING. Jenni looked gorgeous and it was great seeing everyone. The flight back was actually fairly decent as well, I had a couple seats all to myself, so it was pretty easy to sleep. I have never had an easier time getting through the airport, although we were all screened for swine flu which was a little crazy but everything worked out. Jesse ever surprised me and picked me up at the airport it was a great surprise!
That brings up to my teaching placement...well the Friday after I got back I went right back into the thick of it. During my final placement I was able to teach in a 3/4 classroom but also the art room. The art room gave me the opportunity to teach grades Prep-6 (Prep here in Australia is what we'd consider kindergarten), also to explore my own artistic abilities. My 3/4 students were great, they were such a lovely grade. It was a little crazy at times being in two classrooms, and a little frustrating as well but I did really get a lot out of it. My supervising teachers were wonderful as well, always making sure I was doing alright and supporting me in my teaching. For the last 2 weeks of my placement I was in the classroom a lot more which allowed me to connect with the students; it was a little difficult to leave them in the end, but we did have a little party my last day which was great. It all still seems a little unreal at the moment, I can't believe I am now a teacher.
As a requirement for our course as well as part of applying for jobs we had to make professional portfolios with evidence of our teaching practicums. This portfolio had to sum-up everything we had learned in our course, and was massive. So my weekend after all classes had finished was spent preparing my portfolio. Our living room was a huge mess, it looked a little like an art cupboard had exploded. However I did get it finished and I think it looks great, and seeing as I put so much work into it I've decided that if there was ever a fire in our place it would be the first thing I grab. I can't imagine ever doing it all over again. To sum-up the end of the course we were taking we had mock interviews which were a little stressful but in the end it was pretty easy. So all courses have been completed and assignments handed in, which brings us to my 'graduation' ceremony.
As a part of our course we had a mock 'graduation' ceremony, so the international students could participate. It was just a simple ceremony with a few refreshments afterwards. The most important part was the celebration that occurred later in the afternoon. Since we'd all been so close during our course we all decided to get together and celebrate our achievements. Drinks were had, some karaoke was sung and a hangovers occurred the next day, but it was all worth it! I have made some amazing friends during my time in this course, and I really don't know what I would have done without them. Jesse has also been amazing during this course, helping wherever he could. He was really my rock during this course, keeping me calm when I wasn't sure I could finish the course. I sure do owe him for all of his help and support, I know that I have been a little...well lets say bitchy at times, what can I say the stress got to me a lot. He is amazing.
Now we've got a long weekend to relax, and then it's job hunting time for the both of us.
Well I think that brings you up to speed on everything I've been doing.
X
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
New look Amy, but will it make her blog more?
Amy does apologize for her absence from the blogosphere. Ok, she didn’t use the word blogosphere, I added that one. She is insanely busy with school and becoming a magnificent teacher. (Those were her words(ok, maybe not!) They are true nonetheless.
Sidebar: How did nonetheless get the status of a single word, it’s obviously not, it’s three separate words. Or, nevertheless, something fishy is going on there somewhere. I use them, but I maintain that if a word has “the” in the middle of two other words, it’s not a real word.
Alright, that’s enough of that for now. Oh yeah, the picture above, Amy got a hair cut (well she cut all of them actually) and also it seems mysteriously darker. Oh, well for you guys it doesn’t really matter, it’ll be different by the time we get back anyway, but I suppose it’s still news.
Oh, how about people make Amy feel guilty and leave a whole bunch of comments asking her how her teaching is going? Yeah?
until next time, or maybe Amy will finally pull up her socks.
Jesse
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Rugby..... League??
I was invited by one of my work friends to go to a Rugby League match in Melbourne. The Melbourne Storm Vs. the Canberra Tigers. We cheered for Canberra at my friends insistence because he hated Melbourne. Three of us went and we had some drinks and argued with some Melbourne Fans for fun, some got angry and left, others took it lightly. It could have been because Canberra lost by 30 some odd points.
Already, here comes the technical bit. In Australia (my research has shown in many other countries as well) there are two types of rugby. Rugby League and Rugby Union. Rugby Union being the game we know and love in Canada (apologies to the people who know little about rugby).
Here are the differences as far as I can tell. There is no rucking over (this is the big one), instead, when a player is tackled, the defending team must back up 10 metres and a player on the offensive will move the ball out again. They only have 5 attempts at this, if they get tackled on the 6th attempt, it is a turnover.
The rest of the gameplay is similar, there are scrums and the movement of the ball up the field remains the same, but there are only 13 players on the field instead of 15. And there are no Line-outs. If the ball goes into touch, a scrum is held with one of the teams putting the ball in. (I couldn’t figure out what determined who gets to put the ball in the scrum.
Anyway, after the loss, we headed back to Geelong on the train. It was a good night, work the next morning was less than good.
Jesse
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Thursday, May 14, 2009
Who Wouldn't Hire us?
The Job search starts again, or continues I suppose, but with more urgency. Amy will be finishing up her program in early June just a few days before the last day I’m legally allowed to work where I currently am working.
My Australian Visa only allows me to work with the same company for a maximum of 6 months and that deadline is June 9th for me.
The job market is a little sparse right now, so I’m going to have to call up a bunch of places and really look for work where it isn’t being advertised I think. Hard to do right now as I am still working everyday, but I’ll start this weekend I think.
I really don’t want to have a transition period between jobs, have to pay the rent and all. Amy is also looking, but it’s a little harder for her as she can’t start until the 5th of June while if I find another Job I can just leave my current one or still do a couple of shifts for the marquee place while I start a new job.
Here’s hoping this isn’t too frustrating a time.
Here’s a quote, (well it is now, I’ve just written it)
If finding a job was my full-time job, I think I’d quit.
I hate looking for work, even a bad job is better than that period while you’re searching.
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Amy's Back
Amy has made it back to Australia and she’s right back into the thick of it. Not 12 hours after arriving back in Geelong, she was in the classroom teaching little gaffers. And she had lots to do on the weekend, I’ll let her tell you all about her art preparations, haha.
Made some salsa today, almost took my thumb off doing it too, stupid knife.
Not much more to say, I have the day off tomorrow which is nice after having so many days in a row that I worked.
Talk to you soon
Jesse
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Friday, May 8, 2009
Anybody Still out there?
I realize that keeping a blog is intended to continually update people on whatever the topic may be. Alas, we have neglected this responsibility and I hope that we have not lost any followers because of it. A lot has gone on since the Habs perished in the first round, even aside from Hockey.
I have uploaded some pictures to this site, click here to see them.
We went to our second Footy match to see Geelong absolutely embarrass the visiting Adelaide. It was a cold wet game, and there was no doubt after the first 20 minutes that Geelong was going to win handily, but that didn’t stop the full stadium of Geelong supporters sticking it out in the cold rain for the entire game, us included. You can see us all bundled up in our seat in the pictures.
I have been working a lot lately, which is both good and bad, I fear that it may lead to a period of less work, so I have to remain frugal with the money I have made. As most of you know, Amy made the voyage back to Canada. She went the wrong way too, making her flight even further, but allowing her to say that she has travelled all the way around the world.
Back to what we have been doing. Amy’s classmate had a party for her course to celebrate something or other. We went and they had a karaoke machine set up, it was quite entertaining, have a look at the pictures for an idea, not sure if there is a video, not sure I would show you if there was.
Alright, I will leave it at that for now, but have a look at the pictures.
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Thursday, April 23, 2009
What's in a Name?
So, the hundredth season didn’t go as planned. We were outmatched by the bruins and our defense was abysmal. I don’t blame Carey Price, he’s inexperienced, but he was also hung out to dry. Last nights game, the first goal by Ryder was a beautiful pass, I think the defenseman forgot Ryder now plays for the Bruins.
Well, it will be an interesting off season anyway.
Jesse
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Canadians Taking Comedy Down Under: Content Warning
Let’s start at the beginning. I was driving to work listening to the local morning show with “Matt and Chicken”, interesting I know. Anyway, they had a guest on that I was pretty sure I knew, but couldn’t figure out who it was. I surmised that it was Jeremy Hotz, but he wasn’t doing material so it was hard to tell. They got to the end of the segment and it was indeed Jeremy Hotz and he’s here in Australia doing a tour at different comedy festivals. I was on my way to work and didn’t think anything of it until I got home. I looked it up and it showed that he was in Melbourne that night through until Saturday. I looked into getting tickets for the friday show, but it would have been very stressful getting to Melbourne in time for it. By chance I noticed a showing at a different location. Even though it had said Melbourne, there was in fact a show in Geelong, but it was one night only and in 3 hours. I tried booking online, but it was too late, I called up the theatre and there were still seats, I bought them and we went.
Yes, that was a long intro that could have been summed up with “We went to a comedy show in Geelong featuring Jeremy Hotz”. Anyway, He was there with 3 other comedians, one other Canadian, a Montrealer, Sugar Sammy (actually very funny), the MC was an Irish guy who’s name I have forgotten, but he was also quite funny. The last act was a bit of a disappointment, but the night in general was great.
I’ll leave you with one of the “jokes” The Irish guy came on and asked the audience how Geelong was pronounced Gee or Guy (as in the french name). It’s neither of these, but the audience played along and apparently in Ireland, Gee (Guy) is slang for vagina, so he went on to say that Geelong is just a long vagina.
Jesse
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Saturday, April 11, 2009
HAPPY EASTER
HAPPY EASTER
Wishing you all a very Happy Easter.
Jesse and I had our own little easter egg hunt this morning and this is the loot. Easter dinner tonight a yummy roast, and chocolate cake.
X Amy
Thursday, April 9, 2009
New Camera
So, it seems as though the life of a camera in the hands of Amy is a little over a year. It’s not her fault, they just tend to break after that period. Then I decide that I might be able to fix it because it would cost as much as the camera is worth to fix it, and end up making it worse. This has happened once before, and alas has happened again. So we set out to get a new camera. Oh this isn’t to replace the DSLR (High Quality Camera), this is the day to day (bar night) camera. We actually found a great deal, it’s an older model Nikon coolpix, but it was only $158 australian, which last month was around $120 canadian, but the dollar has had a bit of a swing lately and is now close to $140 Canadian. But, since I bought it with money made while in Australia, that really doesn’t matter.
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Great Ocean Road Animal adventure Pics
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Great Ocean Road Animal Adventure
Here are some pictures of our furry little friends from the trip;
Jesse, Rob and myself drove The Great Ocean Road this past weekend with the hopes of seeing as many Australian animals as possible, and I'm happy to report that WE DID!!! We saw loads of kangaroos, and koalas and one lonely echidna while we were enjoying the view of the 12 Apostles. We stayed in a hostel overlooking the ocean which was wonderful! Met lots of interesting people, a group of 9 Irish girls, 2 guys from Sweden and 1 guy from Holland and 2 couples from England. Had a few drinks with them and then came back to Geelong, but chose not to take The Great Ocean Road back...all the twists and turns wouldn't have helped our state.
X Amy
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
We’ve been in Australia for 5 months
So we’ve been in Australia for 5 months now and this has been my first kangaroo sighting, although it wasn’t by chance I did go and seek them out. Kangaroos are quite similar deer in Canada and they roam the golf courses. I went on a road trip with a couple of my friends from uni. down the Great Ocean Road where we stopped for lunch in a beautiful place called Lorne where they make a delicious chicken parmi. On our way back from Lorne we stopped in Anglesea at the golf course where the kangaroos are known to frequent. Picture this...four girls roaming around the rough in the trees looking for some kangaroos. To our delight we found what I assume to be a family of them munching away. To be honest I was a little scared after watching a discovery channel special on when animals attack. But luckily these ones were nice and friendly and just watched us take their pictures. Seeing those kangaroos has made my day...now all I need to see are some koalas and I’ll be delighted.
X
Amy
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One Down, two to go
I have now officially started my 2 weeks of holiday. My first round of placement was wonderful, the kids were great and I learned a lot being at the school. I now have 2 weeks off to finish up a few assignments and get ready for my next lot of teaching rounds. First comes a week at uni to recap and talk about what we saw at our schools, and then I’m 4 weeks at this school and then well I’M FINISHED!! That’s right...only until the beginning of June until I a completely finished and a qualified teacher!! Something to think about really...
X Amy
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CATS vs. HAWKS
Jesse and I had our first footy experience...watching the Geelong Cats play the Hawthorn Hawks, a rematch perhaps of last years Grand Final. (Footy a mix between soccer and rugby, but then not at all really.) We had amazing seats, right behind the goal only 30 rows up right in the action! At the MCG with almost 70, 000 people there. The intensity in the atmosphere was unreal! We wanted a close match...however when it came down to it, it was a little too close for comfort. Geelong was up 103 to 66 in the third quarter but Hawthorn came back in the fourth making to 111 for the Cats and 103 for the Hawks. The last 10 minutes of the fourth everyone was on the edge of their seat. THE CATS TAKING IT IN THE END!!!
I had my very first casino experience as well last night, it was all a little overwhelming. Unfortunately luck wasn’t on our side, I think I’ll leave it at that.
X Amy
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Jesse Turns 24
Rob arrived Tuesday just in time to celebrate Jesse’s birthday Wednesday. Perfect timing really. We made a delicious dinner of beer can chicken, green beans and roasted potatoes, YUM. Oh and of course chocolate cake. We had a pretty low key evening...having the real celebration tonight, heading out with a few friends with the key focus of getting Jesse nice and drunk. Pictures will be posted later of this evening.
X Amy
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St. Patrick's Day
March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day. Seems to be a good night wherever you are. We went out with our neighbours to a local Irish Pub “Irish Murphy’s”. They had blocked off a section of the street and were serving Guinness on Tap outside right below that big sign.
We both had to work the next day so we went there fairly early and were home rather early, but it was still a great time.
Well that’s about it for now
Rob comes Tuesday!
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Attack on my senses
On Monday of this week I had a pretty long day at work, it has been followed up by two relatively easy days which has evened it out, but I haven’t had a chance to blog until now, being that yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day.
Anyway, we had to do this one job putting up a massive marquee. 20M x 50M. 1000 square metres. Massive! Anyway, the day took a toll on my five senses. First of all it was at a horse training facility, so everything smelled like Horse poo, Attack on my smell!! Next, the work itself was hard and made my back really sore and I rolled my ankle too, Attack on my sense of touch!! It was overcast at the beginning of the day, but the sun came out and while putting up such a large marquee, you inevitable have to look up a lot and right into the sun, Attack on my sight!! In each leg of the 20 x 50 marquee, 24 legs in total there are 4 long pegs that are about the diametre of a quarter and a metre long. These are put in with a jackhammer and makes a tremendous noise. No ear protection that day, Attack on my hearing!! Lastly, I didn’t think I would have trouble with my sense of taste, but it was destined to fail me as well. This one is a little weak, but it completes the package, so I say it counts. My roast beef sandwich that I had for lunch was a little suspect and tasted a bit like it had gone bad, Attack on my taste!!
There you have it, all my senses had a bad day monday, but everything is good now.
Until next time...
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Don't Drink Drive
Saturday March 14, 2009
Here in Australia they don't call it "Drinkin
g and Driving" just "drink driving". This goes along with their constant need to shorten everything. Here are a few more examples.
speedometre becomes speedo
service station becomes servo
and the list goes on and on.
But, back to the point of the post. On our trip down the great ocean road we got stopped by what we would call a "ride" program. They call it a booze bus or something like that. They do it a little differently here though. Instead of stopping everyone and talking to them and only breathalyzing a few if they suspect alcohol, they only pull over a few and breathalyze everyone they pull over.
So we got pulled over and I had to blow into the breathalyzer. I hadn't had anything to drink so they just waved me on. They didn't check a license or registration or anything.
Also, in Australia it is perfectly legal for the passenger to be drinking as much as they want while driving.
Jesse
NEW UPDATES!!!
Alright so it's been brought to our attention that some of you on dial-up aren't able to load the new blog so since we want everyone to know what we're doing we've decided that we are going to post on both blogs. So no worries no one will be missing out on anything, we are going to try and keep you all up to date from now on.
X miss you all Amy
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
New blog address
I've decided to switch the blog address to make it easier to share pictures and such.
Also it looks a lot cooler.
I am a little worried that those of you on dial up may not be able to view it as fast, if that is the case I may abandon it and remain on here for blogging,
the new address is
http://web.me.com/jwootton/Site/Blog/Blog.html
try it out and let me know
Jesse
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Saturday, March 7, 2009
We just drove the great ocean road.
Stopped in a little town on our way back to Geelong after our long drive. We have some amazing pictures. We'll get those uploaded when we can
Cheers everyone
Jesse
Cheers everyone
Jesse
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
4 am start tomorrow
Hi everyone, well I start work at 4am tomorrow, that's noon your time, I'm going to try to follow the trades that go on, but it might be hard. If anyone wants to email me any significant ones tomorrow that would be appreciated.
So, I've been working a lot, but it's Labour Day this weekend, so a long weekend. Yeah, that's right it's Labour Day this weekend.
I definitely haven't had time to post the pictures yet, hopefully this weekend.
The wind was ridiculous today, Scaigren could have done 10 knots with just the mast.
Cheers everyone, it's 8 pm and I'm going to get ready for bed.
Jesse
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Sunday, March 1, 2009
You Yangs
On Saturday, Amy and I went to the you yangs, a mountain of sorts outside Geelong. It was a nice clear day and we took a drive up and around the mountain, then stopped and had a BBQ lunch. Then headed up the 40 minute hike to the apex. From the top you can see all the way to melbourne as well as all of Geelong.
We took a ridiculous amount of pictures (385). I'll post some later when I sort them out.
We took a ridiculous amount of pictures (385). I'll post some later when I sort them out.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
watch out for the poop volcano
What comes to mind????
So I've survived my first week of placement. The children in my class are lovely and I think we are getting along fairly well. There are about 10 of us at this particular school so there's a lot of support. I am having a hard time remembering that I have an accent and they I need to slow myself down when talking to the class because they have a hard time understanding me. Other than that though things are going wonderful. I teach my first lesson on Monday, it's a small group guided reading lesson and then Tuesday I'll be teaching a guided writing lesson. It's all very exciting and just zooming by really. I've got 4 more weeks at this school and by the end of that I should be teaching for an entire day...EEEKKK I'll have to keep you posted and let you know how it's going.
I'm still swamped with assignments as well...but they are slowly coming together which is nice. We've actually all been given extensions for most of them, however I've chosen not to take them because I want to get them done and over with so I can focus all of my attention on my students. So I should get back at it, keep commenting we love reading them!
x
Amy
Monday, February 23, 2009
Oh, it seems it's that time already
Well I just did last weeks tip of the week and to stop having to play catch up all the time, you get a special double dose this week.
"Never put a closed laptop on the ground in front of the couch"
Yes, it seems so simple I know, but it can happen and the consequences are quite easy to imagine.
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Tip of last week
I realized that I put a tip of the week up and never followed it up with another, so in the hopes that I practice what I preach.
"Always follow up on the things you set out to do"
Disclaimer: This tip should be taken lightly and should not be applied to all situations. If you set out to dropkick the pizza delivery man in the chest because he is late for you pizza and you don't follow up on it, that's ok.
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Brand new iPhone
I can't remember if I posted about this or not, but my iPhone's vibrating function stopped working, so I called them up and explained the problem and they said that I could send them in my phone and they would send me out a new one.
6 business days after sending it in, a shiny new one appeared in the mail. I am still very impressed with the customer service that Apple provides.
Well that's enough on that. Amy started school today, teaching a whole slew of little gaffers (Grade 2's). She is now Miss Foster!
I am continuing to work, there is a lot of work right now, so that's good. My neighbour just left the place that I'm working at to go work at a vineyard. He wants to stay in Australia for a 2nd year (He's from England) and if you do 3 months working on a vineyard or farm or something like that you can extend your working holiday visa.
I may do this as well, not to extend my visit, but to leave the option to come back on the same type of visa, it doesn't have to be an immediate extender, I could postpone it 5 years, so I might do that to leave the option open. It's been 3 months (almost) since I've been working at the party hire place, which means I only have 3 months more that I can work there. It is a stipulation of my visa that I can only work for a single company for a maximum of 6 months.
So, we'll see what sort of farm jobs might be available in their winter, but it's not a necessity that that happens, we shall see.
I could always move to a rival party hire company and sell all their secrets.
Disclaimer: I, Jesse Wootton have no intention of selling company secrets, the above was meant as a joke only.
Thought I would add that, it is the internet after all, even if only a select few know this blog exists.
For those of you wanting more pictures and videos just be patient, there are some i have and some i wish to take, but we're quite busy. However, any specific requests for pictures and videos will be taken into account.
I fear that I may start rambling now (haha start..)
yeah, until next time
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Thursday, February 19, 2009
Been a while
Sorry there hasn't been an update in a while, but things have been going pretty quickly recently with little to update. Amy's been really busy with school and I've been working, not much time for too much else right now. Amy starts teaching grade 2's on monday, she's really excited. My work is starting to get really busy and I should have a tough week next week. I fixed the window that I broke, don't know if anyone knew I had broken it, but I had and we had just boarded it up for about a month, but I fixed it yesterday because there is a routine inspection coming of the apartment to make sure we didn't ruin the place.
Get in your last weeks of skiing everyone, I'm jealous
Jesse
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Saturday, February 14, 2009
it had to be done...
It had to be done, our trip to Australia wouldn't be complete without trying Vegemite, Marmite, and Promite me for the first time and Jesse for his second. Prepared for us by our neighbours in what they think is the best way to eat Vegemite. Tones of butter on a rice cracker with a little bit of Vegemite. Now I must say it wasn't horrible...or well the Vegemite and Promite were okay but the Marmite was just awful! I do think however that the amount of butter might have had something to do with the 'okay' taste. For those of you who don't know Vegemite is the Australia version of Peanut Butter only salty like Soy Sauce. Marmite is the English version of Vegemite, and Promite is just a variation of Vegemite, but they all have one thing in common...SALT If your a salt lover then maybe it's for you, personally I don't think I could ever eat it as much as I eat Peanut Butter, but I'd probably have some again if the opportunity arose. Jesse on the other hand didn't seem to enjoy them very much. The kids in my school day after day each Vegemite sandwiches just like the kids at home eat Peanut Butter sandwiches day after day. I suppose however with Vegemite you don't have to worry about peanut allergies so much, just the effects that much salt is having on your health.
Oh well I suppose to each his own...
X
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
iPhone Troubles
We updated the software on Amy's iPhone and the Wifi stopped working. I tried everything to get it back working and the only thing that worked was to put it in the freezer for 10 minutes. I don't know why that worked, but it was only a temporary fix.
I decided to call Apple since it is under warranty and after only about a 5 minute conversation, they agreed to ship out a brand new phone with a return box to send the faulty one back in.
Unfortunately that came with a $35 charge, but that's only because they ship out the new phone first. It would have been free if we had shipped the faulty one out first, but then Amy would have been phoneless for a week.
Jesse
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an update on my crazy life...
Hi everyone
I just thought I'd write a short message letting everyone know what I have been up to in the last little while. So most of my time is being spent doing school work...it just seems to be piling up on me, 6 assignments due in the next months so I may not be keeping up to date with the blog so I apologize for that now. (however I will make sure Jesse keeps you all updated) So here's a crazy little tidbit...in a week I shall be in schools teaching for 25 days, the time has just passed so quickly I can hardly believe it. To be honest that's about all I have been up to lately...hmm hopefully my next post will be a little bit more exciting for you. I shall be getting back to work now.
love you all and miss you all so much
X
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Tip of the week
Always keep at least one beer in the fridge. If you want a second, put it in the freezer when you take out the first and it will be cold when you're ready for it.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
We are very safe from the Bush fires
Hi all,
Just to let everyone know, we are in no danger from the bush fires that have ravaged Victoria. Geelong does not have enough vegetation surrounding it to be in any danger of these types of fires.
The news is just peppered with this story right now, it's terrible what's going on, there are 126 deaths as of now and it's expected to get higher.
This is a terrible disaster, but we are not in the danger zone.
Just thought I would let you all know so that some may not worry.
Jesse
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Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Back to reality
The Australian Open is over and it's back to real life, well atleast back to being awesome in Australia. Back to work as the erection specialist, although work has been a little slow recently (insert innappropriate joke here). It's supposed to speed up soon which would be good because Amy is getting really busy at school and we need the money. I have to work this Saturday fortunately/unfortunately, so I don't know what awesome adventures will happen, I'm sure we'll find something.
That crazy heat wave has passed us, but apparently more are on the way. Guess the possum saw his shadow, haha. I heard Wiarton Willie did as well, so we truly are in the bizarro world.
Nothing much more to update all of you one, oh, but I mention again that if you post a comment, could you please identify yourself. Amy and I have been trying to figure out the anonymous poster from the previous posts for a while now.
We really do enjoy reading everyones comments, so keep them coming.
Cheers
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Sunday, February 1, 2009
A match that didn't disappoint
If you do not wish know the final as you have taped it or something, do not read any further
What a match it was, the intensity inside Rod Laver Arena was unbelievable. Rod Lave himself was there on the 40th anniversary of his Grand Slam year.
The match started off a little slow, both players were a little tight and there were a few unforced errors from each side which resulted in them trading breaks of serve to start the match. Roger had a difficult 1st set, but picked it up in the 2nd to take it 6-3. The third set was as momentum swinging as ever and when Federer was up 40-0 on Nadal's serve, which would have let him serve for the set, I though he had it in the bag, but Nadal reached down and came up with some big serves and great shots to save the three break points. He ended up taking the 3rd in a tie break. The 4th set saw Federer almost lose it and it what was definitely the game of the match, federer saved a ton of break points to hold his serve at a vital point in the set. He took the 3rd 6-3 as well, giving the fans what they wanted, a 5th and decisive set. Nadal took it 6-2 in the final set, which saw Federer hit many unforced errors. The set was not without exceptional shots however and the intensity level never festered. You could see the toll the 4 hours plus was having on the players, going for winners much earlier in points forcing out a few more unforced errors. The final game was a disapointing end to a fantastic match, but Nada was just too good for Federer. Federer served up a double fault at a terrible time, which forced him to save two Championship points. With those two saved, the momentum seemd to swing a little and the Federer fans could almost see him come back and break Nadal's, but on a critical deuce point, a fan yelled "out" on one of Federer's shots on the baseline which cause Roger to stop playing the point in an effort to challenge the call. The linesman had called it in and Federer's objections to the ref were to no avail, bringing up another Championship point. Federer, no doubt rattled by the extreme bad luck and terrible fan conduct, ironically hit a groundstroke long to nearly the same spot that the previous shot had been called out by the fan.
Nadal collapsed to the court taking his first slam on a hard court.
In a ceremony that saw Rod Laver himself dole out the trophies, an emotional Roger Federer had thanked his fans for the support and before he walked away, seemed to throw the gauntlet at Nadal with his words "I'll see you here next year".
There's not much more to say other than this was an amazing match and we were so lucky to have been able to go and see sports history as this match will no doubt go down as the best final in the last two decades. The last final match to go to 5 sets was back in 1988 over 20 years ago.
We've got some videos and tons of pictures of the match that once I have organized them, I will share them with all of you.
Cheers
Jesse
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