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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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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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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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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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 

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

I posted the pictures of our animal adventure with Rob on the great ocean road. They can be accessed by clicking the “GOC” link.

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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 

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 

New Blog Address

http://web.me.com/jwootton/Site/Blog/Blog.html