Fred and Jackie's Adventures Down Under

Hold It, Now Hit It

2007-02-25T20:00:00.000-05:00

Right, so, this whole blog about me and Jackie's adventures in the merry old land of Oz is gonna have to go on holiday for a while. I'm leaving for India in a week and I won't have my laptop or my photo archives with me while I'm away. Also, my free trial version of Adobe Lightroom, the software behind the blog, is expiring in 2 days, so no more photos after that until I can afford the full version. I imagine once I'm back and settled in the home of apple pie and football with pads, sometime around the middle of May, I'll have plenty of time to go back and post all the rest of our photos from the NT (there are some really cool ones still to go) and our last weeks in Melbourne. In the meantime, I've started my own blog to record my solo adventures here in Brissy and in India and Germany over the next couple of months. It's mostly just so I can remember, but y'all are welcome to look, too: http://frogs-eye-view.blogspot.com

OK, bye for now. Thanks for following our adventures and I'll see you all in a couple of months. Lots of Love,

Fred.

NT Part 3: Rock Art Sites

2007-02-09T07:53:00.000-05:00

One of the cool things about Kakadu is the Aboriginal rock art you can see at various sites around the park. Me and Jackie went to two of them.

Our first afternoon in the park took us to Nourlangie Rock. That's it at the top of the photo on the left.

Here's Jackie driving our rental car into the park. Her first ever driving on the wrong side of the road. She did a great job driving, but could never remember to wave to the other drivers (standard NT road etiquette)

Driving into the park we stopped for lunch and these guys greeted us outside the little cafe where we ate. Oh, and the cafe was cool 'cuz it had a huge tank in the middle with big barramundi - a big yummy fish, sort of like the bass of the NT.

But anyway, back to the rock art. This is at Nourlangie Rock, as I said, on our first day. Coming from the scorching daytime sun into these shaded, breezy rock overhangs certainly makes you feel like they'd be a good place to hang out back before there were swimming pools and A/C.

Here's Jackie's outfit for the hike. Classic. Notice the shirt in her right hand for keeping the flies away. And we were drenched in insect repellent.

This is one of the most famous bits of Aboriginal art around. You see it all over the place here, on postcards, in ads, etc.

Here's another view of Nourlangie:
A couple of days later, after the yellow water tour, we went to another place called Ubirr. As we were waiting for the gates to open (the only way not to die of heat exhaustion is to get up and do stuff at the bum crack of dawn) we went down to check out this crossing of the East Alligator River, which is the boarder between Kakadu and Arnhem Land, a huge chunk of country controlled by traditional aboriginal owners and where white fellas can only go with special permission. Stick that in your peace pipe. We also met a lovely local who told us you can often see crocks sun-baking on the concrete here.
Ok, but enough blah blah from me: On to some photos from Ubirr itself...

That's it for now. More soon.

NT Part 2: Yellow Water

2007-01-25T08:23:00.000-05:00

After Litchfield, we spent another night in Darwin, then drove into Kakadu National Park, a world heritage site owned by traditional Aboriginal people. The park is an amazing combination of landscapes - most of it is a sort of scrubby tropical bush, but there are also massive rock escarpments, wetlands, coastal mangroves and beaches (unfortunately not accessible to our car).

This is a bit out of order, but on our second day in Kakadu we took an early morning boat cruise of the Yellow Water wetland. It was a highlight among highlights and yielded some of my favorite shots from the trip. Enjoy.

I see you, you sneaky croc!

Sea Eagles are way cool. There were heaps of them.

They call this a Jesus Bird 'cuz it looks like it can walk on water.

These Cormorants don't have as much oil in their feathers as ducks and a lot of other water birds, so after they dive to get a fishy, they have to stand with their wings out to let them dry in the sun before they can fly. Now think about this - you have to stand on a log in croc infested water for 15 minutes and not move every time you want a meal. Talk about a stressful existence.

Cute green duckies.

This is back at the resort where we stayed for 2 of our 3 nights in Kakadu. That's our door on the bottom left there.

Jackie is happiest in the pool.

We wanted big pink drinks with umbrellas for this shot, but they were kinda expensive, so we went with cans of VB. Worse things have happened. Cheers from the Top End, ya'll.

NT Part 1: Litchfield

2007-01-16T17:40:00.000-05:00

My Christmas present to Jackie this year was to take her on a trip to the Northern Territory. She hadn't seen nearly enough of the iconic Australian landscape and I wanted her to have at least a couple of desert/croc type stories, not just cappuccino and envi. policy. The NT is a big chunk of Australia that covers the north-central coast and down into the Red Centre so it has a bit of everything. We flew into Darwin, went to sleep and got up very early the next morning to go on our tour of Litchfield National Park.

This is the wetland we crossed to get to the first bit of our tour:
We started out with something terribly touristy, but great fun - the Jumping Crocs tour! They take you out on a river in a boat and dangle bits of meat over the side and...yeah:
These guys weren't huge - maybe 6 or 7 feet from nose to tail, but big enough. And look at that vertical! They were also throwing little chunks of meat for the birds of prey in the area. Not a great photo, but you get the idea:

This one's for you, Jack.

What? I need a reason
to take a photo of a
cute dog in a truck?

Next we stopped off to look at some termite mounds. This one is a called a cathedral mound and is about 50 years old. They look sort of crumbly and sandy, and they are made of sand, but the termites use their spit to hold the thing together, so it's actually hard as rock and not crumbly at all.

The other kind of termite mounds are these magnetic ones. They're basically 2 dimensional and every single one of them points directly to magnetic north. If they're off by a single degree, the whole colony dies. In the morning, when the sun shines on one side, they all work on the other, then switch in the afternoon. Clever bloody termites.

After a bit of lunch and a chat with an extremely boisterous Kansas frat-boy on holiday with his grandma, we stopped at this loverly waterfall for a bit of a swim. There were fruit-bats in the trees and fishies swimming around us in the water.

These pretty green ants are common in the Top End (the local name for the tropical noth of the NT). They build nests by using web-like stuff to stick leaves together. You can tell how bad the wet season flooding is going to be by how high up the ants build theirs nets. I also wanted to show off my ultra cool new close-up lens (this guy is about half an inch long).

Next we went for a swim at this really cool system of rock pools leading up to a big waterfall. Some people said they saw goannas (really big lizards) but we missed them.

OK, so maybe my outfit for the Cup was nice, but Jackie still looks better in a bathing suit.

Our last stop was at a funky little store for afternoon tea. That big tree isn't covered in vines - that's it's roots. Cool huh? They were selling mangoes at inflated tourist prices, but they were still pretty.

To be continued... (ooo, dramatic!)

A Day at the Races

2007-01-10T10:28:00.000-05:00

Australia is sport crazy. A good example is the Melbourne Cup. This race is such a big deal that Everyone in Melboure officially gets the day off work. And, after taking Jackie on the trashiest date in the world (see below) I had to show her a fancy time and take her. One has to get dressed up when one goes to the Cup. Ladies need hats - the more extravagant the better, and dudes need suits. So here we are before leaving to take the oh so glamorous tram to the Flemington Raceway.
Jackie Here: Fred looks freakin' amazing. I'm sorry everyone has to see me as an orphaned cancer patient. I really just shouldn't be allowed to dress myself.

Jackie here: Here's my version of that pic. It looks so much better without me in it. And, sorry, I'm not trying to be pathetic or self-degrading, I just think this photo is better without me. Common' it's not hard to see Fred's lookin' gooood.

Oh yeah, I got a haircut for the first time in 11 years. And that suit was $30...score. Here's us doing our Blues Brothers pose, as per Jackie's request:
When you enter the raceway, there's this long alley of roses which makes for a cool entrance. Jackie: Despite my sourpuss faces, I really did have a good time. I was just staring at people because they looked out of place. Kinda like all dressed up and nowhere to go.
The main thing about the races, apart from the betting and drinking, is the outfits. Here's a small sample of what was on the in crowd: Jackie: These are just fantastic. I didn't even notice half of these people walking around. Everyone just looked crazy.

After looking around for a bit, we placed our bets using Jackie's Nanny's tried and true method of betting birthdays. We went with 5 and 2. We then made our way down to the track. Here's Jackie at our spot near the track with the stands in the Background. I think there were about 100 thousand people there all together.
No, no - I really am having a good time here. I swear...
AndheretheycomedownthefinalstretchDeltaBluesaheadbyahalf!

And guess what? We won! Who could lose with a name like Delta Blues? Our winnings just about paid for our champagne. Jackie Here: Fred still looks amazing even though it was really windy and cold that day.

Jackie went home a bit before me and I hung out taking pictures of the bookies. I loved this lady bookie with her big wad of cash.

We have a winner!

Finally, it gets to that point in the evening where it's time to take a nap in a pile of garbage. Ahh, Melbourne - Classy only to a point, y'know?Awright, that's it for the Cup. I think we're almost to the crocs now. Stay tuned...
The Cup was a really amazing day. I've never been to anything like it and for no other reason than that, was it great to be there. Fred was fantastic at showing me around and being a good chat buddy on the hour and half line we had to wait on for coffee. Thanks, Fred!!

There's No Business Like...

2007-01-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Also in Spetember, the Royal Melbourne Show came to town. The show is basically the Aussie version of the State Fair; rides, cotton candy ('fairy floss' in Stryne), giant Homer Simpson dolls, etc. When we were kids we loved it, and our parents hated it almost as much. I went for the photos and dragged Jackie for the cultural experience. It's a totally different side of Melbourne which is usually all cafes and intelectuals, so it's a nice break.

I was looking at this crazy ride above Fred's head. Fred takes so many pictures sometimes I forget he's still taking them. I was fascinated by the swirling lights and screaming people.

This girl working at one of the games saw me taking photos and joked that she hoped one didn't end up on the internet...
One thing that's particular to the Show is showbags. This is where they take $5 worth of candy, stick it in a bag with an inflatable rubber mallet and sell it for $15. It always amazes me how much money some people spend on them - walking around with maybe 20 or 30 bags full of nothing that will last them more than a month. I got Jackie a Kit-Kat showbag ('cuz that's what you do when you take your girl to the Show) and it came with a yo-yo. Sweet. Jackie, here. and um, yeah, that bag was delicious. And my yo-yo lit up! Dude, how cool?!
Later in the week I went back alone to get some more photos. On Besha's advice I went to have a look at the Arts & Crafts Pavillion. There's something really funny to me about a glass case full of prize-winning fruitcakes.
The wedding cake display:
While my attempts to document the blatant animal cruelty going on in the petting zoo didn't come out too well, I did catch this for Jackie:
Jackie here: Llama face!!!!!!! Oh man, if ever Fred has taken the perfect picture to show his love for me, this is it!
And what fair would be complete without Carnies? For a guy who works for an amusement company, he doesn't look very amused.
At the end of the night I saw this disguarded prize with it's stuffing being blown around the empty grounds like some greusome snowdrift.
That's it for the Show. Next post - Ponies!

Gridiron Is For Pansies

2007-01-01T03:58:00.000-05:00

Back in September the Australian Football League had its Grand Final between The West Coast Eagles and the Sydney Swans. Jackie and I went to a few matches during the season and we were able to take Syd and Grace while they were visiting, too. We couldn't afford tickets to the Grand Final, so I decided to check out some of the places where they had big screens set up for people to watch the game for free.

This was the scene in just about every pub in town:
Federation Square in Downtown Melbourne was packed with people watching on the big screen:
They also had screens set up at the old Richmond football ground, near the MCG where the big game was being played, so I hung out there for the rest of the action.
It was a good game, and the end was especially close so there were lots of tense moments and mini-celebrations.

Eventually, the West Coast Eagles came out on top, and there was much rejoycing.

We do love our footy. Next post, we go to the Show!

Jackie, here. I have to admit. Footy is amazing. And, quite frankly, I have lost what little respect I had for American Football because, MAN! are those footy guys amazing. Woo! Hopefully I'll be able to find a game or two on one of my mom's 400 cable channels.

Time Flies When You're Being Eaten By Crocs

2006-12-30T10:48:00.000-05:00

Geez, was it really August last time we posted? Sorry about that. The short version of the reason for the huge gap is that I started taking photos in a new (better) file format, but my software didn't agree and my hardware didn't agree with the new software. So...now that I have the time, money, software and hardware, we're back in business. Anyway...

Hi! How's it going? Lots has happened since we posted last. Some key points include the Melbourne Cup, our trip to the Northern Territory, our departure from Melbourne, the fact that Jackie now gets to put ', MA' after her name ('Enviro-Pimp' doesn't fit) and is officially the smartest person EVER. If you haven't told her how clever she is yet, get on it. As some of you are joyously aware, Jackie's back in NY now with her family and the crew (Brooklyn!) and I miss her :( I'm up in Brisbane with my Dad for the next month or two and having a good time so far, working for the family company and hanging out with my brother and sister.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. It was a bit strange for me to be away from Mama and my sisters, but it was awesome to spend the day with the other side of my family for once and we had lots of fun with champagne and swimming. I'll be missing NY terribly tomorrow night (New Year's), but I'll be with my brother and his mates on the Gold Coast, so I'll let you know how that goes if I have any brain-cells left.

So, now that my photos are all up and working again I have lots and lots to show you. In the interest of keeping this chronological, I'm gonna start with the oldest stuff and work my way forward, so the next post will be stuff that happened in September or October. I'll be posting this stuff as fast as I can work though it, so expect to see something new at least once a week for the next little while. Jackie, please post comments or make your own entries so we get your side of it. No photos today, I just wanted to say hi, but come back soon.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year's, I miss you all lots, Love,

Fred.

Byron? Bloody Bonza Beer, Baby!

2006-08-25T01:47:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone,

Hope your summer has been as fabulous as our winter! Here are the last bit of pictures from Syd's visit with us back in July. We went to Byron Bay for four days and met some really cool Aussie's that live right here in Melbourne.

Here are some nice pictures from Fred of Byron Bay and of all the awesome surfing action!

Wait a minute! Who are those two great-lookin' best buddies?! I don't know them! :)

This lighthouse is at the eastern most point of mainland Australia. Fred managed to walk to it one evening, but Syd and I decided to hang out on the beach and grab the sunset from the rocks on the other side (less of a hike).

Pete and I! Yea! One of our new friends from Byron Bay!

Yea! Ian! Our other new friend from Byron Bay! What a cute couple! Gotta love the stuffed Bunty the Budgie!

Wow - Who ever thought we'd see the Grumpy and Bored dwarfs. Must have left Snow White back on the beach..

The hostel: Byron Bay Bunkhouse

I'm not listening.

So, despite all the sourpuss faces, we actually had a spectacular time. It was the first time I went to a beach that was having vaguely warm weather in about...13 months. It was absolutely fantastic to have Syd here for so long.

Hugs and Kisses,

Jackie

P.S. While we were hanging out with Pete and Ian, Syd took a picture of them sitting down, playing guitar. Well, this isn't the picture, it's the painting she made from it. I think it's amazing and thought everyone should see it. She's getting really good at this art stuff.

Earthsea is Real

2006-08-02T05:30:00.000-04:00

While we were in Tasmania we went back to Bruny Island and did some more exploring. The weather changed about a million times while we were there, as did the light. It was amazing and magical and...yeah. I'm gonna let the pictures do the talking on this one...

Coming Soon: Beer in Byron.

From Big Apple to Apple Isle

2006-08-02T04:39:00.000-04:00

The next stop on our whirlwind tour with Ye Old Sydell was back to Tasmania. It was our last chance to hang out down there with Mama, who's now back in West Virginia.

The sunrises from Mama's balcony were different every day.
We all got up early to go support Ruby at one of her hockey games. It was a bit cold. After the game, we spent some time wandering around in Hobart.

When we went home that night, two possums had taken up residence on the porch.

I recently read an article about a Japanese photographer who uses really long exposures, so I started playing around with the idea.
The next day we went to the Salamanca Markets by the docks in Hobart. It's a bit touristy but Syd found presents for her family and we found some good food and interesting performers. You can see Mt. Wellington, which overlooks Hobart, in the background.

This 8yr old kid playing guitar on the street was better than me.

This is the Aurora Australis, the main ship used by the Australian Antarctic division to do research in Antarctica. It docks in Hobart when it's not chasing penguins.
On the way home we stopped at the shot tower for Devonshire Tea and the view. Devonshire Tea is a British and Australian afternoon tea tradition where you eat scones with jam and clotted cream. The scones (pronounced 'skon') are not like American scones. They're lighter; closer to a Southern biscuit but denser, sweeter and not as greasy. The lady who runs this place makes her own jam, too, so it was pretty memorable as snacks go.

On our last day the sunrise was totally differnt again. I dunno if you can tell from the photo, but where you can usually see water was covered in a really thick layer of low-lying cloud. It looked like the ocean had been turned into a giant cappuccino over night.
Before leaving for the airport we took a walk in the forest by the house. Here's one of the tree babies we saw.

Swilled with the Wild and Wasteful Ocean

2006-07-27T05:44:00.000-04:00

So we've had a pretty amazing couple of weeks. Syd has been here visitng, and seeing as she came so far to see us, we figured we should show her a good time. The first thing we did was take a drive down the Great Ocean Road, a road that runs along the south coast of Victoria, west of Melbourne. It was a thoroughly multicultural experience: A Japanese mini-van, 2 Israelis (Liat & Sagi - our 2 best friends in Melbourne), a Fijian (Kalara), 2 New Yorkers and a half breed Aussie. Have a looky...

This is Bells Beach, one of the best surfing beaches in the world. The guys who where surfing here were pretty dedicated; it's winter here, so the water is really cold.

This little guy ran out into the road right in front of us, then was kind enough to pose for a few snaps.

Next morning we got up early for sunrise at these rock formations called The 12 Apostles. They're very big.

We stopped for breakfast in this gorge. It has an Irish name and there's a story about some shipwrecked Irish people who were the only survivors washing ashore here, but I don't know it.

On the way back we took a different road a few miles inland that goes through the Ottways National park, which is all temperate rainforest. There were some cool alien looking balls of moss on some of the trees.

Little Syd in the Big Woods

That's about it. More photos of the other stuff we did recently coming soon.

Conjugate Your Life

2006-06-21T07:33:00.000-04:00

Nope, we're not dead. In fact, we're pretty good. Grace has been here for the past few weeks and it's awesome to have her here. But whatever; if Jackie wants to do some talking she can go right ahead. I'm just here to show off the photos and of course to say that I love and miss everyone. Okay, here we go...

This is where my mother lives in Tasmania. Terrible what she has to put up with.

And here's the view from about 100 yards down her drive.

Okay, okay. Here it is, by much demand: A marsupial picture! It's called a Paddymellon. When you drive down the road and they go hopping off into the bush they look like basketballs with tails. Now, this is no zoo shot people. I got up early and hunted this guy for about 45 minutes to get this shot.

Everything in Tasmania is covered in moss and lichen. Most of these pics are from the forest surrounding the house.

Dew collects in the morning and is pretty.

I thought this post was cool lookin.

The sky does crazy things down there.

Some of the trees in Australia have orange bark.

Here's Ruby at her first ever field hockey game, being a bad-ass.

We took the ferry over to a place called Bruny Island. Jackie is happy.

The beaches of the island are spectacular.

Here's me and my sisters pretending we're doing a fashion shoot.

This is the view from the neck of the island.

Okay, back to Melbourne. Me and Jackie have been looking for a new apartment after much uselessness on the part of our landlord. In our wanderings Jackie noticed this little house with a tiny yard that had nothing except a giant palm tree in it. She thought it looked funny so here:

We also went to the Paragon Cafe in North Carlton which has a lot of significance for me. Growing up here Mama worked all the time and had 4 of us to look after so we had little time together, but every week while Besha was at a flute lesson Mama would take me to this cafe and we'd have a whole hour to enjoy each other's company. Anyway, here's me and Jackie enjoying our coffee.

Speaking of good coffee, here's Grace in Pelligrini's, Mama's favorite cafe in downtown Melbourne. This is one of the first places to serve espresso drinks outside of Europe, I think.

This is some crazy DJ after breaking the world record for the longest continuous set ever. The dude had been spinning for 84 hours non-stop when I saw him.

Next we went to the zoo. We didn't have much time, but here are some animals I managed to catch.

Right! That's enough. (love, Fred)

No pictures this time

2006-06-15T07:47:00.000-04:00

Well, I figured it's been awhile since I've said hi to everyone, so even though I don't have any pictures I thought saying hello would be a good idea.

Since the last post, Fred and I have been to Tasmania and Brisbane. Tasmania is so beautiful. Everyone who lives on the mainland of Australia thinks of Tasmania as this nothing little island that nobody lives on. In fact, no one really does, but it's amazing. The island is inhabited by these basketball-sized marsupials called paddymelons. They hop around like fat little basketballs and have tiny front arms. Fred actually hung out with one for about an hour one morning. He got a lot of good pictures, which he will have to put up at some point. We made our way over to Bruny Island, which is off the coast of Tasmania. It has these mile-long beaches and the color of the water is SO blue. But it's all from Antartica, so it's freezing. There are sandstone cliffs and little mountains. really, really cool. And hopefully Fred will eventually put those pictures up too.

Then we went to Brisbane last weekend. It's in the tropics so it is much warmer there than in Melbourne. I'd say it was about 60 - 65 degrees, but I'm only guessing b/c the temperature is always in Celsius so I never know what's going on. Fred's dad lives there and it was his 72nd birthday, so we had a really nice brunch with a bunch of his friends.

Well, I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their summer. Hope to get everyone some pictures soon!

Love,
me

It's been so long

2006-05-30T02:29:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone!!

SO sorry that it has been this long sincewe last updated the blog. I fnally got some more pictures put on cd so that we can upload them to the page. Since we last posted, things have been pretty slow. I've been working my way through the first semester, Fred's been hard at work and we haven't done much. Fred went to see his mom and sister in Tasmania one weekend, but then left his digital camera there, so we don't have pictures until we get the camera back. Then we went out to a nice Italian restaurant on the Yarra River for our birthdays. I forgot to take my camera and besides that it was raining, so no pictures from there. So, Fred and I went around last weekend and took more pictures of local vegetation and the campus. Fred knows the names of the flowers, but I don't and he's at work, so it'll have to remain a mystery until he wants to put the names on the post. Anyway, here they are:

These are around the apartment:

OO! OO! I know this one! It's a bottlebrush. They come in red or pink.

This is another picture or two of Royal Parade. I wanted to show everyone that the leaves do change color, but not into crazy reds or oranges, just yellow. And then, right next to those European trees is a palm tree and a eucalypt. Very weird.

This is a pretty flower on campus.

This is the Botany Building. I think it's one of the prettiest on campus.

This is a little part of campus by the library (which is a really uninteresting building, so you don't get a picture of it). I think it looks a like like East Gippsland b/c of the ferns and stuff.

These are just some more pictures of campus. Mostly the older stuff, like the clock tower and the archways which line the courtyard.

In this picture I wanted everyone to see the black bird. He's sitting in the tree. I think it's a crow. They are all over Melbourne and they are huge. Really magnificent wingspan.

So that's all for now. Grace, one of Fred's sister, finally got here on Thursday. We are super excited to have her stay with us for awhile and to celebrate all of our birthdays we are going to Tasmania to see their mom and other sister (who are living there until July). It will be cold, but lots of fun and we will have Fred's digital camera again and be off taking photos. Yea!!

Hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day!

Love,
Jackie

Fred the Feral

2006-04-26T06:33:00.000-04:00

My sister is accusing me of being a rabid hippie, so I wanted to clarify a few things. Firstly, I do not think that interrupting loggers (who are just trying to feed their families) at their work is a particularly effective form of protest on it's own. While is does get media attention to focus on the problem of deforestation, it also causes contention between the loggers and the environmentalists, groups who could actually be working together to put pressure on the state government that allows the logging, and the companies that use such destructive techniques. That said, while the movement is disorganized and can't really think of anything else to do except climb trees, everyone I met acknowledged the futility of messing with loggers without putting pressure on the higher-ups, and actually had a lot of respect for the loggers themselves. So, I felt a lot of sympathy for the greenies when, after they just wanted to talk to the loggers for a minute, they came after us with heavy machinery.

Fred

Big Trees and Bulldozers

2006-04-23T09:18:00.000-04:00

In the interest of adventure and showing Jackie new and interesting ecosystems, we spent a long weekend camping in East Gippsland - an amazing area of north-eastern Victoria with some of the last old-growth temperate rainforest in the world and a truly unique ecosystem. My dad used to own a farm in this area and it's where Besha was born. Currently, very little of the old growth is protected and the state forest is being logged extensively by a Japanese paper company. They clear-cut the forest, turn the 500 year old trees into wood chips for paper, then literally napalm the area to kill everything. They then replant only a few species of trees that are very fast growing and can be harvested again in a few years. So much fun. Anyway, we went up with a group of environmentalists from various universities in Melbourne and Sydney. We had a blast, made some friends, and got in some trouble. Here are the photos:

This is just to give you a sense of what the vegetaion is like. There are these huge gum trees growing 50-100 feet with branches only at the very top, then huge lush tree-ferns growing down in these dense, wet gullies.

This is the biggest tree ever recorded in Victoria. It's girth is 16 meters or about 50 feet. It was discovered by some of the crazy hippies who live up there and spend their time pissing off the loggers and trying to collect information about the stuff that's being destroyed. It's name, Ironically, is 'Big Tree.'

This is what it looks like right after they're done logging an area. This place is only about 60 meters from Big Tree.

Next, as I said, they burn everything. This is what it looks like a few weeks later.

So while we were walking around, we found some loggers who were working. We decided to have a chat with them, but instead of stopping work as they are required to do when there are unauthorized people in the area, they continued to operate their heavy machinery while we were standing around. People got a bit angry at that, and some conflict ensued. Please note before you freak out, Deb, that Jackie was not in the area when all this went down, and no one was serriously hurt. Anyway, at one point we built a baricade across the road to block the logging trucks. People were sitting on it, but as you can see, that didn't stop the loggers from using heavy machines to move it out of the way.

Let's see, what else happened...Oh yeah. Some of the kids who came had fire twirling gear, so here's jackie giving it a try:

And finally, here is the spider, or 'spoidah' as our plumber pronouces it, that has taken up residency in our bathroom. Jackie insisted that you all see it.

So since the camping trip, both my parents and my little sister have been through to vist. We went to the footy and ate at some of Mama's favorite places and had a generally spiffy time. The guest room is all set up now and we even have (gasp!) furniture. We await your visits awaitingly, or something. Bye!

Is that your cultural scene, or are you just happy to see me?

2006-04-23T08:04:00.000-04:00

So, I'm a lazy bastard, and as such I've had a bunch of photos piling up from the last few weeks which I had not yet posted, but will now share with you all. First, a bit of background info: as Jackie metioned earlier, The Commonwealth Games were held in Melbourne during March. What, you upstart rebels may ask, are the Commonwealth Games? Fear not, I will explain. 'The Commonwealth' is what we call the group of countries that used to make up the British Empire, and got their independence the nice way (not by throwing tea overboard and making friends with the French like some people). The Games are an olympic style thing, with many of the same sports and then some other very silly ones that Americans won't play. We love the commonweath games because the US doesn't come and it gives the rest of us a chance to win some medals. Anyway, in conjunction with the games, Melbourne put on a big cultural festival with lots of cool performances from all over the Commonwealth and it was all free. Here are some photos of what I saw:

They had a sort of Commonwealth Games of cooking to go along with the sporting competitions. This is the guy who represented the UK and is one of Melbourne's top chefs. He lost because his stove wasn't working.

This is a children's choir from Tanzania. They were awesome. Most of them had never left thier village before coming to Australia to perform.

This guy is part of a brass band from India, I forget what part. They were full of energy and come out into the crowd to dance around as they played. The music is a littel hard to describe. British military klezmer, maybe?

Here is a performer from a drumming, dancing, magic trick group from Ghana. In this picture he is eating a smashed wine bottle. Serriously, no one could figure out how he was doing this. I went and picked up some of the glass after he was done and it was real.

These guys are called Strike. They are from Canada and are sort of trying to be Stomp. They're good but not fantastic.

This is Federation Square in downtown Melbourne where a lot of the performences during the games happened. It's actually ugly as hell during the day, but is kinda coll at night.

The Melbourne Skyline. Those big colorful fishies in the river were involved in the opening ceremony.

Ready for a tourist shot? This is Jackie outside the stand at the Vic Markets that sells crocodile, emu and kangaroo burgers. I had a croc and Jackie had roo. Mmmm, so endangered.

Back to being cultural, this is a group of Maoris (New Zealand natives) performing a traditional war dance called a Hakka. Way cool.

Finally, this is Paul Kelly who I've never seen before but has been one of my favorite musicians since I was a little kid. If you know who he is, you may now turn green with envy. If not, download a song or two, then turn green with envy.

That's it for now, but I'll be putting some of these and probably some differnt ones on my photo site, too. See ya. Love,

Fred.

Easter Sunday

2006-04-16T08:39:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone is having a Happy Easter. Mine was pretty cool. Fred and I went to his Aunt Meredith's house in Mornington. Three of her kids were there and one of them is married and has a 4 year old named Matilda.

Anyway, Meredith's husband Shane took Fred, Matilda and I on a walk around their property. I don't know if you remember, but Fred, his Dad and I went there and we put it up on the blog. They have peacocks.. I don't know if you remember. Anyway, we walked around and saw some salt marshes. They are protected because of certain plants that live there. Apparently, an engineer lives out there and he's been trying to reconstruct the native vegetation on his property for about two years. He gets grants for most of his work. We talked about river management and revegtating the banks and all this sort of stuff and it was pretty cool. He offered to take Fred and I up to a part of the Murray-Darling river system, which is one of the most talked about rivers around here. Meredith and him are always looking for an excuse to take a long weekend. I think it'd be awesome because I would be able to see examples of what I've been learning so much about it in class.

Below are a couple pictures I took of the wetlands. The water isn't very deep, but there is a marina off to the right in the second photo, which suggests it is deep enough for boats when it's high tide. Shane said his son Sebastian (Seb) went snorkeling with a friend years ago in the wetlands and a tiger shark swam underneath them as the tide came in. Well, they both freaked out and their reaction was to stand up. Seb's friend actually stood on the tiger shark. They leaped out of the water like cartoon characters and wouldn't go back in. They waited until the tide went back out and walked back home. So, the tide really makes a difference in the water level.

Not the greatest photos, but the first one is just looking out to the right of the path we were on. The tire tracks are interesting because they show that people used to drive all along there. Now, most of the native vegetation has grown back pretty thick and you can't drive as far out and screw up the habitat anymore.

This second one is when I looked to the left of the path we were on. The marina would be to the right.

We have friends!

2006-04-02T19:47:00.000-04:00

Not that Fred and I don't love all of you, but we found friends here!! Yea! Of course it's all people from my classes, but we had a great time Saturday night. We don't have any pictures of these "said friends" yet b/c we didn't want to scare them off. We went to Clare's house and had dinner with Sagi (pronounced Ziggy) and Liat, David, Carol and Bud. There was also Clare's three roommates and one other girl from my class who's from Fiji (all of whom I can't remember their names now). So, there were a lot of people to talk with and I'm going to start helping Clare with a community gardens. She got a grant from the federal gov't and now manages two of them. So, I'm going to help her out and pick up some grant writing skills. I think we are also going to look into joinging a CSA (community-supported agriculture) which is a great way to support local farming.

In the one and only comment to our last post, my mom asked, "Is VB beer?" It's not only beer. The commerical for it is:

Que deep rugged Australian man voice

A hard earned thirst deserves a good cold beer.
And the best cold beer is
VIC!
Vic Bitter.

What have we been up to?

2006-03-28T07:18:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone! Our next set of photos are from the 2006 Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne over the past ten days.

So, we'll start with the torch because, well, that's what the week started with. The water is part of the Docklands, down by Port Phillip Bay.

And wow, talk about a torch let-down. This little plastic thing had a green LED light that moved up and down to signal it was "on". Cheesey.

Here is our cow-in-a-tree picture. How often do you get to see a cow in a tree, hmm?

This is a party tram that I've only seen this once and it passed us while we were waiting for one runner to pass the "torch" to another. I think the image speaks for itself.

One of the funniest photos Fred has ever taken.

Next, we continued to walk along the docks. We stopped to take a pic of me by one of the big ships in the harbour.

After eating some tasty gelato I had to get to class. Fred continued around the pier and ran into this,

who were screaming at:

(the guy, not the tourch)

Over the next few days, we went to Federation Square and Alexandra Gardens, where most of the music shows took place. There will be more photos to follow after Fred is satisifed editing them. For now, here's a crowd shot of crossing the street to the Square just to give you a rough idea of how many people were around.

Not exactly the outback you were expecting, huh?

Que nature video voice over

The young locals tended to dress in a peculiar way. Their bright coloring is to attract other young people from the area to join in some sort of mating ritual and rejoice in sporting events..

Here is a series from a beautiful sunset over the Yarra River.

Another cool thing we ran into were these 4 guys that stood in the Meyer's department store window and entertained people for HOURS every day of the Games. They mostly sang and danced to fun tunes, like "Walk like an Angel" and "Devil in Disguise". In this particular shot, one of them is drawing the face of the little kid. They were hysterical to watch.

And, of course, we have to throw in some random pics.

Here are our cacti. I'm not sure if we've shown them to anyone yet. There are seven of them and they all have names, but it's pretty difficult to name all of them on a small picture. So, here they are, nameless.

And finally, here's us having fun. If you don't ask who took the picture, we won't tell you we were drinking alone. :)

More updates to come soon. Thanks so much to everybody for keeping in touch. It's been great to hear from you!

Jackie

Technically Retarded Part 2

2006-03-16T21:13:00.001-05:00

So I tried adding more than the one pic to the last post and I'm having technical difficulties. I'll update it soon, though.

We got a fridge!! It's so nice. We are very happy now and look forward to cooking more for ourselves than eating out all the time.

We attempted to go to the Zoo to take some wild and amazing photos and we're disgruntled at the admission price. So here is Fred's we-didn't-get-to-go-to-the-zoo face:

The Zoo is really close, so I think we are going to get an unlimited admissions pass. It's more $ up front, but I think it'll be well worth it for the next 9 months.

That's right! For those of you counting, two days ago, was our 1 month anniversary for moving to Australia! I can't believe it. Time has just wizzed by.

For those of you coming to see us, we'll see you soon!

How's the weather back home? Are we at full-on Spring time? It's cooling down here, finally. The leaves haven't started to change yet. That big street we have pics of is Royal Parade and all those trees are deciduious (ie - the leaves will change color). We'll be taking more pics of that as it happens.

Hope everyone is doing good and not working too hard.

Love,
Jackie

Technically Retarded

2006-03-14T00:03:00.000-05:00

Hi All!!

So, besides Fred's pictures of downtown and the Vic Markets, we also wanted to post some of my pics of the apartment and campus. I think you'll find them pretty self-explanatory and they're about a week old, but not much has changed so I think they'll do just fine.

School is picking up so I'm a little busy. One class is all group work and we all know what a waste of time that can be. So, yes, it's helped me meet people, but by the time you've spent every Saturday and Sunday with them, talking about the same thing for 6 hours at a time, and not really getting anywhere, yeah. you can see where I might be going with this. At least I'm getting free beer out of the deal, since no one in the group wanted to give the oral presentation. SO I volunteered and they offered to buy me a few after class for being such a good sport. There's a really annoying girl in class that always asks a thousand questions and someone in my group offered to tackle her for me if she tries to ask any questions. (The presentation is only supposed to be four minutes long, so we don't want her taking
up any of my time..)

So, I've kinda dropped out of the co-op. What really happened is I showed up to one meeting and never went back. I was so busy with other stuff that the time committment never worked out. I've started volunteering at the Herbarium though, which I think will be a lot more useful. I get to catalogue plants by their family, genus and species names. Excited? anyone? no? Just me, huh? Well, at least it'll satisfy my OCD a little.

What else? Fred and I are still looking for jobs, but in the meantime we've been taking some pictures and making some phone calls and who knows. Maybe by Thursday we'll even have a fridge.

Have a Happy Tuesday! It was good for me. Although, I got my first paper back and I only got a 74, so, maybe not so good. Oh Well, Enjoy the pictures!

This is the South Lawn on Campus.

A Blind Date With Destiny

2006-03-12T07:52:00.000-05:00

So now that you know the neighborhood, we're going to go exploring. I'll take you from the bottom of Royal Parade, where we left off, through some of the sites of the city...

These shots are from the Queen Victoria Market, or just Vic Market. It's on Elizabeth St. which turns into Royal parade a few blocks north, so it's just on the north edge of the central business district. It has a few different sections, one for deli and bakery stuff as well as butter and eggs, another for fruit and veggies and a big area with all sorts of vendors selling mostly tourist crap. There's also a meat and fish section, but seeing as we don't have a fridge yet, I've got no business in there. The food from here is fantastic, cheap and really fresh. If you go late on a Sunday afternoon, like I did today, they're practically giving the fruit away. I got a huge bag of peaches and nectarines for $2. There's also a cool night market thing on Wednesday nights with live music and food and hippies selling stuff. More pictures from here are sure to follow. Anyway, here it is:

Now we're right downtown. This is Flinders St. Station, one of Melbourne's best known landmarks. It's a working train station, unlike a lot of the old buildings downtown which are no longer used for their original purposes. There's a dance club in the old post office building. Strobe lights and turn of the century architecture. Weird. Anyway, that thing in front on the left is a tram. They are clean and fast and nice. They used to be green. Now they are grey and ugly. Sad.

This is the Yarra River looking East towards the Melbourne Cricket Ground, one of the big sports stadiums - you can see it sort of in the middle there. This is looking upstream, so the river flows down through the city and into Port Phillip Bay behind me.

Now we are in the Royal Botanical Gardens on the South Bank of the Yarra. Here's Jackie enjoying the tactile experience of a kind of pine tree she'd never seen.

And lo, the duck did verily swim, and Jackie did see the duck, and said unto him, "DUCKY!DUCKY!DUCKY!DUCKY!"

Here's a tortoise in the pond. This one's for you Dave.

This is a Black Swan, found only in Australia. See, it's a swan, but it's black. Are you freaked out yet?

Here's me doing my swimsuit model pose on the biggest freakin' cypress tree ever. There's Jackie, too. I told you it was big.

There is an awesome arid Climate Plants garden where they have all kinds of succulents and cacti and stuff. Here's some of what's in there:

Jackie is fluffy like a cactus.

That's all for now. Jackie says hi. Love,

Fred.

A Blog is Worth a Thousand Postcards

2006-03-12T06:50:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the absence of posting for the last couple of weeks. We've been settling in and finally have a phone, but not a fridge. If anyone wants to call, dial 011 613 9347 0857 - Just remember that we're 16 hours ahead. Ok, I promised I wouldn't talk too much on this thing, so here's some more pictures:

This is our building. Can you guess which one is our apartment?

This is what the complex looks like from the street. Our building is behind this one, but it's the same address. The top right apartment is the one me and Besh grew up in.

This is the park right in front of the building. The zoo is right on the other side. The common Australian male (Homo Sapiens Sapiens sub. spc. Australis) can often be seen is such parks wearing white pyjamas and hitting small leather balls with thick wooden paddles, only breaking for tea - a habit inherited from the parent sub-species Homo Sapiens Sapiens sub. spc. Britania.

This was me and Besha's favorite tree in the park. We spent many hours sitting in it to think.

This is a magpie. Jackie likes the magpies.

Here is the sky over the park right before one of Melbourne's spectacular thunder storms. Five minutes before this is was blue and sunny. Five minutes later the streets looked like rivers. Then the sun came out again.

These are the birdies that gather by the hundreds every evening in the trees on our block to squak and fight and pay no attention to guys with cameras.

Here is some typical Melbourne architecture. Many of the houses in our neighborhood and in the whole city are similar. My earliest memories are from when we lived in a house like this.

This is Royal Parade. It's a big road that runs from the begining of the northen suburbs into the inner city. It also boarders one side of the university. Our street runs parallel one block to the left. This photo is looking north, so the city is behind me. You can see one of the university buildings on the right and the hospital on the left.

This is Uni High where Besha went to high school for a while. Does it look the same, Besh?

OK, so that's the Neighborhood. I'm going North to South here, so the next post will be some of the other sights of Melbourne a little further into the city and out the other side. Kisses,

Fred.

Student Life

2006-02-28T23:41:00.000-05:00

So, in answer to Besha's question Fred and I live at:

12/104 The Avenue in Parkville.

It's actually the same building that Fred and Besha lived in with their Dad when they were kids. A little on the twilight zone side for Fred to say the least. But it really is beautiful, with a great view of a huge park and on the other side of park is the Melbourne Zoo. (You can hear the animals at night.)

In answer to Kate's question: Ahh. Student Life. The glory. I only have class in the evenings this semester, so I can get up whenever, wander around most of the day, check e-mail, post to the blog, read my statistics book, help Fred buy stuff. It's great. All the students i've met are fantastic. The faculty encourages working in diverse groups, so I've met Australians from a variety of backgorunds (like a physicist, a pharmacist, and an environmental manager). I've met an engineer from Taiwan and a guy who has just spent the past couple of years travelling around and has finally decided to go back to school to do something he feels is worthwhile. I've joined the campus co-op, and all those kids are fun. I'll have to post some cheesy group photos for you all. I've already had to stand my ground about sustainable agriculture and not buying into genetically modified foods. After I was done though, my group was thoroughly convinced so I felt I had done my duty for the day (even the genetist acknowledged my points!)

I've already been waist deep in learning all that math I always avoided. I have to read two books on Statistics by the end of the week and have my first writing assignment done for another class. It's all good though. I'm really enjoying using my brain and Fred's always a good sport in talking about whatever is on my mind. He helps me work through a lot of my thoughts. So, to make sure all of this thinking gets me an actual job I'm already looking for one back in the US. Besha just got a fantastic job as the major food critic for an independent newspaper in Atlanta and my mom just got a great job as a housing coordinator for SUNY-Farmingdale, so both of them have shown me the dream is still possible. I'll find something that fits me yet!!!

So, now I'm off to Environmental Economics and Strategy (my first and only class on Wednesday)!

Thanks so much for everyone's comments. This blog really is a great way to stay in touch.

Love,
Jackie

In Case our Compelling Prose Isn't Enough....

2006-02-23T21:14:00.000-05:00

We have pictures!

This is Jackie waiting to leave NY during the Blizitty-Blizzard:

We spent Valentine's Day in LAX. I bought Jackie a flower thing from the airport gift shop. So overpriced. So Romantic.

This is me and my sister Georgina playing on the trampoline in my dad's backyard in Brisbane:

Here is some of the wildlife that lives in my dad's garden: A cool looking caterpillar, a golden orb spider (actual size), a king parrot, a south-eastern water dragon (about 3.5 feet from tail to nose, and this is a little one), and a couple of the cockatoos that woke us up in the morning.

This is Melbourne from my dad's hotel room downtown. The view is looking north towards the university.

Here's Jackie outside the Environmental Programs office during our first walk around the Melbourne University campus:

In other news, after much stress we've moved into our new apartment. It's a bit on the crappy side, but it's big and in a nice neighborhood close to the university and the landlord has promised to fix up the crappy bits. Next post will have more pics of the city, the campus and the new digs. Oh, and everyone can post comments now without having to sign up. Bye!

We Made It

2006-02-17T02:43:00.000-05:00

So, we're here. We're staying with my dad in Brisbane on the north-east coast. It's warm and sub-tropical and really nice. We went for a swim yesturday. Ya hear that?... a swim. It's wonderful to be with fambly. Now all I have to do is find a job and a place to live and get a phone and......Oh well. Guess I'll have a beer. I've already taken some cool photos but I don't have an adapter for my computer yet so it'll be a few days before we can post them. Next stop, Melbourne.

Trying to get out

2006-02-11T22:42:00.000-05:00

Don't get us wrong - we love New York. But why, why does there have to be a blizzard on the one day we want to start our awesome, new adventure of 2006?!

And, no matter what Syd says, this is NOT a sign. We are leaving tomorrow and we are not taking "No" for an answer.