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Thursday, 24 April 2008
Day Four
Mood:  a-ok

Day four was our last full day in Tasmania.  We headed out early, in order to make it to ZooDoo, a small zoo with several “petting” areas, baby animals, and a sort of pseudo-safari.  We got their too early, so we left for Ross, which has a historic bridge in it (lots of photos, post cards, etc), and got breakfast, then headed back to ZooDoo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This place was great!  We walked through the indoor baby-animal area and were told to feel free to climb right into the cages and play with the animals.  They had miniature horses the smallest I have ever seen them (more on them later, it’s hilarious!!), piglets, ferrets, guinea pigs, rabbits, and some birds.  Outside, we found the native animal area and, again, were allowed to enter and play with the tamar wallabies, the bennett wallabies, a koala, and got to see (but NOT play with) a Tasmanian Devil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then went on the pseudo-safari and fed Emu, Ostriches, Camels, a Water Buffalo, and a miniature herd of tiny horses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the “biggest” event, by far, was the miniature horse races.  I kid you not.  They had a tiny race track, complete with tiny start-gates, built in a two car garage looking barn.  They brought out three tiny horses in complete racing attire, including a stuffed monkey sitting in a saddle as the jockey.  They loaded the gates, let us all place our bets (sort of, they gave us all a number and told us which horse was “ours.”  The winner got a lollipop.) and away they went, being chased by a dude waving a flag behind them to keep them interested.  My horse won!  I gave Kimberly my lollipop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we went back out to the native animals area and played a bit more with the koala and wallabies.

 

Here’s another funny thing.  The Koala was really gentle.  We have been told many times not to mess with them because they smell bad and are ill-tempered.  Not this one.  Didn’t smell at all and was as ferocious as belly-button lint.  Anyway, while Kimberly was petting him, she wanted a picture that made it look like he was kissing the koala in his nose.  She got really close, but sort of behind the koala, and made this huge pucker.  I readied the camera, but then, before either of us knew it, the koala decided that he didn’t like being ALMOST kissed, and stuck his head out to finish the job.  I was a little late in catching it on camera, but Kimberly is the only person I know to get hit on (full-up smooched) by a koala.  I couldn’t stop laughing long enough to get jealous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After ZooDoo, we left for Cadbury Factory, stopping for lunch at the Maze place.  –Think corn mazes (two of them) and an attached restaurant and you’re there.  That was back in Ross, the place with the historic bridge.

 

As previously written, the Cadbury Factory no longer gives tours.  That’s okay, because we have seen chocolate being made (Hershy), and they still offered admission to the gift and chocolate shops on site.  It cost us $10 to get into the door since they can’t sell “to the public,” but we enjoyed the chocolate shop immensely.  I figured we would spend the money we would have spent on the tour on the chocolate.  We got a bunch, including a pretty “healthy” dose of Dark Chocolates for Peter for driving us to and from the airport.  I figured we owed him AT LEAST that, and much more.  We got one of just about everything they made in Tasmania...

 

Afterwards, we went to the Female Factory (used to be a women’s’ prison, but now it makes homemade fudge), and got a few packs of “seconds” fudges in the flavours we like.  These were the excess pieces taken from what’s left after the blocks are cut for packaging.  Same fudge, same flavours, just the wrong size for “professional wrapping,” so we got it cheap!

 

We left the fudge factory, went back to Tacos the Mexican place for dinner, since it was our last night and we liked it the best.


Posted by kisajaja at 12:47 PM MEST
Updated: Thursday, 24 April 2008 1:00 PM MEST
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Day Three
Mood:  a-ok

Again, waking up around 6:30a, day three was going to be a nature walk sort of day. 

 

We left the Motel for the Mount Field National Park, which contained several waterfalls and the “Land of Giants,” the tallest trees in the southern hemisphere.  Kimberly did some read-ahead on Mount Field and knew exactly which two waterfalls she wanted to see, and neither was that much of a hike, so it was an easy feat to do it all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we finished Mount Field National Park, we wanted to make our way over  Charles Mountain in order to get to the Hartz National Park.  Before I talk about Hartz, let me give you a fair warning.  If you decide that the highway is long and boring, and you already saw it, you might think that the small and winding “road” on the map might be a good alternative.   Once you head off for said road, you might find a friendly local gentleman to point out where said road is, because it is hard to find.  While talking to this gentleman, he may try to discourage you from taking said long and winding road in a small economic road-based rental car.  He may go so far as to suggest only a 4x4 would make it.  I can’t say this clearly enough...BELIEVE THIS MAN!  We climbed a fairly gentle dirt road (all of the parks have them) for several kilometers, at which time the road turned into an intense mixture of mud, rock, and crevasses, the nature of which would intimidate a Humvee.  Clearly, we weren’t well suited for this in our Mitsubishi Colt.  Not wanting to damage the car, we turned around and took the long and boring, already seen, highway.  For the record, we almost made it.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!  The truth is that we just didn’t have the clearance to negotiate the rocks and crevasses and I certainly did NOT want to get stuck in the mud. 

 

We arrived at Hartz National Park late, but not too late, and went to the Tahune Air Walk.  This is an elevated sidewalk, if you will, that takes the walkers out over the canyon to take some pretty cool pictures from up high.  We got to this place, looked around, and by this time in our adventure, we’d climbed higher, saw more spectacular views, and did so on foot over trails and rocks.  Paying what it would have cost to see less from a lower altitude didn’t seem all that appealing, so we left for the drive back to the Motel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 On the way back, we stopped at a place called the Enchanted Woods shop.  A really nice lady worked there, along with several others, creating these wooden trinkets, bowls, spoons, boxes, everything from natural Tasmanian woods.  The shop was amazing.  We bought Kimberly a Scent Bottle carved out of a single piece of wood, which sort of resembles a genie bottle, complete with top.  Inside the bottle are small wood shavings which soak up the liquid “scent-of-choice.”  It’s a beautiful bottle.  The lady through in a bottle of the scent that Kimberly liked, gave me a small wooden key chain, and tossed in a few apples right off the trees growing next to her shop.  Fantastic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we went back to Hobart and ate Fish-n-Chips for dinner.


Posted by kisajaja at 12:26 PM MEST
Updated: Friday, 25 April 2008 1:04 AM MEST
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Day Two
Mood:  a-ok

The next day, we woke up early (6:30a, which sort of became the habit), and drove across the state to Lanceston (pronounced lawn-sess-ton).  Lanceston is in Northern Tasmania, and is home to Cataract Gorge, a sort of small-scale Grand Canyon. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After walking though the Gorge, we drove over the mountains to Wineglass Bay.  Before I get to the bay, let me say that while we drove over the mountains, it was lunchtime.  Not really having any idea of where to stop (choices weren’t limited, they were non-existent), we found a place called Elephant Mountain Pancakes.  Pancakes are served all day on Elephant Mountain, apparently, so we pulled in and had lunch.  Now let me explain...American pancakes are called flapjacks or hotcakes, here.  When they say pancakes, they generally mean crepes.  Jacoby and Kimberly had “dessert pancakes,” by which I mean Jacoby had Apple Cinnamon pancakes and Kimberly had Cinnamon Sugar pancakes.   Both were served with ice cream.  I had Mediterranean Pancakes, which was a dinner selection.   It was a crepe stuffed with spinach, feta, mushrooms, basil, and tomatoes.  Sounds funny, but it was good!  Good enough that I bought a hat.

 

Yep, I have an official Mount Elephant Pancakes hat as a souvenir.  Can’t beat that!

 

After lunch, we drove into the State Park that contained Wineglass Bay.  Kimberly would know what it was called, but I didn’t write it down...Once we got to the park, we parked the car and hiked up the mountain to the viewing platform over the bay, which was on the other side.  It didn’t take long, and it was beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The funny thing is that all of the views you see of Wineglass Bay on postcards or the internet are all from an angle that you can’t get from the ground.  All of them are aerial photography.  These pictures are about as good as you can get from the viewing platform.

 

After Wineglass Bay, we returned to Hobart, ate Greek food for dinner, and returned to the Motel for the night.


Posted by kisajaja at 12:14 PM MEST
Updated: Thursday, 24 April 2008 12:25 PM MEST
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Day One
Mood:  a-ok

Every time we mentioned that we were going to Hobart, everyone we talked to said two things.  One was, “Visit the Cadbury Factory.” And two was, “Make sure you are there for the Salamanca Markets on Saturdays.”

 

Okay.  That’s easy, except that we found out two days before we left that Cadbury no longer offered factory tours.  The Market, however, was still going on.  –And it was awesome!  They had all manner of wooden products, like cutting boards, pens and pencils, salt and pepper grinders, bowls, etc.  They had food vendors, clothes, souvenirs, toys, everything. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The market was truly one of the trips highlights.

 

After the markets, we left for Port Arthur, which is an old prison, for those that don’t know.   Australia, at its birth, was a penal colony for British criminals.  The worst of those criminals, and several “home-grown” ones, were sent to Port Arthur, Tasmania.   Several of the buildings still stand and tours are available, including the “Ghost Tour” which happens at night.  We didn’t do that, though.  We showed up, took our pictures, and left for other things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The drive out there was spectacular.  We drove through the mountains, down the coast, saw rock formations, waves crashing, ate Fish-n-Chips, all in all, it was a fantastic scenic tour of Tasmania. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did make one stop worth writing about.  We stopped at the Federation Chocolate Factory.  I’d never heard of this, but they did sell Federation Chocolate at the Salamanca Market and we have seen it in stores, so we thought, heck, let’s take a look.  We pulled into the parking lot and immediately noted that the place looked closed.   Actually, it looked a lot like someone’s house.  We tried the door and it opened, so we went in.  Inside was a nice lady that explained to us that the old house is now a museum of her Grandfather’s stuff from when he was a lumberjack working at a saw mill.  Something like that, anyway.  We were supposed to walk through the one-room museum, see the stuff, and (not kidding here), if we behaved she would sell us some chocolate.  While walking through the one-room museum making lumberjack jokes (quietly, ‘cause we wanted chocolate!), we were able to look through the one window in the room which exposed the kitchen in all its faded glory.  We saw the big chocolate making machine (only one), which was currently idle, the chocolate all being made for the day (apparently).  We finished the tour, the lady let us try very small samples of several flavours of chocolate, we picked two or three, paid, and went on our way.

 

When we got back to Hobart, we had enough sunlight left to climb (re: drive up) Mount Wellington and take some pictures.  It wasn’t a particularly clear day (none of them were), but it was still quite a

view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Posted by kisajaja at 12:00 PM MEST
Updated: Thursday, 24 April 2008 12:13 PM MEST
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Departure Day
Mood:  a-ok

To start off, we called the McKaskills the night before we were to leave.  I asked the question, “Is it better to take a cab to the airport, or to leave the car in long-term parking?”  I’m thinking cabs can’t be that much, but I also would like the freedom of movement to just drive and not have to worry about cab fares and such.  The answer that I got from Peter was, “Neither.  I’ll drive you.”

 

I didn’t want to put him out, so naturally I refused.  I just needed to know the best way to go about getting there.  He told me that a cab would cost about $100 each way to get from our house to the airport.  Long-term parking would be about that, as well.  Again, he offered.  Again, I refused.  In the end, I lost.  He drove us to the airport and picked us up when we got home.  God bless him.   We certainly appreciate everything!

 

So, we got to the airport in plenty of time, and had no issues getting to Melbourne.  Once we got to Melbourne, however, we were notified that our next aircraft was experiencing maintenance difficulties, but it would only be about an hour.  We heard that message three times.  So, three hours late, we finally left Melbourne for our one-hour flight and landed in Hobart without incident.  We got our suitcase (we only checked one), got the rental car, and headed straight for the Motel, where we signed in and got our room.  The plan was to go for a historic walk around Hobart before sunset, but due to the delay, all we had time for was a walk around the wharf and dinner.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The good news is that dinner was fantastic!  We ate at Tacos, a Mexican restaurant right off the wharf on Salamanca Place, which you will hear much more about shortly.  Great fajitas and nachos.  Not so good chimichangas... Can’t win ‘em all...

Posted by kisajaja at 11:48 AM MEST
Updated: Thursday, 24 April 2008 11:59 AM MEST
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Thursday, 17 April 2008
Hobart Bound!
Mood:  happy

Friday, 18 April 2008

7:00a

53 Degrees...

 

Okay, so there is a small joke about the temperature.  A while back, Kimberly said something to the effect of, "it would be nice to know the weather outside before getting dressed in the morning."  I've always liked the idea of having one of those indoor/outdoor wireless weather monitor thingies, so I went online and started doing some comparisons.

 

There are two main brands of household weather monitors.  Oregon Scientific is one.  The other is La Crosse.  I checked them both out for features and price.   The Oregon Scientific one seemed to be better, but the La Crosse one has a little guy on it that dresses appropriately for the current weather conditions outside. 

 

His name is Oscar.  Anyway... 

 

Deciding ultimately that the Oregon Scientific one is probably better for Australia (the La Crosse one gets its time from American Radio Waves, and has stateside specific time zones and such), I ordered one to surprise Kimberly.  About a day later, I was still thinking about this.  She won’t care about the time zone, or the moon phases, or the any of that.  She would like Oscar.  So, knowing that I already have one of these things on the way, I decided that I’d order another one, with Oscar, for Kimberly. 

 

Then the first one got delivered.  Oddly enough, it was the La Crosse, complete with digital-dude Oscar.  Odd, since I ordered him last.  Then I received the other one.  Also the La Crosse, also with Oscar.  So I went back and checked my order history and realized that I must have made the Oscar decision the first time, but didn’t remember it. ..

 

So now we have two monitors, both with outdoor sensors.  One is in the bedroom, the other is in the Kitchen.  Two Oscars.

 

But wait, there’s more.

 

Last weekend, we went to the Woden Trash n Treasures (as usual) and wondered around.  There, in one of the vendor stalls, was an indoor/outdoor weather unit.  It was a REALLY nice one, Oregon Scientific, and had features that neither of the other two has (for example, an outdoor humidity sensor).  – And it was only $30!  Apparently, the lady bought it for her husband who asked for a thermometer.  After she paid about $200 for this thing, he said, “No, a thermometer, so I can stick it on my dashboard.”   She headed to woollies and spend $5 more dollars, and decided to sell the big one for next to nothing.

 

Mine!  I know what this is, and how much it really costs.  I don’t really need Oscar to “bundle up” to determine if 40 degrees is cold.  I like knowing the outdoor humidity.   The deliberation process was quick!

 

We now have indoor/outdoor weather monitors in the bedroom, the kitchen, and the office.  No excuse for us being poorly dressed, now. 

 

By the way, it’s 74% humidity outside right now.

 

On to other things!  Kimberly and I went to play Housie at the Tradies Club last night.  Think BINGO and you are almost there.  It costs about $40 for the two of us to play for two and half hours, with prizes ranging from $30 to $1000 per evening.   Last night, Kimberly came within one number for the $1000 grand prize.  While staring at that number, they called about six others, when someone else finally got it.  We almost had an influx of spending money for our trip this morning!  We are starting to spend a lot of time at the Tradies Club.  J

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, It is 7:15a, and Peter McKaskill, God bless him, is on the way to our house to take us to the airport.   Cab fares would have been about $100, as would long term parking for the week, so Peter said he would drive us, despite my insistence otherwise.  Like I said, God bless him.  More spending money on the trip.  I’ll have to remember to bring him some chocolate.

 

 

Oh, speaking of chocolate!  One of the things that we keep hearing about Tasmania is that we have to visit the Cadbury Factory to watch the chocolate being made.  At the end of the tour, you have the opportunity to buy “seconds” at next-to-nothing prices.  The seconds are usually just mis wrapped, or something.  The chocolate it fine.

 

Anyway, we set up this tour weeks ago and we are now ready to go.  We found out via a news article that Cadbury no longer offers this tour.  Apparently health and safety standards got in the way.  At first I was crushed.  Then, when I read the whole article, I realized the tour was gone, but the shop is still a go.  Great!  I’ve seem chocolate being made before.  I just want to hit the gift shop!

 

So now, about 30 minutes before we leave, I don’t know if the factory tour is on or off (the website doesn’t say anything about them being cancelled).  We’ll still go to the shop, either way.

 

See you when we get back!

 

- Ryan

 


Posted by kisajaja at 10:52 PM MEST
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Monday, 14 April 2008
Monday, 14 April 2008
Mood:  happy

Last week was largely a normal week, as we are drawing the Strategic Studies unit to a close.  I got all of my work turned in, and was able to get started on my portion of the group assignment, which is this week’s focus.

 

Outside of work, though, we had a pretty good week.  Jacoby had off-ice training on Monday night, followed by Power Skating and actual hockey practice on Tuesday night.  Wednesday was Hapkido for both of us. 


Thursday night, Kimberly presented me with the option of joining the Australian National University Movie Group, which is a group of people that get together every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights to watch movies in one of the ANU theatre style class rooms.  It’s a pretty big deal!  They show a mix of older and newer movies, one flick on Thursday and Friday, and a double header on Saturday and Sunday.  They publish an actual schedule, so you can come to the movies you want to see and skip the ones you are not interested in. 

 

Anyway, we went on Thursday night to check the place out, and it was really well done.  The screen is huge (8.5 meters), and the theatre looks like a large Chemistry classroom, with a seating capacity of a couple hundred.  It’s a great sound system.  They even have a snack bar.  We went ahead and joined the club as annual members, which cost us $50 a piece, with Jacoby being free.  This is great, because movies at an actual theatre are $8-$15 a piece (Jacoby NOT free), and after looking at the schedule, there are several movies we want to see.  We spent money to save money…

 

So, Thursday night we saw a movie called I Wasn’t There, or something close.  Some artsy Bob Dylan-like flick.  It was awful but had a good sound track.  We only stayed to make sure the theatre was a good one for future movies.  We went back on Friday night for Fool’s Gold, and on Saturday, we saw Jumper.  Both were great! 

 

Also on Saturday, the school (mine) had its International Day.  It was a great day!  We started setting up our booth in the school’s courtyard around 10:00a, for the event which actually went from 12:30p-4:30p.  Each of the International students had a booth for their country.  There was food, music, dance, and more food!  What a great time.  For the American booth, Kimberly decorated the tables and filled them with “free-bees” to give away.  She also made rice crispy treats, I made root beer, Jim made buffalo wings and Lynchburg Lemonade (made with Jack Daniels instead of water), Brian made chilli, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and more rice crispy treats, and Todd brought seven apple pies.  The idea was to bring “traditional” or normal foods from your country.  I think we met that intend. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The picture is with Tee Yang Toh, a student from Singapore and a friend of mine.  Also pictured is Sam the pinata that Kimberly made for the event.  We didn't break him.  His hat is open on top, so kids could just reach in and pick a prize. 

 

Of course we all got the chance to visit all of the other tables, as well.

 

On Sunday, We went to the Traddies Club for lunch.  Afterwards, Kimberly signed us up for a Lake Burley Griffin cruise through her “welcome to Canberra” group.  It was a low key event, but it ended up being a lot of fun!  We didn’t see anything new, but we did see it all from the water vantage point, which was neat.  We also happened upon Brian and Heidy, and Todd and his wife.  We didn’t know they were coming…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Southern Cross - the tour boat that took us on the lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Telstra Tower and the weekly Sailboat race

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Captian Cook Memorial Fountain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Parliament buildings.  New Parliament in the back, Old Parliament in the front.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Carillion - a bell tower given to Australia by the British.

 

And now, today, we are back to work for the last week before the Fall Break.  Jacoby is already off from school, and I will be on Friday, which is when we leave for Hobart, Tasmania.  Until then, we have to perform our last requirement for the Strategic Studies unit, and I have to do my PT test, this unit is as good as done!

 

Enjoy your week!  I’ll be back soon with pictures of “Tazy.”  J


Posted by kisajaja at 6:44 AM MEST
Updated: Monday, 14 April 2008 7:55 AM MEST
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Sunday, 6 April 2008
Sunday, April 6 2008
Mood:  happy

So we had big plans on Sunday.  We were going to go to Tuggeranong and check out their Annual Indoor Market, taking place from 9:00a to 2:00p.  We would then run over to Queanbeyan and check out their Annual Multicultural Festival, going on from 10:00a to 2:00p.  After that, if we still had time we would come back to Canberra and check out their Annual Italian Car Show.

That was the plan.  Market.  Festival.  Car Show, if time allowed.

We got to the Tuggeranong Indoor Markets just before 9:00a, and were told that it wouldn’t begin until 10:00.  No problem.  We walked a block over to the big mall, knowing everything was closed, but figuring we could walk around in there and it would be warm.  Finally, at 10:00a, we went back to the market and realized they had nothing.  Complete waste of time.  We got through the whole thing in about 15 minutes.

No problem, we’d just head over the Multicultural Festival.  Canberra’s was awesome.  Really.  If Queanbeyan’s is anything close, it’d be great!  We drove to Queanbeyan and found the market sight.  I’m not kidding, nor am I exaggerating when I saw it was two street performers and a lady wrapping hair.  That’s it.  We didn’t even get out of the car.  By now it’s 10:30a, and 2/3 of our daily plan is exhausted.

Not feeling too good about any of this, we headed back to Canberra for the car show.  It was there!  And there were cars!   Actually, it was a neat show, with exotics like Lambos, Ferraris, and Mazeratis, none of which can I spell...We walked around that for a while and then went home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kimberly and I finished the day with a quick meal at the Irish Club and listened to some live music.  Jacoby stayed home.

The work week went by pretty well for me.  Almost all of my work is done, so it was just a matter of participating in the class discussions and waiting for the weekend.  We had a social event at the Kingston Pub on Thursday night, which was great (I love that place!), and then a Trivia Night on Friday Night at the school.  It was hosted by the Australian Rules Football Club, and went really well.  Our table came in Second Place.

The big event of this week, though, was the trip to Mount Kosiuszko, Australia’s highest point.  Jo and Peter McKaskill set the whole thing up.  We drove out yesterday (Saturday), grabbed a quick lunch, then rode the chair lifts to the trail head.  Once on the trail, it was a 7km hike to the summit (Altitude of 2,280 meters), all of which was on a prepared walkway, which was really nice.  It was 58 degrees at the base of the Chair Lift.  It was 40 degrees at the top, with a below-freezing wind chill factor.  Honestly, we didn’t even notice.  Most of our cold-weather gear stayed in my backpack the whole time.  It was a fantastic walk!  Beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, we headed to Lake Jinderbine which is where our cabin was.  We showered up, grabbed a bite to eat at the local pub, then played board games until it was time to crash.  I’m embarrassed, though not at all surprised to say that Kimberly, Jo, and Jacoby destroyed Peter and me at Cranium.  Kimberly won both games of Apples to Apples.  Damn!

This morning we drove back, stopping for pancakes and some outlet shopping along the way.  Once back, we went to the Hall Markets and wandered around for little while.  Then we came home.  I suspect that Kimberly and I will end up at the Irish Club again tonight, but I’m not sure, yet.

Next weekend is the International Day at the school.  It should be a good event!  As for work, we are doing our Group Project this week.  Strategic Studies is winding down.   Our electives will start soon (two weeks, I think), so I’ve begun reading the US Counter-Insurgency manual.  The Aussies don’t have any doctrine, yet, so we are expected to write some.  No kidding, their Chief of the Defence Force (SECDEF, for us) heard we were doing this and told the school that he wanted us to write the Aussie doctrine for CoIN.  We will present him with our work following the third term.

Anyway, enjoy your week!

- Ryan


Posted by kisajaja at 7:56 AM MEST
Updated: Sunday, 6 April 2008 8:15 AM MEST
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Saturday, 29 March 2008
Saturday, 29 March 2008
Mood:  happy

Anoher week, come and gone.  I was remided this morning how little time we get to spend here.  The Army Signal Majors' Assignments Officer wrote to me (as part of a group) to remind us that we will all be moving in the next rotation (Winter 08).  However, he couldn't yet provide us with a list of available jobs to fight over, so we still have no idea.

Last weekend, after going to the beach on Friday, we went to the Traddies Club in Woden for lunch.  They have a fairly cheap Chinese buffet that is pretty good, and actually have some (not much) healthy food, as well.  We've been there a few times...Anyway, we went on Sunday and after the meal, a nice lady asked us if we were stayng for the meat raffle.  Now, we've heard of this from a couple of the clubs in the area, but we hadn't yet participated in one.  The lady assured us that Easter Weekend was a great time to buy tickets because the crowd was small and the odds for victory were much much higher than usuall.  So, after lunch, we "hung out" for an hour, playing exactly one game of pool (yes, it took the hour.  Note to self: get better at pool), then bought $5 worth of tickets.  We ended up winning a tray of meat, worth about $30 on the market, and a $10 gift certificate to the club for future use.  Not bad.  A guy sitting near us bought a few tickets and won 7 times!  Amazing.  We've been eatting free meat all week. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

School was fine last week.  The big focus is on assignmnet preperation, since everything is due on Monday.  Several course members are "locked in" this weekend trying to ge their stuff done.  One of them asked me why I wasn't worried about Monday so I told him my work is done.  I finished early.  I can hand them in any time.  I think there is a lesson in there, somewhere...

A while back, I was asked to participate in the Relay for Life, promoting fund raising for Cancer research.  It wasn't just me, specifically, but the whole class was asked who was interested in supporting the event.  The idea was that your team would meet at the track and keep the baton moving for a 24 hour period to raise money from sponsors and individual donors and such.  I signed up, and the event is going on right now. From 6:00p Friday to 6:00p Saturday, the baton is moving.  My shift was this morning, EARLY.  I had 2:00a to 4:00a. Kimberly and Jacoby bundled up (it's getting cold here) and stayed with me at the track, counting laps while I ran.  In the 2hr period, I completed 52 laps on the metric track, which equated to just over 13 miles (by GPS).  Not a bad way to raise some money.  We all slept in this morning...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next week is more Strategic Studies at work, but over the weekend we are going to the highest point in Australia, Mount Kosiosco.  I have been told that it is great!  I have also been told it is thoroughly underwhelming.  The problem is that all of the surroundkng area is high, as well, so you don't really have a "peak" that is all that impressive.  I don't know, I've never been.  We'll see which is right when we get there, but whatever it looks like, next weekend we will stand on the top of Australia.  Pretty fun.  We are going with Peter and Jo McKaskill, and will be staying in a cabin over night at Lake Crackenback.  More pictures will follow!

 Have a good week!

- Ryan

 

 


Posted by kisajaja at 1:14 AM MEST
Updated: Sunday, 30 March 2008 6:18 AM MEST
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Saturday, 22 March 2008
Happy Easter!
Mood:  happy

Happy Easter, everyone!

We have completed another week of America bash- excuse me, I mean Strategic Studies.  It was a vitally important week in that they imparted a great deal of well argued and factually supported academic thought regarding...

Please I can't even type this with a straight face.  It sucked.  I looked back at my notes and realized all I have for all of last week's lectures are the titles, the name of the lecturer, and the date.  At no point during the week did anyone say anything that I thought was important enough to write down.  It was an embarrassment to the Australian Military Education system, and I shared my sentiments with the College Chief of Staff. 

Outside of school, it was a good week!

Kimberly's big event was having coffee (actually hot chocholate) with Alyison Hoebee, our house managers wife, on Tuesday.  They are nice people, and they seem to genuinely want to look after us.

Yesterday we headed out to Bateman's Bay and Pebby Beach.  Pebby Beach is supposed to be a really good day-trippy sort of place.  They often have dolphines in the water and kangaroos on the beach that are friendly enough.  It was cold yesterday (down in the 60's!), so it wasn't about getting wet or going boogie-boarding.

We went, and we had a good time.  No dolphines, but we saw some Roos. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, we drove into Bateman's Bay which is a lot like the marina side of Ocean City.  It's a Bay town, with all of the bay town amenities.  I had a Fish-n-Chips lunch, Jacoby had a Subways sub, and Kimberly had a sort of gourmet chicken sandwich.  Then we drove home.

All in all, it was a lot of driving (it's about 3 hours to Pebbly Beach), but it was a great deal of fun and it got us out of the house, which is the important thing.

We are "wingin' it" for the rest of the week-end.  No real plans, yet.

Next week is more Strategic Studies for me, and more essays to write.  We all have Monday off, so it'll be a short week.  Jacoby has Hockey practice on Tuesday, and we both have Hapkido on Wednesday. 

Again, happy Easter to everyone!  Enjoy your weekend!

- Ryan


Posted by kisajaja at 12:57 AM MEST
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