Mood:  happy

This morning, or “the morning after” as I like to call it, the Olympic Torch arrived in Australia.  More specifically, it arrived in Canberra, not too far from the house.  The plan was to go to the gym, then head to Commonwealth Park to participate in the festivities.  

All went well!  We found a parking space that was only available due to its being nowhere near the actual venue, walked the rest of the way, and stood in a crowd holding what appeared to be a sea of Chinese flags. 

Yes, there were protests.  Yes, people got arrested, but no, nothing bad happened at this event.

We witnessed the final torch bearer’s entry to the stage area, triumphantly holding the torch aloft, then setting the big podium bowl thingy a-blaze.  He then walked to the podium to be interviewed at which time the flaming bowl promptly went un-a-blaze.  Extinguished.  No smoke, no fire.  Big bowl of nothing.

They got the fire re-lit and continued on like nothing happened.  They sang the national anthems of both Australia and China, then we left for lunch.

Here we go, again... 

First, we couldn’t find the restaurant that a friend told us to try.  She gave us directions.  She said, “It’s on the corner of Northbourne Avenue and Markus Clarke Street,  kitty-corner from the McDonald’s.”  I wrote it down.  This morning, I tell Ken the GPS to take us there, and he (Ken, the GPS) just gave us the finger.  Apparently, Northbourne Ave doesn’t intersect with Marcus Clarke St.

Okay, well Northbourne isn’t far, so we’ll just drive down that and look for a McDonald’s.  Well, that didn’t work so well.  First, no McDonald’s, second, half of China is wandering the streets of Canberra.  So, with absolutely no joy, we decided to head to the Embassy to pick up our mail.

After that, I decided to try one more time.  If it’s not on Northbourne Ave, I’ll try Marcus Clarke St.  We drove back into the frey, found Marcus Clarke St, drove the entire length of it, and found....Nothing.  No restaurant, no McDonald’s.  So we decided to head to the fruit markets for next week’s stash. 

Driving out of Marcus Clarke St, onto Barry St, approaching Northbourne Ave, Kimberly spots the restaurant, with a triumphant “There it is!”  I look.  It is indeed, right there.  On Barry St.  In the middle of the block.  I look for a McDonald’s.  Nothing.  Finally, I see a McDonald’s about a block later.  Anyway, I drive all over the place to get back to Barry St, which is divided with me currently on the wrong side.   We finally make our way back, but for Pete’s sake, there isn’t an empty parking space among all 6 available on the city block.

Forget it!  We are going to buy fruit!  -And away we went.

While driving to Fyshwick, we passed Kingstown, the home of the Kingstown Pub.  One of my favourites!  We decided to go ahead a get lunch there, and then do fruit afterwards.

Here’s where the story gets cool.  Once we walked into the pub and wandered up to place our order, an older gentleman asked us if we wanted to hold the Olympic Torch.

“Huh?!?!?”

Sure enough, this guy had a replica Olympic Torch.  It was neat, and it looked pretty real, so I asked, “Where did you get this?” He replied, “They let me keep it after my leg of the relay.”

“Huh?!?!”

It was the real thing!  The guy’s name is Ray Smee.  He was leg number 54 in today’s Olympic Relay.  He was a two-time Olympian, playing Water Polo for Australia in 1954.  I’m not sure if he was also in 1950 or 1958. 

He allowed all of us to hold the torch and take pictures.  I ended up talking to him for about 20 minutes before turning to my food and leaving him to eat his.  It was a tremendous honour to meet him. 

We all took a turn at holding the torch.

Posted by kisajaja at 1:08 PM MEST

Updated: Thursday, 24 April 2008 1:15 PM MEST

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Mood:  irritated

The last day was a bit of a challenge.  The plan was to just kill some time until around 11:00a, at which time we would eat lunch, and then head to the airport to return the car and get home.

Good plan.  –Not really.

We went back on top of Mount Wellington hoping to get more clear photographs of Hobart without a lot of haze.  That didn’t work out so well, although we got more pictures of Hobart with some pretty cool sunrise effects.

After Mount Wellington, we decided to go to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.  We got there, parked, and realized the museum didn’t open for other hour (it was 9:00a). 

So we went into the Maritime Museum, only to discover that it was paid entry.  Not being very nautically motivated, we hung out in the gift/book shop for a little while.  Then we headed out for a wander around another store that we already shopped at a few days before.  We did discover that there was a Chinese Buffet that opened at 11:00, so we had choices for lunch! To that point, we thought we would have to eat at Hog’s Breath Saloon, since their radio commercial said it opened at 11:00.

Once 10:00a rolled around, we went back to the museum, which took us about 45 minutes to walk through.  Then we left for the Chinese Buffet.  Once we got there, Kimberly noticed the door said they opened at 11:30a.  I checked my newly acquired flyer.  11:00.  I looked at the door.  11:30.  Damn!  We left for Hog’s Breath.  Right when we got there, we saw the guy unlocking the door.  Great!  We tried the door, and it didn’t budge.  Damn!  Apparently the guy saw us pull in and remembered that he failed to lock the door when he got in to work.  The guy came over, opened the door and said, “11:30. Sorry for the inconvenience.”  He was unimpressed with my pleas to his radio commercial and said we’d have to come back.  Right.  I’ve been thwarted, again!  He wants us to come back?  Not gonna happen.

So we went to a sandwich shop.  By now I am highly irritated about driving back and forth all over Hobart to find food.  We get to the sandwich shop.  I find an available parking place, which I over shot just a little.  Backed the car up about 10 feet, and then, BAM!   Another car was leaving her parking place, didn’t see us, and smashed into the back of the rental car.  DAMN!!!!!  So now I’m standing around, trying to call Thrifty to tell them there’s been an accident, no, no one’s hurt, yes, the car is drivable.  Once complete, still angry about the restaurants being closed, the accident, the being but on perpetual hold by Thrifty, we finally went in to get lunch. 

We ate a quick sandwich and then left for the airport.  About three minutes into our drive, Kimberly points to the windshield and says, “What’s that?”  DAMN!!!!  I forgot to pay for my parking space and got a ticket! 

I’m not having a good day, to this point.

We finally get to the airport.  Now I have to deal with Thrifty-boy.  He comes out, views the damage, writes some notes, and then points to the front bumper.  “Did this damage occur during the accident?”   I said, “No, the accident was just the back.  That damage to the front bumper was there.”  He gives me a sceptical look.  Now I’m wondering, “Holy crap!  I didn’t look at the car when we picket it up.  Did I damage the front end driving over Charles Mountain?!?  I didn’t hit anything!  I bottomed out once or twice, but didn’t hit anything!” 

Thrifty-boy checks his paperwork, turns to me and says, “This just says scratches/abrasions.  That’s a hole in the bumper!”  I turn back to him and said, “We didn’t hit anything.  We noticed the bumper damage, checked the paperwork, saw the marks, and thought nothing of it.”

Then we went inside and finished the paperwork, during which time he explained to me that despite the accident not being my fault, despite the other lady admitting being at fault, the proper way to proceed is to charge my credit card $3,130 for the damage while the Thrifty people deal with the lady’s insurance people.  With any luck, the charge should get refunded within a week or so.

DAMN!!!!!

Now, to give all of this just one more twist, we came home and found that USAA shut off my credit card because of fraudulent charges. 

DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I called them immediately, and they were right.  Stuff was showing up on my credit card that we didn’t do.  So USAA terminated that card and is sending me a new one.  What does that mean?   Nothing to me.  Thrifty is going to have a hard time charging me if that lady’s insurance doesn’t clear this up!

Anyway, there was no further drama for the return trip.  Peter was there to pick us up, and took us right home.  We gave him his chocolate and invited him to dinner, which he accepted, so we all went to the Tradies Club to get our Chinese Buffet that started this whole mess about 12 hours before. 

It was damn good!

Posted by kisajaja at 1:01 PM MEST

Updated: Thursday, 24 April 2008 1:08 PM MEST

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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.

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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Mood:  a-ok

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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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. 

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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Mood:  a-ok

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. 

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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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.  

Posted by kisajaja at 11:48 AM MEST

Updated: Thursday, 24 April 2008 11:59 AM MEST

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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

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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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. 

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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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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