Happy Birthday Jax!

Just want to wish a happy birthday to Jax. Can't believe that f*cker is already 3 years old. I still remember picking him up from the shelter at 8 weeks and 13lbs (and no behavior issues).

 This was a sign of things to come.....

 We've been getting our dog fix from our friends whom we met on the wine tasting tour during our vacation. They live about 5 minutes by bus from us in Bowgolah Heights and have a 120lb Leonberger (Newfoundland/St. Bernard/Bernese Mountain Dog mix) named Dixie. He's no replacement for Jax, but he'll do for now:

On another note, Mere worked Friday and Saturday of this week, bringing her grand total of employment contribution to a whopping 4 days! And, on Friday, she saw a pod of dolphins during her commute on the ferry. I've been on the ferry every day to work since October and haven't seen any dolphins. All I get is a delay due to the birthing of the cruise ships in the harbor - (when the tugboats push the cruise ship against the docks. This creates a delay as the ferry has a single bolt propeller and can't handle the whirlpool in the wharf created by the tugboats). The other day the tugboats completely botched the birhting, so we sat on the ferry in the harbor for 40 mins. Guess the tugboats didn't read the baby books!

Luckily, no birthing issues with the GreenPeace ship. With a boat like that though, maybe they will stop bugging me for $ on the street

Due to daylight savings in Australia last week (fall back) there is now a 12 hour difference b/w Sydney and Boston, meaning I am on the early work shift starting at 6:30am. To balance this, the plan is for me to leave the office early at about 3-330. Unfortunately I haven't left before 5pm yet, but next week looks promising. One good thing The only good thing to come of this, is that I am able to see the sun rise and set during my commute. 

Sun rising over the north head

Sun setting behind the harbor bridge

I'll leave y'all with another sun rise

More posts to come (and more frequent, this time we mean it)

Scuba Peeps

Hey Gang


We decided to skip church and the easter egg hunt this year and instead go hunting for some sharks. We booked a scuba dive on Saturday up at Magic Point to swim with some Grey Nurse Sharks. They were once considered man-eaters, but its been proven that they rarely attack humans and if they do, its only if provoked or attacked. We made sure to check this information before booking the dive and I made sure Mere was on her best behavior under water.

This is me giving the it's all good sign before the dive. Basically the opposite of how my March Madness Bracket turned out. First time ever going 0-4 in picking the Final Four.  Thanks Australia!

Magic Point is a coastal headland in Marouba - about 10km South of center city Sydney and has a large Grey Nurse population. We took a boat from Little Manly Cove out past Bondi Beach to the dive site, about a half hour ride. I use the term 'boat' loosely as it was more of an aluminum bath tub with a motor packed with 10 divers and all of our gear.

We dove down to 22 meters (about 66ft) and sat at the bottom to watch the colony of sharks swimming about. Grey Nurse Sharks can get up to 3 meters (9ft) but I'd say most we saw were around 5-8 ft.

Yes, even though they were no danger, the Jaws theme song still plays in your head as they swim around you.

After being under for 30 minutes, we surfaced and got on the boat for a break before our 2nd dive. Now, I've never been sea sick in my life, but the swells were pretty big and sitting in heap of crap didn't do much for me as I thought it would be a good idea to 'feed the fish' (puke) before the 2nd dive. Luckily for me, I somehow channelled college Mark and was able to rally and go on the 2nd dive. Also luckily for me, it wasn't the college Mark that puked on Meredith freshman year. I would probably still be in the ocean.

 During the 2nd dive, we returned to the shark site and got some pictures swimming above the sharks

In regard to that sardine can we arrived on, we're definitely going to need a bigger boat! And I need to finally learn how to spell definitely! Took me about 8 attempts. 

Here is a Wobbegong Shark, which are bottom dwellers that look like they are wearing Desert Storm camo. They were kind of upstaged by the Grey Nurse.

Here is Nigel, the massive Blue Groper who had a personal relationship with our dive master Sharkey. He let's people pet him as long as they hold up some sea urchins for him to open and eat.

A black polka-dotted nudibranch

American Moorish Idol - way better than Adam Lambert

We also saw a Sea Dragon, but didn't get a photo of it as the rest of our dive group got their asian tourist on and crowded around it snapping pictures until it swam away, but below is what they look like.

Next time, I'll have to figure out if the Grey Nurse sharks like Peeps. Happy Easter!

March Madness

Couple of quick recaps from the past couple of weeks for you to read while tearing up your brackets.


Gumtree...And you thought Craigslist was Bad....

So as you know we had put out an ad on Gumtree to meet some new friends in Australia. We've met some great people we are still friends with, and have met some duds. However, every now and then, we come across a reply that leaves us a little speechless, like the below (word for word):

Hi Meredith, 

Just surfing Gumtree and came across your post. I live about 20 min from Manly I am 30 a professional male model. I do find that my peer group gets rather tiresum at times. So it would be good to have other friends, outside of the industry. Look i do not want to waste your time. I have focused on the fact that "you both .......meeting people individually etc. If I was bold, and I probably am. Do I detect that we three may in time and given the right circumstances share a more intimate friendship? Please, no offence meant. Please take the time to let me know I was wrong. Thanks.

Finally, someone who knows exactly what we were looking for in the first place!





Mardi Gras

The first weekend in March we headed into the city for the 35th annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade which is one of the largest festivals in the world with hundreds of thousands of people attending. The parade got its start from gay rights marches held annually starting in 1978. Instead of beads, there were drag queens and lots of asian toursits bumping into us. We lasted a couple of hours in the rain.

Because nothing says Mardi Gras or Gay Pride quite like a monkey with a trumpet up its butt!

 A float from one of the Surf Life Saving Clubs

 A float in the shape of a giant purse. I thought it was the base of one of those old telephones

 Because homework is gay

 Worse than wrestling through the giant crowd and the crappy weather were the giant swells in the harbor which led to all of the ferries smelling like puke. They cleaned up the puke which "improved" the smell to puke mixed with chemical cleaner.


Mere's Job activities

Mere started going snorkeling during the day by herself at Fairlight Beach while I was at work. The first time I received a text that she was going by herself, so if I didn't hear from her again, she was probably eaten by a shark, and she just wanted to say she loved me and to tell Jax she loved him too. (Thanks for the reassuring text). Needless to say, after not hearing from her for a couple of hours and calling her to no answer, I got home to find her napping with her phone off next to her.

Anyways, it was worth it as below are some of her pictures in combination with ones we took when I went with her a few days later.

Tough to see, but he's half white, half orange

 Octopus!

 A sea slug surrounded by some fish

 Two Octopusses, Octupi, Octopeese I'm going with Octo-posse. We stalked them for a while and one must have thought we left as he is reaching out to feel up his partner.

Stripey fish(yes that is the technical name) also known as a footballer

Johhny Marky Utah

So I finally gave in and got a surfboard. Barely used, 7'6" mini mal so I can wipeout any time I want. 

You're Going The Wrong Way!

So this pretty much sums up what it's like to drive in Australia.

We spent the end of our vacation in the Hunter Valley wine region of New South Wales, and my favorite part of the trip was getting behind the wheel again. It takes some getting used to driving on the opposite side of the road with the steering wheel on the other side of the car. Luckily, I was quick to adapt and we made it there safely. It was very liberating to drive again, especially cruising in the beauty below:

The equivalent to the Nissan Micra in the States is the Nissan Sh*tbox

I got up to 120km/hr in this bad larry. You can thank me now when you're all watching Fast and Furious 25: Diesel Down Under starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and Justin Timberlake as Mark LaPierre (obviously).

We booked a tour on Two Fat Blokes to take us to a couple wineries. There wasn't a lot of red wines besides Shiraz as Hunter Valley is mostly known for the Semillion grape. One of our favorite vineyards was Calais Estates

The stone is actual sandstone used from the early convict prisons, and some you can see the convicts initials carved in.

The wine was good, plus they had Mere's favorite wine pairing:

Don't tell Jax!

After all that wine and a week spent with Mere, her mom, and her aunt, it was time for me to man up. Luckily Two Fat Blokes brought us to Hunter Valley Brewery for our last stop.

We also saw a double rainbow at the cottage we stayed at. 

If you've never seen a double rainbow, this guy pretty much sums it up:

Finding Nemo

So we missed Nemo (blizzard) back in Boston a couple of weeks back, but tried to search for him anyways when we were in the Great Barrier Reef on Hamilton Island for a couple of days. Mere and I had planned on Scuba diving in the outer reef, which is supposed to be a lot more vibrant and alive, unfortunately the swells were too big and our trip was cancelled.

So we had to 'settle' for diving about an hour boat ride from Hamilton Island. We also had to reschedule our snorkeling with Mere's mom and Aunt to the day before:

Mere had her own little tour guide for snorkeling. She probably swam 10 meters with this guy leading the way inches from her face.

Some of the more colorful reef we saw

A butterflyfish (total guestimate)

We didn't find Nemo, but I did spot his cousin - a Black Clownfish (Young Neezy)

This guy was on our boat but went scuba diving. With a mustache like that, you're pretty hard core. I thought he was going to jump in the water with no gear and holding a knife in his mouth. Fortunately for all of you, Mere snapped this picture before he took his trunks off to sport a tiny budgie smuggler.

The day after snorkeling, Mere and I got our Scuba on in a spot called Coral Gardens:

 Mere looking very ninja-esque pre-dive

Me being the amateur giving the 'let's go up' signal instead of the I'm good (which is the 'ok' signal with your hands)

Unfortunately for us, there was some heavy rain during the days prior to the dive, so we didn't have the best visibility (3-5 meters). We still ended up with some good photos though:

A pack of angel fish 

 A school of some type of fish

 A red-breasted wrasse

 A parrot fish, which you could hear chewing on the coral with his teeth

There are some impressive coral structures when you dive down deep. Or at least there were. One of the guys on our dive wasn't certified so he had to be dragged around by the neck by our dive master. He probably single-handedly killed a quarter of the reef by flailing his arms and legs on the ocean floor and on the coral.

Coming up on the blog:

Hunter Valley Wine Country and driving in Australia
The Gay and Lesbian Mardis Gras Parade in Sydney
and
The perils of Gumtree