Halloween 2006

Some American friends of ours here in Australia, threw a HUGE Halloween party over the weekend. What do you dress as for a Halloween party when you are 8+ months pregnant? Britney Spears of course! There is no one else like the trashy American Pop Diva! Pics below of Mark and I dressed as Britney and Kevin Federline and my friends Julie (sailor), Felicity (Bavarian Beer Princess) and I. -kel

Aussie Lingo Lesson #6 – The Baby Edition

We have lived here for 1 year and 3 weeks, I thought I had mastered the language, was convinced they did speak really speak English in Australia…then we got pregnant…here are a few of my favorite baby/pregnancy terms Aussie style!

Pram – Stroller
Cot – Crib
Theater – Surgery
Cesar – Cesarean
Nappies – Diapers
Teets – Nipples

Here is a picture of my Aussie Baby Shower held this weekend with a bunch of my girlfriends. Thanks to Joann and Julie for organizing and for the terrific afternoon! - kel

Meet Bluey….

Bluey is the Blue Tongue Lizard that lives in the back yard of our new house and our neighbors house. Apparently all of the construction in our back yard has had him on the move lately, Tommy and Adam (pictured below) our neighbors have been showing him good hospitality. They carry him around the yard, watch cartoons with him inside their house, and chase him Steve Irwin style whenever he manages to find time alone! According to Tommy and Adam’s Dad this is just another one of the “joys” of living in Australia! - kel

Aussie Lingo Lesson #5 – The Home Remodel Edition

As we have been going through the remodel I have realized there is a whole Aussie language just for construction. Here is a small sample of my favorites:

Gyprock – Dry Wall
Chippy – Carpenter
Bricky – Bricklayer/Mason
Sparky – Electrician

Latest state of the cabana and house, all going well…but maybe not done before the new Ferguson arrives…

Hong Kong Phooey

My last Xbox business trip so I made the most of it from the start – I managed to fit four movies into the plane ride over, (Nacho Libre, XMen 3, Solo & Kenny), and another one on the way back (11 Canoes).

I’ve been to Hong Kong half a dozen times, always with work, and I really have not had much time to look around - so although still not close to enough time I made sure I had a late flight out and had a day to explore this time around.

The MS office is a bit out of the way in Cyberport on HK Island so I jumped the Le Meridien shuttle to Central, walked to the Star Ferry terminal and caught the ferry over to Tsim Sha Tsui.

Walked up to Mong Kok mostly along Nathan Rd, I wasn’t in the market for a new fake watch or handbag or a new suit made in 24 hours and got sick of the Indian guys asking me so I took a detour through some of the back roads which was a great move – I had some awesome BBQ baby octopus skewers from a street vendor and got to check out some of the food markets the locals use.


Mong Kok was cool, of special interest was a street that had about fifty stores selling Adidas trainers, some models that I had never laid eyes on before – unfortunately they were not good value at all so I’ll save myself for the next trip to the US (I didn’t realize comparatively how great value trainers are there!). It was a day of much walking, good food, great people watching and I enjoyed being somewhere very different to Australia. By the time I got back to ferry I was beat, I rode the shuttle to the airport and enjoyed my last meal on Bill – Popeyes fried chicken.

Cheers - Mark

The name is ... William Wallace

September is going, going, gone and not a single blog entry – it’s not that we have been doing nothing it has actually been a crazy, crazy month.

Kelly returned from the U.S. where she was a bridesmaid in her friend Christy’s wedding at Lake Tahoe, she also brought lot’s of great presents back from the U.S. – so I was glad that she made it home :-)

We both graduated from ante-natal (pre-natal) classes at the Mater Hospital (I was about to say we graduated unscathed but the crowning video wasn’t so easy to forget). I received warnings from nearly all of my friends about how bad the classes could be, especially some of the other guys in the class asking stupid questions – we must have lucked out as the two days went pretty smoothly. Kel left her mark on the class by scaring every other mum-to-be out of any thought of taking the gas for assistance during birthing telling them all that there is no way any credible hospital would let you have gas in the US – never one to shy away from voicing her opinion this girl!

Everything with the baby is going well – a couple of really hot days have made life hard for Kel so hopefully we can get into the water for a swim soon.
The first Kelly pregnancy photo on the blog – taken in Balmain after a stop in at the William Wallace for a few cold ones.

The house is moving full steam ahead – Kelly gets much pleasure out of telling people we are off to water our kitchen and living room (it helps the durability of the concrete slab to keep it moist so that it can cure slowly). I’ve been trying to put in a day a week to help out, my hole digging skills have improved measurably, my belly has decreased in size and the palms of my hands now have the texture of dog paws. The office hag on the building site!

And while on the subject of the office I also have decided to change jobs – saying good bye to Xbox definitely means I lose any credibility I had with my friends kids and now I can listen to everybody whinge about how bad their mobile phone reception is and how slow their broadband connections are.

Movie line of the month :- “Chancho, when you are a man, sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room... Just for fun.” (Nacho Libre)

Cheers - Mark

P.S. Cougs are off to a great start and I see the Huskies have also had a couple of lucky wins.

Crack House at 45 Bennett St

It may look like a crack house but it is ours.

Singapore & KL

Lobbed up to Singapore and Malaysia for the week - dropped off a bunch of meat pies to some Aussie friends in the MS Singapore office - only fare given the food experieinces I get in return. Singapore has great food. This trip I ventured out to Arab St. for some middle eastern and Malay food - awesome and only S$4 a meal (approx. USD$2) - crazy.

The Arab St. area is centered around the Sultan Mosque , it has lots of older style buildings mostly containing shops selling fabric, carpets, food and crafts. All up pretty interesting and only a $5 cab ride from town.



A couple of days in KL - I travelled with a guy who likens KL to Bedrock (Flinstones) with lots of seemingly hi-tech/modern stuff on the surface but if you peek behind the facade it is all run by 500 guys going hell for leather on a tread mill. Staying at a brand new Hilton insulates you from that so I am yet to form an opinion. Staying at a new Hilton also offers swimming opportunities, the best reason to travel to S-E Asia this time of year (Sydney is still 2 months away from swimming weather for me). I shared the pool with a couple of people including two women who swam in full burka's - seriously.

After days of laksa, beers, pigs feet, various forms of offal soup and some great Australia wine (link below) I headed back home to cheer on Mark (our builder) to finish our house in world record time!

http://www.voyagerestate.com.au/one/home.html

45 Bennett - the demo cont.

Week 2 and the house is in pieces...Here are some pictures for the cabana. This is where Mark and I keep telling all of our overseas friends and family they will be able to stay when they come to visit. Also one pic of the front of the house, after hearing from the builder today that our walls were full cockroaches and cockroach poo, I could not have been more overjoyed to see all the walls gone! - kel

Demolition

The work on the house is officially in full swing! Walls are coming down, a hole is being dug for the pool and I am finally convinced we might someday actually move in! Last week Mark took a day off work to help our builder with the demolition, here are some pics of the house and Mark playing carpenter for the day (boys will be boys!) First photo is Mark dismantling the old water heater, second photo is Mark removing some of the old ceiling joists. More updates soon! -kel

Bangalore India

This week I’ve been in Bangalore India for a Quarterly Business review. The weather hasn’t been too hot and for the most part I’ve been stuck in meetings (aka death by powerpoint). In the past I have experience staring and pointing on my trips to India, this time the staring and pointing has been particularly noticeable as my big pregnant belly seems to also be a point of interest. Looking forward to getting home to Mark and Australia…here are a few pictures from my trip. -kel

At last the work has begun!

Our house plans finally made it through the council system and we have full approval! This is great news and something we waited 6 moths for! This weekend Mark and his dad began the demo, in the next two weeks a huge excavator will be there to tear the house in 2! Mark escaped the weekend with one small crow-bar to the head wound, trust me the house looks much worse than Mark!

More before and after pics coming soon, here is a pic of Mark starting on the kitchen work, don’t you just love the wallpaper! -kel

19+ weeks and counting

Yesterday was our 19 week ultrasound, everything looks great. The baby is healthy and no problems were detected. Here is a picture from the ultrasound.

Manly

A lot to take in at the moment with a new baby on the way and the house still a dream with no DA - a kebab at the beach and a few hours to chill and take in a beautiful Sydney winter day at Manly - a perfect Saturday afternoon.

Midnight Snack

Pregnant food cravings, I thought they were somewhat mythical, until recently…I am growing more and more frustrated (literally) as I am craving all of the food that I can’t send Mark out to get in the middle of the night…let’s just say it’s a long flight to Seattle just for a snack. Mark and I now regularly talk about foods we wish we were eating in Seattle, the conversations sound like we are stranded on a deserted island with nothing to eat but coconuts, not driving through a city of 3 million people with more food choices than you can imagine…Here is my top 10 list of foods I can’t wait to have in August on my last US visit before the baby arrives…these aren’t my favorite Seattle foods, just the ones I am craving like crazy… -kel
Paseo – Midnight Cuban Sandwich
Malenas – 2 Chicken Tacos Meal (with extra salsa)
Red Mill – Chicken Club Sandwich w/Onion Rings
Cactus – Navaho Fry Bread with Honey
Cactus – Carne Asada Tacos
Petes – Tall Iced Single Shot Decaf Vanilla Late with a Blackberry Lemon Scone
Pagallici’s – Pepperoni Pizza
Mediterranean Kitchen – Chicken meal w/Pita
Nordies Coffee Bar – Venti Orange Cream Fizz
Kid Valley – Onion Rings with extra Tarter Sauce

Baby Husky Fan Arriving November 26

Just for the record, as I know many of you have been wondering, the baby will be a Husky supporter and life long fan. Mark is attempting through sly tactics, to have Cougar baby gear sent to Australia in an empty effort at influencing our baby toward becoming a Coug fan. He is so worried about the Husky fan to be, that he even suggested this year’s Mark vs. Kelly Apple Cup bet should result in the winner choosing the baby’s allegiance. However in the time honored tradition of the Huskies (passing loyalty though the best team and the team of the University a parent actually attended), our baby will be a Dwag fan through and through. -kel

We are crazy, crazy people

Windy Winter Weekend: South 2 Sussex

Kelly's first trip to the NSW South Coast - a fine long weekend away with our pals Sam, Christy and Jemima at Sussex Inlet.

The driving this time of year is traffic free and at times beautiful - rugged coastlines, rough seas and rolling green hills. We made food stops at Berry in either direction and if you follow in our footsteps eat at Stone Sourdough Bakery and avoid the main drag.

Heavy rain greeted us in Sussex on Friday afternoon and although it stopped for the weekend the clouds never really broke - perfect weather for long walks, lot's of great food (courtesy of Kel and Christy), beer drinking and cards. We took a side trip to Ulladulla and drive along G-G-G-G-G-Government Drive to the beach.

Although passe for Kelly these days we said g'day to six large grey kangaroos chilling in the front yard of a house just down the street from where we stayed.

Much thanks to Barry & Helen Taylor for use of their town house!

And then there were 3 …

Mark and I are very happy to announce, we are expecting a baby. Current due date is November 26, my dad’s birthday and the start of the Aussie Summer. I am feeling pretty good and getting larger by the second, funky cravings here and there and potentially some funky hormone swings as well. Here is a pic from one of the ultrasounds. We are both super excited, crossing our fingers the house is finished before the baby arrives! We promise to keep up with the blogging a bit better, we know we've been slack lately, but we have been a little pre-occupied with visions of parenthood! -kel

Balmain Tigers vs. Manly Sea Eagles

Yesterday Mark and his dad took me to my first Rugby League game. Not to be confused with Rugby Union, and yes there are actually two different types of Rugby in Australia, I am sure this strikes you as odd as it did me, there are only 20 million people in Australia, how can they possibly have more than one type of Rugby? Simple answer virtually every Aussies love sports! On a Friday night at the Ferguson house hold, it’s a constant jumping of channels on the TV between Rugby Leauge, Rugby Union, Aussie Rules Football and Cricket!

The stadium was packed with 20,000 fans, the game was great, both teams kept the action going and I am actually starting to understand the rules! Seating was on a hill, in the grass, the spectators were highly entertaining, I would speculate that almost 85% of the crowd had on jerseys or other gear supporting their team. In typical Aussie fashion, songs were song, lots of beer was drunk, the sun was out and all had a great time! Mark’s dad used to play for the Tigers, his last season was 1963. He reminisced with us about what the field and the grounds used to look like and helped me confirm that now that I am officially a Ferguson, Balmain is my team! (Oh yeah the Tigers won 24-18)

Wedding Photos

Here are a few more pictures from the Wedding. Mark and I are working on creating a space where you can all view them all, in the mean time here are a few of my favorite! –kel

Seoul Food

A Saturday in Seoul...headed up to Dongdaemun and ran across a massive "fashion market" ... hundred's of small stalls with fabric, fasteners, ribbon... everything you need to make clothes... me being there without Kel is sort of like a vegetarian in Smith & Wollenski. Dongdaemon has all sorts of wholesale markets, a huge flea market (plenty of cool t-shirts but all are too small for me) and there are also lots of crazy alleyways with all sorts of stuff being sold, cooking in the street (see the fish in photo) and guys on scooters taking short cuts without slowing down.

A short ride on the subway and I was in Myeongdong - this area is super packed on a Saturday, many of the leading brand stores you'd find in a mall in Bellevue or Bondi Junction are here plus a ton of street stalls that seemed to be selling fried stuff (?) or knock-offs. The weather was actually pretty good which really suits this area with all stores on small pedestrian streets (no cover), there were stages with rock bands and one that was surrounded by hundreds of teenage girls who were going crazy for some Korean soap star.

One week until Kel get's back to Sydney, I can't wait for that but wish she was with me today.

Bye and all the best, Mark

Melbourne - The Colonel & WMD

I love visiting Melbourne and was long overdue for a visit (about 8 years) and Kelly has never been so it was with great anticipation that we headed down for a long weekend. We jumped the flying Kangaroo rented a car and we were in Brunswick St. Fitzroy just before mid-day. Brunswick St. has a ton of good cafes (in fact Melbourne definitely has the European cafe culture down) so we went for a walk and found one we liked. As well as cafes there are blocks of book, clothing and home ware type shops in Fitzroy and all are a little bit funky, definitely not your usual mall fare.

After a couple hours in Fitzroy we headed toward the bay and our hotel in St Kilda. Kelly got the recommendation for this hotel from a magazine called Family Circle, yet it was as far away from a Family Circle type environment as you could find. It was one of those super cool boutique jobs, with a bar and restaurant downstairs, all the hallway lighting was red and directly over our bed was a huge photo of Colonel Sanders with the normal KFC replaced by WMD – a comment about the pervasiveness of American culture in Australia I think (?). The place was small, clean, close to trams but really loud at night – the Hotel Tolarno gets 2 ½ stars from 5.

Friday night we caught up with Franc & Di Renzi. Franc is a friend of mine from college and for me a trip to Melbourne would never be the same without catching Franc and Di… many, many good times with them in Melbourne. Having local friends paid off – we went to a bar that was not only down some rubbish strewn alley but was actually built into the cavity between two multi-storey office buildings – it was very cool … if you ever visit Melbourne don’t ask me where it is because I couldn’t explain it to you even if I wasn’t sworn to secrecy! We went to the Melbourne version of Longrain (there is a Sydney version) for dinner – great food.

Saturday the party did get started right – breakfast in Acland St, St Kilda. Acland St has about ten great pastry shops - vanilla slices of exceptional quality (I want to control the hyperbole here because we are talking vanilla slices, not hamburgers or meat pies which could then be described as “to die for”).

After loading up on the food we headed for the shopping …and possibly the people watching … capital of Australia, Chapel St. South Yarra. We spent a solid four hours there and I was happy with the relatively minor damage to the bank account… I think Kelly treated this more as a reconisance trip for the next visit.

Saturday night we went over to Richmond for dinner at Franc and Di’s place and met their daughter Sabrina. Kelly and Sabrina got on like a house on fire and along with swapping more “dirt” on me with Franc and Di this made Kelly's night.

The food wasn't done yet - Sunday morning we drove to Carlton to have breakfast at a Melbourne institution, Brunetti's. The place is a crazy Italian cafe that was packed - 12,000 cups of coffee is the record day. We ate breakfast and left with bags full of cannoli.

A stroll along the Yarra and then back to Sydney.

- Mark

P.S. http://www.brunetti.com.au ***** from Kelly, just don't try and get there during a fun run for the childrens hospital.

10 foods it's hard to live without...

On more than one trip to the grocery store I have found myself staring at a shelf in pure and total confusion. One recipe has turned out disastrous due to differences in ingredients and I have asked complete strangers in more than one grocery isle for help in identifying such items as jello, graham crackers, flank steak and marshmallows. In the sprit of top 10 lists, here are the top 10 foods I am finding it hard to live without.
1. Corn Tortilla Shells
2. Marshmallows – they have them here but they are very different and all minty-ish flavored.
3. Graham Crackers
4. Wriggles Double Mint Gum
5. Butterscotch Chips – a key ingredient to Nordy Bars (If I can’t shop at Nordstrom at least I could have eaten their famous brownies)
6. Black beans
7. Super fine white sugar
8. Spoon sized Frosted Mini Wheats
9. Flank Steak – Apparently cows in Australia don’t have flanks.
10. Crisco – essential ingredient in pies and biscuits!

On the flip side, the fruit, yogurt and ice cream in Australia are much better than anything I’ve ever had in the US. We are off to Melbourne this weekend, where I will be stopping by the USA food store, to stock up on the above! - kel

Hunter Valley

Last weekend we traveled to the Napa of Australia the Hunter Valley. One of my friends Julie celebrated her 30th birthday by organizing 16 friends to meet in the Hunter for a weekend of wine tasting and birthday celebration.



At 10 AM on Saturday morning we boarded a mini-bus to tour the Valley, stopping at 4 wineries, Scarborough, Tulloch, Peterson’s Champagne House and Audrey Wilkins, with a stop for lunch at the Belltree Café (fantastic food). Mark and I did our fair share of tasting, purchased almost 3 cases of wine (most from Tulloch and Audrey Wilkins) and did a little sightseeing.


Mark took particular pleasure at the wine museum at Audrey Wilkins that showcased a number of “Bung Hole Borers”. For those of you not familiar with the phrase "bung hole", just check out an episode of Bevis and Butthead. The party was great fun. Julie is from Texas and works for Dell in Australia, a number of the other guest were also from Texas, at times with the y’alls and country music playing it certainly felt more like I was in Texas than Australia, however once the Kangaroo’s hopped by it was back to Australian reality!

On Sunday we were able to visit with my mom, stepdad, cousin and family friend who were all visiting the Hunter Valley as part of their trip to Australia for the Wedding, it was fantastic timing and great to catch up with them post-wedding maddess! -kel

It rained, it poured, then we got married…

It rained, then it poured, then we got married…The wedding was amazing, the entire day turned out just beautifully (after the rain stopped). The wedding was held at Gunner’s Barracks in Mosman, overlooking the Sydney Harbor. Our guests enjoyed dinner, dancing, quite a few speeches, cake and plenty of alcohol. The night flew by in a blur, Mark and I did manage to speak to almost all of the guests and got in plenty of dancing. Some couples take dancing lessons before the wedding, those of you familiar with Mark’s “moves” would have been very proud when he pulled out the James Brown splits! Other highlights of the wedding included the poem my sister read during the ceremony, Mark’s fingers shaking like crazy as we read our vows, all of the speeches, the toast to Mark’s parents who celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary on our wedding day, so many friends and family traveling around the world to celebrate with us, John Frize one of Mark’s childhood friends singing “Sweet Caroline” during the reception and going out to the Ivanhoe (a local pub in Manly) after the reception. The entire night with our family and friends was fantastic, the wedding was perfect!

We are hoping to have photos up soon, once we’ve got them we’ll post them here for you all to enjoy. -kel

Festival of the Fergo's Part I

I'll give credit where credit is due and acknowledge that I stole the title of the blog from my friend (& our wedding photographer) Sam Grimmer who has named the three events Kelly and I are hosting this week the "Festival of the Fergo's". Part I is the wedding rehearsal dinner that doesn't involve a rehearsal.

Rehearsal's are not the norm in Australia and our celebrant being as inflexible as he is with nearly everything (yes, there is more than a hint of dissatisifaction on our part), wouldn't entertain the idea. We decided to have a dinner in any case as a way for us to spend time with our international-interstate guests in what has been a hectic week. It was also a way of introducing the northern beaches to the people who have decided to camp in the city.

Kelly being a fan of the pizza has had us try out a number of different pizzeria's since we arrived in Australia and by far her favorite is a place called Tropical Italy in Manly... so we decided to have the rehearsal dinner there... great decision! They had erected a special canopy in the courtyard in case the weather turned bad and were generally on top of every request we had, the pizza was awesome (as usual) and more than one person doubled down on the gelato. The McWilliams wine flowed freely (thanks Dave) and everyone had a great time, especially my six year old nephew Corey who took the photos for the night. (The first photo is of my soon to be sister in-law Tiffany & the second is of our mum's).

At the end of the evening I sat enjoying a Makers Mark pondering my last 18 hrs as a single bloke!

Cheers.

The fun has begun!

With only two weeks away to hosting our first party at our new house, we thought it might be a good idea to rip out the incredibly ancient carpet that had the fruitful odor of cat pee before our closest family and friends arrived for a post wedding brunch. Ripping out the carpet seemed simple enough but then came the great question, how will we get the old carpet to the tip (Aussie for the dump). This required us picking up our new truck Mark had purchased a few months ago from a friend.

Why hadn’t we picked up the truck before this weekend? Mark doesn’t know how to drive a manual, but I do. So off we went to the Wolley’s to pick up the truck, where I had to drive away while Mark drove away in the BMW. This was great fun for me, as most of you know, this was serious blow to the Aussie manhood born and bred into Mark. His woman had to come with him to drive the new truck! What was even better was later when we were at the hardware store when I drove up, Mark was in the passengers seat! I have come to realize most Aussie men are guys guys, very burley, very rugged most have dirt under there nails, you get the picture, you don’t let your fiancé drive you to the hardware store if you are a real Aussie.

Small side note here – Just for you uncle Joe and the Pitt family, while packing and moving to Australia I found a note I wrote and signed when I was 10 years old, to Uncle Joe stating I would never drive the pooper scooper (the pooper scooper was this extremely ugly, old, truck that my dad owned, rusty and peeling paint, that when you started covered the entire car in a cloud of smoke that you had to drive out of, think Batman in a white Datsun Truck minus the glam and cool gatgets) I remember at Christmas the year I wrote this note that I hated the car so much I told Uncle Joe that I would rather walk when I was 16 than ever ever drive the truck. I remember Uncle Joe laughing at my stubbornness and telling me to write that down. I did drive that truck, and I don’t know what I promised Uncle Joe I would do if I did when I was 10, but I owe him big time, I drove that truck more than 100 times I am certain. Yesterday while driving around in our new truck it dawned on me that our new truck had just the same feel, that someday it could be my kids pooper scooper if I put it through enough wear and tear!

We ripped out all of the carpet, dug out one of the many flower beds in the house, loaded the truck up for a trip to the tip and completed our very first step of the remodel! Now all we have is about 1000 more hours in the yard, council approvals, lots of workmen, half the house torn apart and rebuilt and we’re ready to move in! One way or the other, I am determined to spend next Christmas in the house, at this point we might be camping in the backyard! Oh and look for my next blog all about teaching Mark how to drive a manual! This is going to be great fun! - kel

The Red Door (like we'd never left)

(FRIDAY FEB 25, 2006) Patty Perkins sent out the rallying call and Pistol Pete played the gracious host - another great night at the Red Door.

Awesome turn up - great to see everybody - felt like we'd never left, even down to Gary and Gab Suko doing the half time swap of child minding duties.

Photo's by Erika "Boom Boom" Johnson

I went home with a skin full and fell asleep before room service could bring up the grilled cheese - Kel ate the lot although still not enough of a reward for putting up with a drunk guy snoring next to her all night.

A great way to go out - the food in Seattle was great, catching up with friends was priceless - we miss you all but we'll be back and hopefully you can all make it to Australia at some stage.

Cheers. Mark

Very Seattle

This one’s for some of our Aussie friends. Mark is in Seattle this week on business, I am joining him on Thursday for a week and a half then we’ll fly home together. He sent me this picture of Seattle and as I sat at my desk in Sydney gazing out at the sunny blue sky I could almost feel the cold winter day in the picture. It will be great to be back in the Pacific Northwest next week, but at the same time, I think the weather will quickly excite me to get back to my new home. - kel

Australia v Sth Africa - SCG

During my time in Sydney I’ve had many firsts, first Aussie Pub, fist real Aussie meat pie, first sighting of a kangaroo outside of a zoo… the list goes on and on. Yesterday however was a notable first, after picking Mark up from the Airport (see blogs below) we were off to the SCG (Sydney Cricket Grounds) for my first ever in person Cricket Game, Australia vs. South Africa in one day cricket.

My love, and yes I really do mean love, of cricket actually began last year when I was in South Africa for 4 weeks. In the middle of the afternoons, when the sun was just a bit too hot, I watched quite a bit of Cricket on TV. My love and understanding has grown immensely while being in Australia. Mark’s parents watch it all the time, while home sick for a week at the beginning of the year I watched for hours. I know the players names, I am learning the plays and some of the strategy and am slowly becoming a fan. This is a picture of Brett Lee, my favorite Aussie bowler and a South African batsman Graeme Smith.

The game was fantastic, Australia had 57-run victory over South Africa, the weather was beautiful (sunny about 85 F, slight breeze), and the fans were dressed up in Aussie pride like I’ve never seen in the US. Australia hit tons of great shots, for the first 2 hours (games usually are 8 hours long) Aussie fans were on their feet the entire time. Mark did get a slight sunburn, particularly funny since he came to work today with a sunburn after being in Korea in -19 degree C weather all week. The fans were a bit crazy, typically drunken revelry aside; it was the outfits and costumes I am talking about. It was like Halloween where the theme was Australia! Whole groups of people wearing all yellow matching outfits, hats of all kinds, faces painted, wigs, I even saw a group of girls wearing Australian flags as dresses. This is a pic of Mark and I in the stands taken with my camera phone (sorry for the closed eyes).

Mark’s parents were at the game with us, I learned more about the game, saw just how fast the bowlers throw the ball and experienced my first sold out stadium full of drunken Aussies. It was a blast and I can’t wait to go again! -kel

Asia Pt II: Korea

Wednesday 1st Feb (cont): Difinitely more comfortable arriving in Korea this time - hopped the limo bus to the city (13,000 KRW versus the 90,000+ I payed for the limo taxi my first time here). Given the limited choice (with a summer bias) of clothing that Kelly and I have while we wait for the right time to have our container unloaded it is hard to prepare for -12 degrees C. The half mile walk from the bus station to the hotel was no fun.

Thursday 2nd Feb: Happy Birthday Ruminson! Got my mum to call me for her birthday after Kel had given her a present this morning. Drove to an offsite meeting about 80 km's north east of Seoul with one of my MS Korea colleagues - he explained the etiquette of Korean drinking to me along the way. I knew I had a night ahead of me.

Being the only non-Korean in a meeting that is conducted in Korean is tough. All of the MS people speak partial English and a couple speak great English so I rely on them totally. Lunch was traditional Korean food, most of which I couldn't identify but it was good - plenty of vegies and very spicey. I was asked if I had ever eaten dog food (which I clarified to mean have I eaten dog meat), I immediately confirmed that unless the unidentified meal I had just consumed included dog (it didn't) I hadn't. Although most do not eat it regularly every male at the table had eaten dog meat. Dogs are specially bred and raised for eating (the same as cows and pigs), and it seems there is currently a shortage so in poorer areas the regular dog population has been on the decline. I told them about the crocodile pizza (see "An Aussie Christmas" blog December 2005) that Kelly and I had and they thought it was crazy - it's all about perspective.

Seoul was cold but the area northeast of the city where the Hotel Chereville, (http://www.cherevillehotel.com), is located was at least another 2 degrees colder... and I'm running around in a cotton business shirt and a light sweater. It was wicked.

The dinner was again traditional Korean and this time everybody sat crossed legged on the floor to eat - I lasted about 15 mins until my legs went numb. The hard part for me was that because of my inflexibility the mats that are provided are too small and I end up with my ankles crossed on the hard ground.

We were drinking soju (fermented potato and onion varieties) - it is about 20% proof. In Korea there are many ways to show respect and for bonding while drinking. One thing that can be done to build a relationship (it takes a bit of getting used to) is to give specific people the glass you have been drinking with and pour them a drink, they drink from your glass and then pour you a drink and return the glass. Everybody was really cool and as usual the more drinking that was done the less language presented a barrier. After dinner we continued a "casual" drinking session back in the hotel, which involved sitting cross legged on the floor again but this time the drinks were scotch (no single malt here) and beer. When the shoes were put back on at the end of the night some people's had definitely been replaced by wobbly boots. I slept well.

Friday 3rd Feb: Back to Seoul - lots of work to do.

Saturday 4th Feb: Caught the subway to Insa-dong - Seoul has a great subway system. Today was really, really cold - I brought a wool hat from a street stall to get me through. Insa-dong is great, lots of small shops selling tradional Korean handicrafts and antiques and a number of art galleries, both traditional and contemporary. I went to a great robot exhibition at one of the galleries. I spent about 4 hours all up in Insa-dong and if it wasn't for the cold I would have stayed longer. Riding the subway back (and having thawed out some) I decided to take a detour to Itaewon - it's where most of the westerners hang out in Seoul. I could have done without it - seemed pretty seedy in the day and there was stall after stall of fake brand name clothing. In all a fun day of exploring. I was ready to sleep all the way home on the plane.

Asia Pt I: Hong Kong

Tuesday 31st Jan: The long plane flights are getting easier, Sydney to Hong Kong passed in no time (actually 9 hrs). I read the paper, watched a horrible movie (The Transporter - so bad it was funny) and a few doco's and started speaking with the older lady in the window seat. I'm usually not a talker but she didn't have the strongest bladder, so she was up and down often and apologizing each time for making me move, so we got to talking. Anna is psychiatrist in Tel Aviv and has childeren & grand children in Sydney. What a story - born in the Netherlands, her family fled first to Potugal away from the Nazi's and then to Indonesia away from the threat of Franco, in Indonesia they were imprisoned for three years during the Japanese occupation. After the war they eventually moved to Spain, she married a Moroccan Jew, who was a lawyer but because of his dark skin found it hard to get work. They had family ties in Australia so moved here, started a family and lived here for 30 years. He died, her children were grown so she took the opportunity to move to Jerusalem to teach in the University, her apartment was damaged during a suicide bombing so she took the opportuntiy to move into private practice and to Tel Aviv. As Gwen Stefani says "the shit is bananas", it definitely helped pass the time but I was thinking at one stage that given all that has happened to her I am not too keen to be flying on the same plane let alone sit next to her.

The train into the city from HK airport is great - quick and easy. Jumped a cab to my motel (Le Meridien Cyberport - new & funky), I had to wait an hour for the room so they upgraded me to the suite - a waste, I was wishing Kel was there to enjoy it with me. Met my colleague Alan and his family for dinner and got to work at the MS offices.

Wednesday 1st Feb: I'm trying to lose a couple of pounds for the wedding and running out of time. It doesn't help when the comp breakfast at the hotel is a buffet that includes shrimp dumplings and pork sticky buns. On the way back to the Central we passed an awesome cemetary looking down to the sea, I wish I had time to stop and take photo's (next time). Checked my bag at the airport express train station then jumped a local loop train to Causeway Bay to have a look around in the 30 mins I had spare. Lots and lots of shops, nothing too appealing although I bought some DVD's at a very handy price (could they be pirated :) ). Back out to airport and guess what... there is Popeye's chicken at the HK airport ... a few legs and then on the plane to Incheon.