tia and jeff

hotel-olmi.it

2007-04-18T16:22:00.000-04:00

Barrea, Abruzzo... here I come...

June 1st fly out! Wow, it's going to be great!!

Italy

2007-01-19T07:45:00.000-05:00

Well, I (Tia) might be going to Italy for a month this summer.
Right now I'm just attending some meetings, getting details, getting excited.

The only downfall is that the trip will be sans-Jeff which will be really really hard. Not to mention that I will feel pretty guilty for flying off to Italy for a month while he stays home and walks Ohia.

Anyway, we'll see if this opportunity amounts into anything.
In the meanwhile, it's life as usual: finishing up school, homework, work, dog walks, and chilling out with Jeff.

xxo

Atlantic Surfing

2006-08-27T13:20:00.000-04:00

Well, we just got back from our trip to the East coast.
It was a fantastic time. Not only were we there with some of our coolest friends (christina and tyler) but we spent the whole week surfing in the frigid Atlantic ocean. The break in Lawrencetown and Musquatwat... er... that's what I called it, was not too bad. I think our best day was nearing 4 foot break. So, not nearly as nice as Australia, but absolutely surfable and a lot of fun.

Highlights included:
-the road trip breaks.
-tin can robots.
-Tia finally seeing some marine life (a huge seal popped up right in front of my board).
-free camping.
-hanging around in Halifax.
- getting a pretty sweet wetsuit tan.

Since being back we've spent a week working in the bush outside of Chalk River and just celebrated Andria and Travis Barber's wedding.

This week we're moving back up to Ottawa and will finally be back into some semblance of a routine.

Just Around

2006-07-31T03:22:00.000-04:00

Well, we've been back in North America for 2 weeks. Both of us have been spending a lot of time catching up with family, cutting grass and realizing that things have remained pretty consistent since we left. We've been spending our time between Crawford and Grimsby, but also spent a couple of days up near Huntsville relaxing on the lake. Also we spent an afternoon in London. I think we're both getting pretty anxious to get out of this limbo. We'll be briefly in Ottawa around the 8th of August for some apartment hunting but will be charging the Eastern surf shortly afterwards.

Ohia has become a healthy and happy country dog; all of our plants have been diligently watered as well.

We've consumed numerous veggie burgers and are slowly adjusting to the driving, currency, weather and long days. However, we are already aching for the waves. 12 days and counting.

Sad and Excited

2006-07-13T22:50:00.000-04:00

Well, we've come to the end of our Australian adventure. God, are we ever sad.
Actually, we're both really mixed about coming home. Firstly,, we have lots of great things to come back to (most notably our families, friends, Ohia and our scooter) so we're excited.
However we are, at the same time, very sad about leaving Manly, the ocean, and our easy-going life style.

Regardless, we ARE going to be VERY happy to give you all good handshakes and hugs when we get home. Our flight leaves this coming Monday from Sydney around 1pm, and we should be arriving in Detroit around 9pm that evening. (However all said it's about a 22 hour ordeal).

We can't wait to tell you all of our boring stories and eat about a million Harvey's veggie burgers.

Until September you'll be able to find us bumming around Ontario with a short interlude to Nova Scotia (hopefully with some quality time spent in Quebec City on the way back; I love Quebec City).

Thanks for everyone's support. This trip never would have happened without the financial support and encouragement of almost everyone we know. Thanks dudes.

xxo
see you soon!
Tia and Jeff

New Zealand

2006-07-06T01:31:00.000-04:00

Jeff and I rented a sweet campervan and have spent the last week touring around Southern New Zealand. What an amazingly beautiful country.
Since we're going to be home in about 2 weeks, I won't spill all of the details, but here are a few snapshots to give you an idea of how great our week was. Hint: it was pretty great.

The Fox Glacier.

What a great time.

Here is our sweet campervan. We didn't get to pick it out so pardon our foulness.

Cruising the open roads my friends.

The awesome blue pools.

Jeff and a mountain.

Jeff and I at a waterfall in Hass Pass.

This is a BEAUTIFUL lake in Wanaka, where we spent our first night in the camper.

We took a lot of timer pictures. Half of the fun is trying to run in front of the camera without running off of the cliff.

Amazing Mountains.

Dolphins surf way better than I do.

2006-06-27T05:02:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I surfed the same wave as a dolphin today. I was surfing today while tia was at work and I had seen a school of them pass by a bit earlier, it was cool and everything but they were about 20 feet out and the just keep going, about an hour later they were making thier way back up the beach and catching waves like mad, I had just popped up when I saw a huge grey thing beside me, only to realize it was a dolphin less than two feet away sharing a wave with me. Tia wasn't there to snap a sweet picture so I drew this which is pretty much better anyways.

Ta for now

Jeff (and Tia who is at work still)

How to Surf

2006-06-26T02:36:00.000-04:00

A tutorial for all of you land-lovers.

Paddle for the wave.

Pop-up just as the wave starts to push you forwards.

Make sure you don't hold the rails.

Get your balance...

Cross-stepping to the nose.

Hang-Five Dudes!

Cliff walks, Birthday, Footy

2006-06-26T02:11:00.000-04:00

Here are some picture of some of our adventures over the past few weeks. Highlights include, one of our nature walks, some pictures from my birthday, and a few snaps from the Swans game we went to. Miss you all. xxo

Here's Jeff enjoying some of the view on our walk around the North Head.

If you look closely, you'll notice some dolphins swimming amongst the surfers. This last weekend while Jeff and I were surfing Jeff paddled around with some penguins too! The ocean is amazing.

Jeff and I on our walk.

The views around the North Head are awesome.

Here is me enjoying my new sudoko game that Jeff got me for my birthday. We did a lot that day including visiting the Anzac memorial, picnicking in Hyde park, and watching a movie.

Jeff at the Anzac memorial.

These are some possums we spotted in the park.

Here's Jeff enjoying a Flat White with some cheese cake before the movie.

AFL is a confusing game. The field is round. The players wear tiny shorts. There's lots of pushing and mud. It rained really hard all night.

Here is us cheering on the Swans. GO THE SWANS!!! (ya, they always add the "the". So if cheering on the Leafs, you'd say "Go The Maple Leafs!" odd.)

Fruits and You

2006-06-26T01:46:00.000-04:00

So Jeff and I have been experimenting with some new and exciting fruits over the past few months. Although most of our original pictures were stolen, here are a few shots of our most recent trials. This time the mangosteens were ripe.

This is a picture of some custard apples. The taste great and have a sort of banana texture.

The inside of a dragon fruit is the most luscious thing you've ever seen. It is HOT pink and looks really juicy.

The dragon fruit is beautiful to look at. But it totally tastes like soap. Looking so tempting and delicious, I imagine that the person who first discovered this fruit was incredibly disappointed.

Here we have a mangosteen and a dragon fruit.

Jeff gives Mangosteens a thumbs-up.

You only want to eat the white part of a Mangosteen. YUM!

Here is the inside of a Mangosteen.

This is a Mangosteen from the outside. I personally think they're really cute. The problem is that they're small and they cost about $3 each. Good thing I work at a fruit market. It tastes like a super juicy orange. Except when they're rotten. Then they taste horrible.

Bondi Good-Times

2006-06-15T02:20:00.000-04:00

Greetings family and friends!

Unbelievably it is only 1 month until we are home again! Wow.
Our time here has gone in such rushing waves. Riding lulls of dragging time, sunshine and flat whites; and surging head-first towards our homeward instincts and non-refundable tickets.
It will not be long until we are sitting in your living rooms, on your patios, chatting oz talk and dishing out souvenirs. (You're all getting vegemite).

Today I spent the morning at Bondi, taking in my last surfing lesson (Thanks mom!); perfecting my technique. It was really nice to go back with a bit more skill under my belt and a bit more confidence. The huge 9 footers that they surf were so easy to get up on compared to my Yater, so our instructor switched me down to an 8' which was great. After paddling around in the whitewash the instructor took myself and another 2 blokes out past the break for some bigger waves. The rip was really strong, so it was, thankfully, an easy paddle. Story short, I caught a really amazing wave and had the longest ride that I have ever had. Amazing. Surfing is such an addiction. As soon as you get a nice wave like that you just want to charge out and get another. Even though I had to spend most of my time in the white wash, the instructor gave me a couple of pointers on my style, which I think is really going to help once I'm out on my own again. There was one other guy in the class that was catching the big waves and after the lesson he offered to give me a ride into Central Station (bonus because the Bondi buses are always packed and are super slow). Despite the beach-bum persona which most people associate with surfers, this guy must be a super businessman by day, because he had a sweet, black roadster convertible (likeness shown above). Amusingly, I went to the driver's side to get in, forgetting about the opposite-side stearing. So, not only did I catch my best wave to date, I also rode in my first convertible today. Top-down, cruising the streets of Sydney, feeling the wind in my face and the sand and salt in my ears. I think this weekend he might come up to Manly to surf with Jeff and I. All in all, a very good day.

I've also just purchased our tickets to Christchurch. We will officially be flying into New Zealand on the 29th of June, and will be returning to Sydney on July 5th. Hopefully we'll be able to stay a night or two with our friend Lindsay in Dunedin and with Sean's parents at their B&B. We're planning on renting a car for the week (it's quite cheap) and have basically mapped out a route down the East coast and then up along the mountains to the glaciers along the West. Even if the country is covered in snow, it should be an amazing trip. Everything that I have heard about New Zealand has been fantastic. Hopefully we'll be able to afford a few of the adventure activities that NZ is so famous for.

Well, we are sincerely looking forward to seeing everyone again. Getting home to Ohia, Ottawa, old haunts, friends and family. Our time is feeling extremely short now, only one more rent to pay. Jeff is seriously looking forward to finishing off work next week and celebrating his birthday. It is going to be an exciting few weeks all around.

Lots of hugs,
Tia

Birthday 1

2006-06-08T05:40:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to comment that I had a great birthday!

Well, actually the day of was less good, but Jeff took me into the city on Sunday and we had a really nice day. We went to the weekend market at the Rocks and bought roasted chestnuts and homemade lemonade while we walked around looking at everything. After checking out a really neat nautical antiques store, we bought some vintage postcards, went to Hyde park for a picnic, watched the Three Burials of M...... (I forget the title, but it was a great movie), had some coffee and cake and finished the night off book shopping and enjoying a pitcher of VB near the harbor.
So I'm an aged 22, finished uni for the semester and am heading to New Zealand with Jeff for a little vacation in a couple of weeks. Life is pretty good.

I spent the morning surfing. Caught some really good waves and got tossed a few times as well.
This weekend we are going to see the swans play (AFL) which should be interesting.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.
xxo
Tia

Duh Vinci, Midnite, School + Work

2006-06-01T01:15:00.000-04:00

So, I guess it's time for an update. Really, we haven't been up to too much in the last week and a bit. I am nearly done school for the semester (one more class) and the last week has been quite the crunch getting all of my final assignments done and handed in.
Jeff is still working hard selling insurance and has been doing pretty well apparently. In the last few weeks he has won a cd player, 6 cinema tickets, 3 bottles of wine, a few cans of soda, internet time, and some snacks.
On Tuesday we went to see the Da Vinci Code at the greater union theatre on George street. We both found the movie to be about the same caliber as the book. Just like the author, the director makes connections between characters and symbols painfully obvious (ex. Illuminating objects to draw slow-audience-members attention; "just in case you missed it, this is important"). The book read at about a grade 6 level and I don't think that the movie achieved anything spectacular either. It's understandable that the book drew such a huge audience, what with the many (certainly not all) Christians and Catholics unable to understand the term fiction, but I still think that it's all a little over done. The book was a mediocre crime novel and the movie is a mediocre suspense film.
On the upside, Jeff bought us a huge box of popcorn and some fanta.

Other than that, we've been working on our surfing skills, reading a lot of longboarding magazines, drinking litre beers at the Bavarian Cafe (with pretzels), watching some theatre in Killara (Midnite), reading "100 Years of Solitude" and making plans to go to New Zealand near the end of June. Getting tickets for the trip has been a fiasco, but hopefully it will be all sorted out this evening, and the more intricate details can be worked out.

Plans for this weekend we will probably involve:
surfing,
lunching,
kayaking,
and an evening at the Rocks (A beautiful and historical part of Sydney with lots of pubs and pastry shops).
Since, we've got so many free tickets, maybe we'll try to catch another movie as well.

In total, things are going pretty great. I think we're both starting to feel the pressure to take the last bit of advantage of our time here. Still on the list are: New Zealand and The Blue Mountains.
We're both looking forward to being home again, but it is going to be pretty crushing having to leave our oceanside home. Trips to the Atlantic are already in the works.

Don't forget, this month is birthday month. So we'll both be expecting some congratulations come the 5th and 24th of June.
XXO

Beer, Zoo, Luna

2006-05-14T21:58:00.000-04:00

This is the view from Sydney's Torango Zoo. Jeff and I finally got there late morning last Saturday. We had had an evening of drinks and goodtimes with his co-workers in Darling harbor, so we did not exactly meet our early morning goal.

Hurray! we finally got to see a Kangaroo!!! Even though most of them were just basking in the sun, Jeff and I did see one jumping all around, which was, as expected, awesome.

This was a sad looking gorilla. Poor sad gorilla. Zoos are really neat, but honestly you do feel kind of sorry for some of the animals.

Here's jeff bugging this crazy looking bird.

Here is Jeff in front of a kangaroo that has a bird on it.

Here is a terrible picture of Jeff and I with a Koala.

Here is a koala bear. VERY LAZY, but very cute.

This demonstrated just how big salt water crocs are. eeek.

The view from the Zoo is really amazing, you have animals to your right and these breath-taking harbor views to your left.

Here is an Emu on a date with a Kangaroo.

Here is myself and the sleepy kangaoo.

Here's Jeff just chilling out with the kangaroo.

I like the patterns of both the giraffe and the zebras.

The great things about the zoo are the view, and the animals. Both were solid.

Even though the Giraffe's drank pee, they were still pretty amazing.

This is a red Panda. It was very cute and fuzzy.

The Hippo was probably the most lazy animal there. Poor hippo.

Here is Jeff looking rather tropical (?)

Releasing your house cats is DANGEROUS!!!!

The Lioness was pretty nice looking.

I had a lot of trouble trying to get a picture of the tiger, as it wouldn't stop moving.

I finally got a closer one.

Turtle are great.

The Zoo has some new snow leopard cubs which are just like big house cats. They're very cute and just a little ferocious.

Here is a rhino on the march. It smelled pretty bad, but was putting in a serious days work, unlike a lot of the other lazy animals.

Here's jeff looking like his usual self.

Tazmanian Devil. By the end of the day, all of the animals were sleeping.

A very hairy goat.

Nice to see Jeff working with his camera.

Here is a Komodo Dragon. Scary.

By the end of the day, Jeff was pretty sleepy.

The view from the zoo was awesome all day long, but it was especially nice around dusk.

Here is the main entrance to the zoo which we saw when we finally left.

After we left the zoo we took a ferry back downtown to Circular Quay, grabbed from fries and caught a ferry over to Luna Park. My digital camera was full, but Jeff took a couple of rolls of our fun evening adventure there. We went on the Ferris Wheel, ate popcorn and laughed at all of the 15 year old kids that make us uneasy with their shocking reminder that we ourselves were once geeky tweens. You should all go and Google Luna Park, the entrance to the place is this really creepy head. You have to walk through a big mouth to get in. Weird.

All in All, it was a great weekend. Hopefully we'll keep it up next week and check another few things off of our to-do lists.

Happy Mothers Day Moms!

Lots of hugs, Tia and Jeff.

Breaking through the stormy weather.

2006-05-08T23:17:00.000-04:00

So, yes, Jeff and I got robbed. Here is a picture of the socket from which our trusting hearted were ripped. Also, there is that fingerprinting dust all over it. It was a really sad thing to have happen, BUT there is some much more positive photos and news below.

Here is Jeff's new board. Isn't it gorgeous?

Here is my brand new surfboard. Awesome.

Both of our boards are light and tough rather than fiberglass. That means that they won't get shatter cracks, that they're light and awesome.

Jeff loves his new board, and rightfully so.

Here's Jeff ready to go for an early morning surf.

The undersides.

Lovely aren't they?

Here are our two new, lovely, wonderful, super-great surfboards.

Here is my BEAUTIFUL surfboard's underside.

Here is my board half in it's sock.

Here is my surfboard during it's first waxing. It's all about the circles.

Jeff's cool water wax is on the left there, (Mr Zogs) and the brick on the right is my Mrs Palmers wax. They're both pretty good I'd say. I think mine might be a bit stickier, plus it smells like coconuts. Jeff's smells slightly like honey. mmmm wax.

Mrs Palmers warm water wax, my surf wax preference.

Here are the fronts of our boards.

Here is me looking cheeky/trying to avoid getting a glare on my glasses.

Here is a shot of our fins. Mine is a tri-fin and Jeff is a tri-fin/single fin optional.

Here's a shot of Jeff's single fin. It lets him move further forward than I can on my board.

Here is my Yater.

Here are our lovely surfboards hogging the bed.

Here is a big lizard that Jeff and I saw on a rock by the ocean. Gross.

so, other that all of that, things are going pretty good. I'm sending home a birthday package from my mom and brothers, Jeff is done work in about 3 weeks, school is going good (i'm nearly finished), and my work is also good (i've been getting every saturday off to do touristy things and hangout with Jeff.
Also, I hope you all watched The Amazing Race this week. It was a solid hour of tv.

Lots of love to everyone.
-Tia + Jeff

Cops and Robbers

2006-04-29T02:24:00.000-04:00

On easter weekend I (jeff) bought my surfboard and we were so excited about it that we wanted to get some pictures of it in action and share them with everyone. In my unbridled enthusiasm I carelessly brought our digital camera with us to the beach and some stupid jerk stole it from our bag when we werent watching. Frustration ensued, but in the end it's only a camera and besides, I had just saved all of the pictures on it to tia's laptop so it wasn't an irreplaceable loss (aside from being able to easily post pictures here).

So last weekend we decided to play it safe and leave eveything at home when we went to the beach, the only things we brought with us were towels, beach mats, the surfboard and sunscreen. Everything of value stayed put safely in our apartment and we had a wonderful time at the beach! Then we came home and I puzzled aloud to tia "Hmmmm... I thought you closed the front door?". That's right friends, our apartment was broken into and everything of value we had in plain sight had been taken including my green hoodie and my black shorts.

We called the police and waited on hold for a very long time before speaking to someone who really didnt care but filled out a report anyways and assured us that some officers would be by shortly. Several hours later some officers did in fact show up and look at our house and say "Yes, it appears you have been robbed. We will send a fingerprinter on Monday but in all likelyhood we will not find anything." and sure enough they did not find anything. I think the fingerprinter is a good idea though, I mean; she didn't really do anything when she showed up and she dusted in the stupidest places (the outside front door of our apartment and one electrical socket) but at least it gives people the impression that someone is working on something.

Anyways, now you know why our blog is a little devoid of colour for the next while.

xoxox
jeff & tia

How ye all going?

2006-04-12T21:30:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update while I'm procrastinating at uni.

Today is Thursday, probably my most enjoyed and anticipated day of the week.
Anticipated because it is the one evening that Jeff and I set aside to be total geeks and watch the Amazing Race. It's pretty bad that we dig reality tv, but it gives us a good excuse to stay in,
eat pie for dinner and drink a few cold beers.

Today is also great because it is "assignments due" day for me. Which is a good thing because I have them all done. After today, I have a pretty serious break from home work until near the end of May. All of my classes have been going pretty good. I've only missed one day so far, and that was when my cold was in full rage. (I've had an annoying head cold for nearly 2 weeks now).
I've also enrolled in my last year of school at the University of Ottawa. I'm still trying to work out my 2 forth year seminars, but with luck that will all be sorted out soon.
It is going to be strange being on the student schedule again. I guess that technically I am on one right now, but honestly I feel more like I'm on holiday. Next fall I have a 3 day schedule (3 full days) and for the Winter semester it is looking like 3-4 days. Not bad at all.
It's pretty crazy to think that we're nearly half way done our trip. That's a little depressing, but also motivating. We've got a lot on our list that we still want to do.

So it's Easter weekend. It's warm as ever here in Manly (25-30 everyday this week) which is strange at Easter. I feel like I should be keeping watch for robins and sprouts in the garden.

Happy Easter everyone.
Don't pig-out on too much chocolate.

Tia says I don't post enough.

2006-04-08T03:17:00.000-04:00

Tia is forcing me to write an update because she says our blog is becomming biased since she's the only one who ever posts in it. I think she's being silly because she writes more interesting blogs than I do so it makes sense for her to write them.

We didn't end up surfboard shopping today because I haven't found one I like yet, but we're close. At work I was moved from selling Future Cover (A comprehensive 3 in 1 life policy designed to give you the peace of mind that comes with knowing your family will be ok if anything were to happen to you, sir. And really, what is more important than peace of mind? now let me set you up with this for the low low price of only $57.88 per month. which is really just over a dollar a day, that's a good deal isn't it? (in Australian telemarketing you can't say things like "that's a good deal" because it counts as giving advice, so you have to say "that's a good deal, isn't it?")) to upgrades which are much easier and much slower. Now I have more time to read at work and people tend to be less rude to you because they already have a policy with Westpac. I think I'm doing well though because out of the 12 or 13 people who started when I did only there are only 3 (or four, one hasn't quit yet but he also hasn't been to work lately) left.

Tia is enjoying her job, but I think we are both working too much. We need to find a way to make money by lying around, maybe I could apply to be an oil-boy at the beach or something. If anyone has any get-rich-quick schemes they should let us know.

We're off to see Brokeback Mountain now and hopefully next time Tia will provide you all with one of her much more interesting blogs.

Bye-bye

Jeff (and Tia)

Last Saturday

2006-04-02T20:17:00.000-04:00

Last weekend Jeff and I went to the Sydney Aquarium.

This is Jeff getting his camera ready to go. All of the included pictures are from the digital. I took the fuzzy ones.

This is me, after having eaten some delicious breakfast, probably involving toast.

Here's Jeff brushing his hair and looking tired on the Ferry.

This is a view of the opera house as our Ferry into down town passed it. (Jeff gets this view everyday on his way to work).

Another shot. Jeff got some nice ones with his manual film camera.

There are these weird bears around the harbor. This one is Estonia's bear. We'll how you Serbia's later. It's just great.

Here is a fuzzy picture of Jeff with a native busker.

Here is Canada's bear. It's totally one of the best ones there.

This is a funny little van.

Here is my new favorite animal, the platypus.

This is a crocodile. It was really lazy, but really scary looking all at the same time.

This is a great sign they have above the crocodiles. "Do Not Enter. If the fall does not kill you the crocodile will"

These are the super cute penguins.

This is a huge shark.

This is another huge shark. The tunnel went right under the tank, it was very very awesome.

Here are some sting rays.

This is a fuzzy looking, interesting fish. I think the fuzziness if just my bad photography. Jeff also got some film shots of most of these.

This is another shark type creature.

And this is a poster board in the subway which I thought really represented Jeff and I well.

All is well with both of us.

Interesting fruits experiment post coming soon.

xoxo

Cruising for consistency

2006-03-27T22:39:00.001-05:00

Just to keep the world updated, Jeff and I are doing really well.
My job at the fruit market is pretty good. I make around 12/hr (which is low for Sydney) but, it's all cash in hand which means that I can work without hour restrictions. Since I worked as a cashier at a fruit market in Ottawa I'm doing quite well here. Their computer system is all touch screen so really all I needed to know was the names of all of the veggies and fruit. Perfect. No codes or anything. One of the especially nice things is that we sell a lot of flowers. So all day long I smell mangos, roses and the bakery next door. It's really very nice. One of the odd things that I do is shuck peas and make bows. There's two new weird things to add to my resume.
Also, Jeff got the job at the telemarketing place. He makes like $17 an hour but has to wear business attire. I think he looks pretty good in a tie.
So far I think it's going ok. He's worried about meeting his sales quotas but yesterday he had two sales so it seems possible, although not enjoyable. We just keep thinking about the things we'd like to do and it makes being at work not so bad.
Jeff bought Magnum P.I. season 2 this week so that's pretty much all we've been watching. If anyone wants to know what to get Jeff for his birthday this June, it'd be Magnum P.I. season 3 on DVD. (EDITED to include season 4 and 2 (our season 2 is region 4 coding and won't work in North America))

We both have this Saturday off, so Hopefully we'll get some surfboard shopping done.

Jobs, Spiders, Anticipation

2006-03-19T20:34:00.000-05:00

We apologise that we haven't been writing in our blog as often as we'd like to, but we probably won’t be getting internet at our apartment. Most likely posts will be made from UTS (Tia's school) which she is only at 2 days a week. In any case, we'll try to be more on the ball.

The last week and a half have been pretty good. The weather is still fantastic and we have developed an increasing level of comfort in our apartment and in Manly more generally. Last weekend we spent a lot of time lounging around, but we did manage to write a lot of post cards.

Tia got a casual job at a local fruit market. She has training this coming Friday and we assume that she'll be doing cashier work. Hopefully we'll get a discount on avocados.

Jeff has two interviews today near Darling Harbour: one for a telemarketing place which sounds pretty good and another for a street marketing position. In either case we will soon have a little more disposable income which means SURFBOARDS! (finally).

We have a bunch of new pictures however you'll have to make do with the following

Here's a picture of those awful jellyfish that Jeff keeps getting stung by. The last time his wrist got quite swollen. We're thinking that he's mildly allergic to them.

This is an orb spider. They're pretty big compared to the usual spiders we have in Canada. We're told that they aren’t poisonous, but they're pretty intimidating and you see them all over the place. There's a bunch in the bushes across from our apartment.

No crocodiles or terrible lizards sighted yet.

Hopefully we haven't been missing too much in Canada. We could both go for some Harvey's veggie burgers and a romp with Ohia, but other than that we're holding out well. With the new jobs our blog will hopefully gain some more interesting material including :
new surfboards/surfing pictures,
Taronga Zoo,
Ocean World/water-slides,
New Zealand,
and other great adventures.

We hope that you are all doing wonderfully. Things are going quite well for us. Thank you for all of your e-mails and well wishes.
Take it easy,
-Tia and Jeff

Nothing much but hello.

2006-03-08T23:03:00.000-05:00

Nothing extra special to report, Jeff is working at the warehouse again and has another job interview in Manly. I have yet to receive my working visa acceptance, which is frustrating, but hopefully it will come soon.

Last weekend we went surfing in Bondi again and Jeff got stung on his foot by a bluebottle.
Apparently when you get stung on the foot it goes straight up to your glands. He said that it felt like he had been kicked in the nuts very hard. Poor kid.

Tuesday we spend lounging at the beach enjoying the warm ocean.
Maybe once we're both working we'll pick up some cheap bodyboards as well.

We have some new pictures, of spiders and things, which we'll post soon.
When I set up our hydro and things this week, the women on the phone was an Australian who married a Canadian and was moving to Ottawa. We talked for over 30 minutes about Canada, Ottawa, Quebec and weather. It was strange, but a nice example of how nice most Australians are.

boysen berry soy icecream is awesome.

Pictures of Manly and our place.

2006-03-01T23:01:00.000-05:00

So, here are some pictures of our new apartment. All of the furnishings came with it, excepting some minor things, so don't bother commenting on our horrible taste. The pictures were taken in the evening so it looks a bit dark, but during the day it's really quite sunny. We're on the ground floor across the street from a bit of bush and the harbor. We're really missing our music (some how neither of us remembered to bring anything, actually Jeff had two Velvet Underground c.d.'s [thankfully] but I have been craving The Blow and Xiu Xiu) In any case, Canadian postcards and MP3 cd's can be sent to the following address:

Tia and Jeff
4/5 Commonwealth Pde.
Manly, NSW, Australia
2095

If you'd like an Aussie postcard just comment with your snail mail address and we'll pick a special one out for you.

Here is our bed and our beautiful picture of Paris (which I'm sorry, is flashed out). It's too hot right now to sleep with anything besides sheets. The mattress is actually quite new (thankfully) and pretty good to sleep on.

Here's a quick shot of the bathroom. We don't have a tub but thankfully the shower is really nice (good pressure and spray). We actually have a nice new bath rug now, and this picture doesn't show our unclosable window (It's made of 2 sheets of glass that overlap, one above the other, only there's like 2 inches between them which leaves an unclosable gap between our bathroom and outdoors) weird.

Here is our dining area and kitchen. I personally like the little archway and the recessed windows which act as great bookshelves.

This is our living room. It's kind of circular, and really bright during the day. Our windows look out onto trees and glimpses of the harbor, however if we're just stalking around we keep the blinds closed because we're on the ground floor and there are people walking by often enough.

Here is our dressing burrow and our back door which, when open, lets in a great breeze.

Here is a picture we took from the wharf. It's the little beach that is like 20 steps outside our door. Our apartment is just across the street from the back of Ocean World. We usually walk along the beach shown here to get to the Corso and the larger ocean beach.

This is the Corso in downtown Manly. There are a lot of cafes and shops that sell swimsuits. On the weekends there are little markets that sell homemade stuff and touristy stuff. The beach is right at the end of the street there.

This is me and some local flora. We were just walking home from signing our lease! It was sticky out, and I guess that's one of the reasons that my pants look like they're falling down.

Here's a picture of Jeff pretending to be an Asian tourist on this sidewalk that has a little detour over a bushy hill.

These are some crazy flowers that just grow on one stock. There's no bush or plant really. I know they look fake, but they're just weird and pretty.

These are "Mashies" from KFC. They are balls of mashed potatoes covered in the 11 secret spices. Jeff loves them especially, but I think they're pretty great also. Funny thing, tomato sauce (ketchup) costs extra here, and your much more likely to find sweet chilly sauce instead.

Bugs, waterslides, cockatoos and good weather.

2006-03-01T20:29:00.000-05:00

Interesting things have been happening over the past couple of days. Some of which are good, and others which would be better classified as 'not so good'.

We're really happy to be in our new apartment, however we have been faced with a challenge most Canadians are not accustom to. Australia has cockroatches.
They are big and gross and disgusting. We're invested in a serious stock pile of bug repellent and traps and have been reading up on how to live with these creepy things. Mostly this involves keeping the place very clean. We can't leave dishes in the sink and crumbs have to be cleaned off the counter. We're bought cocking to re-trim the countertops and fill any holes in between tiles. A few days ago we did a pretty serious clean and extermination and we haven't seen anymore bugs inside since. We fully expect that there will be more (Apartments/buildings are not well sealed here) but, we are resolving to do the best we can to keep clean and try to keep our cools. We've talked to locals who say that they're just unavoidable. They're even in the more posh buildings.

Another not so good thing is that all of the temps at Jeff's work got let go, so we are currently jobless. However there are lots of part-time gigs in Manly. We'll take what we can get. I'm actually allowed to apply for my working visa now, so hopefully we'll have some luck soon.

The last not so good thing is that I (tia) got bit by a cockatoo at the Royal Botanical Gardens yesterday. We were taking pictures of them on our arms (Jeff went first and he was fine) but my cockatoo thought that my pinky finger looked delicious or something and proceeded to try to open me up like a nut. Jeff took some pictures which you can all see once we're home. Why is it that I'm the only one having issues with the native wildlife?

Some good things are:
-We saw some GIANT bats at the gardens. They were awesome. We also saw a lot of neat parrots and birds and plants that we don't have in Canada.
-Tomorrow, we're going surfing at Bondi again.
-We went bodyboarding and had a riot.
-We went to the Manly art gallery.
-We discovered that there are waterslides right across the road from us.
-We tried vegemite. It's good and salty. I think it'd be nice with avocado.
-Amazing race starts tonight and we actually get that station. (Australian TV is hilarious. We're sure that most locals probably think it's lame, but to us, it's great.
"I love the short tail shrew. It's got short hair and a short tail. Awwwwsome"
Maybe it's just the accent.

A Place to Live

2006-02-21T22:52:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been such a fiasco trying to find a place to live. Since arriving in Manly, we have spent nearly 3 weeks trying to secure an apartment. We have applied for numerous studios, one bedders, and even spent a week looking for a 2 bedder which we had arranged to share with another Canadian couple (who backed out on us).

Today, Jeff and I went back to one of the first studios that we saw (seriously, I think we saw it on our first day of looking). Supposedly they had decided to let the apartment go under a 6 month lease rather than the 12 months they had originally demanded.

The place had really been cleaned up (the last tenants, whom were living there during our last viewing were slobs). We waited around until the other apartment viewer had left before talking to the realtor, Brad, about what we now had to offer on our application (local references, bank statements, jobs, previous residence references, etc.)

Basically he asked us when we wanted to move in. It was painfully simple.

So, now we finally have a place to live!
Jeff's parents are transferring money from our account to Australia (we can't take out large amounts from the machines), and we're moving in sometime in the next few days!

It seems kind of surreal.

Pictures. Finally.

2006-02-17T20:27:00.000-05:00

This one is my personal favorite, Jeff's horrible sun burn. We were both out for the same amount of time, but I just got tanned. Although both of our backs are still pretty white.

One of the great things about Sydney, is that you can buy mixed drinks in bottles. Such as this delicious Southern Comfort and Cola.

This is my terrible Jellyfish sting.

Here is Jeff on the Ferry going to Manly for the first time. Neither of us had bad jet-leg so it was quite the pleasant trip.
This is the back of my head, and the Harbor Bridge. The opera house is right behind the boat also, but we'll get some pictures of that later. It's nice that I get to cruise past it everyday that I go to the city campus of UTS.
This is Jeff on Manly beach. There are huge pine trees all along with beach walk, which is where Jeff is sitting.

More pictures to come later!
Miss you all.
xxo

Manly Beach

2006-02-17T20:23:00.000-05:00

This is our lovely Manly beach. It's usually not this busy, only on weekends.
Things are looking up in regards to finding a place, we've figured out where some of our previous applications have gone wrong, and are hoping that we'll have some luck this week.

Pros and Cons

2006-02-09T05:02:00.000-05:00

Things I like about Australia;

- "no shirt, no shoes, no service." doesn't exist
- Tia who is deathly afraid of jellyfish got stung by one (a bluebottle/portugese manowar) on her first time in the ocean ("ït hurt a lot")
- it's warm
- mixed drinks come in canned form (Southern Comfort and cola, CC and cola, etc.)
- the money is waterproof and funny colours, so it reminds me of home, except the waterproof part
- you can go surfing pretty much every day
- there are lots of dogs here
- it's easy to get a suntan

Things I don't like about Australia

- finding an apartment is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy
- surfing is harder than it looks
- we can't bring any drinks back to our hostel (even though we are responsible and promise not to barf on anything)
- they don't really serve pitchers at bars
- we miss our doggy

So the pros outweigh the cons (I'm glad I'm not in Ottawa freezing my butt off) and the only major suggestion I would offer the Australian populace is to reform their property rental laws.

Wish you were here
Jeff (and Tia even though she thinks I'm being negative, which I'm not.)

Apartment Hunting

2006-02-08T00:05:00.000-05:00

Finding a place is proving to be tougher than we thought.
Right now it seems like we are going to be living with 2 other Canadians from the university of Ottawa. We haven't met them yet, but if they can help with the rent, we'll get along fine.

Only... we don't usually have much luck with roomies.

We're hoping to be at Bondi tomorrow learning how to surf!

Jeff says: ''I'm sweaty''

We've made it to Australia

2006-02-04T21:02:00.000-05:00

Well, we're finally updating from Australia. We flew in on the first, which was 10pm Thursday night (the 2nd) here in Australia. The flight itself was really long. We were slightly stupid and forgot that there were time zones between Detroit and Las Vegas so about an hour into the flight we thought that we should be landing. In any case we caught all of our connections fine. At LAX we had to take a shuttle down the road to another terminal, but we had plenty of time for it was fine. The BIG flight to Sydney was on Quantas. Although 14 hours seems intense, they try really hard to keep you busy. Each seat had it's own tv with a multitude of channels and movies, and you could even play a few video games. We were pretty cramped, but we both made sure to get up as often as possible to stretch. The food was ok. Jeff got an icecream bar and oreos and some other stuff that I couldn't eat, but there were free drinks and plenty of vegan snacks.
When we finally landed in Sydney, neither of us had slept very much, but we recharged on excitement and headed off to see if our luggage had arrived and get through customs. Fortunately both of our bags made it, except for jeff's beloved pillow which was probably recognized for its obvious value and stolen by a bag thrower or something. Customs was also a breeze. I think we were one of the last flights of the night (yes, Sydney International closes for the night) so everyone we looking forward to getting us all through as quickly as possible. I had to declare my wooden purse, but was actually through before Jeff. Additionally, Jeff got his passport stamped with his working visa condition.
That night we took a cab downtown and stayed at a nice hotel. The light switches are very low down on the walls. In the morning we took a walk and got some breakfast. After checking out we headed down to the wharf to take a ferry up to Manly. The ferry ride was pretty quick and was actually a nice way to see the opera house and the big fancy bridge.
Arriving in Manly we hiked up to our Hostel and spent the rest of the day walking around Manly and checking out our new home. The beach is very long and only a two blocks from where we're staying. Today Jeff and I (as it is Sunday and everything is closed) sat on the beach trying to build up some sort of a tan. Although Jeff's layer of hair hides his Canadian pastiness, I was probably the whitest one on the beach. No matter though.

No luck yet on our own place, although we've applied for a few. We spent all day yesterday walking around looking and attending viewings. Hopefully we'll have all of that worked out early next week.

The waves here are beautiful. We are extremely excited about heading down to Bondi in the next while to use the surfing lessons that we got from my Mom for Christmas.

We already miss Ohia. Hope that he's behaving well.
Sending love.

two weeks to go

2006-01-18T16:24:00.000-05:00

Well, we are 14 days from our flight to Australia.
Our apartment has been emptied out, our packs packed ready to go home for a final visit.
One final farewell potluck this weekend and we'll be off and away from Ottawa.

We've purchased the first season of the Amazing Race on DVD for the long flight from L.A. to Sydney. That's pretty exciting all on its own.

Kudos to the Australian immigration dudes.

2005-12-14T13:45:00.000-05:00

Well, as I think I stated before, Jeff and I had to get our Visas. Despite all of the encouragement from my school to, "Do it early" we'd kind of put it off for a couple of reasons (namely money). So, it's December 14th and we finally decided to sit down and get them done (as we're getting worried that we may be cutting things a little too close). From everything we've heard the process is sometimes lengthy (months), and if we are refused, we can not enter the country.

So last night (14th) we sit at the computer and submit our applications online. (11pm)

I check my e-mail at work today (15th) and get both my own and Jeff's approved Visas. (11am)

That's a 12 hour turn around. Amazing.

Now we have everything we need to go. Tickets, Visas, Savings, Packs, Ohia Sitters, ahhhhh...
Life is feeling pretty good.

Tickets

2005-12-12T09:13:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally bought our tickets. We are scheduled to leave 7am on February 1st from Detroit.
We will be flying in to Las Vegas, and then to L.A. and then in to Sydney. It's a pretty long flight, but it was the cheapest one we could find ($1600 each plus tax). We'll have the same route on the way home (July 17th), but it's neat because we'll be traveling back in time, leaving Sydney at 1pm and arriving in L.A. at like 9am.

In other news, our Visas are getting worked out this week. Hopefully everything goes fine there, otherwise we'll be reapplying from Australia.
Everything in Canada is paid off, or will be before the end of the month. It's feeling less and less stressful, and more exciting everyday.

Christmas is nearly here, which means we'll be saying good bye to Ohia fairly soon. We've tentatively scheduled his operation for January while Tia is visiting her parents. Farewell testosterone.

Still a whopping 50 days and counting.

2005-11-24T09:17:00.000-05:00

Update on planning and stuff...

Okay, well we don't really have anything particularly exciting to report.
We've handed in our 2 month notice to Gorfay, gotten our passports, and tia has worked out her school schedule. As of now, there is the possibility of a 2 day school week. YEAH!
We'll be getting our Visa's next month. They're pretty expensive but a total necessary.
We are both getting excited about finishing work and have been looking at flights for February 1st. Searching for a place has also begun, however not too seriously. Mostly, we're trying to figure out which suburbs we may want to live in and which are more expensive etc. Right now it looks like we will be living around Manly, possibly in Dee Why, a nice surfing beach north of the city. It's only a 40min bus ride to school which is ok if it will only be 2 days a week. There will hopefully also be enough fastfood/bars around the area to allow us to work. We're both thinking of getting our smart serve before we go.

Well, we're almost into December (Christmas!) which means that January is almost here too. Time is going pretty quick and it's a good thing.

send money.
xxo

2005-10-19T09:25:00.000-04:00

We just found out Monday that we have been accepted to UTS in Sydney Australia.

I have to begin student orientation on February 13th.

Now to save up our money for wetsuits and nice big boards.