Dirty cheap plug adaptors

It may be awhile until I'm online again because I've blown the motherboard in my laptop due to a freak eletrical incident. I was plugging in my laptop to the wall when there was a loud snap and the lights went out. After flipping the breaker I discovered my laptop was dead. I've taken it in to an HP service centre and they say I need a new motherboard, but the hard disk should be alright. Hopefully it is, or else my life the for the couple of years is down the tubes! Haha, won't be that bad...

Anyways, hope the summer has rounded out well for everyone. Mine is just beginning assuming I weather the storm that is the PNG Gas Project.

Had a job offer for a refinery in St. Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands), what do you guys think?

Surf's up dude

Spent another weekend at Straddie surfing, eating, tennis'ing, ping-ponging, swimming, and sun'ing. I caught my best and longest wave on Sunday, I think I may have actually looked like I knew what I was doing! It was awesome dude. It's hard to explain the feeling when you're floating on your board out behind the break, a couple hundrend meters from shore with dolphins swimming a few meters away, waiting for the right wave... Rising and falling with waves that look a lot smaller from shore. The stars were aligned my friends, and I seized the moment. After standing up, getting settled, and actually turning the board to ride out the wave to it's end it's wicked taking a last look around and diving back into to water (and not falling off) and swimming back out for another chance at glory. Being completly bagged after a avo sess (afternoon session), and collapsing on the beach to soak up some vitamin D is the way life should be lived.

Oh yeah, work goes on... still some uncertainty in the air, but they can take as long as they want as long as I get to beach next weekend.

P.S. Australia is in desperate need off all things engineering & construction. Sell all your furniture, buy one way tickets, and get your asses over here.

The work front

Yes, I am actually still working over here... There's been rumors abound here in Brisbane regarding the future of the PNG Gas Project, most recently spurred on by this new article, among others. What it all means for me is sort of still a mystery... I've heard everything from it's business as usual to they'll pull the plug at the end of the month. It's hard to speculate how exactly it will effect me, so I won't... But I think I'll be ok until the the end of the year...

Aside from the uncertainty at work life is still great. Heading to Byron Bay this weekend... it's small surfer/hippie town 2 hours south of Brisbane on the north coast of New South Wales. Not exactly sure what I'll be doing there, just going to check it out for the day. Sunday I have a tee time at a Greg "The Shark" Norman course, so we'll see how that goes...

Weekend at Caro's

Back from the weekend and into another work week. There's one problem with weekends, and thats that they're seperated by weeks.

But the weekend was great. A girl from work invited myself and a few other people from work to her place on North Stradbroke Island, which is just off the east coast from Brisbane.

We stayed in a sweet beach house that was equipped with everything needed for a beach holiday: Kayaks, snorkling gear, fishing poles, surf boards, boogie boards, bbq, hammock, etc., etc.

Basically here's how the weekend shaped up: Left work a little early to catch a 6pm ferry from the coast to the island; drove to the house, settled in, made supper, played cards on the deck; woke up Saturday and went surfing and played some rugby on the beach, home for lunch; kayaked out to Shag Rock and went snorkling, took an eskie of with a couple beers and had those out on the ocean. We saw 2 sharks (but apparently they were a species that didn't have teeth, oh well!), a sea turtle, big fish, and little fish while snorkling. Before dinner (pronounced dinnah here in Oz) we went for a tennis match under the lights (sun goes down around 6pm here in winter) and had blast. That night we steamed some fish and our cook for the evening did an excellent job. The rest of the night was filled with cards, beers, music, and laughs. Sunday morning we went for another surf, a swim, a snooze on the beach, fishing, and more laughs. Here are few pics, hope they're alright...

The hammock:

Friend from work by the Jeep in the yard:

View from the deck... you can't really see the ocean through the trees but it's there:

Went fishing from a cliff on Sunday, here's a fellow fisherman. I don't think had caught anything all day:

Me... on a cliff:

Took this pic from the beach when we surfing the 2nd day:

Sweet

BIFF

I'm taking a break from playing so much squash and golf this (hockey stays) due to a sore/pulled serratus anterior. Luckily for me the Brisbane International Film Festival is in full swing. I've been to a couple theatres and have a couple more lined up, but tonight I saw a movie called Like Minds. The movie gets 4 out of 5 koalas but I stuck around afterwards for the Q&A with the writer/director, which was interesting enough in it's right. The price of the ticket included a drink, wine, cheese, and fruit and was a great excuse to get out during the week.

Mount Tibrogargan and the Monkeys

Had another great weekend! Saw The Arctic Monkeys at the Arena in the city on Saturday night and still don't have 100% of my hearing back. Great show though... The music was tops and watching drunken pomme lead singers mumble their way through a drunken rock show is always fun. Sunday I golfed and played hockey, which is becoming routine... no complaints there.

Saturday morning another hilight though... I went hiking/climbing on Mt Tibrogargan in the Glass House Mountains up on the Sunshine Coast. I thought it was supposed to be a casual walk/hike up a hill, but found out early that I was in for much more. There was some serious rock climbing / scrambling involved. It was good fun though and was worth it for the views from the top. I finally bought a camera too so here are some pictures:

















The Glass House Mountains are found in the hinterland of Queensland's Sunshine Coast. They are actually the cores of 20 million year old volcanoes, so that the sides of the volcanoes have eroded away leaving only hardened plugs or rock spires. Captain James Cook gave the area its unusual English name while sailing past, on his way up Australia's east coast, in 1770. From a distance they reminded him of the glass-making furnaces of his home town in Yorkshire.

Could use some updates on people from home.... what has everyone been up to??

Life's a beach

Here's one of those Leather Jacket bastards I caught on Sunday... Not looking too tasty, I'll tell ya that much. I'll find out this weekend when we bbq all the fish we caught and feed them to our unsuspecting friends.

So... I found an excuse to go to Sydney. Ben Folds is playing there at the Sydney Orchestra at the Sydney Operhouse. So I bought tickets that were luckily realeased for a Saturday show. Now all 4 shows in Sydney are sold out, and so are the shows in Melbourne and Brisbane. To recap, that's the second of my top-5 alltime favourite bands I'll see in the span of 2 months here in Brisbane. Not to mention the tickets I have to The Arctic Monkeys on Aug. 5 and Augie March on the 10th... Sounds like I'm turning into some sort of teenaged concert junkie, but I'm really not... they're just too good to pass up.

Keep on keepin' on.

Wash with vinegar

What a weekend, everything came up Kucharski. Started off with Friday night drinks with a group from work, nothing to significant to report there but it was a great time. Next was my 2nd surfing lesson on Saturday morning. The weather was 25°+ and the surf was great. Got up a few more times, I think I'm ready to head a bit further out and tackle the bigger waves... Saturday night I went to the Bledisloe Cup and watched the Wallabies let it slip away. Seeing the All Blacks' little pre-game chant was impressive though.

Today me and a couple blokes from work went deep sea fishing. I caught 3 Leather Jackets, a Yellow Kingfish, and an Amber. I stink of fish guts, my knees are sore, and it still feels like I'm on a boat. All in all, it was really fun. Now I have about an hour until I play hockey tonight...

Hope everyone is doing well!

Mr. E's Beatiful Blues

29 years in Calgary and my favourite band doesn't come closer than 3000 km's away in Toronto. 3 weeks in Brisbane and they're here, playing at the coolest venue I've ever seen a band play in. The Eels played here at The Tivoli Theatre. The music at the concert was what I expected from The Eels... they played their classics and well known songs, mixed with some spaced out solos and sidebars. Possibly the funniest thing I've seen since being here was the musclehead they brought on stage (the whole show) who dance, shadowboxed, sang a little, handed out whipcream shots from the can, lifted weights, played the keyboard, and generally nearly stole the show from E. He's not part of the band regularly, and I'm sure was added to the tour to provide visual stimulation. I still don't really know what it was, but it worked.

The Tivoli was cool too. About 4 blocks from Brunswick Street (Brisbane's 17th ave) it's nestled between a mix of new condo buildings (almost rented a place right beside unbeknowst to me at the time) and auto-repair shops it is a great venue. Built in 1917 and fully restored it's a mix of old and new, and a perfect place for a show. So great I have tickets to Augie March and thinking about Jason Mraz.

Other than that... the weekend was fully of 2 rounds of golf, gumbo dinner at a friends house, and my first hockey game as part of the Brisbane Buccaneers. I think we won 13-1 or something like that... apparently I joined the top B Div team, hope all of our games are not like that tho.

Hope the summer is going well for everyone. Had a good video chat with my cousin Travis, showed him the sites via live video from my balcony. Hope I can hook up with more of you soon.

Cheers!

It's winter here, drop the puck!

My dearest mother was kind enough to package up my hockey gear and ship it over, and it has amazingly arrived and cleared customs (because we did it) before my boxes that my company's moving company sent nearly 2 weeks ago. So DHL called me today saying they had my package and I zipped out to the airport to "walk" it through customs. Then I contacted the organiser of the hockey team I've been in contact with and eventually ended up training (Aussie for practise) with them tonight. There's a game on Sunday too! The team is about 2/3 North American and 1/3 Aussie from what I can tell so far. The arena doesn't have glass (EDIT, I meant glass, not boards) (nets only) and the ice is to be desired. But it's hockey in Brisbane, I'm not complaining!

So, many thanks to my mom for doing that for her... P.S. Shipping stuff is way more expensive ($380 for a hockey bag) and a hassle than paying the extra baggage fee ($100) and bringing stuff over on the plane with you, even if it means needing two carts in the airports to move all your bags.

Another weekend

Well, another weekend is coming to a close. This one had a lot of promise with surfing, golfing, and internationals rugby planned. But I only managed 2 out of 3 as the surf gods were not smiling. Apparently there's more to surfing than grabbing a board and swimming out into the water. You actually need waves, swells, wind (or no wind..?), etc. All of this surfer-science still escapes me, but the bottom line was the surf was crap this weekend, therefore I didn't go... It was sort of cold too, only 23� or something like that.

But there was rugby. A record breaking victory for the Wallabies, 49-0 over the Sprinboks. We sat near a section of SA fans who were pretty rowdy and upbeat up until about 10 minutes in. When it was 30-0 at halftime needless to say they were quiet. Great game though, lots of fun. Bought a Wallabies scarf, had my first Bundaberg rum and coke, and hit Caxton street before and after the game (think Red Mile, only 2 blocks long).

Here's the view from my place, looking straight down. I still get a little "Seinfeld" everytime I look over the edge...

Also, here's a better view of Surfer's Paradise, which is about an hour south of the city. The beach is awesome, but the commercialised and conominiumised sprawl behind it is something else...

I think next weekend I'll head north to the Sunshine Coast. It's less commercial and is supposedly a bit nicer. I'll check it out...

How did Stampede go? Who won the moustache contest? Anyone get injured breaking beer bottles on the their belt buckles?

1st Wave

Great day today... got up early and went down to Surfer's Paradise for my first surf lesson. It went relatively good considering it was my first time. I was standing up by the end of it, before I got too tired. 2 hours was enough for me. After a burger by a great beach cafe I hung around to watch some F1 power boat races that happened to be going on that day. Pretty cool to watch in person.

Surfer's Paradise is an interesting place... People from Brisbane sort of despise it because it's been so commercialised. For example they're building the world's tallest residential building there (to along with the other hundred sky scrapers) that will be 80 stories tall.

I was pretty tired after the few hours in the water, but on the way back I decided to stop for a round of golf. I ended up catching up to a threesome of Japenese guys, hilarious to golf with. Their swings were awesome to watch, and everytime I hit a drive they would all ooh and aah in Japenese accents, it was awesome. Not that I hitting that impressively, but they liked it for some reason.

After getting home around 6pm and looking at my empty fridge I called up a friend and went to his place for a bbq. The food was excellent, and the 2 other couples he had over were pretty funny too.

--- ---

Driving in on the left side of road has gone relatively well. The main difficulty has come in navigating Brisbane roads. Street signs are optional as far as I can tell, so I've taken a few "long-ways" to places. But that's been alright too, I've got to see some suburbs I normally wouldn't have went to...

My ride

Here's pic of the nice Holden Commodore the company leased for me:

It's a beaut eh? Better than the bus I guess...

Today I drove down to Surfer's Paradise to scope out where I'm doing my surf lessons tomorrow. Stopped in to the surf shop, met the instructor, etc. Should be fun, I'm looking forward to it.

Surfer's Paradise though is amazing. It's just massive holiday/condo developement coupled with a 20km long beach of the best sand I've ever seen. And apparently they get some good surfing waves there too, whaddya know?

My Flat

Here's where I live in Brisbane:

It's called the Aurora Tower... a throw back to my Fort McMurray days and the aurora borealis. I live on the 47th (out of 69) floor, which is 4.7/6.9 of the way up. Hah.

It's basically right on the edge of the main CBD (Central Business District), in the area everyone calls "the city" vs. the North Amerian "downtown".

I decided to live here because it's walkable to all of the areas around the CBD... The Valley, Southbank, the river walks, the Gabba (cricket & AFL), quick trip to Suncorp Stadium (Rugby), etc. etc... The downside is it's pretty expensive and my apartment isn't tiny, but it's not large by any means. I think it's around 800 square feet.

The is the view from my living room and patio:

And here's some interior pics... not of my exact unit, but it looks similar:

I'm using pics from the website because I still haven't bought a camera (the phone camera still sucks), and they're professional so they look better anyway.

And like I've said before I've rented a 2 bedroom, so there's a spare room for any visitors. The project and assignment here still being defined somewhat and as a result I don't know exactly how long I'll be here. I know I'll be in Brisbane for 6 months, could be up to a year, but will likely fall somewhere between 6 & 12 months. There's lots to do here too, and the Australian $ is lower than the Canadian so the costs are reasonable. Factor in a free place to stay and you're laugh'n.

This weekend I pick up my car, heading to a pub with friends to watch the Tri Nations, and have surfing lessons on Sunday. Going to try and fit in golf on Saturday too... P.S. 150m = 165 yards.

Hard at work

Here's my business card... for the email though you can keep using whatever one you've always use (@halliburon.com, @kbr.com, @hotmail.com), they all get to me... don't bother changing it to @eosjv.

I have the internet now at my house, but have to admit the speed is something to be desired. Maybe thats because I'm downloading things from North American sites, not too sure yet.

I'll post more later about where I live, what I've been up to, but I have to head out to watch a "State of Origin" match. Basically rugby is huge over here, but there are a couple kinds of rugby too... Letal probably knows this already. But there is what they call Rugby Union, which is most common in international matches, and then there is Rugby League which is played in Australia. Anyway, tonights match is between Queensland and New South Wales. It's the 3rd game of a best of 3, so it's kind of big. I've been instructed to cheer for Queensland, whose mascot is the Cane Toad. Most everyone is sure they'll beat NSW, whose mascot is the Cockroach. So it's the Toads vs. the Cockroaches, I think the Toads have it. I'm not making this up either...

I've also been to a Brisbane Broncos game (Rugby League) which was pretty damn cool. You gain a whole new appreciation for the game when it's live. I guess that's true of most sports though. I have tickets to the Bledisloe Cup too, which until recently being combined with the Tri Nations used to be an annual series between Australian (Wallabies) and New Zealand (All Blacks). This year the Cup and Tri Nations joined, so now it's up for grabs between the Wallabies, All Blacks, and Springboks (South Africa). See, it's all very confusing...

Anyways, next Saturday I'm going to the Australia vs. South Africa game. So Sampie, sorry to say I'm not going to be wearing the Springboks jersey you got me... Sorry mate!

I hope I got all that right, it's pretty confusing for newcomers to figure out.

Anyway, gotta run. Go Banana Benders! (slang for someone from Queensland, which is the State Brisbane is in).

Hang in there

I don't have internet in my apartment yet, so I haven't been able to post an update lately. Basically I've moved into my apartment (47th floor!) which is inbetween the CBD (downtown) and the Valley (an area similar to 17th Ave). Walkable to everywhere good basically...

This weekend I moved in, golfed (parrot-like birds on the course, very cool), and went to a Brisbane Broncos' game, which is Rugby-League (vs. Rugby-Union and/or Aussie Rules). Good times, and the beer at the game is cheap!

Internet is going to be set up this week, at which time I'll be able to post pics and elaborate a bit... until then, you can always email me.

Cheers,
RK

I thought I'd post a quick update for the last couple of days... nothing too major to report. I've started work and am getting into it here. Project life in the engineering and construction world never seems to change. Big projects undertaken by clients and joint ventures always seem to be more complicated than they should... but I guess that's a good thing because it keeps me employed. I suppose if I was really ambitious I'd solve the problem and the world would be a better place (i.e. large energy companies could turn a bigger profit and more efficiently rape the world of it's natural resources in order to feed our consumer driven and wasteful economy while destroying the environment in the "friendliest" manners). Then again, maybe I should bite my tongue...

I think I've decided to live "in the city", which is Australia means downtown or near the Central Business District (CBD). It just makes more sense given the short time I'm supposed to be here (under a year). It's still within walking distance to everything you'd want to do in and around the city without the hassle of commuting to work (or having a longer walk). The building I'm looking at is brand new (people started moving in only 4 weeks ago), so it has the benefit of not being lived in before, new stuff, high tech building, etc. It has a sweet gym, pool, spa, etc. too... I'll post pictures etc. once everything is finalised (vs. finalized) and I know I'm moving in for sure. I'm also getting two bedrooms (partly because that's all the have left), which means I'll have plenty of room for visitors if anyone out there gets ambitious.

What's everyone else been up to? The only thing I've heard lately is about Nabber's goat.

Hello from the future

I was a mere 10 hours landed in Brisbane before I had to go out for drinks at the pub.

My first day in Brisbane:
- Land at 6:30am, breeze through customs due to the Australia vs. Croatia World Cup game being on.
- Get a cab from the airport, try and get in the driver's seat, get a weird look from the guy.
- Check into yet another hotel, 27th floor, looking north, 2 blocks from work, perfect.
- Buy a $3.50 'Tallblack' from Donut Delight. Find out after walking another 20 feet that this is about $2 over priced, oops, live and learn.
- Go to work, get 'orientated', get a desk, phone, computer, etc. Meet a bunch of people who were awaiting my arrival.
- Get my work visa from an immigration office, walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk, driving will be interesting...
- Get a bank account
- Get a pay as you go cell phone, but it's like $0.40 a minute for local calls... oh well, it will come in handy looking for a place to live.
- Back to work, ride out the day setting up my office.
- Invited for after work drinks, been on the ground less than 8 hours and already thinking about the pub... I think I'll like this project!

- Go to the Pig and Whistle for a few Victoria Bitters, VB's. Introduce Australia to Jager Bombs.
- Stumble home around 1am, find out the CBD is a hotbed of activity with many many clubs and pubs everywhere.
- Buy piece of pizza, go to sleep, get ready for apartment/house hunting.

The Gig is back on

Going to Brisbane tomorrow, again... I won't waste too much space in case they change their minds again. I'll blog from LA when I'm about to get on the flight to Bribane.

Cheers mates!

Ben Roethlisberger Replica Motorcycle Helmet on eBay