Sarah + Mike

New blog

2011-11-05T12:57:00.000+11:00

This blog is dead to me.

Here's our new one: www.racemikerace.posterous.com

New Years Eve 2009

2010-01-02T17:20:00.002+11:00

Midnight fireworks, sitting on my balcony

Christmas 2009

2009-12-28T09:13:00.001+11:00

Christmas Lunch - the desserts

2009-12-28T09:09:00.001+11:00

Fruit salad
(Lychees, mango, blueberry, strawberry, cherry, apricot, kiwifruit, nectarine, green grapes)

Vegan nanaimo bar!
Canadians - you know what I'm talking about. This was a tour de force.

Christmas Lunch - the mains

2009-12-26T18:35:00.000+11:00

What does a vegan make for Christmas?

Watercress, red quinoa, cannelini bean, red capsicum and roast pumpkin salad

Roast veges

Celery and mushroom vegan stuffing

Prash & Mel's wedding calendar

2009-12-20T09:24:00.000+11:00

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

December

Sophie, Alister & Seb

2009-12-10T09:17:00.000+11:00

Hanging out for lunch at the beach in Vaucluse

Pearl Jam concert

2009-11-22T15:29:00.000+11:00

Two out of three Sarahs

Ben Harper was supporting and Eddie came out to sing a song with him

The third Sarah and the one and only Dave

It's hard to give the feeling of a concert in pictures. Does this help? The show was amazing by the way. Even though Eddie Vedder kept apologising about having a cold and having lost his voice, his singing was still awesome.

Prash and Mel's post wedding drinkies

2009-11-18T17:40:00.000+11:00

Prash & Mel's wedding

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Lindsay and Rich at Opera Bar

2009-10-30T17:22:00.001+11:00

Jess & Mike's wedding - Post wedding lunch

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Cool hangliding spot

World famous shave ice

The beach at Jess's aunt's place - this is taken from their backyard!

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Jess & Mike's wedding - The Wedding Day!

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The world's biggest stingray

Beachfront at the wedding venue

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Jess & Mike's Wedding - Rehearsal dinner

2009-08-13T18:19:00.002+10:00

View from our hotel balcony in Waikiki

The trip

2009-05-17T13:52:00.001+10:00

This sums it up really:

Brooklyn

2009-04-18T14:11:00.000+10:00

More New York

2009-04-17T06:03:00.004+10:00

I can't download any photos from my camera at the moment, so here are a couple of shots I've taken on my phone over the last few days:

Late night pizza between pubs in the West Village

Broadway after seeing "West Side Story"

The toe

2009-04-15T01:15:00.003+10:00

Ah, about an hour before getting on our flight leaving Sydney I was packing a couple of good Aussie wines for Ben and Terri when one slipped out of my hands. I slapped my hand down to grab the bottle, but ended up striking it with downward pressure, slamming it hard into my big toe from about 10 centimetres away.

To say it was painful is not even approaching an understatement. Walking around has been a hobble. And I haven't been able to do any decent exercise (running) at all. I wonder why it hurts, it looks totally fine:

Let's call this "Ironman recovery"

New York New York

2009-04-15T00:53:00.004+10:00

We're about to start day 3 in New York and it feels like we've been here a month, we've been totally packing it in.

Arriving early morning Easter Sunday off the red-eye on no sleep, we found Jacquie's awesome apartment in the Lower East Side, chatted for a while and then absolutely crashed out for a couple of hours. As soon as we arose at midday, Jacquie took us out for the best New York City neighbourhood walking tour ever! We spent the next 5 hours crisscrossing every cool block in the Lower East, East Village, Nolita, Chinatown and Little Italy.

Amazingly Jacquie seems to know the history of every bar, cafe, restaurant and store on every street, which areas used to be cool and are now gentrified, which areas used to be dodgy and are now cool, and which areas are still dodgy but soon-to-be cool! I guess she's lived in half a dozen locations around the area over the last decade and a half, and it was amazing to get an insiders point of view on this part of the city.

Lunch at Katz (the massive Jewish deli which was home of the faked orgasm scene in "When Harry met Sally"), a new york bagel with vegan cream cheese and a homemade matzo ball at a traditional Kosher deli, a dessert agave gluten free vegan brownie at Babycakes.

Then later drinks at Sweet & Vicious then dinner at Barrio Chino - the modern mexican restaurant with chinese decor - such a cool spot and amazing food and cocktails.

I can't even begin to go into detail about Day 2 - Sarah and I walked across virtually the whole city it feels like! It was a gorgeous clear sunny day and even got warm (compared to the arctic 5 degree day the day before) and we hung out in Central Park and ate pretzels:

Last night involved drinks with Jacquie's awesome group of friends in some of the coolest bars we've ever been in, over in Washington Square. One (Minetta) that has been there for hundreds of years since the area outside was mainly farmland!

Another (The Rabbit Hole) that was in a basement down a set of stairs and through an unmarked door that you would never find, almost pitch black (no lights but half a dozen candels on the bar) about 5 feet wide and 15 feet long, but somehow managed to have 50 Belgian beers on the menu and pack in a little band in the corner!

San Francisco Easter

2009-04-15T00:36:00.003+10:00

Our trip started with Easter weekend hanging out in San Francisco with Ben and Terri and it was a fantastic time.

Sarah and I have both been to San Fran many times so didn't need to do a lot of touristy things. After all my ironman training and recovering from the event I was was happy to just chill out, Sarah's had a busy term at school so felt very much the same way. Things worked out perfectly, we walked across the city and had lunch down on the waterfront with Ben, came back for a team nap (there wasn't a lot of sleep on the overnight flight) and then we all went out for Nick's Tacos (it's good to get decent mexican food finally) and ten pin bowling at the Presidio - a really fun first day of holidays and just what we needed!

Saturday we decided to drive north over the Golden Gate bridge, over Mount Tam, past Stinson Beach into Bolinas to visit Sarah's aunt Mary and Uncle Jack. What a fantastic day, the weather was perfect and the drive was beautiful, then we arrived at the dome house where the garden was in full spring bloom and spent the dya hanging out with Mary, Jack and their sons Joe and Nate as well as Nate's partner Erin and their 6 week old baby boy Atticus!

It was a day of painting Easter eggs, playing a mammoth game of croquet in the garden and a huge delicious Easter lunch, so much fun.

We spent the arvo hanging with B & T before they very sweetly drove us out to the airport for our red-eye overnight flight to New York (stopping for Nick's crispy tacos to eat on the flight). It was so good to spend time with Ben and Terri, what great hosts, and really great to see the family as well, we couldn't believe that it had only been two days into the holiday.

Sarah's 31st birthday

2009-04-01T21:57:00.001+11:00

Tonight at Thai-riffic in McMahons Point

Lots of fun!

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Aussie Sarah Race

2009-02-26T21:11:00.000+11:00

Today Sarah became an Australian citizen at North Sydney Council Chambers

We waved flags, sang the national anthem, ate lamingtons, admired Anzac cookies and sang to each other "I am...you are... we are Australian!"

My suprise pirate vegan birthday party!

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New Years Eve

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Contempo

2009-01-13T20:37:00.002+11:00

Every year a group of members from the Art Gallery of NSW called Contempo puts on a Christmas party, which has been touted by various friends of mine as the "best party of the year". So we thought we'd trot along this year to check out that claim.

I must admit, it was a damn good party. Heaps of people in dress-up, human statues, art everywhere, eclectic bands (a gypsey mob, a 4 piece all female brass band), various comedy and burlesque performers, top champagne and good food - it was all happening.

The theme was "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" so of course we had to dress up.

Art students as human statues

Skeletor

More statues

Good = Angel wings
Evil = Devil horns
Garden = foliage around my neck

The Gypsey Band

Reproducing a Monet classic

A burleque performer

Glowing hula hoop dancers

Happy partygoers

Royal National Park hike

2009-01-13T20:33:00.001+11:00

Boxing Day

2009-01-13T20:31:00.000+11:00

Boxing Day morning I got up and rode my bike 150km in the blazing heat to Lake Macquarie. Sarah drove up to join me and we spent the day and night hanging out at Deb's parent's gorgeous lakefront house. Did plenty of eating, a fair bit of drinking, a wild game of trivial pursuit, lake swimming, kayaking, playing with dogs and children and a lot of lying around.

Christmas night

2009-01-13T20:27:00.000+11:00

There's nothing quite like dressing up as a Pirate for any occasion, and Christmas is as good an occasion as any!

We went round to Jenn's parent's place just around the corner in Waverton for some good old fashioned rum and yo-he-ho.

Christmas Day

2009-01-13T20:08:00.001+11:00

We decided to give mum and dad a break from hosting Christmas lunch by having it at our pad this year. They do a big Sydney to Hobart lunch on Boxing Day every year (their apartment has an incredible view out through the heads) so this saved them backing up with the cooking and cleaning. It was a beautiful day and lots of fun.

The vegan fiesta!

The whole Aussie family

Timmy boy - aka Robin

Dessert - fruit salad and vegan brownies

Dad

Lenny all sun-drugged and enjoying a snuggle

Hanging out with Gen and Neal

2008-11-30T20:12:00.002+11:00

Halloween

2008-11-02T10:53:00.002+11:00

After the last three days lying on the couch in a pile of dirty tissues and antibiotics, coughing up my lungs and sweating out a constant fever, I was pretty sure that I'd be the scariest thing at our Halloween party no matter what. In fact I was hoping to be lucky enough just to be able to speak without hacking and to be able to stand for a few minutes at a time.

Thankfully, by Saturday arvo I felt a little better, and also thankfully Sarah took it on herself to decorate the entire apartment in cobwebs, plastic spiders, glow in the dark skeletons and pumpkins, ready for just a little party. With Krista and Tagg over from Canada we had promised to show them a real dress up halloween.

I spent half the day baking vegan treats: choc chip cookies, banana bread with dates, pecan and chocolate rum pudding

Meanwhile Krista and Tagg spent about 4 hours crafting futuristic robot outfits almost entirely from a single roll of duct tape each. Impressive.

So we had Amy Winehouse

Devil in a Blue Dress

The Robo team

And plenty of other scary characters

My favourite YouTube clips

2008-10-29T17:55:00.003+11:00

"I pinch" I don't know why but this just cracks me up

Cats on a treadmill. Again this is kinda silly, but for some reason it got me laughing uncontrollably.

Terry Tate is my hero

Eddie Izzard on the Death Star Canteen - in lego

Hot Pockets

The Duke

2008-10-20T21:42:00.003+11:00

Last weekend Sarah went out to the Blue Mountains on a 3 day, 2 night camping trip with some students for the Duke of Edinburgh silver medal or badge or award or whatever it is they give you. Thankfully the weather cleared up right before they went, and by all accounts it was an absolutely beautiful hike, although quite gruelling.

Viewpoint at the top of the hike

Kate and Sarah

They had to carry all of their clothes, food, water, tents, sleeping bags, mats, cooking equipment etc and shlep these big backpacks from the top of a ridge into a valley and then further on the next day and on the third day back up from the valley floor to the ridge line hundreds of metres above. It sounds like it was one of those difficult yet extremely rewarding adventures and all the kids were really good too.

I spoke to Sarah on the phone when she got back (I was at Melbourne airport arriving for the Round the Bay in a Day 210km bike ride the following day) and she sounded so pumped about the whole thing, sounds like it was just fantastic.

Camping spot

Bethany "Beans" Craig turns one

2008-10-20T21:39:00.002+11:00

Bethany - the daughter of our good friends Nat and Colin - just turned one the other week, so last Sunday we went to a fantastic birthday party in St Leonards Park.

I didn’t think one year olds would have enough awareness to realise what birthday parties are all about, but check out this photo, Bethany seems totally excited about the candles on her cake. We were pretty excited too by the endless parade of delicious food that Nat’s parents and other relatives kept bringing out!

Randomness

2008-10-20T21:37:00.000+11:00

Kitties looking soft

The Sarahs riding their bikes to hip hop dance class

Sarah thought it was pretty funny seeing me come round a corner with an armful of greens as I ran the gauntlet of packaged meat

Krista only took a few minutes to get used to the Aussie lifestyle

West Head bushwalk

2008-10-20T21:33:00.001+11:00

A couple of weekends ago, after doing a bike ride along to West Head both Saturday and Sunday, I thought it’d be great to do a bushwalk along that road somewhere because Sarah had never been out there, plus the spring wildflowers were out and Reid had told me about a nice easy walk starting along that road.

So I got home, grabbed the car and we headed out on a lovely warm day to do the America Bay track. Anyway what can you say about a bushwalk? It was a good time, here’s photos:

Spit to Manly

2008-10-11T18:47:00.002+11:00

We've had Krista and Tagg, our friends from Canada, staying with us for the last few days. They're at the start of a year or more travelling and working around Australia and with Sarah on school holidays she was able to show them a bit of Sydney - walking over the harbour bridge, lunch in the Rocks, the Opera House, Botanic Gardens, Bondi Beach etc.

Then on Saturday we decided to go on the Spit to Manly walk, which we hadn't done ourselves for a couple of years. It turned out to be a bit of a perfect sunny day, there was a sailing regatta starting right off Dobroyd point and there were a bunch of spring wildflowers out.

We got to Manly, grabbed fish and chips on the beach, had a beer in the Wharf Bar, visited Mum & Dad (who are off for a couple of weeks driving round Victoria tomorrow) then went home with grand plans of going to the Indian up the road for dinner. Got back at 6.30pm so I called and booked a 7pm table then thought "I'll grab a 15 minute nap..."

Next thing I know Sarah is shaking me awake at 8pm and I had no idea where I was or what time it was! Solid. So we got take away. The guys left today for Terrigal, bon voyage!

Ikea

2008-10-10T19:39:00.000+11:00

Last Monday (public holiday) when I attempted to go for a 160km bike ride and my right knee swelled up about 3 blocks from home, I returned to the ranch only for Sarah to say, "You're back. Perfect... let's go to Ikea!"

We spent four hours in the store surround by screaming children, shambolic parents and a cunningly designed showroom where you literally have to walk past every single item of furntiture in the store AND the warehouse until you are finally disgorged from the checkouts. Then another four hours after we got home putting together the things we bought! Here's the only decent one:

Go Manly!

2008-10-06T08:30:00.000+11:00

My brother Tim made me a very happy man on Thursday morning when he called me as I was walking into the office and said, "Hey Mickey-boy, how would you like a free ticket to watch Manly in the Grand Final this weekend?" Hell yeah! I've never actually been to a grand final and to go to one where Manly is playing is a childhood dream.

So off we went yesterday arvo and it was everything I'd hoped for and more. Amazing atmosphere at ANZ Stadium with over 80,000 people in the crowd. There were some strange warm up acts, like Jon Stevens singing while about 15 utes drove around the oval and a hundred people with weber style BBQs accompanied him with clanging BBQ lids as smoke billowed from the webers and obscured the field. Then they had the Living End coming out to play a couple of numbers, along with giant flaming flares and fireworks all over the field.

Then a massive navy seahaek helicopter dropped into the stadium, hovered a few metres about the turf and did a perfect 180 degree spin before landing softly on the pitch and disgorging the statue we used to know as the Winfield Cup (I can't remember what it's called now?).

The game itself I won't bother recounting in any detail. If you had any interest in Rugby League you would have watched it yourself, if not then you won't want to hear my description of the match. Suffice to say Manly played incredibly, Steve Menzies had an amazing last match (and the crowd went crazy every time he touched the ball), and the end result was a record breaking 40-0 win for the mighty Eagles! What a day.

Rainy Saturday

2008-10-06T08:25:00.002+11:00

I tried for a ride this morning, but barely made it three blocks away when the heavens opened and it started pouring. Had to call off the ride and go home to mooch around the house on what turned out to be a pretty ugly Saturday. In fact I didn't leave the apartnment until about 5.30pm when the weather cleared for a bit and I felt like I had to at lease get some air and see the outside world. I took a walk down to the park we got married in and damn it was absolutely beautiful as the sun went down, the colours of the sky changs, a warm soft breeze played on the water and there was the after-rain scent of wet vegetation, gum tree flowers and salty bring from the water. Golden retrievers were splashing around hunting crabs in the shallows and a guy rowed in from his sailboat in a tinnie which kicked up phosphorescence on the almost dark water. I was transfixed.

As soon as I got home Sarah and I went out for dinner at Nilgiris, the award winning Indian restaurant up in St Leonards. Pretty damn delicious, although like a lot of higher end restaurants I just feel that the effort isn't there for non-meat meals. Surprising in an Indian restuarant though. Good food, very attentive waitstaff and a beautiful interior all the same.

Scorching Friday

2008-10-04T09:33:00.001+10:00

Damn it was a warm one yesterday, for early October to be over 30 degrees.

It worked out well to go for a swim at the outdoor Boy Charlton Pool at lunch and then some beers at Ryans Bar after work. That place is a licence to print money on summery Friday nights, it was absolutely heaving when I left last night, check it out:

My new job

2008-10-04T08:31:00.009+10:00

Well it's not new anymore, it's been three months now. Over the probation period baby!

And I'm truly loving it. Here's my building, Australia Square the oldest skyscraper in Sydney.

The view from my desk (I can see my street which is kind of cool)

And a typical lunchtime downstairs

Random August shots

2008-08-31T10:39:00.002+10:00

Sarah at the start of the City to Surf

Lenny sunning herself on the scratching post

Kate keeping it real at Girraween High School staff room

Cockatoo island - Biennale 2008

Adios to Canada

2008-08-31T10:24:00.000+10:00

Noha and Joe at the Masthead restaurant in Cowichan Bay (the restaurant Sarah and Joe's parents owned)

View from our table

The ferry back from the Island to Vancouver

Vancouver - farewell drinks on Kelly & Ivo's balcony

Canada - Tofino camping

2008-08-31T10:23:00.000+10:00

The drive across Vancouver island to go camping was a bit purty

Claiming our campsite

Justin and Emma showing their seaweed whipping skills

The camping crew

The gals

High stakes camping poker

Ghostly pirate ship coming out of the mist

Sarah, Mike, Rae & Yaron

Sarah deep in thought on a rock

Emma, Ivo and Riley checking out the beach

Fancy dinner in Tofino

Midsummer on the northern Pacific Ocean. The water was like ice

The midnight view from our campsite

River tubing!

2008-08-31T10:22:00.000+10:00

The day after the wedding - the safest kind of Canadian driving

All ready for river tubing!

The reception

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Kicking back on Israeli rugs at the reception

Sarah's maid of honour speech

The banner

Kelly, Sarah, Ivo, Justin & Emma

Raegan & Yaron's wedding

2008-08-31T10:02:00.001+10:00

Raegan and her folks

Yaron and his parents

The Bridesmaids

Exchanging vows

The congratulations

Vancouver island

2008-08-31T10:01:00.001+10:00

Arriving in Vancouver Island off te ferry - Happy mother daughter reunion

Victoria - Sarah and her cousin's son Simon

Victoria - Krista's cat Minnow

The view from our room at the Kiwi Cover lodge. This is the B&B that Raegan's wedding party took over for three days. Those are genuine kiwi fruit vines.

Kiwi Cove

The Hunter Valley

2008-08-10T18:07:00.003+10:00

Last Thursday and Friday I went away with my new job on a work retreat at Cypress Lakes in the Hunter Valley. Tough gig.

Whale watching

2008-08-10T17:41:00.002+10:00

Last Sunday was my friend Sarah's last hurrah in Sydney before heading back to the UK for an undetermined period. So naturally we went whale watching. That little spout in the distance is actually a whale breathing.

More San Fran

2008-08-05T21:52:00.002+10:00

Ben's kitchen bike collection. He has another vintage Schwinn hanging up over the stairs and something like 9 more bikes in a storage locker downstairs. I'm so jealous.

Watching "Feist" at the Greek Theatre in Berkley

The streets of San Fran

Riding round town on retro vintage bikes from Ben's collection

My ride. Sweeeeet!

Chinatown

Street art

The funkiest Mexican fast-food joint I've ever been to

San Francisco

2008-08-05T19:06:00.001+10:00

On the plane from Vancouver

Ben picked me up from the airport and we drove straight up to wine country in Sonoma to go wakeboarding on Lake Sonoma. Ben has a nice boat.

Riding up to the top of Mount Tam with Ben and Terri

The path up

Shawnigan Lake

2008-07-10T10:12:00.000+10:00

So we've spent the last two days hanging out at Sarah's parents house in paradise. Here's the view from their deck:

Baby deer in the backyard

The only problem is that I copped a horror bout of food poisoning the other night (I blame the BC Ferries veggie burger - I knew it was dodgy on the first bite...) so I haven't been able to stick to my initial plan of running through the forests, riding the hills and swimming in the lake. Instead I've had to sit on the deck sipping ginger ale and holding my aching gut. It's a bit of a tease, but I can think of worse places to recuperate.

Sunday night / Monday morning

2008-07-09T10:12:00.006+10:00

After the stagette Ivo and I met up with the girls back at Ivo and Kelly's place (for the third night in a row - what hosts!) for some sunset drinks on the deck.

The next morning it was onto to ferry to Vancouver Island.

The Stagette

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Solar Shield

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First days in Vancouver

2008-07-09T10:09:00.005+10:00

Getting over to Canada was so much easier than last time (where we flew from Sydney to Fiji, hung out for 4 hours at Nadi airport, then flew to Hawaii and hung out for another few hours before finally limping in to Vancouver two days later). I was a bit nervous about getting on my standby flight - especially as I arrived at the airport less than an hour before departure time - but it was no problem and all the staff got on, I even got an emergency exit row which I felt a little guilty about since I'm sure there were a lot of tall people crushed in regular seats while I stretched my little legs out as far as they could go...

Did the flight drug-free and managed very little sleep, but arrived at San Francisco airport happy enough and made my connection to Seattle no problem. Then a quick change to a tiny propellor plane for the 35 minute flight to Vancouver and it was done. I arrived at Emma's apartment about 7.30pm and with her boyfriend Justin we went straight to Kelly's incredible pad behind Science World with a view right over False Creek. Kelly had thrown together an incredible meal of all you can eat crab caught fresh that day (she has a friend who does fishing tours and gives her all the crab he catches because he's so sick of eating it all the time - good connection!) and we had some Canadian beers (Sleemans Honey Brown Ale, mmmm) and a really fun night. I couldn't believe that I'd been in the country for two hours and I was already having the best time ever!

Next morning (Saturday) Sarah arrived from her flight - direct 14 hours from Sydney to Vancouver, no stops. She was a bit tired so had a nap while I went for a run around Stanley Park. Later on Rae and Emma came over and then we all went for dinner at the restaurant owned and run by Kelly's boyfriend Ivo, called "The New Bohemian"

It was a beautiful place, he'd totally renovated it and the design was really funky, plus the menu was great. "Global comfort food" the theme. And Kelly rustled up some bottles of wine from a tiny boutique vineyard in BC run by ex-restauranteurs which was one of the best drops I've ever had. Damn good time.

Kelly, Emma, Raegan and Sarah

The vino

The "heart of palm" salad

The view from Ivo and Kelly's apartment bacony (That glittery ball is Science World)

Hanging out having a few drinks at Kelly and Ivo's place after dinner

Update

2008-07-04T08:32:00.004+10:00

I'm very sorry to all my loyal readers that it's taken so damn long to update the blog. I've been delaying because a) I've been too busy and b) all that busyness means there is too much to say and I don't know where to start!

But I'm posting this random thing in the interests of having to start somewhere. And to bump poor old Chuck Norris from the top of the blog... although the funniest thing happened at work the other day. Some joker printed a tiny label and changed my "Ctrl" key on my computer to "Chuck Norris" because, as per fact #2:

"There is no 'ctrl' button on Chuck Norris's computer. Chuck Norris is always in control."

It took me a while to notice.

Ok random thoughts:
I fly to Canada in about 4 hours. Well first to San Francisco, and then to Seattle and then to Vancouver, but I'll get there eventually. It's very exciting.

It's also a bit sad becaus I'm really going to miss my little kitty cats. In fact one is snuggled up purring on my lap as I type this - so sweet! Wait here's a snap with the computer camera:

I'm bringing about as much sporting attire as regular clothing on this trip. You now you're obsessed when the sporting gear takes up more space. It's the tipping point! I'm hoping to keep my Sydney Marathon training on schedule as well as gettingin as much bike riding, lake swimming and yoga as I can manage.

I got a blackberry yesterday. I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.

Sarah and I have had a full-on last few weeks with plays, concerts, and dinners on most weeknights. Lots of fun but it does tire you out, so this holiday will be perfect.

Ok I better go finish packing and clean some of the house.

"Oh Canada"!

Chuck Norris

2008-06-03T10:08:00.003+10:00

Try something for me.

Go into Google and type in “find chuck norris”

Then hit “I’m Feeling Lucky” (the button next to “Search”)

If you liked that, you’ll love this website of Chuck Norris Facts

My current favourite fact is:

There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.

Carriageworks

2008-05-31T21:16:00.004+10:00

We saw one of the coolest performances I have ever seen tonight with our good friends Sarah and Dave, on their suggestion.

It was called Paradise City playing at the Carriageworks (in between Newtown and Redfern) which is possibly the funkiest performance space I have ever visited, the building is just amazing. The call of the night was your resident genius here looking at the building and saying to Sarah "You know I wonder if they call this place the carriageworks because it used to be a carriageworks?"

It's hard to describe the show, here's the blurb which didn't mean a lot beforehands, but having seen it, it's much better than any descritpion I could come up with:

In a spectacular hybrid of urban street-style meets dance, a skater, a break-dancer, a BMX rider, an acrobat, a dancer and a singer converge in a stark urban space. Wheels trace arcs across the stage. A dancing woman watches. A BMX rider dances from pedal to peg and up on one wheel, his bike spinning around his body. The diva voices the bodies to a live score spanning Bach, filmic soundscapes and driving beats, as the performers begin to interact, to mimic and borrow and steal - and to shape the urban world they inhabit.

There was also an incredible one-room contemporary art exhibition we checked out after the show, which was better than most of the stuff I've seen at the MCA over the past few years, we loved it.

Definitely go see something here if you get the chance, I will be keeping my eye on any new performances here for sure.

Then afterwards we wandered up to Newtown for dinner at the Green Gourmet to round out a fun evening with Sarah and Dave and our last meal of Vegan May. Hooray for a fun Saturday night!

The Omnivore's Dilemma

2008-05-31T21:14:00.002+10:00

Speaking of food and being mindful of the way you eat, we saw a great interview on The 7:30 Report last week with Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma".

You can view the transcript and watch the interview here. These were my favourite quotes from the interview:

You know, if the whole world tries to eat meat the way the Americans and the Aussies do, we'll need 2.3 more worlds to feed them.

You've got to distinguish the real foods from the edible food like substances.

We also can look to other cultures that have learned how to navigate a culture of abundance. The Japanese, for example, they have a rule called hara hachi bu, eat until your four-fifths full. What a radical idea to not eat until your full. But many cultures have that rule.

Vegan May in review

2008-05-31T20:48:00.002+10:00

We have about 3 hours left of Vegan May and I think I can saefly say WE DID IT!

It's been fantastic too, the thing which has been the biggest eye opener is how many of the foods we eat contain animal products. Why is this necessary? Why do some sliced loaves of bread contain milk solids? Why are lollies made from ground up hooves? Just becoming aware of what goes into various processed foods has been an extremely useful exercise.

Eating a vegan diet was not difficult and I would recommend anyone to try it for a month. I can honestly say there was absolutely no downside for me. I wouldn't say it was difficult either, it just required:

a) Creativity. Coming up with new dishes to cook or substitute ingredients) which was a very good thing to bring me out of the rut of always cooking the same meals

b) Awareness. Always looking at the ingredients in processed foods, asking questions in restaurants, actively enquiring about what is in the things you put into your body. This is also an incredibly helpful practice to develop.

c) Planning. Only going to restaurants you know have a vegan option. If you're going to dinner at someone's house either informing them or bringing your own food if you feel it would be a hassle or an imposition on them.

Where to from here? Milk I wasn't drinking anyway, sucking on a cow's teat seems too weird and I prefer soy anyway. I don't think I'll go back to yoghurt. I love it, but I don't feel like I need it anymore. Same with eggs. They were an essential part of my diet, but I've broken the habit of eating them so why go back? I wasn't eating meat anyway and I'm not about to go back to that. I had a terrible sweet tooth and awful self control when it came to cakes, muffins and other baked treats, so I think sticking to not eating these can only be good for me.

Cheese? Hmmm. I'm going to try my very best! But I will have a pizza tomorrow in the name of science to see how I feel about the dairy and also take careful note about how my body reacts to it.

On a sidenote I also gave up alcohol for the entire month of May. That wasn't so hard, I wasn't drinking a lot anyway, but of the two "deprivations" I felt like a drink more often than I felt like eating cheese or yoghurt or eggs.

In summary - energy levels high, looking and feeling healthy. Training has picked up again - I did two really hard runs this week and just got back from a 110km bike ride this morning and have been feeling strong and recovering well.

Back with the "return to cheese" report soon!

Day moon

2008-05-31T14:02:00.004+10:00

There was a crazy moon at 7am the other morning

Our kitties being cute.
I may be minorly obsessed by "our fuzzy children"

Hamish Riley

2008-05-29T22:56:00.002+10:00

Our friend Deb came back from Shanghai for just a few days visit and we had her over for dinner on Thursday night with her sister Sarah, Sarah's hubby Grant and their new baby Hamish. Cute kid, he's got dimples and he's pretty entertaining. It was a really fun night, we had them over to our place because we didn't want to make a big deal about the vegan thing so that way we could just cook ourselves. Nobody even realised until we mentioned it that everything was vegan.

Vietnames rice paper rolls to start, then a leek, field mushroon, shiitake mushroom and lemon risotto with baby spinach, cherry tomato, lebanese cucumber and carrot salad on the side. Yummy!

No dessert but we had a platter of dates, macadamias and dried apricots which seemed to go down well (it sure disappeared quickly).

The fresh spring rolls Sarah made as appetiser

Sarah hanging out with Hamish

Pirate Wedding!

2008-05-26T20:25:00.004+10:00

Avast! I've finally met someone who shares my dreams, and actually made it happen. At least I can live vicariously for a while.

Christabel, a Canadian girl I met 10 years ago in Cesky Krumlov, recently had a Pirate themed wedding. How good is that? I had two weddings and, even though I begged and pleaded for at least one of them to be piratey, no dice.

Christabel's comments:
Maybe you can do a pirate themed anniversary party some time. It wasn't the original plan to have a pirate reception, especially after the medievel wedding theme, but once I saw the Maritime Museum I realised that it MUST be a pirate party. If you ever need a pirate playlist of sea shanties, I happen to have one, as well as a pirate menu...and a lot of pirate accessories. After the party broke up and everyone hit the town , I could hear people on the street remarking, "what's with all the pirates everywhere?!"

So Sarah, what say we 'renew our vows'? Yaaaaargh!

Oprah jumps on the bandwagon

2008-05-26T12:51:00.002+10:00

Well it was really only a matter of time before the most watched woman in the world had a read of my blog and decided to shamelessly copy us. Yes that's right, Oprah has decided to go vegan! Naturally she's not hard core enough to do the whole month, but she's going for 21 days and that's pretty good.

Seriously though, good on Oprah! I told you before, everyone's doing it.

Here's an article on it, and here's her blog. And an interesting quote:

How can you say you’re trying to spiritually evolve, without even a thought about what happens to the animals whose lives are sacrificed in the name of gluttony?

Halfway through Vegan May

2008-05-19T10:19:00.002+10:00

Vegan May is over the halfway point now and still going strong!

We've been out of the house for dinner the last four days and have still managed no problem, it just takes a bit of creativity.

Thursday
Went over to Erin and Emma's place for dinner and I totally forgot to tell them we're vegan this month. Thankfully Emma is vegetarian and knows I am too, so when I emailed her the day before she was like "No worries, what I'm going to make is vegan anyway!"

It was awesome, she made an indian daal curry and another cauliflower, mushroom and potato curry, along with fried rotis and basmati rice. I couldn't stop eating it all, my mouth is watering just thinking about it now!

Friday
We had our friends Luke and Jenn over for dinner at our place. I needed to make vegan food that is still palatable (and hopefully better than that) for omnivores, with very little time (less than an hour between me getting home from work and them arriving).

Solution - baked enchiladas (inside: mushroom, red capsicum, broccoli, kidney beans, taco seasoning) with homemade guacamole and salsa! They didn't even know it was vegan until we told them and they loved it. Then dessert of maple walnut brownies which took about 5 mins to throw together and bake. Mmmmmm.

Saturday
We were invited out to dinner at James and Sal's new place for James's birthday. It turned out to be a dinner party of about 30 people with huge platters of beef and chicken (which did look pretty good). I told them we'd gone vegan a few days before and offered to bring our own food because I really didn't want to be a burden. They took me up on that, so I made us stuffed eggplant (with chickpea, tomato, coriander, moroccan seasoning) as well as vietnamese rice paper rolls (fresh mint leaves, vermicelli, tofu, carrot, cucumber and red capsicum).

Of course we got to have vegan-related conversations with the people around us at dinner, but everyone was sweet and very supportive.

Sunday
We did vegan yum cha at Bodhi with Niamh for brunch after I ran the SMH Half Marathon! It was perfect, just walking across the road from Hyde Park to the restaurant as it was opening at 10.30am and having all vegan yum cha - it was nice to go out and be able to eat anything they put in front of us!

The Little Piggy

2008-05-11T21:01:00.002+10:00

Here's another great link (if you happen to be living in Victoria, BC, Canada).

Christbel, a girl I met way back when I was living in the Czech Republic, has got her own restaurant and catering company and food and wine reviewing website in Victoria now. It's called The Little Piggy.

Plus she recently had a Pirate themed wedding. I cannot even begin to tell you how jealous I am of that.

My salad days, when I was green in judgment.

2008-05-11T20:54:00.003+10:00

On Friday Sarah's school had "Shakespeare Day", a series of performances by different students with Sarah and one of her fellow English teachers Scott judging.

Apparently it was awesome, there are some really talented kids there. And Sarah and Scott went all out - we hit the ABC TV costume hire place last weekend and picked up a couple of period outfits.

Sarah the cat-tree

2008-05-11T20:44:00.002+10:00

Lenny has an unusual habit of perching on Sarah's hip when she sleeps on her side. It seems odd to me, but I guess it must be comfortable to both of them since they were fast asleep here.

Sarah Low's birthday

2008-05-11T20:39:00.001+10:00

Sarah's birthday yesterday was loads of fun and it was great hanging out in her and Dave's cool new pad.

Predictably Irrational

2008-05-11T20:22:00.003+10:00

I've been listening to a very interesting radio show lately (via podcast so I can listen whenever I want, on the run into work usually). It's "All in the Mind" on ABC Radio National and one of the coolest episodes was an interview with Dan Ariely. This is the precis:

Like it or not, you're not the beast of reason you think you are. Dan Ariely, a behavioural economist at MIT, argues that we're surprisingly and predictably irrational. Sex, freebies, expectations, placebos, price -- they all cloud our better judgment in rather sobering ways. Dan's unique research was partly inspired by a catastrophic accident which caused third degree burns to 70% of his body.

Worth having a listen to, really fascinating stuff. Here's Dan's website as well.

You're probably sick of cat photos by now...

2008-05-09T22:38:00.000+10:00

Prash & Mel's Excellent Adventure

2008-04-30T21:41:00.003+10:00

Ooo my buddies Prash and Mel have just sent their first message from their 6 week holiday to India, London and Canada, on their way to living in Paris. I'm oh so jealous of then, but also incredibly sad not to have them hanging out with us here in Sydney! And also extremely happy for them to be having such a cool experience.

They've made a blog too, here check it out: Prash & Mel's Excellent Adventure

Mel's engagement ring is done and here's the first glimpse we got of it today. WOW!!!

You'll notice a second diamond encrusted band which looks suspiciously like a matching wedding ring. Mel's rationale for wearing it straight away before they've even thought about setting a date for the wedding is, "I figure it'll be safer on my finger than in a box". I love it, such a lawyer. How did Prash let her get away with that one?

Catnap

2008-04-30T21:17:00.001+10:00

The best way to spend a lazy Saturday arvo.

I was actually asleep when Sarah took this and Lenny was purring like a steam train.

Poopy time

2008-04-30T21:00:00.001+10:00

Our hidden camera catches kitty toilet use!

...and the mandatory seat scratch

Vegan May

2008-04-30T11:48:00.000+10:00

I saw a fascinating piece on the 7.30 Report tonight about the world food crisis and one line which struck me was this: There is enough food for everybody in the world, however the distribution is completely inequitable. One of the reasons is that as populations get wealthier and move towards middle class, their diet contains proportionally a lot more dairy and meat, and both of these take up a hell of a lot more food energy and land to produce than diets which are primarily based of grains and vegetables.

Very timely advice seeing that tomorrow, on the 1st May I have declared VEGAN MONTH! Yes for the month of May I'm showing my solidarity with (as my work colleague Sarah so delightfuly put it) the debeaked chickens and the raped cows!

I've been reading an amazing book given to me on my birthday this year, called "The Ethics of What We Eat", exploring the real impact of our food choices. It is fascinating and sometimes disturbing stuff, but riveting and a great read too. I think some of this information should be mandatory in the school health curriculum. How can we be making proper choices on what we put in our mouths when we have no real understanding of the effect these choices have on animal welfare, environmental and human labour issues around the world? Check out this article on it and I highly recommend the book.

After getting halfway through this I thought why not try it, just for a month. I had been considering giving up dairy for a month anyway to see how my body felt as I've never thought it was natural for an adult human to be suckling the teat of a cow. The only problem is that I'm addicted to cheese and yoghurt! But for 4 weeks I can do it and see how I feel.

I'm also a dessert / cake / chocolate hog and I was considering trying to go cold turkey for a month on overly sugary junk treats too. So why not go the whole hog (turkey? hog? Is is a coincidence that I'm using so many animal-related figures of speech?) and try veganism for a month.

Sarah (my wife) is on board too after getting started on the book, and my colleague Sarah from work got all excited when I told her yesterday as it's something she's wanted to try for a while but needed a push. At the moment it's just the three of us, but VEGAN MONTH HERE WE COME!

The Graduate

2008-04-22T21:45:00.000+10:00

Port Douglas

2008-04-21T18:39:00.002+10:00

Reby and Gary at Cape Tribulation

Diving and snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef

Sunset in Port Douglas

The coastline between Port Douglas & Cairns

Rainforest

Beach

Canefields

For more photos click on this link

Parasailing at Manly

2008-04-21T17:50:00.000+10:00

The Big Freeze

2008-04-14T09:59:00.000+10:00

A few weeks ago my collegue Sarah heard about this thing in Martin Place where a couple of guys had organised a bunch of people to come down to the centre of Sydney - Martin Place - at 5.33pm on a Thursday afternoon and freeze in place for 3 minutes.

There was nothing in the media about it and they wanted no news cameras or anything which would allow people to think that it was a media stunt. Instead it was supposed to be art. A bunch of people just wandered into Martin Place at the same time right in the middle of afternon pedestrian rush hour, all stop for 3 minutes, then continue on with our business like nothing had happened.

It doesn't look much in the photo, but as Prash pointed out, everyone's frozen in a photo anyway. There's some video of the event on this webpage

They did a few months ago at Grand Central Station in New York and the video on that is a lot better, click here

Early adopters of beer

2008-04-02T20:26:00.003+11:00

Way back in Feb we had a brilliant lunch at Jen and Daniel's place in Ashfield and got to hang out with Sal and Tom's kids who we hadn't seen for ages. How cute are they?

Sum & Josh in Aus

2008-04-02T20:14:00.001+11:00

Way back in Feb we had some friends of ours from Canada hanging out with us in old Sydney town - Sumerlee and Josh.

When I met them to give them the keys to our place they were enraged that Sydneysiders were wearing scarves on an unseasonably chilly 23 degree day. I think Sum's quote was, "We just came from where it's 20 below zero and your car freezes if you don't plug it in at night! Why are people wearing scarves? I wanted to reach out and throttle her with it and say "YOU THINK THIS IS COLD?"" Hilarious!

We did some Sydney sightseeing, went to Tropfest, had dinner at Ripples around Valentines Day, went to the beach and pulled funny faces. I think they had a good time!

Tropfest

Dad's Birthday

2008-03-24T21:34:00.001+11:00

Easter kitties

2008-03-24T21:32:00.001+11:00

The cats were looking so cute this arvo, I couldn't help snapping some shots

Dan & Mia's New York farewell

2008-03-24T21:27:00.001+11:00

Last Saturday we had a great time at the Riverview hotel in Balmain at Dan and Mia's last hurrah before taking off to NYC to live. It was so much fun, and even better that people really got into the New York theme.

King Kong

New York skyscrapers

The Big Apples