Cherry Blossom Adventures

Finally getting around to doing the Melbourne catch-up post- listening to Christmas Carols to get myself in the Christmassy mood!

Friday afternoon, Shun & I headed out to Brissie airport so that we could get to Melbourne. We left steamy Brisbane and arrived in cold, wet Melbourne 2 hours later.

I love Melbourne, don`t get me wrong, I could totally live there if it wasn`t for the crazy weather. Who has heard of of 16 degrees in December! Despite the weather, we had a fantastic, wonderful time. It was so great to see James (and his little brother Dean- who is not so little since he is the same age as me) as well as Gen & Alice some other friends I made on exchange several years back.

As usual I took 100s of photos of the weekend, but restrained myself and choose only 44 to add to flickr and if you are more of “like to see all in one shot” type of person then check out the album here.

James & Dean met us at the airport- we flew Qantas down (and JetStar back, leaving from the shed in Avalon…I mean airport!) and it was hard to believe it had been six month since I had been on an airplane. We headed to there place right away. James had only arrived Friday morning so he was a bit tired but we stayed up catching up, chatting etc and the boys even had a bit of a go on the WII. We crashed, but not before making plans for the next day…

Up bright and early the next morning, missing the train though by just a minute. I am used to trains coming every half hour or so here in the Brisbane `burbs (and Melbourne) but James could not believe the next train wasn`t for 22 minutes! I guess I have readjusted to Australian living because waiting that long for a train actually seemed fairly reasonable to me.

First stop after arriving in Melbourne city centre- a coffee/hot chocolate break. At a place you could make your own HOT CHOCOLATE. And it was divine. And Shun, well he liked the fact that while we had to sit outside and he was freezing that unlike in Brisbane you can smoke in cafes in Melbourne if you sit outside.

After some shopping and wandering around, we met up with Gen, another friend of ours who we studied with in Japan. He lives in Melbourne and works in a lawfirm. He took us into Melbourne Central and then do the DFO.

We also went to Lygon Street for lunch. Italian, yummy!

The casino awaited us so we headed there for a look around, dinner & some game playing in the arcade (none of us are big gamblers!)- Shun, while the oldest, was the only one asked for ID. And the guy quizzed him on his date of birth asking “What year were you born?” to which Shun replied “Japan”…. It is okay, I rescued him although I really hate to step in now as I really want Shun to learn from his own mistakes and be independent. He is doing so well though not just with his English but with living life here in general. He will go to the supermarket to pick up groceries, ringing me to see what we need and he is working with Dad most days and driving all around Brisbane….sometimes all by himself (in a manual truck I might add!)- The photo above is of James, me & Gen, outside the Casino in front of the city. It was about 7:30pm and still that light out! It was amazing, I had forgotten what daylight savings was like….stayling light until 9pm.

From there we said goodbye to Gen (who went to hunt down his gf Alice) promising to see each other the next day at Alice`s place for Chinese Hot Pot.

A short taxi ride later we had arrived at the Regent Theatre ready to see Wicked. Getting into the mood with a few “ozmopolitans” the green cocktails you see below. They were so yummy too, I was surprised! Wicked was amazing…I would see it again (and again and again)- nothing beats live theatre. Shun & James also loved it which made me so happy. It made me realize how many shows I have missed out on that I wish I could see. I left feeling a little sorry for the wicked witches and also with a desire to hire out Wizard of Oz to refresh my memory.

The Christmas spirit was alive and well in Melbourne, with this delightfully lit up tree near the theatre & St Paul`s Cathederal.

Unlike most cities in Australia, Melbourne still has a fantastic tram system in place. This one zoomed past in the rain at night after the show. If there is one thing (actually, okay there are a lot of things I wish I could of had time to do) I wish we could of done more of, it was ride trams. Especially the old kind!!

Sunday morning came around all too quickly and we were up and had left the house by 8:15am, to be sure we would not miss the only train that hour! Our winery tour bus picked us up in front of St Paul`s Cathederal (I didn`t get to go inside, as the couple of times we were close by it seemed they were having services inside)

First glass of wine- 10:3oam (we actually drank pretty much all day and all night, but in little amounts)

Wine storage in the Yarra Valley

The grapes are agrowing! We learn about different pallates and the different smells and flavours of the wine. I now know why people sniff and swirl- which I am sure will come in handy in my future life!

The three of us happy on love & quite possibly wine.

While it rained in the morning by the time we got to the Yarra Valley it had cleared a little and we were allowed to have a bit of a rain free day! The clouds were always there looming through but lucky they did not burst.

After the full-day wine tour we headed out to Alice` house as she was cooking Chinese Hot Pot. I had not see Alice and Gen since January when they visited Japan. I had never visted them in their own stomping grounds of Melbourne though. It was so lovely to see them both and I was so excited to hear they will be coming up to Brisbane for the wedding (I think Gen is more excited than we are if that is possible- it will be the first wedding he goes to where he actually knows the people getting married!)

I had thought Monday we might wake up a little worse for wear but after a bit of a sleep in, a pack-up and a bacon sandwich we were off again. This time to St Kilda before heading into the city.

While freezing pretty much the whole time we were in Melbourne it was a lovely lovely time. So great to see James & the others and I was so happy to be able to show Melbourne to Shumpei. It definitely was not enough time to do all we wanted to do, but definitely next time. I have a list already of all the things I want to do next time.

I think Shun loved Melbourne just as much I do (and James does)- although like me, the weather complexed him a little!

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I had a haircut!

Excuse the fact I have no make-up on but it is 34 degrees here today and putting make-up on was way too much effort (and what is the point when it will melt off in 5 minutes)- I love having a camera in my computer it makes taking pictures of yourself very easy!!!

We are hoping for an afternoon storm to releive the heat a little bit but it doesn`t look like there is one coming our way.

Dad had his second treatment yesterday (type of chemo with mab-thera) and he is feeling better this week than after the first time last week I think. He will have treatment every Friday for another 6 or 7 weeks but in a couple of weeks he will have some more tests to see if the treatment is working.

Shun & I are going to mum`s house for dinner tonight. I am hoping it is a bit cooler over there but seeing as it is only 5km away I doubt there will be much difference. I hate the heat…

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…and Jamesy & Melbourne…

Am so excited!

James ( one of my best friends in the entire world- him, Cat & I studied together at Seikei) will be in Melbourne, his home town, for 10 days from the 11th of December and Shun & I have just booked tickets to go down on the 12th until the 15th.

Plus, I booked tickets for the three of us to go see Wicked (Hence the wizard reference!), which has been getting rave reviews all over the world. My brother & his gf Gem saw it when they were in New York earlier this year and said it was brilliant!

James` brother still lives down in Melbourne in the family house so we will all stay there which I believe is not very far from the city.

Things I definitely want to try and do in Melbourne

- Catch up with James and talk and talk and talk- I won`t have seen him in more than six months!

- Wine tasting in the Yarra Valley

- Catch up with Gen & Alice (Other old friends from studying in Japan who are in Melbourne also!)

- Take Shun on a tram

- Take Shun to the casino (It is amazing inside & out- I especially love the fountain!)

- Go to St Kilda

- Go to the markets (not sure which ones yet though?!)

- See Wicked (definitely happening!)

What else should I do? I am thinking I might try to do a little bit of Chrissy shopping while I am down there for mum & Gem (Have finished most of the rest of it!) as well as a bit of shopping for myself perhaps!

I have not been to Melbourne in over six years so it will be great to go back!!! I need some other “must see`s and do`s!” so suggestions welcome!

It will be another six months before I see James because he won`t be back in Australia until our wedding in May (He is Shun`s best man!) !

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I am not very consistent in participating in wordless wednesday but when you get home at 9:50pm, want to sleep but realize you haven`t yet blogged when you have said you will blog every day for the month well a blog thingy like wordless wednesday really helps you out.

Taken while crossing the bridge near my house to get to the train station. I live near the bay so this creek`s water levels really depend on the tide…

By the way, my wish came true, and I convinced my family to all chip in and get me a DSLR for Christmas. I am going to go with the Olympus E-520 I think as I have been a loyal Olympus user for years and have always loved the cameras. I originally thought the E-420 but changed my mind! So perhaps after Christmas I will become a more regular partcipator in Wordless Wednesday.

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Today was my first day “on the books” at my job. I have worked their as a temp for 3 & a half months and it was announced last week that I was successful in an EOI (Expression of interest) in the job I was doing….so now I am on government books.

And the best thing, I am actually earning more than I was as a temp which I never thought would happen because the hourly rate for contractors is pretty good but when I was in discussions about taking the job I requested that I be put on at the higher end of the payscale and they agreed…to put me at payscale 4 (the highest) for the job which actually means I will be earning more than what I was on plus I will have benefits like holidays, sick days and flex-time.

Staying in Australia is not a permanent thing and I was quite happy to temp the whole time I was here since I had done it before, it offered variety and experience and the money was decent enough. But with the way Dad is I knew I might need something with a bit more flexibility…I needed to be able to change my schedule if I needed to and I needed to be able to have a day off if I need to take him somewhere. I could do that while I was a temp but it meant loss of pay which was going to get tough…

At this stage my contract is up until the end of January but they are aware that I only want to work until end of April (before finishing up to take the week before the wedding off, get married, spend time with family, honeymoon and then return to Japan at the end of May) so they think that it shouldn`t be a problem to extend the job at least until the end of March possibly until the end of April. They have been really good to me and have assured me that we will be able to work something out…

So yeah, now I am on government books again….

On another note we are having some internet issues at our place and our internet connection has slowed to 64kbs (= very very very slow, especially after living in Japan) and are having trouble with our service provider…rhymes with “kelstra”…and don`t even get me started on the several thousand dollar bill they sent my mother which we are STILL trying to sort out. I know that our internet has slowed down because I downloaded “private practice” as I was missing out on it…and now we will have slow internet until the end of the month. It is making it very difficult to load blogs and use google reader as it is painstakingly slow and makes me want to stick a sharp object in my eye but we will have to live with it until the end of the month. Bring on 1st of December I say!

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Australian Cattle Dogs (Abbey is a blue heeler which is another name for an Australian Cattle Dog) are very intelligent dogs. We had a blue heeler when I was little for awhile and she was sent to obedience training and it took twice as long to train her because they are too smart (for their own good sometimes!) and are very independent.

Abbey will sit, shake hands, wait for food and jump on command. She will not obey no,  stop, “dame”, or down. We are working on them though. The main command we are trying to work on is “no” because she has started howling at the moon and or barking at everything (including rain?!?!?)  and we are trying to incorporate “no” into her doggie vocabulary understanding list so that the neighbours don`t get too pissed off.

See, it is believed that Aussie Cattle Dogs were bred by combining collies, bull terriers, dalmations & dingos (A native Aussie dog) – but we beleive that Abbey is more dingo than anything else. Her tale & ears are particulary dingo like, and with the howling at the moon it is definitely easy to see where the dingo comes in.

She also likes to try to herd us up- and traditionally that is what cattle dogs were bred for…to herd the cattle and nip at their ankles to keep them in line. Abbey will nip at our shoes and walk behind us…even on a walk she prefers to either walk right beside us or behind us instead of in front (unless she sees a bird, another dog or a person because then she goes off running!)

Apparently, the blue heeler pup we had when we were younger used to round up my brother, who would have been about 2 or 3 at the time…she would run around behind him and try to get him cornered into a corner where I beleive she would try to lick my little brother to death.

We haven`t had much issue with Abbey biting, although she will nip our hands when we are patting her if she gets excited and chomps down instead of licking but we have noticed that she only does that with us and never with any other people (which is good- we would hate for her to nip a child). The jumping and the howling are probably our biggest issues…

Tomorrow the farmers markets are happening down in Manly, about a half an hour walk from our place and we have already decided we will all get up early, take Abbey and walk down there. She will probably go a little psycho because there will be a lot of peope around but a lot of people take their dogs and we want her to get used to being around a lot of people…

Hopefully nobody realizes she is more dingo than blue heeler…

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As you know the last couple of weeks have been a very emotional and busy time for us. Yesterday I was off work to take my father to the hospital to have some tests (a CT scan & a biopsy) and about a week ago I hinted that there was more trouble coming up for me and my family. Last Monday my fathers oncologist said that due to the rapid growth of the lumps he had under his arms and in his neck, his cancer was progressing and that the starting of treatment would be fairly imminent.

The results of the tests yesterday will not be back in for a couple of days but it looks as if the next step will be starting chemo again. He is fairly adamant that he does not want to do chemo again but we will wait and see. I talked about my fathers cancer, non- hodgkins lymphoma, previously here. Up until earlier this year my father had been in remission for 7 years.

The weekend was a very emotional time for us. Sunday & Monday where quite possibly the worst days I have ever spent with my father but I am happy to report that the last two days have been a lot better. Some of you know what has been going on  and I am sure the rest of you can understand why I am not going to go into too many details.

Shun came with me yesterday to the hospital and even though the hospital is close to my work and I could have gone in for a couple of hours at least, I decided against it and where I currently working, and my managers there have been fine with me taking the day off. On Tuesday night I slept for 2.5 hours and while I got extra sleep last night I woke up this morning with a migraine and couldn`t go to work. It means that I have missed the last two days, and I will have a lot to catch up on tomorrow. I woke up at 6am to get ready for work but I just couldn`t face it so sent a message to my manager and went back to sleep. I woke up a couple of times but didn`t get out of bed until 2pm. I feel a lot better now but I still have a headache and am feeling quite exhausted…I guess it is my bodies way of telling me the last couple of weeks have caught up with me.

I could of gotten a lot of things done today with the day off but instead I slept & then finished a game of monopoly with my dad & Shun ( I won!) and while I will probably have a headache for about a week (that is the way my migraines go)  I am feeling much better and I think I spent my day well! Dad & Shun are now in the kitchen cooking dinner- we are having an easy tea of sausages on breadrolls. It is Shun`s favourite!!!

Like I said, I could of spent the day doing so many other things, catching up on the cleaning, washing, writing applications for my current job (It is getting advertised so I will apply for it- and if I get it it would mean I would go on their books) general writing, catching up on blogs,  studying, sewing or doing wedding stuff.

Instead I slept & played monolpoly and I can`t help but feel that it was  a day well spent!!!

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Three weeks ago we started with this…

and now I am happy to report our little veggie and herb garden  is going well and now looks like this:

So far we have harvested (hehe!) some lettuce and a couple of strawberries as well as a bunch of herbs on and off when we need them (including basil, mint, chives, coriander & dill) and yesterday we added some sticks to keep up the corn and tomatoes and transplanted the snowpeas next the gate so that they would have something to climb and creep up.

We had limited space but a lot of things we wanted to grow  so we kind of just planted everything in there and hoped for the best.

It drives Abbey insane that she can not get into this little garden area and whenever one of us goes in to pick stuff out (or if we get the hose out and try to water the garden) she barks and barks and barks. I think she despises the fact that we are paying attention to the garden and not to her (although with her insessive barking it is hard to ignore her!!)

She would be very disappointed in me I think, if she found out I was posting about the garden and not her so here is picture of Abbey from the day we made the garden- she was trying to help with the digging!!!

I love having a garden, even though I have a bit of a brown thumb (It is my dad that has the green thumb I guess you could say)…I really hope to recreate something similar when we are back in Japan, albeit a bit smaller than this one. I think it will only be a week or so before we have an abundance of strawberries, lettuce, beans, snowpeas and more herbs than we know what to do with. The capsicums, corn & onions may take a little longer! The spinach however I think may not make it- I have tried to resurrect it without much luck although I suppose it could make a miracle recovery but I doubt it. It is great to be able to go outside and pick lettuce for a salad or some fresh coriander for a Thai beef salad or basil for roast veggies. It will be a lot more exciting when we can pick more off it…

The first red strawberry to appear was quickly halved and gobbled up by Shun & I and even he had to admit that it was a pretty damn good strawberry (So far it is the only one on there that has been ready to eat- there are about 15 flowers and little green strawberries popping out though!)

Does anyone have any garden hints or veggie growing tips? Would love to hear them!!!

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When the jacarandas start to bloom you know summer is on its way. The heat starts to roll in, dry and thick and as a kid, that always meant summer holidays and Christmas were just around the corner.

Through end of September and October the jacaranda trees with there purple flowers line the streets and the wilting blooms litter the sidewalks, parks & streets. While the jacaranda trees are native to South America, Mexico & the Carribbean most of Brisbane seems to have adopted them as their own. In fact, I only learnt this just now, but the jacarandas are so famous in Brisbane that in the 1930s & 1940s new mothers were given a jacaranda sapling as they left the hospital with their newborns.

Where has this year gone? It is almost November yet it seems like just yesterday that 2008 rolled around.

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Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. I really appreciate all the support I recieve from my friends whom I know both in real life and in the blogsphere. Yesterday we were hit with another blow but I need time to process before I write about it here.

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Several weeks ago I send out a facebook message to a couple of primary school friends I had reconnected with thanks to facebook. I said that we should catch up and so we arranged a date that suited us all, booked a place and then this past weekend the big  day came.

We went to The Lighthouse Restaurant at Cleveland, close to our old primary school stomping grounds (and where two of the girls still live) and caught up. I arrived first and Rachie O arrived soon after and for awhile there we thought it might just be us but Carlie & Michelle showed up. We were expecting another two but they must have decided not to come which was fine since the four of us had a great catch up.

I had seen Rachie O earlier in the year when I was home for Christmas but I hadn`t seen Carlie or Michelle since I was about 17 and even before then after age 12 it had been a bit sporadic. It just goes to show though, that while time passes us by at what seems like lightening speeds sometimes, there are some people in your life that you can meet up with and just take off from where you left off.

With the amount of time I have spend living overseas since finishing highschool I have only a handful of friends from Australia whom I know I have the kind of relationships with that we can just pick up where ever we last left off and go from there. (Mandy, who couldn`t be there for our little reunion is one of those people also!)

While I was a bit nervous about meeting up with these girls again, because you never know if it is going to go smoothly or if the conversation will flow and lets face it, primary school finished over 10 years ago so who knew what we would have in common anymore. I am happy to say though that there was no uncomfortable silence and we really could just take off from where we left off.

We chatted about careers, our boys, our futures and our pasts. We reminised about crazy primary school memories and laughed over old inside jokes.

A common theme in our conversation was friendship and how we had evolved and formed long last friendships with some and not so long lasting friendships with others- both from our primary school days and our highschool days and even our lives now.  I know that I will see these girls again sometime soon, and we are arranging a get together before Christmas, this time with our partners as well.

While we have all gone our separate ways, one of us an accountant, one of us a lawyer and one of us a personal trainer (who was also a manager of a chalet in France and also a car saleswoman!) and me, a roaming girl with no real career yet, we still had common ground. These are girls who I have known since I was 4 or 5-we saw each other grow up, we know each others brothers and sisters and family and we remember what the others dreams were all through primary school! I know it sounds cliched but the conversation honestly never did stop and surprisingly we still had a connection even after all this time.

Five hours later we hugged, said goodbye and promised to not let so many years go by without another reunion!

Do you still have primary school friends? Do you meet up on a regular basis? Since the facebook revolution have you reconnected with people you haven`t seen or spoken to in years?

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