Surf and Massage Weekend

This is just a quick note and a few new pictures I thought I would put up from the weekend. Boy it was great! I surfed 3 days in a row and caught some awesome waves! Really good times. I swear sometimes Jon and I feel like pinching ourselves. What luck to be here, live here and surf so much. It is like a freaking surfers paradise here, totally.

Oh something funny - I went to a massage parlor just up the road from our house yesterday because I was joncing for a massage and it was open and walk-able. The sign said Chinese Orinetal Massage Spa and Sauna and there was a special advertised $35 dollars for 30 minutes I thought - perfect!

But I gotta be honest, I am not sure if it was only a "massage" parlor - if you get my drift. Now usually I go to Registered Massage Therapists for massage, even now if I do I would get like 60-70% back. In Canada it was like 100%, so I took advantage for sure. I do not know why I feel I have to justify for the indulgence, but I do.

My body is big, I have big muscles and tendons and ligaments and I planted trees for like 8 years. I surf, I run and in my running career have trained for marathons and half marathons. I have been working out in gyms since I was 19 and have had personal trainers. I am or have been into yoga, spinning, weights for long periods of time in my life. And then there is the factor that I broke about 10 bones in my body and injured myself countless other times doing all that. What I am getting at is that I am active and I would say good to my body - but that could also mean hard on my body too. I think so anyways. So often I am stiff, sore and well, generally my body is pretty tired. I mean, I am strong and feel great lots and most times too, but...sometimes (OK more often than most) I need a massage and I go get one...

So, back to my Sunday massage. Well, around these parts its a bit like touristy and vacation sort of style shops - or like what I envision Miami Beach to be like, where there are some parts that are not the most high end. And I mean, we live in a good enough area, but the Gold Coast highway is just up the street and we are 10k from Surfers Paradise and that does look an awful lot like a mini Vegas and is known for its young party atmosphere and a bit of a crazy life style.

Ya, so back to the point,  I am not sure it was strictly a Massage Parlour, if you get my drift. Yup, not sure. Only men came in during my massage. It was run by a Chinese woman - really nice, but anyways - that is all I will say about that. Don't get me wrong, they were nice and it was a good massage (and it was obviously just a massage for me!), but there is a Physio Sports Medicine Clinic where I am pretty sure I will get myself in next time.

Ok that is enough about that  - here are some pics of our weekend.

What else… a vacation!

I am right now on my train ride home from work and what am I thinking about? What else… a vacation!

I know, I know, I just had a 3 week vacation some of you may be thinking. But when you consider it that the last week of my “vacation” was sorting out our life here in Australia and that really isn't a vacation from everything is it?  

I want to go camping and I think that is exactly what the plan is.

I have actually been working some overtime on the weekends and late nights (like tonight actually). I have pulled some 9 hour days, trying to get a handle on a project that is being “transitioned” to me at the moment. But here is the scoop – the guy got fired. How does a transition really take place when no one is around to transition it? Yes, that is right, the transition is me banging my head against things I didn't write/design/solve, hence the overtime.

Anyways – back to vacation dreaming! So there is a long weekend coming up here in Aus October 1st, don't ask me what it is, but I know we do not have Thanksgiving weekend here, so maybe it is the substitute for that...(?). Anyway, I plan to take an extra day off. SO that means we can leave on Friday early afternoon and cruise down to our first destination and hangout/campout/ hopefully get a surf in. Then we have Saturday, Sunday and Monday to cruise around, camp, eat, surf and then head her home on Tuesday to be back to work on Wednesday. 

That is the plan anyway. To be honest, I think by 3 nights of camping Jon and I both will be ready to pull the plug. It is not like we have anywhere even in mind at this point. South is all we know, likely not much more than 3 or 4 hours South. Because we love exploring where we are right now, it is hard to want go too far away from comfort and familiarity when everything  is all so new and different. 

We are really just kind of going with the flow of it here. We are venturing out a little farther every weekend. We went out to this place called Caribarita beach last weekend and it was only like 40 minutes away, but it felt like a real adventure.We found some new surf spots and really had a nice time surfing and driving around.

On another note, I saw a dead possum on the side of the street yesterday walking to my work building. Not that exciting, but it was pretty cool looking. I also saw some new birds and made a plan to get a bird book of the east cost of Australia so I can figure out what they all are. By the way, if you didn't know, I am a secret-undercover, amateur birder (aka bird watcher). I have a bird book at home for our island and I just love going through it randomly. I like the pretty pictures and the little blurbs about the birds, what they eat, how the live, if they mate for ever, that kind of stuff. Then when I am out and see one that I recognize I say - there is a such and such, and it is never the right name. Usually I just repeat the same name of a bird that I do remember - it is actually quite embarrassing, but its just Jon, so he just smiles and doesn't say anything. I like to say "water fowl" instead of ducks. It makes me feel like I am getting somewhere with my hobby. 

So my plans with my Aunt Margaret and family (who are heading here in December) are coming along nicely. I am joining them and my cousin to trip around this town (north of Brisbane) called 1770. We are going to rent a 4X4 and cruise to these places. This town is close enough to the Great Barrier Reef to get a good look at the reef out on a boat trip. I am really excited about snorkelling there. They are here in mid-December and we are going to check out Fraser Island too.  It is the largest island of sand in the world. That is going to be totally neat, super fun!

And my friend from high school, Hil (Hilary Leftick) is coming here at the end of November too! So I will have a friend visit me and that I am so stoked for. I don’t know how long she and her hubby are going to stay, but Jon will be gone by then, so I say "not long enough"!! 

When will I see a Kangaroo – that is what I want to know...

Kangaroo – for dinner, surf tips and a little lamb story.

In Australia (so far) Kangaroo for dinner, has been the extent to our sightings. We had marinated Kangaroo steaks for dinner that Jon bought from our local grocery store last night. I got to be honest with you, I was a little hesitant when Jon first mentioned it a few weeks back (actually on the airplane over that he wanted to try it. And if it wasn’t for the fact that one of my Aussie colleagues going off on home amazing the meat is, I don’t know how much I would have been into it. 

But drum roll.............It is fantastic! REALLY GOOD. Jon describes it as like "roast pork in texture". I think its kinda like roast beef. It is a red meat and very tender.

We do not have a BBQ yet, but it is certainly on the list of things to buy, that and a blender. Unfortunately any of the small appliances that I brought over here including a blow dryer, iron and coffee grinder do not work here, therefore I had to purchase new. Not only are the plug outlets different, but also the voltage measurements. Anyways, lesson learned I suppose.

Today is the start of my 3 day work week in the office. I have got this schedule now where I work in the office Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and work from my home office Monday and Fridays. This is a great method to get lots of work done more efficiently and to have a good break from 3 days of 4 hours of travel each day. The reality is that some days (like today) I do not get on a train with WIFI, therefore cannot really work on the train, which means to make up for it I have to either work threw lunch or work an extra hour from home in the evenings – and who wants to do that!?!?!?

Anyways – on to fun stuff.

This weekend was great. We went south (again) to Bryron Bay and surfed this spot called Broken Heads in like 3 foot swell – which means TINY TINY waves. But we were there at 8:30am, the sun was up and bright and warm and it was nothing to put on our thin wetsuits and go out for some exercise and practice. The setting is stunning for all of the beaches on the coast, like just totally tropical paradise looking. I have pictures that I will put up later.

So yesterday (Monday) I was able to get in a surf before work – again not the greatest waves, but a bit bigger at least. I am really focusing on my popup right now. It is a very challenging whole piece of the surfing puzzle and one that I have never excelled at. So I am trying to un-teach myself the bad habits that I have and it is one of the hardest things. It also requires a lot of stretch and determination. You really have to bend your back in a backwards fold and from your hands bring your feet directly on the board underneath your body and for your front foot to also be far enough forward on the board to get the right balance and positioning to start moving your board up and down the wave (on your feet obviously!). 

Not easy! 

But Jon has helped me with some good tips and I just need to loosen up a little in my hips to let that front foot move forward as much as it needs to. Now don’t get me wrong, I have been surfing on my feet for years J, but see what I have been doing is assisting my popup with my knee (which is the bad habit).

This brings me to Bikram Yoga. Yes – there is a studio just down the street – literally a 5 minute walk from our place. I plan on going at least 3 times a week. I had my first class this weekend and walked out all pumped and stoked on it. And then had my second class last night and felt horrible afterwards!!! Ha ha ha. O well. Horrible only because I likely was working harder than my first class – AND I was not early to secure a spot in the back where you get some air breaks – but instead was up in the front, dead centre, no air and in the middle of everyone so probably because I was in the lime light I was pushing it a bit tooJ.

I am reading the new Harkai Murakami book right now “1Q84” and just loving it. I told Jon I wanted to read 1984 and he brought it home for me after a night we squabbled a little bit ...good gesture and bonus points where allocated accordingly. Jon likes to be up in that department and it works for me. He has some funny expressions about them, but they are slipping me right now. He keeps cracking me up this day – which is pretty awesome. I have to include a picture of him and Lamby hanging out talking about Diablo – his new computer game. Specifically they were discussing the differences between the new game and the older game. Yes, my husband was having a full blown conversation with my stuffed lamb.

(Those of you who are judging right now, I would just like to point out that you probably have a kid, or a cat/dog that you get to make fun of and cuddle with – so back off J.)

Next time I will try to get a recording of Lamby and Jon, the theme that they are into right now is “how Sacha is mean”. Oh god, it will crack you right up. Example:  I took Lamby to the beach the other night to watch Jon jump in the water on his new long board. (keep in mind that Lamby came out of the bedroom (via Jon) and asked if he could come to the beach with us – as we are always talking about it, and always going there...etc, etc,). 

Anyway... there were people around at the beach so I didn’t want to take him out of the back pack – so you can imagine what a monster I looked like (to the both of them) when we got home and I told the truth to Jon.

Oh man that’s right kids, that’s how we entertain each other at our house. 

Dear Mom - Aussie News

My Mom said it would be OK if I share this email ...so I am going to. I also have an update to the car situation, but that is for the next post ;)

Hi  Mom,

Sorry I didn’t get back to you right away when I got this email from you, but I wanted to send you more of a note than I could yesterday. It is so busy and all in the office and trying to get some productive work done is a fighting battle when everything is new and I am not quick up to speed with the technical infrastructure to make my work as smooth as it usually is. But I think I am more “there”, at least more than I was last week so that is good. I still have yet to fill out my Australian HR forms, which is a bit frustrating as they impact my “getting paid” factor, but I am on the last step today with the bank to getmy “super” fund, which is that superannuation bank account where the OZ gov puts 9% or your income into (forced RRSP's).

So besides that and spending time with Jon looking for a car at night on the internet...it’s well, busy. BUT SO GOOD.

Our internet is not hooked up yet, which is a pain in the ass. Thankfully I have this little stick that my work gave me to use to access the internet from home in the evenings, but I cannot leave it for Jon cause his computer (tablet) does not have a USB port. We should have had our internet setup as of yesterday, but after another unsuccessful attempt, we will have to try tech support again tonight if the same thing happens.

We do appear to have a phone line (as that is what the ADSL modem is hooking up to), but I tried calling it on my mobile and it didn’tring, so go figure. It actually makes sense as I told them on the phone that Ido not want a land line so this will all get figured out by the weekend.

We found a red civic, under 200k for 4200,00 and I think weare pretty interested in buying it...so we will see if they get back to us and then check it out tomorrow. The rental car went back early this week and thatis fine, because we were not even using it. Except of course on weekends when we were travelling 1 hour south to go surfing at Byron Bay – which is so freaking awesome I cannot even tell you. The waves are so fun and punchy and I am getting great rides and feeling super confident out there.

The commute is long and a bit tiring, but so worth it when I can take a cruise after dinner and walk along the beach in the moonlight with Jonny. It is weird coming from summer time daylight hours, to here in the winter time (although it feels like summer!) and having it dark at 6pm. However cause we are so close to the equator I guess, it is light by 5:30, which btw is the time I am getting up each morning. I love it though, as both Jon and I are morning people and the birds make such wonderful music (yes starting at 5:30!) and I get to sip and have my coffee and breaky on my breakfast bar, as I like to call it, or my couch and look over the canal as the sky is pink and wonderfully brightening. It gives me great joy every morning to be in super a beautiful space.

I get on a bus at  5minutes to 7 and then off of it at 7:15 and on the train to Brisbane city (which is where I am almost right now at this present moment). In 10 minutes I will get off this train and take another to the Toowong stop (just 8minutes or so) and then walk 10 minutes to my office. I have a big nice new office in a modern building. The coffee maker is primo and the people I work with all very friendly and have great sense of humour. Wehave found most Aussie’s to be super positive and witty and really just NICE folk.

Big kidders it seems like!

So yeah, the Procura big shots are all over in Australia right now for some conferences and also a Procura event called SHARE which I am attending next week. It is on the Gold Coast this year, where I live, so that will be nice to not have to travel into Brisbane.

I am fairly certain when all dies down around in my next few weeks that I will be able to work at least 1 day a week from home. Since we have a spare room with a nice desk and chair (which I call my home office and Jon call’s his room), there will be no problem with that setup.
When I mentioned this to Jon he is super supportive, talking how we will get a surf in at our local beach (7 minute walk down the road –which he has taken advantage of nicely in the last few days). However he did mention that I will have to ask permission to use his room?! Oh yes, our humor has not left us and we are doing just fine. Jon is looking it no joining the kickboxing gym right down the street. And i found myself a Hot yoga studio just down the main street as well...so we are just honky dory here so far.

Much love, thinking about you...

Sacha