(Sort Of) Back Home Again

Welcome! This is the first of what I anticipate to be many entries to this Blog with a revised focus. Since Australia is(nearly) done, we still want to keep our friends "on this side of the world" up-to-date with our lives back in North America. Our experience living in Australia was an amazing chapter in our story and one that we don't intend to end permanently. But, now we're home and one thing we did learn that we need to be more intentional about keeping in touch with friends and family - so we plan to use this Blog to continue that process, with your permission, of course!

I returned from Australia a little more than 1 week ago and find it amazing how I'm already so deeply immersed in the "normal" stuff that made up our life before we left. Being back home, back in the offices of my previous employer (more on that later) and - whether I like it or not - back in winter - sort of makes being in Australia seem like a dream. Then, when I call Nancy from my snowbound hotel room in Montreal to see how things are going as she does the final preparation for moving our personal effects home - I am reminded that we have been a part of something very (wonderfully) different and I miss it in a profound way. It's certainly good to be home and we are looking forward to connecting face-to-face in the very near future but there is a bit of sadness associated with leaving Brisbane.

Holy Cow! It's (Sunday) March 16th today and it should be Spring but - and the pictures are real and not Photoshopped - it's obviously going to be a while before Spring gets around to showing up! When I was home for a few days before coming up to Montreal (Quebec - Canada) for work, there were some major icebergs off the shore of Lake Michigan in front of our house. It's sort of pretty but better if you look at it from inside, where it's a bit warmer. I'm a sunset loving kind of person and there have been a few good ones to enjoy since returning but these aren't the "sit on your deck and watch with a nice glass of red" kind of sunsets at all. At this time of year, the sun sets sort of straight behind our home and then as summer comes, the sunsets move north - just the opposite of Brisbane (and just one of the many "opposites").

Then, on Tuesday, I came up to Montreal to join the team I'll be working with for the foreseeable future and found that the effects of last week's winter storm were still present. Montreal received more than 30 centimeters of snow on the weekend - bringing the season's total snowfall to 319 centimeters (that's 125 inches for the metrically challenged) - "Toto, we're not in Brisbane any more!" Montreal is actually located on an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence river and they have to gather up all of their snow, put it in trucks and drag it somewhere to be disposed of - a long and difficult job that really makes things interesting. When I can into town from the airport on Tuesday night, they had the only (direct) route into the city completely closed while they tried to get some of the snow removed - that was (not) fun! People's cars get stuck along the city streets and then you can't plow, making the street narrower then normal and strangling traffic; what's not to love? Luckily, I'm (still, sort of) used to this stuff and armed with all of the appropriate gear, you can make it through just fine. I've told many of you that I enjoy jogging in the winter weather (you can always peel a layer of clothing off) and so I brought my coat, waterproof boots, gloves, etc. with me so I could get out during the weekend into Old Montreal (or, as we like to say "Vieux Port Montreal") so my next entry will focus on that experience. For now, enjoy the video of last weekend's storm in Montreal (Michigan missed it completely) - no words but I don't think you really need any.

I've added a "subscribe" feature to the blog as well as a "what's on the bookshelf" conversation starter (if you want to discuss books - I'd love to have that discussion) and - as always - we look forward to hearing from you as we go forward!

Our Vacation - Part II

As I am preparing this - it's my last day before departing back to North America. This won't be the final chapter in the Blog but we are definitely getting close! At this point, I'm guessing we'll need a whole entry on the single topic of Nancy's friend (Shelly) coming out for a visit since she was supposed to be here on Sunday and she will finally get here today (Tuesday) after many misadventures. So, on with the show!

We returned from the Granite Belt on a Thursday, threw our stuff in and out of luggage and rushed off to the airport to fly to Melbourne on Friday AM. My great idea about making things simple by using a cab turned to poop when it didn't show up in time for us to make the flight and it ended up costing us about $250 for that plan (the cab fare plus the re-ticketing charges - no extra cost for my frustration). Once we arrived, we found our way to the Rendezvous Hotel which has a great location in the center of town and right across from the the Flinder's Street train station & Southbank - a recently renovated section of the town where there are plenty of restaurants and shops within walking distance. We took our time looking around and had a great dinner before heading back and hitting the sack - we were heading out on the Great Ocean Road on Saturday.

We (finally) found our rental car and got out of the city and I must say, it was a less-than-spectacular day from a weather perspective. The day tended to alternate between overcast to downright windy & rainy but we kept pressing on in hopes that the clouds would part for us ... and they did! Every now and then, we would stop of a stretch and a cup of coffee (the Great Ocean Road stretches for nearly 400 kilometers (one way) including the distance from Melbourne) and the sun would generally favor us with a few minutes of its presence. We'd get back in the car and it would seem to revert to overcast and/or rain! As we considered the next 90K stretch of twisting and turning roads to get to the "mother lode" of the trip - The 12 Apostles - it was really bleak but Nancy convinced me to continue and we were rewarded with a great 15 minute parting of the clouds (I'm serious). The trip took the whole day - we ended up with a deluxe dinner at Macca's (McDonald's) due to how late it was getting as we drove back to Melbourne - but it was really worth it. Next time we would plan on driving out one way and staying the night at one of the seaside towns along the way rather than trying the entire trip in a single day.

The next morning, we were up and on a tour van to examine some of the vineyards in the Yarra Valley. Having just been to the Granite Belt, we "paced ourselves" a bit better on this tour and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, some nice wine and a wonderful lunch with some new friends from Texas, Scotland and various places in Australia. The Yarra is within a 45 minute drive from Melbourne (population - nearly 4 million) so these wineries are a bit more "posh" and well funded than their Granite Belt brothers, therefore potentially a bit less personal, but we did still get to see some Pinot Noir being made right in front of us (it is harvest time down here) and had a chance to meet a few of the characters that tend to inhabit cellar doors.

On Monday, we jumped up, checked out of our hotel and boarded our train for Bairnsdale - the home of our friends, the Varneys. Chris picked us up at the train station and David met us at The River Grill for a wonderful lunch (see the menu in the photo - I had the spatchcock) and the we organized ourselves to visit "Varney World". David comes from a small town about an hour drive from Bairnsdale called Orbost - a town on the banks of the famous Snowy River - and is extremely excited about his hometown and the piece of land he has there. Many people have seen "The Man From Snowy River" movie - well, this is the real deal! And we got to put of feet in the river (actually, we were informed that this is a local tribal practice that needed to be done or we would not be allowed to leave). We had dinner and stayed the night at David's parent's home (Barb and Kevin) and then went out to the homestead the next morning to meet "the girls" (David's cows and calves) and to survey his domain in what is an extremely beautiful part of the world. "The Man From Snowy River" was actually based on a famous poem written by "Banjo" Paterson so follow the link if you'd like to know more.

After a day mostly spent on the property, we drove back Bairnsdale and said our good byes before David drove us back to Melbourne where we had a great dinner and then checked into the airport Hilton to grab our flight back to Brisbane on Wednesday AM. All-in-all, our time in Melbourne produced some really wonderfull days of vacation that we will never forget when we think about our time in Australia. Now - it's time to get things packed up and for me to get out of here!

A Little R & R Time (The Calm Before The Storm)

Finally – it’s time to take a bit of vacation before the “Australian Adventure” comes to a close for us. We had been putting off a lot of things we had intended to do because “there’s always tomorrow” and we thought the assignment here might run longer than it did so – shame on us for that. But now, we’re in full vacation mode and have started to see and do a few things that “tourists” would be doing. In fact – we are tourists!

So – we decided to take a drive down to the border of Queensland and Victoria in an area called The Granite Belt for a few days. The drive was about 300 kilometers (through the beautiful sunflower fields shown above) to the town of Stanthorpe which is sort of the unofficial capital of the area and, after a bit of a late start because we were sorting out ongoing travel arrangements, finally made it to the Azjure Studio Retreat around 5:00 PM. There are 3 of these cottages (opened in 2007) and the people that own them are Brisbane refugees, here to take a stab at their dream of a new and more relaxed career as resort accommodation owners. As you can see from the pictures, these were very eco-friendly and a bit “futuristic” in their design but were very quiet, comfortable and well appointed. We especially loved the fully automatic Saeco coffee machine (we need one of those!). We had a belated 30th Anniversary dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant (Anna’s) and were back “home” in time to enjoy the quiet surroundings of our cottage.

The main attraction of the Granite Belt is wine related tourism. There are nearly 50 different wineries located in this region so we decided to tour a few of them on one of our days there. It is sort of the “off season” right now (but Stanthorpe was getting prepared for the upcoming Apple & Grape Festival that kicks off in March) so we had a great tour, often we were the only people at the winery when we arrived and had the owners chatting with us about their vineyard, what sets their grapes apart from those around them and sharing a bit of their passion about wine making. It was great fun but something I would only want to do as part of a small group with a driver; it’s too easy to drink a bit more than you intended even though the tasting portions are tiny. We had a nice lunch, enjoyed the people we toured with (we were the token Americans in the group) but almost ended up missing dinner that evening because all of the “real” restaurants were closed when we showed up at 8:00 PM. Like I said, it’s the off-season! So, we found a pizza joint that was open later, ordered a takeaway pie and went home to enjoy a DVD before retiring for the evening. As a side note, we were fortunate to have a nice full moon while in the mountains and it rose right behind our unit, making for some awesome “moonrise” views.

As the name “Granite Belt” implies – there’s a lot of granite lying around this area and we decided to see some of it on a drive to a local lavender field. The drive itself was a bit of an adventure since our GPS decided to guide us on a very direct route that involved “two track” dirt roads through hills, creeks (where the water might actually be flowing over the road) and many, many cow pastures. We had a tense few moments (for Nancy) when we rounded a curve to find the road full of cows laying about – enjoying the sun. We made it to the lavender attraction (not that exciting - nice people but this is apparently the “off-season” for lavender too) and then went on to the Girraween National Park for a bit of a hike amongst the granite boulders that God has left strewn about in the hilltops. There are some crazy rock formations and we had a hike up “The Pyramid” but, I didn’t want to climb all the way to the top (because I was wearing sandals!) and had to physically restrain Nancy from continuing on. Since it was the end of the day and we were nearly the last people in the place, I didn’t want to get stranded there with a broken something / multiple somethings and end up on the evening news but this is an unfinished challenge for Nancy – and you know how she hates an unfinished challenge!

Thursday was our return back to Brisbane and we came back via a stop at Surfer’s Paradise on the Gold Coast. After a nice lunch at the Kooroomba Vineyard located on a beautiful mountaintop, we worked our way east towards the ocean and, once again, our friendly GPS decided it would be fun to route us over the Tamborine Mountains to get there. There are more than a few steep grades, hairpin turns and “interesting” drivers on this route but it is beautiful (mostly a rainforest area) and we did finally make to Surfer’s before the sun went down. I think the last time I was in Surfer’s Paradise was nearly 12 years ago and things have really changed. This area is full of high rise hotels and resort properties and is a real tourist magnet - and I don't necessarily mean that in a good way! So - we ended the day by packing for a flight out to Melbourne the next morning - and that will be "Part II" of this story (coming soon). Until then, here's a quick video of the climb up to (nearly the) top of "The Pyramid" at Girraween National Park

It's Only Been 30 Years

Today marked our 30th Wedding Anniversary - a date that seems quite incredible to us but the calendar doesn't lie! In some ways, we seem so very different from the young people who said "I Do" back in 1978 but in other ways, we haven't changed that much. Anyone who has been married for a while certainly understands what I'm saying. I will say that we count the years together as a real blessing and are thankful to God for all of the good things He has given us in our time together - not the least of which are our children, our extended family and our wonderful friends!

Celebrating this milestone so far from family and friends seems odd but we've decided to try and make this as special as possible and have had a great weekend together. On Saturday, Nancy went on a 10K walk with some of the women from church in the AM (while I went to the gym) and then we had a bit of "hang time" while we waited for our weekly "cruise boat buddy" to leave our front door. The big event of the day was a nice dinner with Pierre and Leslie Goulet on "their side of the river" in the up-and-coming suburb of Bulimba. For us, it's just a short walk to the City Cat pier and then a brief ride to the dock at Bulimba where the Tonic restaurant sits at the water's edge. The weather on Saturday was a bit rainy (hence the picture of the rainbow taken from the back of the City Cat) but the food was great as was the conversation. Pierre and Leslie have "only" been together for 20 years so we were able to offer them the benefit of our marital wisdom!

We wanted to do something special for our friends at Cornerstone Church so we had bought a couple of really good cakes at Michel's Pattisserie (in the Toombul Shopping Centre) and Nancy put them out for the morning tea after the service. They were really great - not a crumb was left! We followed up with an elegant meal at the local McDonald's to head home and prepare for a bit of vacation we're taking - starting tomorrow. We're heading up into the Granite Belt region of Queensland and have booked a room at the Azure Studio Retreat through Wednesday. This looks like a great place and in a really neat region and we're looking forward to doing a bit of exploration. From there, we're planning to head down to Melbourne and a bit more exploring...and then we're not sure. We'll keep you all posted as things unfold.

The weather here in Brisbane has been fine but to our north, they have been getting hammered with rain. I'm not sure of the news goes through back home but the town of Mackay received over 625 millimeters of rain in a 6 hour period (that's a little more than 24 inches!) I've given you a bit of video below - it's pretty wild!

Home From The North Country

I just returned yesterday from my trip back to North America and it was quite the adventure. As we made our approach into Brisbane over the CBD, I was thinking about the fact that when I had sent my last post, I was sitting in JFK Airport, getting ready to fly to Boston and spend the weekend with our friends, the Palatines. Well, let's just say that I did not fly to Boston that evening.

About 10:30 PM, the word came over the intercom that the flight was (finally) canceled - gee, I had only been waiting for ~6 1/2 hours for that bit of good news - and I needed to figure out a "Plan B". My "Plan B" included securing a rental car and driving (with my new found friend from Brazil and fellow canceled flight refugee - Fabrizio) to Jim and Jan's home in North Andover. I made it there; after lost luggage, rental car complications, a traffic jam just outside the airport (7/10th of a mile in 30 minutes), a delicious dinner at McDonald's (at 1:45 AM) and dropping Fabrizio in downtown Boston - finally arriving at around 5:00 AM on Saturday morning.

It was great to have some time at the Palatine's home, catching up on things "face-to-face" - and then it was time to head to the airport and move on to Montreal. Editor's note: the meal shown in the photo at the Palatine's was extraordinary!! The new team I will be working with was going to have it's "kick off" meeting and I was going to get a chance to spend some time getting the preliminary planning for our team's role started. Anthony Rossi is one of the leaders of the team and he invited me to his home for dinner - quite a treat when you're "on the road" a lot. He's a new Dad with the recent birth of his second child - a son - so I got to meet A.J. (Anthony Jr.) and see his wife and daughter (Angie and Alessia) again. Montreal had gotten dumped on over the weekend and I got to experience the "fun" of winter again. Since I had forgotten my winter coat on my way out of Brisbane, I was glad that I had a chance to purchase another one while in Orlando - it was truly cold in Montreal!

And let me make something clear: we know that it has been a "real" winter that we have (mostly) missed and we have heard from many of you that, despite what people say about global warming, there has been a lot of snow to deal with back home. My brother Craig was kind enough to provide evidence of his personal snow removal issues that needed to be addressed to keep the mailman happy. We know that we picked the right winter to be gone!

I was watching the weather the entire week leading up to my departure since my experience in JFK had reminded me of how things can "domino" when they start to go wrong but made it out without any dramas. The 30+ hours of flights and layovers left with with a real sense of appreciation to be "home" when I finally landed in Brisbane on Saturday (Montreal to JFK, JFK to LA, LA to Sydney, Sydney to Brisbane). Thanks to the modern miracle of Ambien, I did get a fair amount of sleep on the way over so I got to enjoy the wonderful summer day. Today, after church, we explored Wynnum's Esplanade and had a nice lunch before our cruise ship friends departed and we got to enjoying another beautiful sunset.

It looks like there's only about 3 more weeks here in Australia for me - another week of work and then some vacation before my return. Nancy will be here longer, doing some "clean up" in preparation for the move of our stuff home and, before you know it, this chapter will be closed. The plan is that between now and then, we will have a few more adventures to report on and we will keep this Blog updated throughout that process. Thanks again to all who have dropped us a note or a comment!

Our First (And Possibly Last) Australia Day

Before I begin, I just need to say (and this is not intended to be either mean nor gloating), I am sure glad that we are missing the current weather back home in West Michigan. Nancy has remained in Brisbane - flying solo - while I am in the U.S. for a conference and some additional business. While I am in North America, I have to admit that I have been in Orlando and they are having some spectacular Florida winter weather this week. (However, as I post this entry, I am stuck in the JFK airport due to weather so maybe the jokes on me!)

Also, before I get to the Australia stuff, I need to say that Disney continues to amaze me. During this conference, one of the things we were able to do is tour the "Disney Underground" to see what it takes "off stage" to make the magic happen for you and me; it was actually quite underwhelming. By that I mean, there's really nothing that would knock you socks off from a technology or engineering standpoint - the magic is really about the flawless execution of a million ordinary details. My dinner Thursday evening at "The Flying Fish" restaurant was one of the best meals I have had anywhere, ever (with the exception of having to eat it without Nancy at the table) and that is sort of amazing since they have me "captive" here on the property. But I digress....

Last Saturday was "Australia Day" and Pastor Charles and Christine invited us for a breakfast on Mount Glorious and a quick walk to through the rain forest there (culminating in a beautiful waterfall). Little did we know that this was going to be a full scale Aussie breakfast feast including a variation on flat bread called "Damper" cooked on the wood fired grill and some kangaroo meat sausages! Since we have (finally) been getting some rain, our cookout was slightly delayed as Charles and I worked to get the fire going (inhaling way too much smoke in the process) but when it was done, it was well worth the effort. Charles and Chris were so gracious to invite us out on this special day for Australians and we had a wonderful time together. Not only did we feast and explore but we also received a very comprehensive Brisbane history briefing and some arachnid hunting pointers from Charles (kind of an expert on both). The evidence (below) is the photo of the trap door spider nest we located, after much searching - I’m not sure if anyone was “home” but they would have been rather large. The "sad" part of the day was knowing that this was probably our first and only Australia Day celebration ever but we put that out of our minds as we joined in the spirit of the holiday.

I was scheduled to travel up North on Friday and had to make a brief detour to the Orlando Premium Outlets Wednesday since I sort of forgot my winter coat when I departed Brisbane. I will be spending the majority of the weekend in Boston with our dear friends, Jim and Jan Palatine, and then continue north to Montreal for the majority of the following week - kind of sounds like a Lewis and Clark trek! The team I will be working with for the next 6 - 12 months has been formed and I'll be getting acquainted with "what's next" for me and then - we're heading home to Michigan in March! At this point, I will precede Nancy by a few weeks since I need to get into this new team role but we're planning on some vacation before we leave for good; planning is now in progress.

We want to thanks everyone who has been so faithful at reading and responding to this effort to stay connected; it has meant a lot to us. There will be more news soon so, in the mean time, please continue to correspond with us and let us know what's going on in your world.

And now, your video content: Lighting wet wood isn't the most exciting activity but necessary if you are going to enjoy the kangaroo sausages (they taste better if you don't think about where they come from).

The Final Countdown

The clock is ticking as we are starting to see the beginning of the end of our time here in Australia. It's full on summer here - darn hot during the day with the smell of jasmine in the evening air which is really quite intoxicating. I mention that: a) because it's true, especially when you're eating at a restaurant that is open (we like to refer to it as "dining al fresco") and b) there's a freakin' cold snap going on at home and this is my chance to rub it in a little!

Nancy and I took the City Cat to the South Bank on Saturday and did a bit of exploring again. One interesting feature of this area, which was home to the 1988 World Exposition, is the large man-made beach - which looks pretty cool in the middle of the cityscape. This is actually a chlorinated pool but is designed to look like a real tropical beach. We didn't bring our suits but Nancy is threatening to "head to the beach" frequently while I'm back in North America - probably freezing (I'm going to be back in Orlando for a conference and then on to Montreal (via Boston) - departing this Sunday). There are plenty of great restaurants at South Bank and a fair representation of tourist destinations / traps if you take a quick hop over to the Queen Street area.

It's definitely cruise ship season here. We had the P&O Pacific Princess ship in on Saturday (as normal), then the Star Cruises "Superstar Gemini" on Sunday and then a Japanese ship that came in this morning which is staying until tomorrow evening. Too much traffic! I would think that if someone were looking to buy a "home" and looked at this apartment, they had better love the cruise ships off their balcony or this isn't the place for them! We do have one of the "Queen" ships - the Victoria - headed here the on the 26th of February, which will generate a bunch of people coming to Portside to see it when it docks. It's part of a 106 day trip around the world - yikes!

I'll keep this part short but I have finally reached a long anticipated milestone - my first 1,000 miles since I acquired my Nike+ "gadget" for my iPod Nano. I hit my 1,000th kilometer last year but it took me about 17 months to log the miles (or 1,602 kilometers) - something that is sort of incredible to me. I won't bore you with "it's equivalent to the distance from Muskegon to..." stories but I'm going to see if I can get my next 1,000 in a shorter period of time.


Last, and probably least, I find "The Soup" to be quite a funny show and it keeps me up to date on the strange things that populate U.S. television. Since this post is entitled "The Final Countdown", I thought this YouTube clip was appropriate to end with. Please keep those comments and /or e-mail notes coming - we're not home yet!