Category: Australia

What a horrible day yesterday was. Mainly because of what a STUPID thing I did with the backend engine, Moveable Type. They offered a new and improved beta that is supposed to install like a piece of cake, except, this cake seemed like one that I baked–it was so messed up, and I should have known better, but I didn’t back up any of my template files. So, I have been trying to reconfigure my files and get everything back to normal. The good news, is it will offer my site to be cleaner (in the background programming, because all my ‘testing’ files were deleted with the program), the bad news is it will be a little bit before EVERYTHING is back to normal. So ignored the mislinks, the search, the comment posting and such until I completely fix everything.

So today, I headed over to Randwick to meet up with my new friend Hiromi. We walked to Coogee beach where I’d never been before and had a great time just wandering around and chatting. We wandered all around the coastline, and hopped on some rocks, tried to take some pictures of some crashing waves, and weaved on past Coogee to Bronte, and then past there to Clovelly. The weather was beautiful and before we knew it, it was already evening!

So it’s been a little bit since my last post, but this week was quite hectic with some group project meetings, and individual presentation, thus nothing too exciting was going on. Alan invited me to a party this evening just a block away from my place, so I joined him. After meeting people, I then met Hiromi and Joshua, half Australian half Japanese that have just moved to Australia about 3 years ago (Hiromi) and 6 weeks ago (Joshua). I had so much fun talking especially to Hiromi as her Japanese is perfect and her Ozzie English is perfect–it’s quite incredible. Interestingly, Joshua’s English sounded like a foreigner. Accents are crazy, and it gives such a little window into your life in a way. So we made plans to go to lunch tomorrow over near her place, as I still haven’t been to Coogee beach yet.

So, after I arrived, it turns out that the Australian version of Big Brother is a major hit, so since we don’t have many channels (we don’t have cable) it seems like one of the things on that’s quite funny. TV here is not as edited in the states, and there’s rarely any cover up for nudity or foul language on TV–the reason? Because in the front of the program, it warns what content is there, and that’s that. Before Tim and Greg were let out of the house though, there was a special News Brief created just for them to let them know what has been going on for the last 3 months. It was quite scary to see, as it reiterates what the news is about–only bad news. The London Terrorist Bombing, Kylie Minogue diagnosed with breast cancer, Chapelle sentenced to 20 years in a Bali jail, an AUS killed in Germany during the bike race, etc. This download of bad news has to be really frightening–didn’t they want to go back into the house and not face reality?? Anyhow, after much suspense from the finale, it turns out that Logan Greg, the twins won the AU$836,000 prize!

As I’m designing my new business cards for Australia, I’ve come across some funny things, but this really made me laugh. Check out our detailed information regarding the US’s Colour Alert System. I personally enjoyed the levels Hunter Green, Wine and Cranberry.

So today was incredible. I got up in the morning and had a great sandwich lunch and then headed off to post my classified ad in the Nichigo Press, a Japanese circulated newspaper in Sydney. That was the first time I’ve really used my Japanese in quite a while! Then, I headed to Broadway to meet David, a new client for web design. On the way however, I received two calls in regards to my ads for the English tutoring, so I’m glad to see that at least people are calling.

David is an actor in Sydney, apparently pretty well-known, and I spoke to him about what I was able to provide. After about an hour, I got a good sense of what he’s looking for, so I’ll start working on his site soon.

I then headed to uni, and after class, there was a post graduate party being held. Right when I walked in the door, I saw this white guy speaking Japanese to a Japanese girl, so I made my B-Line over there and joined in. Boy am I glad I did! They were so nice and more and more Japanese people started appearing. I had a great time meeting everyone and using Japanese, though I felt a bit rusty–it’s strange how comprehension never seems to go down, but moving your mouth and spitting out the words takes a little bit to get back into. Anyhow, I enjoyed FINALLY meeting Japanese friends, and hopefully we’ll be hanging out again soon.

Today, I spent most of my time wandering around the city, and got a great shot looking up from downtown. I headed towards Chatswood as I was told a lot of Japanese people were there–I’ve been trying to place ads around town in hopes someone will hire me as their child’s tutor :)

I made my way back and headed for dinner at a sushi place to be back home to watch some tv with the flatmates before I head to the gym. All of a sudden, I started hearing fireworks, and I watched some fireworks over the Harbour.. This photo however if from our front balcony, so as you can see, I’ve got great views from both sides of our apartment. I can’t believe how lucky I was to find not only a great space, but great new mates as well!

Today, I spent the afternoon with my friend Ben at Bondi beach and walked all around to Tamarama beach as well. I was trying to take some cool shots of the area, but the sun was so bright, and I didn’t really see any cool opps for anything other than beautiful landscape.. I’m learning a lot about my camera, because I’m finally sitting down and playing with it more.

That evening, we headed for Fox Studios in Moore Park to go see ‘The Island’ with Scarlett Johansson. I had gotten mixed reviews, but I really liked it! Both Ewan and Scarlett were really good in this, and the idea was Matrix-esque. Very cool futuristic sci-fi type stuff. The more I think of it, the more I want to see Scarlett Johansson’s movies! Makes me love Lost in Translation even more!

Tonight, a group of us went to Surry Hills for Lebanese dinner–which is exactly like any Middle Eastern type restaurant really. Sherri, her roommate Trina, Brent, Charles and myself all met at the restaurant and enjoyed a great long meal including the dance of a belly dancer! I was cracking up when she came to play with Charles, but that got me into more embarrassment when she came to me and made me get up and dance for anyone. We all had a good laugh and enjoyed the rest of our meal. Charles looks absolutely hilarious in this photo!

I have been looking for a gym around the area for a while, and have joined my flatmate to the one he goes to, and I’ve also tried out Bayswater Fitness and KX Fitness. The rates are a little higher than I want to pay for a gym–so I went to their websites, and saw an opportunity to offer them a redesign of their site in exchange for a membership. Well, today, I had my meeting with the manager of KX Fitness, and walked out with a corporate membership! As soon as I complete their new site, I’ll link it. :)