Sunday, August 15, 2010

An Amazing Australian Adventure-Days 3-6

So, as the adventure down under continues, I've been lucky enough to experience some wonderful things so far. I was honored to be invited to a birthday party this past weekend with some native New Zealanders. A hangi feast was prepared with some truly delicious dishes and fabulous desserts. My favorite was the steak (a specific kind to Australians called wooky or something like that) and the sticky date bread with syrup. Not as sweet as it sounds and not as rich either but very yummy. Everyone was so welcoming and included me in all of the conversations and made me feel like a part of the group. It was very lovely.

The same night I had dinner with a couple of Brian's friends. The one, Michael, is a complete hoot. He is outspoken, flamboyant and very very warm and genuine....Could have used some time with him when preparing for my role in The Boys In The Band...Afterwards, we went to a dance bar called The Midnight Shift (think The Bachelor Forum with a multicultural feel and a dance floor).

Sunday, I went to the MCC church in Granville; Good Shepherd. Very welcoming community with a nice mixture of GLBT people as well as straight allies. In addition to the keyboard, they have drums and an electric cello. I was made to feel very comfortable and will be blessed to have the opportunity to sing during next week's service.

This week we'll be visiting the Blue Mountains and walking through the Featherdale Wildlife Park. I'm determined to have my picture taken with a kangaroo (even though I am told they are smelly, nasty creatures) and a koala bear (which really is not a bear...discuss amongst yourselves). They don't call it a koala bear here, they just say a koala.

I hope wherever you are today, you are having an adventure of your own....

To be continued....

peace,

Paul

Thursday, August 12, 2010

An Amazing Aussie Adventure-Day 2

Last night was pretty uneventful. Went to Woolworth's to do some shopping. Woolworths (not to be confused with the American Woolworth's) is a massive supermarket, in fact, it's the largest supermarket chain in Australia. It's also known as Woolies, kind of like Wegman's is known as Weggies.

I neglected to mention during the jaunt around downtown Sydney, we saw some Aborignines playing didgeridoos. Cool instrument and the guys were even talking through it; saying thank you to people who put donations in their jars. If I get another chance, I will have my picture taken with one of them.

Today I walked around Earlwood and just looked around in a number of different shops; not buying, just browsing. I can't get over the currency. They don't have paper money for $1 and $2 (instead they use coins for these and the $2 coin is actually smaller than the $1 coin).

Early this morning around 6, it was raining a bit then it stopped and the sun came out. By late afternoon it had become overcast again. The high got up to about 62 degrees.

That's about it for today. This weekend sometime, I'll be attending a birthday party in which they will be "laying down a hungi" which I'm very much looking forward to. I promised the first round of pics would be up sometime on Friday (in Rochester time) and I will hold true to that.

I hope everyone is well.

peace,

Paul

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Australian Adventures-Day 1

So, I arrived in Sydney at about 7:25 on Wed. morning (Sydney is 14 hours ahead of NY) so Rochesterians were just thinking about being done working for the day. Two things I neglected to pack: White socks and some sort of jacket (it is still winter here for about another month and a half). Thankfully today was up to 18 celsius (or about 60 degrees fahrenheit but it felt cooler thanks to the chilly wind). The city is HUGE (take that Billy Fuccillo) and it's so weird driving on the left side of the road and having the steering wheel on the right side of the car.

Today we walked a good bit of downtown Sydney, went up to the Sydney Skytower (similar to the one in Rochester) and looked at the city.....just miles and miles and miles of city. We also experienced one of the food halls (think a mall food court that has its own zip code) in the Sydney Downtown Plaza. We saw the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Glebe Island Bridge, among other things. We had a couple from Las Vegas take our picture in front of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and she said it best about the cost of living in Sydney: The dollar is worth more than the American dollar but you need two of them to buy something for each US dollar.

For lunch Brian had Moroccan Chicken with chickpeas and I had roast lamb rump with lentil salad. Good food but it's weird because we ordered at the bar and were given a number to put on our table which was taken when the order was brought out. No one ever came over to ask how our meal was and we left without tipping. Apparently, in Australia, you don't tip and you don't usually have someone come over to refill your water, ask how your food is, etc.....Odd!

This evening we are going to one of the supermarkets. I've taken a ton of pics already and will definitely have the first album up on FB by Friday (your Friday, not my Friday).

More later.

Peace,

paul