City life

So sorry its been awhile since I 've written... but I haven't heard from ya'll either. Two big things have occured since my last post - I finally got down to Melbourne (albeit for work) and I've moved (yes again). Since it is winter now, its even snowing in the Snowy Mountains - yea who'd of thunk it? But apparently it does snow there (yes act shocked) but not usually until June. It kind of feels like a nice November day back home, a bit chilly but nice and warm in the sun. I've even seen my breath a few times at night here - promise.

So I moved from Bondi (about 15 minutes walk from Bondi Beach and 15 minutes walk from the Bondi Junction train station) to Pyrmont (across Darling Harbour from work - 15 minutes). I liked the place at Bondi but seriously, why live near the beach when its too cold to go to it and its getting darker earlier - means walking home in the dark and cold...

Pyrmont is great. I can walk to work, I have roof top views of the city, can stroll to Darling Harbour - there are tons of things to do down there, including the IMAX. Also I am only two minutes away from Star City - Sydney's casino.

Now when I was down in Melbourne I was able to catch up with a couple of my friends - Jay Haney (teammate from UNCRFC and fellow Carolinian) and Chris Atko (English friend via coworkers in Sydney). I got into Melbourne with some time to kill so I went to revisit the Crown casino. Happened to walk by a roulette table with a string of 5 black numbers in arow. So of course I put a small bet on red. Black came up. So I bet red again. Black came up, so I bet red again. Black came up, so I bet red again. Black came up and I promptly left the casino, $40 poorer after about 10 minutes. Not a good sign. You read the following and make your own interpretations.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - attributes to Albert Einstein or similarly to Benjamin Franklin.

Also randomly, Jay, his girlfriend Charisma and I were eating dinner in a cafe when I heard a song I knew. Strange as it was it was a song by an Ohio region band called Dispatch that disbanded a few years ago. Random but kind of cool. I caught up later in the week for dinner with Chris and just chilled out.

Also that week was ANZAC Day. If you don't know ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corp) day celebrates the landing of ANZAC and Commonwealth troops at Gallipoli. They were routed and the day is celebrated internationally as a day of remebrance and homage. So of course we had a BBQ at a friends. Think of July 4th BBQs and then think about it starting a few hours earlier and add a gambling game that is outlawed every other day of the year - Two Up.

Two Up is really simple, you up a couple of coins on a wooden paddle and flip them. The punters decide if they are going to take heads or talls. Its a straight bet, even odds. Sounds boring but it can get really fun. Not that there is any skill involved in it. I'm sure there is more to tell you but thats about it for now. I'll post some pictures soon.