The Police of Penrith Australia

On the December 2nd weekend I flew solo to Sydney to visit Darren, Kelly, Aussie Dave, and Angela and left Nicole to her marking. They live in Penrith, close to Sydney.

The second day involved numerous beverages that the Aussies call 'beeh'. I didnt want to be rude by rejecting their hospitality, so I imbibed every one offered. Before I knew it, the world was swimming and normally silly ideas like riding a shopping cart home became strokes of genius

I don't remember much of what happened afterwards but Darren and Dave were nice enough to give me these photos of the events later that day to jog my memory.

From what I remember, the police were quite nice and helpful and sent me on my way once I had sufficiently recovered my cognitive and walking skills.

Duality of Human Nature

Last post we showed you the Good Sammy. This post shows the Evil Sammy. And so, with these two posts, I intend to show the classic nature of human behaviour. That is, we all exhibit Christlike goodness yet, at the same time, are capable of the greatest evils.

Sammy was there to persecute Jesus:

A new look at the Zupruder Film reveals the truth about JFK:


Sammy collaborated with Vader to take Obi Wan down,
bringing tears to millions of children:


Sammy claims she respects all wildlife, yet this image
shows her bloodthirsty side on a Japanese Whaling boat

Apparently her appetite for ultimate evil was not
satiated by taking down Obi Wan...she now
turns her attention to forwarding Sauron's cause
by slaying the noble Boromir:

The Good Sammy

We saw this sign in Perth and a wave of sentimental thoughts overwhelmed us cause we do, certainly, miss the Good Sammy!

Then came Samina's rantlike comment on the Oprah post. Sammy, like all humans, exhibits behaviour that specifically identifies the classic duality of human nature (the Good Side that we miss and love versus the Evil side that we don't.) What evil side? Read the post!

Damo, in search of justice and cold hard vengence, shall search for a photo opportunity that represents Sammy's other side and post the results.

steve comes to visit

My brother Steve spend a week of his three week Aussie adventure with us down in the tempermental south. There was a biting cold wind from the Antarctic when we hit the Great Ocean Road but 35 degree Celius weather a day or two later. However, he persevered despite Mother Nature's inconsistencies and his bum foot to clamber over the tidal pools at Anglesea, meet salty old lighthouse keepers, feed cute as possums, and pose in front of the iconic not-quite-12-anymore Apostles. We kept him readily supplied with cheap wine and tim tams. Or so we would have you believe. Fun was had by all.

We do have friends (The Sequel)

A big thanks to Jackie and Doug Cameron (Nico's parents) who DID indeed make the 24 hour pilgrimage by plane from Canada all the way down under. For the first part of the trip I was back in Canada for work but managed to hook back in time for a visit to Alice Springs & Uluru, which Nico has already posted about. It was super nice of them to fly us out to visit the rock with them. It was also great to see them here!!

Highlights were visiting Uluru and Kata Tjuta (procouned Karta Choota) as Nico pointed out earlier.

While in Alice Springs (about 500 kms from the rock) we also hit the site of the REAL Alice Springs where the central telegraph station was built back in the 1800's. It cost 328,000 pounds to build and stretched from Adelaide to Darwin through the driest desert. The 'little town down the road' called Stuart (or Sturt...can't remember) eventually outgrew Alice Springs which went through many transformations from telegraph station, to POW camp, to Aboriginal indoctrination center (when the government took kids away from their parents in the hopes to indoctrinate them into white society,) etc. Now it's a historic park. Sturt took the name Alice Springs sometime in the 1900's.

We do have friends!

Screw you guys back home for not visiting us! At least we now know who our friends are - Darren & Kelly made the trip from Sydney down to see us for a four day weekend back on August 24th. One of those days was spent spanking a record hangover...damn you beer, wine, shots, highballs...

So where'd we take our visiting Aussies? To our favorite spots on the Great Ocean Road. Wreck Beach, The Koala Drive where you are sure to spot a plethora of koalas in the wild up close and personal, and, of course, the 12 apostles (well, only 9 remaining, those apostles keep dropping like, well, apostles being persecuted by the Romans.)

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end!

Cafe Mimo

We had to stop for a coffee at the fabulous Cafe Mimo in Melbourne. Who knew that Mimo would make a go at opening a coffee shop Down Under.

Drowsy Drivers Die

It's been a long time! We FINALLY got internet hooked up in our new home and now can update re: our adventures so far.

In brief:

• Penrith for four days. Hung with Darren and Kelly who were nice to put us up. Saw some kangaroos suffering in the sweltering 45.5 degree heat. We comisserated with them.
• From Penrith to Sydney for two nights accomodation at the Four Points Sheriton hotel (free thanks to Nico's parents! gracias!). We saw a hell of a lot in a whirlwind tour that went from 9 am til 10 pm at night. We bought a 'See Sydney' card which let us into most attractions all for one low price as long as we saw them all on the same day...we really saw too much so that by the third museum it was more about saying we went there than actually absorbing anything useful.
• Rented a car in Sydney and drove down the coast swimming at numerous secluded beaches. Stopped in Ulladulla for two nights to enjoy wine and good company with Tony and Jo. We had our own suit in their house. Awfully nice of them.
• Onward to Melbourne and Geelong our new home.
• Puttered in Geelong and battled a massive hangover. The hangover won for a day.
• Took our new Suburu (it's David's but it's ours for the year) and headed out down the Great Ocean Road. It starts at Torquay - the home of Billabong, Ripcurl, and the 'best surf beaches' in the world...like Bell's Beach.
• The Great Ocean Road is the most stunning road trip I have ever done. Better even than the Redwood Forrest trip in California. The road is carved into the side of cliffs hovering above the ocean. It's only 300 KM but it took us over three days to do it as we stopped every KM or so for yet another stunning vista. We handfed a wild koala. No he didnt fall and just cause he was wild doesnt mean he was ravenous so no one lost any fingers.
• From the Great Ocean Road to Penola the gateway to the Coonawarra wine region known for its Shiraz and Cab Sav. I love the latter, Nico the former. We stopped briefly and hand fed wild possums. They are even cuter and less dangerous than koalas. We met Mark and Cathy who invited us to their house for a huge Ozzie feed that included Kangaroo sausage and steak. It was yummy despite how cute they look in life. Nico ate a cute and cuddly animal - someone please harrass her for it. Mark, funnily enough, is a Yank from Oregon and moved here in 73 to pursue teaching and to avoid the Vietnam war. Super great people. I battled a massive hangover yet again the next day. The hangover came in second.
• From Penola back to Geelong where Internet hookup became possible! Woo!!

That's the brief version, many more stories to come.

Some Ozzie Facts:

• Ozzie's do not pronounce the letter R and thus the word wierd sounds exactly like the word weed. This could lead to confusion back in Canada if I ask someone for a bee.
• Speeding is not tolerated in Australia. The speed limit IS THE SPEED LIMIT.
• Overstaying your welcome by 1/2 an hour at a parking spot is a serious offense and leads to a $75 fine.
• Driving drowsy is frowned upon. Some roadsigns "Drowsy Drivers Die" "Drooping eyes? Powernap now!"
• As anal as Aussies are about speeding, drunk driving, illegal parking, driving while drowsy, they are the opposite about bee's. The passengers can all have bee's in the car as long as the driver is under 0.05.

That's all I got for now!

The Damo.