Stupid Car Park.

it finally happened.  i knew it would.  i just didn't know when.  but it has now happened.

i mentioned in an earlier post that the car parks (parking decks) in this city are c.r.a.z.y small.  there is barely enough room for one car to get around the turns, poles, and parked cars, let alone if someone is going the opposite way that you are.  we have a nissan murano, small by US standards, but just like driving an 18-wheeler around the city here.

last week, after having a dinner in the city, it took 2 people directing me out of the car park to ensure that i didn't hit my front bumper or the back quarter panel on two different poles.  i was white knuckled on the steering wheel and sweating.  it's pretty ridiculous.  i may have to go back and get a picture...though i assure you that i won't bring my car.

on tuesday morning, i had a meeting in the city, where i had no choice but to park in a very tight car park.  i had no problem getting into the parking spot, but getting out was a different story.  i did a 50-point turn and tried to squeeze out...needless to say, it didn't work out and i am now the proud owner of a nice red and yellow paint mark (and dent) on my front passenger side door.

oops.

one of the guys at work is calling me "smasher."  awesome.

A cross between Miami Beach, Myrtle Beach, and Las Vegas.

if that title doesn't have you a bit interested, i'm not really sure what will make you read this blog.

as i've said before, the company i work for sponsors a V8 Supercar in the series, so we have corporate events for customers several times a year.  one of those weekends was this past one, where we had about 20 customers fly into the Gold Coast and enjoy a weekend of fun activities and racing.

i arrived on friday evening, and very quickly knew that this was going to be an interesting weekend.  the Gold Coast 600 is a road-race that goes through the middle of a town that is similar to Miami Beach.  the views of the water were beautiful, and the people were...interesting.

saturday was a day of fun - go-karting, jet-boating, and a helicopter ride, followed by a great dinner.  sunday was all about pit tours and racing.

I came in first place of the losing group.

View of the Surfer's Paradise, Australia from a jet boat

Our Ride

View of Surfer's Paradise from the helicopter

so, what makes the Gold Coast a combination of Miami Beach, Myrtle Beach, and Las Vegas, you ask?  well, it all starts with the MTV Spring Break atmosphere.  add to that the fact that race fans from all over australia descend on the city.  add to that beer, beach, and great weather.  and you have a perfect combination for a trashy, sleezy weekend.  rumor has it that the area (particularly around the race weekend) is like Mardi Gras, in that there is a lot of half naked people running around.  it apparently came to a head when a couple of years ago an Australian Army helicopter was flying around holding a sign that said something to the effect of, "show us your boobs."  since then, the local government has been actively working to give it a more family friendly feel.  i will tell you that they still have some work to do.  just take my word for it.

all in all, i'm glad that i got to attend the event, BUT, i don't believe that we will go there for anything other than a work event.

the pit.  all of the cars had a tribute to Dan Wheldon and there
was a really touching tribute to him at the beginning of the race.
he was supposed to participate in the race this weekend.  RIP.

a patrick foley kind of day.

jeff has had a bit of time to explore the local area outside of melbourne, but i haven't really had much opportunity.  this saturday, we decided to go for a hike or bushwalk somewhere, so we broke out the guide book and i chose french island.  it was a patrick foley kind of maneuver because i knew nothing about it and said, "let's go, it will be fun."  the only thing we knew about french island was what our guide book told us, which was essentially nothing except where to catch the ferry.  we gathered the necessary sunscreen (sun is very strong here), a bottle of water, and an extra sweater.  and off we went.

huge pelicans at the ferry.  huge.

another ship at the dock.  not ours.  our
captain had long fingernails that were
painted black.  i don't think
he had a hook for a hand.

we arrived at the ferry port in time to have a meat pie and a coke...just as yummy as you would think (this is another very patrick foley-like thing...if there would have been beer, it would have been perfect.)  once we were on the ferry, i started to read the brochure i picked up in the ticket/meat pie shack, where i find the following text:

"french island is a curious phenomenon lost in time, which has no power poles, no sealed roads, no shopping strips.  with no local government, no churches and no main electricity or water, self-sufficiency is a necessity for the approximately 90 residents that live on the island..."  

so i recommended that we go to an island without running water.  brilliant.

we arrived at the tankerton jetty expecting to see information of some sort...nope.  we walked off of the dock and watched our ferry drive away - not knowing what the day was going to hold (except no working bathrooms).  we found ourselves at a "welcome center" (and i use that term liberally) and a nice local woman told me which "bush walk" we needed to take - which was listed to take 5.5 hours (our return ferry was exactly 5.5 hours from then...coincidence, i think not.)  we set-off on our 14km bush walk, and it was beautiful.  probably the first time in my life that i was around so few people.  the bulletin board at the "welcome center" warned us that there was no water on the bush walk, and that we should have on gators or thick socks to ensure we don't get bitten by snakes.  I had on thin pants, no socks, and thin-soled running shoes...jeff had on thin pants, ankle socks, and hiking shoes.  awesome.

the only map that we had.  we took a close-up of our trail on the
iphone so we could make sure we were going the right way.  

this is our walk.

in addition to having no running water, french island boasts the most dense disease-free koala population in the world (many of the ones on mainland australia apparently have chlamydia), so we spent much of our time craning our necks looking in trees that may or may not have been eucalyptus.  we followed a road for quite some time, saw some beautiful scenery:

lava stone beaches.  not so good on the tootsies.

one of four rivers on the island

much of french island is an 11,100 hectare national park
for patrick, that's 27,428.1 acres :)

then came across this:

kangaroo keeper-outter

we assumed that we were supposed to go through, and that this was some sort of kangaroo keeper-outter.  so, through we went.  after this gate, things went downhill...we saw a snake, and when i say saw, i mean we both almost stepped on it.  jeff actually did the "mom-seatbelt-arm" at me so i wouldn't step on it.  i screamed and threw the camera at jeff to take a picture - nope, didn't happen.  we think it was a copperhead - one of two brands of snakes on the island.  after that run-in, it was awfully hard to crane our necks up to look for koalas, considering we had our heads down making sure we weren't stepping on any more snakes.  we waded through swamp (i was convinced that there were leeches in my shoes), bush walked, and finally made it to a road less traveled.

once on this fine piece of road, we were able to continue our koala searching...until i saw snake number two.  we didn't get a picture of that one, either because i ran to the other side of the road.  finally, we see this:

he's in the center of the picture.  hard to see in a picture,
imagine what it's like in real life.

then, we run into this:

the general store on the island.  we met the proprietor on the
ferry back to the mainland.  nice bloke.

then we see this:

all doped up on eucalyptus

i may or may not have clapped my hands to wake him up.

there's the cute little fella

all in all, a great day.  the feet are a little sore (not from the non-present leeches in my shoes), but we got to see clean koalas!!

very happy to be getting back on the ferry to running water.

Melbourne Marathon

the melbourne marathon was last sunday morning, so we headed out to cheer on the runners.  we are really lucky because the course runs right out the back of our condo, so we didn't have far to go.  we were around the 17km mark, and headed out right at 7.30 to see the lead runners.  we were really surprised to see this:

that's right...no one out there supporting.  it was probably about 10 minutes before the lead runners came through, and not a soul out there supporting.  the lead runners came through, then about half an hour later, people actually came out to start supporting.

lead runners coming through 17km in 54:47.  fast.

we stayed around for a while, yelling and cheering - that is not so much the norm here.  most folks looked at us like we were crazy.  jeff's boss was running, so we cheered for him, too!

jeff's boss in the blue.  way to go!  

one of the bonuses of getting up to support was that we had this view all to ourselves.  totally worth it.

out the back of our condo

Where I Be.

or is it...werribee?  so, today we ventured to the werribee open range zoo.  and when they say open range, they mean it...take a look at this:

yep.  that's a lion in front of a jeep.

we chose to ride around the "zoo" on this.  and if it looks like it is open air, it is.

our safari-bound ride

we got up close and personal with quite a few non-native Australian animals:

he's a one-hump camel

hippo times 2

Jeff struggles with whether or not this is a hate crime.

that zebra (pronounced like Debra) is biting the other zebra
(also pronounced like Debra)

these are mutt-giraffes...no pure breds here.

his legs are too long to let him eat grass like a normal animal
or is his neck too short...

a rhino appears to be charging us in the rain

stretching monkey in a tree

silhouette of a monkey

and then wandered into the bush to scare up some natives, as well.

wallaby.  or midget kangaroo, we're not sure.
i wonder if midget kangaroos like to be called little 'roos

there was this curious sign:

we always thought that a legless lizard was a snake.
if you thought that, you were wrong too.

with all of the wildlife sightings, i think this is jeff's favorite picture.