Category: Uncategorized

Instagrammers You Need to Follow, and a quick thanks

Some of my favorite Instagram feeds are travellers and adventurers, several of whom happen to be Australian.  And the Aussie pics do give me some pangs of longing to be back there…

  • Kathryn Leahy:  Her photos of Tasmania remind me of how much I loved it there.
  • Matthew Vandeputte:  He takes stunning photos of Sydney.
  • Aquabumps:  Gorgeous shots of Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
  • Craig Armstrong:  His cat goes rock climbing with him in Utah.  How cool is that?
  • Trev Lee:  His photos are generally adventure-themed and lovely.

Also, you can follow me here.

I also wanted to say thank you to all my new followers!  Hi y’all!

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and took a moment to remember why we observe it.

Focus Point

For the time being, I am still unemployed.  Many of the jobs I have looked at are social media jobs, and while I’ve been active in social media for years now, there is still so much that I don’t know.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered that the University of Richmond offered an online Social Media Certification course.  It started yesterday and I’m making my way through the first of nine sections.  It’s a lot of information.  Naturally, there are other courses about social media and travel blogging, and I’m tempted to take those as well–but one thing at a time!  I still need to carve out time to, you know, look for gainful employment (and use that gym membership I signed up for last week).

Now that I’m taking this class and have figured out that social media would be a good fit for me, I feel as though I’ve opened an enormous can of worms.  I’m seeing articles about social media everywhere!  A fellow travel blogger, Young Adventuress, just posted about how she has managed to make travel blogging her full-time job and her rules for being great at it.  Apparently, there’s even an association for professional travel bloggers (sadly, I don’t have near enough traffic to qualify for membership…yet).

Maybe this class will spark me to do more writing here as I explore social media analytics and whatnot.  Maybe I’ll refine my blog network (which, if you’ve forgotten, includes Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Flickr, as well as my former blog at Blogger, A 3×5 Life).  We’ll see.  In the meantime, if you know anyone who needs writing or editing work done, send them my way, would you?

Ciao for now!

Theatre District

Haven’t been to Chicago yet, but it’s on my list! The photo is courtesy of my friend Angela, who is one of the ladies behind Capital Fit Geek (http://capfitgeek.wordpress.com/). Check out their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/capfitgeek.

Where to next?

So what have I been up to in the two months I’ve been back?  Well, I’ve been to the DC area a couple times to visit friends, done some touristy stuff around Richmond, spent a lot of time entertaining my parents’ cats, and have (unsuccessfully…) applied for a few jobs.

I’d told myself I would give Richmond another chance after having been so unimpressed with it pretty much my entire life.  People seem to love it here.  One of my best friends says she loves it and believes she’ll live here at some point before she retires; tons of people have those RVA stickers on their cars; even Frommer’s named Richmond one of its top 20 destinations this year in the entire world.  I told my parents that and their response was the same as mine:  “Why?”

Maybe I am going to feel eternally let down by my hometown because I’m from here and thus it will always feel pedestrian to me.  Still, it’s been good to catch up with friends here and visit some old haunts (Casa Grande’s grande chicken quesadillas are exactly as awesome as I remembered them being) and try to find some new ones while I’m here (the salted caramel chocolate cake at Shyndigz is completely amazing).  However, I am disappointed by the lack of decent gyms and yoga studios near me–I’m not driving 20 minutes each way to go work out!  (The Gold’s Gym near me is nice enough but is big, overwhelming, and full of gym rats, and thus I’ll probably join the community center near me instead.)  And with all the things Short Pump has to offer (Richmond’s only REI, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, and some of the best upper middle-scale shopping in town, if you care about those kinds of things), the sprawl out there is so bad, Arcade Fire would write a song about it.  What is now the monstrosity of West Broad Village (village, my ass) was farmland less than 10 years ago.  It’s a massive shame, really.

Sure, there are things I like about Richmond.  I have friends and family here.  I love Maymont, although I haven’t been there in years. Hollywood Cemetery was pretty cool too.  But one thing is still glaringly obvious to me:  I will move out of Richmond, again.  It’s just a matter of when and to where.

That said, I visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in February before its Hollywood wardrobe exhibit closed.  I got to see one of Christopher Reeve’s Superman costumes and one of Christian Bale’s Batman outfits, as well as Indiana Jones’ getup and one of Beyonce’s dresses from Dreamgirls–pretty cool!  I loved that exhibit (I wish I could have taken pictures!) and took the opportunity to explore most of the rest of the museum while there.  I really enjoyed the South Asian art exhibit on the top floor, with a lot of it drawing from mythological influences.  My feet were pretty tired by the time I finally got up there though, so I should definitely go back and see it again–after all, it’s free to get in (unless you’re seeing a special exhibit such as the movie costumes).  It should be noted that the VMFA also has the distinctions of having been one of just seven museums in the world to get a big travelling Picasso exhibit in 2011, as well as having the largest public collection of Faberge items outside of Russia.

I have discovered some other interesting things about Richmond, some of which I didn’t know.  For example, it has street art and dragon boat festivals.  This past weekend’s Monument Ave 10K had over 36,000 participants from 44 states and even other countries and has become one of the biggest races of its kind in the nation.  My friend who ran it says she loved the camaraderie and wants to make it an annual event for herself.

Hopefully, I’ll put my foot down and finally begin sifting through the 2500+ photos I took in Australia and post them to my Flickr.  Who knows, I may also do some travelling just because I have nothing much else going on right now aside from the job search (which I admittedly could be working much harder at).  We’ll just have to see.

Until next time.

Epilogue

I spent my last two weeks in Sydney taking acting classes at the prestigious NIDA (during January they have short summer sessions), which was a blast, and tying up some loose ends before I left, including seeing things I hadn’t gotten to yet, like the Pylon Lookout.  Of course, the last real bout of nice weather we had was during my week at NIDA, so the only real time we had outside was during lunch. I was glad I wandered over to the Australian National Maritime Museum to see their really cool exhibit about Vikings–since the weather wasn’t great, I figured I might as well see a museum.  For my birthday, I went to Quattro Formaggi to get tiramisu and a glass of wine and later that night went out for Indian food and gelato with my French roommate Lulu.  My last full day in Sydney was Australia Day, so I wandered down to The Rocks for some of the festivities.

Image

I’ve been back in the States for a week now.  It took me a few days to get back on a somewhat normal sleep schedule, although even in the past day or two I’ve still found myself desperately tired around 3 p.m.  I spent the weekend catching up with friends in Northern Virginia, and this week I’ve been getting more into “real adult life,” i.e. making necessary phone calls and writing e-mails, although my suitcases are still mostly full because I have no idea where some of those things will go once they’re unpacked.  Now that I’m back in Richmond camping out at my parents’ house, I plan to get a little more acquainted with the city and try not to take it for granted as much.  For example, a friend’s pictures of the graffiti murals along the River Walk have me really curious to see them–I had no idea they were there.  I’ll be sure to report back here or on Instagram or Facebook on what I find!

There are a number of things I wish I’d done in Australia this time, but I felt like the time was right to come back to America, not to mention how much easier it is to be here in the same time zone with family and friends.  But you can bet I’m still looking at travels in the near future.

Last week in gorgeous Tasmania…

I only realized yesterday I never filled you all in on my trip to Tassie last week with Katie that I met in the Hunter Valley.  I took an early early morning flight (I left the house at 4:15 a.m.) for my direct flight to the charming small city of Hobart (direct flights are the way to go, unless you want to spend 6 hours in transit when the flight from Sydney to Hobart is 2).  I got to town really early and couldn’t check in to the YHA there, so I had a few hours to walk around.  I had heard about Lark Distillery, and as I am keen on a good bourbon or whisk(e)y now and again, I was eager to visit–lo and behold, it was a whole two blocks from the hostel!  Their website said they only did tours around 2 or 2:30, but I dropped in and asked and they put me in a tour happening at 12:30 that day.  I had a quick lunch before returning for the “tour,” which was a little informal for my taste.  Not only does the distillery do whiskeys, but they do gin and vodka as well.  The whiskeys were not at all what I was used to, but I enjoyed them all the same and bought some as a souvenir.  Later that evening, Katie and I met up for dinner in Salamanca Place, a strip full of bars and restaurants just near the Brooke St wharf.

The next day, Katie and I got breakfast and decided to visit the world-renowned MONA, or Museum of Old and New Art.  I had heard that the ferry ride alone was amazing, and it was pretty great.  It’s oddly swanky for a ferry, which makes it all the more fun, and the scenery is gorgeous as well.  It’s…an interesting place.  I’ve never been much for contemporary “art,” and this was no exception.  I actually found the place to be just plain freaky and weird on the inside.  Lunch time came around and we made our way to the wine bar and sat outside, as it was a phenomenal day.  On one side, the building was bordered by vines, on another, an open field with a giant stage featuring a live jazz band (on a Wednesday afternoon, even!) and dozens upon dozens of cushions welcoming people to grab a drink and get comfy.  I was bushed by the time Katie and I got back to the YHA, and I still needed to move from there to The Pickled Frog, a place with a ton of character (as well as cheap coffee and beer–essentials for hostellers!).

Thursday morning Katie and I had breakfast at Doctor Coffee again before she flew back to Melbourne.  I had booked a cruise to Peppermint Bay, which included a multi-course lunch once we got there.  It was a fabulous day to be on the water.  The boat was nice, lunch was delicious, and I chatted with some friendly folks as we ate.

I had booked two tours that would keep me occupied for the whole of Friday, and I had saved the best for that morning.  The Pickled Frog provided a free shuttle up Mount Wellington on Wednesdays, but as Katie and I had gone to MONA, I had missed out, so I opted to book a bus tour up the mountain and around town instead.  Mount Wellington is situated adjacent to Hobart, so climbing up the mountain, you get brilliant views of the city.  Being on the mountain was absolutely breathtaking.  There were almost no clouds, just a slight haze over the surrounding area.  In the afternoon, another tour took me to Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary for me to see the local fauna, including Tasmanian devils (what’s a trip to Tassie without seeing them, right?).

Saturday morning I was up early enough to get breakfast and wander around the market at Salamanca Place.  The markets didn’t actually open until 9, by which time I’d already be back at the airport, but I did manage to procure a local dark chocolate-macadamia nut bar for myself and a pretty nice Tasmanian devil stuffed animal for a friend.

I was really glad Katie had invited me to Tasmania, as otherwise I might not have gone.  To be honest, I’m a bit burned out on hostelling and living out of a suitcase, and so I’m heading back to the States at the end of the month.  But Tasmania was a fantastic place to take one last trip before going home.  Thanks Katie!

Until next time!

Holiday adventures

For Christmas, I had no plans (being away from family and friends is hard, y’all), so when I read that the Sydney BridgeClimb operated on Christmas day, I knew I had to sign up.  I’d been to Sydney twice before and hadn’t done it and had been kicking myself ever since that first trip in 2001.  I was hoping the weather would be good, and while that didn’t quite pan out the way I’d hoped it would, the experience was still awesome.

It was completely overcast and a little rainy that day, but I quickly came to realize this was far preferable to a hot summer day.  Before putting on our jumpsuits, one of the employees advised that since it was so humid outside, if we were wearing full-length pants or jeans, we should take them off before putting on the jumpsuits.  Was not expecting that, but it makes sense.  We spent maybe half an hour gearing up with belts (which feature a slider to connect you to a super-strength cable on the bridge), radios, and rain jackets.

When we finally emerged from the catwalks under the bridge (they can be a bit of a tight squeeze!), I definitely had a moment where I thought, “Holy s$#@, I’m climbing on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.”  Sure, tons of other people have done it too, but it’s still really cool to see the city from that point of view.  You see the traffic below you on the bridge, ships passing by–we even saw a giant cargo ship about to pass under the bridge.  It’s too bad you can’t take pictures of your own; you aren’t allowed to bring anything with you. You can’t even wear a watch.  What you wear has to be strapped to the jumpsuit or belt.

The following Friday, I left for the Hunter Valley.  If you’re like me and don’t want to drive yourself around, well, tough luck.  It took me about 7.5 hours, partially because public transportation (which you can take to get from Sydney to a LOT of places far and wide) was operating on a weekend schedule due to the holidays, so my waits between buses and trains were extended.  The YHA hostel I stayed at was decent, as far as hostels go.  They actually do their own wine tour, so naturally I signed up even though I already was waking up early for a hot air balloon ride and wanted to go to the Hunter Valley Gardens afterward to see their Christmas display.  My long journey (and assumption that the valley had some kind of public transport…) had thrown off my plans for the weekend–I had thought I would check out the Gardens Friday night, wine tour Saturday, hot air balloon ride early Sunday morning before I left.  Silly me, making plans.  Fortunately, Potters Brewery is just a few minutes’ walk from the hostel, so I relaxed with some beer and pizza and resigned myself to the long Saturday ahead.

I woke up at 4:15 the next morning (good thing I heard my second alarm!) and shoved some leftover pizza in my face before meeting the shuttle to the Peterson Champagne House (for $15 extra, they picked me up at the hostel).  We split into two groups and from there made our way to the departure point.  Now, as I’ve gotten older, somehow I’ve developed a little more of an aversion to being in the air–I think the idea of turbulence and such things bugs me more.  But after a few minutes in the air, that fear vanished and I was able to enjoy the beautiful surroundings as the sun came up.  After maybe an hour, we were back on the ground.  We helped our awesome operator Yosh to pack up the balloon and then we were off to enjoy our very filling champagne breakfast.

That filling breakfast was necessary, as later in the morning, I was going on the YHA’s wine tour.  I really enjoyed the sparkling moscato at Bimbadgen, the first winery we went to–it was like drinking peaches.  So delicious.  Pretty much everything else that day was more or less white noise, the same types of wines over and over.

I was able to get the tour driver to drop me off at the Hunter Valley Gardens.  The Christmas display didn’t open for a while, so I had a little time to kill.  I had a nice dinner at a restaurant in the shopping village before I moseyed over to the Gardens a little after they reopened at 6:30.  I had intended to wander around the gardens a bit to see them in the daylight, but there were hordes of people waiting for the Christmas display to open, so I decided I would stick close to the gate leading to the holiday lights so I could be ahead of the crowds.  I ended up making friends with a British woman living in northern Idaho, and we hung out for the rest of the evening, checking out the gardens and taking a long ride on the Ferris wheel–she was even nice enough to drive me back to my hostel.

I had made friends with one of my hostel roommates, and as we waited for the shuttle back to town so we could get the train back to Sydney, we chatted with another girl, Katie, who was also travelling through Sydney.  Katie was staying in the Blue Mountains but hoped to see the fireworks in Sydney on New Year’s Eve, figuring she would take the train back to Katoomba after the fireworks.  It occurred to me during our train ride back to Sydney that I could pay forward the generosity that people had shown me on this trip by offering to have Katie stay over at my place–the homeowners had already given their blessing to do so and they weren’t going to be here, so why not?

So Tuesday Katie joined me in Balmain, where we walked around and scoped out how many people were going to be watching the fireworks from the parks by the Balmain East Wharf.  We worried that there would be a lot of them, and there weren’t as many as we’d expected, but enough that we came back to the house, got our stuff, got some snacks at the grocery store, and came back to the park, where we camped for 8 hours.  We talked to one of our neighbors, who offered us wine since we had nothing to drink but water (even though all the viewing spots were supposed to be alcohol-free, police didn’t seem too concerned with the large amounts of alcohol being openly consumed).

There was a short fireworks show at 9 for families with young children who couldn’t make it to midnight.  That was just a teaser for the real show at midnight, which was 12 minutes long and so incredibly worth the 8-hour wait.  Every time we thought the show was coming to an end, the fireworks just kept rolling on.

So that’s the roundup of what I’ve been up to.  Katie invited me to hang out with her in Tasmania for a few days, so I’m leaving Tuesday and have been planning that trip all this morning.  Happy new year everyone, and I hope it includes lots of adventures for you!

Tuesday I got back from two days in Uluru (Ayers Rock).  In my two previous trips to Australia, I hadn’t managed to get there, so third time’s a charm, right?  It is lovely in an oddly endearing way with its scrub and desolation, beautiful in a unique and very different way to a place like Sydney, whose beauty is based on its architecture, harbor and shoreline (and maybe the people).  It’s also hot, as you would expect a desert to be in summer.  But really the star of the trip–or stars, rather–were Kata-Tjuta, or the Olgas, a rock formation whose Aboriginal name means “many heads” due to its multiple domed rocks. 

I got to Ayers Rock on Sunday afternoon and spent most of that time determining what tours to take and what to try and see.  I knew that I hadn’t given myself enough time to explore the area much, but I also didn’t relish the thought of being in a hostel in the middle of a desert for too long (don’t get me started on the hostel).  There isn’t much else to see in the immediate area of Ayers Rock; the nearest city, Alice Springs, is around four hours away.  Another national park, Kings Canyon, is three hours away.  So really, Uluru-Kata-Tjuta National Park is very isolated.  There’s nothing else out that way, so you’re going there just to see a bunch of giant rocks.  I booked a couple of tours, including an astronomy tour to take place that evening–if you’re going to be out in the middle of the desert, you may as well try to see some stars, right?  Not far from my hostel dorm, there was a lookout over Uluru and I went to check it out around sunset.  I had heard that Uluru changed colors in the light, which makes sense.  But throughout sunset, I thought it looked largely the same and I was left less than impressed.  However, the sun was setting right by Kata-Tjuta, and it was glorious.  Possibly the best sunset I’ve ever seen.  The cloud cover made for a great sunset, but the astronomy tour was cancelled that evening and I was rescheduled for the next night.

My tour Monday afternoon wound its way through the national park, spending time in the Olgas and admiring Ayers Rock from afar.  The temperature outside was roughly 100F on the ground, but during our short hike in Kata-Tjuta between Mt. Olga and another rock whose name I can’t remember, our guide advised us that it would be even hotter since the rocks would radiate the heat and the sun would be bearing down on us.  (Why do they do such tours in the middle of the afternoon, anyway?)  The hike itself was decent, aside from the insects (it’s not Australia’s spiders you need to be concerned about—it’s the number of flies), but the journey was a bit more interesting than the destination.  A lot of the area is closed due to Aboriginal cultural significance, and some areas are off-limits when it’s really hot, as was the case with the Valley of the Winds (which a fellow tourist said was far better than the hike we’d done).  After our hike, we drove around to a lookout to see Uluru at sunset while drinking wine.  I was a bit too busy with the latter and making friends with a fellow solo American female traveller to take any pictures, but I can tell you that the sunset there wasn’t that spectacular.  At sunset, it really is Kata-Tjuta that you should see.

Needless to say, I was sweaty and disgusting from all the hiking that afternoon, so my new friend let me take a shower in her hotel room.  She even gave me a bag full of fruit, some milk and a bunch of tea bags before sending me on my way to the astronomy tour.  I felt this tour was more informative and interesting than the one I took at the Sydney Observatory several weeks ago, and much smaller as well.  We didn’t see nearly as many stars as I’d hoped, as the nearly-full moon was so bright it was casting shadows.

Tuesday was uneventful since my flight was in the middle of the day, but as always, I was glad to come back to Sydney.

I look forward to my next trip to the Hunter Valley (read:  wine country) the weekend after Christmas.  Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

One week away: Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road

I was fortunate enough to have friends of a friend host me in Melbourne for four nights.  My hosts Kevin and Leeanne were SO gracious and helpful.  Half the stuff I did in Melbourne I wouldn’t have seen if it hadn’t been for their recommendations. For example, I wouldn’t have gone to the completely amazing Melbourne Museum to see the fantastic Designing Bond exhibit.  I only wish we were allowed to take pictures inside.  There were clothes, set pieces, drawings and mockups of sets…it was a Bond fanatic’s dream.  The biggest room in the exhibit was set up like a casino and had a re-creation of the poker table from Casino Royale, complete with the outfits of the characters sitting at the table.  I walked into the room and said aloud, “This is what I paid to see!”  It was opulent and wonderful and I geeked out looking at Bond girl outfits and such.  I spent roughly 5 or 6 hours at this museum alone; there’s so much to see and I only glanced at most of it. There’s a section dedicated to Aboriginal history, another section about the history of Melbourne, exhibits about dinosaurs and geology, human anatomy, and so much else.  If you wanted to take your time looking over everything, you could easily spend a couple of days there.  That night, I met Leeanne, Kevin and a couple of their friends at the Queen Victoria Market, where merchants sell their crafts or food.  It’s a very happening place with a lot of good stuff to pick from.

The next day, I went to the Immigration Museum primarily to see the Faith Fashion Fusion exhibit about Muslim women who respect and observe their faith by covering themselves but who also show a lot of creative flair while doing so.  (I like looking at clothes in museums–can you tell?)  After that, I went back to Federation Square and stumbled upon a banner for a music video exhibit currently happening at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and decided I had to see it. I’d already been told it was a really cool museum.  Naturally, I wandered in about 1.5 hours before they were to close and spent most of that time geeking out over music videos.  I subsisted largely on VH1 and MTV as a teenager, so for me this was a must-see.  I was not disappointed.  They even had a whole section devoted to David Bowie!  There were SO many videos to watch, there wasn’t nearly time for them all.  There were pieces from an OK Go video, A-ha’s iconic “Take On Me” video, even a room devoted to showing “epic” videos that were more like movies in scale–the videos were being shown on an entire wall as opposed to a tv screen.  There was a lot to see in that museum, and unfortunately time didn’t allow me to see much more of it, but if I found myself in Melbourne again, I would go back.

That Friday, I went to the cool beach suburb of St. Kilda, which features cool music venues that get some good acts whose names I recognized.  I wasn’t there all that long and didn’t look around much.  It was a bit cool and breezy that day, so I sheltered in Republica for a while (they had a fireplace!) and was consumed by how mind-blowing their pizza was.  (You can see the picture of it on Instagram.  Yes, I am one of “those people” who takes pictures of delicious food just to taunt you.) That evening, I checked out some films at the inaugural Aperture Film Festival, which Leeanne and Kevin had helped organize.  They had also graciously invited me to the festival’s networking event afterward, and I wasn’t going to say no to free wine and food.

Saturday morning I headed over to the Abbotsford Convent for their farmers market and had breakfast and bought some really good chocolate.  The final event of the Aperture festival honoring the best film and people’s choice was that afternoon. Afterward, a lot of people went to celebrate the success of the festival by getting Thai food and drinking leftover wine from the previous night’s networking event, and a good time was had by all.

Early the next morning, I caught the van for my Great Ocean Road trip.  Less than an hour and a half into the trip, we had a great team-building exercise when the van broke down and the group of us had to push it in the hope that that would get it going again.  No such luck, although some townies were able to pull it with their small sedan and that worked like a charm (go figure).  We made a stop at the Otway Treetops park and had dinner in Princetown, a town with 13 residents but which is clearly accustomed to having tour groups stop in.  We went to see the Twelve Apostles at sunset, although the clouds prevented us from getting the view we’d hoped.  It was still really amazing to see the Apostles in person though after having seen so many pictures of them.  We stayed the night in the really nice Port Campbell Hostel.

The following day, we went to Brambuk, an Aboriginal cultural center in Grampians National Park, where we saw a movie about the Aboriginal origin story of the area and painted our own boomerangs with Aboriginal symbols.  I felt a little weird about the cultural appropriation going on there, but everyone’s work turned out well (except mine–I’m almost never successful at being artsy).

The next morning was the final day of our tour and we got up early to get in some hiking before our 5+ hour drive to Adelaide.  We hiked to the Pinnacle and MacKenzie Falls, both of which were well worth the trip (although it was pretty sad to realize how out of shape I am).

The trip was great, and I would go with Topdeck again.  I stayed the night at a hostel in Adelaide and took a little while to wander around town in search of dinner.

I was really glad I had an awesome breakfast the next morning, because the rest of the day did not go as expected at all.  I got to the Adelaide airport around 9:30 in preparation for my Virgin Australia flight at 11:30, only to find out it had been cancelled.  I eventually got shuffled onto a Qantas flight that left around 4:30.  However, the Qantas flight supplied everyone on board with their choice of free cheese and crackers or an apple and free beverages, which pretty much everyone took advantage of.

So I had an eventful week away, and now I’m looking forward to my trip to Uluru (Ayers Rock) in 10 days!  Until next time…

 

What have I been up to?

What have I been up to?

  • I had heard a lot about Bronte Beach and how pretty it was, so since I’d never been, I decided to go on Wednesday, one of the two nice days we had last week (guys, it’s been raining A LOT).  I walked around Waverley Cemetery, which I had also heard was pretty, and indeed it was, although a stark, somber contrast to the gorgeous beaches surrounding it.  It’s right on the Eastern Beaches Coastal Walk, so you can see the hills of spires and tombstones as you walk by.  I walked from Clovelly up to Bronte and back. It’s a fantastic photo opportunity. Also, I went to the much-talked-about Three Blue Ducks for dinner–my burger and beer were pretty tasty.  (It’s supposed to be an awesome place for brunch.)
  • I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art in The Rocks for something to do, and hey, it was free and an excuse to get out of the house.  I’m not a big fan of contemporary art, and that still holds true.
  • I also went to the Art Gallery NSW in The Domain (a big grassy area where they have sports fields and concerts and such) and really enjoyed it.  There’s currently an exhibition on American art (America:  Painting a Nation), so I felt I had to go see it–and I was glad I did.  The Museum itself is a gorgeous building that is worth a visit just on its architectural merit, not to speak of all the gorgeous works it contains.  It’s free (unless you want to see one of the visiting exhibits), so you really have no excuse not to go.
  • I’ve also been watching a lot of Tom Hiddleston videos (he’s Loki in the Thor and Avengers movies, in case you don’t know).  It’s a little embarrassing (I can’t believe I missed seeing him in Sydney last month!).  But this is going somewhere, I promise:  I was rewatching The Avengers on Netflix (Australia doesn’t have Netflix, but there’s a workaround and finding it made me feel like an evil genius).  However, the internet went out (it seems to do that every time the phone rings–are we still living in the ’90s?) and I happened to look out my window.  Drawn as I am to shiny things, I had to find out what the one is in the top righthand corner of this photo, and I couldn’t figure it out even using the really awesome but overwhelming Star Chart app I downloaded, so I decided that the next night I would go on a tour of the Sydney Observatory.  The Observatory itself was pretty cool (it’s on a hill that affords a pretty great view of the ANZAC Bridge too), although the tour was sort of informal.  The group was asked if we had any questions, and there weren’t many, so the guide was sort of spouting off information nonchalantly.  He had a good sense of humor at least.  The Observatory itself has a lot of neat things worth looking at, old telescopes and charts and books about the transit of planetary bodies and objects over time and that sort of thing–you know, as an observatory should.  Day tours are free, so I hope to go back and check it out again at some point (if you actually want to see the telescopes and the 3D movies, you have to pay extra, but when you think about it, if you’re going to see the telescopes, shouldn’t you see them at night so you can use them?).

    The shiny thing is Venus…I think.
  • Friday I went back to The Village Bizarre in The Rocks in an attempt to actually do some of the stuff there.  I managed to get an appointment to have my hair fixed up, but I would have to wait a couple of hours.  Well, that was how long I waited in line for the fortune teller seated across from the hairdressers (hey, I was curious what she had to say even though I take it with a few grains of salt, although I am a little ashamed to admit that I waited that long).  I was worried that it would finally be my turn for the fortune teller when it was time for my hair appointment, but I had just finished my consultation with her in time to get my hair done, so that worked out.  And if what the fortune teller had to say was true, 2014 should be a pretty awesome year…

    Me after getting my hair done
  • This week, I’ve been battling a sore throat.  I’m hoping it doesn’t turn into anything worse.  I’ve been downing vitamins, hot water, tea and honey in an attempt to make it better, and today it does, so hopefully the worst is over.  I would hate to be travelling to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road while sick!

Until next time…