Sick

Adelaide, South Australia - Part 2.
Sundays Sun rose behind a layer of thick grey cloud - we tried our best to ignore it, and went to Rundle Mall and found cupcakes to eat with our coffees. The ground was still dry so we headed off towards the cities hospital and academic area to see what we could see. The rains spat down, and so it was that we decided to go run for Budget Rent a car, to pick up a little Toyota + GPS to help us out with the remainder of the long weekend.So off to a little place called Hahndorf - a town first colonised by the Germans way back when. It shows with the main drag in town keenly modelled around European origins. Lots of sweet-shops and faux-schnitzel hauses, lunctime passed and it was time to move on.

I typed in Glenelg to the computer interface of our in-car guidance system, and the rest was childs play. We breezed down to Adelaides sought after real estate area; by the coast of course, where a fancy modern marina is surrounded by modern ristorante. The beach here was quite different from those I'm used to in Sydney, a high speed Norterly wind made it pretty chilly too! By this point the skies had cleared and it was time to take some time out to relax. It was time to splurge a little after spending 2 nights in a pretty average backpackers. So we stayed in an Oaks service apartment at that same marine, overlooking part of it, and also the parks. The sun was not far from the horizon and so, I put on my hoody, slung camera over my shoulder and went about getting some shots down at the pier.

A cruisy evening where I can recommend you not going to "Wok-in-a-box" in Glenelg, and it provided us first with a meal, and second some bad stomachs and nasty after effects the following day.

Our final day, and it was time to get the value from the already cheap $32 per day Toyota Yaris. After I cooked breakfast, we headed south, across some lovely rolling hills to Goolwa. The town is pretty small, and was built around the need to ship stuff from the ocean up to Adelaide. Then of course came train links and other advances and it became a little sleepy. I revelled in some Fish n Chips for $5 - which is about $6 less than the cheapest fish n chips I ever found in Sydney and ate in front of a large paddle steamer sharing the same name as the town.

From here we drove up to Port Elliott thanks to a recommendation from one of our Adelaidian (?) friends in Sydney (thanks Anna). I went for a wander around the tiny coves and beaches there where I shared time with brightly coloured rocks and small hermit crabs, and of course my 40D.

Our last stop was to be Victor Harbour where we saw the horse drawn tram plying its trade before jumping back into the Yaris and heading blindly back to Adelaide with full trust in a GPS system that royally failed its way back. We wound up in some suburban street before scrambling in some alternate co-ordinates.

We hit up the Botanic Gardens for 20minutes and sucked up the last South Australian Sunset we might ever see before gunning it back to the airport. Again, with seconds to spare, we checked in to our flights which gave minimal time to refresh ourselves before jumping back on to an aeroplane back to Sydney, New South Wales.

Pink on White Walls

Perisher, NSW, Australia
With a few days till the weekend, myself and Lauren decide to hit the mountains for the weekend. After booking accomodation on Tuesday, I had a couple of days to get excited about the best Australian snow season since I've been here.

I managed to make an early dash from work, and by around 4.30pm, we were headed out of Sydney, and by 10pm we'd reached the country town of Cooma, NSW. Up early, and - we made the hours drive to the Perisher valley behind many other snow-sportsman and woman with similar plans to ours. The last time I came here, there was no snow visible until the actual slopes, and all that was man-made. This time, there was heaps of the stuff from miles before the first lift came into sight. Today however, would not be about the search for powder stashes and hot lines, but about someone elses first turns on snow. So together, I did my best to teach Lauren to ride snowboard. Sadly, some kind of virus took its toll on me and we had to call it off fairly early - though we'd enjoyed a few fun runs on the Perisher front valley, we had decided it was a little too busy for comfort.

A night back in Cooma, and I think the extra rest sorted me out, and maybe a little help from the snow Gods, who'd been kind throughout Saturday afternoon and left some nice fresh surfaces to play on, on Sunday. This time, we hit up Smiggins and Laurens boarding came a long way. She was putting in turns both ways, along with some ancient falling leaf, and some 'ever funny, stacks'. While Loz took time outs, I would jump on the T-Bar and head to the summit for some speed. I was also fortunate enough to spot a short hike to a nice 5-6ft drop off cornice. I was content hitting this up several times for the day and cutting my way back through some fresh before hitting the groomers at great speed back to the car parks.

By my reckoning, it was about 2 o clock, when Lauren made her most significant breakthru yet... she stayed upright off a ski-lift!

After 3, we called it a weekend and packed the car for the loooooong ride back to Sydney. I do however, love this part of New South Wales, possibly the most of any part I've visted so far, and took many timeouts to jump from the car to take some photographs as the sun painted a watercolour sky behind weathered gum trees. Lovely. The 5hr drive home as usual, sucked.

Shut Up and Drive

Lithgow

I walked out of work on Friday night feeling like a free man, a freer-er man anyway. For only 3 weeks from now, I would be walking away from work safe in the knowledge that I shall not return for a whole month.

That weekend, was used as a last chance to truly relax before flying around this huge imperfect sphere we call home. Saturday afternoon, I drove out West, past the Blue Mountains to Lithgow, with Lauren, Benny & Cam, to join up with our friends staying at Rog’s holiday getaway home. Upon arrival, drinks were placed in hands and the scents of many wonderful aromas drifted past our nostrils building the anticipation of the food we were about to feast on.

The evening whiled away with many a laugh as the guys re-counted their epic day cycling the 6ft track – and on many occasion, Josh would show us his war wounds that he suffered on one “jump that turned out not to be a jump”.

Some fairly lengthy Jenga, which went on way longer than anyone would predict considering the amount of alcohol backing up every prod to the wooden bricks, pretty much dropped the curtain on the evening.

The following morning the temperatures rose to around 30degrees and the relaxation continued with some of the guys knocking out a huge fried breakfast that the 14 of us could help find ourselves again whilst eating, and watching the TV coverage of 2 other friends; completing their adventure across the Tasmin sea in a kayak.

Before I knew it, I was back on a Sydney bus with less than 15 working days to pass by…

Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet?

Tarago, Southern TableLands, New South Wales

I noticed today, after a barrage of emails between 6 friends, that it is only 25days, until I once again board an airplane and travel to a distant land away from Active Directory, Blackberrys and Sydney Transport.

Today however, is a day quite different from all other working days in the past year and several spare months in that, I left the concrete jungle. After a client of mine expanded to another office in a place called Woodlawn, I was to set up their new network at this site. Cooler still was the “void” I got a tour of, a hole in the ground that’s currently taking much of Sydneys waste… and will one day produce enough methane to generate electricity! Okay, that’s probably one of the least cool things I’ve written but hey… better than lining up for a gate pass at Mascot train station.

Now it’s not often that I mix business with blogging, but it is since leaving work just after 6pm this evening that I was given a refreshing blast from the past. With my camera at hand, the sun shining into the dusk and a set of wheels giving me complete freedom; I was given a huge dose of the travel bug.

I stopped at several random spots that looked interesting enough to take pictures at. Whilst approaching a log in a field, I disturbed a hare that went bounding off into the dry bushy grass. I spotted some Gala’s (pink birds) in Tarago before taking my Holden 35kms into Goulburn, the nearest major town. I was finally, after a day without, back in an area with some mobile phone reception.

I headed back to The Loaded Dog in Tarago, a pub with some 100yr+ old history where I was to sleep for the night. At $35, I felt somewhere between two moods; a) why am I booked up in such a cheap room tonight? And b) wow, it’s just like back-packing again!

So here I am, still 25 days till I depart for India; that’s 18 days at work, with a visa still to obtain, a snowboard still to receive in the post, approximately 10-11 more gym sessions to squeeze in and a whole bunch of other stuff I really can’t wait for… 2008 is off to a flyer!

You can see these pictures and more from my little road trip at http://www.fonfara.blogspot.com/.

The Gift That Keeps Giving

Mount Hotham, Victoria

This year has seen some records broken in Australian weather. The tropical Gold Coast resort of Surfers Paradise recorded its first EVER sub zero temperatures during the crack of dawn. Sydney has also been really cold, rivalling Wintery days of my homeland. However with the last few weeks, the clouds and low temperatures have fallen away. The sun is once again shining and I've been able to lose my jacket whilst wondering the city streets. This week though, I couldn't wait to be cold again. The destination and reason: Mt Hotham, Victoria - snowboard riding.

As I left my final client in Bondi Junction, I got a call from Az asking if I was gonna be late (as per usual), fortune was on my side as I stepped straight on a bus that would drop me at the end of my road. Pretty soon, Todd had joined us and we had his car packed with our boards, clothes and supplies.

We were united with Wedgie, Alison and Rog but just had one Lowen to arrive... Human tetris on YouTube helped pass those final moments of city confinement. Then the fun started... 6 hours driving to Albury, with the most amazing bouts of 20 questions you'd come across, and err Maccas... Luckily, at some point around the time we crossed the state border of New South Wales to Victoria, I fell asleep in the back for around 2hours (a rarity for me) and combined with the other 5hours sleep I got in a bed at Wedgies parents place, I was set for my first days riding.

So after a ridiulously early start, we arrived at Mount Hotham at around 9ish, parted with "I don't want to think about how much" for a 3day lift pass and set about cutting some new lines. Initially, I was pretty disappointed with the snow quality. It's not that there wasn't much of it, more so that it had rained the day before and made it all incredibly wet and slushy - like the stuff you see packed around fresh fish at the local mongers. So after the least enjoyable days riding I can ever remember (all aside from a day of rain in Austria 05), I wasn't hopeful of much for Hotham.

Luckily, we brought a good party to Victoria and the mood wouldn't be dampened by a bit of rain. Myself and Aaron kicked off the long weekends cook fest with some chicken fajitas. Several beers each later, the physicality of the day and the extended travel meant every one was soon crashed out.

A second days riding didn't offer much hope first off. The lower temps had given the pistes a bullet proof sheen which would finally soften up after lunch and allow for some fun, though still not much. The sun was out for a while though, and my riding mood most definitely improved. A late arvo whiteout would provide the best find of the day though. Todd and myself headed where there were no people. Skiers right off the Heavenly Valley lift descended a short way under the cloud line, and a clear lightly covered gulley awaited.

Rog and Todd stepped up to the wheels of fire and prepared one of the most memorable meals of all time... Goulash. Several hours of cooking time ensured everyone was pretty well 'relaxed' by the time the food was served up, it finally arrived and was gobbled up by everyone around the table. It wasn't the last we'd experience of the wonderful delights of goulash though. uh uh.

Day 3 - a dump! a whopping 10mm of snow meant there was at least something to cut out the icy sounds booming up with every turn, and finally, we could start to appreciate the terrain that Hotham had to offer. Snowmaking was now full steam ahead too, and so it was technically snowing all day long.

That wasn't the only dump that started the day off though... on their first visit to the little boys room, certain members of the party were once again re-united with the familiar smell of last nights goulash... and one member in particular would be sniffing that oh so distinctive, pungent smell all day. On just about every lift. And just about everytime his jacket puffed out some air - that smell would be there to haunt he and all around him... for the next 36hours. He wasn't impressed, nor was the poor woman that had to share a room with 3 croaking guys for 4days... ah, heck, why talk in the third person eh!?

So back to day 3's riding... and, well, it made me realise just how great a resort Hotham really is. By far the best of the 3 Australian ones I've been to thus far, the terrain is varied and interesting with something for all snow sports lovers... except maybe air quality (during my stay in the village). By late afternoon, our lift tickets were dwindling to an end, and we just had to make the most of the heavily falling snow as it made the pistes and back country great fun to ride in. That snow continued to fall, on and off most of the night... until the early hours.

Most of the gang headed out to Jack Frosts, though we soon moved on the General Store as we'd heard there was some kinda band playing a gig there. And indeed there was, though what the guy singing was like, I have not much recollection... as the night slipped into morning just as the twanging guitar strums slipped into a bangin' DJ set. I'm thinking it was about 3.30am when Todd and I made it back to our rooms; heck we didn't have to get up for anything the next day!?

7.10am day 4, I start to stir. I'd fallen asleep in the clothes I went out in the night before (always nice). I felt like a small rodent had taken up residence in my head...

7.14am day 4, Lowen, who had been sensible enough to boycott the previous nights musical frivolities looks out the window of our room and notices the 15cm dump of snow. He comes back past my bed and says "I'm off for a ski". I says "really?". "Yup". So within 90 seconds, I'd whipped on my board riding gear and was out that door quicker than a round of jagers being emptied.

With no valid lift passes, we'd have to be careful... and the fact we had to vacate our rooms by 10am. This meant 2 things. We'd have to go hard and fast to make this early morning jaunt worthwhile and I'd just have to deal with the overriding feeling in my head and gut.

Fortune favours the brave they say. I'd say I was pretty brave since I coulda blown chunks at any moment. But instead was blown away by this quality snowfall... this quality snowfall that we would have to rape and pillage, before leaving it to the sleepy heads that still had time left on the mountain.

Myself and Lowen duly left our mark on several runs, and managed to not get challenged by any lifties... our conscience' were clear after the amount we'd paid for lift passes... and it was now time to wrap up our time on the mountain.

9hours back in a car to Sydney, via Wedgies folks place, who put up an awesome mid trip meal... and I was dreaming of snowy times ahead... though this time - 5months ahead. Time to get some gym time in.

Thanks again to everyone involved... see you in the video; coming soon.

Away From Here

Thredbo,

Imagine that feeling you may have had once or twice only in life, that feels a bit like how, I figure, a vice clamping across your temples might start to feel; as a direct result of work related stress. I think I got to this stage with an unpleasent combination of long hours, cold weather, stressful factors at work and a pending cold, all creeping into my week together. It should've been for the best intentions; a good week whereby I had my sights firmly set on a great weekend. Unfortunately not.

Friday, the fight continued right through the day with my schedule getting stacked back toward clocking off time, just convenietly adding to the grey hair inducing stuff. I finally shook my last clients hand of the day, jumped in an elevator and decended down seventeen floors of green glassed skyscraper (as seen in the Matrix). Out on the street again, the urgence in my step was being driven by a new energy. A force aquired from the thought of where my body would be in 15hours time. The thought of what I would be doing and what I wouldn't be doing, gave my mind some solace.

An hour later I was home, and my good friend Rog was there with a Land Cruiser packed with his ski gear. All was left, was to add my snowboard gear and me... plus some long hours driving, petrol and the worst nights kip in a hostel of all my days. To speed past that, I found myself shivering whilst walking toward the same carpark I had parked in back at Easter in the centre of Canberra. Sleep depravated and still with lingering thoughts from the working week, some people may have questionned what I was doing when a choice to spend the whole weekend in bed could have been so easy to take.

As we made early tracks toward lake Jindabyne, it all became clear. Pastel shades painted a picture around us as the sun rose, almost a solid state rainbow with blues, pinks, oranges, yellows and greens eminating from the horizon in front of us. As we arrived in the Kosciusko state park, I was forced to hit the brakes to let a family of Kangeroos hop on across the front of our car (100% pure Australia!). This put a smile on our faces, a smile which would be with me for the whole weekend ahead in Thredbo.

With my T1's laced up, my Cartels latched and in perfect position, my little WorldWideWeapon gleaming, freshly waxed in the sunlight, it was time to slide down a slippery slope. I promised myself I'd go easy on my first run... I broke that promise as soon as I realised my legs had enough in them to warrant not having to go easy. A little shaky, never the less, I was back in a personal paradise. Cold wind on my face felt just as good as any beachy warm breeze today.

I've never needed such a fix of snowboarding as this weekend just gone by, and to think I have but 3 weeks to wait until the next excursion - well, I'm stoked.

Even though weekends in Australian resorts tend to get a name for themselves as being busy, I'd be the first to admit that things were really not too bad. The longest we ever waited for a lift was a couple of minutes, and once we'd found some enjoyable runs with good conditions, it was all the easier since T-bars tend to fend off large crowds by their very nature.

At the end of day 1, I think both Rog and I felt pretty overwhelmed, but still managed a few beers and games of pool before saying g'night to the starry night in typical fashion.

Sunday seemed to have sent some of the crowds home, so slightly less busy, the day involved me trying to get back to as close as I could to my personal best form of March 2005. I could certainly go fast, and I was grabbing mute and tails in no time. I managed some baby 360's and even got to riding some switch out of a couple of little 1's.

Aside from the muscular aches around my ribs, and dare I try to forget, my left groin I'm in great shape after the impromptu weekend of snow fun...

Again? Bring it on.

It's Alright

NSW Road Trip, Easter Weekend

The first chapter of my new job came to an end on Thursday evening, and with it came the excitement and anticipation of a road trip out of Sydney. Since my return to Australia last Ocotber I've only managed to get out of the city a couple of times. It was time to do what no one had recommended yet I felt it somewhere near neccessary to do - that is to visit the nations oddly nominated capital city - Canberra.

Unlike Sydney and Melbourne, Canberra is, well very unlike Sydney and Melbourne - both great cities in their own right. Canberra is located nowhere near the coast and didn't really seem to have any significant waterway entering it like the majority of capitals around the world today. It's really less than a hundred years old and as such doesn't really have a great deal of history to offer. The general feel I got of the place was of another city with big aspirations just waiting for it's populus to catch up.

Regardless, on arrival, we set about having a good time and went to check out one of the main tourist pulls of the area - The Australian Parliament Building. The city itself is quite interestingly laid out and at times it really seems like a large town built in the middle of a park. Nice...ish, but I certainly wouldn't wanna spend too long here.

After grabbing some dinner, it was time to make best of the 'nightlife' which sadly took a beating from it's regular form as it was Good Friday. A trusty Irish bar was however open for more hours than any of us would be able to utilise so our venue was pretty much set for the night.

We bombed out and returned to our hostel, significant for being Mr Burgess' first time in one, and for me - the first time in one since my time in California last year. A pretty good clean one I must say, it even had a pool which got a dip the following morning. We had a browse around some of the city stores before saddling up and waving goodbye to Canberra, the capital of Australia.

We left after some dodgy McDonalds breakfast made us all feel about 28% worse than before eating and as such wouldn't take too long to need something else to eat. We reached Cooma - the 'capital of the Snowy Mountains'. We stopped in at a pub where they had a couple of pool tables and the Eng Vs Aus rivalry continued. A strange moment passed over me however, which Craig could also appreciate. As many pubs televise sports coverage, this one was no different. On one screen, there was Horse Racing live from Randwick race course - which is now just around the corner from where I'm living. Another screen across the room was airing the Essex Championship derby match between Southend and Colchester - being played not far from home in England.

We moved on from Cooma and soon found the landscape changing. After the initial mountainous surrounds had passed, some wide open lush, green, sweeping fields filled our view. I had to stop to get a few pictures in what we all thought was a pretty incredible looking area. Thousands of round boulders were strewn across the landscape - with no apparant reason. We took this in for a while before making a few more impomptu stops as we finally reached our destination; Kosciusko National Park; Jindabyne.


This was my second visit to Jindabyne, the last time however was a very brief thru-trip on the way to Thredbo and Perisher last July.


Today the sun was shining, the air was fresh and the vibe was really cool about town. We secured a room for the night before heading out with a newly purchased boomerang. Many failed attempts and we were finally catching the returning 'rang.
This evening was way more fun than Canberra, with us sinking more change than I can remember into the pool tables and queuing up the pubs video dukebox with some absolute hum-dinging classic music videos.
The morning I've been waiting for for years arrived. I awoke way earlier than the other guys like many kids would have on this particular Sunday, except they'd be expecting to see the Easter Bunnies eggs. I was going wakeboarding. Sweeter than chocolate.

This was something the three of us had organised, but in a freakish twist of fate, Craig awoke with the worst cramp of his life and left the wakeboarding trio as a duo. So down at Lake Jindabyne Aaron and I got our wetsuits on and boarded the boat. Marty gave us a bunch of instruction on how we were to get ourselves out of the water and upright... obviously before we even thought about being dragged at speed behind a speedboat.


First in the mountain lakes waters, I was surprised at how warm the water was. So without that to worry about, the rope tightened, I slowly moved forward, rising out of the water like a phoenix... and then in a flash, falling straight on my face back beneath the surface.



Take 2, and I was up and out. Having a good snowboarding background seemed to help and I was soon weaving around from left to right and having the best fun I've had all year. As I was cruising along, I was starting to get tired, and all of a sudden I caught the toe-side edge and my forearms slapped the glassy surface hard.
Aaron jumped into the bindings and went through a similar learning curve. A couple of equally impressive stacks before losing the board from his feet and clamboring back on board marking half time of the session.

Our driver and instructor reckoned that the conditions we had were nearly as good as we could have wished for, with many areas of the lake perfectly calm.

I had just about mastered being upright when Marty decided to give me a real thrill by turning fast and hard thus swinging me out at speed with a heap of g-force which put the size of my grin off the edges of my face. There was no way I was going to better this feeling today.


After the fun of the lake, it was time to hit the long road home and back to Sydney. With a little exception. It was Easter Rodeo day!

In we went, lookin' like real city slickers in amongst the country cowboys and cowgirls. We watched as the lassooin', Steer catchin' and Rodeo Clownin' before running low on interest... over 400kms back to Sydney... went a little quicker than I thought it might. With a whole days true rest to recover before returning back to work, I was very much satisfied to have gotten away from everything for a great little break.


Happy Easter!