Mooloolaba tri

Mooloolaba tri

I had a hierarchy of goals going into this tri:

1. Finish the tri.

2. Don't stop (no walking during the run).

3. Finish in under 3 hours.

Done, Done and DONE!

Mooloolaba is a beach town about an hour north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast. The tri there is the second largest in Australia with nearly 1500 competitors. The whole city shuts down for the weekend festival which includes 5K fun run, an ocean swim, a criterion race and the main attraction, the Tri.

I borrowed a bike from my friend Keri for the race. It's her old bike, it's a bit smaller than mine was, but it works. And I was incredibly grateful both to her for letting me use it and in general that I wasn't so broken from the accident that I couldn't race.

I stayed with Joan and Don who are an older couple from Cairns. Joan's in the road runner's club with me. Don's a tugboat captain (seriously). Saturday morning Joan, Julie and I went riding with a few others from Cairns, just to test out that the bikes were good and to try out the hills, then we went for a quick run. My legs felt heavy with anxiety. My run was sloppy and my ride was slow. And started me worrying about the race. My biggest fear was the swim. It's an ocean swim, and I haven't had to deal with surf in a long time. And there was talk that the water might be cold enough that they'd allow wetsuits. I don't own a wetsuit, but it would give advantage to those who do cause it helps you float.

Sunday morning I awoke at 4am to a nightmare that a croc had attacked me on a river. When it was finally time to get up, I put my hair into frenchbraids (which I'd been practicing). Ever since my first tri back in Boston, the hardcore women wore braids. My bangs are such that just pulling back into a ponytail guarantees not being able to see. And my new helmet doesn't offer much space for one anyway. So braids it was.

The swim start is about 1K down the beach from transition. A long cold walk in my tri suit. The sun hadn't really risen yet, the sand was cold and wet and there was a light breeze. By the time we reached the start I had only a few minutes before my heat. I was the first from the Cairns people to go since I'm the youngest. I positioned myself toward the back of the pack, cause I don't like getting swum over. When the horn sounded, we all rushed into the water. There's lots of kicking and flailing of arms all over the place, but the surf wasn't bad, it was easy to get beyond the breakers and on the way toward the buoys. The swim felt fantastic. It was the most relaxed swim I think I've ever had in a tri. All those laps really paid off. The saltwater makes you more buoyant, and the halfway buoys seemed to arrive in no time, and the final ones came even faster. I did get caught behind a few slower swimmers, but no matter. Even having to fight a rip to get back to shore didn't bug me. I felt fantastic.

There's a run of about 500 meters from where you emerge from the water to where you pick up your bike. And the timers don't actually give you a read for transition time, so most of that transition time is added to your bike time. The bike course is a Ks of rolling hills then out onto the highway (which was entirely closed to cars!) for the majority of the course which is relatively flat. For the first 10Ks or so I kept passing and being passed by this woman. It was good cause everytime she passed me I had another goal. I passed her as we were coming over the top of a rise, and I said "I'll see you at the bottom", but she never passed me back. Out there with so many people, I realized how much I love riding, and how much I'll miss it until I get a new bike and a new club. I must've had the stupidest grin on my face, but I was just so happy. I held around 30K/hr and a heartrate of around 170 the whole time. I felt fantastic.

The run was a bit tougher, and in the end my least favorite leg. I got passed by a lot of people on this leg and passed many fewer myself. The sun was high in the sky and warm. The course was a two lap course of out and back. This made it easy to spot my Cairns friends and cheer them on. I realized as I reached the halfway mark that I was on target to beat 3 hours. This thought alone carried me through the last ~30 minutes of running.

At the finish there were hugs and high 5s and lots of watermelon. My time of 2.51 that I recorded on my watch matches almost exactly my official time (which can be found here: http://res.championchipaustralia.com/list.asp?id=1207&race=INDIVIDUALS&ath_id=&ath_forename=&ath_surname=miyakawa&ath_teamname=&ath_gender=&ath_category=&pbSearch=Apply+Filter&sort_1=2732&sort_2=&sort_3=&nDBPage=20)

It feels good to know that I'm fit enough to do this distance of race. Now, I want to do it faster. (And I also want a new tri top, my new knicks are so much better than my old ones, they dry super fast, now I need a matching top!)

Book ends

I went back out to the reef this weekend. My first weekend in Cairns I went to the reef and now my last. This time my trip was a present (Thanks, JZ!). Kimberley and Hamish joined me and a zippy boat that went out to the "outer reef" about an hour from Cairns. We stopped at 3 different locations on reef. Several tour companies have giant pontoons permanently stationed at the reef, this one didn't. It just attached to an anchor and we all dove off the back of the boat.

At the first location, I did an intro dive. This meant that I went out with an instructor and three others. They gave us a 30 minute briefing on how to clear our masks of water, how to take your regulator out and put it back in, and the hand signs. I've always been a bit weary of diving, but once we got under the water, I felt at ease. It was like flying. And being able to experience the coral in three dimensions was pretty amazing. The downside of being with a group of 5 people was that you didn't get to really explore, you had to follow the group. And, one of the girls in our group was freaking out a bit, so we all had to wait on her. I'd love to do it again, but I think it's probably worthwhile to get the certification so you can have a bit more freedom.

In that way the second and third stops were nice cause I just snorkeled there and could float around wherever I pleased. And I did spot several Nemo's. But these sites didn't have many really big fish. We saw some pretty substantial parrot fish, but no groupers and no sharks. We did see a ray though. Really though, the coral was the stand out. So many different types and colors, and so huge.

Back in the saddle and ready to ride

Easter is a big holiday here. I'd go so far as to say it's the Aussie equivalent of Thanksgiving. Both Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays, so many people travel for the four day weekend to visit family. It makes my last weekend in Cairns bittersweet since many people are away.

I've gone through my weekend rituals one last time. Saturdays start with a ride, then a quick shower and stretch and heading off to Perrotta's for coffee and eggs before I get too faint. After I've read the Cairns Post front to back (and perhaps had a second coffee), I head over to Rusty's farmer's market. I always go to this one stall first that sells organic tomatoes grown on the tablelands. They always have a few tomatoes sliced up and salted to try, and they are irresistible. Any other veg that I need, that's looking good, I get from this stall, otherwise I'll check out other vendors on my way through. And I follow the rule, if there's a mangostin, I'll buy it. Then a quick stop at the supermarket for things not available at the markets and home for a nap.

I've ridden 120K this weekend on Keri's old bike. I didn't know this, but apparently, there are different types of clip-in pedals for road bikes. (Why? So you have to stick with your brand, of course.) Keri's bike has the other kind of pedals to mine, and since it's Easter, I can't get the pedals swapped out with my pedals til Tuesday. I rode in running shoes. My race is in a week, and after this weekend's training, I'm feeling ready. I ran about 5K after my 40K ride this morning and felt good. This is gonna be a great race!

I'm still not very good at determining when I have a tail wind (there's always air rushing by my ears, so it must be a head wind, right?) But I know the route I take pretty well along the Northern Highway, and this morning I was flying on my way North, which meant I was gonna have a wicked head wind on the way back. And man, I was in struggletown. But then I remembered, this is what the wind was like when I first got the Cairns, in the dry. Always a solid wind coming from the South. Perhaps the wet is over.

It turned out to be a gorgeous day, so I took a walk out to the Esplanade for some ice cream and reading. The lagoon pool was teaming with people: families at the BBQs, kids in the pool, couples sunning themselves on the lawn, a few brave tourists playing on the mudflats. Sitting there it reminded me of my first day in Cairns, wandering about the city on a Sunday afternoon, wondering where every one was. Then, finally, happening upon the Esplanade and seeing every one enjoying the afternoon. I will miss this place when I'm gone.

Considering a visit to Australia?

I've started on the path to finding an Australian job. I had been planning on getting a tourist visa so I could surreptitiously look for jobs here, while not getting asked to leave the country.

Yesterday, I've even gotten word that I'll be getting an offer from the University of Queensland's technology tranfer business. Which is cool. But I'm not sure it's what I want. They have graciously offered to start the visa application process with me, while we each finalize that this is the right fit. I met with immigration this morning. Should this job fall through, I'll have 28 days to lodge another visa application.

Here's the hitch. Current wait to get a work visa is 4 months. During this time, I can't leave Australia and I can't work (though if immigration thinks that I am likely to get the visa, then they may grant me permission to work). So this means it may be time for my long overdue Australian holiday.

Anyone interested in visiting? Sydney and Melbourne are starting to cool off, and their winters aren't really anything to worry about. Cairns will be perfect pretty soon, dry, cool and safe swimming. Who's in?

Get well soon

It seems like sentiments for Get Well cards are hard to articulate. I received a card from my office that said on the outside "Sorry you're not well, but look on the bright side...", then the inside "...at least you're having that well-earned rest!"

As a card from work, this seems weird. Like it sorta sounds like maybe I'm just faking it to get a day off.

Better than that were the inscriptions in the card. A favorite: "Well done! Anything for a day off work. Have to try that some time." But definitely the best: "So happy you're alive!"

So what should one say in a get well card. Get well?

Road to recovery

Day 3:

Day 6:

It's been a week and some change since the accident. I had my first regular training session this morning: a swim. It felt pretty good. This afternoon, I'll try to run.

The bruising is not as bad as I expected. Purple shin, yellow hip, black pelvis. It's sort of like trying to solve a mystery, using the bruises to piece together how I landed. I'm convinced the small black bruise on my pelvis must have been from the handlebars.

Things are still sore even where the bruising is light. Can't lie on my left side yet, but no longer waking up in the middle of night when I try.

Most unexpected painful thing are sneezes. The contraction of the bruised abs is incredibly painful still. And I'm a much more nervous driver, checking blindspots three or four times before moving.

My friend Keri is letting me borrow her old bike for the race in Mooloolaba in 2 weeks, so I'll still get to compete, but the focus now is different. Now, I'm just really happy to get to race, speed is not important.

Motor Vehicle Accident at Low Speeds

This was my bike, during what I now know is the last race it will ever see. Because this is what my bike looks like now:

It doesn't look that bad. But it can't be fixed and it can't be replaced, and since it's part of the frame, it means the bike will never ride again.


This morning I went out for my first ride in a week (rain was only a sprinkle). Simone and I had only gone 3K, when a car didn't see me on the highway as it was coming off a side street. It ran through a yield sign, hit me from my left side and sent me over into the other lane. Other than some pretty gruesome bruises, I escaped without injury. Nothing broken. But my bike was not as lucky.


I brought my bike from the US. I arrived halfway around the world eight months ago with 3 suitcases and a bike. It is one of the few items from home that I made the effort to bring. And although I may not have always been the best caretaker of my bike, I loved it fiercely. I was heartbroken to learn that it had not survived the crash and that it will not be competing with me in my first olympic distance triathlon.


Even though I was not at fault in the accident. I still feel responsible. I saw the car, I knew it still had some speed, I just thought it had seen me. I thought it would stop. And I feel guilty, on behalf of my bike, for not riding more defensively.


I will miss you.
LeMond Tourmalet
2006-2008

Parliament antics

I don't think a blog post can possible express how entertaining I find the cardboard cut out of Kevin Rudd (Prime Minister of Australia) brought into Parliament last week. Are American politics ever this funny?

OK, GA trying to steal a piece of TN, that's pretty hilarious as well.

On notice

It's official. I told BCG today that I wanted to take my "looking for a new job" leave. I'll continue to work at CYI through the end of March, then perhaps some holidaying, and then the job search in Australia starts in earnest.

Perhaps I should start a reality TV show "So you think you can be Australia's next top employer of me"

Far North on the big screen

I wouldn't recommend any one go out and pay money to see this. But, should you find yourself on a plane and the movie is Fool's Gold, it might be worth a look without the sound as it was filmed here in Far North Queensland.

This was so newsworthy it got a two page spread in the Cairns Post!
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2008/02/02/1242_local-news.html

Jungle Surfing!

In the middle of January, when Rowan and her sister Jordan visited, we went up to Cape Tribulation and went jungle surfing. These are the pictures from that adventure.

Jungle Surfing

Australia Day

I can't help it. When I have data, I make graphs. I've been keeping track of my training for the last four months. Swimming produces the most data since I time each of my pieces. Each block on the graph represents a piece, the x position is the distance of that piece, they y position is the pace for 100m during that piece, and the color shows the month. Lighter blue is earlier, darker blue is more recent. I think this looks pretty cool. I can see my progress. The bike data doesn't look that impressive.

In this one, the y axis is speed, so seeing darker blocks further up the graph would show progress. Here, this shows that I've been lengthening my pieces (as well as doing some additional short ones) at about the same speed I've been doing the shorter pieces. Not much progress.

This was painfully clear last saturday on my first 90K ride. We had 7 people on the ride, which is a good number. It's much easier to hang with the pack than it is to try to push yourself for the entire ride. When I first started riding, it took a lot of humility to get up. I knew I was pretty much out of my league, but I still did it. For the last couple of weeks, I've felt really good on my 80K rides. I started fancying myself a bit of a cyclist. This week, we did hills. We did about 50K of hills. Not huge hills, but still. I couldn't keep up. I couldn't even be close. Now I was back to being the 8 year old kid trying to keep up with the 12 year olds. They had 6 speeds. I had streamers. I finished the ride.

But all was not lost. I stopped by the Australia Day breakfast at Yorkey's Knob beach. Got an Australian flag for my bike and enjoyed a song about the "Nothen Teritry".

That afternoon Simone, Matt, Joe (the new intern) and I enjoyed a few beers, a ton of pizza and some Cane Toad Races. Which was a clear highlight of the day. You don't get a real sense of scale from the picture, but number 6 was easily the size of a very large mango. Toads were put in a upside-down bucket. Then the bucket was removed and the first toad to meet the outside perimeter wins. Of course the best part was when the kids discovered that they could just run in and chase the toads around. These are those toads that excrete poison from their skin. They have no natural predators because they kill off anything that eats them. And they are supposedly the toads that will get you high. Ah, the perfect childhood game!

That evening I met up with some friends for some drinks to finish up our Australia Day right. Unfortunately the combination of the bike ride, the drinks and the pizza, I was done by about 7:30. Maybe not the ulitimate in Australia Day's, but still a pretty good one. And definitely a bit more low key than your typical fourth of July.

Time zones versus end zones

Cairns is 15 hours ahead of the East coast. This means that Sunday games become Monday games for me. And generally games that happen during work at that. Sunday's AFC championship game then was aired here live at 6am. Not an ideal time for me, since I don't get ESPN, and I didn't know of any bars available at that hour.

But luckily it was rebroadcast at 9pm on Monday, so after carefully avoiding all American media for the day, I was able to enjoy the game 13 hours after it was played in suspenseful ignorance of its outcome. And I was happy with this arrangement with the exception that they did cut a few "inconsequential" minutes from the game to make it fit in the alotted 3 hour slot, but kept all the commercials.

All was going according to plan. The defense was playing quite well. I was even explaining the game ("gridiron" as it's refered to here) to my Aussie friends. That was until 10:50pm, when we discovered the bar we were enjoying the game at was closing, and there was still an hour to go. We wandered out to another bar with two large projection screens. One of which was playing the NFC game and had some very vocal, very large fans. I wasn't about to ask them to change the station. But the other screen was showing doubles from the Aussie Open, and no one was watching it. However, my pleas to change the station fell on deaf ears. Of course the Australian tennis was going to be showed, couldn't I just be satisfied with the NFC game? No.

So off we wandered, trying another bar which was closed. Really, I thought that backpackers knew no day of the week. Why weren't these bars open? Finally we found the game on at the casino. Seated at a closed blackjack table, we watched the last 10 minutes of the game, and the pats clinch the championship.

Now for the superbowl. I'm tempted to just take the day off. The game will air live at 9am on Monday here. That's reasonable right? Maybe I could just call in sick?

Putting the wheels back on

It's actually sunny today, or it will be for the next couple of hours before the next storm rolls in. And my luggage arrived this morning. Only 5 days late! It appears to be un-tampered with, though I haven't had a chance to unpack yet.

First run in Cairns this arv.

The wet has arrived

Can't wait for Sunday when it's Mild instead of Warm!

Signs that Australia doesn't want me back

1. Despite the nearly $3000 ticket price, I was not allowed to upgrade my ticket to Sydney with points cause it was the wrong fare type.

2. The turbulence when we left San Francisco was so bad, so back and forth, right to left, that I thought something was broken with the plane. I kept expecting them to turn around. The crew kept trying to serve dinner and kept getting told to take a seat. It continued for 3.5 hours, we didn't hit smooth skies til we were over Hawaii.

3. Although I arrived at least 30 minutes before the flight, Qantas wouldn't let me check in for my flight to Cairns. And since I had flown in on United, United had to rebook me on another flight, that would have to be on Qantas, cause United doesn't fly to Cairns.

4. Standing at the Qantas counter, on the phone with United, my connection keeps getting cut off as soon as they go to search for a new flight for me.

5. It's been three days, and there's still no luggage. The website keeps telling me, "Unfortunately, your baggage has not been located. However, we do have it on priority trace. We apologize for any inconvenience we may be causing you."

6. All three of the phone numbers I have go directly to voicemail, and no one will call me back.

7. My running shoes, my biking shoes, my goggles are all in that bag. Along with items that can't be purchased easily in Australia, like gu.

8. BCG doesn't have travelers insurance on "this type of thing"

9. My garage was flooded with about 8" of water this morning. Welcome, the Wet!

10. I woke up with a sore throat.

Holiday by the numbers

8 flights in
15 days for a total of
65 travel hours (including 2 x 28 hour trips), carrying
48 lbs of luggage on the way to the states and
58 lbs on the way back.
2 x-rays screens, max, per flight with only
1 missed flight and
1 lost piece of luggage, garnering
~25,000 frequent flier miles.
78 Fahrenheit degree range in temperatures (from 85 to 7, or 30 to -14 Celsius)

A few highlights:

Christmas Day snowshoeing on Mt Hood.
As our family Christmas present this year, my mom took the family snow shoeing, something neither she nor any member of our immediate family had done before. I enjoyed it immensely, especially walking off the trails, through the forest as fluffly flakes drifted all around us coating boughs of trees. Just pristine. Only disturbed by my gales of laughter as my sister kept sinking to her hips into the snow and her howls of "fuck you" back at me.

New Year's Eve in Boston.
This New Year's was marked by last minute plans. When I arrived in Boston, it seemed that no one had it quite figured out. As a result, Jonathan and I found ourselves at an HLS colleague's house for drinks, Oishii Sudbury (the best sushi in the greater Boston area) for dinner, and Simone's house to ring in the new year. All in all a very good (and effective) practice date.

New Year's Day Brunch.
After a very, very cold run along the Boston and Cambridge Esplanade, I caught up with friends for brunch. In addition to our yummy french toast, I got every one to try a Tim Tam slam. Yum.

A very good first date.

Have a good Chrissie

I was sorta sad to leave Australia for Christmas. The idea of spending Christmas with chops and snags on the bbq was sounding pretty good.

But now that I'm here, and it's cold, it actually feels like Christmas. The carols sound rich and full, not tinny in that Charlie Brown Jingle Bells sorta way that they do when it's 85 degrees out. It just feels right to make scalloped potatoes and turkey and stuffing with NPR playing Handel's Messiah in the background.

Better get to bed so Santa can come in the morning. Have a good Chrissie, all.

Taking stock

Tomorrow, I leave to go back to the states. I, originally, had planned to return permanently, but I've since extended my contract for another three months. Given that I should be going home, I thought it was a good time to take stock on the predictions I made and see how far I've come.

Unexpectedly useful items: Predicted that second set of dressy clothes would have been unexpectedly useful. And though I did wear that dress to the Cairns Cup, I think the most unexpectedly useful item is actually the item I had predicted would be the biggest waste of space: sweaters. Although I only brought four, having sweaters for the few trips I had down south during the winter was key. And I'm expecting to be very glad to have them when I arrive in Portland 27 hours from tomorrow.

Things I wish I had brought: I predicted I would want more T-shirts, yep, I did, so I've supplemented my supply here. I also predicted I would wish I had brought more photos from home. Thanks to Jeff's digital picture frame (aka. the Harry Potter picture frame) I have been able to see many of my favorite people and places on a regular basis.

Total pictures: predicted 600. Wow, what was I thinking. I've already taken 1326 photos. And I ain't done yet. And that doesn't count any of the ones I've deleted along the way that never made it into picasa.

Shoes: predicted 11 pairs, which was an addition of two pairs. I believe I have worn every pair that I brought, though the ones getting the most wear are still the flip flops. I've added four pairs since I arrived, and I've got new running shoes awaiting me at home!

Books: I think I've only read 4, though my prediction was 3. I've added several over my time here, and still haven't read the really long one I brought. Nor have I finished "A Short History of Australia" - What a misnomer!

Venomous attacks: remains zero, thankfully.

A few other stats:
Wild kangaroos spotted: 1
Wild walabies spotted: hundreds
Other wild marsupials: 2, both bandicoots (not pademelons)
Total Kilometers cycled: 705 (since I changed over to kilometers in late september)
Falls from the bike since getting clippy shoes: 5 (last one this morning)
Average time training per week: 11 hours
Average distance swum per week: 6K
States in Australia: 6 (plus 2 territories)
Least favorite insect: sandfly (followed closely by the cockroach)
Favorite Cairns eatery: Hare Krishna restaurant on Spence
Australian phrases I'll use in the US: "heaps" "good on you" "how are you going" "reckon" "yih"
Total travel time: 27 hours
Total flight time: 19 hours
Excitement level for visiting home: 11 out of 10
Hours til I get on the first plane: 8

Good night and see many of you soon!

More Bangkok

A few other fun facts and photos from the trip.

Being tall. For the first time in my life, I was tall. Amongst the Thai, I am tall.

Parking lot shrines. For every building we saw, there was a small dollhouse sized shrine. Many of them in parking lots. Apparently, these are spirit houses. I'm still not quite sure what they are supposed to do, but some of them are very intricate, complete with tiny buddhas and elephants.

Not all the shrines are for buildings. Our first day in Bangkok, Andrea and I found the "fertility" shrine near our house. It was essentially a garden of phalluses ranging from actual size to 8' tall. Some more realistic than others. Andrea, why haven't you sent me those pictures yet?

Giant buddhas. Then compared to the tiny buddhas was the largest buddha. Reclining, this buddha is still about 4 stories tall. And, we were required to take our shoes off and put them in the non-Thai shoe shelves.

Lady boys. Bangkok is famous for their lady-boys. Excrutiatingly skinny pre- and post-op transexuals who lip-sync to only the most popular English, Thai, Chinese and Japanese songs. Oh, and your ticket includes a drink!

Jenga should never be mixed with drinking.

Temples and Spirit Houses

Bangkok nights

Roaches, part two

My message to the roaches in Cairns was not heeded. This means war.


Tonight, a second roach, nearly twice the size of the first one, was waiting for me when I got home. Why do they like hanging out by the front door? I'm trying to convince myself that he just let himself in. Why did he hide in my shoes? I love my shoes. Why, in a tiled apartment, do I always end up killing them on a rug?

I don't want my apartment to be taken over by roaches while I'm gone. Any strategies? How does one declare war on roaches?

The changing of seasons

Cairns is the home to Rusty's market, a large farmer's market with mostly fruit and veg, but a few stalls of other yummy things.

When I first arrived in Cairns, I was amazed by the avocados. They were always ripe. They had both Haas (aka California) and Green (aka Florida) avos. I actually prefered the Florida ones cause they have a more consistent texture. As temperatures have warmed, those large fruits have given way to almost golf ball sized Haas avos that have a smokey flavour.

Next were the "bush-ripened" tomatos. They're fleshy, red, juicy, sweet, and nearly perfect with just a bit of salt. Today however, they tomatos were more firm, not quite as red. Clearly their season is coming to an end.

Today, it's the mangos that are so ripe you can smell them from down the street. Their flesh is perfection. And as the other tropical fruits begin to ripen, I also picked up lychees and mangosteens. Neither of which had I ever tried before. The lychees were a little too fragrant for me. Also a little too eyeball like. But the mangosteens... Delightful.

An open letter to the roach population in Cairns

Roaches,

The man you sent is dead. I caught your emissary today scouting out an infiltration of the holiest of sacred sites (aka, my apartment). And I thought you would like to know how he met his unfortunate end.

I was impressed with his cunning plans to catch me at my most vulnerable. Hiding out in my swimsuit, so that he would only be revealed as I stood completely naked (and shoeless), was a brilliant move. He then surprised me by scurrying up my shoulder, and I'm sure he was pleased with the shriek I let out. After regaining my dignity (and putting on undies) I sought him out with my sneaker, but he was too clever and remained hidden.

However, when I returned from my swim, it was I who had the element of surprise. There was your man in my foyer. I calmly put down my goggles and water bottle, and picked up my sneaker. He knew it was the end. I could see the fear in his step as he scrambled to the living room. He stopped for a moment to look back and that's when I struck. With one fatal blow, even his antenna stopped twitching.

Let this be a warning to you. I bought new shoes in Thailand, and I know how to use them. Any further troops you send will meet the same end. And though I may yelp and recoil when I meet them, and I may jump at any rustle of papers or itch, I will prevail.

Christmas in the tropics

It just doesn't feel like christmas. Even after spending an evening on the esplanade singing carols. It just seems disorienting. Maybe it's the 80 degree weather, or singing carols in flip flops and a bathing suit coverup, or hearing singers beg the heavens to "let it snow". But I think the main crux of the thing was singing "Russell the red nosed kanga" Just doesn't have the same ring.

Bangkok by day

It's beginning to feel like I'm losing momentum in my Thailand blogging. So here are a few experiences to share, before the memories wear away:


Shopping is an experience unto itself. The malls are enormous and there seems to be an endless supply of them. Even with our hearty western breakfasts every morning (I mean, can you really mess with such a good thing? Eggs and bacon are the perfect fuel for a mall, even if the bacon always had a bit of the taste of asia fried into it. Was that oyster sauce I detected), we would still get overshopped by mid-day. With entire floors dedicated to small stalls of tourist kitsch, furniture, electronics (aka. knock off cell phones and pirated DVDs) it's easy to get lost or to just give up on seeing daylight again. In the end, I'm hopeful that each of us picked up lots of good christmas items.


We also spent a day wandering around chinatown. Mostly these narrow alleyway markets which went from selling basic consumer items like purses, shoes and jewelry to selling a variety of chinese food staples to selling incense and paper items for use in the temples.

These markets were packed, and the flow of pedestrians would frequently get interupted by a motorcycle that had decided to "take the short cut" through the markets. And the food stalls seemed to be a lesson in biology. Was that just intestine floating in that jelley? I think that was a pigs foot. Lunch, any one?



And then there was my favorite day time activity: The Thai Cooking class. On the third floor of a thai restaurant, they had a classroom kitchen complete with desks and mirror over the cook top to watch the chef. Then across the hall was the student kitchen where we got to put the recipes to the test. By the end of the afternoon, we'd made 5 different dishes and had way too much food to consume for lunch. Now all I need is to find kaffir lime leaves in Australia...



The complete photo album from our daily activities (sans temples) is here:

Touring and Shopping

The Colorful city of Bangkok

Even getting to Bangkok is colorful. The official airline of Thailand, Thai Airways, is purple. Not just a bit here and there. All the seats, all the carpeting, all the uniforms, even the salt and pepper packets. We thought this was a bit much, but it didn't really prepare us for what we saw when we arrived.

Taxis in orange, pink, yellow, green, blue, red (sometimes sparkly red). This picture, though from Chinatown, was pretty typical of what we saw on every street, though smaller than most of the main Bangkok streets (and with more signs in Chinese).

Then there were the yellow shirts. Our first day exploring Bangkok, Andrea pointed out it seemed that a lot of people were wearing yellow. In fact about 70% of the people we saw were wearing a yellow shirt. Then we realized that actually about 60% were wearing the same shirt: a yellow polo with a triangular logo. Then we recalled that it was some sort of holiday. This must have something to do with the holiday.

We discovered later that they weren't wearing the shirts for a holiday. Turns out Monday is the King's day. And the King's color is yellow. It started last year when the king was sick, Bangkok(ers or ians or ese) started wearing yellow in solidarity with the King. Now, although he's returned to good health (and will be celebrating his 80th birthday tomorrow), people still wear his shirts with his logo on them. That's some serious dedication to the crown.

The wet has arrived

Judging by the strength of the rain pounding the city, the constant flickering of lightning that mimics a strobe light, and the fact that my soap grew mould while I was in Thailand, I think the wet has arrived.

Further updates on the last tri of the season, the trip to Thailand and the Australian election (and ratifying the Kyoto) to come soon. Still unpacking!

Dirty Politics

The Australian Federal election is on for tomorrow. Three polls were released today. One showing a Labor landslide, one showing a labor marginal victory and one showing a Liberal marginal victory. My money is still on Labor.

But more interesting is the scandal in the Lindsay seat in West Sydney (congress seats each have names here). Liberal party member were caught handing out fliers from a fake Islamic group thanking the Labor party for their support. What a cunning plan! Pray on people's fear of Islam to get votes for your own party. The culprits included none other than the Liberal candidate's husband, who claims his wife knew nothing of the scheme.

Will this incident be the final nail in the Liberal coffin? If it's not, what does this say about tolerance within Australia?

http://news.theage.com.au/leaflet-scandal-triggers-resignation/20071122-1c2j.html

North meets South

What do you get when you mix boomerangs and lederhosen? A sunny afternoon in Australia with good German beer! Hooray Oktoberfest:

Oktoberfest + Lisa's karaoke farewell

Also, a few picts from Lisa's karaoke farewell.

A new chapter in cycling

Cairns has two seasons: the dry and the wet. So far, I've been enjoying the dry. This week, I've started to get a taste of the wet, which usually lasts from January through March. It's hot and humid. It rains sometimes in downpours, sometimes in sprinkles, but always when I'm outside. Then there's a little sunshine, and the sidewalks steam dry, and you have just enough time to fish out your sunglasses from your purse before it starts raining again.

This sort of weather pattern has created some new obstacles for biking:

A plague of frogs
Given the options for cycling in Cairns involve either the North Highway or the South Highway, roadkill is a common occurrence. Most of the time, it's just wallabies, identifiable by their fur and red meat. They have since been replaced by a plague of frogs that emerge during the storms and hurl themselves onto the highway. These are not little frogs either. These are the frogs you dissected in high school biology. In fact I think I could make money collecting them and selling them to high schools (10 bonus points to the student who can name which organ is still lying on the side of the road).

Was that a giant lizard or a tiny croc?
Really, who can tell when you're trying to avoid large chunks of it on the shoulder of the road? Seriously, based on the remnants, I believe this thing must have been between 3 and 4 feet long. One of the other riders swore it was a goana (aka, tiny dinosaur), but I'm not 100% convinced.

Mangoes: tasty treat or obstacle course?
Mangoes are in season here, and they are delicious. Unfortunately, the storms knock them out of the trees and onto the roads. They can be a bit hard to avoid, especially when riding in a pack. But they will either shoot out from under your tires or just squish. Occasionally though, you'll hit a pit. They can easily throw your balance.

Cycling shoes should come with drainage holes
I'm seriously considering drilling holes in the toes of my cycling shoes. Since the soles are a solid piece of plastic, they just pool with water when it rains. I could just feel my toes shriveling.

80K ride + buckets of rain = chafe
I'll just leave it at that.

Hurray, only 4 more months of rain!

Separation of Church and State

It is two weeks until the Australian Federal Election. As an outside observer, who works with some very politically passionate people, it seems to me that there will likely be a change in government. Not necessarily because Labor is better, but because it's different. 11 years of Liberal government has led them to be sloppy in their campaign. Polls have consistently shown Labor up by a statistically significant margin.

I initially drew the comparison to the US parties. Labor = Democrats, Liberal = Republicans. (Took a while to get that Liberal != Democrats) Using the analogies above, I assumed that I would be a Labor voter, as I tend to be a Democrat back home, but I haven't found the Labor party to be enticing in the same ways as the Democrats. And though at a fundamentals level these may be a reasonable comparisons, there is one primary difference between the parties here and those back home: the party lines are drawn on moral issues in the US.

In the states, I vote Democrat because I am pro-choice, I believe in teaching safe sex in classrooms, I believe in evolution, I support gay marriage. All moral issues, that in Australia do not define the parties. Other than a vague idea of big government vs. small government, I don't have a good sense of what really separates the parties in the US besides these moral issues.

In a way, I'm grateful to be currently living in a country where those moral decisions don't plague the government. But in another way, it makes me far less passionate about a horse to back in this election. Are they really all that different?

Bike lesson

I've made a lot of improvements on my bike in the time that I've been here. I'm a much more confident rider now, I can get a water bottle out of the cage and put it back in while riding, I can fetch things out of the pocket on my back while riding, I can open and eat a gu, I haven't fallen in 3 weeks! Today, I learned an important lesson:



Used gu wrappers should not be tucked into the leg of your shorts

I'm never quite sure what to do with the wrappers cause we never stop at all, let alone, near a trash can. So I'm left deciding where to put them, I have been putting them back into my back pocket, but as I've been doing longer rides (60K today!) I need more gu, and everything, including my keys, starts to get a bit sticky. So I decided I would try just tucking it into the leg of my shorts. Easy. About 30K later, I realize the back of my knee is sticking together on every stroke. The gu has melted down my leg. So I think, maybe I can just rub it in with the sweat, and it will be less sticky. Still sticky, only now my left hand is sticky as well. Ok, I can lick that off. Except that I have to brake, now my handlebars are sticky as well. By the time I got home, I think everything was covered in gu. Fantastic.



Off to clean my bike and buy a shirt with more than one back pocket.

Scary Cookies

To bring a little American holiday cheer to Australia, I decided to bake some Halloween cookies. Although, I can't really remember the last time I baked Halloween cookies, I do remember the last time I baked Christmas cookies, so I felt confident in my abilities. Unfortunately, several factors conspired against me to make some of the most homemade cookies, I think I've ever made.

1. I didn't have Halloween cookie cutters, so I cut out stencils from paper, and traced around them with a knife. Maybe this seems obvious, but this step was incredibly time intensive.
2. In the time it took to cut out the cookies, the dough would get too warm (tropics, right?) to manipulate onto the tray
3. How many grams is one cup of butter? The internet suggest 240g, I'm still unconvinced.
4. My oven doesn't fit a standard cookie (or biscuit) sheet. I learned this, having finally negotiated my first batch of cookies onto the sheet, and nope, doesn't fit the long ways, ok, and doesn't fit the short way. Hmmm. I ended up baking them with the sheet at an angle, the one way it would fit, making some cookies much closer to the heating element than others, and all of them battling the forces of gravity.
5. I set butter out to come to room temperature for the icing, when I came back the butter was not just softened, it was a puddle, making my icing then a bit thinner than anticipated.
6. All iced cookies then went into the fridge to firm up the icing. Promptly upon removing them the icing began to melt once again, so that jack-o-lanterns had smeared their smiles by the time they reached work.

Much to my surprise most of them got eaten, and it did remind folks that it was Halloween. I guess that's the point.

Math is hard

I've grown accustomed to continually doing the math to figure out what time it is back home. It's easy: just subtract 2 and toggle am/pm. I base all of my timezones on this simple calculation. If I need pacific time, then I figure out east coast, and subtract 3.

All of this is being thrown into upheaval. This week, Australia began day light savings time. Everywhere except Queensland. So now, Sydney and Melbourne are an hour ahead of me. That means I have another equation to remember. Then next week, the US goes back to standard time, and, for the life of me, I can't figure out what that does to my equation. Is it 3 hours difference from here but 4 from Sydney/Melbourne? Or 4 and 3?

There is no longer any order in my world.

Aussie Indie

New project: discovering great Aussie bands.

All of these seem to have creepy videos, and it's not cause it's Halloween, cause it's not Halloween here. Maybe just the Aussies like their videos creepy. Enjoy.

Exhibit A: Faker, one of my new faves, not available on US itunes, but still great, though the video is a bit creepy


Exhibit B: Operator Please. I think these kids are in high school. Maybe not as indie as they might be. They rocked the charts here with a song about ping pong, "Just a song about ping pong"


Exhibit C: Skipping Girl Vinegar. For some reason, I really like this video. Reminds me of The Maxx


Exhibit D: Sneaky Sound System. Probably the least "indie" on the list, but still fun dancy tracks.

No shoes, no service?

I guess I've always assumed that McDonald's requirement that customers wear shirts and shoes was a matter of decorum. Maintaining a certain standard among its ranks.

I was standing in line at Bunnings (aka Home Depot) the other day and realized I was the only person in line wearing shoes. Ah, Cairns. This image spoke volumes to me about life here.

Then I got to thinking: shoes in a hardward store are not just a matter of decorum. They are a serious safety precaution. Think of all the things you wouldn't want to step on in your bare feet there. With the seriousness with which many safety issues are taken (e.g., the stickers on my oversized luggage reminding handlers to lift with their legs, not their backs; regular reminders from our office manager to keep cords coiled or under rugs to prevent a tripping accident) it seems odd that this one is completely overlooked. Then again, I would have been the only customer in that line had they required shoes.

NFL coming to Australia?

The nytimes has an article today about a Giants v Dolphins game being played in London as another attempt to broaden the read of American Football. The article states the goal is to have a team on another continent by 2020.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/sports/football/23london.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

Could Australia be next in line for a grid iron game? And would Aussies accept it?

My prediction is that it will not catch on here. There are already 3 different footballs (and soccer) being played here with strong regional ties. Every Aussie I meet has a particular favorite sport and team. They are accustomed to ignoring the other footballs and have vehement rationales for loving their sport and feeling nothing more than indifference, if not hatred, for the rest.

Plus, most have already passed judgement on grid iron and have found it "too slow and boring" for their taste with players who "don't look like athletes" and "only have to know how to do one thing."

I feel like the same statements could be made about cricket, but perhaps I just haven't been exposed to enough test matches.

Weekend sport

A few more lessons to be added to the Triathlon list:

Ocean swims are even harder when the water is choppy
Sunday provided the types of waves that I would have liked better with a surfboard. Enough so that I almost didn't do the swim. But it seemed once you got out past the breakers, it was ok.

If you compete in enough tris in a small club, you'll win an award
Even though I've never placed, or even come in above the bottom quartile. I got an award on Sunday for winning the most points in the 20-29 female division. I think I might have been the only 20-29 year old female to compete in more than one race. But, hey, I got a trophy and a $25 gift card to the bike shop.

Night Run: not such a great idea
Although, I think every one made it back unscathed, the 6K fun run on Saturday night was, in retrospect, a bad idea. First, running in the dark makes it difficult to see spots in the road that might, say, sprain an akle. Second, this road ran along a steep cliff down into the Barron Gorge. Third, the course was marked with glow sticks, but they weren't consistently on one side of the road, so each one you came to, you had to determine to which side of it to run. Fourth, it was an out and back course, so there was a risk that you could run directly into some one running the other direction.

CROC ATTACK!

Today's Cairns Post (the only reputable source of news in Cairns)


This guy was swimming in the ocean just north of Cairns when he happenned onto a croc, but was able to fight him off and get back to shore. I'm still not worried about the ocean triathlon swim this weekend because:

1. He was apparently very near an estuary, the crocs natural home
2. He was drunk, an didn't check the water before he jumped in
3. Hopefully, the croc will attack people at the front of the pack (i.e., not me)
4. He got away, right?

Marsupial encounter

I had completely forgotten to include in my Mission Beach post about my latest marsupial encounter. As Lisa and I drove down the dark, winding road toward Mission Beach, with eyes pealed for cassowaries, our headlights picked up a small animal sitting in the middle of the road that looked like this. Neither of us was sure what it was, but it was about the size of a cat and in our path. Following our wildlife instructions, we braked but did not swerve to miss the animal. And we safely missed it.

Rabbit? Must have been. We continued, then we saw another one. This one even scurried across the road, then gave a good hop into the bush. Couldn't be a rabbit, it has small ears.

Once at Mission Beach, we read that both bandicoots and pademelons are common to those parts and upon the advice of the "Wildlife of Far North Queensland" volume that we found in the long house, we determined it was a bandicoot. (Pademelons look like tiny kangaroos - definitely not what we saw, since we didn't notice the tail) Not quite as exciting or majestic as a cassowary, but still genuine Australia fauna nonetheless.

Hiking the Pyramid

About 20km south of Cairns, the highway passes Walsh's Pyramid, a naturally occurring mountain with a steep and pointy top. It climbs to an altitude of just over 900m and can be visible from Cairns on a clear day. When Rowan and I drove to Yungaburra, we passed it and discussed hiking the Pyramid. It's apparently the thing to do. Only takes 2 hours to get to the top.

Between triathlons, weekends in southern Australia and visitors the Pyramid hike had taken a back seat. But we finally arranged to go last weekend. We sought advice from some experienced hikers (Thanks, Dave!) and set off on Sunday morning at 6:30am with 6L of water, 6 granola bars, 3 bananas, 2 oranges and some almonds for Rowan, Lauren and myself.

The weather could not have been more perfect. After a week of breathlessly humid days in Cairns, we got a reprieve with a few clouds and a cool ocean breeze. Despite this about 10 minutes into the hike we were all soaked with sweat. The hike was less of a hike with some steep spots rather a set of uneven stairs with a few flat spots. Lauren set off at a break-neck pace, and would stop every 10 minutes or so for Rowan and me to catch up. The climb was so steep that we rarely spoke. We couldn't, we were gasping for air. The first 20 minutes seemed to take forever, and I felt like there was no way I could keep this up for another hour and forty. But from then on it went quickly, covering ground, looking back out toward Cairns and watching the surrounding farmland transition from fields of individual crops to a green patchwork quit.

We stopped at the halfway point for granola and almonds. The path got steeper from there on out. It kept looking like we were almost there, just around that corner, just over that boulder, that must be the top, that tree, that's it, right? The last 30 minutes were filled with false hope. Then we started to hear people. We had made it. It took just over 2 hours. We could now see out over the other side of the pyramid, out to the Tablelands and south toward Innisfail. At this point I thought to myself, this wasn't that bad. In fact it was pretty great. I could definitely do this again, maybe when Andrea visits.

We ate and chatted for about 30 minutes at the top before deciding to start descending back to the car. We were making plans for Cairns. We'd stop by the farmer's market for produce, then a quick shower, then to a cafe for newspapers, coffee and brekky. I was already hearing the siren call of poached eggs as we started back towards the car. Maybe it was the desire to be back in the city, or the knowing that the big sense of accomplishment with climbing the Pyramid was over, but the way back was hard. Harder than going up. Every step threatened to slide out from under you. Rarely was there a rock or tree to help steady you or take some of your weight off. I became much more aware of the changes in the landscape as well. Pine needles near the top were the biggest slipping risk for the first part, as we got lower, the needles gave way to loose gravel. Although we weren't winded and could talk on the way down, I found that the pain in my knees was making it difficult to focus on much else.

We must have passed the halfway point and not noticed it. It's already been 45 minutes, surely we're going down faster than we went up. No, there was the halfway point, still ahead of us. We sat down, had a snack and stretched our legs. Ok, we were so close to the cars I could almost taste the eggs. One the way up, I had noticed a granola bar wrapper on the ground. On the way back, I picked it up to throw it out, thinking, this had been really close the cars, we're almost there. Still there were turns, the highway still looked small. This hike would not end.

We did eventually make it back to the car, Cairns, the market, coffee, newspapers and brekky. But, not before I had changed my mind about hiking the Pyramid again. It was great to do it once, and perhaps if some one installed a slide or a zipline from the top, I would consider it again. But at least for now, and given that my legs are still in immense pain two days later, I will not be making the trip again.

Walsh's Pyramid

SHARK ATTACK!

Pretty far off the reef snorkel destinations, even farther off the coast of Cairns. A man who was spearfishing was attacked by a shark. He is recovering well.

http://www.cairnspost.com.au/article/2007/10/15/4266_news.html

Second attack reported today off the North coast of New South Whales (over a days drive south of here)

http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/15/2059744.htm?section=justin

Election fever

The Australian Election was called yesterday. Australians will go to the polls November 24. If the polls to date can be trusted, there will likely be a change in the Federal government. Not sure how this affects our work, but it definitely could.

Mission Beach Aquatics Festival

Mission Beach

Lisa and I went to Mission Beach last weekend which is about a 2 hours drive South of Cairns. Mission Beach is known for its Cassowaries, which are large, endangered, flightless birds. It's home to 50-60 of them and has the densest population of them in the world. Despite this and the many signs indicating that we should be cautious drivers we saw a grand total of zero.

We stayed at a place called Sanctuary. It offers accommadations to tourists in the middle of a bit of conserved rainforest just north of Mission Beach on Garner's Beach. We stayed in a rainforest hut which was like a screened in porch with two beds and a night stand. At night we could hear all the creatures of the forest come alives. So even though we never saw a cassowary, we are convinced that we definitely heard one. They either go "ribbit," "hoo hoo," or "cock-a-doodle-doo."

Sanctuary also boasts an organic farm (which you can work on for accommodations), a yoga studio, and an incredibly yummy restaurant. With everything there, there is a sense of responsibility, that you are renting a part of the community there. Thus, when the yoga class is done, you wash your own mat. If you would like dinner in the restaurant, you must order by 6pm off the menu which is announced at 4pm and it will be served between 7 and 8. It's the type of place that by the second day you get the feeling that you had significantly destressed. If you could stay there for a week, you may no longer be recognizable to your friends and family.

Ultimately, the rationale for going to Mission Beach was to see the Mission Beach Aquatics festival and to compete in the triathlon that Sunday. The Festival was small. And I feel like I'm starting to see the same "local flavor" bits again and again. The highlight of the festival was supposed to be the world's largest sarong. But when we went we saw that, in fact, it had been just many pieces of fabric pinned together in a patchwork sarong, and that most of it had already been disassembled. We then found a good table to grab a beer and watch the parade. The parade consisted of an old tyme car, kids with surfboards, scouts dressed as flip-flops and a firetruck. I think they might have won the award for the world's shortest parade. Our waitress went to get our beers and when she came back she had missed it.

I bought shoes for my bike. They clip into the pedals so you can both pull up on the pedals as well as push down. This is a big step in my cycling career. And it's to be expected that you will fall off your bike a few times as you get the hang of using them. Saturday, the day before the race, I still had not tried them out with the bike in motion (I had practiced them with the bike stationary and held in an upright position). So after two beers and the excitement of the parade, we decided it was time to practice. Lisa ran out ahead of me, so I could ride to her and she could catch me if I started to tip. I clipped in, pedalled a bit, clipped out and came to a stop right in front of her, still upright! She ran a bit further. Again, I made it successfully. "This is awesome" "You're a natural" "Ok, let's try it one more time, back to the car and we'll be good" As Lisa ran back toward the car, I turned the bike around with one foot still clipped in. And then, I was on the ground, laughing and calling out to Lisa. We tried a few more times and I didn't fall again, so I was feeling good for the race the next day.

I woke up in the morning anxious. Worried about the shoes still. But Suzie was there. Whew, not going to be last. Then it turns out, she was doing the half distance course. They explained the course to us: four buoys on the swim, left out of the lot on the bike, road turns right, over a small bridge, take a turn, out to South Mission Beach, around the cone, back, second lap, run across the street, pass the "Run-turnaround sign", but don't turn around there, take a turn up a hill, follow the cones, back to the turnaround sign, second loop and back to the transition area. What? I'll just follow the signs. The group of us traipsed out to the beach for the swim. I saw two buoys close to shore, where were the other two? Off on the horizon, I spotted two small orange dots. Those were them. Was it possible that was 750m? I started to panic. I can't swim that far in the ocean, I have clippy shoes I'm going to fall out of, I have no idea what the course is. I looked around and spotted Greg a member of the club. I told him I was anxious about the swim. He said not to worry about it, just take it easy, take my time, don't try to go out too hard and I'd make it.

He was right. I was very slow, and I got caught in a rip coming back in and kept getting pushed off course, but I made it out of the water. The very last person out. At this point I was a bit disheartened, but strapped on my new clippy shoes and took my bike out to the course. I couldn't get my right foot in. I had practiced starting with one foot in, and now I couldn't get it in. I stood on the right pedal, I heard it clip, but then my weight was on the right, and down I went. My second spill with the shoes. A race official came back over to me to help. He offered to hold the bike up right, and I could just clip both of them in. But I couldn't do that, that wasn't how I had practiced, I knew I would fall again. I managed to get the right foot back in with him holding the bike, then finally got on my way.

Ok, right turn, over the bridge, out to the intersection, there are people there directing traffic. I hang a right. I swear I pass people cheering me on. Then it's just winding hills. Where's the turnaround? I see a sign "Caution bikes on road", ok I'm still going the right way. Then the road ends, another intersection and there's no sign, there's no one there. Which way do I go? Where are all the other riders? I must have screwed up. I turn around. I go all the way back to the transition area. I spot Simone, "Where's the turn around?" "There's a cone in the middle of the road" How could I have missed that? Back out, I come to the first intersection, and I yell out, "Where's the turn around?" "It's to the left." The left. I turned right last time. Why didn't you stop me before?

Maybe, I should just rack my bike, and not run. But as I get back to the transition. There's Lisa, cheering me on. I get off my bike, and I don't fall over. Ok, time to run. It's now about 10:45am, it's getting hot. I'm running. I do the first lap slowly, and I know at this point that every one else has finished. I ask the official, "can I finish?" He says "Yeah". I turn around at this point things start to click. My strides feel good. I make it up the hill this time with a lot less effort. And when I turn the corner to the finish line, there's Lisa and Simone cheering once again.

I don't really care about being last. I do care about being so far behind. It's hard to keep myself motivated to push hard when I can't see any one ahead of me. And I feel guilty for making people wait on me. One more triathlon next weekend...

Summertime

It's 30 degrees (86 in fahrenheit) with 66% humidity. It is becoming critically important that I find the remote control to my air conditioner.

Why it's so expensive to get to Australia from the States

"Qantas makes an estimated 20 per cent of its profits on the route [US to Australia], deemed as one of the most uncompetitive long-haul routes in the world."

But perhaps all of this will be changing:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/travel/us-air-pact-ups-virgin-blue-hopes/2007/09/30/1191090945530.html

Local Big Band

The best part of seeing the Atherton Hotshots play at the Cairns Yacht Club was not being the youngest people there by 20 years, or watching the blue-haired ladies glide across the floor, or even the sometimes questionable renditions of "New York, New York". The best part was the band leaders terribly awkward attempts at weaving the songs together with introductions like "Well that was truly joyful... Now 'Joy to the World'...er" or "Julia [the singer's name] the more I see you, the more excited I get... No, I mean, the next song is 'The More I See You'..." Pure gold.

Atherton Hotshots

Best Practice Care Packages

I'm not posting this to make you feel guilty, but should it encourage you to send a care package, well I wouldn't complain. I've received two care packages since I've been in Australia. Each of these packages has braved crossing the US, the Pacific, the equator and the East Coast of Australia, and each is a bit worse for the wear:

This one suffered through Australian Quarantine for a week while Australian Authorities determined that the homemade cookies and custom-designed "Down Under" granola bars were of no threat to the Australian landscape. And even with that the cookies were scarfed in a day, and the recipe for the granola bars has been requested by several of my officemates.

Amazingly, this one made it here covered in 39 cent stamps (and surprisingly no customs form). In it's hold: a mix CD and a homemade "Book about Wa".

What I love about both these packages is not only the distance that they dared, but their contents were conceived and created in kitchens and living rooms back in the states. Each of them sweet in their own way.

Thanks, Margot, Mike, Jen

Lessons from my first Australian Triathlon

1. Ocean swims are hard.
I guess I haven't done an open water swim since maybe last summer in Boston, so attempting my first one in a while, in the ocean, in a race, wasn't the best. But I did not drown, or have to get saved, I did get kicked by a bunch of the kids that only had to do half the distance. Which brings me to...

2. It's unfair that the 10 year olds get to do shorter distances, they are obviously fitter than me so they should have to put themselves through the same toils. And they gloat.
Seriously, these kids were doing laps in utero. They are ironmen in training. When I was 10, I thought riding my bike to the end of the driveway was a feat. Most of these kids haven't hit puberty yet, and I could probably hold them at arms distance to keep them from hitting me if I had to and they still look barely winded when I crossed the finish line. I do feel bad for the one kid I beat (same kid as in the duathlon), it's gotta be way harder to be him than me.

3. Setting expectations that I'll be at the back of the pack make for a far more enjoyable outcome.
I've learned by now to not expect any great performances out of me relative to the rest of the race. This race instead, I focused on not letting myself down - I didn't stop the entire way except in the transition areas. I ran the whole thing, I held a 16mph pace on the bike and I didn't drown. Even though they were already taking down the bike racks when I finished, I felt great. This was also helped by...

4. Knowing I will absolutely not be the last also makes for a more enjoyable race.
Ok, maybe it's not nice, but there was another woman there who had a basket on the front of her bike. Sure, I don't have clippy pedals, but a basket, really? I am an order of magnitude more hardcore than her. I had ridden with her the week before and knew that even if I blew a tire, I could probably run the bike faster than she could pedal. Knowing that she was "racing" meant I would definitely not be last. I took solace in that. I may not be competitive, but at least people aren't looking at me thinking "A basket?!!" And I am getting clippy pedals on my bike today!

5. Having a cheering section rocks no matter how small the race or the cheering section.
Lisa and Kimberley came out to watch the end of the race. So when I crossed the finish line I had the only cheering section at the race. It was awesome. Then we went for brunch out on the beach. Could not have been a better Sunday morning.

Festival Cairns

Just realized I posted pictures without much explanation. As I try to fully integrate into Aussie culture (e.g., netball, sushi trains, "reckon"), these sorts of "local flavor" events are definitely my favorite.

I have a lot of respect for Cairns. Considering how easily Cairns could just be another tourist stop (see Port Douglas, Noosa), Cairns really goes out of its way to provide local events and to create a sense of community in town. For three weeks every September Cairns puts on Festival Cairns with a host of various events around town. Jeff and I went to the Cairns Regional Museum to take in art from Far North Queensland artists. Definitely the highlight of this show was a sculpture titled "Shark Watch" that was a clay shark sitting on a life guard chair in complete Aussie lifeguard attire (i.e., red and yellow beanie).

But the true culmination of Festival Cairns was last Saturday. It included the Rotary duck race, the Parade of Lights and the Fireworks extravaganza. The duck race is a raffle, you can sponsor a duck for $5, then the ducks race across the lagoon, and the first duck to reach the end of the chute wins thousands of dollars in prizes. How thrilling does that sounds! I was very excited for the race. It turns out rubber duckies don't tend to race of their own accord, like cane toads, they require a bit of prodding. This was provided by two lifeguards, pushing an inflatable barrier at the back of the duck pack to coax them along. The entire race takes about 20 minutes, which for an event that involves watching rubber duckies drift across a pool, is quite a long time. They even have moment by moment commentary, "Now there's a cheeky little blue ducks looking to make a move." Still, it was great to see so many people come out.

The Parade of Lights had all the hallmarks of a good community parade (just like the Somerville Memorial Day parade only without the Shriners in tiny cars or the revolutionary war re-enactors): high school marching bands, dance troupes, Karate schools, Hare Krishnas, and unicyclists. Afraid the pictures didn't come out very well from these, as the light was dying, but three floats were my favorites. The first was a school that dressed up as the Esplanade (see photo below). As I've already established my fondness for the Esplanade, I'm sure you'll understand my great pleasure at seeing a host of kids dressed up as the water fountain in the lagoon and the big fish statues, compete with big blue tarp connected them, followed by kids dressed up as palm trees and sunbathers. Fantastic.


The other two floats were a gymnastics troupe that had mounted a trampoline on the back of a semi truck and a day care center that in an effort to emphasize safety had put up a 4ft fence surrounding the float, thus making the kids look caged.

As soon as the parade ended, people raced across the street and onto the Esplanade for a good view of the fireworks out over the water. Of course, the fireworks didn't start for a good 40 minutes, so we decided to give up our great position which we had knocked little old ladies over to get to, and go have a beer. Fireworks are in the sky anyway, right?

Nettie!

Netball is a derivative of basketball that was invented to provide a less rough alternative to the fairer sex. It seems to have remained a favorite for girls in Commonwealth countries (sort of like softball). The main differences are the lack of dribbling and running with the ball - it's a passing game - and that positions have very clear areas of the court they are allowed to play in, so there's no crowding the goal. And there's no backboard.

The girls from work have formed a netball team. I've never been much for throwing and catching. I find most games devolve into dodgeball for me. I prefer biking or rowing. But, then again, there's no better excuse for sucking at a game than having never even seen it played before, so really the expectations couldn't be lower for my performance. And they desperately needed players.

In our first game last week, we got completely creamed. I think we lost by 20 points. This was not the way to instill confidence in my game or even to enjoy playing. This week I relectantly returned to the court, this time playing offense (specifically, wing attack). The other team was short a player (so it was 7 on 6). We seemed well-matched at that rate. Then their goal attack sprained her ankle. Needless to say, we won! Definitley not a fair fight, but far more enjoyable this week than last.

Next week, I think we'll move down a league, and hopefully that will ensure future wins. And maybe I'll actually learn to catch.

Some things just don't translate

I assumed that food that is neither American nor Australian would remain unchanged between the two countries. Indian, Chinese and Japanese food should just be the same whether you're in Australia or the US, right? Why should they be different? Considering how different Chinese food in the US is from authentic Chinese food, I guess it makes sense that Australian Chinese food would be different from US Chinese food.

In most things the offerings are the same, but the names can get a bit lost in translation: "chicken tikka masala" is "butter chicken" here. "Dim sum" is called "yum chaw," but they do have "dim sims" which are those dumplings that inevitably have both pork and shrimp in them.

But sushi is just different. They have (cooked) chicken rolls. There are never spicy tuna rolls. It seems that every roll is made with mayonnaise. More stark than those though are the sushi delivery methods. It seems there are two types of sushi restaurants: the stall and the train. The stall offers pre-made rolls that haven't been sliced into pieces, so you just buy the rolls and eat them with your hands (like a hotdog). The train involves many small plates that rotate past your table, you select the items you want, and the plates are different colored to indicate the price. I know that sushi trains exist in the states, but I'd never seen one, and given that I have few other sushi choices these days, I thought I'd comment on what makes for a good sushi train.

Of course the quality and variety of sushi matters, but the hallmark of an excellent sushi train would actually be a moat with boats of sushi floating by. However, there are none of these in Cairns. As a result the next best thing is a real model train (usually US), complete with engine and passenger car. Otherwise it's just a conveyor belt.


And now for more pictures from the Festival Cairns:

Festival Cairns

Photos from Sydney

Jeff's visit to Sydney

details to come

What's in a name

September 11th has become a somber day for me. It's the Kennedy assassination of my generation. I know precisely where I was when the details began to unfold - the confusion, then the chilling realization of what had happenned. Every year I feel a considerable loss, and I mourn not only for the people who died on that day, but also the loss of the banding together, as Americans, that happenned that day, that has since been extinguished by the misuse of 9/11 as a cover for a misguided war.

Did 9/11 affect our nation more than the Kennedy assassination? Will people 45 years hence know and commemorate the date of September 11th? I will admit I had to look up the Kennedy assissination on wikipedia to discover when it was (November 22, 1963). But, since September 11th is "September 11th" or "9/11" not the "Al Qaeda attacks on American soil" or even the "World Trade Center bombings," it seems difficult to think that the actual date will ever fall into neglect.

The fact that the events and the date are so inextricably tied creates a disorienting sensation when abroad. It's September 11th here. But 6 years ago today, it was September 10th in New York, still bright and hopeful. Most Australians likely didn't hear the news until September 12th. I feel like I should be taking my moment of quiet contemplation today on the events 7 years ago and the reactions to them across since then. But, I feel alone in doing so. I could wait til tomorrow to review the nytimes.com slide shows of the memorial at ground zero. But that's still not my September 11th.

Perhaps though, mourning without the media's recounting of events, the excerpts from the blackboxes, the harrowing 911 transcripts, is the most healthy thing to do. Maybe it is part of the recovery process. I don't believe that a September 11th will pass in the next 100 years that will be devoid of some formal recognition of the date, but maybe it's time for Americans, or at least for me, to start to move on.

America's image abroad

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit has just wrapped up in Sydney. I don't think it made much news back in the States, but the President was here. And once again, he did his country proud, referring to "APEC" as "OPEC" and "Australians" as "Austrians." It is a sad state of affairs that his cringe-worthy blunders no longer make papers. Best I can tell, it didn't even get a nod on the Daily Show.

Recently, I came across this quote in an article criticizing the Australian PM John Howard for his alliances with George Bush. It seems that we are resigned to riding out this presidency with the hope that, this time, the next four years will bring change.

From the New Yorker:

"When Sarkozy met Condoleezza Rice, she said, ‘What can I do for you?’ And he said, bluntly, ‘Improve your image in the world. It’s difficult when the country that is the most powerful, the most successful—that is, of necessity, the leader of our side—is one of the most unpopular countries in the world. It presents overwhelming problems for you and overwhelming problems for your allies. So do everything you can to improve the way you’re perceived—that’s what you can do for me.’ "

[Full text available here http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/27/070827fa_fact_gopnik?currentPage=all ]

Being a tourist again

Jeff's been visiting for the last few weeks, so I've gotten to be a tourist again.

It's fun rediscovering my city again. The first day in Cairns, I showed Jeff around. We walked down the Esplanade which is my favorite feature of the city. Cairns doesn't have a beach, it has mudflats. It used to have a beach, but years of dredging the Trinity inlet to make room for bigger boats and placing that mud along the shore has created a marsh. The Esplanade is a 2.5K stretch of coast that has been developed for community activities. There are free gas BBQs and picnic tables, playgrounds, a skate park, bike and walking trails, the Lagoon (a pool), and public performance spaces. For a city like Cairns that doesn't have very many locals (population only 130K), it seems very important to have space like this that is dedicated to public use, not just tourist traps.

Also visited is Rusty's market. The produce market is open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday and sells the freshest, cheapest produce available in Cairns. They also offer some prepared foods, various jewelry, clothing and second hand stalls, thai massage and tarot reader. I only wish it was open every day.

Last weekend, we traveled up to Kuranda which is "the village in the rainforest". It's up on the tablelands above Cairns. We took the Scenic Railway up to Kuranda. It was beautiful, but touristy. Thankfully, it was not kitschy, there were no train robberies along the way, just lots of tunnels, a few waterfalls and some spectacular views back down to the ocean. While in Kuranda, we broke down and went to Koala Land. It would have been a wholy unsuccessful trip to Australia if Jeff had not seen some marsupials, so we gave up on seeing them in the wild and paid out $15 each to check out this small park in Kuranda. There they had freshwater crocodiles (not native to this part of Australia - and much smaller than the salties we have here). We also so kangaroos and wallabies, including one joey that was still hiding in its mother's pouch. They offered koala snuggling, but I don't believe in it. Koalas are naturally like Cooper. They sleep 22 hours out of the day. If you disturb their slumber, they get angry. They have sharp claws. So in order to provide a good tourist attraction, the koalas are drugged into submission. No koala snuggling for us. Then the highlight of the trip. We took the cable cars back down the mountain. This was oustandingly beautiful, floating over lush green rainforest, with almost no sounds except those made from the trees below. I think the best tourist thing I've done in Cairns.

There are a few other random pictures here. And I'll put up more from Sydney shortly.

Jeff's visit to Cairns

Posting from my living room!

Hurray for internet at home. I feel like I've just discovered Australia!