Last weekend, we joined our new friends Adam and Emily for some surfing in Torquay. Coincidentally, Adam and Emily moved to Australia from Denver as well! They've been out here since January for their jobs, and they live in the suburb right next to ours. I randomly met Emily at a book club, and we're all learning to surf!
We didn't know the waves would be sooooo huge on this day. The surf reports say they were four to eight feet high. That's if you're looking at them from the front. And when an eight foot wave is coming at your face, it is incredibly scary. And then somehow I'm supposed to surf it? Yeah right. I got up a few times early in the morning, but the waves got bigger as the day went on, and I eventually had to just call it quits. Unfortunately, there is no photographic proof of the few waves I did catch. But of course, before I quit, Zack got a few lovely photographs of me getting demolished by the waves. The one below is especially pitiful.
Sad, I know. But kind of funny.
Some really good surfers were out on this day; it was actually more crowded than we've ever seen it. Zack got up more than a few times, and I got a few pictures of it (one below). We're going surfing again tomorrow, and we're hoping the waves are a bit more manageable. We finally purchased surfboards (more about that in an upcoming post), so we're excited to try out our own boards. And I'm going to make Zack get a picture of me surfing even if he has to sit on the beach for an hour!
Zack and I have a little routine going now. On most weeknights, he gets home from work, we eat dinner, and then we watch a television show called MasterChef Australia. It is awesome. Basically, lots of wanna-be chefs are narrowed down, and then there are various cooking competitions to see who gets eliminated each week until they get down to one. This reality TV show is on six days a week here-it's crazy! Depending on which night of the week it is, there might be an elimination challenge, a pressure cooker test (timed cooking), a master class with a famous chef, etc. They also bring in various guest judges and cook-off competitors who are famous chefs and restaurant owners around Australia.
"Five minutes left-chop chop-this is 'do or die' time!"
We have fun trying to figure out who is going to get kicked off, who is going to make something good, and being grossed out by some of the dishes. We also have a good time mimicking the judges. They are hilarious. They say dramatic things like, "Cook as if your life depends upon it" and distinctly Australian things like, "This dish is a cracker!" (that's a good thing), and funny things like when they were cooking Spanish dishes and one said, "You are in a 'House of SPain!'" One of them wears ridiculous colored suits with fancy scarves every night. We call him "Scaaaahf," which is "Scarf" said with an accent and a raspy voice. Try it.
Scaaaaaaahf on one of his more subdued days.
The only problem with this show is that now Zack scrutinizes my cooking like a MasterChef judge! When it's good, I might hear, "There is an explosion of flavor in my mouth!" (said with an accent of course). When it's bad, well, I never cook badly, so I wouldn't know! :) Ha-just don't ask him about the smoky haze he comes home to sometimes. I swear it's because of the horrid frying pan in this furnished place-it's a piece of junk!
A contestant gets her dish judged.
Anyway, this show (now in its third season) has brought a pretty big focus on cooking and food to Australia. The interesting thing is how it's different from reality shows in the United States. Nobody on this show talks badly about anybody else; they all support each other. They cheer each other on, help each other out, and they are sad when someone is eliminated. It's not like Hell's Kitchen or reality cooking shows in the States where everyone yells at each other and fights. Very different. Very fun to watch. And I am very much putting off making our own MasterChef dinner by writing this blog entry!
In Australia, it is autumn. Actually, we're heading into winter very soon. And I'm not going to lie-it's cold here! Yesterday, the high was only 8 degrees Celsius, which is 47 degrees Fahrenheit. It also rained on and off throughout the day, and the wind never stopped blowing. Today's not supposed to be much better...about 52 degrees. I'm not complaining, because I know people will be thinking, "You're in Australia-poor baby-just be quiet." But I'm just reporting the facts. I know people will also be thinking, "52 degrees is not that bad. You lived in Denver for Pete's sake." However, it's different for a few reasons:
1. Denver has sun. 300 days of it every year. Sun helps it feel warm even when the temperature is cold. It's pretty darn cloudy here every other day or so.
2. Rain makes it feel colder. There's a wet, damp coldness to the air that you just can't shake. In fact, our bath towels never get completely dry from day to day-only when I do laundry and they come out of the dryer. My umbrella has seen more use in the few weeks I've been here than in my entire seven years in Denver. Seriously!
3. My body is craving summer. I like all four seasons, but in order. Coming from winter in Denver back into fall/winter here is a bit brutal. We're hoping to start traveling around Australia soon. Maybe we'll get to somewhere warm for our anniversary in July?
4. It is really windy. Maybe it's because we live right on the bay, but there are some serious wind gusts going on these past few days. That makes it feel colder too!
5. I didn't pack all of my cold-weather gear. Sure, I've got my sweaters and sweatshirts (or jumpers as they would call them here). And I have my North Face fleece jacket, which is pretty warm. But I only have one light set of a dressy hat/scarf/mittens. Maybe I should have brought my snowboarding get-up!
You can all remind me of this post when I'm writing about how hot it is in the summer, but for now, I'm curled up in bed, and I don't want to move from this nice warm spot. However, there are some killer mid-year sales going on right now, so maybe I'll do some shopping today. The stores should be warm, right?
A major icon in Melbourne is Flinders Street Station, which is actually a train station near Federation Square, one of the main gathering spaces in the city. Lots of tourists congregate around here, and in the mornings/evenings, it's full of commuters. Basically, it's busy.
This is the area where Oprah spoke when she was in Melbourne. Some people think these buildings are really ugly, but I think they're kind of cool. In one, you find the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). The other has the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), which I haven't visited yet. There are always various events going on in this area, and a lot of folks just hang out in the space outside just eating lunch or people-watching.
Across the street is St. Paul's Cathedral. It's very beautiful inside too. Across the Yarra River, you can also see the Arts Centre Spire.
If you walk down the river a little bit, you come to this Ferris wheel. In the background, you can see the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) where we saw the footy game. On the streets surrounding Federation Square and Flinders Street Station, there are all sorts of restaurants, souvenir shops, specialty stores, and even an Ugg store! There are several more pictures on my Shutterfly website, so check them out if you're interested. I had a fun afternoon last week exploring this iconic part of the city!
On Saturday morning, we biked downtown to the Queen Victoria Market. To start the day right, you have to have some yummy jam-filled doughnuts from this cart. So good! I'm not sure why it's called "American" though.
This famous market is busiest on Saturdays, but it's open several other days of the week as well. There are aisles of fresh fruits and vegetables, areas with meat, fish, cheese, breads, clothing, and more. It's one giant flea market-type atmosphere with crowds, sellers yelling their prices, etc. And the prices are pretty good-I'm never buying produce at the grocery store again!
You can even buy your own ducks and chickens. Peking Duck anyone?! We didn't buy a lot this time around, but we'll be back for sure. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday morning.
One of the cool things about living in a big city, especially in a country with very few big cities, is that several television shows are filmed here. In my research on things to do in Melbourne, I came across some websites where you can get free tickets to be in the audience of some shows. A few weeks ago, Zack and I went to a Studio A taping, which is kind of like a very small local Saturday Night Live type of show. It was okay; it was something unique to do on a Monday night I guess.
We caught the end of Australia's Got Talent on TV the other night, where Jack Vidgen sang. He's apparently all the rage. You can check out his first audition on this YouTube video-pretty amazing stuff-especially right after the two minute mark.
This past Sunday night, I went to the taping of the final night of the Melbourne auditions for The X Factor. The audience was pretty packed, and the whole thing was kind of a major production. It was cool to see, because there were some really good singers (and a few that were not that good at all!), but it was a long evening. I had to wait in a line outside for an hour before getting inside and sitting for another hour (in the very back!) before they started. Then there were three hours of taping, which included a lot of clapping and cheering and waiting between acts for the judges to get their makeup and hair touched up.
Speaking of the judges, they were kind of an interesting mix. Guy Sebastian was the first Australian Idol in 2003 (yes, they have that show too), Ronan Keating was in the band Boyzone, Natalie Bassingthwaighte is an Australian actress/TV personality, and Mel B was Scary Spice back in the day! They wouldn't let you take any pictures during the taping, but I did capture the shot below with my phone when I first got inside.
Yesterday, I spent the afternoon at a taping of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire Hot Seat. It's a lot like the Millionaire show in the States, but instead of one person going as far as they can go with answering questions and then being done, their contestants can pass on a question they don't know and then hopefully work their way back up through the other five people to get back in the "hot seat." Anyway, this taping was a lot of fun, mostly because I'm a big dork and like to see if I know the answers to the questions.
The show looks so much bigger on TV. In reality, the studio was quite small, with only four rows of audience members on each side. I actually got to sit in the front row for all five episodes that they taped. They moved us around between episodes so it looks like the audience is different, but I know I'll be on TV, because one time my head was directly behind the contestant's head on the camera, and another time it was right behind the host's head! So if you have access to Australian television, look for me wearing orange on that show in the next few weeks, as that's when these episodes are scheduled to air.
In true Australian fashion, they fed us sausage rolls for a snack between the third and fourth episodes. We also got some lollies! It was an exciting afternoon, especially in the first few episodes. In the first one, a guy won $20,000. In the second one, the guy won $250,000!! I guess this has only happened a few times on the show (nobody's ever won the $1,000,000). Anyway, when this guy won the money, everyone went crazy. His wife and daughter ran down, they gave them flowers and champagne, and they shot off confetti all over the stage. Very cool! In the other three episodes, people won $1000, $10,000, and another $1000. I think I could get sued for telling you this; I signed some paper about confidentiality, but I didn't really read it. Oh well!
I liked when I was sitting behind the host, because on his screen you could see a tiny box in red or green letting him know if the contestant got the answer right. That way, even when the host went to "commercials" or kept everyone in suspense, I already knew if the contestant was out or not! They were super strict about not allowing cameras, phones, or anything into the studio, so the best I could do was grab a few of the confetti pieces from the big win and take a picture of those when I got home. So here you go!
Well, time to figure out what adventure I'm going to have today, so goodbye for now!
Yesterday I spent the afternoon walking around Federation Square (more about that in another entry), and I stopped in the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Most of the exhibits were free, so even though I'm not much of an artsy fartsy person, it was cool to see some Australian artists' work. I especially liked the first floor, which was full of Aboriginal art. Each painting tells a story, and its description was next to it. I liked the colorful ones.
Last week, I stopped in a shop down in the CBD that has this type of art for sale. These large ones cost $20,000 or more! Bummer, because it'd be cool to have one of these colorful paintings above a couch in our house some day. Anyway, I'm not even sure if I was allowed to take pictures in here, but I did. I kept the flash off and snapped quickly! I'll put the rest of my pictures on my Shutterfly site. Enjoy!
