Dave & Dana in Australia

Arggh. It would appear that, despite a predictable (in hindsight) rally that kept us at the edge of our seats, the Buds have missed out on the post-season for the first time in several years. Bad luck I guess, but really I think it’s a bad cobble of players long on experience but short on the speed necessary to compete in the new NHL, and a bunch of young players lacking the experience, and in the case of the young defence corps lacking the speed as well. I think it’s time to blow the whole thing up and start over with the young group. That would be an option I guess, if they hadn’t traded away all sorts of prospects to get all those rent-a-wrecks at the end of seasons past. At the very least, I demand Aki Berg be deported.

And for those of you who actually read my re-assuring message in mid-season about “not panicking but not also getting your hopes up about the Leafs cause they’ll make the playoffs but only barely, just like they should” and are now thinking, “hey wait a minute, you did write that, and the Leafs didn’t make the playoffs”, I would say that yes, I did write that and I was indeed wrong - this rag-tag bunch Quinn (mostly) put together to keep the massed lemmings buying the highest priced tickets in the league fooled even me. They did a good job of making it interesting at the end though, didn’t they? And Mats really looked like a guy that should be making tons of cash too - scoring lots of goals and all. Where was that season ticket order form anyway… No! They’ve gone too far this time - I have more faith in the Raptors making the playoffs next year than the Leafs. There, I said it.

Last Friday I drove out to the West end of Sydney where, after 30 days of living in a cell that was perhaps 4 feet by 3 feet by 10 feet tall, Fritz and Jasmine were released into their halfway house accomodation, our Volvo. Their probationary period lasted only the hour or so it took to drive back to Manly. Both kitties are in good shape and showing almost no effects from the month long ordeal of travelling halfway around the world. They do tend to follow us around the apartment constantly, but even that is starting to wane a bit. All in all, having them around again is worth it despite the expense.

As for us, I would say we’re getting settled as well. We’ve got 90% of the furniture done - just waiting on the bed frame to be delivered really. We even hung two pictures last weekend! Here are few pictures of the apartment as it is now. We’ve each been able to work from home about once per week, so that’s really nice as well. This weekend is the Easter weekend here, which is 4 days for everyone. We’re going to take 3 of those and head down to do some camping about 3 hours South of the city at Pebbly beach. We’ll take one day and do some hiking, while taking some beach and surf time on another day.


In another week we’ll have some visitors as a Glen - a friend from my Mercer days - will be down visiting his girlfriend Paula, who goes to law school near Surfer’s Paradise, or Gold Coast, or whatever they call that area nowadays. In any event, it should be good to catch up and tour around Sydney for a couple of days.

We really showed Dale a good time in Sydney. First off, he’s seen rain 3 times in 3 months in Perth, and what happens when he comes for a visit to Sydney - rains for 3 days and is (comparatively) cold. We took Dale and Dana’s parents to the Blue Mountains - it rained and we couldn’t see anything. And more than that, it was cold too. Couldn’t have been more than 15 degrees! Otherwise, Dale’s visit made it into a very hard week for getting up and going to work in the morning - we needed a rest after he left!

On the way back from the Blue mountains we visited the cats again at the quarantine station - it’s like a jail, but the jail is called the “Cattery”. Anyway, they’re still doing well - we got some pictures this time. They get released this Friday, and we’re looking very much forward to having them around again.

As soon as Dale left the weather came up Milhouse, and we’ve been using the last couple of weekends to do a liesurely job of filling out our apartment with the remaining furniture we needed and generally enjoy living near the beach. Dana’s parents were by on the Sunday before they left, which is when we discovered that Cockatoo’s are frequent visitors to our patio - and you can feed them by hand.

I also had a chance to go to the Footy, witnessing the NSW Waratahs absolutely dismantle the Auckland Blues in Super 14 Rugby. Rugby is also a really good sport, it won’t be the last game of that I catch. Now all I need to do is go see the Manly Sea-Eagles in Rugby League (different rules than Super 14), and I’ll have hit the footy trifecta of wacky Australian sports of Rugby Union, Rugby League and Aussie Rules. One thing I have decided is that I will probably be no more than a specator at any of them. Haven’t had a chance to spend a day at a cricket match either, but that will come (maybe).

I know that sounds a bit self-evident, but it’s more than just standing up on the board that I’m talking about. That’s the glamour part of surfing, and it’s definitely tricky - picking, catching, and surfing on a wave - but that’s the (comparatively) easy part. The hard work is getting out of the white water and in position to surf. Believe me, paddling and duck-diving through crashing waves is tiring in the extreme. That’s still not the toughest thing though - the toughest thing is wiping out or getting rolled over by a giant wave, which tends to leave you under the water way too long with no idea which way is up, and when you finally do get to the surface there’s probably another wave waiting to do the same. That, and the fear such near-death experiences creates, is the hardest part.

All that being said, it sure is a lot of fun. Now that I’ve bought a board (a 7 1/2 foot mini mal) I’ve been surfing about every other day. I call her white thunder - ok I’m joking, but if anyone can think of something catchy, feel free to suggest it (spiro, colin?). Anyway, a workmate took me out to surf some real waves this morning, which has given me a healthy respect for how freaking ferocious and scary a wave with a 6 foot face is. We went up to Warriewood, which today was the best beach in Sydney due to the wind direction, normally a title held by North Narrabeen. I can’t say I really surfed those huge waves, but I sure did have some ridiculous wipeouts.