A Day in Warrnambool

It takes two hours to get to Warrnambool from Geelong on back country roads with sheep on one side and cows on the other - until all you see is cows everywhere. You are now in dairy country.

You don't have to travel as out of the way as we did, but it made for better scenery (and less traffic). About half way through the trip I thought I was seeing things:

Is that water over there, or the hazy clouds playing tricks? "Salt flats," Simon announced. Cool. Never saw those before.

Turns out it is usually a salt flat. Today, it was Lake Bolac. Usually it stands empty, dry, and mirage-like, but this week the lake accumulated a few inches of water in the several days of heavy rain.

Finally we arrived in Warrnambool. I found a cozy cafe to work in for a while and then wandered around town; up and down the avenues, in and out of boutiques and the "country" Targets.

It seems that Warrnambool is a popular Christmas vacation spot. Because of it's beach. (Christmas vacation = beach vacation, don't forget) It's right on the Great Ocean Road and it has it has a great big beach. Lots of rocks. And reefs. And a maritime village featuring local shipwrecks. And really fun looking playgrounds. It seemed like a nice place to explore and I'm sure I'll be back again for a longer visit. 

This time around there was only time to explore the beach near the breakwater, Stingray Bay. Just the name made me want to get in the water and see what was out there.

 

Possible penguin sighting. They could just be birds. I'm going to go with penguins."Middle Rock" is currently closed to pedestrians and guarded by dogs to protect the penguin habitat.

 

Across this bridge (just to the right of Middle Rock) gives some spectacular views and the opportunity to walk along the edge of the coast. 

Cool erosion!

View of Middle Rock, pointing out to sea.

 

Like I said, lots of rocks. It's easy to imagine what brought down all those ships.

For those who keep asking what part of the country I'm in, here's the map:

And to help myself figure out where I'd traveled to this week, I tracked the route to Warrnambool. We took a north route not even on this cut out, but the general locale of the lake is marked. Camperdown is a town I visited on my January trip - located on one of the world's largest volcanic plains - I was proud of myself that I recognized Mount Sugarloaf after such a short visit nearly a year ago.

Thanksgiving

As my family and friends make their Thanksgiving preparations, my holiday season is feeling a bit anchor-less. How do you start the Christmas shopping season without Black Friday?

Thankfully, I'm distracted by more mundane activities this week: a crisis has been solved.

After sending out several museum and archives-based applications, I started looking for local jobs while the review committees do their work. This has been a walk down memory lane. Remember looking in the newspaper to find jobs? Walking down the street and handing resumes to anyone with a sign in the door? I've found that this is a more successful way to search for local work than using online methods. (Come to think of it, our interet connection is probably quicker than expected because no one else in this neighborhood is networked.)

As I wandered up and down the side streets of Geelong looking for those golden "help wanted" signs, the farther I got from the city center shops, the more interesting the stores became for a bargain hunter like me. I'm still on the lookout for a few household basics. Case and point: since I've arrived here, I've used my duffel bag as a make-shift drawer stored under the bed.

This week, I finally found a nightstand to take it's place.

8$ !!!
(and the little jar - 2$, and the folded pillow case - 1$, and the picture I made while I was experimenting for my decorating projects)

and a large bowl (I was needing a mixing bowl, but this glass one can serve multiple purposes for the time being.)

10$

and I discovered a Discount Bookstore. I might have died and gone to heaven - it was huge! I decided it was time to delve into 20th century Australian history when I found:

5$

To round off the day, I also got a strong lead on a management position. Talk about counting your blessings. 

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

Spring Heat Wave

hot hot hot!

Melbourne is having a spring heat wave. Yesterday saw a high of 93°F (34°C). It was mostly the type of warm that holds you just enough to know it's there, but at the hottest part of the day could be described as "pressing". I closed off all the rooms collecting heat from the blazing sun and opened doors to create a draft.

This isn't even hot yet. Still, it felt awfully familiar to be opening every available window, setting up the fan, and slicing a lime into my never-ending water glass. I wonder if they have something like a tradewind here? Does Antarctica send a cooling breeze? Kelly, remember in Peru when the lady said the winter breeze came up from the ice caps? We are south of them here, so there maybe hope. (On the other hand, she was wearing a full winter jacket on a 60°F/16°C day.)

Working through scorching, suffocating heat didn't seem so bad in Grand Turk - there was a built-in escape clause every 20 feet. Granted, from here the beach is only a 10 min train ride and a several block walk, but it's not no 20 ft.

And no matter what type of job I end up with, it's not likely to necessitate regular snorkeling expeditions to monitor underwater 18th century cannons.

Or involve using DECR sanctioned hunting techniques to take lionfish off the reefs.

Or involve digging for 10,000 year old artifacts from extinct populations.

Or involve showing attention-starved children how to swim.

Or include 3-hour swims as health care benefits.

Or require DIY lessons for driving on the other side of the road.

Or include playing tour-guide to local celebrities. Or be a local celebrity.

I can't help reminiscing. Especially as I write these job applications - much of them center around my work at the museum. It was such an eventful and successful assignment that it's easy to tell future employers about my accomplishments with pride (and quantified results).

But anyway. Back to those applications. And reading the 40 page "Defining Aboriginality in Australia" by the Information and Research Services of the Parliamentary Library.

Yes, I do this for fun.

Geelong Gala

 Every year on this weekend the population descends on Geelong's waterfront for carnival fun. Here you can see the local Harley Club collecting donations for the Toy Ride and showing off their bikes. The locals will tell you that this event used to be a sight to see. In the old days rides extended all along the beach area, whereas today it's only a handful of rides and a couple of tents (still looked pretty sizable to me - almost 3x the size of any Mills Mansion festival.). There was also a water ski show and a Nickelodeon hosted game show where kids got SLIMMED. Old school! Maybe a smaller scale than people would like, but it still made for a good day in the sun. I have the burns to prove it. I'm moving "hat" and "sunscreen" up the list of priorities.

Exhibit skills in the home

Can't say I'm not getting anything done around here. Please notice how the blue from the chair cushions reflects the blue in the painting - I'm pretty proud of that. This rental is getting pretty home-y.

 

First Beach Trip

Took an evening drive to the beach 30 min away, at Torquay, just north of Bells Beach. Bells Beach might sound familiar to anyone interested in surfing - it's one of Australia's most famous surfing locations.

And it's in my backyard.

Simon was content to just watch the sunset, but I travelled all the way around the world to get to this beach and I was determined to put my toes in. I was surprised that the water wasn't as cold as I expected. Summer is on it's way. The sun already stays up until 8pm, but the temperature drops pretty drastically when it goes down.

With my toes in the not-so-cold water, I took a second to ponder the immense difference between this beach and the ones I grew up with. Normally when I visit the beach I send out a mental "hello" to Europe. Can't do that here.

"Hello Tasmania."

And the waves are bigger.

And I'm pretty sure there are sharks starting their dinner by those rocks over there. There are no rocks in Jersey. But there are in the TCI! I'm still not sure if I'll be able to get in the water without my snorkel gear. I haven't body surfed in years and I was really enjoying watching the fish...

... eh, I'm sure I'll get over it.

 

Simon took a small tour through town for me, probably because my ears perked up at "outlets". Torquay holds the headquarters of Rip Curl. To keep them company are all the premium surf-gear shops. Billabong, Reef, Quiksilver, I even saw a Patagonia across the street. Oh yes, there will be a shopping trip here one day. I need my sun protecting swim gear! (I've miss placed my sunglasses and have had serious squinting issues lately. I can only imagine a day at the beach without the proper equipment.)

We circled back to Geelong for an evening view of the harbor. Not a bad evening drive.

"Looking good" and "McHappy"

Making progress on the wall hangings. Today the project came together a bit more. There was a lot of staple-gun action.

 Combined with the discount table settings...

 equals...

 

... a pretty picture.

It's not quite finished, but it is looking good!

In other news, today was McHappy Day. It's a McDonald's fundraising day once a year. Every Big Mac purchase donates a dollar to the Ronald McDonald House.

But that's not all!

There are family fun activities and celebrity cooks at your local branch. This year's cooks were Miss Universe Australia, a number of news anchor personalities, a Aussie Rules Football player and two former Olympians.

Last year this event raised 2.4 million dollars. Simon made a point of going to "Mac-kers" today specifically to support the cause. I tried to imagine the event being held in the US - Regis behind the counter flipping burgers. I'm not sure it would work (think of the security issues!), but I decided it would make McDonald's a much cooler place to work.

Power tools are awesome

The internet was down for a few days, so I used the time off the grid to explore Geelong and make the apartment home-y. I'm on a tight budget these days, but the empty (and expansive) wall space has been grating on my nerves. Armed with countless hours of HGTV know-how I scouted out deals:

- discount table settings at a going out of business dime store
- pillowcases with just the right fabric that will be pulled apart and framed to hang on the wall
- a beautiful meter of fabric that will also hang over the couch
- discount frames for family pictures

It doesn't seem like a lot, but any crafty person knows it takes time to plan the design and take find the right supplies.

Yesterday I hunted for discount wood to make the frames. After some measurements I got to use the power tools to cut them down. I don't use power equipment very often, but it's like riding a bike and pretty soon I was making wood chips fly like a pro. Or an adequate amateur... you be the judge.