This is a big week for me. I was officially signed to my project at work and will start next Tuesday! On Thursday I will go for my next x-ray and physio appointment, so I have my fingers crossed that the Ortho has good news to report. I have been back in the gym, which was much needed for my sanity – and it feels so good to be active again. Working back up to triathlon readiness is in the cards. Also on Thursday, Accenture is hosting a conference for International Women’s Day. There will be lots of panels, speakers and networking. This weekend, I am heading west to the Supernatural Amphitheatre for a 3-Day camping/music festival trip over our long Labor Day weekend!
Almost caught up to speed with my Christmas Vaca:
So after the trek back from Monkey Mia, we were exhausted and Adam and Emily had to head back to work for the next couple of days. Bec and I decided to use this time to soak up some rays on the beach. We hired bikes one of the days and biked from Scarborough (Northern Perth) all the way down south to Fremantle. It was about a 45k ride all together. Our intention was to find Cottesloe beach to relax on – but at one point the bike path split into two directions, and we chose the wrong one. We ended up riding through people’s front and back yards, huffing up an enormous hill and finding ourselves in the docklands where freight ships come in. Looking back, we should have obviously taken the path to the right since that was the direction of the beach! Turning around, we went back north (the right way, sort of, because at one point we were crossing a huge, grassy field into a residential neighborhood) but finally made it to Cottesloe and stopped to have some much needed food and drinks.
The next day we returned the bikes and just took it easy at the beach, stopping at The Wild Fig Café for some quite delicious coffee. The café looked a lot like how Melbourne cafés look- very eclectic and vintage. Chandeliers made out of industrial size whisks, tables made from old doors complete with bowling ball legs, mix-matched tables and chairs – it was quite nice to hang out and feel a bit at home for a while.
Our Christmas trip was coming to an end, and we were both exhausted and ready to be back in Melbourne. I, however, had to get my game face on because Jenny (one of my best friends in the entire world) was coming to visit the day after we were to land home.
Finally back on my couch, I started sorting through emails I had missed while away and I just happened to notice one from Jenny saying she missed her flight from LA to Melbourne! My heart just sank! One, because I was so excited to see her the next morning and two because I just knew how upset she was, sitting at the LA airport when she was meant to be in the air. So instead of picking her up Saturday morning, Bec and I headed to the airport Sunday instead. Of course, of all times for road construction, they choose the one Sunday morning I am in a rush. Frustrated at the slow pace and the lack of signage at the airport of how to meet arrivals, I jumped out of the car and worked my way to the international arrival gate. Pacing up and down the long gate – I kept my eyes peeled for the my blondie to appear (she would have stood out from the large amount of Asians coming home with trolley after trolley carts of cheaply made Asian goods to sell in Australia). I reckon about 30 minutes passed and she was still nowhere to be found, so of course I started to panic (not to mention, I could not for the life of me located her flight on the arrival board.) When all of a sudden, I get a huge slap on my butt with a, “Hey idiot! Where have you been? I had to fly in from Sydney – so I’ve been waiting for 45 minutes in the Domestic terminal.” OH MY GOSH! I am so so sorry – it literally did not even occur to me that the flight would be coming in domestic. I was thinking ATL to MEL is international. Of course, there had been no way for her to contact me (because silly me hadn’t emailed her my Aussie number, address, anything!), and only then did I realize her boyfriend Juan had been sending me Facebook messages asking where I was. I felt awful, but the overwhelming awfulness was swept away with the gigantic bear hug I was then embraced in. I swept her away (sans luggage, because of course the airline lost it on top of everything else that went wrong with her flight) to find Bec.
We walked around the city all day, had a nice lunch on my favorite, Degraves Lane and went home since we were both tuckered out from all our recent travel. Because I had to head back to work the next day, I loaded Jen up with maps, contact numbers, instructions to buy herself an Aussie go-phone and every other precautionary tool I could think of. I was on stand-by from the airlines for her bag to arrive (which did not come until 2 days later and was full of Christmas presents for me!) She had a great time touring around my area of town (Prahran, Windsor and South Yarra – all along Chapel Street) as well as Yarra Valley wine region during the day, and after work each night, we met Michelle and Bec at different bars/restaurants around the city for dinner and drinks. My favorites have to be Ponyfish Island, Cookie and Madame Brussels.
Ponyfish Island was built around the bridge supports of the Yarra Pedestrian Bridge which crosses over the Yarra River in Southbank. It literally is a floating bar/restaurant on the water, always brimming with people right after work.
Madame Brussels is on the north end of the city and looks like a replica of Mrs. Higgins house from the end of My Fair Lady. The floor is covered in astro-turf, flowered wallpaper covers the walls, guests sit at white lawn furniture and the menu of drinks ranges from Peach Tea to Mint Juleps. There is a “Lounge” you can rent out for private parties, otherwise there are 2 outdoor patios to relax on (during the cold months, there are blankets available for you to wrap up in and during the warmer months, large handheld fans are fluttering about.)
Cookie is in about a 9 story building with different restaurants, shops, etc on each level. Cookie itself is a Thai restaurant with a fairytale feeling atmosphere (The place where your bill is brought out to you in a Little Golden Book. There is also an amazing rooftop bar and Choo Choo’s, a restaurant inside Toff Bar which is on one of the middle levels - where you eat inside of train cars.
Jen decided on a day trip to the Great Ocean Road to see the 12 Apostles (large rock formations out in the sea). I went with her into the city that morning as the van was meant to pick her up at 7:30am. We arrived just on time, asked some nice man about our specific tour and he assured us the van was on its way. 30 minutes later, we were still waiting on the sidewalk. Jen called the company – and it went directly to a man’s voicemail…the same man we had just talked to on the sidewalk! He assumed both of us were coming on the tour (guess he didn’t care to pay attention when we said it was just Jen going). Jen was humiliated to climb into the van full of other tourists because they had circled back around the city to pick her up, even though she was there on time. I just had to laugh my whole way to work…picturing her in the fan, trying not to feel the stares boring into the back of her head.
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| 12 Apostles |
That next weekend, we headed to Tasmania (a whole story in itself!) and Jen spent the next week in Sydney/wandering around Melbourne. Thursday night of that week, we met up with some friends for Beach Volleyball in St. Kilda Beach (I was just a spectator because that was the day I was approved to remove my walking cast! Walking for the first time in a tennis shoe felt extremely foreign). Friday night, Jen was able to meet the infamous Irishman. We had a huge BBQ at the even more infamous house of Padraic (pronounced “Porrick” – it means “Patrick”) - the house where the balcony was that I so thoughtfully leaped from to break the ankle contained in the aforementioned walking cast. Jen walked into the house, saw the balcony and just shook her head. I know. Bad judgment call.
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| THE Balcony. Me finally sans cast/boot. |
Dropping Jen off at the train station the next morning was painful. I didn’t want to, but of course did, burst into tears on the sidewalk, telling her to give everyone at home a huge hug for me. I watched her walk away and with tears still in my eye, visited my friend at Brumby’s bakery for a skinny flat white and sat down outside, hiding the tears behind my sunglasses. Why I decided to then call my mom was beyond me because as soon as she answered, I burst into tears, again! She was practically in tears as well because just at the same moment as I was calling, she was standing in the grocery store in front of a large display of sunflowers (my FAVORITE). I told her I missed and loved her, but that I would indeed see her very soon. That afternoon I headed with my dear friend Michelle to a few bridal boutiques to help her find a wedding gown (for her upcoming exchange of vows back in the states) and then to brunch at a cute little café. With my emotions, still on edge, I turned into THAT SAP that burst into tears the moment she walked out in her first dress. She looked beautiful! She chose a simple gown that fit her amazingly (and that we swore was white, even though she wanted cream and the sales lady was claiming this WAS the cream one – only to find out by the end of the appointment that this sample actually WAS white). I rounded off my afternoon at The Australian Open, watching the large matches on the jumbo-trons set up around the park.
Since Jen left, I was busy sadly saying good-bye to my new friends at The Chocolate Box, starting at Accenture and meeting all my new work friends, I had a relaxing weekend away in the mountains just north east of Melbourne, a weekend in Sydney and a few quiet weekends at home. Time is going to fly by before I know it and I will be in Atlanta May 12th (flights now all confirmed!) for two weeks.
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