Pursuing the Whale

I was just out torturing myself - aka jogging - around Princes Park on a beautiful day in Melbourne and I was listening to a podcast of the TVO show Big Ideas. The American psychologist and author Howard Gardner was discussing his theories about the five minds of human beings - fascinating stuff and quite applicable to some of the things I have been reading about how people learn. One of the "minds" he talks about is the synthesizing mind. This is a mind that is capable of putting things together - in essence, recognizing the important stuff from the white noise and then creating new and original conclusions from that. Gardner argues that the synthesizing mind is a very important "mind" for the future because if you are not able to separate the important from the unimportant in an ever-expanding information age then you get left behind by those who can or by machines who are programmed to do so. He then references the example of Charles Darwin and the fact that he sailed the world's oceans for five years collecting data before he returned home to "synthesize" all that he had learned. Thus inventing, arguably one of the most revolutionary theories of the modern era.

This particular example struck a chord with me as I have also been reading about the exploits of Ishmael and Ahab as they too sail the world for years on end in pursuit of the elusive white whale. It ocurred to me, some time around the start of my second lap of torture, that there was a time in history, perhaps by choice or economics or whatever, that humans ventured forth into unknown seas out toward unknown lands in pursuit of prosperity, adventure, or in the case of Ahab - something that had become as mythical as it was rooted in fact.

Connecting that idea to our adventures abroad so far, I think we too are in our own way pursuing the whale. The whole family is experiencing our voyage somewhat like Darwin did or Ahab might have - adjusting our sails for whichever way the wind blows and enjoying the experience of going wherever the mood or sea might take us. The kids are perhaps like Ahab's crew, unwittingly along for the ride, and yet Linton and I are up in the masthead looking for all that our "whale" might signify: the perspective that comes from new places, the renewed energy that comes from study, the joy of new friends and experiences - the list is long. I think there is also something else that we are looking for, somewhere just over the horizon, something that we may not discover until we return home and put safely back into port.

And speaking of pursuing the whale...Colin and I spent a fantastic two hours on the golf course yesterday. We ran over to the course and got a quick nine holes in after school. Not much of a course but fun to play a real nine with Colin and see him hit the ball well. In some ways I see the pursuit of a better drive, a straighter putt, or that elusive birdie as an appropriate comparison to our year's adventure. Venturing onto the course or sailing out onto the ocean we do so empowered by the knowledge that in some way we will be changed, maybe even "synthesized" by the experience.

On newspapers, technology, and the return of the meat pie!

Though we don't have the paper arriving at our doorstep every morning, occasionally we will buy a newspaper to catch up with what's going on locally. The internet is obviously keeping us up to date with all things Canadian. In fact, I feel a bit of an addiction coming on with resprct to podcasts. I've recently been downloading the radio show Ideas from CBC. I absolutely love the show and one episode is enough air time to get me to the uni and back home again. However, it is also nice to pick up a paper, physically flip through the news of the day, and as Linton suggested to me the other day "eavesdrop" on another city, its people, and their way of life. And in many cases, it's an interesting life they lead, at least as portrayed by the city's dailies.

Australian newspapers, or rather, Melburnian newspapers are a bit odd for their size and the relative lack of news. The major papers seem to be The Age, The Australian, and the Herald Sun. The first two are rather thin and a really weird shape that make them hard to hold up for very long without your arms getting tired and would be very awkward to wrestle on the tram. The Herald Sun is similar to the Toronto Sun in shape and format and relative to the two others, has more news, more local entertainment info, and tonnes of sports coverage (which was particularly useful with the Olympics).

A stroll through today's headlines reveals a broad range of news as well as a sizable number things that are perhaps not quite so newsworthy. Here are several examples: Despite the medal haul in Beijing it seems in many ways the Aussie's are upset there weren't more medals or at least that the "Poms" (the Brits) beat them out. Even so, there is also a good deal of debate about whether they are spending too much on sport, so in that way they are having the reverse debate as in Canada. Equally important in all of this seems to be whether or not the star of the swim team, Stephanie Rice, might be romantically linked to Michael Phelps.

There is a large focus on the environment especially because of the decade long drought and the fact that freshwater reservoirs are at 33% of their capacity. Today some protesters attacked the state's minister for water in his car. Fish stocks and wind farms and orphaned baby whales are all making the news with great frequency. I think the water crisis in particular has thrust the environment into a higher profile than it currently is in Canada. I noticed that there are several members of the Green Party who hold elected office here. We also find the air quality to be noticeably worse with many more cars burning diesel. The price of gas is significantly higher than in Canada and car prices are also 10-20% higher. It was very interesting to note recently that abortions, as they are currently being provided in Canada, are not legal in Australia - though there is currently much debate on the issue.

On a significantly lighter note, page seven of today's Herald Sun has a couple of winning stories. In the first, the opening line states, "Downtrodden blokes are biting back and sending meat pie sales soaring." They love their pies and pasties (pronounced pahstee) here in Oz - which is okay by me! The second story is reporting on a survey that said a majority of men and women picked Kylie Minogue as the star they would most want to sit beside on a tram! So while there are important stories, there are actually many more stories that...are not. Like the very next page which has a story about a town of 600 people north of Melbourne that has no single women and the men who are desperate for some. The story includes a picture of 10 men from the town down at the local pub, staring eagerly into the camera with a beer in their hand. Ladies - who's interested? Perhaps today was a slow news day.

I must also report on the sports section in this sport crazy country. In today's paper the sports section was 12 pages long. One page for the returning Olympic athletes, one for rugby, one for soccer and NINE for Aussie rules!! From retirements, to scandals, to fines, to injuries, to playoffs, to firings, to trades, to scoring races - there is absolutely no footy ball left unturned. If you're not a footy fan in this city then I'm not sure what you do or watch on the weekend, with only five channels and at least four games on the telly!

All of this talk of news and media makes me curious about how we might have survived this trip even 20 short years ago. Little or no news from home, a periodic phone call, a random post card uttering "Wish you were here", might have been all we had to offer or receive. Would we have gone without the lifeline of the internet? Could we have survived without the ability to Skype our families in real time and for free? Indeed, would we have been as willing to chronicle all of these various blogged observations into a handwritten journal and then gathered friends and family around the fire to read select passages? I think, or at least hope that we would have and could have. After all, we didn't come all this way to read the news or download iTunes...And yet, the fact that I can eat my Vegemite sandwich watching the wild Kangaroos while listening to a podcast from the CBC is either complete and total sacrilege for the travel purists or a very cool example of how modern technology can allow us all to launch ourselves confidently out into strange and wondrous worlds safe in the knowledge that there can always be a little bit of home plugged into our left ear.

New Australian Terms this week:

stack = wipe out Example; I had a wicked stack on my skateboard and cut my knee.
whingeing - whining - same definition, vastly different pronunciation

An Award Winning Weekend with New Friends!

This was a wonderful and busy weekend of play dates and visits with new friends from school and Canada! On Saturday, while James was at school, Linton did the tennis and gymnastics thing with the boys and then entertained some friends from school with back-to-back play dates. Some memorable and tasty chocolate chip cookies, Pokemon trading, and a game of "tiggy" in the park were highlights. Very nice boys and families we would like to get to know better.

On Sunday, James and Colin wandered over - a 10 minute walk!!! - to the local public golf course, to look into the green fees and lessons for Colin. Unfortunately, it will cost $20 for James and Colin to play 9 holes of golf!!!! I think I'm in heaven. When will we ever live within a ten minute walk of $20 golf again? Needless to say, we do not have a line item for golf in our budget, but I am quickly trying to rearrange things.

After the golf course we went "next door" to the zoo to meet up with Linton and Alex and a couple from Canada - Vanessa, Andrew and Brandon and Brandon' s friend Xavier. Very nice people and great to talk "Canada" in Melbourne. We wandered through the zoo, visiting all of our favourite haunts, sharing stories about living in Australia and commiserating about the price of food and booze and learning where to get cheap food, great restaurants, and amazing coffee.

Sunday night we had our first official Caveman dinner - where cutlery, shirts, and manners were optional and we ate with our fingers, burped when we wanted to, and generally had a fun and rude time as we prepared for the closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. As I write this it is 9:10 pm and we are somewhat patiently, a little bit sleepily, and very much happily waiting for things to start. Definitely a gold medal weekend!

On Bashful Bears and Timid Warrior Whalemen

Two very recent and relatively minor things have occurred in the last few days that have once again got me thinking (and blogging) about the luxury of time. One, took place as I was listening to Alex talk about some of the things he wants to do "when he gets home" - meaning back to Canada. The other occured in my "Creating a Learning Organisation" class just last Wednesday night.

First off, Alex. He does not quite have his months, seasons, hours, etc. all figured out. Hours can seem like minutes. Days can seem like months. Sometimes when you say he has two minutes before he needs to stop playing a game he is relieved and says "Okay. That's still a lot of time." Just the other day he said, "Next February, when we go back to Toronto..." He meant June but said February becuase that is also a month that seems to be a long way off. I am still waiting for him to realize that 12 months is actually a really long time - at least in kid and maybe dog years. And yet, what I remarked at the time is, he doesn't know about time until now and hopefully doesn't care, because he does not need to know. The only time I have really watched him care about with any great degree is bed time and usually that's because he has to stop playing. Recently, I have enjoyed an impending bed time because it meant I could stop working! Hmmm.

The other "time" incident may not be quite as clear or connected, but it smacks with some of the same perspective. There are 13 adult students in one of my classes and they are a broad mix of ages, gender, experience, and careers. Presumably they have made sacrifices, plans, etc. to get themselves into the masters program and they are going to be required to do a bit of work in order to get the piece of paper they came for. And yet, from this student's perspective, my classmates are the quietest, most reserved bunch of teachers, I have ever met! Here are motivated, bright, hard working people who completely lack any sort of fire or desire to be in the class or to tackle the issues we are presented with! Now I know they do not all have the luxury of my situation, and had I stayed in Toronto, and completed my Masters at night part time, I may have also been slightly stunned at the end of a tiring day. That is why I am again feeling fortunate to have made the decision to do this full time at a pace with which I can really get into the material. However, despite their decision to re-enter the halls of acdemia and to further their education and careers, for the majority of these people, the class appears to be a burden rather than experience or an education.

I am reading Moby Dick right now and I am loving it for all its grand language and Melville's endless and at times overdone hyperbole. He creates a huge world where eating a bowl of chowder or simply going to bed can become a life-altering moment. In the early part of the book, Ishmael wonders at a room full of hearty sailors thinking that he should be deafened and entertained by the sound of these rough men exchanging their stories and yet, the room is oddly silent. Ishmael then says"A curious sight; these bashful bears, these timid warrior whalemen!"

And its with that lovely, poetic phrase that I will try to make my point. My son, Alex, lives in the moment. Seizes the day, as all kids do, safe in the innocence that a lack of knowledge about time, among other things, provides. As a result, he is more bear than bashful. On other hand, my class of adult masters students, seeming slaves to time and all of its needs, are wasting their opportunity to live, to learn, like any good six year-old. These people are experts, wise in the ways of time and rich with this new opportunity and yet they sit as "timid warrior whalemen".

What is it that turns us quiet with age and responsibilty, with a sudden need for decorum or an overpaid duty to respect? As I watch Alex actively learn his world and my fellow classmates quietly study theirs, I am certain that in this case the younger is the wiser.

A little Olympics of our own...

On Tuesday Linton and I volunteered to do the timing at the annual sports festival for the level 3-6 at the kids' school. After dropping Alex off at school we caught a ride with another mom who was helping to organize the day and off we went to the Collingwood Harriers Athletic Club and a part of Melbourne we never would have discovered on our own.

Fun to be there with Colin and to watch him compete with his friends in events like the 800m, 200m, 100m, shotput, discus, triple jump and long jump. This is yet another bonus of this year away from work - being able to help out at school. Colin managed to finish first in a few of his events and may or not qualify for the district finals - he was very proud. Oh, and so were his parents!

The day was quite cool but we managed to survive with numerous coffees and some friendly banter. We even managed to survive a potential timing scandal when a few moms thought we were short a lap in our timing of the 1500m. Being the "new" Canadians we decided to bite our tongues and keep on timing - thankfully it all worked out and our reputations remained in tact. A subsequent heat showed our thinking to be correct. Phew!

This was an excellent day and a great chance to meet many more of the families at Lee Street School. Tomorrow - back to the books! And speaking of such things, Brideshead Revisited is finally back on the book shelf - next up, Moby Dick!

Go Hawthorn!

Sunday was an incredible day as we ventured down to the Melbourne Cricket Ground - the official home of Aussie Rules Football - to watch the Hawthorn Hawks with our newfound hero "Buddy" Franklin - battle the Richmond Tigers. Hawthorn is comfortably in the playoffs while Richmond is fighting for a spot in the final eight. We thought we were going to see Hawthorn have an easy time of it but - unfortunately today was not going to be the Hawks day.

After tramming down to Federation Square we walked along the Yarra river toward the MCG. It's a great route that takes you past Rod Laver arena and the grounds for the Australian Open and over the train tracks that take you east out of the city. Melbourne is immensely walkable with lots to see and do along the way - in this case we spotted a cool kids playground that we would make use of on the way home.

We were meeting our friend Simon and his eldest daughter Jess at the game and he would be our official guide to all things "footy". Finding our seats that we had booked online - Simon informed us that we seemed to have secured some of the best seats in the house and right in the heart of the Hawks members club! We were in one of the end zones, to use a North American football term, and the view was amazing! Snacks of beer, chips (fries) and the ubiquitous Aussie meat pie helped ward off a bit of chill and the fact that the Hawks were playing terribly.

It may be a bit obvious to mention, but ARF seems to be a bit non-sensical at first. But as you begin to understand the point, the rules, the athleticism and then you see a game live - you really can become quite addicted. It flows wonderfully with very few stops in play. The skill involved to kick the ball is quite impressive. There is a good deal of strategy to the play and the athletes are in really, really good shape. To top it off there is no shortage of scandal on a weekly basis and thus it has everything you need to qualify as a bonafide professional sport!

Alas, the Hawks were not up to their best on this day and they lost by about 30 points. A disappointing result but definitely an awesome experience that we will want to experience again soon. If only to wear all of the cool Hawthorn Hawk swag we picked up at the merchandise kiosk before the game!

Talking with Australians - Part III

Part of the fun of this adventure has been learning, adopting, adapting and at times simply scratching our heads with respect to the "new" culture that surrounds us. In many ways, everything seems the same. By that I mean the language - the great connector - presents no speakable barrier in terms of getting on the tram, learning math, or ordering a skinny latte.

And yet there are terms and names and things that are different enough to keep us on our toes, teach us, and at times simply make us giggle.

Take names for example. There are by all accounts some oddly named people in Oz. No doubt Apple or Rain are indeed strange, but we have come across a Nector, a newborn named Herbert, a girl named Fabreas, and the best by far - a boy in Colin's class named, Ya Ya. Place names are also taking some time to get used to though they are greatly influenced by the indigenous peoples and the aboriginal language so in a sense they are no more different or strange in this land as Toronto, Mississauga, or Ottawa might be at home. Still, Warrnambool and Maribynong remain a mouthful.

I have tried to track a few of the new terms we are also learning in past blogs and yet the list continues to grow. The other day we had a silly giggle with the kids about "fair dinkum" - you can only imagine. In the Australian Olympic coverage the commentators kept saying that it was an athlete's Olympic debut (pronounced duhboo) which was also new for us. I recently learned that an Aussie equivalent to a pint of beer was a "pot" - though I wasn't leaning over the bar ordering when I learned it - honest! And on the same subject, I also learned that if you "shout drinks" you are buying a round - I wasn't at the pub for that one either.

Food is another area that has provided us with a whole new world of language and learning. We now buy rashers of bacon, biscuits not cookies, and now know that a long black is almost too much caffeine! The area of sweets is a complete revelation as the number of cake and sweet stores is 10 times the number of Tim Hortons! Lamingtons and Yo Yos are now the language of conversation with our local baristas and there is a constant negotiation with the kids about whether not they will be departing with a fairy bun or not. Most recently, I was informed of the Tim Tam. These little chocolate concoctions are in a word - evil. They may singlehandedly bankrupt any attempt to lose weight, ever.

Linton has an interesting theory that Australians place more emphasis on the action or verbs versus the thing or nouns. A few examples of this are a hamburger restaurant named Grill'd and the fact that they call insurance - cover. That also seems to translate into some of the things the athletes are saying about the Olympics, often making comments more about the process of training and competing versus the achievement of winning a medal. Could that be a state secret we might smuggle back to our Canuck squad?

It will undoubtedly be some time before we rhyme off a sentence like, "No worries dear, I've put the torches and the boys' jumpers in the boot but before we go up the lift we should probably buy a few frothies for the barbie." However, there is a simple pleasure in the daily intake and exploration of this new-to-us lingo and I think it may be a sad day when it all seems rather normal or familiar.

If it's Thursday it must be...St. Kilda!

Another Thursday and another outing for Linton and James. I took the day off from hanging my hat in the library and after dropping the boys at school we trammed our way down to St. Kilda, an area of Melbourne that I would most closely associate with Kitsilano in Vancouver or Queen Street in the Beach.

Before St. Kilda we poked our head into a very good tourist info centre and got all kinds of information about everything from skiing to wine tours and from theatre tickets to gold mines. The list of things to do within a few hours drive of Melbourne is incredible. Yes, it's true - we are remotely considering the prospect of doing a day of skiing at Mt. Buller. Apparently the conditions are incredible this year and the idea of skiing in August is starting to grow on us.

We re-boarded the tram and headed down to St. Kilda, another 15 minutes south of downtown. It is an incredible collection of restaurants and cafes with some of the most amazing cake and sweet stores we have ever seen. After cruising the strip on Acland Street looking for a place to eat we settled on a quiet Malaysian restaurant - great food (spring rolls and fried noodles) and a very tasty Cascade Light beer. After topping things off with a latte from the, get ready, McCafe at McDonalds we checked out the beach and the boardwalk.

It was a very blustery day but we managed to see Luna Park - a sort of miniature Coney Island - along with some very brave souls para-surfing. It is a lovely beach and certainly a place we will want to play when the weather gets a bit warmer. After a quick tram home we picked up some beer and videos for our thursday movie night. The highlight of the night might have been the impromptu dance party we had - very reminiscient of a few good disco sessions we have had at 44 Harwood.

Tomorrow I have to hit the books hard as I have classes for the next three Saturdays in a row but on Sunday we are off to the MCG for our first Aussie Rules Football game. Go Hawthorn!

Higher Education Revisited

In an earlier blog I (James) wrote about the joy of re-discovering the youthfulness (at least a bit) that is associated with being "at school" again. I have also mentioned that one of my goals this year was to read some of the classics that any self-respecting English teacher should have under his belt and which I, for one reason or another, do not. These two recent occurrences in my new Australian life continue to inspire me and have given rise to another blog entry.

I am currently reading Brideshead Revisited figuring that I needed at least one Evelyn Waugh in my stable. Happily, I am enjoying the writing and the subject of Charles Ryder's youthful adventures at Oxford. If, however, "real" British academics were anything like they are described by Waugh in the early part of the 20th century then it is no wonder the colonial world suffered for so long under British rule. The sense of entitlement is completely overwhelming!

Anyway, I came across this passage the other day that is Charles's and ultimately I think Waugh's reflection about the "experience" and the privilege associated with being young:

The langour of Youth - how unique and quintessential it is! How quickly, how irrecoverably, lost! The zest, the generous affections, the illusions, the despair, all the traditional attributes of Youth - all save this - come and go with us through life. These things are a part of life itself; but langour - the relaxation of yet unwearied sinews, the mind sequestered and self-regarding - that belongs to Youth alone and dies with it. Perhaps in the mansions of Limbo the heroes enjoy some such compensation for their loss of the Beatific Vision; perhaps the Beatific Vision itself has some remote kinship with this lowly experience; I, at any rate, believed myself very near heaven during my languid days at Brideshead.

I don't know if I would call these the languid days at Melbourne; however, I think Waugh has captured that same sense I am privileged to feel every once and awhile reading, thinking and wandering around the university. It's this feeling that there is time, this very special and rare and perhaps "quintessential" time, to consider all manner of things in a slightly more interested, relevant, and youthful way. Gone is the rush and the rumble of life at an ever-increasing pace. Life is slow, methodical, (maybe in a month or two - too slow) but for now it is a luxurious and languid pace - the pace of youth, where time and the world are on your side. Of course, we are only able to accurately gauge how far we have fallen away from this state when we look back with experience and a degree of regret.

The trick with this "theory" of mine, like all others I am coming to learn, is to turn it into action. Where do you find the langour when the costs of the big city life come calling? Have I cashed in all of my chances to linger in the langour and does one have to wait for the golden days of retirement to capure it again? Is this a mindset that I can pack up neatly and ship home? Time will tell. But for now I will enjoy revisiting my own "langour of Youth" thankful for everything and to everyone who has allowed it to happen.

Have to get my two cents in...

Linton here again. As I watch the Olympics and get ready for my first call to start my consulting project, I thought I would do a blog post while I could. James has been the main author of these to date.

It's official, I am doing a bit of consulting over here. Right now for Unicef Canada, just doing a few hours to help them think about their fundraising event framework. And I am waiting to hear from Children's Miracle Network to see if they require my assistance to further a relationship with Royal Children's Hospital here in Melbourne. The best part of becoming a consultant is joining Carter Hughes (my dad and stepmother's consulting firm). I am now a Vice President and will be billing through their company. I am very grateful to have their existing infrastructure to hang my hat onto.

I am hoping that any consulting I do will not take more than 6 hours/week. I am still continuing my fitness class, running at least 2x week and volunteering in Alex's classroom. I have just met some moms from the boys' school that run so I hope to join them occasionally. (Just in case anyone is wondering what I do when the kids are at school).

I am also really enjoying researching our future travels and day trips around Melbourne. We all loved our day trip last weekend seeing the penquins, kangaroos, koalas and ocean coastline.

The boys are great and thriving at school. Colin is very excited because we are going to see an AFL football game this weekend (Richmond vs. Hawthorn) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (HUGE stadium). We are going with Alex Davies' husband, Simon and their eldest daughter, Jessica. Colin is already playing footie with his new class friends in the school yard every chance he can get. Alex is happy in his own world with his Pokemon books and nintendo games, his art/colouring and is reading up a storm. He has read every book Colin has read and more. Both boys are on the last Bone book in the series - #8 (the Bone books are graphic novels - like comic books with chapters and thank goodness, we got the ones we didn't have from our local library here).

That is it for now, keep the emails and blog comments coming. It is comforting to know that our friends and family are interested in our life over here.

Philip Island and the Penguin Parade

Saturday was a fantastic day. We finally broke free of the Melbourne city limits and travelled two hours by bus to Philip Island southeast of the city. This was a bus tour with APT tours and it was very well run. With stops along the way to feed some kangaroos and get really close to koalas we finally arrived at the very tip of Phillip Island where we had come to watch the Little Penguin - the smallest in the species - make its nightly venture out of the surf and waddle up the sand to the safety of its sandy burrow.

This part of the world was homesteaded about 200 years ago and some of the land saw some of the earliest crops planted anywhere on the continent. Another of the islands in the area also served some time as one of the many penal institutions to which Australia can lay claim. Today a majority of the real estate is vacation properties that Melburnians use in the summer months.

This is quite spectacular country, with kangaroos and wallabies running wild, great surfing and incredible vistas as you look across Bass strait towards Tasmania 200 nautical miles away. We were not allowed to take pictures of the penguins and it was quite a stormy night but we have many images in our minds of these tiny and very cute little birds suddenly appearing out of the surf under the spotlights and to the cheers of a few hundred spectators. It's actually quite moving and touristy all at the same time - being a part of a natural event that's been happening for so many thousands of years. It's nice to know that humans haven't totally screwed up all of the opportunities we have to interact in and with nature.

This was a very memorable moment. The pounding surf, the penguins, being there with the kids. We definitely would rank this day at the very top of our list of Melbourne moments so far.

PS - From the Australian lingo files; sneakybeak = to be nosey

A Family Olympic Moment

Friday night was a special time as we curled up with the kids in our jammies, some popcorn, and a very nice Italian Pinot Grigio to watch the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. Can't say that Channel 7 coverage here in Aus was of the same quality as our beloved CBC however we loved all of the theatrics and effects with a particular nod to the drummers, the huge globe with Sarah Brightman on top, the dancers drawing on the paper and the final runner lighting the flame (we only caught that on the replay Saturday morning.

The boys retired to our bed to try and watch the athletes coming in but with the inverse or reverse or mixedup order of countries, they never made it as the attached pictures are testament to. We managed to see Canada come in but then we even fell asleep around midnight and missed Australa and the live lighting of the flame.

What a great experience to share with our family and 'neat" to follow our adoptive country - for a year anyway - to see how they do. Down here all the talk is Grant Hackett, James Tomkins, the smog, the venues, the opening ceremonies, and the smog.

We look forward to following the games closely from our southern vantage point and we hope that they are as good as the opening ceremonies have promised.

New Shoes for Our New World!

It would seem that by picking up and moving oneself halfway around the world, you also bring (or perhaps find along with the new sights and sounds) a renewed energy to try and do the things you have been putting off forever. Perhaps it's the fact that Linton and I have effectively checked out of our working lives for a year and are desparately seeking things with which to occupy our time. Moreover, I think we are beginning to realize and enjoy the fact that with time, and a considerable amount of it at that, comes the opportunity to "play" and pursue those things that always seemed to be good ideas but were never allowed to surface.

Case in point, along with the amazing mental gymnastics that my brain is doing with Organizational Learning, I am also pursuing a number of other personal goals for the year. There is an extensive library of classical literature in our house and I am trying to read as many as novels over the next 12 months as I possibly can. With The Sound and the Fury thankfully under my belt I am now wading my way through Brideshead Revisited. Next up - Moby Dick. Seriously. I have enrolled in a playwriting course and I am hoping to finally getting something on paper of an idea I have been rolling around for the past 7-8 years! There is of course the travelling that we have got a good start on and within that I am really hoping to try surfing. And finally for me there is the never ending pursuit of better health and better shape. Thus the jogging shoes are symbolic of a renewed commitment to running and better fitness. If I believe the scales in the bathroom - though I've never been good with stone - I may have dropped 5 lbs, or then again maybe I have gained 10!

Linton has also embarked upon her own new ventures and fitness is also on her list. On Thursday we ventured out into the burbs of Essendon via tram, bus, and feet to the Highpoint mall - a very Yorkdale-esque monstrosity to buy new jogging shoes - his and hers. With time on our hands and a great place to run out our front door there's almost no excuse. But can it be as simple as that? Merely time, energy, location, and new shoes? Perhaps. But for me there also has to be a goal and goal there is. We have both signed up to run a 10km run in October as part of the Melbourne marathon. It would seem I need to put my money where my mouth is.

And so the novels are being read and the surfing is to come but the jogging is simply stepping out the door every other day and putting on the kms. Not my best suit but with the new shoes and best of all a new world to run around we are both hoping the fitness fad is here to stay. Wouldn't it be great if it also came home in our luggage along with the trinkets and the t-shirts!

More Mindless Melbourne Musings...

It's time for a few reflections about our adopted culture. Call it - Bill Bryson lite. The three pictures attached to this blog are obvious icons - at least for this Canuck - for what makes the land down under truly unique and increasingly "special".

Though not unique to Oz, the whole driving on the left side of the road thing continues to be a quaint diversion that keeps us triple checking for oncoming traffic. To make matters worse, a stop sign seems to merely suggest a consideration of a rolling stop that would make all Quebeckers truly proud. It continues to be prudent to allow all cars to clear the intersection, round the corner, and park before stepping foot onto the road. The crosswalks are well marked and organized but my complaint there would be that they too seem optional. People in Melbourne jaywalk everywhere and at all times such that you can't help but be dragged into it. Why just yesterday I had my i-pod on listening to a CBC podcast, while slurping a latte and jaywalking across six lanes of traffic with a tram bearing down on me. Well, not quite, but in busy, "most-liveable-city-in-the-world" Melbourne one rarely lets traffic stand in the way!

Footy has also come front and centre in our lives. Already proud owners of this footy ball from the Hawthorne Hawks, we are (Colin) madly collecting player cards, have our eye on a footy guernsey (sleeveless jersey), we cheer for a guy by the name of Lance 'Buddy" Franklin, watch 3-4 games on the weekend, and are planning to attend our first game at the MCG in a few weeks. The hype is enough to put the Leafs to shame and you can't help but to get into it. Most recently the papers are full of the latest scandal to rock the AFL - a drunk driving episode that handed two Collingwood Magpies players with season long suspensions. Actually, Australians call it drink-driving not drunk - who knows why. What's interesting is that they were suspended for lying to club officials more than they were for the crime of drink driving. It would seem besmirching the honour of the club is far more heinous a crime than being pissed behind the wheel. Here again one gains interesting insights into the culture. Seems these boys like a few "frothies" after the match and can't seem to stay out of trouble. Makes for great reading on a slow newsday.

And finally, this Ozblogger must report from the Vegemite files. Yuuucch! What on earth would possess anyone to like, produce, promote, or eat that stuff? Three of us tried a pinhead sized portion last night (Allie was the wise one) just so that we could say we had - sort of like the Oz equivalent to kissing the cod in Newfoundland (might you say we got "Veggied-in"?) - and thankfully I was able to keep my dinner down. We may move to the slightly more consumer-friendly Nutella in the coming weeks but we may also stick to the good ol' reliable PB and J!

That's all for now on this lovely, but quiet, day down under.

The Carter/Darlings hit the beach! Sort of...

On Sunday we got rolling early and headed down to Southbank to buy tickets for a ferry ride to Williamstown. Williamstown is a suburb of Melbourne southwest along the bay - think Oakville.

The ride takes about an hour on the Yarra River and along the way we saw some very low bridges, some very high bridges, some very large ships, an enormous ferris wheel, huge cargo cranes, hundreds of beautfiul yachts and sailboats and finally Williamstown.

The tour guides talk about Williamstown as having more designated heritage buildings than anywhere in Oz. It was the original area that settlers founded before Melbourne began to flourish and was mostly an area of sheep farming.

Today's cultural comment comes from an observation that Australians seem to have a need to establish the things that they have or build as being significant on a world or at least southern hemispheric(?) scale. We have been witness to the highest residential building, longest bridge, highest bridge, biggest ferris wheel, etc. all with the apparently impressive suffix of "greatest in the southern hemisphere". As a friend remarked last night, we're not too sure who they are in competition with. Capetown? Buenos Aires? And? Anyway, it seems that anywhere you turn, whether it be ice cream, buildings, bridges, or bands everyone is always laying claim to being ranked number 1. Then again, I guess we Torontonians are quite proud of our CN Tower, too.

Back to Williamstown. We strolled the main drag buying small bags of lollies and settling on a passable meal of fish and chips and not so passable seafood bisque at one of many cafes along the way. We then made our way out to a local park and beach and strolled the beach - our first in Oz - for shells and sea glass, while dodging the many jellyfish that had been washed ashore. A quick play in a cool local park and then some grey skies and rain sent us running back to the ferry, but not before buying a couple of books at a nice local book store.

A brisk ferry ride back to Southbank and then we were on our way home for our first neighbourhood dinner with some potential NBFs. A very nice dinner with an interesting couple and their six year old son in a very nice home literally a stone's throw away from ours. Nice conversation, an offer of using one of their cars, some good wine, our first taste of quince and only one bloody nose - for Colin, compliments of a kicked ball - and by all accounts a lovely night that we hope to reciprocate shortly.

Fell in to bed exhausted - after watching a little bit of footy - ready for another busy week!

Federation Square, the Southbank and Eureka!

Saturday was another touristy day with a few more venues to tick off our list. After tennis and gymnastics we jumped on the tram and headed down to Federation Square at the corners of Flinders and Swanston. Some really cool architecture and wonky looking buildings a la Toronto's Crystal highlight a number of different spaces including the Australian Centre for Moving Images and the National Gallery of Victoria. We wandered around trying to get our bearings and discussing the merits of a picnic lunch or Rotten Ronny's. Guess who won out?

After eating greasy fries with a dozen or so of Melbourne's finest punk rockers, we wandered across the bridge to the Southbank area (literally the south side of the Yarra River) and checked a whole new area of shops, restaurants, and really cool public spaces. Stumbled across Suga where they make homemade candy, a wicked magic shop, a place with potentially new Blundstones for James and Linton's new must-do resto - Waterfront Fish Market.

Then we were off to our next destination - the Eureka Skydeck. Adorned with golden bees on the outside of the lower floors, this is one of Melbourne's best and cheapest tourist spots. $40 took this family of four up 88 stories to one of the highest views in the southern hemisphere. Some of the Eureka tower's claims to fame include: the world's highest residential tower; the southern hemisphere's fastest elevators; as well as the being the highest public vantage point in the southern hemisphere. But what really sets it apart is The Edge. The Edge is a moveable glass cube which rolls out 88 stories up - projecting people on a glass floor three metres out fom the edge of the building!!!!! They didn't tell me that along with hair loss and weight gain old age would also include a fear of heights. Needless to say Colin was keen but the rest of us not so much. We vowed to be braver next time and to put The Edge on our must-do list before we leave Melbourne. In the picture of the four of us, I may be smiling but it's only because I am sitting down. I literally could not stand that close to the windows. Magnificent views allow you a 360 degree perspective and we finally saw the ocean. Other sightings included the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, Rod Laver Stadium, and almost - our home.

Having returned to terra firma we (Dad and Mom) had to re-group with a latte and a wander through the Crown Entertainment Complex with its swishy stores, cheesy casino, and way-cool water fountains that are programmed to music.

Caught the free City Circle tram back around the other side of the CBD that we had not yet seen and then up Swanston and Lygon Streets to home. The tram ride was packed and made us miss a car just a wee bit. Arrived home to receive a dinner invitation from some very new neighbour friends - yikes! We will try to be on our very best Canadian behaviour. Tomorrow - back downtown for a ferry ride to Williamstown and a better look at the waterfront.

Mamma Mia Melbourne!

Thursday is transforming itself from not only movie night to a day where James and Linton tour the town. Today we dropped the kids off at school and then continued walking down Rathdowne, past the museum and into the CBD. New discoveries included Her Majestys theatre which seemed to breathe history out its front door - Billy Elliot is coming soon - and a walk down the main section of Melbourne's China town (which is ranked as one of the top 10 things to do whilst in Melbourne). We are hoping to belly up to one of the Teppanaki tables with the boys in the not so distant future.

With time on our hands and a seemingly endless number of walking and window-shopping possibilities in front of us we eventually wandered across town a bit to a street (Little Bourke - I think) which would be Melbourne's better answer to the area of King West in Toronto where Mountain Equipment Co-op lives. Cool stores with everything you would ever need to go camping or traveling around the continent. We popped into an amazing map store and bought a great Queensland camping guide. A few more stores looking at shoes and fleeces and then we were off to Melbourne Central which feels very much like the Eatons Centre.

There we found many cool and high end stores where you can buy anything your hard-saved Aussie bucks could afford. We bought a fun Aussie puzzle for the boys' Christmas. The best part about this mall is this incredible building inside a building (the picture doesn't really do it justice). Just looking at it was vertigo-inducing. We stopped for a latte and sweet after buying tickets for the real reason we ventured downtown in the first place - Mamma Mia! Yes, Linton was feeling the need for a little cinematic therapy and to tell you the truth, so did I. Sitting in a very comfortable theatre, with a dozen cotton tops and single women, we laughed and hummed our way through Pierce Brosnan's singing and Meryl Streep's passable Donna. A fun escape that James might have to do again as he craves a viewing of The Dark Knight - Linton, not so much.

We trammed it home in time to pick up the boys and get ready for our own pizza, ice cream and movie night. The boys watched the scary but fun Monster House and we ventured into the first season of Arrested Development. And no, there was no studying today!