Its been some time since we last spoke. I guess I've been waiting for something exciting to happen. Well, if you think rain is exciting you're going to be on the edge of your seat. It seems as if its been raining here for the past two - three weeks. At least the weekends have been quite soggy, during the week its been mostly sunny... while inside, at work. Only to have it start raining again as we leave.
I've been blaming the rain on my pal Omar, who has just arrived here from Toronto to work at Animal Logic. Ever since hes gotten here, its been nothing but rain. I took him out in the rain for breakfast the day he landed, then showed him around the city for a bit until he was ready to pass out. Went back to the market, showed him where the shops were and how to get around. I doubt he remembered any of it, he was hardly speaking english most of the time. It happens when he gets tired. The next day I took him to the "rocks" and the opera house. Again, it was a rainy day. We walked the streets, had some beer, pretzels and corn. Quite exciting.
The weeks have been fairly quiet. We usually spend the nights on the roof of our hotel, watching bats and drinking drinks that should have parasols in them.
Just last week, Omar, Lars and I went to the fish market. It was full of fish. Yes, fish. Many Oysters, scallops, crabs, lobster, prawns... Exactly what you would expect at a fish market. Omar was having a very unlucky day. At the market, he was attacked by a lobster he was holding to his face and a crab took his train ticket and wouldn't give it back. And that was only the start of the day. We each ended up buying ourselves a seafood platter each. I completely forgot to take a picture of it, I was just too excited to eat. The mountain of food consisted of Oyster moray (?) another cooked oyster with bacon, a scallop on a shell (I had no idea that these were just clams!), fried fish, shrimp and poor grilled baby octopus with fries. This clearly was way too much food, so we thought it would be a good idea to feed the fish back to... the fish. We sat for about 10 minutes watching fish and seagulls fight for our leftovers. Cheap thrills indeed.
After the fish market we headed back to chinatown to walk around Paddy's market and area. The shops were all the same as the three times I've been there before, but Lars had never been there before. Thats when I finally broke down and bought a cheap $28 RC helicopter, as did Omar. This turned out to be a great investment indeed, more about that later. I'm not quite sure what we did later, but I do remember finding a japanese pachinko game and having a ball with it. I'm still not completely sure how to play that game, but it was still strangely satisfying.
We head to the train to go back home and get to the platform just as the doors begin to close.
"nuts" we thought, having to wait another 10 minutes for the next train. Then, the doors pop back open! We jump in, two and a half out of three of us made it into the train. Omar was the unlucky half. What a bummer, he was a pretty nice guy. I kid. He's a jerk and the doors opened back up for him and got on. Fueled by his new-found lust for life brought on by his near-near death experience, he decides to go home for a nap. We all agree. It was a long day.
I get home and immedietly plug in my chopper for it's first charge. I would spend the next half hour watching it charge. I don't think I did anything else, but sit there staring blankly at it propeller blades staring blankly back at me. I pick up the remote and to my shock discover that it takes 6xAA. These things must have been made in the late 80's or something. Using six AA batteries on a remote control is like filling your mazda with rocket fuel when you can't even go over 150km/h and you're in a school zone on top of that. Anyway, I ready the chopper for liftoff.
"contact" I yell to myself.
The blades spin, the chopper stays on the ground. I realize that the blades were inverted for upside down flying. Completely useless. I unscrew the screws holding the blades and lose a screw somewhere in the engine. I lose another screw in the engine while putting the blades back on, but that one was recovered. Again, I try for a take off. It works! I'm flying! I'm crashing. Over and over I crash. I eventually learn how to crash pretty well. Maybe I can somehow make a career out of it. A little while later, Omar comes over with his whirlybird. I queue up Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries and spend the next 15 minutes (thats how long the battery lasts) playing battle copters. We never managed to crash into each other, but we hit everything else in my tiny room.
Can you believe I just wrote all that about a silly little RC chopper? Neither can I. I guess that really was the most exciting thing that has happened here since my last post. That same weekend it was all rain. I woke up early in hopes of going for a swim, despite the overcast. When I make it outside, it starts to pour. Back inside we go. We spent the rainy days watching movies. First was Rubber. A nice story of a murderous car tire. Rolling through the desert, killing anything at all that lay in its path using it's telekinetic powers. It was thoroughly enjoyed by us all. We also watched Jackass 3d. Also enjoyable, but on a completely different level.
Of course, now that the weekend is over, its been sunny all day. I'm expecting next weekend to be all rain, but I won't let that stop me.... not this time.
Just when things here start feeling like home, they do a complete 180. Banana bread for example. Part of my weekly diet at home, plain and simple. A loaf of bread is sliced, I eat it. Over here they complicate it by toasting it and buttering it up. Why?!! Although I had to try and it wasn't terrible, but nothing beats banana bread served straight up. Another example would be the crows here. Back at home they would be crowing away like we're used to, with a "CAW CAW". Not here. They have a funny little accent that kind of sounds like a baby crying with its face in a 5cm deep bowl of milk. Also, I noticed some pigeons here that look like regular pigeons, but upon closer inspection they appear to be wearing very small hats. At least they look like hats to me. I can't seem to get a good picture of them because they see me coming and walk away just as fast as I walk up to them.
Lately my weekends have been spent wandering around town. I would walk down to George street and then south (I think) to chinatown. Recently I just discovered a huge market / mall in the area. Full of cheap souvenirs, little remote control helicopters (they call my name as I walk by) and local produce. Its kinda crummy looking down there on ground level, but just walk up a flight of stairs to the 2nd floor and you would think you walked into a fancy asian mall. Looking down at the dusty soot covered market from the stainless steel and glass balcony above, it reminded me of a sort of dystopian future where I would look down on the lower class from the comfort of my flying condo. Feeling uncomfortable and out of place, I went back below and had another lap around the market among my people. Pricing out the Helicopters with every lap I took. I eventually left, empty handed (thankfully).
I recently returned from a day trip to Manly beach. I would hop on the 324 bus from outside my hotel, but I seem to always miss these busses by mere seconds. Half an hour later, another bus arrives and takes me rather quickly to Circular Quay. I think this is the main human transport harbour in Sydney (downtown). To the left of the harbour is the Sydney Harbour bridge, where cars drive over the bay and people pay to walk OVER the suspension rails themselves (the large arch that holds up the road). To the right is the famous Sydney Opera House. I heard no opera as we floated by in our vessel who's name escapes me. The short trip around the bay took about 25 minutes, until finally we arrived at Manly Harbour. This place already had a different vibe than that of the city. Pedestrians wandered at a slow pace as did the cars. I walked down to the beach and to my surprise, it wasn't very busy. Plenty of space to park yourself on the beach and plenty more space to surf or just swim and not bump into anyone. This was great I thought, but I was on a mission. I was to find a dive shop and get myself some snorkeling gear and finally play among the fish. After walking in circles for 30 minutes I finally find the shop, quite far from where I was to swim. I bought myself a nice mask and snorkel and proceded back to the harbour to find some lockers. Now apparently, there are no public lockers. Despite what the research I did before hand had turned up. Down the road (back towards the scuba centre) was an internet cafe with a luggage storage area. I dropped my bag off there and then walked back to the harbour and beyond to this spot I was told about.
I run into the water, it was quite cold, but I cared not. Put on my mask and stuck the hose into my mouth, I was among the fishies. My mask quickly filled up with water and my eyes are submerged in seawater mixed with dishwashing detergent ( I had washed the mask to remove the chemicals inside that fog up quite easily). A few minutes later, my vision returned. Next time I go diving I must remember to shave my moustache or cover it in Vaseline for a better airtight seal. What I saw was not too exciting at first. Alot of seaweed and kelp and a few fish. I swam about, looking at the kelp, the rocks that they grew on, the coral that may be there. I came across a field of happy little barnacles, waving at me from their rock. I waved back before I realized they were just scooping up any organisms that flow past them in the current. The more I watched these happy barnacles, the more I started to notice. Immediately to my right a large rock starts to move. Upon closer inspection, it was a giant sea snail. Cool! Right next to that was another little fish that had been sitting on the rock all along, staring at me with me staring right though him the entire time. Then a family of happy yellow and black striped fish came by and started eating the barnacles. I though they were kinda jerks, but thats life. I really need to invest in some sealife books, because it would be nice to know exactly what it is that im swimming with. Moving on I dive down below to see what may be under the rocks. Lots of very big sea urchins and a ... CRAB!! oh wait, its just a corpse. More swimming now.... oh look, a Jellyfish. A massive tentacleless jellyfish! This thing is HUGE....oh wait, its very small and half a foot from my face. You can't see these things coming until its too late. Now that I noticed it, I see them everywhere. No avoiding them, but I don't think they sting very much anyway. Otherwise I'd be in severe pain by now. A few hours of being a fish has taken a toll on me, I was freezing cold and thought its about time I get outta there. On my way back I come across another strange fish. It didn't have any exciting colours, but had these massive lips to kiss the rockface with and a big spike coming out of its head. The spike retracted and his friend's spike went up. They go back and fourth having a conversation, I wondered what they were pointing at. Anyway, Out of the water I go.
The ride back to Circular Quay was less exciting than my ride there. The outside decks were already full, so I had to sit on the inside with less of a view. This was a good excuse to catch up on some reading (thats right , I CAN read).
I hope to have some more excitement in the coming weeks and dive even deeper next time. Pictures will be coming, flicker doesn't seem to like me uploading full resolution images. At least not from this burger joint.
My my... A week has gone by and somehow I am supposed to remember all the interesting things that have happened... well here it goes.
I literally jumped out of bed when my alarm went off on Tuesday morning. Not that I was excited for my first day of work, instead I was lying awake in bed counting down the minutes for my alarm to give me permission to get out of bed. Finally, I head out the door and hop in a cab to head to work. I'm not really that lazy that I need to take a cab to work , but .... yeah, okay... I was lazy and didn't want to have to figure out how to get to work and get lost along the way for my first day. I try to study the route the driver takes me along. This is pretty difficult when I have no idea where I am and have no clue as to where I am going. 10 minutes and 15 circles around the town later, we get to the entrance of Fox studios. Animal Logic is located inside the Fox studios compound. An area where alot of Sydney's media offices are (as far as I know). Its across from Moore Park, a nice big grassy field with a mucky pond of stagnant water. To the north of the lot are two stadiums, one for Football and the other for Cricket (I may be making this up). I head towards the gatekeeper and give her my name. She gives me a map and tells me to follow the highlighted path to building number 54. The inside of the compound looks like it used to be some sort of theme park, like universal studios. There are fake storefronts like a film backlot and big sound stages that look like they are converted to offices. After 10 minutes of walking on a very small map I get to what I think is Animal Logic... theres no building number, but my assumption was right. I follow up the stairs where a sign reads "welcome to Titanic, the experience... you must be at least this tall to ride". I beat the height restrictions with about 4 feet to spare.
Inside the building I was greeted by the receptionist and given a stack of forms to fill out. While I fill out the forms, out comes Phil (from the kitchen). I had worked with him in Toronto about 5 years ago in 2006. We chatted for a bit before he went off to his desk and I finished the forms. I then met Esther, a nice lady that gave me a tour of the building. This building is really huge with alot of levels and circular corridors. Real easy to get lost in. She shows me one of the meeting rooms upstairs. "that's one of our meeting rooms, we call it the Tim Ship" she says. "The Tim Ship"? I remark, not being used to the accent just yet. "no no, Tim Ship" "ohh, Team Shit" I say. pretty certain thats what she said. Its actually called the Tin Shed, I must apologize to her next time I see her. She showed me the kitchen where the in house chefs prepare meals for people that work really hard (overtime) and also provide us with a gourmet meal on Thursdays. mmmmmmmm... Then we head around more circles, showing me other work areas, she showed me the other kitchen where we could keep our own lesser gourmet lunches. The kitchen is stocked with cereals and a variety of fresh bread and fruit for us. There are also a pair of real nice barista machines which I scold my knuckles on every morning making my coffee. Its well worth it. Finally, I get to my desk. Its set up real nice with a pair of big monitors and a wide wacom tablet. I have TONS of space around my desk, its actually more of a cubicle. I have a chair too! And what a chair. One of those $800+ mesh Aeron chairs I've heard so much about. Pretty comfortable stuff. Shortly after I sit down, I'm greeted by Julien who is one of the lead compositors. He briefs me on what we need to do and how we do it, gives me a shot to work on and then disappears. Then I meet with Aaron. He is the compositing supervisor on this show, we also worked together in 2006 on Resident Evil 3. He's the one that hooked me up with this job, what a swell guy. Later, I eventually get that done and its the end of the day. I run home and pass out pretty quickly. I wake up the next day and do it all over again.
I get to work and start working again, nothing real fun happens until lunch time when Julien tells me about a market that opens up every Wednesday outside the office. I head over and see all sorts of goodies. Fresh fruits and vegetables, fancy cupcakes, grilled prawns, cheeses... all kinds of markety goodness. I pick up some dried figs and a prawn chorizo roll and enjoy my lunch. I head back to work after lunch, work for a little and then attend a sorta boring training class on the computer systems. The next few days at work are pretty much the same. Work and training with a lunch in between. I won't bore with any more boring work details. I've figured out a route to walk to and fro home now. My favourite part of the walk is the walk home. Every evening as I walk home around sundown, the skies fill with bats. EVREYWHERE. HUGE , big bats. Its pretty fun to watch them flapping about and swooping around. I'll try to catch one next time.
It's now the weekend.... finally! Much to do! Saturday morning I rush out of bed and figure out my route to the bank to open an account so I can make the monnies. I take the bus to Chinatown and barely miss my stop. I wander around for a bit before I find my bank. This all would be much easier if I had a map... I must try to find one before I get even more lost. Now that I have a bank card, its time for some breakfast. Dim Sum isn't something that should be eaten alone, but I only figured that out afterwards. Next, off to the beach! I hop on the train which takes me to Bondi Junction where I catch a bus to the beach. The beach is PACKED, but it could be alot worse.
I looked at the surfers and imagined how frustrated they are catching a wave and then having to dodge a sea of heads. At this point nothing will stop me from tasting salt water, so I get changed and hop in. The water is wet, its is also salty. It is the ocean. I get nailed by a few body surfers catching waves and in turn I also nail other people while body surfing. "sorry" I say as I woosh by them, but they are underwater so they can't hear anyway. The next moment my leg and hand get tingly, then a little stingy. I guess a jellyfish tried to eat me and failed. I ask the person beside me if they would pee on me. They start crying and calls for their mom. Next thing I knew I was being handcuffed and put into a paddy waggon. Actually, that part was a lie. I would never ask a stranger to pee on me.
Feeling accomplished I weave my way out of the water and wander around the area for a bit before the sun goes down. On my way back home I stopped at a few mobile phone stores to try to get cheaper internet. Good god, its like the internet here is from the stone ages. For $50 I got 3 gigs of bandwidth to use within 30 days. Hell, I sneeze a gig of bandwidth! I had already used up my hotel's 2 gig limit within 6 days while moderating myself and I didn't even download a single thing! This is going to get expensive. (keep this in mind Canadians!! http://openmedia.ca/meter !!!!) After buying more internets I went to the grocery store for the rest of the things that help keep me alive. I bought a few staples, some OJ, yogurt, crackers, mint aero mousse, deodorant (after I dropped mine in the toilet). Then came the wall of cheese. What a variety and I had no idea what most of them were. I stand by and watch which one most of the people go for. Tastystrong cheese it is. I think others had the same idea as me, as if they were all waiting for the first person to go for the right cheese. Heres something new, Vegemite. THE Australian spread I've heard so much about. I had to get it. I come home and hit the bed hard again.
I woke up again! who woulda thunk it? Today I'm going to hit up the aquarium, but first, time for breakfast. Crackers, cheese and Vegemite... This oughtta go over well. I open the Vegemite, looks like a jar of tar / molasses. Okay, I spread it on a cracker. Not too thick, just a taste. GUHAEHAEAEHAEH@RT#... holy salty! This is terrible! I down a glass of OJ and neutralize my taste buds with some Tastystrong cheese. "ahhhh", much better. I try again, this time I spread the Vegemite as thinly as humanly possible. Nope, still just as bad. At this point I feel like my life was a big joke and Vegemite was the punchline. Good one universe. At least I know who my real friends are... cheese.
At the aquarium there was a massive line, I reluctantly stand in it because thats what I came here to do dammit! 10 minutes later I was set free inside the aquarium. Look at all the fish! i see a cod and another type of cod and a trout, more cod... I check my ticket to make sure I didn't just pay $36 to walk around a pet store. Oh here we are, a big, gigantic, animatronic great white shark! Pretty cool I guess, but what was cooler was the life size shark make out of lego. There was a lego exhibit going on, what a treat. Eventually I stumble across a couple jellyfish tanks, some coral, a small octopus, a few different kinds of seahorses and seadragons and a giant cuttlefish. Further down below is a glass tube you can walk through and see all the sharks and rays swim all around you. Thats pretty neat, but all this is doing is making me want to go diving instead. Boy did I wish that I was diving instead. Down the hall there were a pair of Dugongs. They kinda look like Manatees, but they are not. I hear that these are what sailors saw and though to be Mermaids. I can see the confusion... woozza wozza. Further up the exibit was a big lego moby dick with an amazing lego mural behind it. Pretty remarkable for something that isn't a fish. The next room was pretty fantastic. I can hear the music coming down the hall. Camille Saint-Saens' Aquarium movement from The Carnival of the Animals suite. I enter the room and come face to face with a 20ish foot tall glass wall with all sorts of groovy fish swimming about in. I got goosebumps, the glass wall with the music made it feel like I was walking into some weird dream.
That was the end of the exhibit. Fueled by fish I wandered through the gift shop in search of a few pieces of lego to play with at home (curse their superliminal marketing techniques!). Not one single set of lego appealed to me. Every set they had was made up of custom parts. What happened to the old sets that just came with plain blocks and a few wheels. What a bummer that was. It then started to rain. I went to a mcdonalds for shelter, lunch and to steal some internet. I got myself a small cheeseburger meal. For $4.75 I got a cheeseburger, fries, drink and a sundae! what a deal! I wandered about a whole bunch more, visited some shopping centres and looked at all the expensive goods. The shopping centres here (arcades) are real nice, or at least this one was. Shiny, gold, carpeted and vertical. I stopped into a hobby shop and looked at some toys that I knew I didn't need. I then dragged myself out of there kicking and screaming because I didn't get the remote controlled helicopter that I wanted.
Then off I went, back home to sleep. My head was throbbing, I blame the high salt content in Vegemite and the sun. I drank 5 glasses of water and took a Tylenol to no avail. I then cursed myself to sleep, that seemed to have worked.
I'm sure I'm missing alot of fun details now, its been a week and my memory sucks. Next time I promise to keep it short!
avi later
ps. check out my latest pictures from Australia on the left hand side.... click for more photographs!
