Quick March is gone

Hey,

Month of March is gone and I feel like a duck at the moment - cool, collected and calm on top (mostly), and paddling like hell underneath, haha.

F1 in Melbourne - Albert Park, too quick little cars, Sunday 27th March

First week of March I was back to work, first week after 4 weeks of leave meant that going through my emails took me one day. Not bad!
Took the train out to Werribee on Tuesday 1st of March, and celebrated Sue's 70th birthday with the troop from the Swedish Church. Nice evening with delicious food and company, thanks Sue & Rudolf!
Other weekly activities were; got my business visa label in my passport :), saw the International Airshow at Avalon Airport with Mick and hit some surfs in Lorne on Sunday morning (where I used my gift voucher) - surfing is way to good, want to surf more.


Acrobatic guys up in the air at Avalon International Airshow


Me in front of the Royal Flying Doctor plane - cool plane


What a house! - driving along Great Ocean Road on the way back to Melbourne

Second week of March was a good one, went to my first MUMC (Melbourne University Mountaineering Club) meeting of 2011 to renew my membership. Drove with Mick to Lake Entrance on Saturday morning, on the east side of Victoria and camped by Pettmans Beach (a very beautiful and secluded beach north of Lake Entrance). Dinner on the beach with waves, fishermen fishing and an empty fridge on the shore is something I'll remember for a while :). The morning run on the beach barefoot with the cool dip in the ocean was memorable too! Did a short and easy bush walk in Mitchell River National Park on the way back to Melbourne and a walk in Lake Entrance (small touristy town with a life saving competition over that weekend).


Ahhhh this is so my beach - Pettmans Beach, north of Lake Entrance


Cute sand cat in Lake Entrance - where is Robin and Arnold?


Short bushwalking in Mitchell River National Park, almost too easy


Mitchell River NP - river view, wishing for more time here... maybe another time

Third week was exiting and sad with a public holiday (Labour Day in Vic) where I borrowed Mick's car and drove to IKEA to pick up the kids and Ida and drove them home to Werribee - excellent day with the kids, Sue, Rudolf and Ida & Fredrik. Too bad I managed to scratch the car at IKEA :( ... so I won't be driving and parking the big car at IKEA no more... nope. On Tuesday the 15th I went to Egg's memorial service in the city ... sad afternoon ... good to see the MUMC friends there.

Saved some lives on Thursday by donating blood, attended a house-warming party in East St Kilda, Roisin, Richard and Reese's new place and met up with old MUMC friends. On Friday Mick's friend, Lars. from Darwin arrived to Melbourne with his girlfriend, Bridget. and little lovely daughter, Addyson. Went for a St Kilda pizza dinner with the troop in the evening. On Sat we all went out to the Burn-out competition close to Avalon Airport where Lars participated with his pink car :). This was my first bogan whole day experience - had a really good day watching the cars burn their tires and look at the people with their "fancy" cars. I even had the opportunity to sit next to Lars in his pink car while he was burning down the new tires in 2 min 50 sec ... have a look below :)


Me and Joshie - the party theme was "Hair", I didn't dress up and reason for my bandaged arm was that I donated blood earlier that day


You see the car?


... and now you don´t see the car :)

On Sunday afternoon we had a walk around Melbourne with the Darwinians, went to Brighton Beach and the Royal Botanical Gardens ... excellent day with lots of sunshine!


Bridget, Addyson, Lars, Mick and me in the Royal Botanical Gardens

Forth week of March was an exercising week with running and outdoor climbing on the schedule. Went out to Werribee Gorge on Saturday morning with Nadia, Dev and Mick for some top-rope climbing. Good time outside even if my climbing skills were a bit off the cliff ... need to practice more indoors! On Sunday I went to see the F1 Qantas Australian Grand Prix finals in Albert Park with Mick (mostly to see this world famous race which my brother adores and to make him jealous of course haha). Those cars made such a load noise and they were smaller than I thought too. When the race finished everyone was running on the track to see the distribution of prizes, and so did we :). Had a good look on Sebastian Vettel (1st), Lewis Hamilton (2nd) and Vitaly Petrov (3rd) from about 50 meters ... pretty cool and was thinking of my brother who should have been there seeing the race with me :)... next time Dude, next time :)

Werribee Gorge


Happy Nadia belaying Dev - Werribee Gorge

Last week was a quick week with things on every evening after work. Had a work lunch BBQ along the Yarra on Tuesday, sunny weather and warm with good veggie sausages, yummy! Saw a Spanish movie with Diana after work, Bituful ... a good and thoughtful movie.

Over and out for March 2011!

Half tour of Aussie in February

Hey ... another month is gone, February was a traveling month, have probably never been flying so much during one month before.

First week of Feb was spent in Melbourne, finished my beginner Spanish course, todo bueno! I went out to Werribee on Wednesday to see the kids and to create a welcome poster for the girls greating in Sydney. The poster work too us around 2 hours and I was amazed the kids had so much patience :) ... proud Savanha and Oden below!



Took off from Melbourne on Saturday 5th of Feb, flew up to Sydney ... and I still remember the floodings in Melb from the storm on the 4th Feb ... power was cut off in the apartment and the wind was strong, many bridges were closed. Despite the storm I could fly out from Melb :)
Had 2 days of chilling in Manly, didn´t do much ... ran in pouring rain along Manly to Shelly beach and was doing high 5´s with every runner I was meeting along the path, did a long beach walk from Manly to Curl Curl beach and back to Manly, had some beers with Andrew and was waiting for the girls to arrive from Sweden.

Big hugging day was early Tuesday morning (8th Feb) at Sydney International Airport, I stood and waited for Anna and Caroline, ready with the poster in my hand. When I finally saw them I was so happy :), was good to see them after more than 1 year!



Had 2 chilling days with the girls in Manly, went for long walks along the beach, talked and catching up for the lost time ... I did a 2 hour surfing lesson on Manly Beach and managed to stand up on the board for amazing 13 seconds hihi.


Surfing is easier for each time I try ... Manly Beach 9th Feb

On Thursday 10th Feb we took the train from Sydney to Katoomba, 2.5 hours on the local train up to the Bluies (Blue Mountains). Introduced the girls to bush walking around Katoomba, did some shorter walks in sunny weather on Thursday and Friday. I did a long 6 km circuit walk along Prince Henry track in pouring rain on Saturday, got so wet that I was freezing terribly afterwards. On Friday evening we met for dinner and drinks with Grant, had some delicious Greek food and continued to a local pub for beers. On Saturday evening we took the last train back to Sydney and stayed up the whole night for taking an early flight to Cairns at 6am. Puh, we did manage to stay awake, slept 2 hours on the plane.


Me in the Bluies close to the the 3 sisters


Grant with the 3 (one tall, one pink and one brown) chicks in Katoomba

Arrived to Cairns on Sunday (13th Feb) morning, tired and cranky, checked in at Gilligans Backpackers Hostel, stayed there for 2 nights. Were lucky with the weather, hot and humid and not so much rain, I was expecting more rain since it was the rainy period. On Tuesday morning (15th Feb) we went on a sailing boat cruise for 2 days in the Great Barrier Reef with the RumRunner, a boat from Cairns. Had an awesome time onboard, did a free intro dive and everything went all good and I did 2 more dives.






One big step into the GBR


Lots of fish to tick off from the map :) ... did see some sharks, colourful fish in all colours, a sting ray, cuttle fish, a trigger fish, octopus and one green turtle on the last dive


Me in the GBR fully equipped :)... of the 8 dives I did, the most memorable was the last one when I saw the turtle




Happy me on the RumRunner :)

Got back from the sailing on Wednesday afternoon, hard to walk straight, felt like being on a boat while walking on land hihi. After some beers in the evening I was all good again! Decided with the girls to hire a car and drive out from Cairns, so on Thursday (17th Feb) I drove to Cape Tribulation along the coast. Stopped for lunch in Port Douglas, which is a fancy pansy tourist town, glad we didn´t sleep there ... took the river ferry and checked in at Cape Trib Beach House and had a great dinner there before we went to bed.


Port Douglas beach view


View from south of Cape Trip on the way back to the ferry crossing back to Cairns

On the way back to Cairns we stopped along the way, had a look at the sanctuary where we saw many native animals from Queensland ... many crocs, spiders, snakes and birds ...


Since I loved the diving I took off with RumRunner for the second time, from Saturday to Sunday, 19-20th Feb, while the girls stayed in Cairns and did some things on their own for 2 days. All in all I did 5 dives, wasn´t allowed to do the night dive with the others since I don´t have a PADI license, but I was happy with my 5 dives anyway. Will have to do my PADI Open Water soon, maybe in June over the next long weekend in Victoria.




All good - OK OK, ready for the warm water :)

Back to Cairns on Sunday arvo and managed to walk better this time :)
Went with the girls to a bbq to Jason and Tess´s house close to the airport on Edge Hill.

BBQ-troup, American girl, Anna, Caroline and some others I don´t remember the names of

On the last week with the girls and February, we rented a car in Cairns for 2 days, drove south of the city and saw many beautiful waterfalls. This is gorgeous view just south of Cairns ...



One of the waterfalls around Milla Milla...


On Tuesday (22th Feb) arvo we flew to Darwin, a 2 hour flight. Could see from the sky all the water in Kakadu NP and guessed that the roads wouldn´t be so good for us to drive on. And yep, it turned out that Kakadu NP was almost closed, the main road from Darwin was closed and you had to take a longer way around to it. We decided to skip Kakadu and focused instead on Litchfield NP (a much closer national park from Darwin). We stayed one night in a backpackers hostel in Darwin and hit the road with the rental car on Wednesday morning to Litchfield. I drove the most time, much easier this time, Anna and Carro tried to drive for a short period of time. The route on Wed was Darwin-Batchelor-Florence Falls-Buley Rockhole-Wangi Falls-Tolmer-Termite Mounds. Slept in a cousy little cabin at Pandanus in Litchfield :)


Florence Falls in Litchfield NP, had a lunch here down on the rocks after a cool swim


Tres chichas eating lunch by Florence Falls :)


Wangi Falls, big falls, so noisy, was closed for swiming


Road view in Litchfield ... I'm not driving here :)


The Mitshubishi Outlander we drove for 2 days around Darwin, big and comfy car, good when crossing all the water on the roads like here ...



On Thursday (24th) we went to Crocodylus Park, outside of Darwin to see the mighty crocs ... nope, we didn´t see any crocs while walking, swiming or driving in Litchfield.


Croc loves meat ...


... and I got to hold one baby croc, a Johnson, a freshie one. The park guide next to me talked for 50 min non-stop, he really must love his work!

On Friday (25th) we returned the car and had a day in Darwin where we walked around and took a proper look in the city. Went to Darwin Museum, saw the Tracy exhibition (big cyclone that destroyed Darwin in 1974) and had a delicious lunch there before we walked back to the city centre. Met up with Lars and his friend in the evening, one of Mick´s old friend for dinner and drinks in the Wharf Precinct. Lars was a funny guy and the girls and me had a good time on our last Darwin-evening.


Me by the Wharf Precinct in Darwin

Flew back to Sydney on Saturday morning, a long 4.5 hour flight, where I managed to sleep for 3 hours and had a boring time the rest of the flight... danced around the plane while people were sleeping hihi :)
In Sydney we had a relaxing afternoon walking to the Royal Botanical Gardens before we took off to Andrew´s birthday party in Kings Cross. It was a fancy nice party with a guestlist, drinks and food. Good time there with the girls. Went to a salsa place by the Rocks with Anna after the party where we danced a bit before heading back to the hostel. Sunday was a bitter-sweet day, it was time to say goodbye to the girls and we went for a farewell lunch on Bondi Beach... had lunch at Icebergs where the service was non-existing, I had to act a waitress for my own food and drinks.


Last lunch with the girls for a long time :( ... great food and view of Bondi Beach


One tall, one pink and one brown on Bondi Beach - Sunday 27th of Feb 2011


... and the poster is in Anna´s hands now in Sweden, Lund

I flew back home, to Melbourne on Sunday evening and started to work again at IBM on Monday morning ... this since my business visa was granted and I can now stay and work for 4 years in Aussie :)

Busy and hectic first month of 2011

New year and new challenges ... 2011 here I come!
After a very busy and stressy month I´m happy that January is gone ... in a good way.


Phillip Island - 3rd Jan

First week of Jan was relaxed, enjoyed my time off from work to the 4th. On NY-day I took off with some climbing friends (Jacinta, Mick and Roger) to the Cathedrals and Phillip Island. I didn´t do any climbing by the Cathedrals, but I did some surfing on Phillip Island, so fun! Will definetly do it again. Got back home on the 3rd.
Attended my first wake on Saturday the 8th, talked a lot to Egg´s brother, baked 2 apple pies, was social, sad and happy at the same time ...

Second week of January started in an easy way, 2 birthdays at work, my manager and mine, lots of chocolate and sweets haha. My b-day was a good one, work during the day and went to Victoria Night Market after work with some colleagues (Diana, Cynthia and Annie). Good sangria and crepés, and good after market drinks in Windsor with Mick!
Rest of week activities were; running in pouring rain for 90 min, ice skating in Docklands, pool party in Hampton at Helen´s place, my own birtday and sponsorship party by the Melbourne Bowling Club and pool party in Caulfield.


Pool party in Hampton at Helen´s place on Saturday


Birthday party - playing lawn bowling


My Swedish family in Melbourne - Savanha, Oden, Ida and Fredrik

Third week of Jan was very busy and stressy, too much to do at work (which is good), started on my sponsorship paperwork on Monday with the migration agency, started my Spanish intensive lessons for 3 weeks and 3 times a week, did a long run which I so needed, finished my visa paperwork on Friday after a chasing week with my previous employers in Sweden (they did a good job and helped me), went to a tennis party in St Kilda on Friday evening with lots of Swedish people - had good fun there with Mick, Dev, Danni - talked to Sofie Arvidsson (one good Swedish tennis player who played in the Australian Open this year). Went out to Werribee on Saturday and stayed there to Sunday evening. Played with kids and went with them to Adventure Park in Geelong on Sunday ... I was a kid during the whole Sunday haha :) Good times and good memories!


Tennis party in St Kilda - here with Dev, Mick and me


Tennis party in St Kilda - me and Sofia Arvidsson :)


Adventure Park in Geelong - with the whole group, 23 Jan

Fourth and last week of Jan I continued with my Spanish classes, went to see Tieto Puente Junior on Australia Day (26th Jan) where I danced some salsa. Saturday was a busy day with 2 pool parties, one in the city and one outside the city. My Swedish friend Sara had a farewell party .... sad to say goodbye to her...
Mark from MUMC had a fence paiting,BBQ and pool party by his parents house in Ivanhoe. Yep, I did paint some of the fence, but didn´t go into the pool, too cold for me ...
On Sunday I went to Brighton Beach with Mick, so hot and nice weather, over 35 degrees. Afternoon was spent at the Windsor Castle pub with Mick and his friends, celebrating his 31st birthday.


Tito Puente Junior in Melbourne - 26th Jan, Sydney Meyer Bowl


Dancing at Tito Puente Jr concert :) - I look so happy!


Sara´s farewell-pool party - 29th Jan


Me with the girls on Mick´s birthday drinks by Windsor Castle pub - 30th Jan