Sculpture by the Sea

In its 13th year, Sculpture by the Sea is a free art exhibition where the art is right outside along the coast line between Tamarama Beach and Bondi Beach.

I went yesterday and the weather was gorgeous! Since it was the last weekend, it was also very crowded.

My favorite pieces were:

1. Big Drink - Which is the big red-and-white striped bendie straw in the middle of the sea. Its message is one of irony - Australia is a big country surrounded by water, yet there's still a great scarcity of water, particularly in the Outback. Who knows whether our next "Big Drink" will be our last.

2. Scooter Girls - It represents the freedom and independence of modern day women in today's society. Its bright colors and the zippy fun of scooters work so well in this piece.

3. Once was Blue - It's located right on the rocks of Bondi Beach and is the same reason I went scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef last year. With global warming, the reef is bleaching and turning white - a terrible thing to see such beautiful, vibrant sea life destroyed.

4. Going Up? - This reminded me of the wobbly ladder I had to climb Friday night in order to reach the trapeze platform. The artist's intention was to show us that whether you're going up or down depends on one's perspective.

5. Bronzed Aussies - This reminded me that it's been 6 months and I still haven't gone scuba diving!

Flying High - Legally!

My friend Georgina had a great idea - let's go trapeze-ing at the Sydney Trapeze School!

It was so much fun! We had three great instructors - Rob, Jesse and Chicken - and since it was a small group we had about 8 goes at the trapeze in our 2-hour lesson.

By the end of the evening my hands were chafed and the back of my knees were very sore! Yet, we signed up to go back again next week!

Ripples Cafe on Milson's Point

Venecia's friend from college Lylly was in town so we met for breakfast at Ripples Cafe which is right under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Here's a FlipVideo greeting from us to Venecia - wish you were here!

It was a long day of celebration for a 4 minute Melbourne Cup Race

Melbourne Cup is Australia's major horse race and literally everyone stops and watches it (in Melbourne it's an official holiday). It's a 2 mile course and always takes place around 3 pm on the first Tuesday in November at the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne.

After my Randwick Race Course experience (see previous blog from September 12), I knew that it was a "dress up" occasion.

We had a three-course Melbourne Cup lunch at the Hilton and everyone was dressed to the "nines". As part of the lunch there was a fashion show where well dressed men and women were selected from the audience. It was quickly apparent that if you had a fancy hat, you had a solid chance of being selected as a finalist.

And while next year I might get a hat, this time round I went to Diva's (think Claire's Boutique) and got a "fascinator"- which is basically a fabric flower clip or head band with feathers - to match my dress.

Chinese Friendship Garden in Sydney

After the Sunday swim workout with North Sydney Masters, Dori and I headed to Alan's for a BBQ held to thank Kevin for all of his great coaching!

Now that it's daylight savings time, after the BBQ, the weather was still fine so we headed to the Chinese Friendship Garden in Sydney.

First Halloween in Australia

Peter's friend hosted an all-American Halloween party and it was full-on fun with spooky decorations and scary "finger food". It was also a great opportunity to meet Peter's lovely wife Penny and their three children.

Peter's dressed as Vivian the heavy metal guitarist from the 1980s UK comedy "The Young Ones" and his wife is a witch from the musical "Wicked". I went as a blonde hippy (unfortunately no Flip video of me, maybe next year).

Flip Launches in Australia!

The Flip launch party in Australia was a harkening back to the glory days of the Dotcom boom! There were celebrities like Jessica Mauboy (rose to fame after coming in second on Australian Idol) and Corbin Harris (a famous Australian skateboarder) and a great Australian band called End of Fashion which jumped onto the music scene with their hot single "O Yeah". Add to this roller skating waiters who appeared on "So you think you can Dance" and you've got a great party!

Pausing just a moment, it occurs to me that I've been in Australia for just over six months and have already been right up front and as close as you can get to two bands - first Evermore from New Zealand at Cisco Networkers and now End of Fashion at the Cisco Flip launch party. I love my job!