How Many "S's" Can I Squeeze In: Sunny Surry Hills, Sunset, Sydney Symphony

Friends have asked, "So how are you enjoying Sydney". I'm absolutely LOVING it!

And yesterday was a perfect example ...

* A working lunch on the outdoor patio at my new favorite restaurant Winery by Gazebo just a few blocks away from my place. The weather was brilliant, the food amazing and of course the rose wine :)



* Later that evening I met my new mentee (she just joined the Cisco CorpCom APAC team to handle internal communications and I'm her career mentor) for drinks at the Sydney Opera Bar. It's impossible to get tired of enjoying the sunset and the iconic views of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

* Then another enjoyable performance by the Sydney Symphony Chamber Orchestra of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique. As many will remember, I played violin from 4th grade up until 8th grade. My best friend Ana was in the orchestra too and she played the bass. Which is why I was surprised to notice that the bass players in the orchestra were sitting in chairs! Since when did they start sitting! As far as I can recall, Ana stood and played her bass! Take a look at the FlipVideo and when I zoom in you can see their chairs. I will admit that the pieces they played are very long...maybe that's why they need to sit because they get tired of standing and holding up their basses (is this correct plural form of "bass"?).

PRIA's "Meet the New Newsroom"

Last year I joined the Public Relations Institute of Australia to build my professional network. This past Thursday I attended my second PRIA event "Meet The New Newsroom" which was about how online media is changing the newsroom.

There was an exemplary panel of journalists that discussed:
* It's sometimes just a matter of getting the news up, then as time moves along, making corrections

* That they're stretched really thin (a theme I've heard since I first arrived) and PR professionals have to be really "tight, clear and crisp" when pitching journalists ... they have even less time than before

* Embargoes still work as long as it's solid news and relevant

* 20% of readers are accessing newsrooms from their iPhones but these 20% makeup more than 50% of the content views! Which means the iPhone makes it really easy for readers to read online

* Question of whether readers will pay for content - overarching belief is that if it's current, compelling content they will.

Beautiful Chowder Bay!

March 21 was a very full and packed day! After the Balmoral Beach swim, I headed just across the hill to Chowder Bay to meet a friend at Ripples (there's another one right next to my pool in North Sydney). It's a great place for brunch, a hike and maybe someday to go scuba diving (which I haven't done since I moved out here - very naughty).

Upon departing Chowder Bay I headed to Centennial Park to scope out a site for my "One year in Australia" BBQ picnic which I'm planning to hold on April 18. Then it was off to dinner at my next door neighbor's Nina, Andrew, Rocco and Bono who have just bought a new place just down the street. I'm going to miss having them right next door, but I know the boys are going to love the bigger place!

Relay swims at Balmoral Beach

After the 1K swims, we had a bit of fun with a short relay made up of teams of four with each of us swimming 250 meters. I was on team "North Sydney Sinkers" (the heats are determined by totaling the ages of all the swimmers on the team) and we came in 4th (out of 5). In the FlipVideo, you'll see Team "Sea Bananas" win their heat.

Almost a year later, back at Balmoral Beach

On Sunday, April 19, 2009 I was still relatively new to Australia (arrived on April 10) when I walked down to Balmoral Beach. It started to pour rain so I headed to a cafe for a skinny flat white when I received the call from my brother than my nephew Tyler had been born!

Now not quite a year later (March 21) I was back again at Balmoral Beach to do a 1k swim. I can tell I'm improving as for more and more of the swims I'm finding I'm "swimming in a crowd". The down side is that you're swimming into bubbles, everyone's maneuvering around you, kicking you, you're scrunched up and can't get a good swimming line. And then of course there's all the people who swim wide and only realize it as they see the buoy so veer in close at the last minute to get around it ... it's like a 5 lanes of highway suddenly narrowing to one lane.

The last 1K swim was the Bondi Classic (24:51) back in February so I've improved considerably! Yeah!

Here are my results:

Balmoral Swim for Cancer 1 km Harbour Swim
21 March 2010
Bib: 0330
LINDA HORIUCHI OFFICIAL TIME: 19:54

420 of 838 TOTAL finishers. 49.88%

127 of 344 FEMALE finishers. 63.08%

24 of 95 F30-39 finishers. 74.74% (this last stat is one I'm most proud of considering that at 39 I'm the oldest in this very wide age category)

While on the subject of food...it's expensive here in Australia!

It certainly feels like I'm paying more for my groceries than I'm used to in the U.S. or maybe I just need a reality check and it's about the same. What do you think?

2 Liters of Skim Milk: AUD$4.66




500Grams of 100% Australian Passion Fruit Yogurt = AUD$4.99




Two skinless chicken breast fillets (.5 kilograms total) = AUD$7.59 (I had the other one for dinner tonight)



And last week I established myself with a general physician and had to have a few tests including getting blood drawn for a cholesterol test and as I HATE needles, I rewarded myself with Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I expected it to be expensive, but not this expensive - and they didn't even have the best flavors. They only had vanilla, strawberry shortcake, chocolate cookie dough, chunky monkey and chocolate fudge brownie. What happened to "Everything but the kitchen sink"?

Believe it or not, I am trying to cook!

But I'm hampered by the fact that I don't understand how to read the cooking functions knob on my Whirlpool oven. By trial and error I've gotten the oven to work but not knowing what setting I'm cooking on I'm constantly peering into the glass watching my food cook and it's a real pain. And as it is I don't need much excuse not to cook, but sometimes I do crave a nice steak...

Here's the stove/oven which is quite old.



It's a Whirlpool oven model #6AKP-603/1X and I've already emailed Whirlpool but no response. And I've searched high and low and there's no operating manual in the apartment either. If you can help me to decipher these totally random symbols, that would be much appreciated!

There are three knobs - the one here on the far left turns on the oven and can be set for a certain number of minutes:



The knob in the middle sets the temperature and this knob on the right is the one that confuses me because I think it's supposed to be settings for bake, broil and who knows what else!



Here are close-ups of the symbols. The knob has an "F" on the top which I assume means cooking functions or settings (5 of them):

1. Here's the three-pronged star in a box:



2. Here's the three-pronged star with a ratcheted line on top (all in a box):



3. Here's just the box with a ratcheted line at the top:



4. Here's the three-pronged star in a box with a line at the top and bottom:



5. Here's just the box with a line at the top and the bottom:



Cooking's already enough of a mystery to me, please help me figure out what the heck these settings/symbols mean!

Art Museum of New South Wales

After wandering around the Royal Botanic Gardens, I headed out in search of either a bus or train to go home and take a shower. I walked right past the Art Gallery of New South Wales and again thought to myself, "Another place I've been meaning to visit". I thought I'd just go in and see what special exhibits were on display and pick up a brochure and come back at another time but when I realised admission was free I thought, "what the heck, I'll take a quick peak".

It's a small museum to I was able to very quickly cruise around and see the standing exhibits which to my pleasant surprise included one Claude Monet painting called Port-Goulphar, Belle-Ille that I hadn't seen before. There was also one Camille Pisaro and one Paul Gaugin.

I picked up a brochure that said the museum has these Wednesday night special events with exhibition talks, celebrity talks and music in the art bar so I'll definitely go back to check it out again!

A Tree with Ten Trunks

As you'll know from previous blog posts, my brother has this fascination with unusual trees. So I had to take a Flip Video of this tree which is unique because it has not one by 10+ trunks! The sign says its endemic to Lord Howe Island which I've since looked up and learned is a 2 hour flight east out of Sydney.

Bats in the Botanic Garden - Watch out Bat-fans!

Once I passed the pretty rose garden and headed towards the Palm Grove Restaurant, I headed down what I will forever after call Batman's Forest!

The first thing I heard was this loud screeching and upon looking up in the trees it was quickly apparent the source of the noise. It was a tree full of bats. i immediately thought of my nephew Kai who's a big fan of Batman.

But as I continued along this path, there was tree, after tree, after tree FULL of BATS! Thus my proclaiming this "Batman's Forest".

It was not quite "lions, and tigers and bears ... oh my" scary, because it was so light and bright out but that's actually what made this all very creepy. I usually associate bats with dark caves but here they all were hanging from all of these trees in the middle of the day! And they were literally everywhere, which got me to thinking that if they were out in the day there was nothing preventing them from flying around or dropping from the trees in one fell swoop!

So I very quickly made my way out of this bat lair.

Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens

After this morning's swim, I headed down Elizabeth Street in search of somewhere to have Sunday Brunch. As I walked by the Sydney Botanic Gardens I thought, "I haven't been here yet and they must have a lovely restaurant with a view".

It was a gorgeous day and I'd certainly come back to the Royal Botanic Garden (no fee to enter) with a picnic blanket, basket of food and wine and a great book as it's a great park with views of the Opera House and Bridge.

Sydney Harbour Swim with an Amazing View!

This was the one swim I knew I wanted to do before I even moved here! My friend Don from the Decathlon Club had taken a cruise to Sydney about this time last year and was so disappointed that he was going to miss the Sydney Harbour Swim. Upon returning, he said "Linda, when you move to Sydney, you have to do this swim!"

And so I did! This morning I did the 2k Sydney Harbour Swim departing from the Man O'War Steps, with a sightline to a very large naval ship, into Farm Cove and then back again to the Opera House. I completed the swim in 32:34 and place 14/21 in my F35-39 age category and 323/523 overall.

The water was quite cold upon jumping in but wasn't so bad once well into the swim. There were short choppy waves and the smell of boat fuel which wasn't pleasant on the way back. But overall it was a good swim with the first leg out to the naval ship the best part. I felt I was in the thick of the pack most of the time which means I had someone to follow so I didn't exhaust myself sighting for the next buoy on my own. It did get incredibly crowded as I swam around the buoys with lots of arms and kicking legs but I managed to avoid getting hit today - phew!

The most amazing part of the swim was as I was heading into Farm Cove and breathing on my right side, I could see the Opera House and the Bridge. Not that I stopped to enjoy the view because I was focused on swimming and keeping up with this swimmer who had an unusual kick.



Michael from North Sydney Masters also did the swim, most everyone else elected to do the Shark Island swim but I got a Facebook notice from Helen saying there were a lot of stingers, so I'm glad I did the Bridge Swim, it was a lot of fun!

My friend Melody (Mel) from North Sydney Masters is part of the Freshwater Surf Lifesavers Club. As a member of a "surf life saving club" Mel volunteers to patrol the beach in a group or under a patrol captain for a set period of time on the weekends and public holidays. While these surf living club members wear red/yellow "cossies" (swim suits in Australian), are trained in life saving and do save people on the beach, they are different than life guards who also wear red cossies because they are paid to patrol the beach and save people.



On the larger beaches - say Manly or Bondi - you might have both lifesavers and life guards patrolling the beach and keeping people safe.

On Sunday, March 7 Mel's Freshwater Surf Lifesaving club hosted the Barney Mullins 1.5 K ocean swim and a number of us from North Sydney Masters went out to support Mel's club.



Freshwater beach is about a 35 minute drive north of Surry Hills (across the bridge) and a really sweet, cozy beach. Because it's a bit small the swim course required us to swim a bit zig-zag to accrue the 1.5K. You can't tell this from the below course map, but believe me they weren't straight swim lines, it was more like a "W" at the end.



Unlike the North Bondi Classic from a few weeks ago, there were a LOT more waves. To the point where I was still diving into waves as I approached the first buoy.

Helen from North Sydney Masters and I started the swim together and she was a wonderful guide as I very quickly learned how to dive into the wave, count to 3 and then surface. And do this again and again always surfacing and looking for the next big wave. It was exhausting and my heart was racing! On top of this new-ish experience, they let us all go in one big wave of 250 swimmers so there were many arms and kicking legs to avoid at the start.

I finally did get my groove along the back stretch of the swim, but the rolling waves continued throughout the swim and it was hard not to feel like vegetables tossed around in boiling soup. And at the end, there was a 50 meter run to the finish line and after swimming vertical standing up and running through the ankle deep water was like a running, drunken sailor!

I finally crossed the finish line at 29:56. Overall I placed 195/250 and in my 30+ age category I placed 27/44.



Helen won in her age category (60+) with a time of 28:37 and here she is receiving her award.



Congratulations Helen!

Somehow "No Solicitors" reads better...

On my way back from a business lunch at Becasse, I saw this sign on the front of an office building across the street from Cisco.

I've heard of "hawkers" (as in someone "hawking" or trying to sell you something) but didn't know what "spruikers" were.  And upon hearing his definitions, they both still sound remarkably similar but according to him not really interchangeable. 

So, according to him:

* Hawkers are people trying to sell you something or asking you to buy a chocolate bar for a school fundraiser.

* Spruikers stand in front of the building and either yell out or use a microphone to say something like "check out Dick Smiths down the street for a sale on computers".

P.S.: The restaurant, Becasse, really pampered us! It's been awarded "Two Hats" by the Sydney Morning Herald (akin to Michelin stars) and we all ordered the Producers Lunch (main ingredients were locally grown or produced) which included an entree, main and dessert but we received all of these "extras" in between the expected courses like this wonderful palette cleansing sorbet and a ceviche salad before our entree.   

North Sydney Masters Swim Training Weekend at Mollymook

For the past 13 years the North Sydney Masters have hosted a swim training weekend in Mollymook which is a 4 hour drive along the coast south of Sydney. It's largely a "beach town" with a population of 1,054 who are all largely retired.

I drove down with friends on Friday, Feb. 26 for my first "Mollymook Weekend".  We met up with everyone for dinner on Friday at the Mollymook Golf Club.  When we arrived, we walked into this huge hall and everyone was seated at small tables and looking our direction - my first thought was "wow, we walked into a senior home right in the middle of their bingo game."  

But there were no cards and chips, nor was there the expected Bingo signboard of all the letter/numbers that had been called.  Instead there was a large "Wheel of fortune" like spin wheel and a large grocery case of frozen meat.  Believe it or not, this was a "meat raffle".   For $5 for a strip of tickets, these players had a chance of winning a package of different pieces of meat each valued at about $15. This was an interesting view into life in small town of Australia.

We did two swim practice sessions over the weekend at the swimming pool in Ulladulla.  It was great to swim in a pool with non-salt water and an actual lane with a line down the middle and to aid in my flip turns on each wall which is unlike what we have at the North Sydney pool.

After Saturday's session - on our way to the grocery store - we checked out "The Reject Store" which is essentially like our "$1 Store" and has all the overstock items or things that didn't sell in the store.  We each purchased a lot of things and so I paid $1 for a shopping cart to carry our "haul" back to the car (you get the $1 back upon its return to the store).

A random tangent here.  A few friends have asked "Is it true that toilets in Australia flush counter-clockwise" and the answer is "no, they've got this system that sucks the water directly back into the bowl without circling at all."  

So while this answer might disappoint - I have found another interesting phenomenon. Shopping carts that pull sideways.  It's the strangest thing but in multiple instances the shopping carts I've used at the grocery stores pull sideways making it very difficult to navigate through a parking lot.  I'm not sure why this happens but I will speculate that it has something to do with the pull of gravity "Down Under", check it out yourself in this FlipVideo.

And here's Mollymook Beach and my housemates for this past weekend.  

Tropfest 2010 - The World's Largest Short Film Festival

About 18 years ago, the owner of Tropicana Cafe in Sydney's city of Darlinghurst (city just North of where I live) got tired of hearing the many aspiring film directors/producers coming to his cafe complaining about not getting their films screened.  So he basically told them he'd give them their chance by hosting a short film festival at his cafe - The Tropicana.   It was a huge success and with the Aussie's penchant for shortening names after a few years it eventually became known as "TropFest".   Now 150,000 watch Tropfest live!

On Feb. 21 I arrived at this free event at The Domain (like Central Park in NY and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, it's right in the middle of the Central Business District in Sydney) early with my picnic blanket and basket of food and wine. I was very fortunate to secure a FANTASTIC location with a great view of the screen and about 25 feet from where the guest judges and directors/producers/actors of the top 16 finalist short films were seated! Two of the special guest judges included Australian actress Toni Collette and Elijah Wood - aka Frodo from The Lord of the Rings. 

It was a very festive environment, with lots of people and a beautiful sunny day.  The only thing that seemed out of place was the sky full of bats which you'll see in my FlipVideo.  I was reminded of Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds" - it was very eerie.

My friend Bob from North Sydney Masters arrived with his daughter Lucy just before they started showing the top 16 short films which all had to incorporate "dice" which was the significant object for this year's Tropfest (next year it's a "key").  My favorite film was "Fish Lips" which disappointingly, didn't win.  The short film that did win was called "Shock" and is a story of a radio DJ who has an emotional breakdown on the way to work and is intended to be a twist on a real-life incident where a radio DJ was very inappropriately discussing the rape of a young girl.

 

Happy Chinese New Year in Sydney

This year Chinese New Year is on the same day as Valentine's Day so many are referring to it as a Red (Lunar) Moon New Year's.

On Feb. 20, I decided to check out Sydney's Chinatown to see if any of the decorations for Chinese New Year were still up and I was pleasantly surprised to find this mini-cultural performance.