Australia and New Zealand Each Celebrate their First National Telework Week

Extremely excited to be a part of National Telework Week in Australia and New Zealand. In Melbourne, we kicked off the week by hosting National Telework Congress (Nov. 12).  Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard opened it up with a live Cisco TelePresence cross between Parliament House in Canberra and the audience attending the Congress at Melbourne University.

Here's a video of the Prime Minister sharing how she uses Cisco TelePresence in Government to the audience (see video here). One of the most interesting anecdotes was when she shared how she was doing a TP session with the Australian Ambassador to Japan right after the 3-11 earthquake when right in the middle of the session he had to take cover under the table as there was an aftershock, but the meeting continued (and he was fine).

Lucky Draw on Melbourne Cup 2012

As I didn't get a chance to place a bet at the local TAB I purchased "lucky draw" tickets for the Melbourne Cup at The Establishment where I had a lovely Melbourne Cup lunch.

Green Moon #14 won the Melbourne Cup and I luckily drew #14 and received about $70 in winnings.

Local Diving with ProDive - Eels, Stone Fish and More

On Nov. 4, 2012, I did two dives with Matt as my dive buddy. We were supposed to goto another site (forget the name) that ProDive rarely goes to but as the weather was poor we didn't end up going.

Dive #165 Dee Wy Wide
31 meters, 35 minutes
19.6 C

Dive #166 Blue Fish Point
15.7 meters, 46 minutes
19 C
Saw lion fish, 3 eels and many stone fish

My dive buddy Matt in a very Zen-like meditation position that's recommended for optimal air consumption :)

One heck of a long eel!

Can you see the two green moray eels?

All these algae covered fish in camouflage are stone fish.

Sandy's Art Recognised as a Finalist

Honored to accompany Sandy to this exhibition (Nov. 1) where her portrait of actor Salvatore Coco who played Harry "The Hammer" in an Australian TV-Series called the Underbelly about the Kingscross gang scene.

Halloween Scuba Dive

ProDive Manly celebrates Halloween in a very unique way - a pumpkin carving underwater!  Tammy, the social coordinator extra-ordinair, cut and hollowed out the pumpkins and then we drew our design on the face of the pumpkin.

When we geared up on Shelly Beach (Oct. 28), we carried in our pumpkins with weights (to hold the pumpkins on the sea floor while we carved them) that had glow sticks attached as this was a night dive. There were a number of instructors on the dive so that they could hold lights for us while we carved.

As I didn't add enough extra weight and we weren't very deep, what was most challenging about carving underwater was trying to carve while periodically floating to the surface. Ever tried carving a pumpkin in mid-water?

Here's my pumpkin underwater:

There was a pumpkin judging contest. The diver who won, was so proficient carving underwater that he actually carved a face on each side of his pumpkin (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde style).

My pumpkin face was pretty simplistic and traditional. But at least you can say that I "carve within the lines" even underwater :)

Jackie (left) won second place as her pumpkin face had fish eyes and an octopus mouth, which nicely fit the scuba diving on Halloween theme.

Certified Space Beer - Four Pines

While I've done a wine tour or two :) I know very little about beer. So when I heard the Sydney Brew Festival was taking place, I signed up for a brew tasting at Four Pines Brewery in Manly.

After the tasting my fave was the Pale Ale. Yet the most interesting was the Space Beer.  How this came to be is a frequent patron works for a company that had the opportunity to recommend a beer that could be certified to be served in outer space.

Why does a beer need to be certified in outer space? Well, as Richard Branson prepares to take those who can afford it into outer space, those passengers are going to want to enjoy a brewski.

And Four Pines is the first beer to be certified in outer space.

In Memory of My Beloved Bachan - Oct. 23, 2012

The first words I'll write is that I loved my Bachan very much. She was at each milestone in my life, at my high school graduation and then at my college graduation at Mount Holyoke. 

And I was there when Bachan went back to a past milestone: Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming which was one of the 10 concentration camps where the Japanese-Americans were relocated to during WWII. It was also where Bachan gave birth to my Mother. 

I’ll never forget the remote and vast emptiness where Bachan and the family were interned for years in the middle of nowhere just outside of Cody, Wyoming.  The blistering heat was almost unbearable, I remember not even wanting to get out of the air conditioned rental car.  

It takes a person with a strong constitution to survive the incredible heat in the summers and  harsh wind and freezing temperatures in the winters of Wyoming in the poorest of living conditions for not one but many years.  If you consider what we’re used to living with today, you can begin to imagine the strength and determination it took to care for two young children with only the most basic of conveniences.

I also admired Bachan for her solid work ethic. Whether working on a flower farm growing up, at Aki's restaurant or Gichan's mise, Bachan worked hard. And growing up she said it was likewise my responsibility to study hard. 

One of my favorite memories is when Bachan took the eldest cousins to the sunny Bahamas so that we could all create some wonderful memories and experiences on vacation together at this amazing resort right on the beach.  It’s there that I first tried scuba diving, which I still enjoy today.

In fact, my love of scuba diving ultimately led me to Australia where I dived the Great Barrier Reef and then later decided to come back ... and now I work and live here. So you could say, Bachan played a pivotal role in setting the direction of my life… and my vacations as they almost all involve scuba diving!

My favorite photo is of us in a hammock in the Bahamas. I remember it was a gorgeous sunny day and we were relaxed and giggling as we tried to get the balance right so we didn't tumble out of the hammock. 

There’s nothing like a smile, a hug and a kiss on the check from Bachan. 


I love and miss Bachan and wish she were still here so I could give her another hug, a kiss on the cheek and see her smile again. 


Love, 


Masa

Things to be Thankful For: A Great Dive Buddy

Jackie and I met on the Montague Island dive trip earlier in the month and decided to do a dive locally with Pro Dive in the Sydney-area (Oct. 21, 2012).

On our first dive we were buddied up and cruising along until one of the other dive buddy groups was low on air so the dive instructor was taking them back to the boat. We still had a good amount of air so were re-grouped with another fellow named Aaron and told we could keep going along a bit further before heading back to the boat.

Now, Aaron did just about everything you'd find in the worst of dive buddies. He pulled on the tail of a port jackson shark (Jackie was closest and called him on this immediately), his buoyancy was terrible so he's kicking the reef and messing up with the visibility with the sand from the bottom. Oh and he surfaces and heads back to the boat without letting his buddy team know in advance. Unbelievable!
 
He was like a little kid with ADD darting here and there looking at things, picking things up and basically not having any regard for keeping track of his buddy team.  We kept track of him as it was the right thing to do (surfacing twice, finding out he was already back on the boat), but it ruined our enjoyment of the dives.

It really makes you appreciate the value of having a great dive buddy.

Dives #162 and 163
Flagstaff and Chowder Bay

Sculpture by the Sea 2012

I've been enjoying Sculpture by the Sea for the past few years and this time (Oct. 20, 2012) Miin joined me as walked from Bronte Beach to Bondi Beach appreciating both the views and the artwork displayed along the way.

The piece of art that made the biggest impression was this one. At first it looks like a telephone wire, but when you read the description it's actually meant to represent the height of the tsunami waves that hit the shores of Fukushima, Japan in March 2011. When put in real-world perspective (that's me standing underneath), you're overcome with the horror and shock that must have been experienced by the people of Fukushima seeing waves of that amazing height heading towards them. It also shows that when viewed on TV or YouTube (i.e., a small screen), you have absolutely no idea of its scale.

Welcome to Spring!

My little home garden back in September which in Australian seasonal terms is Spring.