Linda's Walkabout: January 2014

Monday, January 27, 2014

Nostalgic for a Turkey Dinner on Thanksgiving: It just wasn't the same

Since I've been here I haven't really missed Thanksgiving. Yet this past Thanksgiving I was really craving turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.

After doing a Google-search, I discovered that Indulgent Sage in McMahons Point was serving Thanksgiving Dinner (Nov. 28, 2013). Lisa joined me and we enjoyed turkey with sweet potatoes, but unfortunately no stuffing or gravy.

It's been so long since I last had turkey, I afraid to admit it tasted like chicken. Honestly, it makes me wonder if the turkey's are different here in Australia. Or is it because it's a small turkey and they taste like chicken?

And take a look at the photo, is there not something wrong about how the turkey was presented to our table?

In case you're wondering, that's a sparkler and a knife jabbed into the turkey.

I was also bummed there was no pumpkin or even pecan pie. Instead, dessert was sorbet.

I think the moral of the story is that next Thanksgiving I'll have to make my own turkey and pumpkin pie!

Dressed to the Nines in Black and White at Derby Day

For my dedicated "Linda's Walkabout" blog readers, you'll recall that in my first visit to the races in Australia I dressed casually which I later learned was a total faux pas. Well I've certainly learned since then to dress up and I even have a fancy headband and fascinator to prove that I now know about appropriate racing attire. Yet in preparing to head to the Spring Carnival in Melbourne, I learned this was racing taken to a whole new level!

While I've watched the Melbourne Cup on TV for many years now, I had never been to the race course where it all takes place - Flemington Race Course - owned and operated by the Victoria Racing Club (a Cisco customer that last year we did some PR with).

Did you know that while the Melbourne Cup is the most popular of the races (always the first Tuesday of November, it's also an official holiday in the state of Victoria), there are special races all week-long, collectively called "Spring Carnival"? Derby Day takes place the Saturday prior and then there's also Crown Oaks Day (more widely known as Ladies Day) which is the Thursday after Melbourne Cup.

Did you also know that each of these races has its own separate dress code? Derby Day is black and white, Ladies Day is when you get decked out in your more feminine pastel and pink dresses with lace and floral patterns. And Melbourne Cup is bright, dress to impress colors.

This was all news to me!

So while incredibly excited to be going to Derby Day (Nov. 2, 2013), I was also a bit anxious about finding the right black and white dress and hat/fascinator to wear.

Walking around Melbourne during Spring Carnival, is like walking around New York before Christmas. Signs that it's Spring Carnival are EVERYWHERE! All the shops are selling colorful dresses, hats, fascinators (fancy headbands) and on the corners leading to the train stations there are hawkers selling programs and boutonnieres for the men. Not being a big hat wearing culture in the US, when I went into a Myer Department Store in Melbourne looking for a fascinator or hat to wear, I was so surprised to see loads and loads of hats of every color, style, and size - guaranteed to match any dress. It was also quite shocking to see the price tags - on the low end fascinators were $30-$45 with the nicer ones well over $100 and the hats were at the low end starting at $110!

When you take a look at my photos and videos of Derby Day (pronounced Darby Day, with an Aussie accent), keep in mind that my baseline experience in horse racing is Arlington Race Course near my home growing up in Illinois. Here's a photo I found online that shows that it's not very crowded and everyone is very casually dressed in shorts and skirts.

Nobody's in heels and nobody's laying out a picnic in the grass and drinking champagne. And any hats you see are for the specific purpose of providing protection from the sun, nothing fashionable at all. And absolutely no color theme. I think the only time you'd see this is at a football or baseball game and the fans are wearing the sports team jerseys.

Here I am in "black and white" with my fascinator (fancy headband) at Flemington Race Course, gorgeous roses!

As we had general admission tickets (no reserved seats) and had come prepared to spread out our picnic blankets on the grass, we got to the races very early. You can see that it's not very crowded, yet by the start of the races you can't see any grass as it's all covered with picnic blankets. We were close to the finish line and right up next to the railing so we had an amazing view not only of the races but of the track as the jockeys came by at the start and end of the race.

Fancy meeting some Oompa Loompas from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory! These very clever race goers not only dressed in "black and white" but also green.

My friend Kim looking gorgeous!

This is Myer's Fashion-on-the-Fields contest, these are the finalists, note that they're all dressed in black and white for Derby Day. I was seated upstairs with this young lady's parents, evidently she's appeared in Jetstar Airline commercials.

This was also a runner up.

The lady in the middle, all in white, won. I suspect the judges were impressed that she designed and sewed this dress herself. I saw fraying on the hem, so think she might have run out of time at the end.

It's incredibly crowded on Derby Day, it was also a very hot sunny day and as there was no shade where we were set up on the grass, we had to be careful to head inside every so often to place our bets and for some relief.

My colleagues Nes and Suzanne were in the "Bird Cage" which is the area that the big sponsors such as Emirates Airlines and the various hotel and liquor brands have their fancy tents with catered food and alcohol. It's invite only, so all I could do was look longingly over at the Bird Cage...

They also had Men's Fashion on the Field. The trends I picked up on were colored suits, loafers with no socks and bow ties.

This gentleman was quite suave, posed with his pen and pad of paper

so really put on a good look for the judges.

Is there a flood coming?

As the afternoon wore on, it got messier and messier with young people drinking lots of champagne in the heat and then stretching out on the picnic blankets passed out.

I'm so blessed to have Kim for a friend, it was wonderful to join her, Chris

and their friends for Derby Day!

Just arrived at Derby Day

Race #8 of Derby Day

The final race on Derby Day.

Loved this place for breakfast, very fresh and different breakfast dishes. Will definitely come back to Top Paddock.

The Melbourne Museum had a special exhibit on the Fashion of James Bond (Nov. 3, 2013) which was fascinating! They also had many of the props from the James Bond movies.

Cisco's a major sponsor of the MAD Ball Foundation which had a Great Gatsby theme (Nov. 4, 2013), so I was honored to go to yet another black and white ball to enjoy an amazing dinner, dancing and exciting live auctions.

I was sad to leave Melbourne, but I needed to return to Sydney where I hosted a Ladies Melbourne Cup Lunch (Nov. 5, 2013) at The Establishment. Phew, what a busy weekend!

Once Again: Sculpture by the Sea...

I'm fairly certain I've been almost every year to Sculpture by the Sea (Oct. 27, 2013) which is an outdoor display of art from local Australian artists that's presented along a spectacular coast line from Bronte beach to Bondi beach.

Kate, Jackie and I each had our favorites as we walked along the shoreline on a rather chilly afternoon.

Since I'm in high tech and "cloud' is a hot trend, this "cloud" of colorful plastic toys was amusing to me.

This was a very original art piece, made from the Yellow Pages of the Phone Book, which nobody uses much any more. So I liked to artists portrayal of how this is saving trees (not necessarily palm trees) and recycling these yellow pages into this art work.

This was one of the eerier art works, we could quite figure out the symbolism of this skeleton riding a bicycle off this upward ramp carrying a heavy ball on its back. Strange...

I have this fascination now with weedy sea dragons, with my two most recent local dives in the Sydney area featuring this fascinating creature that's quite common in Bondi as the plaque below states.

This glass ball reverses the image you see through it, thus you see the sky at the bottom. A literal depiction of seeing the world turned upside down. I like the idea of changing perspectives to see things a different way.

What I'll never forget is afterwards we warmed up and had dinner at an Italian restaurant where in my dessert of gelato there was a huge staple! I won't be going back there again!

Sydney Beer Craft Festival... Feral Rules!

While I much prefer wine to beer, I'm never one to turn down a night out with friends. But even I was surprise to find myself checking out not one but THREE Sydney Beer Craft Festival Events.

The first event (Oct. 19, 2013) was like a Beer Tasting Festival in The Rocks. There were several local breweries offering tastings and my favorite was actually a cider.

Feral was also popular at the second event, the pale ale was the best.

I miss decent Mexican food in Australia! This Taco Beer definitely did NOT satisfy that craving, don't know why I thought it might!

Two Birds is a brewery owned by two women and was quite good!

This was my favorite cider (very, very good) and here I am (below) with the cider-maker from Apple Thief.

The second event (Oct. 25, 2013) was at this pub in Newtown where you sampled beers (you chose 8 small glasses of beer) that were served on a "paddle" which was very tricky to hold steady as you navigated through a thick crowd at the pub without spilling.

The final event (Oct. 26, 2013) was at a pub that's literally just around the corner from my place called The Local Taphouse which was a pub I'd heard served local beer but had never been to. There was a great band playing that night and they have a great rooftop bar.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Poker, Movies and Shopping in Melbourne

The last time I played poker was years ago with my cousins and back then we only played with pennies and nickels. Oh and I had a "Poker for Dummies" cheat sheet which outlined the hierarchy of the various hands (e.g., 3 of a kind beats 2 pairs). So when invited to join my colleagues for a fun game of poker, I was hesitant. But when informed all the winnings were going to charity, I quickly joined in... it was for a good cause of course.

Thankfully I also had some very helpful coaches and the Poker for Dummies cheat sheet recreated for me. So, I actually did quite well lasting until nearly the final round. Truthfully, I was lucky, making a strong come back after going "all in" and winning "on the river".

So the weekend (Oct. 9-14, 2013) was already off to a lucky start!

My friend Val joined me for a "Conversation with John Landis" which was part of the Melbourne Movie Festival. It was a great session with John Landis, the director of The Blues Brothers and Animal House was quite funny sharing stories about his peers and how he enjoys 3D movies when done well.

Then it was off to Richmond for some shopping! I was surprised that Australian fashion designer Alannah Hill had an outlet store - I was able to get two silk tops at a very, very good price.

Melbourne's got amazing restaurants and I finally went to the original MoVida Restaurant. The newest one opened not far from my place in Surry Hills, but knowing it originated in Melbourne I wanted to try the "real thing". The lane ways leading to MoVida are heavily graffitied, the one with the Angry Bird reminded me of my nephew Tyler who after a year still loves Angry Bird (which is surprising as the Batman and Thomas the Train phases were quite short).

Nes also took me to a newly opened restaurant that served "Messy" or street food from Greece at restaurant right around the corner from the office called GAZI which was wonderful! It's one of George Calombaris' restaurants - he's one of the judges on Australia's Master Chef reality TV cooking show.

We ordered the Pavlova (see right) which looked HUGE but once you cracked the outer shell it was quite a reasonable size as well as Loukaomathes (honey, nutella and crushed hazelnuts) on the left - YUM!

And while I have my favorite breakfast spots in Melbourne (Cumulus on Flinders Lane and this little place across from The Westin), I also love to mix things up and try new restaurants for breakfast. While the first attempt to try The Hardware Society was stymied by a huge waiting line, when I went back on Monday morning I finally made it in with no waiting. It was a brisk walk from the hotel, but well worth it.

Australia’s Far from Everything aka “The Tyranny of Distance”

I’ve heard the saying “The Tyranny of Distance” many times in reference to any number of things (high prices for physical goods such as cars, early adopters of technology yet unnoticed, high propensity to take risks as outside the scrutiny of general populous) that are a result of the fact that Australia’s so geographically far from everything.

Little did I know the saying comes from the title of a book by Geoffrey Blainey which examines how Australia’s geographical remoteness has shaped the country’s history and cultural identity.

Yet while there’s close affiliation with its nearest neighbor New Zealand (ANZAC Day honors the Australian and New Zealand military troops) which is a 3 hour flight from Sydney there appears to be less affiliation with another near neighbor, Fiji, which is just a 4 hour flight from Sydney.

On my trip (Oct. 4-8, 2013), I found the Fijians to very warm and friendly people with a very distinct culture that relies on rituals and storytelling and a strong respect for gifts from nature. I enjoyed a beautiful Fijian dinner and cultural performance.

Fiji’s national drink - Kava - was served in the traditional manner where we had to clap once, clasp our hands, take the cup and drink the Kava in one sip before returning the cup. I found it to taste very bitter.

We also watch a Fire Walking Ceremony which was more about warriors preparing the pit with stones, branches and leaves for the Grand Priest to walk across than actually walking across hot coals.

Here’s a slide show and video of the Fijian cultural experience performed at my hotel, The Westin on Denarau Island:

Fiji’s made up of 332 islands, however, most are uninhabited. I flew into Viti Levu island’s Nadi Airport and from there took a 40 minute car ride to Denarau Island which is in the North. I was only staying 4-nights so to maximize my visit went to the closest, nicest place for scuba diving. If I had more time, I would have taken an hour-plane ride from Nadi Airport to Taveuni which is where scuba pioneer Jacques Cousteau’s son has a resort near the famous Somosomo Straight and the Rainbow Reef.

The drift diving and visibility on Denarau Island was so spectacular! So, when I hear from everyone that Taveuni is 10 times better, I’m certainly keen to check it out!

I didn’t capture it on video, but one of my most incredible memories was when we were heading to our next dive location, there was a pod of dolphins frolicking in the waves created by the front of the boat. The sun was out, the water an amazingly crystal-clear aqua blue and these squealing dolphins looked to be having such a fun, playful time as they dove in and out of the waves along the front of the boat. Absolutely amazing!

I dove with Dive Adrenalin Fiji which is right in front of The Sofitel Fiji Resort which is next to The Westin Resort, so very convenient. I give Dive Adrenalin Fiji very high marks for terrific Dive Masters who led us on the most amazing dives! My absolute favorite was a drift dive on my last day. We literally dove 3, almost 4, dive sites as we cruised by effortlessly in the current like we were on an amusement park ride. It was so exhilarating! You can bet I had my Canon G12 on “video” most of the time to capture the experience of moving at such a fast pace, past schools of fish, sharks, and fields of broccoli :)

Oct. 5, 2013 - Dive #185

Plantation Pinnacle on Denarau Island

26 degrees C, 100 meter visibility for 45 minutes at 23.8 meters.

Oct. 5, 2013 - Dive #186

Wilkes Passage and Fishmarket on Denarau Island

26 degrees C, 100 meter visibility for 57 minutes at 13.7 meters