Who woke up at 3am, walked to McDonald's (because it's the only place open), got a Big Mac, nuggets, fries, and a cheeseburger to now watch the Eagles game.
About that cheeseburger, the clerk had already punched in my order, when the fat kid in me asked, "are you sure 2500 calories is enough?"
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Surfing
- Return ("round-trip" in Australian) ferry tickets to Manly: AU$13
- Snacks and bottle of water: AU$8
- Surfing "lesson": AU$60
- Two beers to sooth the pain: $AU15
To answer everyone's question, no I did not manage to stand up.
I was pretty much an abject failure at my first attempt at surfing. I would have been better served to throw myself down a flight of stairs while drinking a bucket of seawater. I would have felt the same after, but at least I wouldn't have spent the 60 bucks.
There was a lot of wind and the waves were quite big, about six foot breakers. Which is all well and good for people who know how to surf, not for a bunch of n00bs who keep getting pushed back and knocked over by the waves. Being freak sized, they gave me a small canoe for a board, which also didn't help. Finally, there were about 12 of us to two teachers, so the sum total of instruction I got all afternoon was "don't get pulled away by the current" and "paddle forward and try to jump on the board."
Needless to say, not many people were successful in this beginners surfing class, let alone the goofy, un-coordinated 6'5" Asian man who can barely swim. At one point, my dogged stubbornness was forcing me to drag the giant pontoon across the beach, pushing out about 25 feet into the waves, getting knocked over and dragged by the current down the beach and towards the shore, getting up and repeating. How is this supposed to be fun now?
Lesson learned: Mother Nature is a bitch. And if she tells you you're not supposed to surf, you're not supposed to surf.
- Snacks and bottle of water: AU$8
- Surfing "lesson": AU$60
- Two beers to sooth the pain: $AU15
To answer everyone's question, no I did not manage to stand up.
I was pretty much an abject failure at my first attempt at surfing. I would have been better served to throw myself down a flight of stairs while drinking a bucket of seawater. I would have felt the same after, but at least I wouldn't have spent the 60 bucks.
There was a lot of wind and the waves were quite big, about six foot breakers. Which is all well and good for people who know how to surf, not for a bunch of n00bs who keep getting pushed back and knocked over by the waves. Being freak sized, they gave me a small canoe for a board, which also didn't help. Finally, there were about 12 of us to two teachers, so the sum total of instruction I got all afternoon was "don't get pulled away by the current" and "paddle forward and try to jump on the board."
Needless to say, not many people were successful in this beginners surfing class, let alone the goofy, un-coordinated 6'5" Asian man who can barely swim. At one point, my dogged stubbornness was forcing me to drag the giant pontoon across the beach, pushing out about 25 feet into the waves, getting knocked over and dragged by the current down the beach and towards the shore, getting up and repeating. How is this supposed to be fun now?
Lesson learned: Mother Nature is a bitch. And if she tells you you're not supposed to surf, you're not supposed to surf.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Taste of Melbourne
OK, so I'm about a month behind on posting, so I'm gonna keep this short. Bullet point style!
- I was at Taste of Melbourne which is a food festival based, obviously, in Melbourne, Victoria. That I went and almost exclusively spent my time tasting whiske?y is not so obvious. Unless you know me.
- Went to Maze, which is a Gordon Ramsey restaurant. Nothing that was too spectacular to talk about. Food was OK, not great. Except maybe the shitty service. Hopefully this isn't symptomatic of all Australian restaurants, but this was really shitty service. Waiting 20min+ between courses, bad attitude, etc. For AU$200/pp, that was pretty shit.
- Also checked out Nobu, which is the first time I've ever been to any of Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa's restaurants. This was a really good meal. If you get the chance, you have to get the Crispy Oysters, which was to die for. Also the Miso Black Cod. But again, shitty, shitty service.
- Der Raum. Awesome cocktail bar. The bottles of booze hang from the ceiling behind the bar. The drinks are inventive ('Pushing up Daisies' is a whisky cocktail that comes in a mini watering can with a patch of cinnamon sugar 'dirt'). Atmosphere is cool. Except it is plagued by the same issue as I find with all Australian bars. At 10PM on the dot, the lights go off, the DJ comes on and it turns into a shitty dance club / lounge. This in turns attracts the kind of clientèle that comes to a cocktail bar to drink Heineken out of a bottle. Ugh.
- Coffee was great in Melbourne. And it's served out of tiny, hole-in-the-wall coffee houses in little alley ways. Food culture is big in Melbourne.
So in my opinion, Melbourne is closer to San Francisco than Sydney. And Melbourne is to SF what Sydney is to San Diego. One is about food and indoor culture, the other is
about sunshine and being outside. Both are nice in their own way.
THE END!
- I was at Taste of Melbourne which is a food festival based, obviously, in Melbourne, Victoria. That I went and almost exclusively spent my time tasting whiske?y is not so obvious. Unless you know me.
- Went to Maze, which is a Gordon Ramsey restaurant. Nothing that was too spectacular to talk about. Food was OK, not great. Except maybe the shitty service. Hopefully this isn't symptomatic of all Australian restaurants, but this was really shitty service. Waiting 20min+ between courses, bad attitude, etc. For AU$200/pp, that was pretty shit.
- Also checked out Nobu, which is the first time I've ever been to any of Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa's restaurants. This was a really good meal. If you get the chance, you have to get the Crispy Oysters, which was to die for. Also the Miso Black Cod. But again, shitty, shitty service.
- Der Raum. Awesome cocktail bar. The bottles of booze hang from the ceiling behind the bar. The drinks are inventive ('Pushing up Daisies' is a whisky cocktail that comes in a mini watering can with a patch of cinnamon sugar 'dirt'). Atmosphere is cool. Except it is plagued by the same issue as I find with all Australian bars. At 10PM on the dot, the lights go off, the DJ comes on and it turns into a shitty dance club / lounge. This in turns attracts the kind of clientèle that comes to a cocktail bar to drink Heineken out of a bottle. Ugh.
- Coffee was great in Melbourne. And it's served out of tiny, hole-in-the-wall coffee houses in little alley ways. Food culture is big in Melbourne.
So in my opinion, Melbourne is closer to San Francisco than Sydney. And Melbourne is to SF what Sydney is to San Diego. One is about food and indoor culture, the other is
about sunshine and being outside. Both are nice in their own way.
THE END!
The Blue Mountains...
...are like Yosemite-lite.
The hikes are shorter, the views less spectacular, but the drive there is shorter. All in all, a good weekend trip. Good to have seen.
Jenolan Caves however? Totally not worth the hair-raising 90 min drive either way on one-lane, cliff-hugging roads with blind turns. On the wrong side of the road, no less!
Oh yes. I drove. It wasn't so bad. I didn't die and only went against traffic once.
The hikes are shorter, the views less spectacular, but the drive there is shorter. All in all, a good weekend trip. Good to have seen.
Jenolan Caves however? Totally not worth the hair-raising 90 min drive either way on one-lane, cliff-hugging roads with blind turns. On the wrong side of the road, no less!
Oh yes. I drove. It wasn't so bad. I didn't die and only went against traffic once.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Holy Sh*t!
I'm not dead! Sorry, just been a busy month. In brief recap, all to be flushed out later:
- Went to Melbourne
- Went back to SF and Philly for two weeks
- Went to Blue Mountains
- Went to Melbourne
- Went back to SF and Philly for two weeks
- Went to Blue Mountains
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