Sunday March 28, 2010

First off I want to apologize for writing the last two posts at a second grade reading level. I was totally exhausted and could barely sift through the photos let alone say anything interesting or informative. Sorry! Although I was able to lure in another “reader” because of the primitive nature of the posts. (Yes, Rich is finally reading my blog. Let’s work on Chris now. He just does it to piss me off.)

We woke up at the butt crack of dawn again to catch our Frontier Photographic Safari tour bus to the Blue Mountains. Sam, the landscape photographer driver was picking us up and 4 other people to go on a semi-private tour. You know I like to do things my way and when I inquired about a private tour it was too much money.  The woman I was corresponding with promised it would only be 8 of us so we went with them. Wrong. There were 11. Ok, I am not going to make a big deal out of this. No worries.

Our first stop was at Featherdale Wildlife Park where we could interact and touch kangaroos, wallabies and emus. Check out this baby wallaby (or maybe a relative of the wallaby…. I dunno 818 and I keep arguing about our marsupial viewing. He is probably right)

It was early enough in the day that they were still hungry and very friendly to us. We weren’t able to pick them up, but we could feed them and pet them.

For example, I thought this was a small kangaroo, but 818 says it’s a wallaby. How ridiculous that I come to this place and cannot even identify my animals…. anyone? back me up here.

Hilarious, he is doing self portraits with it.

And probably the single cutest photo I have taken in a long time…

I have this really cool wide angle video adaptor lens thingy and it looks like a true fish eye lens. The interesting part is that you have to get really really close to the subject, and kangaroos like to punch. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I was not punched in the face by a kangaroo, although that would have been the greatest story ever. There was a Nikon ad years ago with a black and white photo of a guy up close to a kangaroo who was punching him and his camera went flying: Nikon tip #47 when photographing nature, try a zoom lens. I desperately wanted that to come true for me.

I love this picture!

I mean seriously, is this not the funniest thing ever? Look at his little tongue! OMG Is that going to stop me from eating him tomorrow night? Absolutely not. There are 50 million of them in Australia, they can afford to lose a few to my belly.

We picked up another passenger at the wildlife park bringing out passenger count to 1/3 more people than I was promised. Ok, no worries.

We trekked on to the Blue Mountains and got out to take a brief 10 minute walk when we started approaching 2000 or 2500 feet.

Sam tried to get us to play his didgeridoo but no one was really interested in putting their mouth on his nasty wooden noisemaker after God knows how many others have done the same thing so we declined. One brave American woman played the thing. And it sounded nothing like it was supposed to.

After our mini hike we went to Mount Tomah for what was promised to be an amazing lunch with a beautiful view of the mountain range and then a quick walk around their botanical gardens. We all ordered the barramundi and we were all highly disappointed. The highlight of lunch was the cheap wine they served.

After lunch we went to see Govett’s Leap, the Australia version of the Grand Canyon, but much greener.

Then we went to the area where the famous Three Sisters are… We rode a tram down into the valley which was at a FIFTY TWO DEGREE ANGLE! holy shit it was steep! I was so frazzled on the way down I couldn’t even manage a clear picture.

After our sightseeing we had a long drive back to the city where Sam sang along with ancient Australian folk songs and made us listen to an Aboriginal tell stories. None of us were really that enthusiastic about any of that and I think about 75% of the bus was asleep within a half hour. So despite the fact that our itinerary said “Hotel pick-up and return” we were dumped off at the Sydney Olympic park and were told to find our way back to the city. I was like, ummm… dude sorry we didn’t play your fucking didgeridoo thingy, but aren’t you being a little lazy by not driving us back to the hotel? This tour was not something I would recommend. Especially since it was a “photographic” tour… he gave us about 10 minutes at each spot. Someone like me likes to take in the whole scene and might need a few more minutes to soak it in while shooting. Lame.

We had a beer at a outdoor cafe near Cockle Bay and then headed off to a 47th floor rotating restaurant called The Summit. Apparently the executive chef is named Michael Moore, not to be confused with the sensationalist director we love to hate. My brother was less than thrilled at not understanding the over priced 2 course menu for $79 and not knowing what his options were or what the menu items were. It’s all good, though, he’s learning how to live, too

I had the crudo and tartare appetizer: the salmon toro was kind of bland (the one on the left) but the other thing… was pretty tasty. It was thinly sliced salmon and had some roe on it and a bunch of little hot peppers that I had to pick off, of course.

For my entree I had the John Dory (my new favorite white fish and I order wherever I can. It’s very light and not fishy at all) It came with ravioli thingys stuffed with crab. (Slightly over salted but still good.)

And lastly, before we left Sydney I was bound and determined to get the Opera House from every possible angle in every possible lighting situation. Being that the place was rotating I was forced to crawl on the floor and set up the camera on a mini tripod on the base of the restaurant that was NOT rotating. It was quite a sight, but I have this gem to show for it.

On another note, I received a tweet from Jarin requesting some “facedowns” while I am on this trip. I am pretty sure I can make this happen and you know I love a good goofy photo-op!

March 27, 2010

I have to admit I have been a little overwhelmed and haven’t concentrated on the culinary aspect of this trip. We just stumble upon something and if we are hungry or thirsty, we make it happen. Today we went to the Fish Market (a big fat fail, it was nothing like the one in Tokyo) and after a disappointing “no-raw-fish-for-breakfast” we went to The Rocks and found a little French cafe called  La Renaissance Patisserie, complete with angry bitchy French women running it. They are known for their cakes and we can just start our day right off the bat with a LTP award going to the Passion De Pierre! I never realized that I loved passion fruit so much… but today I learned that the yummy gooey stuff on the top of this dessert was in fact passion fruit sauce. The first time I ever had this in my mouth was in Dubai and the second time was back in November at the Food and Wine Festival where Chris and I were licking plates. Ironically I called the sauce from November a caramel pomegranate sauce and if I had to go back in time and make that same assessment again, it would be passion fruit. What an amazingly sophisticated palate I have, huh? oh well… please remember that I am learning how to live.

It was so adorable I almost didn’t want to eat it.

This is so creepy I don’t even know what to say.

Kanagaroo jerky, of course.

I lost count of how many pictures I have of the Opera House. I have every single inch of her covered, I almost feel like I am violating her. Just wait til Ayers Rock in a few days, though. Every single angle in every single lighting situation.

All morning we kept running into and trying to stay out of the way of these crazy people. They were in a relay race/scavenger hunt type thing called City Chase and were in a mad dash to complete a bunch of tasks. I wanted to ask them what they were doing but most of them were in a frantic hurry and I certainly didn’t want to be responsible for making them lose. Ann Marie and I keep talking about signing up for Amazing Race. I really need to check into that now that I have some free time.

After hitting up every open air market in the Greater Sydney area and Pete was bored to tears of shopping we headed over to Bondi Beach, the most famous beach in all of Sydney.

Dogs were running around playing and this one in particular looked almost identical to Pete and Ann Marie’s old dog Chelsea. I think they are very close to getting another one soon (Although they claim that I am close too. (I love dogs, but clearly a dog is not conducive to my lifestyle at this moment.)

For some odd reason there was a splotch of hot pink paint on this rock that 818 noticed. It’s almost as if the monkey took a shit on the rock.

This never gets old. I laugh every time I take one of these.

Umm nice hair, Laura.

and my favorite photo of the day…

And this is Peter Travis, inventor of the Speedo! He was so excited to talk to us and tell us about the Speedo and how he invented it… 83 years old and the guy is full of energy!

After sightseeing all day we went to Prime for a lovely steak dinner. No photos. I am tired. Good night.

March 26, 2010

I am so exhausted that I can barely keep my eyes open. We completely lost an entire day in travel and got only a few hours of sleep on the plane, so today’s entry will be very short commentary on a few good photos. The pink monkey has been to all of the continents and is in rough shape these days. When I return home he will be retired and put in a class case forever. He smells real bad. He has sat in penguin shit, been fondled by stinky kids at a Masai village, has had his face planted in the street in Manhattan, been burned by cigarettes and has been dragged around by many dogs mouths. He has had a good life. Follow along as we throw him around down under….

I wasn’t about to lose him in Sydney Harbor so I have the grip of death on him here.

Syndey Harbor Bridge

Of course the Sydney Opera House

818 looking hot with his scruff.

My brother Peter

Traffic jam in the harbor

If you look very closely you will see the monkey. This is like playing “Where’s Waldo” …

If you look closely here you can see my reflection in the mirror at the end of the hallway of this theater.

And finally, the view we enjoyed during our lousy dinner at an Italian place called Baia.

I gotta get to bed, we are getting up at 5:00 am to hit the fish market. ZZZZZZZ for now…

Thursday 11.26.09 and Friday 11.27.09

Thanksgiving was the usual traditional meal with all the side dishes and pies that you would expect. There was a particularly yummy bacon corn casserole that I inhaled. The funniest part of the day was while hearing the sound of whipped cream in a can being sprayed (you know the kind that when you inhale it you get silly) and then hearing my brother-in-laws mom go “Oh boy whose jacket is this?” She had accidentally lost control of the can and sprayed a bunch of it into the pocket of my black pea coat. I thought I was going to pee myself laughing. Hearing her Irish accent and not knowing what the hell was happening in the other room just struck me so funny. Sorry, I guess you had to be there.

Today was also a great day because my brother and his wife and I bought our plane tickets to Australia and New Zealand! I am so freaking excited!! We are taking a very long 21 day trip and will be hitting Sydney, Uluru, Cairns, Whitsunday Islands and finally heading to Auckland, NZ. We tried to get the Qantas pass where you pay less and still get to travel within Australia but since we chose to start and end in different cities and hit NZ, we got robbed on the price. I don’t even want to tell you what the flight cost. Yikes. (reminds self: once in a lifetime trip)

On Friday my sister and I went to the mall and did some Christmas shopping. I know, I am nuts, but it wasn’t that bad actually. My class reunion was later that evening and I had a hotel room near the mall with some girlfriends from high school, so she dropped me off and then I had a total anxiety attack about what to wear. Jessica, Kristen and Kate met up with me and we slapped on the whore makeup and headed over to the venue where “the guys” were watching the UCONN game and eating dinner before the reunion. Most everyone is married with a couple of kids, doing the same job for the last decade. Some people moved out of Connecticut, some people are divorced, some people are doing things I never would have expected and some people looked exactly the same. Kate, Katie and Bob had done a fantastic job planning this thing and even though I was the dorky class president I wasn’t able to really help with the planning of it since I live 3000 miles away, so I contributed by building the website. It really was nice to see some of the people, some of them I got stuck talking to that I could care less about, and I managed to freak out a few people talking about my job. One old friend said “So, are you still doing photography?” and my response was “Well, sort of. It’s a different kind of ‘ography’.” She ran away.

I was taking photos with my small point and shoot, and I only took a few photos with the big fancy Nikon because let’s face it, it’s hard to hold a drink and use an SLR at the same time. I didn’t eat any of the buffet food, and I decided to go shot for shot with a buddy who probably weighs close to 240 pounds. Oh that is just brilliant! Tequila? Really, Laura? TEQUILA? I don’t even like that shit! I drank it once in high school and wanted to kill myself the next day and the only other time I drink it is in Mexico, because that is usually the only hard liquor you can find. One thing led to another, I lose my small camera, become “that girl” and generally proceed to embarrass myself in front of everyone. We wrapped up at the reunion and headed over to another bar where a lot of our friends from elementary and junior high school were. Many of our childhood friends ended up going to a Catholic high school in the next town over and their class reunion was also the same night. So naturally I continue my drink-a-thon with Phelper, and then I see three guys that I had crushes on at some point in my childhood. After some investigation (and a very awkward moment in the bathroom with one of their wives) I learn that Joe is single. Let’s rewind about 5 years. Someone had mentioned that they saw him and they reported that he was hot, had a great body and owned a very successful business. Funny how the wife part escaped my memory. Anyways, about 3 weeks ago his name popped into my head and I thought how awesome it would be to run into him this weekend. He didn’t show up at the actual reunion, but got wind that we were all meeting at this bar, so lucky me… I didn’t recognize him (possibly because I was only able to see out of one eye) and was totally taken aback when I started talking to him. Upon discovery of his “singleness” I made a point to let everyone in the bar know not to let him leave without notifying me. I found out later that I made his friend go into the men’s bathroom looking for him at one point because I thought he ditched out without saying goodbye. What a jackass. Long story longer… I got a ride back to the hotel from him since the girls went to fucking Denny’s with the guys. Puke! Hang on… let me see…. lure Joe back to my hotel or go eat at that shit-hole? Pretty simple answer I think. Unfortunately I was cock-blocked (pussy blocked?) by the two guys he had promised rides home to and also the fact that he was a nice guy and refused to let me do something I might regret in the morning. He obviously doesn’t know me very well.

The next day we were texting back and forth and I invited him to dinner with my family. My sweet innocent sister was not comprehending that I would not be returning to her house that night and that I would find my way back there in the morning. I felt like I was lying to my parents about a “sleepover” at my girlfriend’s house. It was pretty funny. Keep in mind, that Joe is sober. I immediately assumed he had gone to rehab or something and he simply explained that he tried it in high school a few times and it just wasn’t for him. (sound of record scratching… whaaaa?). After dinner we went back to his place and attempted to watch a movie, talked for hours about our lives, his ex-wife, his kids, our jobs, my blind dating adventures, traveling….etc… It was great to catch up and I fell in love with his Doberman who thinks he can fit on your lap. When it came time to “go to sleep” it was a little awkward, he got a little shy so I asked if he wanted me to sleep on the couch (HAHA yeah right like I was going to actually do that.) Here is a guy who is coming out of a messy divorce where she cheated on him and traumatized him, and here is me, having sober sex with a stranger for the first time in who knows how long. If you do the math, it has been longer that he hadn’t seen each other than the time that we actually knew each other. That to me is “sex with a stranger.” (And seriously… as a single person for the last 3 years I can honestly say that when you hook up with someone for the very first time alcohol is usually involved. Even if it is one or two glasses of wine, something to loosen things up a little. Who meets someone at the grocery store and then goes and has sex with them? When was the last time you met someone in yoga and then took them back to your place for a one night stand?) The awkwardness went away quickly We laughed about how silly it was that we had never tried this out before.  We have been talking and emailing and chatting this week… making each other laugh. I have lured him into the world of porn and am making him a list of videos to watch in his spare time or  during those sleepless nights alone. He is amazed that I can talk freely about sex, porn, masturbation, and all kinds of other shit that most uptight women on the east coast shudder about. I am very open minded and at times think like a man. In the last few years I have been accused of intimidating men and I just don’t see it. I wish that my honesty and openness wasn’t regarded as such. Someone recently told me that I should try harder to give men the warm fuzzies and be sweeter. lol I just don’t really know what that means I guess. Oh well, I am just me being me.