Sydney is AMAZING!

Melissa finally convinced me to travel with her to Sydney to check out the only 'real' Australian city. I'd been reluctant for visit the other 'capital' city because of the unwritten rule: Melbourne doesn't like Sydney and Sydney doesn't like Melbourne. The nations capital was settled in Canberra - halfway between Melbourne and Sydney. Although Sydney was settled first, Melbourne's early population grew faster and the city developed parallel to other pacific rim cities like San Francisco. Sydney grew in popularity and is now larger and arguably more popular than Melbourne. The cities' two soccer teams are even bitter rivals with visiting fans always calling for increased security at away games. To make the brainwashing worse, my manager is originally from Sydney and never hesitates to educate me on all the great things Sydney has to offer.

This trip had another purpose as I finally got to meet the other CEB leaders who are helping to start the Asia-Pacific office. Both are living in Sydney - one downtown and the other at Manly beach. When first arriving at Manly, its clear that this beach is one of the most beautiful in Australia. After staying for the weekend, it may be one the most beautiful in the world.

To round out the weekend, we saw the passing of the Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Victoria. Apparently, these massive cruiseliners rarely meet at the same port and this meeting was even more special as its the QV's maiden voyage and the QE2's retirement voyage. [Not sure I would purchase a ticket for either!] The video clip is meant to share with you the horns as they both sounded as they passed in Sydney Harbor. Its not great, but you get the drift.

Day trip to the peninsula

I hope you all have some tissues handy following that last entry. What always amazed me was that he was a football coach - he must have been the original Joe-Pa.

I wanted to take a minute to thank the dedicated readers of our blog. If this were school, Bing and Annie would get an A+ for participation. Thanks to those of you who keep reading and don't hesitate to leave a comment.

This weekend's trip was a last minute trip. During bootcamp Saturday morning, we learned of several winery and beach 'must-sees' along the southern peninsula. [That's right, "we". I finally got Melissa to go with me. Don't ask her how she enjoyed it ;-)] South of us is the Mornington Peninsula. It has beautiful beaches on both sides - one facing the bay and the other the Tasman Sea. The Melbourne elite all have weekend houses along the many beach towns of the peninsula so it has been on our list of places to visit for some time. The weather outlook for the weekend was spectacular - sunny, blue skies, and high's near 30 - and perhaps the last nice weekend of the summer. It was all the convincing we needed. We rented a car for Sunday and headed south to Mornington.

The trip started by visiting some of the small bay beaches just a few minutes south of us. The picture above is of the very cute Brighton beach. There are small, very colorful shacks along the beach owned by local residents. We headed on to Red Hill Estate for lunch and a taste of the Red Hill wine. The pictures don't do the scenery any justice. While we enjoyed our lunch on the lawn overlooking the vineyard and Phillip Island, a helicopter from the city landed on a large patch of grass not more than 100 meters away. A little rude! We moved on along the Tasman Sea coast and then cut across the peninsula to Serrento and Portsea. It was a fantastic day trip and we look forward to spending a real Melbournian long weekend in Mornington.

Celebrating Pop-pop

As many of you know, earlier this month we lost our Pop-pop (Louis Massari). What a sad time to be so far from home...I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you some of our favorite memories of the wonderful man at the center of our family. I chose this picture as opposed to one of just him because it most accurately depicts who he was: always taking care of everyone else before himself, the heart of us all. His birthday was the one time the entire family came together, no matter what. It was an event to look forward to. Each summer my sisters and I would get to spend a week at Nana and Pop-pop's house in Lansdowne, PA. We would sit on the porch with Pop-pop just about every night we were there. He would be wearing pants because he always wore pants, no matter how hot it was! In the evenings he would tell us to turn the light on when we were reading and to not sit so close to the TV. He was always especially concerend with our eyes. When we weren't at their house, they were down at ours - dance recitials, field hockey games, babysitting, or just visiting. One of my favorite memories of Pop-pop is the way as soon as soon as he got to our house he spent the next thirty minutes going around to every plant, pruning it and exclaiming to my mom that she was over watering them! He always brought new plants down with him hoping that she would be able to make this new one live.

It was such a special treat every time Nana and Pop-pop babysat because it not only meant Jo and John's for dinner, but McDonald's hot fudge sundays. They were one of his favorite treats to take us out for and since we weren't "allowed" to have stuff like that it was extra special.

I especially loved when Pop-pop was building and carving things. He could fix anything you needed fixed and he made just about everything that could be made out of wood. He just took it down the basement and voila! Who can forget the year of the peach pit rings?! They were so cool. Jeanna and I used to fight over the pretty, darker one.

My mom remembers sitting on his lap while he read the newspaper when she was little and that he never let her miss a day of school. Seriously she had perfect attendance from kindergarten though 12th grade and he was so proud. He taught her to swim at the pool and in the ocean, timed at her swim meets, and always came by the pool after work to get his lemon water ice before going home.

And how can my dad forget him watching out the blinds looking to see if mom was home from a date yet?!

I have my favorite gift from Pop-pop every where I go. It has been in each place I've lived, including now in Australia. It is the clock he made for many of us. Now the chimes every 15 minutes have an even more special meaning.

What is LOTR?

One night, Melissa and I put our heads together - those logical, math-oriented sides of our brains - to plan out all the great places we want to visit this year. There are so many great cities and sites within Australia, but there are also so many cool and interesting countries within reach. With limited vacation time, we needed to prioritize. We've talked about Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and Tasmania in Australia as well as Auckland, Bali, and Hong Kong. One city we did not discuss - Wellington.

Melissa had a need to be in Wellington this week for work. With several of my team members attending a week-long training in Chicago, I could get away without much trouble. But I had to ask, "What’s there to do in Wellington?" I'm not that familiar with New Zealand and before arriving in Melbourne, I would have had trouble naming a Kiwi city other than Auckland. [Oh yes, New Zealanders fully embrace their mascot the kiwi.] After some initial research, I learned that Wellington is the country's capital. That's exciting, I thought. I also quickly learned that Wellington is known for something pretty cool - The Lord of the Rings.

Peter Jackson's movie creation was filmed all over New Zealand. Lucky for us, many of the scenes for "Middle Earth" were taken from right around Wellington. Several tourism companies offer day tours that cover many of the famous sites. We decided to save our money, grab a map, and try to find them ourselves. It was quite a trip - too much to fully get into here. We were successful in our search and discovered some great locations including Helms Deep [no pictures, actually just a rock quarry]; the Great River Anduin; Isengard and the Orc trees [notice Melissa mesmerized by the tree], Rivendell [below the rope bridge]; and outer protective walls of Mordor [unlike in the movie, these rocky walls are actually white].

We continued beyond our final destination and followed the coastal road as far as it would take us, and then continued on a loose gravel road to check out a huge seal colony. Our little Ford Focus was a great trooper during the off-roading and the sites in and around the seals were breathtaking. Honestly, most of the drive was breathtaking. Our camera could not do the scenery justice. We've added a new slide show to the left to share the pictures from the trip.

Needless to say, I now know much more about the little city of Wellington and cannot wait for Melissa's next trip to New Zealand so I can tag along. We may need to brush up on the trilogy before we head back ;-)

I too, must say, "sorry"

I realize it’s been some time [two weeks - eek!] since we last updated the blog. It’s not for a lack of interest on our part. We love that everyone reads our blog and can share in our adventures Down Under - although those of you checking it every morning may be disappointed more often than not - and having the blog encourages us to stay off our duffs and get out and explore this amazing country. We also appreciate the comments - especially those from Bing. [And no, we've not made it to the Foster's brewery yet :-)]

After a busy January, we needed to take a weekend off. Not much to share from the first week of February other than the usual - going to work, running necessary errands, etc. Oh, but we did receive one great piece of news... we are going to be RJ's godparents! I know it's too cheesy, but here it comes nonetheless, "Jeanna and Bob made us an offer we couldn't refuse." We're totally excited and this means a trip back to NJ in April for the christening. Undoubtedly, we will spoil - and enjoy every minute of it - our new nephew and godson. I just hope he likes kangaroos, kiwis, cricket, and footie. He - and many of his friends - may be very confused by the gifts we shower him with.

And now for some relevance as to the subject of this entry. Today, the Parliament officially and publicly apologized to the Aboriginal people of Australia. In a 361-word statement crafted with Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin and advisers, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd used the word "sorry" three times — acknowledging its power in indigenous culture. The apology was directed to the "stolen generations". Years ago, the government set out to improve the quality of life for its indigenous people. The government systematically plucked children from their families and homes to provide them a descent education in the hope they would grow up to make a better life for themselves. As a result, children were forces to live away from their families and their culture for their developing years. At 18, these new adults were released from the public education system and asked to make a life of their own. Despite the education, these young adults were still treated as Aborigines in the general public. Upon returning home, many were labeled outcasts by their families and communities. The practice ceased, and as I understand it, this apology was long overdue. A great day for Australia.

So I apologized for not writing, PM Rudd apologized for the former actions of the government, but there is still another public apology that was made today. Channel 9 [one of our five channels] apologized for not being able to air the mini-series "Underbelly" tonight in Victoria. It's an Aussie version of "Sopranos" except that it’s based on a very true and new story of organized crime in Melbourne. Although many have been arrested, the criminal investigation is ongoing and all the legal proceedings have not yet taken place. I'm not entirely sure why, but the Supreme Court barred the airing [it was to debut tonight] in Victoria only. However, Melissa was able to watch it as she is in Sydney tonight. A great day for Melissa.

This past weekend, we did take a trip. Stay tuned for that entry [and pictures] tomorrow. A hint, the picture used for this entry was taken there.