I realized it has been a while since my last update, which was shortly after Easter and I already got some complaints about this (with good reason).
But I’m alive and kicking and let me give you an update of my first Australian winter, which was quite mild according to the locals, although I sometimes thought: BBRRRRR. Reason: most houses don’t have central heating.
A good excuse for being a little late in responding I guess is the fact that someone has a new girlfriend. Surprise, surprise, Ruud has a girlfriend. Please send all your complaints to Lynne!!! Hahaha. (By the way: she left for Switzerland yesterday for a two week holiday and what happens: I have time to update my website...)
I met Lynne in the beginning of the year at Marion’s good bye dinner in Sydney. We started dating and the dating become more frequently and we realized we both wanted to spend more time together. And that’s what we are doing right now. Lynne is Australian (ok, 50% Australian and 50% PNG) and works as an Investor Relations manager. Quick, check the pictures!!
But to be honest, I can’t blame everything on Lynne, so here are a couple of other excuses for the lack of communication lately.
Offcourse I have been diving as often as possible, but the water was a little bit cold in Sydney during the winter, around 16 degrees Celsius. So my 5 mm wetsuit wasn’t always enough. Did my Wreck Specialty at the Tugs in Eden and the Underwater Photography Course in Sydney and signed up for my Dive Master course now. Who knows, one day I maybe end up in the dive business. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind. I’m just waiting for my other partners to show up in Australia to realize our dreams…
I also went back to the Great Barrier Reef and this time we made it to the Yongala. Amazing man, this is really a wreck on steroids, everything is bigger here. A little bit scary were all the poisonous sea snakes around the wreck. Luckily the poison is in the back of their mouth and their mouth is so small only your little finger would fit in there. But still…
I had another snake encounter which I liked even less. I went down to Bundeena with Lynne to walk in the Royal National Park. Nice walk through the bush alongside the cliffs: beautiful scenery. Then all of a sudden at eye height, half a metre away, I see this big $%^&* snake in a bush, so we quickly continue and the snake luckily doesn’t move. Problem was we had to go back the same way, as this was the only way. I couldn’t walk past the snake again and made quite a detour to get back. We all heard those stories about the most poisonous snakes in the world are in Australia, and I think this was the first time in my life I couldn’t set my mind to doing what I wanted to do: just quickly walk past the snake as a lot of other people were doing as well (without even noticing the snake). It turned out the snake was doing his winter sleep.
Some time ago there was a Dive Treasure Hunt. Potatoes were hidden in the water at Shelly Beach and each of us had to find one potato in order to participate in the raffle. There were great prices like wetsuits, dive trips, a dive watch. What did I win? A computer bag, unfortunately without computer. Two dive friends, both male, won a wetsuit. Small issue: there was one male and one female suit… So now I call them The Couple.
As mentioned before, I did an Underwater Photography Course and actually, it’s quite hard to take pictures underwater. There always some current and you also have to control your buoyancy. But I’m practicing a lot and since I borrowed my buddy Marc’s strobe (you really need one if you wanna make good piccies) the pictures are getting better. Give me another ten years and National geographic is maybe interested…
Winter is also the rugby season and rugby (and cricket) is like soccer in the Netherlands. The confusing part (at least for me) is the fact there are three kinds of rugby played in Australia: rugby league, rugby union and AFL. But after one season I know a little bit more. And the Sydney teams were superior this year: the Sydney Swans won the AFL Grand Final and the West Tigers the NRL Grand Final. We watched a couple of the West Tigers’ games in the casino on big screens and each drink you bought came with a raffle ticket to win tickets to the Grand Final. Guess who won 4 tickets: we did!!! So of we went to see the Grand Final with 80.000 other crazy rugby fans. As the final was played in Sydney, the majority of the people were Tigers’ supporters, so we had a great night out. Yes, I’m a West Tigers fan now.
And the rugby season is barely over and the cricket starts already. Australia had a very disappointing start of their season as they (the best cricket team in the world and reigning world champions) got beaten by arch rivals England during the Ashes in England. The local papers ran out of paper to describe the tragedy. Personally I think it was good Australia lost (oeps, I’m not really allowed to say this, as I’m half an Aussie now, and I also watched till 2 in the morning…), because it was no fun anymore lately as they beat the shit out of every opponent for quite some time. After the Ashes the best players of the world came down to Sydney as the World XI to play Australia, but they were slaughtered.
But to be honest, on Monday mornings I first look up the soccer news and luckily there’s some more soccer news in the papers since the new competition started. Australia has been without a soccer league for almost 2 years, so quite some people were quite excited when the new league kicked of in August. There are 7 Australian teams and one New Zeeland team in the comp, and although Sydney FC are the favourites, they are only number two at the moment and all the teams are really close. I bought a season pass but haven’t been able to see a lot of matches yet. Each team was allowed to buy one marque player (they have kind of a salary cap for each time) and Sydney FC signed up Dwight Yorke.
Ever bigger news was the signing of Guus Hiddink by the Football Federation Australia. Hopefully he can guide them to his third consecutive semi final at a World Cup. Next month Australia has to play Uruguay for one of the final spots for Germany 2006. Come on Guus!!!
Work wise I had my ups and downs as I’m not really doing what I want to do. But on the other hand I made a couple of trips to Canberra and Melbourne. I was in Canberra in June and that’s the beginning of the winter, bbrrr it was freezing cold down there and just one week after we left, they got snow around Canberra. In case you didn’t know, you are able to ski in Australian winter!!
I also had my first progressive dinner party: each course at another address. As Sonja and Mark live in the same street as well, and Mark’s sister as well, we luckily didn’t have to walk that far and we had a great night with lots of food and drinks.
O yes, also went to a couple of concerts: The Bar @ Buena Vista, The Black Eyed Peas and next month Pavarotti. Next year Coldplay, U2 and the Rolling Stones should be around.
Each year there the Bridge Run in Sydney. They close the Sydney Harbour Bridge for traffic and you can run in the middle of the bridge. Fantastic to see the Bridge like this. The Bridge Run is 9 km. and as Lynne and I are running twice a week, we decided to give it a go. We both were pleased we made it to the finish in one piece and in one go.
Some Aussie friends made it back to Australia. Kel and Kate: It was great to see you girls again and Vicky, have a great time in London.
Last weekend we went to Jervis Bay with some workmates of mine. Jervis Bay is 2.5 hours drive south of Sydney and the drive along the coast is great. And Jervis Bay itself is even better, a miles long white beach (and there was almost nobody). The water is probably still to cold (around 16 degrees Celsius) for most of the Aussies but we had a great relaxing weekend with a nice run on the beach, lots of barbies (Australian for BBQ’s) and a couple of dives.
That’s the one thing I can’t get Lynne into (so far): diving. But that’s not a problem, but a challenge!!
Cheers, Ruud
TEACHER : Maria, go to the map and find North America. MARIA : Here it is! TEACHER : Correct. Now class, who discovered America? CLASS : Maria! ___________________________________________________________ TEACHER : Why are you late, Frank? FRANK : Because of the sign. TEACHER : What sign? FRANK : The one that says, "School Ahead, Go Slow." ___________________________________________________________ TEACHER : John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor? JOHN : You told me to do it without using tables! ___________________________________________________________ TEACHER : Glenn, how do you spell "crocodile?" GLENN : K-R-O-K-O-D-A-I-L" TEACHER : No, that's wrong GLENN : Maybe it s wrong, but you asked me how I spell it! ___________________________________________________________ TEACHER : Donald, what is the chemical formula for water? DONALD : H I J K L M N O!! TEACHER : What are you talking about? DONALD : Yesterday you said it's H to O! ___________________________________________________________ TEACHER : Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago. WINNIE : Me! ___________________________________________________________ TEACHER : Goss, why do you always get so dirty? GOSS : Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are. ___________________________________________________________ TEACHER : Millie, give me a sentence starting with "I." MILLIE : I is... TEACHER : No, Millie..... Always say, "I am." MILLIE : All right... "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet." ___________________________________________________________ TEACHER : Can anybody give an example of COINCIDENCE? TINO: Sir, my Mother and Father got married on the same day, same time." ___________________________________________________________ TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted doing it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him?" LOUIS : Because George still had the axe in his hand. ___________________________________________________________ TEACHER : Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating? SIMON : No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook. ___________________________________________________________ TEACHER : Clyde, your composition on "My Dog" is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his? CLYDE : No, teacher, it's the same dog! __________________________________________________________ TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested? HAROLD : A teacher.
