Latkes and birthdays!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes! I had a marvelous day :) unfortunately it did involve work but bookended by breakfast cooked by Todd and dinner cooked by Todd! He really is a great cook and I'll get him to branch out from meat and three veg one of these days :)
Backtracking a bit, Todd and I celebrated our first mini Hannukah! We didn't have a hannukiah but we did have potatoes, apples, and sour cream. Todd took charge in the kitchen and after I made the latke "batter" he fried 'em up real good! Honestly though, very yummy and I believe it was a big success! At least he now knows how much Jewish holidays revolve around food...
Things are slowing down at work which is great. The road we have been working on is being handed over to the client which means it will finally be complete! Can not wait to get that off our hands. Holiday break countdown here! Just two more days and then we are off to Tassie. Interesting to think that the last time I was there for the holidays I had only known Todd for a few short months and now I am sorta a part of the family. Nice feeling and I can't wait for the time away :)
Some pictures of food (what else) for your amusement! Breakfast and Todd cooking latkes :) food of champions ;-)

Taxi drivers, more trouble than they're worth...

I'll start out by saying that Sydney is more beautiful than I remember. It may (definitely) has something to do with the fact that we were staying in an incredible residential area filled with harbor side expanses built in the early 1900's. Todd and I had two very nice planned walks through the winding streets, and one unplanned walk.
The wedding was at a ladies college (6-12 grade) in the outskirts of the city and the reception was at a restaurant straddling the water on the north side of Sydney. After a beautiful ceremony, Todd and I returned back to our hotel which was very close to the reception (not a coincidence ;-D). We decided to taxi it because I was a bit tired of driving stick through a city with hills that could give SF a run for its money. We called the cab and waited, and waited and waited until it showed up, zoomed passed the hotel and screeched down the street. Not the best start to the trip.
The cabbie proceeded to pick us up and then go the wrong way down a dead end street. A few minutes later he dropped us off at what we thought was the correct location. Boy were we wrong. iPhone maps gave us the wrong address and we were 3.5 k away from the actual location. Already 30 min late, we decided to hike up our skirts (Todd's theoretical) and find the place ourselves. I took off my heels, he loosened his tie and we were off! 35 minutes later we sweatily reached the restaurant and fell into chairs right before dinner was served. Lessons learned: never trust iPhone maps or cabbies that miss your hotel and go into a dead end street and Todd and I need to step up the exercise ! It was only 3.5k after all, obviously we have nothing to complain about :)

Getting hot hot hot

I definitely remember the heat last summer. The dripping, stifling, as soon as you walk outside you can't breathe hot but I forgot about the storms. Believe me, we welcome the rain. It means a chance to catch up on work and the possibility of a day off. The thunder and lightening, however, still slightly terrify the little girl inside of me. This is why Todd took pictures of the storm while standing outside and I took pictures from the window :) I don't think I did too bad though! The heat is something else here. Worse than I remember CA heat although that might just be because there isn't a movie theater nearby for me to take refuge in. Actually I think it is worse here. Wayne (a surveyor) was just saying that when he worked at mt iser it got to 50 degrees Celsius. Look it up, it's HOT. So hot in fact that when he set up his Total Station and pushed the tripod into the pavement, it pushed right through. The tar was melting under his feet hot. Definitely fry and egg on the bonnet of a car hot. So if you are freezing this Thanksgiving, remember me and send some cool weather my way!

Everyday Occurrence

I have never seen so many interesting things on the backs of semis before. One day on the way to work there was a house precariously balanced on the bed of the trailer. Not 1/2 a house that has just come from the factory like track homes, but a full blown house barely kept on the back of the trailer by flimsy straps and people running before and behind to keep it balanced. We had to drive onto the curb to get out of the way. Pretty amazing.

Here is another wide load that I spotted this morning coming back from the gym. A huge moxie sitting on the back of the truck blocking off all traffic. Yup, just another day in Dalby... :)

Unwelcome friends

So I've just been out in the field and these little buggers are out in full force! I have never seen such ballsy little suckers. They don't fly, they swarm. Hopefully it means more rain is coming!
Our handy soil tester Sam posed for this picture :)

Getting your pen license

Yes you heard me right, pen license. Sometimes Australia jut shocks me with their old-school, commonwealth-ish traditions and this one is now close to the top of my list. When a young lad or lass starts grade 5 ( second to last year of primary school), they get the option of buying pens. Before this there was only pencils on their book list. I can only imagine how exciting that must have been. I LOVE stationery shops and to be deprived of a whole row of supplies until grade five; the summer before must have been like Christmas and Hannukah all rolled into one!
Back to the facts; in grade five, you would continue to write in pencil until the teacher said you were neat enough for your pen license. Then you would be written down in a special book and the wonders of writing in pen would be open to you. So the reason this all came about is because Todd still does not have his pen license. He used the pen training wheels but to no avail. What are pen training wheels you ask? Those rubber triangles that force you to write correctly. I know, I know. Too cute.
In any case, Todd was never neat enough to get his pen license and he still says he is worried he might still get a smack on the knuckles for bad penmanship. The thing is, I think Todd's penmanship is pretty darn neat. I can't imagine how many people I know that would never have gotten their pen license...

Emu!!

Sitting in the office eating my lunch and I thought I would share a quick picture I took earlier today! I was out with Wally (one of Todd's new employees) showing him the ropes and this walked across the road! I have never seen one of these in the wild before and especially not on our site! Pretty crazy, ey?! I will try to snap a picture of the kangaroos I see on our site. We used to see the same family every morning but they have moved on. We still see one four times a week or so. Pretty nuts :) it's a jungle out there!

New start

Hope everyone had an easy fast today as we start the new year. I have just downloaded a blogger app on my phone to help me blog more. It is so hard to find time to blog with my hectic schedule. I have even started working in the car to and from work. Upside is that Todd and I are taking Thursday/ Friday off this week. First two day stint off since I was in America. Soo looking forward to this. In any case, long story short, with this new app I should be able to blog once a week now. As soon as I see something I want to share I will! Expect some pictures from Brissie tomorrow!

What It's Like to be Todd

Last Tuesday Todd and Russell drove into Brisbane to look at some surveying gear from another project. It is pretty crazy because all these projects are under the same company but each operates as their own little business. This means that at the end of the job, the job tries to sell off all their gear instead of transferring it to a project that is lacking. In any case, they were headed to Brisbane to look at some of this gear and I went to work by myself. HOLY MOLEY I have not been that busy since a Tuesday at uni (when I had classes all day and RA meeting till 11pm, ah those were the days...). Back on topic, wow busy. I sit next to Todd in the office and he usually passes tasks, plans, surveys onto me because he gets interrupted all the time by someone wanting something. Todd's surveying mantra (it seems) is "don't give the engineers what they want but what they need." Basically someone always wants something but the wanter could often figure it out for themselves through a ruler or these amazing tools called eyes. The real ones, no synonyms here. 

Consequently, being myself and Todd all wrapped into one was exhausting! I was trying to get as much work done as possible but also constantly got interrupted by this or that. Even though I sit next to him and always see the interruptions, this was a whole different ball game and I think I am perfectly happy most days to just sit on deck. 

Families without borders

Back in the grind of work (more words to follow on that) but still thinking fondly of my time back home. From my last dinner out on the patio with dad and kt to my time in Connecticut, my time home reminded me how blessed I am to have such an incredible support system. I know that without the support of my friends and family I could not do what i am doing (not speaking for jan but I bet she feels the same way...).

Sometimes I freak out about being in this tiny little town of Dalby but then I remember that through it all (on the other side of the world) I have friends at home who are supportive of all my crazy moves, job switches, etc. Thank goodness for technology!

One of the points when this reverberated the most was when I was in Connecticut taking pictures with my Sherry family. Someone mentioned that there was lots of people missing from our "family" and so we held up pictures of Todd, Jan, my cousins, etc so they were apart of the picture. Super cute illustration of my amazing foundation. Couldn't do it without y'all!

ps. Apologize for the short/ fairly poorly written blog. I clunked this out between showering and cooking dinner and I want to be in bed in an hour! I need days that are at least 48 hours long here. More on work nonsense later :)

Fraser

Driving onto the ferry to take us across

So deep breath… and catch up! I feel like I have to write really fast to get all this in and therefore metaphorically speak really fast, hence the breath.

This construction stuff is tiring and time consuming and tantalizing/torturous (at times), any other t-words to fit in there?

Todd and I have a few weekends off since I last wrote but we have been doing some travelling which I must tell you about now. To start off, we went to Fraser over a month ago and despite feeling a bit ill, it was really nice. We went with Todd’s parents and Roman and explored this beautiful bit of Australian Island. It was a 4 hour drive or so from Dalby and just north of Double Island Point (an area we had been to many times before). Fraser was beautiful and had an incredible clear water lake with a sandy bottom called Lake MaKenzie. Of course, there was the usual incredible stretch of beach and picture perfect campsite (see pics below).

We only had one full day on the Island and it is over 100k long so we will definitely have to go back. We spent the day exploring and swimming and then retired to our site for some eating while Todd and Roman watched youtube clips and tried to teach themselves how to throw this bait-net-catching-thing of Tony’s (Todd’s father) until the night descended upon us.

Pictures paint a thousand words, and so enjoy these pictures that tell the story between my words.

Lake McKenzie

Lake McKenzie

The fishermen

I'm a yankee!

Since I have been in Australia, I have been called a yankee quite a few times, but never as many times as I have on site. Over the past month or so that I have been working, I have had many conversations with people in which they want to tell me all about their adventures in America and why I have currently settled in Dalby of all places (good question!). The other day we had a practice emergency drill on site and so there was 50-70 of us standing around and apparently it got around quite quick that "there is a yankee standing over there," referring of course, to me. Of course, I am always amused at this nickname because I am sure people from the South would not be so pleased to be called a Yankee. Even as a Californian, not so sure we are Yankees but I figured a little American history lesson wasn't necessary on a construction site. That's another thing, once people find out I have a master's degree, they are shocked that I am working in construction. Most of them, and I quote, "couldn't last longer than six months at uni."

Another funny thing on site is that anytime one of these rough and tumble guys curse in front of me, they automatically apologize to me. I guess they think my delicate lady ears can't handle it, cute, huh? Besides that the boys (and Todd of course) are taking good care of me and I am happy although very tired! Todd and I have a break this weekend of four days and then we are back to the pump for another ten. We are headed to Fraser Island today so I will have lots of beautiful pictures from our road trip on the next posting. Till then, love to you all!

Site notes

So in my last post I talked about what I do on site and now I am going to briefly describe what I see. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to take photographs so you all will just have to use your poor old imaginations! We are in the middle of farmland and grasslands. The soil is deep red and the vegetation is pretty thin and low to the ground. There are few trees on site although I am sure that has to do mainly with the "clear and grub" that is done to prepare the area for work. What we are working on now is the earthworks for infrastructure work that will be happening. Basically that means that there is lots of dirt, rock, and more dirt and not much else.

Besides dirt we also have some fabulous creatures. And by creatures I mean insects. And by insects I mean HUGE bugs that look like they are on steroids. The other day I looked out the window and noticed these dark things on the screen. After looking closer, I realized they were giant cicadas the size of my fingers, not my pinky, probably closer to middle... Definitely prehistoric looking. I have also seen beetles the size of my fist and there has been a six foot long snake lurking around. On the upside, we have lots of cute kangaroos and Todd and I saw an emu the other day on the way to work. It is really nice to be working outside and we have made our commute fly by by reading to each other. We have just started Harry Potter, Todd's first time. I have to admit that I may have forced him into starting it but now he loves it! Yay reading time.

Despite my inability to take pictures on site, I promise to get a picture of me in my getup soon!

In a sea of orange

A couple of weeks ago, I craned my neck over our neighbors fence (not really, the fences are short), and could see clothesline after clothesline hung with orange fluorescent shirts. They were in different states of wear, from bright to faded by the sun, but they were all the characteristic of a construction home. Well now we have joined the ranks...

These last 11 days on site have been exhausting, nerve-wracking, fun and extremely educational. Todd wasted no time and threw me into the deep end. I have a variety of duties: general admin stuff (organize registers, send emails, etc), surveying field work, and surveying office work. I have to say that the last two are definitely my favorite. My field work is pretty basic at the moment. I go out with a device that receives GPS signal and a controller for the device to measure points. There are people on site who test the soil in different areas to make sure it conforms to specific guidelines and I go out with them and measure exactly where they do those tests. Make sense? I also helped Todd and Russ a bit with some other field work but it is a lot to take in all at once. 

My surveying office work has to do with this program called Terramodel that Todd is an absolute genius with. Basically I take the points I measured out in the field and import them into the program so they can be seen on the design of the site. Of course I am oversimplifying things a bit, but it is pretty basic stuff and I now have it down pat. Todd is a fantastic teacher and has started me on these basic plans but I am already progressing to learn more and more complex commands. Apparently I am already helping out heaps as he said the other day that I am already more valuable as a surveying assistant than as an admin person and if it was just us, he would have to hire someone else so my time wasn't occupied by silly stuff. Honestly, it is just incredibly fun to learn more about what he does and tackle a whole new industry! It is all part of my plan for world domination, well orange-clothed world domination anyways... :)

Impressions

So we all know that first impressions are very important but I have learned that they can also, often, be very wrong. Because of this, I am going to hold off delving into the details of my glimpse into the construction world and just say: if business offices were run like construction sites, business would fail, Todd is just as brilliant as I knew he was (and more of a leader than he likes to think), and that everyone is just as nice, albeit as crude as I expected. I must say that I only worked on site for one day so far and so after my next stint (10 days) I will let you know more of my impressions.

To further entertain you, Todd and I celebrated our first semi-Passover together apart from my family. Last year we were at the Erman's house for the first night (fun times!), but this year we had no matzah, no haggadahs or matzah balls and no manischewitz. Very sad indeed but we made due with charoset, vanilla flavored vodka in black current juice, brisket and a showing of "The Prince of Egypt" with Russ. Over all, a very fun night :)

Luckily we had this Passover/Easter weekend off so we spent it doing so much needed spring cleaning. Most of it is not picture worthy, but look at this handy earring organizer I made out of velcro and a clothes hanger! Fun brain explosion right there :)

It's a mad man's world

So some of you know how much hoop-la and shenanigans Todd and I have to go through over the past few months. We have been trying to get me out on site so I can help him and the other surveyors and maybe learn a thing or two. We (well I) had to write safety, quality and environmental management plans,  contracts, letters, and wait for the HR department to decide if they wanted to wield their all powerful pen and sign me off... dangit. In any case, I have FINALLY been given the go ahead and I start my life as a construction worker (y-ech) tomorrow with my induction.

Well dad, you wanted me to write about how things are different here, this will definitely give me more than enough fodder. Of course, I really have no idea what the US construction industry is like but this will all be a new world for me. Don't worry, Todd has been training me in the ways of the workers. We have been going to many safety shops, I have eaten at the construction camp twice, and he has taught me how to play nice with the other kiddies in the hard hats. Seriously though, this will be an experience!

Ps. Don't worry, pictures of me in my awesome new fashionable orange to come!

Photo Wednesday

Just cause...look at that sky! 

Wedding fever

Mom, deep breaths, I am not talking about myself :) No wedding fever/ jitters/ plans/ announcements for me but it seems that I definitely have hit the age where everyone is getting engaged. I had two friends from high school (not just acquaintances, friends!) get engaged last week. To clarify, not to each other, but wow, two!

This past weekend Todd and I escaped down to Tassie for his sister Jodie's wedding. The wedding was held at his parent's house and it was a very simple but beautifully elegant affair. The bride and groom each have children from previous marriages and the union of their new happy family was adorable. I am sure you have heard me mention Blake and Lara before but now there are two new kids to add to the bunch.

Jodie arrived by boat, walked down the jetty and met Jonathan on the river bank. They exchanged simple vows and rings, the children only squirmed a bit, and the party commenced from there. The weather could not have been more perfect and Jodie could not have seemed happier. Everything was just as it should be.

The jetty later that day- the tide is completely covering it!

The present I made them- a map of where they met and other bits of Tassie :)

Old Business/ New Business

As many of you know, I have been working for Todd (aka. Milestone Survey) for a few months now. I help him with all his admin, record keeping, office stuff, logo design work, etc. Basically, I am his right hand (and sometimes also left hand) woman. The structure of that may change a bit soon but I won't spill until details are confirmed.

As many of you also know, and this bit is more exciting, I have been working for a few weeks as the Marketing Manager of an eco-friendly company called Way Basics (www.waybasics.com). I found out about this company (and met the CEO) through a friend at Berkeley and I have to say that it is a great match. I love working with the Way Basics team and there is a lot of room for growth which will be fun to watch.  You all should go check them out and poke around. Their furniture and storage units are made of zBoard, this 99% recycled paper product that is produced in Taiwan. The furniture is good for the environment, formaldehyde free, much easier to put together than following the IKEA stick-figures, and strong enough to stand on (I tried!).

The company slogan is building possibilities and they truly live up to their motto. Way Basics is now (as of last week) the official US distributor of a new, arty line of hand bags called Jump From Paper (www.jumpfrompaper.us). These bags are huge in Japan and they are already generating some attention in the states so yay, go team! :)

I know I was just doing some shameless plugging here but I thought what I am doing (on the business side) in my spare time might be of interest to you all.

Some more self-plugging:

The logo I created for Todd 

The logo modified for Todd's fancy car 

The Three Musketeers

This title of course is referring to Todd, myself, and Russ :-) This happy little family lives in a home documented below...

Our house 

Our bedroom! 

Living room

Dining room

Kitchen

Simple post but hope you all enjoy :) 

Separation of Church and State my bum...

I was watching the American news yesterday through our handy dandy streaming tv box (we also get Croatian, Greek, French, British, Iranian, and other news stations), and I was shown a clip about the Republican debate against birth control being paid for by insurance companies. This one republican senator was saying that it doesn't matter that we have separation of Church and state, birth control was just against G-d and therefore un-American. To each his own, but that statement there pretty much sets America and Australia apart as much as possible.

Australian religion is an understated presence that is engrained in the society but never something that one would discuss. The whole, never discuss sex, religion or politics, definitely is followed here (with the religion and politics anyways). Religion is just not something that people toss around or where on their sleeve. Of course, there are exceptions and there is anti-semitism and religious persecution but it isn't shoved in your face in an offhanded comment on the news.

As far as politics goes, most Australians know more about American politics than Australian. If you asked an Australian to name the past three Prime Ministers you would be lucky if you would get two. It isn't necessarily a bad thing because the government is fairly stable and uncorrupt and the Aussie people are trusting and laid back, and they frankly don't care. Again, with every stereotype there are exceptions, but for the most part the Aussie people focus on the things that matter, their family and friends, and leave the governing up to the people they elect. I believe I have mentioned this before, but Australians have to vote in every primary election. As in, they are fined if they don't. So the people are given the power, they use their right to vote, and then they go back to their daily lives and ignore politics, at least until the next election.

Per dad's request

I appreciate you all for being such great followers and I love all requests/ desires for information, but my dad really knows how to put the icing on the cake. He not only asked for more information about Dalby, he asked for more information on "the history, the dogs, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, and the religion of Dalby." He gave me not only the icing on the cake but also the little rosebud flowers, writing and other little details decorating the cake! So... it will be quite hard to tackle all of that in one go but I will tick a few off the list.

Firstly, the dogs. What is it about small towns that seem to bread runaway dogs? Maybe the dogs know they will get fed by someone, or the great expanses of land without fences, or carefree owners? Every morning (well, most mornings) I run to the gym along the river and I am greeted and followed by a turkey, a family of ducks with four ducklings, and a large assortment of dogs. They don't really come near me, but seem to think it is a fun game that I am running with them. They will run, gallop, lope? (no fun that horses get all the fun "running" words) ahead of me and then stop, sniff something, wait for me to pass, and then go ahead again.  It is a little game of cat and mouse and I guess I am the mouse!

History lesson time! Dalby was settled in 1840 by a man named Henry Dennis who camped on the grounds where that white obelisk (from my previous posting) is now standing. In 1859 Dalby officially became apart of the state of Queensland and slowly became the agricultural center that it is today. Dalby is host to rich, black soil which is good for the planting of wheat, cotton, and sorghum. I am sure the 26.6" of average rainfall a year also helps the crops flourish. The population has now risen to almost 10K people due to the construction boom and a local shopping center that is a large attraction out here in these parts. So basically, I am living in a very exciting, flourishing town ;-)

The butcher and I are not quite friendly yet but the woman at the Queensland Transport office this morning was very helpful. That's right folks, I now possess a Queensland drivers license. Funky, huh?

More on the town and (yes dad) the religion of the area next time. That's all folks!

Making a house a home

So I realized that I may be getting ahead of myself here because I haven't even shown off pictures of our house and here I am about to show off all the little chachkies that I brought from America to decorate our house. In any case, I guess I am starting on a micro level and then I will expand out to a macro examination of our house (Does micro and macro work in this context or only in econ? hmmm....)

I brought lots of little things with me this last time so that pieces of my American life/ family/ friends could be scattered all around. Here are some pictures of the fruits of my labor:

The green dish with hearts is from Jan (from her last African adventure!) 

My Disneyland souvenirs (from my trips with Liz and Ali :) ) 

Statues from Dad from Africa and a random turtle... I assume Mom made it, actually
I probably did since it lacks artistic finesse... ;-)  

Random assortment of cards (I have lots more where those came from!) :) 

These are just a few of the many pictures, memorabilia, knick knacks that I have lying around to remind me of you all. Not that I need any help! I think of you all daily and love updating you on my goings-on.

Toon in next time for a brief history of Dalby and a macro view of our house. I know, I know, you just can't wait... xox

When in Dalby (with pictures!)

Observations of the morning:
People here haven't gotten the memo yet that smoking is bad... young and old, everyone seems to be on the cancer stick train.

On a more fun note:
I ride Todd's bike a lot and the abundance of wildlife is amazing. Yesterday as I rode by the river I heard these little (actually scarily large) guys scamper up each tree I passed.

Goanna/ Lizard things

On my walk this morning I noticed this:

Apparently, Dalby originated as a crossing over the Myall Creek from 1841. The first public building was erected in 1846 and the swampy little town slowly became the less-swampy but still relatively wet town that it is today!

The river I run along

The lovely flood markers! 

You Know You're in Dalby When....

- You're sweating your face off one minute... and then

- Running outside to pull the laundry off the line just as a storm breaks.

- Our tin roof crackles and groans with the heat.

- Policemen come home to their "misses" for lunch.

- The most attractive girl in town is a bogan that works at the drive-thru beer mart (bogan: Australian version of (excuse the stereotype) "white trash."

- Everything is closed on Sundays (that is actually most of Australia)

- The river has flood markers up and down the banks and yet there has still been no action to try and contain the inevitable flooding.

- The people are incredibly sweet and could talk to you for days.

- I wake up every morning to the sound of a rooster crowing...

- and go to sleep every night to the sounds of cicadas.

I returned to Dalby on Sunday and I am just getting back into the swing of things. I really do enjoying writing and I am going to try and write more and expand my subject areas so look out for more to come soon. Until next time... xox