2015 Comes In Down Under

I always enjoy viewing the fireworks photographs from Sydney as they usher in the new year. This one was taken by Wolter Peeters.

If anyone in Australia is reading this post, it is 4:02 p.m. in Houston on 12/31/14. How does the new year look?

The End Of The Year Begins With...

the beginning of the year in Sydney.

It was a fluke that I was able to watch the fireworks from Sydney as the Aussies rang in 2014.  You see...

I woke up at 4:15AM after sleeping on the couch for no apparent reason.  I woke up The Calvinator to give him his pill and walk him and decided to head the gym.  Well, I got there and they were closed.  I remembered they were closing early today but didn't realize they were opening late.  So, I went home and streamed the fireworks from Sydney.  7:00AM is 12:00AM there.

I saw an interview about the cost of the display.  $6M (AUS) was spent and for the first time in 10 years the iconic Sydney Opera House was aglow with pyrotechnics.  2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the Opera House which was controversial when it was built.

My love affair with Sydney continues.  It was rather fitting that my the beginning of the last day of 2013 was started with fireworks from The Land Down Under.

If you can't run with the big dogs,

stay on the porch!

UGH. I'm worn out but I'm worn out from having fun so it isn't a bad thing.

I'm sitting here waiting for the season premiere of Amazing Race but it is delayed because football games ran late and now 60 Minutes is late and so it goes (oh...that's not 60 Minutes; that's Linda Ellerbee.)

Where to begin?

Let's start with Amazing Race. I *heart* Amazing Race. I am so sure I could win with AttyHou as my travel partner. Team Calvinator. However, as I pointed out to Running My Mass Off we wouldn't make for good television. I guess I could act and put on a show but that's not me. I'm definitely the geography nerd and the logical thinker and the travel logistics person. He's more of the athletic Let's bungee jump type of guy and the let's put the bicycle together and travel through Beijing kind of guy. So we'd make a good team...just not good television.

I must thank Amazing Race for increasing my knowledge of things I didn't know. For instance, I didn't know that you could climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge. So prior to traveling to Oz I made my reservation to do a climb of the bridge and it happened 5 years ago today!

I think my family had some concerns about me going to Oz but I think they were OK with it except for one thing. Helen wasn't too hip on me climbing that bridge. She told me not to do it and so I did.

When you climb the bridge you are really doing a gradual ascent once you clip yourself to the bridge. There's a whole bunch of things that happen before you get to that point though. You attend an orientation class. You take a breathalyzer. You don a Mini-Me looking outfit. And anything on your torso that could fly away has to be clipped to your Mini-Me costume (i.e. sunglasses).

So here's how it played out. We line up and start our walk to get into the bowels of the bridge which means we are climbing a few ladders and walking on some catwalks. The guy in front of me informs me that he has a fear of heights. Uh...

Well he's doing this because his bf wants him to do it. Everything is OK until we're on the catwalks and he can see the cars traveling underneath us.

Our tour guide was named Edward. He was very personable. It was his job to make sure we got to the top of the bridge without falling off and to make sure we had our pictures taken so that we could spend oodles of money when we turned in our Mini-Me costume.

Edward had a headset like Madonna ala Blonde Ambition Tour. And we had headsets so that we could hear him. I could not have ordered better weather for that day. Edward even commented about how far in the distance you could see.

So there is one photo in my collection that is my favorite from that day. The SYD skyline is behind me and right before Edward snaps the shutter I tell him that this bridge climb is the one thing Helen told me not to do. So Edward says, "This one's for mum!" And I start laughing.

Near my hotel was this odd little trailer that had people eating there all of the time! Cops. Firemen. EMTs. Club kids. Business people. Steve reminded me that it was one of the detours when Amazing Race was in SYD.

The contestants had to go to Harry's Cafe de Wheels and order a meat pie. They do something odd with the meat pies (picture a small pot pie filled with beef and gravy). They top them with mashed potatoes AND mashed peas. That was a bit odd.

Steve recognized the girl who was serving meat pies to the contestants. He asked if it was her and she sort of got an attitude (like she couldn't be bothered) and acknowledged that it was her.

So many stories to tell about that trip. All of them good...even though I almost got myself killed when I looked the wrong way before crossing a street because remember they drive on the wrong side. :-)

In other news...

I met a fellow blogger today. Running My Mass Off was at The Tasting Room for a Farmer's Market. It was a fun afternoon and it was fun to talk about our parallel lives...sort of parallel lives. She was impressed that I was able to blog early this morning after spending an evening drinking copious amounts of GOOD vodka.

I REALLY needed some wine this afternoon. Not quite hair of the dog but it helped. Add some laughter to that and it was a fun afternoon.

I briefly spoke with Neighbor Nina and AttyHou. I guess you could call it The Walking Wounded of Roy Street which proves a fun time was had by all last night.