Today it reached 40C (104F), but was still cloudy and humid. In fact a few drops fell out of the skies a few minutes ago, which immediately vaporized upon landing on any surface. It's a hot day.
I was standing in our kitchen this afternoon sucking down a fruit smoothie when I heard a loud bang and watch liquid and debris flying out of an open shelf a few feet away. My reaction was something like "what the %#@*," which may or may not have been aloud. I inspected the mess and found a huge puddle of brown liquid and a shredded Coke can.
Clearly the can had exploded while on the shelf and sent the contents of that shelf, including 12oz of sticky liquid, flying through the kitchen. I really don't know what else to say, other than it was hell cleaning it up.
Has anyone else ever had a Coke can explode like this?
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
DNC
On my birthday I woke up and headed down to the beach to attempt a triathlon. That doesn't sound like an appealing way to spend your own personal holiday, but it was a gorgeous day and the idea wasn't necessarily to race, but to get a feel for the transitions before the real race at the end of the month. Well, it wasn't going to be a race as long as I beat Garth... but that's another story. But swimming, cycling, and running in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney are certainly not the worst way to spend a day...
In any case, two days prior to the race Georg was hit by a car. This unfortunately left him out of the race. And then Ian became very sick, so he was out. Andy took one look at the course and said 'no.' So at the start only Garth and I were left standing. I had eaten way too much Mexican pork and cervesas the night before, and Garth smelled as if he had attempted a human pickling. Out of five people, not one of us was ready for this! What does this say about us?
Garth and I lined up at the beach and then tore our way through the surf towards Wedding Cake Island, located 750m offshore and easily spotted by the 'icing' that birds have generously coated it with. We were actually clocking along fairly well, considering our condition, when Garth stopped and said "ow." I don't like it when Australians say this. What is "ow" to Garth is akin to "holy !*&@*#& #!*@ my leg is gone" for me. It seems that Garth had entangled himself in a Blue Bottle jellyfish.
During a race it's important to remain calm to save energy. I was not doing this. I watched Garth untangle himself and was more than a little shocked when he told me he was okay and that we should continue. We made it another 100m when my arm starting feeling hot. I stopped swimming and realized that I had just been brushed, but rather the Blue Bottle's tentacle had wrapped around my arm a half dozen times and there were around a hundred blue stingers lodged in my skin. It did not feel good.
Up to this point I had not been stung before, and I was not sure what to do. Garth was 50m away and hadn't yet realized I'd stopped, and I decided I needed to do something right away. So I reached down with my right hand, grabbed the tentacle, and started unwrapping. And one good thing happened: my hand was fine! The stingers can't get through the thicker skin of the hand! This cheered me up a bit. But only a bit. Then Garth asked me if I was allergic to stingers, and my mild cheer was lost. I replied that we would soon find out.
It seems that Garth had now been stung again and his tolerance had been met. My tolerance was more or less met when I saw him get stung, so I was absolutely ready to call the swim off. But we called it off 600m out into the open ocean... and now had to cross through these same waters to get back. I doggy paddled for a few minutes so I could constantly watch the surface, but I'm not sure I was even keeping up with the tide. Reluctantly I put my head down and started paddling... and made it to shore alive! (I was not really in danger of dieing, but the chemicals in my brain certainly wouldn't let me believe this)
We stopped off at the lifeguard station to warn them that there's Blue Bottles out there today. The lifeguards all agreed that Garth's stings were the worst they'd ever seen: he had them on both shoulders, his arms, chest, one nipple, and the left side of his face. But they gave us ice and cheered us up as good Aussie lifeguards can always do. It seems that one woman's husband had been whipped in his hanging parts once, which made myself and even Garth feel a lot better about our condition.
And that's how 4 of my friends, and myself, got a DNC for the first Coogee Bay triathlon.
In any case, two days prior to the race Georg was hit by a car. This unfortunately left him out of the race. And then Ian became very sick, so he was out. Andy took one look at the course and said 'no.' So at the start only Garth and I were left standing. I had eaten way too much Mexican pork and cervesas the night before, and Garth smelled as if he had attempted a human pickling. Out of five people, not one of us was ready for this! What does this say about us?
Garth and I lined up at the beach and then tore our way through the surf towards Wedding Cake Island, located 750m offshore and easily spotted by the 'icing' that birds have generously coated it with. We were actually clocking along fairly well, considering our condition, when Garth stopped and said "ow." I don't like it when Australians say this. What is "ow" to Garth is akin to "holy !*&@*#& #!*@ my leg is gone" for me. It seems that Garth had entangled himself in a Blue Bottle jellyfish.
During a race it's important to remain calm to save energy. I was not doing this. I watched Garth untangle himself and was more than a little shocked when he told me he was okay and that we should continue. We made it another 100m when my arm starting feeling hot. I stopped swimming and realized that I had just been brushed, but rather the Blue Bottle's tentacle had wrapped around my arm a half dozen times and there were around a hundred blue stingers lodged in my skin. It did not feel good.
Up to this point I had not been stung before, and I was not sure what to do. Garth was 50m away and hadn't yet realized I'd stopped, and I decided I needed to do something right away. So I reached down with my right hand, grabbed the tentacle, and started unwrapping. And one good thing happened: my hand was fine! The stingers can't get through the thicker skin of the hand! This cheered me up a bit. But only a bit. Then Garth asked me if I was allergic to stingers, and my mild cheer was lost. I replied that we would soon find out.
It seems that Garth had now been stung again and his tolerance had been met. My tolerance was more or less met when I saw him get stung, so I was absolutely ready to call the swim off. But we called it off 600m out into the open ocean... and now had to cross through these same waters to get back. I doggy paddled for a few minutes so I could constantly watch the surface, but I'm not sure I was even keeping up with the tide. Reluctantly I put my head down and started paddling... and made it to shore alive! (I was not really in danger of dieing, but the chemicals in my brain certainly wouldn't let me believe this)
We stopped off at the lifeguard station to warn them that there's Blue Bottles out there today. The lifeguards all agreed that Garth's stings were the worst they'd ever seen: he had them on both shoulders, his arms, chest, one nipple, and the left side of his face. But they gave us ice and cheered us up as good Aussie lifeguards can always do. It seems that one woman's husband had been whipped in his hanging parts once, which made myself and even Garth feel a lot better about our condition.
And that's how 4 of my friends, and myself, got a DNC for the first Coogee Bay triathlon.
Friday, January 8, 2010
We're so bad at posting!
So it's been a while ...quite a while... since either of us posted to our blog! But we're still doing great here in Sydney and are looking forward to coming home soon.
A lot has happened since the last time we posted anything! In November my parents, sister, and Mike came and visited us here in Sydney. We did a lot of exploring around Sydney and had a really great time. We also made a trip up north to Port Douglas to see the tropical side of Australia. Queensland is an amazing place! That place is crawling with life and there is so much to see, do, eat, and explore up there. Definitely one of my personal favorite paces in Oz!
Then over Christmas break we had one of Kat's close friends, Juliette, come and stay with us. With summer fully on, it was a great time to go to the beach. Kat and I bought snorkel gear and use them very often in the bays near our home. We've been lucky enough to see boxfish, blue grouper, octopus, squid, cuddlefish, port jackson sharks, whiting, needlefish, parrot fish, and countless others that I don't know the name.
For Christmas we told ourselves 'when in Rome' and donned Santa hats and made our way to the beach. Santa hats do not make for good beach gear, and I had mine off and myself in the water to cool down in about 5 minutes :) For New Years we fought the crowds to see the fireworks display in Royal National Park - a prime viewing spot for the bridge. It was SO crowded, but everyone was in good spirits and the event turned out to be a lot more mild than I expected. Everyone was crammed together, but most people seemed patient enough.
Recently, while neither of us had to be back at work yet, I took Kat on an overnight trip in the Blue Mountains. We went on a route that took us past great waterfalls, scenic vistas, bird life, the good kind of insects, and unfortunately leeches. I wish I had a picture of one of these bloodsuckers, but when either of us found one we would go into a 'get it off! get it off!' dance until the leech was removed and ground into the forest floor.
Also visiting, and still in Oz, is our friend Elizabeth and her boyfriend Anrik. They came over from New Zealand and we'll have this next weekend together before they have to go home. They're up in the Blue Mountains at the moment, and I'm sure they're enjoying it. It's hard not to when you're on vacation!
Anyways, there's WAY too many good photos to post all of them, but hopefully a few from the past couple months will give a good idea of what we've been up to.
Cheers!
A lot has happened since the last time we posted anything! In November my parents, sister, and Mike came and visited us here in Sydney. We did a lot of exploring around Sydney and had a really great time. We also made a trip up north to Port Douglas to see the tropical side of Australia. Queensland is an amazing place! That place is crawling with life and there is so much to see, do, eat, and explore up there. Definitely one of my personal favorite paces in Oz!
Then over Christmas break we had one of Kat's close friends, Juliette, come and stay with us. With summer fully on, it was a great time to go to the beach. Kat and I bought snorkel gear and use them very often in the bays near our home. We've been lucky enough to see boxfish, blue grouper, octopus, squid, cuddlefish, port jackson sharks, whiting, needlefish, parrot fish, and countless others that I don't know the name.
For Christmas we told ourselves 'when in Rome' and donned Santa hats and made our way to the beach. Santa hats do not make for good beach gear, and I had mine off and myself in the water to cool down in about 5 minutes :) For New Years we fought the crowds to see the fireworks display in Royal National Park - a prime viewing spot for the bridge. It was SO crowded, but everyone was in good spirits and the event turned out to be a lot more mild than I expected. Everyone was crammed together, but most people seemed patient enough.
Recently, while neither of us had to be back at work yet, I took Kat on an overnight trip in the Blue Mountains. We went on a route that took us past great waterfalls, scenic vistas, bird life, the good kind of insects, and unfortunately leeches. I wish I had a picture of one of these bloodsuckers, but when either of us found one we would go into a 'get it off! get it off!' dance until the leech was removed and ground into the forest floor.
Also visiting, and still in Oz, is our friend Elizabeth and her boyfriend Anrik. They came over from New Zealand and we'll have this next weekend together before they have to go home. They're up in the Blue Mountains at the moment, and I'm sure they're enjoying it. It's hard not to when you're on vacation!
Anyways, there's WAY too many good photos to post all of them, but hopefully a few from the past couple months will give a good idea of what we've been up to.
Cheers!
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