Great Ocean Road - Part II - Shipwreck beach

Or maybe wreck beach, I really can't remember. But what really matters is how amazingly beautiful that beach was. Especially after that wet day and night. We walked from Ryan's Den to Devil's Kitchen and spent at least an hour on this beach. It was beautiful!!

We walked and talked and gazed and opened our eyes BEEG BEEG and truly loved it. The tide was low and there were these little pot holes filled with water.

There were some anchors on the beach, hence the name.

The sky was overcast but there were occasional moments of bright light.

And then we missed the turn off the beach and reached Devil's Kitchen. There were some abalone poachers there (a family of three, two adults and a kid) and they were very nice in letting us know that we were lost. Good thing they were not nice in hitting us with their diving belt. Devil's kitchen looked really really rough - actually, I was surprised about the names, because australian names are really not that original.

As we were walking up F.'s knee started acting up and we had to take it really really slow (but more about this in the next post).

We reached Devil's Kitchen at around 7pm and put our stuff to dry [again]. This night was much better than the previous one, and we had an early one because we had to get up early the next day.

New Year

It has been one of those years where you know it was a fantastic year but you can't exactly say why. Wait! It was the year I finally finished my phd, got married and! Moved away to a totally different country, in the far reaches of the universe. The year started with a fantastic climb up Kinabalu and a more ferocious downclimb. Then there was the phd defense and the job interviews and the choice. And then we got married and had a fantastic grad trip and honeymoon with the girls in Europe. And then I moved to the land far far away where I am battling depression and loneliness. I meet fantastic climbers and made new friends. Also, joined a fantastic school with fabulous people, so don't start feeling sorry for me :) life is still good even though sometimes you have to grab her by the shoulders and spit between her eyes.

I am building friendships, some more complicated than others, and exploring the Australian landscape. Climbing, running, and socializing are my weapons against depression and loneliness, and so far, they have worked, although what I really really need is a hug and a cuddle.

In these past six months I have been slowly learning how it is to actually work in a workplace - read: I need to start to censor myself a bit!! I am also learning tons about myself - the bonus of alone time I guess. More importantly, I am discovering slowly what I want to do with myself for the next fifty years or so.

If it feels like I'm rambling, it's because I am. I have this feeling that in this past year life lived me, rather than me live it. Hence the resolutions below. This coming year, I want to*:
1. Read at least a book every 2 weeks
2. Spend quality quality time with both old and new friends. I am slowly coming to two realizations - happiness must be shared & my friends are great!
3. Avoid injury and climb 7a.
4. Finish six foot track marathon safely.
5. Climb mount cook.
6. Spend quality time with Marian, such that we recover from living by ourselves.

*[later edit] and yes, they can all be summed up as: I JUST WANNA HAVE FUN!

One picture Tuesday

Guess who will get harvested today?

Great Ocean Walk, part I

The Great Ocean Walk is a hike that goes parallel with the great ocean road. It's a fairly young trek, only six years of age, and F. heard about it by chance from a hiker that we met in the Grampians. It is a 100km walk, but we only had time to do about 50km of it. We started at Johanna Beach, and made our way to Ryan's Den and then Devil's Kitchen, followed by a quick finish at the Twelve Apostles.

I left on this trek thinking that it's going to be a desert, dry trek. I almost did not take my rain jacket and my thermal merinos. It was really a close call because it rained profusely for the first day. It rained so bad that our sleeping bags, our tents, even my clothes got soaked. Fucking joy! We even had a minor river crossing, which sort of brought back memories from New Zealand Dusky Track (Part I, Part II).

And so, it rained. Heavily.

We first started to trek through some hilly, very kangaroo populated region.

After that, we moved into forests populated (supposedly) by echidnas. We didn't see any.

Beautiful (wet) flowers.

I was surprised to see that people gave free water for all.

I was surprised to see that we managed to see the flowers and any signs considering that we could barely see the forest!

After the rolling hills and the wet forest we finally reached the coast. As we reached milanesia beach, we had to cross a little water flow to get to the other side ...

Much to the dismay of various spectators..

The occasional cormoran braced itself before going in again.

And then finally, at Ryan's Den, there was a sheltered dining area that we took for ourselves because well, there weren't any people on the trek what with the rain and all. We immediately put up the sleeping bags for drying but lo and behold, they didn't dry.

After a fretful sleep during the night things did not look fantastic in the morning.

But the rain stopped and we continued walking through an amazing forest.

The views of the coast were really breathtaking, and I had to stop many many times to take photos. I am really considering looking up a waterproof camera casing to prevent tommy from fogging up!

Behold, the first clear picture!

The track is really well maintained, with places to clean up your shoes to prevent diseased plants from spreading from one part of the forest to another.

With little miracles all along the way.

As usual, more photos here.

I went ahead and done it.

I'm screwed.

Key measurements (in Km)

235m From Explorers Tree to the Start Line which is at 1050m altitude
0.0 Race start location (close to shelter)
1.7 to the bottom of Nellies Glen (down to 725m)
8.066 to the cattle grid at Megalong Valley Rd (570m)
14.36 to the Swing Bridge (not crossed as part of the race)
15.5 to the Jenolan-side of the Coxs River (270m)
18.6 to the drink station at the Fenced Yards
20.0 is right on top of Mini Mini Saddle (740m)
22.5 is halfway and at the creek crossing at the bottom of the Pluviometer hill (only 550m)
26.0 to the Pluviometer (990m)
34.7 to the corner at the start of the Deviation at Black Range Campground (1195m)
37.9 at the Caves Rd crossing (1215m)
45.00 Finish - by the manhole in the road outside Trails Bistro at Caves House (795m)
The course climbs a total of 1,528m and drops a total 1,788m giving a net drop of 260m (it's a downhill course !!)

Us (1) : Kangaroo (0)

On Friday night, my colleague and his russian mathematician friend drove from Adelaide, Australia to Princetown, Australia, 700+ km away, to do parts of the Great Ocean Walk. It was a loong drive and as expected we ended up driving at night through the Australian outback. I was not driving at that time and it wasn't Snow White that we were driving, but a bigger car, thank heavens for that!

And then my colleague hit a kangaroo. It was a little one, and I had seen it 3.4 microseconds before he hit it, but there you have it, we hit it. We got out of the car and as the guys were checking the car I went to check the kangaroo. It looked dead to me so I returned to tell them that it was dead. My colleague (let's call him F.) went to check on the kangaroo too, because he is anal like that. So F. finds that my initial estimate was wrong and that the kangaroo was in fact, still alive.

So he drags the kangaroo to the car, puts his head under the front wheel and I drive over its head ensuring complete and utter destruction (we didn't check for a joey because it did not occur to us). During all this time, the russian mathematician is crying. Like literally in shock, crying. Wtf.

F. was in no shape to drive, plus it was my turn, so I took over. After that, it was like fucking open season. Still driving at night, still in the outback. Little bunnies crossing the street. Two foxes crossing the street. And then, the greatest kangaroo of them all. BIG BIG. Wanting to cross the street (and hit us) but changing his mind mid-way. Good thing F. and I were opening our eyes BEEG BEEG because otherwise i think we would not be telling this story. Anyway, to give you proof that there are still many many kangaroos out there, here are some shots from the trip.

In the campground:

On the trek:

Off the path:

On the path:

Always watching (I know what you did last summer!)

One picture Tuesday

Australia is beautiful!

Taking it back

The first part of the trip was hell. But then it was heaven. Australia is a truly beautiful country and life is good :)

For fuck's sake

I must definitely be paying for something this weekend. Me, a colleague and his friend were supposed to go to do the great ocean walk. Beautiful beautiful scenery to entice anybody to drive 7fucking hundred kms to walk for three days .


And here is where the problems start. Because you see, while I have known my colleague for let's say, 5 months?, I have just met his friend. And well, let's just say that when we went to an Indian restaurant and he started to make fun of the waiter's accent by imitating him, I suddenly got a feeling that we were not going to get along.

And when he chose to sit in the front of the car although he will not e driving and thus exiled me to the back, I KNEW we would not get along. So now I am exiled in the back of the car, not really hearing the music (front speakers only) and not really hearing the conversation either.

Oh and did I mention that my colleague's friend is Russian?! And a mathematician (therefore insane by my standards?) !? So far, the score for Russians is 2:1where 2 represents the number of Russians I confirmed do not like.

And when said colleague only brought along his gigantic collection of south American music, I KNEW I was paying for something. I guess I will spend the entire trip wondering what the hell I'm paying for.

A coffee mess

Being alone makes you do stupid things. Such as engulf yourself in work or working out (still has work in it!) because you want to ensure that when you get home you drop dead with tiredness. However, this new found working schedule needs stuff to propel it. Enter my new speed. It's called coffee.

When I reach the office I go and fetch my water of the day and make myself a large cup of coffee, which I keep on my desk in case students drop in. While all the other coffees I drink while they are nice and hot, this cup gets drunk throughout the day and gets fairly cold and yucky. For you see, whenever students come in to see me, I take a sip of that coffee. And that sip helps me get through most of the student questions (that are sometimes, let's face it, more than stupid).

Needless to say, people that have seen my previous office space will know that this one is also, yet another mess. Because, that's the way the world turns. Or the cookie crumbles. Or whatever.

Now. The coffee cup is always sitting right in front of my keyboard such that I can ALWAYS take a sip before turning to face my students. And while I am coding or working I tend to wear headphones and be really really focused on the task. (see where this is going?) And my office walls are fully transparent (we're all like goldfish in a bowl, really) and tend to slide easily. And most staff by now will just come in my office because knocking is useless if I have my headphones on.

And here we go. So far, three of them have managed to freak the hell out of me. Because I am very focused and listening to loud music, the moment they come in and I finally notice them, I tend to freak out, throw the headphones, or the keyboard, or whatever it is that I am doing. And this hits the coffee cup, that spills all over my clothes, my two monitors, my carpet. It has gotten so bad that the office secretary has given me a tea towel for these emergencies, and some of the colleagues approach my office making really loud noises to ensure I don't freak out.

One picture Tuesday

On Sunday I did my first EVER trail run. Like real trail run, not MacRitchie Reservoir trail run. It was also 16km, and a good candidate for my Friday morning runs! Proof that it was really a trail run can be found below:

Aussie talk

And here's what I have been able to collect in the past months:

• chin wag [talking]
• bag of fruit [suit]
• keen as mustard [there's a mustard brand called keen]
• arvo [afternoon]
• sweet as [cool, great]
• cheers [thanks, ok, see you, no problem, good bye, hello]
• fast like a blue-assed fly [don't ask]
• i'm so hungry i could eat the ass of a low flying duck
• ugly as a hat full of assholes
• face like a bucket of smashed crabs
• ugly like a hat full of assholes
• meat in the sandwich [when you're stuck between two things]
• ugly like a fridge full of bastard assholes
• ...

30

Today, Marian is turning 30. As obviously I can't be there, here's 30 reasons why I wish he would live until he's 120:

Reason #1: Smart.

Reason #2: Kind.

Reason #3: Has a sense of humor. Or at least, laughs at my jokes.

Reason #4: Delicious forearms (I have a small fetish with that)

Reason #5: Makes fantastic french fries. His trademark dish, but absolutely delicious.

Reason #6: Has green eyes.

Reason #7: Superpecs! (turns out that as I grow older, I learn to appreciate the benefits of pecs (as opposed to moobs) on a man).

Reason #8: Hyper extension! Cause I can show off his freakishness to other people. Who like this will be less focused on how freakish I am ahha

Reason #9: He no heart mushrooms. Which means there's more for me!

Reason #10: Eats my food for me. Which means that I can try different stuff while he eats the entire portion and prevents me from getting fat.

Reason #11: Only likes durian. As opposed to LOVING it like I do. Again, more for me!

Reason #12: Loves the mountains (should have been reason #1).

Reason #13: Knows how our pro camera works. Whereas I only know how to take pictures.

Reason #14: Is my Objective C genius.

Reason #15: Is good with a screwdriver. He is patient enough to take things apart and put them back together without having spare parts at the end or screaming in frustration.

Reason #16: Does proper, thorough research into what stuff we should buy.

Reason #17: Remembers how many turquoise blouses I have and prevents me from buying yet another one.

Reason #18: Cats love him. Which means I can also get some cat love while around him.

Reason #19: Has a scorpion sting whenever he wants to get mean. Good when turned on other people. NOT on me.

Reason #20: Eats whatever crappy food I cook and always says it's good.

Reason #21: Remembers all the characters in Dune. and Game of Thrones. and Wheel of Time.

Reason #22: Checks our b$nk $ccount and does not get depressed.

Reason #23: Does the dishes. Enuf said.

Reason #24: Has taught me the purge command.

Reason #25: Manages to have a decent conversation with me despite the fact that I change subject every minute.

Reason #26: Has a sekret way of making me laugh by ... Well, it's a sekret. But it always cracks me up.

Reason #27: Can waltz. At least as well as me.

Reason #28: Likes books just as much as me.

Reason #29: You can easily see that he has a bug in his code, because his hair stands up!

Reason #30: SHARES HIS FOOD!

Growing old

I fucking hate Mondays. Although theoretically Mondays do not mean anything to me since I work most Sundays anyway, there is a difference between the voluntary "holier than thou" coming to work on Sunday and must come to work on Monday. Or else. This results in a blearing of the body and soul every monday morning. This morning I had no excuse. I had slept early (9:30 pm) and did not need to wake up early (6:30 as opposed to 6:15) because I was not planning to have any breakfast.

And so. While at the first traffic light I realized I had forgotten the lunch. After parking at work and starting the work in, I realized I had forgotten my wallet. Hence, no lunch, unless I catch it in the torrens. A short while later, I realized I had no office key nor building card. The building "opens" at 7:30. Until then, you need a card to get to my floor, and you also need a card to get to the staff offices, i.e. my office. PFFT.

Approached the cleaner. She did not speak any English and I think at first she mistook me for a student and told me I can't get in the staff offices. Ten minutes later, she realized what I wanted I think and was kind enough to let me in my office and clean it (one of the first time I felt sorry i am such a slob). Now I'm stuck here without coffee until my co-workers come in (need the card to get into the tea room, PFFT).

A new Grampians trip

This time around, drove up with a colleague that is recently becoming interested in climbing and bouldering, and who I am preparing to join Marian's gang when he gets here. The first stop of the 440 km drive in is at a Subway 70km from Adelaide.

I did not send anything during this weekend because I was very busy showing him around and trying to find the easy problems (V0, V1) for him to do. However, I did have fun, and for once I had photos of me on the rocks!

I find the red rocks in the grampians to be truly mesmerizing.

First day, we climbed in Andersens, where I tried to send "Riding Shotgun", V6. Turns out, climbing a route full of slopers in the fucking sun is not good. Good photo of me as Hulk's sister, though.

The next day we went up to Loopeys, where i wanted to try another route. Also for a bit of trekking.

Australia being flat as we know, you can see for miles and miles from even the smallest hill.

Trekked a bit IN Hollow Mountain (Australians are not very inventive with their names). I do hate to trek while on a climbing trip, but my colleague wanted, plus I thought it would be useful when other people (HINT! HINT!) come visit.

Turns out, there is a Buddhist colony near the Grampians, in Ballarat.

And off we were back to Adelaide, for another 440km. This and the previous trip with Uncle Pan confirmed me that I can drive non-stop for 340km. After that, I do need a little break.

Sheep really like the shade, and the Australian sun is truly unforgiving.

And my favorite picture of the weekend. I love the texture of the sandstone against the blue blue sky.

As usual, more pics are available for your viewing pleasure here.

One picture Tuesday

My apologies for taking such a long break from blogging, a LOT has been going on!

Two weeks after I landed in Australia I joined a voluntary program called Scientists in Schools, in which a Scientist (ha, that would be me), and a Teacher team up to make lessons interesting for kids. After a police check and stuff, and two months down the line, I am now partnered up with a good secondary school here in Adelaide.

Yesterday I had my first visit to the school, and I talked about cool examples of math in real life and computer science. In particular, I talked about roller coasters (ha!), GPS triangulation (cool!) and trajectory of a projectile in games (major cool!).

For the last one, I used a simple three little piggies game and a very complex equation (eventually simplified) to get them to apply some maths. Of course, I didn't implement the game, not fully at least, and had Marian deal with the shitty animation part (Objective C, I now heart you! XCode, I still hate you!) I got two of the school's iPads and two of my own and loaded them with the game. We also made a desktop application for them to play with. (Behold my office!)

I spend a lot of time on this (2 nights), especially since I worked only after hours. One time, I left the office at 12 midnight (and spent the next hour in the parking lot texting friends - but more about this later). The fact that I left so late allowed me to see who's living in the tree right opposite the university! A Brush-tailed Possum!

Witness the brush!

It's been six months

Well not really, five months actually, but I have just finished the 6-month PDR - personal development and review? - meeting.

How has it been so far? It has been fantastic, overwhelming, horrific, lonely, sad and exhilarating at the same time. I've made lots of friends in the process and I absolutely love the people I work with. They are smart and funny and knowledgeable about all sorts of stuff in this universe that I have no idea about. Also, they tolerate me, which I think is fantastic*. The students are not all bad and some of them are really quite worth it.

The climbing community is very close knit and caring. There are two other climbing girls as well as plenty of noobs for Marian to be king over for when he finally manages to join me.

My only current stress (other than that caused by yet another break up i hear about) is
a) how to get some good sleep - the worries have kept me up since friday
b) how to ensure i stay here for longer. Adelaide, I heart you!
c) how fantastic the grampians trip this weekend is going to be.

*Considering that I have not worked in a while (6 years?!) it has been a weird shift. I still can't censor myself though.