Guitars, Cadillacs. Hillbilly Music...

You guys know that song?  Dwight Yoakam hit from the 80s.  Not sure why it popped into my head, but it was the best post title I could come up with this evening.

Winding out Sunday here in the office...watching Leige-Bastogne-Leige live on the net.  Long way to go in the race and wanted to catch up with yous guys.  Talking about bikes, I got a little over 50 miles under my belt yesterday.  Did 25 miles first thing in the morning with the local club.  Good ride and was able to mix it up a bit when it got "fast".  Feels good to hammer every now and then again.  Did 25 or so miles in the afternoon after washing clothes and picking groceries.  Had hoped to make it to Joondalup which is about 15 or 20 miles north of Perth, but didn't have the time and then I got nailed with two mechanicals on the way back...hopped a curb onto the road going down a hill and the chain wrapped around itself in two spots.  Got it fixed up pretty quickly, but not after getting my fingers loaded with chain lube...About 5 miles later I noticed my rear tire was low, but couldn't find any sign of a puncture...pumped it back up only to have to change the tube a mile later.  Spent half the time back off the bike!  Good practice.

So I've been going to a little church near the city called St. Brigid's.  St. Brigid's is an interesting parish with a small church and an ethnically diverse community. Fr. Alphonsus is Lebanese...There's a temporary priest who's from Indonesia and a visiting priest, Fr. Stanislaw stops by on Sundays...in addition to the regular English Masses they have Masses in Italian, Spanish, and Polish! Busy priests, indeed. I got up this morning debating what Mass to go to.  Yesterday I planned on hitting the 11:30 am Polish Mass at St. Brigids, but since I was up and raring to go by 7 am this morning, I thought of just hitting the English Mass and rolling with the rest of the day.  But, I stuck to my plan and made my way to the little church on the corner of Aberdeen and Fitzgereald. Memories of St. Casimir filled my mind when the opening hymn started.  I don't know a lick of Polish except for the likes of how to say "thank you", "grandma/grandpa", and "give me a kiss", but hearing it again in full-force like this morning was pretty cool.  The last time I heard Polish talked so much at one time, besides the occasional stop to Gene's Sausage Shop, was when my busia (boo-sha) and dziadzia (ja-joo, yeah, I know, how the heck do they get ja-joo from that, right?!?) (grandma and grandpa) would swear and argue with each other.  It was nice hear the Mass like that again after such a long time.  

 

Getting out on the bike has been a great way for me to experience the city and see things that I may have missed if I was driving in a car.  After being in town for about 2.5 weeks, I've mentally recorded several observations that I'll share with you:

• Traffic Lights...From what I can tell, there's no such thing as signal loops at the intersections...only timed lights.  This may be fine and dandy for rush hour traffic, but not so dandy for Saturday mornings.  On top of that, I think I've only hit two green lights in a row a time or two since I've been here.  Seems that the timing of the timing isn't dialed in too well.  Makes for a lot of stop and go when there's little or no traffic out.  On the plus side, I'm getting good at track stands.

• Tattoos...Whether walking through the mall, hanging out at the local bike shop, or reviewing project drawings at the office, I can't help but notice that a large number of people sport ink down here...not sure if it goes with the former penal colony mojo or what, but tats are really popular down here. Back in college when I was sporting 15 pounds more muscle, dreaming of a Harley, and listening to heavy metal on a frequent basis, a tattoo seemed like a great idea...now that I've shrunk, drive a little Mazda, and spend more time listening to Chopin rather than Pantera, a tat just doesn't make sense. 

• Subdivisions...Not a whole lot to say here except that once you get out of town a little ways, suburbia around Perth looks very similar to suburbia back home.  Subdivided neighborhoods...greenways and parks here and there, young couples pushing their children on swings, boats parked on trailers next to the garage.  Maybe not as many brick facades as you see in Chicagoland, but a familiar scene just the same.

• Cheddar Cheese...I've made a few grocery runs since I've been in town...no major shopping escapades as I buy only what I can fit in my backpack, but I've snooped around Woolworth's (not the old-school Chicago store) enough to notice that cheddar cheese is a rare item...at least the 2-lb bricks you can find back home. I was able to snag a small pack of cheddar the other day that I wound up taking to Nihal and Nisha's place for dinner this afternoon...but it took me two trips around the cheese island thingy at the store to find it.  Jarlsburg queso is popular here, so I've been giving it a go...not too bad.

• Store Hours...Now that the topic has migrated from traffic lights to stores, I've got to mention something about hours of operation here in town.  I'm not sure if this is an Australian-wide set up, but at least here in Perth, stores are mandated to be open only a limited number of hours a week.  That translates into a vast majority of stores closing at 5:30 pm every night except for Friday nights, where they're open until 9pm.  Makes running out for an emergency bar of soap or toothbrush difficult.  A jab at capitalism, I say!

• Anzac Day...From the Internet's number one information source, Wikipedia...Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I.  It now commemorates ANZAC's involvement in other campaigns in history.  I understand Anzac Day to be equivalent to our Memorial Day.  I, like a buffoon, got my days mixed up and missed the pre-dawn memorial service in Perth this morning.  Military history is something I eat up and to witness an ally's memorial celebration for their fallen heros...well, I feel I owe them my gratitude as well.  I regret not being there to watch the commemoration.

Just checked and there's fifty clicks to go in L-B-L...going to be a late night taking in the race, but that'll give me a chance to get a little work done.  7:30 am ride tomorrow with a fellow North American (a Canuck) named David that I met on the Saturday morning club ride.  Not sure where we're going, but I'm sure it'll be fun.  So with that, I'll leave you to the start of your Sunday.  Enjoy the rest of the weekend and have fun with family and friends today.

Peace and God bless.

Scotty

Airplanes and ATM Cards...

Greetings, all. 

I hope you're getting to enjoy the weekend wherever you may be.  Unless you're an early riser, my guess is that you're in the middle of sawing logs right about now.  It's a sunny Sunday afternoon here in Perth. I've got an icon of Seattle's weather on my desktop and notice that the sun has been shining and the temps have been warm the last few days in the jet city.  I imagine the trees are in full bloom and the Lake Washington Boulevards and other byways are filled with the sweetness of spring.  Sunshine with snow on the mountain tops, trees and flowers showing off their prize, and the sounds of life all around...postcard Seattle...perfect Easter season weekend, I'd say!

Remember that Red Bull Air Race I mentioned last post?  I was fortunate enough to get nearly a birds eye view of the action.  John from the office invited a few of us newcomers to watch the race from his 10th floor apartment overlooking the Swan River.  Awesome views and what was really cool was that the planes flew in and out from a makeshift landing strip located about 200 feet from his balcony!  I learned that there are eight places in the world that hold this event...never would have thunk I'd catch see such a thing...let alone in Perth.  There were a few Americans in field...one guy made it to the second-to-last round, but didn't qualify for the finals.  An Austrian fella took the gold and a local Perthian(???) took second much to the applause of the crowd.  I posted some pix of the planes and other things.

Yesterday after Mass I was strolling home and was debating whether or not to grab a bite on the way back or to eat a makeshift dinner at the apartment.  I had a taste for Italian and a Moretti or Peroni.  So, I decided to deck into the first Italian place I found.  I came across a place called Venizia a few blocks away from the cathedral and grabbed a table outside so I could enjoy the plesant evening air and take in the sights and sounds as people came and went by.  I ordered up a ravioli dish with a side salad...and yep, a bottle of Peroni.  I prefer Moretti, especially draft, but it's hard to find...in fact, the only place I've found it on draft is the place I was introduced to it...The Lasagna House on the corner of Westheimer and Eldridge in H-town.  The LH was actually the very first resturant I ate at when I moved to Houston back in 2001.  Vinny, one of the best servers I've ever known, got me hooked on the blue collar Italian brew.  My mom, dad, and I ate there after moving my stuff into my apartment and Vinny took care of us that first time.  Good grub, but a bit out of the way.  It was probably six or eight months later that I popped in there again for supper.  And sure enough, Vinny was there and I sat in his section.  Right off the bat Vinny asked, "Hey, buddy.  Haven't see you in a long time.  How are you doing?  Settled in by now, I imagine?  How's your mom and dad doing?"  I couldn't believe it.  I ate at the LH at least once a month thereafter...Anyway, I threw down the dinner and beer and when it was time to pay I realized I didn't have my US ATM card, but only my Aussie ATM card and credit card (still figuring out what to carry when and where).  I'm trying not to use my credit card here because I get shelled with a 3% international transaction fee when I do, but in a pinch, it's there. So, no problem, right?  Not really, except Venizia doesn't take plastic and the Aussie ATM card in my pocket was pretty much useless to me because I forgot the blasted PIN!  So there I was with a bill of $41.90 (ridiculously expensive for a basic plate of pasta, little salad, and a beer considering that the Aussie dollar is nearly 1 to 1 with the US dollar...I just realized that the bastages charged me $3.50 for the glass of tap water!...welcome to Perth, I suppose...probably one reason why dinny didn't taste too good.) and no way to pay for it.  I went up to the lady behind the counter and explained my situation, frank and to the point. Much to my surprise, she simply said, "No worries (a common Aussie phrase).  Just come back and pay tomorrow."  Surprised indeed!  I swung by the resturant this afternoon on the two-wheeler to pay my debt, but the doors were closed...I just called and no one home.  I ought to mail them an envelope with $38.40 in it, tell them thanks for allowing me to leave the resturant premises without some guy named Guido coming out to teach me a lesson...but tell them they can kiss my blarney if I'm going to pay three-fiddy for a glass of tap water.  Perhaps I'll just stop by during the week, pay the bill, and try a new Italian resturant next time around. 

Reminiscing of Vinny serving up homemade lasagna and yesterday's dinner has got my belly barking.  It's pushing 18:00, so I guess it's right on time.  And whaddaya know?  A colleague from Redmond who is working here in Perth too, Jill, just called and asked if I wanted to grab a bite.  So by golly, I'm going to go grab a bite with Jill.  You kids have a fantastic Sunday.  Til next time, take care and God bless you. 

Scotty

Finding the Right Fit...

Happy Tuesday morning to those of you east of that invisible boundary called the International Dateline. 

Not much to report on from this end, but felt like saying hey and rattling off a few syllables before I split for the night.  It's a rainy Tuesday evening here in Perth.  I just got back from viewing an apartment.  Fully furnished minus a few towels and an extra pair of sheets.  Nice place but it's located just about a block or two from a shady part of town.  I've got a few more viewings tomorrow, so I'll see how they compare.

Still adjusting to the everyday odds and ends that I took for granted just a week or two ago: where to put my keys when I get home, what mode of transportation I'll take to get to work based on the weather (foot or bike), whether I order lunch at the counter or at the table, etc.  Adjusting at work still as well: timesheets, how to tackle assignments, who's who.  After only a few days, I suppose I wouldn't expect anything else.  But, after being in Perth for just about a week now, my initial observation is that I'm not sure I fit in very well here. As a comparison, and on purely a superficial level, back in Peru, I really didn't fit in: I was a relatively tall, way pale-faced, funny-talking gringo.  Here in Perth, I'm not so tall, but I'm a way pale-faced, funny-talking Yank. There are several things beneath the surface where I may not fit in all that well too...but those will take awhile longer to confirm one way or another. I guess in the end, it really doesn't matter much, does it?

One of the senior fellas in the office, John, invited us to his apartment this upcoming Sunday to watch the Red Bull Air Race.  It's a coincidence because my good buddy Johnny P gave me a heads up about this race before I even left Seattle.  John's place is located on the shore of the Swan River.  The Swan River is situated along the southern boundary of the city.  The race takes place over the river with the city as a nice background for the cameras.  You may have seen this shindig on TV before...it's basically an obstacle course for sooped-up prop planes.  It looks pretty cool and the weather forecast looks really good.  I'm going to pick up some brews and a tray of eats and stop by for the festivities. 

Well, it's pushing 19:00 here and I'm late for supper. You kids have a groovy Tuesday.  

Scotty

First Two Days...

What's shakin, everybody?

Scotty Z reporting live from the Riverview on Mount Street, Perth, Western Australia.  Tis the blogging season once again. Figured I'd scribe a few thoughts now and then like I did when I was in Peru.  So, here goes...

Just as a quick background, I'm working in Perth for the next six to eight months, still with Golder on the geotech engineering for the Chevron Wheatstone Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project which is located about ten clicks southwest of Onslow, WA (WA = Western Australia round here).  Here's a map of the job site.  If you zoom in, you'll see that it's a pretty barren area.  It's underlain by soft, compressible soils and overlain with sand, snakes, and spiders...the kind that you've seen on TV.  I'm not scheduled to visit the site yet...perhaps at some point down the road.  I'm working on a team that'll be cranking out the both onshore and nearshore geotechnics.  The scope of work is ginormous and the amount of engineering data collected that's being collected is quite extensive.  Unlike the Peru gig, nothing is being built yet, this is all front-end engineering.  Same concept, just a different phase of the project.  Friends and colleagues from both the Redmond and Houston offices are on the team as well.  Many of you may remember my friend Nihal...we worked in Peru together...he's here with his family.  Alfonso from Houston is here as well.  I worked with Alfonso on an LNG project a few years back.  Deb is here from the Redmond office too.  In all, there's probably about ten of us who will be doing the engineering work in the office.  I look forward to helping out and I trust that I'll learn a ton.

I've been in Perth for about four days now.  I got into town Wednesday night.  The voyage into town was pretty laid back.  I flew SEA-LAX-AUK-PER on United and Air New Zealand.  Total flight time in the neighborhood of 24 hours...total travel time +/- 34 hours.  Slept 80 percent of the flight time from SEA to AUK.  I didn't get a chance to roam around Auckland, but from what I could see from the airport and flying out, it's beautiful.  My buddy Mark is planning a trip to New Zealand in July-August...I hope to meet him for a few days.  I underestimated the flight time from AUK to PER by about 3 hours, so that sort of stunk, but besides that and United Airlines playing a dirty trick with my baggage weight allowance, everything was smooth and ontime.  I transitioned pretty quickly to the 15-hour time change, but felt a bit sleepy Thursday and Friday afternoons.  It's Sunday afternoon now here in Perth, and feel 100 percent adjusted.

The weather has been as clear as the photo above and the temps have hovered in the mid 70s each day.  They're calling for rain the next few days, so we'll see. Perth is a very clean and well-to-do city from what I've observed so far.  Public transport is everywhere...buses, taxis, trains.  The city and surrounding area is situated atop sand dunes.  There are rolling hills here and there, some steeper than others, with stretches of flat landscape.  All types of trees and plants abound the landscape.  There are some interesting birds flying around the sky too.  Interesting calls and sounds, distinctively different from anything I've heard back in the States.  There are many parks in the area, none bigger than Kings Park.  The office is located just north of the park.  It's perhaps the equivalent to Central Park in NYC.

Besides the strange bird sounds, just about everything here in Perth is the same as any large city back in the US, except the traffic flows in the opposite direction, the water drains counter-clockwise, just about every word is abbreviated, and the electrical plugs are funky.  I learned first-hand about the traffic flow difference.  I was strolling around town Thursday morning and what seemed like a clear shot across the street quickly turned into a mad dash for my life as a city bus was barrelling down towards me.  My first lesson learned here in town:  look RIGHT then look left and repeat no less than three times before taking a step off the sidewalk!

I jumped into the office just to get the ball rolling on Thursday and Friday.  Work officially starts on Monday, 12 April, but I wanted to pop in and meet the folks that are a part of the geotechnical fray.  I also wanted to get my apartment search going in full gear.  Real estate is ridiculously expensive out here. We're granted an allowance and I'm trying to match it to location, bike paths, and Mass times.  I hope to find something soon. A few principals took Nihal, Alfonso, Deb and I out for dinny Thursday night.  I ate a barrimundi fillet.  Barrimundi is a local fish.  Good stuff.   

I brought my rain bike with me and got it set up Friday night.  I took it out yesterday for what I had planned to be a short, easy ride around town. I found myself totally disregarding the fact that I haven't ridden but a time or two the last nine months and wound up logging about 40 miles over rolling hills and partly into a brutal headwind dubbed by the locals as a sea breeze that'd make any Belgian cyclist feel right at home. As I was pondering the vastness of the Indian Ocean, and resting the kicks near Freemantle, I caught sight of a cyclist zipping by and figured I'd see if they were up for some company. I jockeyed around picnic tables and sign posts from the scenic viewpoint and cautiously jumped back onto the road only to see the target a good half "k" up the way. A few lackadasical pedestrians made me light up the brakes to avoid carnage, but I was hell bent on catching that bike...now further away than before...not so much to get to meet someone new at this point, but more so to see if I had any spunk left in the legs after months of near bike solitude. Three or four clicks later, I pulled up along side of a gal named Serena. Turns out Serena is quite the cyclist...strong gal! We rode for a good distance along the coast and had a good chat until I needed to head back east towards the city.  Legs feel remarkably good today, but my arse is sore as hell!

So that about sums up my first few days here in Perth.  I've got a few key objectives that I'd like to accomplish this next week or two, including: 

• Find an apartment
• Buy some sunglasses
• Pick up some groceries
• Buy shammy cream
• Learn the rules to Aussie football (aka "footy") 

I'm heading out to pick up some of them groceries and hopefully find a pair of shades.  The shammy cream may have to wait a few days, unfortunately.  I'll post pictures as I take them to the link you see on the right.  I'm not a picture taker in general, but I'll make sure to get some on there.  Give 'em a look when you have time.  If you're a skyper, my id is sdzajac (I think)...give me a buzz if you want.  

Even though we're half the world away, I'm thinking of family and friends often. Until next time, much love and God bless.

Scotty