She stole my boxes...

Yesterday I went to Safeway and spoke to a nice young man in produce about cardboard boxes. He said he would save boxes for me and that I could come by tomorrow to pick them up. And he added that anytime during the day would be fine. So nice, he was.

This morning, around 10:30am (I know, not that early!), I walked over to Safeway. I couldn't find the same guy so I asked a different man. He said, "Oh, yeah, he told me! But another woman came at 7:30 this morning and I thought she was you, so I gave her the boxes."

He was able to find a few for me, but the boxes are certainly not the creme de la creme that I'm sure my friend had saved me. These are cauliflower boxes and they are covered in wax.

Oh well, that lady LUCKED OUT!

Why the boxes, you might be asking?! We start moving on Monday the 28th! Wahoo! And when I say, "We start", I really mean, "I start". Billy once again has shirked the responsibility of moving his belongings... he claims he's busy with a "5 day sailing regatta". Whatever that is....

More of the Aussie Open

On Tuesday night we went to the Australian Open again... before the start of the center court matches we watched doubles in the smaller arena. Venus and Serena Williams were playing against two chinese players... and they lost! I think had Venus been playing by herself, they would have been fine. Serena was making heeps of unforced errors. Anyway, there were tons of Chinese fans who were happy happy happy.

A little clap and re-group after every point... By the way, Venus (in the green/brown/white) wore the same outfit the next day in singles against Ana Ivanovic. Doesn't she design the clothing? You'd think she'd have another outfit to wear!

And here was a picture from the center court match we saw... Maria Sharapova defeated Justine Henin!! ... Where's the ball?!

And we were too tired by the time Youzhny played Tsonga to take any photos... after sleeping through 3 games, Billy let me go home at 11:30. Tsonga ended up winning in 3 straight sets, so it probably ended pretty soon after we left! Oh well.

Farewell Weeked to Liz

Liz heads back to the UK (for good) tomorrow, so we have spent as much time with her as possible during the last few days. Her departure saddens us greatly as she has been such a wonderful friend who always brought laughter and cheer everywhere she went.

We went to dinner at The Long Room--a tapas/sushi restaurant. Seems like a frightening mix, but the restaurant is quite large and the food is segregated, so it worked pretty well. Unfortunately the decorator chose marble topped iron tables that impaled your legs with iron rods when you sat down.

This poor guy adorns the entrance way to the restaurant...

Here is Billy eating the octopus to frighten Liz. I think he ended up removing the head so that she could eat it, but I think she ultimately refused. Eating pieces is a lot different than eating it whole... a little scary.
Where's Billy?We went to brunch with Liz yesterday and then played tennis in the afternoon... despite the light rain! It was her very first time hitting the ball, and she shows true promise... A few lessons and she will give me Billy run for his money.

Our Own Grand Slam! The Australian Open

Billy, Liz and I went to the Australian Open last night. We had tickets that allowed entry into all the courts except the two big stadiums... So we saw parts of about 5 matches. During dinner we watched Venus Williams on the big screen and then we later watched Roger Federer... he was beating his opponent, Diego Hartfield, pretty soundly so we snuck into the stadium during the end of the third set and took some empty seats. Quite fun to see him live! And then he entertained us with humorous commentary after the match.

We have tickets to the quarter-finals on the 22nd, so hopefully we'll get to see a good match!

Here's Federer...And his brave opponent, poor Diego... People were really cheering him on, though! In between points you would hear, "Go Diego!!". I was rooting for him as well, and he did manage to win 3 games! It's a bad draw to have to play Federer in round 1!

Venus with some ridiculous earrings...

Here's Billy and Liz at one of the earlier matches... and then some shots of some of the players we watched.
Peter Luczak....Severine Bremond who lost to Na Li...
Oscar Hernandez...who beat Ivo Minar...
Liz with Jurgen Melzer...

who defeated Jiri Vanek...

Kersti's Turn for the Fairy Godmother....

Since I have given Billy so much grief over the years for losing things, I must confess here that I myself have finally succumbed to it. But luckily for me, Billy's fairy godmother was working a double shift and returned my lost items back to me! First, I left my mobile on the tram. Yep, just left it right there on the seat. But some nice man found it and called Billy. Then, I left my watch by the pool at the bed and breakfast in Torquay. And then I got a call the next day asking if I had left my watch!

I asked Billy if the "disorder" was in fact contagious, and whether or not losing things would now be part of my daily life. He said, "oh kersti... you have to do this for about 5 years for it to be a legitimate part of your being." Phew.

Torquay Mini-Break

What a nice weekend! We love the ocean and the beach town life! Torquay is a small town with the priority being surfing... we didn't surf, but we did enjoy the beach! We stayed at a small b&b where we played a competitive game of water volleyball. (I of course got to stand in the shallow end with my upper body out of the water and poor billy had to stand in the deep end... this considerable handicap made the game very fun for me and Billy had a good time having the beach ball spiked at his head all the time!)

The b&b has two special friends that roam the property... Coffee the pony and Argonaut the llama.

The reception is in an old train carriage. This was a car used in Queensland in the late 1970s! Yes, it does look a wee bit older...

At the beach we came across a swimming competition. Heaps of people were involved... we saw at least 4 heats of swimmers start. It was a 1km swim... out into the surf, and around in a big square. I think it took about 45 minutes... and people looked exhausted when they finished!

First Anniversary

We made it, easy peasy, to our first anniversary! In celebration we are heading to the beach town of Torquay for a nice relaxing weekend. Maybe some surfing will make the agenda... we shall see. I know we're going to mexican food since there's a restaurant in that town. Yes, that IS a very special event. Mexican food is hard to come by in this land. But other than that, and a nice dinner reservation on saturday night, we have no plans. Superb.

Kersti & Bill: Residential Tutors Extraordinaire

Great news... we just found out we were accepted as residential tutors at our top choice college, Ormond! We're very excited that everything finally fell into place. I think it's going to be exactly like Hogwarts.... well, at least the formal dining room fits the bill. I wonder if it's acceptable for us to take pictures of ourselves at the first "formal hall dinner"... in our academic regalia, et al. Probably not. Well, you'll just have to wait and see.... Anyway, more on our life as residential tutors later... once we find out what is really in store for us!

Hi, Where's the Toilet?

Yesterday Billy and I interviewed at two colleges to be resident tutors. There are ~10 colleges that line the north end of the university campus... they provide a small college feel within this huge university (40,000+ students). In addition to providing a beautiful place to live, fun social and sports activities, the students get a ridiculous amount of academic and mentoring support. (It sounds like an excellent set up for those kids!) Anyway, that's where we come in... :) We want to shape and mold the minds of Australia's future as tutors and mentors.. muahahahaaaa.

So yesterday we had two back to back interviews with the heads of 2 colleges. The first went over a wee bit, so we had to hussle to the next college (I ran in my heals and billy ran in his suit... and it was HOT outside). Anyway, we arrived a wee bit flushed obviously. In the courtyard we ran into the 2nd in command at the college--a man whom I had met with for an hour the previous day. He welcomed us and ushered us into the main office building where he told us to sit in the lounge while he went to tell the 1st in command that we had arrived.

Immediately, Billy tells me he wants to go to the bathroom before the next hour interview... so he stands up and looks down the hallway in the opposite direction in which the guy had walked. He sees a man coming towards him, so without hesitation asks, "Hi, where's the toilet?". I immediately gasped and jumped up, knowing full well he had just asked the head of the college--the man with whom we were about to interview--where the toilet is. We laughed it off and apologized, and he seemed to be okay with it :) .... and we were later offered the position, so he must have forgotten quickly!

42 C = 107.6 F

That was the temperature on New Year's Eve.... It made for one very hot night. It was my first ever boiling hot New Year's.... most of them lately have been in the snow. At least it eliminated the chance of being tackled into a snow bank by Billy!

So you are probably wondering how on earth we survived with no air-con. Well, I hid out in my department's computer lab during the heat of the day, and Billy just went to work. In the evening we had friends over and we just sat in the dark having a good time before venturing out into the heat around 11:30 to go see the fireworks downtown. Due to lack of transport and the fact the city closed off the main streets to taxis and trams, we were a wee bit late to the fireworks. So we were walking down Swanston as quickly as we could towards the river. We could see bits of the fireworks between the sky scrapers, and we could certainly hear them as the booms reverberated off buildings! It was definitely exciting...

So despite the heat, it turned out to be a wonderful new year's eve.

Leslie, Inga and Julia's Trip to Australia!

We had a fantastic Christmas with my mother and sisters... they were here for two weeks and we had tons of fun... I think we wore them down to the bone by packing in the activities and prohibiting sleep. We stayed in the Melbourne area for a bit longer then a week, then flew to Tasmania for 4 days. They had terribly weather, but I think we all had a good time, nonetheless. At least they avoided the heat that came the day after they left!

Click here to see all our pictures

If that doesn't work... paste into your browser: http://picasaweb.google.com/kersti.miller/ChristmasIngaJuliaAndMomSTripToOz

I must warn you, we took 1500 pictures (1000+ by my mother) and I only narrowed it down to 264 or so... so settle in or skim like mad :)

Leaving Orinda... excited about the next 18 hours!

We hate flies... but this is how to beat them... You just have to be strong enough.

Christmas Eve! We had lots of swedish food... though of course not all of our favorites. Ham, Potatis, Lingon, Sill, Bullar, Pepparkakor, Knack and Ost!

Holding a Wombat... the little guy was 6 months old and was raised as an orphan by the zoo keeper. It was found as a baby... in the pouch of his mother who had been killed by a car!

This Roo loved billy... and was especially pleased by his ability to scratch his belly and neck