I feel like I have months of nothing but work and then three weeks or so of craziness. The last month has been in the 'crazy' category - this is my first weekend at home without company since the middle of April.
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| Autumn colors in Wellington |
The last week in April my managers let me work from home. By "home," I mean Wellington. It actually worked out really well because Vic (Victoria University, Wellington - where Ross is getting his PhD) had a fall break the same week and so I was able to borrow an office and computer with dual monitors, which made working on reports way more pleasant than it would have been on a laptop for the week. I didn't take any time off while I was in Wellington, so our days consisted of walking into campus and going our separate ways to work for the day. We'd meet for lunch but otherwise, I hung out in my borrowed office and worked on reports.
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| Wellington from campus |
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| Ross science-ing |
That being said, we did have fun. The first weekend that I was in Wellington my favorite band, The Killers, were performing so we met up with some friends for dinner and then rocked out at the concert. The venue in Wellington was pretty small, so Ross and I ended up with only about two people between us and the stage. According to my FitBit, I jumped/danced ~5 miles at the concert so, needless to say, I had a great time!
The Wednesday that I was in Wellington was Anzac Day (commemorates the day that the Australian and New Zealand army corps landed at Gallipoli during WWI), which is a public holiday, so I got an extra day off work to hang out with Ross. We went for a long walk out by Red Rocks to a seal colony. We had great weather and had a nice picnic lunch by the seals.
We managed to squeeze in a rugby game on Friday evening but too soon it was Sunday and time for me to head back to Melbourne...
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| Cheering on the Hurricanes at Westpac |
While I was in Wellington I'd seen an email about a training course that looked interesting, so once I was back in Melbourne I talked to my manager about it and got the 'okay' to go. The training course was put on by the Australian Land and Groundwater Association and was an introduction to performing risk assessments for contaminated land but the fun part was that it was in Hobart. The course was on a Monday-Tuesday so I made a weekend of it and flew down to Hobart Friday night. It was my first time in Tasmania and, while the weather wasn't amazing, I had a great time.
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| You are greeted by Tasmanian Devils at the Hobart airport |
I started off the weekend by doing the Hobart Parkrun (free timed 5k). It is located a ways out of town but I was able to catch a ride out with the race director since I hadn't hired a car for the weekend. After a much hillier run than I'd been expecting, I headed back to my hotel and then out into Hobart to explore. I started off wandering around at the Salamanca Market. It is a weekly arts and crafts market along the waterfront. It had some really great stuff but I managed to restrain myself to one small souvenir.
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| Hobart waterfront |
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| Salamanca Market with Mt Wellington in the background |
From there I swung by the State Library (not nearly as cool as the one in Melbourne) and then St. David's Cathedral (I am a sucker for the artwork and architecture). I then walked out to the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were a lot further away then I had thought. That being said, the gardens were well worth the walk.
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| St. David's |
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| St. David's |
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| Botanical Gardens |
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| Botanical Gardens |
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| Botanical Gardens |
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| Botanical Gardens |
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| Superb Fairywren |
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| Musk Lorikeet |
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| Afternoon light on the walk back to Hobart |
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| Seal begging for my fish and chips |
Sunday was my museum day. I started off at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. It is housed in some great, old buildings and has fabulous displays. I spent most of my time in a special exhibit about Tasmanian Devils (wouldn't you?), though I also made sure to check out the local venomous snakes and spiders; it's important to know who you really ought to avoid stepping on in Australia...
After the Tasmanian Museum I caught the MONA ROMA, which is the ferry out to the Museum of Old & New Art (MONA). The ferry ride was cold but great. I go back and forth on modern art but MONA was an interesting experience. Some of the installations were really thought provoking and interesting, and some of them were just weird. The whole art gallery is underground and isn't that well lit, so it wouldn't surprise me if I missed a number of exhibits.
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| On the MONA ROMA |
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| MONA's one view outside |
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| Tasmanian Native Hen |
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| Sunset from the ferry |
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| Sunset from the ferry |
Monday and Tuesday I spent all day in a hotel conference room learning about risk assessments (it was actually more interesting than it sounds). Flights to and from Hobart during the week in the off-season are at really random times, so I ended up catching a 6 a.m. flight back to Melbourne on Wednesday and going straight to work from the airport. I made it until about 3 p.m. before I had to call it a day.
On Thursday (the day after I got back from Hobart) Ross came up for the weekend. Ross is going to be traveling for conferences for all of June, so these visits weren't spaced out as far as they normally are. It was really nice to see him again so soon after I'd been in New Zealand. We had a pretty laid back weekend but we did do some fun activities. On Friday night we went to the 25th anniversary showing of Jurassic Park at my favorite, local theater. It was really fun to see it on the big screen again.
On Saturday we mostly planned for the trip that we're taking in July - ten days in a camper van (get excited!). Saturday night we went to "Strictly Ballroom: The Musical." I love, love, love Strictly Ballroom (the movie) and the musical was the perfect transformation from movie to musical. The staging made you feel like you were actually at the dance competitions. It was great! If you like the movie and you ever get a chance to see the musical - do it! We were also treated to a very Australian theater experience (I've never run into this elsewhere but it might not be unique to Oz) - apparently opening weekend and closing night, there is free food and booze after the show. We were quite surprised when we came down into the lobby to find tables upon tables that were absolutely covered with sandwiches and roast chicken. The bar was covered in wine, champagne, juice, etc. It was pretty cool.
On Sunday, we took advantage of my company's season tickets and went to a footy match (Australian rules football - only really played in Victoria). The two teams that we saw were really evenly matched so it was actually a really close match. Ross and I have decided that if/when we leave this part of the world, we're going to have to figure out what sport channel we need to get so that we can keep watching footy and super rugby (involves teams from NZ, Australia, South Africa, Japan and Argentina) because we've both become mildly addicted.
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During halftime at footy matches, they bring out the peewee
teams and it's adorable. Way better than a halftime show. |
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| Sunset at St. Kilda pier |
Like I said, it's been a crazy month. I won't see Ross again until early July and we only have one public holiday (Queen's Birthday) between now and then so we are again entering the lull where I probably won't do a lot beside work and be sad that it's cold, dark and rainy. Enjoy that summer weather for me if you're in the Northern Hemisphere!
