The Joy of Ice Cream

I always pass this ice cream parlor when I'm strolling around Manly and usually comment to myself that it looks pretty good and that I need to make a point of stopping in some day (and I've heard rumors of its its greatness). It does not disappoint, If anyone makes to Manly, it is a MUST VISIT...It is outstanding.

So here's the scoop: (Pun intended) It is a place called Cold Rock Creamery. They make their own ice-cream which is very good. But the cool thing about Cold Rock, is that they have a huge slab of marble that is ice-cold (hence the name-sake) but they "fold-in" extras to their ice-cream. So today I had a chocolate ice-cream with cookie dough. So they scoop out some ice cream and put in on the cold marble and sort of flatten it out. Then they take your extra (in this case actually cookie dough) and fold it in the ice cream with these metal spatula/spoon type things, chopping up the extras as they fold it in. When they are done folding in the "extras" they work the ice-cream back into a ball shape and put it in a cup or a cone for you.

It is sensational!

blow-out, another boring entry

So my anticipation for the Rugby match between New South Wales Waratahs and the Pacific Islands (Fiji, Tonga, and Somoa) was much in vain. (it was Rugby Union style if you remember the questions from my previous postings) As the P. Islanders, were up 6 tries to nil with in the first 20 minutes of the match (score 42-0), the Waratahs did end up putting points on the board, but they were getting crushed, sixty something to 21. Needless to say, it was not the most thrilling contest to watch. I think the attendance was like 8,500 in a 40,000 seat arena so it was pretty quiet atmosphere. I think there are probably 8,000 Pacific Islanders in Sydney, and I'm pretty sure they were all at the game, as the overwhelming crowd support went to the Pacific Islanders. To the Waratah's defense, they had between 5 & 8 of their best players who are playing on the Wallabies (national team) right now, in fact the Wallabies are playing England Tonight, a rematch of the rugby world-cup title game, so that should be good...With a relatively un-exciting game, the attention drifted to for food and drink and in that arena, the corporate box was good. I think catering is a bonus at any sporting events. It did highlight an attracting point, in that there are not many pies in America (not the desert variety, but English style pie, sort of a meat & gravy filled crusted pie. I imagine a past would be the closest thing. But pies were basically the main item being served. I think America needs a pie shop, there is chain here in Manly and you get Broccoli potato, steak, Thai chicken, various curries, plus many, many more. It is often a stop of mine when I'm itching for a quick bite on the way home.

Not so cheap

Saw this in the news recently and thought it was interesting. Most people think Sydney is super cheap, etc. etc. etc. Well it just got named the 20th most expensive city in the world (jumping up 47 spots from the previous year). For reference NY was 12th, LA was 27, Chicago was 35, and San Fran. was 38


here is Mercer Story you can download the top 50 list at this site....

Here is the top 25.

1. Tokyo (1)
2. London (7)
3. Moscow (2)
4. Osaka, Japan (3)
5. Hong Kong (4)
6. Geneva (6)
7. Seoul, South Korea (8)
8. Copenhagen, Denmark (15)
9. Zurich, Switzerland (9)
10. St. Petersburg, Russia (12)
11. Beijing (5)
12. New York (10)
13. Milan, Italy (17)
14. Dublin, Ireland (21)
15. Oslo, Norway (13)
16. Shanghai, China (11)
17. Paris (23)
18. Istanbul, Turkey (42)
19. Vienna, Austria (34)
20. Sydney, Australia (67)
21. Rome (41)
22. Stockholm, Sweden (48)
23. Helsinki, Finland (36)
24. Abidjan, Ivory Coast (35)
25. Douala, Cameroon (31)


However on a Quality of Life survey Sydney was ranked 5th. Honolulu and San Fran. ranked highest of the US cities and were tied at 24th.

Nothing Exciting

The strange thing about blogging is what to write when nothing exciting happens. Since I'm bloggin for a specific audience, (i.e. friends and family) I feel like I should write something, just to communicate, but on the other hand I fear this will turn into an incredible boring recount of time passing...in case anyone is reading I'll just recount the events of a largely stereo typical week of mine.

Last week I went to a bar-b-queue (or Braai (pronounced "bry") in south African parlance) with some friends whose parents have a place at Palm Beach, which is the northern most beach of Sydneys Northern Beaches. (where as I live in Manly which is the southern most Northern Beach). On the afternoon of the braai, Chris took me out on his sail boat. Which was fun, we didn't sail as there was no wind. I think this was the second time I've actually been on a sail boat. So it was pretty cool even to motor around Pittwater, which is the body of water between the peninsula of the Northern Beaches and the mainland. It is a very gorgeous area. On one side you have the peninsula, etc and on the mainland is Ku-rin-gai national park, so there is almost no development on the water front land, just hills and trees. Here is a pretty good little map of the Northern Beaches.

Nothern Beaches

The main event of the braai other than the food & drinks, of which there were copious amounts, was test rugby. (Which is Rugby league not Rugby union and is a series of international matches between Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, England, South Africa, Ireland, Wales and Argentina) I'm not sure how they pair off, but we watched Oz-Scotland, England-NZ, and Ireland-SA play. It was fun because there were basically 6 people there which consisted of 3 Australians, 1 Brit, 1 South African and 1 American. So most people had a strong reason to barrick for a team (to root in Australia is sometimes offensive term for a sexual act, as in "root like rabbits", so to root for a team, would be a sign of support, its not the average way to cheer for a team)...back to my point, it was fun to watch international events where people had ties to other countries. It has also raised my intrigue of watching the Olympics from overseas, where I anticipate it will be a pretty cool experience to be such international crowds.

Other than, work, yes I did move to Australia for work, unfortunately. Has been very busy and will be very busy for the next couple months. The last couple of weeks, I"m back to working about the same number of hours as I was in NY, so that's not a good thing. I'm trying to pare it down to more reasonable numbers. On the bright side, however, on the weekends, I'm 7 minutes from the beach, 3 minutes from the waterfront, and a 15 minute bike ride from good mountain biking, so recreation is much more accessible.

On the downside, my surfing has taken a bit of hiatus, as the ocean is broken. The Pacific right now is worlds biggest lake, a few mornings I've checked the surf reports to try to some water time before work, and it has pretty much been glass. Very disappointing.

I hope this post hasn't bored too many people, but it seems like my life is mainly going to be work, work, work for the next couple weeks. Hopefully some exciting news, or interesting thoughts will manifest themselves in that time.

Aussie Rules

Went to my first Aussie Rules Football game, last Sunday (June 6th) where the undefeated St. Kilda Saints (a Melbourne club) took on our hometown Sydney Swans. The Swans, basically beat the pants off them, getting an early lead and running with it.

Here is the

match report if your interested


Aussie Rules if fun to watch live. It is played on the cricket ground so the pitch (i.e. field) is pretty big. Rumor has it that Sydney is one of the smaller pitches too. The players get up and down the field in a hurry. So there is a lot of action when watching live. On television, you basically only track the ball, so it is misleading to what is happening on the field. I view Aussie rules as organized chaos. The flow of the game is pretty easy to follow (some of the rules make no sense, but it is not major detractor from the event). It is a long game as well, it is played in 4 20 minute quarters, but they play running time like soccer, so the elapses time of every quarter on Sunday was at least 26 minutes. There is not a lot of dead time during play as well, so the players must loving running b/c they get up and down the pitch in a hurry.

I don't' even know how to describe Aussie rules, but it definitely reminds me of something that a bunch of 9year olds playing in a snow field made up. When the ball goes out of bounds the referee runs over to where it went out, turns his back to the pitch, and hurls the ball over his head, as high as he can, back into the playing field. To re-start play, at the change of quarters, or after stoppages, etc, and if the ball is still in bounds. The referee, takes the ball, and slams it against the ground sending the rebound a good 20-25 feet in the air. In both of this situations, then there is a mad dash for the control of the ball. To pass the ball to a teammate you are not allowed to throw it. You have to "hand-pass" where you basically hold it in one hand and punch it with the other, or you have to kick. If you kick it more than 10 meters and your teammate catches it, he is not allowed to be tackled and can kick or hand-pass from there. But he is also allowed to back to get a run at a kick if he wants to try to kick for goal or something. He basically can't go past the line where he caught the ball. If you receive a hand-ball or a kick you are allowed to run, and if you run for more than 10 meters you have to pass the ball or "dribble" it by bouncing it off the field. The other rule is to try to kill the guy with ball. Scoring is 6 points for a goal, and 1 point for a "from behind". A goal is anything between the 2 big posts, and there 2 smaller posts on the outside of these worth 1 point. That is about it. I particularly like the refs who field the out of bounds balls, because before they launch the ball back into the field, they hold the ball and are swinging it between their legs up then up to eye level (to warm up) then the ball swings low, the squat, and then they jump up at the same time are swinging the ball upwards, and the launch it over their heads back on to the pitch.

This totally reminds of rules a bunch of kids came up with on a winter day when they made up their own game. (i.e. if you one of the players had to throw the ball back in bounds, the only way to make if fair was for him to turn is back to the field, close his eyes and throw it as hard as he can over his head) which is what he basically does.


The one thing about Aussie rules are these neon yellow guys. Basically there is group of 3 guys for each team, and 1 of them are allowed to be on the field at a time. They are wearing this horrendous, hi-lighter, neon yellow jersey and shorts, and they are running around during play. They surprisingly fall into the back ground quite easily, but every so often they pop up into your consciousness. I found out, that they are runners, giving information from the coach to the players on the pitch. Can you imagine a basketball game, where you could run the play into your point guard as he was walking the ball up the court ? There are all sorts of rules to make sure these "runners" don't impact the play on the pitch, but I still found this odd.

It was a totally fun experience, and I imagine I'd go again if I had the opportunity. (not sure if I would seek it out unless someone was visiting or something)

I'm intrigued to see if I enjoy it more watching aussie rules on television than I previously did.

Manly Wine and Food Festival

Today was the Manly Wine and Food Festival. It turned out to be a pretty good day. I started the day with a nice long sleep in, (I'm still feeling the effect of my Singapore trip or I'm starting to get sick) then I went for a Surf. I haven't been surfing in like three weeks due to my wet-suit being sent to the factory for repair (one of the sealed seams split) then my business trip to Singapore, and this week I've been exhausted, so I've tried to get as much rest as possible. It was a challenging day on the Board, three weeks is long enough to lose any timing you thought you had and for your shoulders to get out of paddling shape. But it was fun to be back in the water. It is also much colder than it was 3 weeks ago. I guess I should be comparing it to December 5th, in which case this still feels like summer (compared to Montana in December).

One of the neatest things I've experienced happened today, I was on my surfboard waiting for a wave, and a school of fish or minnows came through. They were like 3 inches long, but they were jumping out of the water. I think there were about 25, all jumping out of the water (much like I've seen dolphins on TV do when they swim with boats, except these weren't dolphins, there 3 inch long minnows). This school of fish, basically went right though me, so there heaps of fish jumping in front and behind me. And in like 4 seconds they were gone. It was a pretty cool visual.

After my surf I went to the Manly Wine And Food festival (http://www.manly.nsw.gov.au/minisites/main.asp?ms=28) , which is basically a chance to try food from all the local restaurants and wine from some nearby vineyards. They block off about 4 blocks along the water front road across from the beach and there several booths serving food or wine. I would imagine there were at least 30 booths. It was mobbed with people so I would guess there several 10's of thousands through the festival over the course of the day. I had a crab & some whitefish I don't' remember fritter and cup of seafood chowder, from Manly Bay Seafood restaurant. Very Good!!. Then I also had a cheese plate from one of the gourmet deli's that had set up a booth. I also stole a few bites from Zach and Carolyn (my friends who I went to the festival with) pastry plate, which was fantastic.

Over the course of the afternoon, I also tried several wines:

Tower Estate: I had a verdehlo.
Frog Rock: Creek Cabernet Sauvingnon
Brickman Vineyards: I had a Semillion, (which was Fantastic!)
Draytons Family Wine: I had the Pioneer (Tawny) Port.
Calais Estate: I had the Pinot Noir.

I think my 2 favorite wines were the Brickmans Semillion and Calais Estate Pinot Noir. (If I ever make it to Hunter Valley, I'd put a visit to these vinyards up on my list)

It was also a gorgeous day, sunny and around 65 degrees F. So it was a very good way to spend three hours of the afternoon, to walk around the festival listening to live music eating and drinking on Manly Beach. It is a 2 days festival, and I would definitely like to go again tomorrow, but I have tickets to the Sydney Swans versus the stowaway Saints (from Melbourne). Which is one of the bigger games of the Australian Rules Football season so far. They have a premiers, similar to English Soccer, and St. Kilda is currently in first place, and I think unbeaten. Sydney is currently 7th (out of 16 teams in the premiership), with a 5 and 5 record. There is a huge rivalry between Sydneysiders and Melbourne. Melbourne is also much more Aussie Rules country, in fact about 40 years about all 16 teams, were located in Melbourne, they have all slowly relocated to other parts of the country since then, but I still think Melbourne has like 4 teams. Anyway, there should be good atmosphere at the game, which should make it fun to be there live.

GSS, Hawkers & the Raffles Hotel

As far as I can tell there are a few things that Singapore is famous for...I'd list them as

1) Hawkers Centers
2) Shopping
3) Singapore Sling Cocktails at the Raffles Hotel & Pepper Crabs
4) Being the "McDonalds" of SE Asia.


Here is a breif run-down.

Hawkers
These are basically food courts with heaps of stalls in them offering a variety of different cuisines at very cheap prices. The closest thing I can think of is if all the street vendors in NY decided to sell their fare under 1 roof. It is tad bit overwhelming, the activity in Hawkers centers. The Asian Wall Street Journal did a big story on Hawkers Centers and claimed they uniquely Singaporean/Malaysian. So if you area subscriber to the WSJ you can read about here
( http://online.wsj.com/public/page/0,,public_home_search,00.html )

Shopping
Singapore is all about bargains, not you won't find the unbelievable cheap prices of China, Thailand, etc. Mainly due to the modernism of Singapore, (more on that later). There are shopping malls everywhere. There is a place called Sim Lim Square and Sim Lim Tower, which are all about electronics. Sim Lim Square is basically a 8 Story shopping mall totally dedicated to Consumer electronics (Digital Cameras, DV Recorders, PC, Audio Equipment, PC's/Laptops, PC Upgrades/Hardware) I think it may have been my fathers only acceptable shopping mall. Directly accross the street is Sim Lim Tower, which is also purely technical, but real technical, Voltage meters, circuit boards, optical lenses, etc.

The main clothes shopping strip is on Orchard Road (as far as I could tell). And one of the big events in Singapore is "the Great Singapore Sale" where basically every store in Singapore has a sale (10-50% off) and the sale lasts for 6 weeks. It started on Friday May 28 and lasts until July. It was little nutty that city as big as Singapore (about 4 million) has a city-wide (and country wide for that matter) sale. So it would be a great time to find bargains.

I actually went shopping to see what it was all about, and Orchard road was MADNESS!!!! I was looking for dress pants, and it turned out to be a little difficult to find 32 or 33 lenght inseams. I'm assuming b/c the average Singaporean male is not 5'11". The pants were found, and now I can say I have taken part in the Great Singapore Sale ;)

Cocktails and food
Singapore is an interesting combination of Malaysia (was actually a part of Malaysia until the 40's I think), Indonesians, Indian, Singaporean, Chinese and other countries. The majority of their food is either fusion or directly Korean, South Indian, Thai, etc.

A couple of the things that genuinely are Singaporean are:

The Singapore Sling: Which is a bizzare bitter-sweet pink cocktail invented at the Raffles Hotel by a Hainase-Chinese bartender at the turn of the Century. I Sing Sling at the Raffles is now considered one of the "must do" events in a trip to Singapore. (At least according to Lonely Planet)

The recipe
30 ml Gin
15 ml Cherry Brandy
120 ml Pineapple Juice
15 ml Lime Juice
7.5 ml Cointreau
7.5 ml Dom Benedictine
10 ml Grenedine
A Dash of Angostura Bitters
Garnish with a slice of Pineapple and Cherry.

Peppered Crab: Peppered Crabs are also another dish invented in Singapore, it is basically a crab cooked in a black pepper sauce, and it is GOOD. Craig and I went to a place called Long Beach Marina Seafood and we had been the previously when I was in Sinpapore in Feb. But at Long Beach, we've had Black Pepper Crab, White Pepper Crab and Chilli crab. All were amazing. So as you can imagine a tropical island has fantastic seafood, and Singapore does. I highly recommend a trip to Long Beach Marina for Peppered Crab.!

Accessibility
Singapore is a very modern city with great infrastructure and city planning (and very clean), so it is a piece of cake to get around. Add to that English is the spoken languange, well probably closer to "Singlish" but they read/write english ;) There is also pretty big culture to "win", so many Singaporeans work very long hours, and we they are certainly driven to get a bargain when they shop. This leads to some people to consider Singapore the "McDonalds" of SE Asia, nicely packaged, etc. I find it a very accessible. I have never been to Thailand, or Malaysia, so I can't comment on the authenticity, but it offers a glimpse into SE Asia.