Perth for Easter
01 May 2012
This year Mum's birthday fell on the same day as Mardi Gras in Sydney. Many of our friends were excited to go to the main party for the first time in years because of the performance by Kylie Minogue. Mum had asked me to cook for her birthday and as we are not big Kylie fans it was an easy decision to spend the Saturday night in Melbourne having my family to dinner.
We decided that the former Toybox party would be the only event we would go to this year and so we flew to Sydney on Sunday morning. The event was something of a disappointment: the production was less impressive than in previous years and the police presence was very intrusive. We enjoyed seeing friends, but we'll probably do something different next year.
The following weekend we went to Sorrento. It was getting late in the year for beach weather, but it was warm enough and we saw some sun. The renovations at the holiday house are complete, so it is a much more comfortable destination for a few days away from Melbourne.
Jay has had a very busy time at work. Iron Monkey, the EA studio he works at, launched Mass Effect Infiltrator not long after The Sims Freeplay which has been keeping them busy with updates. Both of these titles have been quite successful and featured in the App Store. They have another major title in the works which, as always, he can't talk about except for a certain amount of discussion of matrix transformations which I can't help much with. While the local industry is suffering because of the exchange rate, it's better to be at a studio that's making hits than misses.
The Anaesthetic Department at St Vincent's produces an educational workshop each year and this year I was on the panel discussing difficult cases and potential disasters. It was somewhat similar to the regular private case discussion meetings I attend with a group of other private-practice anaesthetists. It must have gone reasonably well as the convener has asked me to host one of the departmental case discussion meetings later this month.
We went to the local IFBB pro show and the associated expo in mid-March. The show was won by Branch Warren, which was a foregone conclusion. The expo was interesting and we saw quite a few guys we knew from the gym. With Darren's encouragement we said hello to a few polite pros and had our pictures taken. We missed out on seeing many of the foreign competitors training at the gym due to work and social commitments interfering with our workouts.
My 42nd birthday was not a big deal. I celebrated by taking the day off work. We had cake with my family before Jay and I went to dinner together. On the weekend we had drinks on Sunday evening and I was pleasantly surprised that Chad came to visit again for the weekend. We also saw another friend from the US, Richie, who was in town for the Flower Show and whom we took to lunch and the football.
Over Easter we decided to see the remaining state capital that Jay had not yet visited. We went to Perth for the four day weekend. We had dinner with my Aunt and Uncle and my cousin Elizabeth and her family. We also had dinner with Kevin and Scott whom we had met last year at Toybox. Kevin has just completed his anaesthetic training and has been working as a consultant for a month.
Perth was quite a bit more developed than I had expected, with hipsters and coffee just like Melbourne. It was also quite a bit more expensive than Melbourne, especially for dining, which was generally 20%-50% more than we would have expected to pay. We went to the beach each day, having a look at Cottesloe, Rottnest and Hillary’s. It was Jay’s first time in the Indian Ocean. He has made an album of the trip.
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival ran through March and April. We went to a few shows: Wanda Sykes and Dixie Longate with friends, and also to Trevor Ashley’s “Fat Swan” before the festival started. Dixie was a little less confronting than when we saw her on the Atlantis Cruise a few years ago, but still very funny.
The sporting events we attended recently were the Argonauts regatta where we were helping with the organization as our club was hosting and also Darren’s fight in the Victorian BJJ Championships. The program ran early and we arrived just in time to see him awarded the medal for his division. We stayed most of the afternoon to watch the other fights. The meet ran over three days as there were a great many competitors and divisions.
In mid April I received the sad news that Shirley, Robert’s mother, had died. She had remained independent right up until two days before. I had last seen her in January and we had stayed in contact for her to get help with her computer and iPad.
Now it is really Autumn here and the days are getting cold and short. We are planning a Winter vacation, but there are two more months of this to get through first.
Jay and Zoe in the Autumn leaves.
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We decided that the former Toybox party would be the only event we would go to this year and so we flew to Sydney on Sunday morning. The event was something of a disappointment: the production was less impressive than in previous years and the police presence was very intrusive. We enjoyed seeing friends, but we'll probably do something different next year.
The following weekend we went to Sorrento. It was getting late in the year for beach weather, but it was warm enough and we saw some sun. The renovations at the holiday house are complete, so it is a much more comfortable destination for a few days away from Melbourne.
Jay has had a very busy time at work. Iron Monkey, the EA studio he works at, launched Mass Effect Infiltrator not long after The Sims Freeplay which has been keeping them busy with updates. Both of these titles have been quite successful and featured in the App Store. They have another major title in the works which, as always, he can't talk about except for a certain amount of discussion of matrix transformations which I can't help much with. While the local industry is suffering because of the exchange rate, it's better to be at a studio that's making hits than misses.
The Anaesthetic Department at St Vincent's produces an educational workshop each year and this year I was on the panel discussing difficult cases and potential disasters. It was somewhat similar to the regular private case discussion meetings I attend with a group of other private-practice anaesthetists. It must have gone reasonably well as the convener has asked me to host one of the departmental case discussion meetings later this month.
We went to the local IFBB pro show and the associated expo in mid-March. The show was won by Branch Warren, which was a foregone conclusion. The expo was interesting and we saw quite a few guys we knew from the gym. With Darren's encouragement we said hello to a few polite pros and had our pictures taken. We missed out on seeing many of the foreign competitors training at the gym due to work and social commitments interfering with our workouts.
My 42nd birthday was not a big deal. I celebrated by taking the day off work. We had cake with my family before Jay and I went to dinner together. On the weekend we had drinks on Sunday evening and I was pleasantly surprised that Chad came to visit again for the weekend. We also saw another friend from the US, Richie, who was in town for the Flower Show and whom we took to lunch and the football.
Over Easter we decided to see the remaining state capital that Jay had not yet visited. We went to Perth for the four day weekend. We had dinner with my Aunt and Uncle and my cousin Elizabeth and her family. We also had dinner with Kevin and Scott whom we had met last year at Toybox. Kevin has just completed his anaesthetic training and has been working as a consultant for a month.
Perth was quite a bit more developed than I had expected, with hipsters and coffee just like Melbourne. It was also quite a bit more expensive than Melbourne, especially for dining, which was generally 20%-50% more than we would have expected to pay. We went to the beach each day, having a look at Cottesloe, Rottnest and Hillary’s. It was Jay’s first time in the Indian Ocean. He has made an album of the trip.
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival ran through March and April. We went to a few shows: Wanda Sykes and Dixie Longate with friends, and also to Trevor Ashley’s “Fat Swan” before the festival started. Dixie was a little less confronting than when we saw her on the Atlantis Cruise a few years ago, but still very funny.
The sporting events we attended recently were the Argonauts regatta where we were helping with the organization as our club was hosting and also Darren’s fight in the Victorian BJJ Championships. The program ran early and we arrived just in time to see him awarded the medal for his division. We stayed most of the afternoon to watch the other fights. The meet ran over three days as there were a great many competitors and divisions.
In mid April I received the sad news that Shirley, Robert’s mother, had died. She had remained independent right up until two days before. I had last seen her in January and we had stayed in contact for her to get help with her computer and iPad.
Now it is really Autumn here and the days are getting cold and short. We are planning a Winter vacation, but there are two more months of this to get through first.
Jay and Zoe in the Autumn leaves.
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