A Very Wet Summer
24 February 2011
For the first time in 13 years, we had significant rain over the Summer and relatively little hot weather. Most of the events we went to in the last three months were in the rain.
The first of these was the Head of the Yarra race in November. I rowed with a composite crew from Glebe Rowing Club in Sydney and Melbourne Argonauts. We performed reasonably well. The race is 8.6km upstream, but the heavy rain over the weekend meant that the river was high and running fast and full of debris, so by the time we got to the finish it must have been more than 10km rowed. The row back was much faster.
We both rowed in the Argos Christmas regatta and barbecue where as usual everyone received a medal, even if it was made of chocolate.
Two weeks before Christmas we had an early Christmas with my family before we left for Los Angeles to stay with Jay’s family for the real Christmas. It was raining when we left Melbourne and raining even harder when we arrived in LA. Over our first four days in LA there was 150mm (6 inches) of rain. It didn’t bother us much as we had both caught gastro from Jay’s nephews, so we spent that time indoors.
Shopping in Los Angeles with the Australian dollar at parity was excellent, though neither of us really needed much clothing. Even the groceries for Christmas dinner seemed cheap. We took the opportunity to train at Gold’s in Venice and eat at the Firehouse and also say hello to Trammell and other friends in LA.
For Christmas dinner, Jay cooked roast turkey and the traditional accompaniments. We had rehearsed this by doing a Thanksgiving dinner in Australia before we left. Christmas was fairly low-key. The following day we went to Disneyland as I had never been there before. We made good progress getting on many of the rides including Space Mountain. The revival screening of “Captain Eo” in 3D was dated and hilariously awful despite the involvement of Michael Jackson, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. We stayed the full day.
After Christmas we went to San Francisco for a few days to see old friends. It was just as wet and cold as in Los Angeles, but on the morning that we went to the new Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, the weather was at least sunny. The aquarium there was excellent and the rooftop garden was very striking, looking more than a little like the Telletubbies set.
The crowd at the Academy of Sciences was overwhelming by the time we had been there a few hours as it was school holidays and it seemed a very popular destination with both tourists and local children.
We spent New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles and went to the party at the Mayan. We were very lucky that so many friends had made the journey there from elsewhere in the US. We saw lots of people we didn’t expect to, and had a very fun New Year’s Eve. Thanks to everyone who said hello.
Soon after we returned to Melbourne, the local gay festival, MIdsumma, started. In the past we had volunteered and helped at the Carnival Day, but this year we were happy just to go along.
We saw Beijing gold medallist Matthew Mitcham there and he consented to a photo, though he stood on his tiptoes as divers are quite short. The Carnival was a great success in the new location. We thought the crowd seemed very mixed until we realized that people walking to the cricket from the train were having to go through the middle of the event.
We did volunteer for the Australia Day March again this year, as a fund-raiser for the rowing club. As usual it coincided with the Australian Open and we spent one evening watching the centre court matches.
Throughout the Summer it continued to rain heavily. I think we can say with reasonably certainty now that we have fixed all the significant leaks in the roof and the deck of the new house. After two years, it’s about time. Near our old place in Abbotsford, the rain caused the Yarra river to rise enough to inundate the bicycle paths and leave trees appearing in the fast-flowing waters.
We had warned Jay’s parents that by coming to visit in February they were risking unpleasantly hot weather and bushfires. As it turned out, their visit has so far seen nothing like that.
Just walking a block from home to a restaurant for dinner involved scurrying through the rain, as did our trips to the football, the local production of Mary Poppins and just about everything else except our day at the beach at Sorrento, when we had a few hours of sunshine.
This trip was the first time Jay’s parents had met mine. We had afternoon tea together and also spent a morning walking through the Botanic Gardens. Jay’s parents are in Australia for another two weeks, so we will be doing some more tourist trips and activities with them before they leave for Shanghai.
Our tentative plans for the rest of the year include a visit to the North Island of New Zealand, a trip to Europe for Jay’s 40th and a conference in Chicago for me late in the year.
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The first of these was the Head of the Yarra race in November. I rowed with a composite crew from Glebe Rowing Club in Sydney and Melbourne Argonauts. We performed reasonably well. The race is 8.6km upstream, but the heavy rain over the weekend meant that the river was high and running fast and full of debris, so by the time we got to the finish it must have been more than 10km rowed. The row back was much faster.
We both rowed in the Argos Christmas regatta and barbecue where as usual everyone received a medal, even if it was made of chocolate.
Two weeks before Christmas we had an early Christmas with my family before we left for Los Angeles to stay with Jay’s family for the real Christmas. It was raining when we left Melbourne and raining even harder when we arrived in LA. Over our first four days in LA there was 150mm (6 inches) of rain. It didn’t bother us much as we had both caught gastro from Jay’s nephews, so we spent that time indoors.
Shopping in Los Angeles with the Australian dollar at parity was excellent, though neither of us really needed much clothing. Even the groceries for Christmas dinner seemed cheap. We took the opportunity to train at Gold’s in Venice and eat at the Firehouse and also say hello to Trammell and other friends in LA.
For Christmas dinner, Jay cooked roast turkey and the traditional accompaniments. We had rehearsed this by doing a Thanksgiving dinner in Australia before we left. Christmas was fairly low-key. The following day we went to Disneyland as I had never been there before. We made good progress getting on many of the rides including Space Mountain. The revival screening of “Captain Eo” in 3D was dated and hilariously awful despite the involvement of Michael Jackson, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. We stayed the full day.
After Christmas we went to San Francisco for a few days to see old friends. It was just as wet and cold as in Los Angeles, but on the morning that we went to the new Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, the weather was at least sunny. The aquarium there was excellent and the rooftop garden was very striking, looking more than a little like the Telletubbies set.
The crowd at the Academy of Sciences was overwhelming by the time we had been there a few hours as it was school holidays and it seemed a very popular destination with both tourists and local children.
We spent New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles and went to the party at the Mayan. We were very lucky that so many friends had made the journey there from elsewhere in the US. We saw lots of people we didn’t expect to, and had a very fun New Year’s Eve. Thanks to everyone who said hello.
Soon after we returned to Melbourne, the local gay festival, MIdsumma, started. In the past we had volunteered and helped at the Carnival Day, but this year we were happy just to go along.
We saw Beijing gold medallist Matthew Mitcham there and he consented to a photo, though he stood on his tiptoes as divers are quite short. The Carnival was a great success in the new location. We thought the crowd seemed very mixed until we realized that people walking to the cricket from the train were having to go through the middle of the event.
We did volunteer for the Australia Day March again this year, as a fund-raiser for the rowing club. As usual it coincided with the Australian Open and we spent one evening watching the centre court matches.
Throughout the Summer it continued to rain heavily. I think we can say with reasonably certainty now that we have fixed all the significant leaks in the roof and the deck of the new house. After two years, it’s about time. Near our old place in Abbotsford, the rain caused the Yarra river to rise enough to inundate the bicycle paths and leave trees appearing in the fast-flowing waters.
We had warned Jay’s parents that by coming to visit in February they were risking unpleasantly hot weather and bushfires. As it turned out, their visit has so far seen nothing like that.
Just walking a block from home to a restaurant for dinner involved scurrying through the rain, as did our trips to the football, the local production of Mary Poppins and just about everything else except our day at the beach at Sorrento, when we had a few hours of sunshine.
This trip was the first time Jay’s parents had met mine. We had afternoon tea together and also spent a morning walking through the Botanic Gardens. Jay’s parents are in Australia for another two weeks, so we will be doing some more tourist trips and activities with them before they leave for Shanghai.
Our tentative plans for the rest of the year include a visit to the North Island of New Zealand, a trip to Europe for Jay’s 40th and a conference in Chicago for me late in the year.
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