David Valentine

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year everyone! Claire and I returned from a trip to Australia just 10 days ago. We're still going through all the photos, so it'll be a while before we can show them all. The trip was great, and I really enjoyed showing off Brynn to all Claire's extended family. Brynn loved it in OZ, and by the end of the 2 weeks there could name all of Claire's family- Nana, Pa, Bron, Paul, and David. She even knows what sound a Kookaburra makes now!
Everyone asked about the flight and what it was like to take an 18 month old. It certainly isn't as "nice" as a flight without one, but it could have been worse. Brynn slept for about 2/3 of the time, and generally followed the pseudo sleep cycles they have on the long 15 hour Qantas flight. We bought her a seat of her own and brought along the car seat. This made the ride a lot more comfortable for her (and us), and a lot less pleasant for the person in front of her whose seat she constantly kicked. The best we could do was take off her shoes, and try to calm her down when she went into a karate kick frenzy. Everyone was surprisingly tolerant of Brynn (perhaps it's her cuteness) and we didn't get one single complaint or even a negative comment from anyone!
We didn't do much sightseeing, as we've done that all before, but we did make it to the Melbourne Aquarium. They have their Creepy Creatures exhibit going on right now. Brynn had fun looking at the fish in the tanks, and picking up the starfish that she tried to keep. We also took Brynn to her first Cricket game. No, it wasn't my first, well my second actually. She mostly focused on the birds flying around the stadium that she called ducks. But she did really get into the wave when the crowd did it.

I had a few things on my list to do while I was out there, other than just catch up with family, and drink copius amount of aussie wine and beer:

Eat a Curry Laksa - the closest you'll find in the US is a Curry Mee at a Malaysian place, but it's still not nearly as good.
Stroll down and eat on Lygon St. - an historic Italian district with lots of good Italian and now Asian places.
Gamble at Crown - They're right when they say the only way to win at the casino is to buy their stock (which I have and it's up a lot).
Catch up with some of my old workmates from Melbourne IT.
Eat a meat pie - aussies are famous for them.
Go to the Queen Victoria Market - a tourist trap, but still has good deals if you know where to look and you bargain.
Spend New Years on the streets of Melbourne.

That's all the ones I can think of right now. Not surprisingly half of them involve food.

12:12:09 AM

comments ()