Happy Easter

Hey, hardly two weeks since my last entry and here we go again! Easter came and went. Indeed, we did drive out to Andrew's ranch with just a small group. My American friend Stephan and I decided to rent a car as we wanted to be able to leave earlier. It was just one night but nonetheless very relaxing time as usual and Stephan seemed to like it as well. It is always extremely enjoyable to get away from the city into the Australian wilderness, hike around in the bush for a while and then just kick back and start the "Barbie". You can tell that the fall is at our doorstep. Not just because the DST ended yesterday but the weather in general is also getting colder and it has been raining more. There is also some altitude at the ranch, which adds to the effect; it really was a bit chilly during the night. Looks like I may have to dig out my heaters soon!

We made our way back to Sydney through the picturesque city of Goulburn and, as it has become a bit of a habit, had coffee next to the big ram. The real reason for me to return on Saturday was a party hosted by my Norwegian/Russian friends at their place. Was nice to see these people since it had been a while and surprisingly there were other people there I hadn't seen for months! Was about time to catch up. The weather was real s***ty all day but some people still decided to go to Kings Cross after all the booze was gone and the birthday boy passed out upstairs. The Cross was exactly as I remembered it to be. Human garbage. Add rain and a ridiculous wait into the soup and what do you get? An early cab ride home. Sunday was spent mainly procrastinating but in the evening Stephan had organized an Easter dinner with his flatmate. It was a real good dinner - LOTS of food. Even a big ham. No one certainly left the place feeling hungry…or sober for that matter. What started as a relaxed dinner ended up being a drinking competition. We didn't narrow it down to just beer and wine (both of which were very very abundant) but also had some Absinth and whiskey. In all honesty, I can't even remember how I got back to Coogee but I did wake up at seven with my shoes on.

I mentioned last time that I might check out Hunter Valley - the famous vineyard area two hours northwest of Sydney - and this ended up happening surprisingly fast. Andrew has a wedding to attend around that area (between the towns of Cessnock and…Kurri Kurri) and I will join him on that trip just to split the accommodation costs and of course to explore the vineyards (wine&cheese tasting to the max). It is supposed to be a very picturesque valley and there should be lots of photo opportunities along the way!

Our first semifinal match against Newcastle was a complete disaster. We lost the game 9-4 and now face elimination unless we beat them by five goals or more next Saturday. I can't be too optimistic about that since they basically ran over us. Most of the guys in that team play for the Australian national team, which still doesn't mean much in terms of stick handling etc, but what it does mean is that these guys are very fit. We only have a couple of subs and this makes it very difficult to keep up with the tempo. In any case, we'll do our very best and probably change our tactics for the next game a little bit.

As far as the work related projects and whatnot are concerned, there isn't much to say. The opportunity with Campari did not realize and it has still been very quiet. A couple more months to go and hopefully there will be something else to occupy my time with. The main goal now is just to help out as much as possible/needed and at the same time keep on learning.

Too bad to see many wonderful people leave Sydney again. This is a big part of life here. There's always someone going and if not anyone else, then it's you. Having a positive mindset towards the issue helps but of course there are always encounters that are harder to forget than others. It's a small world though…

Check out the new pics taken from the ranch in Braidwood album and stay tuned. Further updates will ensue after Hunter Valley!