The Cirque moves out of town

It was something that was going to happen.

I knew it was going to happen, but even with this expectation it was still hard to say goodbye.

After three months of Cirque fun, the party was over.

"Dralion" moved on as all good Cirque shows do and headed off towards Canberra.
It was a fantastic time.

I won't forget the fun I had and the friends I made.

But I am still left incredibly sad by it all.

This brief time is finished and it is even more depressing to know that it won't ever return.
Thankfully I have some great memories from the experience.

Moonlighting in the Sun

Working two jobs hasn't been easy.

The hours have been crazy and rushing from one job to the one at night has left me fairly tired.

It's worth it though. After all, Cirque du Soleil is a great place to have fun!

It's also been good to see some old faces.
My old boss from "Varekai" had shifted over to "Dralion", so once again, he was bossing me around and telling me what to do.
Just wandering around the site is a good experience with all of the music and the colours creating a constant cheer.
I even had a better uniform this year than the last with the logo having being enlarged.
Jeff was on "Dralion" too! He was one of the old "Varekai" crew as well.
Moonlighting with Cirque du Soleil is a tiring experience.

But it's definitely worth it.

Course of Chinese

I've been taking Chinese in my spare time.

My Mandarin is awful so I decided a while back that it needed improving.

Slowly but surely I'm making progress. It isn't much progress.... but it's still something.

After an entire semester with the same class, our teacher was going home to Beijing.

She had been fantastic to all of us. She had put in lots of extra work and taken a genuine care in our development.

We needed to say goodbye to her properly.
A nice dinner was what was needed.

And since she was going back to China, we decided against more Chinese food.
Instead, we went with Spanish. We couldn't really think of anything less Chinese. It seemed fitting enough....

Festimagik

A bit of time off meant an opportunity for a party in the Tapis Rouge!
Bruno and I decided to get into the fun.

Everyone was there!

Cirque du Soleil seems to bring the fun out of everyone.
Ushers galore!

How much do I love Cirque du Soleil?

So much that I'm moonlighting with them.

"Dralion" is in Sydney, and I'm working for them at nights and on weekends.

Kristina and Anderson strike a pose!

And then Kristina by herself.

While Michael demonstrates his powers as "Cirque du Soleil Man".
This really is the greatest job in the world!!!

Stuff this whole lawyer gig, I want to run away with the Cirque!

Working to the top

It's probably going to take me longer before I actually reach the top.

However, at the moment I'm fairly close in a literal sense. I'm sitting on the top floor of the building after all.
The views of Sydney are a nice distraction for when I pull my head up from the computer.

No One

Whoo!!!

I'm going to the Alicia Keys concert!!!
It may be like 4 months away... but who cares!? I'm going!!!!

Timmy's Birthday

Tim turned 21 the other day.

As is customary, a 21st b'day present was in order.

I was completely stumped though. I couldn't thinking of anything fitting for him.

That is until I stumbled onto a nice little serving tray that I found at a market.
It was perfect!

After all, it's shiny, nice looking and pays homage to Tim's alcoholism and love of gin!

The Olympics

I find it difficult to describe the level of disdain I have for the Olympics.

As an event and spectacle, I don't think it matches the ideals that it was originally created for. Rather it has become another large scale corporate event.

What I find most disturbing of all is the amount of money that many countries will spend on hosting the Olympics. They will throw billions of dollars towards the constructions of sporting facilities that very often go to waste once the games are finished (Sydney and it's "white water rafting" facilities spring to mind....) whilst other things such as health, education and basic public infrastructure are allowed to continually decay.

So every Olympic year, I personally boycott watching or caring about anything to do with the Olympics.

However, this year things were complicated by the presence of a friend who would be competing.... so a slight exception would have to be made when they raced.....

Even more disturbing was that I found myself watching the Opening Ceremony.

.... what a terrible waste.....

I tend to think that what the great Stephen Colbert had to say about the Olympics seems to ring increasingly true:

"The Olympics began in perversion: greased up naked men slapping hot sweaty body parts against one another's taut and hairless flesh in pursuit on victory, like Chippendale's dancers at an after-hours party. And the tradition of perversion continues - because as an international athletic competition, the Olympics are a warped, watered-down version of the only worthy contest between nations: war."

Know your onion

I think city living is starting to get to me.

A few weeks ago, I was doing a clean out of the kitchen when I found that one of the onions had sprouted.

.... so I decided to plant it.

Now, I was lacking a garden to plant my onion.

But thankfully, Peter's previous attempts at horticulture had failed. The wollomi pine sapling he had been given had failed to thrive on our balcony.

I decided that this pot would be perfect for my onion.
.... I wonder when I'll be harvesting.....

Buzzzzzz

I love the letters I get from Connie!

It's always great to hear about how she, Kev and little Kaela are doing in Canada, but it's also fantastic to see the cool and funky ways she decides to send the letters.
This time it came in bee form.

World Youth Day '08

Pilgrims.... so many pilgrims.... pilgrims everywhere.....
Whilst many in Sydney were complaining about the disruptions caused on their day to day lives, I have to say that I found their presence to be really uplifting.

Even walking to work, I'm cheered by their happiness and singing!
Phil and I decided to go out and have a look at the opening of the festivities at Darling Harbour.
Whilst walking around, we managed to make our way to the Cathedral.
Both of us jumped for joy!
Walking around Hyde Park, we found the merchandise shop!
How cool are the hats!!!!
Whooooooo!!!!!

World Youth Day!!!!!!!

Mid-Year Hilarity

It really doesn't seem even remotely possible that I have been a working schlub for almost half a year....

And yet here I find myself.

.... one of the masses.

.... another member of the great horde.

Thankfully, my position at work comes with some perks.

One of which was a nice trip to meet the other national new starters for some mid-year training.

We were all placed in a nice hotel and told to be nice to one another whilst learning how to be better at what it is we do... whatever that may be....

Three days in Cronulla.

Three days in THE SHIRE!

The first thing we did after arriving at the hotel was head off on a nice cruise around the region.

It was lovely way for us all to mingle and get in some of the sights. The sun was shining and the temperatures were up.
From our hotel room balconies, we had a stunning view of the sun setting off in the distance.

The Western Australians would later comment that these hotel rooms were particularly nice for them as they had never seen the sun rise over the ocean!
As the days' training dragged on, most of us looked forward to the night. Then we would be allowed to let loose a bit and have a bit of fun.

The local club "Northies" would be very useful in helping us achieve this goal.

.... and as the night wore on, we felt the need to protect ourselves from the paparazzi.

Now I'm a LAWYER

It was a big day for me.

It was a VERY big day (not just because it was the 4th of July)!

Six years in the coming really.....

I was being admitted to the Courts as a legal practitioner.

It was the day I became a lawyer!!!

My brother thought it would be hilarious to take a photo of me posing next to where many believe the legal profession belongs.

But soon the whole family was all lined up smiling before we entered into the Banco Court for my admission ceremony.

The ceremony was quickly over though and I soon found myself feeling different, feeling as though I had somehow grown up a little (at least in the eyes of the law....)

I headed downstairs to sign the roll.

Glancing down the list of names, I noticed that I was still very much one of the younger people being admitted.
My brother was clearly becoming bored of his role as the designated cameraman for the day.

He decided that a more "abstract" look at the day was more appropriate.
Hmmmm....
The boredom wasn't subsiding.
But eventually all of the formalities were over and we all found ourselves outside of the Court on a rainy Sydney day.
I was now a LAWYER!

Ghanananahhhhh

It was a while ago, but a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to go to the friendly between Australia and Ghana.

My friend Christian had come up from Canberra to watch the game and had a spare ticket!

Australia v Ghana!!!!
The game was fun to watch with Australia winning 1-0!

However, it was the Ghana fans that gave us the most entertainment with their singing and dancing. Even though they were heavily outnumbered by the Australian fans, the Ghana fans produced far more noise!

The game was fun to watch and it was great to see Christian again!

Gordon F&%#ING Ramsay!!!

Bright and early on a Saturday morning, I met up with Jenn from work and headed off to the Sydney Good Food and Wine Show.

This was a HUGE show, with displays and stalls covering the entire floor of the Sydney Exhibition Centre! No small feat at all.

Jenn and I managed to get our tickets online, so we were in the doors early whilst other people had to wait to buy their tickets in the increasingly long lines.

The show was genuinely enormous. I was amazed by how many stalls there were and how many freebies were on offer! Food, products, drinks! Everything you could hope for was on display.

Most surprising of all was an old favourite of mine....

BIONADE!!!!

Bionade was finally in Australia!!!! Felix introduced me to this fantastic and all natural drink in Germany and I absolutely loved it. Now that it has an Australian distributor, it shouldn't be be too hard to get a hold of.

Now.... if only I could get my hands on German style muesli as well....

The biggest thrill of the day would come a little bit later though.

Jenn and I were wandering through the hall when we suddenly came across a large throng of people fighting to take photos of someone.

It was GORDON RAMSAY!!!!!
God I love watching Ramsay!!!

Somehow, we managed to push ourselves to the front of the crowd and there we were given a nice and unobstructed view of the fiery Scot in person.

It was a bit odd to see him there signing all of the books. He was so happy and calm. There wasn't even a hint of the explosiveness that I knew lurked only slightly beneath the surface.
Everywhere I wandered, there were people bustling around.

Everyone was so happy, in search of more to drink and eat.
I wasn't one to not join in and I plunged into both the food and the wine tasting as quickly as I could!

Later in the day, we went off to the "Cooking Theatre" to watching some recipes being demonstrated. Rather than pay a fortune to go to watch Gordon Ramsay, I decided that I wanted to see Ben O'Donohue. I was a fan of Ben from his days with "Surfing the Menu".
I wasn't disappointed as he demonstrated five fantastic recipes on the BBQ.
Having arrived at the Show at about 10:30am... I worked out that by the time I left (at the close of the show at 6:00pm) that I had been drinking fairly consistently for about 7 hours.
There was just so much wine.... and I wanted to try it all.....