DOGS!

I love taking photos of animals. It seems like everyone owns a dog here is Australia, so I have ample opportunity to practice taking pictures of dogs.

Here is a collection of my favourite doggie pics from my vacation so far:

MAX 

Max is a Maltese Shitzue. He is 9 years old and is my brothers best friend. He would benefit from a set of braces to fix his crazy teeth, but we love him anyway.

 CONAN

We think Conan is a German Shepherd/Doberman/trained serial killer cross. 

It is my uncle's dog, but my grandparents look after him full-time.

Do not be fooled by his sweet expression. He will kill on attack, kind of like my uncle.

 DIESEL the BEAGLE

Diesel is my dad's family dog. 

He is fat, but is a good guard dog for the family home.

 SAMANTHA

 Sam is a classic Heinz 57 variety bitzer. 

She was found at the RSPCA and is a friendly addition to my Aunty's household.
She is very camera shy.

ANGUS
Steve and Paul's feisty little puppy.

RANDOM DOG ON BEACH

I used to have a Red Setter when I was a kid. 

Seeing this puppy brought back lovely memories.

 Max might not be around much longer, so I try to get as many cuddles as I can.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday: Better Late Than Never

1. Family

It wouldn't be a trip home to Australia if we didn't sit at Pop's Bar drinking his home brew. This particular day, I brought over the port I received for my graduation in 2000.

He was most happy.

2. Motion Blur

This action shot is of my two beautiful sisters looking less-than stunning on Xmas day. Georgia (Left) won a stick-on mo' in her bon-bon's. Not wanting to be left out, Jasmin drew her very own mo' on her finger. Laughter and a bad dancing photo shoot ensued.

 3. Pretty Package

 The centre piece of our Christmas Dinner table.

4. Glow

It's a long shot, but Jasmin is definitely glowing in this picture.

5.Sparkle

I feel like we have done sparkle, so I am throwing in a curve ball...
I feel like I "sparkle" when I am by the ocean...Cheesy, but will have to do!

I Still Call Australia... Friendly and Relaxing: Part Three

As much as I bitch and moan about Australia being rude, it sure is nice to be having a hot Christmas and seeing old mates. There is nothing better than meeting up with an old friends and chatting like no time has passed at all. Perhaps there are a few more smile lines around the old eyes, an extra kilo or two around the waist, but the conversation with old friend flows freely like Coopers Pale Ale at the Exeter.

My time in Brisbane was brief (too brief), but my last night was a super chilled gastronomic explosion: Angus beef, tasty cheese and Maggie Beers quince paste from the Rosalie Gourmet Market topped off with a 2008 Grant Burge Filsell Old Vine Shiraz.

Even the elephant got in the act!

It is always nice to land in my home town of Adelaide. I consider Adelaide my oldest and dearest friend; always cheery and calming. My favourite moment is when the clouds part and I see the northern most suburbs from the small window of the plane. But the moment when I see the twinkling blue ocean is the moment when I know that I have arrived home.

My family always greets me at the airport. I was once greeted by my Pop with a small esky of home brew beer that we cracked open on the way home from the airport. It was only 9am when my plane landed this time, so beer was not on offer the morning I arrived, but it was promptly drunk at "Beer-o'clock"; usually, anytime after 12pm in his household.

I was lucky enough to catch my old friend Aimee when she returned to Adelaide for a brief visit. Unfortunately for me, my family now lives 45 minutes from the city of Adelaide, so I couldn't join her in the Christmas wine that she was consuming at our favourite pub on Rundle Street, The Exeter, because I had to drive home. However, she kept me entertained for hours with her amusing tales of 'life in university' and 'life in Bathurst'. A delicious meal at Cafe Micheal 2 was almost not had; restaurants in Adelaide close promptly at 9pm (a clear sign that I am not in North America anymore). We arrived at 9:05pm and my approach was 'Gosh, Adelaide sucks'. Thankfully, hers was more articulate and convincing. Luckily, Aimee still has her magical powers of persuasion and we managed to convince them to seat us. The duck and lychee red curry was my personal favourite, but every dish was cooked to perfection.

Duck Red Curry with Lychee = YUM!

It was so much fun to see Aimee. Her vivacious personality is infectious and I love spending time with her when I come home to Australia. After dinner, we sat at the Austral for old times sake and drank the rest of the sparkling burgundy wine that we ordered at dinner. In Adelaide, if you order a bottle of wine at a restaurant and you don't finish it by the end of the meal, you are allowed to take the bottle with you as long as it is re-corked. We improvised and shoved a serviette in the top and then snuck it over to drink it sitting on the outside seats of the Austral. I must say, I used to work at the Austral and it is disappointingly ferral these days. People were running amok. One group of sloshed middle-aged men came up to us and asked where to party. We both looked blankly at each other and replied that we didn't know. It was a sobering moment: no longer are we the queens of nightlife, partying as we once were in 1995. Gone are the days of buying a bottle of Seaview Brut sparkling wine at the Royal Oak Hotel bottle-o and asking for 2 plastic cups so that we could sip it on the walk into the city. We used to have a club date from Thursday to Sunday and religiously we would party until all hours every weekend. Times, they are a-changing. We don't really want that lifestyle anymore, but I think we both took a moment to morn the loss of our reckless lifestyle and lack of responsibility that we had as Adelaide University students.

Since then, I have been filling my days with beach walks. Beaches are quite close and I have been taken by the Grange to Henley beach jetty walk. It is approximately 4.5 km's and it is the perfect way to spend an early morning. It is my aim to see the ocean as much as possible while I am here. 

Beware of snakes at Semaphore beach!

On this Christmas eve, I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. So, where ever you are in the world, enjoy your day tomorrow!

Jody xx

I Still Call Australia....Rude! (Part Two)

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for my fellow Australians social behavior. We, (and by the word 'we' I am speaking on behalf of all the Aussie nationals myself included), are a bunch of rude, combative whinging larrikins. All Australians seem to have a chip on their shoulder. I ask the question; "Why?". Is it -27 outside? No. Is there poverty and crime? Very little. So I ask, why are we the way we are? By no means am I on my soapbox here... I can be included in this broad sweeping generalization. By gosh, for many years, I was the leader of the pack! I wonder how I have made friends during the last 10 years...perhaps, the people I have met are not my actual friends, but are merely scared that if they reject my friendship advances, they will be beaten up and verbally abused by the classiest of all Aussie scrappers...me! In the past 10 days, I have been appalled by the lack of camaraderie and random acts of kindness. Come on, Aussies! Let's be nice to each other again...

This rant comes from a recent altercation with two young twenty-somethings on the streets of Brisvegas. My second night in Brisbane was spent celebrating the birthday of Steve's friend in a Japanese BBQ restaurant called Koh-Ya in the heart of the 'Valley': Fortitude Valley's Chinatown.  Always keen to try to relive my Japanese life, I was enthusiastic to see how this restaurant stood up to Japanese BBQ from the heartland and to see how it fared compared to nouveau Japan "Jap-Couver". I was not disappointed. Chad and I have developed a succinct criteria to which we grade Japanese restaurants: Ratio of Japanese staff with bizarre personality traits, Quirkiness and deliciousness of food on offer and the crappiness of the decor. He was absent from this dining experience, but I feel that he would agree with my analysis.

The crew, eating a delicious meal

Happee Baasudee Tu Yuu!

My rating:

Ratio of Japanese staff with bizarre personality traits: 

All the kitchen staff were quirky and very Japanese.  On this particular evening, there were two birthday's. To celebrate their patron's birthday, the Japanese staff dress up in a myriad of eclectic hats and sing "Happee Basudee" quite enthusiastically and Japanesy. Their 'claps' were centered, had a tinny ring to them and oozed the essence of a teenage girl. Much to the screams of delight from the staff, the birthday patron is then ceremoniously handed a chocolate parfait.

Score: 9.5/10 (-.5 due to the slow service during the celebrations...)

Quirky yet delicious food on offer:

There was a wide range of strange and delicious Japanese food such as beef tongue sashimi (really, just a thinly sliced Burger King pattie), fluffy cabbage salad, Kimchi (Typically a Korean dish, but a staple in Japan) and BBQ Satsuma Age (a-ge). All said dishes are not strange to eat if you have lived in Japan, but to the simple Brisvegas palate, they can be considered 'adventurous'. The WAGYU (A cross between Japanese Black Cow and Australian Angus Cow meat) was tender, melt-in-your-mouth goodness. Not really quirky, but very authentic. A highlight of the meal was the mushrooms cooked in butter and herbs that were placed on the BBQ plate in a little aluminum pot. We topped it off with a slightly sweet CHOYA plum wine. A perfect combination to offset the spiciness of the kimchi and tender beef. However, all menu items were spelled correctly (no 'vagtables' on offer) so I will minus .5.

Score: 9.5/10

Crappiness of Decor:

The decor was sparse and unimaginative. Lots of grey. A random palm in the middle of the room. This is the kind of crappiness that I want, because it means that all the effort is in the food prep.

Score: 10/10

Mushrooms in Buttery Goodness

This restaurant scored quite high on Chad's and my Japanese food scoring grade. It was a wonderful dinner and it made me miss Japan/Jap-Couver dearly. But I digress: I am supposed to be arguing why Aussies are rude bastards!  We exited the restaurant quite happy and satiated (and slightly lightheaded due to the bottle of plum wine). I wandered down to the 'new' Chinatown gate to snap a few pics. People ask my why Brisbane is affectionately dubbed 'Brisvegas'.  The following photos should help explain. Recently and quite shockingly, the old and ornate Chinatown gate was replaced with an electric "gate". It was here that I had my first dose of Aussie Anger (AA).While snapping away at the sparkly Vegas-style lights, I was accosted by two local yokels who wanted a proverbial piece of me. One lad lifted his head back to snort the remainder of the white powder and then slurred a "Hello darlin'. You've got a big camera, haven't you?!" Luckily, Steve was beside me, or else I would have begun to feel a little exposed at this moment. I lost a camera last week so I wasn't feeling like being robbed of my last remaining photo-taking device. Besides, Steve and I were well-versed in smart retorts. "Yes, I have got a big camera," I replied, walking swiftly back to our group. Not a very smart or sarcastic reply, but I wasn't feeling like coming to the party and angering him much more.

"Take a photo of us!" he demanded. 

I turned and took a photo, mostly to laugh at them later with Steve and partly because I figured at this moment it was better to please them than to reply. 

"What's your name? Do you have facebook?" 

"No. I don't believe in the Facebook revolution."

"Yes, you do, you liar. Fuck up, you slut, just fuck up". 

Huh? 

At this point, both Steve and I lost it and laughed maniacally. We both replie that we haven't heard that phrase since circa 1990. Again, not the most witty retort. Lucky for us, he was unable to walk due to his complete inebriation. But this incident got me thinking about how vocal and quick to anger Aussies can be. 

Our two Aussie abusers: seeming happy, but ready to attack at any moment!

Post Food, Pre Abuse = Quite Happy

Shortly after this experience, Steve remarked on my new 'Canadian-ness'. He said, that the Jody he once knew would have jumped at the opportunity to abuse and attempt to fight the two powder-sniffing boys, disregarding my friends personal safety and my own decorum. Is it more of the fact that Australia has always been this way and I have changed? Am I becoming more polite and more Canadian? It is a scary self-revelation. I haven't lived in Australia for 10 years so it is only natural that I would be influenced by the country I live in. But the question remains: Why are Aussies so quick to anger? During this past week in Adelaide, I have been honked at for making mistakes whilst driving and I have received the finger twice in 10 days. The shop attendants have been scowly and have served me with an irritated tone. Even my dear mother drops f-bombs to randoms in the street. We live in such a beautiful place in the world. Share the love, Australia. Get the Christmas spirit happening!