Melbourne Pictures

Here are some additional Melbourne pictures! 

 At the footie.

 No we're not in Paris, just looks like the Eiffel Tower.

 Flowers/plants at a Conservatory we stopped at on our bike tour.

 Old Post Box.

 Graffiti

 The Parliament Building

Funky imax theater across from the parliament building. 

 Look a life size rubix cube!

 Beers on the Yarra Yarra River Bar.

 A morning trip to the seaside town of St. Kilda.

 Luna Park - oldest wooden roller coaster.

 Coffee on Ackland Street.

The Land Down Under

I'm so happy to be in Oz!  We are now 4 days into our 9 day Oz adventure and I'm going to speak for Bill and I and say we are really enjoying ourselves here in the Land Down Under!  Even though Bill had to work yesterday and today, we are enjoying the clear blue skies, fresh air, great beer, wine, cocktails and food!!!
We started out with sandwiches, Bloody Mary's and shopping on Saturday when we landed.

It was an 11 hour flight on an Asian airline...  I'll let you dream up your own conclusions! However, we only moved forward 2 hours in time so there wasn't much jet lag.  Both Bill and I managed to find shoes and shorts within an hour of landing!  Shorts are important as its getting hot in China and we still have winter clothes!  After our amazing afternoon of ahopping and eating we went on a Beer Lovers Walking Tour! It was awesome and ended with this monstrosity of a burger!  It was a double burger, I had to take out one of the patties it as so big! 

We even tried Vegemite on the tour as we were the only "foreigners" in a group of Aussies!  It was a salty, yeasty, soy saucey flavored concoction to me.
Then we followed some Tasmanian guys to the footy!  Yep, thats Australian for Football!  Yes, it was pretty darn exciting, there were about 80,000 people in the stadium, however after beers, burgers and a long day we only made it to half time. It was still great fun and we would definitely come back again.

The next day we went on Freddy's Bike Tour to get a lay of the land. It was awesome and Freddy was a great tour guide!  After the tour ended we found a pub on the river where we had a few beers and watched seagulls peck food off other people's plates!

On Monday reality set in for Bill and he actually had to go to work, BOOO!  I went grocery shopping, got my hair cut(I'm afraid of a Chinese cut so figured an Aussie one would fit best), sat on the Southbank side of Melbourne and drank coffee all day long!  It was heavenly!  When Bill came home we ventured out for dinner consisting of wine, a burger, duck and mushroom risotto followed by martinis and gambling at the Crown Casino.  I'm disappointed to report we did not win at roulette, Wheel of Fortune or The Down Under version of the Monkey Game we tried to find for Gramma Joan and Nancy!

Tuesday proved to be a little but slow for me however, I set-off to Queen Victoria Market.  The place is loaded with anything you can find, leather, household goods, food, meat, cheese, veggies, fruit, Boomerangs even!  Of course I bought one!

So far so good Melbourne!

No Gas!

All week I've looked at this notice posted in the elevator and curiously wondered what it said.  If I had been smart I would've taken a picture and asked our Mandarin teacher Zoey what it said but I learned the hard way!  

From what I could decipher it appeared that on Friday May 10th, between 8:30am and 17:00 something was going to happen in buildings 41, 43, 45, 49 and 51.  I figured it had something to do with the elevator since it was posted in the elevator, however  I couldn't have been more wrong!  When I came home from Mandarin this morning prepared to pack my bags for vacation and to take a shower before our 11 hour flight I found out that no hot water means the gas was turned off!!!  BUMMER.  Good thing we're off to the land down under for a week!

It's Getting Hot in Here

I'm from Wisconsin, I like 70 degrees, sun and no humidity!  Okay now that I got that out of the way I will say that I'm in a very large weather predicament here.  The past week has been 75 degrees with 80% humidity and rain.  This tropical hot and humid weather is a lot for a northerner like me who also spent the past 2 1/2 years in England.   I can't wait until August when it's 100 degrees with 100% humidity as people tell me it will be.

Okay, back to the story, it's not quite warm enough yet here for the AC in the gym to be turned on.   No AC in the gym makes for a very warm stagnant disgusting place.  There are double doors at both ends of the gym that open and stay open and are often opened when the gym gets too hot.  

Today when I got to the gym the doors were open, HOORAY!!!  I picked the treadmill right at the very end near the doors because I figured I'd get the nice breeze while running.   Or at least get a wafting of fresh air every once in awhile.  30 minutes into my run, I was dripping wet, my water was gone, my towel soaked through and some lady has the nerve to close the doors!!!!   She then walks to the treadmill on the opposite end of the gym, farthest away from the doors and begins her walking.  Yes walking, not running and barely walking.  I gave it about 10 minutes with the doors closed but I couldn't handle the sweat running down my face as if I was in a shower so I jumped off the treadmill and opened the doors again.  About 10 minutes later she comes strolling down and closes them!!!  I shook my head at her and muttered "mei yo" which is suppose to mean no, however she clearly didn't hear me or see me, or care, and proceed to close the doors and return to her treadmill.  This is war!!!  Once she was back on her treadmill I was about to go open the doors again but luckily for me one of the staff members went out to have a smoke and left them open.  She came back shortly after he walked back in and shut them again!  Thank goodness I only had 5 minutes left and then my cool down, I let them be for my last 15minutes.   As I was leaving, I opened them again and smiled at her as I walked out of the gym!    

A Visit to the Chinese Edward Scissor Hands

Before:

During:

After:

Silky smooth new "do"! 

The last time Bill and I had haircuts was January while we were still in the US before we moved, time check.... it's May!!!  At least for me there's a beautiful thing called a pony tail and I've managed with that!  Bill however isn't so fortunate and he has a meeting coming up on Monday in Australia with General Motors so there wasn't much choice on getting a cut.  A lot of the expat ladies have been telling me that Eric's Salon is the place to go because Eric speaks good english and does a nice job.   So we went to Eric.  I say "we" because Bill decided I needed to come with him to observe and just incase he needed an extra opinion on length!  Oh Billy, it wasn't that scary.

Eric was like a ninja with his scissors, his hands and the scissors moved faster than I've ever seen a hairdressers hands with scissors move!  Hair was flying all over the place.  After we walked out Bill said he felt like he was in the movie Don't Mess With The Zohan (horrendously stupid Adam Sandler film) and he was happy with his nice silky smooth haircut!  Bill says he will definitely be going back to Eric in the future, and I might even give him a chance too if  I get desperate. 

Forbidden Foods

Living in China it seems as if we are always in the midst of a food scandal.  The latest one to hit within the past week involves lamb and the fact that a group just got busted for selling rat and fox meat packaged as lamb?!?!?!  Today at a monthly Meet and Greet expat coffee a few of the ladies and I went through the foods we are not suppose to eat.

Here they are in no particular order (with articles on some of the foods shown/referenced below):
Lamb - article below
Bottled Water - article below
Chicken - Bird Flu
Eggs - Bird Flu
Rice - contains harmful levels of lead, article below
Vegetables - grown in the same soil as the rice - probably contains lead
Fish - Farmed from the same polluted rivers/streams that are unhealthy to drink
Beef - might be dog/cat/any other animal.

Chinese Police Arrest Suspects in Rat-for-Mutton Crime Ring
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-03/chinese-police-arrest-suspects-in-rat-for-mutton-crime-ring.html

China still uses Soviet-era regulations to test its bottled water
http://qz.com/80890/china-still-uses-soviet-era-regulations-to-test-its-bottled-water

Rice Containing 'Harmful Levels Of Lead'
http://www.businessinsider.com/lead-found-in-us-rice-2013-4

If we listened to all the news we'd be starving, based on all the foods that are apparently unhealthy/uneatable!  I think we are doing out best picking wisely what we choose to buy and eat and hopefully there won't be any long term effects.

Can you eat only 8 M&M's?

I don't know about you but I have no will-power when it comes to chocolate and the thought of only having 8 M&M's seems pretty insane to me!  However, here in China I'm limited to 8 M&M's per bag.  Grrrrr... I thought I was buying a combo pack of fun size regular and peanut M&M's at Metro last week, to my surprise when I opened the big bag and took out my bite size pack last night I was in total shock!  I don't think an M&M bag could get any smaller!!! 

I've had 3 bags of peanut and 3 bags of regular so far, the peanuts have always contained 8 M&M's per bag, the regular fluctuate between 9 and 10 M&M's.   While I appreciate the fact that if I could eat just one bag it might be the proper portion control, however who am I kidding that's never going to happen.