Here I am holding the boomerang in the wrong direction. There's a boomerang and Aboriginal crafts shop near where we live that we've walked by probably a few dozen times. Jean finally ventured into the shop last week and got an exhaustive tour of the shop's wares from the ebullient store keeper. Jean also signed us for a boomerang lesson taught by "an authentic Aboriginal" as the clerk phrased it. We met Alfred, the authentic Aboriginal, at the shop Tuesday afternoon. There were over a dozen or so other lesson participants already gathered. We trooped over to Rushcutter's Bay Park where Alfred lined us up and gave a demonstration. The overriding messages of the lesson were: 1. Always throw into the wind or you might not get your boomerang back. 2. Give yourself plenty of space or you might knock someone out. Then the flinging began. The flight dynamics of a boomerang are really amazing. You throw it overhand like a baseball. The boomerang goes out ve...

We spent Christmas at Manly beach with our friends Tracy and Andy who were visiting from the UK. Check out the the slideshow below. I'll let you guess who's who Some Notes on the Slideshow - We took a ferry from the city to get to Manly. The Manly ferry is apparently world famous. I guess I'm sheltered because I didn't hear about it until I got to Sydney. - Andy is grilling up lunch on a communal barbecue. Many parks and beaches provide both propane and the grills. This has to be a uniquely Australian thing. - Lunch consisted of beef sausages, veggie burgers, grilled peppers and onion, kalamata olive tapenade, hummus, veggie sticks, crackers, crisps and cake (lots of cake). - The paper crowns Jean, Tracy and Andy are wearing are part of a English tradition that also involves a toilet paper roll and painful puns e.g.. Why did the golfer bring two pairs of trousers? This one has Jean doubled over with laughter. - The sandcastle I'm building is a not so e...

...at the behest of my in-laws here's a Christmas Quiz for you. Below are forty antagonists from history, literature, popular culture, not so popular culture and the big screen. All you have to do is name their opposing number(s). Note, that some answers will be highly subjective. 1) Skeletor 2) Moriarty 3) Q 4) Iceman 5) The monster 6) Moby Dick 7) Lex Luthor 8) Shredder 9) Harry and Marv 10) Hans Gruber 11) Mr. Freeze 12) Mr. Glass 13) Mr. Kurtz 14) Absalom 15) The Predator 16) The Alien 17) Rasputin 18) Cobra 19) Mal'akh 20) Dan Brown 21) Buffalo Bill 22) Nurse Ratched 23) Khan 24) The Green Goblin 25) Rita Repulsa 26) René Belloq 27) Palpatine 28) The one armed man 29) Bill Gates 30) The Morloks 31) The witch 32) The Grangerfords 33) Jezebel 34) The smoking man 35) William Dane 36) Tyler Durden 37) Ivan Drago 38) Bowser 39) Big Brother 40) Dr. Evil 

1) "...it's all psychological. You yell barracuda, everybody says, "Huh? What?" You yell shark, we've got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July." 2) It swam crossways in the direction of the Nautilus with great speed, watching us with its enormous staring green eyes. Its eight arms, or rather feet, fixed to its head, that have given the name of cephalopod to these animals, were twice as long as its body, and were twisted like the furies' hair. 3) "Release the kraken!" 4) Beneath this glassy surface, a world of gliding monsters! 5) "My God, it's full of stars!"

A few people had asked Aaron and I if we were doing anything to celebrate thanksgiving, but seeing as though it's not a holiday in Australia we didn't really have anything planned ..... until the day before thanksgiving we were pleasantly surprised to be coincidentally treated to a roast dinner by some Ozzie friends! About five months ago we joined a Christian (Pentecostal) church, C3 (http://www2.myc3church.net/ ) where we've met loads of very friendly and welcoming people. At our first church service Luke enthusiastically invited us to join a connect group (bible study) he runs with Jane and Sam. Unfortunately he wasn't going to be at the next meeting, but he gave us the details. A few weeks later we showed up at complete strangers apartment and were warmly welcomed in. We were the first to arrive and despite having never met them before Jane and Sam made us feel right at home. C3 city church Recently our group ran a seven week alpha course ( http://www.al...

On the Saturday of Sarah and John's visit we hiked along the beautiful and dramatic coast of the Royal National Park. We had planned to go to the blue mountains, but rail track-work diverted us to the coast which turned out to be a wonderful alternative. We took a train less than an hour South of Sydney to Cronulla where we got a ferry across to Bundeena, in the North-East corner of the park. We walked along the coast with amazing views of waves beating against cliffs. We also saw many pretty and varied patterns formed in the sandstone. Unfortunately I forgot our camera, but you can see some photos from our previous trip here: http://jeanandaaron.blogspot.com/2011/11/coast-track.html We hiked down to Marley, a lovely secluded beach. It was very windy which made the waves rather intimidating. It's also the first time I've seen 'blueys' scattered across the beach. The bluebottle jellyfish occasionally invade the Australian coast. Elsewhere in the world they're kn...