North Head

A short walk from my house there is a nature reserve that used to be a military outpost that protected Sydney Harbour. I hiked through it today and here are some pictures. The lizard is called an Eastern Sea Dragon and is protected in our area, though they are pretty common, I saw 4 or 5 today alone.

Manly

I finally got a camera! This means I can finally show off Manly!

While I do live in Sydney, Manly is a half hour ferry ride on the other side of the harbour from the downtown core. It doesn't feel much like living in a city, which suits me just fine. Beach life is pretty cruisy, so far, I get up, work then surf most days and I've recently joined a beach volleyball league. It's pretty easy to just be content with Manly and avoid exploring anywhere outside of the Northern Beaches.

The Northern Beaches are broken up by cliffs that extend out into the ocean as you can see in the picture of Manly beach. Heading North, Manly is the first beach followed by Freshwater, Curl Curl, Dee Why and then Narrabeen and a few more.It's a very nice walk along the coast, however I didn't do it today because the weather took a turn for the worse and started raining.

I've gone to a Land Down Under

Hallo from down undah!

For those who didn't know I'm now living in Manly, on the northern beaches of Sydney.

I've been here for a week now and will be writing about my first impressions because I forgot my camera.

Australia in general is really nice right now. We are just heading into summer so the weather isn't super hot yet but the temperature is in the 20s every day. I was expecting everything to be super expensive but I've found about the only thing that's really expensive is pop. I really like the fact that all price, like in England, already include the sales tax and they also don't have 1c coins here, so no annoying pennies floating around in your wallet. Interest rates on savings accounts at banks are also very high(about 6%). All I needed to open mine was a passport!

Anyway I'll post again tomorrow on Manly a bit more specifically.

Soundtrack to My Life

I've been listening to a lot of music lately and thinking about how I identify certain songs or albums with different times in my life. The songs don't necessarily reflect what was going on with me at the time but they just remind of certain things, see the list below and post some of your own.

 Moondance - Van Morrison
Christmas in grade 4 or 5. My mom had a CD that Adam gave her with some Christmas songs on it and I remember falling asleep while hearing this playing in the living room some nights at our old house on Manchester Crescent.


Californication(album) - Red Hot Chili Peppers
The summer after grade 10, when I finally started to get out of my rap/hip-hop phase. This was one of the first albums I enjoyed start to finish along with Audioslave's self titled album.

Learning to Fly - Tom Petty
Basketball with Adam and Luke at Christmas time in grade 11. This was on a Tom Petty CD that was played constantly in my dad's car.

Stadium Arcadium(album) - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Summer after grade 12 before starting at university, I always played this album on the way to Parlee beach and Gordon Falls.

Release - Pearl Jam
I really enjoy this song now, Pearl Jam opened with this one at their concert and I can't stop listening to it!

Nigel Pass

The last hike of the season was through Nigel Pass, near Saskatchewan Crossing. Scottish Steve, a Scotsman I work with, was able to join me for the hike. I'll be posting some real thoughts and information in paragraph form later.

Wenkechema Pass

A hike near Lake Louise, done with Alec Forbes, who also backpacked with me on the previous few hikes while he was visiting from Ottawa. The buttslide made a triumphant return when we decided to descend from the pass. A couple Kokanees made their way into our packs for a reward at the top of the pass.

Gibbon Pass and Egypt Lake