What kind of fried balls would you like?

Monday, March 16 and Tuesday March 17th

S&G had to work during the day while I was in Melbourne, so I ventured out on my own. Luckily for me, Sarah’s family had just visited and her mom had left the Melbourne Lonely Planet book. I hopped on a tram and wasn’t quite sure of my destination, and got off near the National Gallery of Victoria, but first had a coffee at the Eiffel Tower.

Melbournians love their coffee, to my delight. I swear my coffee consumption has increased exponentially since my travels began in January. I next headed into the National Gallery of Victoria and saw special exhibits on Bagetti, Fashion (it was also the Loreal Fashion Week in Melbourne this week) and on satire from France and England in the mid to late 1800s, my faves being cartoons depicting wives in rebellion against their husbands.

Following the gallery, I decided to hop on the free tourist bus for a few stops, which let me off in China Town where I wandered around to some different spots and eventually found myself outside of the Parliament building. Later on, I ended up going to the Roof Top Bar, where I had a pint ($9.50! But so tasty--beer is wildly pricey here) and enjoyed the Melbourne skyline while listening to a Dylan album with a few hipsters.

Beware the Neanderthal Blood!!!

Later I wandered into a few different boutiques and record stores and enjoyed my time perusing the stacks before I had a delightful lunch of dumplings at, where else, Chinese Dumplings restaurant. Melbourne has a lot of Dumps places, and I was not disappointed, plus, they gave me a bendy straw for my Coke. My next step though was very unplanned--going into a shoe store and buying a pair of metallic turquoise pointy shoes and a pair of lavender flats. Nevermind they were totally unneeded.

The rest of my walk about the CBD (Commercial Business District) lead me to another record store, down some laneways, and eventually back to Federation Square, which is directly opposite Flinder’s Street Station.

There Sarah and I had a pint while waiting for Gareth and then we stumbled upon a delightful restaurant for dinner which had the best calamari I have ever had.

Tuesday morning I went for a jog along the bay--so different than the beach in Mumbai, which is so much more crowded, but both are so beautiful. Then I hopped on Gareth’s bike and onto the bike path to visit St. Kilda’s Pier, it was pretty chilly that morning but it was quite beautiful by the water. I then made my way to Luna Park, which is an old-school amusement park with a wooden roller coaster (it was closed though).

View from St. Kilda's Pier

Of course Senor made it to Oz

The entrance to Luna Park

My favorite dumpster ever.

I spent an hour wandering the neighborhood, and then met up with Aoife (pronounced Eee-fah) who is a friend of my friend Angelique in Denver. It was delightful to meet up with her, and I was able to see her home, meet her husband, and her 4 month old son. Aoife is Irish, so was prepping for guests to come over that night for St. Patrick‘s Day celebrations. It was so great to meet someone else living in Melbourne, and we went for a walk along the water and then had cakes in St. Kilda (which is famous for it’s cake shops--unbelievable Mud Cake, let me tell you). Aoife also used to work on tours with bands, and had hung out back stage the previous Friday with the Kings of Leon (did I mention how popular they are here? “Sex on Fire” is a HUGE song in Oz).

I then had to depart to meet Gareth and Sarah at the lawn bowling. What is lawn bowling, you ask? Well basically a fabulous sport that it is a bit like bocce ball, a bit like shuffle board, and like most games, more fun while drinking beer. Notice my best shot of the day:

Basically, you are on this long lawn, and you have two weighted balls, and you try to bowl them to the other end of the lawn and hit the small ball, or get closest to it. There was another group there that day, of about 15 to 20 people all 20 and 30 somethings, but if you go inside, you know this is a sport more reminiscent of VFW Bingo Halls. No wonder I loved it. Note the flair inside the women’s washroom.

That night, since it was St. Paddy’s day, we decided to go to an Irish pub. However, we scrapped that plan when we realized we could go to a Backpacker’s bar that we could ride bicycles to and they were having a St. Paddy’s (how it was spelled here) celebration. We made our way over, but had not had dinner, so that is where we made a poor eating decision--we went to The Meetbowl.

Meetbowl is a “fast food resto” where you get a bowl of meat of your choice, similar to Pho in a lot of ways. In retrospect, when the man behind the counter asked “What kind of fried balls do you want?” I should have known that this was, indeed, a bad choice.

Alas, we ate our Meetbowls, and headed to Bev and Mick’s Backpacking Bar. There I felt like we were spectators at a play--though it was 9 p.m., everyone there seemed to be between 18 and 25 years old, already wasted, and making some poor choices in the type of apparel to wear that night. It was entertaining though, and there was a chap playing mostly Irish rock songs on an acoustic guitar and he got the rowdy crowd dancing even more. There was however, someone there older than us that we befriended:

He was leaving the bar as we asked to take the photo with him, but that did not stop him from asking if either Sarah or I were married. I never did get the story of why he was wearing a neck brace, but he was disappointed to find out that we did not go to that bar often.

We headed back around 11 for the apartment, and considered drinking some OTP (Old Tawny Port) but decided against it. However the next day, we did pass by the Meetbowl again, oh, poor, poor, poor stomachs; just walking past sent ours reeling, but we did get a good pic of Gareth outside of it.

Onto Oz! Where footy and wine are king

Friday March 13 and Saturday March 14

Post-Holi I had a few hours to attempt to clean up, finish packing, and head to the airport for my flight to Melbourne, Australia to visit Sarah and Gareth, friends from Colorado, for a week. Before I left, I was able to watch the movie “Outsourced” with Sunitha and Ashwyn. Highly recommended to anyone who has visited India, worked in any sort of call center, or dealt with calling a call center! Very funny stuff.

Also, I foolishly booked my flight through Dubai, which for those of you not familiar with the geography of the area, is in the wrong direction if you want to go to Australia from Mumbai. Alas, visiting the Dubai airport did present me with the opportunity to play Bon Jovi on Guitar Hero at one of the electronics stores; “You Give Love a Bad Name” has never rocked the United Arab Emirates harder. I also saw many great films on the plane: “Mama Mia!” (go see the musical, the movie is fun but rubbish in comparison); “Vicky Christina Barcelona” (very well done, worth a look if only for Javier Bardem the lead actor); “Breaking Away” (how I never saw this my two years in Bloomington I am still amazed); and “Madagascar 2” (worth it for the penguins alone! I may buy this one.)

Four movies, an overload of food courtesy of Emirates Airlines, and a stop over in Singapore later where I had a pleasant chat with a pilot from Zimbabwe who was getting Australian citizenship, I reached Melbourne.

Melbourne greeted me with blue skies, open space, and no horn-honking. Alas, I thought, I must indeed be Down Unda.

I caught the airport bus into town, borrowed a phone from a passerby on the street and phoned Sarah, who soon met me and we made it to her and Gareth’s apartment in Port Melbourne. After catching up for a bit, they headed back to work for the afternoon and I took a much needed nap before they returned home and we partook in having several of their home brewed beers before heading to the Footy Game.

I had not heard of Footy, or the Australian Football League, until a few days prior my arrival. It’s a sport only popular in Australia, and it really is loved by fans, the arena the games are held in is quite large and the beer flows freely.

Footy Stadium

S & G Enjoying some Fish N Chips

But really what one goes there for (if not acquainted with the sport) is the fans, along with the fish n chips. We were lucky enough to sit between a fan who knew everyone by first name and especially loved yelling “C’Mon Chappy!” Another fan was not afraid to utter profanities in front of his young sons, who promptly corrected him that “Mom says you aren‘t supposed to say that!” Alas, it was highly enjoyable, although the game was a massacre, something like 100-50, with Gaelong victorious over Collingwood.

The next day, we were supposed to go walk about AKA bushwalking AKA hiking, but it was rainy so after getting a move on by noon (it’s pleasant weather here; I slept in), we headed to the Yerra Valley that has several wineries in the vicinity. The area was affected by the brush fires a few months ago in Australia, in fact we had tried to go to the Sound Relief concert but that was sold out (the Aussies LOVE their Kings of Leon here, one of the performers at the event to raise money for victims of the fires).

Instead, we hit up three wineries that were all tasty and all different--Helen’s Hill, where the woman was extremely knowledgeable about their wine and told us they had to fight the fires with towels and buckets of water; Yearing Farms that had lots of rustic beauty and where the winery across the way from them was affected but they were minimally and which was very rustic. Also Sticks, that was more Hip and Urban (even in a rural winery, this is possible).

At the first winery of the day, Helen's Hill

Nine bottles of wine bought and my first kangaroo roadkill sighting later, we went back to Melbourne that evening, and Sarah made a great dinner at home and we kept drinking wine, and more wine, and more, until we decided to stay in, which may have been the worst decision since that lead to a rough morning on Sunday.


However, we did phone our friend Kate and her boyfriend Haydn in the US and I think may have convinced them to make a trip to Melbourne this year, and we also busted out some great tunes on the guitar; “Leaving on a Jet Plane” was taken to an entirely new level. I swear wine makes rocking out so much more effortless.

Sweet, sweet, sweet

And he does it again.

I love Yorvit Torrealba (as every one of my friends who knows my love for the Rockies is aware of). He's the manager of the Rockies on the field as their catcher, and has come up big at key times in the playoffs. Last night, he was the star as the Rockies came up with a 4-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks to take a 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series, thanks to his 3-run homer in the 6th inning. And he dedicated the shot to his grandma.

How sweet it is.


As a kid growing up watching the Minnesota Twins, I learned to love baseball. I still have the Homer Hanky from the '87 series, and some Wheaties boxes featuring the team back home at my parent's house.

But to enjoy this as an adult, to have a team you love doing so well, is pure joy. The Rockies became my National League team when I moved here a little over four years ago, and I still say, every time I go into Coors Field, with a big, goofy grin on my face: "I love this place. It's the best place in Denver. Maybe the best place in the world. Smell those hot dogs. Look at that grass. I love it here."

And sitting there last night, in section 203, row 11, seat 19, wearing long underwear and my pink stocking cap and my Choo Freeman jersey, I did not want to be anywhere else in the world.

Tonight I'll go to the ballpark again, waving my foam finger with one hand and the rally-rag in the other, fingers crossed, hoping the boys can stretch it to 21-1 and earn the Rockies first every World Series berth.

I have chills just thinking about it.

It's not even noon and I wish I was down at the field right now. That's right people, I Believe.

For a great story in the Post about Yorvit, go here.

One Down

One down.

That's right folks.

Your Rockies came out triumphant yesterday over the Phillies in the Phillies own house. The doubters on TBS and every other sucka of a sports writer who doubted is eating their words right now.

I listened to the game on the radio in my office yesterday. It is actually very exciting to listen to baseball on the radio--and I would argue, more intense, than watching on the tele.

Until Manny Corpas' final pitch I was moaning and making other painful noises until my co-worker Renee stuck her head into my office to make sure I hadn't choked on any raisins.

My boy Yorvit Torrealba had a single (please enjoy the fabulous pic of him below from yesterday's game) and I got to hear him be interviewed in the post-game. Oh Yorvit, I know you really want to play catch with me sometime.

You can bet I will be glued to the radio again starting at 1:07 p.m. today to see how my Rox fair in Game 2.

GO ROCKIES!

And for an entertaining article about the pain that the love for the Rockies can induce, and discussion of beards (which I am ALWAYS in favor of) check out Adam Clayton Holland's Article in the Westword today.

ROCK-TOBER!

I love baseball. This season, I fell in completely in love with the Colorado Rockies. And last night they made me an even stronger believeR.

Not only have they won the last 14 of their 15 games to make it into the playoffs for the first time since 1995, but they have heart, they have charisma, and they have the love of a city who has too long neglected this wonderful sport to favor those that wear the orange and blue.

I would guess I have been to between 15 and 20 games this season. I was at the game on September 18th when Todd Helton hit the two-run home run in the bottom of the 9th with two outs to win over the Dodgers.

I was at the game on Saturday night the 29th when Troy Tulowitzki lined the ball into the bullpen for a grand slam.

I was there Sunday afternoon (the 30th) when a packed house watched the scoreboard click over in favor of the Brewers over the Padres, and then watched us squeak out a 4-3 victory where Brian Fuentes brought the heat in relief and Todd Helton got the chance to take his first real step towards the playoffs in his career.


And I was there last night, with a packed house, even more full it seemed than any of the four opening days I've attended at Coors Field. I sat through all 13 innings, holding my breath through most of them, even though my favorite Rockie, My Boy Yorvit Torrealba hit a home run in the second inning (which made me especially happy as he struggled at the plate on Sunday). I had text messages throughout from friends who were watching elsewhere, some trading emotions about the game, others checking in on how I was holding up.

I don't think I said a word through the whole 13th inning, until Holliday crossed the plate head first and the ump singled safe. Coors Field erupted, and I was trading hugs and high fives with old men who, like me, had waited years for a Rockies playoff re-appearance.

Last year I went to about 25 games. The two years before at least 10 each season. I am a member of the ladies night crew that gets tickets to every Wednesday game (not to mention a voucher if you go on Wednesday to a future Rockies game). I've gone with them on their ups and downs. Sometimes I think it is odd when people refer to their favorite sports team as "We won" or "We lost." But I get it, because with the Rockies, I know WE are the wild card and WE are in the playoffs and WE are totally awesome.

Man, I love this game. And I love foam fingers!!!


Things I love about the Rockies:
1. Great farm system and lots of scrappy young guys!
2. Foam fingers
3. Rocky Dawg (though better last season than this)
4. I usually hate rally caps, but I made one last night, and it worked
5. Clutch hits (triples, especially)
6. Great defense
7. Ryan Spilbourghs having the Gwen Stefani song Sweet Escape playing and the whole crowd singing along

AWESOME

Some things are just awesome.

For example, this photo of me getting ready to hit it out, circa 1987.

hahahhahahahhahhaha.

AWESOME!

Zam-Zam-Zamboni

Laura and I went to a Colorado Avalanche hockey game on Monday night. I have discovered the best thing about hockey is the Zamboni. I took a picture of the Zamboni with my camera phone, but I don't know how to get it all up on the Internet, so here is a picture of a different Zamboni:

The only other thing better than the Zamboni at the hockey game is if the hockey players get in a fight, and since they didn't fight Monday night, Zamboni wins HANDS DOWN. Hands down, that's right. I would really like to ride/drive a Zamboni someday. That could be a great goal.

Playoffs!

My Twins are in the playoffs and I am SOOOOO super-pumped. Not to mention they are the AL Central Champs! First game today at 11 mountain time--I am so listening to it in my office today.
GO TWINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Johan is pitching today. I'm hoping for a victory! He is a stud.

Half Marathon!!!

September has been a bit of a flurry of activities (I hope to post some of the other happenings soon) but I decided to get an update out to everyone on this event sooner than later. Yesterday Kate, Liz, Annie K. and I ran the Boulder Backroads Half Marathon! (in Boulder, CO)

It was a beautiful day, and the course started right at the Boulder Reservoir, with the Flatirons and mountains giving us a great view as we ran. Overall, I placed 1,692nd out of 2024 participants. Of the women, I was 995th out of 1272, and in my age group I was 186th out of 229 women (ages 25-29). But, I didn't finish last, and I didn't walk, and I did it! This has been a big goal for me since I went from not running at all, to starting to run in January and doing my first 5K and 10K in May and now my first 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) yesterday.

Here are some fun pix from yesterday. Stacy, Annie I. and Laura came from D-town to cheer us on. They are awesome. The above pic is me rushing for the finish line and trying to pass that dude in the orange. hahaha. Below, Kate, me and Liz celebrate our finish, Kate waves as she runs in, and Annie, baby Cozy and I all aglow in half marthon Domination!

Fly Ball Frenzy!!! And Brian Fuentes

Wednesday night was quite the night for me--it wasn't just any Wednesday night Ladies' Night game at Coors Field, oh no no no. It was a night where I made it onto the field. Oh yes, I was chosen as the participant for the Fly Ball Frenzy.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about or have not attended a Rockies game this season, or never even been to Denver for that matter, let me clarify. Fly Ball Frenzy is an activity that takes place between I believe the 4th and 5th innings of most Rockies games. A fan is chosen to run onto left field, have two pop flys launched at them via slingshot (not simultaneously, don't worry) and if they catch them both, they win a free Frontier airlines flight.

So, I was "randomly chosen" as the lucky fan (not due to any connections I have in the Rockies system, of course not). Wearing my trusty Brian Fuentes number 40 T-shirt and my Chuck Taylor's, I took the field, with all the glory and valor of Larry Walker, Vinny Castilla, Todd Helton, Yorvit Torrealba, RayKing and every other Rockies player that has graced the lawn at Coors Field. Giving the thumbs up, I watched the first one launch--only to slightly overrun the ball, and to my dismay, have it fall behind me. Though I heard the disappointing "awww" of the crowd, I could hear my ladies along the right field line cheering me on, and I gave the thumbs up for ball #2.

Launched high in the air, I waited more patiently this time, and made quite the graceful snag, proceeding to jump high up in the air, fists pumped in elation, and forget to even look at the jumbotron--but rest assured, dear friends, I was on the jumbotron, smiling broadly. If I had ever learned how to do a cartwheel in adolescene, this would have been the time to bust it out.

Trotting off the field, smiling and 7500 Frontier Airline miles richer, I was given high fives by grown men and cheered on by thousands of fans (no joke). It was kind of like those dreams I had as a kid of hitting a homerun in the Metrodome and giving Kirby Puckett a high five afterwards. My only regret is not sprinting toward the infield, touching all the bases and diving head-first into home plate. Now THAT would have garnered me some real applause.

The pix are far away but funny, and Choo Freeman is in them, on the field with me. He asked me to stay and play center for the rest of the game but I was like, nah Choo, you got it baby.

Not only was this a shining moment in time for me, but those of us in attendance all had our number 40 Fuentes t-shirts on. Though we got whipped by the Mets 11-3, Fuentes did come in in the 9th to retire batters handily. Oh Brian Fuentes, how we do love you and your big, gold chains. Bling Bling baby.

CHAMPIONS!!!

The co-ed slowpitch softball team I am on WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP TONITE! And not just league, fools, we won the tournament too! That means not one, but two trophies. Can I get a booyeah?
Booyeah.
I forgot my camera, sadly, but I did get this pic taken when I got home, and we took some sweet pics at the bar with my camera phone, and the bartender lady swore to us that our pic would be on their website (we shall see if that materializes). We also had some fabulous fried cheese at the bar after the game.
Anyway, we won, 14-7 and 15-6, at least I think so, and it's my rendition of the championship now, so I should really just say that it was a no-hitter and we scored 33 runs.
Long live the Telecom Junkies! (OK so Friends of the Poudre was a better name, but we gotta work with what we got).
HOLLA!

Bowl-ero: Bowling and Beyond

Last night I went bowling in Lakewood. It was great fun. Karoline joined me (notice modeling of the sign), as did Senor Misterioso (he had quite the night of staring with his confident gaze down the lane, and diving head first into bowling balls), and James and Brian (not pictured).

The wonderful bowling establishment is called Bowl-ero, and it is very Big Lebowski-esque. On Mondays, pitchers of beer are $5, single beers are $1, games are $1 as are shoes. It is fantastic. They also usually have the Rockies games on TV, and of course, tons of bad bad bad music.

As I prophesized before the game, I won two of 3, scoring 132 and 142. Oh yes. I should join a league! Though the main reason I want to join a league is to get a bowling shirt with my name on it. But is that such a bad thing?

Also, Bowl-ero is right next to the Omlet House. I have not been there yet, but I bet it is grand.

14ers

On Saturday 10 of us got up between 4 and 4:45 a.m. and drove west to climb two 14ers (14,000 foot mountains). It was a beautiful day, we couldn't have asked for better weather.

The two mountains we hiked up are called Gray's and Torrey's. They mark the second and third 14ers I have "bagged" as the common terminology goes.

I had my trekking poles along which totally helped on the journey, especially on the way down. The one major secret to climbing these...are you ready....is to envision what and where you are going to eat when you are done. Nothing more satisfactory then eating anything you please after completing such feats.

Here are a few pics, such as "Orange Monster". Yes that's me. hahahahhaah And then our group on top of Gray's, the first mountain, and then Torrey's, the second mountain.

Then let's not forget Hazel and Me! hahahaha. Awesome.