Jesse's two cents

Well here we go for another round of Bloggy McBloggertons… Things here have been going swimmingly. We went to the beach right near our flat the other day and had a nice little swim. Maybe more of a wading-session because it’s only a couple feet deep but it was still a great time. Lindberg brought a little ball to play catch with and we had a grand ole time skipping it across the water and chasing it down. There was nobody on the beach except for the occasional person walking their dog and although there are no waves (it is the bay), it still rules. I love being able to walk to the beach.



Today we ran to the beach, well the other beach, the one that isn’t 200 feet from our flat. After a long day of job-searching and e-mailing, Erin, Brian and I all decided to see how a run to Bondi Beach would work out. Taylor was still downtown somewhere doing something – not exactly sure what because he’s always disappearing to go on the internet for a decade or so – so it was just the three of us. It’s about 1 ½ - 2 miles from our house to Bondi Beach so we thought a round-trip run should do it. Nice little run on some back streets to the beach and then at the beach we did a little sprint workout in the sand. There were some dudes playing volleyball a little ways down so we walked on over to get the scoop. The scoop is that normally they play on the next beach down but there are all sorts of sand sculptures and other artsy fartsy things happening, so they’re playing on this beach for the next couple weeks. We’re gunna check it out probably on sat/sun because that’s when they usually play. They were pretty decent players so it’s probably legit. Also maybe we’ll make friends, because none of us really have any friends yet… which is why we need to start working.



That is seriously one of the only reasons I want to start working is so it’s easier to make friends. That and it’d be nice to make some money, but mostly the friends part. We’re growing into a nice little family here, however – we always end up eating at the same time and sitting around the dinner table watching ‘the office’ or something, it’s really quite cute. Oh and we’re definitely going to go out to a sweet place tomorrow night and try to make some friends there. Taylor’s buddy hooked him up with another friend’s e-mail who sent us a list of a dozen places to go on all different nights of the week, so hopefully we can meet somebody there.

Erin’s got an interview with some sort of marketing or sales place tomorrow morning at 9, so that’s an exciting step in the right direction for all of us. She doesn’t really want to work there but she’s still spent hours and hours worrying about what she’s going to wear because she’s supposed to look business casual and she didn’t bring the right clothes. I bet she nails it.

Food is grrrRRRR-eat here. A short bus ride away from us in edgecliff (we live at 597 new south head road in rose bay, NSW, 2029 for those of you google map savvy individuals who want to check it out on the satellite – I wasn’t kidding before, we live on the bay) is a kind of mini-mall type place with several supermarkets and fruit/veggie markets. Our landlord told us to go to this one place there in two weeks when mangoes are in season because “they have the best F***ing mangoes in the whole, entire world.” I don’t think any of us even know if we like mangoes, but if we don’t like these, I guess we won’t like any. Anyway – food for the most part is pretty reasonably priced here. There are things here that are much more expensive than at home [peanut butter here you get a tiny little 200ml jar for the price of a Costco sized barrel at home, crappy cereal for $6 a box, or the cheapest case of beer here is like $20 or more] and things that are much cheaper here [amazingly delicious avocados for $1.50 AUD, 1 kilo of vanilla yogurt for $3.50 AUD, spam… but that’s probably cheap everywhere]. And condiments are insanity here… they don’t use ketchup but instead ‘tomato sauce’, which is sort of like runny pasta sauce, or the mayo here is also extra runny, and apparently nobody uses mustard, and on your big mac at McDonalds you can get spiced avocado. But the good thing is this one supermarket has all the American condiments so we bought Heinz mustard and ketchup and it was pretty reasonably priced too.

We took the ferry into the city today and it was not only fun, but also gorgeous and entertaining at the same time. We live 5-7 mins (walking) from the ferry and it only takes 10 mins to get downtown if you get on the right one. If you get on the wrong one it can take up to 25 mins because it makes all sorts of stops at random harbors and/or bays, but I’m sure if you weren’t in a hurry that’d be a nice. Anyway we saw the opera house for the first time from up close and it is neat-o. Check the pics. Really great… really, really great.



I guess that’s about all I’m going to write about now, because this ended up being pretty ridiculously long. I’d bet only my relatives have made it to the end because they love me, and maybe skinner – what else have you got to do besides read our blogs anyway?

I love you all and miss you and will keep you updated as much as possible.

- Jesse “grilled cheese and avocado with tomato soup is his new favorite lunch” Meredith