Final thoughts on 2010...

As we sit here on December 31 and look back at the year we have just had, it is hard to think that we will ever have another opportunity for a year like this one.  We travelled in Europe for two months, got back to Calgary, accepted jobs in Australia, packed up all of our belongings, slapped a "For Sale" sign on the house and moved to the other side of the world to start jobs in a city where Jim had been in the late 1990s and Joanne had never set foot in! 

It is hard to pick out the absolute highlights of the year.  The biggest impact is the move to Australia and all of the changes that go with it: meeting new people, starting new jobs, living in a new city...everything that we do here is an adventure!  This has really opened our eyes to what it must have been like for our ancestors who immigrated to Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  We speak the language, had our housing and jobs arranged before we got here and have a huge safety net and any help that we need through Santos.  We can't imagine what it would have been like to take a 6 week trip across the ocean in a cargo hold, then take a train for 10 days to get to a place in the middle of nowhere that we had never even heard of before, and getting there without being able to speak the language!

The best part of the year was the trip to Europe.  There are so many different aspects of the trip that are highlights, we could probably name something from everyday and still have things left over for the list.  However, since there is no point in talking about the highlights without naming one, the best part of the trip was the week that we spent on the small cruise ship touring the Greek islands.  We had no concerns about transportation or taking care of our luggage, we weren't yet thinking that we would be getting job offers from Santos, so we weren't distracted by thoughts of all the work we had ahead of us to get to Australia, we had all kinds of fantastic meals and we spent everyday on a different island.  It is the one part of our trip that we think we could recommend to anyone, regardless of how a person likes to travel. 

Here's to a great 2011, we're excited to see what the new year will bring!

First Christmas

This was our first Christmas in Australia and we have tried to keep things as Australian as possible, although neither of us was wlling to try surfing in a Santa suit, like our friend above.

We asked at work and everyone said that the big Christmas meal here was a seafood lunch, normally at the beach.  We went to our local fishmonger and asked what most people had for the Christmas meal, so we ordered the recommended prawns and oysters...1 kg of prawns and 1 dozen oysters for two people!  In our defence, we were also told that we should eat so many prawns that we make ourselves sick, so the 1 kg seemed like it should fit the bill.  We didn't get sick, but neither of us has a hankering for any more prawns at the moment.

A number of shops are open here on Christmas day, including the bakery and the grocery store.  We made about three trips to the shops today, since we wanted the people who were working to feel needed.  We are sure they now feel much better about working on the holiday.

The other thing that many people do is go out for the Christmas meal.  We might have been able to find a place to go, but it seemed like everywhere had been booked weeks in advance.  Typically the menu was a 3 - 5 course seafood tasting menu, with or without wine, for anywhere from $85 to $200 (including wine) per person.  For two people those prices are not too bad for a special meal, but we can't imagine a family of 8 going out for that kind of meal!

Tomorrow there are big Boxing Day sales, plus the Ashes start up again in Melbourne (a very big deal here and in England the motherland).  Lots of restaurants are closed from tomorrow until mid-January or Australia Day (Jan 26) so the holiday is really just beginning. 

Our office is closed until January 4, so we are looking forward to a break from work and a chance to take a trip or two to the coast.  Merry Christmas everyone!

'Twas the week before Christmas...

It is only one week until Christmas and we just can't wrap our heads around the whole "green Christmas" theme.  The Christmas decorations are out everywhere we go, Christmas carols are playing and the world's largest solar powered Christmas tree (above) is set up in King George Square.  One of the problems is that it is also rainy season and so the sky gets quite grey and threatening most afternoons.  After more than 40 years of grey skies in December meaning cold, it is hard to start thinking that they now mean hot and humid.  Someone who has been here for more than a decade told us that it took him more than 4 years to adjust.  Overall if getting used to 30C in December is the hardest adjustment that we need to make for our move, we are up for it.

The work culture is different from Calgary when it comes the Christmas celebrations.  Instead of getting all dressed up and taking your spouse/partner/date to a party with co-workers, we have afternoon parties with co-workers and are done by 5.  It is nice to have an afternoon off to sit in the shade and watch a bunch of mildly drunk men try to play cricket, or to have a Hawaiian theme party in a place that is already tropical.  We both had our parties this week and they were really fun!  No stress, no worries about transportation or seating arrangements, just a casual afternoon with the office mates.

This coming week we expect the office to be fairly quiet.  This coincides with school (summer) holidays, so many people start to take time off now.  All of the year-end reserves have already taken place, so it is a really relaxed environment.  We have the week off between Christmas and New Years and hope to make it to the beach a couple of times.  Other than day trips, we are saving our more serious travel for February and March, when the temperature cools.  Our hottest day so far was this week: 32C, 90% humidity followed by a massive thunder storm...at least we didn't need to to shovel the sidewalk afterwards!

First Quarterly Report

As of December 6, we have now been working in Brisbane for 3 months (we arrived two weeks before we started to work, so we have now been here for just over 3.5 months).  Overall it has been a very positive experience.  We love the weather and having a hot and humid Christmas (there's not a lot to miss about -25ºC!)  We really like the city and our neighbourhood, we love how easy it is to get around without a car and no one thinks it is odd that we don't own a vehicle.  We still get frustrated when we need to work hard to do something that would be so easy in Calgary, like finding a pharmacy that is open on Sunday, but those hiccups are few and far between, and very manageable.
We like our jobs but are still adjusting.  The work environment is very different from Calgary: the hours are as long, but no one would expect you to come in on a weekend...you would be made fun of and then ostracized for such behaviour; it is an "open office" environment, everyone from the VPs and managers to the admin staff sit in the same area, no walls, no privacy...hard to get used to for the first week and then it becomes very "team-ish" feeling, which is the whole point or having everyone on the same floor; no one ever blames the technical staff for the weather delaying operations, and, most importantly, there is a clear vision of where we are going and when we will get there (export 3 Bcf/day of LNG, starting in 2014).  However, even though we are so far away, there are still so many similarities in the office environment: rules for everything; there are meetings for each and every occurence, and sometimes the meeting is the occurence; and ALWAYS thinking about the budget!
We have found the people here to be incredibly friendly, whether we are looking for directions or just sitting in a pub trying to watch a new sport.  We have been positively spoiled with the quality and selection of fresh food and the Australian wine industry has exceeded their great reputation.  We have even driven here and not caused any damage.  We feel more welcome here than the time we drove to Nelson BC and had the hotel owner tell us how much she hates everyone from Calgary (of course she was more than willing to take our money!)

We are in a position where the Brisbanites are starting to apologize for the bad spring and early summer weather.  Australia is coming out of a 5 year drought and they are making up for it with massive amounts of rain.  Yesterday it rained 80mm!  But lets be candid, this isn't just a rainy day, it's a tropical monsoon.  Very warm and humid at +30ºC and raining like a bastard...most of the 80mm came down in less than an hour.  (The photos above are the street in front of our townhouse and the side yard, where they are busily upgrading our drainage pipes, hopefully not too late.)  There is a town north of here called Emerald, and they have been isolated by flood waters for more than 2 weeks.  No food gets in, no people get out...that is going to be one crazy-ass place when all of this is over!

Noosa!

We have just returned from our first Australian holiday.  We took a 4 day mini-break in Noosa, which is at the north end of the Sunshine Coast.  The area has long stretches of white sand beaches bordering a beautiful national park.  The main town is called "Noosaville" and it is where most of the hotels, shops and restaurants are located.  We stayed on Sunshine Beach, about a 45 minute walk from Noosaville, in a hotel looking out over the beach.  It was beautiful!
The first of December here is considered the first day of summer, which is also start of storm season.  This is the time of year when we start to get big thunderstorms, hail storms and lots of rain followed by lots of heat, giving high humidity and leading to more thunderstorms, hail storms and rain.  The picture above shows a cloudy sky, but the temperature was well into the mid 20s, with water temps in the low 20s.  We went on a 5km hike through the national park and we were so glad it was cloudy.  Everytime the clouds cleared a bit the temperature shot up by about 5 degrees and the humidity felt like it was about 10% higher.  It was a fantastic walk with lots of flowers and trees.  We saw different types of lizards and got scared out of our skin by a kookaburra that flew low over our heads and shrieked.  Those things are LOUD!  We were hoping for koalas, but weren't lucky enough to see any.  It is a good reason to go back.
We had such a good time on this trip that we can't wait to plan our next Australian vacation!