(The gum tree discussed in an earlier blog)
This has been a very interesting week. It started with a coworker inviting several people to go to a climbing gym. I haven't climbed post kids (except the occasional 1-climb wall at Cedar Point), but went anyway. It was a great work out and I found a lot came back to me. They have a different rating system here, I was encouraged to work my way up to a 15 (of possible 25?). My guess it is about a 5.8, there were some tough parts. The more experienced climbers of the group were challenged by 18's, so I felt pretty good about my accomplishment. This event is likely to occur on Mondays for some time to come... should be a good way to start the week.
Tuesday my camera came back from Olympus... this made me very happy because it was ahead of schedule and I had missed it pretty badly. All better now. Sunset gratis Olympus...
Wednesday, I and three other new Australian transplants (Kate and Garry from the UK who I snorkeled with, and Thomas, the new geologist from South Africa) went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. On the way there we stopped at the Belgian beer bar for a quick Belgian (they had Hoegaarden on tap!). The meal was good as was the company.
Friday night I hosted a poker night at my house. Five coworkers came over to play. A couple had played Texas Holdem once or twice, but otherwise they were neophytes. The evening was spent with me teaching several variant games and then some real play ($0.05 ante). I think Garry was the big winner. It was a good time and will likely occur again.
Saturday I took the bus into the CBD and went to the South Australia Museum. It was not a large museum, but had a lot to offer. There were cultural items from Indonesia see photos below(mostly Papua New Guinea), with even real shrunken heads (I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of these, don't know why, but they were pretty gruesome!). I found the totems interesting because they had men standing on women's shoulders! There was one that was obviously honoring a deceased child as well (my interpretations...). There was a large Aboriginal culture exhibit which deserves more exploration than I gave it and there was a room devoted to Mawson, the Antarctic and Outback explorer (with footage by Hurley, the same cinematographer who accompanied Shackleton on his ill-fated adventure). There was a section on Precambrian fossils from South Australia (one of the key locations documenting the transition to complex multicellular life), a great mineral collection, mostly from the SA mines (but a case devoted to Franklin NJ) and a section devoted to opalized fossils. They had a fossil pleisiosaur that was opalized, very cool!
Tuesday my camera came back from Olympus... this made me very happy because it was ahead of schedule and I had missed it pretty badly. All better now. Sunset gratis Olympus...
Wednesday, I and three other new Australian transplants (Kate and Garry from the UK who I snorkeled with, and Thomas, the new geologist from South Africa) went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. On the way there we stopped at the Belgian beer bar for a quick Belgian (they had Hoegaarden on tap!). The meal was good as was the company.
Friday night I hosted a poker night at my house. Five coworkers came over to play. A couple had played Texas Holdem once or twice, but otherwise they were neophytes. The evening was spent with me teaching several variant games and then some real play ($0.05 ante). I think Garry was the big winner. It was a good time and will likely occur again.
Saturday I took the bus into the CBD and went to the South Australia Museum. It was not a large museum, but had a lot to offer. There were cultural items from Indonesia see photos below(mostly Papua New Guinea), with even real shrunken heads (I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of these, don't know why, but they were pretty gruesome!). I found the totems interesting because they had men standing on women's shoulders! There was one that was obviously honoring a deceased child as well (my interpretations...). There was a large Aboriginal culture exhibit which deserves more exploration than I gave it and there was a room devoted to Mawson, the Antarctic and Outback explorer (with footage by Hurley, the same cinematographer who accompanied Shackleton on his ill-fated adventure). There was a section on Precambrian fossils from South Australia (one of the key locations documenting the transition to complex multicellular life), a great mineral collection, mostly from the SA mines (but a case devoted to Franklin NJ) and a section devoted to opalized fossils. They had a fossil pleisiosaur that was opalized, very cool!
Sunday I went with Thomas back to Port Noarlunga to attempt snorkeling again. It was a wonderful day for it. The water was flat and we got there at low tide. I spent about two hours face down in the water chasing all types of weird fish. I got some pictures of Port Noarlunga so you can see what I am talking about (You walk out a jetty to a stone reef teaming with fish and is great for snorkeling). The water was cool, so two hours was about all I could do without a wet suit... After snorkeling we walked down the beach and ended with the same seafood platter I had with Garry and Kate two weeks ago... m'mmm.
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