Carnaval in the Hunter

We recently had our annual office-wide company offsite. Last year, you'll recall, it was spent skiing down south. This year, the venue would be the Hunter Valley, one of my favorite places in Australia outside of Sydney. 3 days and 2 nights spent in the wine region, with a ton of fun in store for all. The morning we left was also the morning of the dust storm - and the dust was apparently worse up north in the Hunter.

Vonnie and Fadhila - notice how everyone is

wearing the same hat. One of the many pieces

of sweet swag we got as a result of the Carnaval

theme.

I dunno, I think it's a good look for me...

While there was a portion of the offsite dedicated to actual work stuff, there were ample opportunities to have a bit of fun. For example, my team had not spent our quarterly offsite budget yet, so we decided to go horseback riding. It was quite stunning - the sun was shining, the wind blowing the tall grass, magpies swooped out of the sky to attack your head. Really magical.

Me and Rusty, who was generally well-behaved,

but who made a really dramatic scene when

walking downhill with me on his back.

While we waited for the one taxi in the Hunter

Valley to come pick us up, we entertained

ourselves with a few of the animals hanging around.

Anna, pictured here with Buddy, the happiest

little pooch you've ever seen.

There was also a very affectionate cat, who at

one point disappeared into a bag of sawdust

only to emerge completely covered in it.

The first evening there we had a fantastic pub quiz competition with 300 people, hosted by Lincoln, who dressed up as a bogan (the Aussie equivalent of a redneck). There really isn't a huge difference between the two - mullet, cut-off shorts, plaid sleeveless t-shirt. He was an awesome host, and the evening was great - mensa problems, balloon animal making, and my personal favorite, movie quotes (destroyed it). After an evening of drinking and dancing, most of us retired to bed to prepare for the next day.

After the work festivities were over the following day, and we had gone horseback riding, we all began to change into our costumes for the evening, which would bring the offsite's biggest party. Even better, it would be themed after Brazilian Carnaval, and everyone was encouraged to dress up. In my 4-and-a-half years, it was probably the best Google party I had ever attended. There were food stalls set up with Mexican, Indian, Asian, and American food (I think I had 4 massive tacos), and the mood was set with tiki torches burning in the darkness. Then, the party kicked off.

Out of the darkness emerged a massive Brazilian

percussion band, which immediately got

everyone dancing.

We also had dancers.

Bora and me - she was the only one who knew

that my mask was from Venetian Carnaval and

not Brazil. Curses!

At one point, the entertainment turned to

Capoeira dancers.

Fadhila and me - I wish I could say that the soft

filter was an artistic choice, but I'm fairly

certain I just touched the lens after eating my

tacos.

Fadhila post-lens-cleaning, with the

maracas we got as another part of

our swag.

The footballers, before things got rowdy.

Ashleigh and Joe, mid-meal.

Hooray for matching costumes!

The Golden Girls.

Jasper - part Brazilian, part Jamaican - and

Joel / Zorro.

The party rages on outside on the patio - which

was sadly right outside of some other guests'

rooms. They picked a bad week to come, I guess.

Verne, dressed up as...I really don't know.

Me and Victoria. I've discovered that the

amount of alcohol I consume is directly

proportional to the likelihood of me

making Magnum / Blue Steel / Le Tigre /

Ferrari faces in pictures.

Alan, our Engineering Site Director, maraca-ing

things up.

Isa and Roger. Little-known fact: Under the right

circumstances, a maraca can actually substitute

as a microphone.

Adam and Lu. Not shown: Lu's small shaker of

glitter, which she went around shaking on everyone.

I was still finding glitter in my hair several days

later.

What has been seen cannot be unseen - this is

one of the most disturbing photos of the evening.

Ashleigh and me...and my gills. My secret is out:

I am part mer-man.

The evening progressed (mostly) without incident, and eventually the party moved inside and continued into the wee hours of the morning. The following day, we had one last fun activity planned.

The following morning - guess who can't

take serious photos?

Ok ok ok, I'll give you one seri-DANGIT YOU

GUYS.

For our fun activity we did a wine blending and

cooking class. What better way to spend a day

after a party than drinking wine in the hot

sun at 10 in the morning?

Mark, apparently immune to or still recovering

from the night before. We only had one rule

at our table when it came to wine: if you spit

or tip, you leave the table.

After tasting several wines, we were then given

a mystery blend bottle and had to mix the

proper proportions of each wine to match

the bottle. Jon and Joe took it very seriously,

and in the end, we were SO close...

We then had to create our own blend, complete

with bottle label. Ours was named after the

blending process, which I developed. It was

mixed in the measuring beaker by capping one's

hand over the end and shaking vigorously.

Chateau du Paume en Sueur will be hitting

shelves near you soon.

Laura demonstrates our unique blending process.

Because our grill was not working, the chef actually

cooked ours for us. Mark wanted everyone to

think otherwise though.

We enjoyed a fantastic meal in the sun. Watch

Mark closely - his steady decline has been

cataloged for later viewing.

Not looking so good...

His last living photo - lots of red wine + scorching

Aussie morning sun = not a good idea.

Anna relaxing before we all took the long bus

ride home. In the Hunter, beer glasses come

in '512-ounce Big Swig' sizes.

Isa - the event organizer, still alive after

very little sleep.

We boarded the buses to head home, arriving back into Sydney just in time for rush hour, making our return journey time around 3 hours. The good news is that I slept through most of it.

Two Weeks' Worth of Fun!

Fear not - for those of you with whom I have not spoken over the past couple of weeks, I have not, in fact, met my demise by anything crawly, hairy, toothy, or stingy.

I have been up to quite a bit, though. In addition to finally moving into my flat (pictures to be posted as soon as it's presentable), things have really started to ramp up at work. But, in keeping with my solid work / life balance, I've found quite a bit of life to balance it out.

I made yet another trip to Bondi Beach, and this time took the full path all the way to Coogee Beach, as opposed to stopping the trek at Bronte Beach. It really is a stunning walk. Also, any excuse to go to Bondi, where there is a really good ice cream place...

It was a bit choppy out today - the wind really
whips up the waves.

There was an area on the walk where the waves

were really churning, at times shooting water

several dozen feet into the air.

I particularly enjoyed the many graphic warnings

this sign provided as to how I might bring about my

own demise should I attempt to swim anywhere near

the area.

Additionally, I happened upon a rather humorously-titled fish & chips cafe - I must remember to go back there at some point.

Absolutely love the name.

Also along the walk, was a hand-decorated stairway, similar to the Santa Teresa Steps decorated by Selaron in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Not nearly as eye-catching as the aformentioned steps, but still really cool to see.

The eyes are watching you...

Some of the tile detail of one of the lower steps.

A few days after that, I went out for a fun night on the town with a few of my teammates. Nothing fancy - dinner and bowling. Turned out to be a blast - we had a lot of fun. Also, they have an equivalent of Coldstone here called Cold Rock. I had a 2-scoop ice cream: one scoop of white chocolate ice cream with cookie dough, and another scoop of butterscotch ice cream with caramel. It was enough sugar to give my grandkids diabetes. I found it delicious.

We went out for some of the best Thai I've ever

had. Was so stuffed after the meal. But not

stuffed enough to skip ice cream.

Bowling was a lot of fun too. The only downside

is that I am constantly reminded of how

terrible I am at it - even though I started

off both games with a strike.

Also, I'd just like to share a quick shot of what I get to see on my walk to work each morning.

I swear, this place is like Disneyland.

Last weekend, it was one of my teammate's birthdays. During the day, a few of us went for a bit of a drive to a place called Bald Hill, which had spectacular views of the ocean and the neighboring city of Woolongong.

It was pretty much a straight shot down from here

to the ocean. People apparently hangglide / para-

glide off the cliff here.

To the right, where you see the twisty coastal

road, is the city of Woolongong.

After our brief stop by Bald Hill, we drove a couple more minutes to a nearby ranch, where we would be going horseback riding. Considering my most recent riding experience was on a mechanical bull, and I had only been riding twice before that (the most recent of such occasions being ~15 years ago), I was looking forward to it.

The ranch was quite nice! Anna's flatmate used to work there, so she set us up with some good horses, and we set off into the forest.

As a side note, they sadly did not have horses with the names that I requested. After failing to provide me with a Widowmaker, a Maelstrom, a Thundermare, a Mane o' War, or a John Goodman, I was given a horse with an equally-terrifying name: Cherry.

Anyway, Cherry and I set off with the rest of the group through streams, forests, across open fields, and we did a bit of trotting as well. I had one of the better horses, it seemed (and the biggest of the bunch). One of the horses, River, felt the need to stand in one place occasionally. Another one of the horses, Pocahontas, was quite often inclined to kick other horses. And my sweet, wonderful Cherry, had a propensity for rubbing his face on anything and everything, including me, fences, and other horses' butts. Affectionate, no?

This is Cherry, in one of his rare moments when

he wasn't spewing brimstone from his nostrils,

rubbing his face on something, or dragging me

through a bush.

I am such a pro (pro: Latin (n) one who looks

excessively goofy in a riding helmet).

First person view of horseback riding. It's like

you're actually there!

The view out into the forest from the trail. While

we were out, we saw a fox, a wallaby, and a

rosella parrot.

Later that evening, we went out in a larger group for a tapas-style Mediterranean dinner and then later to a chic nightspot called the Piano Room. We had a new guy named Nick serve us who came back no fewer than three times to get our drink order. 45 minutes later, we finally had our drinks in hand as we listened to a local band with their self-scribed music. It was good. This place had a lot of potential. This was at 8:30. We left to go wander and come back later.

At around 11:30, it really began to pick up. They had a new band in their place, playing all sorts of fantastic adult contemporary hits - Sexual Healing, Let's Get it On, Superstitious. As a side note, this last song was awesome because the drummer looked uncannily like Stevie Wonder.

After a kebab (yum) at 3:30 in the morning, I made my way home.

I have a diving trip planned this weekend - look for another update then.

Have a good night!