The Milky Way and Kangaroooos!
Don't want to start off with the expectation that this post contains a picture of me feeding a kangaroo a candy bar: yes I saw Kangaroos and have no pictures to show for it. Aaand I couldn't get any pictures of the Milky Way either. If anybody has a Hubble Telescope I can borrow, please let me know. Lenny could have gotten a picture I'm sure.
Get home from work Friday and enjoyed a glass of Jacob's Creek Sauvignon Blanc from Margaret River, southern Western Australia wine country, with some local cheese I had bought at the Fremantle Markets. (I haven't been to Margaret River yet, Kati and Tina gave it to me as thanks for letting them do laundry here.) Bounced on down to one of Freo's brew pubs the Sail and Anchor. This spot was on the Brian G short long list of pubs to check out. It's a cool spot - right on the corner of South Terrace and Essex in Freo - across from the markets. I met some folks in town from Wales who had come to spend some time with their son who came to Freo on business and never went home. (It's a shame I missed April fool's day). "Wales!" I though - my name is Welsh! So I tell them my name - they couldn't believe it. "Ohhh, Evan! What a fine Welsh name." I had always known Evan was Welch, but I had never had it so enthusiastically authenticated. More instant bretheran! She continued:
"Evan, I've got another fine Welsh name for ya - My husband's name is Elvit!"
"Elvit?" said I.
"Aye, but yi can call me 'Elvie' fer shart" said Elvit.
Fine Welsh names all around I thought.
We had a very confusing conversation - all the time we were talking about the price of beer in pounds and Euro's, and US dollars and Australian dollars and they use miles and I keep talking in kilometers because nobody else knows what a mile is and the Farenheit to Celcius thing is so hard for me - you have to be so exact in degrees C. The difference between 22 and 27 degrees is spring and summer. A 5 degree difference in F might as well be on the money, especially in New England. It was like a very pleasant version of a nightmare I had about unit conversion when I first started my engineering cirriculum. But we wore our Welsh names on our sleeves, I wore a little Australian beer on my shoes, and we had a grand time. Wonderful people. They even bought me a pint (and no, I don't know how many mL that is).
Dad - you'll have to post a comment: I remember you telling a story about being in an Irish bar with Milt in Salt Lake City maybe and when you told the owner you had a daughter named Deirdre he almost would let you guys leave!
So then my backpacking friends Tina and Kati cooked dinner.
Tina is on hiatus from the German National Curling team - she may go back to participate in the Olympics in 2010. Don't tell anyone I said "may", I don't want this little blog entry to be the center of some international Olympic scandal but she speaks of the grueling schedule as a junior champion which transcribed sounds like skiing vacations: "Every weekend it was Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Canada". She's been all over Australia for 9 months, waitressing here and there for a little bit and then traveling some more. Really amazing - she has some great stories. I feel like I work a lot - different cultures for sure.
Kati is an artist who has traveled all over the world. She's got some amazing work she did through her travels in Ghana, and Ecuador, and Cuba, and Guatemala. I may buy a piece, my favorite is still available she assured me. She's got a ton of articles on her site but I'll need Chris George to translate.
So, the three of us went to Little Creatures to meet Ben from Geelong and his buds. Great fun.
We also went to the Newport which had a really good band. The guitarist was nasty, drummer was solid.
Oh yeah, and the two singers and the bass player were gorgeous. They played GNR, Nirvana, and they did it all without breaks kinda like a medley. Real good. After the show I went over to talk to the singer in the white. So I'm thinking to myself "Brian told me Australian girls like American guys because we open the doors for them and stuff." Well, it's summer time and all the doors are already open so now what? (Notice this is the third bar that I've TOLD you about going to tonight). So I decided I'd just speak Australian to her.
We chatted for a bit and then I realized that Australian sounds like a lot of jibberish to me, and therefore I sound like jibberish which is about as obvious as "nuts on a dog" (heard that one today, lol). So I confessed to her I had come back to "chat her up" but I wasn't use to drinking 4 beers BEFORE I leave work (yes, that really is a picture of a case of beer on my desk on Friday) and my drunken 2am Australian was failing me so I'd just try again next week. She laughed and told me they play there every Friday.
Woops, I skipped ahead before I started.
This weekend was surely interesting.
On Friday I met up with, pretty much literally, all my friends in Fremantle. Ben from Geelong, Kati and Tina backpacking from Germany. Oh man, I skipped ahead again. Maybe I can Tarantino this thing.
Get home from work Friday and enjoyed a glass of Jacob's Creek Sauvignon Blanc from Margaret River, southern Western Australia wine country, with some local cheese I had bought at the Fremantle Markets. (I haven't been to Margaret River yet, Kati and Tina gave it to me as thanks for letting them do laundry here.) Bounced on down to one of Freo's brew pubs the Sail and Anchor. This spot was on the Brian G "Evan, I've got another fine Welsh name for ya - My husband's name is Elvit!"
"Elvit?" said I.
"Aye, but yi can call me 'Elvie' fer shart" said Elvit.
Fine Welsh names all around I thought.
We had a very confusing conversation - all the time we were talking about the price of beer in pounds and Euro's, and US dollars and Australian dollars and they use miles and I keep talking in kilometers because nobody else knows what a mile is and the Farenheit to Celcius thing is so hard for me - you have to be so exact in degrees C. The difference between 22 and 27 degrees is spring and summer. A 5 degree difference in F might as well be on the money, especially in New England. It was like a very pleasant version of a nightmare I had about unit conversion when I first started my engineering cirriculum. But we wore our Welsh names on our sleeves, I wore a little Australian beer on my shoes, and we had a grand time. Wonderful people. They even bought me a pint (and no, I don't know how many mL that is).Dad - you'll have to post a comment: I remember you telling a story about being in an Irish bar with Milt in Salt Lake City maybe and when you told the owner you had a daughter named Deirdre he almost would let you guys leave!
So then my backpacking friends Tina and Kati cooked dinner.
Tina is on hiatus from the German National Curling team - she may go back to participate in the Olympics in 2010. Don't tell anyone I said "may", I don't want this little blog entry to be the center of some international Olympic scandal but she speaks of the grueling schedule as a junior champion which transcribed sounds like skiing vacations: "Every weekend it was Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Canada". She's been all over Australia for 9 months, waitressing here and there for a little bit and then traveling some more. Really amazing - she has some great stories. I feel like I work a lot - different cultures for sure.
Kati is an artist who has traveled all over the world. She's got some amazing work she did through her travels in Ghana, and Ecuador, and Cuba, and Guatemala. I may buy a piece, my favorite is still available she assured me. She's got a ton of articles on her site but I'll need Chris George to translate.
So, the three of us went to Little Creatures to meet Ben from Geelong and his buds. Great fun.
We also went to the Newport which had a really good band. The guitarist was nasty, drummer was solid.
Oh yeah, and the two singers and the bass player were gorgeous. They played GNR, Nirvana, and they did it all without breaks kinda like a medley. Real good. After the show I went over to talk to the singer in the white. So I'm thinking to myself "Brian told me Australian girls like American guys because we open the doors for them and stuff." Well, it's summer time and all the doors are already open so now what? (Notice this is the third bar that I've TOLD you about going to tonight). So I decided I'd just speak Australian to her. "How ya going?" I asked
"Cheers!" she said cheerfully. Australians are very sincere. Good opening.
We chatted for a bit and then I realized that Australian sounds like a lot of jibberish to me, and therefore I sound like jibberish which is about as obvious as "nuts on a dog" (heard that one today, lol). So I confessed to her I had come back to "chat her up" but I wasn't use to drinking 4 beers BEFORE I leave work (yes, that really is a picture of a case of beer on my desk on Friday) and my drunken 2am Australian was failing me so I'd just try again next week. She laughed and told me they play there every Friday.My editors are telling me I'll lose my readership if I let this go any longer so here is where I Tarantino this thing, end it abruptly, make you wonder where the kangaroos are, how I met Kati and Tina, and I'll post a "The Milky Way and Kangarooooos! Part Deuce" in a couple.
Comments
I just googled "Kells Seattle" and found the website. They now have places in Portland and San Francisco as well as Seattle.
http://www.kellsirish.com/
Bennett is Welsh too... as if I am!
Cheers Mate!