The End of a Season, and the Beginning of Another

Today is the last day of official spring in Australia with the summer season beginning tomorrow. Actually, I expected it to be hotter by now, but its been sitting around the mid 20s for a while. Maybe the temperatures will go up soon because I can't wait to get stuck in to the heat.

I'm actually a little sad since I had to break a nice tradition this year. Every year since 1989 my dad and I have watched the Grey Cup together but I couldn't do it this year. There are some drawbacks to being in Australia. I couldn't find anywhere in Canberra that would be showing the Grey Cup on TV. I kept up to date on http://www.cfl.ca/ and a friend from back home filmed it and is sending it to me, so I'll be able to watch it. Unfortunately, the same will apply to the Superbowl that my dad and I have watched continuously since 1991. I'll just have to bear it as best I can.

With so many people moving out of Fenner, there is a tradition called "Dump and Pillage" where people leave stuff that they can't or don't want to take with them. Anyone who wants them can then take them for free. I've got so many ladles, cutlery and other assorted kitchenware. I've also managed to score a set of speakers for the computer, a TV, a stereo that I'm holding over the summer for a friend and a portable TV. I've finally got everything I need and it feels great.

With the school year over, Fenner Hall has really emptied, especially my floor. Out of 24 people, there will only 7 staying the whole summer. It's really quiet, except for the odd conference with people staying over. I'll see what it's like but I think it'll be enjoyable to be in a big empty house.

The reason I'm posting late is that I worked late yesterday and had to work early today at the Canberra Race Course for the Canberra Cup. Like the Melbourne Cup, only on a much smaller scale, this is an important race in the city. I worked in the main area and had many people come give me bets to place. We were given KFC for lunch that was delivered in large boxes and I even got to take some home; food for a few days. There were even some people who thought that I was good luck. What do you know, I guess I'm lucky! It was an interesting race with a long shot winning the race. I had someone win $600 but no really big wins. I then went out to O'Reilly's, a pub, before heading home.

What better way to ring in a new season that with a root canal. Tomorrow, I go to the endodontist to get a root canal for that tooth that was bothering me. I'm hoping everything will go alright and I can finally stop worrying about that tooth. Let's hope summer is a lucky season.

The First Free Week

This has been a fairly good week for me. The first week of liberation from the drudgery of university life has been quite rewarding. I was worried that I wouldn't have anything to do over the summer, but that has been sorted out. I even managed to get a good dose of classical music along the way.

On Tuesday, I went to a guitar recital put on by my neighbour, Chris. He was doing a graduate diploma in music and has just finished his program. The last thing he had to do was a recital to pass. It was very interesting as he played a selection that cut across many genres. I've listened to him play all year and it was nice to finally hear the whole thing start to finish. He really is an excellent musician. He's leaving Fenner for good as he has completed his program and I'll miss his guitar music.

I found out that ACTTAB wants to keep me on as a casual employee indefinitely. I'm quite glad as this gives me something to do over the summer and is pretty well paying. It also means that I have a job throughout the school year. It's pretty sweet; the betters do most of the work for you. I'll also, at some point, join the union. It's good to have something to do and feel that you are part of a team.

Using some new found wealth I got from my Melbourne Cup Day pay (10.5 hours at double pay), I bought a new mobile (cell) phone. I decided to get a Motorola Motorazr V3xx. When they first came out, I promised myself that I get a Motorazr and now I've fulfilled that promise. I'm keeping my old mobile as a back up, but this new phone is really great. It has a camera, a video camera, a voice recorder and a few other goodies. It also works on all frequencies worldwide, meaning I can take it anywhere. I'm looking forward to many years of good service with my Motorazr.

Today was an unseasonable cold day as a system moved through the region. It was so cold that the Snowy Mountains received, ironically enough, snow. It won't last long as temperatures are set to go back up again. It was a pretty miserable day with cold rain and a high of 15C. I hope everything warms up as I want to experience a real Aussie summer.

As if that wasn't enough, today the Australian national rugby league team lost to their New Zealand counterparts in the Rugby League World Cup championship. Australia and New Zealand compete in every sport and for Australians, there is nothing more humiliating than losing to the Kiwis. This is doubly so as rugby league was pioneered in Australia and is, more or less, an Australian sport. We'll see how long it takes Australia to live this down but in a sporting nation with long memories, it may be never.

Finally tonight, I've taken to going out some nights just to get out of the house, so to speak. Unfortunately, Canberra night life isn't the greatest and many nights the only thing open is the Casino. It's not that exciting but the food is alright. For one reason or another, Thursdays are the big night out for most people. Still, it would be nice to have some pubs open late at night. Maybe if I opened one, I could make a killing.

Enslavement and Liberty

I apologize for not posting yesterday, but I was quite busy with school, work and guests --- actually a guest. This has been a great week filled with both dread and excitement as the school year drew to a close. I can now look forward to the blistering summer in this sunburned country.

As I indicated, this week, I had 3 of my 4 exams, with one the previous week. Although that sounds hectic, they were all spaced apart by one day, which gave plenty of time to study. Also, the difficult subjects were placed at the the ends of the exam period, meaning more time could be devoted to them. With the last of my exams done, I'm now looking forward to a long and productive summer break. I'm hoping for a hot one this year, and we'll see if I get it.

Canberra is called the Bush Capital for good reason --- it is surrounded by farmland and parkland. Every so often, wildlife makes its way into the city. On several occasions I've seen possums in trees and night. The other night, however, as I was walking back to Fenner, I spied a Kangaroo in Haig Park. This is a strip of greenery running perpendicular to Northbourne Avenue and it's a pretty busy area. I was surprised to see a roo this far into the city, but that was nothing. Last night, I saw some Kangaroos hopping along the park next to Lake Burley Griffin, almost the exact center of the city. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, kangaroos get hit by fast vehicles so you must always drive with caution at night.

Being in such a green environment does have its advantages. With trees, shrubs and flowers now in full bloom, sometimes when I open my window, a sweet floral smell wafts through the room. It can really brighten up your day to swell flowers when you're studying like mad for an exam.

Speaking of flowers, in Canada, Remembrance Day passed recently. In Australia, this is not really celebrated with the main equivalent being ANZAC Day in April. The Australians call November 11th either Poppy Day or Armistice Day. I did see a few people wearing poppies on their lapels, but they were more like real poppies than the ones we use on Remembrance Day. Even though it was the 90th anniversary of the end of World War One, there were no public ceremonies as far as I could tell.

Finally, I had a wonderful time entertaining, albeit briefly, a friend who came down from Sydney. Alex, also known as "Juiceman", is a stunt person in movies and arrived for some training courses. I was working at Cafe Pronto but we later met up at the nearby Civic Pub and had some orange juice; it was 2-for-1 hour. When I was in Australia last, Alex was kind enough to give a place to stay in my final few days in Sydney. He's a great all-round guy at it's always so interesting to talk to him. After the pub, we just walked around various parts of the city and I showed him the casino and the Canadian flagpole. We then returned to Fenner and Alex stayed the night in my room. I figure it's only fair to repay the courtesy he showed me. He was only staying 1 night and early today he left to finish off his course and then head back to Sydney. It's nice to have friends over, especially after exams. It gives you a chance to enjoy your new-found liberty.

The Races

This has been the week of important races, both foreign and domestic. The mad hysteria of the Melbourne Cup came and went followed by the mad hysteria of the American presidential election. Both were very entertaining to watch and produced close results.

How do you stop a nation dead in its tracks? The answer is to hold a horse race. The first Tuesday of November in Australia is Melbourne Cup Day, the most important and prestigious trophy in Australian horse racing, not to mention the most lucrative. Its called the "Race that Stops a Nation" and it really does. Everyone, or virtually everyone, in Australia has the day off and watches the race which goes at 15:00. In Canberra, the day is a public holiday called "Family and Community Day", which is really funny if you think about it. Just to show you how big this race is, I once read a statistic that 80% of Australian adults, that's roughly 12 million people, place a bet on the Melbourne Cup on Melbourne Cup Day.

I was asked to work with ACTTAB at the Jamison outlet and right from opening it was a busy day. I didn't mind since I got double pay for that day, roughly $46.50/hour. I helped people place bets and generally had a pretty good time. All ticket windows were going and it was non-stop until the race jumped. I had a bit of fun, though. One lady walked up to me and asked, "How do I fill in this card?", referring to a Cup Pack card which gives several bets on the horses selected. To which I replied with some sarcasm, "With a pen." For those interested, the types of bets were a quinella (1st and 2nd, any order), a boxed trifecta (1st, 2nd and 3rd, any order) and an each way (particular horse to win or place (2nd or 3rd)). I even had a very proud moment. One man, a serious better, ran up with only a few seconds until the race jumped. After the gates open and the race begins, no more betting is allowed and if this guy didn't get his bet on, I knew he would be right cheesed-off. He put his betting card through the reader but realized he had made an incorrect selection and asked me to change it. I went into overdrive, changed the selection, pressed enter and no more than half a second later, the race jumped. I had gotten the bet on! I don't think it paid out in the end.

Once the race started, everything came to a halt. Employees and patrons alike stood and watched as the race was run. In the end, it was the closest finish in Melbourne Cup history with the winner winning by less than 5 cm. It was a long shot too, paying at 1.00:48.00! There were some major winnings that day and I paid one man over $11 000. Guessing the exact trifecta would have netted you over $22 000 while getting the first four (NSWTAB does this but not ACTTAB) would have paid better than $550 000! What I could do with that kind of money; what could anyone.

There are some bizarre traditions on Melbourne Cup Day, flowing from the British experience. Women get dressed up in fancy dresses and where funny hats called fascinators. Then they proceed to get drunk and stagger out of the venue with no shoes. This is not just at Flemington Racecourse where the Melbourne Cup is held, but all over Australia. Different races happen that day at various venues across the country so race tracks are open everywhere. They all have live coverage of the Melbourne Cup so everyone gets dressed up. Men sometimes where top hats but get drunk. Actually, it ends up being a right old mess, but fun all round.

In the other big race of the day, the favourite came first. Barack Obama beat out John McCain to become the first African-American to be President. To be fair, he's only half black but I don't think that diminishes in any way his accomplishment. Also, his father is a Muslim and though it was not a major issue during the campaign, it still must have been at the back of many voters' minds. Nonetheless, I think that this speaks to the best aspects of American culture and psyche.

Last week, I forgot to mention that I received an award from Fenner Hall. Every year there is a sporting awards show called Spartos which honours those who have made a significant contribution to the Fenner Hall sporting community. I was at university all day that day and didn't get the invitation until after I got back and well after the awards ceremony was done. It turns out I had been given an award for trivia and helping Fenner tie with Johns (another residence) for first earlier in the year. The win was not without some controversy, the question in question involving which of Shakespeare's plays was written first to which there is no clear answer. When I found out about the award, I was naturally surprised. I was even more surprised when I was handed the award and noticed that my last name had been misspelled "Dizioba". Of all the Ukrainian names in history, I had to get stuck with the most difficult to spell and pronounce one.

With Christmas decorations up I got to thinking how many people actually celebrate Christmas as a summer holiday. Christmas , New Year's and the like are summer holidays on half the Earth's surface, the southern hemisphere, but it contains far less land than the northern hemisphere. It turns out about 10% of the world's population, roughly 700 million people, has Christmas in summer. This includes cities like Canberra, Darwin, Sydney, Melbourne, every other Australian and New Zealand city, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Johanessburg, Bloemfontein (try and find it), Cape Town and many others. What a crazy hemisphere!

Life's Little Tests

I suppose the biggest news recently has been the arrival of my parents in Australia. They decided to pop on down for a visit before heading off to New Zealand to visit my brother. They're also travelling around Australia with the Jakubows, family friends (the same ones that were down in June, minus my friend).

My parents arrived on Wednesday, October 22nd after enduring what essentially amounted to 3 non-stop flights. They flew Ottawa to Vancouver to Sydney to Canberra, all in one go. Although they had a lengthy layover in Vancouver, this was a marathon flight schedule. And what awaited them when they landed, the coldest October day in Sydney in 16 years and a not much warmer day in Canberra. Luckily, because of the flight times, neither of my parents seemed to be suffering from the effects of jet lag.

Their first night here, I took them to Kremlin Bar, a Soviet-themed bar on Northbourne Avenue. I had a feeling they would find it particularly funny. Afterwards, we went to dinner at Hogsbreath Cafe a little further away. My parents then came to Fenner Hall to see for themselves the abject squalor in which I live. The next day, my parents went walkabout around Canberra, seeing many of the landmarks, particularly Parliament House, we then met up later and went to the Solomkos for dinner. After dinner, we all went to see the Ukrainian museum that the Solomkos have on their property. It includes exhibits on Ukrainian culture and dress, among much else.

On Friday, we took a bus to spend the weekend in Sydney and my mom managed to score a room at the Holiday Inn right outside Kings Cross Station. Kings Cross is a fascinating place, vibrant and exotic at all hours, as any red light district should be. But don't be completely misled, there is much to see besides. For example, we all had an excellent and inexpensive lunch at the Sydney Swans Club, which I think must be new. We then strolled around the neighbourhood and retired to our room a little later. As it turned out, our room hadn't been ready on time due to an airline examining the rooms for longer than was expected and so, as an apology, we were given free breakfasts for our entire stay at the hotel restaurant. I think it was a fair trade. I also managed to get a great leather coat that was being held for me by the parents of Andrew Bilinsky, the husband of Sonia Mycak, both of whom I first met in Canberra. This jacket is my favourite as it has a great look and works well with any combination of dress. I'm only sorry I didn't have it in the winter. No matter, from now on I'll be stylin'.

The three of us spent Saturday and Sunday exploring the city. On Saturday we spent a great deal of time in The Rocks looking at the market stalls. I also had a chance to climb up Observatory Hill and managed to get some great shots of the old observatory and the view over the Parramatta. We then walked to Hyde Park and had a look around before calling it a day. On Sunday, I helped my parents with their baggage to the Westin on Martin Place, another fabulous location found by my mom. The room was amazing and modern, by which I mean there was a lot of glass. The best part, though, was that the widescreen LCD TV has a welcome screen with your name on it on the hotel's channel. About half the day was also spent at the Australian Museum, an interactive museum about various aspects of Australian culture. I lost about an hour in the dinosaur exhibit alone and I was pleased to read that this museum has a partnership with the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, AB. Also, in a presentation by an Aboriginal man, I found out the Aboriginal name of the didjeridu, "yiraki" (yih-rah-KEE). To be more precise, it's the name given to the didjeridu by one particular group of Aboriginals, but don't ask me which one. It's used in music but also to simulate in ceremonies the sounds of the Australian bush and outback. Following the museum, we went for Chinese food in Chinatown in a little place which had the TV set to a Chinese soap opera. It was set a few hundred years ago and my dad and I had some fun trying to follow the storyline.

I had to leave on Sunday to get back to Canberra for the final week of studies. Exams are coming up much sooner than I'd like. For my parents, their journeys are only beginning. Their driving with the Jakubows to Melbourne and then to Adelaide. If it's true what they say about friendships and long car trips, I can only hope that everyone doesn't end up killing each other by the time they hit Mount Gambier in South Australia. From Adelaide, my parents hop on the Indian-Pacific all the way to Perth and then from Perth, they go back to Sydney and then to New Zealand. For a vacation, it's pretty full on.

Today, I already sat an exam, though this one was administered by the Canadian federal government. I applied for the Foreign Service and had to sit the Foreign Service Exams today at the Canadian High Commission. I took the bus down and met up with 4 other who were also taking the exam --- 1 guy and 3 girls. The guy was studying International Relations at Bond University on the Gold Coast and we had much to talk about since I had finished much the same degree at NPSIA. Also, as he was down for the weekend, we all gave him suggestions as to what he could do and see in Canberra. 1 girl was in her final year of law at the University of Melbourne and she was just down for the day --- again, something in common. The 2 other girls both lived in Canberra; one was teaching at the ANU, I think, and the other was working at Parliament House. We were all about the same age group and it was nice that there were only 5 of us, giving us a chance to really talk to each other.

The Foreign Service Exam consists of 3 parts: a general knowledge test, a situational judgement test and a comprehension test. They weren't as nerve-racking as I thought they would be, though the math problems were needlessly complex. It actually was a lot of fun. The tests started at 08:30, lasting about 1.5 hours each, and we got about an hour's break in between. Also, the test administrator was the chief trade advisor for the High Commission. He's a very friendly and easy-going man who was eager to help us with any questions we had about the Foreign Service. And in case anyone was wondering, he was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. I hope I did well as a career in the Foreign Service does appeal to me, at least now. I think I'll finish my law degree first, though, and get admitted to practice just in case things don't work out in diplomacy. You never know, in my first 6 minutes as a diplomat I may end up causing 12 countries to declare war on Canada, but I hope not.

An important holiday just passed by, Halloween. All I can say about it is that it is not really celebrated in Australia. There may be parties where people get dressed up , but there's no trick-or-treating. It's a shame really, how can you pass up a chance for free candy?

I also noticed the the Christmas decorations have gone up. This is 2 full months before the holiday. At least in Canada, most places have the good sense not to put up decorations until mid to late November. Maybe it's the fact that we have Thanksgiving in October, but the Aussies have Labour Day around the same time, so maybe that's not the explanation. I'm still looking forward to Christmas, which is a summer holiday Down Under. I'm not sure how I'll take such a shock to my system.