City Chase 2010

It's that time of year again, City Chase time. This is our second year in a row doing this great event. It is part scavenger hunt, part figuring out puzzles, part doing challenges and a race to boot. This year we read the rules and greatly improved our overall finish. We came in 45th out of some 280 or so teams. We finished the event in a little over four hours. This year was very tough partially due to the higher temperature and humidity and mostly due to the longer course which involved more running. As you can tell we were quite sweaty and tired by the end. Kt did manage to find time to pose with what looked like a giant tooth with plaque. Can you tell that Blackberry was the event sponsor? Those girls in red at least won the best costume award and $250 each, I guess that's the price of dignity. We managed to get a bit dirty and a bit wet from our swim. We did take in some of the sights around the harbour, and even got a ride on some neat Navy boats, including the fast and fun inflatable one that Kt is posing next to. The random guy let us dress him in skins and take his photo as part of one of the challenges. Then there is proof that it is not easy to take a hold out photo when running. Finally after the finish we enjoy some tasty snacks and beverages of an adult nature.

Interesting Happenings

Last week TV had an interview, so dressing quite dapper with his leather attache and suit, he was off.

A few days later we hear back that the interview went quite well and a job was on offer. The job is as a Transport Planner with Parssons Brinckerhoff, or PB as they like to be known. They are a consulting firm and are quite busy doing all sorts of infrastructure projects all over NSW, and the world.
Here is their website: http://www.pb.com.au/ if anyone is curious. The job starts on May 1st in a part time capacity and will go to full time after graduation. The office is on the 27th floor in the Sydney CBD (downtown) with a great view of the city. We can actually see our house from there. No joke. Meanwhile school is going well for both of us. TV just found out that he made the dean's list for his first semester, while KT has performed several births all on her own, along with learning tons about all aspects of birthing. See you all soon.

Tasmania Part 3

On our way to the east coast of Tasmania we made a pit stop at a cheese factory, chocolate factory, and a raspberry farm. The first photo is of the cheese aging room at the factory, mmmm cheeeeeese. Then there is a raspberry orchard and proof that KT does drive sometimes. We then reached the eastern city of St. Helens where we enjoyed the beautiful white beach, blue water, and rust colored rocks. From St. Helen we went south along the coast and stopped for a lunch of fresh oysters and a glass of wine with another great view. After lunch we drove a little further and went on a short one hour hike to the Wine Glass Bay lookout where KT decided to interact with the local rocks. There are two shots of the spectacular colors of the bay itself set against the trees and mountains. On the way back from the lookout KT decided to take a break and take in some sun. Our last day we came back to Hobbart and visited the convict Women's Factory which housed most of the women prisoners during the years of transportation. Our last stop on our tour was at the Cascade Brewery to see the beer making process, and of course free samples. Arguably the best part of the holiday. It was interesting to see the contrast between the original building and gardens, and the modern bottling plant with it's robotic arm doing keg lifts and the line of bottles being prepared for packaging. Overall it was another successful holiday in which we managed to stumble across tons of interesting sights, sometimes completely by accident. We ended up driving around 1600 kms or about 1000 miles in the week we were there.
The dark photo from the last entry was of a penguin that we saw. He wasn't the only one, but he was the only one we managed to take a photo of, although not a particularly good photo.