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Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Gold Coast (Australia) - Return of the boy from Oz

GOLD COAST (Australia)
07 March - 11 March 2017


Arriving back 'home' felt good. I think what you miss when you're away are more of the small things, happenings in your daily life that you might take for granted, a way of speaking, a friendly smile, a typical joke, items in the supermarket. These aren't major concerns or elements that cause a nuisance when you're away, as they're always replaced with either something different or better, but something needs to be said for the substance of familiarity. Things that are familiar are safe. Not that I'm concerned about safety but being home gives you a level of comfort where you can feel safe.

Working from home? Gold Coast - Queensland - Australia

International Woman's Day - Gold Coast - Australia

A visit to Brisbane to see if the Gold Coast to Brisbane daily commute was a viable option.
Answer - NO

Brisbane - Queensland - Australia

The Gold Coast wasn't meant to be any sort of extension of our Arrival holiday, in fact, we had originally had it slated as the place where we would live. A decision that we originally made for reasons of weather and access to, well, everything cool. The issue with the Gold Coast, for the moment, is that it's not a mecca for jobs, and I didn't really consider us to be in the position where we could wait around for 6 months until something eventuated. It may however be our final destination in the future but that needs to remain on hold for a little while.

Arriving in Melbourne!
Welcome Home!!


We spent a few days on the Gold Coast before heading to our new home, Melbourne. During that time we caught up with Jay, who at that time was at the start of a journey that would take him to California. One going, and one coming back. Little did we both know that at this very time the next year both of us would be in the same cool position, excited and nervous expectant fathers.

And to kick-off the ARRIVAL HOME - here's a few photos from our first months in Melbourne

Elizabeth Street - Melbourne - Victoria - Australia

Melbourne - Victoria - Australia


First day of work with BAPL - a view out to the 'G'

Melbourne - Victoria - Australia

Our first rental - Garfield Street - Richmond - Victoria - Australia

Garfield Street - Richmond - Victoria - Australia

Garfield Street - Richmond - Victoria - Australia

Garfield Street - Richmond - Victoria - Australia

Our first car in Melbourne - the Ford Mustang Fastback EcoBoost
Good story - Inga & I rode up to the dealership on our bikes. Inga parked her pink bike at the front door. As we walked in the salesman looked as us, not quite sure what to make of two people turning up on bicycles.

20 minutes later he had a sale!

Garfield Street - Richmond - Melbourne - Victoria - Australia

Garfield Street - Richmond - Melbourne - Victoria - Australia





Friday, March 2, 2018

San Franciso (USA) - Don't Haight me

SAN FRANCISCO (USA)
02 March - 05 March 2017


This was it. The last stop on an incredible ride over the last three years that has taken me from Australia, and Inga, from Latvia, through South America, back to Australia, back to South America, through Europe, back to South America, to Europe, to Central America, to Europe, to South America, to the Middle East, to Europe, to the Middle East and now through the US. When you say it exactly like that, it's a little too hard to grasp, and even when we think of the time from 2015-2018 it feels like a hurricane of thoughts, images, hotel and airports. But for me at least, I wouldn't of had that time any other way. 

Not that I justify the amount of travel completely but when looking at my life from 18 yrs of age I spent nearly all of my time out of high school both studying and working. First I completed a B.Business, then a Masters in Economics, then a Juris Doctor, all the while working without purpose or direction, in the hope that my studies would elevate me to somewhere that I wanted to be. Of course, in hindsight that strategy was the arse backwards approach, where really, had I have started in an industry where I had a real interest and then studied something in parallel, well, I may have lined up things with far more wisdom and direction then I have up until this point.

The three years that we took to doing what we wanted is the trade-off for the 20+ yr grind. And I recognise that people may say do you think yourself entitled? To that I say, absolutely not, but why not take the opportunity when its there for you? How many people dream of doing things and then regretting the opportunities that they never took? I won't.





San Francisco surprised me. Occupying 75 square kilometres of hills at the tip of a slender peninsula around the southern entrance to San Francisco Bay, its actually very small. In my head I always considered San Francisco to be a major US metropolis, in the 2.5-3.5 million vicinity, and perhaps that's true if you take into account the combined area of San Jose - San Francisco and Oakland, but on it's own, San Francisco has a population of a little under 850,000, although, it is one of the might highly densely populated areas in the US, and certainly the most on the West Coast.


Presidio of San Francisco - California - USA

San Francisco - California - USA

San Francisco - California - USA

To get in here you need to have some type of wealth, the scarcity of land means that you're going to be paying through the nose for anything reasonable. Real estate prices are on par with Sydney, in fact, Inga and I, with the assistance of my friend Tia, went to an open house for a 2bdr/2bath/no car space in the cool suburb of Ashbury Heights and found an asking price of $1million. Probably not the extreme disaster when exchange rates were at parity but these days the conversion would get you close to $1.5m AUD. So when I think about what that could get you in either Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, then I'd say San Francisco is now forming a league of its own.




Alcatraz Island - San Francisco Bay - California - USA

San Francisco - California - USA

San Francisco - California - USA


To me San Francisco is kind of like the Australian version of Melbourne, being on the coast however still doesn't give it the power, or the right, to be identified as a beach bunnies getaway, it's not any sort of L.A. Temperatures are consistently in the mid 20's and Winter will get you into the 15's, which aligns to what we experience here in Melboutne. With that said, a lot goes on here, in spite of the weather, in spite of its small footprint, the ideas, political movements, hippie boho vibe, artistic endeavours, anything that you could want to be developed or imagined will probably get a creative spark from right here, and that makes the city desperately cool. What it packs into a small area is exactly the fist to the jaiw that can knock you out for the night - if you missed the idea I was going for there what  mean is that it packs a punch.


Pier 39 - Fisherman's Wharf - San Francisco - California - USA

Haight Street - Haight-Ashbury - San Francisco - California - USA

Hobbson's Choice Cafe - San Francisco - California - USA

Despite being a hilly town it's still relatively accessible and quite the attractive city. It's harbour is open &l arge and its entrance, punctuated by the Golden Gate bridge, quite the dramatic statement.

One of my favourite areas that we went to was Haight Street, as invited and directed by my friend and former OzEmail/UUNet/MCI WorldCom colleague, Tia Barnard. This street cuts through the well known Haight-Ashbury area and gives you access to cool bars, BoHo stores, restaurants and all many of other great things. It's very much like Brunswick Street in Melbourne or King Street in Newtown, you know its different and that's what makes its such a welcome change.


San Francisco - California - USA

San Francisco - California - USA

San Francisco - California - USA


And that my friends, was that. Three (3) years after leaving Australia, for what at the time I thought was going to be a permanent departure, now sees me coming back home, albeit to a different city. 

The Year Full of Saturdays has certainly had a wild ride and there were times when I thought that I'd dropped so far behind with my entries that catching up with be a total impossibility, and whilst I'm still not quite 100% on the mark, my arrival back to Australia puts my in a place where I consider myself to be very much in the ball park.

And so we wait for the next adventure.