Thursday, April 12, 2007

We have 2 more weeks to spend in Australia before heading back to the northern hemisphere. We’re making the most of the time, by planning activities with friends, taking some last few trips to the beach for swimming, and trying some restaurants we’d targeted at the beginning of our trip.

Last night we dined with Tom’s friend, Garth, an American/Canadian who has lived all over the world, and has the interesting career of setting up web domains in emerging and post-conflict countries. His work takes him around the world to exotic – and what we would deem dangerous – locations. He’s an ex-pro rugby player and sailor who has coached the Belarus Olympic sailing team (marched in the Olympic parade in Atlanta). An absolutely fascinating guy – and one of the few people I’ve met whose calves are larger than mine!! We met his girlfriend, who comes from a small town near Trondheim, Norway. They met in Mauritius. Sigfrid is a journalist who has done some fascinating travel as well. Her next big assignment is to spend a month in Nepal doing a story about women’s issues in that region. It was a very fun evening, and we look forward to a visit from him, perhaps sometime in the next year. He does have connections to Seattle and Vancouver; in fact, he’s friends with one of Tom’s fraternity brothers from UW. Garth’s mode of transportation here in Sydney is a fixed gear bike, so he’s earned our respect and awe. Sydney is quite hilly, so he spends at more than half of his time on the bike standing up while pedaling – keeps those calves in great shape!

We had a lovely lunch with another cycling friend, Grant, who is a barrister here in Sydney and just celebrated his 65th birthday. He’s a very fit, very young 65. Grant has an excellent sense of humor, and he had us laughing the entire time. His wife is an expert in Aboriginal art, and although she’s retired, she does consulting work. I’m looking forward to meeting her; perhaps at a group dinner next Monday night.