Sky and Jeanettes

Trip Start Feb 25, 2006

148

Trip End Jun 24, 2009

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Flag of Australia Bonnells Bay, Australia
Saturday, April 19, 2008

Just by coincidence, an old family friend was in Balina only a few minutes down the road from Lennox Head and heading back down to their house on Lake Macquarie. So instead of riding the bus down and arriving at 4am, I decided to catch a ride down with them. Jeanette and Sky have a beautiful house right on the water. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating and it decided to rain the entire time I was there. I wanted to take a tour around the Hunter Valley Wine country, but it was mostly flooded by the torrential rains. It's strange. When I was thinking of going to Australia, an Aussie friend told me that they were in the middle of a drought of epic proportions. I figured that would be great for traveling, although a bit tough on the people. I imagined that there'd be nothing but beautifully clear sunny skies the whole time I was in Oz, but it was just a ploy from the Australian Tourism Board to get people here I think. It must have been a drought on tourism dollars. I've been in SE Asia during monsoon season and they had less rain than Australia has had in the past few months

Cardboard Sky n I

.

Sky went to school with my dad way back in the day. He has the perfect look of an older Asian gentleman for any part that requires an Asian actor. So his agent gets calls for just about any role that calls for an older Chinese, Japanese, Korean... He does commericals too. I took a picture of his cardboard cut out for HSBC in Sydney so you what I mean. Jeanette has a huge family consisting of like 4 generations. I couldn't believe that some of her daughters that were around my age had grand kids. I'm like no way you guys are way too young to be Grandmothers. Could you imagine me with kids much less grand kids? I am waiting for another nephew, but I think if I want another little fella in my life I'll have to do it myself. Maybe I'll name him Kyle also after my nephew and Godson so things can really be confusing. It's pretty kewl though having a large family like that. It sort of reminds me of my other family back home in Des Plaines. Hey there Nowaks! Any of you reading my blog? Please give Kyle a kiss for me.

Jeanette and family really showed me a taste of Aussie hospitality. Mark and Susan were going to take me to the Vineyards, but since it was pouring down rain, we ended up doing a beer crawl around Lake Macquarie and Newcastle instead. The drinking and driving laws in Australia are very strict and with the road blocks the chances of getting caught are significant. Most of the Aussies that I met wouldn't even consider drinking and driving unlike our American compatriots. Mark was our designated driver and he didn't have a beer all day until we got back home. I also got my first chance to try kava root at a party over at Kylie's. Mohammad handed me a coconut husk full of what appeared to be dirty dish water and asked me to down it

Lake Macquarie

. I had no idea what the dosage of kava was so I was a bit hesitant until he did one first. It's also not the most appetizing looking drink especially since I read many years ago about how they traditionally prepared kava in Fiji. They conscript virgins to chew the root until it becomes a pulp and spit it out on palm fronds before preparing the liquid. I just had to believe that they used a more modern means to prepare for the concoction that night. Kava gives you a pretty cool buzz. It has barbituate properties, but it doesn't put you to sleep like a valium. It just puts you in a very relaxed state of well being. I think this stuff would be great for people that have anxiety attacks. All in all it was a very relaxing time on the lake. I even put up my hammock on their back deck facing the lake. I was able to catch up on all my blogging as well which is why the last entry 'til now was just before I arrived in Lake Macquarie. If you guys are reading this, thanks again for everything.