I'm starting an AFL team

Okay, that's not exactly true.  But I did get to go to the launch event of a new AFL team.  I know, right?!  How does that even happen??

My company has been involved with the community in the Western Suburbs of Sydney and became involved in a partnership/sponsorship of this new AFL team.  That being said, the event sort came up last minute and they needed people to go so about five of us from the office were able to make it work on such short notice.

Luckily my first weekend in Sydney I went to an AFL game with my husband, so I at least know a little bit about the game.  I'm no expert by any means, but I actually enjoyed the AFL game (more so than the NRL game we went to) and get the basics of the rules.

The event was at the Olympic Park with several hundred people in attendance.  They broke up the event into 'quarters' as they lead up to the big reveal of the team, the jerseys, and drumroll.... the team name.

The biggest to do about the event is that some young, big deal player who was playing in the NRL had signed with the new team and was at the event that night.  I of course have no idea who this person really is, but when I was on the plane to Melbourne for work the next day, the sports page was plastered with his picture and a full page article about the new team - The Greater Westerns Sydney Giants.  There was a big to do about the name, because apparently 'Giants' is a very "American" team name.  I don't think so, but I guess they do have a team here called the 'Magpies'.... yeah.  We'll just leave it at that.

I wasn't able to get a picture of Isreal (the big deal former NRL player) but I did get him to sign a poster for my husband.  Pretty cool, right?!  Hey, at a minimum it'll be great decoration for the man cave one day.

What a great weekend

After another fun Saturday night at the Fitz, myself, Marc, and Fitzy (no relation to the Fitzroy except for the proximity of his house to the bar) decided to head to Sculptures By the Sea on a Sunday.  It was the last day of the exhibit and it ended up being a gorgeous 80 degree day.  Sculpture By the Sea is an art exhibit of sculptures.... you guessed it... by the sea.  It's along a beautiful stretch of coast and is a few km walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach.

We decided to start in Bronte Beach and grab a bite to eat.  We magically found a decent parking spot, which was amazing given the number of people that were out that day.  This was early/mid November so late spring/early summer here in Sydney.  We'd been getting a lot of rain and the Sydneysiders were ready for some summertime weather.

After a quick bite in the park we strolled up the coast taking in the sculptures along the way.  It's one of the things I find really neat about Sydney - the city is very art friendly and finds really interesting ways to share art with the public.  Besides the fact that the views are breathtaking along the sea, there were some pretty neat sculptures as well.  Now, don't get me wrong, there were definitely a few that I was clearly not cool enough to appreciate, but there were quite a few that I liked as well.  Here are some of my favorites:

Check out that view!  That's  Bondi Beach

And here are a few pictures of the sea:

Now how to end such a lovely, Sunday?  Well, you gotta stop in the Fitz for a cheeky pint, right?!

One of the great things about my apartment is that it's walking distance to The Fitzroy.  We dropped off my car, and had a leisurely walk towards The Old Fitzroy.  The Fitzroy is in the Wooloomooloo area of Sydney.  This is one of the signs along the walk.  It's not the greatest picture,  but I just love this sign....

And that's how you pronounce Wooloomooloo

The other nice thing about the walk is that at this time of year there are these trees with bright purple flowers all over the city.  Fitzy actually took this picture along the walk that day and it's one of my favorites of the day:

And that's that.  A beautiful day, some art, and a pint or two.  What a great weekend.

Team Days

I know I'm really behind, so there's quite a bit to catch up on.  Back in October (I know... October!  Where did the past month and a half go?!) we had team days for work.  If there's one thing that the team here knows how to do, it's getting out of the office and having a little fun.

Although really swamped with work, I was actually pretty excited about the team days.  For one I'm still getting to know everyone so I thought it would be fun to get to spend some time together.  And second, I knew what we were doing for the second day of the event... and it's really good!  But we'll get to that.

The first day was all about team building.  It was really well facilitated and ended up being really fun.  We did some 'speed dating' where we had to spend three minutes talking about the other person - initial thoughts, what we like about them, and what we want to know more of.  It was really interesting to hear everyone's feedback on me, especially being the lone American on the team.  In the afternoon we spent the day outside in Rushcutters Park on a beautiful, warm, sunny day.  We probably looked like crazy people as lots of the activities required at least half of us to be blinded folded (yeah, that was great for my trust and patience issues).  Finally we ended the night with a barbeque in the the hotel.  The food was tasty and we all just relaxed, had a few drinks, and of course Liz and I decided to play matchmaker/love advisor.  Not sure we'll be starting a side business anytime soon, but it was fun for the night.

The big surprise for the team, was that for day two we did a sailing adventure in Sydney Harbour!  How awesome is that?!  I love sailing and I love a good competition.  We arrived at the marina first thing in the morning, split into two teams, then headed out to our sail boats.  Now if you are my husband, you want to know lots of details about the boat: what kind of boat it is, how big it was, blah, blah, blah... You know I don't pay attention to things like that.  The important thing is, it was big enough, warm enough outside and not raining.

Our sailing adventure consisted of a dinghy race (the winner got a 30 second advantage in the sailing race - we did not win this), a type of trivia/navigation challenge, and a sailing race.  We had a really nice skipper, Wendy, who taught us everything we needed to know.  While sailing around the harbour to answer the trivia questions, we were also able to start learning how to sail.  (The rules were that you could not ask your skipper sailing questions during the race portion of the day, only during the trivia portion).  We sailed all through the harbour seeing the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, and all of the neat bays and inlets in the harbour.  It was amazing.  I can't believe this was a work day!

Sydney Opera House

We also started practicing our roles that we would have during the race portion.  The challenge was that there was no wind!  There's always a breeze in the Sydney Harbour!  Not today, my friends.  It made it a little slow, but we made it work.  I was on the main sail on the starboard side (sounds so official, right?!)

Okay, I'm not doing anything yet, but I'm about to!

And finally, the race started.  The other team had won the dinghy challenge so they had a 30 second head start.  But that didn't matter... we smoked them!  It was pretty amazing.  We were yelling sailing terms left and right "Tack!" "Main On!"  It was like a movie!

The Winning Team!!

It was great getting some time out of the office and getting to know the team a little better.  And for it being my first time in the Harbour besides on a ferry, I couldn't have asked for a better day.