Star Sightings

Ok, I almost didn't mention this on the blog since they're not really super duper A list stars that we happened across this weekend, but it was just so odd that we managed to catch a glimpse of two people who we have previously only seen on tv (they weren't together), that I had to post something.

Our first sighting was at a little cafe on Chapel Street where we went to walk around and tick a classic Melbourne site off our list*. We had a very nice lunch and about halfway through Kane looks up at me and asks, "Is that Phillip?" Though Bill Nighy** has been in lots of movies (Underworld, Valkyrie, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Love Actually, to name a few), you might only recognize him as "that guy" (or, if you're my mom, not at all). Kane and I, however, know him intimately as Phillip from the greatest movie of all time: Shaun of the Dead. We immediately started quoting necessary lines from the movie and joking about approaching him with some of them.

I had dismissed the possibility that it was in fact Phillip by the end of the meal, but, low and behold, it appears that Mr. Nighy is actually present in Melbourne this weekend for an appearance on Rove tonight. This fact leads us to resume our former assumption, with certainty of 100%. He has very odd and distinctive glasses (not pictured here, but shown in his IMDB profile linked above). Shabooya.

Today, we went for a nice brunch at the posh Auction Rooms Cafe in North Melbourne where I sighted JD, one of the top 20 contestants from last season's So You Think You Can Dance Australia. I know, we're pathetic, not only watching this show, but doing so with such dedication as to recognize its contestants on the street. But still, he was on tv. I realize that so was Jerry Springer and Blossom, but I don't care.

And as a follow up, Bill Nighy was very funny on Rove, along with fellow Shaun of the Dead-er Nick Frost. Yeay for Australia where even the lesser stars are bright and shiny.

*We've actually been to Chapel Street once before with Marc and Alana when our friendship was just beginning (ah, those were the days), but we were new to this city and really didn't know where the hell we were at all, so it hardly counts.
**Not to be confused with the great Bill Nye the Science Guy, though their surnames are pronounced the same.

Earthquake Part Deux

Apparently I attract earthquakes. Today we had a quake that was the same magnitude of the one a week and a half ago, but this time we were at work. I felt the shaky-shake from the ground floor and everyone looked around saying the standard, "did you feel that?", and, "was that an earthquake?". I proclaimed loud and clear that I did feel it and it was an earthquake. I do have to pretend to be a bit of an expert being from California and all. Although I've felt more quakes here in the past two weeks that I have in 25 years of being firmly planted on California soil. The irony followed me here too, apparently.

Alice and the Rock

I will begin by describing the isolated, desolate, parched location of Alice Springs and Ayer's Rock (Uluru) in this fine expanse of utter vacancy that is Australia. First of all, most non-Australians (and probably some Australians) don't register the true size of this country. The stark gigantic-itude of this continent is decidedly underestimated time and time again. The continental United States has an area of 3.1 million square miles, while Australia is 2.97 million square miles; all but the same size, really.

But when you compare America's busting 306 million residents to Australia's meager 21.6 million, you begin to see that this place is freaking deserted - literally. For the vast majority of the flat, dry interior, there is nothing. A documentary once told me that Australia has the most area of land, besides Antarctica, that has never been traversed by modern man. That means that there could conceivably be giant chunks of gold - or anything really - just laying around in the middle of this place where we're just to fragile and uninterested to venture extensively. Imagine what awaits us...

Part of the allure and experience of visiting Alice and Uluru is that they are a couple of the only places nestled safely in the heart of this vast empty place where people have braved the elements and wrestled nature back enough to install a few lousy shacks with air conditioning, which, they realized early on, is the only way to lure more people out there. Here's a map showing Uluru's (Ayer's Rock's) location in Aus; you will notice Melbourne and Sydney safely perched on the south east corner of the continent (their combined inhabitants accounting for 40% of the population).

So, I was happy to explore one of the only reasons a sane person would ever have to venture to this remote place: The Big Red Rock.

And a big red rock it was. We actually didn't do a whole lot with this rock - we viewed it at two sunsets and one sunrise (yes, we're crazy) when it is famed to be at it's most orang-y, but didn't do a whole lot else. You can climb the rock, but the Aboriginals ask you not to; you can walk around the rock, but why walk when you can drive?; and you can take helicopter rides to get a sweet arial view, but we all know that I'm too cheap for that. More pics are here.

About an hour drive from Uluru is a group of similar rocks called The Olgas. Here, there are many rocks instead of just one, though none are as large as the one big rock. The Olgas (or Kata Tjuta in Aboriginal language) makes for good hiking (supposedly better than Uluru itself), so we spent the better part of our single day in this area hiking around here.

The temperature was hot, but since it can easily get up to 120+ degrees, I wasn't complaining about the dry 90 or so that we experienced. It did make for an excellent night's sleep after that hike though, I'll surely testify to that.

Around Uluru there is a singular resort - you must stay here if you come to see the rock. There are a variety of places to stay (hotel, apartment, camping) and a few restaurants, but the place has a bit of a deserted, 1980's-out-of-style feel to it that I found to be a bit creepy. Plus, the only people in the entire area are tourists, which is at once awkward and comforting.

But even stranger than Ayer's Rock itself is the gateway city which lies a cool 400 miles away: Alice Springs. To fly to Uluru, you must first fly to Alice Springs. Flights do not go directly from Melbourne to Uluru - either that or if they do, they're ridiculously expensive, I can't remember. We got a bargain at $500 a person to fly Melbourne-Alice Springs-Uluru and back again. Four flights in four days - good times. A discussion about the current developments in airport security is an entirely different blog entry.

Alice is a tiny little run down town that appears to be barely breathing with a small but apparently adequate flow of tourists to sustain it. Don't even ask me what the 26,000 people who live there are doing, I can't even imagine. The nearest town of a equal or larger population is a clean a thousand miles away. Who does the high school soccer team play against?

I've seen small desert towns in America - this is certainly not a phenomenon isolated to this country, though The Alice is arguably far more isolated than most other similar towns around the globe. Still, this is not the strangest thing about Alice, as I saw it. All around town you find Aboriginal people just lounging around. Understand that in big Australian cities (such as our Melbourne), Aboriginals are a rare sighting. Their plight is similar to that of the Native Americans in that they have sort of been trampled on, tossed aside, and left to the plights of poverty and alcoholism, with no real place in the Western world around them.

And so, they rarely are able to afford life or even a visit to the big cities and remain scattered in tiny communities around mostly the north and middle of the country, where no one else will venture. But in Alice, these people are everywhere. I was hoping to really experience their culture and style with this juxtaposition, but instead it's more like herds of homeless people roaming the town, some selling paintings by the sidewalks, others drunk, and most just minding their own business laying in the shade. I found it a bit unsettling and didn't really know how to deal with it.

I sort of automatically turned on "homeless person defense mode" when a man tried to coax me over to view the painted canvas he had spread out next to him on the red brick cobbles of the city square. I'm not sure how good their English is, in general, and they're all dressed like vagabonds. I sort of felt sorry for them, but really only because I couldn't discern if they were happy or not. I felt very awkward being one of the "rich white people" arriving to exploit their land and give them superior smug glances. I need a book about it to learn what's really behind the blank faces and unkempt persona of the meandering Aboriginals of Alice. Or, if I weren't such a weirdo, maybe I could have just talked to them.

But alas, it was certainly an interesting experience. And even if some of the Aboriginals of Alice are down on their luck, I know that there is a rich Aboriginal culture surviving around the country, which people are starting to grasp, respect, and attempt to preserve. Alice and the Rock, thanks for having us.

Uluru Pictures

We returned yesterday from our four day weekend trip to Uluru, way out in the middle of this gigantic, barren country. I will post more about our experiences and (my) thoughts, but for now, I thought I'd upload some eye candy for anyone who's curious about the great expanse that is the-middle-of-freaking-nowhere Australia. Here is the link to my most recent Picasa album. And here is my favorite pic from the trip, taken at a quirky bar in Alice Springs.

Earthquake!

Last night was the end of a long week of work and entertaining: Kane's dad and stepmom were visiting from Monday to Thursday (as shown above). We had a really good time hanging out with them every night, but by Friday, we were rather tired. Watching The Wedding Singer on tv, I felt a vibration sitting on the couch. Now, we're on the 14th floor, so there aren't many conceivable explanations for the floor of our apartment vibrating. "What is that?" I asked Kane worridly. After a few seconds there was a medium sized lurch of our building - a definite sudden movement and then everything stopped. I stood up and swore that it must have been an earthquake. I'm not from California for nothing.

Approaching the internet, my well-informed, everpresent friend, I went to confirm our experience. But alas, nothing turned up on my google search. I did, however, know something was up when the geological site for Australia wouldn't load. The masses around Melbourne were doing the same thing I was, clogging the site right up. About an hour later (what century is this anyway?) I finally found the articles appear on the news sites: a 4.7 quake hit outside Melbourne. And then the "breaking news" began to accost us from the tv set. Finally. Well at least I'm not a crazy person, making up earthquakes.

It is rare for an earthquake to happen in Australia - it's nothing like the geological madness of California. But, upon searching the internet, it appears that there are a number of 2.5-4.5ish quakes a year around the country. So, I guess the earthquakes chased us all the way around the world. I'll tell you though, a 14th floor earthquake is far more scary than a ground floor earthquake. Not that I was terribly scared, but I think that was the most worried I've ever been from a quake - because we're way in the heck up here and I know they don't design for earthquakes very well here. Not in a real good position if something were to happen. But, our building held strong and all is well. It seems to be natural disaster season in Melbourne. I didn't sign up for this crap.