Winter continues to be a wonderland

The team went out "ice skating" tonight. I use quotation marks as there were ice skates but no ice. It was a hard plastic surface. We had a great time although many bruises. antonio's family arrived today. His daughter was prone to falls but kept on skating. His son showed us all up and is obviously a budding LeBron.

The rink was in the middle of a park in the university district. It was lit up with white Christmas lights and there was playing popular Christmas carols (including Celine which my sister would have loved). It was a great experience.

Half of is went on to dinner and half split off to the basketball (Cavs and Portland). We went to 'The Pub' which was another bar / restaurant and all it sold was burgers!! It was good fun and the waitress asked of I wanted to go down on the cheese cake and I giggled like a primary school kid.

It was a quiet night as most I'd of us were up early for our road trip to Niagara falls, NY. Watch this space for photos of snow and water.

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Lunch at The House of Blues

Try the jambalaya- it is excellent. It was like a spicy risotto. Very tasty.

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Meltalicious

Shannon (from Phoenix, makers of fine coffee) introduced me to a bar / restaurant called Melt last night which specialised in toasted cheese sandwiches. The cool thing is if you get a tattoo of their logo, you get 25% off for life!!

And children, we all learned a valuable lesson outside Melt. Jumping on patches of snow is fun. Jumping on patches of ice . . . less fun. More dangerous really.

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Wes is on the back of the menu at Melt

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

I love the snow

And no cranky Clevelander can take away my fun. Bah humbug to you all.

I just got snow in my mouth, ear, and nose. I left foot prints in the snow. I just watched it fall from above and looked at the way it settled in garden beds. If you don't think this is cool, you are dead in the inside. Bring it Mother Nature, I'm ready.



You can't really tell but the snow was coming down and the wind was strong.

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Here we go people

I get the feeling the locals aren't excited about this, but here is the first real snow I have seen. To make it clear, I have written snow in the snow, much like Seinfeld's show within a show.

The train has left the station and now I need you to dig in Cleveland and give me a real dump of snow. You can do it, I believe in you.

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

A very sweet story

Link

Don't believe the packaging

It is a Bounty

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Family dinner

The project team got together tonight for a family dinner. We had Antonio (Chile), Julia (Germany), Lyudmila (Russia), Shu (Japan), Asad and Faiza (Bahrain / Pakistan), Vijai (US / India) and me. It was a 4 course banquet of Russian soup (thanks Lyudmila), my chicken and vegetable pasta (3 batches, one for the carnivores, one for the vegetarians and one for the semi-vegetarians). This was an authentic Australian dish as I cooked it while drinking beer (although it was American beer). In the end I was disappointed as it ended up looking pre-chewed (I can promise it was not team). Thanks for the vote of confidence Shu by going back for seconds.


This was followed by homemade* pumpkin pie with ice cream. It was amazing, although I am not sure what it did to Antonio as this is how it was served.


From there, it was coffee al a Julia with German biscuits provided by our boss’ boss, Emma (the token pohm).

It was a great night which I hope we can do again soon (although I would suggest someone else cook if we want it to look palatable).



*: This in no way means to represent the pie to be homemade (unless the store that it was bought from made it at someone’s home)

The Phoenix crew on E9th rock

A special thanks to Shannon for getting this in for me (check out the label on the bottle in the photo) and Elizabeth for vigilantly making sure my coffee gets made with chocolate in top, no matter who is driving the machine. Bravo I say, bravo

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

I just had my head vacuumed

It was very weird having a hair dresser vacuum hair from my head after getting it cut.

And Amanda, you will be pleased, I'm back to natural red.

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Shu has the warmest ears of us all

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

It's snowing!!!

You will just have to trust me in this, but there is snow falling. I am packing up and going to make a snowman.

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Maybe next time

We left during the third quarter, with a significant chunk of the supporters. It was clear they were going to lose as they were 15 points down and as advised to us by a supporter who was nice enough to be giving us tips on the game (and how to say warm, or less cold), they are not a team who comes back. Apparently they lack the offensive skills.

We decided to leave to prevent the onset of hyperthermia. I took a photo that showed the temperature of the stadium was -2c and this was while the sun was up. We left at about 6.30 and the sun had set a good while ago. We saw some fans with blankets over their knees. Chile decided to steal the blanket from the father and son beside us while they were gone for food. He was not proud (no one is at this temperature).

Here is a video of the stadium before the game started. On my right was Julia from Germany and on my left was Antonio (emphasis on the T) from Chile.



We had a great time and only had a vague idea on what was happening. Mostly we were cheering when the crowd was cheering and booing when the crowd was booing. I also joined in the Cleveland Browns' version of Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi oi oi which was CLEVELAND woof woof woof.

It was fantastic and I would do it again (although with an extra layer under my jeans and a blanket). Now all I need is snow and my Cleveland experience is complete. I have been to all 3 of the sporting codes (basketball, ice hockey and NFL), met great people, found great coffee, and learned to swear in 4 languages (much to Mark's disappointment).

- 5c at the stadium now

The air is colder than the beer. There is something really wrong about that- although the longer you leave it, the colder the beer gets, the dream of every beer drinker. I have had to deglove to write this and I just lost a finger to frostbite.

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra