We are sitting up from 3rd base

I just had a cheese burger, I have a miller lite and some peanuts. I'm at the ball game. The only thing that gives me away is the accent. We are even cheering when the crowd cheers (but we are never sure why).

Emma just called me to wave from her corporate box and show off her free beer. That was just mean.

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Excellent day for a ball game

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I'm part of the tribe

We are off to the Indians vs white sox baseball game tonight. It has been rainy and miserable all day but now, at 6PM, the clouds have lifted and the birds are singing again. Hopefully we are in for a good game (not that I would really know the difference between a good and bad game). My virginal ball game is going to include beer, hotdogs and peanuts (apparently that is a baseball staple).

Go Indians!!!

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THE ULTIMATE BATTLE

It is on. Emma (EY Global Learning bigwig) is one of those people who has gone out and picked up one of those iPhones. And we have all witnessed the transition of these people into objectophiles with their "my iPhone does this, and this, and this and blah blah". Largely Emma's position was that with Urbanspoon it could randomly select a restaurant to eat at in the area she was in. Pity no one ever actually goes to the selected restaurant and you just shake the phone over and over until the restaurant you wanted to go to comes up.

So, being the competitive and contrary shit I am, I had to declare it was indeed the Blackberry, not the iPhone, that was better. So starts the battle of the smart phones (or battle of the smart phone and the app phone. The iPhone is not smart- you install aps on it).

So, being a born-again Cavaliers fan, I downloaded the Cav's Blackberry theme so my phone is now cross between a blackberry and a basketball.

Blackberry 1, iPhone 0

In return, Emma downaloaded the song Cavaliers use in their player introduction video. I paid the fact that she could search, download and play a song so seamlessly on a single device.

Blackberry 1, iPhone 1.

Not stopping there, I set the iconic LeBron James Nike photo as my wallpaper and took a picture to send to Emma to gloat.


Emma quickly responded with a photo of her own. Note the strategically placed iPhone on the framed, wall mounted, iconic LeBron James Nike photo.


Now neither of these actions really support a one device being better than the other, but they look good. Emma gets points for creativity (I laughed so hard a little pee came out when I opened the photo) and also for effort (not real points, just figurative points).

The score is tied and it is anyone's (by anyone I mean Blackberry will win because, well, it is better)**.

** As an auditor, my views are always fair and impartial, without any hint of conflict of interest.

The sun's out and Cleveland is buzzing

This is my buzz to keep me going. Good mix of cultures I think.

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Morning tea anyone?

Emma brought a tea pot for our Tim Tam morning tea last week. She left it in the project room afterwards so Luis and I have been using it to make tea (novel I know). Because it is not the most masculine tea pot in the world (no offence Emma), we tend to rush to the lunch room to fill it with boiling water and then rush back to the project room. This may not actually help our cause.

The good news it is makes an excellent cup of tea.

Indians home opener

Today is the Cleveland Indians' opening home game (we call it the home opener). Apparently it is the biggest party of the year in Cleveland. The locals are not feeling confident about the team's season but today will have Carnival style atmosphere. I cannot wait to get out there and see what is going on. I will be going to a game on Friday night with Luis. Lisa and Emma are also going on Friday but have progressively better seats that we do. I am going for the atmosphere and beer (and just the experience of an American ball game).

Not sure how I am going to get this all home

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Got that Jessie James?

No smoking in the shopping center

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What sound does a turtle make?

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Caroline, a little hamburger helper maybe?

Seriously, you have to move here.

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You know how everything is bigger in the US?

Well Wal-Mart is huge. It has sales of $400 billion a year (this is not a Barnaby Joyce moment, it is billions). To put that in perspective, Australia has a GDP of $1,000 billion. Therefore, 2.5 Wal-Mart companies = 1 Australia. WOW

I have just taught the team the Tim Tam slam

It went down well, didn't it Emma?

Thanks to Emma for supplying the tea pot and me for supplying the world's most overpriced tea. Seriously, $5.50 for 10 tea bags. They saw me coming.

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No way - it is snowing

It was 25 degrees (80F) last Friday and now it is snowing. It is 15C in Moscow at the moment. This weather is loco.

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A week in the life . . .

I have been back in Cleveland over a week and am having a blast. I got straight into work and am enjoy that - knowing we have a tight deadline helps me focus and get things done- nothing like waiting to the last moments. I have reconnected with John and Roy. When I was here last, they had desks outside our project room so I would often have a chat with them during the day and generally we went out for lunch on Fridays. Roy has moved on from EY and John has moved into an Advisory role (the OTHER division). I don't hold that against him and we are doing drinks next Thursday. Should be fun. (Oh, by the way Roy, I have stolen your chair. No use in it going to waste).

Without them there, and the room so empty now (especially without Lyudmila), it seems like we are the only people on the floor at times. It makes me talk to complete strangers in the office just to have conversation. I think the level 16ers think I have a screw loose. I am Aussie so they can't be too wrong. I think part of it is they cannot understand me.

The extended team went out for dinner and drinks on Friday night at the House of Blues for some gold ol' New Orleans food. Don't listen to the name, it was actually a house of fun. They have a decent cocktail menu so we enjoyed fancy drinks on E4th, the cool street in Cleveland. It has the best restaurants in town, including one owned by one of America's Iron Chef's. It was good Friday and I had been working all day (the crazy Yanks don't all have public holidays for Good Friday and Easter Monday. Someone suggested it was the separate of Church and state). In protest, I ate ribs for dinner. Take that congress. During dinner, Mario (he is in the GASMI team he he), being the astute Italian he is, stated that Aussies were harder to understand than Scots. Now I know Italians are eccentric, but seriously thinking anyone knows what Scots say when they talk - I think he has had one too many meatballs.

The Cav's are the number one basketball team in the NBA (by a decent margin as well) and I again had the chance to witness why on Tuesday night when I went to a game. LeBron was the crowd favourite as always, Z was a man giant that was unable to move more than 3 steps without tiring, and the whole team are sporting gods. I was able to perfect my Z impression during the game which was fun. It is very similar to Yoda actually.

Another achievement over the last week is a continual improvement of my Spanish. Luis will teach me various words and I am using them whenever I can. I would not say I am fluent, but I conversational Spanish skills now - as long as the conversation consists of "crazy cold hi what why brother thank-you meat yum burp little beer lemon". I don't mean the conversation has to be about those words, it can ONLY be those words. It will be a short conversation and will not mean anything. It has sparked my interest in learning Spanish for real so I will keep chipping away.

Tomorrow is Friday (woo woo) which brings us Saturday. We will be heading out on the bike trail on Sat afternoon for a spot of cycling, ice cream and beer (I am hoping that each of these activities is going to be separated as I can't see how I am going to steer with an each hand occupied). It will be good to make the most of the fantastic weather. I still cannot believe my luck coming back during such an incredible season. I loved winter because it was so novel and I really REALLY wanted to see snow. I would accuse locals of being dead on the inside if they said anything negative about winter in Cleveland (basically, the same reaction as speaking badly of GAMx) but coming here in spring is a whole new experience. I will share it with you next week after the cycling adventure.

Also this week Luis and I went out for dinner to a place that specialised in Martinis. Now I walk around saying I love the original and everything else is pig swill but I did enjoy the pear martini and the apple martini (although it was nothing on the Apple Martini I had in Melbourne during the great Vanessa Carlton weekend of 2005- surprisingly good).

Watch this space for details of the injuries suffered on the biking adventure with the team which are nearly a certainty on Saturday.