My Birthday and Dutch Queensday

Traditionally, the end of April brings some good reasons to party!! First, it's my birthday on the 25th, followed five days later by "Koninginne Dag" or Dutch Queensday on the 30th, which in its turn is preceded by the Queens Night on the 29th.

Despite questioning myself if turning 24 years, almost a quarter of a century, is something to really cheer about, I decided that april shouldn't end without having had some good fun, and drinks in honour of both myself and the Dutch Queen!!

On the 25th, I invited 11 of my best friends to go out for dinner in a BYO Thai restaurant. It was great to spend the night chatting and laughing in company of Fernanda from Brazil, Courtney from Canada, Matt from Poland, Carsten and Michael from Germany, Rita from Hongary, Mauricio from Colombia, Fiona from Indonesia, Marcel from Australia and Bianca and Chris from the Netherlands, while eating delicious Asian food and drinking cheap Bring Your Own wine!!

The real party, however, took place 4 days later, in the house where I live. Theme: Dutch Queensday, dresscode: Orange! With fellow "Dutchie" Bianca, I had visited the Dutch Shop a week before, to get Poffertjes Mix, Kroketten, Frikadellen, Drop and Stroopwafels. We decorated the place with Orange flags and baloons, and we printed and hung pictures of Amsterdam, Tullips and the Dutch Royal Family. Thanx to Dutchman Luc, brilliant translations beautified the walls as well, to teach the partypeople some proper Dutch sentences, e.g:

"lekkere tieten!" = "Welcome to the party!" ;-)

Although the Queensday celebrations in the streets of Amsterdam and Den Haag are not easy to beat, I didn't get even a chance to miss them much. The dozens of orange-dressed friends and friends of friends, among which quite some Dutchies too, the authentic Dutch music like Andre Hazes, Dj Tiesto and the Party Animals, the delicious Dutch Snacks, the Imported bottles Grolsch and Heineken, they all contributed to a fantastic Queensday / Birthday party which I'll never ever forget!

Rip Curl Pro @ Bells Beach

Another massive international top-sport event near Melbourne: The RipCurl Pro surfing festival at Bells Beach! Each year the 44 best surfers of the world battle each other in the ASP World Championship Tour. During this tour they travel around the world to surf the best waves of our planet: At Pipeline in Hawaii, Cloudbreak in Fiji, Hossegor in France and.. Bells Beach Australia! As a keen surfer I obviously couldn't miss out, and thus I caught a train to Bells Beach, in company of my ex flatmate Chris from the Netherlands, who visited Melbourne as part of his 9 month back-packing trip through Australia.

We chose a fantastic day - in terms of wave-quality and spectacular surfing action, that is. Solid 2 - 3m lines greeted us in the morning when we arrived on the contest site, which itself was just awesome: A true festival village had been build on the cliffs overlooking the ocean, with surf shops, bars, food stands, a big stage from where bands and dj's were entertaining the crowds, and even a snow track where Australia's best snowboarders showed their sickest tricks...

Of course, the heats between the worlds most talented surfers were what it was all about that day. With all the "big guns" still in competition and the waves being just about as good as it gets at Bells, there was not much more we could wish for! Andy Irons, Kelly Slater, Taj Burrow, just to name a few, they all entered the water and paddled out just a few meters in front of the spot we'd conquered on the beach. Although the waves were breaking a bit far out, it was a really great experience to see the pro's surfing in real. I was amazed by their incredibly fast, radical and powerful way of surfing! Apparently it all looks even much better and spectacular in real than it does on the surf videos!

In terms of weather, we were less lucky that day. In the afternoon lots of dark clouds and rain poured over Bells Beach.. Autumn in Victoria! Totally soaked we decided to visit a laundry to dry our wet clothes, allowing ourselves to travel back to Melbourne warm and dry, all and all looking back on a very exiting and pleasant day!

Full of inspiration and "stoke" I went surfing myself the next day, on a beach near Bells Beach. Later that week 7 times world champion Kelly Slater claimed victory of the RipCurl Pro.

Commonwealth Games 2006

In a country that is totally 'sports-mad', Melbourne has a reputation as 'sports-maddest'. No wonder it's considered Australia's sports capital and even promotes itself as the world's. The city has over 30 sport stadiums with a capactiy greater than 10.000. Since my arrival October last year, numerous world-class sport events have been hosted by the city: World Championships Gymnastics, Australian Open, Grand Prix Formula 1, and last but certainly not least the Commonwealth Games 2006, during which the sports-madness was truly inescapable!

During two weeks in March, more than 4500 athletes from all 71 nations of the Commonwealth competed in dozens of branches of sport, ranging from Athletics to Gymnastics, Hockey and Cycling, to Tabletennis and Swimming. A massive event organized every 4 years somewhere in the Commonwealth, requiring a decade of preparation, in its field probably only surpassed by the Olympics.

Impossible to not get caught by the Melburnian's great enthusiasm for the event: The city looked picture-perfect, showing its best to the world in a fabulous multi million dollars Opening Ceremony that included a free magnificent outside-of-the-stadium music- theatre- and fireworksshow on the Yarra river, allowing everybody, including pour trainees from overseas, to enjoy it! From the moment the Games Baton was handed to the Queen on the opening night, to the closing day, an extra sparkle was added to the sportive event by Australias "greatest cultural festival ever". Music, dance, circus, street theatre and visual arts everywhere in the city; two weeks Melbourne was buzzing day and night, more than ever, and it was great to be part of it!

A lot of the sport events were sold out months before the start of the Games. Yet, Rita and I were able to visit the athletics, which took place in the MCG, Melbourne's massive 95.000 specators holding stadium. Although it was sometimes hard to keep track of what was happening with long-jumpers, high jumpers, discuss throwers, and runners performing their sports alltogether simultaneously, we had an awesome time. The climax, definetely, was seeing Australian John Steffenson winning gold on the 400m, cheered and screamed to the finish by an ecstatic 60.000 large crowd.

The Great Ocean Road

A couple of weeks ago I went on a road trip, in the lovely company of two fantastic girls; AIESEC exchange students Courtney from Canada, and Fernanda from Brazil! Our destination: Well, actually nowhere! We didn't really aim for a particular location since the road itself was the main attraction, being known as one of the most scenic drives in the world...

The Great Ocean Road is 300km of sweeping asphalt starting about 100 kilometers south-west from Melbourne. It stretches between Victorian cities Geelong and Warnambool and was built after The Great War (Worldwar I) in 16 years, by returning soldiers, as part of a government-funded job creation scheme.

In the Ford Falcon of Courtney's work, we past along breath-taking lookouts, waterfalls, rainforests, striking cliffs and dramatic rock formations, including the world-famous Twelve Apostles (which also can be seen in the header of this website!). We kind of felt like in a TV car commercial, the ones in which you see a nice car smoothly driving over a beautiful road separating a clear blue ocean from spectacular green mountains!

We spent two nights in hostels in some of the small resort villages on the way, allowing plenty of time to take it easy, to enjoy the amazing landscape and nature in a very relaxed way, stopping for example for a picnick and a swim on the beach, a delicious dinner in a restaurant with outstanding ocean view, or a walk trough the forest to look for Koala's (and we saw them!!).

It was an amazing and unforgettable long-weekend, during which I've surely seen some of the most - if not the most - beautiful landscapes and natural beauty of my life!

More pictures can be seen in my photo album here. And come back soon if you'd like to read about the Rip Curl Pro surf competition at Bells Beach and the Common Wealth Games!

Happy Easter everyone!!

Big Update: Summer in Melbourne!

The leaves are getting brown and although it’s still warm, the temperature is decreasing slowly. Summer down here in Victoria, Australia, is coming to an end…but not before I’ve updated you about the awesome time I’ve had during this season!!

First of all, my apologizes - it's becoming a cliche - to all of you who’ve been desperately visiting this site again and again in the hope to get a glimpse of how I’m experiencing life in the Land of Oz these days! I hope not everyone gave up yet! Those who think that I’m not enjoying anymore, or didn’t have anything to write about the past few months, they are badly wrong! Those who think I’m just lazy, they are also wrong. I’m just getting more and more "laidback", I’m successfully adapting to the Australian culture... ;-)

Of course too much things happened these months to tell you everything. In order to not annoy you with a long boring piece of text (which it might become anyway), I’ve selected just a few things which I judged worth writing about. Scroll down to read or just click one of the topics below if any of them sound interesting enough for you!

International group of friends
Australian Open
Beach and Surfing
Party
Work
Photos


International group of friends
You might have read about, and seen pictures of the Christmas dinner we organized at our house for about 12 international friends. Since that time the group has only expanded. Nowadays it’s sometimes even difficult to concentrate at work, as there’s a constant stream of emails coming in all week, from about 30 really cool people from The Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Canada, Brazil, Poland, Hong Kong, South Africa, Australia and other places, all staying in Melbourne, using an email list as the mayor communication tool to organize activities together.
This way it’s never hard to find some people to hang out with, to have some drinks with in the evening, to go to the beach with in the weekend, or to attend one of the many events with, which are always going on in the city. Sending out one email to the list assures you to have the amount of messages in your inbox increasing rapidly! Here’s a small “anthology” of email subjects from my G-mail account, to give you an idea of what we’ve been doing: “Re: Salsa lessons on Tuesday”, “Brazilian festival on Fed. Square”, “Re: Volvo Ocean Race”, “Beach tomorrow”, “Surf’s up”, “Friday night pub night”, “Re: Australian Open”, “Cinema tonight”…


Australian Open
Since I was young, often in January I’ve been watching the world’s best tennis players on television, battling each other in the hot Australian sun, on the courts of Melbourne Park. Instead of sitting inside on the sofa with my Mum, while the radiators are doing their best to keep the cold Dutch winter outside, now I could experience it real-life, from the tribunes. One of the nights during the first week of the tournament, I entered the park on a “ground ticket”, which gave access to all courts except the center court, with Carsten, Brenna, and Freda. I saw Paul Goldstein (US) being wiped from the Margaret Court by Tommy Haas (GER) in three sets (6-0, 6-1, 6-2) and the Belgium guys Malisse and Rochus beating their Brazilian and German opponents in a spectacular double game. Afterwards we watched Australian Lleyton Hewitt being knocked out of the event on a big screen in the park. It was a really great night, really special to see some world class tennis live on a Grand Slam! The men's final, played between Federer and Baghdatis about two weeks later, I've watched between thousands of people on a big screen at Federation Square, in the heart of the city. Amazing to see the boundless enthusiasm for sports of the Australians!


Beach and Surfing
Those who know me a little bit will probably not be surprised by the fact that I'm still not fed up of surfing! Completely wrapped in a thick layer of neoprene, my face creamed with Vaseline, I’d be able to stay in the water for about an hour, before hypohermia would set in… if I were in the Netherlands, that is!

I can’t say the water of the Southern Ocean is tropical warm, but on a nice summer day, it’s easily sustainable a long time in just a swimming short. I’m trying to surf at least once a week. Since there’s plenty of friends around who are interested in surfing and body boarding, or just sunbathing, chilling and having barbie’s at the beach, we often end up going to Torquay, 13th Beach, Bells, or Jan Juc, with a whole bunch of people divided over a couple of cars. Great fun!

Sometimes though, I go on my own, by train, which will probably happen more often as the weather is getting colder. Mum and Dad, and others concerned about my safety, don’t worry too much about this: The only sharks I’ve seen so far were swimming in the Melbourne Aquarium, where I got to know that, would I end up as a Great White’s snack, I’d be the first human being ever in Victorian history… I’d better watch out for Coconuts falling down from the trees, as they’re twice as dangerous! For your peace of mind, I guess it’s nice to tell you that I’ve caught the wave of my life in January, when a massive swell (up to 12ft) was hitting the famous reefs of Bells Beach, instead of going in detail about how I was "washed" very well that day over and over again, and how my lung volume was tested like never before ;-)


Party
Melbourne has a very thriving nightlife, but the house in which I’m living is still one of the best places to party like crazy, which has been proven recently again, when we organized a real Brazilian Carnival, of course at my Brazilian house mate Fernanda’s initiative! It was a fantastic night full of Salsa, Samba, Pina colada, Caipirinha, masks, exciting and surprising fantasies, and happy and drunk people from all over the world! As I didn't want to spend a lot of money buying a fantasy, I borrowed some clothes of Fernanda. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to publish these photos on the internet, but I guess it’s the best way to give you a taste of the good atmosphere! That atmosphere by the way, for the second time, couldn’t be resisted by some Australian police officers, who - believe it or not - were happy to come in to try a cocktail and take part of a photo session, after having noticed that it wouldn’t make much sense to calm down this bunch of crazy people!


Work
Reading all the above you would almost forget I’m in Australia on a traineeship… Yes, I’m doing some work here as well! The kind of work I'm doing hasn't changed much since the beginning, I'm still part of InfoXchange's development team, which means I'm sitting behind my computer most of the day, creating new software. This may sound much more boring than it is. I like my work a lot! It's interesting to take part in an innovative IT organisation and watch it from close-by, recognizing and remembering a lot of the theory I studied the past few years at uni. And as I'm using the latest technologies, I'm still learning every day!
The main project I'm working on is the so called Service 2 Service eReferral System. Which provides health and welfare providers a comprehensive, intelligent means of electronic referral and co-ordinating support services for patients/clients. It will most likely be enrolled in hundreds of organisations Australia wide. The good thing about InfoXchange, besides the relaxing massages of the company's massager, is the fact that as a non-profit, it's doing a lot of good work in the social field. Examples are giving computers and internet access to school children who otherwise would struggle to gain access to technology, and training people from development countries in IT, so providing them better opportunities.


Photos
I've added more than hundred new photos in total, to the following galleries of my SmugMug Album: Australian Open 2006, Daily Life, The city of Melbourne, Party & Going out and Surf & Beach. The most recent pictures can be found on top (on the first pages) of the galleries. With exception of some albums dedicated to one single event or trip (like Australian Open), where the photos are ordered chronologically, starting in the beginning of the event.