Beer down under

So whats the beer scene really like down here?

For starters there is no Fosters to be seen anywhere. Fosters is marketed worldwide, known for "Australian for Beer" ads, however has not been marketed in Australia since the early 2000's. I'll let you wikipedia it if you want to know more.

What is popular over here?

In the pubs expect to see the following:
Carlton Draught
One 50 Lashes Pale Ale

In bottles:
Peroni
Hahn Super Dry
Pure Blonde Premium
Tooheys 5 Seeds Cloudy Apple Cider

You also get your usual beers Heineken, Corona, Strongbow in most places.

Case of 24 beer ranges from $45-$70 here with the equivalent going for $30-$50 back home. However here similar to UK you can pick up booze from most grocery stores, bottle shops or beer wine liquor stores.

Car Share - goget

What is it?
A car sharing program designed to be more convenient and cost effective than renting/buying a vehicle for the occasional car user.

Benefits?

• Have the benefits of occasional car use without having to worry about registration/road tax, vehicle maintenance, on-going parking, parking permits, etc. 
• Help the environment by having less cars on the road in heavily populated areas. 
• Save money by not having to purchase or lease a car. 
• Ability to rent for short intervals, e.g. as little as 1 hour rental.

The Aussie Experience?

We haven't got our first bill yet, so might be jumping the gun on the actual affordability of the program. But so far the experience has been really good. They have lots of locations in and around the city, with the nearest spot being 1 min walk from our apartment. They have a wide selection of vehicles such as the Yaris, Audi A1, pick up trucks and vans.

The added bonus of this program is that fuel cost is included in the cost of the rental.

We've rented twice so far this month. Once for a full day (beach and garba last weekend) and this weekend for an hour to do a super efficient grocery shopping run.

How it works?

1. Once you sign up for the program you get a smartcard in the mail. 
2. You log into the goget site and make a booking for a specific car, location and time slot.
3. Go to the car, use the smartcard to unlock the car.
4. The car keys are inside the car
5. Once inside the car, you log any damage to the vehicle in the log book
6. Take off and return the car by the appointed time in the exact same spot (parking is designated for car share vehicles so you don't have to worry about finding parking when returning the vehicle)

Pop up retail

Walked by a few pop up retailers and think its time talk about it.

What is pop up retail? Basically a retailer that sets up in a temporary location such as a retail shop thats available for lease. The location literally pops up overnight and is likely gone a few days later. Makes for an exciting often unexpected shopping experience offering something that you wouldn't normally find in that location. Quite often the shops have heavily discounted goods due to the expected quick turnaround of sales. The goods are usually from high end retailers, sometimes selling off unique samples or one offs.

We stumbled across one during our trek to Paddington Market, a British retailer called Merc selling mens fashions. The guy even threw in a free t-shirt with the stuff we got because it was his last day at the location and he didn't want to carry it all home.

Also, came across one a few weeks ago for a vineyard from Hunter Valley, doing a special tasting at a pop up location for a few days only.

Overall really fun shopping experience, can't wait to see what we find at the next one.

Paddy's Market vs. Paddington Market

If you're ever in the Sydney area and like to visit markets, here are 2 options for two very different crowds: Paddy's Market and Paddington Market.

Paddy's Market:

• Great for reasonably priced souvenirs with everything from hats with corks to hairy kangaroo balls bottle openers (well thats what it looked like anyway, we should've taken a picture)
• Has a grocery market section with decent prices on fresh fruit and veg
• Ice cream truck with chocolate dip soft serve...mmm
• Looks like a flea market/warehouse with loads of stalls
• Located in the CBD
• % of items likely manufactured in China/Taiwan = 70-80%
• Expect to walk out of there with 10-15 items for $50

Paddington Market:

• Great for fashionable one off items and fancy street food (e.g. roast lamb with chutney, spit roast pig, gelato)
• Looks really top end, with neatly decorated well spaced booths around an old church.  
• Had a man playing live saxophone to house beats
• Located along Oxford St. which is a street with lots of boutique type stores
• % of items likely manufactured in China/Taiwan = 5% or less
• Expect to walk out of there with 1 item for $50 (if you're lucky)

Overall was a great day out for us. Managed to buy a few things, including a wallet (in Paddington Market) I've been looking for since our honeymoon in Brazil.

Halloween

Safe to say Halloween is a very North American thing. However it seems that there are pockets of people who celebrate. Lucky for us a friend from bootcamp has a party every year along with all the fixings: DJ playing the ghostbusters song on repeat, food shaped like things you shouldn't be eating, creepy decorations and costume prizes. 

The theme this year was 'Naughty and Nice', we went as a devil and angel, and walked away with best dressed couple (full disclosure, we don't think there were many couples there...haha).

So interesting to note, costumes and accessories are cheaper here than back home. Yes, finally something that is cheaper than North America.

Anyways on to the pictures:

Beach & Garba.. a regular October Day

Usually this time of year, we are getting out the boots and fall coats and enjoying the falling/changing coloured leaves and the cooler temperatures after a usually hot summer. BUT NOT THIS YEAR... October in Sydney means we are mid way through Spring and looking forward to the summer months beginning in December.

The weather was great this weekend (highs of 30) so we figured we should take the opportunity to hit the beach for the first time since we moved. After discussing different beaches, we decided to head out to Manly Beach instead of going to the tourist beach Bondi. 

We rented a goget car (car share similar to zip car back home) where you can rent the car for the amount of time you need with the added convenience of picking it up at locations scattered around the city. We got to the beach around 10ish - with a minor detour courtesy of our GPS but were happy to finally be there!  The beach was fab and the greatest part was that it was 15 mins away from home! Not too crowded, hot sand and pretty blue water! We stayed until mid afternoon and then headed home for a quick bite to eat and then off again to Garba. 

We drove the 45 mins each way to get to Garba even though we didnt know anyone. It was good but it definitely made us miss home more! This time of year is usually full of loads of family events and we are both missing our parents & our life as we are use to it. Regardless it was great to see some other Indian people (more than we've seen in a while) and soak up the culture. 

We got home around midnight only to be greeted by a local cat sitting on the door mat infront of our flat! Safe to say Pri had to make him move while I stood behind him using him as a shield! 

- Jai

Our GoGet Car - Parked in our Parking Space 

Manly Beach

Walking Along the Boardwalk

Garba in Liverpool 

Hunter Valley Wine Tour

My wonderful wife got me an awesome set of presents for my 30th this year, one of which was a wine tour for when we arrived in Sydney. So finally after months of waiting the day finally came for the tour.

It was a fun filled day starting with a 7am pick up and ending with dinner at a Thai restaurant late evening.

Jason our tour guide was awesome! He was great with names and interacting with our group of 10. He had a story for just about everything and above all else was really knowledgeable about wines and the Hunter Valley region.

The wineries we visited almost exclusively sold only at the Cellar Door, meaning the wines cannot be purchased at regular outlets or via a major distributor.

The ones we visited were:

1. Tallavera Grove
2. Mount View Estate
3. De Iuliis
4. Ernest Hills Wines

Some interesting facts about wine that we picked up along the way:

• When judging wine, the criteria weighting is 15% sight, 35% smell, 50% taste
• Bottles with corks needs to stored flat so the cork stays moist, if it dries the cork may rot and let air in. Screw caps can be stored upright.
• Wine is best stored in a cool dark location with no vibrations and infrequent changes in temperature. Basement cold room = Good, Under Bed = Bad.
• Rose wines get their colour from the skin in the grapes, the longer the skin stays in the the richer the colour
• When purchasing wine read the label. The more specific the label (e.g. region, type of grape or barrel, yield, etc) the better the wine will likely be. The less specific the label the more likely it is from a lower quality mass producer.
• We also learned a lot more throughout the day, but hey after a couple of tastings the memory just ain't so good.

Now on to the pictures (the rest we'll post up on Facebook)

Jason our guide

Our Tour Group

The stash of purchases

Jaime stocking up for home and for a special someone who will remain unamed

Home vs. Home :)

Link to Jason's company: Wine Tours With Jason

Also, quote of the day, totally unrelated to wine, but applicable to just about everything: "If you want something done - give it to someone that is busy"

-Pri

For the love of Time Zones

So whats the first question we get when we call home or get a call... "what time is it over there?"

Well if you managed to get used to the +14 hour difference (from EST)... good... but guess what we just went into Daylight Savings Time this weekend. So now we're +15 hours (from EST). It just doesn't have the same ring to it, nonetheless the easiest way to convert the time is to add 3 hours to your current time and flip from am to pm or vice versa.

Shitbox Rally

I just found out about the Shitbox Rally: http://www.shitboxrally.com.au

What is it? -  Basically you buy a car for $1000 or less and drive it 2500-3500 km from one part of Australia to another. There are only 2 people allowed in the car and the race lasts for a week. Participants raise money for a Cancer charity and at the end of the race the car is sold and proceeds are donated as well. Ending off with a big party with all the participants

I think I've found what my next major project is going to be :)

Hyde Park - Noodle Market

I heard about this online so decided that Pri and I had go! It is an outdoor noodle market that happens every year in Hyde Park in Sydney where local asian restaurants setup stalls and served their specialities!

We had vermicelli noodles, duck pancakes, pork dumplings and finished the night with some yummy popcorn ice cream courtesy of cow & moon! Yes it was ice cream that tasted like popcorn and had real pop corn kernel in it!

We spent a few hours eating, lounging and listening to a local band! Safe to say.. we had a GREAT night!

- jaime