You know what they say...

...About the only two things to count on in life, death and TAXES

I spent this morning trying to prepare my first set of Australian taxes for the 6 weeks I was getting paid locally.  Let me tell you, that did not go well.

I should preface this by saying I do my US taxes by using Turbo Tax.  And I make sure I get the discount coupon from Costco before buying it.  I love it, it's simple.  Plug your numbers and go.

Not so much down here.  There no central place to get the information you need.  I had to search for the equivalent of my W-2 and couldn't figure out if I was paid interest on any bank accounts down here during those six weeks.  Then I didn't know what to qualify as income.  And then it got to the section on Foreign Investments.  Now, I was under the assumption that any income I made in the US during my time down here would be taxed by good 'ole Uncle Sam and not good 'ole Uncle Macquarie (I don't know who he was, but his name is on everything down here so I assume he was pretty important).  But, I guess I was wrong.  Apparently, all my rental income from the states is going to be taxed down here without all the "benefits" of having a mortgage, and there's a pretty good chance I'm going to get dinged by Uncle Same come April 2011.  Damn you double taxation.

By the way, did I mention that they're due on Sunday?  That's right, the 31st of October, Halloween (which people don't openly celebrate down here - along with Cinco de Mayo, but I won't go there).  So, I was in a bit of a panic because I quickly learned what I thought would be a simple process is turning into a lengthy ordeal.  Of which I don't have time.  Seeing as though there will probably be drinks after work tonight and then I have my first set of visitors landing tomorrow AM and heading up to the Great Barrier Reef on Saturday.

I searched everywhere for information on how to file an extension and came across a phone number.  After being transferred a few times I came across a nice person who let me plea my case and then nicely asked when I "thought" I could have them done by.  That's right, I got to pick my own date.  So I've gone from Halloween to the 23rd of December. 

And again, not to switch topics, stores have had Christmas decorations up for three weeks now.  Since the beginning of SEPTEMBER.  Now I get they don't have Thanksgiving to use as a buffer and don't really celebrate Halloween, but a Christmas as a season for 4 months is a little ridiculous.

But back to taxes.  So yeah, bottom line, there's no Turbo Tax for the Australian markets that takes into account foreign income.  Looks like I'll be looking for an accountant in the next two weeks.

The Fear of Public Transportation

I didn't get that first surfing lesson in this weekend because it rained all weekend.  It was looking like Saturday was going to be a good day with rain coming later, so I decided instead to head up to Ikea for some meatballs.  Sure, I had to pick up a few other things, but stopping off for the meatballs was a good way to start the day (or nurse the hangover).  But I'm getting a head of myself.

The train system in Sydney is efficient, but you have to know really well where you're going and on what lines you want.  Figuring out which trains run off which platforms and which train on that platform (there can be more than one) you want can be a little confusing.  So I got on the train that I thought was the correct train with my directions.  It was the right train, however I had what turned out to be the wrong stop in my directions.  I was careful about watching the stops so I didn't miss it and sure enough got off and immediately had a sense of "where the hell am I, this isn't familiar."  I thought about getting back on the train, but thought I might be going the wrong way so I held off.  After a bit of walking I figured out I got off the train a few stops early.  I decided to walk since it was only 20 minutes away (though not sure about the roads) when all of a sudden the sky opened up.  Lightening crashing every couple minutes and just pouring.  And of course, I didn't have an umbrella because it was sunny and not a cloud in the sky when I left.  I made it back to the train station, semi dry, and sat for the next train.

I was hoping Sunday would be a little better, but it was raining when I got up and continued most of the day.  I had a few things to take care of and made a quick trip to Chinatown for lunch, but other than that laid pretty low.

I got the house booked for my trip up to the Great Barrier Reef next weekend.  Found what looks like a good snorkeling outfit for a day.  Have a few other ideas, but will see what everyone feels like once we get there.

Status Quo

I haven't really had much going on lately, so I've been a little absent from posting.  I keep telling myself that I'll take the camera out in my neighborhood and grab some pictures, but I keep forgetting or find something else to do.  Now that the weather's shaping up, maybe I'll actually carry through.

I do have my first set of visitors coming through in a few weeks.  It will be good to see some familiar faces, but also give me a reason to venture to other parts of Australia.  Not all details are set, but we'll be going up to Cairns which is the main hub for getting out to the Great Barrier Reef for a few days.  Being the main point for the GBR, I think it's pretty touristy but I'm hoping to find a few things away from some of the families.  We'll definitely take a day and head out to the outer reefs to do some snorkeling.  I'm hoping that box jellyfish season hasn't started because I really don't want to have to deal with those.  That doesn't sound like a fun way of spending some vacation time.  But there is some gear you can wear to protect yourself.

There's a pretty diverse climate up near Cairns.  I guess just an hour drive away, there is a true rain forest.  I have no idea what all is in there, creature wise, but I have heard the crocs are quite plentiful.  The scenery along the coastal drive is supposed to rival California's Highway 1.  Spend some time at the beach and eating and drinking along the coast.

The weather is starting to warm up here and consistently stay warm.  Granted, there were massive wind storms on Saturday that uprooted a few large trees near my place and kept the temperature in the 50s.  But we're looking like mid to upper 70s for the upcoming weekend.  If that does in fact hold true, I'm thinking about taking my first or I'm sure many surfing lessons.  I hoping this is one of those things where I'll surprise myself how not horrible I'm expecting to be.  Should be entertaining either way.

Sydmeladperbrisho, Yep, you read that right

Now that I've been in Sydney for 6 months, I figured it was about time to read Bill Bryson's "In A Sunburned Country."  A lot of people told me to read this when they found out I was moving and I must say, this book is pretty spot on.  I hadn't read any of his books before, but everyone said it was a funny read.  While I have found it funny, I'm more finding comfort in the fact that other people see the oddities that occur in every day life down here, that are "normal" and it's not just me.

It goes through all sorts of life from trying (or admitting defeat in trying) to explain how the Aussie government works, to all the poisonous creatures the size of your pinky that can kill you in minutes, to the comedic history of this vast continent.  Despite becoming one commonwealth just a little over a hundred years ago (1901), they didn't seem to learn much from the rest of the developed world.  One of my favorite parts of the book was the 11 year battle between people to come up with the name of the Capital city, Canberra.  They tried to mimic DC in giving the capital it's own city, but choose a location 40 miles off the main highway connecting Sydney and Melbourne.  And if you've looked at a map, that's in the middle of nowhere.  Anyways, here is a list of names that were seriously considered for the name of the capital city, Myola, Wheatwoolgold, Emu, Eucalypta, Opossum, Gladstone, Thirstyville, Kookaburra, Cromwell and Victoria Defendera Defender (seriously).  But my favorite because of the sheer creativity involved has to be Sydmeladperbisho.  Some genius thought it would be a good idea to take the first syllables from every territory's capital city and combine them.

If anyone is planning on visiting or wants a more eloquent depiction of Australia than what you're getting on this blog, definitely give it a read.

I will leave you with my favorite question I've received so far about life here versus the US.  And I quote, "Do they have banana bread in America?"  I kid you not, that was an actual question someone asked me.

Customer service at it's finest (?)

I know I've talked a few times about the lack of customer service here, but I figured I'd give everyone another example.  After the run on Sunday, I hobbled up to Oxford street to look for a few suits.  I found a store that had one that seemed reasonable.  Found the right jacket size, but couldn't find the right size pants.  So I asked the sales person if she had any other sizes anywhere.  She said there should be one.  I tried on another size and when I came back, I saw her holding the right size but then gave it to someone else.  I asked her if she found them and she said yes, but that she had in fact given them to someone else.  I was so confused at that point, I didn't know what to say.  She told me I could go online to buy them if I wanted.  I guess that's what I get for expecting the matching suit pants to be next to the coat and not on another rack.  I was so blown away by that experience that I put everything else I was going to buy on the counter and walked away.

Walking with a little hitch in my giddyup

I was pretty happy I only had to contend with 8 steps on my way to work this morning.  Two to get on the bus, two off the bus (yes, I took the bus this morning) and four to walk up to the escalator.  It took most of yesterday afternoon to recover from the half marathon, but all things considered, I'm feeling pretty good today.

The run certainly wasn't the most put together race I've ever done.  The start didn't have a clock for me to see when I crossed the start line and there were no clocks around the course to help clue me in.  I have an app on my phone that tracks time and distance using GPS, but I'm not fully confident in the distance part.  I'd say about two thirds of the way in, I start to feel a few blisters forming on the arches of both my feet.  Not was I wanted at that point.  But I popped a few Clif Blocks and kept on going.  I did walk a little bit longer at the water stops and tried to check my phone to see where I was at, but I think that was more of an excuse to walk a little bit.  But, after crossing the line in 2 hours 3 minutes and 42 seconds, I'm wishing I didn't walk that extra bit.  I was really hoping for a sub 2 hour finish, but I guess I'll have to wait for next time.  I think it also would have helped to know the course better.  The loop where I thought we finished was actually right off the bat.  That really confused me, having no clue how far I'd been running.  Here's a map of the run from my phone.  According to the GPS I had on me, with all the weaving in and out of people, I ran 13.96 miles.  Which, at that time, I'd be perfectly happy with. 



The run started at the top by Kirribilli and came down towards the city.  I wish I had paid more attention to the scenery running across the Harbour Bridge, but since this was the first long run I've done without any sort of pacing tool, I was trying to get a sense of my speed than anything else.  The course then went through the Botanical Gardens and then to the highway.  This was when I started noticing the blisters as we went up and down on and off ramps to Pyrmont.  I thought at this point I was slightly ahead of where I needed to be, but I could actually feel the individual blisters forming and squishing.  But I powered on as best I could.  As I came down to the last kilometer, I was feeling pretty spent.  There was a lady who forced me to run.  I didn't catch her name or number, but I definitely want to thank her.  She kept me going for that last stretch, onto the cobble stones of Circular Quay and around the corner to finish at the Sydney Opera House. 

As cool as it is to finish the Chicago Marathon near Buckingham Fountain, this was probably a little bit cooler finishing right on the steps of the opera house on the harbour.  It was some confusion at the finish line.  Nothing was really setup well to keep people moving.  Everyone picked up a bottle of water and then spewed out into the gardens.  No food and certainly no beer.  I had to wait till I walked the 3 miles back to my apartment for that.  You might be asking why I had to walk another 3 miles.  Well, apparently all buses were off that day since most of the downtown streets were cut off or affected in some way.  And since there aren't any train routes that get close to my place, I had to hoof it.  But I did walk along the marathon course and help cheer those people on.  While I'm glad I did the half this year, I'll definitely be doing the full marathon next year, with a proper training schedule.  After I plunked down on my couch I decided to add up all my training from when I arrived in Sydney back in April to come up with a total.  And with pretty good record taking (mandated by the gym), I ran 13.5 miles at the gym since July, 8.75 in August for the City2Surf and roughly 2 when I first got down here in May.  So for running only 24.25 miles, I feel pretty good about my time.  With a proper running regiment, I think I can probably knock a good 10 minutes off that time.  We'll just have to wait and see.

5 Days and Counting

I'm coming down the home stretch for the half marathon on Sunday.  I've been staying true to my training goal of running as minimally as possible to see how the run goes.  It kind of feels like the first half marathon I did and the first marathon, for that fact.  But, all things considered, I'm feeling pretty good for the run.  I was planning on doing a nice easy week.  Eating right, staying away from the booze and trying to do everything as easy as possible before Sunday.

But, I knew that was going to be just a dream.  This is Australia, after all.  This past weekend hit me pretty hard.  I went to my first Rugby match and it was a game between the Australian national team (Wallabies) and the New Zealand national team (the All Blacks).  The game was out at the 2000 Olympic Stadium which was pretty cool.  Granted it was dark and we had already had a few, I wasn't able to see much.  But it's a quick 20 minute train ride to the stadium so I might have to head out and look around.

But on to the good part.  At the stadium, the concessions seem a little more lax than the states.  You can order 4 beers at a time, instead of the two you get at stadiums back home.  So, as soon as we got there we all separated.  And when we made it to the seats each of us had picked up the max.  For the five of us that went, we had more beers than room on the ground below us to store them.

For my first game, it was a good one.  The Wallabies had the lead for the first 75 minutes, only to lose the game in the last 5.  Pretty tough way to lose, but it was a good game.  One of the best parts was that there were no TV time outs.  The game that should take 100 minutes with halftime, took 100 minutes.  After watching a few live sporting events down here, I think I'd be OK seeing sponsors on teams jersey's if it meant fewer TV timeouts.

So that put me out of rhythm for the week leading up to the run, and it's just getting worse.  We're meeting with a few vendors this week which is going to take away a few of the nights I was planning to go to the gym to get geared up.  But that doesn't look like it's going to happen.  So, I guess my carb loading will consist of barley and hops.

Such is life.  If this is anything like 2006 you'll probably be able to find me sitting on my couch with a beer on Saturday night trying to get some sleep before the 6:20am start time (here's hoping I make it)...