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Well its been 3 months now and after being fairly well settled in by now I thought I would give some quick thoughts into life as an expat in Seattle. Now I have not yet gone out much and hit the town (one im just not that kinda person but secondly been way to freaking busy) but this Saturday sees me starting my first Boot Camp over here on a Saturday morning so that should be something a little different. But either way I am really happy over here, to be perfectly honest, I don’t know if i could ever go back.

I am loving the “heatwave” that summer has been having up here in Seattle. Going to hit 95F on friday. Thats right we should hit 35C. O yeah its like summer back home in Brisbane. Now my apartment isn’t really set up for that heat, and it usually hits the high around 5pm over here, not around the 1 or 2pm mark but thats because the Sun sets in the west so takes a lot longer to heat Seattle up to its height. But that’s fine because at the end of the day when I am walking out of work, in the sun on a day like today (it was about 85 i think not sure) its like bliss. I walk out and just think to myself, I love it here. And its also a similar situation around the time i take lunch (between 130 and 2 usually) and I can go out into the Courtyard between the buildings where they have tables, chairs and umbrellas set up or next door into the Square outside of the Microsoft building onto the grassy green park and sit out in the sun, read a book, write a letter, enjoy the sunshine while having my lunch. That is my new life, its what I have enjoyed.

Now in saying that, I know those things wont be possible for much longer till summer comes to an end and winter starts to come in, but I haven’t lived a “real” winter before and I am still going to appreciate the cold and the dreariness for all different reasons. I hope it snows, I really do. I want to live through a snow storm, I want to just get out there and make a snow angel, write my name in the snow 😉 But that is a few months off yet. So we shall leave those stories for another time. I don’t think I was ever this happy back home in Brisbane.

Brisbane will forever be my home. I will never say a bad word about it. I grew up there, spent 30 years of my life in the same house, the same neighbourhood. I knew every little square inch of Mitchelton and Everton Park and it will forever hold a cherished space in my heart. I know my folks always talked about moving to the Coast and buying an apartment by the water, to be truly honest, I hope they don’t. But Seattle feels right to me, sure i may moan on occasion about it being cold when it shouldn’t be, or grey when it should be blue. But any city will have that. I am still happy of the change i made. Tomorrow i will make another post about life here in the USA, but this one about the food… so stay tuned.

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There’s two different topics I want to cover with this post but I will try and explain myself a bit first. It is political season here at the moment and after watching meet the Press in the gym this morning I wanted to talk about it a bit, but I also was going to post today about my comparison of the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds.

Let’s talk about planes first. The Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds are the two air demonstration teams of the US Navy and US Air Force respectively. The blue angels (obviously the Blue part) have always been that little bit more of a dream sight for me than the Thunderbirds (red for the nose of their aircraft though they are predominantly white).   Both teams are pretty similar to each other but each has their own unique attributes.

Unfortunately I can’t say one team us better than the other as they both have pros and cons. They both fly Jet Aircraft (F/A-18C for the angels, F-16C for the Thunderbirds) which have unique attributes of their own, but they are fairly even.   The demos were pretty similar to each other with each having a few unique stunts of their own.

The cons though are pretty minor. The Blue Angels didn’t have as much of a ground show as the Thunderbirds did, but that made the Thunderbirds show, slow starting and a little bit boring at the beginning. I felt that the Angels had a bit more speed at times over the Thunderbirds but again this is probably due to the aircraft and not the team as such. Either way I can’t complain about either.

The one thing that seals the deal for the angels in my book is Fat Albert. The Marines who support the Blue Angels are not left out, they have their own show stopper a large C130 transport plane which they show off and it just makes for something that the Thunderbirds don’t do at all.

But the reality of the situation is that both teams are amazing at what he do and there is no real winner other than the public who get to watch amazing demos either way (better than the Roulettes anyway).

The other red and blue at the moment is the Battle between the Republicans (red) and the Democrats (blue) in the lead up to the presidential election. It’s been all over the media right now and to be honest I wish I could have a say.

Not being and eligible voter really means I can’t or shouldn’t say much but it’s a big thing over here. It feels like the elections are 1000 times more complicated than back home and always so full on. There are the primary votes where they choose who will be eligible for each party then the general election comes into it.

Last night the Republicans announced who will be Romney’s VP for the “ticket” but god Damn what a spectacle they make it out to be. The news covers everything minor little detail of the announcement like where he lives, what he does in his personal life, hell even what he cooks (apparently he makes his own sausage).

It’s going to be a fun few months I suspect in the lead up to the election in November, should be interesting to watch along, I won’t say who
I think should win cause I don’t have a say but I have a feeling things could be “hopeful” in November

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So for my birthday I wanted something that i would not normally go to, and since I would be with people I am happy to go to somewhere that I consider a bit more special than normal. Beth’s Cafe was it. I had seen it on the Seattle episode of Man v Food. A few years ago during my first ever trip to Seattle I ate at the Crab Pot down town for a decent serving of PNW fish & chips. Then in my first month here I visited location #2 being Red Mill burger up in Phinney Ridge. But #3 was somewhere I wanted to visit, but didn’t really feel right taking up space in an always packed location on my own. So I kept it for a special occasion. My birthday was it!

Beth’s cafe was used as the challenge location in the episode as they have a unique product on location. A 12 egg omlette. Now there was no way in hell I was going to go for a 12 egg omlette, served with toast and unlimited hash browns. Not even gonna try! Even their standard omlettes are 6 eggs. Again not even gonna try. But there was still some good looking food on their menu. So with my birthday falling on a Sunday morning, what better way than a Sunday early brunch/late breakfast (930 cant really be brunch, but its late enough to be close, but early enough to beat the rush) to celebrate my birthday.

From Expat Life
From Expat Life

Beth’s looks like a bit of a dive bar kind of old school diner feel to it. Mismatched table where, random pieces of crayon artwork all over the walls (which i helped contribute) to (see pic below) but thats what I kind of like really. An old school diner feel, somewhere I can relax and read a book/newspaper while i eat & drink my morning coffee (i did just this for a little bit while I waited for my friends). The coffee was good to! Caffe Vita coffee blend and plenty of it. I don’t think there was ever a time my cup went empty.

From Expat Life
From Expat Life

I went with “the sampler” which was a Biscuit (aka scone) with Sausage Gravy, 2 eggs, toast, hash browns and i grabbed a side of bacon cause dammit if its my birthday, I want BACON! It was good, sausage gravy was creamy yet not overly so, biscuit was light and fluffy, plenty of hash (didnt need a 2nd plate since I was so stuffed by the time i finished all of that) and the eggs were damn good. All up this was a good breakfast. Now my side of bacon cost me almost an extra $5 but next time i reckon i’ll drop the biscuits and gravy if im in a bacon mood and just go straight bacon and eggs (maybe some extra hash) or go straight biscuits and gravy if im craving it. Either way.. awesome breakfast and most of the items were under $12! Which for a good quality seattle breakfast is DAMN good! I’d come back for the coffee alone at times!

My trifecta is now complete. Now to get myself to Salumi to work through the Anthony Bourdain locations.

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Well, my birthday is drawing to a close, but not after a stellar weekend. Now it could not top my 30th Birthday last year when I spent a lengthened celebrations in New York and Paris and with my first ever Transatlantic Flight, it was truly an epic celebration. But this year, well it was going to be my first as a Washington Resident, a far way from home, not many friends, what was I to do. Originally I was going to trip up to Vancouver and do some spotting. But then I was told about SeaFair and that the Blue Angels were coming to town. I was staying put!. Fast forward a few weeks and the plans for my birthday grew. I decided to fork out for a ticket, then I ended up just going to make sure that I had a full weekend of Aviation goodness as I was going to finally sign up to the Museum of Flight and get a membership there, which would give me access to the Blue Angels at Boeing Field. It was going to be good. Then the plans lengthened and now the celebration will continue next weekend when I head up to Vancouver on my first road trip in the truck and head to the Abbotsford Airshow and staying at one of my favourite hotels the Fairmont Vancouver Airport (it was a bargain, im a sucker). Either way this was a truly epic plan and now the first part is over.

I am totally and utterly beat after 2 days of record high temps here in Seattle of 93F on average (about 34c which really isnt much but Seattle is not built for this heat) but the sun was out, the sky was blue and i spent the weekend in the Sun turning into a bright red lobster and loving every minute. I am sure I could talk all day about the Air show and getting to watch the Blue Angels for the first time (thats a whole other post sometime this week) but to be honest, right now, I just wanna chill out, have some dinner and then relax.

But first I will give you a little tease of some images from the weekend. I took 3800 photos on the SLR over Saturday and Sunday and there is some truly epic photos, stuff that even blows my mind how beautiful they turned out. So keep an eye on my twitter feed during the week and on the picasa link at the bottom of the page. I put up a folder full of some of the not as good shots for those who don’t want to wait, but trust me… you will want to.

From Sea Fair 2012 Processed Photos
From Sea Fair 2012 Processed Photos
From Sea Fair 2012 Processed Photos
Sea Fair 2012 Processed Photos
SeaFair 2012

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On Thursday I managed to get myself into my first photography gig here in the USA. Even though I wasn’t being paid it was good to be able to still get some work for a purpose, something a bit out of the ordinary for me.  I was taking some photos for David at Airline Reporter who was covering the launch of the United Airlines 787. It was held up at Everett mid morning so I had to take the morning off work, but I was not going to complain all that much really.

The morning was great, I was getting my first foray into being a semi legit photographer (Although my skills are far from excellent, they need a bit of work) but I was also getting my first chance at stepping onboard a 787, and it would be a new 787, not even delivered yet… how cool is that!

Now who's legit!

It was an enourmous privilege to be able to access a brand new aircraft at a press event, and to be even thought of as press/media… wow totally new concept for me. So I made sure I was on my best behaviour as well. All in all I definately probably was a bit more conservative than I should of been, but I didn’t want to end up on the “Naughty List” as it was termed during some conversations.

I wasn’t there to blog about everything, so I won’t give a run down on the aircraft or the services or anything, for that you should read David’s site but I will give you my thoughts on the 787 as a whole since it was my first time seeing it.

From UA 787 Launch

The aircraft is pretty similar in my opinion to the size of a 767. Not as big as a 777 not as small as a 757 or 737. So good mix in between and it is apparent its replacing this aircraft. Interior feels damn spacious with the Sky interior bins etc, so that makes a whole other difference. The cockpit is pretty cool (got to sit in the Left seat 😀 😀 ) and the Heads Up Display is really cool.

From UA 787 Launch

The Exterior of the plane is just brilliant, this one was fitted with GE GenX engines, although unfortunately there was no badging on it to tell this so it was a bit hard to distinguish between these and the Rolls Royce Trents but damn they are big (not as big as a GE90 though). The nose is a bit wierd though, it so doesn’t seem similar to any other aircraft i’ve ever seen. It looks more bird like, rather than like a normal aircraft, kind of droopy if you will. The smooth lines of the composite and the raked wing tip are pretty good though.

From UA 787 Launch

I do like the livery over all. There has been a lot of bashing in the media (and i’m not towing the party line here), but I do like the tail. The Old Continental Globe does stand out on the tail and I do like the colours and the styling still. There was a number of unique logos just for the 787 but nothing like the livery ANA uses.

From UA 787 Launch

I have to admit I was a little nervous to begin with yesterday, trying to make sure I didn’t let David down, or stuff up or make a fool of myself, but he was happy with my work and hopefully it means more opportunities in the future.

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Well I ended up scoring some tickets to the Seattle Mariners game on Tuesday night when they won their 6th game in a row (now 7 since they won again last night) and the seats were DAMN good.

From Expat Life

As you can see the view was great. But the thing that really makes this good is, I have now seen the Toronto Blue Jays lose 3 times in 3 different places and the Mariners win twice both Away and at home. The game was pretty good, got to see someone get a bat to the head in the crowd (not funny but kind of). The stadium i had a tour through last year on my big trip (funnier thing is that I was at the baseball the exact same day last year but in San Francisco… freaky.. new tradition?). There was the usual crap food options at the stadium, however there was some phenomenally good options as well.

There was sushi, thai stir frys (or at least what passes for it over here), Starbucks Espresso and my favourite from the night some fresh grilled Yukon Salmon from Ivars. It was $12 which felt like a gouge to start with, but it was a MASSIVE hunk of salmon served with a pretty good ceasar salad. I couldnt complain cause the amount of salmon I got would probably cost about that outside in some restaurants so I didn’t feel all that gouged. However $4.50 for a soda… yeah thats BS.

It was good to hit up my first Baseball game in Seattle, Football will be happening soon with the season starting this month for Pre Season (first game not scheduled till October). But I have had so much achieved in the first 3 months of my stay here! crazy++

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Last Tuesday was a nerve racking morning. I have not had nerves like that since I was 17 (and that was a long time ago). Tuesday morning I had to take a driving test…. something I had not done since that day way back in 1999.

Unfortunately living in Washington State there is no reciprocity to Australian Driver licenses so it means I needed to get mine to prove residency and so I can do things legally over here. It was the last of my legal paperwork that needed to be done. Thankfully they give you 12 months of arriving to do this.

Licenses are cheap in WA (that’s Washington not Western Australia) compared to QLD. $25 for 5 years, what is silly is that as no reciprocity means I have to qualify as though I was a first timer. That requires a written and a driving test. The written test was pretty easy and similar to back home (from what I remember anyway as hell that was even longer ago I got my learners). The worst part about my written test was that I had to wait almost 90 mins all up to take a test that took 5-6 mins. Wait times for licenses here are huge I’ve heard of 3+ hours :/ but that’s a whole other story.

Once you pass your written test only then can. You request a date for your driving test, at a time convenient to the testing agency (Yay for more time out of work). There are less complicated maneuvers than the test I remember but I had to take it in. my vehicle. Crap. A driving test in the truck, Damn. Situation worsens, you have to parallel park (reverse park) as part of the test. Crap+++

I can drive the truck, I love the thing. It cruises effortlessly, has good pick up but it’s hard to park. Plus it’s new so I do watch every little bit to make sure I don’t scratch it at all.

Reverse parking the truck is another matter. Half the time I did the even try as I prefer to find a spot that I can easily get in and out of and if that means walking a bit further so be it. But it was part of the test so I have no choice really. Can’t do much about that at all. I suck it up and spend most of my free time Sunday practice parking. I think to myself, yeah I can do this.

Nope! Test day comes & things start out bad when I lock the testing official out of the truck before we even start. #fail. Then I put the truck in reverse to pull out from the curb, not drive. Damn nerves. But then the dreaded park which I totally botched. Not even remotely close. I kick myself, I was pissed I would need to take more time off to do it again etc, just annoying. But he passed me! Yay!

Maybe he took pity on me, maybe he didn’t instant fail me cause its not a big deal here, either way I didn’t care! I had passed.

So now I’m a licensed driver in the state of Washington. I am a legal resident of the USA. This is kind of a dream come true. I am a little bit more American now.

But I still can’t park for shit, at least in the truck.

PS David if your reading this, yes I can sit at the big boy table now.

PPS – Managed to recover this, thanks google!

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It has been good to have a weekend at home, one where I am pretty much doing chores but chores need to be done and it feels relaxing.  I got to spend my weekend just catching up on life doing the menial tasks like cleaning, groceries, shopping, running errands like going to the bank, getting fuel, checking out the shops, going out to dinner and just cruising around in the truck.

But this is the last chance I will get for the next few weeks to relax like this.  I have had a chance to get all those little things done, and now its time for the bedlam to begin.  I have a busy couple of weekends coming up with more photo time, some fun, friends, food, shopping and my first game at Safeco field and my first Road trip in the truck.  Can’t wait!!

I seemed to of lost my last post during the week about my license, which is a shame.  But during the week I managed to pass my driving test and I am now a licensed driver in the State of Washington. I still passed my test even though I failed the parallel park (but what do you expect when I was in the truck).  I couldn’t believe how nervous I was for that test, man it was nerve racking!

Anyway I am going to go be lazy for the rest of the afternoon, cook some dinner, catch up on TV shows and just generally bum around!  o and lots of pics updated in the Expat folder (yeah caught up on that to!)

Expat Life

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As I approach month #3 here in Seattle and after having been in my apartment for almost a month now, I finally feel like I’m settled.

I have the apartment to a level I am happy with, I have my routine pretty down pat, getting to know the short cuts here and there.

Next week I take my driving test (not looking forward to having to reverse park the truck) so that I have a Washington license, then I really will be a local. Trying to hunt down some cheap canvas prints as well is a bit of a mission. I’ve tossed up a Costco membership again as they seem to do them super cheap and have good quality with the reviews I’ve read.

All i
n all life over here isn’t bad. I haven’t been downtown at all lately but that’s cause I’ve been so busy or away and things look to be staying that way. Hoping to maybe go downtown for my birthday… maybe