USA 2019 - Week 1, Vail Day 2 and 3

Day 2 of skiing at Vail! The conditions were amazing; perfect visibility and the powder snow from yesterday made the snow so easy to turn on.

Andrew went on a full day lesson (well, from 9:45am - 3:30pm) where he saw heaps of the mountain, including the back bowls. He had a really good time and got his confidence back since his instructor told him he should be moving up to Level 6.





While Andrew was on his lesson, I skied the Gondola 1 area, then met Yvonne and Eduardo for some runs higher up. It was so nice to see Yvonne! We didn't get a great chance to catch up though, so looking forward to more of that later. Yvonne and Eduardo are both excellent snow boarders, I felt a little bit sheepish keeping up but we had a really great time, mostly doing Swingsville. My favourite run of the day was Timberline Catwalk; the last part through the trees was so beautiful.





I was hoping my hair would turn out like this!





Today we were in time for the apres ski warm cider and snacks, then went straight to the hot tub to warm our aching muscles.



We got ready to go out for dinner, but quickly realised that Vail is a village of reservations; absolutely every place was booked. The best offer we had was at the Japanese place that said there were 9 people before us for bar seating… we aborted and ate snacks in the room.

Day 3 of skiing was awesome, we lasted from 9am - 4pm. Andrew and I spent the entire day exploring the mountain, and I think we've now taken all of the lifts on the font side of the mountain. My favourite run of the day was Boomer, the most scenic run was Lost Boy, and my biggest achievement was consistently doing Bear Tree (a blue run) for two days now. Andrew did Avanti a couple of times and the second time did the black section instead of opting out on Cold Feet (the green path our of the way of the blue). We had lunch at Two Elk, I couldn't believe the views! It's like being in a snow dome.









We just got back to the room after going to the hotter hot tub, and are just about to get ready for an early dinner with Yvonne and Eduardo, and try our luck without a reservation. Fingers crossed!

RIP Keith Flint

We will always be your Prodigy People.

USA 2019 - Week 1, Denver to Vail

This morning we got up at 4:30am to get ready to catch the Greyhound bus from Denver to Vail. It was -18 degrees this morning, but we decided to walk anyway - bad decision. We made it, and on the plus side, nothing else on this trip will be as difficult or cold as this morning's 15minute, 500m walk.

Thank god we chose the bus and didn't drive ourselves! The bus had auto chain deploying feature which the driver used often throughout the snowy trip. The 2.5h trip took 5h, but I think we thought worst case it might be more like 9h after the huge storm last night so all in all it was a successful trip. I finally felt like I was on holiday since we managed to eat two bags of S&V chips (carbs are good for altitude, OK?).





We arrived at Vail and made our way through the beautiful village to the Lodge Tower resort. We were early for check-in so decided to get our ski gear and do some skiing before our room was ready. It's the first time we've ever worn a helmet, and it's OK, but honestly I don't think it makes much difference in confidence and you mostly forget it's there after a while.





After an exhausting walk to the Golden Peak area (combination of tiredness, altitude, and walking in heavy gear), we did a couple of runs on the beginners Gopher's run, and decided we were ready for Gondola 1. I only managed one full (green) run down the mountain before my fingers froze, but Andrew went up for a second run while I checked out the shops for some gloves.



My gloves had lost a bunch of their waterproof coating so they were not doing well in the cold, so I got an awesome pair of Burton ones to replace them, so cute!

On that note, Andrew apparently needs to learn how to say Burton in American, because people keep asking him to spell that when he says his last name, and we're al like um its the thing written on most of your buildings…



After skiing we took a quick break to check in and enjoy the amazing view outside out window, then went down to the Lodge Tower after-ski snack bar but were disappointed to find out they'd run out of their warm cider. They more than made up for it though by giving us cool drink bottles, so nice!







We headed out to check out the Vail village, and find a place to eat. There were two Japanese places, but neither were serving katsu curry (why the hell would you not in this weather?!) and we finally settled on Vail Brewing Company where we had some great beer (best one was Gore Creek IPA), meatballs, mushrooms, and tempura veggies.





Tomorrow is meant to be the best day of the season, can't wait!

USA 2019 - Week 1, Denver

Breweries galore!

Oska Blues, to Falling Rock to Great Divide, all amazing tap lists. We even got a tour of Great Divide!















And we got to see Yvonne and Edwardo before they headed off to Vail! Soo nice, hope they made it through the storm.



It got to -10 degrees, wowee trust us that's fucking cold.

USA 2019 - Week 1, Perth to Denver

After saying goodbye to Perth and a loooong journey, we’re finally in Denver!





We managed to go for a walk to Avanti where we had the the most delicious quiero arapas, a gluten free pocket thing with lots of things including plantains, yum! Plus a couple of beers we couldn’t pass up, in particular the dogfish head 60 minute IPA.







Fingeres crossed for some amazing sleep, looking forward to breweries and seeing Yvonne!

Jan and Feb 2019

The start of the year is always so busy! Between Australia Day, birthdays galore, and Fringe World, it's a bad time to start a diet...

NYE at the Garden Block Party

We've been doing this for NYE for a few years in a row now, and this year it was the first time as the Block Party instead of Mardi Gras. It was another fun night, but with the addition of the carpark venue, the crowd was definitely younger and the event felt much more festivaly. Still good due to good company, but maybe we'll change it up next year!

The Prodigy

This absolutely blew my mind, I can't believe how good this was. After watching police shooting fish in a barrel at the entrance (the crowd watching was very entertaining), and a very disappointing set by Shock One as support, we got our hopes down a little bit and thought it might be a bit of a past their prime gig. But when they came on we realised it was going to be amazing! Luckily Keith kept checking we were all Prodigy People numerous times throughout the show (godDAMIT we are Prodigy People yes).

Australia Day at QT

This year for Andrew's birthday I got him tickets to the QT Hotel's Australia Day event, and we also stayed a night at this gorgeous place. We usually use Australia Day as an opportunity to go to a pub that's playing the Triple J Hottest 100 and drink with friends, but this year since they've changed the date we did something new.

We'd stayed at the QT in Wellington and Canberra so it was really nice to do the same thing in Perth. Neither of us had stayed in a hotel in Perth, and I must say it was very fun! Wandering down to Petition for a drink was really nice.

The event was on the rooftop bar and they absolutely spoiled us with great food and lots of cocktails. The view wasn't great, but we're spoiled by having had years of perfect views on the South Perth foreshore. Definitely recommend as a fun Australia Day option!

Laneway Festival

It's been a while since we've been, and this years lineup tipped it over to choosing to fork out the rediculous amount and spend a day in the sun. Yellow Days were a great first-band surprise (the guy does a mean Yew), G-Flip was really fun, Parquet Courts was a fantastic set, The Smith Street Band was consistently awesome and Courtney Barnett was my definite favourite, although much to Andrew's horror I think I enjoyed What So Not the most. We stayed for Gang of Youths but watched from a far while Andrew enjoyed a lamb kebab that he would later regret.

Fringe World and PIAF

Blanc de Blanc was a great show with lots of talented acts. My favourite was an aerial performance on a hotel luggage trolley suspended in the air.

Critical was a really cool local circuis duo, one science, one engineering major. They used their backgrounds to explain angular velocity (demonstrated by a lyra performance with a gyrascope that plotted velocity over time as a graph on the tent ceiling), and side-swap juggling patterns, so cool!

Lang Toi is a story about a Vietnamese fishing village told through circus. Our favourite part was when one performer broke physics by drumming on the items being juggled by another performer. I'd love to organise this as a group event next year, it's defintiely a see again show.

Emma was amazing in Menagerie Choir's Ode to the (In)significant, she's so cool!

Midnight Visit was an incredible show/experience, we really enjoyed exploring the fantastical dream world of the Old Girls School venue. The ball pit was the best part, but everything was made so much better by not being able to talk or laugh due to the rules, and also the surgical mask that everyone had to wear, to avoid catching tuberculosis of course. When we met up with our group at the end, we realised we all had very different experiences. I think our little group (Andrew, Krystal, Rector and I) got to see a lot of great stuff, and eat so many sherbert lollies!

We absolutely love Fringe and it's hard to not enjoy live performances by talented people, but overall I think Andrew and I have come to the conclusion that we prefer circuits to cabaret/burlesque as a genre.

Everything Else

Congratulations to Neeli and Hayden on their engagement, and to Sam and Andy on their marriage!





Happy Birthday to Claire, Amy, Tataie, Mina, Emma, Andrew, Krystal and Michael!

Almost time for our big America trip!