We’ll start from the beginning of the week and fill you in on everything. My work is busy, busy, busy so we’ve all been putting in a lot of hours but I’m sure it will pay off in the end. On Tuesday we went to dinner with a young couple that works for Exxon. He went to OSU and is friends with one of my contacts at ConocoPhillips in Wood River. His girlfriend is Australian and they had so much to fill us in on about Brisbane and Australia. Based on their recommendation, we are planning trips for August when work may slow down a bit. They invited us to go hiking on Saturday but we had to pass knowing the bike ride the next day may take all of our energy.
Swift hosted a networking breakfast Thursday morning in order to raise money for MS and sponsorship for the bike ride. We raised over $200 that morning alone and it was great to meet some of our contractors and contacts.
Friday all of the girls from work and their ‘plus ones’ got together at Stephanie’s. The guys put together her new grill, aka, Barb-e, which we nicknamed Ken. Get it? Ken and Barbie? The Velveta I smuggled in from the states went to great use with our first batch of queso. The girls called it everything but queso, apparently Australians don’t eat amazing Tex Mexey cheesy goodness. However, they LOVED it! I wish I could have captured their faces when they had it for the first time, like a child eating chocolate for the first time. We could have made an entire meal out of it but we filled Ken with Tony Chacheres seasoned steaks and chicken and enjoyed a wonderful dinner.
Greg and I enjoyed Saturday by walking around the Queen St. Mall and checking out the shops. I thought I could do without shopping but I’m going through withdrawal. I bought a new black jacket since I brought my pea coat but it’s not that cold. The styles are somewhat different than I’m used to but it all looks cute on everyone else. I’m very tempted to buy skinny jeans and cute tops with a suit type jacket with rolled sleeves but this would definitely be a change to my current wardrobe of sweaters and flip flops.
We’re definitely wearing our cowboy boots next Sunday for our 4th of July celebration at Stephanie’s. Many expats and Australians are coming over for a true American holiday. We’re fixing more queso, burgers, potato salad, cupcakes and root beer floats. We’ll miss out on fireworks and tropical storms by the sound of it, but it will still be a good time.
Back to the subject of this post, we set out at 6:00 am for the Brissie to the Bay bike ride. Straight uphill on our street first thing in the morning was not an easy task but we arrived at South Bank as the sun was coming up.
Stephanie, Greg, OJ and Martyn set out for the 50K while the rest of the Swifties, Ali, Sian, Richie and myself waited in line for the 25K. Ali’s boyfriend, Frank even rode a mile on a unicycle. So much for this bike ride being a flat one, the hills were killer!
Almost half way through the ride Stephanie calls to find out where we were, little did we know we were 200 yards behind where she and Greg were waiting for us which was also the turn off for the 50K. The five of us finished the ride together which thankfully we had already mastered most of the hills. We were so excited to finally cross the finish line and we all went to breakfast. After coffee, eggs and toast, we rode our bides back to the city, showered and took, a long, long nap.
Our team raised over $2,500 for MS and we couldn’t have done it without the support of our friends and family, so THANK YOU!!! You’re all amazing and we miss you so much! We hope you have a great week and we’ll talk to you soon.
