OUR 2010 in review

2010    - Started in Blue Montain, Ontario

- Tony was working at Oliver and Bonicini Café and Grill

-Sarah was working at the Front Desk at the Westin Trillium House

FEB         - Sarah and 3 girlfriends leave for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler and Vancouver

They have tickets to men’s ski jump, men’s downhill ski, men’s luge in Whitsler- then in Vancouver they had 6 hockey game tickets including both women’s semi finals and men’s U.S.A. vs Finland semis and a medal ceremony- I don’t think anything can compare to cheering on the home team at the Olympics! or Robson St after Canada won the men’s gold game! Or just the amazement to see all the red and white! AMAZING time was had by all..Russia 2014 anyone?!

APRIL    3^rd - Tony and Sarah move to Charlottetown PEI!

15^th -Tony starts his last year at the Culinary Institute of Canada

25^th -Sarah starts working at the Front Desk at the Delta Prince Edward

JULY       1^st -Tony and Sarah travel to Guelph/Markham to go to Granma Allan’s funeral, a sad but nice day, in which all the fun stories of granma were shared.

28^th - Tony gets a well earned 2 weeks from school and goes to BC to visit FAMILY!

AUG-     14^th-The Phillips’ family (Eric –Sarah’s older brother and wife Kim) get an early but most amazing gift- of baby HANNAH! 

            -19^th-Tony and Sarah travel back to Guelph for a friend’s wedding and to meet baby Hannah!

OCT        - Tony graduates from the Culinary Institute of Canada!!!!!  (Ruth and Andy Phillips come out from Ontario and Garry and Lise McGregrory come from Gibson BC to join in the celebration!!!!)

                -1 week later- Tony passes his Red Seal- he is a certified chef!!! Cant even describe     how proud I am!!!

NOV      1^st - We move all our stuff to Guelph Ontario

-7^th- We move to the JENOLAN CAVES, BLUE MOUNTAINS, NSW, AUSTRALIA!!!!! Where Tony is working as a chef-de-partie and Sarah as a guest service agent at the front desk

DEC        We are enjoying living in Australia and are loving the lack of snow!  We have been able to enjoy Sydney a few times, meeting up with friends from the summer, and are starting plans for the rest of the travels we will accomplish while on this side of the world!

dont get mad at the front liners!

I know that I cant say that I always know what you all do for your jobs, but I dont really pretend I do.  So why when you come to a hotel or restaurant or resort or parking lot for that matter do you think that you for one min understand my job or any of my collegues? I can say that I have never 100% understood accounting but I never try to do an accounts job. I can understand if you dont 100% understand the hospo (aka hospitality) work and lifestyle, just dont pretend you do.  I dont think thatyou would really believe how much time and energy is put into making your dinner plate, or getting your room ready, or the amount of hours are put in behind the scenes to make it all come out to look like its a flawless establishment. Seeing as the hospo industry is also called the service industry, we do try to to insure our customers  are happy.  Most of the time if we cant get something done for you, its because of a reason out of our control.  So next time you get on a flight and it's late, dont take it out on the flight attendant, cause really they have nothing to do with what time the flight goes out at they are just there for your safety.  And the next time your check into a hotel and ask for a late check out, dont get mad at the agent checking you in if your room is not ready- get mad at the guy who just was allowed to check out late!  And when you go to a restaurant, try the meal the way that the chef intended it to be had, dont substitute every other thing on the plate and then cover it in salt when it gets infront of you.  I dont assume that you wont ever get mad at anyone in the hospo industry again, I just ask that when you do come upon a situation you might find frustrating, remember that there is a reason for everything and try to appriciate it when things do go well.  Tell your server to tell the chef it was good food when it is, thank your housekeeper for tidying your room, and remember that we dont come into your work place, and yell at you so please dont come into ours and yell at us! Cause at the end of the day, we all have our specialities and our reasons to be doing what we do, but I hope that most people do it for the reasons we do, and thats because we love what we do. 

It's a SUNNY CHRISTMAS!!!

Well Christmas has officially come and gone this year...This like years in the past and most likely more in the future found Tony and I working.  The hotel put on a big brunch and a dinner as well, keeping Tony and the kitchen team very busy!  It was interesting though because Brunch is not a common thing here in Australia, so most people didn't really know what they were getting into when they booked in for lunch!  All walked away, the most stuffed they could have possibly been and raving about the food!  I only got called into work because another girl was sick.  I worked for 3 hours but made more money in the three hours then 8 ina regular day!  Public hoilidays here give a higher rate of pay, putting it at 2.5 times your normal pay an hour!  What a great system for us hospitality people!  WOOPWOOP!!!!  After work, I got to come back to our flat and sit on our patio, tan (as it was now about 32C) and read my book, while drinking my strongbow...LOVE IT.  Then that night after everyone was done work, everyone came up for  a beer at our place to toast the day!  It was a great way to celebrate!  As most of you know, Tony and I dont give each other gifts at all, we decided that we are going to do something that we other wise wouldnt have done as a celebration!  Well this year, the hotel will be closing down for a few days in feb so we will be travelling somewhere we hadn't thought...where we dont know...when we dont know...but we do know it will be a BLAST! 
But...We just wanted anyone reading this to know that we are thinking of all our family and friends and wishing everyone a safe, fun and relaxing hoiday season filled with love and joy!  MERRY CHRISTMAS to all...and to all...A GOOD NIGHT!!!!

10 days til xmas!

Crazy how it does not feel anything like Christmas here.  Today it’s 27C and sunny, with random rain.  Definitely not the lovely Canadian xmas weather!  This week was a pretty low key one for us after the busy one last weekend.  

Tony and I started our days off with a nice lunch date out in Lithgow, a very small town in the mountains.  It was a very nice day, in which I burnt my driving arm! Hahaha  It was sooo worth it though!  What a fun time! 

Sarah went on an adventure with three girls from work, as they went out to a farm to enjoy the local scenery and some away from caves time!  The farm was awesome, we were able to relax and laugh and laugh and laugh as we went four wheeling (some of the time it was two wheeling though- thanks to our driver philly! Hahaha), horse riding, feeding ponies, horses, rabbits, sheep, cats- you name it was saw it! It was a blast!

Yesterday Tony and I got to do another cave tour!  Man did we have a blast!  We went into the Imperial Cave, and it’s a very showy cave.  Lots of really pretty lighting and lovely columns,  stag mites and stag tights! We has a great time, wondering down to the river in the cave where our water comes from.  We also found out that our guide is lived in Canada for a while, and get this, worked at the same hotel that Tony did!  Interesting how small the hospitality industry is considering how many hotels are in the world! 

Today I have included all my own pictures of the Imperial cave and some of the grand arch (where the tour starts!) enjoy!!!

Tony in the grand arch

entrance to the jenolan caves/grand arch

us in the imperial cave

in the imperial cave

in the imperial cave

BACON?! hahaha  in the imperial cave

only icecicles i wanna see this year! hahaa

on the way back from lithgow on the 5 mile hill down to the caves..aka my backyard

coming down the 2 mile hill from oberon- note the kangaroos- and note that this is a two way road!  Tight much! hahaha

horses! on morgan's farm!

Day oout and aboot! haha

As Tony is busy this week with work, I have taken it upon myself to go on adventures to continue our quest.  This week, I have gone to Bathurst with some girls from work.  From our place it takes about an hour to get to Bathurst, and it’s a super gorgeous drive with an abundance of farmland, filled with green grass, cows and sheep grassing the hills with mountains as back drop in the distance.   Almost breath taking, when it’s sunny, unfortunately it has been raining for about a week straight here.  Yep, the drought is over in Aussie that’s for sure.  As the flood waters rise, Aussie becomes more of a wetland then desert.  Thankfully, in the caves we are untouched by the abundance of rain, flood wise anyway.  We are experiencing some great greens in the trees and lots of squishy ground to walk on.  This past week, the guides in the caves had to close one of the caves down temporarily because there is an underground river in the cave, and well, it decided to rise. 

The purpose of our adventure to Bathurst was actually to see the new Harry Potter movie, yep that’s right, what do three late twenty year-old ladies need to do…they NEED to see Harry Potter! Hahaha  It was great!  Dark movie, but good, definitely can’t wait for the second part!  We also got a chance to get some shopping in!  That’s right, when you live in Jenolan Caves, it’s a big outing to get to Bathurst and go shopping!  We had a great time, purchasing a new billiard que as the last one, well we will say- fell and broke…yeah fell and broke!  Haha  The other thing that happens when you get to leave Jenolan, is that you get to experience some great food in the local area.  We happened to go to an Italian pub, and had some delicious pizza and pasta!  Yum! 

Cindy- please tell Gary this next part- as I think he would appreciate it!

Also in Bathurst there is a really big race track, and get this…through the regular other 360 days a year, it’s just a normal road! But there are still all the side padding up and everything!  It’s really cool, as it winds up and down the Panorama Mountain. It’s just a regular used road, but then come the one race week it’s crazy big here! It’s like NASCAR but Aussie version I believe! I didn’t have my camera so I have again stolen pictures and put them here…but I will be going back with Tony and getting some of my own!

Great invention

Thinks that the aussie's have some amazing inventions--this might be one of the best!

All pre-mixed drinks--just pick up a 4 pack of Canadian Club and Ginerale or Canadian Club and Coke=AWESOME.
For the girls--these would be wicked pool size- maybe we would spill less in the pool eh vaness!
And- FoR WM1 (eldon) and WM2(steve)--these would be great in Vegas!!!

and for those who don't know, a nickname I got in highschool (before S.A.R.S) was Sarzee, which was always shorten to Sars.  Down here its my own drink!

PICTURES have arrived!!!

Love the purple trees- on the walk to the opera house/harbour bridge

paddy's market=awesome

the opera house!

us- looking a bit jetlegged but at the opera house

the harbour bidge

opera house

us on the train to the caves

our kitchen

our bathrooms

our living room-

please note that the clothing are clean ones drying this was before the purchase of a drying rack!

our walk to walk (taken from our front balcony)

the hotel under a full moon as it peeks over the distance mountain (taken from our balcony)

the grand arch adn blue lake (you have to drive through this on the way into jenloan)

Zoom Zoom ZOOM!!!

Wooohooo we bought a car!  That’s right, Tony and I had an exciting adventure to Sydney this week where we purchased a small car (ford telstar hatchback). We left Jenolan Caves on Tuesday and took the bus to Katoomba, then the train to Sydney to meet up with Erin.  Turns out that Wayne (our cool South Korean roommate) had the same days off, so we travelled down with him.  Once we got to Sydney (at 7pm) Erin took us to this fabulous Italian restaurant called Montrelli (I believe).  OH wow, FABULOUS food and a great time chilling.  For those who don’t know, Erin and I worked together at the Delta Prince Edward in Charlottetown, P.E.I. this past summer.  She is an Aussie, and let us stay at her place in Sydney. So the next day Erin dropped us off at the Parramatta Rd where all the car dealerships are and we walked up and down til we found the one we wanted!  Then meet Erin at her work and hit up a Chinese restaurant for dinner!  It was great, just a small, locals only place, near her house and the food was fabulous! It’s different to see that lamb is soo cheap here, we are getting spoiled a bit by that and plan on eating as much as we can while we are here! 

Now for driving on the wrong side of the road…it’s not as bad as I thought.  Firstly, I have yet to hit anything, or anyone.  Secondly, it was soo smooth driving back to the caves that Tony feel asleep in the car.  (then again he can always fall asleep in the car, even if we are only going 10 mins down the road!)  The real challenge is not that it’s on the other side of the road for turning and everything, but rather that the signals and the wipers are on the opposite sides!  So every time I go to signal I put on the wipers, and not only that when I do hit the right wipers, it’s opposite direction to get them on! Hahaha it’s at least entertaining to watch and has been raining here to get away with it! Hahaha  Good thing that Eric and Kim’s dog Donan is not here, he goes wild whenever you put the wipers on! hahaha

G'day

G’day, well-what-do-ya-know, it hasn’t been yonks but we’re start to feel less like nongs round here!

As we really start to settle in to our jobs and our lives here, we are getting used to everything (even the slang)!  It’s interesting to see the differences between Canada and Australia in the hospitality industry though.  Here if you are working for more than 6hrs you must take a 30mins break after 5hrs of work.  If you are working less then you aren’t entitled to your break.  Not only that but hourly people get paid more on the weekends, evenings and nights, as here it’s considered  extra work and you should be paid penalty pay.  What a great concept!  Especially in our industry! 

We are heading off to Sydney for a couple days, tomorrow!

If people are interested in more aussie slang check out;

http://www.australiatravelsearch.com.au/trc/slang.html

Finally getting into the CAVES!

WOW is all we can say after finally getting into a cave together today!  Now we can really understand what brings people to this wonderful place.  To see the beauty of what lies under the mountains here is astonishing.  To think that back in the 1800’s these caves were explored by people who would take days to come up from Sydney to see them, and only to see by candle light.  Our goal is to get to all into all the caves but the potholes, where you are harnessed in and repel down.  Yeah there is no way Tony or I are repelling in caves, hahaha!

Today we did the Chifley Cave: It was discovered in 1880.  The Chifley Cave was known as the Left Imperial Cave until 1952, when it was renamed in honour of the then recently-deceased former Prime Minister Ben Chifley, who grew up in nearby Bathurst. Two of the cave's chambers are decorated with coloured lights. The Chifley Cave was the first cave in the world to be lit by electric light, having been illuminated in 1880. The Jenolan Caves were the first public place in Australia to have electric lighting.  People would travel for days from Sydney to just see the lights!

gekos, kangaroos, bugs, snakes OH MY!!!

Wow...we live in the jungle.  Ok, well not completely true, but still a very mountainous tree filled reserve filled with every wild, and I mean wild animal out there.  The walk from our flat to work is about 2 mins down hill, and it feels like the rainforest part of the zoo, tree covered, hot, moist and you really have to watch your step.  The geckos and lizards are all over the place, some bearly run when you walk down the stairs.  Kangaroos are wild, and don't seem to be too bright.  They are always dead ones all over the roads.  The thing here though is that they don't take away the road kill, they just move it over on the shoulder and let it decompose there.  yeah...it leaves this really lovely smell...a cross of cow shit, pei mud, low tide in St. Andrews, smelly Cassy and dead animal.  Yeah Lovely I know.  As for the bugs, well I even have Tony killing them.  (Not that we should admit to that cause we are in a reserve so we shouldn't kill the bugs-but come on-there are beattles in our bed- we gotta kill it! hahaha) And that leaves us with the snakes....as I am sure you are all well aware Tony and I are both uber scared of snakes.  Well, lucky us, we picked the great hotel, that hosts the third deadliest snake in the world- the red belly black snake.  I am hoping ( and please cross your fingers for us!) that we will never see them around the grounds of the hotel.  Tony has already seen one, though THANK F*** he was in chef's jeep on the way back from Oberon.  They are really something we dont wanna run into...AT ALL!

Our flat is directly behind this sign.  Yes...just one of our hills!

This is our area...Jenolan is in the valley directly under this picture, this is on the top driving in our out

Ps- I have not taken these pictures they are stolen ones (SORRY we are working on our own uploading!)

Jenolan Caves...here we are!

Life in Aussie is AMAZING!  We took the 3 hr trip from Syndey to Jenolan Caves about a week and a half ago now…what a view!  Words can’t even describe the views, of the Blue Mountains, they are breath taking.  Just land, trees and forest, but all the colours are amazing!  Apparently the Blue Mountains are called that because of the oil that the eucalyptus tree let go during the summer putting a blue tinge in the air.  It’s beautiful!  We got to the hotel and Chef showed us around, and our new house!  It’s a great two bedroom apt, we share with one roomie, Wayne.  Wayne is from Korea and works at the bistro, he is nice and quiet.  We have spent since then working, and loving waking up here!  Tony is really enjoying the new kitchen, and the crew up there seem great!  And as for me, what everyone was waiting for, my job!  Well I work about everywhere in the hotel!  I have done shifts in housekeeping and in the restaurant, but I will mainly be working at the front desk.  My team is great too, all the girls are fabulous and everyone seems to love my Canadian accent! Hahaha Though sometimes we still don’t know what people are saying! 

The closest town to us is Oberon, and most of the people (if they don’t live at the hotel) are from there.  It’s a small town, but it has all the essentials. We have made a few trips there, for our essentials—food and beer.  AND…I have found an amazing product- pre-mixed Rye and Gingerales!  That’s right, they come in cooler form!  It’s fabulous! Though we are still waiting for a fridge to cool them in!  haha (our apts were just renovated so they are just getting the last of things within the next couple of weeks!)

So as for now, we are absolutely LOVING life, and LOVING it here in AUSSIE!  I will try to update more as our lives here unfold!

Sydney day two

Sorry about the lack of posting, I will work on that!

Spent our last day in Sydney touring and going to our orientation.  Though our orientation was focused on finding work in Aussie, it was still fun.  We walked around the city all day, just taking it all in.  We made our way to the famous Opera House.  It was a great day, then out of nowhere RAIN, and not just little spits of rain, like torrential down pour!  Though it didn’t put a damper on the fun we were having!  We got to check out Paddy’s Market too and it was heeps of fun, it’s such a big market that you really cant even see it all in one day.  We plan on making our way back there next time we are in town!  Right by our hostel is a great park with these amazing purple trees, and a bird that as Tony says “looks like a Canada Goose but with a huge long beck that is meant to peck you.”  Haha it was fun.  On the other side of our hostel was Chinatown, so we had a few meals there too!  Fabulous as always, and definitely will keep our cravings down til we can get back!

MADE IT!!!

Wow....we made it.  It was a very long, flight.  Starting in Toronto, when we arrived we didnt even have seats on the first flight.  Great...is what we were thinking.  but really it was GREAT!~  The lady at the desk bumped us to first class to Chicago, in the very first row, as our flight from TO was already delayed giving us only 20 mins to change flights in Chicago, including changing terminals...yeah.  I know what your thinking, yah right, Tony and Sarah running through the airport...but we did it.  Got on the flight and made it.  The flight to Los Angeles was LONG.  Tony and I didnt get seats together, and he was beside a 10year old.  hahah who had to pee like every 5 mins! haha sucker.  Once in LA we only had 15 mins til we got on our flight to SYDNEY!  The long haul we will call it.  Well it was long, but good.  Total flying time was just under 15 hours I think.  We didnt end up having anyone sitting beside us so it wasnt as bad as we thought.  Though we feel that a note to United is in order.  Please do not play the same movies that we just saw on the way from Chicago to LA!  We didnt have our own tv's either it was just one big one...but it was ok. 
Once we arrived, Nov 9, at 8am...we cleared customs asap, and it was smooth.  Nothing too much to tell them they had all our paperwork and it was easy.  We couldnt get into our hostel in the am so we just ventured out into town, trying to get as much accomplished as possible to stay awake.  We got a cell phone (though I have no idea what the number is) and finished our banking information, and got all the things we needed from the stores!  It was sunny and a high of 19C all day, so it was  great day to venture out.  We got back to teh hostel around 230 and passed out til 7pm, and then went to eat!  Turns out our hostel is right beside Chinatown...aka another Disney Land for Tony!  We LOVED IT!  Had some amazing thai food, and went back to bed.  haha oh yes we are the adventurous type! haha
Now we are off to orientation and then spending the day riding the rails in Sydney... Thursday we venture to our new home...the Jenolan Caves...now we really cant wait.  Everyone at the airport told us that it was an amazing place, and that we are super lucky to be working there!  Should be fun...stay tuned for some pictures and more updates from there!

Getting set to move...

Tony and I are just getting set and all the last minute updates needed to finish to our most exciting move yet..to AUSTRALIA! As we put together our last min trip visas, hostels bookings, etc...it's really starting to hit us!  As most of you know, we have spent the last 8 months working, living and going to school (for Tony) in Charlottetown PEI!  Where Tony finished his last semester of school at the Culinary Insititute of Canada, and passed his Red Seal! (for those who dont know it's the test he takes to become certified in his trade of cooking- Tony was able to do so already because of the years he spent working in kitchens before school as well!) While in PEI I was working at the Delta Prince Edward, as a front desk Guest Service Agent.  It was definitely a fun, exciting, busy and work filled summer, which we are very glade we did, but now we are ready for our next adventure!

So starting next week, we will both be working at the Jenolan Caves Resort which is about 2hrs 45 mins west of Sydney.  Tony will be working the their new 1.2 million dollar renovated kitchen!  And well, we are still unsure what I will be doing, but we know it will be something within the hotel, and my field of work! 
This is our new companies website of where we will be working from nov til .....;  http://www.jenolancaves.org.au/

We fly out of Toronto on Nov 7th arriving in Sydney Nov 9th in the early am!