Magpies, Meat Pies and Darrel Lea

In the few weeks I've spent in Australia, I've had a good time experiencing the little cultural differences between here and home. Some are good, some...not so good! 1 particular one is not so fun...the magpies! They are these psycho black and white birds that attack people when they walk under trees! I have been attacked once and its startling to say the least! I was on my bike and one came and flew into my head! Some nerds around town have zip ties sticking up all over there helmets to scare them off! haha!!! i'd rather be attacked by the bird! The only other not so good thing was my meat pie experience..apparently it wasn't a good one but i'm not sure i want to try again! ugh!! The best thing (well im not sure if its a good thing or not!) is the sweets! (or should i say lollies) Darrel Lea in particular may be the en of my triathlon career as i know it! Soft licorice, the biggest licorice allsorts you have ever seen! (my favorite food of all time!), Chocolate ...rocky road..mm! The shopping here is great too! The clothes are all really cute! But i have been restraining myself! The prices are quite a bit higher over here..even with the sweet exchange rate! I've also been learning lots of new words and sayings...seems like everything here has a sexual reference! Anytime i say something the boys burst out laughing and i realize i've accidentally said something dirty! haha ok enough of that!

Training has been going well! Coming to a new place always makes training so much more exciting with new routes and pools etc. I just got home from a long hilly ride that was a lot of fun! We stopped at bakery for a bit but all together was 4hrs i think. There seems to be a lot of good rides here! Always hilly too! I did hills yesterday
as well..in the pouring rain!! The weather has been crap the last few days!! The sun finally came out today but since the storm on sunday it has been cold and rainy! well cold as in 26 degrees! hahaha Training is still pretty casual at the moment and everyone is coming off a break. I did my first bit of fast running on monday, 8x3 mins fast 1 ez and was surprised that i didnt feel too out of shape! swimming is a whole different story! ;)

Over the weekend my friend from Victoria came to visit. We went to the Australia zoo on Steve Irwin day! We saw all kinds of animals and watched a few shows including a famous aussie band Thirsty Merc. We also waited in line for 4 hours to meet Steve Irwin's family only to have the line cut off right in front of us!!!! that was disappointing but it was still a good day. Here are a few pictures...