Aussie, Aussie, Aussie....OI, OI, OI

January 26th, Australia Day. A down under 4th of July. We were fortunate enough to spend the day on the harbour - Andrew and Alex (Andrew, the brother of Sarah from B'lyn) invited us to spend the day on their beautiful boat. We tooled off before 11am, through the surprising fog around Middle Head. We saw the ferry race (joining the flotilla momentarily), then anchored off Toronga Park Zoo, rafting with another boat. Thereafter followed a day of swimming, jumping off the upper deck, playing on the giant water trampoline, eating, gazing at the beautiful vistas and generally enjoying everything the fantastic harbour has to offer. We finished up with a cruise below the bridge before returning to the Marina. All in all, a wonderful day - happy Australia Day!


The great ferry race and the flotilla





Method air off the top deck of the boat






Synchronized jumping



The water trampoline with trappings



The tall ships parade



Sid providing (moral?) support to our captain



Chill out Emmett, you're too stressed out



Back to the marina after a terrific day out

J.C. Penny Catalogue, Eat Your Heart Out

Here we are, PK and SR posing as if shilling clothes for a cheap catalogue. For the record, we are on Jim Clark's 50 meter schooner at a benefit for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.



Photo taken by renowned catalogue photog Justine Gubar (Dec. 18, 2010).

University of Whale Beach

Now in session! My good pals and former colleagues Trisha and Jonathan have recently reunited with me Down Under to lay the foundations for the University of Whale Beach, an institution dedicated to the teaching and researching of irony, gender, ironic genders, gendered ironics, and popular culture (so far limited to Johnny Cash and Buffy the Vampire Slayer). We think there's a real market for this in the world--and we'd have satellite campuses wherever we each happened to be (Newcastle, Lowell, Gananoque, Remsenburg, Brooklyn). The hub, however, is Whale Beach (the place or the state of mind). Now accepting applications (accreditation imminent)!

Here is a photo of the venerable administration and faculty scouting classroom locations at the Newcastle campus:

The Queensland Floods

Hello folks,

Many of you have been emailing, wondering if we're anywhere near the Queensland floods. Rest assured, dear readers, that we are safe and dry here in NSW. The flood waters at one point covered an area larger than France and Germany put together--and much of that land grows important crops, so we can expect prices to go up on our favorite foods like mangos and bananas. And the weather has been rather sultry. This is the extent of the inconvenience for us--nothing compared to the loss of life and destruction of homes for the Queenslanders.

Philip's father lives in Brisbane, luckily on high land, and our friends the Holbrookes, on their way back from the Reef, were stranded in a town called Gympie (hard G, rhymes with Blimpie), which turned into an island in the few hours they were there. Although this isn't my story to tell, I will tantalize you with the image of the 5 of them being airlifted out in shifts by a bug of a helicopter piloted by a dead ringer for Elle (the bod) McPherson, that is, if Elle were 6 months pregnant. You have to love a story in which the hero of the hour is pregnant and female!

Bye bye 2010, G'day 2011

Happy New Year, dear reader(s)! Much has happened since my last post on Christmas Eve: we've had visitors, parties, and adventures galore! To catch us all up quickly, I'm just going to list the notables:

1. Christmas at Whale Beach: 25 people for lunch, including 5 jet-lagged Holbrookes who arrived that morning, a gift from Santa for us. The rest were Kearnses of various shapes and sizes including 14 children (although Anisha and Tim hardly count as children anymore). We celebrated heartily and enjoyed some excellent weather.





2. Fun with Lydia and Adam (and Lydia's family): a dinner in the city, a sausage sizzle and a breakfast at Whalie. It was great to catch up with our former Brooklynite, current San Franciscan friends. Lydia's father has a house within walking distance of ours at Whale Beach. Amazing how great minds think alike.



3. Australiana with the Holbrookes: a trip to the wildlife park, dinner in Sydney, lots of beach time, hikes on the peninsula, some tennis, dinner with journalist FOH Bronwyn, The Holbrookes also took side-trips to Sydney and the Blue Mountains.



4. Beer o'clock with Josh--had a good catch-up with our surfer, tennis-pro cum real estate magnate pal.

5. New Years celebrated with the Holbrookes and Justine (on way back from Tasmania). Rang in 2011 Whale Beach style, that is to say, in somewhat mellow fashion. 2010 was a great year for us; I'm kind of sad to see it go.

6. Trip to Jervis Bay--met up with more Brooklyn friends (Billy and Sarah) and some of Sarah's extended family 3 hours south of Sydney. We stayed at the Jervis Bay Motel (fab, vintage accommodation) and were entertained by Sarah's brother and sister-in-law at their house for dinner and boating fun. What a glorious place!





Photos here capture some of these highlights.