Jeff Salchow Down Under

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Sydney Outfielders Softball
2007-03-02 03:41:02
Before I moved to Sydney , I had researched gay sports leagues in Australia. I knew this would be a good way to meet people and was very curious to see how they compared with what we have in the States.I found a gay softball league which looked pretty fun so I contacted the director. He and I exchanged a few emails before I came over and then I gave him a call shortly after I arrived. It all sounded very fun and pretty similar to the league in Chicago so I officially signed up.As you would expect, softball is a summer sport so the games started in late October. I talked my friend Mark into joining as well so I would have an immediate friend and we got assigned to a team called the Homing Pigeons. The name sounds pretty stupid but compared to the others in the league, it was incredibly tame. We showed up for a few league-wide practices as well as a team meeting to get to know one another. Our captain went through the rules of the game which was very interesting for a number of reasons...
More About: Outfield , Soft , Softball , Ball

Time Goes By So Slowly....
2007-03-02 03:41:02
I spent the last two days attending ad:tech Sydney, a big technology and marketing conference. It was a great event but completely exhausting, sitting through all the sessions and networking with all these (sales) people. When I finally got home Thursday night, I had a fun surprise in my mailbox that put a smile on my face.My good friend Chad mailed me a little gift, the new Madonna Confessions Tour CD/DVD. I have always been a big Madonna fan and went to this actual show with Chad last summer in the States. We had an absolute blast, sitting in the front row at the end of her catwalk stage! Love her or hate her, she puts on a good show. As I inserted the DVD, I was thinking how nice it was that Chad had sent this to me. He has never been one to pass up doing something sweet for a friend (or helping increase Madonna's record sales totals). But as I watched it for a while, I was sort of surprised to find myself feeling homesick and a little bummed out.When we went to the show last su...
More About: Time , Slow , Goes

A Very Happy Independance Day
2007-03-02 03:41:02
So today is Saturday, February 10. It is a day that I have been waiting for since last August. Today is the day that I got Oliver back. I rented a car to make the trip out to the quarantine facility and had planned to go to bed early Friday night so I would be well rested for the day. Of course, I tossed and turned all night as my mind raced, thinking about my dog and work and everything else. I was also under attack from some pretty vicious and loud mosquitos that must have taken a pint of blood out of me before the night was through. In the morning, I got the car and headed over to pick up Joe who was escorting me to get Oliver. Joe and Michael brought their cat over from Chicago so Joe was familiar with the quarantine facility. We got there a few minutes early and waited outside until the gates finally opened at 10am. I have been joking for weeks about my dog being in a prison. As I looked around the facility, I was realizing my joke was pretty accurate. I signed a few docs and s...
More About: Dance , Happy , Epen

The Outdoor Cinema
2007-03-02 03:41:02
I recently got to experience one of Sydney's most visually stunning summertime attractions, the outdoor cinema. For a few months each summer, the city sets up a temporary cinema complete with a giant screen, full bar and restaurant, and stadium seating along the harbor in the Botanic Gardens. The giant screen is retractable, sitting a few meters out in the harbor. Just before the movie starts, the screen slowly rises up until it is standing tall in front of the audience. All the seats face out over the water with the city skyline to the left of the screen and the Opera House and Harbour Bridge to the right. It is an incredible view.Here is a blurry photo of the screen before it lifts up (damn mobile phone camera).Here is the screen with the skyline in the background.This is the view when looking to the right of the screen.I met Joe and Michael in the Botanic Gardens where we enjoyed a little picnic dinner and some wine before heading in to the film. We sat under a huge tree next to...
More About: Cinema , Cine , Outdoor , Door , The O

Aussie Open at the Opera House
2007-03-02 03:41:02
Here are a few photos from the steps of the Opera House . I watched both the mens and womens Australian Open finals here.The big screen.My friend John.Little old me.American Express sets up this event at all four of the grand slams. Basically they create a little tennis fest with the big screen, a bunch of reserved seating (for AmEx card holders), and some tennis activies. A couple years back, I watched a couple matches at this event in NYC. Last year, I sat on the Opera House steps and watched Amelie Mauresmo win the Aussie Open. It is a fun way to watch the matches if you can't be there yourself.On Saturday, I headed over to watch Serena Williams destroy Maria Sharapova. It was a really windy day and not many fans were at the event so the ushers were letting non AmEx card holders (like me) sit in the reserved seating. I watched the match and then headed off to do some shopping.On Sunday, I convinced John to come along and watch Roger Federer play Fernando Gonzalez. What a differen...
More About: A House , Ouse

Day 3 - Sydney Tourney Report
2007-03-02 03:41:02
Today was a bit of a bust. After two days of amazing weather, the clouds rolled in last night and today was really gloomy and cloudy all morning. I was scheduled to work at 1pm but went in early with a few friends to watch the 11am matches. We arrived and caught the final set of Ivonovic as she took apart the local Aussie player. Once that match ended, Mark and I went for some food and took a tour of the grounds. We spotted Hingis practicing with her coach and Blake hitting with Sebastian Grosjean. We also saw a few other players walking around.When I went to check in with the Technology group, it turned out we were overstaffed and they cut me free for the day. I was thrilled because now I can just hang out and watch the tennis.We headed back to the stadium to watch Schiavone vs Na Li of China. It had been sprinking all day and as this match progressed, it started and stopped a few times. Never enough to call an official rain delay but they did stop play twice. Finally, as the Chine...
More About: Sydney , Report , Port , Tour , Repo

Sunday on the Harbour
2007-03-02 03:41:02
I had the most kick ass Sunday this past weekend. My friend Mark got invited to join Chris and Gillian on a boat cruise around the harbour and I got to tag along. I met Chris and Gillian back in January when we all went to the Medibank tennis tournament together. Chris is an American guy who works with Mark. Gillian is Irish. They live on the other side of Rushcutters Bay from me, right down the street from Nicole Kidman.One of Gillian's sisters organized the cruise (she has 4 sisters, 2 of which live in Sydney) to celebrate her boyfriend's 32nd birthday. There were about 16 of us on the cruise. Everyone gathered on this perfectly bright and sunny Sunday at the wharf in Woolloomooloo (a suburb just down the hill from where I live). Our eccentric boat captain sailed in and picked us up at the wharf and off we went. We cruised east through the harbour, eventually stopping for a while so we could all go swimming. Most everyone dove off the boat and swam ashore for a bit. When we retu...

Monday Night at the Oscars
2007-03-02 03:41:02
This is really just a quick update on things down under. It is a rainy Monday night here in Sydney. I am sitting at home watching the rebroadcast of the Oscar s . I spent the whole day making sure I did not find out who won (since it was Monday morning here when the actual awards were given out). Now as I'm watching, it is dawning on me that for the first time in years, I could care less who wins any of these awards.The only Oscar film that I saw this year was Babel. I thought it was really great but such a huge downer, kinda hard to get excited about it winning any awards. I am more interested in seeing if Ralph Fiennes was brave enough to show up after his mile high rendez-vous with a Qantas flight attendant. Now I hear she is saying she is pregnant with his baby? Such scandal.The local network that is broadcasting the show promoted it by suggesting that viewers do what I did, avoid finding out the winners and watch the entire show on Monday night. Funny thing is, they keep running...
More About: Cars , Scars , Night

Oliver Has Landed
2007-03-02 03:41:02
Last Thursday, my little dog finally arrived in Australia. Since August, he has been staying with my friends Darryl and Nicole in Phoenix. On Monday, they drove to LA and dropped him off with the pet transport company. Nicole called me just after they left, she was very upset which made me really sad to take Olive r away from them and their little pup Gnocci. But at the same time, it was so great to hear that my dog was officially on his way. Oliver flew on Air New Zealand from LA to Auckland before jetting over to Sydney Thursday morning. Since he has to be quarantined, I was not allowed to be involved with his arrival. The airline delivered him to the quarantine people who took him to his home at Eastern Creek Quarantine Station which is about 1 hour west of Sydney. I spoke with Tina who will be his caretaker for his 30 day stint in the dog prison to see how he was doing. She said he was doing fine and was wagging his tail as we spoke. I was not nearly as stressed out by his flight...
More About: Live , Land , Liver

Clijsters' Incredible Win
2007-03-02 03:41:02
Just a quick post to recap the amazing match I watched on Friday night. Kim Clijsters came back from being down a set and a break (saving one match point) against Jelena Jankovic to win the Medibank International. It was a really windy and stormy day here so I was not sure the match would even take place but in the end, the rain stayed away.I have never been a huge Clijsters fan but it was easy to pull for her in this match. First up, she is retiring after this year so she becomes the sentinmental favorite that you want to see succeed in her final visit to Sydney. But the biggest reason was the ridiculously loud and unruly group of Serbian fans who were there to support Jankovic. They screamed out during points and loudly cheered every Clijster error which rallied the rest of the crowd around Kim and seemed to inspire her to win. It was clear that even Jankovic was irritated by them. Clijsters handled it pretty well. Every so often, when she was on our side of the court, she would g...
More About: Incredible , Edible

Final Sydney Tourney Report
2007-03-02 03:41:02
So today I went back to my real job. No more days off, lounging at the tennis center. I was scheduled to work the evening session so planned to head out just after work. Since Mauresmo was on fourth, I left work a little early to catch her match against Jankovic. After watching both of them play, I knew it was not likely going to be good for Amelie. The first set was very close but Jankovic took it after a series of huge winners. The second set lasted about 15 minutes as Jankovic closed out Mauresmo 7-5, 6-0. I really like Mauresmo but was terribly disappointed in her today. I would bet my left foot that she tanked the second set. She kept hitting strange extra loopy shots that landed in the middle of the court for Jankovic to crush. I have seen her play several times live and many more on TV and have never seen her hit this half-ass shot before. On match point, she hit a routine backhand straight into the ground. She would have made that shot (or at least hit it out or into the net...
More About: Sydney , Report , Port , Tour , Final

Christmas is Coming...
2007-03-02 03:41:02
I have been really busy lately trying to balance some big changes at work while getting ready for the holidays. In some ways, being over here leading up to Chris t mas has been much easier. My only real option is to shop online and have everything shipped. The hard part is trying to figure out what to get the family members who refuse to give me any decent ideas for presents. Oh, the other hard part, trying not to think about missing Christmas day with my little nieces and nephews. Ugh!I have gone Christmas shopping a few times, mostly to try and come up with gift ideas. But I have also gone just to try and get in the spirit. Christmas is a big deal here for sure but nothing like back home. I suppose being in a warm weather climate, away from family and friends has something to do with it. But I miss the over-commercialization of this holiday that you can only find in America! You can walk into some stories here and not see any Christmas decorations at all.My plans for the holidays ar...
More About: Ming

Medibank Tennis
2007-03-02 03:41:02
The week prior to the Aussie Open, there is a major men's and women's professional warm up tennis tournament here in Sydney. The event called the Medibank International takes place Jan 7-13. They hold it at the site of the 2000 Sydney Olympics west of downtown. Before I arrived in Sydney, I had planned to volunteer for the tournament, all part of my master plan to eventually become the tournament director for the event.I contacted the volunteer coordinator for the tournament and eventually got routed to the woman who runs the Technology group. I figured I was placed with this group because of my internet background and strong computer skills. Not quite.When I arrived at the tennis center for the volunteer training day, I learned the real reason I got placed in the Technology group. The average age of these volunteers had to have been around 63 and most of these people are not very tech savvy, nor can they really see very well.The Technology group has basically one major task at th...
More About: Tennis , Bank

Oprah's Favorite Things on SNL
2007-03-02 03:41:02
This has nothing to do with Australia or Christmas but I absolutely love this clip. I watch it from time to time when I need a little chuckle or am feeling nostalgic for home. Chech it out, you will enjoy it too.
More About: Things , Thing , Favorite , Favor

Happy Holidays
2007-03-02 03:41:02
Just a quick note to wish everyone a safe and fun holiday season and all the best in 2007. I miss everyone back home quite a bit and counting down the days (less than 3 weeks) until my reluctant reindeer model arrives in Australia. All I want for Christmas is Oliver's safe arrival (but feel free to send along presents anyway).
More About: Holidays , Holiday , Happy Holidays , Happy , Days

Christmas Fun
2007-03-02 03:41:02
Today is New Year?s Eve here in Sydney, I am sitting on my balcony enjoying a surprisingly sunny and warm day. It was supposed to rain all weekend but it has been really pretty. Weather forecasters are always wrong. Here is a quick recap of my holiday week. On Sunday, Chris t mas Eve, I went to the dinner party with Melbourne Joe and 13 of his friends. Everyone was very friendly and the food was fantastic. The group consisted of a bunch of friends and a few of the us orphans. One guy invited along an older gay couple named Gene and John. I got to talking with them, turns out they had been together for 53 years. That is longer than any couple I have ever met, let alone a gay one. I ended up drinking wine into the wee hours with the group before catching a cab home.Christmas day was pretty quiet around the house. In the early afternoon, I grabbed Mark and we headed out to Newtown to Joe and Michael?s house for dinner. They had invited us along with a few other orphans for food and drink...
More About: Fun

Sydney NYE Fireworks
2007-03-02 03:41:02
Still recovering from the crazy fun NYE celebration here in Sydney . I spent the evening at Mark's with a fun bunch of people. Since the yacht party fell through, we headed to Joel's place to watch the fireworks from the roof of his building. Everyone was pretty lit up so we are all lucky that no one fell off the roof. The fireworks were amazing and the really cool thing (that you cannot see in this video) is that the went up all along the harbor. It was so amazing to see in person. Here is a video of the bridge fireworks. Happy New Year!!
More About: Work , Fire , Works , Fireworks

Day 2 - Sydney Tourney Report
2007-03-02 03:41:02
The schedule for Day 2 (Saturday) was all mens and women's qualies. I got out to the tennis center around 8am, knowing I would be there all day since I was scheduled to work two shifts. I got lucky and was scheduled to work on Court 2 which is best court outside of the big stadium. Court 2 has seats for a 1,000 or so, center court holds 10,000 people. The first two matches on our court were men's matches and they both had an Aussie playing. Unfortunately, both Aussies lost but the matches were great to watch, especially from our vantage point on the court directly behind the umpire. The third match was Ai Sugiyama playing a young Ukranian girl. Sugiyama took care of her very easily and is now one match from getting into the main draw. When she came on court, she sat just to the left of our table so she was 2 feet away from me at every change over. I broke the rules after she won and said "nice match" to her. Us lowly volunteers are not supposed to speak to the players but she did ...
More About: Sydney , Report , Port , Tour , Repo

Day 1 - Sydney Tourney Report
2007-03-02 03:41:02
***One quick note, all my Sydney Medibank tournament posts will be very boring for people who are not into tennis (maybe all my posts are boring). Read on but don't say I didn't warn you.***Today was the first day of the tournament and my first day on the job. The weather could not have been more perfect. Absolutely sunny and warm. I left work at lunch time and headed out to the tennis at Olympic Park. Today was the first round of the women's qualifiers so no real big names playing today. The one player I was surprised to see was Ai Sugiyama who won pretty easily in her match. I personally worked two matches Peng vs Tu and Pironkova vs Czink. It was fun to track the results. Using a laptop, you simply chose the player, the serve, the shot, and the result and the program does the rest. We walked around a bit looking for players on the warm up court and stumbled across James Blake playing a pick up match against Robby Ginepri. Very fun. Also watched Elena Bovina practicing. She is ...
More About: Report , Port , Tour , Repo

Day 4 - Sydney Tennis Report
2007-03-02 03:41:02
After a lovely breakfast in the neighborhood, John and I hopped on the train out to Olympic Park. Today was the first day I rode the free shuttle bus from the train station to the actual tennis center. It was full of children and old people making jokes like they were all from some strange summer camp. Ugh.We walked in and immediately saw Mauresomo hitting with the newly brunette Svetlana Kuznetsova (the number 2 seeeded woman from Russia). Let me just sat, her new look is not helping anything. We did a quick tour around the grounds and then headed into center court to watch Australia Samanta Stosur beat the Russian Zvonereva. After that, we headed outside and watched a set of Patty Schynder against another Russian (Shnyder won in three sets) and spent time watching Blake, Vaidesova, and a few others on the practice courts.Next up was an amazing match between Martina Hingis and Jelena Jankovic on center court. It was an exciting match with lots of drama. There seemed to be a large S...
More About: Tennis , Sydney , Report , Port , Repo

Day 5 - Sydney Tourney Report
2007-03-02 03:41:02
Tuesday was a huge day at the Medibank. All women were in action in the round of 16 and most of the men were playing in the 1st round including the top three seeds. I am not working (real job or scorekeeping) again today and had somehow convinced John to come back for another day of sun and fun at the tennis center. We met at the train station and headed out to Olympic Park.As we entered the grounds, we stopped at court 2 and watched a few games of the Stosur vs Jankovic match before heading to watch Blake dismantle American Kevin Kim in straight sets. Blake looked pretty strong as he smacked winners from all over the court. From the top row of center court on the west side of the arena, you can see down onto court 2. As Blake was wrapping up his match, I walked up to the top so I could catch a few more games of the court 2 match. Stosur put up a good fight but Jankovic got her in the end. Watch out for Jelena Jankovic in 2007.After Blake was my marquee match-up between the French l...
More About: Sydney , Report , Port , Tour , Repo

Royal National Park
2007-03-02 03:41:02
If you head south of Sydney about 45 minutes, you will hit the Royal Nation al Park . The Royal was founded in 1879 and is the oldest national park in Australia and the second oldest in the world -- Yellowstone was the first. It is quite large, about 132 square kilometers (80+ square miles) and has some really beautiful scenery and wildlife.I got the opportunity to check it out a few weeks back when I went to Wattamolla Beach, one of several beaches inside the park. My friend Rob took me down to see a house in Cronulla (a southern Sydney suburb) that he is considering buying. Cronulla is a cute beach town with a bad reputation. Last December, there were a series of race riots there between the large Lebanese community and white Aussies. As far as race riots go, it seemed pretty tame compared to what we have seen in the States but it was big news here. I remember seeing news about the riots in the States on Yahoo.com the weeks leading up to my trip to Sydney.Rob and I went to see the h...
More About: National Park