Jen and I went horse riding at Otford Farm yesterday, and we are both hella sore today.  My back and thighs are killing me, but it was super fun.  Actually it was also a lot more scarey than it looks.  If you haven't riden a horse before, it's a lot higher off the ground than you realise, and not easy to keep your balance, especially when going down hill.  Jen almost got thrown off of her horse, Archie, when he decided to jump over a small stream, instead of just walking through it.

I was riding Archie's "girlfriend", Twinkle Toes, who was much more sedate than her companion.  Although she did seem to prefer that she be in front of Archie on the trail, as she gave me quite a scare at one point when she broke into a gallop to get in front of him.  I flipped out and started pulling back on the reins to stop her, until our guide informed me that it was ok, she just wanted to be in front.  Father along, when Twinkle Toes stopped for a poo break, I thought she was trying to buck me off, but it turned out that Archie was nipping at her bum, and she kicked her back legs at him.  Archie and Twinkle Toes obviously have an odd relationship.

All in all though it was a good time.  We took lots of pictures, so once I post them to flickr I'll put up a link.

Last night we saw the Australian premiere of In Bruges at the Sydney Film Festival.  While the trailers that we saw back in the States made it look like more of a straight up action-comedy, it is really more of a darkly comic drama.

It was quite good; even better than expected.  I was about to despair of it ever being released in Australia until a couple weeks ago when Jen found that it was showing at the film festival.

In short, In Bruges is a fantastic flick.  You should see it.

Here's a picture of us back in early May. We were on the wharf at Circular Quay, waiting for the ferry to Rose Bay:

Waiting for the ferry

This is possibly the cutest picture of Jen and I in existence:

On the wharf at Circular Quay

As an addendum to yesterday's post, have a look at the set of photos that I took at the Botanic Gardens on Sunday.

This afternoon Jen and I visited Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens.  We went there for the first time a couple weeks ago, but unfortunately forgot to take our cameras.  So today we went back camera in hand and got lots of great shots.

Me and a tree

Our first stop was the Government House.  We were too late to take a tour of the house, but we did get shots of us being dwarfed by the huge tree out in front.

The main attraction of the Botanic Gardens for us was the abundance of flying foxes.  I took quite a few pictures of them, including a couple in-flight action shots.

Flying Foxes

The flying foxes are completely awesome.  The trees in the gardens are full of them.  They hang there making their weird chirping sounds, and every once in a while you can catch them flying around.

On our previous visit, I spotted the coolest plant ever, Begonia metallica.  It's pretty cool, as the leaves actually do look metallic.  Plus, it's called metallica.

Begonia Metallica

Eel

There is a pond in the middle of the gardens that is full of eels, who apparently make their way in from the harbor.  According to a sign posted near the pond, the eels prey on ducklings, and the ducks prey on baby eels.  Nature at work.

So we made our way up to Mrs. MacQuarie's point, and took in Mrs. MacQuarie's chair.  And then we just sat on the grass over looking the harbor and read and relaxed for a bit.

Mrs. MacQaurie's Chair

And of course, we had to take more gratuitous photos of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge:

Opera House and Harbor Bridge

This is the most hilarious thing I've read in a long time:

A New Zealand man who claimed to have been left speaking Australian after being raped by a wombat has been sentenced to 75 hours community service.

Arthur Ross Cradock, a 48-year-old orchard worker, admitted in the Nelson District Court yesterday to the charge of using a phone for a fictitious purpose, after calling police with the message, "I've been raped by a wombat".

Police prosecutor Sergeant Chris Stringer told the court that on the afternoon of February 11 Cradock called the police communications centre, threatening to "smash the filth"  if they arrived at his home that night.

When asked if he had an emergency, he replied "yes", Mr Stringer said.

On a second subsequent call to the communications centre, Cradock told police he was being raped by a wombat at his Motueka address, and sought their immediate help.

He called police again soon after, and gave his full name, saying he wanted to withdraw the complaint.

"I'll retract the rape complaint from the wombat, because he's pulled out," Cradock told the operator at the communications centre, who had no idea what he was talking about, Mr Stringer said.

"Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know, I didn't hurt my bum at all," Cradock then told the operator.

Mr Stringer said alcohol had played a big part in Cradock's life. However, defence lawyer Michael Vesty said alcohol was not a problem that day.

Judge Richard Russell said he was not quite sure what motivated Cradock to make those statements to the police.

In sentencing, he warned Cradock not to do it again.

Boy crushed by relative

A TWO-YEAR-OLD boy who died with a fractured skull may have been accidentally crushed by a morbidly obese relative.

Wow.  How sad, but funny at the same time.

We've been in Australia for a little under a month now.  We're renting a house in a nice area of Sydney called Redfern.  I have a job that I'll be starting shortly, and things are generally going pretty well. But of course, there are adjustments to be made.

For one thing, Sydney is expensive.  Last weekend we went to see Vantage Point at a theater for the cost of AU $16.  Per ticket.  Granted, the theater was luxurious, but still. 

The public transportation here is awesome, if a little pricey.  To give you an idea, in Boston you can get a Charlie Card for US $15 that is good for unlimited use for one week on the subway and buses.  An equivalent pass here in Sydney is AU $43.  (At the time of this writing, AU $1 is approximately US $0.94).  But anyway, we can get anywhere that we need to go with a train ride and a little bit of walking, or just a little bit of walking in some cases.  I'm kind of enjoying using the trains and getting more exercise, personally.

Lemon flavoured soda is big here.  They've got Lift, Pub Squash, Solo and a bunch of others.  They all taste pretty much the same.  Also, Tim Tams!  They are awesome.  Continuing on the snack front, there are lots of chocolates here, mostly made my Cadbury and Nestle, that aren't available in the States.  So far I've only tried the mint Aero bar, but I plan on trying as many as I can while I'm here.  Today we found Jaffa Cakes in the international foods section at Woolworths.  They're an English biscuit (cookie) with orange flavoured cake topped with chocolate.  WOW.

They have wombats here, but I've yet to see one in person.  Apparently the most likely way to see one is as roadkill. We did see a whole lot of flying foxes at the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens.  Very cool.  Unfortunately we forgot to take the camera, but we are planning to go back and take loads of pictures.

Ok, I think that's enough for now.  More news as it develops.