Category Archives: General

Goodbye Berkeley – We’ll miss you!

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We’re now all settled down in LA after an exhausting but amazingly fun past 2 weeks. I graduated which I still can’t believe has actually happened – I still feel like I’ll be back at school next semester however I guess the real world is catching up ;-)

The week prior to graduation began with my last exam finishing at 9pm on the Wednesday, and heading straight to Praam (our Spring Gala) – I was dressed in my tux for the exam! Jacs and most of our friends were already there since my final exam was the very last one! Praam was on the USS Hornet, an aircraft carrier that is now a museum which was cool. It was a really fun night of drinking and dancing and celebrating being done with exams.

Praam

That was only the beginning of disorientation week however, which continued the next day with around 200 of us heading to Vegas to stay at the Cosmopolitan Hotel for 2 nights. It was such a fun time! The first night we went out for burgers for dinner with some friends before meeting everyone at Tao at the Venetian for the evening. The next morning, we had a great room service breakfast including bloody marys, which were all free thanks to Chris (we shared a room with Chris and Jordan) calling reception to say our room smelled of smoke..which it really did :-) The day was then spent at a private cabana with bottle service at the Marquee Day Club Pool Party which was amazing and probably the highlight of the trip!

Cabana by the Pool!

Cabana by the Pool!

For dinner we headed out (after an afternoon nap) to a delicious steakhouse called Fix with Chris and Jordan, followed by getting a table at Marquee for another night of clubbing – after dealing with the obnoxious bouncers that are a part of Vegas nightlife. The following morning, feeling pretty exhausted, we headed to the airport and back to Berkeley, where the celebrations would continue the following morning!

Sunday morning was Bay to Breakers, an annual race from San Francisco’s bay to ocean beach, which is mostly just a huge party – everyone dresses up in costume and has drinks around the city and ends up in the park. We all decided to dress up as ‘Ice’ from the movie Blades of Glory, and we looked great ;-) People were stopping us along the way to have photos with us! It was an amazing day!

Blades of Glory at Bay to Breakers

Blades of Glory at Bay to Breakers

After all of the excitement, we decided to have a quieter day on Monday – the only organized event was an afternoon BBQ in Willard Park in Berkeley, so we enjoyed having a sleep in! Tuesday however, dis-orientation continued with Cohort Olympics. At the very beginning of school we had had a Cohort Olympics (the 4 groups that the class is divided in to for core classes), which involved a day in the park with kegs and sports like slosh ball, volleyball, corn hole, and even proper sports like soccer, but adapted to include drinks ;-) This was our chance to relive the original cohort olympics. It got pretty competitive, but I’m proud to say that my cohort, Gold, managed to win the day!

Go Gold!

Go Gold!

On Wednesday, mum and dad flew in, so we picked them up from the airport, had a nice lunch in Berkeley, and then started preparing for the BBQ we were hosting that night for about 30 friends and their parents at Lou and Gita’s house, where we were staying. The BBQ was a lot of fun, and everyone loved meeting my parents and Jacs’ grandparents!

Thursday morning, we had Daniella (a friend from Singapore who is an undergrad at Berkeley) over for breakfast. It was then time for me to take Dad to try Bakesale Betty’s, a famous fried chicken sandwich place that I love :-) In the afternoon there was a ‘Consumption Function’ at campus with drinks and food, so we all headed up to that for a few hours to meet everyone’s parents and have a beer, before heading out to dinner with mum and dad, as well as John and Shirley (my storm parents who drove down from Tahoe for graduation). Dinner was at a restaurant we love called Gather which has lots of vegetarian and uses local ingredients.

Graduation at the Greek Theatre

Graduation at the Greek Theatre

Graduation day had finally arrived on Friday after all of the celebrating of the prior few weeks! Keiren flew in at lunch just in time to come to the ceremony which was great – we were quite a group with Keiren, Jacs, mum, dad, John, Shirley, Lou and Gita all there at the Greek Theatre for the ceremony!

Graduation with the Fam

After the ceremony, there was a reception on campus, after which we went over to Chris’ parents house – the Brown’s were generously hosting a celebratory event for our close friends which was really lovely and we all had a great time having a glass of wine and some delicious food at their beautiful home in Piedmont. Since it was our last night in Berkeley, we then continued on with some friends to the Graduate for one final evening at our local dive bar. Daniella and her brother Darren joined us again which was great. What a last night in Berkeley!! We’re going to miss everyone so much.

In'N'Out at Bubba's Birthday!

In’N'Out at Bubba’s Birthday!

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to head to LA for Bubba and Christy’s wedding, as well as his birthday. We dropped Jacs at the airport so she could get there for the rehearsal, and then me, Keiren, mum and dad hit the road. The drive went smoothly despite some bags under my eyes, and we arrived in time for Bubba’s birthday party / rehearsal which was a pool party kindly hosted by Jim Plumb, complete with an In’N'Out Truck which was amazing! I had 2 burgers!!

Jacs and the Groom

Jacs and the Groom

Sunday was Bubba and Christy’s wedding at the house, which was an amazing evening. It was a beautiful afternoon and the house was looking wonderful. Jacs’ dad, Lou, was the celebrant and did a great job!

Wedding Ben and Jacs

It was also so great that mum, dad and Keiren could be there too!

Wedding Fam

The morning after the wedding, Bon and Lou’s neighbors, Mark and Carol, hosted a brunch, after which mum, dad, Jacs and I (Keiren had to fly back to NYC) headed down to San Diego for 2 nights. On the way down we stopped in at Carlsbad to see our friends Jess and Michael, before making it down to our hotel – the Bahia Hotel – just on the Bay by Mission Beach which worked out great. That evening, we went to a place that our friend Andrew Collier (who went to Cabo with me) recommended just up the road in Pacific Beach called Cali Kebab and Beer Garden , which brews its own beers and serves healthy kebabs – it was actually started by some Australians that missed all the kebabs we eat in Sydney :-) Jacs’ cousin Tal joined us, so it great to get a chance to catchup again!

Coronado Beach

Coronado Beach

Mum at the Del

Mum at the Del

Tuesday morning we briefly explored the city, then headed over to Coronado for some time at the beach, including exploring the beautiful Hotel Del Coronado, and having a Moo Time ice cream after lunch which was decadent! After a rest back at our hotel we headed out for ‘Taco Tuesday’ specials at a restaurant called the Blind Burro in the gas lamp district (yum yum!), followed by cocktails across the street, where Tal joined us after work.

Wednesday was mum and dad’s last day before continuing on their journey, so it was back to LA for us. It was also Jacs and my 2 year anniversary, but we decided to push back celebrating by one day ;-) Instead, we had a celebratory dinner with Bon, Lou, mum and dad at the club which was delicious and a great way to end mum and dad’s stay! Last night we actually celebrated our anniversary with a delicious and romantic dinner at the Raymond in Pasadena.

Jacs looking beautiful in her anniversary necklace :-)

Jacs looking beautiful in her anniversary necklace :-)

After all of that, we’re looking forward to some relaxation over the next few weeks, and some time catching up with the Fishers. We’re also going up to Berkeley for one night next week to see friends one last time, as well as going to Ithaca/Cornell for Andrew and Amanda’s wedding in the middle of the month, and squeezing in a visit to Niagara Falls.

We’ll post once more before we leave the US on June 20th.

xx
Ben and Jacs

Where have the past 2 years gone?

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It still hasn’t really settled in, but on Thursday I had my last class of my MBA, and on the 24th is graduation. Between now and then we have celebrations for ‘dis-orientation week’ which is going to be great fun – don’t worry, I’ll post all about it in a few weeks – however we’re in the middle of packing up our apartment which is making our move back to Sydney very real! It is sad that our time in Berkeley is already coming to a close, and we’re leaving all of the great friends that we have made here and are going to miss terribly! :-(

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy in the lead up to finishing classes! Since we last posted I did the swim from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park in San Francisco with a group of about 25 people from school (one of the other girl’s who did the swim wrote about it here). It went really well – the weather cooperated and it was a nice calm day. I actually ended up finishing first in 30 minutes which I was really surprised about, and really happy! :-) It was actually a lot of fun to do! Afterwards we celebrated with irish coffee’s which we felt we had earned even though it was only 9am!

I Escaped

Alcatraz Swim

Last weekend, I was in Las Vegas for Jacs’ brother’s bachelor party, which was awesome fun – we stayed at the Mandalay Bay and spent the day by the pool, and at night went out to delicious dinners and generally had a great time. While I was there, Jacs was actually also traveling – she had a bachelorette party for our friend Amanda in Austin which was also amazing. I’ll let her tell you all about it. Here she is:


Although I can’t discuss everything that happened (bacherlorette etiquette!) I can share a few things. We had such an awesome weekend. Awesome does not even do it justice. My friend Amanda lives here but grew up back east so has friends all over. The 20 of us flew in from various cities Friday and couldn’t wait to get the party started. The theme for Friday night was 80s prom, so we all busted out our 80s gear, had a Texas style BBQ at the house, and then headed to 6th street. As you can imagine we made quite the scene when we walked into bars dressed the way we were. We had great fun dancing, singing, and getting lots of free drinks from the bouncers who were trying lure our group in to different bars. :-) The next day we headed out on two pontoon style boats on Lake Austin. We spent the whole day singing, dancing, swimming, and stand up paddle boarding. It was…you guessed it awesome. That night we decided to try out Rainy Street which is another section of bars, but a little bit more mature – not quite like the bars that cater to the college kids on 6th Street. I’d definitely recommend Rainy Street to anyone looking for some relaxed but fun bars in Austin. The next morning after sleeping in and packing up, those of us that had afternoon flights went for lunch at a Mexican restaurant (it was Cinco De Mayo after all!) before heading to the airport. It was so fun spending the weekend with the girls, and getting to know Amanda’s friends from Cornell. We’re all looking forward to the reunion at the wedding in June :-)

Austin

This weekend we were away again – we just got back from 2 awesome nights up in Sonoma with 9 other friends celebrating Jordan’s 30th birthday. We rented a gorgeous house on 150 acres up in the hills, and hung out by the pool, BBQ’d, cooked delicious food, and rented a stretched Denali limo to take us out to lunch in Sonoma, and to visit two wineries – Chateau St Jean and Kunde – both of which were great. It was so fun to get a chance to hang out with our closest friends for the weekend, since we’re so aware of how little time we have left here!

Sonoma

A few other things worth mentioning from the past few weeks. About two weeks ago, I organized a day of wakeboarding up at Lake Berryessa (about 1.5 hours from here) with a group of 5 friends. It was so much fun to get out on the water after about 9 months, and it was a beautiful hot day, and we got lucky and were given a brand new boat to take out which was awesome! We’ve also been out to dinner at Slanted Door, an Asian fusion restaurant at the Ferry Building, which Naeill and Carla generously treated us to as a graduation present – I’ll be repaying the favour in 2 years for him :-)

I’ll write again in a few weeks after graduation!
Ben and Jacs
xx

Where is time going?

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I don’t understand how time is going by so quickly! I’m already more than half way through semester which means that graduation, and the real world, are fast approaching! On Thursday we’re off to the east coast for a week for Spring Break. First stop is New York, where we’ll be till Wednesday, followed by a night in Philly and then 3 nights in Washington DC. We can’t wait for Brenna and Dutch’s wedding on Saturday, and to catch up with Keiren (who just moved to New York) as well as some other friends there. In DC, we’re celebrating my birthday (29! Yikes!), although I don’t know the plan yet as Jacs is surprising me :-)

Since our last post, everything here has been going great. Jacs is staying busy during the week with a combination of freelance writing for a PR firm, working on some Cell-Crete communications, and doing a bit of yoga teaching – this morning she taught a class on campus at Haas for the MBA community which was great fun. Other than that we’ve been spending most weekends up in Tahoe, LA or having fun around the Bay Area.

Here’s a photo from Tahoe a few weeks ago – Jacs just got back on the slopes after her injury, but still taking it very easy/slowly so she doesn’t go through that whole thing again!

Back on the Slopes

And here is one from a fun day in Berkeley – we celebrated Becky’s birthday by getting all dressed up and going to Dollar Days at the horse races at Golden Gate Fields. Dollar Days is where you can buy one dollar beer and hotdogs, so we had a great time! It’s not quite the classy affair that is Sydney races, but we wanted to get dressed up anyway :-)

Ryan, Jordan, Becky, Jacs and Amanda (aka the Blondetourage) before the races

Ryan, Jordan, Becky, Jacs and Amanda (aka the Blondentourage) before the races

A few weeks ago, I was in Austin for a soccer tournament at University of Texas which was an amazingly fun trip, although we didn’t do well in the soccer. There were about 40 people from Haas there, so we partied on 6th st (lots of cool bars!), rented a boat (called Miss High Life) for a fun day on the Lake, and explored the South Congress neighbourhood which is pretty fun – more ‘hipster’. No trip to Austin would be complete without a visit to the Salt Lick, a famous BBQ restaurant where you have delicious all you can eat meat, and can BYO beers – pretty amazing!

Salt Lick

Last weekend, the Redwoods Club (outdoor activities club) rented a few houses up in Tahoe, so we were up there in our house, and I think about 150 Haasies total across about 6 houses. We had a party with the Haas band playing on Friday night, and a house party Saturday night, which made up for the snow being pretty average – although at least the sun was out!

Redwoods Weekend

Nothing like the snow the week before when we got some great riding in. :-)

Ben in the Park

Despite the late nights on Redwoods weekend, we were up at 6am on Sunday to get back in time for me to head to Napa in a limo to do some wine tasting as a reward for getting Groupon to sponsor the >Play Conference that I was involved in organising back in October. It was awesome fun, once I’d had a glass of champagne and woken up. Thanks Jacs for driving me so early. Love you babes ;-)

Napa

We’re super excited for our trip to the east coast, and will tell you all about it when we get back. We’re also celebrating my birthday with friends when we get back by getting a party bus (Galactic Transporter) to Outback Steakhouse*, so we’ll let you know how that goes – it should be an authentic aussie party. ;-)

Hope you’re all well
Ben and Jacs
xx

*For those of you that don’t know, Outback is a kind of tacky ‘Australian’ restaurant here that serves dishes like the bloomin onion (a deep fried onion). I’ve never been so everyone thought I should check it out before leaving the US :-)

A Tahoe Kinda Winter

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Hey guys,

Hope you’re all well. We’ve settled back into life on this side of the Equator after such an amazing trip with the family to Brazil and our adventures in Mexico. We’ve been spending a lot of time in Tahoe boarding at Squaw and Alpine, visiting the family (with Mom and Dad either coming here or us going down there), a little bit of school here and there for Ben, and a little bit of work for me. It’s been pretty awesome to say the least. So…

First bit of news is that I’m now officially a Registered Yoga Teacher (200 Hour Certification with the Yoga Alliance). It’s so exciting and something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve been teaching about 2-4 hours every week since I received my certification. Ben is quite the little yogi now which is fun for us both. I’ve taught a few donation based classes on our friend’s balcony in Berkeley that has gorgeous views of the Golden Gate and the city. I’ve also taught our friends after days on the slopes to stretch them out and release some of the tension built up in the moguls or shredding it hard :-) It’s been really fun and I’m looking forward to offering more classes when I find additional venues.

As some of you guys know, we were up at Tahoe one weekend a month ago and I unfortunately took a big fall and dislocated my shoulder, and separated it from my collar bone. I even had to go down the mountain in the ski patrol sled…Ben has photos to prove it!

Jacs with Ski Patrol

I haven’t been able to board or do much yoga since the accident, but it is healing and thankfully I’m still allowed to RUN! It also means no contact sports (soccer) for me this season which is a bummer since my team moved up a division after winning last season. Luckily it wasn’t my knee or neck, so lots to be thankful for in this situation. :-) That night we also celebrated my birthday with my girlfriend Amanda (TWINSIES!…kinda but not really…she is two weeks younger than me!) Jordan gave us both lovely bottles of sparkling to kick the night off!

Jacs with Jordan and Amanda

Jacs with Jordan and Amanda

We had dinner at the Fat Cat with about 20 of our friends here in Tahoe. We even got ice cream cake :-)

Amanda and Jacs blowing out their candles!

Amanda and Jacs blowing out their candles!

Right after the accident, Mom and Dad drove up from Altadena for the week. It was lovely to have them here. We took the opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing too and headed to Alcatraz. Dad and I both had never been, and it had been ages for Ben and Mom, so we all had a great time. It was a gorgeous sunny SF day – one you definitely couldn’t have planned. We lucked out to say the least. While Mom and Dad were here, we also met up with one of their biker buddies in the city for dinner and a jazz show. After a delicious meal with a southern flair, we walked across to Yoshi’s San Francisco to hear Leela James belt out some incredible songs. She has a blues-meets-jazz-meets-soul vibe and some kick ass pipes.

The view from the boat on the way to Alcatraz with Mom and Dad

The view from the boat on the way to Alcatraz with Mom and Dad

We drove back down to LA the following weekend for Ben’s biometrics appointment for his Green Card. While we were home we spent time with the family, caught up with Vikkee who we hadn’t seen since Bub and Christy’s engagement party, went out for dinner at the club and drinks with all the siblings in Old Town, and celebrated Nick and Nicole’s engagement. It’s been so nice popping down to LA lots this quarter (without worrying about classes for Ben or work for me on Mondays and Fridays).

In other news, Ben had the opportunity to hear Al Gore speak down in Santa Clara last week about his new book and climate change. Taking advantage of where we live and the flexibility of a student schedule! I’m also doing some freelance writing, in addition to teaching yoga and sitting, and am also going to be helping Cell Crete out with some marketing and PR. Let’s be honest, Ben and I don’t stay still for long :-)

Al came up to Tahoe last weekend with her snowboard team, so even though I couldn’t board, we headed up to hang out with her. Ben and she hit the slopes and had a blast together. She had an awesome weekend getting to know people, boarding, and living the college life!

Ben and Al Shredding at Alpine

Ben and Al Shredding at Alpine

Ben is off to Austin this weekend with the Haas soccer team, and I’m popping up to Tahoe where I’ll do some snowshoeing, running if it’s not too slippery on the roads, and some yoga and meditation. We have lots of friends up there this weekend so it should be fun!

And finally, we have some exciting news to report. Alexandra has been accepted to her study abroad program in Florence this summer and Christy passed her real estate license exam. We are so proud of you two and can’t wait to hear about all the adventures Al has and see Christy thrive as an agent. Congratulations!

Lots of love,
Jacs and Ben

Brazil, here we come

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Neither of us can believe it, but it is the holidays already! I finished up exams a few weeks ago, and Jacs had her last day of work today. We fly to Brazil for 2 weeks tomorrow for Christmas with my family, and then I have 2 weeks in the South of the Baja peninsula (Mexico) with a friend, and Jacs is doing a 16 day yoga teaching training nearby at Yandara – we’re both super excited!

Time has flown by since Thanksgiving, and a lot has happened. I finished my 3rd semester, so next semester is my last – I graduate in May which I can’t believe. Jacs also quit her job, and in the new year will be a lot more flexible to enjoy a few months here – we’ll be spending a lot of time in Tahoe :-)

Since school finished for me, I’ve been pottering around Berkeley, hanging out with friends, and exploring the area a bit. Last week I went for a hike up in Marin county with a couple of people which was fun – its so beautiful up there, and we even saw an otter at a Lake we passed.

Last weekend we were down in LA for a quick 1 night visit with the Fishers for Louis and Christy’s engagement party. Bon threw a great party, and as always, we had a wonderful time seeing everyone. We’ve loved how much we’ve seen them recently. We did have a bit of an adventure on the way down with our plane getting diverted from Burbank to Ontario airport (30 minutes inland from Pasadena), but luckily Vik was kind enough to come and get us (once we convinced her we were really there and it wasn’t a joke!).

This week I had 2 nights up at Lake Tahoe staying with John and Shirley and enjoying some early season snowboarding. The first day was sunny and warm on some groomed runs at Squaw (there hadn’t been much snow …), but the next day was an awesome day of powder riding at Alpine Meadows after a big overnight storm. Lots of fun, and it was great to see John and Shirley for a couple of nights.

Squaw

We’ll make sure to post updates from our travels over the next few weeks!

Ben and Jacs