Where is Darran?

Happy New Year! You have probably realized that 2009 is here and 2008 is gone. A recap of 2008 is unnecessary, but a look into the future is needed. Adding some spice to 2009 will take some effort, but here is what I have in the mix.

January 2009 – Finally retake the GMAT

Jan/Feb 2009 – Apply for Australian Permanent Residence – who knows, I might stay here

February 2009 – Finally apply to Business school

March 2009 – Six Foot Track Marathon

April 2009 – Ironman Australia

April/May 2009 – Parents are coming over to see IMOZ and then want to travel OZ/NZ together

June 2009 – Possibly Ironman France (The course looks amazing and the run is alongside nude beaches)

July 2009 – Open

August 2009 – My current Australian visa expires – Have to head back to states or a different country – I could bounce next door to New Zealand for a year. Stateside, I am planning on relocating to Boston or Portland. Boston, if I get into a B-School. Portland, if I don’t get accepted to B-School. Portland is the number 1 ranked city for cycling in the States.

August 2009 – End of year 2009 – Open and based on opportunities presented in early 2009

All 2009 – Going sober. No alcohol and still no drugs. This will probably be the biggest challenge of the year, but I think it will also be the most rewarding.

Where is my professional career in this? I might get a professional job in Australia. If not, I will most likely get one when heading back to the US. It will probably carry on where it left off in either Systems Analysis or Quality Assurance. Getting an MBA may provide an opportunity for break out and I am also always open to start something up when the right opportunity and right people come along.

Added a Training and Race section to the site. I am going to start tracking training sessions. Perhaps it will provide some insight into where improvements can be made.

Thought I’d post three more lame pics from the tri

The pool has been quiet because of the holidays. The lull in traffic provided an opportunity to take some pictures. The full name of the the pool is the Annette Kellerman Aquatic Centre. Apparently, Annette Kellerman was very popular in earlier history, but I had never heard of her before working at the pool. Without further explanation, here are some pics of the pool.

Angle shot

Six lanes – 33 Metres

Outdoor Kid’s pool – They love it

An old school mural

My colleague, Rob, manning the kiosk

Getting some laps in after work – Feel free to offer stroke correction feedback

MVI_0217

I did a little exploring of Canberra the day after the Half Iron. Before getting into a picture tour of Canberra, lets look at a video of the day prior to the Half Iron. This will give you an idea of the swim conditions. It wasn’t really this bad. The wind died down Saturday morning.

MVI_0020

The first place to see was the Australian Parliament House, which dominates the city skyline.

Lobby

House of Representatives

Flag from the roof of the Parliament House

Next, I went to visit the Australian War Memorial and on the way stopped to view the National Carillon.

National Carillon from ground(taken on Saturday)

Carillon Plaque

View of the Old Parliament House and New Parliament House

View of Australia War Memorial from same position on the opposite side of the lake

The War Memorial is also a war museum and is one of the better war museums I have visited. Do not be mistaken by the relatively small appearance of the memorial, inside there are numerous levels and halls of exhibits and a fairly extensive aircraft collection.

A P51D Mustang hanging from the ceiling. My grandpa flew one of these in Europe during WWII.

One side of The Hall of Memory

The Hall of Memory taken from the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier

Next, I went to visit the Australian-American War Memorial. I was picturing it being similar to the Australian War Memorial and contain a War Museum, however, it does not.

The Australian-American War Memorial

The inscription at the base

Territorial birds that attack humans are fairly common

A fairly common bird found near water in Australia

The last place to visit before getting some dinner, picking up the backpack from the hostel, and heading to the Greyhound station was the National Museum of Australia. By this time I was museumed-out, walked quickly through the museum, and viewed a movie collage of Australian history before leaving. For completeness I should add that if you want to make people smirk and smile, strap an 80 litre backpack to yourself and ride through town on a road bike.