An Ozzie in Boston

Relocation to Boston - 10 steps to get the most out of the Boston Beerfest

Any Australian worth their salt has been to some sort of alcoholic beverage expo, so when you're an Australian headed to a beer expo, propels expect a lot from you. Here's how to smash beers in the Australian way in a Boston beer expo.

1. Get there early.

The line is attrousious for these things (I think it's got something to do with all the Irish) so you'll want to be there early. Bout half an hour is good.

2. Go straight for the strongest beer at each taste.

They always tell you the strongest one, so go for it. It'll usually be a stout or an IPA. and if you are with some one that thinks they should only drink light drinks, tell them to drink IPAs. It'll be a good time for everyone.

3. Once you've got your drink, go straight for the next line.

No talking, no drinking, just move.

4. Do try and chat up/be a good bloke/sheila to the person pouring your drink.

It usually means you get more. If they aren't a right tool.

5. If you hear someone shout "Aye" you better do it too.

Why not? You're drunk, you want to belong. Better yet, start yelling "Aye" for no reason yourself.

6. If you're a guy, wear a full body condom. If you're a girl, you're in luck!!

These things are basically sausage fests, which is expected since men drink beer, and women drink wine. That's just how it goes.

7. For people paying attention to the above, don't let the drinks affect your standards.

Enuff said.

8. Always, always go to the late session.

There is nothing uglier than the afternoon hangover. Seriously, a Saturday afternoon hangover takes your weekend from sweet to s**thouse in about 5 seconds.

9. Have a ready to go time and meeting point.

You WILL get lost in the sea of beers and sweaty men. It will happen. And you'll be drunk. So just believe me when I say you won't be able to see past your drunken haze or the BO odor you swear you can see rising out of that fat blokes pits.

10. Make sure you go to a seafood place and get lots of deep friend food after.

Your stomach will love you for it.

Hope that helps you survive your next beer expo. Make sure you try to remember your favorite beer!

Letter to home

From: Nathan
To: Family and friends at home.
Subject: Phew - just finished an intense 3 days.

G'Day peeps at home. The past two days I've been learning as much as I can about Shatepoint. Sharepoint is basically this new "server" platform people use to share documents, organize tasks, and keep in touch with their company.

And our company uses a heavily customized version of it to look after our patients, store patient data, and set up tasks for those patients. So I better know it inside out.

The conference has been a big learning experience. Looking forward to putting it into practice.

On the social side, I went to the Beerfest last weekend, had a few beers with conference goers, and might sign up for a comittee member for the Boston Rotaract club. So there's plenty going on.

But how about you guys? What are you up to these days? Answers on a postcard to..... Naaah, just post a comment below. It's well easy!

Cheers,
Nathan

Relocation to Boston – 5 Tips for Dealing with the Weather

G’day all, if you haven’t been to Boston yet, here’s something you need to know about the weather. It alternates between bloody freezing and just simply numbing in the winter, and can rain at any second in all the seasons except summer, where it will either be pleasant, or humid as heck. America even has a “First Day of Summer” scheduled on all it’s calendars just show people in Boston can at least somehow know they are in summer, even if it’s raining and you’ve stepped in a puddle.

So here’s 5 tips you can use to get ready for Boston Weather:

1. Always carry an umbrella with you throughout winter, autumn and spring.

Sure, the weather looks nice now, but in half an hour, it could be raining. Actually, it will rain, now that you’ve thought about rain. It’s all your fault.

2. In winter, make sure you have a very warm coat, and several pairs of thermals.

Winter usually runs from late October to late March, so have plenty of warm clothes ready for when you arrive. And be prepared to wear thermals 24-7 when you arrive before you get used to the weather.

3. “180’s” Ear muffs make you look like a dork, but at least you’re a dork with warm ears, instead of an idiot with no ears.

Plus, they don’t stuff up your hair. Which is great if you’re about to meet your lady friend slash are an actual lady. You can wear a beanie as well – in fact it’s probably a good idea, but if you care about your hair, go with 180’s ear muffs.

4. Get snow shoes and thick woolly socks.

Normal shoes don’t last long when you are trudging through snow, big wet puddles and sleet. You’ll need to get yourself some Merrells shoes, as they seem to be the best quality snow shoes you can get. Black ones are good as they almost pass for work shoes. Woolly socks go a looooong way to keeping yourself warm.

5. And Gloves.

Basically cover all your extremities. Those are the things that will get really cold and drop off.

Before I go out in Winter, I usually wear:

Thermals, top and bottoms.
Thick Workpants
Woolly socks
Undershirt
Business shirt
Sweater/jumper
Overcoat
Gloves
180’s earmuffs
Sometimes a beanie.
Always a face of grim realisation that I need to go outside into the freezing cold to go to work.

Relocation to Boston - Buying Sports Tickets

G’Day all, here’s another sports related post that’s somewhat topical. Baseball season is currently well underway, and the Boston Red Sox have been kicking the crap out of New York. So basically, everything is right in the world for any Boston sports fan. One of the first things you must know about Boston is the Red Sox are GOD. Never, ever, ever speak ill of them.

There won’t be a bolt of lightening striking you down, it will be a drunk fat guy called “Craig” who doesn’t pronounce his name like the rest of the frickken world. Who the hell calls someone called Craig, “Creg”. Who does that?

Anyways, there’s a few things you can do to buy tickets for a Red Sox game, or any other sports game in particular.

1. Buy a ticket from the Red Sox Booth: Hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahah.

 
No.

If you can buy tickets, the cheapest tickets are $25, and they are standing tickets.

2. Stubhub.

This is probably your best bet for getting tickets for any events, as places like this buy tickets for events as soon as they go on sale, so they can sale them to you at double or triple the price. For instance, seats on the Green Monster can cost up to $1000!

3. Social Clubs around Boston.

Sell them at double the price. usually standing tickets. And you have to buy them two months in advance. Not the best way to do it.

4. Scalpers.

I’ve never done this, but you can buy tickets from the guys walking around saying “Selling Tickets.” I have no idea what prices are like, but it’s usually not too much over the price of a ticket usually.

5. Be lucky enough to work with Beth Deaconess and be able to get Red Sox tickets at $5 a game if there are any empty seats:

RD, you are a lucky, lucky, lucky man.

Letter to Home

From: Nathan
To: Family and Friends at home.
Subject: Exciting times! And Goon Bags are not indestructible…..

Hey there! Long time no letter. Oh well, that means I’ve got plenty to write about! “Starts up the slideshow”…..

No, I won’t be putting boring pictures up. That’s what Facebook is for.

Anyway… A lot has been happening in the past few weeks. Went white water rafting up up in Maine two weeks, which I think puts the number of states in the USA I’ve had a beer in to 13/14. Got to go up to the dead river, which was a stack of fun. We had a live band on the last night there, and a bon fire on top of a huge log….. Hmmmm crap, I guess I better show youse a photo of that…. “Looks around for a photo” Ha! Nice, there we are.

Last week I had a cocktail party at my place, which was great fun. I’m pretty sure everyone had a good time, because it wasn’t long until the flip cup game was set up. So everyone went through the beers rather quickly, which meant we had to move on the cask wine… And by that point, a friend and I had the great idea of us both slapping that cask wine bag at the same time… Which we did. Seconds later, I was changing my clothes as they were soaked in wine, the floor was covered in Chardonnay and the ladies at the party decided they should go into “clean up all the bloody wine on the floor” mode. Good times.

And I still have drinks left! Sweet.

Hope to hear from some of you soon,
Nathan