Friday, July 1, 2016

Work, Life and Summer

With the come of summer meant the biggest relief for Amy, that her daily commute to Stamford working at her school was over. The short term position she had taken turned into a full time position throughout the school year. A great addition to her building list of experience working in schools, she was sad to have to finish up after making friends and relationships with teachers and students. But, the 5 minute bike ride around the corner to Knapp's Landing, a local seafood restaurant over looking the inlet, is more her style of a commute. Working events and festivals at the brewery as well she is a busy girl, but that's nothing compared to sitting in your car 10+ hours a week before your work hours even begin.


At the Road Jam festival at Two Roads


Thomas showing Ted the Hopnick, for dry hopping
For myself, as I rotate through my two monthly shift rotations each comes with its own positives and negatives. Morning shifts were busy action packed 6am starts where the day just flew by. We were short staffed and I have never been in a situation when I have managed to multi-task so much at one time and coordinate so seamlessly with my fellow cellarmen. Running the cellar meant 8 hours of controlled mayhem sending and switching over beer to packaging, running the centrifuge, cleaning tanks, assisting the brewers, dry hopping, and basically dealing with anybody's mess ups and problems. By 2:30pm we were deserved of a beer and most days we would head up to the bar or into the beer garden for a fresh pint or two. Second shift and the later start coming at 2pm started off in a similar manor of a shit show as the morning shift however, the evening would slowly progress where all the damage and mayhem of the day was dealt with and taken care of. With the over night shift being much quieter and the most productive in terms of knocking beers out, CIPing tanks and processing beers for the following days packaging.

This rotation creates a varied sleeping pattern and has meant Amy and I would often see a lot of each other at times but then go for a good while where it seemed we were living two separate lives. Once the spring weather finally kicked into gear, we have tried to make the most of the spare time we have had. Wedding planing has been Amy's main past time, but that's another story, literally another whole blog. We have found two local-ish Frisbee Golf courses that are challenging and entertaining. I have played regular golf right across the road from our house. We have taken trips to New Haven to visit my workmates and were left in awe at the super hipster bar scene in the Yale University town. There are also two large rock outcrop parks overlooking the city, good for a drive and a walk. I enjoy stretching the RX7s legs on the stretch of road up the Housatonic River, that also leads to lakes and state parks.



A few other events including a joint Australian themed birthday party for Stevo, Ryo and Tomo on a very unsummery day at the beach. Zinc on the nose still, because we all know the sun still burns through the clouds. We have had a couple good play sessions with the wee man Brady. I try give him a bite of the adventurous life, he has free range with uncle Thomas. 

Aussie mate
We have had two special trips into NYC. The 5 Borough Bike Tour, again on a disappointing spring day, however the 40 mile ride through the five Boroughs of NYC was still incredible. Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten from the Battery to the top of Manhatten. All on closed roads, it gave a perspective unattainable in any other way than cycling. Riding on the motorways and over bridges at our leisure, with 32 thousand others, it was pretty epic. We are also lucky to be among the few to see the hottest show on Broadway, "Hamilton." I felt a bit bad for those that are so desperate to see this show as I was just going along with the flow. It was amazing though and we very much appreciated the quality of performance and writing of Lin Manuel Miranda's masterpiece. Good work Diane for having the connections, beats waiting a year for tickets and paying over a grand each. I guess we are lucky to be right on the door step of the Big Apple.

The end, with the Verrazano Bridge behind

And thank the lord baby Jesus for ESPNs on-demand coverage of the rugby, keeping me connected with home and a good way to disconnect from this part of the world where every person thinks they are the most important and whatever they have going on is priority, and don't get me started on how they drive. Stop signs, traffic lights and the speed limit, I'm sure they have a super legit reason for their complete and utter ignorance of the fact. This just had to be said.
Atop West Rock looking out to New Haven


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