The last 3 weeks in a nutshell...

Well! Where do I start. I think I will tackle this in chronological order in the hopes of jogging my meager memories.

First and foremost - I got the new job! This is very exciting for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the massive boost to my salary. I cannot tell you how pleasing it was to give my notice to my previous employers in the job from hell, and I have to say I very much enjoyed my exit interview..... It was possibly the best Christmas present I could have given myself. I start new job on the 7th, so still have a bit of time to go to prepare myself. I am working for the government department that looks after roads (racy I know) and in a twist that has had me laughing ever since, now have the word 'senior' in my job title. I must confess that I am starting to feel slightly nervous now, and hoping I am not going to be massively out of my depth.

Obviously being christmas season there has been a flurry of partying etc. The first event of the festive season was Stu's work christmas do at the Sirromet Winery just outside of Brisbane. This is a very lovely spot, set in rolling hills, with little wallabies hopping around in between the vines. It was a black tie do as well so everyone was really dressed up which is always very nice. As I am sure you can well imagine though, the after effects of a free bar in a winery were not so pretty and the evening pretty much degenerated into all round farcical drunkeness, with no-one looking so classy on the way back out... After the dinner and dancing at the winery was finished a coach took everyone back into town to the Casino to carry on the evening. This was a fairly disastrous decision on my part. I managed to get separated from Stu, so one of his mates from work was saddled with the task of leading me round by hand so I didn't lapse into some sort of coma. I then fell up the stairs (better than down I suppose), and at some point was asked to leave. This is apparently quite a feat, as the casino usually does not worry too much about drunkenness so long as you are spending money. Woopsies. I sprained my thumb or something on the trip up the stairs, and it has never been the same since....

The next event was fakemas at our house. We had decided that because it was our first Christmas away from home, and many of our mates found themselves in the same boat we would host a bit of a get together. Everyone was going to be a bit scattered round for actual Christmas itself, so on the 15th we had 14 people over for a traditional roast dinner.... The day did not start well when the turkey we picked up from the butchers turned out to be still completely frozen. Now I am aware that it is quite hot down under, but I was nonetheless sceptical of his claims that a 6.5 kilo bird would defrost in time for us to get it in the oven in oooh... about half an hour ago actually if we wanted dinner on the table for 3 as we had promised everyone. Cue a frantic dash around the other local butcheries to find a fresh bird. As it turned out this was the worst disaster of the day, and a bloody good time was had by all. Dinner was just lovely, everyone liked their secret santa presents (or at least had been practicing their very best pleased faces beforehand) and there was much eating, drinking, merry making, and singing. We have even been requested to make it an annual tradition which is very nice - however this does mean we cannot make any more friends as I feel that 16 people is about the limit of both our house and our catering abilities.

And so onto Christmas itself..... Stu's sister and her family are over here visiting, and they rented an EXTREMELY fancy house on Sunrise Beach just outside of Noosa, and they very kindly extended an invite to us to come stay for Christmas week. It was absolutely amazing - the house was fabulous, and it was really nice to see some family for our first Christmas away - kind of softened the blow a bit. It was also really nice to have little ones around, it makes Christmas just a little bit more fun eh? Not much to tell about the week really - the weather was a bit rubbish, but it incorporated all the elements of eating, relaxing, drinking, laughing and chatting that you would want from a holiday week. We went for a walk on the beach Christmas day morning which was certainly different - it did feel a bit odd to be doing stuff like that even if the weather wasn't that special. All in all we had a splendid week, and cannot thank our hosts enough.

Stuart Robinson has obviously been a very good boy this year as Santa was very good to him. Not only did he receive a voucher to climb the story bridge, but as a secret surprise I took him for afternoon tea at the Stamford Plaza. It was a very pleasant way to while away a couple of hours I have to say, and a nice wrap up to the festive season.

Christmas 2007

So tonight is new years eve, it's 18:15 and we have no idea what we are going to do. Just let me take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a very happy 2008 - I hope you are looking forward to it as much as I am!

Something wrong with this picture

Yes indeed. That is me, decorating our christmas tree - with all the windows and doors open, and little shorts and top on. It is WEIRD I tell you. I cannot get my head around a warm christmas, and am not feeling in the slightest bit festive. It is Stu's work Christmas do tonight though, which should be good - it's a black tie do at the Sirromet Winery which I am pretty excited about. Getting me hair done and everything - will take lots of pics for bloggage next week. Hopefully it'll help me get in the festive spirit - although maybe not too much as apparently for some reason Stu and I are on the top table with all the big cheeses. Must try not to get drunk....


In wildlife news, our little baby miner birds have left the nest now. We didn't see them go unfortunately, but hope they are doing OK. It's good in a way because we are now not so under siege from their parents, and don't get dive bombed every time we go in and out of the house. Jerry is especially pleased about this. In wildlife news which I am CONSIDERABLY less pleased about, last night we had our first encounter with a Brown Huntsman. I would like to talk at length about our bravery in the face of true natives, and how we are acclimatising to Australia beautifully. On the contrary we screamed like girls, and it took us about half an hour, a broom and a large tupperware pot to escort him from the premises. Frankly - terrifying. They are not small, and are very fast. I was about ready to book myself on the next flight home (but didn't - sorry mum).

I have an interview next week for a job I am pretty excited about - not least because it will entail a $25000 pay rise. I don't want to say too much for fear of a jinx, but cross your fingers for me on Wednesday. I'll keep you posted of course. I am also becoming increasingly excited about Christmas, and seeing some family, and staying here for a week. Next week is our pommie fakemas celebration, when Stu and I will be cooking christmas dinner for 14 of our pom friends. Could be... interesting. So I suppose there are some benefits to all this sun after all....

Miners Strike

I'm afraid that my resolve to blog at least once a week may soon hit a slight snag - my life just isn't interesting enough to warrant such constant updatery. So sorry if this one is a little dull....

The reason for the blog title, is that we have a couple of noisy miners nesting in one of the little trees outside our study/sleepout windows. We have been enjoying watching their progress, and ooohing at the 2 little faces we can now see as the eggs have hatched. However - noisy miners are feisty little buggers at the best of times, let alone when they have babbies. They will very aggressively defend their territory, even birds other than the nesting pair. At the moment their territory includes our stairs and veranda, and they'll try and see us off if we stick our heads out the window to have a look at the nest. This doesn't especially bother us, but the poor cat is now having to cope with the double indignity of no longer being fed steak 3 times a day, and now being bullied by the local wildlife. Sometimes we can hear this massive cacophony of squawking start up outside, and we'll go out to find Jerry sat on the veranda trying to look all nonchalant, and various miner birds and magpies all lined up on the power lines looking like a scene from Hitchcock all shouting at him at the top of their lungs. Am I a bad person that I find it pretty funny that a 6.5 kilo tom cat is scared of some ickle birds? To add to our troubles, a group of golden orb weavers have set up shop at the foot of our stairs. I am not very fond of them (although they are quite pretty I can grudgingly admit). I know spiders are our friends in the constant battle against Australian flies, but I'm not sure how I feel about these spiders...



We've just had an election over here, and I must admit I won't be sorry to see the back of all the campaign advertising. Also I am surprised by how much I care that I was unable to have a say in the governance of the country of my permanent residence. At least that twat Howard wasn't re-elected is all I can say. I am also very excited to discover that our new environment minister used to be in Midnight Oil. Seems somehow appropriate, don't you think?

Let them eat steak

I am resolved to try and blog at least once a week, as I have been totally rubbish in recent months, so here we go.

Last weekend was pretty pleasant all round. Friday night was pretty quiet - Stu was in Melbourne on a training course so me and Jerry Cat just had a little bit of quiet sofa time. On Saturday I went over to one of the girls' houses for a girls night in, which was really really nice. We ate takeaway, drank white wine, watched the Take That dvd, and the evening was rounded off with falling asleep on the sofa watching top gun (so I'm told). It was really nice.

On Sunday Stu took me out for a bit of a special surprise treat day as I have been a bit of a grumpy knickers lately for some reason. First stop was the Organic farmer's market that we have never been able to get to before due to lack of transport. We got there a little late and they were mostly packing away, but being mad old hippy foodies we still got excited! Then we went off to a big factory outlet by the airport to do some shopping (although I have a sneaking suspicion this treat was more to save stu's sanity as I have been moaning about my clothes - or lack thereof - for some time now). Then we went off to the Glass House Mountains, just north of Brisbane (near Australia Zoo fact fans). They were very pretty indeed, and we had a nice nosey round the lookout - photos below. So a very pleasant weekend all in all. Going to have to have a few quiet ones in the coming weeks - we have Stu's work xmas do coming up which finishes up at the casino and may cost a penny or two... also we are planning a big Fakemas celebration for all our pommie friends on the 15th December, as everyone is going to be a bit scattered for actual christmas, so we have to buy a turkey big enough to feed 14 people.... could be a bit pricey!

Glass House Mountains

The cat (or little Lord Fauntleroy as he shall henceforth be known) has had diarrhea for the last month or so bless him, and the vet - would you believe - has prescribed a diet of steak and steak only for the next week to clear out his system. Stu is very jealous, and rightly points out that he never gets steak. I won't even tell you what the butcher said when I asked him for a kilo of his cheapest steak for my cat... it seems to be doing him some good, although I am a bit worried that we are setting a precedent, and his kibbles won't be very appealing when he goes back to them...

In some sad news though, the Japanese whaling fleet set off on Monday to travel down to Antarctica for the 'scientific harvest' of 1000 whales, including 50 of the endangered humpbacks that Stu and I had such a lovely trip out to see just off the coast here in August. I have therefore changed campaign of the week, and beg you please please please to take action. I can't tell you how sad I am about this. If you need reminding how gorgeous they are....

The great Hervey Bay Wildlifeathon

Rejoining the land of the connected

I'll not bore you with the ins and outs of the lengthy saga of getting the internet and phones connected in our new house - it is lengthy and a bit of a saga - although it did bring out a creative side in Stuart I was unaware of. Other than such teething troubles (I suppose only to be expected when we are first into a brand newly renovated house) we are very content. I sit here tippety tapping in my wee study, and I can only hear a little bit of traffic, the cat snoring at my feet, and some Lorikeets rowing in a tree outside. Given the (well documented) alternative in our previous accommodation, I can only smile. Obviously if that bunch of useless bastards would give us our deposit back I could combine smiling with being able to buy stuff, but hey. It's a lovely sunny afternoon and I will not let such things disturb my serenity.

So what have we been up to in the Telstra imposed hiatus I hear you cry (if any of you still check the damn blog). Well we have been through a Queensland spring, and I have to say how very pleasant it was. Whilst the temperature has definitely been on the side of what we poms would call hot, I am reliably informed it has been quite a mild spring. I think the nicest thing about it has been the annual blossoming of the Jacarandas, a tree I have to admit I wouldn't usually be able to pick out of a lineup, but when it blooms it leaves the whole city dotted around with purple. It is lovely (especially for an aging hippy like me). Also springtime means the lead up to the month formerly known as November - now Movember. This is quite possibly the best idea ever for fundraising I have to say, and it is so much fun spotting all the guys around and about who are taking part. Despite my best efforts I was unable to persuade Stu to take part (miserable git) - but I have a whole year to work on him now.

We have also purchased ourselves a car - it is quite nice to have transport again. It's not as nice as our old megane in the UK, but it will get us from A-B (and hopefully back again).

The most notable events of the last few weeks have been a couple of bloody great concerts - Justin Timberlake and The Killers who were both absolutely amazing (in kind of different ways). If you get a chance to see JT on this tour, even if you're not too sure whether you like him I can pretty much guarantee you'll like it. It is a truly amazing show (and he's a sexy wee beastie).

Work is still totally shit - some days I wonder whether I am at work, or at school, due to the actions of some of the pathetic wee shites I have the misfortune to share an office with. I am still keeping my eyes peeled for something else - wish me luck. One good thing is that they have relented over trying to force me to take 3 weeks annual leave at Christmas - I am trying my best to believe that this change of heart is due to the benevolence of our CEO, and not the fact that they have recently hired an internal HR person (the irony!) who has pointed out that this is a trifle dodgy.

Finally, we went to the Gabba to watch the cricket last weekend, which I am assured by people who get much more excited about such things than me, is quite exciting. I was quite excited by the fact that it was quite acceptable, nay mandatory, that you should start drinking beer at about 10:30am, and continue for as long as you like. Whilst I feel none the wiser about cricket itself, due to the fact that the absence of Freddie and Steve Handsomison reduced my attention capacity somewhat, we had a bloody good day. This was the day after the Killers, and before Stu's 31st birthday, so he had a bloody great birthday treat weekend all in all.

I think that is about all I can think of for the minute - now we're back on line I am resolved to be better at this - promise. In the meantime, here are some pics for your viewing pleasure.

Bye

x

Long Overdue Bloggage

No new news

Just a quick update....

We have moved house, and everything went very smoothly indeed.... we had everything moved and into the new house, and the old flat cleaned, all by midday - and we didn't fall out ONCE. I worked out that in 4 years together this is the 8th time Stu and I have moved. Given that during that time we actually managed to stay in one house for 18 months, this seems a little excessive to me. Early indications suggest that there is no reason for us to move again for a while - we love the new house and neck of the woods, so all is well. We even have a guest bedroom now - get those plane tickets booked please everyone!

I am also pleased to announce that the arrival of Mr Jerry Robinson has put a smile on our faces - he is a lovely lovely lovely little cat, and he can't wait to meet all his new family - especially his Uncle Stu C. I will get some pics up once we have the internet fixed up at our new place - because it's brand new there are a fewing teething problems, including no functional phone sockets. Ah well.

Hope all is well in the motherland

x

Important Living in Australia Milestone Reached

Today in conversation a man used (with no prompting) the phrase "Fair Dinkum".

Da Too Wong Wong Wong Da Too Wong Wong

Hello Hello

I am officially rubbish at blogging this month, and I’m sorry about that. I am going to do a quick bullet pointed summary of recent developments…

1. I hate work
I know, I have always hated work, as I am a totally lazy arse. However I now hate not only work, but the company I work for. Let’s just say they have shown their true colours about some things lately – including the fact that they don’t pay maternity leave (don’t get excited – this is not an issue for me, but I feel that for a company that bangs on about its family culture all the time this is pretty hypocritical). Also – the CEO has notified everyone that he expects everyone to take annual leave from 21^st Dec to 14^th Jan, as he doesn’t think there is enough work and people might not be flat out as he would like them to be. This is 13 days annual leave out of an allowance of 20 for the year. Personally – I find this unacceptable. I am in Australia to holiday, not work.

2. I hate Australian workforce legislation
See point one, and refer to the legislation that allows this to happen.

3. I am old
On my birthday we went out to my favourite pub in Brisbane and had a lovely afternoon session (although the weather was distinctly more British Autumnal than Queensland Spring). Unfortunately I took it one step too far as usual, and poor Stu had to take me home and put me to bed at 10pm. I am obviously now too old to hack it, and will be giving up drink forthwith*. Thank you to everyone who came out though – it was very lovely to see you all and I had a great time.
* This is unlikely to actually happen.

4. I am moving house
Yes that’s right – we are shaking off the shackles of inner city living, and heading for the hills. Well – the foothills of Mount Coot-tha anyway, to a suburb called Toowong (Australia – brought to you by the letter ‘O’). We managed to find the only house in the whole of Brisbane that actually meant it when it says ‘pets allowed’ (I can’t tell you how many times we thought we had found ‘the one’ only to have our hopes dashed on the point of application). I can’t wait to move and have a bit more space, and be able to make a bit of a home. It’s a brand new house, built and owned by Michael Voss (which is very exciting I am informed). We move a week on Saturday (I am excited about this although I am SO SICK of moving). Which brings me to point 5:

5. I HAVE A CAT
Well strictly speaking I do not as yet have him in my possession. When we were out on Saturday I was talking about these 2 cats (one called Charlie – my favourite, and one called Jerry – my second favourite) who were at the RSPCA and had been there for weeks. I was saying that I hoped they hung around til we moved so I could have them, as they (especially Charlie) had stolen my heart. Some friends of ours piped up and offered to take them for 2 weeks, to stop anyone else adopting them and they could be MINE ALL MINE. Imagine how pleased I was when I went to the RSPCA the next day to get them to discover that Charlie had been adopted by someone else. Just couldn’t hold on for another few hours could he – NO – had to go and turn on the charm for STRANGERS. Never mind that I’ve cleaned up his poo and fed him every Saturday morning for the last month or so. Honestly – I sometimes wonder why I love kitties so much. But it’s OK – because we still rescued Jerry. For the last however long all I’ve seen of him is a little nose poking out of a cat carrier because he hates the cattery so much, but now his Aunty Kaz and Uncle Andy are doing a wonderful job settling him in, and he is a chilled out and happy cat. I am so pleased – but slightly nervous that when we go to pick him up we will find their house boarded up with a big for sale sign outside, as they have fallen a teensy bit in love with him… uh oh…

One step closer to crazy cat lady

For some time now I have been very carefully keeping on this side of the crazy cat lady line, but this weekend I'm afraid I inched that bit closer to crossing it. I have now started working in the cattery at the RSPCA. My first job on Saturday morning was to spend some time playing with 3 14 week old kittens because they had only just come in and needed settling down and some sort of personality analysis to be done. Sucks to be me! I'm getting trained up to do the cat adoptions as well, but I'm a little nervous that I will not think that anyone is good enough to have them. I now check the RSPCA website many times each day to make sure I am on top of who is available for adoption and their wee back stories. I am SO sad. Hopefully by say....Christmas though we will have a house totally overflowing with cats and kittens. I do miss the wildlife section a little bit too though - the GORGEOUS little cockatiel from last week was on the news last night, as he whistles loads of classical music so they did an appeal for him because they reckon his owners might recognise his little whistles. Even Stu fell a little bit in love. Fortunately the evil corella was adopted by some mad person, so we don't have to see his ugly mug again!

Saturday night was the riverfire festival here in sunny Brisbane. Once a year they have a big festival celebrating the river, which culminates in an amazing firework display all down the river, loads of red devil style aeroplanes and F11 fighters doing crazy fuel burning antics right over the city. Stu's work threw a bit of a riverfire party, as their office is on the 18th floor of one of the buildings right on the river, with a great view of the Story Bridge, which is one of the fireworks spots. The fireworks were pretty amazing, but it kind of lost something for being indoors and not being able to hear and smell all the gunpowder treason and plot etc. I think all us poms got a bit nostalgic for bonfire night too. All in all I think next year we will go down to ground level to watch with the masses, as I think that would have a bit more atmosphere. Or maybe hire a boat to go out on the river to watch - it was boat soup down there I tell you.

So I got in a fight with this bird right...

Last weekend I thought I had really cracked the whole volunteering/wildlife thang. I got to the RSPCA at 8am as I usually do, and I was the only one there! Which has never happened before. So I rolled up my sleeves and got on with it - sorted out the lickle birds (cockatiels and budgies and parrots and whatnot), fed, cleaned, watered - the whole kit and kaboodle. I even made friends with this little cockatiel who was just GORGEOUS. He came out of his cage and sat on my shoulder, and we had a little sing song while I was chopping up fruit and whatnot. I also managed to catch an escaped lovebird all by myself and re-cage it - I was feeling very super smug about it all. The other volunteers turned up and there was hardly anything left to do - nothing but clean up after this horrible looking corella (please note the mention in the wiki description of 'deafening screeching' and you can imagine why with a hangover I already was not keen on this bird).

So they got the corella out of the cage and popped him on a big perch which was in the doorway of the room I was in. He looked at me, and I looked at him, and in the split second it took me to realise that he had murderous intention in his eyes he had launched himself at my face. Whilst the other volunteers later assured me that he was just being friendly, I think that he might need some lessons in acceptable friendly behaviour - for instance when I am being friendly I do not try to sever someone's finger using my beak, or chew off their earlobes, or peck at their cheeks, or have to be forcibly removed by 2 other people wearing gloves and using towels for protection.

It's alright though, because as of next week I will be working on cat adoptions - yes that's right I get to spend my Saturday mornings talking about cats. And trying reeeeeeeeally hard not to bring work home with me....

And the restaurant that time forgot

I forgot to say that on Saturday night in Hervey Bay we went to the most retro restaurant in the world. The hostess lady had one of those crazy 80s mullets which was about 2 inches long and backcombed into a frenzy on top, and reached her bum at the back not unlike this one, but longer. And real.

The decor was all a bit burgundy, with splashes of colour like that offered by those lovely moving waterfall pictures you can get, and some kind of fibre-optic buddha. As we ate we were serenaded by the croonings of the incomparable Jon Devlin and his keyboard, who had clearly found some discounted score of the greatest hits of Ronan Keating in the local op-shop.


To be fair the food was bloody good though.

A whale of a time

Yes I know - I'm not very funny.

So this weekend was another very touristy weekend. We had a public holiday for the Ekka last Wednesday (the Ekka is like a big country show thing and everyone in Queensland gets a public holiday to go visit), and then Stu and I took the Thursday and Friday off, so we had a lovely 5 days of sightseeing.

On Friday we hired a car and drove up to Hervey Bay, stopping off at a really really lovely little beachy town called Mooloolabah on the way (as we know, Australians are all about towns with loads of Os in the name). We had a nice spot of lunch, pottered around a bit, just generally enjoyed being by the sea and not in the big smoke. Then we went on up to Hervey Bay and found our B&B which was just scrumptious. From the road I feared that we had made a big mistake, but out the back it was all glass with a fabulous view of the lake and a myriad of wildlife, and a shitload of wee turtles living in the lake. Once again our hosts were just lovely. I just can't get over the fact that Australians don't really seem to be that into B&Bing as they really do have some fabulous ones.

Saturday was the main event - whale watching. Around this time of year the humpback whales are migrating down the east coast of Australia back to Antartica, and they hang out and have a bit of a rest just off the coast of Hervey Bay - it's the only place in the world where you're pretty much guaranteed to see them spy hopping, breaching and bobbing around and doing all the stuff they are famous for.

We went out on a wee catamaran, with only about 20 of us, which after seeing all the laden multi deck big yachty things we were pretty pleased about. We first came across a group of 3 'teenagers' who were doing a pretty good show for one of the other boats - at one point one of them stuck his head right out to the other boat to see what they were up to. I was quite crippled with jealousy at this point I must admit. The folk who ran the boat said that often they are attracted to interesting things in their environment, so they come up to the boat which is making the most noise. They are pretty much big show offs, so if they get big claps and cheers etc they'll do more.

We returned to those 3 again later in the day, and at this point we were the only boat with them, so we got very busy with the clapping and cheering. They were so so so close - and then someone noticed that we could only see 2 of them. We looked down and the sea under the boat was totally turquoise because just enderneath us was a belly up whale. He then spy hopped out of the water right in front of us - probably about as close to me as you are to the computer screen. I nearly wet my pants. They hung around for ages, and on about 3 or 4 separate occasions bobbed out to see what we were up to. It was AMAZING.

Below are some pics etc - they don't really do it justice as we were pretty busy just watching to be honest, and Stu couldn't follow my very simple instruction to put the camera onto record instead of pictures (I was very cross). A word of warning with regard to the videos though - you might just be able to make out the sounds of a very over-excited and annoying pom whooping and cheering for all her life's worth. Let the record show that we had been asked to do this - and by heck it paid off.

The great Hervey Bay Wildlifeathon

England regain the Ashes!

Busy old weekend last weekend...

On Friday - miracle of miracles our stuff finally arrived from England! It only took a brief 5.5 months for them to get their fingers out of their arses and sort it out. Also we didn't get any customs or quarantine charges or anything, which I was a little surprised about, but pretty pleased. Maybe this is because some senior people from customs were at our conference and I pestered them to just wave it through or I would stand next to them scratching my lurgy til they were sick.

Saturday morning I volunteered, and Stu went to look at a house. I had a great morning volunteering - a rainbow lorikeet was brought in, and decided that I was his best buddy. He wouldn't budge off my shoulder all day and ran away from anyone else who tried to handle him. As I was chopping all the fruit for everyone else he kept climbing down my arm to pinch it. It was very sweet and I am a little bit in love with him. Unfortunately no-one warned me about their amazing liquid projectile poo. Also I got chatting to one of the cat ladies, and she said that there are some vacancies coming up there soon, so I might get to indulge my love of the kitty soon, and help find them all new loving homes. Yay!

Stu went to look at this house, which is in Paddington, a very nice burb of Brisbane and next to my work which is nice. We have put in an application, but are having some trouble with getting a reference from our current apartment. The staff here are about as much use as tits on a bull, and keep on losing the reference requests. If we lose out on the house because of their crippling incompetence you will probably be able to hear me shouting from the UK.

On Sunday we went over to a park in Kangaroo Point for the inaugural SMS ashes. Stu's company have hired a shitload of poms lately, and in the interests of fostering cordial international relations they arranged a poms v strines cricket match. Which bright spark thought it was a good idea to organise a competitive event in order to bring peace, harmony and understanding between these 2 nations I don't know. The important thing is - we won. In your FACE Australia. Stuart Robinson (despite having an interesting running style) managed to take out 2 wickets. I was all proud.

The SMS Ashes

Today is a public holiday here, which is nice. Then we have Thursday and Friday off, and on Friday we go on a wee road trip up the coast to go whale watching. I am quite excited, and may have to invest in some Tena Lady to avoid embarrassment. I am also quite interested to see how our driving is after 6 months off. You can expect an extremely over excited blog next weekend sometime.

In other news, we are now fully set up on Skype. If any of you have the equipment and want to talk to us (and see us!) for free, our username is teamrobinson. I have to say it is ace and I am quite the convert to internet calling.

Itchy and Scratchy

Not much to report this weekend, as I have been hiding out from the world due to my unsightly lurgy. I'm really not sure what happened there - I ate some strawberries and some seafood at the conference, which are both apparently pretty common instigators of lurgy style allergic reactions, but I've eaten them both plenty of times before, so god only knows why this time I went into histamine overload. Anyway the itch is now slowly subsiding, but I still look pretty minging. I have smothered myself in calamine, but now I'm struggling to get it all washed off because I obviously can't scrub, so I look pretty interesting. At least it got me out of the conference though - I was sent home on Thursday as we all pretty unanimously much agreed that I was not really a suitable face of the company. Unfortunately I couldn't go the RSPCA yesterday - so I haven't seen any kitties this weekend. My favourite doesn't seem to be on the internet any more - I hope he's found a home!

We went to look at a couple of houses this weekend - one was minging but one was really nice. Just having a bit of a debate about it now, as it is quite expensive, but ticks all the boxes....

In other news - we have a delivery date for our stuff. Apparently it is coming on Friday. I am still sceptical, as I believe Allied Pickfords couldn't run a bath. But hey - at least it's progress!

Be careful what you wish for

I wanted to get out of going to the Conference, and lo a plague of the lurgy was visited upon me.

It sucks.

And soooooooooooooooooooo forgetful!

Today when Stu and I were having our traditional weekend morning coffees down by the river, we saw Gwen Stefani, Gavin Rossdale and little Kingston having a wee stroll out by the river. No paparazzi or bodyguards in sight. How lovely that someone so famous can stroll round our little city and not get hassled. I love Brisbane!

Sooooooooooooooooo behind on blogging!

Hello hello

I am rubbish at blogging at the minute - I am terribly sorry. I hope someone other than my mum (hello mum!) is listening.

Lots to catch up on from the last couple of weekends, as they have been very uncharacteristically busy. I have barely had any time for sitting around in my pyjamas - I am sure you can imagine how traumatic a time it has been.

I have now officially commenced my stint as an RSPCA volunteer. I work in the wildlife ward, in the Fairfield Shelter in Brisbane, which is the state HQ. It is huuuuuuuuuge and has a big farmyard section, all the usual dogs, cats etc and my little section which is for wildlife. Last weekend I had my orientation where they showed us a video that made everyone cry, then a tour of the shelter and bit of animal behaviour and training training. On Saturday I started properly. Mostly scrubbing poo and cutting up fruit and whatnot, but it's very interesting and rewarding. There are a lot of birds in at the minute - a couple of Rosellas, a Lorikeet, 2 Kookaburras, a couple of cockatiels, a plover, and a couple of Galahs. Just as I was leaving they were bringing in a Tawny Frogmouth, which is pretty exciting! There's also a blue tongued skink with a missing foot, a brush tailed possum and a couple of ringtail possums, and some mice. There are also 150 Peachfaces whose owner is in prison, so we get the unenviable task of looking after them for the minute. Being lovebirds they are getting pretty busy with the lovin, and there's shortly going to be a bit of a population explosion which everyone's pretty worried about.

We are responsible for cleaning out cages (which is pretty grim in the case of the possums) and getting them all fed, and that's what I'll be doing with my Saturday mornings from now on! I am very excited, if a little intimidated at the prospect of having to handle these animals as some of them are a little fierce, and obviously they're all wild and not too keen on being held. On Saturday me and the other girl who just started managed to release 4 birds by accident, which was a bit traumatic. Obviously on the way out I find it a little hard to walk past the cat section without pausing for a while... I have fallen quite badly in love with one chap in particular and I have the distinct feeling that if he's still around once we have moved out to a house he might be coming home with me one day.... (hope Stu isn't reading this)

Last Sunday we had a bit of an exciting adventure... One of Stu's ex colleagues has a boat, and offered to take all the poms out to South Stradbroke Island for the day. It was fab - South Straddie is lovely, and we had a great boozy afternoon on the boat and the Island and whatnot.

Trip out to South Stradbroke Island

So what else has been happening in the world of Robinson.....

Oh yes, we have decided upon the suburb we want to move to - Paddington. I have long coveted it, and this weekend took Stu up for a look round, and he also fell in love. It is lovely - really nice houses and cafes and little boutiquey shops, and stuff and things shops and whatnot. I heart it. It is really seriously hilly though, which is a bit of a drawback, but does mean that the views are fabulous. We love it so much, and are so sick of here that we are considering breaking our lease so we can move soon. There are some great places for rent at the moment (and obviously we need somewhere suitable for cats) and we are very excited! In other grown up decision news, we have decided that we are going to apply for Permanent Residency. Being here on the visa type that we are frankly sucks arse as we get absolutely no benefits at all, and are fleeced left and right by the taxman. It's going to take a while to save up the cash to apply, but I'll keep you posted. Apparently it should be pretty easy because we are already here and working and whatnot.

Next week I'll be going to the gold coast for 4 days, for my company conference. I am really very unexcited about it - 18 hour days and lots of schmoozing, room sharing and all that bollocks. In fact I tried to get out of it - there are concerns about cost because of the number of staff going, so I volunteered to take one for the team and stay back. That backfired slightly - not only am I going, I am going for the full 4 days, I am hosting a table at the conference dinner, and manning a stand to talk about the analytics team. I have been working there for 10 minutes, and am somewhat surprised and feeling distinctly intimidated by the whole thing as I don't really know anything and have no idea how to schmooze HR big cheeses. I'm also pretty concerned that someone will notice that I have no real HR or analytic background, and my appointment as an analytic consultant is a bit of a fraud. Ah well - just gonna have to hope all the delegates just get pissed and don't care.

Well, I hope that you are still awake after reading that essay. I'll try and be a bit less rubbish in future. Wish me luck for the stupid conference!

My spying widget...

Reveals to me that I have had another visitor to the blog from the google search "husband wears thongs". I'm wondering whether I should actually set up a support group.

More worryingly, someone found me by googling "Hate Buddhists". I sincerely hope that they did not misunderstand this post as meaning that I do. I would like to make it abundantly clear that I thought the actions of the christians picketing the event were disgusting, and I told them so.

Like a Moff to a flame

This weekend we went for our very first escape from the city mini break, to the 'Garden City' Toowoomba. It was bloody lovely.

I had first seen Toowoomba on some local travel programme which is on on Saturday afternoons over here, and it looked like a really nice town, full of Antiquey shops and great big old queenslanders, parks and cafes and whatnot. There was a lovely B&B recommended, so I took the decision that this would be our destination for our first get away. However despite the fact that I was all very excited about it, whenever I mentioned it to a local they got a look of total horror on their face and I began to worry that I had made a horrendous error of judgement.

As we pulled in on the Greyhound bus I was a bit worried that I had indeed got it all terribly terribly wrong. There was no evidence of antiques, or cafes, or queenslanders, or gardens, or anything really. All we could see were large 60s style concrete buildings, and big car lots.

However as we walked up to our B&B we obviously wandered into the bit that the programme had been based on. We walked through a beautiful park, up a really wide and leafy street with lovely looking cafes on. The B&B was just GORGEOUS. The people who ran it had lived all over the world and it was full of lovely little artefacts and knick knacks and you could spend your whole stay getting the story of them. They were absolutely lovely people - and to add cream to the cake they had a KITTY!


He is a Russian Blue/Maine Coon cross called Moff and I love him.

The first afternoon we were there we never even managed to leave the B&B to explore - just sat by the roaring log fire for a bit reading books, then had some afternoon tea in the garden, read some books with the cat and just enjoyed being out of the city and somewhere with a bit of peace and quiet.

We went out for a few scoops (alright, quite a few scoops) and a nice dinner, then sat in the guest lounge and ate chocs and played chess next to the fire. It was just heavenly and we were so super relaxed.

Basically it was just lovely - really relaxing and it kind of helped to drive home the fact that we would very much like to stop living over the road from a nightclub and have a bit of space. It was so nice to be somewhere with more than 2 rooms, a garden and STUFF in it.

Speaking of stuff, our stuff allegedly lands in Brisbane on 19th July. Which is excellent progress! We'll just have to wait and see how long Customs want to hang onto it for...

In other very exciting news, as of 21st July I will be doing this on a weekly basis. I am quite pant wettingly excited about it, but haven't had my orientation yet so can't fill you in on the details for a bit. Will do though. I think Stu is a little worried that I am going to try and smuggle all the cats home though.

Toowoomba

I've broken my arse

On Friday last week we had some work drinks here to celebrate the departure of one of the Aussies who is going to our Washington office to work for a bit. So I partook of a glass of wine or two, and then on my way home Stu called to say that he was having work drinks and there was a card behind the bar, and that I should join them.

I woke up on Saturday with somewhat hazy memories and a very sore behind. Neither Stu or I could think of anything to explain sore behind, so put I put it down to experience and proceeded to be verrrrrrrrry careful getting in and out of chairs for the rest of the week.

Yesterday, Stu had a work meeting, and one of his colleagues enquired as to the state of my bottom. He was naturally a bit surprised, and somewhat curious, and asked for the reason behind the question.

Turns out that as I was walking away from the bar, I skidded in a wet patch, and landed tailbone first on the little foot railing thing that some bars have. I am quite pleased I cannot remember this event, as my arse is still so sore now that it must have REALLY hurt at the time.

So I'm adding a bruised coccyx to my collection of random drinking injuries collected over the years, including but not limited to bruises, fractured nose, a black eye and concussion.

We're off to be tourists this weekend, going for a night's break in a chintzy B&B in a wee town with lots of vowels (Toowoomba) which is about 130k west of Brisbane. I am very excited, and will update you next week!

Until then, me and my broken arse wish you well.

The importance of carefully chosen keywords

I have a little widget on my blog that counts the number of visitors and page views and all that malarkey. It also provides me with a wee breakdown of how folk find the blog, countries, websites and search key words - that kind of thing.

Yesterday whilst I was bored analysing other people's data at work, I decided to look at my own. I had a look at the google search keywords that have led people to my door this month. I was a little puzzled to see 'husband wears thongs' on the list.

Then I remembered this post. If only my little widget gave me the power to see which poor soul had obviously found their husband in a compromising position and decided to do some internet research, hoped against hope that they had found a support group, or at least a like minded surprised wife - only to find my inane ramblings about marmite and flip flop blisters.

The Bleak Midwinter

Well I suppose it isn't really all that bleak on the whole, but the weather has certainly taken a turn for the chilly in the last couple of weeks. I haven't yet succumbed to the temptation to wear a scarf, gloves and hat in the office, but everyone here is very smug that I have finally started wearing long sleeves and jackets and the suchlike. At least it's raining though - it's nice to see the parks and stuff turning a little green, rather than drought brown as they have been (perhaps a nice suggestion for a dulux colour palette).

Not an awful lot of news to report from the Robinson house as usual. We are finding ourselves desperately skint at the minute - it's a costly business setting yourself up all over again. Bloody bloody Allied Pickfords have given us a wee rebate though, which is nice and will go some way to making my final payment to Reed for what I owe them for the privelege of being made redundant. However in typical Robinson style in order to combat the money blues we have booked ourselves a couple of touristy trips that we can't pay for. In a couple of weekends we'll be going to Toowoomba, above 130ks west of here. Don't know what prompted it to be honest - I just saw a travel type program about a lovely B&B there and decided we needed to go. It'll be nice to get out of the city at least, although I am assured it will be positively freeeeeezing there (the temperature may even reach SINGLE FIGURES PEOPLE).

Also we're going on a whale watching trip to Hervey Bay in August, to see some Humpbacks before the Japanese kill them all in the name of scientific research. I am so excited I could pee, so probably should not bang on about that too much as I am currently at work and peeing at my desk may be considered inappropriate.

This weekend we went to see Dame Edna Everage for a work paid jolly by Stu's company. It was a very nice do - champagne and canape reception and whatnot. We were all pretty concerned when we got our tickets that we were in rows A-C which implies front row, which is not necessarily a good thing in what would probably be an enforced audience participation show. Fortunately we were spared too much humiliation - unlike the poor soul who was hoiked up onto the stage and made to give up his Mum's phone number so Dame Edna could ring her up. Very amusing.

Ummmm.... not much else to tell. Other than - if you remember - there is a big building site over the road from our building, right in the line of fire of our view of the botanical gardens. Turns out that not only are they building there, but they are building the biggest bloody tower in Brisbane, twice as tall as everything else. Fab.

File under "I'll believe it when I see it"

Dear Mrs Robinson

I am writing to advise that your effects have been loaded to vessel:

NYK Vesta
Sailing on 15/6/07
ETA 19/7/07

Liz's Birthday

Hello hello.

Today we had a public holiday in honour of the Queen's birthday. I love that we get a day off work for that here, especially since it's actually nowhere near the Queen's birthday. I would imagine that the reason the aussies voted to keep the queen was so they wouldn't lose a bank holiday. And good on them I say.

We decided to be very british on Saturday and throw a barbecue for some of Stu's work mates, even though it was actually really cold and everyone turned up in scarves and jumpers. We went to the farmers market in the morning in order to stock up on all necessary bits and pieces, and when I mentioned that we were barbecuing a deathly hush fell over the market and all the stall holders gaped at us. I explained that we were poms and it was perfectly acceptable for us to barbecue in sub 20 degree temperatures - hell we've even barbecued in the rain. I still can't quite get over seeing all the natives wandering round in woolly hats, scarves, gloves and the whole winter kit and kaboodle, when really and truly it is actually about 20 degrees still, which let's face it is not that cold. I think that the day I start feeling chilly in this weather is when I know I have been here too long!

It was a very nice day though, good food, good drink etc. I think our usual hospitality failed us slightly though as all the food was eaten - usually we stock up on enough to feed twice as many folk as are coming, so I am a bit worried that we are slacking.

Yesterday I spent the whole day talking to god due to the amount of barbecue beers consumed, which was no fun at all, but today we had loads of fun. We decided it was high time that we went out and did some touristy stuff as we have turned into work and sleep types lately. So went out to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on a lovely river boat cruise. I've been before to the sanctuary so was relatively calm but Stu was ridiculously over excited, especially when he got to cuddle David the Koala. We also went to the birds of prey show which was really exciting, and fed the kangaroos and wallabies. It was great. Also really nice to get out of the city and remind ourselves that we have actually moved to Australia, and haven't just replaced one city and commute and work with another one. We had a great day and are about to sit down and plan loads more touristy stuff to do - yay!

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and other bits and bobs

Now THAT'S what I call winter

We arrived here in April, which is kind of mid Autumn down here. I was by turns puzzled/amused/annoyed by the insistence upon referring to winter, the prevalence of cold medication and electric blankets, and the impossibility of buying any clothes that are not woollen, long sleeved, or lined with feathers. To give you a context, when we arrived the temperature ranged between 25-30 degrees, with about 70% humidity as a rule.

In the last week or so the temperature has dropped below 20 degrees consistently for the first time, and there has actually been RAIN. I swear if you walked the streets of Brisbane you would think there was some kind of compulsory eskimo fancy dress policy going on.

Yesterday I left work, it was dark and raining, and I actually for a moment span out about where I was. I walked home, got in thoroughly soggy and miserable, and had to cuddle up on the sofa with my warmest pyjamas on. Now THAT'S what I call winter!

No news really, which is why I have been a bit quiet of late. Still no sign of our stuff, and no response from Allied Pickfords. I reckon they're checking under all the carpets, down the back of the sofa, through all the drawers and right at the back of the wardrobe under a pile of shoes for our shipment. I have lost all hope of seeing my belongings ever again. Also my new work seem to expect me to actually do stuff in return for my wages. I'm really not sure how I feel about THAT!

Important Living In Australia Milestone Reached

I have met someone called Sheila.

I would like to gloss over the fact that she is in fact Irish.

Important Living In Australia Milestone Reached

I have met someone named Bruce.

It's all takin and no givin

I am feeling a bit bereft of interesting ideas for blog titles just now, hence the repetitive dolly references. Sorry about that.

My first week at work went well, and since they have allowed me to return today I will take that as a good sign. Everyone here is very nice and chilled, and it seems like a great place to work. We have a casual dress policy, drinks every Friday and whatnot. They treat everyone like grown ups here, basically assuming that you will manage to do your work and in return you can do what you like around it. Which is a very nice refreshing change from some recent office policies I have worked under! I have even done an actual piece of work which has gone to an actual client, which was quite a nice change from the usual first week fish out of water feeling that you get. Also there's a possibility that I might have to go to Canberra this evening with the MD, so they can't think I'm a total numpty. In response to queries about the coffee machine it looks a bit like this:
and I am now quite the expert at frothing milk and whatnot. Should it all go horribly wrong here I can now pursue a career in Starbucks.

Not a massive amount of other news though. Had quite a quiet weekend, as we are poor and tired, but we're starting to get really itchy feet now and can't wait to get some money together so we can actually get out of the city! I have become a bit obssessed with this website which is an excellent way to while away some time and get ridiculously overexcited at the thoughts of seeing this great country. I can't wait! Oooh I tell a lie, there is an event today which is very newsworthy down here - rain! I don't know whether you know but there's a massive and very serious drought in Australia at the moment, so in a bit of a role reversal from the UK whenever there is rain forecast everyone gets really excited, and it goes straight to the top of the news broadcast. I'm not sure whether it'll be enough to get us out of level 5 water restrictions, but hopefully it'll stave off unprecedented level 6, where presumably you can't wash at all. This will not help us stave off the general opinion of poms being a bit bath shy.

What a way to make a livin

Just a very quick one today to say that early indications suggest that new job and new company are pretty good! First day today, and they seem like a really good bunch of folk, with a really chilled ethos. My new boss seems pretty cool, and the offices are dead nice. They even have a proper barista style coffee machine there, although I am far too scared to try it. I think it's going to be quite hard work, and they have pretty high standards by the looks of things, but I think that'll do me good. I've had far too much opportunity to indulge my lazy side over the last couple of years.

I'll keep you posted obviously, but tonight I am far too brain drained to write a big fat blog.

x

Today is a GOOD day

So today is a good day. And why? well this morning we took delivery of a sofa. I now no longer have to sit on the floor. The simple pleasures in life are amazing - I am sitting on a sofa watching telly. It's great. I am enjoying my view, although I don't think I'll have it much longer as there are a shedload of diggers in the site over the road, and I have a feeling there will be a new 50 story apartment block there before very long. They don't hang about over here - when Stu gets up at 6 am they are already in the diggers digging away, and they only stop when it gets dark, so I don't think that we'll even have the luxury of watching it go up slowly and not impeding our little patch of sky before too long. Reckon we might open the curtain one morning to find it built, and folk moved in.

Also today I have got a job. It is for that company who turned me down, then invited me for interviews etc. Apparently they were very impressed with my homework, and as of Monday I will be an analytics consultant. I'm not quite sure what that means, so I'll have to update you on that another day. I am quite excited about it, as they seem a good bunch, have a casual clothing policy and the work seems interesting. However I also have not worked for nearly 3 months, so I think it's going to be a bit of a shock to the system.

However, every silver lining has a cloud. It turns out that our stuff is still in England, as Pickfords just haven't quite got round to sending it yet. So another god only knows how long til we get it over here. Also we have somehow managed to puncture the airbed (that sounds really dodgy, but I don't think it is) so every night we pump it up and go to bed, and every morning we wake up lying on the floor. Not quite sure what we're going to do about it - we're only in a one bedder so we can't buy an interim bed til ours gets here, and our budget doesn't really stretch to it anyway. Hey ho.

In other important news, I have changed campaign of the week (more like campaign of the arbitrary amount of time til I decide to change it). I recently saw some footage of professional kangaroo hunters over here. Picture the scene - a kangaroo is shot and wounded. The hunters pull the joey out of her pouch and stamp on its head. As she struggles to get up, they cut holes in her legs and hang her upside down next to a few other corpses on the back of her truck. They drive away with her still alive, and you can hear the wounded but not dead joey crying in the background. This is so they can make pet food, and Adidas can make football boots and footballs. If like me you think this is a bonkers way to treat any animal, let alone one which is your national emblem and graces your national airline and government sponsored tourism adverts, please visit campaign of the week for suggestions as to who to write to to protest.

Payday!

And what a relief that is. We have some money in the bank - although not for much longer as we still need to pay the bills at home, and at the end of the month I have to pay Reed £500 for the pleasure of making me redundant (deep breath in, deep breath out).

Just thought I'd do a very quick update with some piccies of our flat, and some other bits and bobs we've pictured in the last couple of weeks, like bathing Buddha etc (oh and if anyone's interested, apparently it is OK to hate Buddhists because they have a cancer in their souls and it's OK to hate cancer. So there you go).

Our little gaff and other stuff

Still waiting on feedback from my homework for that job I want. Also starting to really worry about whether we will ever see our stuff from the UK again. I contacted the removals folk yesterday through their website with our moving reference to tell them we have now arrived in Brisbane and want to give contact details for delivery of our goods when they arrive. I got a message back saying that they were pleased I wanted to use them for my removal needs, and should contact them to book a time to come round and do a quote and book a date for removal.

Oh and I almost forgot - we now have a credit card, so I'm off to buy a sofa today. YAY!

Happy Hammers, Horrible Hangovers, Holiday Homes, Hollywood Hotties, and um... Hemployment Hopportunities

Well well well - where to begin? Feels like bloody ages since I've been on here, although it's only 2 weeks.

SO - first things first. We have moved into our new little pad. We are officially camping out in our own flat - sitting on bean bags and sleeping on an air bed. I cannot wait til we can afford to buy some furniture - getting up and down off the floor all the time and having no back support at all is an ergonomic nightmare I tells ya. At least our relationship has survived enforced conversation and spending time together. The flat is grand though - nice and central, very pretty, good facilities etc. There's a gym onsite and I have been going very regularly - me! I'll do a proper blog about it another time when I've uploaded some pics and stuff.

We're on a bit of a poverty trip at the minute as I am STILL not working, and Stu doesn't get paid til Weds, so a strict diet of 2 minute noodles is called for just now. We've managed a few trips out in the last fortnight though.

The weekend we moved in here we went to a meeting of the Brisbane British Club which is an expat group who meets on the last Sunday of every month in the Pig & Whistle (Stu's favourite pub as we know). It was very nice, and we met some nice folk. Of course we got completely totally and utterly shit faced, and neither of us remember getting home. One of the folk we met emailed us the next day to say that he'd had to throw a sickie that day as he had practically puked up a lung when he got home. Another bloke who neither of us remember at all emailed Stu to ask whether he could pass on the details of Naylor recruitment as discussed. Neither of us have ever heard of Naylor recruitment. Hopefully we weren't having some sort of fantasy conversation and making up a load of nonsense to this bloke. I'm just hoping we're allowed back next time. I don't know how Stu made it to work on the Monday as I just wanted to die all day.

Last weekend we went to the Bathing Buddha Festival over on the South Bank which is rapidly becoming one of my favourite parts of Brisbane. It was a really lovely day, loads of great food stalls, all very educational. It was only slightly marred by the fact that on our way in someone gave us a leaflet which I assumed was information on the event - but no. It was in fact helpfully pointing out that all Buddhists are going to go to hell because they worship an idol. I will let you know how the author responds when I email him to ask him how he would feel if a load of Buddhists picketed his Christmas or Easter celebrations - but then it wouldn't happen as they seem to generally be nice open minded people!

Afterwards we went to the Jade Buddha for a few scoops as it seemed appropriate under the circumstances. (It turns out that Pat Rafter owns Jade Buddha, so I fully intend to stake it out at every available opportunity from now on). Anyway, there we were minding our own business when a bunch of too cool for school folk traipse in with some kind of minder bloke in big shades and a bluetooth headset. They all settle down to a table, and one of them gets out a camera and starts filming one of them doing such riveting things as ordering and eating food, etc. Being a naturally inquisitive person I gawped at them, til I figured out that it was Jared Leto with his band. So check me right out, rubbing shoulders with Hollywood A listers. Barnes verdict: Very very very pretty, but a bit of a knob.

As I said above, I'm still not working but things are kind of looking up on that front. I'm in what I hope are the last stages of an application with an HR consultancy firm. I originally applied for a job as a business analyst, which they turned me down for. I emailed them and said please keep me in mind etc etc, then they invited me to apply for an HR admin role. Better than nowt I thought, so I trotted along and got invited back for a second interview. Half way through this interview it turns out that they were interviewing me for an analyst post - the one they originally turned me down for. Very confusing. I have to do a case study thing this weekend, then hopefully I'll get a decision. So fingers crossed and positive vibes down under please, as I really want the job!

I think that's it for the minute. I've got a load of emails to catch up on this weekend, so hope to be in touch soon!

Oh yeah - and have a look at where I'll be spending Christmas.

Anzac Day

So yesterday was Anzac day, and a bank holiday over here. It feels very weird to have a bank holiday in the middle of the week (although when you're a lady of leisure like me then every day is a bank holiday!). We went out for a few scoops on Tuesday night, and decided that we would go to the dawn service at the war memorial, which is just down the road.

So up we got at 4am, feeling a little bleary, and not quite sure what to expect. For some reason I don't think either of us thought it would be a very big deal, but we left the apartments to join a massive stream of people heading towards the memorial. There must have been a couple of thousand people there - it was amazing. I can't even begin to imagine the turnout at dawn on an autumn bank holiday morning for a memorial service at home, but I can tell you Brisbane turned out very well indeed. The service started at 4.28 because that was when the Aussies landed at Gallipoli, and it was a really moving service. It was really nice to see such a massive effort for remembrance, even all these years on. Got a bit of a lump in my throat.

Not a lot of news really. We move into our apartment tomorrow, and I don't know when we'll get set up with internet access so this might be my last blog for a little bit. Tomorrow night we're going to the moonlight wine tasting which should be very nice - Stu won some tickets through some quiz thingy at work. We're both looking forward to it - I'm sure by that point the novelty of living in an apartment with no furniture or telly will have well and truly worn off, so some wine will be a very welcome distraction.

Anyway best go and get on with my chores for the afternoon. Expect a big update whenever I next get back onto the interweb!

x

Important Marmite update

A tale of kindness down under.

At Stu's new assignment, his boss has gone on holiday for 4 weeks. Before he left he asked how we were settling in, and Stu told him we were grand, but missing marmite.

Today when Stu got to his desk, he found a jar of the precious brown stuff (not poo) that said colleague (an Australian no less) had gone to his local brit supplies shop and purchased and left for him before he went on holiday.

When Stu emailed me this little story this morning I must say I had to look up and blink a few times.

Domestic bliss

Another day another update. I decided to change my font for this one to spice things up a bit.

On Friday I went to a careers expo all dressed up all smart (sweating like a Brit abroad), armed with copious CVs and a determined and professional attitude. Unfortunately it was heaving with school kids on day release (and making the most of it) and I stuck out like a sore pom. I didn't make it very far around to be honest, as I felt a little bit dismissed by most of the people I spoke to, who showed very little interest in anything I had to say. I did get a contact for an agency that deal with placing people into the police, so am preparing myself to lay siege to them and prove that just because I am Johnny Foreigner does not mean I am Johnny Unemployable. Will keep you posted.

Then we went over to our new little apartment. The phrase 'compact and Bijou' springs to mind, but it'll do us grand for the forseeable. Unfortunately the folk who run the building are desperately in need of an arse-elbow orienteering course - they could not run a bath. I suppose though it is a pretty busy time for them with 800 odd people moving in in the space of about a month. It is very exciting to be doing trendy inner city living - I'm really looking forward to it. Yesterday we went off and bought a Fridge Freezer and Washing Machine for our new place - bizarrely this made us both feel more grown up than getting hitched and moving to the other side of the world did! So although we will be sitting and sleeping on the floor and staring at the walls (no budget for telly or sofa!) we will have cold beer and clean clothes. Not sure we need much else really!

We also set ourselves up with boring but essential things like phones and electrickery and the such like. I think it's sinking in a bit now that we really live here - we've certainly got a paper trail now!

Today we just kind of pottered around - went down to the pier for eggs benedict and latte breakfasts and just to watch the river go by in the sunshine. One of Stu's new colleagues was there, and he kept calling him Simon. Stu didn't correct him so now we're in that awful quandary of either - a) embarrassing him by correcting him next time he gets it wrong, or b) letting him call Stu Simon for ever. He's a pom too (from Orpington no less) and wants us to get together for beers and stuff with him and his wife, so this one could run and run.

That's it for the minute really - all very dull and domesticated, but hey it all needs to be sorted before the proper business of holidaying can begin!

Also - a word to the wise for anyone coming out here. Avoid this stuff at all costs. It is NOT Marmite. Repeat it is NOT marmite. It has the texture, colour and consistency of a red wine hangover poo and does not look becoming on a slice of toast. If you do come out - please bring us lots of marmite. REAL marmite.

Aaaaaaaaaand... relax

So we can stop worrying about the thing at number one on the worry list - we now have somewhere to live (hurrah!).

I don't know whether it was the hot coals, the broken glass, or humorous anecdotes about jumping induced flatulence, but we have secured ourselves a flat in the place we wanted!

We are on the 11th floor, in a wee one bed place. We haven't seen the specific flat yet, so I don't know what kind of view we'll get, but the building isn't massively overlooked so we should be OK. It's very central and not far from Stu's work. And if I EVER get a job, maybe it won't be far from my work either.

Which reminds me, I must go and give my full attention to number two on the worry list - ta ra.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Starting to feel a little frustrated now!

I just can't believe how incredibly difficult it is to persuade anyone to rent us a flat! You would NOT believe the amount of stuff I have had to produce for the people in the flats that we really want to live in - marriage and birth certificates, bank cards, even a letter from the people who run the serviced apartments that we're staying in saying that we're staying here. It is RIDICULOUS. Last night they decided that we had to both produce 2 personal referees each who are based in Australia. We've not even been here 2 weeks yet! So I've had to call on the services of a poor chap who I shared a hostel room with for 2 weeks 6 years ago to be one of my referees - god bless him he's doing it, but how stupid is that? I did look over my journal from when I was here backpacking the other day and it notes the day that I met him - apparently I jumped off the top bunk (he had the bottom bunk) and the landing caused me to do a fart in his face. I hope he does not mention that when questioned.

Slightly worried that we are going to end up homeless a week on Friday when our time here finishes.

On a brighter note - the bag that we had to ship off separately at Gatwick airport has now arrived, which I am VERY pleased about as I was getting totally sick of my clothes. Only problem is I don't know where the padlock keys are.

On another bright note - yesterday Stu found out that he has his first proper assignment as a consultant type person! He is very clever - it was his first interview that he had been sent out on, with SMS' biggest client, not even been in the company a full week yet and he got the job. I am very proud of him. He went off this morning looking very smart, I will let you know how he gets on.

Well best go and make my daily visit to these apartments to comply with their info requests. I might chuck a right down Walking Over Hot Coals Street, then shortcut through Crawling Over Broken Glass Avenue.

This little piggy went to market

Still no joy in finding somewhere to live - we've seen some right horrors this weekend I tells ya! Still can't believe the states that some Landlords think it's acceptable to try and rent a place in. Ah well, we shall persevere.

This weekend we mostly went looking at horrible places to live, and visited a couple of the local markets (of which there seem to be no shortage happily enough!). Yesterday we went to the Jan Powers Market in New Farm (which is definitely somewhere we would want to live if we could find somewhere). It was like a great big farmers market in a park right on one of the bends of the river. It was really lovely, and Stu managed to get some organic meat so he is happy out. Got some lovely Thai veggies and stuff to make a nice veg curry with tonight too - yum.

Unfortunately in a day of a lot of pottering around I managed to do a very silly thing - got sunburnt. But not just any old sunburn - oh no, I managed to do it whilst wearing a vest top and carrying a bag with the strap across my body. Leaving me very stripy. Twat.

We also encountered our very first horrendously racist Australians. They took umbrage to the fact that there was an aboriginal family on the Ferry, and were not shy about using some extremely unpleasant language to express their viewpoint quite loudly. I have to say though, whilst it was very uncomfortable, in the main everyone we have met has been outstandingly lovely, and I don't think they are representative of general attitudes. It's great here - as soon as you stop and get your little 'I'm a tourist' map out, folk stop to make sure you're OK and try and give you directions. Can you imagine if someone tried to do that in London? You'd just clutch your handbag a bit tighter, put your head down and scurry off.

Today we've just been for a bit of a potter round the Riverside and Eagle Street markets. They were really lovely, full of lots of precious things. I am pretty sure that once we are settled and a bit more solvent quite a lot of them will be finding their way home with me. Stu has a little bit of a hangover as he went off to the Pig & Whistle last night to watch the Hammers. And is feeling a little sorry for himself due to their now likely demotion. I've set aside this afternoon to do my CV and get applying for some work - boo. I can think of many more ways I would like to spend a sunny Sunday!

And another thing

Forgot to say that today is the start of 'let's try being a vegetarian for a month' month. Think Stu might be inadvertently joining me too as we can't seem to find any organic meat and I don't think even he can bring himself to eat intensively farmed shit.

And also please everyone email the prime minister of Canada about the seal hunt. Takes 2 seconds. And if you ever watched any of the footage of it it would probably make you cry - and my philosophy is if it makes you cry, do something about it (which is why I have been banned from watching nature programmes, and researching sad things on the internet. Our charitable donation fund cannot take it any more).

Wish me luck!

Memory Lane

Well, we'll have been here for one week tomorrow, which feels at the same time like it's been bloody ages, and no time at all. Haven't been up to much in the last couple of days. I went for a bit of a walk past the hostel I used to work in, and around that neck of the woods the other day, which was a bit weird. Everything is still there and still exactly the same - felt like I'd got in my dolorean and gone back 6 years.

Stu has started work now, and seems to be enjoying it. I think he still feels very much like the new boy and as is typical in new work he has a lot to take in, but I think he'll be grand. He's a smart cookie my husband. I'm not doing anything really yet - just lots of admin. Getting visas stamped, bank accounts, all that malarkey. Starting to feel a little anxious about sorting out some accommodation as we'll be getting booted out of this place in a couple of weeks. We're trying to apply to the fancy new apartments in town but the process of getting somewhere to rent over here is a bit rigorous, and not very easy to get all the necessary paperwork and jump through all the necessary hoops when you're Johnny Foreigner fresh off the boat. Also they are now out of 2 bed places, and only have 1 bed, and Stu is being a bit stubborn about having 2 beds. So there may be a domestic on the horizon.

Anyway once all the admin is done I'll be throwing myself into looking for a job as money is something else I'm meithering about!

So sorry there are no exciting tales of drunken excess today, but the holiday couldn't last forever unfortunately! Hope you're all well and enjoyed the bank holiday sunshine at home.

x