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

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.