Stradbroke Island Here We Come

I didn't forget about the blog yesterday, I went bowling, actually "ten pin bowling" as they say here, with some of the guys from work.  As you know just hanging with the fellas isn't something I get to do very often so I was pretty happy to skip a blog day for it.  I didn't get home until almost 11:00 pm well past the normal bed time and was tired as all day.  And I couldn't afford to be slow at work today as we were absolutely hammered with calls today.

Pretty much since I came home tonight we've been packing our packs for a trip.  We're taking the ferry over to North Stradbroke Island tomorrow.  I get to leave at noon and we're catching the train direct to the ferry stop.  We've booked a couple of dives and have our fingers crossed that the weather cooperates.  We really will be camping this time and we may catch some rain.  I don't care about that as long as the water is clear.

I'm sorry we left you all (Aussies would say Youse but I just can't bring myself to do it) high and dry yesterday and we're skipping out on Friday for you this week but hopefully we'll make it up with some entertaining stories and perhaps a new video or two.  This will be our first camping trip done totally without a car and we're both a little nervous to see how it goes.  Wish us luck.  We should have another post for Monday, but maybe we can get something up on Sunday if we're not too worn out.

Hot and Cranky

Tuesday is past us now and we're on to mid week.  I hope the weather decides to cool off soon because last night and today were hot as Hades and my attitude seems tied to the heat.  At least we have aircon at work, but hot nights make it hard to get any sleep.  

Quickly, the big news story around here tonight is Whitney Houston trying to mount a comeback.  I don't think it looks so good.  She performed here in Brisbane last night and is not getting any good press.  Apparently she could barely sing a note last night.  The evening talk shows really beat her up tonight.  I can't say I'm surprised.

Our internet allotment is all used up for the month and it's taking me ages to open any web pages.  I had hoped to spend some time tonight looking for scuba bargains but my patience is all at an end. I'm going to go soak myself in the shower and lie in bed still wet.  Maybe that way I'll get some sleep.

Monday Monday

And just like that we're over another weekend and have powered through Monday.  I didn't expect it would be any different but Mondays are still Mondays no matter what hemisphere you're working in.  Kind wish I could skip them altogether.

We had a pretty excellent weekend I think.  The weather has taken a nice turn and this weekend was relatively cool.  Saturday morning was the perfect morning for sleeping in, cool and cloudy and I took advantage.  We chose to stay around the house rather that make a trip to the markets and I thoroughly enjoyed playing couch potato and surfing the internet all morning.  Leah went to a spin class and then came home and planted her nose in her Kindle.  In the evening we went over and had dinner with our friends who hosted our Christmas lunch and met another couple also attending Uni here.  A woman working on her PHD and her husband getting his teaching degree.  We had a really great time and sat on the deck drinking and chatting until 11:30 on Saturday.

Sunday was another easy day as we did nothing other than do a bit of shopping.  We got our groceries and I got a couple of work shirts and a pair of pants.  Woo I love shopping for clothes!! (this is sarcasm guys)  It actually wasn't too bad since they had a bunch of work shirts on sale and I got four shirts and the pants for less than $30, I'm a bargain hunter. Target comes through again.

Andrew and Melissa invited us over for dinner and put us up for a really excellent feed of roast pork with rocket, pine nuts and feta.  She also roasted potatoes and pumpkin (Butternut Squash back home) and did broccoli cauliflower and cheese.  It was really really yummy.  We've sort of loosely agreed to a monthly trade off with dinners.  I'll have to pull something good out for our turn, Melissa sets the bar pretty high.

I had meant to take some photos for the blog this weekend or at least try and shoot some video, but I really wasn't feelin it at all.  Sorry, I'm lazy like that.  We are planning our weekend and I think we have good stuff in store, I won't spoil it yet, but it should make for interesting blogging.  At least more interesting than this has been.

I spent much of my time this weekend with a calculator trying to figure out how to purchase scuba gear for myself and Leah and not feel too guilty about it.  Turns out I've decided to fall in love with a rather expensive hobby.  At the best prices I can find we'd have to do at least 30 dives each in order for it to be cheaper than gear rental and if we averaged two dives a day by fifteen days at $125 per person per day, plus the cost of the gear, well it costs a lot when you actually look at the numbers.  Unless the job fairy comes along and deposits a much larger pay cheque in my account, I don't think we'll be buying ourselves anything more than masks and snorkels.

I"m hot now and it doesn't seem like Casa Poquito is going to cool off that well tonight, I might have to douse myself in the shower before bed.  We're going to watch "Lost" on the internet tonight since we have plans for Wednesday night and we wont be home.

Hope you all enjoy your Monday.

I Got Nothin'

I've been sitting on the couch watching tv for the last few hours and trying to think of something to write about tonight.  I'm not sure I've got anything worth preserving for posterity.

We have been invited to dinner and drinks this Saturday and are going to stay in town.  We'll probably be up early and head to the markets at west end.  It's funny how spoiled we are getting having access to the fresh produce.  The supermarket doesn't seem to cut it anymore.

There is a sort of quasi-news program on tv every night here called the 7pm Project and they were joking about the Olympics tonight.  One of the presenters was saying how hard she found it to care about them at all.  I did see that an Aussie woman won gold in a snowboard event, but the winter games aren't hugely popular here.  In fact I had to scroll through a bunch of rugby and cricket stories just to find the link to that.

Leah got two issues of US weekly again today and she figures that she is up to date on the celeb goss now. Leah is really enjoying her couple of weeks of freedom from school work and has taken advantage by reading several books for fun. I've been reading a book that Melissa lent to me that is the diary of her great-great uncle (I think) when he was a swag man bumming around Queensland in 1930.  It's a really interesting read and I've almost read the whole thing in a few days.  The guy was in his twenties and left a secure job to bum around Queensland a survive off of government rations for a year. Talk about an adventure.

Well, I guess that's all I know. Sometimes I just haven't got it, and clearly tonight is one of those nights.  We'll be back on Monday, hopefully refreshed and with some interesting stories.  Until then, enjoy Friday and have a great weekend.

Thoughts for Thursday

This morning on the train I watched a woman get fined for not having a ticket.  The WAIT, stop, hold the presses, Leah just handed me a home made chocolate chip cookie. Cookie break....

Wow, not only did she cook a really great dinner tonight but that cookie took a great dinner and skyrocketed it into outstanding status.  Yummy.  I think she's really enjoying the house-girlfriend thing. [Leah here, actually I don't have much going on at the moment, so being a pro girlfriend really helps fill my day. Two weeks off, feel free to Skype away, much to Todd's dismay with his dad-face internet usage monitoring.]

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, the train.

So a couple of times a month while sitting on the train, the "Rail-Police" come along and check people's tickets.  I actually don't buy a ticket every day, I have a go-card that is a rechargeable card that can be used for buses, trains and ferries.  You simply "touch on" to a reader at the station or at the entrance to the bus, and "touch-off" when you get to your destination.  The system deducts the fare from your card balance.  Translink, as public transport is called, is trying to get away from paper tickets entirely and force people to buy go-cards.  If you use your card ten times in a week you get weekends for a 40% discount or something.  I spend a little over $115 per month just to get to work.  I guess if you compare that to the cost of driving it's not bad.  No insurance, no car payment, and best of all no fuel.  It would still be nice to have a car though.

The last couple of days I've caught a slightly earlier train than usual. 6:59 instead of 7:09.  It gets me to work a little quicker but I'm not sure I'm going to stick with it.  I enjoy those ten minutes with my coffee cup at home in the morning.  But I digress.  This morning I got on the train and the police (the rail cops don't have guns, so I joked with the guys today that I'm an American and not impressed by cops unless they have guns) were busy checking tickets, if you have a go-card, they have a little hand scanner that can tell if you've touched on or not.  At the third stop, the police got off and at the fourth stop another set of them got on and checked my go-card again.  About three people down from me a woman had no ticket or card and she was fined $200.  Pretty stiff if you ask me.  Then when I got to work I found out one of the mechanics had also gotten nicked on the train this morning also for $200.  Glad I don't try and cheat the system.

Kate asked us yesterday about the Olympic coverage here.  Australians seem to really like sport a lot, but I think you're right Kate, for the majority, winter sports are sort of off the radar.  There is some coverage during the day, and tonight coverage starts about 10pm. (After my bed time) They are talking about it a bit on the news and any Aussie athletes get the most coverage as you might expect.  It's hard to imagine skiing when it's full on summer.  We haven't been watching very much at all, we don't watch a lot of tv in general, I watch a few minutes of news in the morning while ironing my shirt and maybe a show or two in the evenings.  My evening free time is mostly spent surfing the internet and writing the blog.

I don't know if I've mentioned the fact that Ginger beer is enormously popular here.  In the soda aisle at the supermarket there are at least ten varieties to choose from.  At the markets last weekend there were two different stands selling the home made variety.  Now I love the stuff but especially when you hit it with some vodka and a lime and call it a Moscow Mule.  Unbelievably most people here have never thought of ginger beer as a mixer.  I made a few for Kev at the pig pickin' and he loved them.  Anyway, when we saw the stand at the market Leah really wanted to get a photo of me in front of it so I walked over and I don't know what happened but the picture turned out like this:

Yet another in a long line of photos that make Leah giggle uncontrollably

Honestly, I wasn't trying to look like a moron, it just happens. I mean what's am I doing?  Looks like I'm doing my best pimp strut but not dressed for the part.

Leah had an email from a friend from home today and she raised a good point.  A lot of you know what we've been up to because of this blog, but we miss hearing from you.  Don't be afraid to send us e-mails or even just make some comments here, we'd like to know what's going on in your lives as well.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Hump Day Photos

Lost is on tonight so I’m going to keep it short and sweet.  Leah has had the week off from school and has been treating me to excellent meals every night.  A man could get spoiled having his supper waiting for him when he gets home from work.  Tonight we had Asian lettuce wraps and I ate about half my body weight of them.

I thought I’d post a few more photos from our weekend.  We’ve been really happy with the camera so far.  To date we have taken about 1000 photos since we arrived here.   I’ve been thinking a lot about buying some editing software like Photoshop.  I think we have some great shots so far and they could get a lot better with a little tweaking. 

 Shout out to the Nauti Gal in Madison, WI

Driving in the glass house mountains

Mt. Coonowrin 377 metres

We’re already planning our next getaway.  This weekend we have plans in Brissie so it’ll have to wait until the next Saturday.  I’ll be sure to blog about that as we get closer. 

Back to the Grind

It's amazing how quickly a Monday can strip away the happiness you've built up on a weekend away.  Only two days back at work and I'm finding myself daydreaming about our next weekend away.  I could get used to being a travel show host.

Along with the video we made, we did manage to take a few nice photos this weekend.

Hector's Mexican food stand

I mentioned in the video that we finally found some authentic Mexican here.  For the first time we got our mexi fix and it was glorious.  We spent awhile talking with Hector and bonding over our North American-ness.

The markets at Eumundi were nice but they were more focused on crafts and goods than the markets we normally go to here in Brisbane.  We tend to go to the market to get our produce not to buy a crap load of chotskies.  It was fun to visit but we wont be making it a regular stop.  Hector also sells his food at the Caloundra markets and they're about an hour closer.

Leah on the beach at Noosa National Park

I really love the look of a rocky beach and truthfully I'd almost rather be at the beach on a cloudy day than blasted by the sun.  Our day at Noosa was perfect.  The water temp was perfect for swimming and we spent over an hour frolicking in the waves. 

Some 'roos just chillin on the 10th hole

We stayed Saturday night at a resort on a golf course.  When we were checking into our room we saw these kangaroos and went out to take a few snapshots.  They really don't seem bothered by people though they do give you a sideways glance when you walk up to them.  I remarked to a couple of guys at work that I've only ever seen them chilling out or laying down and want to see them jump around, and the guys all said "No way, it's way too scary when they get hopping around too much:.  A pissed off kangaroo is nothing to mess with apparently.

I have some more photos to post tomorrow.  But I wanted to touch on another topic briefly tonight.  There was a tragic incident here in Brisbane on Monday.  A 13 year old student stabbed and killed another student at school.  It's a sad story and hard to imagine.  We feel terrible for everyone involved but we are a little bit upset by the way the media is spinning this story.  When they are talking about this on the news they almost always throw in a comment about how this sort of thing is the "norm" in America, but it's so odd here.  The news made a statement that metal detectors were standard in all American schools.  

Australians, like most of the world, I presume, are all under the impression that Americans are a bunch of gun toting, knife wielding maniacs who can't wait to harm one another.  Even the guys I work with, whom I consider fairly open minded, think we're all crazy and everyone in America walks around with a gun strapped to their belt.  It's not an image that I find very flattering and it does hurt my feelings a bit to hear how we're portrayed by the media.  Strange as it may seem, I get homesick when I hear the comments about how all the ills of the world come from America that are thrown around by Aussies so nonchalantly. 

I have no intentions of turning this blog into a political discussion site, but I had to get that off my chest.  It's been at the back of my mind for a while and only became obvious when this story broke. 

An observation for today:

Most of the language we share with Australia is common to both countries.  The little differences are what make an impression.  For instance, the ending "ing" as used in America is often left off on words here.  Example.  Serving.  In America one serving is the amount of a food you might eat.  Here it's called a "serve".  In the car business we sell rubber pads called "bushings"  here they're "bushes" "moldings" become "molds" etc, etc etc...  It's only different enough to sound strange to my ears and doesn't get in the way usually, but it is entertaining.  

Valentines Weekend at the Coast

We spent the weekend at the Sunshine Coast.  It's the stretch of coastline north of Brisbane.  I'm not sure where it ends.  I don't have much to write tonight.  I've been really busy since we got back yesterday working on these videos.  I actually made a whole short film thingo, but I had to break it up into three parts to post it on YouTube; they have a ten minute per video limit that I wasn't aware of.  The whole thing runs about 22 minutes. I may have gotten a little overly creative, but I've never made a movie like this before and really had a lot of fun putting it together. We did all the filming with a little flip camera that my mom got us for Christmas a couple of years ago.  The editing was done with a free program called Windows Movie maker. The volume is a little low at times. It's hard to get good audio quality from the built in mic on the camera.  I think it's pretty good though. We had so much fun doing this one we may have to consider getting a nicer video camera.  Hope you enjoy.  We'll be back tomorrow with some photos from the trip. 

Thanks for Calling, Could You Please Hold?

We're heading out of town really early tomorrow so I'm not going to bother with a long post tonight.  We'll be back on Monday with reports about our weekend adventures.


Have a great Friday.

Road Trip Panning

Last night I went to Kev's for a couple of hours after work to help him with a project.  I didn't expect to be eaten alive by mossies.  Mosquitoes  are part of the bargain when you live in Queensland.  You just have to learn to live with them.  We don't have screens on our windows and get a few bites once in a while during the night.  But what I witnessed yesterday was like the mosquito apocalypse.  The project at hand called for us to be out in the front yard and in the grass.  I don't know why Kev's place is so much worse than ours but the mossies there were hell bent on my destruction.  Those of you who were on our canoe trip last summer and remember the night we spent on that muddy beach will have some idea of just how many there were last night as soon as the sun went down.  I must have a hundred itchy red bites today.  If I come down with Dengue fever I'm going to punch Kev in the nuts.

Leah had a final exam for one of her classes this afternoon and has her last tomorrow.  We are borrowing a car this weekend and are planning on heading up the coast towards a town called Noosa Heads.  Hopefully the weather stays nice for us and we can have a few adventures to report here.  I'm starting to get frustrated trying to come up with interesting things to write about and we need to recharge the batteries a bit.

Here's a map of the general route we plan on taking. We haven't gone any further north from here than Beerwah, home of the Australia Zoo. We are going to try and make as many detours as we can and see the area.  It should take a couple of hours to drive straight there but we plan on taking our time.  I'm not sure if we'll get a chance to do a scuba dive, but I'm up for it if we do.

View Larger Map

If you don't have it, you should download Google Earth.  It's like Google Maps with a lot of really awesome extra stuff.  Send me an email and I'll give you our address. You can see what our house looks like... FROM SPACE!!!!!!11!

"Lost" post

Guys I've tried for an hour to post a recipe for green curry.  I've had nothing but trouble with the site tonight and have nothing to show for my efforts.  I got home really late from work and I'm missing the premiere of Lost, so this is all I'm going to post tonight.

Sorry about that, I'll try and post tomorrow when I have some patience.

Talk Thai on Taco Tuesday

Taco Tuesday is in the books.  I'm stuffed and happy.  Leah is busy studying for her finals and I am doing some research into our weekend plans.  We are borrowing a car this weekend and are planning a camping trip up the coast somewhere.  I don't have a lot of energy for writing tonight and so I'm going to keep it short.

We've talked some here about the abundance of Asian food here in Brissie.  We are only a couple of minutes walk from at least a dozen awesome Asian restaurants.  Personally I have been really inspired to learn to cook with an Asian pantry.  Usually my kitchen trends toward Italian and Mexican styles. In fact there is a lot of crossover between the two as far as ingredients go. I really only have one or two Asian dishes in my normal repertoire.

I wouldn't say Leah is a picky eater, but in the past she has been somewhat less adventurous than I have been food-wise.  Where I'm an admitted food whore, Leah approaches new cuisine with reticence.  So when we find something new that she likes it's pretty exciting.  Recently we've found a few Indian dishes that she likes and a few weeks ago we found a couple of Thai recipes that she really likes.

Thai Green Curry with Beef and eggplant

By far our favorite so far is Thai Green Curry.  A savory stew of meat and vegetables in a spicy mixture of chilies, Thai herbs and coconut milk.  Something about it really rocks my world.  On Sunday we made our first attempt at cooking it at home.  We had found a jar of green curry paste at an Asian market the week before.  Coincidentally we were talking to Andrew and Melissa and they had just made a green curry themselves and had actually made their own paste. Melissa gave us a healthy portion of the paste she had made so we didn't even have to crack open our jar.  I have to say, her paste made a green curry that was just as good as any we've eaten in a restaurant and I'm not so sure I even want to open that jar anymore.  I'm just gonna steal Melissa's recipe and make it myself.

I'd post a recipe here but I'm too lazy.  Do yourself a favor and get on the Google and find one for yourself.

Here's a photo of me about to dive in.  I wanted to take a picture of her, but she told me there haven't been enough photos of me lately.

In the "after" shot I have a sweaty upper lip.

Bringin a Little of the South to the Southern Hemisphere

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints!  I just got done watching the replay of the Super Bowl.  Good on em!

I have to say we really missed being home for it.  It's really not the same having it on a Monday morning.  All day at work people kept asking me what the big deal was.  Why do they have so much hype?  What's with the commercials?  Etc, etc, etc. Some things you just have to be an American to appreciate I guess.  But other's are universal, hence today's post.  

I love pork.  I really, really love pork. A slow roasted hunk of pig is like sexy dirty fantasy talk to me.  It's one of the great pleasures of life and I relish every chance I get to partake, so when Kev asked me to help him roast a pig, I jumped at the chance.  I practically majored in slow cooking pork when I lived in North Carolina and I don't mind if I do toot my own horn; I can cook me some pig.

Here's the after action report (AAR for you gamers out there)

The day started a little later than we had planned.  Kev went out on Friday and had a little more fun than he planned. (It was his birthday after all).  By the time he picked me up it was after ten.  We had planned to have the pig cooking by eight. After stopping for a few last minute sundries we got to Kev's about eleven.  When we got there we set to work.  First things first, we opened beers.

MMMMMM Beer.

After the beers were opened we got down to brass tacks and wrangled the pig onto the spit.  The boys hadn't done this before and being the resident American Redneck I stepped up to the plate.  We used the back of the work Ute (Australian for Truck, I think short for utility vehicle)  as a table and got it done.

"Crickey!"

I had to put the umbrella up because the sun was as hot as.  In fact it was one of the hottest days we've had for some time.  I didn't want this little beauty to get sunburned before we got him over the coals.  

The coals actually took us a time to get going.  We couldn't find charcoal lighter fluid anywhere and charcoal chimneys are rare so we were forced to use these fire starter brick things that weren't exactly up to par.  It took almost an hour to get the coals started.  So by the time the pig was on it was exactly noon.  Only four hours behind schedule.

Kev had told people to be there around 1:30.  So people started arriving expecting to the pork to ready and instead found a couple of semi drunk guys with a nearly raw pig.  They Aussied up and grabbed beers themselves.  Thus began the long afternoon of drinking.   

Phil, Richard, Kev and Dean with the guest of honor.

Standing around drinking beers and watching a pig cook on a spit is a great way to get wasted.  Take my word for it.  We set out to get hammered and hammered is what we got.  It's a wonder that any of us made it until the pig was ready.  It only took five and a half hours to cook but in that time, many, many beers had been consumed.  By the time the thing was ready just about everyone we work with was there or had been there. It was a lot of fun to hang out away from the office. 

Hugh (the guy I replaced at work) and Kev 

Notice the blue chequered police tape (yes it's spelled chequered here)

Kev and I managed to keep it together long enough to get the pig off the spit and cut up.  A job I'm proud to say only took about 15 minutes.  Kev's mom came through with all the fixin's and the pig pickin' was in full effect.  We managed to feed the heck out of everyone there.  

Cathy from work with and her friend (grubbin) and brother

Those of you with lots of pig pickin experience will notice the (several) non working cars lined up in the background of this photo.  The more that things change the more they say the same!  I mean it couldn't have been more authentically redneck.  I loved it, check out the back of the Ute used to serve up the food.

Classic!

It gets a little hazy after that.  Leah and Charlene showed up just when we were done cutting up the pig.  We spent the next few hours chatting and drinking. We decided to head back to the train.  I tried to get artsy with the camera but I think I may have been a little drunk still. I did manage one nice shot of the girls.

 Cathy, Charlene and Leah

By 9:30 we were on the train and headed home. And that was that. Our first Southern Hemisphere full on pig pickin'  I have a feeling it's not going to be the last.  I am getting really serious thinking about starting some sort of food related business here.  Street meat may be my calling.  

Phriday Photos

It's been a long week at work and I don't have a lot to write about tonight.  I thought I'd take the opportunity to post a few photos that are on my camera.  I'm going over to Kev's tomorrow early to help him get his pig roasted.  It's his birthday and I'm looking forward to a long day of drinking and eating.  I"ll be sure to get some photos to post on the blog. First are a few from the Australia Zoo.  Remember you can click on the photo for a larger version.

This is a Cassowary, a large flightless bird native to Australia.

Leah getting a ride on a huge salty.

The giant in that photo is a replica of a salt water crocodile.  It's believed that they can get this large or larger but mostly they are killed before they can.  Can you imagine seeing this thing in the wild?  

This little beauty put on quite the show. 

I think a dingo ate your baby!

We had incredible access to the animals at the zoo, unfortunately the Koalas spend most of the day sleeping.  

Ok off the subject of the zoo here's a picture that just struck me funny.  We were at the supermarket shopping one day and couldn't help buying this can of tuna.  It came with the most glowing endorsement from Louise, she's a "Tuna Enthusiast"  I didn't know you could do that professionally.

Just look at how happy Louise is, I'm jealous. 

Casa Poquito

So there you go, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. 

Enjoy your Friday, I'm going to sleep in.  Catch us on Skype this weekend if you're connected.  If you're not you really should be.

 

One For the BIrds

Kookaburra's sittin in an ole' gum tree

Think of a song that you associate with Australia.  Bet I know what it is.  90% likely your thinking of "Land Down Under" by Men At Work. Right? Today a judge has just ruled that the flute solo from that song (you're humming it right now aren't you?) was stolen from a children's song called "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree" and the songs owners are entitled to part of the profits from the song.  Holy crap what a load of garbage.  The reports are that the owners will now seek up to 60% of the songs profits so far.  I don't know how much that will be but it has to be millions and millions of dollars.  "Land Down Under" is like the unofficial song of Australia.  You still hear it all the time.  I happen to know the Kookaburra song, I'll bet that anyone who went to Ottawa Elementary Schools in the eighties with me remembers singing it in music class too.  And Men at Work surely stole a riff from it, but the "owners" of the song are a giant record label who only purchased the rights to the song in the '90's, ten years after "Land Down Under" was a hit.  It's a bloody outrage. I mean it's a freakin classic.  I'm on the verge of a stream of curses so I'll drop the subject.  Enjoy the video before it gets taken down.

Kookaburras, by the way, are really loud birds.  The ones in the picture at the top of the page are juveniles and I'd say the adults get about twice as big as these.  We had two of them fighting outside the window one morning and it was like the world was coming to an end.  At dusk and dawn they make a hell of a racket, marking their territory and declaring their existence. Most people think their calls sound like laughter, and you can't deny it once you hear it.  But it's not a pleasant kind of laughter, it's really really loud. Watch the video and tell me if you'd like to have this outside your bedroom window in the morning.  Welcome to our world.

Today was super busy at work, Kev had the day off for some training and I didn't leave my desk all day.  I didn't even get up for a wee until around 4:30.  All work and no lunch make Toddy something something...

Luckily when I got home Leah had gathered up the fixins for one of my favorite dinners.  We have recently discovered an Indonesian spice mixture called Nasi Goreng and when used to make fried rice it's absolutely delicious. I've never seen it for sale at home but I'm really going to be disappointed if I can't find it.

Oh my GOD!! US WEEKLY!!!!

Oh oH OH!  I almost forgot to mention, yesterday when I got home I found a surprise in our mailbox for Leah.  Turns out her parents got her a subscription to US weekly and the first one showed up.  Leah was ecstatic.  I had to take her picture. I'm sure that some of you are also readers of this classy periodical (Katie? Sarah?)  and you'll notice that we are about a month or so behind the times.  But since they don't sell US Weekly at the news stand she wasn't about to complain.  And then today the second issue showed up.  Maybe in a few days she'll be up to date with all the juicy celebrity goss.

History's Lessons

Since we can't spend as much time as we'd like just screwing around the country and having fun, I've been trying to learn as much as I can about our new home by reading.  I've read that Australians read more books per capita than any other country and If you ever got on the train in the morning with me you'd know it to be true.  Just about everybody has their face buried in a novel.  I've been no different.  Of course I am a pretty avid reader and I've almost always gone for fiction over more substantive reading. Lately though I've found myself reading a lot of history.  In particular history about Australia. 

We've got a library right above the train station here at Toowong Village that I've been using to get my fix.  I've read a couple of histories of Australia, just to get a feel for the country.  Let's face it, most Americans know little about the Australian history (We'll let's be real, most Americans know little about American History) and if we do know anything it usually ends with the whole "penal colony thing"  

It's true that the first colonies we're primarily populated by convicts but the total number of convicts sent here was dwarfed by the number of voluntary migrants within a few years.  The exception to this was Tasmania (formerly called Van Dieman's land) They sent a lot of prisoners there for quite some time, but that's for another post.  

The point is there is a lot to the founding of a country and now I feel like I have a great reason to find out all I care to know.  It's amazing how reading about the first migrants to Australia makes me feel closer to them. It's doesn't take a huge leap to imagine how lonely the first settlers here were.  I still have moments of painful homesickness even now in the internet age. Back then it took months and months on a ship to sail from England It could be years between letters from family members.

In one history book I read the author mentioned that a lot of people who came here in the first days kept diaries and most of them recorded mundane daily routine.  That sort of struck a chord with me, in that I don't want this blog to become a diary of my mundane daily routine.  I'm sure no one wants to read that. At least you shouldn't want to read that.  Of course I'm going to have mundane routine in my life, I can't avoid the fact that I'm not exactly swimming in piles of gold coins. But I am going to have to do some work to find a focus other than "what did I do today".

If you have any suggestions for things you'd like to hear about, drop a note.

Do I Work In Pee-Wee's Playhouse?

Yep, I finally succumbed to peer pressure and joined Facebook.  I should have done it earlier but I'm lame that way.  I like to be ahead of the curve with technology in some ways and in others I'm still in the stone ages.  Anyway welcome to anyone who may have been directed here from my Facebook page.  I hope you enjoy reading about our lives in Australia.

I told you before about the monster I have created at work in regards to rubber band balls.  I thought I'd show you some evidence today.

That's Kev's friend holding his rubber band ball, as you can see it's as big as her head.  Maybe a little bigger.  As you can tell, we take our work very seriously.  We weighed the thing last week and it was tipping the scales at over 2 kilos.  (about 5lbs)

I told you all yesterday that we had bought a Dragon fruit.  We cut into it tonight and it may be our new favorite.   Here it is before cutting.

You can see it's about the size of a big apple and it kind of looks like a swollen flower.  I'm not even sure how these things grow but I assume they come from a tree.  Cutting into one is kind of shocking as the flesh isn't at all what you'd expect from a bright pink fruit.

 The flesh is white and specked with seeds.  Leah thinks it looks like a poppy seed muffin.  The texture is a lot like a kiwi fruit but it isn't nearly as sour.  Once you've cut into it the skin peels away easily.  The flavor is really mild actually and is only slightly sweet.  We both really enjoyed it.  There is another type of dragon fruit that has red flesh and it's taste is sweeter.  We'll try and find one of those and post some photos another time.  If you ever run across one I definitely recommend you try it. I think these are native of Asia, but I'm pretty sure I've seen them in Mexico or maybe it was Costa Rica.

Oh and one more thing, O almost forgot to mention that today is Groundhogs day.  I tried to tell people at work but they clearly don't get it here.  They have no groundhogs for one thing and another it falls smack in the middle of Summer.  The closest they get is that Bill Murray movie.  Anyway, I hope Punxatawney Phil doesn't see his shadow today so you guys can start to thaw out.  Think warm thoughts.

Feeding The Body and Soul.

I really am a food whore.  And I suppose it's inevitable that one day this blog will turn towards food and never look back.  My grandmother used to tell me I'd be a chef and though it never worked out that way, I really enjoy cooking.  So I was ecstatic this weekend when I found dried pinto beans and black beans at a market.  I know you're thinking that's not a big deal, but these staples of the North American pantry are not so common here.  I couldn't wait to get home and have at them.  And what goes better with a pot of pintos than Pork?  Nada! So for the second time in less than a week I found myself on Sunday the caretaker of a nice sized pork roast slowly braising and making the house smell fabulous for most of the day.  It was glorious. I really am considering opening a taco stall at the weekend markets.

This weekend was pretty uneventful, we did our usual market shopping.  Some key buys include, a Dragon Fruit (more about this one tomorrow), fresh tomatoes (2 kilos for $2) a couple of huge mangoes for $1.50 each and six (6!) pints of strawberries for $2.  Granted we threw out about a third of the strawberries because they were getting moldy, but we cut up and froze the rest.  All told we spent about $40 and felt like we were practically stealing. We are able to save tons of cash on produce if we go to the market and try to not miss it.  Besides, our favorite little Argentinian guy is there and he sells the best empanadas.  One of these days I've got to take some photos.

We went to the movies on Saturday night.  We had both read "The Road" by Cormac Mccarthy and were keen to see the film.  I was a little scared because the book was so moving and I thought they'd have a hard time adapting it.  I was really happy to see that my fears were unfounded, I thought the adaptation was spot on and they did the original work justice.  If you haven't read the book I highly recommend it.  I read the whole thing in one sitting, staying up nearly all night to finish.

I've mentioned that the weather has been really hot lately.  Today broke the cycle, it rained on and off all night and today was cloudy and blustery and rainy all day.  We're getting the bottom edge of a tropical depression or cyclone or some such and it means that the temps have stayed reasonable all day.  I'm loving it.  In fact I'm told we're starting into the rainy season soon and I say bring it on.  The heat is a bit much.

Even though we are busy during the week, we aren't letting that stop us from doing fun stuff on the weekends.  Last week we decided to ride our bikes up to the top of Mt. Coot-Tha.  Apparently Coot-Tha is a bastardization of an Aboriginal word meaning honey.  And though it's not a mountain of the scale that we're used to in Colorado, it still is a pretty imposing presence in Brisbane.

We set off about 8:30 am on a Sunday, and that turns out to be too late to start.  The temps were in the middle 30s. (about 95f) and the sun was very intense.  Leah and her tiny little road bike kicked my butt getting to the top.  I found myself in 1st gear making about 4mph all the way to the top.  It took almost an hour to get up.  When we got to the top, I looked like this:

Laugh if you want, that's what Leah does every time she sees this photo.  In fact in all the time I've known her she's never laughed as hard as she did when she first looked at it.  

I regained what dignity I could muster and managed to enjoy the view for a while.  It was quite nice actually to see Brisbane from above.  We pestered another sightseer into taking our photo.  It was a little hazy but still worth it.  If you look on the right side and see the large blueish looking building there, we live a couple of blocks from that.

After about thirty minutes on top, we set off back to our place.  We decided to take the long way back and around the mountain, figuring it would be downhill all the way home.  Boy was that wrong.

Almost imediately we were heading uphill again and we spent almost another hour climbing.  I was hot before and now I was hot and bothered. 

[ Leah's Interjection: Let's just say when we took off to go the "long" way around I was ahead of Todd and saw another ginormous hill. I knew Todd was not going to be happy, especially since it took quite a bit of convincing on my part that we should give the roundabout way a go. "Todd, come on, were at the top. There's no way there is going to be more hills."  Anyway,  I luckily turned around just in time to witness Todd's look of horror at the brutal hill followed by his favorite 4-lettered curse word, rhymes with truck, echoing off the mountain. Okay, continue] 

Along the way we saw a sign for a waterfall.  The sign promised it was only 500 metres up the track.  I was quick to say let's do it.  I mean, it's hot and a waterfall would be so refreshing.  So we headed off road and onto a hiking track.  The walk was only about a quarter mile so it really didn't take us too long.  But we weren't really prepared for what we were about to see.  I'll let the picture speak for itself.

Note to self, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT WALK OFF TRAIL TO SEE A WATERFALL ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN IF IT HASN'T RAINED IN WEEKS! 

As you can see, it was a bit anticlimactic.  Not exactly what we were expecting but funny none the less.  You can't see that behind me from where I took this photo there was a drop off of about twenty feet, but there was little more than a trickle of water.  I'm sure it would be impressive after a big rain fall, but it just wasn't our day.

Shortly after the waterfall hike, we did finally get the uphill portion over with and the fun of riding downhill made up for all the pain.  We were going over 40mph down the hill and could have gone faster if our nerves would have allowed.  For the record Leah made 43 while I only made 42.  Blerg!

Tomorrow:  Rubber Band Ball Updates!