Hmmm, Hungover again? I'm starting to notice a pattern.

Ok, so perhaps drinking every Wednesday night isn't that great of an idea.  I got up this morning feeling pretty second hand.  The little gnomes in my skull were mining away at the shriveled raisin that was previously my brain and the wouldn't relent.  Note to self: Do not let Kev pour all of your drinks.  Our gathering in three weeks has gone from just me and Kev, to six yesterday. And It looks like we've piqued the interest of a couple more. We've started something here I think.  I really enjoy having an opportunity to hang out with the boys and look forward to it.  I just have to learn to pace myself, I have to remember I'm not on the high altitude drinking team anymore.

I'm not sure if it's just because I'm getting older or because I've been letting myself get a little dehydrated, but lately I've had several cramps in the middle of the night that jerk me straight out of bed.  Last night my calf tightened up and I had to grab my toes and stretch it out.  It took me a while to fall back to sleep and when I finally did, the alarm went off way too early for my liking.

I got to work and the aforementioned Kev was chipper as a chipmunk and  happy to be alive.  Sometimes I hate Kev.  I warned him, (Cue Yoda voice) when 36 years old he gets, avoid hangovers he will not.  HMMMMmm. But I don't think he really believes me.

I'm really starting to notice the days getting shorter lately.  The sun comes up later and sets earlier. By the time I get home now (about 5:45) it's nearly dark. The day's will never get as short as they do in Denver or Chicago but it is noticeable.  The weather has been outstanding lately.  If it stayed this way all year it would be perfect.  The nights are nice and cool but not even close to anything you could call cold.  It's hard to imagine what winter is going to be like here.  I'm sure it will be mild.

That's all I've got for today kiddies.  I'm tired and Kev has the day off tomorrow so I'm sure I'll be busy.  Better hit the sack early and get some rest.  Enjoy Thursday.

Word

Yikes! Just Look at the Time!

Wow time has gotten away from me tonight and it's almost bed time.  Since today is Taco Tuesday I'm happily stuffed and ready for bed.  Leah has a cake in the oven and my mouth is watering a bit, even though there is no reason to be hungry.  It's cake, what can I say?

Yesterday at work the parts department (represent y'all) was presented with brand new ipod's as a reward for winning a national parts sales campaign.  Actually the contest is in two parts and we've won the first, the second reward is a trip to Sydney.  Keep your fingers crossed.  I spent much of the day trying to help my boss and Kev get their new devices up and running, neither one of them have owned one before and I'm the designated pro.

I already have an ipod but this one is different to the one I own in that it has a built in camera and FM radio.  I haven't spent much time listening to the radio here.  We don't own a radio and we don't own a car.  So I haven't been exposed much to talk radio or even the rush hour drive shows here.  I enjoyed it today and look forward to having more of it in my life.  I didn't realize how much that was missing.  There is a built in pedometer in this one so I can get some idea of just how much walking I'm doing.  (a lot)  I don't exactly need it, but hey, I like toys, especially free ones.

Health care reform!  It's pretty big news here, with the general consensus among Australians being "It's about time!"  and though I don't want this to be a political blog, let me say "It's about time!"   And one small thing before you get your feathers ruffled.  When polled 49% of Americans are against the reforms, but the same people, when asked about each individual aspect of the bill, think almost every portion is a good idea.  That says to me that the opposition is doing a good job of pulling the wool over peoples eyes.  And that's the end of my political rant for today.

Tomorrow is my regularly scheduled "Stink and Drink" (props to Doc G for the name) with the guys from work so don't look for a post, but I'll be back on Thursday.  Maybe I'll talk a bit about spiders.

What's A Bracket?

Seriously, you asked, I'm telling.  No one here gives two shits about college basketball.  That's just the way it is. I've seen a couple of games on the tube this weekend, but that's it.  No 24/7 bracket coverage here.  It just doesn't exist.  If I didn't listen to Dan Patrick on podcasts I wouldn't even know it was going on.  (Besides the fifty invites to fill out a bracket I've gotten)  It's sad really.  But here football season has just started so we've got that going for us.

I was looking at the calendar today at work and I've almost been there three months.  It's amazing how time flies!  That would mean we have been here nearly FIVE MONTHS.  Wow, that's a shocker.

So how do I feel about that?  I've been giving it quite a bit of thought lately and I didn't realize I was until Sunday night when we went out with some other internationals from Leah's class.  The truth is I feel pretty good.  Looking back on it now, there was some definite culture shock moving here.  Things are different and in some pretty obvious ways.  The climate, the wildlife, the plants, even the grass is different from Colorado.  We had some moments at first when we wanted to ditch the whole plan and jump on a plane home.  But lately, the strangest thing has happened; it's started to feel like home.  I mean, we still miss our families and friends something fierce, but on a whole the normal times greatly outweigh the times when we feel like aliens.

Take the accent as an example.  I'm so used to it now that I hardly hear it anymore.  Or rather, I actually hear it now in a way I couldn't before.  The first few weeks at work on the phone I was really struggling to understand what people were saying.  Now I rarely have any problems at all.  And it's really rubbing off on both of us.  We use words and phrases now that we didn't even know existed before we moved here.  It's funny how your brain can adapt.

I'm not going to claim that I understand what it must be like to move to a country where you don't speak the language, but I'm more sympathetic to it now.

I had a cold over the weekend.  Actually it started on Thursday and only today did I feel normal.  We kept the weekend antics to a minimum.  We did go next door and I helped Melissa make pasta with her new kitchen aide mixer.  We made a huge batch of fresh noodles and they put us up for a fantastic feed for Sunday lunch.

After that we went to a pub and met most of Leah's class for a birthday celebration.  Someone pointed out to me recently that the blog revolves a lot around drinking but in all actuality we've only been out to an actual bar here three times.  That's three times in five months, and those of you who know us, that's way below our average.  So don't worry about us becoming alcoholics just yet.  That will have to wait until we get back home and the beer is cheaper.

Leah and I were both whinging about not having enough time in the day to get our stuff done, but I'm motivated to write this week and will try and check in every day.  Thanks for sticking with us even when we don't update every day.  We're getting several hundred hits a month and we appreciate it.

I haven't forgotten

I've just been too lazy to post this week.  I'm going to take the rest of the week off and try and come back Monday with some good material.

Football?

Wow, I usually try and keep my hangovers relegated to Fridays and now I remember why.  Today was a killer.
I sat on the front porch at Kev's last night and drank too many beers.  I did manage to get in bed at a relatively normal time but that didn't alleviate the hangover much.   It' was a long day and I'm still tired.

Tomorrow night is the start of the Rugby League season here.  We've got tickets to the Broncos and Cowboys game.  How weird does that sound?  Truthfully I don't know a damn thing about rugby but that didn't stop me from getting into the weekly pool at work.  I pay a dollar a week for the next twenty eight weeks for the privilege of picking winners to win some cash.  I believe I'm going to have to do some research in order to be competitive.  If any of you regular readers have any advice I'd love to hear it. (Read: Daniel, help me out mate!)

We're going to the game with friends and have plans to meet before the game and get a few drinks.  The Stadium is only two train stops away from the house so getting there isn't difficult.  I'm pretty excited to see this game in person and we're both excited to have a group activity plan.  After leaving Denver our social life has become a lot less varied.

I'm going to take the camera with us and try and get some photos of the game.  Hopefully I'll have some interesting stories for ya.

Just a Quickie

Just a quick post today.  Leah is hot to watch Dexter and since I've finally caught up to her we can watch the last two episodes together.  I've been powering through a carton of ice cream while watching Australia's biggest loser, pretending that they can see me eat.  It makes the show that much more interesting.

I've been told that we are now officially in autumn here in Oz.  It pretty much feels like summer at home.  The clouds finally decided to part today and we had a really nice sunny day for the first time in weeks. Everyone tells us we're going to love winter around here.  I'm ready for cooler weather to be honest, but I don't exactly miss the snow.  The locals insist it gets cold here but I'm pretty skeptical.  I have noticed people dressed for fall these last few days and it makes me feel hot.  Even though it's been cooler the temps are still in the high twenties (mid 80's F)  Not exactly sweater weather.

If you haven't done so, you should check the comments from yesterday's post about Thomas losing his tooth.  He really is a sweet boy and it almost made me choke up to hear his concern about not being able to care for a star.  Innocence is precious and we should all try and remember that once in a while.

I may or may not have a post tomorrow, I'm supposed to get drinks after work and between you and me, I could use a few.

The Tooth Fairy Cometh

Yesterday was a big day for our six year old neighbor, Thomas.  He lost his first baby tooth.  He first noticed that it was "wobbly" a few weeks ago and I have been pestering him about it since.  Every time I've seen him I've asked to take a look.  He's been kind of funny about it and I think he doesn't really know how to feel.  We tried to tell him it's a big step towards growing up and I think he liked that.  He was going to leave it in a glass of water for the Tooth Fairy to collect.  I hope he scored.

We had a nice relaxing weekend.  Melissa offered her car to us on Saturday and we took advantage by driving to the Scuba shop and then to Ikea.  The scuba shop we went to was pretty awesome and we got ourselves masks snorkels and fins plus a few sundries.  Leah got a "mask tamer" a neoprene sheath for her mask strap so she doesn't get her hair caught in it.  Every time we've dived her friz-pop has gotten hopelessly tangled to the point of frustration.  It's caused her to have more than one case of annoying leaky mask.  We are pretty happy with the purchases and can't wait to get in the ocean to test them out.  It will probably be a couple of weeks until we do though; we have a busy weekend in Brisbane planned this week.

After a couple of hours at the scuba shop, we went to ikea.  We bought a new printer last week and needed something to perch it on.  We got a cheap bookshelf that works perfectly and also gives her some space to stash her school books.  The School books were starting to take over all the other available shelf space.  As with any trip to Ikea we saw thousands of thingos that we could use but tried to limit ourselves to essentials.  I think we did fairly well, but combined with the gear from earlier it made for an expensive afternoon.

It continues to rain here, though it's more cloudy than rainy.  The sun hasn't been out much at all lately and when it does peek out it just makes it hot and steamy. The humidity is out of control and nothing seems to dry without some help.  The weather forecast for the week looks pretty grim but the upside is the dams (reservoirs) are almost at full capacity and that hasn't happened here in years.

We have definitely decided to up our internet plan.  We can get more than twice the dowload quota for an extra $20 a month and save ourselves the annoyance of super slow internet for more than a week every month.  Besides we need to watch some US television and that uses a lot of data.  Also it's easy to get carried away with Skype and a three hour conversation can burn right through ones allowance.

One note for anyone who is thinking of coming to Australia, to visit us or otherwise, today the prices of flights from Denver are the lowest they have been since we arrived.  Just a little FYI y'all.

Again, as with a few other major events in the US, the Oscars were on here on a Monday morning.  It's just not the same seeing the Best Picture awarded while walking through the break room on the way to take a whiz.  We're not in Kansas anymore.

Lasers

I didn't forget to post yesterday, I ignored it.  After work last night I met Leah at the shops and we bought a new laser printer.  She has been spending tons of money just in printing costs at the uni and we thought it was about time to step up.  We got a nice little printer for just under $100.  The guy at the shop said it was only good for about 15k pages but that should be about right for her for two years.  She has to print out so much stuff from class that she will end up saving about $25-50 per month even after taking into account paper and toner costs.  We had to do it.

It's 6:15am  right now and I'm having my coffee and getting ready to go to work.  I'll be leaving work early today just like last Friday.  I'm owed two more early Fridays this month.  Fridays for Leah are her busiest days.  She is in class until 5:00.n While she's stuck in class this avo (Afternoon, duh.*) I'm going to make my way to the scuba shop and geek out.

*actually Afternoons are avo, rhymes with bravo, and avocados are avo with an "a"sound like in 'ham"

What's up Wednesday?

It rained again most of the day today and it has finally stopped.  Three full days of rain is a little depressing.  Lost is on tonight and I don't have much to write about.

For some reason I really miss my dog today.  

Well that sounds pretty morose.  I'm actually in a pretty good mood, I just have writer's block tonight.  Wednesday is in the books and I'm ready for a weekend already.  We don't have plans to get out of town and are trying to plan some cheap and fun activities.  We have been told about a scuba shop that's supposed to have the widest selection in Queensland and are hoping to check it out on Saturday.  Have I mentioned that all the shops pretty much close at 5:30 pm here.  Thursday's are set aside as "late shopping night" and a lot of stores stay open til 8:00 or so.  Not this shop, however.

We got notice from our landlord that the lease is almost up and we have decided to re-sign for a year.  They are raising our rent by $5 a week.  I don't know why but we figure it's worth it.   I can't imagine trying to find another place to live right now and we are pretty happy here anyway.  We could use a firmer mattress and a stove would be welcome but we can tough it out for another year.  It feels more like home every day.

Happy hump day.

Wet Wet Tuesday

Looking back on the post from yesterday I see I was a little wordy.  I'll try and keep it short today.

I think the scuba bug has really bitten Leah now, when we got home from the island on Sunday she had her head in a scuba magazine for a few hours and was talking about how cool it would be to dive here and there.  I can't tell you how happy this makes me.  We are both longing to dive in crystal clear calm waters.  So far we've had our fill of rough seas and are thinking we'd like to head to Bali or Thailand and check out the dive sites in the magazine.  Sounds nice doesn't it?

There is one other thing Leah wanted me to mention about the dives.  She was the only girl in the group and was looking a little battered sitting on the side of the boat, so the guides put her on the bench in the center and told her to straddle it like a bucking bronco.  It was pretty funny to see her perched up on the bench while all of us guys were out in the water trying to get the boat launched in rough surf . [Leah here: just picture my frizz-pop drowned Fieval face with my chunky booty in wet suit getting thrashed around in a straddle position on a high ledge on a boat]  If you don't understand what Leah just said, don't feel left out.  For those of you who do; What's up besties?

It has done nothing but rain for the last two days here in Brisbane.  Today it didn't even let up at all.  Parts of Queensland are getting more rain in a few days than they normally get in a year.  The news is full of stories about floods and all around bad conditions.  Luckily we are not in danger of flooding at our house, but parts of the city are looking pretty sorry.  The trains are all running late and it's a pain being wet going to work but the cool weather is nice.  The upside for us is we actually have a reason to use a blanket to sleep.  The temp stayed in the low twenties all day and it's really nice to put on a pair of jeans and not sweat your nuts off.  (Sorry to rub it in your face North America)

Leah is back to school this week after a two week break.  I've lost my personal chef and we have to get back to sharing the responsibilities in the kitchen.  It's amazing how quickly I got spoiled by that.  She has also picked up a baby sitting gig for a friend of our neighbor once or twice a week and is going to be starting a job working for a woman who has cerebral palsy on Thursday's and Sunday's.  This is going to be really great on the job experience for her and will be a nice added bit of income for us.  We've got to support our vacation habits somehow.

I got a pretty funny e-mail today from Ben in Denver calling me out for using the "re" ending for words like centre and metre.  All I can say in my defense is, when in Rome...  I hope he doesn't mind but I'm going to share it cause it gave Leah and I a great laugh.  One has to count on their friends to keep them grounded.

Dive "Centre"?  really?

On behalf of America, I hearby announce you a got-dang ferriner.  Have fun in Mexico, ya pinko.

Sincerely,
Ben

Tsunami? For Real?

Guys, I'm not going to lie, I had really high hopes for this weekend.  I was going to take some awesome photos and a lot of video and really wow you all with tales of adventure and excitement.  What I actually did was get really really wet.

The weekend started out promising, I left work about 11:30 and made my way to the train station to meet up with Leah.  I had packed my backpack and taken it to work so I didn't have to waste any precious time going home. We met up at noon and grabbed the train to Cleveland, about an hour train ride south from Brissie.  Once we made Cleveland we hopped the ferry over to North Stradbroke Island. Straddie as the locals call it is one of the so called sand islands along Queensland's coast. The ferry ride was about 30 mins and in that time it started to rain, and it rained a lot.

We had to grab a bus from the ferry landing over to the other side of the Island where we had reserved a campsite.  The campground was just across the road from the dive centre and right on the beach.  Our camping spot was less than a hundred metres from the ocean.  It was fantastic.  By the time we set up our tent it was really looking ominous and we walked up the beach for an hour or two and got some dinner at a fish and chips shop a few kilometers from our camp.  By the time we were done eating the rain started so we popped into a hotel bar and grabbed a jug of beer and sat on the veranda for a while drinking.

We walked back in the rain to our camp and the skies actually cleared for a while. By this time it was dark but the moon was shining brightly so we took our towels out on to the beach and read for a while.  I managed to fall asleep on the beach and we got into our tent about 9:30.

Sometime in the middle of the night it started to rain again. I don't actually mind when it rains at night while we're in the tent.  Our tent is nice and water proof and the sound is quite soothing to me.  I slept like a rock.  I didn't open my eyes until 5:30.

When we crawled out of the tent the skies didn't look very promising, but we were scheduled to dive at 7:15 so we were in good spirits.  We had coffee and an apple for breakfast and walked over to the dive centre.  The dive centre on Straddie is much smaller than the one in Byron Bay but I found it to be comparable in professionalism.  Checking in and gearing up were smooth and we were given a briefing about what to expect and what was expected from us.  While that was happening the skies opened up again and it started to downpour.

The boat launch was a bit of an adventure, the tide was in, the surf was rough and I don't think the guy towing the boat to the beach was very experienced because it took a couple of goes before we were headed out to the dive site.  The ride out was rough as.  The swell was about three metres and just about everyone on the boat was looking green pretty quickly.  The winds were up and we were all being pummeled with spray as we mad the 3 or 4 k out to the site.  When we finally dropped anchor half the people on the boat were puking.

Even Leah who is a confirmed non-seasicker was looking pretty rough.  I felt pretty crook (love that term) but managed to keep from puking.  Even one of our guides had too much and was leaning over the side of the boat feeding the fish.  It was a barf-a-rama.

Our dive site was the Turtle Caves area of flat rock.  Click this link to read more about it.

We geared up with the boat bobbing and it was a little nerve wracking but we got it done.  Once we were geared up we did a back entry over the side and started down.  What a difference under the boat!  Once we were under all sea sickness slipped right away and everything was peaceful.  I was shocked that the visibility was as good as it was.  We could see about 10-15 metres.  We made our way down the anchor line and almost immediately we saw an enormous shark.  Leah's eyes almost popped out of her head.  It was a grey nurse shark and not interested in us at all but it was really cool.  The guide told us later it was a female and most certainly pregnant.  Grey nurse sharks are really rare to see around here this time of year and our guides were super excited that she was there.  The picture on the flat rock page from before is a grey nurse. We saw her make several laps of the area and was never more than a few metres away the whole time we were down.  After that we saw tons and tons of other fish.  Our guide motioned us over to a rock over hang and signaled for us to take a look under it.  There was a big hawk billed sea turtle under there and he swam out and right past us.  I swam right along with him for about ten metres and I could tell he was checking me out just as much as I was checking him out.  That for me was the highlight.

We had our deepest dive to date on this one.  We bottomed out at 24.9 metres.  (thats 81.5 feet)  It's thrilling to be that deep and scary in a good way.  We're not allowed to go any deeper without more certification.  I'll be working on that, but Leah is a little more hesitant.

We had about thirty minutes of bottom time and when our air was 3/4 gone we headed for the top.  Getting in the boat is pretty easy.  You hand your weighs over to the guide on the boat and get out of your vest and fins and climb right it.  It is so easy to gloat on the surface wearing a wet suit.  Your buoyant in the salt water anyway but add a 5mm wet suit and you almost cant sink.  The water was warm and felt great.  We were surprised to find out it had started pissing rain again and it rained hard for ten minutes after we got into the boat.  We had about an hour of time between dives and they provided us with some gummi worms and soup. It sounds weird but a little sugar in your stomach when you're feeling sea sick really makes a difference. We both passed on the soup though.

Our next dive was a couple of kilometres closer to the island at an area called Shag Rock.  It wasn't as deep but the water was a little less rough.  We got in and spent nearly 40 minutes bottom time and saw a bunch of Wobbegong sharks and a really cool Leopard Shark.

Once we were done we headed back to the dive centre and were done by noon.  We had our dive logs signed off and stamped and we made our way to lunch. We hit up this sort of questionable looking servo (petrol station) that was recommended for their great burgers. Sure enough the burgers were out of control.  We were both ravenous.  I had the "Straddie" burger and it was a masterpiece.  It had a pineapple ring, cheese, bacon, a fried egg, beetroot lettuce tomato onion and bbq sauce.  Seriously good.

After that we spent the day walking, we wanted to go a couple of miles and check out some of the headlands rocks that we had heard about, but it wouldn't stop raining and eventually it was a major downpour and really not fun anymore.  We stopped at a bottle-o (liquor store, god I love the Aussie language) and got a six pack of bourbon and ginger ale pre mixed in cans.  I didn't know these existed before this weekend and I might have a new favorite.

We went back to the campsite still soaked and got ourselves a hot shower.  Then we sat under a pavilion and made dinner.  It rained hard as for a while and we read to each other to stay entertained.  We hit the sack about nine pm again and hoped that the clouds would part in the morning.  Aside from the scuba we hadn't even gotten in the ocean.

We both slept like stones and woke up to a sunny day for the first time.  We made a cup of coffee and were deciding which beach to go to when the surf patrol came running up to us and told us there was a tsunami warning and they were closing all the beaches.  He said we had better get out quickly as where we were camped would surely be swept away if it hit.  Needless to say we got our shit together and were packed up as quick as.  I think we set some kind of record.

So we got an early ferry and made our way back to Brisbane and were home right about noon.   A pretty busy weekend cut short, thankfully it wasn't tragic.

One more thing.  With all the rain we didn't make any videos or take many pictures at all.  In fact I think I only took five pictures total all weekend. Here's the best one looking out over Cylinder Beach.