Our life in Dalby

good bye to the Locals...

2010-01-24T18:16:00.003+10:00

They put on quite a show for us...

wallabyes, and the great red kangas...

so cool!

Ya, I'm a cheap date!

Beer box

2009-12-17T07:35:00.004+10:00

I was about to trash the beer box from Ed's farewell party when I happened to read the story on the side of it.

I had to share.

Christmas flip flops?

2009-12-01T09:50:00.002+10:00

where else but here!!

anybody need a pair???

Birds, Birds and more Birds!

2009-12-01T09:45:00.001+10:00

Surfers Paradise

2009-11-27T06:05:00.004+10:00

We spent last weekend at Surfers Paradise. What we did not realize was that it was Schoolies week. That's the week after high school graduation where all of the 17 and 18 year old head to the beach for a week. 28,000 of them. Plus the legal drinking age here is 18... so lots of beverage consumed. Lots of girlie screaming. Not exactly the quiet weekend that we were hoping for!

2009-11-27T05:47:00.002+10:00

We celebrated American Thanksgiving at John and Angela Davis's house last night.

Had a great time. We could have fed another 50 people w/the leftovers! :)

FIJI III

2009-11-19T08:25:00.003+10:00

We spent 8 days in Fiji recently. the first 3 nights on Denerau, the last 4 nights at Likuliku Lagoon resort.

This time we had an over-the-water bure. It has plexiglass in the floor and was built right on top of the coral reef. amazing...

I've included pics of the view from our bath tub, the walkway to the bure, a sunset and a few others. I took almost 400 pictures on this trip so some day you might get to be bored by all of them!!!

The beauty of this place continues to amaze and thrill me!

Denerau Golf and Raquet Club

2009-11-19T08:12:00.002+10:00

We play 18 holes of golf here. The 15th hole was beautiful. It's the one w/the view of the sea!

You had to avoid coconuts w/the cart. The puddle in the middle of the sand trap is exactly where Frank's ball landed. And of course, I could not resist snapping the picture of the banana tree! The biggest treat (other than the beer guy being very available) was the lady that brought frozen rolled up face cloths about 1/2 way through... it was a very hot day.

Fiji Fire Show

2009-11-19T06:08:00.002+10:00

Watched this show the one night at the hilton on Denerau Island. It was much cooler than the pictures!

Birds, Birds and more Birds!

2009-11-19T05:36:00.004+10:00

I've been feeding the birds again...

however, they are now on a diet!

it was costing me a fortune!

These are sulfur crested cockat00s.

Last night's storm

2009-11-19T04:39:00.002+10:00

Wow, it was a dandy... rain and wind and lightening and hail and NO POWER!

If you want to feel old and slow, try taking pictures of lightening!

Frank's pet lizard

2009-10-22T09:53:00.004+10:00

This guy live outside of Frank's office window. The guys have been told to stay away from him, that he's not nice. :)

To me, he looks like a snake w/legs...

close enough for me not to like him!

Sping flowers

2009-10-04T06:30:00.005+10:00

They do have some very unusual flowers here and despite how dry it is, they are all in bloom!

Art (?) festival

2009-10-04T06:25:00.003+10:00

We attended what was supposed to be the "largest art show in the area" yesterday.

it turned out to be a craft show where the one pub in the town was the most popular place!

they were busy cooking when we were there. The large pots are beef stew... it appeared to me as though they had enough to feed an army!

Dust storm sunsets

2009-10-04T06:10:00.003+10:00

The dust is not good for much, but it has made some interesting sunsets!

MG gathering

2009-10-04T06:04:00.003+10:00

Last weekend there was a gathering of people that have MG's here in town. I had only ever seen one actually driving in town, but obviously there are a lot more around.

When I went to the grocery last Sunday, these were parked just a block from our house!

Plz notice that the white one, in the closeup, has 3 wipers!

Red Dust storm...

2009-09-23T10:48:00.005+10:00

The pictures will tell the story. Plz keep in mind, that they were taken at 10AM.

This was just about the strangest thing that I've ever encountered.

People here did not seem to think too much about it as they were out and about as though it was a normal day.

I'm guessing that the neighbor's laundry will need re-done.

Mount Glorious

2009-09-07T06:21:00.003+10:00

We took a different route on the way home from the coast and came over the top of Mt. Glorious.

It was a very relaxing drive and as it was father's day here, there was little traffic.

Surfers

2009-09-07T06:13:00.004+10:00

Despite the morning's clouds, the surfers were out. Seems that this time of year, the surfing is best early mornings.

The Beach at Coolum

2009-09-07T06:07:00.002+10:00

Please note that we are just wading. This was the first weekend of spring and the water was quite cold! The surfers were all in full wetsuits!

Coolum Beach

2009-09-07T05:55:00.003+10:00

We went to Coolum Beach for the weekend. It is on the sunshine coast (north of Brisbane).

Since neither of us are surfer's, it was a nice relaxing weekend. All of the accomations there were apartments. I think that I'm more partial to RESORTS!

More party pics

2009-08-31T09:13:00.001+10:00

BBQ at our House

2009-08-31T09:02:00.003+10:00

We had a bbq at our house on Saturday. Fajitas, homemade salsa, chips and sponge cake w/whipped cream and fresh strawberries!

Kookaburra

2009-08-31T07:58:00.002+10:00

This guy was also posing at the park yesterday.

So cute

2009-08-31T07:50:00.002+10:00

I know that I have put pictures of Wallabies in here before, but this momma and her little one were so cute, that I could not resist sharing.

She was hiding in some long grass and shrubs at Bunya Mountain park yesterday.

I got about 10' from her. At one point, she was not sure that she appreciated me and tried to hide the little one. The little one did not appreciate it much and poked it's head out anyway.

Blooming Queensland

2009-08-31T07:39:00.003+10:00

We are just a few days from spring. Despite the lack of rain recently, everything is in bloom. I snapped these pictures on our trip through the mountains yesterday.

One pub town

2009-08-31T07:36:00.002+10:00

At our party on Saturday, a local referred to a nearby town as a one pub town.

On our drive through the mountains yesterday, we actually found one!!!

It appeared to be the ONLY business in the town.

Another birthday has come and gone!

2009-08-27T06:12:00.002+10:00

I had a great birthday. The weather was perfect... the dinner, prepared by Sheryl and Dan was excellent!
The best gift of all was that of being w/good friends!

(maybe I'll even get back to posting a few pictures soon!)

Back in Dalby

2009-08-24T07:47:00.002+10:00

We left Vancouver at 9PM Friday night and arrived Brisbane early morning on Sunday.
Flights were pretty much uneventful (which is a very good thing).

We came back to a lovely day of 33 degrees C and not a cloud in the sky. Summer is on the way...

Winter horse races

2009-07-21T06:55:00.003+10:00

Saturday after lunch we attended the horse races. It was quite a change from the summer races as there was not much of a crowd and it seemed that nearly everyone was wearing black, instead of all of the colorful outfits that we'd seen at other races. It looked more like a funeral.

We bet the first race, our horse was LAST.

We bet the second race, our horse was next to LAST.

We gave up and left!!!

Dan's new friend

2009-07-21T06:49:00.003+10:00

Things here can get a bit boring at times. Saturday, after the races and b/f the cancer benefit that we were attending, we stopped back at our house for a beer.

Dan made friends w/this guy. The bird was very brave and really seemed to like the salt and vinegar chips soaked in beer.

Winter golf

2009-07-21T06:42:00.002+10:00

It is the middle of winter here. Please notice the somewhat green grass...

and NO SNOW...plus the lack of parkas.

The guys were off on Sunday and we played 9 holes in the afternoon. It's members only until 2pm.

Bell Queensland Camel Races

2009-07-12T05:59:00.003+10:00

Most of these need no explaination... other than some of the locals did dress as Arabs!

It was mainly informal and fun. There was betting on the races but we did not win. They lead them down to the starting area and turn them around and let go.

The races would start when the first camel took off. In the one race, our camel was still facing the wrong way when the race started. We knew that we were in trouble!

More of the Jimbour house

2009-07-12T05:49:00.003+10:00

Included in these are the house from various angles and the gardens and the last is the sign on the Tennis court fence. and yes, that's cotton growing in the garden.

Jimbour house

2009-07-12T05:38:00.002+10:00

Yesterday after the Camel races we went to a local attraction called the Jimbour house and winery. It's a beautiful HUGE home that was built between 1874-1876. The gardens are lovely and it includes a pool, tennis courts, private airport, stables, chapel and even it's own water tower. The wines were pretty ho hum for my taste, but the house and garden was so worth the trip. Pictured here are the water tower, the chapel, the drive to the house w/Dan, Sheryl and Frank and Frank and I posing in front of one of the unusual trees.

Australian Babies

2009-07-04T05:58:00.003+10:00

I went to the grocery yesterday and just outside of the door were these people that asked if I wanted to buy a raffle ticket. Each lady was holding a blanket wrapped baby. I asked if I could win one of the babies... they laughed and said no, that what you would win was 50 scratch off lottery tickets. I purchased the tickets anyway... and they allowed me to hold the babies and take pictures. The larger of the 2 is a Grey Kangaroo, the smaller is a red-necked Wallaby. They were so cute and cuddly. Their moms were killed in traffic accidents and they will be turned back into the wild when they are about 18 months old.

Muddy river

2009-06-29T06:36:00.002+10:00

The Myall River runs through Dalby. It does not look like this b/c of all the rain. it ALWAYS looks like this! So gross...I feel sorry for the ducks that live here.

Kangaroo hunting

2009-06-29T06:10:00.003+10:00

Frank and Dan were off on Saturday, so we headed out to Broadwater Lake where there have been a lot of Kangaroo sightings lately. We hit the jackpot and saw lots. Luckily we had the Ute, b/c had we been in the car, we'd still be stuck in the yuck caused by 3 days of rain!

Sorry...

2009-06-25T06:23:00.004+10:00

I just had to share.

But last night's sunset was AMAZING. It looked like the sky was exploding w/color.

The clouds were blurred... if you notice, the trees are in focus.

Father's day dinner

2009-06-22T10:02:00.006+10:00

Sheryl and I created a dinner yesterday for the fathers that are here.

The guys got off of work early (only worked 8 hours) so we even had some time to relax b/f dinner.

Kangaroos

2009-06-22T09:54:00.003+10:00

Tim and Shane went to Broadwater Lake at Sunset on Saturday and got these wonderful pictures.

We see a lot more wallabies than we do kangaroos. They said that there were probably 100.

Our Fearless Leader

2009-06-16T05:52:00.003+10:00

This is Tim... obviously, he did not take the golf totally serious! He donned Lee's mullet wig for the occasion.

2009-06-16T05:43:00.002+10:00

We played golf w/the start up crew on Sunday. We traveled to Toowoomba, which is in the mountains. It proved to be a little more rugged than most of us were used to. About 1/2 had never played before! Most of us went out for dinner afterwards.

BBQ and Texas Hold 'em

2009-06-15T17:46:00.003+10:00

We hosted a "start up" BBQ and poker party on Saturday. There were 20 people here at one point!

I cannot resist a beautiful sunset

2009-06-10T07:04:00.002+10:00

Especially in Fiji, where they always seem to be spectacular.

Climbing the mountain to the other side of the Island

2009-06-10T06:01:00.002+10:00

We decided to climb the mountain to the other side of the island. There is another resort there.

There is NOT much of a path and we were both in flip flops. We did manage to pull it off (w/o injury) and enjoyed the views from the top. We had a beer at the other resort, then took a boat back to our place. The 2 middle pictures are the view of our side of the island and the last is the view of the other side.

Green Coconuts

2009-06-10T05:52:00.002+10:00

There are a lot of coconut trees on the resort. They keep the coconuts cut off of the trees that are near bures and walkways. This staff member was busy cutting down coconuts and offered to clean one for me so that I could drink the milk. Obviously Frank was not so sure about doing it...He did try it eventually!

Back to Likuliku Lagoon Resort, Malolo Island, Fiji

2009-06-10T05:45:00.002+10:00

After a quick phone call to arrange a room and transportation to the other island, we were aboard a speed boat and on our way back to the resort where we stayed the last time that we were in Fiji. Once again, everything was perfect. The staff welcomed us back w/hugs and cheeky kisses...They all remembered our names, which did make us feel right at home. Simon (lighting the torches) and Al (our favorite bartender) posed for pictures!

Fiji resort and spa, Denerau Island

2009-06-08T18:02:00.004+10:00

Our trip this time was supposed to be on the main island, where the Nadi (pronounced nan-dee) International Airport is located. We felt that since we had less time, we would stay closer to the airport. The suite was very nice, but from the get-go, we had some issues. Frank needed to do payroll and the internet was not functional. I was trying to unpack and could not find anywhere for folded clothes, so when i saw the 2x3 foot door in the bathroom wall, I thought maybe i'd found it. I pulled on the knob and the door FELL out of the wall, striking my head. in an effort to duck, I threw my right elbow forward. It hit the elbow (cutting and bruising it) and continued on to the floor, crashing into and breaking the toilet on the way down. The door, turned out to be a metal framed, concrete filled, tile covered, to cover the on demand water heater. Frank said it weighted at least 50 pounds.

Frank called the manager, he called the local physician...He said I'd live so we changed rooms (to one w/o a broken toilet)... and the next morning (internet still not working) we moved out. It also did not help, that I had an AWFUL headache and the next door neighbors had a screaming 2 year old. Today Frank filled out a review of the hilton, sent to him by hilton... he told me that he wasn't very nice.

Crested pigeons

2009-06-02T08:15:00.002+10:00

When they show up (like always!), the other birds chase them away, even though the other birds are much smaller. Then when the other birds leave, they are so busy fighting and showing off their tail feathers, again, they get little to eat! They are so DUMB!!

This morning's visitors

2009-06-02T07:13:00.004+10:00

These 2 come around about once a day.

They are easily frightened so getting their picture is always tough.

Sunrises

2009-06-02T07:06:00.004+10:00

They are equally as beautiful as the sunset, however they are usually pinks and purples, rather than the gold of the sunsets.

sunset again

2009-06-02T07:00:00.006+10:00

This time of year, they are so gold. Somehow I just cannot resist taking a few shots!

Fiji again

2009-06-02T06:25:00.002+10:00

We are leaving for Fiji again, first thing tomorrow morning. Will likely not be around much until after the weekend. :)

Bats

2009-06-02T05:59:00.004+10:00

Not all of the birds here are beautiful, in fact, there is a flock of HUGE bats that live just about 2 blocks from here. (there are 100's of them)They were just arriving back home yesterday morning when we were on our bike ride. The wing span on most of them if over 2 feet!!!

OK, so i'm way too easily amused!

2009-05-25T07:47:00.001+10:00

I think this speaks for itself!

Turbine

2009-05-25T07:46:00.003+10:00

It was still crated, but they had several little ports cut into the wooden crate. I thought it was a cool picture.

Loto

2009-05-25T07:44:00.004+10:00

Lock out Tag out... has been a huge issue here. after seeing this panel, I can see why it might be a problem.

More pictures of the plant

2009-05-25T07:38:00.002+10:00

More pictures of the plant

2009-05-25T07:29:00.002+10:00

Darling Downs Power Plant

2009-05-25T07:20:00.003+10:00

Yesterday, b/c it was Sunday and after 2:30 there was no on-site construction, we were allow to tour the plant. It is so huge.

The steel-toed boots, hard hats, hi-visibility shirt and safetly glasses were quite the fashion statement.

Parrots

2009-05-25T07:08:00.003+10:00

I now have a pair of beautiful parrots that frequent my seed block...

More birthday party pics

2009-05-10T10:38:00.003+10:00

Presents, friends, smiles and even a game of quarter bounce at Lee and Dierdra's house afterwards.

Darcie's birthday/lawn bowling party

2009-05-10T10:27:00.002+10:00

Derek reserved the local lawn bowling club for Darcie's surprise birthday party and BBQ. None of us had done it b/f, but we all had a great time. The guy w/the awful face is trying his first jello shot... how did he make it through 4 years of college w/o experiencing this?

May Picnic Race day

2009-05-05T06:38:00.004+10:00

Ok, so not everyone took it seriously!!!

We had a great time.

Race day again

2009-05-05T06:19:00.001+10:00

They really dress up!

May Picnic race day

2009-05-05T05:57:00.002+10:00

Hats, hats, everywhere.

Men and women alike.

More to follow.

Life goes on...

2009-04-28T06:17:00.002+10:00

Things here have not changed much, other than the mornings are getting a bit chilly as we get further into fall. We are very settled in the new house at this point.

I did plan a great dinner to do on the bbq last night, forgetting that this weekend, we ran out of propane. Revamped and did it inside. Will get fuel today.

We are gearing up for the arrival of 2 more staff in 2 weeks.

Other than that, pretty "normal"...

I finally did it!

2009-04-22T06:53:00.005+10:00

I have had this wild bird seed block out since we moved (3 weeks ago today) trying to attract these birds.

Success this morning. I had 3 pair eating...they are so beautiful... bright green, blue, yellow and red. If you double click on the picture to enlarge it, you will get a better view. I did not want to get too close and startle them.

The hat, the water rack and the mouse story

2009-04-22T06:37:00.002+10:00

We went out in the garage this morning to wait for the guy"s ride to work.

I saw that there was mouse poo on the grocery bag (it came out of the rental car that left us yesterday) that appears in the picture under my hat.

I picked up the hat to see a mouse still there. He jumped at me, landed in my hat that was up-side-down in my hand... I screamed, dropped the hat, (it landed just as i was holding it) and the mouse continued to run laps in my favorite hat.

Ya I screamed. I'm not afraid of mice, but at 5am, I'm not in the mood for them.

Will take some more aggressive measures to cut down on the mouse population today.

Just havin' way too much fun here. ok, so maybe not!

Another sunset

2009-04-21T16:00:00.002+10:00

We attended a cookout just outside of town on Saturday night.

The sunset was very nice. I had to share.

It's my bicycle

2009-04-21T15:32:00.003+10:00

He doesn't seem to care!

I explained it to him as I nicely put him out in the lawn.

A new car?

2009-04-21T11:58:00.003+10:00

The brakes have been having issues for the past 4 or 5 days so yesterday I took it up and had it checked. They told me that there was nothing wrong w/them. ok fine... frank called and asked them to just bring us a different car. They just delivered this. Bird shit all over it, ants crawling on all of the door gaskets (inside) and tree sap and debris all over it.

I promptly backed it out of the garage and onto the drive, where it will stay. I will NOT drive it.

I have been the ONLY one to keep our rental car clean and washed. So today they take my clean one and leave this. When was the last time that you had a rental car that looked like this?

ya, i'm pissed off! only advantage to this is that now I'm not going to worry about running my errands today. I have nothing on my list as of 10 minutes ago! It can all wait until this is dealt with.

Address mess-The Resolution

2009-04-19T07:36:00.002+10:00

What a week...
When I got the e-mail from the county council telling me that nothing could be done unless the owner got involved, I shot an email to the owner and he immediately wrote to the council.
We have an official address and on the right street...

we are now: 2A St. Andrews Chase., Dalby, QLD.

something so simple should not be so exhausting.

It's Sunday, Frank is working, nothing else terribly new...
Another engineer arriving today from Saskatoon.
Another in 3 weeks and one more the week after that.
So busy...

Address Mess, part 2

2009-04-16T06:13:00.003+10:00

Well, everyone but the town council agrees on our address...
they appear unwilling to budge. They said that they would need a request from the owner.
He did that this morning.

They said that we could move the mail box... ok it's a 3 ft. wide x 15 in. deep x 38 in. high, brick gizzy w/the mail box inserted in the center of it. and it's on a concrete pad...
not likely that anyone is going to agree to moving it.

So, despite the fact that the developer, the builder, the owner and Australia post all agree, the city gets to overrule them all. Hopefully the letter from the owner will help.

This is all just dumbass.

Easter

2009-04-13T10:07:00.002+10:00

Easter has come and gone, even though today is Easter Monday and considered a holiday, so nothing is open again today...

We had an Easter supper at Derek and Darcie's house on Saturday eve that was very nice.

I cooked yesterday and we had a quiet dinner w/just the 2 of us. Frank is having exactly what we had last night in his lunch today, as we had way too many leftovers! He did take yesterday off and took advantage of it by sleeping in!!!

The weather's yucky... cloudy and damp... no real rain today but it's due in later. cool enough for jeans and a hoodie. I also dusted off a pair of socks! not my favorite weather.

Many discussions later...

2009-04-09T11:47:00.003+10:00

They (county and post office) have determined that we are in fact, St. Andrew's Chase
Now, what house number on St. Andrew's Chase is still to be determined. 2 is right beside us, then 4, 6, etc. odd coming back the other side of the street... So the lady suggested 2A, I thought that sounded like a mobile home...I suggested double 0...

Apparenty when they layed out the addition, the intention was to build the house toward Glen Eagles. I am not sure why anyone would do that, when if you face it toward St. Andrew's it faces the fairway on the golf club. BUT, the one across Glen Eagles from us does face Glen Eagles, not the golf club...their patio does face the golf club, BUT there is a 6' fence, so it doesn't matter.

Our "postie" had our mail, but could not find the house. SHOCKER.
oh well, still waiting to hear the final word on what our house number will be and for the owner's to visit, as they built this house w/o ever seeing it!

Address Mess

2009-04-09T05:44:00.002+10:00

When we moved, the leasing agent told us that our new address is 18 Glen Eagles Drive.
I paid $66 to have our mail transferred to that address. Now we find out, that actually, our address is 18 St. Andrews Chase. We are on the corner of the 2 streets, but face St. Andrews.
The builder believes that our address is St. Andrews. The city believes that our address is Glen Eagles...
In the mean time, we are getting NO mail at all. Basically the leasing agent told me that it's my responsibility to straighten this out. Excuse me? I'm not the builder, I'm not the home owner... like the city is going to listen to me.
If the address is St. Andrews Chase, do I have to pay another $66 to move the mail again?
And where is our mail from the past 2 weeks? We are not even getting the flyers that arrive twice weekly. No one knows that we are here.
and of course, EVERYTHING is closed Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday for Easter!

Whitney's award

2009-04-06T08:01:00.005+10:00

My grandaughter Whitney, won an art award for her picture that you can see here. The awards were presented today at the Fort Wayne, IN children's zoo. In the last picture she is w/her auntie Val and sister Katie. She must have finally relaxed, as she is attempting a smile!!! (she is in grade 1)

I am a very proud Grammy.

SO green here

2009-04-05T08:11:00.001+10:00

That even the church has florescent light bulbs! Somehow, that just doesn't seem right!

Thursday morning

2009-04-02T11:21:00.003+10:00

It's Thursday morning here. The weather is iffy at best. It is extremely windy and raining off and on, plus the power and internet have been out. One of the bright spots in my day was this lovely rainbow...

Monday morning

2009-03-30T05:44:00.002+10:00

It's Monday here and the sun is just starting to come up. The weather is perfect right now. Sunny warm days and evenings and nights that are cool enough to turn off the A/C.

We are very well settled into the new house. It does seem like home.

I am so much more relaxed!!! Life is good.

Finally, the NEW HOUSE!

2009-03-27T12:30:00.003+10:00

This is it! Also is the view of the fairway that is right out the front door. It's not a very busy country club, so it's very quiet here. Loving every minute of it!

More new house

2009-03-27T12:27:00.003+10:00

Pictured are the laundry room, the main bath (-toilet that's in a different room next door) and the LONG hall from one end of the house to the other!

more new house

2009-03-27T12:23:00.003+10:00

These are the main living areas.

The lounge, the kitchen, the dining room and the huge covered patio.

Bedrooms

2009-03-27T12:18:00.002+10:00

These are the bedrooms.

Master w/master bath, office, guest room and ironing room!

EXHAUSTED

2009-03-26T15:23:00.003+10:00

The move went pretty well, especially we did not officially get the keys until noon yesterday.
By 6, furniture and appliances were delivered and in place and the rest of the stuff was hauled from the other house. Luckily it was just three blocks b/c a lot of it was just thrown on the back seat or in the trunk of the cars.

Frank was tied up in meetings, so he sent Lee and Derek in to help me.

This morning, I stuck a small load of prints in the washer and headed to the way other end of the house to work on the master closet! I hear the washer beep (done) an hour later and went to put the stuff on the line. I got 1/2 way down the hall on the other side of the lounge and hit water...
lots and lots of water...
the closer that I got to the utility, the more water there was. (I 1/2 inches deep in the laundry room)
apparently the guy that installed the washer screwed up the drain.
The laundry room, the family bath, the loo (toilet room), 2 halls and one bedroom were all wet...
I grabbed every towel in the house (and one cotton blanket) and threw them around to try and soak up what I could. ( I have no mop!)
got it done, the plumber came and also fixed the leaking dishwasher connection... and i started washing towels. I then had 6 loads of laundry to do, instead of the 2 I started out to do.
Still had to finish the shopping for household items today, as the bill is due in tomorrow.
Have not managed a meal yet (it's 3:30PM), think I may pass on the food and take a nappy.
I have to be careful using that word here (nappy) as that's what they call diapers!!!
Pictures of the new house are going to have to wait, sorry.

MOVING

2009-03-25T06:58:00.001+10:00

We are moving, the new house was lovely.
so much to do...
will write and post pics of the new house later!!!

New House

2009-03-24T09:24:00.002+10:00

Going at 10am to look at another house. BRAND NEW!!!
appears to be much larger than this one but built by a reputable builder!
I peeked in the windows yesterday and it looks lovely.

Drove by 4 others this am that are already leased to the company that our contract is w/.
quickly ruled out all 4.
long story short, the first was old, not-so-niceville neighborhood, bars on all of the windows, carport, no garage.
2, 3 and 4... all identical, all three built on one lot, 3 deep!
entire front yards were blacktop to allow access to all three houses. no porches, no decks.
views from the bedrooms were the neighbor's bedrooms. single car garage, that i'm not even sure that you could make the corner to get the car in. Nowhere for any guests to park. small kitchens, no pantry, few cupboards.

hopefully the one I'm looking at this morning will be PERFECT...
ok, so maybe perfect is not necessary.
bug and pest free would work. (and at least 2 air conditioners!)

More Critters

2009-03-23T08:56:00.002+10:00

The bad thing is that we now have at least one mouse in the garage...they do not have gaskets around the garage doors here. I could fit my hand through the existing crack when the door is down.
the good thing (I think) is that if there is a mouse surviving in the garage, that likely the snake is not around...

I've still added mouse traps to my shopping list for today.

Church (and more critters)

2009-03-23T05:27:00.002+10:00

I attended St. Mark's Lutheran Church yesterday. It was a full house. The sermon was about when Moses and the Isrealites were in the desert and they were complaining about the lack of food and God sent deadly snakes to bite them. GREAT! (Leave it to a guy, not to ask directions in 40 years!!!)

I will never complain about the food here again.

We had gone out for a coffee last night (when Frank got home from work) and when we got home, we did not close the garage door as it was a cool evening and we figured that the snakes were already in hiding. I went out to close the door at bedtime and found a little green froggie in there. I have a flyswatter shaped like a hand and was using it to bump him in the bum to encourage him to get out b/f I closed then door when out of the corner of my eye, I saw something running...
It was a baseball (at least) sized spider...He got out the door and hid b/f I had the chance to smack him.
The bug guy is due Tuesday. It can't come too soon!!!

Saturday down under

2009-03-21T13:18:00.002+10:00

Absolutely NOTHING is new.

Luckily that means few bugs and no sign of the snake...

Frank is working all weekend.

that's the update, sorry.

No Power, AGAIN

2009-03-20T06:36:00.003+10:00

We woke again this (at 4am) morning, to no power! They shut off power to the whole town to do repairs! Such fun. It's still really dark outside at that hour. Luckily we use the alarm on the cell phone. BUT NO COFFEE!!! We do have a gas cooktop and managed to heat some water for tea. (of course we had to light it as it's electronic ignition). Warmed a pan of water for Frank to get ready for work, as the on demand water heater is also electrically started. Since the outage last week, I have purchased candles and more batteries for the torch (flashlight). We managed pretty well...
Frank was ready for work on time, Derek was here on time... Lee had to be wakened.
Heaven only knows what Frank has in his lunch cooler, as I packed by candlelight!

PS, no sign of the snake YET!

The Snake

2009-03-19T05:41:00.002+10:00

The gardener was here yesterday. He said it was most def. a brown snake and that it's the largest that he's ever seen. AND that he (the snake) will be back! Gave me his cell phone number and said to call if we see him again.
That I should stay away... (like that's a problem)
I'm still a wreck over it!

World's most deadly snakes!

2009-03-18T05:59:00.003+10:00

Number 3The Australian Brown Snake
As the name suggests, the Australian brown snake is native to Australia. Even a baby brown snake has enough venom to kill a human. One fact about Australian brown snakes is that out of the three thousand snakebites in Australia each year, half are Australian brown snake bites. Another strange fact is that less than half of the bites contain venom- the rest are ‘dry bites’ which means that they don’t contain venom. Either way, it wouldn’t be a good experience!

there was a picture of the snake in this article, no doubt at all that this is the type of snake that we had in the garage last night...
shit!

The rest of the story...Last night b/f trying to deal w/the snake we called:
the local police, they do not do snakes.
The local fire department does not do snakes.
The wildlife protection people (the number the police gave me) do not have anyone in Dalby. (should i be surprised about that one?)
The guys could not remember the name of the guy at the jobsite that is the snake handler.
(it is on Frank's list to get his name and number today)
The loop was where he was STUCK under one of the rollers of the garage door. Moving the garage door meant freeing him. I did not like that idea what-so-ever. Once we did it, (i lost the vote) he wrapped himself around the iron work of the garage track. We tried throwing things at him (plastic kitchen utensils) and shooting him w/water from the hose... (a 45 was my choice, but sadly not available)...it was finally a swiffer floor cleaner, attached to a broom, to give Derek almost 10' of reach that got him out of the garage!

THE SNAKE

2009-03-18T04:33:00.005+10:00

I was taking a small bag of trash out to the hopper, just b/f Frank got home from work.

I saw what appeared to be a loop of rope hanging down from the garage

door track and I wondered what a loop of rope had to do w/the garage door working. I bit closer look made me quickly realize that it was NOT a rope... but that same snake (or one that looks just like him) that had peered under the fence a couple of weeks ago. The lawn guy had told me that they are territorial...and that if we saw him once, that likely we would see him again.

The snake lived through the process of getting him out of the garage track... (under my protest). There were 6 of us... ok, Derek did the work and the rest of us offered pretty worthless suggestions! He was coiled up under the trash bin last night...i'm not looking this morning.

Oh ya, he was just about 5' long...

The village in Fiji

2009-03-16T14:39:00.002+10:00

We visited one of the two villages on the island when we were there.

It reminded both of us of central Mexico. The kids were adorable!!!

more flowers

2009-03-16T14:22:00.001+10:00

Flowers in Fiji

2009-03-16T14:10:00.003+10:00

Anyone that has been around me when I have my camera in hand, knows that I cannot resist flowers or kids...

so here goes!

Off to the Races

2009-03-16T13:44:00.003+10:00

We went to the Dalby horse races on Saturday afternoon. Frank had worked late, so we just got there in time for the last race. When I was shopping earlier in the day, the lady at the store said that most people would be very dressed up. I figured, ya, it's Dalby that dressed up would mean taking off your high visibility work shirt. I put on a denim knee length shirt and a very cute cotton collared blouse w/silver sequine trim and silver jewelry.
so we arrive... OMG... you'd have thought that we were at the Kentucky Derby...
there were evening gowns, clubbing dresses, huge hats and headbands w/feathers curled in varied directions. Way too much skin showing for many of them. guys were in slacks, shirts w/ties or suits.
I'm thinking FIRST... this is Dalby and SECOND, where the heck did all of these people come from. AND FEW cared about the races... it was obviously the social event of the season. The bar was the busiest place!
Now this place is a bit shabby. The grand stand (bleachers) might have held 40 people if you'd have jammed them in. There were only a handful of people up there. Obviously NOT the place to be...And there were gravel and some blacktop paths... and most of the women had on high heeled sandals... and walking in the grass...
I'm still trying to figure out of it was just a dream.
I was in shock... I'm still in shock!!! and to top it off, I forgot my camera.