News and views from the past week

The past week felt rather unaccomplished, mainly for silly reasons.  We weren't able to find ammonia (clear ammonia), and despite the hutch part of the buffet+hutch being swapped over, the replacement one has a worse chip than the original one did!

We went to karate on Monday, had a helluva gruelling 'fitness' session.  Apparently this week was 'fitness week' and the sensei said that if we chicken out and don't attend, the other sensei will see it on our attendance records and just extend fitness week until we're all up to speed.  Of course, all transpired to make us seem like uber-faders, because both Tuesday and Wednesday G was feeling off-colour (faint/nauseaus), and Thursday I had a super painful stomach cramp... yay!  Of course if we go there and try and explain, they'll just think 'they doth protest too much', *sigh*.

On the upside though, Spirit Horses shipped out on Monday, and should be here soon.  Not soon enough, of course, due to the Easter holidays delaying everything :P


This week I did, however, manage to varnish the wood plank, although it now requires sanding because of droplets hanging over the side underneath.  This week, too, I decided to forego the fishless cycling of the new tank (see lack of ammonia above), so I went to the aquarium shop and bought a LOAD of plants, plus 3 glowlights (there were only 3 left) and 8 black neons. 

The hassle with fish-in cycling is that you have to check the water quality every day (at least once a day, twice is better I guess), and when the water quality dictates it (pretty much every day), you need to do a water change to prevent any damage to the fishes' nerves/blood vessels etc.  So I've been doing a hectic lot of waterchanges the past few days (our waterbill will be high, I'm dreading it!), but the fish seem 100% fine.  It has been interesting watching the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels changing as the tank goes through the nitrogen cycle.  Once ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm, and nitrate is up (but less than 50ppm), the tank is cycled.

I hope the plants all survive, because the tank looks pretty beautiful all green and cheerful.  I've decided I'd like to get 5 more glowlights (so they are in groups of 8), plus 8 cardinal tetras, as the maximum a tank of this size can take is about 20 of these tiny tetras.  I wanted to get Cochu's Blue Tetras but apparently they're hyperactive and have a tendency to decimate the plants and gang up on the other fish.  Cardinals are beautiful too, and I've been keen to get some for a while as well (I just couldn't previously due to lack of cardinals in the shop).

On Thursday evening, G and I tried some 'pancake mix' - instant pancake batter, just add water!  They were SUPER-sweet, and not quite what we were expecting.  Evidently 'pancakes' here aren't quite the same concept as pancakes in SA.  We had made a spinach + feta + sunflower seeds mix as a filling, but with the sweetness and weird texture, it wasn't as yum as they usually are when we use our own batter.

On Friday we had an unexpected thunderstorm with almost an explosion of rain.  It was only then that we realised that the rain's hardness wasn't only due to the actual rain, but also due to the fact that the gutters were simply overflowing.  Yesterday G climbed up to take a look:  yup, the gutters were completely full of leaves and muck.  Found out from the neighbours today that the previous tenants were two women, who probably never went up to check.

While we were chatting to the neighbours earlier (we popped across to give them some Easter eggs), the mom went off to find the toddler.  She wearily came back to us and the dad at the front door and said to the dad, "we aren't gonna get any sleep tonight - guess who finished your can of Wicked..?" (Wicked is an energy drink).  G and I had quite a chuckle about that once we got home!

I could have sworn I posted a blogpost before this one, with a pic of the fishtank all set up and 'alive', but it seems not.  Well, here's a pic of the fishtank, taken about 2mins ago:

And just because he/she is so cute, a pic of Bird:

And just for good measure, a pic of my work-station, where you can see Bird, my Xmas-gift lamp, my current WIP (Apache Wedding Blessing), and my laptop.

I have to mention something I'm doing right now.  I'm probably going to seem like the biggest country bumpkin ever, but I'M USING THE DISHWASHER!!  Yes, this house has a dishwasher, and we hadn't used it yet.  I'm quite excited.  I know, this is the 21st century, and I DID grow up with a dishwasher in the house, but G and I never had one (and wouldn't have had space) in the previous place, in CT, so I had to wash all the dishes.  It was a pain on numerous occasions, simply because G and I are big procrastinators (and he's the dryer-upper).  But now, I've cut down the washing-up pile by sticking most of it in the dishwasher.  I have no clue what all is and isn't dishwasher safe, but at least I've left out the plastic things and the wooden spoon.  *crosses fingers* hope nothing breaks.  I've put it on a 50C cycle, so hopefully it won't be too damaging.  Will keep you posted.  Ohh, and it's SO QUIET!!  I think I'm in love!

Project 50l fishtank

I previously did a course of blogposts, with a title like "Project Fishtank", and I'd like to start a similar series now.  Just to get thoughts out on virtual paper.  My apologies if these posts are extremely boring...

I've unpacked the fishtank, washed it out with warm water and set it up temporarily on my chest of drawers (previously water-damaged, so not a problem if it gets watermarked again), filled it up and it's currently proving itself able to withstand the pressure of 50l of water.  I wanted to check it before putting in hours of hard work, and also before putting it onto the buffet table, to be sure there wouldn't be any problems with it leaking.  If a heater or filter doesn't work, that's fine, but if the thing springs a leak, then we've got trouble!

We need to go to the local hardware store (hopefully tomorrow), to buy a piece of wood and ask for it to be cut the right shape for us, to varnish and use as a base for the fishtank.  I'd rather a piece of wood get pressed and splashed on than the buffet, plus it'll act as a vibration buffer for when the cupboard doors and drawers are used.  I'd put foamalite under the tank but it doesn't seem particularly strong, and the bottom of this tank has a 'rim' which makes deep lines in the foamalite too, which probably would make it a bit less stable.

Once we have the base, I'll relocate the tank to the buffet, set the whole thing up with heater, filter, thermometer and water, and while that's doing its thing, I'll wash the gravel.  I've already been soaking the driftwood for the past few hours, I still need to boil them to get most of the tannins out.  Then they will go in, with the gravel, and once that's all settled, the pH and temperature will probably need a bit of tweaking.  The water conditions I'm aiming for are 25C and a pH of 6.6.  It's pretty acidic, but the fish I'm hoping to get do fine with that pH.

The tank will need to run for about a week like that, before fish and plants can be welcomed.  Apparently it's better to buy one kind of fish at a time, so that they can have a chance to adjust.  I guess it also avoids the problem of losing 20 fish at once if something were to go wrong.

I really am so excited and wish I could just set the entire fishtank up in one go.  But, I must be patient, and I must be thorough and careful.  I'll have plenty of time to admire and enjoy the fishtank once it's all set up ^.^

Ooh, newsflash:  my birthday cross-stitch, the Spirit Horses pillow, is being shipped tomorrow.  I cannot wait for that either!!  I think while the fishtank is running itself in for that week, I'm going to stitch as much as I can on Wedding Blessing.

Watch this space for photos.

Even MORE settled in ^.^

I'm so thrilled I just HAVE to blog today.

Companies in Aus don't seem to sleep late and are extremely punctual, and after SA's laxness, we weren't expecting our furniture to be delivered before 08:30 this morning.  But the goods were delivered, and we've spent the day so far arranging things.  And doing a bit of a tidy up - I finally vacuumed all the bits and bobs of dust+cardboard which have been lying around accumulating since we got our stuff.

Here are some pics of our new furniture, as they currently are set up:

The buffet-half of the buffet+hutch.  The fishtank light is so incredibly bright and extremely blue, I just hope it doesn't glare quite as much once the tank is filled.  The super-long extension cord there is because the fishtank light cord was JUUUUUUUUST not long enough to reach the plug-point.  Uh, Murphy!

Our media-centre.  The hifi and the tower will fit in the glass-door compartment, and our still-to-be-acquired LCD FAT-ASS TV will go on top.  The hutch part of the buffet+hutch will go on top of the unit, behind the TV.

This is the hutch.  It's not set up anywhere as there's a 'cracky' bit, plus the back-side of the back panels are a bit... dingy looking.  But the cracky part is reason enough to get another one.  For now though, once we get the replacement, it'll probably go in 'my room' and be used to store a few ornaments.

The tallboy has successfully been incorporated into the bedroom decor, G has put almost all of his clothes into it, so I am able to 'hog' the walk-in-robe.  It's not EXCLUSIVELY my stuff, there's a good section filled with bedding/towels etc.  Plus, my chest of drawers is full too.  It's incredible how much clothing we have.  We really need to go through it and do a cull (again).  I don't think, in this climate, I'm going to need big fluffy stockings!

In the last pic above, you can see my Xmas present lamp, which will hopefully be a trusty stitching-accomplice.  Also in the pic, if you really screw up your eyes tightly, you can hopefully see Bird, hiding behind a toy.  Bird seems to like hiding behind the toy whenever we approach the cage, it's quite funny.

Bird also has a funny habit:  when a large feather is discarded, Bird picks it up from the cagefloor, dunks it in the waterbowl and proceeds to 'paint' things.  Bird seemed to enjoy just chewing the feathers at first, but has taken to dunking and licking/chewing the feather as if it was a prize piece of biltong.

Ok, that's all for now, folks!  Til next time!

The past few days

It is now Friday, G has just passed his driving test (hooray!!).  I'll have to resume learning to drive now, and attempt to pass the test at some stage.  Eeek!

Yesterday we trekked around by bus and foot to 2 interviews.  I just heard back about the 2nd one (I wasn't successful), all the other interviews I attended have so far amounted to nil.  I'm not heartbroken, just starting to find job applications a bit boring.

Wednesday we went furniture shopping, and should be receiving our goods (most of them) tomorrow.  I'd hardly call it a splurge (despite the fact that it's cost quite a lot!), because it's all necessary stuff.  We bought:

 A TV unit, with a nice large space behind the glass-doors in which we're going to put my hifi (the glass hopefully should allow the remote control to work).  It also has useful space to put a DVD player/remote/stuff, plus a bit of CD storage.  This is in preparation for the day we get a BIG SCREEN TV.  For now we're going to put the media desktop on there.  Plus, the upper-half of this, which will go behind the TV:

This is known here as a buffet and hutch.  I'd been looking online for a decent cupboard on which to set up the fishtank, and saw this at the shop, and rued the fact that it had a hutch.  We thought the hutch was connected, but it in fact loosely balanced on top.  So, the bottom half will be our 'hall' cupboard and fishtank stand.  Plus storage for stuff like the fishtank accessories, budgie food etc.

We also got the 'tallboy' above.  G left his behind as it was pretty badly eaten up with bugholes and we didn't want to risk customs/quarantine hassles with it.

We also bought 2 display cabinets, but there unfortunately isn't a picture on the furniture shop's website.  At long last, I will have a permanent, dustfree display for ornaments and trinkets, possibly a Breyer horse or two!  The cabinets are only coming in June, unfortunately, so for now I'm going to use some of the many boxes we have now and store them carefully.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we both went to karate.  Tuesday's session was quite tiring, but Wednesday's session was a real bruiser.  I have a 5cm+ bruise on my right forearm now, from blocking punches.  G and I generally team up at the classes, because we can handle each other's punches LOL so we don't have to hold back as much as if it were a 'stranger' (rather than risk hurting them too much - there are some frail looking girls/ladies there!).  Last night's class G attended without me though, as my arm was still sore and I was just completely mentally and physically exhausted from the day's trek + interviews.

Here's some food for thought for all those people who think chatting/instant messaging (at work) isn't beneficial in the slightest:  my typing speed has improved from 35WPM upon leaving college to 80WPM currently.  That's from not only typing at work, but racking up the typing-miles on IM as well.  So there! :-P

After packing up my ornaments etc, I think our major 'to-do' is tackle the garden.  The grass has overgrown badly, plus there are a few trees to trim.  I cringe every time I check the post box, firstly because it's all gunky inside (sand/grime/dirt), secondly because the damn tree is in the way.  Ok - scratch that - we should do the garden now, as it's overcast and the ornaments I can do regardless of the weather!

Ok, that's all for now!

Blah blah blah (frustrated)

First up, let me disclaimer this post by saying I suspect I have PMS so I may seem to be overreacting to things LOL

Our stuff is pretty much all unpacked, save for our clothes and books and other 'junk-room' odds and ends which aren't needing to be unpacked now.  We *can't* unpack our clothes or books because we don't have enough cupboard space to put them. 

Now, living in a 3 bedroom house, you'd think there'd be more than enough space, but no.  We have built-in-cupboards in the 2 spare rooms, but they're on the opposite end of the house to the main bedroom and both of us would prefer to keep our clothes in the same room (the main bedroom) and use the spare rooms' cupboards for spare room/study stuff.  We need to figure out a more practical storage system in the 2 rooms though, as in putting stand-alone shelves/racks into the built-ins to maximise space usage.  And we need to buy a wardrobe or 2 and a chest of drawers or 2 for our clothes.  Plus bookshelves or 2 (each).  *sigh*

PLUS, we need an extra 1-door shelf/cupboard to put the last odds and ends from the kitchen (stuff like snackwich, waffle-iron, etc).  The place is looking pretty decent otherwise, except for ANOTHER thing that needs furniture:  keepsakes/ornaments/trinkets.  I have quite a lot of them, and don't want to stick them in boxes again (otherwise they're stuck away in boxes and I can't enjoy them), so I want to buy display cabinets for them.  That way they're on display and free from dust.  The last thing I want is a cluttery, junky eBay house, and I've felt so discomfited the past few days while the whole kitchen counter and diningroom table was covered with crockery etc, I don't even want to IMAGINE my stress-levels if things were to be completely haphazard and filled with clutter.

Another compelling reason to go furniture-shopping is:  I don't have a cupboard to put my new fishtank... I'm thinking a small 'buffet', which should be strong enough for a 50l tank, plus as a bonus it has cupboard space to put the fish-goodies and bird-food etc, with nice doors so it looks tidy.  But it's frustrating because I have this lovely, brand new fishtank and am unable to set it up - I haven't taken it out of the box yet because of having nowhere to set it up... and I'm so excited (impatient) to buy fish too, because I helped Sis clean my SA (her) fishtank remotely over Skype and I MISS MY FISH!!!!  So I'm dying to get a few beebees.

Here are a few pics of the beebees I'm keen on:

 Cochu's Blue Tetras

 Black Neon Tetras

 Glowlight Tetras

Kuhli Loaches

It's not a huge tank, so maybe I'll stick with those for now.  I've been looking for Cochu's Blues ever since I got my bigger tank, with no luck.  Here's to finding them here!

I'm super-keen for something else:  to get a job!  I feel a bit adrift lately because of 'needing a job'.  It's not critical, like we're going to die if I don't get a job, but if I don't, we're going to run out of money in the not too distant future.  So, it's important that I get a job, and if at all possible, I'd like a GREAT job (or at least a decently paying one).  Alright, I'll reveal my ulterior motive:  I wanna buy nice things.  Specifically, I spotted this:

* Not actual car

Call me a dreamer, wishful thinker of the highest order, deluded or whatever, but I spotted it from a distance while we were driving around somewhere, and it's like, our car!!  Ok, I know it's not, but still, I wish I could buy it!  It's an A4 Quattro, 1.8T.  Ok yes, I am aware that I do not, as yet, have my 'open' license and I still need to resume driving lessons and go for my driving test...

But I'll still dream on and try get a lekker job, and I'll keep y'all posted LOL.

OUR STUFF ARRIVED!!

Ok, the past week has been super-hectic!

Firstly, the 3 interviews became 4, with 1 being on Wednesday and 3 being on Thursday.  The Wednesday one was in the afternoon, after G's driving lesson (he apparently should do well in the test, as there are a few things that they don't really bother with here that they're pretty anal about in SA).

We headed out by bus (I'm still gonna rave about the public transport here!), and had a quick lunch before setting off in the direction of the recruitment agency.  Since I was fairly sure of where we were going, I slipped on my new work shoes (see this pic) thinking that we had a quick 5mins walk.  Except, we walked in the wrong direction.  So, wearing those *!@&*^$ shoes (I do actually like them, it was just unfortunate), we had to walk back to start and off in the opposite direction.  And then the place was a little further along the road than I'd pictured.  So, I became an Iron Woman, biting my teeth against a crippling pain caused, merrily, by 9 out of my 10 toes plus 3 places PER HEEL blistering like there was no tomorrow.  The worst blister is about 2cm long.

I gritted my teeth and seethed that 'this interview had better be worth it', and we arrived either bang on time or 5 mins late (I forget).  Regardless, the interview was fine, and, in fact, wasn't just a 'rectruitment agency' type interview (where they're basically expanding their pool of candidates), the lady raved about my skills and CV and was (is) going to put my CV forward for a *pretty well paying* job.  I should hear about it hopefully tomorrow.

Thursday we had to get up at 05:30 as my first interview was at 07:30.  We got there late, as we were completely flummoxed by the one ways and cul de sacs, but the lady there didn't even seem to notice.  The job that I was going to be interviewed for had apparently been filled internally, but the agency themselves were happy with my CV and I may just have a job working for them.

The next interview was at 11:00, and so we had plenty of time to kill.  We had a coffee + something to eat and hung ten, waiting.  That interview wasn't as good (I felt), and the job doesn't appeal to me that much - it's a reception/admin position and I'm not so enamoured with reception anymore, to be honest!

The last interview was at 15:00, so we had LOTS of time to kill.  Caught a train into the city centre, and had a nice time strolling around Queen St Mall.  Had lunch, bought some CDs (yippee!!), bought two little Little Big Planet figurines (see pic below), then headed up to the recruitment agency which was practically next door to the one of the day before.  I was early for that one, but took long enough filling in all the forms so it wasn't too bad.  They also 'just got a job in that might be perfect for you!!' so I might have to go back for a follow-up interview at 2 places, eek!

Popped in to fetch post at G&E&E, then headed home and got all ready for the next day:  our stuff was being delivered and we had to be up bright and early again.

We got up at 07:00, and were still groggily waking up, making tea and tidying up before the day's proceedings, when I heard a truck outside, at 07:20.  They waited in the truck until 07:45 (apparently to let us wake up LOL), and then they worked SOLIDLY bringing all our stuff in!  It was so exciting seeing all the boxes and remembering the time when it was all packaged, before our whole journey.  They unpacked a lot of the big stuff, but we unpacked the kitchen goods and have only opened the book boxes.

The only real 'issues' that we've discovered, which obviously would have been due to the SA side of things, are:

* the handles of the Weber are bent

* my Xmas-present reading lamp (for Xstitch) has a permanently cricked neck now (broken) and has a bit of chipped paint

* a wooden ornament with 'little bits' loosely attached was taped securely so the 'little bits' wouldn't get lost, but now the ornament is all sticky from the tape

* the fridge's hinge is bashed so the door creaks now (it still seals fine though)

* a virtually unused cellphone, in its original box, is now no longer in its box and was probably slipped into someones pocket

That's all that we're aware of at the moment, we still have to go through our inventory and double-check everything.  But OHMYGAAAAD it's SO GOOD having our stuff again!!!!  Never has our bed been so comfortable, never have our coffeetables been so beautiful and just-the-right-height, never has metal cutlery been so amazing!

We spent pretty much the rest of the day unpacking and putting things in the right rooms, and most of yesterday washing all the kitchen goods.  Today we washed quite a good portion of the rest of the kitchen goods, but we still have quite a way to go.  Also been catching up on laundry, how exciting, LOL!


The only thing now is we need to buy some furniture.  I need a place to put the fishtank (can't wait to set it up!), plus a few display cabinets for all my trinkets would be quite a useful investment.  And it'd be nice to have a welshdresser (buffet and hutch, as they call it here), to put in all the occasional dishes and stuff.  And then it'd also be great to have more bookshelves!!

Ok, that's all my (dull, rambly) news for now.  It's been hectic (in a good way) this past week, here's hoping for a good week this week!

As promised, here's a pic of the Little Big Planet sackboys:

Whirlwind week

WHAHAHAAAAAAA it's been a hectic past few days...

Firstly, lemme get off my chest one thing:  OUR STUFF IS BEING DELIVERED ON FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lemme say that again:

OUR STUFF IS BEING DELIVERED ON FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!

Ok *breathe* you have no idea how excited and impatient I am for our stuff now!  Ok... now that's out there, onto other topics.

Our car went in bright and early for its checkup on Thursday, they kept it a day because they had to replace the wiper-blade arm (not the actual wiper-arm thankfully!), and they had to find where the car was raining in.  They replaced/repaired the gaskets of the back door, and, it turns out, someone previously took the rear bumper off... I suppose that means the seal/waterproofing was broken or something, so Toyota sealed the car up as best they could.  We caught the train and bus home after dropping the car off, and took the bus and train again to fetch the car.  I mention that only because the public transport systems here ROCK!  So far the car has been fine, no raining-in... here's to many years more of waterproof-ness!

That was Thursday and some of Friday.  Most of Friday I spent applying for jobs.  In total I applied for 15 jobs, and on Monday I applied for a few more.  So far, I have 3 interviews, I did an online skills test and have been put onto a database or two of 'admin applicants' LOL.  So, I think that's a good sign.

The weekend wasn't particularly eventful, we headed to other-G's place for supper and a movie on Saturday night, G hired movies and we watched one of them (The One - with Jet Li), and tonight we're gonna watch the next one, (Knowing - with Nicholas Cage).  I don't want to go to bed too late as I have an interview tomorrow, but thankfully it's in the afternoon.

Yesterday we went to karate and begun the mad task of learning to kick.  I'm ok stiffness-wise, but G's suffering a little bit.  I think I may inadvertently have been stretching weird muscles in my legs over the past while because my laptop is currently perched on a cardboard box and hooked up to the external harddrive, the power + USB cords of which are pretty short, so I've been sitting on the floor for ages on end.

Today was interesting as well, because I have basically completed the process of converting my identity to Australianise myself:  I now possess a QLD learner's licence!  Hopefully that means no more carrying around passport + SA drivers + bank card + Medicare card + bank statement as proof of ID/address!

On the way back from the traffic department we stopped by at a local aquarium shop:  Paul's.  It is going to be my fish mecca, I just know it!  As it is, I already indulged in a bit of shopping:

* Ignore the telephone in the background - that is a 'borrowed' phone, used to check whether our phone line was operational, we're just waiting for a chance to drop it off!

I just... I missed having a fishtank too much!  And, at least if we DO have to move anytime in the future, it's only within the same city, and not across the world.  If I had been able to, I'd have brought along my 100l tank and fish and everything, but there's no way the poor fish would have survived the trip.

So, this is my new fishtank - or, at least, components of it.  I've got to set it all up (once our stuff arrives), and let it cycle and settle for a week before I can put 'starter' fish in it (fish that start the bacteria going).  I'm not really going for the medium sized fish like Congos now, I'm just going to keep little tetras, like Glowlights, Black Neons and Cochu's Blues... apparently Paul's gets them in occasionally and I've been looking for them ever since I bought ONE when I still had the 9l tank all those years ago.  Oh and of course I'd like a Kuhli Loach or 2!!  I'd love Marbled Hatchetfish again but I think this tank is too small (they apparently need a longer tank in order to satisfy their swimming needs), I'll ask Paul's what they think.  They seem pretty clued up, unlike your average shop assistant at a mall pet shop!

So that's news for now... apart from that we had pest control in today and WOW they did the most thorough job ever!  Sprayed for everything, everywhere INCLUDING the entire outside walls of the house!  What's incredible is they said we didn't need to move Bird, as the chemicals are so specific these days that they don't affect other animals.  I did get a mild hint of a headache (which might have been excitement about our stuff), but Bird was utterly unfazed.  There are already 3 dead cockroaches and LOADS of massive ants lying around, which is a good sign.  But boy, did the lead guy talk a lot.  He had lots to say, but his poor 'side-kick' assistant was the most quiet chap, who obviously has to put up with yakking all day every day and no longer tries to join in on the small talk.

Ok now that really is all our news.  Cheers for now!!

Perseverance

Yesterday was our 2nd karate lesson, and there were only 4 people in the class:  us 2 n00bs and 2 intermediates.  It was enjoyable though, but it's weird for me to be the ABSOLUTE beginner in a class.  It's weird to be The Beginner that the teacher is referring to when he says things like 'now this is something that we all will learn and practise a lot, no matter whether you're a Beginner or an Advanced'.  I found when doing Scottish dancing that I learnt quite quickly and was able to keep up quite well and wasn't a trailing beginner.  This, however, is a totally different kettle of fish and I feel very clumsy and slow.  But not in a bad, beat-myself-up-about-it kinda way.  There's no feeling of pressure, we're just there to learn, and to have fun of course.

That being said, it's unfortunately undeniable how unfit I am!  I feel kaput after the warm up stretching LOL.  We started learning our first kata though, which we're going to be practising more today.  Today we're also signing up for 6 months and both of us will be getting our gi.  I'm very excited.

Another reason for me to be excited, or rather RELIEVED, is that I've cancelled my driving test.  Yes, cancelled.  No, I haven't chickened out, I just realised a few things and phoned around to get further info.

Firstly, as permanent residents in QLD, we get a 3 month grace period in which we are allowed to drive on our SA licenses.  During the 3 months, we're supposed to get QLD licenses by doing the written test and having a lesson (or 2, or 12904), and passing the driving test.  If you fail the driving test within the 3 months, you're able to do the test again as many times as you like until you pass.

If you pass the 3 months limit, however, you are no longer allowed to drive unsupervised, you need to get the learner's license issued (by passing the written test you automatically qualify for the learner's license) and then need an 'open license' holder to accompany you whenever you drive (including as you practise) until you pass the driving test (again, you can do the test as often as you like).  So in essense, you are a learner driver all over again.

Now, because we have SA licenses, if I fail my driving test and G passes his, I am able to drive with him as my supervisor, which is what I have been doing anyway as I'm inexperienced AND I'm getting used to our car.  Also, because I'm over 25, I don't have to complete the learner's logbook (requiring 100 hours driving time to be filled in over the course of 1 year).  And, because I currently hold an 'open license' from SA and QLD govt acknowledges it, once I pass the driving test, I get my QLD license instead of getting a P1 or P2 license!

So, I have cancelled my test, and will practise and have lessons and book my driving test when I am good and ready.  For someone with as little experience as me, doing the driving test in 3 weeks' time when the 1st driving lesson is only 2 weeks before the test is a little... unrealistic.  Not to mention a waste of money if I'm more than likely to fail.

A HUGE load off my mind - I'm so relieved.  I just have to go to the traffic dept at SMILLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEE and have my learner's license issued.  Can't wait!

Now we just need our stuff to arrive!!  Just not on Thursday as that's when our car is going in for a check-up.  But soon!!!  It's time now!  Quick quick, want our stuff plskthx!!

Kit checkin' in

Before I post, lemme check what all I've posted about last - so I don't repeat stuff.

Ok.  This evening we're going for our 2nd free introductory karate lesson.  We're gonna sign up for 6 months for now.

Yesterday I went for a trundle around in our car - trying to get used to the clutch!!  This car's clutch is (according to G, and I agree *grr*) far less forgiving than the Toyota Tazz I learnt in AND the Audi A4 we had, weird huh?  So I'm... not doing exceptionally well with clutch control at the moment, to put it euphemistically.  It's bad enough pulling away from a stop street, I wonder how I'll do when it comes to 3-point-turns and parallel parking, etc?  Remains to be seen.  But, I will persevere!

While we were driving off to hand over the import permit paper to the moving company, they emailed saying AQIS has pulled aside 2 items from our stuff - our 2 bar chairs, which have straw seat covers.  So, because they're of sentimental value, we forked out $180 to have them treated.  Yup, crazy, but they were engagement gifts from G's parents, and *our* bar chairs, man!  Special to us.  So hopefully we get our stuff soon!

Ok that's all I have time for now - gotta get ready for karate!

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeers!

Wunderbar!

Monday was the day that G and I toddled on down to the traffic department to do our written test.  It is the same test that people do to get their learner's license, and it was very easy.  I read that road rules booklet quite a few times so it was straightforward.  I got 30/30, luckily!

Today, I phoned the traffic department to book my driving test.  The earliest I could get was 20th April, so I booked that one, G only got one on 29th.  Then I phoned a driving school to find out about lessons, and managed to get a test date for G on the 15th as I had booked a 'refresher' lesson for him.  The traffic department he's going to do his test at is far closer than the one I'm going to do mine at.  Because his new test date was booked through the driving school, he's not-obliged-to-but-should use the school's car to do the test otherwise the examiner might raise an eyebrow as the test booking is a 'driving school reserved' timeslot.

My first proper lesson is on the 8th, but I'm hoping to get one before that as time is really limited and I need to learn as much as possible and practise like mad.  I'm going to try go for a drive every day before the test, or at least every day when it's possible/practical.  I just need to make up for lost time.

This evening was my first ever karate lesson.  G used to do karate years ago and got up to green-belt level.  He's been keen to resume karate for a while now, and signed us up for 2 free introductory lessons, to pique my interest before signing us up for either 6 months or 12 months of karate.  For now I'm keen too... watch this space for more details LOL.

Bird has been relaxing more and more into the household, and doesn't scream every morning like he/she used to.  I'm not sure if it's because Bird is growing accustomed to the house or the wild birds flying around lately just aren't the type that set him/her off, but it's a nice change. 

Bird is also learning what we're about and is calmer with us around than before.  I've been taking Bird out of the cage every few days or so, and even got Bird to sit on the windowsill calmly without trying to fly through the window - something I've been afraid he/she might try and hurt him/herself.  The window was a gauzed-window, so maybe Bird can get used to the big wide open world out there withOUT flying into the 'invisible force field' that is glass.

Another thing Bird is quite understanding with is the scaly-face drops that we've had to apply every Thursday for the past 2 weeks (the vet did the first one, and there's one more to go).  I've had Bird on my hand, and persistently tried to stroke Bird's neck feathers 'open' (so that the drop can be applied to the skin), and at first Bird wasn't very keen and kept fiddling and trying to get away, but eventually seemed to understand what I was trying to do and today Bird just resigned him/herself to having a faux neck-scratch and a ghastly-tasting drop applied.  Bird sulked for a long time once he/she'd preened and tasted it - there's something inconsolable about a sulking budgie.

The only other news for now is that customs/quarantine has asked for the original import permit for the katana swords/African knife, which hopefully means we'll get our stuff soon.  I'm dying to sleep on a proper bed again, I'm tired of using laundromat washmachines (bleh), and using plastic cutlery + crockery for this long makes me feel like I'm in rehab or something...

Ok, that's all for now folks!

Oh, wait, one more thing:  I can't seem to comment on any blogposts now... J I wanted to comment on your 'what makes you want to stitch something' post but couldn't (can't sum it up here LOL), and Andie, I wanted to comment and say Sophias Mirabilia is looking gorgeous!  Hope Blogger sorts itself out soon.

Cheers for now :-P

The good old days

Since I'm in the process of reading/learning the road rules booklet, and I recently paged through the user manual of our car, I decided to take a peek under the bonnet.














This car has got such a cute little bonnet, with a compact, tidy engine. Spotlessly clean, no evidence of dirt apart from dust which is to be expected as the car is under 3 years old.

Fiddling around in there, with G's help when checking the battery water level, reminded me of when I was small and I spent a lot of time playing in the garage while Dad worked on the Merc.

He would spend the better part of a lot of days bent over the engine, his hands covered in that unshiftable black that becomes part of your life the moment you touch an engine.  He was always wearing 'working clothes': a scruffy, well-worn jersey over a faded, almost see-through shirt and dated, unfashionable trousers from the 70s.

I was always fascinated by what he was doing.  Just looking at the engine, knowing what was what, and how the different parts worked, referring to the detailed circuit diagrams in his bible, 'the Merc book' as it was known in our family.

 
It was a book I loved looking through, despite it not having many pictures that were satisfying to look at - it was mostly engine and parts photos, with how-to series' of photos of boring detail - because it had pictures of Our Car.  Not specifically our car, of course, but our car's siblings who had had a successful career in modelling.

The knowledge Dad had of that car was immeasurable, and yet he still wasn't able to know everything.  He struggled for days on end, trying to take something apart, or put something back together, or getting a specific part out of the car, so that he could order a replacement.  More often than not, he'd take the part to the spares shop, they'd order one for him, he'd bring it home only to find "bugger it, it's the wrong part!!".

The poor car was a W123 series 240D, a supposedly stable, faultless, troublefree edition of Mercedes Benz, but we suspected that our one was the scapegoat, bearing all the problems that normally would have been distributed fairly between all the cars of its pedigree.  Eventually, as the car aged, Dad (who was the usual driver) had to get used to so many oddities of the car.

Every morning before taking us to school, he'd sit in the car, counting.  The glowplug-ready light on the dashboard broke at some stage, so he'd have to turn the ignition, count a certain number of seconds and then turn the key, otherwise the car simply would not start.

Another odd thing we got used to for a while was the car not switching off at the ignition.  Seeing how much trouble it took to replace the thing, it's no wonder Dad delayed fixing it for a while and during that time, the only way to switch the car off was to force it to stall.  It made for amusing stops!

One last quirk I'd like to mention (rather than bore you with every single one), was the car's dislike for cold nights.  It would refuse to start the next morning, so Dad took to covering up the bonnet with blankets!  I forget what the fault was, and I do remember the car not doing that permanently, so it must have been one of the many things Dad fixed.

I guess this blog post is a sentimental ramble, and I think ultimately this post is to say that I miss him a lot.  The stability, growing up, of Dad working in the garage most days, of me wandering in and out of the garage, helping by holding the reading lamp at a useful angle so he could see, and asking him questions.  He did seem to like answering them, so I can only hope (assume is too presumptious) that they were intelligent questions - I do think I learnt a few things but not enough to be predestined to be a mechanic LOL.

I feel sad, knowing that I had and still have no clue just how much he knew, feel sad knowing that if he were still around, he'd enjoy so many things still.  I'm sure he'd be blown away by how incredible computers are now;  seeing how he enjoyed circuit diagrams so much, it seems an obvious progression that he'd learn about how computers work.

Ok this post is getting off-track, but still.  The child in me fierily wishes I could learn everything electrical/mechanical/engine-related, so that I could know what I see when I look in the engine.  The grown-up in me understands and just feels sad.

Ok how dumb

Somehow Blogger's acting up and I can't comment on my post *rolls eyes*.  So, below are my replies to the comments on my last post.

haha sis Boye! I've had my license for 3 years now *huff*

Thanks J! I'm just dreading the driving test so of course everything is more appealing than thinking about it LOL

My birthday present

This year my birthday passed a bit unceremoniously, which is to be expected with how much we've been busy with lately. G's gift was an IOU, which I redeemed a day or 2 ago:

I saw this quite a while ago, and secretly fell in love with it but put it out of my mind as I have a long up-next list already.  But then I realised, by the time I actually finish those, this one will probably be out of print already and I'll have missed out on it.

PLUS, we now have beautiful, plain off-white couches now, which are just crying out for at least one cushion!!

This is called Spirit Horses, it's a JCA kit and the pillow is 14" x 14". Black fabric (so I don't have to stitch every single square inch!), cording, backing fabric etc.  I'm so excited and can't wait to get my hands on it :D

I just wonder which will arrive first, this kit or our container stuffs LOL.  I've hit a bit of a lull with the Wedding Blessing, plus I feel pressed to avoid stitching because there's this unshakeable feeling of 'I should rather be doing... '.  Like learn the road rules for Queensland, for example, as we've gotta get our licenses before end of April. I'm dreading it.  I know I just have to practise, and practise a lot, but I still feel anxious and apprehensive.  At least I understand now how the indicating (blinkers) at a circle (roundabout) works lol.  There just was no clear, enforced system in SA and circles were always scary/just-gonna-do-my-best-to-try-survive-y to me.

So, stitching has taken a backseat, and once I press 'post' on this, I'll go back to the couch and pick up the road rules booklet and read it again. *sigh*

What an update!

It's been a long time indeed since I blogged last.  So much has happened.

Firstly, we moved in on the Monday after I blogged.  It was an incredibly hot, humid day, and there was no electricity.  The house was UNBEARABLY hot inside, and what made it worse was the presence of ceiling fans and an aircon, tauntingly sitting motionless while we melted.  Thankfully the electricity guy arrived in the early hours of the afternoon, so we were hooked up and relieved almost instantly.

Afterwards, we went back to G&E&E's place to fetch our stuff (we'd gone straight to the house without any bags/etc after signing the lease so the electricity could be hooked up), and we were caught in the beginning of a thunderstorm.  We managed to get to our place ok, and into the garage (I see now why people have remote-controlled garage doors!!!), we were home, safe and dry.  And more than a little relieved: peace, quiet, our own space.

And boy do we have space now.  I'm going to attach a couple of pics (they are from the rental agents' listing hence the emptiness of the house), just to give you a view into our as yet not fully furnished world.

Above is a different pic of the front of the house.  On the other side of the fence you can see is a bicycle path - this place is a maze of walking/cycle tracks, so G and I are going to get nice and fit I'm sure!

This is a view of the back garden.  It's half grass, half weeds, and G has taken on the task of weeding it over the months.  The grass that is growing there is very nice though, so it should be rewarding once it's done.  I just hope the rental agency doesn't restrict us to a '6 months lease only' so we'd have to move out!

This is a view of from the front of the lounge looking towards the back of the house.  You can see the patio, half-circled by the windows/sliding door, and to the left is the dining area and the passageway into the bedrooms/bathroom/loo area.  Off the left of the picture are the garage door and the main bedroom (which has an en-suite).

This is what you see if you walk across the lounge and stand where the carpet and tiles meet.  The semi-circle windows/sliding door onto the patio are on the right.  This is the kitchen (and you can just see the laundry through there), plus the passageway and bedroom 2.

This is the dining area, with the semi-circle windows/sliding door onto the patio on the right (you can just see one of them).

This is the view from the windows/sliding door, across the patio.  That's the same fence seen in the first pic - bike track on the other side.

This is the view looking back towards the house - in the direction of the lounge/to the front of the house.  I'm looking forward to having a set of outdoor chairs + table to have evening drinks out there!

The kitchen, across from the semi-circle windows/sliding door.  The place came with the dishwasher + oven/stove, plus the blind + faded curtain LOL.

Another view of the kitchen.

The view back down the side of the house, if you step out the laundry door.  The window down there is the en-suite.

And lastly, 'my' bathroom.  Mine, by virtue of having a bath shower, not simply a shower!

Ok, so that's the house.  I really love it, it's so spacious and new (obviously not brand new but that makes it cosier).  It's just... tempting to buy all new things to complete it, even though WE HAVE stuff which is arriving any day now!  But it's not NEW shiny stuff... such a compulsion!

We so far have a pet spider, who I've named Hurry-Scurry.  I've watched this thing move around the house, it obviously moves mostly during the night cos every morning I do a head count and try find it and it's always somewhere totally different from where it was the previous night.  I've grown 'accustomed' to it being here, because it doesn't run like hell now.  I don't know if it's sickly or what, but it doesn't run away anymore... I've decided I am going to try become acquainted with it, because apparently they live 2 years and grow huge (10cm leg-span), so by the time this thing gets that big I'll be used to it... here's hoping!  I've just been thrown a wobbly though as ANOTHER one has come into the house (from the garage, I think), and this one is NOT used to us and runs like hell and generally acts scarily!  Watch this space.

Here is a pic of Hurry-Scurry:

Apart from these happenings, so far we have also: received a speeding fine which isn't actually for us (the system is obviously automated, and linked to the numberplate, because the transgression occurred before we even testdrove the car!), had a smelly car cos it rained in the day we moved in (gotta get that seen to, luckily it's covered by both statutory and manufacturer's warranty), bought couches, bought a dining room table + chairs, and also, fallen in love.

While window shopping and finding our way around G&E&E's neighbouring suburbs (which contain a good-sized mall), we of COURSE had to pop into any pet stores we found.  In one was a batch of cute budgies, one particular one unbearably cute.  Needless to say I fell hugely in love, but couldn't buy the bird because we didn't have a home of our own at that stage, and once we did we had to wait to hear from the rental agents whether it was ok for us to have a budgie.  In the interim, I bought a birdcage+accessories, for 'in case' we got the go ahead - it's not like the bird cage would pass an expiry date or anything!

Finally, we got a 'yes', and almost race through to buy the bird but had too many things to do before we could go to the petshop.  Eventually we got there and YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, the birdie was still there!

She/he came home in a small little box:

As soon as we got home, the cage was set up and the little fluffball was released into the cage.  A sleepy little budgie after the strangeness of a car drive in the dark!

The next morning, someone was looking a lot more perky:

So far he/she doesn't have a name yet, nor are we sure of his/her gender.  For now, the name is Bird (or Birdalird, or Pie Pie, or Piebird, etc), and it's possibly a boy.  With this colour combination, it might be that if it's a boy the cere won't go blue but will stay mauve, and it'd go whitish-pink/brown if it's a female.  We will have to wait and see.

I've been taking Bird out of the cage every now and then, getting it used to hands/sitting on a finger, and he/she is very timid, much like Tsiek.  I think it's a trait of this colour combination (recessed pied), but hopefully I can show Bird over time that NOT EVERYTHING IS SCARY!  At least he/she is happy enough for now, and sings away merrily when we play music.

And finally, a pic of Bird, on finger:

Other exciting things that are exciting here:

We have free TV which we can watch on my laptop by plugging into the jack in the wall (26 stations!)

Delivery people phone the day before, the morning before and 20mins before delivery to confirm... so refreshing after SA delivery people's absolute disinterest and slackness.

Self-service checkouts ROCK!

The dirt trucks here are automatic.  There's just one person - the driver - and he manoeuvres the truck so that he can activate the 'arm' which picks up and tips the bin and puts it back.  None of SA's dirty, noisy trucks squealing to a stop by a pile of bins, with about 7 guys jumping off the back, wrangling the bins into position so the truck can tip them, then wheeling them back quickly, jumping back up and clinging to the truck and whistling to let the driver know he can drive off.  No neighbourhoodfuls of dogs barking their heads off at the commotion, just one single, quiet truck going about its business.  Ahhhhhh!  First world!

On every second bin-day, they pick up recycling... yes, recycling is established and functioning here, and I'm amazed daily by just how much packaging is used for things and just discarded.  We've had an extra share though, what with new furniture etc!

Apart from infrastructure stuff, I'm loving it here because the weather is lovely.  It can get humid and muggy, but it's such a welcome change from the CT weather where the second the Southeaster blows you need to pull on a poloneck etc.  And because they have fly-screen gauze over the windows, you can have the windows open and not get munched to death by mosquitoes!  Yippee!!

Ok lemme sign off for now, this blogpost is plenty long enough!!

Ciao!

Bumper stickers

We've seen "Sticker Family" stickers around on various cars here and in SA, and I thought it'd be cool to get one or two for our car.

We bought one during the week (the birdie on the left, facing right) and have already stuck it on the back window (on the black of the glass, so it's not visible from inside the car).  We bought 3 more today, and are going to stick them on the car later when it's cooler.

The stickers WE got are not a 'family' set of stickers though:

They're representative of our 'funnyfarm', or in the case of the 2nd bird and the mouse/rat, the pets we'll have one day.  The first bird and the fishbowl are in honour of Dude and my fish.

I'll take a pic of the car once the stickers are in place.

* Pics 'borrowed' from My Family

News from Dan Unda

Firstly, as promised, here are the pics of our cute car:

 

I went for my first ever Australian drive this morning, and felt like a complete n00b.  It's painfully obvious that I haven't driven for over 2 years, and I'm going to need quite a bit of practice.  At least, apparently, QLD driving rules aren't as anal about the tiny intricacies of driving as they are in SA, so you don't HAVE to pull up the handbrake every.time.you.ever.stop.the.car.even.if.it's.a.stop.street.  Although I probably will for now, because I'm not used to this car and have 'gone rusty' LOL.

In other NEWSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS, we went to view 3 homes this week, and applied for two.  We were hoping to get one of them, because it looked PERFECT for us, so we held our thumbs to death the whole time afterwards but remained 'sensible' about it because we're new to the country and they might prefer a tenant with Aus references, etc etc etc.  But, the following day, we were called to say that we'd been approved, and would we like to accept and could we come and sign the lease etc the next day.  YES YES YES WE GOT THE HOUSE!!

This is a pic of the front of the house (view from the street).  It's very private, without being a fortress, like nearly every home in SA that was classed as 'private' was.

 In between all these exciting happenings, I got my hair cut (pic to come), and I bought some cute, smart shoes for work (or a more-formal-than-casual occasion).

 

And, as proof that I do in fact own a second laptop, here's a pic:

No, it doesn't have a name.  The other one didn't have a name either.  I don't name everything I own, thankyouverymuch!

Finding and getting the house couldn't have come at a better time.  We'll have stayed with G&E&E for 3 weeks, which is plenty long enough.  I just hope that they don't (and haven't) felt as if we've been leeching off them.  It has been awkward at times, when Little-E has a mini-meltdown over something, or does something naughty which E has to reprimand her about, because we are there, 'watching'.  We kinda feel like we're intruding, and I certainly wish that the earth would swallow me up, to use a hackneyed phrase.  Also, once we've moved into the house, we won't have to live out of our suitcases anymore, we can FINALLY unpack!!!!!!!!  It's been 2 MONTHS now, and it's starting to get OLD!

Another uberexciting thing we'll be able to do, FINALLY, is buy COUCHES!!  We're looking at Ikea and Fantastic Furniture, which seem to have affordable couches in a style we like.  It's a toss-up though, but I'm leaning towards Fantastic Furniture because there are a few other items there that we could buy and if we do, we could negotiate a better deal by virtue of buying a whole lot of things!

One thing I need to remark on is how quickly things happen here.  We applied for Medicare cards last week, and the lady said we'd get our cards within 3 weeks' time.  They arrived today.  TODAY.  That's 7 working days on, not 15!  AWESOME.

Ok, now to post this and have supper!  Indian tonight!

Update!

Time has passed so quickly, I can't believe that it's Sunday and tomorrow we'll have been here for 2 weeks already.

Last week was a bit of an unproductive week for us, what with having no car after giving the hirecar back.  We went by bus to walk around the '2nd hand car mile' near the city, but had no luck.  Afterwards, we (I :P ) surfed and hunted online, and found a few cars which I sent inquiries about.  We were called by dealers about 3 of the cars, and we intended to go see 2 of them.  To cut a long rambly story short, we only managed to go see one of them (on Friday) - we were taking public transport and the time just ran from us - but thankfully we liked the car and decided to buy it.  We played difficult with the dealer and said we'd phone on Saturday to confirm, because he made it seem as if we'd inconvenienced them a lot by making them get the car in only for us to take a test drive and not buy immediately (haha, like seriously?).  G phoned Saturday morning, the deposit is paid, and tomorrow we go fetch the car (and pay, etc, etc).  I will post a pic or 2 once we have it and I've taken photos!!  It's a manual silver 2008 Toyota Corolla (hatchback), which, when G gets mucho moola from his uber-successful company profits and buys a Porsche, will become my car!!!  I'm trying to think of a name for it already <3  too exciting.  So obviously I'm hoping his business venture races ahead and is super-successful very soon!!

Yesterday G&E&E, Other-G, G and I went for a longgggggggg drive to Bribie Island, to go spend the day on the beach.  It was a beautiful day, and I wished I'd brought my bathing costume because the water was incredibly warm.  I am glad I took my umbrella though, as I got too hot in the sun and sat under my umbrella for a long time.  Unfortunately I must have lost track of time before putting on sunscreen as I got rather sunburnt on my legs.  And, somehow, I managed to splotch on the sunscreen very unevenly because I missed patches and have handprint-like pale areas now.  Maybe from sand stuck to me, I'm not sure.  But it hurt a lot yesterday evening and this morning, but it seems to be getting better now.  Hopefully I won't peel very much!

Today I've been looking at houses to rent.  I just hope that finding a home is easy enough... Although we couldn't have wished for better 'housemates' (ie, G&E&E are the most lovely, generous people and I think we'll be indebted to them for ever for letting us stay here!), I just wish we had our own space.  Quiet, childless space.  Little E is 3.5 years old, and although she's very sweet, it gets a bit exhausting being in the same room (house) as a constant source of babble and interaction-demanding-being.  It's not generally directed at us, but the pitch of her voice (and all her toys!!) just goes straight into the concentration section of my brain and I can't think straight.  Even 'small talk' is impossible because of the constant chatter.  I am seriously grateful that I don't ever have to have a child of my own.  I understand how big a job it really is, and can't see myself managing.  Never mind managing, surviving is a better word!!

Cheers!! *clinks glasses together* here's to our own home!!

It has happened

We are now 'down under', in Brisbane.

Sunday was a bit of a mad rush, time just ran away with us and we ended up only getting to the airport checkin-desk at 10:15 - checkin opened at 10:00... thankfully there were quite a number of (Asian*) families there who couldn't quite decide whose bag the boxes of tea/herbs/etc should go, so we weren't late by any means.

*I mention Asian as, just with 'large famiily stereotypes', there are some things that families ALWAYS do, and this might be one of them that might be specific to Asian families? (I'm not sure).   Sorry if I'm incoherent... jetlag I think still has some control over my brain functions.

It was too much of a rush on Sunday morning to properly say bye to Dude.  Sis had already got to the airport at 08:15 (she overestimated the traffic/time it'd take to get there by a large margin) and ended up waiting ages for us.  We checked in, then went up to have coffee/tea/juice with G's parents and Sis.  Hurriedly afterwards we went to go for security-check etc and had to hug and wave bye there.  Weirdly, G had packed his (way over 100ml) bodywash into his handluggage and had to toss it across the barrier to his dad, but everything else was straightforward.

As we got to the desk to get our passports stamped by immi/emigration, there was an evidently non-English-speaking Asian girl being given a hard time by one of the women there.  Hard time as in, very annoyed attitude, grumpily asking questions and unashamedly dissing the woman by saying stuff like 'we don't want people like you in this country' and 'why do you come here if you can't speak English?'.  I just need to point out that the woman was a black woman.  I felt very sorry for the girl but as we were racing for our plane, I couldn't stop to have a word with the black woman (bitch).  When you're travelling you DON'T need shit like that from anybody, REGARDLESS of how much of the language you speak/don't speak.

We got onto the plane fine, and had a rather quiet flight out from Cape Town to Singapore.  We both got a bit emotional at times, I'm not exactly sure if it was for the same reasons but I obviously ended up suffering more as I had un-dead red eyes and bunged up nose for the rest of the trip.  I did watch Secretariat though, which I enjoyed a lot, and I got overly emotional during the race-winning scenes, which probably gives you an indication of how my emotions were jumbled during the flight.

In Singapore, we met up with May (who I met on the way home from Brisbane on my first trip to Aus), and we had a lekker chat and coffee/icy cold drink.  She gave us 2 oranges and 2 raisin-cakes to celebrate Chinese New Year.  We were going to eat them before we got off the plane in Brisbane, but ended up half-dead/asleep and only managed to eat 1 of each.  At one point during the flight, I had only just managed to drop off to sleep, when I was woken by the airhostess, "ma'am, your TEA!' - I'd asked for tea probably 5mins earlier... if only she knew how reluctantly I woke up!  But, even though we were so tired, the cake was YUMMY (we didn't actually eat the airline's breakfast LOL - there's only so much airline food you can handle in 24hrs) and the orange was refreshing after having water/tea/airline food for so many hours.

We left Singapore 1hr late, as there was something wrong with 1 of the runways (it was rainingy heavily at the time), and we were in a 15-plane queue waiting to get out of Singapore.  We arrived in Brisbane 1hr late too, and then had to collect our bags and go through immigration and customs/quarantine.

Our bags were 100% fine, much to our MAJOR relief as we hadn't taken travel insurance (emigration travel insurance DOESN'T cover bags and we thought it a waste just for medical cover), and we had flown from a South African airport after all.  But, obviously the people at Cape Town airport aren't scums-of-the-earth as the people at Johannesburg are, because our bags were intact.

We got through immigration without a problem, and then had to go through customs/quarantine. In the end, after being sub-sorted according to what we had declared, we got to a counter and had no problems whatsoever.  They scanned our bags and the eats that I'd packed in my handluggage were checked but found to be fine.  We had quite a nice conversation with the quarantine guy there though, as he was apparently from South Africa and welcomed us and wished us good luck for our new life in Aus.

We were met at the airport by (I'll have to call him his proper name because there are far too many G's on this blog already LOL) Gareth, G's ex-uni-classmate.  As we walked out the airport doors (probably 10pm), we were slammed in the face by HUMIDITY!  'WELCOME TO BRISBANE!!!' breathed the air steamily all over us.  It was quite a surprise.  Bear in mind I've only been to Brisbane in April/May, Nov and Aug so not full summer heat at any stage.  It hasn't really cooled down at all in the week that we've been here, but I think we're adapting:  I am going to go tomorrow for a haircut (short), and I am going to go out and buy MORE shorts, plus some strappy sandals (slipslops are a bit too casual in some situations).  Jeans and takkies with socks is just NOT ON.

Ok this is going to be a LONGGGGGGGGGGG blogpost, but it's long overdue so... bear with me :)

Tuesday we slept til about 11, and struggled our way through the day after collecting the hire car, and had supper with Gareth+his family.  Wednesday we visited the mall nearby and then Other-G came to visit us for supper.  G ordered a smartphone, which should arrive any day now.  Thursday, after researching further (I started on Wednesday), we headed out for a road-trip to find & buy MY NEW LAPTOP!!  It's a Toshiba Satellite A660, which is PRETTY NICE!!  I won't go into detail but it's got a Bluraydisk player, built-in webcam/microphone, oh, it's an i5, 4gb RAM, 640gb HDD, 16" widescreen monitor.  I can't think of other details but that's pretty much it.  Oh and it also has bluetooth (which some specs webpages mention and others don't).

For now, while we're waiting for our container/stuff, G's going to use my 'old' laptop.  I just need to take off all my bookmarks/files/etc etc etc, and then it's perfect! I get a new, spunky funky laptop and he gets an old but usable laptop - he doesn't need a new laptop as his desktop is spunky funky like my laptop.

On Friday we pretty much blobbed around, I'm not sure what all we did either (sorry, this is the jetlag typing) - I think on Friday we went to the mall again to explore, and had Hungry Jacks for lunch.  Saturday we headed out to the shops and bought picnic eats and eventually headed out to Mt Coot-tha for a picnic.  We were planning to go to the botanical gardens but missed the 'turnoff' into the garden and ended up stopping elsewhere for a picnic.

No sooner had we sat down at one of the picnic benches, then both a lace monitor and a masked plover made perpendicular beelines towards us.

It was quite alarming.  I froze mid-unwrap of my sub.  The lizard was bearing down on us, flicking its dark, forked tongue hungrily.

Then, without any visible cue, the bird became enraged, screamed and took off into the air.  It then proceeded to attack the monitor ferociously by swooping up high into the air and divebombing it, aiming directly at its head, and bashing it forcefully with its wings.  The monitor was initially unfazed, but then started to duck its head and dodge clumsily, and eventually redirected its course back the way it came.  The plover was almost immediately satisfied and promptly retired to its original position on the walkway, where we'd originally passed it to get to the picnic table.

In case you are wondering just what we were up against, these are the two characters:

Lace Monitor (pic from Flickriver)

Masked Plover (pic from Jamieson Bird Photos)

The adventure doesn't end there, though.  Not long after the lizard/bird action sequence had finished, we were 'adopted' by a "Common Eggfly".  Not a very appealing name but a very cute character:

(Pic from Butterfly Encounters)

For the next few (hours? we sat there for quite a while enjoying the peace and quiet and birdnoise), we were entertained and tickled by this little fellow.  Ok not quite so little, considering he has a 7-8.5cm wingspan.  He flew around us and landed on us and licked me ceaselessly.  I mean that literally: he would land on me and put out his little taste-tube thingiemajiggie and lick non-stop.  It was extremely ticklish, but I hadn't the heart to chase him away.  I can now state with certainty that I have had a butterfly licking my toes LOL.  Who else can say such a thing?

After the long, lazy afternoon at Mt Coot-tha, we headed out to Other-G's place for supper and a movie.  Butter chicken and 'Scott Pilgrim'.  A VERY FUN movie hehe.

Today we didn't do much, just went for a long, hot walk with Gareth + his 3.5-year-old daughter.  It was so hot and sticky and it caused me to decide that I'm going to have my hair cut TOMORROW.  And I'm not going to wear jeans until winter LOL.

Apart from all these events, we've been pretty frustrated by our SA bank f*cking around.  So G's only getting his savings probably at the end of the week.  Which means we have been UNABLE to make use of the fact that we have a hirecar and go test-drive cars or check out rental houses.  The hirecar goes back on Tuesday morning, and so we will have to take a BUS or something to go find a car.  Lovely.  THANK YOU FNB YOU PIECES OF POO.  Incompetent morons.  At least the woman on the helpline when G skyped was helpful.  BUT THERE SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN A PROBLEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!!  WHAT'S SO IMPERMISSIBLE about TRANSFERRING MONEY?!  Ok rant over.  But still frustrated!  So it's been feeling like we're 'on hold' now for the whole week.

Here's hoping this week coming will be at least somewhat more satisfying.  Here's also hoping, beyond hope, that I can have a 'decent' conversation with my mother/sister in the coming weeks.  So far, it's been more of the usual: gripes/moaning/complaining about the other.

Anyway, time to press 'publish' on this tome!