Australia Blog 11- Ca, Ca, Pamel

AUSTRALIA BLOG 11

Today is August 27, 2010

Just when we had given up on car shopping, and decided to take a drive to the mountains, to see what we could see, we pulled in at a dealership whose banners proclaimed, “USED CARS AT COST” and “TENT SALE”. Josh resisted the same explanation he had given at every other dealership and shoddy car lot in town, “I’m looking for two cars, a beater under two grand to get me to work and back, and something reliable for my wife to drive, that will take us around Australia while we are here for a year.” The salesman explained that they do not normally deal in beaters, and that we would probably have to look elsewhere for something under two grand, but that he had just taken a reliable car in on trade that would be just what we were looking for.

The 94, maroonish red 4 door in the middle of the lot had been cleaned and polished to its greatest potential and was just out of reach of being a grandma car. The salesman explained to us that the Holden Commodore, an Australian made car, which looked to me like a Potiac Grandam, was known for its longevity. It had previously been priced at $4888 and because of the Tent Sale; it was now reduced to a firm $3850. Being that I have been in sales once or twice myself, I knew the ‘firm’ was most likely bullshit, and that if you let him put in a lot of time and effort to make the sale, and then walked away from it, the price would miraculously drop, but my sweet husband had no intent on giving him any such trouble. We had seen several comparable cars priced at $6k, and to top it off, the salesman threw in an old used cassette tape converter with an auxiliary jack he had lifted from a trade-in, so that I could use my ipod. Josh signed the papers and we are scheduled to pick it up Wednesday.

After spending most of the afternoon at the dealership, we had run out of time to drive to the mountains, so we opted for a local drive. We took a side road; pass the recycling center and the animal shelter, down a country road and came across what seemed at first to be a petting zoo. On what was the size of a city block, there were well kept paddocks of animals including a camel, three wallabies; which look like mini kangaroos, miniature donkeys, bah bah black sheep, alpaca, goats and the cutest little creatures that looked like half deer, half baby calf. I screamed with excitement, and Josh pulled the car over immediately. The little Australian deer with spots and wet noses came to the fence looking for a handout and petting. I pulled handfuls of grass and talked to them in the voice normally reserved for my dogs for the better part of thirty minutes, until Josh could stand it no more. We walked around to the other side where a little girl and her dad were feeding the camel and the miniature donkey handfuls of leftover fruits and vegetables. There was a house in front of the pens and we made the assumption that it must be owned by crazy people who rescued all of these animals and who must treat them all as pets judging by their friendly temperament. I told Josh that we could be crazy people and rescue strange animals, when he amended my statement and reminded me that there was no, “we crazy people”, and that I was the only crazy one who wanted to rescue strange animals.

I had been missing my dogs something terrible this morning, so the little spotted Australian deer made my day.

This is the same car, but I found this pic online for ya!

Australia Blog 10-Random Australian Info

AUSTRALIAN BLOG 10- Random Australian Info


On our way back from Kate’s yesterday, Josh and I decided it would be cool to throw in random information that we come across in the form of a list so here goes…

Australians say “yep” in place of yes, okay, and I understand. So if you are talking to an Aussie, they will nod their heads and keep saying yep, yep, yep, until you finish. This does not mean, “Yep, I’m a know-it-all, and I’m being rude while you are trying to tell me something”, it means “Okay, go on, I understand what you are trying to say.”

Australians don’t say Kangaroos, they call them Roos, so you look like a fool going around asking were the Kangaroos are.

In fact there are lots of instances where that is the case, these are the ones we have come across so far….

Pissed= Drunk

Costume= Bathing Suit

Fag= Cigarette, lots of Aussies smoke

Root=Sex

Which reminds me of a joke, Craig told us about a Wambat. He said a Wambat eats roots and leaves. We didn’t get it.

How you going? = How are you doing? They use “going” in place of “doing” a lot.

A blinker on the car= Indicator

A Wambat and a Roo are the only animals you should try not to hit with your car, everything else, just run it over.

If you don’t know what a Wambat is, look it up, I don’t know either.

A Lolly= any candy, for the longest, I thought people around here ate lots of suckers.

Nappies= a diper, not a napkin or a wet wipe.

Hire Out= Rent

Mate=friend

Partner=spouse

Toliet= The restroom or bathroom, not just the toilet it’s self.

Trolley=Shopping cart

Tea= Dinner. If you come over for tea, this has nothing to do with tea at all, just means dinner. They even say “eat your tea”, meaning “eat your dinner”

See ya later= Good bye, it’s the only farewell greeting I’ve heard since we’ve been here.

Also, there is an inflection on the end of every sentence.

CURRENCY:

The Australian currency, the dollar, is made up of coin and plastic looking bills. There is a $1, and $2 coin, and only a $5, $10, $15, $20, $100 bill.

Every single coin, no matter what the value, has Queen Elisabeth II on the back.

The coins are .5, .10, .20 and .50 cents. (No quarter or penny)

Gold Coin

$1 =different designs; kangaroos, Outback, Scouts (the size of a quarter)

$2= Aborigines man (the size of a nickel)

Silver Coin

.50 =different designs (the size of a 50 cent piece but with 12 flat edges)

.20 = duckbill platypus (a little larger than our quarter with the same edges)

.10 = peacock (a little smaller than a quarter)

.5 = hedgehog (looks just like a dime)

 
That's all I have for now...stay tuned for more random info.

Australia Blog 9- Tuesday in Oz

AUSTRALIA BLOG 9


August 24, 2010- Tuesday in Oz.

Kate offered to loan us a kitchen table, some dishes, and a bike so Josh and I got up early and headed over to the clinic to borrow the Ute. Ute is Australian for pick-up truck. They are normally small four wheel drive; Toyotas, Fords, Nisans, Missibushis, or an Australian make called a Holden. They are also likely to be fitted with a grill guard, a snorkel and a flat bed with a railing and a canvas cover. As we pulled out of the clinic, embarking on our two hour drive to Kate’s in the Ute, I could tell it was going to be a long one. The little tank felt every bump in the road; the springs in the seat had a way of bouncing you up and down so that the seatbelt tightened on you like a python on a little bunny. Both of which I mentioned to Josh, he found it hilarious and proceeded to tell me how much he wanted one. It was the first time he had driven a ‘manual’ on the left side and he was also having fun muscling in it around without power steering. On the way back from Kate’s, Josh pulled off the road at a used car dealership, I was relieved to have a break from the bouncing and Josh wanted to look at some cheep cars. I’ve decided I am just not going to look at the cars, that way it will just be a surprise. He kept asking me, “Do you like this one?” I wanted to say, “Really? No, I don’t like it. Do I need to like it?” I mean who’s going to like a shithole car they want 2k Australian for, when they have a shiny 4 Runner with leather, and a sunroof at home. The way I see it, I don’t need to like it, it just needs to run. I thought about throwing him off and jumping up and down for the little one with the rust.

We were both in good spirits, were able to find the humor in the situation and the Australian guy at the car lot seemed to be entertained by us. We told him we were on the lookout for kangaroos, so he pointed us down the road to ‘a paddock where there are usually mobs of them’. Sure enough, there were! Our Australian adventure continues!

Australia Blog 8- Crappy Cookies

AUSTRALIA BLOG 8


August 23, 2010

Our couch, or ‘lounge’ rather, was delivered this morning and Josh went out to find a washing machine. He was back shortly and asked me to help him unload the washing machine he bought new at The Good Guys. “What do you mean? You didn’t have it delivered? Did you borrow a truck?” I questioned. “Nope it’s in the back seat of the car.” Incredibly so, a full sized Australian washing machine was in the back seat of the tiny silver car. Josh and I were able to carry it in with ease, it only weighed about 50 pounds, and no, I still don’t know the metric conversions yet, so we’re just going to have to stick to pounds. Also, I’m going to stick to measuring distance in time traveled. The washer is a top load with a plastic lid, and electronic buttons. Most people don’t have a dryer and there is a clothes line in the back, which I have never used, but I remember seeing my Grandma hang clothes on the line when I was a kid. This should be interesting. After installing the new washing machine, we decided to check out the farmer’s market, which is only a block from the house. We picked up some fresh fruit and some ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies. When we got home, I asked Josh to look up a chocolate chip cookie recipe online. When he gave me the recipe, noticed it called for much more flour than I recalled using the last time I made cookies, but I followed the recipe anyway, after all, what do I know. Turns out, Australian chocolate chip cookies are hard and nasty. After nearly breaking a tooth, we had a good laugh and threw them all in the trash, or in the ‘rubbish ben’. Next time we will make sure we get a recipe from an American site. Strangely enough, the Google server directs us to Australian sites; it’s something I never even considered.

We hooked up our garage sale TV, and to our amusement, it picks up 5 channels with just an antenna. They are all actually pretty good, and they all come in in English. We joked that if we were in the States, three of the five would probably be in Spanish. We are learning all kinds of interesting things by watching Australian TV. For instance, there is a public service announcement ad about weapons, apparently the police can randomly search you for weapons, and if you have a knife of any kind, even a pocket knife, you will get a $1000 fine. This was valuable information to obtain, considering my husband carries a knife 100 percent of the time. There are all kinds of good game shows and good reality shows here too. They have Australian Millionaire, with questions about the country’s history that we have no clue about. And my favorite so far, Letters and Numbers, where they give you a scrambled up word and a hint at the definition, one that’s like speed Scrabble where you have to make the largest word with 10 random letters and another part where you have to use 7 given numbers to form an equation to find the given value. It’s so fun! I need to go on the show!

Australia Blog 7- Sunday Brunch

AUSTRALIA BLOG 7


August 22, 2010

(It’s Sunday morning, we are a day ahead, it’s Saturday night for you.)

Sunday morning one of the other interns, Christi, called and invited us for Sunday Brunch with the group at Friers. It’s a beautiful old brick church downtown that has been converted into a cafe. We sat outside of the stain glass windows, out on the moss covered brick balcony upstairs that over looked the street. The morning was cool and crisp; you couldn’t help but feel like you were in God’s house. The other interns; Christi, Tom and Chris joined us shortly. Chris received a vet call and had to leave right after we placed our order with the waitress. Christi, who is finishing the last 6 months of her 12 month internship, is from Melborne. She lives at the clinic and her husband lives in Melborne with their two Australian Shepherds. I can tell Christi and I will get along great. Tom, the head surgeon from Scotland, had recently broken his ribs playing Rugby. He was forced to sit straight up and his pale face winced in pain every time we had a good laugh. Tom had a great since of humor and his thick Scottish accent made everything he said seem twice as funny. When Christi and I shared our mutual phobia of germs and used couches, he found it ridiculous and hysterical, trying not to laugh, in his thick Scottish accent he proclaimed, “We’ve got enough nutters here already, without having to import them!”

We had great company and delicious food, the orange juice was the best I’ve ever tasted. It was fresh squeezed and frothy, most likely from one of the nearby orchards. At $5 a glass, it better be good!

Josh and I spent the rest of the day picking up things for the house. We got a microwave and ordered a couch from Fantastic Furniture. We came home and I cooked our first meal, spaghetti with penne.

Australia Blog 6- Garage Sale

AUSTRALIA BLOG 6


Today is August 21, 2010

At 3 am this morning I felt like I was sleeping in an oven, I woke to my husband shivering and sweating. I pulled on my Uggs and went out to the car in search of a bottle of water and some Ibuprofen. By morning he was feeling much better.

While Josh had a shower, I wrote down all of the garage sale addresses from the paper and located them on a map. We were out the door by 8 am, on the way Josh and I developed a garage sale game plan, to get in and out quickly and efficiently without becoming side tracked by talking to anyone. I was leery about the first garage sale we came to, it was in an old shed and I could see some junk out front. After overlooking all of the collectables and old books, we found a good looking 24’ TV on a stand with a VCR for $20 and a small refrigerator, just the size we were looking for $50. The man and women running the garage sale were very nice and agreed to hold them until we could find a way to move them. As soon as they heard our accents, the questions began and the garage sale game plan was out the window. After getting to know John and Karen, the offered to rent us a furnished house which had recently come available when their mother passed away, Karen offered me a job riding her mare and John had already booked a surgery for Josh to cut his colt when the weather warmed up. When we were finally able to get away, we didn’t have time to go to any more garage sales so we decided to head to the clinic in hopes of borrowing a truck.

When we arrived at the clinic, the only vehicle available was a station wagon, Australians use station wagons in lieu of trucks, in fact all of the vet trucks are station wagons. We were able to lay the seats down flat and load the small refrigerator into the back on it’s side. We stopped on the way home to buy a water hose, some soap and a scrub brush. We unloaded the fridge in the driveway and cleaned it up until it was as good as new.

Next stop, the grocery store, or ‘market place’. The grocery store is located inside a mall, for lack of better terms. There is an interior corridor with a collection of stores including a drug store similar to Walgreens, a cell phone or ‘mobile’ store, an accessory store similar to a small Charming Charlies, and in place of where you would normally see a giant cookie vendor in the states are fresh bread and fresh meat markets. We were able to navigate the grocery store full of unfamiliar brands with ease. I found it strange that right next to the packaged meat section, in the same cooler as the beef, there was an entire section of refrigerated, packaged dog foods. Most of them were packaged in big tubes the way we package pan sausage or cookie dough. Another notable difference is that the shopping carts or ‘trolleys’ don’t have a fixed back wheel like they do in the states, instead the front and the back wheel s pivot, making it strange to push, but much easier if you want move sideways.

We unloaded groceries into our new fridge and surprisingly spacious pantry and had sandwiches on plastic plates in the floor. We laughed about not knowing what to recycle and what to throw in the trash. The trash cans here are tiny. They don’t even sell what we consider kitchen sized trash cans, they use trash cans in the kitchen the size of what we would consider an office size. The trash containers outside look the same as ours, with two wheels and the flat hinged top except they are mini, literally half as tall and half as wide for recyclables, everyone also gets an even smaller one for trash. I was in hopes that there would be some kind of instruction on the lid about what is acceptable but no luck. I’m going to look online to see if I can figure it out when I get a chance.

Australia Blog 5

AUSTRALIA BLOG 5


August 22, 2010

Josh and I woke up early to make the drive to Shepparton for his meeting. It was still dark outside when we carried all of our bags and belongings out of Kate and Craig’s house, into the cold, and loaded them quietly into the tiny silver car. In the distance, through the darkness, Australian animals filled the dark morning air with eerie howls and sounds from birds we’d never heard. I hurried into the passenger seat, on the left side of the car and fumbled to turn on the heater. We made the two hour drive in silence, while Josh let me stay in my head, the way I like to do in the morning.

I dropped him off at his meeting and headed over to Stockdale & Leggo, the real estate office. I took Carley the deposit and the prepaid rent in hopes of receiving the house key so that I could unload the car and situate our things while Josh was in his meeting. She let me know that there was still paperwork to be process and that we wouldn’t be able to get the key until late this evening or tomorrow, and advised that I come back to check around 3.

I decided to go to Target to get some bath towels and a few other necessities in the meantime. When I pulled up in front of the tiny foreign Target on the left of the two lane road, I parallel parked the tiny silver car, without the assistance of power steering, another luxury I will never take for granted. The man at the door offered me a trolley, I accepted the basket and headed for the home section. Thankfully the $30 towels were on sale, I got three, a bath mat, several boxes of close hangers, and a blow dryer and straighter with Australian power plugs. I pushed the basket to the front of the store to stand in a line formed by shelves of last minute hopefuls. One at a time the checkers called the next person in line until it was my turn. Feeling completely out of place, I pushed the basket up to the strange looking dark haired lady at the counter. She greeted me with a, “How ya going?” And I replied, confused as always as to why they don’t just say, How are you or How are you doing. She rang my items up one at a time and stopped on the third towel, the smaller one I had intended to use on my hair, and then called for a price check. I could have died; the entire line was already staring at me, surely because of my accent, maybe because of how I was dressed or maybe even because I didn’t respond properly to the, “How ya going”. Maybe, “Fine thank you, how are you?” is completely out of the ordinary. In what seemed like an eternity, she finally prompted me to swipe my card. Declined. “I’m sorry, I just moved here from the United States a few days ago, and my husband told me my Visa card would work because we haven’t received our cards from the Common Wealth Bank yet.” I explained. The strange looking dark haired lady, who I could barely understand looked at me in bewilderment and then agreed to hold my trolley so that I could walk down to the bank and make a withdraw. Frazzled and embarrassed, I tried not to make eye contact with the line of people behind me as I left but I could feel their eyes.

I stepped out onto the sidewalk and looked left before stepping out into the street, just then I was almost hit by a truck coming from the right. My heart raced and I hurried once again to the tiny silver car, this time remembering to get in on the right side. I drove straight to the place where I dropped Josh off for his meeting. I parked and went upstairs and searched through the crowded room until I found my husband. He met my eyes from across the room and I know my expression must have said, “I need you, I’m scared, please come help me” because he got up and left the meeting to meet me back downstairs at the car.

As soon as Josh was there, I was okay. We went to the Common Wealth Bank to withdraw some Australian money and then walked back over to Target. We got our things and decided to spend the rest of the day finding furniture, and most of all, a bed so that we could stay at the house incase Carley was able to give us the key tonight. Kate and Craig had given us a blow up mattress, so we weren’t overly worried about buying something today.

After pricing mattresses and some cheep furniture from Fantastic Furniture, we bought and electric blanket and picked up a newspaper paper and decided to hit some garage sales in the morning. We swung by the real estate office and Carley had our key ready. When we got to the house the utilities company still had not turned the power on, the house was frigid. We carried in our bags, the blow up mattress and the electric blanket. The utility company had until 7pm and we had not eaten all day so we decided to grab some dinner, someplace nice, we had only tried our hand at fast food so far. Hungry Jack’s, the Australian version of Burger King, with the drive through window on the right side of the car, was not going to do it tonight.

We found a restaurant downtown called the Bullion Bar. We asked the waiter for a warm place to sit; we both had the chicken soup from the daily special and a bowl of pasta. Our eyes must have been larger than our stomachs because neither of us made a dent in the pasta dish. When we asked the waiter for a to-go container he apologetically informed us that the government does not allow restaurants to give out to-go boxes without a special license for carry out. He took our plates and we waited for him to come back with a check but he never did. When he finally came to find out why we were still sitting there, he informed us that we have to pay the cashier up front. Our bill was $80, thankfully it is not customary to tip in Australia. We will be eating at Hungry Jack’s from now on.

When we got home from dinner, the power had been turned on. We unrolled the blow up mattress in the bedroom and waited for it to automatically inflate, as told. Nothing happened. We looked for instructions, but there were none. After tossing around the idea of sleeping in the floor on top of the flat mattress, Josh left for the mattress store. The delivery driver delivered one mattress, on short notice, in the dark. We slept well, on a mattress in the floor, with heat and an electric blanket.

Australia Blog 4

AUSTRALIA BLOG 4


Today is August 19, day three in Australia.

I woke up at 6 am to call my mom  at a decent hour from Josh’s prepaid mobile phone.  It was 3 pm there. An easy way to calculate our time difference, from Texas, is to add 3 hours to your current time and then switch the am and pm. My mom and I caught up, then I went back to sleep and Josh went out to help Craig move stuff and clean out his shed, or as Craig says, they were shifting some things around. We got a call from Carley at the real estate office to let us know we got the house and we could move in Saturday. Josh called and got our utilities set up; they will be turned on tomorrow. We decided to stay in Albury for the day and hang out with Craig. He took us to Fantastic Furniture to price some things. I practiced driving on the left side of the road in town and we did a little shopping. He taught us how to buy bread and raw meat at the market. It’s all fresh, behind the counter and they slice the bread for you. Whatever you do, don’t ask for wheat bread. They will look at you like you are insane. When I ordered a sandwich the other day, the lady asked me what kind of bread I wanted, and I said, wheat. She replied, they are all made with wheat, what kind do you want?! I learned today that the correct answer would be whole grain. Stupid me.
Kochy and Elissa are coming over to Craig and Katie’s tonight and we are going to cook out, or as Craig says, Barbecue. We are having a roast on the grill.
Josh and I have to get up at 5am to drive to Shepparton so that Josh can be at a meeting that starts at 9am. Maybe we’ll see some kangaroos that early in the morning. While he is in his meeting, I’m planning on going over to the real estate office to get the key, going to buy some clothes hangers and start hanging up and situating some of our clothes. For now, the guest room may double as a walk-in closet. It’s actually about the size of our old closet. Then it’s off to Target to buy towels and a few essentials. Yes, they have Target but it is definitely a horse of a different color.

Australia Blog 3 -Homeless

AUSTRALIA BLOG 3


Day two in Australia. Josh and I got up early to make the two hour drive back to Shepparton, or Shep, as Craig calls it, to hit the town to find a place to live, set up a bank account and get me a phone. The car Kate and Craig let us borrow is a tiny silver hatchback similar to a Geo. Getting in on the correct side of the car is still a challenge, but we switched and Josh took the driver’s seat. We found our way back to the highway, and casually planned our day when suddenly another car was heading straight for us. Josh swerved into the left lane, the car we nearly had a head on with honked and flipped us off. The rest of the day’s driving went much better after our morning wake up call, and we remembered to keep left the rest of the day. In fact, when we stopped to get petro, I drove.
Our first stop was the Common Wealth Bank of Australia. We set up an account, exchanged our American dollars and made friends with the banker, who’s also named Craig.
Next, we went to several real estate offices and looked at the houses they had for rent. We asked three offices to take us to look at houses and they all wanted to call us back set up appointments, we were a little discouraged and the rain wasn’t helping our efforts. Finally, we tried one last office, and a girl named Carley helped us. We told her we were looking to spend $250/week, on something small and nice. She said she had something in mind and took us to see it right away; it had just come on the market. It was one of three units, kind of like a condo in the States. It was brick with a nice covered carport and walk way, no yard to keep but ,a really cute flower bed with a blooming shrub that looks like a pink Magnolia. It had two tiny rooms, a laundry room, bathroom with a glass stand up shower and a tub, living room, and a kitchen with white counter tops, a bar, a tiny stove and a big window over the sink. The back yard was solid concrete and wrapped all the way around the side of the house. Perfect for a patio to cook out on and no grass to mow. We took one walk through, Josh confirmed that it had central heat and air, and it was sold. At $235/week it even came in under budget. We went back to the office and filled out the application just before the office closed at 5:30. Carley asked Josh when we wanted to move in if the application was accepted, Josh told her we needed to move in as soon as possible because the bridge we were sleeping under was getting cold.

Australia Blog 2 -Long Day

AUSTRALIA BLOG 2 -Continued


The first time we saw them, we had to lock up the breaks and turn around to go back and have a second look at the huge white parrots with yellow feathers on top of their heads. Cockatoos are everywhere! In the States, people keep them as pets and teach them to talk, here, they are a pest to the farmers. The birds here are amazing, there are also flocks of big grey parrots with pink heads everywhere and huge black and white birds, shaped like crows that sound like puppies. As soon as I can get online, I’m going to find out what they are.

Endless green country side, speckled with white sheep was broken occasionally with fruit orchards and wineries. We saw olive trees for the first time and canola fields. Endless fields of yellow flowers, we later learned are harvested to make Canola Oil.

We even saw foxes, there were ten to fifteen dead foxes hanging on display in a row on the fence outside a green pasture of sheep. Apparently sheep farmers are not a fan of the fox.

When we arrived in Albury, Kate’s husband Craig picked us up at the Albury Airport so that we could drop off the rental car. Josh had met Kate one other time when she was in the States for Gabbe’s wedding, but neither of us had ever met Craig. He is a really nice guy, a man’s man and a stereotypical Australian. He and Josh have already hit it off, I think they will be good friends, or mates as Craig would say. Craig took us straight to the beer store upon arrival. We went to this place called Dan Murphy’s it is Australia’s version of Spec’s with a few exceptions. They even sell Dos Eques. They have every kind of liquor and beer we have in the States, plus thousands of Australian beers and liquors we’d never heard of but Craig gave us a crash course. They even sell cold cases of Coke with any kind of whiskey you can imagine already mixed in. Josh and Craig got some Australian beer and I got a cold Jack and Coke roadie in a can. In Australia, it’s legal to drink in the car, as long as the driver doesn’t have one.

On the way back to Kate and Craig’s house, Craig’s buddy who lives down the road called. Craig had him on speaker but I couldn’t understand a word of his thick Australian accent. When he got off the phone, Craig informed us that he was going off about his bloody broken chain saw. Craig told him we’d stop by and take a look at it.

Dean Koch, better known as Kochy is a plumber and his wife Elissa rides polo ponies. Craig tinkered with the chain saw while we all stood around getting to know each other over an Australian beer in the garage looking out over the most gorgeous view of green countryside and rolling hills I’ve ever seen. I’m dying to go see a game of Polo.

We left Kochy’s and headed over to pick up Keira, Craig and Katie’s one year old little girl, from the sitter. She is adorable, with big blue eyes and blond baby hair. Kate got home shortly after we did. She looks exactly like a blue-eyed Gabbe, she is also just as pleasant and accommodating. We all quickly caught up while Kate and Craig cooked dinner and we played with Keira. After dinner was all a blur, we were both exhausted; we grabbed a quick shower and hit the bed for the best sleep of our lives.

Australia Blog 2- Sorry about the delay, we just now got internet service.

AUSTRALIA B LOG 2


Today is August 18, 2010. Day 2 in Australia and already it has been a whirlwind adventure.

I wanted to blog last night but there was no way I could have strung a sentence together, so I’ll catch you up.

First thing is first, as promised, for Glenna, Josh and I were both wrong about the toilets. They flush straight down because they have strange toilets that do not swirl at all. In addition, there are no handles, just two buttons on top of the tank, one for full flush and one for half flush….still haven’t figured the logistics out on that one just yet. I’m sure it has something to do with conservation. One thing I’ve learned is that we Americans are wasteful in every way possible, but I’ll tell you more about that later.

We flew out of LA Sunday evening and arrived in Melbourne Tuesday morning at 5am. The eighteen hour plane ride was an experience in it’s self. The seats were a dream compared to any domestic flight I’ve ever taken but after that amount of time, they become slightly less compelling. We were lucky enough to have the row of three seats to ourselves, dodging the fat lady who’s leg sneaks under the arm rest and takes up half of your seat and the Indian guy who sleeps on your shoulder and smells like fresh curry. There were touch screens in the back of each seat with a movie selection similar to Red Box including games and a television series section. I watched an entire season of The Kardashians, and an entire season of Glee and loved every second of it. Normally, my favorite thing about flying, actually the only good thing about flying, besides arriving at your destination, is that I get a chance to dive into a good book without interruptions. I took three books and didn’t crack one.

With only eight hours to go, we decided to get some sleep. That was also interesting. Josh is 6’3 and I am 5’7. Three airplane seats are roughly 5 feet wide, you can imagine. There was not much sleep to be had but at least we were able to lay down, kindof. I had this experience once before when my good friends Scott and Lynn made me sleep in a cubby hole on their boat full of boating gear.

At 3am, two hours before we landed we decided to get up and watch Shreck 4 Ever After and enjoy some breakfast. As soon as we landed and went through customs, which was no problem because they were too distracted by Josh’s cowboy hat to notice the snuff he smuggled into the country rolled in a pair of swim trunks, we headed out in search of a rental car and a cell phone. Timing was on our side, we were able to walk right in as the ¬¬ Optus Mobile opened to buy a simcard with prepaid minutes to use in Josh’s phone and then across the road in 30 degree weather to pick up a car from the rental place which was also just opening.

I was hoping for the black Mini we passed on the way in but Josh opted for the midsize so that he could drive without his knees in the steering wheel. They gave us a dark grey Ford which looked almost like an American car apart from the steering wheel in the passenger seat.

We loaded our bags and made some quick calls to our moms to let them know we made it safe. We figured it would be a good idea considering the danger of driving on the left side of the road while maneuvering through a large foreign city for the first time in our lives. With that taken care of, we headed out. Being that I am not the best driver, Josh took the wheel. With only minor bobbles and a few dirty looks, we made it out of Melbourne alive. As soon as we got on the major highway out of town, the Hume Hwy, we saw KANGAROOS!

We headed North toward Albury to our good friend Gabbe’s sister’s house. In a last minute attempt to keep us from sleeping under a bridge, Kate suggested we stay with her until we find a place. She also offered to let us drive one of their vehicles until we found one. We drove for three hours through the rolling green hills with endless country side covered in white sheep and blue skys. It was gorgeous.

When we came to Shepparton, we found the Golburne Valley Equine Hospital, which was marked clearly with blue road signs just like a human hospital in the states, we stopped in to meet the team Josh will be working with for the next year. Libby met us in the lobby and gave us the grand tour. We enjoyed meeting everyone and were ready to get back on the road because the sooner we got to Kate’s, the sooner we could sleep.

First blog post for AUSTRALIA

Josh's mom and dad, sister Kylie and baby, Bralie came to Pilot Point Saturday to visit and help us pack.  We've packed a surprising amount of clothes in a total of 3 suitcases and now, rather than paying the crazy luggage rates for flying bags, we are shipping them via FedEx all the way to Australia.  Funny thing, these airlines, we can only fly 50 pound bags to LA, then 70 pound bags from there to Australia because it's an international flight...where the heck we are going to put those extra 20 lbs before we get there, I don't know.
Also, thanks to the silly "No liquids on an airplane unless they are in a Ziploc" rule, I still have to find 4 oz bottles and cram them all into a stupid little Ziploc bag.  Apparently, the Ziploc and the small foreign containers are going to save us all from terrorism...
I digress, enough sarcasm....
The house is empty, my good old yellow bear; Cutter is with Josh's parents in Canyon, profusely searching and hunting for rabbits, and my baby, the pain in the ass Shepherd; Gabriel is at my mom's.  I miss Gabriel TONS already, he has been stuck to my side like glue for the past two years so I'm a little lost without him.
However, Mom reports that he has already trained her to his liking.  He wakes her up at 3am every morning to go on a field trip out to the yard.  Like I said, he's a pain in the ass, but I love him.
Josh sold his truck and I "gave" my 4 Runner to my mom, translation, my mama is going to pay the payments and drive it while I'm gone, along with baby sitting my dog. 
We leave Pilot Point on Friday and fly to Austin.  Dad, Jeanene, Zoe, Kash and Ivan are going to drive in from Houston to pick us up at the Austin airport and go to dinner, then take us to Smithville.  Saturday we are having a farewell cookout with Mom, Scott, Kaley and a few friends.  At last, Sunday morning we fly from Austin to LA to wait all day (hopefully crash in the Admiral's Club or find a hotel pool) and then, Sunday afternoon fly for 18 hours to Australia.  We won't get there until TUESDAY....Yep, loose Monday completely....still trying to be okay with that.
We will arrive in Melborne at 5 am, find a hotel and figure it out from there.  We looked at a couple furnished, serviced apartments online but we want to go look in person.  I'm sure we will find a great place to live that won't break the bank, with these crazy Australian weekly rates, preferably not under a bridge.
That's all I have for now!