Gold Coast holiday

     Ahhhh, a beach weekend that we all loved!  We left on Thursday (more about that later) for some fun in the sun and sand, and totally enjoyed ourselves.  The sand on the E. Coast of Australia is totally amazing-soft, white, powdery, and full of beautiful seashells at the waveline.  Could not ask for a better place to relax.  We took the beach towels, some sand toys, couple of beach umbrellas and camped out for the day.  We also took in some rides at Movie World and an afternoon at Wet and Wild, spent a day at Seaworld and Movie World, and did I mention hanging at the beach?  The water temp was a bit cool, but with the rising heat refreshing.  Alex is figuring out how to body surf and I bet a body board will be in her future!  With the incoming tide the waves got pretty good sized, almost a meter in height, and were knocking people around pretty well.  We watched a lifeguard grab his board and go in after a couple of kids whose inflatable board got caught in a riptide-panicked their mom, but they were fine.  Nice to know they are on the guard and ready to help out.  I don't think he even hardly got wet!
   Now, before our holiday, that was exciting.  We finally received the closing papers via email, got them printed out, and had to find a Notary to do the seals and signatures.  There are 2 kinds of signature witnesses here, a Justice of the Peace, and a Notary Public.  Apparently the JP is only good for Australian papers and verifying copies of original documents-I will need a JP to sign my diploma copies, transcripts, etc. when I get my fingerprint report back from the FBI and submit my application for teacher certification.  So, where to find a Notary in a foreign country?  We got lucky, Murphy finally did not raise his weary head and toss something our way!  The JP in the local elected officials office explained the difference and gave us contact info for a Notary in Carina.  Turns out the guy just happened to be working from home Thursday and agreed to see us without an appointment.  WHEW in a big way.  Finally got the papers signed, stamped, embossed, and in priority mail back to the states in time for closing on the house this coming week!  I just checked the shipping status-they are in customs clearance in LA and moving north tomorrow.  YAY!
     The kids have 1 more week of holiday before the start of 4th term next week.  Busy day today-found a bike rack that holds 4 bikes, we'll have to get a roof rack once all the kids are riding their bikes to fit the last one on top!  It's a better design than the one we left for Dad-this has a lever to release to drop down for access to the back of the Nissan-Annika can do it all by herself!  Love Swedish engineering.  One of the car tyres has been needing air regularly-took it in, and yep, a nail in the sidewall.  Had to order a new tyre (notice the Aussie spelling being used now too?) that will be in tomorrow.  These are aftermarket rims and tyres-and I'm not impressed with them at all.  I also found a family doctor that is not only recommended by several families at school, but is also taking new patients.  Hooray!  Those papers go in tomorrow and hopefully I can stop in and get a haircut as well.  Getting shaggy here!
     Hard to believe that fall is starting back home just as we are getting into the summer groove.  If you think you need a break from the cold, you know where to go!

Summer is coming!

     Summer IS coming on strong here now.  The temps are rising to the mid 70's and the sun is intense!  Bring on the sunblock. . .
     We spent the weekend trying out the beaches now that is is finally warmer.  Saturday was spent organizing the garage so we can put stuff we don't need behind the stuff we think we might need.  I still have not unpacked those last few boxes marked "Toy room" and think I will continue to avoid them if possible.  The kids don't miss their toys right now anyway!  We figured we had worked enough and pulled out about 12:30 to go to Redcliffe, up north of us.  All I can say is WOW!  It was perfect-parking on the road by the beach, lifeguards (not the cute ones either-these guys had serious guts.  Maybe next time!), cool water and plenty of sun.  We loafed all afternoon-and loved it.  Aussie national footwear-thongs.  And they are practical for the beach, and anywhere else you care to go!  Thinking our footwear will come to have several for each person before too long.
     Since Saturday was so successful, we decided to go to the Gold Coast and check out the beaches in Surfers Paradise-along with most of Brisbane and those on school holiday.  We were stuck in a multi kilometer traffic back up-moved all of 1/2k in 20 minutes and still had 10k to go!  We took the next left turn and headed back out-time for backup plan!  We ended up at Movie World for a few rides, decided we were already packed to enjoy the water, so dashed next door to Wet and Wild water park.  Think we found our new favorite summer place.  The kids had a ball with the slides, huge wave pool, and of course, ice cream.  They didn't even do 1/4 of what was there, so looks like we will be back often.
     The kids have a 2 week school holiday for between terms!  We are going for 3 nights back to the Gold Coast (hopefully miss the Brisbane traffic exodus this time) and explore that region a bit more.  There are also museums and matinee performances available, so much to do, so we'll have to see about doing some of it!
     Annika lost a tooth at school this week.  She was so excited the tooth fairy found her here!  Ian also got his summer haircut-number 2 clipper attachment.  He looks so darn cute with his summer buzz cut!  Time to go get some dinner into everyone-Aussie meat pies, steamed green beans, and salad.  Eating on the deck if the mossies don't devour us first!  Time to stock up on bug spray too.

Unpacking, and more unpacking

     All I can say is W.O.W.  We have too much stuff!  As I have been unpacking the boxes, I have been repacking about 1/2 of everything.  Skimmed the kitchen gadgets and dishes, books, toys are next (dreading that one-thinking Annika and Ian can do that one with me this weekend), and just plain junk.  Since we lived in Wenatchee longer than anyplace we have lived since we lived with our parents, not to mention adding a couple of kids, the stuff started to grow.  And grow.  You get the picture.  At least I now have a much better idea of what exactly it is we have since I labeled the boxes better than the movers-a running inventory as I re-wrapped and taped back up.  Boxes are now stacked around the perimeter of about 1/2 the garage with furniture filling in the bay where another car could theoretically be parked.  Not in this garage!  It also reinforced the need to get into a bigger place when our lease is up in 10.5 months.  On the plus side, I am down to the dreaded toy room boxes, my dresser, and that is really it.  At least packing for the next move will be much easier-the house is already half packed!
     We had a great weekend.  Lyle got home Friday night, only an hour or so later than planned, so about typical we are noticing for the flights from Newcastle to Brisbane.  He was a bit overwhelmed with the stuff all over the house, and the progress we had made as well.  We tackled the garage together on Saturday going through boxes, sorting, shifting, taking things upstairs and other boxes back down for storage.  We got the main computer hooked up-that was fun!  We toasted the good surge protector when we forgot to put the step down voltage transformer between the wall and the surge unit.  Whoops!  We found another one in Alex's computer box and ran a 3 plug extension cord for the TV stuff.  Then we called mom and dad to beg a care package consisting of surge protectors and a couple of movies for the kids.  Needless to say, her computer won't be hooked up for awhile so she gets to use my Mac laptop-spoiled!  On a technical note though, our computer are dual voltage, but the house has so few plugs we have to run everything through the stuff we do have.  Would you believe I have a total of 4 plugs in the entire living dining room area?  They really think that will work?
     On Sunday we went to a BBQ with some other American Rio employees we had met at the Fireworks last weekend.  They just moved into a larger house as well, and also closer to the school they wanted their girls to get into.  They have been here for just over 4 years and are applying for permanent residency.  They totally love it here!  Their new neighbors came from South Dakota and have been here for a month.  Between us we have 8 kids ages 2-12, and they all get along great.  There was also an Aussie family who have been friends with the Americans since they all lived outside of Melbourne.  They were super entertained listening to the Americans as were we to them!  Fun time for everyone.  By the way, Aussies don't use hotdog buns for their sausages or hotdogs, they simply wrap in a slice of bread!  Much cheaper at any rate-a package of generic buns runs about $4 for 6!
     This is the last week of school for the girls before the end of term break.  They have off the last 2 weeks of September and start back for the last term of the year the first week of October.  We are looking at planning for a beach day this weekend as the temps are getting up into the low 80's this weekend with plenty of sun.  Not to mention that we also found the towels, coolers (chilly bins here!), buckets, towels, beach chairs, etc.  Now to decide where to go-spoiled that we have some of the best beaches in the whole world only 30 min to 2 hours from here!

Rainstorm-YIKES!

     Ok, so Brisbane looks like it is going to be queen of storm city!  I just got done tossing everything I could that was on the deck into the house-a stack of cardboard boxes over a foot tall, 2 huge boxes filled with packing paper, the laundry rack.  W.O.W. is all I have to say.  I was drenched just from the side blow!  The grey water tank will be nicely topped off again-bring on the laundry and toilet flushing.  I understand that these storms are not unusual, this is just typical spring into summer weather.  Then we get into cyclone season-oh the joy!
     Unpacking is going ok, so far.  We figure the house is only about 1200 square feet, so just over half of what we are used to.  I went to a builder supply store and bought a hand truck.  Great story there-suffice it to say I have to find the bike tire pump to fill the tires.  In one of the boxes down in the garage, most likely buried in the far back corner. . . I managed to get one tire inflated at the gas station, but the valve is wonky on the other one.  So, I manhandled some boxes down to get some room in the living area-good thing too or I would not have had room for the stuff from the deck!
     Lyle gets back from a week in Newcastle tonight!  He's been gone since Monday, so has missed out of much of the box drama.  I think he feels bad.  He'd better feel bad!  At any rate, there are still 4 wardrobe boxes in the upper hallway so we have to go sideways, and stuff all over the bedrooms.  We'll continue to unpack, repack and sort and in the meantime, start keeping our eyes out for a bigger place next year!  It's nice to know my clothes are here, but can't get to them as the dresser is in the middle of the boxes in the garage.  Sigh.  Tell me again why we didn't just store the winter coats with my parents?  2-3 wardrobe boxes will just be taped back up as they won't be used here!
     Sunday will be a busy day for us.  Lyle is running a 10k Bridge to Brisbane race that starts at 6:00 am.  That's right, 6 AM!  The start is about 8 miles from here, and I think I can get him within about 1k of the starting line.  We are figuring a 4:30 departure to get him there as they are expecting 30,000 racers for this part!  He'll have to take his cell phone and call when the bus gets him back to the starting point for a pickup!  We are also going to a BBQ with a family we met at the fireworks last weekend.  Their 2 older girls are 1 year older and 1 year younger than Alex and their youngest is just a bit older than Annika.  They all get along great and all the girls were bugging the moms to get together so they could visit again!  They are also inviting their neighbors who have a boy Ian's age so he has someone to play with too.  Super nice people!
     Saturday is go through the garage day and sign Alex up for school swim team day.  She's excited!  She also signed up for softball for her term 4 sport day.  Aussie schools take about 1/2 day each school week and devote it to sports-Cricket, Netball (think basketball without a backboard), soccer, Aussie Football, rugby, etc.  She wasn't able to participate since we moved here as the signups are for the term.  We pay $5 per week for transportation-so it works out about the same as an after school league.  But better as our weekends are ours!  They play against other schools, have tournaments, and parents can go watch as well.  School swim team practices after school, time depending on the squad she goes with, inter school meets are Friday evening.
     Confirmed that the USA TV's do not work in Australia.  Oh, well.  All we used it for at home was DVD and Netflix anyway.  I managed to get the telly and DVD player hooked up, the kids are bugging me to get the Wii up and running too.  Before we left we bought 3 voltage transformers to step down from 220 to 110 so our electronics don't fry.  I have to run the TV stuff through the transformer-working like a charm!  I had to swipe a power strip from the computer box until I find the one that goes with the TV stuff, but for now I am thankful to watch something besides the 10 movies we brought with us 2 months ago.  If I have to watch Megamind one more time I think I will LOSE my MIND!
     More later family and friends-I am glad to keep you up to date!  Feel free to comment on the site as well.  Let's me know I'm not just writing to cyberspace!

Brisbane Festival

     Looks like I am settling into a 2 blog a week to keep everyone updated-the post weekend and getting ready for the weekend type!  I hope you have all enjoyed this run down of our lives-it's therapeutic for me to write about what we are experiencing-especially the stressful things.  I can look back and laugh about how we did the first few weeks now.  Strained laughter, but laughter nonetheless!
     So, this weekend was the kick off to the Brisbane Festive.  Take a look at www.brisbanefestival.com.au and you will see this is not a little event.  Think Boise River Festival going on for 3 weeks, that is how big this has gotten.  We took the bus into downtown about 2 pm and wandered around Queen Street mall for a bit.  Then we headed down to the river to stake out our viewing sites.  Rio Tinto's office building is right on the river and they have a great patio overlooking it as well.  Their social club puts out requests for sign ups and block out space for over 300 people.  This is nice as space is at a premium and it means you can come into town, (if you rate a parking spot in their garage you can park there as well!) drop your stuff, and wander about.  We chose not to wander, but to park and socialize.  The main hang out was across the river and around the bend at South Bank (one of our favorite spots in the city) but with about 1/2 million people expected to be there, we decided to go for 300+.  Glad we did, and one of the guys Lyle works with reported it was shoulder to shoulder.  Not good with short kids!
     The fireworks were something to see.  We have never been to a show this elaborate, long, and loud!  It was coordinated to music, but no one remembered to bring a radio!  We decided our favorite fireworks were the spiraling ones that went in all directions, the rapid fire fanning and multicolored ones, and the best of all was the firework waterfall coming down from the Storey Bridge.  In addition to the bridge based pyrotechnics, there were several barges anchored all along the river firing like mad too.  The show stretched along the river for nearly a mile, everything coordinated beautifully!  There were 3 bridges, something like 6 barges, and over 1 million people along the river to view it all.  Amazing!  If you want to see the stretch of river involved, go to Google Maps and look up Brisbane.  Look for the Storey Bridge, then go upstream around the bend to North Quay.  You should see 3 bridges on the map there-pedestrian, dedicated busroute, and general traffic.  The best part, since it is just heading into spring, the show was at 7:00, so we were able to make it home about 9:30.
     Once the show was over, we packed up and headed back to Queen Street Mall for the underground bus pickup.  Ian was exhausted by this time-he doesn't take a nap anymore (I miss those naps more than he does!) and he fell asleep as I piggy backed him half a mile or so.  Lyle had Annika's hand and 3 camp chairs-trust me, I got the best deal!  We made it through the maze that is the bus depot and even found seats on the bus-a big deal when you have that many people running for home.  Thanks to Translink for making them free until 10 pm too!  Annika was asleep on my lap in the first mile, and had to start waking her up 3 stops from home.  She was wiped out!  Then we had a 300m walk back to the "flat" and bedtime.
     Sunday was a bit mellower as we had a late night on Saturday.  We had decided to go to the beach at the Gold Coast, but Annika and Ian's behavior pretty much nuked that idea.  I won't take them someplace if they act like spoiled monsters.  So, when Lyle was ready for his afternoon run, we went to Minnippi Parklands, took the camp chairs and hung out there for a few hours.  Glad we did too-much less stressful than hauling stuff to the beach on an iffy weather day!  Kids played until they were worn out, Lyle had a nice run and Alex rode her scooter with him.  Lyle tore some muscle fibers in his calf a couple of weeks ago and has a 10k run to do as part of the festival this coming weekend, so has been babying it.  Looks like he will be ready to go!  However, (always a however, or a but, isn't there) he's traveling all this week and cannot pick up his racepack, or get another run in before the race.  Solution-Gayle and Ian get to take the bus into town on Wednesday or Thursday, get to the office, hope the reception desk HAS the packs still, and get back home with it.  Ian loves the busses, and frankly, I like them too.  Lyle's not so enamored with them-he's too tall and doesn't fit in the seats well at all.  Thinking that we will look for a house next year to rent near a train stop.  That's a future entry though.
     On the "where's the stuff" front, good news all around!  We get our container tomorrow!  It was originally scheduled for Friday last week, but a pine cone Christmas craft was confiscated.  We were given the choice of incineration (free) or heat fumigation ($550).  Guess what we picked?  None of the kids really recognized it from the picture in the email, no sentimental value, bye bye pine cone!  At least we don't have the 2-3 week delay and every box opened and scrutinized in detail story for this one.  I have heard stories from others that make me very glad for our little pine cone.  So, our luxury campout on air mattresses and picnicing on the living room floor will come to an end.  To be replaced with tons of boxes and not much space to put it all.  I plan to unpack, sort, and repack most of what we own over the next week, storing it in the garage below.  Less space = less stuff!  But, I won't get rid of much as when we do move into a house, we will want it back!
     So, what's going on this week that you will hear about later?  Lyle is off for his first full week of traveling fun!  He left in the cab at the same time as we left to walk to school.  He'll be back sometime Friday.  Tuesday, get our stuff day.  Wednesday, go to town for race stuff day AND the Arts Show at school in the evening.  Thursday-full on unpacking day, Friday too.  After school Friday is Annika's parent teacher conference for 3rd term, Alex's will most likely be sometime towards the end of the week as well.
     A happy 91st birthday to Grandpa Gene!  The family had a wonderful surprise brunch Sunday morning for him.  I had to content myself with a phone call, but so nice to be able to call so easily.  I also visited with cousin Kim on the phone this week and Skype has been great as well.  We got to see the new puppy!  She's all sorts of cute.  Dad gave us the backyard tour of the new concrete and storage shed spot as well.  I gave them the laptop tour of the flat.  Tiny, but functional.

Aussie Birds-It's Spring, bombs away!

     Just a teaser in the title today, we'll get to the birds in a few!
     Alex did a spectacular job at the music performance last night!  She sang a solo with a group of 4 girls who did a pretty good job with Ain't no Mountain High Enough.  It was a bit of a zoo-one of the girls didn't show for the concert so they drafted 2 year 7 girls to fill in last minute.  For that matter, the entire evening was a bit thrown together, but the effort on the part of the kids was nice and it was good to see so many kids enjoying the music.  Thank you to Coorparoo Primary for letting us use their Auditorium-beautiful facility!  And thank you to Wenatchee music teachers-your standards are high and Alex was missing your organization and encouragement last night!
     Now, back to the birds.  Australia has several similar bird species to North America.  A couple you would find very familiar also have the same names-the Crow and the Magpie.  1st, the Magpie.  Here's a link to Wikipedia describing the bird and a nice picture too.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Magpie
As for the bird itself, it is a bit larger than our Magpie, but just as noisy.  I was at the park last week with Ian and one hopped up next to me, eyeballing me like I was going to steal his lunch.  Turns out I may have just done that, in his mind.  He proceeded to ram his beak all the way up to his eyes several times into the mulch, and on the 4th or 5th try, came out with a lovely and very large grub.  It was black and white and about the size of a large person's thumb!  Yum, I think.  As spring is just getting into swing here, nesting season is also starting.  These guys are very territorial and will attack anything walking or riding under their tree.  Lyle was dive bombed a few days ago, and there is a tree stand at school with warning signs on the fence.  It is suggested to bring an umbrella or wear a large hat to protect yourself!
     My personal favorite is the Australian Raven.  These guys are huge and loud!  They don't say Caw, more of a groaning cry that really freaked us out until we figured out what the heck it was.  If I can figure out how to post sounds, I'll record one and get up here sometime.  We just call it the Crow Aussie accent.  These guys are smart and like to hang out with human inhabited areas.  They have figured out that schools are the best!  There are no real cafeterias in schools here and the kids eat sack lunches outside, usually under the elevated buildings or under canopy shades.  They store their packs and lunches outside on shelves or hooks, typically unzipped so they can grab snacks and books on their way out and about.  The birds know this and will go for any food that is not in a solid container.  Alex was warned by several girls to keep her bag closed until she got a hard sided lunchbox and watched a Raven fly off with a kid's sandwich still in the baggie yesterday.  Here's some info on our Ravens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Raven if you are interested.
     As for other birds, there are so many!  The lorikeets are adorable and so fast!  They are most active and noisy at sunrise and sunset.  Understand they are the favorite food for Perigrine Falcons, so they fly in large coordinated flocks-and can they fly fast!  They look like a feathered school of fish flying together!  There is another bird I call a sentry bird-if one sees something it does't like it starts screeching and the rest take up the cry.  Nothing like about 200 of them going off at sunrise to wake you up in the morning!  Add in the kookaburra laughing at dawn, and it's a noisy way to get your day going.