Macadamia Nuts..........mmmmmmmmmmmm

I love, and have loved since my first bite in Waldbaums', macadamia nuts. Good ol' Mauna Loa, a gift from the gods of Hawaii. I remember flying out of Sydney Airport back in 2003 and seeing many, many jars of Mauna Loa and other branded macadamia nuts, I bought a large jar and off I went home to New York. Living here in South East Queensland my husband owns a home in Toowoomba and his neighbor has a macadamia tree in his side yard. Turns out, Macadamia nuts are native to Australia, not Hawaii, they were brought over to Hawaii and other southern hemisphere countries.  

They grow naturally in north eastern New South Wales and central and south eastern Queensland, Australia. Common names include macadamia, macadamia nut, Queensland nut, bush nut, maroochi nut, queen of nuts and bauple nut; and from Indigenous Australians' languages bauple, gyndl, jindilli, and boombera. We drove through a small town the other day called Bauple, they grow bauple (macadamia) nuts there. Bauple is where they were first discovered by  Ludwig Leichhardt in 1843.‘Kindal Kindal’ was the name given to the seeds of an evergreen tree by local aborigines on the eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range well before British botanist Walter Hill and German botanist Ferdinand Von Meuller in the 1850s discovered and named the specimens.  A distinction was made between Macadamia integrifolia (smooth shelled) and Macadamia tetraphylla (rough shelled), which also produces a nut that is edible, although not as good for roasting as Macadamia integrifolia. The genus Macadamia was named after a scientist and politician of that time, Dr John MacAdam, who was prominent in encouraging the cultivation of the species.
This development has been driven by the Australian Macadamia Society, the industry’s peak body in a relatively short period. The first commercial macadamia processing plant was established in 1954 and now there are more than 850 growers across three states, producing around 40,000 tonnes, with 70% of production exported as kernel to the world market.

The main growing region stretches around 1,000 kilometres along Australia’s east coast; from the mid north coast of New South Wales up to Mackay in Queensland and the industry annually brings more than $400 million economic value to local communities.

Macadamias grow best in Australia because that’s where Mother Nature intended them to be grown. It was on the north-east coast of Australia that macadamias evolved more than 60 million years ago.

Commercial production of macadamia nuts, the only Australian native plant that has been developed commercially as a food crop, is centred in northern New South Wales and south-east Queensland. These areas provide the rich soils and high annual rainfall needed for the crop to flourish.
 Today the nut is marketed throughout the world and is grown from Atherton in the north to Nambucca Heads in the south as well as Western Australia.  The nut is also being grown overseas in Brazil, South Africa and Hawaii.  The Macadamia nut however remains the only Australian indigenous native fruit exported throughout the world. 

The unique flavour, the nutritional benefits and the versatility of the macadamia nut either raw, roasted or in recipes are increasingly being recognized in international markets. Export sales have grown continuously over the last decade with Europe and Japan continuing to grow.
Growing competition comes from South Africa and Central America, but currently macadamias account for less than 3 per cent of the world tree nut market, so with marketing into existing and new markets, there is unlimited potential for Australian macadamias. 

I think next year for Christmas I'll be making my Chambord, white chocolate, macadamia oblatne (wafer) cookies. I do miss having the wasabi macadamias, I can find them in the souvenir store in the city but they're too expensive for my limited budget at this time. 

The Modern Day Ford Falcon....from a Volkswagen fans view...

Let me just get a few things straight before I start this blog. I have never been a huge fan of Ford, other than the classic Mustangs. I always believed the acronyms Found On Road Dead, Fix Or Repair Daily, F****n Owner Real Dumb, never did I think of this one, First On Race Day, even though my dad had a '96 Ford Thunderbird, but that had more to do with my brother than my dad. I've been a  Volkswagen owner for most of my life, though I have owned, a Subaru, a Chevy Camaro Z28 and recently a Toyota Corolla, since I cannot at this time afford a VW Jetta in Australia. One thing I have always admired is a fast car, many a nights did I spend on 20th Avenue in College Point or Franny Lew, watching guys street race their cars, I loved that deep burbling sound of the engines....hey I'm a girl but love those Hot Rods.   

My first experience with a Ford Falcon was when I came to Australia the first time January 2011, my husband, then boyfriend, picked me up in his 2005 BA MK ll.

This is my husband's actual car. I'd never seen a rear wheel drive performance sedan. It's gotten awards for safety among other things. It was comfortable, it had a great sound system, and it had a V8, which kicked major ass. When we drove down south just after Christmas, the Falcon got us there without a glitch. But alas, nothing lasts forever and the 2005 had to retire to be replaced by a 2012 Ford Falcon XR6, both cars naturally stick shift, they do come in automatics too. Now for a little Falcon background for those still reading....

Ford Falcon was released in the US from 1960-1970 it was a huge sales success at first, it outsold rival compacts from Chrysler and GM introduced at the same time. During it's lifespan in the US, the Falcon was offered in a wide range of body styles, 2-door and 4-door sedans, 2-door and 4-door station wagons, 2-door hardtops, convertibles, a sedan delivery and the Ranchero pickup. Variations of the Ford Falcon were manufactured in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Mexico and to this day Australia. There were 3 1/2 generations of Ford Falcons in the US

Ford Falcon is a full sized car manufactured here since 1960, models from 1960-1971 were American influenced engineered for the harsher climates in Australia. From 1972 onward the Falcon has been designed, developed and built in Australia. The Falcon is one of the biggest selling names in world automotive history, selling over 3 Million cars in 7 generations to 2003. The Falcon is almost exclusively sold in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The current Falcon is known as the FG, and is the 7th generation model. The models are as follows XT, G6, G6E, G6E Turbo, XR6 and XR6 Turbo. The engine options available to the Falcon are: 4-cyl Eco-Boost, the in-line 4L 6-cyl, the 4L in-line 6-cyl Eco-lpi(lpg) and the in-line 4L 6-cyl Turbo. The Ford Falcon features a 5 Star Safety rating, the first Australian made car to achieve 5 stars. The XR6 Turbo received Motor Magazines Bang for Your Buck 2008 award. The first ever 4-cyl Falcon was released in 2012, it's fuel economy of a larger car is the same as a 4-cyl Toyota Corolla but with the power of a 6-cyl. 
My husband's awesome manual XR6 sedan (pictured directly above in silver) comes standard with 19inch alloy wheels, 6 airbags, 8 inch color touch-screen with audio and climate controls, reverse sensors, reverse camera, USB and i-Pod connectivity along with Bluetooth phone & wireless streaming of internet radio (since satellite radio is not an option here), full leather interior, leather steering wheel, full instrumentation, comfy seating for 5, the comfy seating comes in handy on long road trips. I would buy this car in a heartbeat if I had the money and to think, I'd give up my love of sunroofs for a white EcoBoost in automatic transmission. 

A Little Vent About Deodorant....

Deodorant is something I've been using my entire adult life. Over the years I've tried my share of the brands out there. I remember going to Croatia with my mom and forgetting to pack my deodorant. I thought, hey I'll just go to the store and get some, or so I thought, they had antiperspirant or deodorant, not a combo of both. I want the product to stop me from sweating and at the same time to prevent me from being smelly if/when I sweat.When I came to Australia, I brought 2 Secret Clinical Strength Lavender scented deodorants with me and of course eventually it ran out. They do not have Secret here, they have Rexona which is Degree, I've been using their clinical strength but they don't have lavender scented. My observance of product is that the type of deodorant mostly available here is spray, then roll-on and lastly stick, they have very few choices in stick but at least 20 in spray and 10 in roll-on. I don't want my pits to be wet, what's the point in making them wet, so they can stay dry? I just don't get it. Another thing I've noticed is that there are quite a few people out there that do not use deodorant and it makes you want to gag when they pass you. This is tropical Queensland, shower and deodorize, you will sweat in practically all of the seasons. People have actually complained that companies should not discriminate because of B.O. Of course you should discriminate in this instance. Shower for goodness sake! Why would an employer hire someone that doesn't shower and stinks of B.O. when that one person could cause their fellow co-workers to be physically ill.  
The brands of deodorant they have for women is Rexona (Degree) sprays and roll-ons and 2 clinical strength ones, Dove, Garnier and Nivea and I believe a Lady's Speed Stick. They also have that mineral rock.  Yet for men they have Old Spice, which is owned by P&G, if they can sell Old Spice here, why not Secret? Very annoying in this tropical state. 

Look at all the spray deodorant

Swooping Magpies...

This morning my husband and I went for our daily morning walk. We had found this lovely path through a park that takes us just under an hour to walk, but since we had heavy rainfall last night and high winds, I was weary of walking through the park. I said why don't we just walk the street instead of going into the park. As we were going down Eighth Avenue a car was backing out of it's driveway so my husband motioned me to cross the street, (there are no sidewalks here so we have to walk in the street) all of a sudden a magpie comes flying high speed and hits my husband in the face, it happened so fast I don't know how it got him with it's beak, but he was bleeding, we cut our walk short and decided we'll be staying away from Eighth Avenue till at least November. A guy that lives across the street from the stupid bird said he sees it swoop on many people, even him, he walks out of his house with an open umbrella to avoid getting attacked.  So I've decided to write about these annoying birds. 
Australian Magpies are a fairly robust bird ranging from 37 to 43 cm (14.5–17 in) in length, with distinctive black and white plumage, gold brown eyes and a solid wedge-shaped bluish-white and black bill. The male and female are similar in appearance, and can be distinguished by differences in back markings. With its long legs, the Australian Magpie walks rather than waddles or hops and spends much time on the ground.  . I've seen them take their time crossing roads, it's almost like, you wanna hit me? so hit me! In your face sort of mentality coming from a bird. Spring in Australia is magpie season, when a small minority of breeding magpies (almost always males) around the country become aggressive and swoop and attack those who approach their nests, especially bike riders. This species is commonly fed by households around the country and is the mascot of several Australian sporting teams.
One of Australia's most highly regarded songbirds, the Australian Magpie has a wide variety of calls, many of which are complex. Pitch may vary over up to four octaves, and the bird can mimic over 35 species of native and introduced bird species, as well as dogs and horses. Magpies have even been noted to mimic human speech when living in close proximity to humans. Its complex, musical, warbling call is one of the most familiar Australian bird sounds. In Denis Glover's poem The Magpies, the mature magpie's call is described as quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle, one of the most famous lines in New Zealand poetry, and in the children's book Waddle Giggle Gargle by Pamela Allen.
Magpies are ubiquitous in urban areas all over Australia, and have become accustomed to people. A small percentage of birds become highly aggressive during breeding season from late August to early October, and will swoop and sometimes attack passersby. The percentage has been difficult to estimate but is significantly less than 9%. Almost all attacking birds (around 99%) are male,and they are generally known to attack pedestrians at around 50 m (150 ft) from their nest, and cyclists at around 100 m (300 ft). Attacks begin as the eggs hatch, increase in frequency and severity as the chicks grow, and tail off as the chicks leave the nest.
These magpies may engage in an escalating series of behaviours to drive off intruders. Least threatening are alarm calls and distant swoops, where birds fly within several metres from behind and perch nearby. Next in intensity are close swoops, where a magpie will swoop in from behind or the side and audibly "snap" their beaks or even peck or bite at the face, neck, ears or eyes. More rarely, a bird may dive-bomb and strike the intruder's (usually a cyclist's) head with its chest. A magpie may rarely attack by landing on the ground in front of a person and lurching up and landing on the victim's chest and peck at the face and eyes. Scary shit to be attacked by a bird. 

Americans in Australia...

On Facebook I've joined two groups to help me "fit in" or to find people that miss certain things from the US that's not available here and where possibly to find these hidden gems. One of them Yanks Down Under and the other one Americans in Queensland. Now, I love to complain about stuff I can't get, like Cool Whip, or frozen orange juice concentrate. But one thing I did do before making the massive move here is to research brand names, now brand names are one thing, the other is who owns that brand name? For example I was an avid Crest toothpaste user, it's all I bought, and when it was on sale I bought quite a few. Crest is owned by P&G I remember this from the Sunday coupons when the whole P&G lineup had coupons. Sadly they do not have Crest here, but they do have Oral-B, which I'm liking a lot. Most people hang their laundry outdoors to dry, it's rare for people to own dryers and the thing the Americans are complaining is that the stores don't carry Bounce (they do but only in Costco) and Queensland won't have a Costco till around January-ish. I'd rather have a proper clothes line outside, in this sun, if you hang it let's 9am by noon it'll be fully dry, whether it's towels or clothing. These people complain there's no Dawn, yet I'm happy with Palmolive as that's what I was using in New York. Soap on the other hand bothers me, I hate that I cannot get Irish Spring (only on USAFoods.com) and my biggest pet peeve is that Bath & Body Works is not here in Australia and to make it worse they won't ship here, YET they are set up in anti-American countries like Kuwait and United Arab Emirates? They're promoting these candles, saying they're the world's best, um until you make it available world-wide you cannot claim that. You're lying to promote your stuff. Party Lite on the other hand IS available world-wide, so technically they have the right to say world's best. Someone was looking for canned black beans on one of the sites and I happened to mention a store we like to go to called Pennisi Cuisine, they have stuff from Spain, Mexico (they have real NACHO cheese!) :) they have Goya products, pickles and sauerkraut from Poland and Germany, they have products from Croatia, Vegeta seasonings and Ajvar and one of the women on the Americans in Queensland said, oh we've been there and we weren't overly impressed. I thought, there is nowhere else in Queensland that I've found that has proper Nacho Cheese. In some aspects I like the groups as when Tide laundry detergent was available at our local supermarket was great, it leaves my towels and blankets smelling oh so nice, but I'm not silly to spend $21 for a 50fl oz bottle when I'v seen double the size in Stop & Shop for $12, yet these Americans are going ape shit and spending the $21 for it, um I bought it when it was on sale for $15 and I won't buy it again until I'm out and it's on sale. Even if we had two incomes I still wouldn't pay that amount, I'm sure P&G has other Australia made laundry detergent that works just as well, Tide works great and it has that nostalgic scent to it. Clorox as a brand in not available here, yet Chux is (same shit) only thing is they don't have Clorox bleach yet they do have Chux antibacterial wipes, I mentioned this and some know-it-all says, "it's not the same". They complain about no Stouffers lasagna, of course they don't, you're living in the land down under, try some of their frozen foods. I have, they have meat pies and they're not huge, one pie is a serving and it's just enough meat, gravy and crust for a meal. Winge, winge, winge, serious shaking of my head about some of these Americans in Oz. 

Minimum Wage and Salaries...

The other day I was listening to the news about something that happened in the States with fast food workers striking to double the minimum wage. I say, good on ya! The US minimum wage is ridiculous, anyone making that, after taxes needs another, if not 2 or more jobs just to support themselves and if they have one, a family. Think about this, if you're just starting a job and you're grossing, let's round up just a bit, $16,000USD, that's BEFORE they hit you with taxes, and social security and medicare.  How can you live in New York? Waitstaff get paid peanuts and they rely on tips to survive. Things are not overly expensive in the US and the reason is the owners are not paying their employees much, therefore they don't need to defer the cost onto the customers. Australian prices are a little on the high side, I don't like the higher prices, but I do understand the reasoning behind it.  
In Australia the general minimum wage for an adult 21 years of age and over is $16.37 an hour, which equals $622.20 a week, $32,254 a year and that's before taxes, which is just the federal tax, plus superannuation which is minimum 10% I have heard some companies are doing more, which is basically you're 401K. I remember while living in New York my husband was grossing about $655 for the week and yet taking home $565 clear, that was more than I was taking home at the time and I was grossing way more than $600 at the time.  If you are under 16 years of age, your hourly wage will be $6.03, 16yrs = $7.74 an hour, 17yrs = $9.46hr, 18yrs = $11.18hr, 19yrs = $13.51hr and a 20 year olds minimum wage is $16.00 an hour. So in order to pay their employees, companies need to defer that cost onto the consumer. McDonald's employees are not walking out for poor wages here. Waitstaff here, your servers and busboys are not relying on tips, matter of fact tipping isn't done here, unless of course you absolutely LOVE the service, but it's not necessary. You won't see on your menu 15% gratuity will be added on for parties of 5 or more. Nope, not done here. Hairdressers, same thing, if you love your haircut and want to throw them a $5 that's totally up to you, but again it's not really done. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are some people here that need to work more than one job to make ends meet, maybe they have a family and mortgage payments and car payments and private school tuition. But a single person earning minimum wage can afford to rent near the city or even perhaps in the city if they have a flat-mate. 

Holy Flying-Foxes Batman....

A few weeks ago my husband and I decided to do our cardio walking when he got home from work. There are not many sidewalks or footpaths as they're called here, so you basically need to walk in the street. We were walking around the streets that were decently lit up. We love walking along the Kedron Brook Bikeway but there are no lighted paths, so that's out of the question. Being that this is a subtropical area, there are a decent amount of bats in the around. We were walking and one came swooping down out of the tree, scared the shit out of me and I wound up running down to the next corner. They make screeching noises and I just hate them. There are many varieties of bats here in Queensland, Yellow-bellied Sheathtail Bats, Norther Blossom Bat, Little Northern Freetail Bat, Lesser Long-eared bat, Large Bent-wing Bat, Greater Long-eared Bat, Ghost Bat, Eastern Tube-nosed Bat, Dusky Leaf-nosed Bat, Common Sheath-tail Bat, Common Blossom Bat, Coastal Sheathtail Bat, Black Flying-fox, Beccan's Freetail Bat and Bare-rumped Sheathtail Bat. Yuck, yuck and more yuck. The ones I saw were decently large and black with a total wingspan of about 2 feet. Like I said I ran like hell. When we were on our honeymoon up in Port Douglas we saw a whole swarm of flying foxes darkening a certain section of the sky, made me feel uneasy while were in the swimming pool at dusk. Normally they don't bother people, but I've heard that they love to hang out in Palm Trees, so now I know when it's time for us to buy our own house, we will make sure there are no Palm Trees on our property. 

My Second Birthday in Australia...

I celebrated my second birthday in Australia on the beach again, it is tradition after all. This year my husband took the whole day off and we left around 7am, stopped for fuel for car and for us and kept driving north to Noosa Heads. We drove up here once by accident when my husband first got his new Falcon and I thought it reminds me of the Hamptons and this is where I'd love to go for my birthday.When we arrived in Noosa Heads we were looking for a parking spot that was longer than an hour, it's free to park but there is a Traffic Enforcer putting chalk on your tires and if within the hour that chalk mark hasn't moved, you are getting a ticket. The parking lot was full so we drove over the creek bridge and found a spot on the street that wasn't Hastings Street as that's the only place that has limited time parking. We walked to Hastings Street, passing the Sheraton and some other Hotels. I was prepared for the warmth, I wore shorts and a t-shirt, I did wear a light sweatshirt in the morning as it was just slightly above 50F but while walking around it became a lot warmer, around 76F, what awesome weather for the second to last week in winter. We did some window shopping and looked at the cafe menus. I needed a new sun hat, something to wear now that it's getting closer to summer. I have a hat that I bought in Split in '05 but it's seen better days. I tried on a ton of hats until I came across this one that wasn't too light or dark in color and it had little beads along the rim, and my husband bought it for me for my birthday. We looked at clothing, and he tried on this lovely polo shirt that was a great color for the summer but it was tight only on his arms, such a shame as it looked really good on him. We then went to the beach and walked in the water, it was warm enough to swim in. We were having fun, being silly in the water, taking photos and enjoying the sunshine. Then it was nearing lunch and we decided to go to the Nossa Surf Club as it overlooks the beach. We arrived, signed in and headed towards the balcony, at first there were only the high tables away from the view, then the couple left and after the crew cleaned it I swooped down, hubby didn't realize at first as he had gone to get us drinks. I had the perfect seat on a perfect day, with a lovely glass of white wine and my husband by my side with that amazing view. We ordered a dozen Oysters Kilpatrick and 2 BLT's that came with chips (fries), everything was delicious. After lunch we walked back to Hastings Street and went for gelato at Gelatissimo, I had hazelnut and he had choc chip mint. We sat around, bought a lottery ticket, walked a bit and stopped at a cafe for some coffee. We went to a few more shops and finally found a hat for my husband. The owner of the store was one of those that was very friendly, he guessed I was from New York but couldn't guess my age, he did get my husbands fairly correct. :) Hee Hee :) We decided since we had 7:30 dinner reservations, maybe we should start heading south, we stopped at Mooloolaba Beach, I wanted to see the sunset but always forget that the beaches here face east and that the sunset would come behind the building, oh well, one day we'll take a trip to Western Australia and I'm sure the sunsets over the Indian Ocean are amazing. My in-laws shouted us dinner at our favorite Malaysian restaurant. We ordered fried calamari as an appetizer but the dumb ass wasn't listening and put it together as the main meal. We also ordered, spicy herbed chicken, spicy herbed beef, some spicy lamb dish and a seafood dish along with a large steamed whit rice. For all that food and 3 sodas was just under $90, pretty good for 5 people to eat, and eat well. 

Voting and politics in Australia...

Australia's Coat of Arms

Australia is a Democracy, under a Monarchy, yep. Instead of having a President, they have a Prime Minister who is voted into office. This year is the time to vote for Prime Minister, Tony Abbott or Kevin Rudd.  The Liberal Party and the Labor Party are the two major ones, in another blog, I'll go into the differences of them and the other minor parties. Voting in Australia is VERY different than in the US. Voting is compulsory for every Australian citizen aged 18 years or older. If you do not vote and do not have a valid and sufficient reason for failing to vote, a penalty is imposed. Imagine getting fined if you don't have a valid reason for not voting? Initially the Australian Electoral Commission will write to all apparent non-voters requesting that they either provide a reason for their failure to vote or pay a $20 penalty.

If, within 21 days, the apparent non-voter fails to reply, cannot provide a valid and sufficient reason or declines to pay the penalty, then prosecution proceedings may be instigated. If the matter is dealt with in court and the person is found guilty, he or she may be fined up to $50 plus court costs. During the last election I received one and because I'm not an Australian citizen I checked off the box that stated "non-citizen."  I understand that voting is a right, but in one way I like the US version, what if you dislike either party, what do you do then......and here there is an answer to that,  other than not voting.  Show up, sign your ballot and put an X to state you were there, but you don't like either party so you check off nothing. Voting here is always done on a Saturday and it's not the same day every year. I've recently read that ballot places provide pencils since they are more stable in sub-tropical climates, but I think if I were to vote, I'd make sure I'd bring my own pen. 

 There's a funny clip on my Facebook page from the US Daily Show and it's only 3 minutes long but it basically sums up a good amount of it, and makes fun of some of the silly shit that's been going on.  

There is NO months or years of campaigning, there's only ONE month, that's right, one month. Seriously why drag an election campaign for longer? I know the US is more populated but there is no VALID reason for the campaigns to run as long as they do. 

Banking, money and taxes......

Living in Australia these 16 months, I've opened up an account and I've used money to buy things and pay bills.There are many banks here, Citibank is even here. They have four "major" banks and they are, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, Australia and New Zealand  Banking Group (ANZ) for short and National Australia Bank (NAB) for short. Banking here is a LOT different to the US systems. In the US, I had a checking account and a savings account that had a book. Yes, I know there are book-less savings accounts nowadays too. Here, when you get paid, it's never via paper check, it's automatically deposited into your nominated account, you even get your statement via email.  When you pay your rent or mortgage it comes out of your account, you have the option to do it yourself or have it taken out on the set date, no mailing of checks. Checks, money orders and bank cheques are only used for major purchases such as houses and cars or when having to pay for something like a Federal Police Check.  When going shopping, you can pay with cash, credit cards or debit cards, with your debit cards you can either use your PIN or tap-n-go. Currency here is $100, $50, $20, $10 and $5 notes, $2, $1, 50 cent, 20 cent, 10 cent and 5 cent coins. The dollar coins are gold and the cent pieces are silver in color. There are no one cent pieces here, if something costs $1.99 it's costing you $2 unless you pay with your card, then you're paying $1.99, prices are rounded to the nearest fifth at the checkout.

 Tax here is 10% but, and I love this, the price you see is the price you pay. So when you see that McDonald's commercial in the US saying you can get chicken nuggets for a buck, it's a big fat lie, as they still need to add tax to that. You walk into McDonald's here and want something off the dollar menu, guess what it's a dollar! Not $1.10 or whatever tax needs to be added. Same thing when buying a car, they tell you this car is $25, 000.00 drive-away, no added costs,  the tax has already been added into the price, they do show you the tax amount in the breakdown. Even shopping for groceries, the tax is there and it shows up on your receipt, they're informing you of the full price up front. If you see an outfit and you simply have to have it, you know that the price you see is the price you pay, you don't have to sit there and figure what the tax is going to be on anything. 

Australian notes 

Australian coins

Tap-n-go

Kookaburras...

When I first started this blog I had picked out three photos, my profile photo is my beautiful Dukie, the next is Brisbane City at night and the background photo is a collage of Kookaburras. The first time I saw one was when I was first here in January 2011 and my husband, then boyfriend, took me to Picnic Point in Toowoomba and I saw and heard this magnificent bird. These birds don't really sing, like Robins and Blue Jays, they kinda laugh, it sounds like a person laughing. I read an article that said that movie companies have used the Kookaburras laugh when they needed "monkey" sounds in jungle scenes. If you click on the attached YouTube video you can hear the "laughing." I really like listening to a bunch of them "laughing", kinda puts a smile on my face. 

And now for some information about this bird:
Kookaburras are best known for their unmistakable call, which sounds uncannily like loud, echoing human laughter – good-natured, but rather hysterical, merriment and maniacal cackling.They are generally not closely associated with water, and can be found in habitats ranging from humid forest to arid deserts, but also in suburban and residential areas with tall trees or near running water and where food can be searched for easily. I've seen them on my balcony. Something I didn't know was that they are carnivores, they eat meat and they eat grass and seeds. They eat insects, small reptiles, snakes, mice and the thing I hate, they eat small birds :( they also eat meat, if you throw them some raw meat they will eat it. You may wonder how does a bird eat these things, well I've seen them do it, they whack their meal on a hard surface.  

Popcorners...

Yes, you've read correctly, Popcorners. A few years ago I had gone to the Costco in Westbury by myself on a weekend and we know how they have free samples of things. So I see this chip that's made out of popcorn and it's gluten free, which for a person with diabetes is lovely to hear. I tried the caramel, white cheddar and the cheesy jalapeno. They had sea salt and kettle corn which I didn't try. I bought one of those huge bags I think it was around $4ish or thereabouts, they had them for a few more months and then nothing. It seems they visit Costco in the States and that's the best way to try/get them at least that was the case before, I have no idea what it's like now. So one day my husband and I are walking down the chip aisle in Woolworth's and there is a sale on these Popcorner things, now I completely forgot about them as I am not a heavy chip eater and I hadn't seen them in Costco in months before I moved here nor at this point had I eaten chips around the time of our wedding or the months getting ready to move. We bought the Cheesy Jalapeno and when we opened it and I tasted one, I was like, oh my god, I've had this before and it all came flooding back, the taste, yummy and the fact I had tried and bought them in Costco only because I got to sample them before. 

There's only one thing that sucks, the flavours that are available in the States are not available here. Kettle corn is called Sweet & Savoury, can't find White Cheddar anywhere and they have a photo of it on the back of the Butter and Cheesy Jalapeno and the Sea Salt one. The Caramel flavour is only available in those little snack sized bags which cost over $1 meanwhile you can buy the 142g (5oz) for $2.00 when it's on special (sale). I've liked their page on Facebook and noticed that they've come out with two new flavours, hopefully it won't take too long for those flavours to make it Down Under. 

Vacuum cleaners...

When I lived in New York I couldn't afford a dyson pet hair vacuum, instead I bought a purple Eureka, it was just $300, it was bagless (the type I so much prefer) and it did a pretty good job at picking up cat hair and all sort of particles pretty well. Upon coming to Australia I've been looking in stores and online and it seems the most popular vacuums here are the canister ones, you know the kind your grandma used to use? I looked at a website for a store that deals solely with vacuums and the type of vacuum they have the most of are the canister ones.  The one you drag around your house or apartment, clunking into things, and if you're tall the stick makes you have to bend over a lot more than an upright. My husband had a canister when I arrived and I must tell you, I really dislike vacuuming, as I feel the canister getting stuck behind me wherever I go, it's so annoying to have to either pull really hard or to stop and move the thing from the doorway or around a piece of furniture.  They have expensive canister ones, by Miele and dyson, I believe Hoover has one too, but my preference has always been and will always be an upright, bagless vacuum cleaner. Now the one I'm hoping to buy one day is the purple dyson, but it won't be anytime soon as it costs $949.00 AUD, good thing the tax is already figured into that price because 10% tax would just be ridiculous on top of that price. The lady at Myer told me occasionally they go on sale minus 10% so that would be $854, still a bit much for a vacuum cleaner. Hopefully by the time we absolutely need to get one, they'll have other ones or better sales than just 10%.  

The type of vacuum I cannot stand!

I Really Hate This Unit...

We moved into this new unit in Kedron because it's pet friendly. But because we were given the hurry up by our previous units property manager we didn't look over the place well enough before we signed a one year lease. It's on the second floor, which is technically on the third floor because of the garages, which isn't too bad as it makes you exercise every time you leave the apartment. It only has a doorknob lock, there is no deadbolt or chain within.  The garage is a tandem two car garage with only one remote, plus there's no interior way to open the garage. So if I want to air out the garage after my husband goes to work I can only do it via the door but not a full on open so a breeze can go through. The garage door has a flimsy lock, my bedroom in NewYork had a more secure lock than the one we have for this garage. This garage has a spider issue, daddy long legs among others. I have to go down and spray the sucker down with the habanero pepper, vinegar concoction I found online to keep the suckers at bay. The hot water tap in the garage for the washing machine leaks and therefore I can only do cold washes which sucks when I need to do towels and flannel sheets and socks. You are not allowed to hang anything on the walls, there are no nails and in order to do so you have to ask and the answer's usually no. (very annoying) This unit has an electric cooktop, which I hate, it's got an electric oven which is fan forced, so it's basically a convection oven. The sink is a double sink but it's not wide enough to soak a frying pan, the handle sticks out. It's a three bedroom deal, the masters our room, the medium one us a spare bedroom and our office, the smallest bedroom is for the boxes of stuff I won't unpack until we own our own house, and for muppets litter box. The toilet is its own separate room, which is a great idea, and the bathroom has a shower over a tub, though there's not enough room for two bath sheets. There's a heat lamp in the bathroom for those chilly evenings or mornings so you don't freeze your ass off after you get out of the shower. Ugh, only one powerpoint in every room, it's not enough outlets. The balcony is huge and off the kitchen, there's one huge problem...the guy downstairs smokes like an effin chimney and it comes up onto our balcony, into our bathroom and the worst into the toilet room, that's the worst as it's a small box of a room with a toilet, it's almost suffocating, yuck. Our biggest complaint are the lights in the stairwell. The problem is that often they're not on and when they are they get shut off early. There are ten units in this complex, there are no doorbells or gates, any deviant can walk off the street and onto the complex. If someone knocks on our door we have to answer it with a flashlights onto the knockers face. We cannot have guests over for dinner in fear they could fall down the stairs and hurt themselves. We cannot go out and come home late without taking my big blue Mag Lite. We've complained to the property manager but the body corporate doesn't give a flying fuck. We want to break our lease for the safety issue  because of the lights plus the smoker. Second hand smoke while sitting on the toilet is nasty, I think poo smells better than the nasty smoke penetrating the toilet room. I've even laid out a bowl of vinegar to help but it just helps a little, you can still taste the smoke. We SO want the get out of this smelly, dangerous place. 

My First Opera...

Last night we went to my first Opera ever. It was a Cinderella Opera sung in English, and they had subtitles, just in case you didn't understand what they were singing. This Cinderella is not your typical Disney Cinderella, it's got comedy and the standard story with a slight twist. In this story, Cinderella has the 2 stepsisters but in this one she has a stepfather instead of a stepmother. There is no fairy godmother, rather a godfather. The one thing I did notice is the color of the stepsisters dresses, in most movies I've seen, they wear red and green, this is true in Ever After (my favorite), and even in A Cinderella Story with  Hillary Duff (modern age Cinderella) the stepsisters wore red and green. There must be a reason, some symbolism about it, but I can't seem to find it. The Opera was amazing and since it was sung in English it was understandable and fun, we had a smile on our faces the whole performance. These tickets were free and we even had free champagne, very nice. There was a 20 minute intermission (that's when we went out and got free drinks). I enjoyed this very much and believe that if my husband ever gets free tickets to another opera we'd definitely be going again.

Now, onto the dress code. When we received the invitation, the invitation stated a dress code, lounge suite. Now, personally I had no idea what this meant and didn't want to assume anything, so I Googled and found that lounge suite means for men, a suit and tie matching their ladies dress, for women it meant a dress, one that's a bit on the longer side. So, we walk from the car park and when we get to this place I am the fanciest dressed woman there, there was one dude wearing a tuxedo but there were people wearing jeans, jeans to an Opera? Ok it wasn't at the Sydney Opera House, but still. We were people watching while we waited to be called in, and you'd think people didn't have mirrors in their places. I'm not saying wear a ball gown or go out and buy a dress like I did, but wear something fancier, it is an opera and I've heard many women say while I was dress shopping, that an opera was the place to get dressed up to the nines. I even wore my wedding shoes, they are comfy I must say for 4 inch heels. 

Myer, David Jones, I just want my Macy's...

Since my husband works in radio and does interviews with many different people from different places, we get tickets for free movies, or concerts and next Tuesday, Opera. I'm very excited about this since I've never been to an Opera before and to make it even better it's Cinderella. Now, since I've gained a few kilos since I've been here, I don't fit into my dresses properly and need to buy a new one. One should dress up for the Opera! So my shopping spree takes me to two different Myers and a David Jones. So far I've found nothing, very exasperating. I'm hoping Thursday the 4th of July, I'll have some luck at the David Jones in the City, it is their flagship store after all. Much like Macy's Herald Square is for Macy's. Since I don't have a job and we do not have money to throw around I have not gone shopping at all, except for minor little things. I've seen some cute dresses in Myer in the City, but I'm trying to keep costs to under $150, and what I've seen is gorgeous and over $400...so ah, no.We went into the city and we found this wine colored dress and they didn't have my size so I decided to check out the other David Jones on Friday.  So I went to the David Jones at Chermside and found this absolutely GORGEOUS dress, thing is it's $250 and way over my budget, it looked awesome on. So Saturday we wound up driving down to Harbour Town Outlet Center, it's kinda like Tanger Outlet The Arches. I went into this Events store and I found this very nice teal long dress and it was on clearance for $119.95 but the lady saw there was a little hole by the zipper, (the seam split about an inch) she gave me a further discount down to $99. 

This is the one that I simply LOVE and is out of my budget as it looked awesome on! The dress I bought at the outlet is below. It too looks stunning, I just prefer the look of the navy blue. 

Australia Post and Mail in General...

Ok, living in the States I am very used to the US Postal Service, sometimes sucky but for me often pretty damn good. I know some things have changed, but this reflects the things I was used to and compared to what I now have here. I remember being in grammar school and waiting for Mailman Joe (we all knew his name) to come down the block with the letters to see which High Schools we'd gotten into. It figures it was the one time he didn't show up until 2ish, when he was always by us the latest 10:30am. We knew our mail deliverers, they had a face, they had their mail cart and door to door they walked with yucky bills or that magazine you couldn't wait to get your hands on.  I miss Saturday delivery, I miss being able to go to the Post Office on a Saturday or if in Roosevelt Field Mall, on a Sunday. I still anticipate my magazines, especially my FoodNetwork Magazine, it's the one thing I will not unsubscribe to, it keeps me in the loop with what's happening on FoodNetwork as that cable channel is not available here, they do have a Food channel with a few of the FN's stars but it's not the same and the most important is that we don't have cable. 

What I truly dislike about the Post here is that it's a shop, in a mall, on a street, there's no Post Office. Except the Main one in the City.  At the Post you can buy stamps, envelopes, post cards, express mail envelopes, greeting cards, pay as you go mobile phones, printers, stationery, water, candies and chocolates. You can even pay some of your bills, I've seen that in Croatia too. Since we live in a complex of 10 units, there is a brick wall with metal opening in the front and the back, so really anyone can walk by and steal your mail, my biggest problem is that most people don't care that their mail gets wet. I went outside earlier to take the cat to the vet and checked the mailbox and there is a puddle of water inside the box and all of our mail is soaking wet. I mean do we have rent a Post Office Box? Moving's a pain in the ass, much less having your mail forwarded and notifying EVERYONE of your new address. When we lived in Gordon Park it wasn't that bad, but this one is ridiculous, what if we get something important and it's raining for days? The Post man does not come with his little cart walking down the street, nope he's on motorbike and he never gets off that thing. I've read that sometimes, if you get a small package they sometimes just leave a notice in your mailbox to pick up the stuff instead of knocking on your door. Yes I said knocking, there are no bells at this complex. 

This is just a sample of the type of mailboxes some complexes have, this one is pretty decent, I've seen worse on our walks. 

Driving in Australia

So I've had my car since October and honestly I don't drive it much. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that if I drive it I have to put gas into it and without a job it means my husband has to pay for it, and to run 2 cars on one income is just plain crazy. So Thursday I got paid for working at the radio station for the week and now I can go, have my car serviced and fill up the tank before the gas prices go up to $1.50 a litre or more. I went to purchase kitty litter before and pay for the cat registration, I was going to fuel  up but I forgot my discount voucher. In the 2 monopolies of supermarkets, if you spend more than $30 in one purchase you get a little voucher (coupon) for 4 cents off a litre, at one time it was 8 cents and if you spend $50 or more in Coles you get 10 cents off a litre, we're saving that one for when we go for a drive in a few weeks when my hubby takes the week off for some rest, since he's been working seven days a week for quite a bit of time now. So now I'll just fuel up when we go into the city tonight, while it's still $1.39 a litre which equals $5.35 a gallon. 
Driving on the wrong side, the left side is strange. My biggest problem is reversing, I used to reverse out of my driveway in Queens like a speed demon, turning over my right shoulder, doing that with my left feels so awkward. Driving in general is pretty much the same as in the States, morons everywhere. People running stop signs, red lights and general speeding is as rampant here as in New York. The signs are pretty much the same, only difference is that there is no "yield" sign rather a "give way sign" which means the same thing. Of course everything here is metric and it's still confusing for me, but my car only has kmh so it's easy to follow the speed limits. Most streets are 60kmh (38mph), which if you think about it is pretty slow and I've caught myself doing 70kmh(43mph) a couple of times, there are some less traffic areas that are 70kmh but not many.  Highways differ, sometimes it's 100kmh(62mph), 110kmh(68mph) and occasionally you actually see 120kmh(just under 75mph) which I also saw on highways driving through Croatia. When going through a School Zone you have to drop it to 40kmh(just a hair under 25mph),during school hours. I've heard people complain it's too slow, and I'm thinking I wouldn't want my kid getting hit by a car doing 40 much less anything faster. (dumbass) 

Stop signs say stop and the lights are the same, red, yellow and green, the walking lights are the universal kind, I think, there's a red guy standing and a green guy walking. Railroad crossings are the same. Since there are busways here, where the buses go different routes, some signals have the letter B lit up to inform you and the bus driver that it's his/her turn to go. Look right before looking left, most streets are two way unless otherwise specified. Pedestrians do not have the right of way unless they are crossing on a clearly marked pedestrian crossing. If you cross elsewhere you are jaywalking and can be fined if a cop catches you.

And now to the ever popular roundabouts, I remember Maryland having them on my way down to Washington D.C., but that was one trip. Living with these things is a whole other ballgame. In one word it's a cheap traffic light, you just have to beware of the idiot that doesn't know or doesn't care about roundabout etiquette. In Australia in a roundabout, you always give way to your right, so if a car is coming from your right, he has the right of way, if a person is in the roundabout they have the right away, you basically yield to the person in the roundabout. Sounds confusing I know but after awhile you get used to it. Though I have heard some Aussies say I still get confused who has the right of way, and yet here I am totally confident as to who goes when. 

I've seen people drive in many countries, and other than Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they drive horridly, everyone pretty much drives the same. You have your typical Sunday drivers that move at snail pace even when the speed limit is a bit quicker. You have your I'm in a hurry, get out of my way idiots, you have your " I drive an expensive car therefore I own the road" idiots, the L platers...oh yes and the P platers....let me explain those. While you are learning to drive you get a little thing you MUST put on your car that states you are learning how to drive. L for learners, P for probationers. In all the letters, you cannot own or drive a V8 or turbo charged vehicle. There are red P's and green P's, I'm not sure what the color signifies exactly BUT I do know that most of them drive like crazy people and they shouldn't as they do not have their full licenses yet. Ahh I've googled and I have found. 

* The minimum learner age has been lowered to 16 and the learner licence period has been extended to 12 months.

* Learners under 25 years must now gain 100 hours of certified, supervised driving experience before being eligible to apply for a provisional licence.

* Mobile phone use, including hands-free, blue-tooth accessories and loud-speaker functions, has been restricted for learner and P1 provisional licence holders under 25 years.

* Mobile loud-speaker functions have been restricted for supervisors and passengers of learner and P1 provisional licence holders under 25 years, while a learner licence holder is driving.

* Motorbike learners will be required to hold a car provisional licence for 12 months before obtaining a motorbike learner licence

* A two-phased P1 and P2 provisional licence system has been introduced.

* L-plates (a black L on a yellow background) and P-plates (a red plate for P1 and green plate for P2) are now compulsory.

* Peer passenger restrictions have been introduced?P1 provisional licence holders under 25 years can only carry one passenger aged under 21 years between 11pm and 5am.

* High-powered vehicles are restricted for provisional drivers under 25.

* Drivers must pass a hazard perception test to progress from a P1 to a P2 or open licence (dependant on age).

* Restrictions, such as 'no late night driving', have been introduced for disqualified and suspended young drivers."

 I didn't have to get L or P plates as the US and Australia have this agreement, so all I had to do was fill out a form and in the mail I got my Queensland drivers license, no testing required. So cool! 

Winter in Queensland

So this is my second winter here in Queensland and just last night I saw some things that made me think, yeah I so need to put this in my blog. Winter in Queensland can be cold, overnight temps here in Brisbane have gotten down to 7C (44F) which isn't too bad, it's perfect sleeping weather if you ask me. We were walking in the mall last night and I happened to notice what people were wearing, mind you it's winter. I saw people wearing sweaters(jumpers here in Oz), jeans and flip-flops (thongs). I saw a girl wearing Daisy Dukes, boots and a jacket, really? Another one was wearing short skirt, flip flops and a short sleeved shirt. There were some normal people wearing sweaters with jackets and shoes or boots. There are a lot of people out there coughing and sneezing all over the place, um how about putting on some warmer clothes? If it's in the 60's F its not barefoot weather, nor is it flip flop weather. Yes I understand that the 60s are not that cold, but remember it's WINTER and 60 in winter is not the same 60 in the spring. TLC's What Not to Wear should seriously come down here to Brisbane and check out some of these fashion faux pas. You wouldn't see this in Melbourne since the temps down there are much cooler than up here in the Sunshine State. Right now in Melbourne at Friday 9:40am its 46F degrees, those people are bundled up in sweaters and jackets and appropriate footwear. I'm amazed too that parents with toddlers allow them to walk barefoot in the streets and in the supermarket. I remember last year we went to Toowoomba which is higher elevation than Brisbane and colder, we saw in Kmart a couple wearing full winter gear, down coats and everything and what type of shoes were they wearing? None, nothing, totally barefoot in July which is the middle of winter, sick. I'd be afraid to step on glass, dog pee or poo, peoples spittle, discarded cigarettes, and if my feet are cold I'm usually cold. I just cannot understand the people that do this or the ones that let their kids do it while they walk around in shoes. Maybe it's just me being a New Yorker, the only place you see bare feet is at the beach or at the pool or in your own backyard, not walking down a street in Midtown. In the Queens Street Mall there is a sign that says footwear must be worn at all times. Imagine the liability if you fall and break your neck because you stepped on something wet, seriously bare feet and marble floors and water do not mix. It's a recipe for disaster. 

Aspirin, Advil and such

The other day I had a headache and wanted some Advils as the ones I bought in the US in Costco expired. What I should have bought in Costco was low dose aspirin, it's possible I looked for it and they didn't have it, but over a year later who could be 100% sure. Medicines, such as Advil and aspirins and cough medicines can be bought in the Pharmacy section of drug stores. Can you imagine walking into CVS and bothering the pharmacist or their assistant for cough medicine, Advil (any ibuprofen or acetaminophen) or aspirins? Well, my vent of the week is the containers that the Advils come in, they do NOT come in little plastic bottles, rather the old, old school of push tabs. You know, non child safety, just push it through the bubble like pack. It's not convenient to carry in your bag, the box gets tatty and next thing you know you've got these things floating all over your bag. Vitamins however do come in plastic bottles. I just don't get it. 

I got these photos from Google, the first photo is what we have here and I dislike very much, the second photo is what I'm used to and what I prefer and to me makes much more sense than the silliness above it. There's no mulitpack, I think the most you can get is 24 in a box. If you suffer much pain you'll go through 24 in a nano-second. 

Renting Procedures in Queensland...

Renting in Queensland is so very different then renting in New York City. In QLD there are property managers (basically real estate agents) and they're in charge of leasing the unit, apartment, house etc. You find a place on a real estate website or at the agency itself and then see if there's an inspection date, if not,  you make contact with the agent to see the place. Once you've seen the place you put in an application and keep your fingers crossed that you'll get it (especially if it's a great find). 

Rent is usually paid weekly here, which if you think about it, is easier to budget than having to fork over the money once a month. Plus since most monetary transactions here are not handled with checks or cash rather electronically, you never have to think about mailing a check or having to have cash on hand. 

I love to cook, so when my husband was looking for a place to move into while I was still in New York, there were many that I liked, but by the time he contacted the agent the best ones were snapped up. So he found this one which we are in at the moment and it has an upright gas stove. I've never cooked on anything else and it's perfect for anyone that truly enjoys cooking. Many places here in QLD have electric stoves. I've seen beautiful kitchens set up with stainless steel everything and it being ruined by two things, electric appliances and no pets, not even a little kitty. But our time here is numbered as we are tired of having to hide the cat every 3 months when the property managers come to "inspect" the premises. They said that Body Corporate doesn't allow it and neither does the landlord (unreasonable stupid animal hating bitch). Our lease is up on Thursday and we've decided to vacate our current residence. 

So we looked and looked and finally found something that was decent. This place has 3 bedrooms, a nice dining/living area and a decent sized kitchen, but it's got an electric cooktop which I hate. There's only one good thing about it, and that water boils faster. I don't like it and I never will. It has a balcony out the kitchen and since technically we're on the third floor, it's pretty private out there. The view is just a bunch of trees, the occasional chickens (yes I said chickens), Hungry Jack's (Burger King) in the distance and the back of the complex on the adjoining street. It does however allow cats. It has a 2 car tandem style garage with one remote, really, just one remote for a 2 car garage, not thought out very well., plus water comes in through the door, no wonder we spotted silverfish.The laundry is in the garage, which is where it was in Gordon Park, but this place has less natural light and there were no lines to hang the laundry in the garage, only the hills-hoist outside. The garage is gray cinder blocks, so it looks very dark, someone should have painted it white and it would brighten it up a bit. I have to remind myself this is only temporary, eventually we'd like to buy our own house and put in a proper gas stove and a huge sink. Oh did I mention? The sinks in most rentals is a double sink, but not old school Ridgewood style where you wash your hair in one end its so deep. The measurements of the sinks are they're both 5 1/2 inches deep, the one on the left is 15" x 13" and the other one is 13" x 10" not even big enough to soak a roasting pan. This would be fine IF there was a dishwasher, but of course there isn't one. Looking at these places to rent makes me think people don't wash their roasting pans, cause how in the world can you wash something that doesn't fit in the sink. I may have to wash bigger pans in the bathtub. The door to our unit only has a doorknob lock, no deadbolt, so we put it to the property managers about having deadbolts put on 3 of the doors. 

Moving was very interesting and technically my first move as an adult. Moving to Australia was different as I just packed four suitcases and away I went. This was something, going from the first floor into something on the second, technically the third. Our king size mattress did not fit in the staircase so it had to be winched up without a winch, the mattress also has no handles on the side. My twin Simmons Beautyrest in NY had two handles on each side and this king mattress not a one? There are 30 something steps to our apartment, going up and down those things will slim off some of the extra kilos we've put on. T is loving it, he's got more open space to run around. 

Not renewing lease...

So my husband got the keys to the place we live in now, 11/11/11 which I thought was so cool. Once I got here, I asked him to find out if we could have a little kitten. The agent said no, the landlord doesn't allow it and neither does body-corporate. We sneakily brought in our little muppet last year and at every three month inspection muppet and I go for a drive somewhere and waste 3 hours. It's very tiresome but right now we don't have the money to buy a place so we have to rent until I get a job and we can buy our own place. Well our lease is up and my husband told the agent we got the papers in the mail and we are considering the lease, and then asked the question can we have a pet cat. Within the hour an email was received stating the landlord again said no, and so does body-corporate. So now we have to move to a place that is pet friendly and that's hard to find with our single income status. One thing will be good is that the new place will be pet friendly and I won't have to hide all the cat things and disappear for hours. It's going to be painful changing the address with all my correspondences from the US. I get quite a few magazines from the States and that's going to be a bitch and a half. Plus I have to notify Australian Immigration, so that my permanent residency papers get mailed to the correct address or else everything I did before was done for nothing. 

Things about this place I will miss. The view, from the kitchen and living room facing west, I've seen such beautiful sunsets.  In general I like this apartment. Some things I won't miss, are the other tenants, #2 and #4 to be exact. #2 has had it out for us since day one. We tried saying hello and she just turns her head (she owns her unit) and what I like to call the fuck-wits in four. They have parties, they are loud at the wrong time of night. Now don't get me wrong I'm not talking about before midnight, but rather after midnight, going on two or three in the morning they come home drunk and are talking at the top of their lungs. #2 likes them? but not us? Seriously I hope they rent out this place to another young couple that love to party and make noise throughout the night. Plus they can deal with the wasp nests that are being built on our balcony. 

On that note, I'm glad we're leaving. The new place will be pet-friendly and muppet will be able to sit on any window ledge he wants because he won't be a "secret" but rather a proud muppet on his own window drinking up the sun. 

Geckos....

So being in Australia there are many geckos around, and lizards and frogs and cane toads and snakes, crocs in the north and some of the deadliest spiders are here too. Oh joy. Most common thing I see are lizards when I go do the laundry in the garage. I've seen geckos walking on the ceiling, I screamed the first time I saw one. I don't care that they eat spiders, well maybe I do. They do eat all sorts of bugs but they manage to come into our apartment through a crack by the window sill and guess what it does? It poops! I've found poop on the sill, and even on the desk, gross, gross, gross. Thank goodness for the cat or else this damn insurance company would be pooping all over my place.

Movies and Events in Brisbane...

Since my husband works for a radio station he gets some lovely perks, free advanced movie screenings and sometimes free concert tickets. We go to most of the free screenings, and hey why not it's free and you can sit wherever you please. The only time I don't go is if I have no desire to watch the movie, either way too violent, not my cup of tea (The Hobbit) or just way to weird for me (Cloud Atlas). In these cases my husband asks either his brother or one of his cousins to go with him. We saw Carrie Underwood for free, could have seen Faith Hill and Tim McGraw but the email invitation somehow wound up in his work spam folder the day he was picking me up from the airport upon my arrival to Australia almost a year ago.  We saw Cavalia for free a few weeks ago and it was amazing, especially for a horse lover  like me. My husband had to get up for work early the next morning (4:30am - up before the sparrow farts....LOL), so we didn't stay to meet and pet the horses. :( I would have so loved that. Turns out those tickets were $300 tickets each, wow. 

Movies are great, 3D or regular all free and sometimes come with free popcorn or even free beverages, occasionally wine or beer.The Queensland premieres are awesome as there are famous people and little hors d'oeuvres, once they even had Dominos pizza along with free red, white or sparkling wines or water or soda that you could bring into the theatre with you. They even had chocolate covered ice cream. Picture a cone of vanilla ice cream covered in a hard chocolate shell, it's a very popular movie treat. There are a few movie theatres that do serve alcohol which I think is so cool, imagine having a night out with the girls and going to watch some romantic comedy, sitting in these really comfy leather chairs and sipping champagne, or a glass of wine, or a bottle of beer and enjoying a cheese platter, yes I said cheese platter. They do have your standard movie theatre yum yums, popcorn, M&Ms, candy and bags of potato chips among other sweets and treats. There's this one theatre that uses olive oil to pop their popcorn, so it's a healthier version. 

The thing that annoys the crap out of me is the release dates for some of the movies. We get some in Australia before the rest of the world but usually it's we get them dead last. We saw The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Wednesday as an advanced screening, it releases to general audiences here in Oz March 21, and in the US March 22nd.  What I absolutely hate is when a movie like Lincoln is released in the US and Croatia and other European countries MONTHS ahead of here, we didn't get Lincoln till the beginning of March, when it came out in the US in October. I know this as I use IMDB on a weekly basis to check out what new and cool movies are coming out and hoping we get the advanced tickets. My husband says don't worry about it,  you're seeing a movie for free, I totally understand him BUT being absolutely LAST country to see it? I just don't understand it. Why don't they release them at the same time, they do some of them, like the last Batman movie. Movie are released on Thursdays here and in some countries in Europe like Croatia, whereas they're usually released on Fridays in the US and sometimes on Wednesday's if it's a holiday weekend or a major box office smash. They should release them all about the same time, even a few weeks ahead behind, but months is when it truly pisses me off. But all in all, bring on the freebies! This weekend we're seeing Jack the Giant Slayer in 3D, only thing that sucks is it's at 10am on Sunday morning, oh well, I did want to see it when I saw the coming attractions, but who'd think it'd be early on St. Patrick's Day? 

Highway Patrol...

Here in Queensland the Highway patrol drive awesome looking cars. I loved NY's Highway patrol cars also, especially the Camaros or any other high performance sports car. Yes I love cars, have always loved a good sports car, I loved my Camaro Z28 for many years until the poor thing had to be put down. LOL But I digress, the Highway Patrol cars are not a standard color, rather an array of bright colors, red, blue, green, silver, orange and even yellow, yes yellow and sometimes white and black.  I love seeing them skulking in the bushes waiting to pounce on some idiot driving over the posted speed limit, or just cruising down the highway. The power behind the colors is amazing, from the Fords to the Holdens (Chevy's to us Americans). High power engines and turbo charged gas guzzlers, but they are a sight to see zooming after idiots. 

Road Trip!...

So my husband had 2 weeks of for the Christmas holidays. and everyone at his job was asking him what he was going to do for those 2 weeks holidays (vacation to us Americans). He had something in his head that he wasn't sharing....not even with me. Christmas Day I find out we are taking a road trip south, I thought cool! On Thursday the 27th of December we got into his car and drove down to Wollongong, New South Wales where his sister lives. It was a pretty long drive (just under 12 hours) but very scenic. We stopped off at Micky D's for breakfast as it's the one thing that would be consistent from town to town and state to state. In the States my usual Micky D's breakfast consisted of 2 sausage biscuits and 2 hash browns, here in Australia my order is 1 sausage mcmuffin and 2 hash browns along with a standard cappuccino from McCafe because they don't have biscuits at Maccas, because biscuits down under are what we call cookies. Wollongong was nice, we didn't make reservations, just showed up at the Best Western and managed to get the last room, which overlooked the golf course and the beach just beyond the course. We went to my sister-in-laws and she was totally shocked as other than immediate family, no one knew we were driving down that way. We went to Bald Hill Lookout in Stanwell Tops, where many a hand-glider jump of this area and fly into the wind. 

We drove over the Sea Cliff Bridge which was built over the water because there were many rock slides and the rocks always fell on the highway, so they decided to build it away from the cliffs, so that's why it's called the Sea Cliff Bridge. 

After a day in Wollongong, we headed south into Victoria on our way to Melbourne, as we decided last minute why not spend our first New Years Eve somewhere different. On our way down to Melbourne we went through this little town in Glenrowan, VIC, where in the late 1800's Ned Kelly who was wanted by the police for killing 3 officers, was captured and late hung in Melbourne, VIC at the age of 25. After that, a short stop for a food break at McDonald's for a 10 piece chicken McNuggets with sweet and sour sauce. :)   Two hours later we arrived at our hotel the Best Western Atlantis in Melbourne. When we went up to our room I was disgusted and nauseated to smell strong cigar smoke. My husband called reception and asked them if this was a non-smoking room and he said yes, (it's a non-smoking hotel) so my husband says this is unacceptable and long story short they moved us down a few floors that had a better view, the stinky room only had an air-shaft, no view of anything. The view we had (thanks to the feral smoker(s)) was a view of the Docklands, where the fireworks were going to be set off New Years Eve. Thanks feral smoker(s). Melbourne is a lovely city, reminds me a lot of Zagreb and Boston, it's a city that's geared for sports, AFL (Aussie Rules Football), tennis, rugby league, soccer and even cricket (yawn). It's got a lot of cafes and bars in lane-ways (little streets usually behind major streets previously and sometimes used for deliveries).  It was cold in Melbourne the few days we were there, I had to buy jeans as I was so not expecting cold weather in the heart of summer. We went to the beach in St. Kilda, there were quite a few people there, but not many in the water, more to enjoy the fresh air. We went to Costco! And I found out I can use my card from the states in any Costco here in Oz, I heard they're building one up here in Brisbane in August, I sooo can't wait! We wanted to eat at this Croatian restaurant but we got there just as they were closing so we wound up going to the casino, The Crown Casino, we ate at this really cool Italian restaurant called Cervo Cafe Bar, the food was delicious and they had the wine that I love. We found a place in Fitzroy that makes really good bagels, Beans & Bagels, and my everything bagel was pretty tasty. For New Years Eve we bought 2 bottles of sparkling and toasted in the New Year the first time together ever, while watching the fireworks from our 15th floor window. It was awesome to see so close up and better than being outside in it as we didn't have to deal with the drunks on the streets afterwards. 

January 1st we checked out and headed even further south to Mount Gambier, South Australia, the town where my husband was born. We drove a fair bit and drove on the Great Ocean Road, the scenery could take your breath away. We took a bathroom break at The 12 Apostles, a rock formation on the beach. 

 We stayed in another Best Western, this one had the worst mattress of them all and the smelliest of rooms. We passed the house where my husband grew up, we also passed by the hospital where he was born, but it looks as it's in the process of being demolished, funny thing is the hospital wasn't even around for 20 years before it stopped being used. Go figure. We went to the Blue Lake, that is one amazing lake as it's always blue, you cannot swim in it, but it's stunning in the deep blue of it. 

 January 2nd we got back in the car and headed back home, we had the GPS and Google Maps on our phones and we picked the quickest route. Little did we know at the time we would be driving in the middle of nowhere for miles. We stopped in a little town and stayed at some random hotel as it's a long drive from Mt.Gambier to Brisbane, we needed to stop for sleep and food. On the 3rd we got up early and left, had breakfast an hour and a half later at Micky D's in Forbes, NSW. We left West Wyalong 6:13am and arrived home same day at 7:40pm. Even as a passenger that long a trip tired me out, but one thing I can say is that we did it. Driving from Brisbane to Melbourne is like driving down to Florida, only thing is driving down in the middle of the night is not a smart thing unless you have a bull bar on your car or truck as there is a great possibility of hitting a kangaroo. Whereas driving down to FL is all lit highways, not these 2 lane highways here in Australia. We had fun and I know now that I would definitely love to go visit Melbourne again, but maybe for a bit longer than just 3 days.