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.