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.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Sunday, March 31, 2013
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.
Friday, March 15, 2013
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?
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?
Thursday, March 7, 2013
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.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
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.
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.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Christmas Down Under...
So, I'll be celebrating my first Christmas in Australia this year. We have bought ourselves a little 3 foot Christmas tree from Target it's tiny but it serves it's purpose. The malls are packed with people doing their Christmas shopping, last night at my local mall they were going to be open for 36 hours straight and when we left just before midnight, there were still many people coming in. Houses are lit with all kinds of lights, kinda reminds me of Pitkin Avenue in Ozone Park. People here enter contests to see who has the best lights. Fake trees are more popular then real trees as the real trees come up from Victoria, but you can also get them from the Scouts. Food here is plentiful, with seafood being very popular for Christmas lunches. Roasted hams and turkeys are also very popular. Down at the Queens Street Mall Meyer has a Christmas parade, they have kids dancing and singing, there's the nativity with sheep and goats and Mary riding a donkey next to Joseph, followed by the Three Kings literally on camels, which was so cool to see. As with the Macy's day parade this parade ends with Santa Claus but here they have two real live reindeer. It is funny watching the people with the pooper-scoopers walking behind each set of animals as the parade is not on a street rather the mall which has closed of Queen Street to all traffic for quite a few years. It's kind of like what Bloomberg did in the city with Broadway.
As Christmas is Tuesday and I'm in the tropics it almost doesn't feel like it, being used to the cold, but it's also cool wearing strappy sandals for Christmas Mass and the lunches and dinners following. I miss my family back home, I'm happy to be with my husband but I miss seeing my friends and hanging out with them. I'm happy I've spoken to my dad and my brother on Skype and shown my dad our little muppet. I wish I could share my cookies and rum balls with those I shared with last year. Ahh to win the lottery and be able to see my friends and family whenever I please would be such a wonderful thing. My husband is on vacation starting Monday for two weeks, I see beach time in the near future. I have no idea yet what we're going to do to celebrate the New Year but I know it will be warm and there will be Sparkling drank. The end of the world did not happen, as I write this it is 4:06pm on the 21st of December in Australia and its 1:06am New York time. Next blog will be in the New Year. I wish all my friends and family a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!
As Christmas is Tuesday and I'm in the tropics it almost doesn't feel like it, being used to the cold, but it's also cool wearing strappy sandals for Christmas Mass and the lunches and dinners following. I miss my family back home, I'm happy to be with my husband but I miss seeing my friends and hanging out with them. I'm happy I've spoken to my dad and my brother on Skype and shown my dad our little muppet. I wish I could share my cookies and rum balls with those I shared with last year. Ahh to win the lottery and be able to see my friends and family whenever I please would be such a wonderful thing. My husband is on vacation starting Monday for two weeks, I see beach time in the near future. I have no idea yet what we're going to do to celebrate the New Year but I know it will be warm and there will be Sparkling drank. The end of the world did not happen, as I write this it is 4:06pm on the 21st of December in Australia and its 1:06am New York time. Next blog will be in the New Year. I wish all my friends and family a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Snacks in Australia...
There are many different snacks here and instead of writing about them I'll just be snapping photos and posting them. The Burger Rings remind me of Wise Onion Rings. The Doritos are slightly different than the US version. You cannot go into a grocery store and buy nacho cheese, you can buy plenty of salsa but no queso.
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