A Little Welcome Home Visitor!

Yep, there he was--just waiting for us in the driveway when we got home from Ayr this afternoon. A beautiful guy as long as he stays outside where he belongs!!! I suspect he lives in the foliage in the front yard and was out sunning himself when we got home. I stalked him with the camera.....probably traumatized him but wanted to record yet another creature of Australia!

Now you may think this is silly but today I washed the car. No, that is not the silly part. The silly part is that when I washed the car I felt like I was "home" again. Let me explain.....I drove up to the car wash and decided to do the self wash thingy since I am still relatively young and able. Plus there was a lady in the automatic one saying it was not working so that was not an option. When I got my change and went to put in the coins imagine my surprise when I saw that the selection dial was an exact replica of the one I used to use in Mooresville, NC!!!! I was so excited!!! Complete with foamy brush!!! Now I know that that seems like a very small and insignificant thing but when you are surrounded by things that are not quite what you are used to it was a nice feeling to know that I actually knew how to operate this car wash thingy and could do it successfully without having to ask anyone anything!!! As I said---a little bit of home in Ayr, Queensland.

Chris is sacked out in the recliner and I don't blame him. He has had a very long 3 days and deserves some nappage. Tomorrow we will probably putter around the house and do some yardwork (provided Gianni Goanna is not in the yard...) since we have negledted it badly. Sunday we will take the ferry over to Magnetic Island where Chris has a working retreat thing-not sure what it is called exactlly. They are doing some team building (a canoe trip) and some meetings Monday and Tuesday. the great thing is that partners get to go so Sunday night we all have dinner together and then Monday night the spouses will eat together and the CSR folks will have their little dealio. Sounds like fun and hopefully some of the other women will be staying till Tuesday too. If not, I will find the beach, the pool, whatever and read!!! I am working my way through Jodi Picoult and Dean Koontz among others. What a life!!! I LOVE it!!!

Thinking about some things!

Well, the US now has a new president elect and I am sure that everyone is very glad to have the election over with so the ads and calls will subside----it is amazing how invested Australia seems to be in the whole process. You would think it was their country that was having the election!! When someone finds out you are American that is all they want to talk to you about---politics in America. Now maybe that will end, too! We shall see.

I have a lot of people on my mind today ---found out that several of my friends who have been ill are not doing well including my wonderful friend Tom Johnson from Epworth. If you all would add him to your prayer list I would be really thrilled---prayer does work and he needs a great deal of support and love coming his way right now as well as for his wife Virginia. Also my friend Cheryl whose son has had a scary night and trip to the ER that they can determine what is going on with him. I know that there are more but these 2 are really on my mind right now.

I am at the "other" house today and if you can keep up with me and where I am you are doing better than me! I feel like I am Waldo somedays!!! We packed up the car yesterday morning and headed to Ayr and I dropped Chris off at one of the mills and came on to the house. i unloaded everything and realized that neither one of us had grabbed my briefcase which had my laptop, phone charger, books, camera, ipod, basically all the things I use when I am down here in this sparse house. So I had to make a decision. Be here for 3 days with absolutely nothing to do or drive back to Saunders Beach to get it! So I drove back. My first long distance solo drive and I did just fine, thank you very much. It isn't that far----less than 3 hours total there and back but with all the blasted roadworks it is a pain. You never know from one day to the next what part of the road you will be driving on and what roads will be closed and since I am not the seasoned driver here like Chris I am not always sure where I am going! But I did just fine and made it back in time to boot up my computer to watch the election stuff coming in. Which was my goal for the day anyway!

Not sure what I will be up to today---I may drive to the beach and walk or chill out---Chris shouldn't have such a long day today and we are looking forward to eating at the Chinese restaurant in town tonight for dinner. Yum!!! Life is good!!!

More things I miss

1. Real Qtips
2. Reese's Cups
3. Sweet Tea or any iced tea in restaurants--it does not exist here
4. Micah (I get to see Aaron next week for a month)
   
5. Newsweek magazine
6. watching Rachael Ray on tv
7. Secret antiperspirant (I used my last yesterday...now I will stink)
8. Wintergreen Dentyne gum
   

Melbourne Cup 2008

The first Tuesday of November the country of Australia stops!!! Not for the US election (that is actually tomorrow for us...if that makes sense) but the running of the Melbourne Cup horse race. It is quite an event and even if you do not go to the race itself most people plan luncheons and parties around the race. The ladies go all out and wear beautiful dresses and hats to match and get all dressed up which is pretty nice to see. Lorrae had invited me to the luncheon that the grammar school that her kids go to do as a fundraiser. It was held at a restaurant close to the casino we stayed at when we flew down in March and was a lovely place. All the ladies looked so nice all dressed up and they had a fashion show, drawings, (betting, of course), and then we had a nice lunch before the race. The race was on a huge screen and was a real nail biter---a photo finish---there was no way you could have told who the winner was without it and the winner was Viewed. It was a fun time and part of the Australian culture for sure!

Well I am off to pack the suitcase again---this time for a few days down in Ayr. I am avoiding the Cole's car park...don't want any more dings in my car!!!

More to look at!!!

Cape Hillsborough National Park

Kookaburra up close and personal

Fitch Hatton George

A new friend in Ayr

We are back home after a long weekend away and a great time. I was having some problems getting pictures posted so there may be some duplicates up here now but oh well. I took tons of pictures this week and I need to weed some of them out. I have about 50 of kookaburras I think! That is the beauty of digital cameras, though! You can delete and not worry about it!!! I really am thinking I need something with a bit more of a zoom--when I use the max zoom on mine it distorts it too much or something.

We had such a great weekend exploring around Mackay. We went to Cape Hillsborough National Park on Saturday after spending some time in the city exploring the town and the botanical gardens. The park was beautiful and we had a lot of fun walking the beach, looking at the volcanic rocks and watching wallabies hopping around. There weren't as many there as I thought there would be but I think it was because it was a little bit too early in the afternoon for them to be out. We left the hotel fairly early this morning and headed to Finch Hatton Gorge where we hiked for a couple of hours and saw some beautiful waterfalls and rainforest. We had planned to go to Eungella but since we had such a long drive back home we decided to save that for another day as that could take a day in itself to explore that ---you can see platypi there and we definitely want to see that!!! We drove (and drove and drove) 520 km today so we had plenty of time to sit in the car. We shared the drive on the way home so it wasn't too bad and stopped a couple places along the way too so that helped.

Got home and it looks like the council fixed our leaking water pipe or whatever it was and cleaned up well after themselves so that is a good thing. I have a lot of sweeping to do tomorrow---the tree in front sheds like crazy and it looks like fall instead of spring with all the leaves on the ground!!! I have a lot to get done in a couple of days as we are going back to the Burdekin house on Wednesday so I have to get stuff done tomorrow. Tuesday I am going to a Melbourne Cup Luncheon with Lorrae so that will be a lot of fun and a piece of Australian culture for sure!!!

Let's try this again!

Aren't I purty???

Wallaby

If you look really close you will see these are pelicans.

Tried to post yesterday but the fool thing wouldn't publish it for some reason!!! So I will put a few quick pictures up of our day and then write more when we get back home tonight to Saunders Beach!!! Okay check yesterday's post because it finally posted. Don't want you to miss the Mr. Science....

A day of fun and sightseeing!!!

This one I took for my Mom!!!!

Laughing Kookaburra

Me by a rock!!!

Chris playing with the rocks!

Wassup???

Pretty flowers

I took enough pictures today to fill up a couple photo albums so I will post them bit by bit!!! We had such a nice day!!! Got up and went into Mackay to find a breakfast place and ate a little brekkie before exploring the town a bit. I found a nice little shop with some Australian souvenirs in it so I bought some stuff in there (much to Chris' chagrin) and then we walked around some more. Nice town and looks like there are some nice shops to explore. Then we headed to the Botanical Gardens which were beautiful!!! They had tons of trails to walk and we saw pelicans and all kinds of other birds and tons of butterflies! That is one thing that I notice here----a lot more butterflies.

We spent awhile walking around enjoying the nature before heading back to the hotel. Decided to go hang out by the pool so we lounged for about an hour and half, read, and just enjoyed being there. There were only 2 little girls there the whole time we were there so we had the place to ourselves until we left and then a family came so our lounge chairs went to them. Pretty small pool and only a couple of decent lounge chairs so we were happy to share.

We took a little nap and then headed back out to Hillsborough National Park which one of my friends had told me about. It was a beautiful drive and totally worth the time it took to get there. Once we got there we started looking for wallabies as they come out on the beach in the afternoons and evenings. There weren't any on the beach but we did see several hanging out in the picnic areas so we took some shots of them. They were not tame enough to let me pat them but I imagine that some of them are since that is the place people go to "pat" them. One had a joey hanging out and it is neat to watch the mama eat and the joey leaning out eating at the same time. I took a video of one so I will post that sometime too.

We walked the beach and there were some great examples of volcanic rock so Chris got all excited and I filmed him explaining which he is kind of upset with me if it shows up on the blog.....We saw TONS of birds and quail and neat things I will have to get my bird book out to identify and it was such a beautiful evening!!! Saw a cane farmer burning what was left of the cane after the field was harvested on the way out of the area which is way different than the cane fires in the Burdekin area where they actually burn the cane before they harvest---much larger fires!!!

There is a wedding reception going on in the hotel now but it isn't too loud yet. There was a wedding outside our balcony both yesterday and today so I felt like I was eavesdropping on someone else's wedding or something but since we are on the 1st floor it is kind of right there!!! Not much you can do----just kind of watch from inside!

i am hoping this video loads---it is taking awhile but you can see my handsome hubby. I will post more photos later!!!