Time for an update!

My poor blog is being neglected! I've still been taking my project 365 photos and I've had a bit of exciting news to share I've just been... Too tired!
I actually have a pretty legitimate reason to be so tired and it's not laziness or working too much...

Yup! I'm pregnant! It was a bit of a surprise and not something we were really planning but we're pretty excited.
So I'm due September 20th and I've just ticked over to 13 weeks and the second trimester. I got to celebrate hitting 13 weeks this morning by throwing up. Lovely. So far though, that's only the second time and both times seem to have come after a busy day at work where I'd been quite tired. I've had nausea on and off the whole time, more so when I'm in the car (curse you motion sickness!) so I think I'm pretty lucky I've actually only barfed twice.

Other big exciting news is that Glen and I got engaged in February! I should write a proper post about it since he was sneaky and arranged for me to have time off work and arranged for us to spend a few days in Philip Island.
We had a really great time and Glen did a great job planning the trip - and the proposal. He managed to arrange to get my mum's wedding rings (so he's had them for almost two years!) and he proposed on my dad's birthday. It was such a nice way to incorporate my family into the moment.

One more exciting thing is that I have my paperwork for the second stage of my visa (getting permanent residency). Thankfully it's not as much paperwork as before but as always there's a little bit of stress making sure you get everything right!

When my energy picks up a bit I hope to do an update of my 365 photos and write a proper post about our Philip Island trip.

Sorry I've been so slack!



Temperature: +17C
Sunrise: 7:18am
Sunset: 7:40pm

New Year

Now that Christmas and New Years is over and done with hopefully things can get back to some semblance of order and routine.
Not that I didn't have a good time during Christmas or anything but working two (retail) jobs sort of sucked all the fun out of it. I was looking forward to and dreading Christmas. On one hand it was going to be my first day off in a month (and it was CHRISTMAS) and on the other it meant the next day was Boxing Day which is pretty much the most dreaded day if you work in retail.

Anyway, we had a good day even though we were dead tired by the end of it. One of the highlights (comedy wise) was throwing Glen's 13 year old nephew into the pool because he was being cheeky and didn't think we'd actually do it haha

On the 27th we went to the MCG to watch day 2 of the Ashes in Melbourne (The Ashes is a cricket game between Australia and England). Australia did pretty bad but it was still fun - and it was my first time going to the cricket.

We had a pretty low-key New Years. We went to a BBQ at one of Glen's co-worker's and then came home around 11:30 and watched the fireworks on TV then went to bed. I know the whole point of going somewhere on New Years is to actually still be out at midnight but they were all driving 45 minutes down the road to the beach and we didn't want to be out driving that late.
It was also incredibly hot yesterday (+41) so that pretty much sucked the life out of me and I was asleep right after the fireworks finished.

It was pretty warm again today so we decided to take a drive down to the beach where it was MUCH cooler than it was in the city. We still managed to take a dip in the water though! (I told Glen we need to make 2011 the year of getting to the beach!).

Lets hope we all have a great 2011!!

Temperature: +16C
Sunrise: 6:01am
Sunset: 8:45pm

Dragons, Pottery and Gold!

Glen and I finally had a weekend off together last week. It'll likely be our last days off together until Christmas day and even then, we won't have the day to ourselves.
We took advantage of the freedom and spent the day in Bendigo. The drive was quick and easy - basically we get on the freeway near the house and keep driving and it takes us straight there (no turns or anything!). One thing to keep in mind is that Bendigo basically closes on a Sunday. The streets were very quiet and a lot of shops were closed. Thankfully some of the touristy things were open.

Random shot of our rainy drive home.

We started off at the Chinese Museum and the Chinese Gardens (essentially a koi pond - not something I'd pay to see separately but admission was free when you buy a museum ticket).

We got to see the longest imperial dragon and the oldest imperial dragon.

The longest imperial dragon in the world - Sun Loong

Random other dragons (one is a guardian lion I think)

We walked through some gardens and saw a whole heap of bats (silver headed flying foxes).

We picked up a free tourist guide at the museum and we flipped through it to look for other things to do. The pottery place and the gold mine happened to be open so we decided to take a drive out to the pottery place first. The pottery place was AWESOME. I thought it might be some fancy-schmancy-arty pottery place but most of the pieces were utilitarian type things - sugar/flour/tea canisters, mugs, plates, bowls etc. We bought a few Christmas presents for family and picked up a sugar container for us. I'd love to go back and get their flour and tea bag container.
After that we drove over to the Central-Deborah Gold Mine and took a 75minute underground tour. That was awesome too. I thought I might be a little freaked out by taking the elevator and being 20 storeys underground but I was fine. Part of what made the mine tour great was our tour guide and there were only four people in our group (us and an older couple). They have an even longer tour available (you go further underground!) and I'd definitely consider doing that one as well (and it's definitely on our list of things to do when people come to visit).

We did a little bit of driving around Bendigo and happened upon this great sight:

Unfortunately it was closed so we'll have to take a trip up again.


We're in the process of planning an even more exciting trip for around March but I'm sure we'll get in a day trip or two before then! (more details when we have a few things confirmed!)



Temperature: +17C
Sunrise: 5:56am
Sunset: 8:16pm

Hanging Rock

Glen and I took a trip to Hanging Rock yesterday. Like most people, I've heard about the movie and knew the basic premise of it so I wasn't really sure what to expect.

Picnics not included. Kind of ominous when the sign says "Experience the Mystery?, no?

It turns out that hanging rock (or "The Hanging Rock") is actually only one small part of the whole area. It turns out that the hanging rock is a large boulder that is suspended between two other boulders. It's kind of cool.

Hanging Rock (sorry for the bad picture of it)

There are all sorts of other interesting rock formations all around (all these rocks make up a small mountain - or well, a mountain by Australian standards). We climbed up to the summit, around through some of the formations and back down and then walked around the base of the whole thing.

Interesting rock formations


View from the summit

We had lunch at the cafe there (great food btw) and saw a bird we've never seen before - the Pied Currawong (unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with my camera to get a picture). The one we saw was likely a female as she had grey on her stomach (and she was pretty big & fluffy). There were tonnes of crimson rosellas around which was good to see since we don't get many of them in our area and we also saw a few kookaburras!

Immature Crimson Rosella

We had a great walk and even though the walk to the summit was a little intense at times, it wasn't too difficult (unlike the You-Yangs where we just gave up). The walk we took around the base of the mountain was great, it was mostly flat and we were the only ones on the trail.

Thankfully we didn't see any snakes!

We were walking along quietly, listening to the birds when we came across this:

I think that's the largest kangaroo I've seen outside the zoo.

There were SO many of them. We counted 24 and there were likely more (there were quite a few with joeys in their pouch).

We had a really great time and were really pleased with the whole area. We bought the Picnic at Hanging Rock DVD in the gift shop and then watched it when we got home.

Lone rock wallaby in the bushes.

Temperature: +9C
Sunrise: 6:07am
Sunset: 6:18pm

The Long Journey South

I'm back home after my fifth equator crossing (the third in a year). As long as the whole journey takes (flying plus travel to/from the airport and waiting for connections - approx. 24hours. Actual flying time between Vancouver and Sydney 13-16 hours) I actually don't mind it too much. You kind of have to get into a groove and have a system.

First of all you have to come to terms with the fact it's going to take as long as it takes and nothing you can do will make time go faster. The quicker you accept that you will be in a plane for at least 13 hours (more if you are flying from further east) the quicker you will be able to do things other than obsess about the minutes.

Research the entertainment options you will have on your plane. Most planes these days have individual seatback TVs - especially on the long flights. This is probably the best idea anyone has ever had. They load them with tonnes of movies, music and sometimes games. Go to the website of the airline you're flying with and check to see if they've posted what movies they'll have while you're flying. I like doing this because then I can reassure myself that I won't be bored stiff. I count all the movies I'd like to watch and make a mental list of the top ones I'd like to see.

Bring other things to do just in case there isn't anything you want to watch. Nintendo DS and games, a book or two, crossword puzzle, portable DVD player with your favourite watch again movie, knitting or other small portable craft project.

Sleep aides. My goal on these long haul flights is to sleep as much as I possibly can. I never travel without my eye mask, ear plugs and some sort of medicine to help me sleep. Some people are snickering at the thought of an eye mask and ear plugs but trust me, you will get a MUCH better sleep with just these two things alone - not having to hear the baby three rows up screaming for 10 hours? AWESOME. I've only taken an Rx sleeping pill on one of my long haul flights and it worked like a charm. Be aware of side effects though - sleep sex might not be so great if it happens in public! So besides that, I use Gravol most times. It lets you get a pretty decent chunk of sleep. I only took one Gravol this last flight and spent a good majority of it napping. A long haul flight isn't the best time to try a new medicine though so I'd suggest using something you're familiar with.

Travel pillow. Make sure you have one of these. My favourite by far is the contour twist pillow. The girl on the commercial doesn't make it look that comfortable but trust me, it's awesome. You can twist it to all sorts of shapes which makes it easy to get it into the perfect position. I usually have it folded up onto one side to lean my head onto - the inflatable ones don't seem to give enough support and can deflate and get sweaty/hot.

Slippers. I bring a pair of slippers or thick socks with me to put on basically as soon as I can. It can get pretty chilly on the plane and it's better than walking around barefoot or in your regular socks.

Snacks with no import restrictions. Pack a few granola bars or other sorts of portable snacks. Be aware of import restrictions in the country you're travelling to and either plan to eat it all or throw it away once you land. You generally won't need the snacks but it makes me feel better knowing that if I get snacky, I have something in my bag.

Order a special meal. On every flight I've been on, people with special meals get theirs first. If you don't like waiting or are worried your preference will be gone (especially if you're stuck at the back of the plane), save the stress and order a special meal. There's all sorts to choose from and generally they're all pretty good. The only downside to this is the dude in front of you may keep his chair reclined while you eat only to put his chair up as soon as he gets his meal (and you're done yours).

A few other things I pack but aren't 100% necessary: A facecloth in a ziploc bag (it's nice to get up and wash your face a few hours before you land and having it in a ziploc means you don't have to cart around a soggy cloth in your bag), toothbrush and toothpaste, brush and elastics (I usually re-do my hair before we land since it's usually a mess after 13+ hours), spare pair or two of undies (firstly, you just never know and secondly, just changing that one piece of clothing makes you feel not so grungy), small cosmetics bag (nail clippers, tweezers, small mirror, pain killers, lip balm, lotion, face wash).

This is how my typical long haul flight shapes up:
First three hours: Watch a movie and eat in-flight meal.
Sleep
Middle 3 hours: Watch a movie and eat in-flight meal.
Sleep
Last 3 hours: Watch a movie and eat in-flight meal.
Land!

So basically, as soon as the first meal is done, I try to sleep until they hand out the next meal and then repeat. On the way back I actually only managed to stay up long enough to watch one full movie. I ended up falling asleep through all the others I started.

So there you go! It's not so bad when you break it down into it's individual components. If you are able to sleep on a plane then you've got your biggest problem solved. It also helps if you don't mind watching movies!


Next post: Sneaky Glen and the awesome surprises.


Temperature: +10C (feels like +7C)
Sunrise: 6:50am
Sunset: 5:54pm

There's No Place Like Home

Just popping in to say hi. Things have been great here so far and I have just under a week left. My brother did some magic on his router and my wireless works great here (WAY better than at home actually!). We've been fairly busy most days, the first week I was here was spent helping my sister-in-law (!) sort out all the final details for the wedding. She had things mostly under control so we didn't really need to do much. We folded and filled favour boxes though.

We also took a few runs to the next town over to do some last minute shopping and after all the agonizing over finding a dress, they found me a really cute one. I had actually bought a dress before I left but mum wanted me to get a new one (?) so she bought me one. I wasn't sure about it at first but everyone loved it so I must have bad taste or something haha

(Me with my little (!) brother taken by my mum)

The wedding was beautiful. The ceremony was outside at SIL's grandma's and then the reception was at the local yacht club (Yacht Club sounds posh... It was like a nice community hall near the water with boats. "Yacht Club" makes it sounds like it was a big bucks kind of place. Their whole wedding was outrageously affordable and I'm really proud of them for doing it so cheaply. They actually refused to do things like hire a limo because they couldn't justify the cost for the hour or so they needed it. They were perfectly happy to borrow one of the shiny rental cars family had). It was great that a lot of our out-of-town family came and we got to spent time with a lot of them outside the wedding. We have another family wedding this coming weekend so we'll see even more family (this is a very convenient way to get all the visiting out of the way!).

I got to play photographer for part of the day and that was a lot of fun. The photographer that was hired didn't have an assistant so I offered to take the shots of the guys getting ready since the paid for photographer was out getting SIL getting ready shots (and we were over here where the boys were getting ready anyway).
I'm ridiculously proud of a few shots I got and I'd say they're quality enough to fit right in with the rest of the shots from the day (or at least I'm hoping the paid for photographer got some great shots!). I got an incredible shot of my brother's best man (this guy was his best friend growing up and practically like a brother - he calls our mum, mum - and he just happens to be SIL's cousin! SIL didn't know him growing up and it was only about 6-7 years ago they found each other online and have reconnected). Anyway, I might have to post that another day, but it's been getting a lot of attention of facebook.

I've also been trying to get my fill of Canadian things before I go home. I've been really shocked at how easy being back is. The whole driving on the right side of the road thing, going back to having pennies and quarters, French on all the packaging etc. I was expecting to have a bit of culture shock coming back but there hasn't been any. I'm not sure whether I should be happy or sad about this (does it mean I still haven't fully assimilated into Aussie life?). I've done a little bit of driving and besides having to ask if I'm on the proper side of the road and accidentally going for the turn signal on the wrong side of the steering wheel a few times, driving has been remarkably easy and stress-free. Not something I can say for driving down under.
I've had my fill of kraft dinner and a few pizza pops, I've been sampling some of the chocolate bars I left behind and I'm making a list of what I want to take back or more appropriately a list of things that people can send me if they're feeling generous enough to send a care package. My king sized pillows and wide-mouth thermos have been bought. I've been to Canadian tire a few times and I've set foot in the major big box store more than once.
I'm also enjoying being able to wander around this great little town that my brother and SIL call home. It may be full (and I mean FULL) of tourists in the summer but they have so many great little shops, I'm kind of jealous since they only have to walk up and down a few blocks to visit these great stores instead of having them spread across a massive city.

This has turned into a rather long "just popping in" post but I wanted to fill everyone in on how things are going. We're really having a great time and this is the first time it's felt like summer in a LONG time (y'know those lazy summer days during school holidays, the air had a specific smell and feel to it, didn't have any agenda and just did whatever was happening... My favourite time of year).



Temperature: +22C (feels like +29C)
Sunrise: 6:18am
Sunset: 8:08pm

Be Back Soon!

Just letting everyone know that I'm off to Canada for 3 weeks for my brother's wedding. Not sure if I'll have time to post or not or if my computer will even work on my brother's wifi connection (he has some sort of crazy setting and my laptop is too old to recognize it or something?).

I arrive back in Australia on August 26th.

So! Off to the land of kraft dinner, rice-a-roni, poutine and king sized pillows!

(taken at LAX in 2007 on our way to Melbourne for Glen's sister's wedding)

Day Tripper

Glen had the day off yesterday so we decided to do a day trip that we've been meaning to go on for a few months now. All the moving and going to IKEA and then Glen getting sick (sinus AND chest infection - yuck!) had kind of stopped us from doing any random day trips/exploring. We've been eying the You Yangs for a while now so we decided to make a day of it and make a stop at the Brisbane Ranges as well.

So we got to the You Yangs around 11am and picked the hike we were going to go on. They were all pretty decent in length (between 3 and 5km) so we decided to pick the one that sounded the least challenging (it was one of the longer ones at 4.5km). Usually the words "gentle loop walk with medium graidents" means that it has some ups and downs but is for the most part flat or slightly undulating. Um. No. I wish I would've taken pictures because it was pretty ridiculous and more like mountain climbing in some spots. The shortest walk was 450 steps to the top of the peak and after climbing 50 of them to start our walk, we knew there was NO way we could do 400 more. INSANE. So we walked/climbed for 45 minutes before turning around and going back. We figured that we had only gotten about a quarter of the way around and we were pretty exhausted.

Once we got back to the car we stopped for some lunch (we picked up Subway before heading out then we packed other snacks and water). On our way out of the park we stopped and took some pictures of the incredible view.

That's Melbourne in the distance - 56km away. I don't know what it is but there's something about the skyline that I love. You can see the city from so many different view points. I've never lived anywhere where you could see the same thing from everywhere. Often when we're driving around, we'll come around a corner and suddenly the skyline will come into view, it's kind of neat.

So, on our way out of the park Glen spotted a Kookaburra so I hopped out of the car and took a few pictures. It's probably the closest I've ever gotten to one. They're SO fluffy!

We made our way to the Brisbane Ranges and I have to say, for a National Park it was SO hard to find! There were hardly any signs and then when we finally saw a sign it was pointing left and right. So we turned right (since we had to travel in that general direction to get home anyway) and could NOT find an entry to the park. We drove around for ages before we turned around and made our way back to the sign then went the other way. We finally found some signs hidden by trees and bushes so we drove in. There were little posts showing where the trails were but there was pretty much no parking. You had to pull of the side of the road and then go for your walk. So we picked a trail (with the promising name "Koala Track") and started out. The trail was more like an old logging road and there wasn't any wildlife - not even birds! So we turned around, got back in the car and came home. I was actually the most excited about the Brisbane Ranges since it seemed to have the most promise for viewing animals.

I'd definitely go back to the You Yangs and explore some of the other areas of the park but I don't think the Brisbane Ranges is the top of my list to take other people to (we're compiling a mental list of cool places to take friends and family when/if they visit).

So after all of that,we drove home and since I had my camera with me, I got to take a picture of one of our favourite views of the city.

This is the view you see once you turn off the freeway and start heading towards home - it's like the "home stretch". We're approx. 10km away from the city centre.


Temperature: +17C
Sunrise: 7:02am
Sunset: 5:32pm

Weekends Away

It seems every few weeks Glen gets two (rarely three) days off in a row. We've decided to take advantage of this when we can (especially while I'm not working). This past weekend we decided to go to Wilsons Prom.

The spiky things are the flowering tops of grass trees. The flowering cycle is stimulated by bushfire. Wilsons Prom was affected by the February bushfires which damaged 25,200 hectares (50%) of the park.

Wilsons Prom is the southern most tip of the Australian mainland and the national park covers over 50,500 hectares. Wilsons Prom is a 3-4ish hour drive from Melbourne. We decided to stay in Foster (where we stayed in 2007) which is a nice little town about 45min from the park. We were originally planning on going to Phillip Island but there was some car racing thing going on so we decided to save that for another time.

We arrived mid-afternoon on Saturday and went straight to the beach. Squeaky Beach is probably my favourite beach (so far) for a few reasons. One is the wow factor. It has brilliant white sand and crystal clear water. Growing up, all the beaches I went to were covered with rocks/sticks and had seaweed and gross water. Swimming here can be hit and miss though. There can be strong currents and big waves. We were lucky that the two days we were there the water was pretty reasonable (we enjoy doing more jumping in the waves than actual swimming). We tried to do a bit of swimming at Tidal River on the second day but the water was pretty cold so we got out and went back to Squeaky Beach (otherwise Tidal River is the ideal swimming spot for safety reasons).

The cool thing about Squeaky Beach is the sand is made from rounded grains of quartz and when you walk on it, the grains rub together and squeak (a lot like really cold, packed snow does).

We managed to see some more wildlife on this trip and I got to cross off two more "quintessential Australalian animals" off my list.

We saw emus both days and besides crossing an animal off my mental list, I got to highlight it in my bird book! (I bought a bird book in 2007 and highlight birds I've seen in the wild). It goes without saying that they're HUGE. It was pretty weird to see them lumbering across the road and it's kind of hard to link them as being birds since they are SO massive and don't act like typical birds (y'know, sitting in trees and flying around!).

Can you spot the Emus?

We also managed to spot an echidna on the side of the road. Once it figured out that we had stopped the car and had gotten out it quickly made it's way into the bushes on the side of the road.

We picked a great weekend to go as the weather was fabulous and HOT (all the locals were saying that it was unusal for it to be so nice in November). When we heard the weather forecast we decided we wanted to be somewhere near the water so this trip definitely satisfied our being near the water requirement (we looked into going to a few other places but I think everyone had the same idea we did and we couldn't find anywhere to stay).


In other news, it looks like the weather in general is on the upswing and after weeks of me complaining about the cold (it's cold in the house when you don't have a furnace!) the house is anything but cool today.


Temperature: +34C
Sunrise: 6:05am
Sunset: 8:03pm

Bit of an Update + Pictures!

I've been here for just over a month now!
I've been doing a lot of hanging out while Glen has been at work. I haven't gotten too adventurous yet though. I'm mostly hanging out at home or with Glen's sister and her kids.

Glen had three days off work a few weeks ago and we took a drive down the Great Ocean Road. The weather was kind of miserable but it was a great drive and great to get away. The highlight of the trip was all the koalas we saw!

We turned off the Great Ocean Road to drive down to the Cape Otway lighthouse and along that road were close to a dozen koalas in the trees. Some had their babies with them as well!

It was really windy at the Twelve Apostles which kept the crowds down but the unfortunate thing was that all the sea spray kept blowing up onto the lens so I have a lot of pictures with water spots on them.

We stayed in Anglesea which is pretty famous for having kangaroos all over their golf course. We drove out and took a look at them (some of them had babies too!). Luckily they were close to the parking lot because you're not allowed to go traipsing through the golf course to look at them (some golf courses back home have walking trails around them).

I got a letter in the mail last week that my stuff was getting close to arriving! In the letter it told me the name of the ship my stuff was on and I'm able to track it! When I checked last week the ship had already made it to New Zealand and as of this morning it has arrived in Melbourne! I don't know how long it takes once the ship is here but I should have my stuff soon!

That's a bit of an update for now! I'm going to try to get better at posting on a regular basis!


Temperature: +16C
Sunrise: 6:23am
Sunset: 7:46pm