Off to the Jungle!

Hello everyone....

Just thought I would let you all know that I am heading into the jungle of Papua New Guinea for week. I am going to the same site that I visited last year.

Everything is still going great down here and we finally got all of our furniture (yah!) although that didn't come without problems. I am sure Lisa will tell you all about it when she posts some photos.

Hope everyone is doing well and will talk to you soon.

Cheers,

Rick

P.S. Always go prepared to the jungle where you really don't want to get bit by mosquitoes.....

We Have Chairs and Much More

Hello, again to all of our faithful readers (otherwise known as family and close friends).

It has been another big week for us and things are really starting to come together. As you can tell by the title our kitchen chairs finally arrived and it turns out they were sitting in the store the whole time with our name on them but somehow managed to ellude the highly trained staff of Super AMart (sarcasm intended). Once the chairs arrived that wasn't the end of it, turns out chairs are actually more of a pain in the butt to put together then one would imagine. Lets just say that over all I am elated to have that process over with. Here is a photo of the dining and computer area now fully put together (minus any wall art).


(LISA: Jenny, Ash, Sarah do these chairs look familiar?)

It is nice to have another area of the unit furnished however the is still the issue of the slightly under furnished living room........



This will hopefully be remedied later this week when the couch and other items are scheduled to arrive (fingers crossed).

As I have made abundantly clear in my emails and blog posts, I am sick of shopping. I am so tired of picking out towels, kitchen utensils, bedroom furniture, placemats, garbage cans, and on and on and on. However, this weekend we got to go shopping for two things that any man could get excited about: a T.V. and a BBQ! I had been looking forward to this since we got here and boy did it deliver. We got everything we needed, we got it for a really good price, everything is getting delivered in the next couple days and most importantly we got it all done in a couple of hours. I don't see how it could have gone any better. We decided on a 42-inch Samsung Plasma T.V. with a DVD Player that upgrades regular DVDs to near HD quality. Here is the best part and the most important role that Lisa played in the process, prices are negotiable! Lisa yet again proved her unmatched bartering skills by getting the T.V. (sticker price $1799), DVD Player (sticker price $159), HDMI cable (sticker price $80) with a Total Retail Value of.....$2,038....all for the low low price of $1630, ($170 less than the cost of the T.V.)! I don't know how she does it, she wasn't even wearing a low cut top. She beat the salesman down until he was a wimpering shell of himself, I was amazed and yet in a sad way I could relate to the poor guy a little (just kidding!!).

The BBQ shopping was a little less interesting. We walked into a Bunnings (the Aussie Home Depot equivalent) and said "I would like your third cheapest barbeque, please" which ended up being a nice 3-burner unit that will be delivered today (Sunday). I didn't want the cheapest one they had and I thought asking for the Second cheapest was too obvious so I settled on the Third cheapest which I think worked out well. Unfortunately electronics and home furnishings seems to be the only items with negotiable price tags.

To far less entertaining aspects of life, I am settling in nice at work. The people are easy going and it is a much more laid back atmosphere which will do me good I think. The work is interesting but I am struggling a bit in adjusting to how slow things happen in Papua New Guinea and this is only after a couple of weeks. It looks like I will be making my first trip to site next week, tentatively set for Feb.18. I am heading back to the same mine in Papua New Guinea I visited last year and should be there for about a week, give our take. Although I never believe anything until I am on the plane so we will see.

Lisa is heading out to go have brunch with some friends and will post a blog later.

Cheers,

Rick

We have a house, but no chairs

Hey everyone,

Well we are all moved in but of course there have been some issues :) Our kitchen table was delivered however, they had no chairs for us. When we bought it they told us everything was in stock, but then on the day we get a phone call and... no chairs. So right now, picture this if you will (i dont have a picture right now, you will have to use your imagination.) We have a single white recliner sitting in the middle of the living room and a kitchen table with no chairs......thats it. We sit on the floor when we eat. It looks like we are squatters :)

I was on the phone with the insurance company, to get contents insurance (funny, I know, we clearly have no contents, but anyway)...and I was telling her our living situation and she said even if we were robbed the robbers would think that we had already been robbed and try next door anyway! HEHEHE I thought that was a funny point especially coming from the insurance lady.

So anyway, our next job is to get a TV, BBQ and a DVD player. Ya cant be in Oz (that is what everyone calls it) without putting some SHRIMP ON THE BARBIE! (I am so happy I got to type that line).

I have also learned that the summer time here is also the rainy season. And it aint any kind of rain like we have in Van. Well first of all it is still freaking hot and second it pours like a monsoon for 15 min to 2hrs then stops and there is the sun....then it does it again like 2 hours later. Rick has been caught in a couple of these rain storms. I wish I had a picture to show you all but no, imaginations will have to be used again. Rick leaves the house in shorts and a T shirt and a couple hours later comes home looking like a drowned rat....soaked to the bone even his shoes are slopping, at first I had no idea what happened to him (my first thought was man!, you are sweaty!!) then I got the picture because of course by the time he got home it was bright sun shiny outside again. hehehehe I thought it was pretty funny. Here are some pictures of the rain....





So without the internet at home, no job hunting for me yet. If we get the internet like we are supposed to on Tues, then I should be able to start then. I will keep you all posted on how it goes on the job front.

Now, over to Rick.....

Some of the good points about the move is that the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen (cooking area anyway) is totally setup. Lisa and I were able to finally unpack our suitcases. We had been living out of them since Dec. 23. One of the biggest perks for me is that I actually now have space to put my clothes because the bedroom has two closets. Of course, Lisa got the bigger one but between the closet and the new dresser I have enough places to organize my clothes a bit as opposed to our previous arrangement where I got two drawers (socks, underwear, undershirts in one; pants shorts, shirts in the other) and a quarter of the closet(everything else).

Last night we cooked our first dinner in the place, actually I should correctly say Lisa cooked our first dinner in the new place. It was a wonderful pasta bake and salad (I was going to make the salad but clumsily sliced my finger while cutting a tomato thus leaving the duty for Lisa to complete) that I enjoyed so much so that Lisa has set a pretty high bar for all dinners that follow. Here is a picture of our magnificent feast....



Once the internet is setup (hopefully Tues. as Lisa mentioned) we will try to start reaching people on MSN Messenger or Skype so if you are setup with either of those send us your contact details so that we can add to our contacts. Later in the evening (Vancouver time) is the best time to reach us with the time difference.

Here are a couple more photos from around our place.

Walking path that runs from behind our building along river.


Street walk outside our door.


Hope everyone is doing well and we are always interested in hearing what you are up to.

Rick and Lisa