Found In Brisbane

Half Marathon is done.....and Lisa is working!

2008-07-08T00:40:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I know that we are getting really bad at these things. The truth is we haven't had too many things to write about lately. Life is settled into routine and between Lisa's job hunting and my running we haven't had too many adventures. Plus my life at work seems to have completely changed to me booking and changing flights but not actually going any where. My latest trip to New Caledonia has been delayed by a week and my next trip to Papua New Guinea looks to be happening in August (fingers crossed there isn't going to be a conflict with Flo's trip).

I am sure you are all aware of the horrible luck that Lisa has run into with her recent job hunting. It has started to turn around (again, fingers crossed). She started work today for another branch of the government. This is a temporary position at the moment but they seem really eager to try and find a way for her to stay on and are throwing job postings at her to apply for. Yeah Lisa! I know that she is writing everyone an email going into more detail. We didn't want to tell anyone about this until she actually showed up to work because of our recent run of luck.

Last Sunday I finished the Gold Coast half marathon which is 21.1 km! and trust me it is longer than it seems! I was able to get under my goal time of 2hrs and came in at 1:58:10. Lisa and a couple of friends made up a great cheer squad for me and they even got up at 3:45am to drive me to race. For anyone who knows Lisa understands what a sacrifice that was for her. I came away with no injuries other than muscle soreness. There is a shorter run coming up in September that is my next goal. Between now and then I just want to start getting quicker. I figure should only take me 3 more years of intense training before I can maybe, possibly, almost keep up with Scott. Here are a few photos from the day.

Before the race:

Running to the finish line:

Cheer Squad (minus Monika):

Time to lay down:

Lisa has posted some additional photos on her Facebook account.

We are rapidly approaching the season of visitors. Flo will be here in less than 4 weeks already. Shortly followed by the Nebors and then my parents. We are looking forward to the company.

Hopefully less than 2 months passes before our next blog post.

Cheers,

Rick

Just a random story, just so you can point and laugh

2008-05-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

Well, had an interesting day about a week ago. OK, so it starting innocently enough. In the morning I went to the fridge and I went to open orange juice (one with pulp) that had been in the fridge for a while (maybe 2 weeks). When I started to open it (I was by the sink in the kitchen) it sounded like when you open pop (the gas escaping), so I was figuring yeah...its gone bad. So I was letting the gas out of the bottle and then the thing FREAKING EXPLODED!!! Orange juice that smelt like alcohol was EVERYWHERE and I do mean everywhere, on the ceiling, on the painting, all over the table and chairs on all the cupboards and about a litre all over the carpet!!! I guess luckily I had the laptop over on the couch and the bottle exploded towards the kitchen table and juice stayed away from the couch/TV part of the room. That was about 9am. So I sprang into action, again luckily, I was able to clean the walls and the painting right away (no stain) but then I had to take care of all the papers that were juice soaked, clean the entire kitchen, then clean the ceiling…and clean…and clean…and clean. I could not get the juice out of the carpet, so I hired a carpet cleaner. I cleaned all of the chairs as well and thank god we had got the fabric protection b/c I was able to scrub them and then vacuum them then wipe the legs, and they turned out fine. I was soooo tired…..I cleaned for about 6 hours. I guess our place is really clean now. hehehe

AND the moral of the story is: DON’T BUY ORANGE JUICE WITH PULP!

Oh and btw, when the juice exploded it was so loud that people actually opened their apartment doors so see what the noise was...

And no, I do not have any pictures of the distruction and mayhem, my first reaction to this crazy situation was not to document it...I went into problem solving Lisa. Oh and by the way, I too was drenched in fermented orange juice, I smelt just lovely :)

Just thought I would share this experience with you all so you can laugh at my expense. A little gift from me to you.

I knew I hated spiders for a reason

2008-05-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

Hello all

Lisa here, giving an update of life in Oz. Rick is back from New Cal and had fun (I know, fun at a mine site? Not something I usually hear when he comes back from site.) A little history lesson for you all, New Cal is a French Colony so the fun came from the food. He said he has never eaten so well! Well I guess that is what happens when you have been conquered by the French instead of the English, excellent food!! Damn the English getting to Australia mere hours before the French!! (a little more history for you all.) He went wind surfing and actually managed to get up. He has pictures but not on our camera and I have not seen them yet. I will get him to add them when he gets them.

Before that, we went on some day trips for the long weekend here (ANZAC day, Australia New Zealand Army Corps). We headed out with Toni and Mon on one day, and then Toni and her friend Alana from Melbourne the other. On Fri the 25th we went to the Kondalilla Waterfall and to see the giant pineapple. As per the title of this blog, we saw the biggest spider ever!! Bigger than my hand, its the pic below. We were going to put something up for scale but no one was getting close to it! After we took the picture that was the end of the walk!!! Back we went.

The next pics are of the waterfall, lunch in the town (Toni trying to eat my hand b/c she is so hungry...the food took a while.), the "weather" map, and then the GIANT PINEAPPLE!!

We had a great time, and were gone the whole day. People were swimming in the waterfall pool BUT, some kid came out with leeches on him, so...yeah..not going in. Then this unassuming tiny snake crossed my path and I thought nothing of it, BUT as this is Australia, turned out it was a brown snake and even the little ones are venomous...of course!
The giant pineapple was pure cheese! It was great, with the awesome pineapple store filled with super cheap and cheesy souvenirs. You then walked up the inside the pineapple to the top, all the way learning about pineapples! hehehe. But this is only one of many giant things around Australia, there is the giant Lobster and many more. We will try to go to more giant stuff if we can :)

On the Sat we went to Noosa heads and Underwater World. Noosa was great and super pretty, got to go to the beach and tan for a bit, did a little walking and got some great pics. Oh, and weird...when we were leaving we were in the parking lot and Alana was just standing behind the car and this crazy guy in a lowered truck starting freaking out b/c he thought she was in his way and started yelling at us that we were smoking heroine! HUH?! I think perhaps he may have been on drugs...and really...is smoking heroine really your first option to yell at someone??!! Any who, it provided some entertainment for the rest of the trip for us all :)

And then for Rick we went to Underwater World (was there any doubt). The best part was this moving walkway that let you go under this HUGE fish tank, the pic is below. Oh and they had a frozen giant squid...it was crazy, it looked completely fake like some special effects guy made it up...also pic below.

Oh and during lunch, this woman comes up to us and wants to take our picture for the Sunday paper. It was for some seafood/fishing story they were doing (we were eating prawns) BUT we didnt make the paper some ugly fisherman did, looking sad about how he cant catch enough prawns or something...boooo! But it was pretty funny because the woman taking the pics wanted us to look 'natural' but then she had us feeding each other prawns...yeah!! right! how 'natural' is it to feeding your adult female friends seafood?? I mean really!!

Not too much else happened during the week, pretty low key. The weather broadcasters here still crack me up, they had 3 days at 22 degrees and are talking about heating bills skyrocketing! hehehe. And now I find that I am using some more Aussie terms now. Mobile instead of cell, Ute instead of truck, Boot instead of trunk, sunnies instead of sunglasses...it is changing me!

Anywho, gotta jet, I will let everyone know updates as they happen. Email if you can!

Miss ya

Lisa and Rick

What else is new.....

2008-04-19T22:19:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

It is has been a while since we have posted anything new. That doesn't mean that we have been any less busy, but apparently our literary inspiration has been low. Life is good, and the weather is just getting better and better. Now it is has cooled to a more "Vancouverite" manageable temperature, staying in the mid twenties. I no longer require a change of clothes after spending 30 minutes outside.

The one downer that has popped up the past couple of weeks involves our neighbours cat, mainly that it has reappeared. This cat squeaks and squaks all day, it is just unbelievable. Thankfully we don't hear it in the majority of the house but the computer desk is near the front door so even as I type this I can faintly hear it now...... It had disappeared for a while and were hoping for the best (i.e. moved, tracheotomy, or hit by car) but unfortunately it has returned.

We have been spending the weekends checking out a few attractions and a couple of day trips. We went and saw an exhibit of Andy Warhol art that is being put on down the street. His portraits are kinda neat and you can actually see how his colour choice changes your impression of the face but some of his other stuff I just don't get. Not that I have ever been confused with an art critic but still.......it is just a can of soup?

Yesterday, Lisa and I went and saw an acrobatic act at a local festival. Toni (our friend) is friends with one of the acrobats so we went to see them perform. It was absolutely amazing, the do things that really shouldn't be possible by any human being. They had a really entertaining show as well. We snapped a couple of pictures with Lisa's camera on her phone.

(Toni's friend is the one in the middle with the full grown male balancing on his head.)

Today was my first 10k run, I was hoping to finish it in 60 mins and I was pretty much on target. According to my watch I was at 59mins but I haven't got an official time yet. Lisa snapped a couple photos (against my wishes) of the run and has "instructed" me to included this photo.

One of the most difficult parts of the run was trying to drink water while running. I was lucky if I got as much water in mouth as went up my nose. This photo captures my struggles.

I am pretty happy that I completed the race and am looking to keep the ball rolling. I have recruited a mini-team of people to train for the half-marathon on the Gold Coast, July 6. Knowing that run is more than twice as long as this one I will need some other people to keep me motivated.

There is a long weekend coming up this week (Friday) that we are both looking forward to. We will be heading up the Sunshine Coast this time for a couple of day trips. Then Sunday night I am off to New Caledonia for a short site visit. I am looking forward to that trip it will be interesting. I didn't even know where New Caledonia was a couple of months ago. I am heading there with a couple of guys my age so it should be a lot of fun too.

That's it for me right now. I think Lisa is going to right something later.

Cheers,

Rick and Lisa

Big News.....

2008-04-04T03:41:00.000-07:00

Lisa, yes....my wife Lisa. Went running this morning. Mark this day on your calendars.

Happy Easter

2008-03-22T20:12:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, it is time for another update of our ongoing Australian Adventure which closely resembles a normal life. The longer we stay here the less it feels like we are visiting. The weather is still fantastic as are the new people we have met. We have still been able to get out somewhere new each weekend which is great. So why don't I give you a rundown of what we have been up to...

A couple of weeks ago one of our friends competed in a mini-triathlon and we used our refined encouragement skills (not participation skills). It was a lot of fun and didn't take nearly as long as it does to cheer Scott on for one of his races. We got a photo of everyone at the end of the race.

We made the shirts the day before. We were the only ones dressed up so we stuck out a little bit but it was a lot of fun. I am hoping to corral that emotional high of watching lots of people cross the finish line to motivate me into running a 10km next month. I have said this before though so we will see.

This weekend we went to check out Mount Coot-tha lookout point (http://www.ourbrisbane.com/living/suburbs/mt_coot-tha/history/). The views were awesome and it made me realize that Brisbane is actually flat. I don't know why I thought otherwise but I just assumed that there were some hills. Even Mt. Coot-tha wasn't really a mountain. It was more like Hill Coot-tha. Lisa mentioned that it was a lot like Mount Royal in Montreal. I had to take her word for it. As usual, a couple of photos....

After the lookout we went over to the "Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary" (http://www.koala.net/index.htm) which ranks right up there with a trip to the aquarium. Those little fur balls are pretty cute. This place will definitely be added to the "Rick and Lisa - Tour of Brisbane" for all visitors. We will be purchasing a season pass to that place.

As proof that Koalas are irresistible to say no to, here is a picture of Marylin Manson (aka Brian Warner) holding a Koala....

They also had kangaroos and a few other animals there.

Overall....great trip, won't be the last.

Saturday included a massive dinner at a German restaurant that tested each of ours digestive capacity. I don't think I have ever seen a serving that big, it was huge and delicious.

Anyways, I am running out of things to write. Time to jet I guess. Write us with an update when you get a chance.

PS: Did you notice the joey in the kangaroo pouch (2nd kangaroo photo)?

I am a terrible blogger...sorry

2008-03-03T15:23:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

First I am sorry that I have been a lame blogger. I realize I owe you all some info and some pictures, so here we go :)

OK, so here is a pic of the fake beach behind my house, it stretches further down and goes just beyond the corner. Its a bit of a cloudy day when I took the pic and no, I am not in the picture. I took it as I was walking home with my camera phone. Eventually when we go down to the beach, and when one of us does not go into the water, I will get a picture of one of us in the water.

Moving on, like Rick said before, we have finally got all of our furniture and have some art on the wall. A couple of things went wrong, of course, and so we are going to have our entertainment table replaced in a bit (they installed a shelf wrong and all the hardware is showing) and they didnt follow the specific specs of the couch so instead of getting a new couch, we are getting a second side table...which by the way, they were supposed to call me to organize delivery, and they have not....crap! I need to make a call.......

Ok, I am back, called the place and they thought I already had it! This sort of thing, by the way, has been the story of our lives! Arg! Anywho....I was promised a call back today with the delivery date and time, we will see if more heads have to roll, hehehehe.

We had a great time at surfers paradise! We ended up making our day trip into a overnighter and got to go to SeaWorld, the surfers paradise beach (where we got yelled at by lifeguards for swimming in the wrong place :) ), eat some good food, and look at the ridiculously expensive art (we thought we would get something for our place but when a place wants $250,000 for a sculpture, its time to leave). We got some sun (in a good way, while wearing 30plus sunscreen, Brisbane has scary skin cancer commercials). Here are some pics we took at Surfers and then some pics at SeaWorld.

This is me, right past the Surfers Paradise sign, standing in the essence of Surfers Paradise. It was a Monday, so it was quiet and really beautiful.

The famous Surfers sign, and if you look close that is me on the left, we had to take this picture from across the street. It would have been difficult to find someone that would not have taken off with our camera to take a picture of us both :)

At SeaWorld they have all these huge pools in the middle of the park were they have trainers working with Dolphins at different stages and randomly, they decided to put a giant boat in this one that does not really do anything :) And yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am wearing a sack dress and flip flops! HOWEVER, I believe in having a waist hence, the belt.

SHARK! hehehehe. They have a HUGE shark exhibit and this giant one decided to come after me (through the glass) so I took a picture :)

Ricks homage to Pete...
Pete, just for you! (and maybe a little for Mitz, Ron and Jennifer :))

This is Ricks first time driving on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the street, he did a great job! Everyone was safe and sound. By the way, everyone should get a GPS when renting a car in a city you dont know, no maps...just follow the arrow...lovely!

We have been invited to go to Fraser Island on Mar 29&30 but we are still deciding if we are going to go. Fraser Island is just off the eastern coast, about 3 hours north of Brisbane. It is known for this amazing lake called Lake Mckenzie. It has super fine white sand and clear blue water without all the downfalls of the ocean, for example, no deadly jelly fish, rips, sand EVERYWHERE b/c of the waves, and of course no sharks. We of course will keep you in the loop and let you know.

Oh, a random story for you all. So a week or so ago I am down in the parking garage taking out the trash and I see, leaning against a pillar, a laptop bag and a tote bag. There is no one around and it is just leaning there like someone put it down and then forgot to take it with them. I assumed it belonged to someone in the building as it was right by a parking spot. I went up and told Rick and got my cell phone so when I went back down I could open the bag and see if there was any contact info so I could return it or at least call the person it belongs to. So I opened the laptop bag and all that was in there was one business card for a real estate agent and...porn. Yup one business card and porn DVD's. So as fast as humanly possible I dropped the bag, got upstairs and washed my hands for like 5 minutes. I am guessing that the business card was not the owners as if he was the owner I would assume as a real estate agent he would carry more than one business card, so I am happy in the knowledge that I will never know which one of my neighbors it belongs to. :)

Anywho, more job hunting for me. I am hoping that I should be hearing something this week as most the jobs I have been applying for have closed yesterday. Wish me luck.

AND by the way... if you want regular blogs and interesting pictures I expect the same from you! :)...2 way street people! :)

Later!

Lisa

I am back to Auz and Malaria Free Hopefully......

2008-03-01T02:42:00.000-08:00

Wow, typing that title just reminded me that I haven't taken my malaria pill today......whoops. I have to take them for seven days after I leave PNG so I will have to remember that.

I see that my lovely wife has been so busy that she hasn't had any time to blog.....bad wife. Which by the way the Canadian government finally recognizes us as married. Turns out our marriage license that Ian sent to the government got lost in the mail. Yes, apparently that actually can happen. Just before I left we finally got the rest of our furniture. There were a few small problems, nothing major but we did end up getting an extra side table out of the deal (thank you Lisa!). So here are some photos of the place.

Now we have gotten a few comments/complaints that although we are posting photos Lisa and I aren't in any of them. Well your point has been taken so here is a picture of Lisa.

The mask is a Papua New Guinea head mask from the Fly River region which is where the mine is located. I actually bought it in Cairns but I didn't really have a chance to do much shopping during my trip.

More photos of us are on the way. We are taking a little spontaneous vacation to the Gold Coast. We are renting a car in the city (gotta start driving some time) and heading out to Sea World (yes, my idea) and then spending the night at a hotel with an "ocean view" room and then heading to the beach on Monday. We are pretty excited about the trip and we will make sure to take some photos of us.

Well gotta a big day tomorrow. Cheers!

Rick

LP:We are not going to Sea world, we are going to Surfers Paradise, while yes, we will visit sea world (was there any doubt) we are going to be staying and visiting surfers paradise....just wanted to clear that up :)

Off to the Jungle!

2008-02-19T11:02:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-09T14:48:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-02T19:13:00.000-08:00

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

...and we are up and running

2008-01-27T17:28:00.000-08:00

Hello all

Well we are here and we like it. We found a place, got ourselves some mobile phones (not cell phones, mobiles....I feel like that friends episode were that blond woman who is an ex friend of Monica and Phoebe comes back from the UK) "ring me on my mobile" :) hehehe.

Our place is super nice and it is in a really great area. If you were to make a comparison, it is the Yaletown of Vancouver. About 10 seconds away is the fake beach with the awesome river/pool swimming. I guess an hour was too far for the beach so Brisbane brought the beach to them :) Below are some pics of the place :).

I very much like the bathroom, 2 sinks people!

This is a view from our balcony. In the complex all one bedrooms face the street (we are not worthy of a view) and the 2 and 3 Bedrooms face the park. I will send a pic of the beach/park soon.

Our Kitchen, it leads into the living room so it is an open floor plan.

Now while I dont have a picture of this, the bedroom has......2 closets......wooohoo.

Now, as you may be surprised to learn, Starbucks does not rule the coffee world in Australia. That honour belongs to the below:

Gloria Jean's....not as fancy pants a Starbucks but still the leader :) I just put this fact because i had a picture. Just a FYI.

So, now on to the details. We are moving on Jan 30 (Wed) into our new place. Only 2 more days in the hotel! (remember Jenny, I am speaking to you from the future). Outside our hotel there is this giant tree with giant bats! Like batman bats. They are huge fruit bats and me and Rick just stand there, like mesmerized immigrants, staring at these bats and I swear the whole time I am looking at them, the batman theme song plays in my head! On the subject of creatures, I am learning more and more of the horrors of Australia animals. For example the deadly box jellyfish that even if you are rescued, and get put on Morphine for the pain AND are unconscious you will still scream! WTH!!! And along with that the giant spiders!!! That here, will kill you, or at least leave you lying unconscious on your kitchen floor for three days (as I am told). So I have learned that y0u do not leave big spiders alone, you kill them before they kill you, literally. AND you don't got after them with a kleenex, you get a brick!....anyway, moving on.

Rick starts work on Tuesday and then I will be a lean mean job finding machine (to answer you question, no job yet, haven't even had time to look). We wont have Internet connected right away in our new place but it should be soon and then I will stay in contact better.

If you want to call me and Rick the best (and cheapest) idea is to get a calling card and call our cell phones from your home lines. In Australia you do not pay for incoming calls on your mobile.

It is stinking hot here and Rick has already had one awesome sunburn (RF: it wasn't that bad) :) But is has gone now. And we are lean mean sunscreen machines. So no real tan for me, but I am sure over time I won't look like the great white hope :)

We have done a little sightseeing, not much. It has mostly included trips to Ikea and couch stores...fun times! But we did go to Byron Bay (google it) super great beach, surfing and some awesome waves! and the sight of Ricks burn (RF: That wasn't that bad). Went with some people from here. I have put their pics below and a little run down.

This is Ryan and Emma. (not together). Ryan is a self proclaimed 'Bogan' now, as I have learned a bogan is what we would call trailer trash (his words not mine). And here he models the traditional bogan clothing....notice the bare feet and very short shorts.

Emma works with Rick and she is coming to Vancouver for 2 months, so if you see her on the street, be nice !

This is Toni, super fun, outgoing and Irish but now has to spend a month on her couch because she had to have knee surgery (ACL) so we went over and cooked her dinner and did her bidding. :) She was super good to us when we had to do all of our running around. (RF: She is captain of what has been coined as "Team Immigrant" in the Klohn office.)

I think Rick wants to put in his two cents at least :) This will be the end, for now...I am out....Email lots and call if you can!

RF: Not much to add other that "Thank God the Shopping Is OVER!" It is a good thing I love Lisa because otherwise we wouldn't have made it.

Cheers,

Photos of Cairns

2007-10-02T23:02:00.000-07:00

I have been pretty lazy with the Blog abit. The only time I get internet access is at work and with Lisa being here things have gotten alot busier.

Anyways here are a few photos of Cairns. I spent an extra night in Cairns on my trip up to Papua New Guinea. There is a fantastic boardwalk along the beach. The city has quite a few BBQ's available for use.

Doin Canada Proud!

2007-10-02T22:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is an old photo but I just got it. This is a photo taken of me at my buddy Matt's place (guy in the background) during the first week I was here. He had a big BBQ to celebrate his team making the semifinals, but unfortunately the game didn't start until 8:30pm and I was still suffering from jetlag. Lets just say that I didn't exactly "represent" Canadians all that well....Enjoy!

How you going?

2007-10-01T22:58:00.000-07:00

Hello all, Lisa here

Just at Ricks office for an hour while he finishes up some work. Thought I would bestow upon you all the knowledge I have gained here in my short 3 days. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

1. Whenever you walk into a store or bank or wherever, and you are greeted, no one says "hello, how can I help you?" they say "How you going?" Now, apart from that being very grammatically incorrect, it's stupid, "how am I going" ???? I felt like saying, "well, I am now going out of your store, learn English!"

2. The Ibis, the Ibis is a bird here in Australia that looks pretty but is everywhere, just like pigeons in Vancouver. I have learned that you are NOT to feed the Ibis.

3. Fashions here, not so good. I went to the shopping mecca here called Queens Street Mall and me and Brisbane are going to have to have a chat about fashion. Fashion is not a sack dress with flip flops OK? Fashion is not all about Sunglasses, there is more to it. I attempted to go shopping today and was gone for 3 hours and I bought NOTHING, ME, bought NOTHING! So, I have decided that I am going to have to stock up when I go to the states later in October. (Jennifer, my $400 exemption may not be enough now :))

4. There is a huge debate about daylight savings time here, they dont have it, BUT 70% of Queenslanders want it, BUT the Government wont do it.....dun dun dun, much water cooler discussion about that one.

5. Brittney Spears has lost her kids to Fed Ex. Now I know that you all probably know this given the fact that you are all closer to Hollywood than I, however, I learned this while I was in Brisbane (and isn't that the theme of this blog entry, yes, I think it is :))

6. Me and Rick have narrowed down the places where we would like to live. Did A LOT of walking around but I am still rooting for the CBD (the downtown).

7. Everything is more expensive here, my regular shampoo and conditioner are 2x the price, eating out is wayyyy more expensive, HOWEVER, you do not tip here. Waiters get paid a good $$$ salary.

8. It has not really rained here in 3 years, they are SERIOUS on water restrictions. Showers should be less than 3 minutes and they fine you (well in our case, the hotel) if you go over your allowed water limit.

9. People driving on the other side of the road is weird! Especially when you are crossing the road, when you have been taught, your whole life to look left then right it is really hard to change something that is ingrained in your brain.

10. I really like the weather here, BUT everyone tells me it is going to be stupid HOT when we come in Jan, but right now, very nice, so great to be wearing a dress and not have an umbrella or jacket with you, ... just in case of rain :)

11. Super friendly people, people will just chat with you just because, at first I thought it was just crazy people trying to talk with you on the street (like in vancouver) but here, everyone talks to everyone. Customs were the nicest people, which was strange of course :)

OK, so moral of the story, minus some small things :) I think I am going to be very happy here, I am looking forward to finding a place and getting settled.

I am safe and sound and our hotel is cute, so my week here is shaping up not too bad. Met all of Ricks co-workers and they are all super nice as well, and there are lots of places for Rock climbing here, both indoors and outdoors (Pete and Mitz, I am typing to you ) :) Me and Rick went to the Museum here and to a lot of the parks and on Thursday we are going to the Steve Irwin Zoo aka the Crocodile Hunter Zoo (any surprise to you all?) Should be fun. If I have time I will do another blog before I go, but if not, see you all on Sat Oct 6th, when me and Rick come home.

Lisa AKA Shelia :)

Papua New Guinea.......in a word beautiful

2007-09-27T22:22:00.000-07:00

Papua New Guinea.......in a word beautiful.....in a few words, a strange backwards place. The trip to PNG was to say the least an adventure and for was actually quite enjoyable minus a few moments.

The travel was actually quite a bit longer than I was expecting made even worse because the travel to and from site was split up over two days. The trip up there was great, I got to spend a night in Cairns which I will talk about in another post. The drive from the airport to the site was really amazing and took just over two hours. The road drops over 2500 m in elevation through the jungle along a few ridges and down the valley. I had never seen jungle this dense or lush. From a distance the trees looked alot like broccoli, especially when they were bunched together. I actually had a great driver who picked me up at the airport, Charles. His english was better than my own with very little accent and he was quite knowledgeable about the area. He was also not in such a hurry that he wouldn't stop so I could take a photo.

Jungle Photo

Another Jungle Photo

Typical Dwelling of a local villager.

The site was what I expected. My room was nothing special (in camps they never are) but it was quite clean and they had same day laundry service which came in handy. After a day working in the field I definitely needed a new set of clothes. My body basically did nothing but sweat from the moment I stepped out of my room in the morning and then back into the room in the evening. I couldn't tell you what the temperature was but I think it was more from the humidity than the heat.

The night I arrived one of the contractors who has a permanent camp had their weekly BBQ which I attend. The food was great, and the beer was even better! What added to the tastiness of the beer was the fact that it was free. It was good to get a nice meal to start the trip because pretty much from that point on it went downhill steadily up to the point when I decided to just have peanut butter and jam on the last night. Even though I didn't like it the New Guinean's sure did. I have never seen a group of people eat as much as they did. Which was fine by me because I wasn't going to finish. I should complain that bad though, I think the fact that I have been eating out at so many great restaurants lately played into it a bit.

I was actually quite lucky in the timing of my trip. I was able to see the bloom of a jungle flower, yes I admitted that I was lucky to see a flower. Apparently this flower only blooms for a few days once a year and then the pedals quickly fall to the jungle bottom. Some of the guys on site were really excited to see this flower. I guess this shows you how long some of these guys have been away from a big city (if ever). Anyway here are a couple of photos, the slang name is "fire of the jungle" (or at least that is what I was told).

I would have to say that my first trip to Papua New Guinea (likely of many) was a positive one. I think that trips like these make you realize how high your standard of living really is. I know that the places I visit are usually going to be very remote and not representative of the local living but I still think that I am able to learn something about the people from each place that I visit. The one thing that is for certain no matter where I go; each of these people would do just about anything to be Canadian and be born into a situation with the same advantages on life that I have. It always makes me recognize how lucky I am when I think about that.

Cheers,

Rick

PS: I forgot to write about the pineapple plants. I saw some HUGE pineapple plants (8ft tall) and although it is still early in the season (harvest in january) you can start to see the fruit being developed.

Next Stop Tabubil

2007-09-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

Tabubil which is pronounced just as it looks, Ta-boo-bill, is the next airport I will see on this trip. I am flying in for a brief site visit to a mine in Papua New Guinea. I am leaving Brisbane this afternoon flying to Cairns where I will spend the night and catch an early morning charter to Tabubil in the morning. I will leave the site on Tuesday and return to Brisbane Wednesday afternoon.

Everybody is thankful that the trip could be organized so that it didn't overlap with Lisa's stay at all. I told the office manager here that if I wasn't in Brisbane on the 30th I was giving Lisa his address and that she wouldn't be armed but she wouldn't need to be.

So far the trip continues to be fantastic. I switched to a nicer hotel/apartment this week which is also in a different part of town for me to explore and new restaurants to try. The VP is down here as well and staying the same hotel so he has been taking me to all his favorite restaurants (and picking up the tab as well which is a nice bonus).

I don't expect to be in contact while I am away, the only internet access is dial-up and the phone lines are unreliable. If you get a chance send me an email and let me know what you are up to.

Cheers,

Rick

Finally Wrote Something......

2007-09-17T23:38:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I have learned one thing about Australia already, communication with Vancouver is going to be a lot tougher than I thought. The time difference is a real drag. It should be ok for weekends but when people are working it sucks. Here is a quick rundown of some key "communication times":

Before Work - Australia 6am = Vancouver 1pm
Lunch - Australia 12pm = Vancouver 7pm

If I can't get a hold of someone at either of those times or for some reason I get busy during those times I pretty much lose any chance of reaching Vancouver. For those that know me and much I enjoy talking on the phone realize what a blow this is to me personally.

Time zones also screw with my sports. The games are already over when I wake up or going on during work hours which make watching them (if I can find a T.V. with the game) or even following them online difficult unless I am slow at work (3yrs, 4mnths, 26days since the last slow day).

Enough of the negative though. This place is great! I can't wait for Lisa to get down here because I am sure that she will love this place as well. I am still running somewhat odd hours (wake up 5am, sleep 8pm) which limits what I can do after work so it was nice that I got a chance to do some exploring over the weekend.

Friday night there was a Semi-Final (which is actually the quarter final, don't ask me why they call it a semi-final) in the AFL, Aussie Rules Football. A guy in the office (Matt) had a BBQ because his team was in it. I went over and enjoyed the food and quite a few beers which combined with the late kick-off time (8:30pm) and my strange hours resulted in me passing out on Matt's couch a halftime. In wouldn't have been too bad if I wasn't sitting in a room full of 20 people I didn't know. I didn't exactly represent Canada to the best of my ability. Apparently there are some photos floating around but I haven't got my hands on them yet. I will be sure to post them once I do.

Thanks to my early bedtime Friday I was able to get up early Saturday and tour around abit. I have posted a bunch of photos below from my travels below. I took the "City Cat" which is a ferry that runs along the Brisbane River and traveled to either end of Brisbane. I kept the video camera rolling for most of the trip. Unfortunately the files are way to big to post of the webpage so you will have to wait until I get back to see them. Also I don't have my editing software on this computer.

On with the pictures:

This my hotel (until the 19th). Looks good enough from the outside but cleaning has this difficulty remembering to lock my door after they leave. It took 3 days of me filing complaints for them to start doing it. Unfortunately I couldn't get a room in another hotel nearby or I would have left.

This is the a portion of the City Center or CBD (City Business District) taken from a road bridge over the river. The city is a nice blend of old and new buildings.

A few places to amuse Lisa when she gets down here.

I thought this was a cool looking tower......reminded me of Batman for some reason.

This is Eagle Street Pier, which is across the street from the office. I would like to live in one of the highrises in the background (if Lisa allows it of course) but this area is slighty out of price range (kinda like Coal Harbour in Vancouver).

This is an overview of a boardwalk that runs along the river in an area called Southbank. Imagine the Seawall design for year round nice weather. This area is directly across the river from the CBD.

Buddist hut along the Southbank boardwalk.

Cliffs across the river from the CBD. They run climbing along these cliffs so there is one reason to come visit Pete and Mits....

Well, it is getting close to dinner and people are squawking at me to hurry up and finish so we can go get a beer. I guess that means it is time to go......oh by the way I am heading to Papua New Guinea on Saturday for a few days. That should be an adventure.

Cheers,

Rick

Here We Go!

2007-09-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the Australian adventure has finally started! I arrived in Brisbane yesterday and it took me about 30 minutes to realize that Lisa and I made the right decision to move down here.

Lisa and I will try to use this blog to keep everybody up to date and hopefully entertained with our life in Brisbane.

Unfortunately I am in Brisbane by myself right now, Lisa will be arriving on the 30th of this month and then we both travel back home on Oct. 6. We have a few minor things to take care of when we get home (birthday, Christmas, packing, visas, wedding) and then will travel back to Brisbane the first week of January.

Not much to report thus far, spent most of yesterday struggling through jet lag. I am sure things will get very interesting shortly.

Cheers,

Rick