Brilliant time last night...
Travelled to a place called 'Mon Repos' just up the coast from here where, between November and January, heaps of endangered loggerhead turtles come up the beach to lay their eggs. 8 weeks later, the baby turtles hatch and make their way out to the ocean to continue the cycle of breeding.
Arrived early evening as the turtles generally tend to avoid the hot day times. We had to wait until around 10.30pm-ish to hear the call from the ranger that a metre and half turtle was making her way up the beach to lay. 13 turtles in total arrived last night. What an experience. Really amazing and such a privilege to see. Oli was enthralled. Only about one in a thousand hatchlings reach maturity which is around 30 years and the females return to the area where they were hatched to lay their eggs.
Interestingly, the sex of the turtle is determined by the heat of the sand! Because of the cool summer last year, 99% of the hatchlings were male which isn't good for Mon Repos. The wardens seemed to think that this year, because it's cool too, will be the same, (it's COOL??? I am soooo pleased that we didn't find HOT in our first year in Oz!).
Anyways, didn't get home until gone 2am and guess what we had to do then??? Yep: get all the animals brought in and fed. Flopped in to bed at around 3am. Off to the bottle shop now for some wine for tonight. You can't buy wine in supermarkets here in Oz as in the UK and have to enter a shop selling just alcohol which always makes me feel as if I have a problem.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL!!!
Friday 30 December 2011
Thursday 29 December 2011
A Trip to the Beach
Australia. An area where even a trip to the beach becomes like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie. On the way you could pass places such as, 'Murdering Creek' or 'Stabbing Creek' or 'Dead Man's Creek'. En route, particularly at dawn and dusk, you need to slow in case of kangaroos darting across the road (they would write off your car: and you). You will also sometimes travel kilometre after kilometre of nothingness. Yesterday, a woman was found under her car in a remote area of Victoria, where she'd crashed and left the road, avoiding a kangaroo at dusk. She'd even tried amputating her own trapped leg so that she could escape to try and catch a driver's attention. There's pluck.
On the way to the beach, you could pass stalls at the side of the road selling fruit and veggies with an 'honesty box' next to the goods. There will be long, straight roads with macadamias and sugar cane growing on either side along with mangos, melons, oranges, lemons, papayas, limes and bananas. Loads of backpackers stay around here for extended periods fruit-picking: there's always something growing year around. Criss-crossing the road, there will be loaded trains which you need to look out for..
At the beach, there may be a kangaroo on the shore line which has wandered down from one of the national parks. There will be jellyfish: some of them as big as dinner plates but harmless and some of them as small as your finger and lethal. In the ocean, there could be rips so you should always read the life-guard's report, swim between the flags and listen to the lifeguard when they use the tannoy. There may also be a 'shark spotter' plane hovering to alert the lifeguards if they see one. You could see dolphins in the distance, pelicans floating past and a variety of crabs on the shoreline.
On the way back home, if it's been raining, the roads will be covered (and i mean COVERED) with horrible warty cane toads which you'll run over along with the possibility of seeing one of Australia's many venomous snakes. And don't get me writing about the spiders and their webs when you arrive home in the dark and try to park your car in the car-port.
Another relaxing day in paradise on the Fraser Coast.
On the way to the beach, you could pass stalls at the side of the road selling fruit and veggies with an 'honesty box' next to the goods. There will be long, straight roads with macadamias and sugar cane growing on either side along with mangos, melons, oranges, lemons, papayas, limes and bananas. Loads of backpackers stay around here for extended periods fruit-picking: there's always something growing year around. Criss-crossing the road, there will be loaded trains which you need to look out for..
At the beach, there may be a kangaroo on the shore line which has wandered down from one of the national parks. There will be jellyfish: some of them as big as dinner plates but harmless and some of them as small as your finger and lethal. In the ocean, there could be rips so you should always read the life-guard's report, swim between the flags and listen to the lifeguard when they use the tannoy. There may also be a 'shark spotter' plane hovering to alert the lifeguards if they see one. You could see dolphins in the distance, pelicans floating past and a variety of crabs on the shoreline.
On the way back home, if it's been raining, the roads will be covered (and i mean COVERED) with horrible warty cane toads which you'll run over along with the possibility of seeing one of Australia's many venomous snakes. And don't get me writing about the spiders and their webs when you arrive home in the dark and try to park your car in the car-port.
Another relaxing day in paradise on the Fraser Coast.
Wednesday 28 December 2011
Life on the Farm
Have managed to get an internet connection so thought that I would update our blog.
We're house-sitting for Jeff's boss's brother in a rural area called Childers in Queensland. Childers is a farming area and is surrounded by sugar cane plantations, macadamia nuts, melons, oranges, limes, bananas papayas and more. We're staying in a gorgeous wooden 'Queenslander' property (house on stilts to catch the breezes) set in 28 acres with no near neighbours, with 4 cows, a dog, a cat, 5 goldfish, 2 ducks and 2 chickens. We're in the routine of feeding the menagerie but arrived home when the sun was setting last night which was a different story altogether... the only thing I could liken it to was the Blair Witch Project!
The cows are left to roam during the day and are brought to a smaller area at night... Jeff shook his sheep nuts(!) as per usual to bring them in to no avail and had to go off with a torch searching for them. After half an hour they all turned up together, appearing out of the black void and scaring us silly.
Meanwhile, I had to hunt for the free range chickens which I found whilst battling through cobwebs and numerous cane toads. (Cane Toads were introduced to Queensland from South America in 1935 in an unsuccessful attempt to deal with the cane bug beetles: the toads are vermin and just keep breeding with nothing to threaten them).
Suspicious, unidentifiable noises in the grass surrounded me as I finally managed to get the 2 chooks into their roost... Rummaging around in the dark, I was then spooked by 'something in the woodshed' which revealed itself as yet another cane toad along with a humungous spider crawling over the animal feed: yukkadoodle.
The dog (a beautiful cattle dog called Digger), had gone AWOL and as we were calling him, various pairs of eyes shone in our torchlight: none of them Digger's. He eventually just appeared at Oli's side which spooked us all! When we finally accessed the house we realised that the cat wasn't in yet... we could hear her mewing and eventually found her stuck 15 feet up a tree outside... bloomin' heck... what a night!
We're house-sitting for Jeff's boss's brother in a rural area called Childers in Queensland. Childers is a farming area and is surrounded by sugar cane plantations, macadamia nuts, melons, oranges, limes, bananas papayas and more. We're staying in a gorgeous wooden 'Queenslander' property (house on stilts to catch the breezes) set in 28 acres with no near neighbours, with 4 cows, a dog, a cat, 5 goldfish, 2 ducks and 2 chickens. We're in the routine of feeding the menagerie but arrived home when the sun was setting last night which was a different story altogether... the only thing I could liken it to was the Blair Witch Project!
The cows are left to roam during the day and are brought to a smaller area at night... Jeff shook his sheep nuts(!) as per usual to bring them in to no avail and had to go off with a torch searching for them. After half an hour they all turned up together, appearing out of the black void and scaring us silly.
Meanwhile, I had to hunt for the free range chickens which I found whilst battling through cobwebs and numerous cane toads. (Cane Toads were introduced to Queensland from South America in 1935 in an unsuccessful attempt to deal with the cane bug beetles: the toads are vermin and just keep breeding with nothing to threaten them).
Suspicious, unidentifiable noises in the grass surrounded me as I finally managed to get the 2 chooks into their roost... Rummaging around in the dark, I was then spooked by 'something in the woodshed' which revealed itself as yet another cane toad along with a humungous spider crawling over the animal feed: yukkadoodle.
The dog (a beautiful cattle dog called Digger), had gone AWOL and as we were calling him, various pairs of eyes shone in our torchlight: none of them Digger's. He eventually just appeared at Oli's side which spooked us all! When we finally accessed the house we realised that the cat wasn't in yet... we could hear her mewing and eventually found her stuck 15 feet up a tree outside... bloomin' heck... what a night!
Saturday 17 December 2011
Blood Donation
I have given blood regularly for the last 20 years or so in the UK... Whilst wandering through Maroochydore yesterday, I noticed a poster stating that blood stocks in Queensland were low. I duly called in at the blood donor office to offer some of the 'red stuff'.
THEY TURNED ME AWAY!!
I was passed a leaflet that detailed that, 'anyone who has lived in the UK for a total period of 6 months or more between 1 January 1980 and 31 December 1996 is permanently deferred from donating blood'.
The Reason? Remember CJD? (I have been called a 'mad cow' on more than one occasion in the past I suppose).
THEY TURNED ME AWAY!!
I was passed a leaflet that detailed that, 'anyone who has lived in the UK for a total period of 6 months or more between 1 January 1980 and 31 December 1996 is permanently deferred from donating blood'.
The Reason? Remember CJD? (I have been called a 'mad cow' on more than one occasion in the past I suppose).
Friday 16 December 2011
Our Saturday...
Woke at 6am, put the washing on the line and then Oli and I drove to Eumundi Markets for the morning... very busy and lots of fun. Heaps of different food stalls (Mexican, Polish, Tibetan, Chinese, German etc...) so Oli was in his element as he's really in to eating at the moment! Loads of musicians too including some amazing digeridoo players as well as stalls selling items from dresses to boots to ironing board covers (!) to metal wall hangings to jewellery to leather hats and much, much more... I had a free hand exfoliation and Oli had a head and shoulder massage. We stopped at having our palms read and our chakras re-aligned(!). Enjoyable morning and not too hot today (24 degrees) with a breeze: most pleasant.
Bought some cedar blocks to hang in the wardrobe as they were recommended to keep out moths and insects. We've had the outside of our property 'sprayed' to prevent creeping and crawling critters from coming in for the next 6 months!! To also assist in preventing them coming in , we leave the screens across when we open the doors for a breeze.
Ate our food in the 'park'. Oli noticed that the word 'park' describes a different area than it does in the UK. Here in Oz, a park is generally a small area with seating, a barbecue or two and swings and slides for the kids; they are often in the shade though which is welcoming. (A NATIONAL park in Australia is different again: hectare on hectare of bush, dirt and kangaroos!)
I am getting more confident with driving in Oz now... was a bit nervous to start with but now I tailgate with the best of 'em! Around here, there are no parking meters... there are zoned areas which are marked with the maximum stay allowed. Seems to work really, really well and I have always been able to find a parking space, even now with the summer holidays and Christmas looming.
Ate our food in the 'park'. Oli noticed that the word 'park' describes a different area than it does in the UK. Here in Oz, a park is generally a small area with seating, a barbecue or two and swings and slides for the kids; they are often in the shade though which is welcoming. (A NATIONAL park in Australia is different again: hectare on hectare of bush, dirt and kangaroos!)
I am getting more confident with driving in Oz now... was a bit nervous to start with but now I tailgate with the best of 'em! Around here, there are no parking meters... there are zoned areas which are marked with the maximum stay allowed. Seems to work really, really well and I have always been able to find a parking space, even now with the summer holidays and Christmas looming.
Tuesday 13 December 2011
An Australian Party Food 'recipe' (!)
Fancy Fairy Bread
Preparation Time
20 minutes
Makes
30
Ingredients
· 10 slices fresh white sandwich bread
· 100g butter, at room temperature
· 125g (1/2 cup) hundreds and thousands
Method
1. Spread the bread slices evenly with butter. Use a variety of 5cm-diameter pastry cutters to cut shapes from the bread, avoiding the crusts.
2. Kids' task: Place the hundreds and thousands on a plate. Press the bread, buttered-side down, into the hundreds and thousands to coat. Serve.
Notes
· You can make the fairy bread up to 4 hours ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a cool place out of direct sunlight.
Monday 12 December 2011
Summer Holidays!!!
Oli finished school on Friday 9th of December and doesn't go back now until the 23rd of January... yay!! Good report too so extra pocket money went his way, bless him... On the penultimate day of school, he took in a plate of food for 'bring and share' and came home buzzing because of all the 'colourful' food consumed... he was then told, that on the last day of this semester, the students should wear old clothes as they would be 'cleaning'... Oli said that no-one goes in on that day, but, mother that I am, I sent him in. Only 4 kids in his class turned up apparently and they DID have to clean... poor lad, I will know next year!
The storm season has arrived in Queensland and boy, do we get storms. We went down to Mooloolaba harbour to watch the annual parade of decorated boats which sail along the waterways for the benefit of around 10,000 spectators. However, huge black clouds collected and a storm ensued, bursting upon Mooloolaba with one of the boats being struck by lightning! The event was hastily cancelled and we ran for cover...
Good day yesterday and today though... Oli and I went to the beach for a couple of hours and I even ventured in the ocean above my knees... those waves do pound on the beach quite ferociously and there are some frightening rips!! I don't get any sympathy though from Oli or Jeff as I run for the beach when I see a wave looming... Off to battle the waves today too... we've taking our litre bottle of factor 30 suncreme as well as our wide-brimmed hats (no peaks as don't want melanomas on the tops of our ears!) and quality sunglasses... couldn't survive without them here with a burn time of 6 minutes...
The storm season has arrived in Queensland and boy, do we get storms. We went down to Mooloolaba harbour to watch the annual parade of decorated boats which sail along the waterways for the benefit of around 10,000 spectators. However, huge black clouds collected and a storm ensued, bursting upon Mooloolaba with one of the boats being struck by lightning! The event was hastily cancelled and we ran for cover...
Good day yesterday and today though... Oli and I went to the beach for a couple of hours and I even ventured in the ocean above my knees... those waves do pound on the beach quite ferociously and there are some frightening rips!! I don't get any sympathy though from Oli or Jeff as I run for the beach when I see a wave looming... Off to battle the waves today too... we've taking our litre bottle of factor 30 suncreme as well as our wide-brimmed hats (no peaks as don't want melanomas on the tops of our ears!) and quality sunglasses... couldn't survive without them here with a burn time of 6 minutes...
Thursday 8 December 2011
Christmas bits and bobs
christmas crackers are called 'bon-bons' here in oz... all the kids give each other candy canes as 'friendship gifts' at christmas... virtually every house in our cul-de-sac is lit up with reindeers dancing across the roof, palm trees decorated, flashing 'santa stop here' boards and, every night, a steady stream of families troop around the estates marvelling at each and every one!!
we're putting up the tree this saturday... jeff and oli always do it, always fall out over it and i always follow behind to 'tweak' it! the ice-cream christmas cake on sale in town looks yummy; might give that one a try this year... don't fancy a christmas pud in this weather, must admit christmas pud is horrid anyway isn't it?? yukkadoodle... so too are mince pies, unless they're home made.
we'll also have to go to the beach i suppose on christmas day (sigh... what a trial)... however, the aussies say that it's only the poms who do that... must admit, we tend to only go to the beach to 'cool off', never 'for the day' as we used to in the UK... we also spend sooo much time looking for shade as the aussie sun is mighty fierce... jeff and oli love to battle with the shore breaks at mooloolaba and i sedately 'dip' ever since i virtually got flattened to the sand by a wave a short time ago: not a dignified look.
we're putting up the tree this saturday... jeff and oli always do it, always fall out over it and i always follow behind to 'tweak' it! the ice-cream christmas cake on sale in town looks yummy; might give that one a try this year... don't fancy a christmas pud in this weather, must admit christmas pud is horrid anyway isn't it?? yukkadoodle... so too are mince pies, unless they're home made.
we'll also have to go to the beach i suppose on christmas day (sigh... what a trial)... however, the aussies say that it's only the poms who do that... must admit, we tend to only go to the beach to 'cool off', never 'for the day' as we used to in the UK... we also spend sooo much time looking for shade as the aussie sun is mighty fierce... jeff and oli love to battle with the shore breaks at mooloolaba and i sedately 'dip' ever since i virtually got flattened to the sand by a wave a short time ago: not a dignified look.
Wednesday 7 December 2011
Queensland Storms!!
Wow! Queensland can certainly do a tropical storm brilliantly... i have never seen so much rain and lightning, heard so much wind whistling through the trees and the LOUDEST thunder... all clear this morning although heaps of leaves and branches on the lawn...(and Oli slept through it all)...
Monday 5 December 2011
Our Container Has Arrived!!
We ♥ our removal company!
i have to say that Pickfords, both in the UK and here in Australia, have been absolutely brilliantly fantastic. If you're thinking of emigrating, I would definitely recommend them wholeheartedly... we were told that our consignment would take around 13 weeks to arrive: it took exactly 13 weeks from door to door. The packing service in the UK was jovial and efficient and the guys this end arrived at the time they said they would as well as being equally efficient and polite. We were able to track the container on line and there was a seamless customer service between the UK and Oz... heaps of telephone calls and e-mails to advise us what was due to happen next etc...
I am so excited now it's here and can't wait to open it all. Oli had already opened his scalextric and set it up before he went off to school! Have bought a replacement Christmas tree here in Oz so don't feel so bad about customs destroying ours which we had sent from the UK... :)
i have to say that Pickfords, both in the UK and here in Australia, have been absolutely brilliantly fantastic. If you're thinking of emigrating, I would definitely recommend them wholeheartedly... we were told that our consignment would take around 13 weeks to arrive: it took exactly 13 weeks from door to door. The packing service in the UK was jovial and efficient and the guys this end arrived at the time they said they would as well as being equally efficient and polite. We were able to track the container on line and there was a seamless customer service between the UK and Oz... heaps of telephone calls and e-mails to advise us what was due to happen next etc...
I am so excited now it's here and can't wait to open it all. Oli had already opened his scalextric and set it up before he went off to school! Have bought a replacement Christmas tree here in Oz so don't feel so bad about customs destroying ours which we had sent from the UK... :)
Saturday 3 December 2011
Oli's School Carol Concert
we have just been to oli's school carol concert tonight where we sang rolf harris songs '6 white boomers' and 'summer in the sun' (google them; you'll soon be humming along!), as well as chomping on barbecued burgers and sausages, participating in a draw where the prize was a surfboard and sitting on blankets in 22 degree heat watching the sky turn a beautiful pink as the sun set (jeff was a bit chilly though and needed a sweatshirt!)... lovely evening and so very funny... welcome to our first australian christmas.
the aussies embrace christmas with a passion and driving home, we've stopped to look at so many beautifully decorated houses... they certainly love their christmas lights... heaps of people wandering around 'ooing' and 'ahhing' as they take a look too xx
the aussies embrace christmas with a passion and driving home, we've stopped to look at so many beautifully decorated houses... they certainly love their christmas lights... heaps of people wandering around 'ooing' and 'ahhing' as they take a look too xx
Thursday 1 December 2011
I am a Smidge Cold This Morning
we had a thunderstorm last evening which cleared the air somewhat as the temperature this morning has dropped to around 20 degrees (it's 9am). i am sat eating my brekkers in my sweatshirt as i am soooo cold!! have started to acclimatise i s'pose...
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