A day of change!

Well today is a day of big change. This is Paul's last day working for the Brisbane City Council - and it has been a long time coming. On Monday he starts working for the Brisbane Airport Corporation as an environmental coordinator. Hopefully the new job is a lot more interesting than the council job turned out to me (don't you love it when your job evolves into something that is nothing like your job description!). Apparently it will involve a bit of practical work as well as the necessary project management, paper shuffling type of work.

So ... there will be no more lunches in the gardens. No more lunch time coffees. No more lunch time shopping trips. No more meeting up after work to go and do something. Stink wan! Apart from when we lived in completely different cities and countries, Paul and I have always worked in pretty close vacinity to each other! However if Paul's gets to do a more interesting job then it shall be worth it :-)

So tonight we're off to the leagues club around the corner for a few drinks to celebrate. Because it was Paul's birthday this month, if we're at the club at 7:30pm then he goes in the draw to win $1000 - wouldn't that be nice aye :-) Paul's mate from St Johns, Andrew, is also joining us so it shall be nice to have some company.

Then on Saturday we're off to Bribie Island with Debz, Lance and the kids for Lance's birthday. I'm looking forward to that as not only do I get to see somewhere else in Brisbane that I haven't seen before, but I also get to spend some more time with Debz - yay :-) Oh yeah - and we get to see their new house for the first time (I saw the pics on facebook Debz - very nice :-) )

Sunday we are going for a walk up Mt Cootha as a bit of training for world youth day next month. We were meant to do the walk about a month ago but it ended up raining :-(

Right - better do some work now. My work mate just arrived and every time he has arrived this week he has caught me on the internet - doh!

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

My first snake!!!

yep, that's right, I have now seen my first live snake in Australia (there was a squashed one around the corner not long after we moved in). And guess where it was - yes ... in our garden!! Now that it's a bit cooler during the day we can get stuck into the gardening without sweating like pigs. Although I imagine Paul is currently sweating as he is digging up the grass behind the water tank for our vege garden.

Anyway - back to the snake. So Paul was digging some old dirt from around one of our trees and marveling at all the creatures he was finding (the water tank guy put it there when he was putting in the tank). And the next I hear "Man that's a big worm, come and have a look. Hang on that's not a worm, it's a snake". Funnily enough it disappeared pretty quickly but Paul was very persistent and kept "hunting it out" as he wanted a photo of it - plus he is still a little boy at heart and marvels about all bugs & creatures (and likes to show them to me - kinda like a kitty cat bringing home it's mangled birds that it's half eaten).

Anyway so here are a pictures of the snake.

Can you spot him - he's just to the right of Paul's spade.
He's not very big - fortunately!

This one is even harder to spot - he's just on the edge of the grass about mid photo, about to slither into the ferns (the I will never ever be pulling out - that's definitely a Paul job now - spiders & snakes - yuk!!!)

This is a closeup from the first photo so you can actually see the snake :-)
Creepy aye!

So I did some research on the Queensland governments EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) website to find out what sort of snakes we get in South East Queensland. I think our little friend is a "Red-naped snake". The info from their website says:

Red-naped snake Furina diadema

Red-naped snake. Copyright: EPA

This species has a red or orange nape that is usually enclosed by a black head and neck band. However, in some individuals, the nape is a complete band causing confusion with the orange-naped snake. The red-naped snake is reddish-brown above, the flanks are lighter with most scales bearing a dark brown or black diagonal edging. It is common in coastal and central western Queensland and is nocturnal, feeding on skinks.
Length: Up to 0.4m
VENOMOUS/ NOT CONSIDERED DANGEROUS

Otherwise I thought it might be this:

Blind snakes (family Typhlopidae)

Ramphotyphlops spp.

A blind snake. Copyright: Queensland Museum

The blind snake is a small, smooth, worm-like burrower with glossy, close fitting scales and their tails are bluntly rounded, ending in a short spur. It has small, dark spots for eyes which probably only sense light and dark. The snake feed on termites and the eggs, larvae and pupae of ants and is often encountered foraging on the surface at night following rain. The blind snake is non-venomous and the structure of their mouths makes them incapable of biting humans. However it does have well developed anal glands that secrete a strong smell when disturbed.

Ha ha - so who wants to come and visit Paul and I now :-D Mwhahahahaha!
Na seriously - the snake was tiny (remember Paul thought it was a big worm at first) and more interested in 'running' away. Plus it's taken me almost a year to see one - so they're not around that much!!

So I've attached a few more pics of Paul gardening too :-)

An update ... finally

ok - so I've been pretty slack about updating my blog recently. But here is an update ... finally aye :-)

So what's going on with me at the moment? Well things are certainly starting to ramp up with world youth day next month. Can you believe that we leave for Sydney is just 24 days!! WOW! And that means that days in the diocese starts in just 20 days!

[for those that don't know, world youth day is when 16-35 year old catholics descend upon a city and do "catholic" stuff, go to concerts & festivals etc for a week and it ends with a mass with the pope. In sydney they're expecting about 225,000 registered pilgrims with about 500,000 turning up to the mass with the pope - that makes it much bigger than the olympic games - it's the biggest event Australia has ever held - cool aye! The interesting part is where some twit decided to hold it in Sydney in the middle of winter! We're sleeping out at Randwick Racecourse on the Saturday night before the papal mass and it's going to be very very cold! We all better pray it doesn't rain else we will all be very very cold & wet :-( ]

I'm definitely looking forward to WYD - although it is going to be very tiring. For the most part our group seems to be really good and we're finally starting to get to know each other. There are 16 of us and fortunately we're all over 20 so no kiddies to look after. A couple of people have been slack about coming to our preparation meetings but in the end I think they're going to be the ones to lose out as they will feel left out a bit. It's a shame really but what can you do *shrug*

Tomorrow is the shortest day of the year so I'm looking forward to getting some more daylight at night soon. However the big downside is that we will be working towards our 4am sunrises too :-( Although with the traffic on our road I'm normally awake about that time anyway. There is this big truck that parks around the corner from us and likes to go to work around 4-5:30 in the mornings. SO annoying as it is a BIG truck so makes BIG noises - especially as it's just starting to change gears and speed up as it goes past our house. I'm very tempted to report him as you're not meant to park trucks that size in residential areas. And there is a main road he can park on only 5 minutes walk from his house. Grrr (yes, as you can tell - I'm tired & grumpy this morning - te he he)

Righto - better do some work now.

Have a great day :-D

My long weekend

Well the weekend just been was a long weekend so I was pretty stoked by that. Thanks to the Queen for having her birthday -> yay!

So I had a bit on actually. Debz and I went to see Sex & the City on Saturday and it was great :-) I totally recommend it! I was sighed, cried, laughed, laughed till I cried and then sighed again - what a journey aye :-) I was a big fan of the series and they seem to have carried (no pun intended) what was great about the tv show into the movie. And I totally love that Carrie's (SJP) hair was frizzy for most of the movie. If the super stylish Carrie can have frizzy hair then so can the rest of us! Like I have any choice on that one though anyway!

So on Sunday Paul and I went to mass in the morning, did the groceries, read the paper and finished putting together our new tv cabinet. The lounge looks much better now as it's more open. Plus we have a few shelves to put books, DVDs, newspapers etc :-) Once this was complete we were off to Janell & Alex's place for dinner (my cousin). They have a cute little apartment in Auchenflower - a suburb near the city that overlooks the river. So we had a roast chicken dinner (cooked on the bbq) and crumble and ice-cream for dessert. Plus Janell has been great and has been letting me pick her brain heaps for wedding ideas (Janell and Alex got married in January).

So Monday was Queens Birthday here in Australia so we had the day off - yay. Although Paul likes to say that the public holiday was actually for his birthday and not the Queens. He's pretty spoilt getting a holiday on his birthday aye ;-) Monday we didn't do a lot really. I slept in till 9:15am *sigh* which was great! Then I cooked Paul bacon, eggs and french toast for his bday (as Paul likes to say - I'm well trained ;-) te he). Then we spent about 2 hours in Bunnings buying some stuff for the house. We're still undecided on what to "boarder" our vege patch with so we'll have to make another trip for that one. I like the idea of treated pine sleepers painted up some bright colour that they're a nice feature. However they cost $11.98 for 2.4m whereas we can get smaller boards at $10.98 for 4.8 metres. And since we need 33m of the stuff it could end up costing a bit.
But anyway, when we got home from Bunnings Paul sat down and read the paper while I decided to pull out this ugly weedy schrub by our washhouse. Man was it a tough thing for it's size. I managed to get about half of the roots out of the ground but the rest of it just wouldnt' budge. So in the end, "attracted" by my grunting and groaning, Paul came out and gave me a hand. I felt better when it actually took him a while too (see, I'm not too weak ;-) ). Then it was off to dinner at the arana leagues club around the corner. They do $8 steak nights on Mondays so $8 each got us steak, chips and salad bar. Plus our drinks; wine for me and schooner of beer for Paul only cost $5.45 together. Cheap aye! The leagues clubs here are kinda like RSA's - big clubrooms that the rugby league clubs run that have cheap as food and drink and have about a million pokie machines etc in them.

Anyway so that was our weekend! Although my "story" has ended up just being a ramble of memories of what we did :-)

Hope you all have a great day!

Friday funny!

Ha ha - I stumbled across The Flight of the Conchords website this avo. Man they crack me up aye - hilarious! Anyway so check out the following from their website for a bit of a laugh

http://www.flightoftheconchords.com/nzwords.htm

Key Phrases for talking to / understanding a Kiwi

Some of you fellas might be having a hard time understanding some of what Bret, Jemaine & Rhys are saying in Flight of the Conchords (Kiwis have a habit of mumbling, speaking quickly and flattening vowels). So here are a key few phrases which you might hear them say in the TV series, and what they mean amongst fellow Kiwis.

• G’day mate
  The most common thing you'll ever hear said in New Zealand and by a Kiwi. Simply put it is a friendly 'Hello'.
  
  
• Choice, bro!
  A way of saying that something is excellent. 'Choice' is a very versatile word in NZ meaning anything from OK, cool, I agree, I understand, it's been good... to a million other things, but always positive.
  
  
• Fush & chups
  Actually Kiwis are saying Fish & Chips - a popular and, generally, quite healthy meal, bought in local 'takeaways' and cooked to perfection there and then on the spot. Burgers are great in NZ too, using fresh ingredients, locally bought and generally come in the one size of 'huge' - with pineapple, beetroot, cheese, tomato, onion, as well as, the actual contents of what you ordered i.e. a Bacon & Egg burger.
  
  
• Hangi
  A traditional Maori meal made by slow baking food, over the course of a day (and drinking lots of beer along the way, in informal gatherings), in pits in the earth and results in a very fresh, moist and tasty style of food (typically meat & vegetables, often accompanied by Kumara - a sweet potato).
  
  
• Pakeha
  A phrase initially coined by the Maori to descrbe the European settlers and argument continues to this day as to whether that original usage was intended to describe them as pale skinned or, frankly, 'with a skin surprisingly similar to pigs'. In modern times it is simply used as a cultural reference to Kiwis of European descent (without the piggy bit).
  
  
• Chilly bin
  An icebox that forms an integral part of any summer holiday, sporting event or student piss-up and is used to keep your beer cool, as well as, for sitting on (practical lot us Kiwis).
  
  
• Jandals
  A phrase unique to NZ referring to the beach footware that is like a basic sandal with a thong between the big toe & the next one, which holds the whole thing together (called 'thongs' in Australia - to much amusement globally).
  
  
• Judder bar
  A speed hump in the road i.e. the car 'judders' when it goes over one.
  
  
• Doing the ton
  Getting your car to one hunderd miles an hour.
  
  
• Fanny
  Like Britain, referring to the private parts of a woman, vice your bum.
  
  
• Good as Gold or Good on ya mate
  General phrases used to express happiness or a confirmation that everything is A'OK!
  
  
• Hard case
  A funny or ironic character. Kiwi's would describe the Flight of the Conchords as 'quite hard-cased' (with the 'quite' reflecting the natural Kiwi reticence to go all the way out on a limb).
  
  
• Knackered, Tit's up, Sucked a kumara
  3 phrases all rougly meaning that something is not working i.e. a possible real scenario could be "Yeah, the car's knackered, the whole day has gone completely tit's up - man, it sucks a kumara!".
  
  
• Thick as shit
  You can probably work this one out - somebody who is pretty stupid.
  
  
• Pack a wobbly or Crack the shits
  To lose your cool or become annoyed.
  
  
• Root
  As Kiwi's proudly boast in London bars, they're quite keen to describe the Kiwi, NZ's national bird... and themselves, as one who 'eats roots & leaves'. Although in their case, they are actually talking about having sex vice any nocturnal forest activity (well, not that sort of activity anyway).

Sex & the City

Yay - Debz and I are off to see the Sex & the City movie on Saturday. I am very excited as I LOVED the tv show (that's not like me, loving a tv show ;-) te he). Debz heard that it's selling out in advance so I went online and bought us 2 tickets to the 6:20pm showing on Saturday at Chermside shopping centre. I can't wait! Yay!

Plus Debz and I have decided that we're going to go into Myer or David Jones (big chain department store over here) and get a make over. I need to decide how I want to wear my makeup for the wedding and since I very rarely wear any make up, I thought this would be a good start. Plus Debz is a good friend and will tell me if it looks awful (just like good friends should aye girls).

Well better get back to work. There's a huge "shower" arriving any minute so I've decided to stay late at work and wait it out. Although I have to work late anyway as Paul and I went to the Myer sale this morning and bought him 4 new work shirts (stocktake sales are on everywhere at the moment as the financial year end on June 30 in Aussie) .

Have a great day!!!!