Mmmm - voltage!!

Well Paul and I just spent another stressful 35 minutes in the bank trying to get our own money out of our account without paying $8 for the privilage. The words backwards and banking go together very well over here. Unfortunately the words "customer service" don't seem to be in their vocab either.

But anyway, I was so wound up after arguing with this very rude women that I decided we deserved a Gloria Jeans coffee. So we popped across the road and got ourselves a Voltage iced coffee each. Mmmmmm - they are SO YUMMY!!!! Mmmmm!! I think they have like 3 shots of coffee in them so I'm on a massive coffee buzz right now. But they taste soooo good. They're the only place I've found so far that makes their iced coffees with crushed ice rather than a big fat sickening blob of ice cream.

Mmmmm - voltage - *drool*! That'll keep me going all day now :-) Plus I have a big smile on my face which us much better than a grumpy frown - not nearly so wrinkle produsing. Te he he!

Sunday bike ride :-)

This morning Paul and I decided to go for another bike ride. So we cycled up the road to mass and then went out. It was the first sunny day since Saturday last weekend - so we were definitely enjoying things. It was amazing to see big puddles and to see how green the grass had become. But we did have a lot a rain - especially considering it's officially the "dry season". I'm not sure if you heard but they had massive flooding up around Noosa etc. I could be wrong but in a 24 hour period I think they had more than 800mm of rain. And then the next night they had another 200+mm. If only that's where the catchments areas for the dams were aye :-\ But they reckon that by the time all the run off makes it to the dams that they might go up to as high as 20% full! So that's fantastic. I think last time I looked, prior to the rain, they were are about 16.7% So that puts about another 3 months supply into the dams - yay :-)

But back to the bike ride. It was really cute - we went by this really huge (very fun looking) kids playground area, that was quite close to the shopping centre. They had this very cool area set up that's obviously designed to teach kids how to ride a bike and what all the road signs mean. It had road markings, give way signs, stop signs, a one way street and even a roundabout! If I was a kid then I would have found that so much fun. Hmmm .... hang on .... I found it lots of fun anyway. Whoops - Paul snapped a photo of me on it - te he :-)

But that was after I had been freaked out by swooping magpies, so I needed to be cheered up ;-) Seriously!! A magpie was getting very territorial and flew right into my helmet one time and then missed me by about a millimeter a couple of other times. Fortunately Paul was riding right behind me so gave me a couple of seconds warning it was going to happen. Poor city girl Ange had never had this happen before so didn't enjoy it very much :-)

Another thing that we find quite cool is that you get heaps of wild cockatiel's flying around. Actually there are heaps of bright coloured birds flying around - the types of birds you'd only see in bird shop back in NZ. On the flip side the birds over here don't have a very nice call - it's much more pleasant in NZ. I remember when Paul and I went to the Karori wildlife sanctuary - that was awesome.

I love it here ... honest

Well Paul pointed out to me yesterday, that anyone reading through my last few posts would think that I didn't like it in Brisbane. So I thought I'd better point out before I go any further that I do love living here :-) It was definitely the right move for me! I guess as is normal when you move to a new place, I am still in the "compare with home" mode. I guess first things first I should probably stop calling NZ home - hah, yeah right! You could use that as a good Tui billboard aye ;-) NZ will always be home!
Funny - I wore my All Blacks jersey to a thing Paul and I had on last Sunday evening. I was very pleased to note the number of looks and comments I got from the locals - mwhahahahaahaha!

So - now for my exciting news. Paul and I bought a car yesterday. Yay! It's a 1997 silver 1.8l Hyundai Lantra Sportswagon. We wanted a wagon so that we can go tripping in it and have plenty space for our bikes etc. We bought the car from a car yard down the road from where we live (well - Gympie Road is really long so it felt like just down the road). We managed to talk the guy down by $900 so we were pretty happy. Being Aussie though you can't seem to eftpos more than $1K at a time, even if you personally ask for your limit to be extended for the day (*cough* backward *cough*). So we put down a $200 deposit and are getting a bank cheque tomorrow and picking it up just before 5pm. Very exciting! So the only pic I have is the one off the car yards website. But once i pick it up I'll get some nicer photos. But here is their pic anyway (it's nicer then that).

So, what else have I been up to?!? Working lots! Ummm ... Bob was in town for a conference during the week so I met up with him for a coffee on Friday after work. So it was great seeing a familiar face from NZ :-) Paul's mate Rose arrived from Sydney this afternoon and is staying through till Thursday so it'll be nice to have her around. Paul's not sure if he can take another flex day off work (flex leave being "saved up" work hours so he doesn't have to touch his holidays). But if he does then they might go out to Ipswich as apparently there are a few wineries out there. I'd take a day off but on Wednesday I'm off for a day trip to Sydney for work. Gee, don't I have the jet setting lifestyle aye ;-) The stink part of the trip is that (a) I've never been to Sydney before so would love to be there for longer and (b) Mr Bush is in town so half the city is set up as "security zones"- so traveling around is going to be a nightmare! Hopefully my next trip to Sydney will be for a few days and I can stay over the weekend and do some exploring :-)

Well this is a huge post so I'd better sign off.

Ange

I name thee cancer city

Living in NZ you know that it's a great place - but it's not till you leave that you actually realise it. Now don't get me wrong - I love living in Brisbane - but there are a few things that just make you shake your head. So over time I guess I'll share them with you. But todays gripe is smoking. SERIOUSLY! Everybody smokes over here! I mean they're not allowed to smoke in bars etc (thank goodness) but everywhere else you go there are constantly people smoking. Walking down the street, waiting at bus stops - just everywhere! And someone won't blink an eyelid about coming upwind of you, standing right next to you and lighting up a fag! Gross! I guess the Aussies haven't yet figured out that smoking is financially bad for the country!
Oh well! At least the sun has come out again today! I'm off to get a coffee. Mmmmm coffee!!!

What is an umbrella

Yay - it's still raining! Just what the ground needs over here. Let's hope it keeps raining for a few days now that the ground will finally be wet. Unfortunatley I think it's clearing to showers by tomorrow. Oh well - at least the grass might get a bit greener.
Paul and I had to go out last night to an event in Ashgrove which is in zone 2. We live on the north side in zone 3 but had to go there via the city. This required us to walk to the bus stop in Chermside, catch the bus into the city. Wait at the bus stop in the city to catch another bus to Ashgrove and then walk a couple of kms to the Marist College there. And it was raining the whole time! Now in Wellington you just wouldn't do that! But in good old "generally not windy" Brisbane you can use this great invention called an umbrella to keep yourself dry :-) Yay! Ok so I did end up wet jean legs - but that's because I'm short and my trousers hang down over my shoes! And an umbrella can't protect you from puddles unfortunately ;-)
Well better stop procrastinating and do some work.
Ange

To grow or not to grow?!?

Ok no this is not to do with my [lack of] height as unfortunately, apart from wearing heels, I have no control over that - stink!

The question revolves around my hair! Should I or should I not grow it out?

Why am I asking this?! Well I am getting married at the end of next year and there isn't a lot you can do with short hair to make it look all fancy and stuff.

So ideally I should grow my hair out for the wedding. But having just cut it all off again I realise that I actually prefer my hair short! But then again I am on a very tight budget here in aussie so not paying for haircuts every 6-8 weeks would save me lots of $$$. But, I do look better with short hair.

Oh the dilemma!

If you have an opinion then feel free to share it :-D

Ange

So many things - so little time!!

Sorry I haven't updated my blog in a while but things have been pretty busy lately. And the couple of nights I did have off I just couldn't stand the idea of turning on the computer when I got home from work.

Paul and I have had his mate Marc staying with us for the past few days. He arrived from NZ on Sunday morning and since the weather was ok we took him out to Wet & Wild on the gold coast. Paul had these vouchers he got from work where if you were a local (from Queensland) then you could get in for $15 instead of the usual $42 - yay :-) And we were very sneaky and managed to get Marc in for that price too. Understandable really - I mean who wouldn't mistake a German accent for and Aussie one ;-) A fun day was had by all really! It was a tad chilly when you first got off a ride - but if you stayed out for a bit then it got warmer again. I'm glad I wore my board shorts and rash top though (as were the other people at the park who were therefore not blinded by the glare of my white body ;-) te he) as it was a bit warmer. My favourite ride was the tornado! SO FUN!!! On Monday night we went out for dinner with Marc and Gavin to a curry place in Southbank. It was in the entertainment book (wahoo to entertainment books) so all up only cost about $17 each! Sweet! Tuesday Paul and Marc headed out to Currumbin to the wildlife sanctuary there while I had to work! Stink wan au!! Apparently it was more like a zoo than a sanctuary though!! So this afternoon Marc left us to fly on to Frankfurt to finish his trip! Being a public holiday (yay) we met up with Gavin again and went out for breakfast, also in Southbank! Yum - bacon and banana pancakes!

So all in all a very busy but very fun few days. Of course we also had to get things ready before Marc came. That meant a quick trip to the Super AMart on Saturday afternoon to pick up the mattress for our futon that had been delayed and squishing it into the back of a rental car - lots of fun :-) But the best part of Saturday was that I went and got me a bike! Wahoo!! It's just a low end mountain bike but it means that Paul and I can now get away from the house on weekends and see a few more sights! It also means that I can exercise (seriously needed right now) a bit more and it's a free form of entertainment - an essential for those on a budget!!
This afternoon (after we put Marc on the airport train) we went for a ride from our place along Kedron Brook. Paul reckons it was only about 12kms but I'm tending towards 15km. But whatever it was, by the time I got home my legs were very very tired! So I may need to go for a few more rides before we do our Sandgate to Redcliffe ride. Paul says that's about 20km all up once you get off the train. So we'd have to cycle to the train station first too.

Paul has been doing a little more with St Johns lately. He actually got to volunteer at the Ekka on Thursday night last week. The Ekka is why we had a public holiday today. It's like the A&P show but is held over about 9 or 10 days. So I've attached a picture of him in his uniform. It's such a lovely picture because at the time he was like go away I'm tired and want to go to bed. But doesn't he look lovely in his uniform ;-) te he he

Ok, Paul is waiting for me to get off the computer so that he can go to bed. We do have work tomorrow after all.

I will write more soon!
Ange

GO THE BAY!!!

Absolutely fantastic!!! I was very stoked when checking my virtual rugby score to see that Hawkes Bay beat Wellington 8-6 on the weekend! That is fantastic news :-) Very stoked!!! Makes my day complete really! I guess you can take Ange out of the bay, but you can't take the bay out of Ange!