Photos of the tunnel machine

The rather tall people out entertaining the crowd. They were kinda funny!

The front of the tunneling machine from the viewing platform! It was really big!

Me on the viewing platform with the front of the tunnel machine behind me

The middle section of the tunnel machine. In total the whole thing is about 250 metres long!!!

Photo taken from Paul's cell phone right by the head of the machine! SO COOL!!

Paul in his "marshall" gears in front of the head of the machine! Love the pic quality aye :-)

The south bound tunnel - they've already dug about 250 metres in

Both the tunnels! With the little tunnel machine in front of it.

Joke for the week....

Ha ha - got this from my bosses weekly update email :-)

Joke for the week....

I rear-ended a car this morning on the way to work. I knew right then and there that it was going to be a REALLY bad day. The driver got out of the other car and wouldn't you know it, he was a dwarf.

He stormed over to my car, looked up at me and said "I'm NOT f*#%ing happy!" So I said "Well, which f*#%ing one are you then?" And that's how the fight started......

hot hot hot!!

Man was yesterday a scorcher! Actually the whole weekend was pretty hot and Paul and I were out and about in it!
On Saturday we went house hunting as usual - some good news to come on that front - but I'm not counting my chickens till each one has hatched - so watch this space!
On Sunday we went to the open day to see the big tunnel boring machine that they're using to build the north south bypass tunnel! You know those huge machines you see documentaries about on discovery channel. Paul was volunteering for the afternoon (marshalling people around) so we got free tickets! We only got them to the viewing platform above the machine - but it was still pretty impressive! I have a few photos but they're on the computer at home so I'll put them on tonight (promise ;-) ). Later in the afternoon Paul got to go on one of the bus trips which took you right up to the front of machine! I'm SO jealous! Unfortunately I didn't leave my camera with him - but he did get a couple of photos on his cell phone! So we'll see how they turn out (once he finds his cable to get the photos off the phone that is).

The downsides of the heat - apart from the grotty sweating factor, is that (a) lots of ants decided to take up residence in our kitchen (SO gross to come home to) and (b) lots of flies hatched yesterday! Paul and I went for a walk when he got home, just before sunset, and the flies were so gross! They don't leave you alone and kept flying into my ears and stuff. I must have looked like a freak as I was walking along swinging my arms trying to get them the hell away from me and cursing at them to f off! Flies in your ears are SO gross!! YUK! In the end I just pulled my hair out from my cap and pulled it over my ears! I must have looked so sexy (NOT) but at least they weren't in my ears anymore!

Well really got to do some work - have a very busy month ahead!

The house we almost bought!

Well as most of you probably know, Paul and I are looking to buy a house here in Brisbane. The market is going mad and will soon make Wellington property look cheap! So the sooner we buy a place the sooner we make money - wahoo! Plus we can tell our useless landlord to f off! He has just put our rent up another $10 p/w! That's a $40 p/w increase in 3 months! And he has done nothing to fix up the house for any of that money! Grr to useless landlords! But hey, it's extra motivation aye!

Anyway - so Paul and I almost bought a property in Brighton last week! We were under contract and everything! Unfortunately when we had our building & pest inspection done on Saturday the guy found that about 85% of the piles needed to be replaced. He also found live termites! And the damage they had done was categorised as "extensive"! So in the end, after a lot of thinking, weighing up options etc, we decided to pull out of the contract! And considering (a) how relieved we felt afterwards and (b) how surprisingly little money we lost (due to convenient little things), it was definitely the right thing to do.
However it is still sad as the location of the property was really nice! It was right next to a park at the end of a cul-du-sac and therefore only had neighbours on one side and across the road!

Here are some pictures of the Brighton place though :-)

The view of the house from the driveway

The raised deck out the back! It was really nice out there!

What would have been our neighbour :-) Just a nice park! There was trees et next to the house and then 2 soccer pitches behind the property - and they weren't used in summer either!!

Stay tuned for more news though - who knows when we'll find a place :-)

It's been a while

Well it's been quite a while since I updated my blog. This new project I'm on at work is keeping me pretty busy so I haven't had the time to do my "quick morning updates" :-) I used to be the only early starter in my work room - but now there's another guy who starts even before I do! And considering I start around 7:15am - 7:45am that is a scary thought! Well either that or he lives nice and close to the city :-)

Well since i got back form NZ earlier in the month I've figured out that I have definitely started acclimatising to the weather! It's getting a bit warmer but a lot of the time I'm feeling cooler! And that has nothing to do with the fact that my work is an ice box - SO COLD! What is up with that! You get on the bus, go to work, go to the shops etc etc etc and the air con is always far too cold! To the point were you need a sweater! But then you go outside and it's really warm! Crazy stuff I tell you!

Paul and I went around to Debz and Lances place on the weekend for Isabelle's 1st birthday! That's was really nice! We were meant to dress up in Halloween costumes but Paul and I are feeling a little strapped for cash at the moment so we were a little slack! We went down to Crazy Clarks (sells cheap stuff/junk) and bought a couple of santa hats! We figured they'd last till Christmas and then we could be "in the spirit of Christmas" a little ;-) Sorry Debz for being so slack - but hey at least we wore something :-)

Well better get back to work!

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A couple of pictures :-)

Here are a couple of pictures from my latest trip to NZ.


The group at Ben & Megan's wedding out at Bridge Lodge in Otaki. I loved Megan's traditional Korean dress that she wore :-)
(back) Crystal, Paul, me, Rebekah, Blair, Nic, (front) Megan & Ben :-)


Kat, me and Teresa at Southern Cross (old Zebos)
Can you believe this is the only picture I took! It was a fantastic day and I loved catching up with everyone :-)

Our NZ trip

Well Paul and I got back from NZ yesterday morning - what a LONG day that was! Up at 3:15am (12:15am Brisbane time) and out to the airport by 4am and left just after 6am! We landed at 6:40am in Brisbane but then it took forever for the bags to come through! So we didn't get out of the airport till 8am! Then it was on the train into town, with all our bags, and off to work by just after 8:30am! Then had to work all day before I finally gave up at 4pm and caught the bus home! But no rest for the wicked since the fridge was empty and the newly acquired booze required some mixers ;-) Well that and some food would have been nice too :-) So by the time Paul and I fell into bed at 9pm we were knackered!

But it was all worth it as our NZ trip was fantastic! I'll get some pics up soon but Ben & Megan's wedding was lovely and Megan looked fantastic in her traditional Korean dress :-) It was so good getting to catch up with them too :-) Sunday was so much fun as well! Paul and I were blown away by everyone turning up to our engagement drinks - so thanks for coming along guys! I loved catching up with you all! We're only sorry we couldn't spend more time with you all individually :-) Although with my voice the way it was I'm sure I talked far more than I should have - doh ;-)

And thank you very much for all those that bought us presents :-) They definitely weren't expected - so we will enjoy them even more! For those that weren't there I'll get some pics of the pressies up - I just probably shouldn't do that at work aye ;-) Te he!

Well best be getting back to that work stuff aye ;-) I just thought I'd better update my blog since it has been a while! Stupid colds :-( I hate getting sick! And that cold I had before going to NZ was a real doozie!!!!

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