Austalia day weekend

Australia day fell on a friday this year, so after only a couple of weeks back in the office we had a long weekend - lovely. Australia day commemorates the landing of the first fleet at Botany Bay in 1788, but the celebrations are all about Aussie culture - so there's plenty of beach, barbie, pub and pie-oriented tongue-in-cheek events, but the main emphasis is on having a fun day (ideally with your mates!)

We found ourselves spending the first half of the day relaxing around the house calling up friends and family until the heat and humidity got too much, then we escaped into the airconditioned pleasure of the Subaru, and headed to the airconditioned hell (well, my idea of hell anyway!) of Chermside shopping mall. If you have any idea how much I dislike shopping malls, you'll have some idea of how hot and humid it must have been in the house for me actually to suggest that we go to Chermside! Luckily we only had a couple of hours of shops being open, then we watched Happy Feet at the cinema. By the time the film was over, the sun was nearly down and we dared to venture back home and away from the airconditioning.*

Over the next couple of days we covered nearly 500 kms cruising around catching up with friends. We spent an hour or so in a gorgeously cool and shady water hole at Cedar Creek, complete with mini waterfall, hanging out with Kim, David and their kids. A lovely spot, and a beautiful drive out of Brisbane and through the countryside. We then pushed on up the highway to Wurtulla, just north of Caloundra. The trusty Subaru kept us cool as it reported the external temperature along the highway was 37 degrees. When we pulled off the highway and got closer to the coast, that dropped to a more reasonable 32 degrees.

We spent saturday afternoon and evening relazing with Drew, Lan, Davo, Fran, Der, Rachel, Jed, Kel and Grant. A very chilled out and fun gang, they were nursing hangovers from Australia Day at the Ettamogah pub boozing and enjoying the Dunny races and Coooee competition (!) We all wandered to the beach, and cooled off chucking a rugby ball around in waist-deep in the water. In the evening, we went to Kawana bowls club, and played a few ends of barefoot bowls. I hadn't had the pleasure before, but with a schooner of beer at each end thoroughly enjoyed myself :)



I've posted photos from the bowls club on fatcat.

After getting home late on saturday night, we didn't manage to get up early but headed south and over the border into New South Wales to meet up with Denise and Ben, and Melinda, Dave and Jacob. With the hour time difference, we got there in time for lunch and headed straight to the pub. While waiting to order the food, I bought some raffle tickets on a whim - and won! The prize was a seafood tray, lots of prawns, mussels, moreton bay bugs and a whole steamed trout. Well, we just decided that we'd have to hang out for the afternoon until we felt hungry enough to tuck into the tray :) Ben's just moved into a new development just back from the Casuarina Beach - so new, that hardly anyone else lives there yet. We had the brand new communal pool and barbie area all to ourselves - very very comfortable. I did take my board with me, and I did take it through the dunes to the beach, but Casuarina Beach seems to be one of those classic Aussie stretches of white sand and barrelling shore breaks. Oh, and very very strong currents. After feeling the strength of the water pulling sideways and out to sea from only knee-depth, we opted for the swimming pool rather than the open ocean.

* I ought to remark here that we've had more than a week of solid 32degrees during the daytime, and nighttime lows of 27degrees. The queensland summer has finally kicked in here, and I've been told that last year's stinking hot and long summer had kicked in with this kind of weather way back in November, so we're fairly lucky this year.
* I also ought to point out that I'm not exactly *complaining* about the hot weather, but the way it works over here these summer days are counter-intuitively the worst times of the year. It's actually uncomfortable and impractical weather, much like a cold and wet winter is in the UK. Over here, it's the clear and fresh winter days that are the highpoint of the year's weather. Still feels funny when I think to myself "Roll on winter!" :)

happiness is....

....a new laptop, bought online for an excellent price (over wireless LAN, whilst sitting on the deck at 10pm listening to the cicadas) and delivered within 2 days :) I haven't *ever* bought a ready-made new computer, let alone a top-of-the-line model like this one - so although the Buddha would be very disappointed in me for falling under the spell of transient satiation of desire for material possessions, I do have a very large grin on my face. This laptop even has a "superdrive" - presumably that can leap tall buildings in a single bound (note to self: keep kryptonite far, far away from my new favourite toy!)

So, the new toy is a 17" MacBook Pro, with a 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 1GB RAM (might double that shortly), 120 GB SATA harddrive, an ATI mobility X1600 256MB GPU (gaming - remember that.....?), built-in 802.11g/n wifi and bluetooth, the 8x dual layer SuperDrive and a built-in webcam. It's quite a beast, and best of all it's a tax-deductible business expense :)

Well, that was big year...

...could 2007 possibly be any bigger? We'll see!

It's been a massive year - we left the UK, travelled for 4 months through amazing places, settled into Brisbane, found jobs and a home, I learnt to surf, Skye learnt to scuba dive, we both turned 30, and we got married. It's been amazing, are really jam-packed year.

I've posted photos from the 10 days over christmas here on fatcat - lots of surfing at Noosa, a flight to Kingaroy and back via the Glasshouse Mountains, and cruise along the Noosa River. Very, very nice.

I didn't manage to complete a blog entry about having our friends Jez and Kez stay with us for a month after the wedding, but they keep a travel blog here, and they're now 6000kms further into their trip around the continent - very interesting reading, as we hope to do the same journey one day.