Gotta love the serenity!

Hello! Thought we'd do a post with some pictures for once! We had a great weekend away at my aunties farm. It was really peaceful to get away from it all and I could have easily stayed a lot longer. Sorry Bron and Chris (and any other misplaced Aussies) - hope these photos don't make you too homesick!

We helped feed the one year old cows some grain and this fella was particularly curious about the camera.

We also went for a walk down to the river bed. It is unbelievable how dry it is. It was only at Christmas time that a few of my family members were swimming at this exact spot.

This is the view from up near the house. My auntie has alpacas and chooks in the pen to the left of the picture.We saw this fella on a walk we took around the back of her property. It was as close as we could get with Geoff's super duper mega zoom lens. We think the koala had a cub as well.Here's me getting in touch with nature. I wasn't drinking, I swear!Mum and Geoff feeding the hungry herd. Mum and I looking particularly spiffty in our floppy hats.
Another cow photo sorry. I think they're cute. :-)

It's a boy!

Congratulations to our friends, Eric and Sally, on the arrival of their second boy, Carlos Jorge, born last Wednesday morning. We are looking forward to catching up with the 4 of them soon!

Things I have learnt

We had a work trivia night on Friday... what a hoot. It was great fun getting to know some of my lab members (and significant others) a bit better. Although our team "The Tragically Hip" (no, I don't really get it either - someone else named us) didn't win, or come even second (but we weren't last either!) I learnt a lot of useless information.

1) John Howard's middle name is Winston (is that a bit presumptious to name your child after a former politician? Apparently George Dubuya's middle name is Washington as well).

2) The Rabbitohs have won the most Rugby League Premierships.

3) Archer was the name of the horse that won the first two Melbourne cups.

4) Kangaroo is the first Australian aboriginal word to be incorporated into the English language.

So there you go.

Our Saturday

Geoff had his first exam yesterday -Chem (yuck yuck yuck). It was in the early afternoon so I decided to drive him over and then go to the Indro shops until he was finished. I probably should have thought about this a bit more because it was a) Indro b) a Saturday c) lunchtime and d) raining! The carpark was a nightmare! I drove around for what felt like an eternity, cursing and swearing at incompetent drivers, people that park in the turning space, people that beat me to stalking a person walking back to their car and just people in general! I had admitted defeat and was on the way out when I decided to do a last minute check in this little parking area off the main craziness. Unbelievably I found a spot! I did a check for disabled signs, etc but thankfully there was none. Yay for me!

What I really wanted to buy was a denim jacket and a pair of jeans. I must have went into at least 20 different clothes stores and made an interesting observation. Everything is made in China now! It didn't matter whether it was Target, Myer, Jacqui E, Country Road or whatever, they all had the same tag. I think that is really sad. What's even more sad is that the clothes are probably all made in the same sweat shop but the price variations are huge! I did notice however, that a $40 pair of jeans from Target did not fit and feel as nice as a $160 pair from, say Country Road. They are both made in China though. How does that make sense?

Anyway, eventually I had success and bought a nice pair of jeans and a 30% off jacket. I haven't been clothes shopping by myself in a long time and found it was quite good, you don't have to worry about anyone else getting bored and cranky!

So I got a message from Geoff saying his exam was over so I picked him up and headed home. Geoff isn't sure how it went but is glad one is over. Now he is into the physics which is next Thursday. Fun fun. :-)

Ma

Totally forgot to mention in our last post. Happy belated Birthday for my Mum for last Tuesday! We played a bad version of "Happy Birthday to You" in our concert band rehearsal on Monday night. It's become a bit of a tradition where everyone just plays random notes because no one has ever worked out how to play it and what key to play it in!

Not much else to say since Sunday. I did however, finish a 6 week yoga stint this evening. Every Wednesday after work at work. It has been the best thing - it has been helping me with my flexbility and toning up. One cool thing I have learnt is to do "alternative nostril breathing". It sounds weird but is awfully relaxing. :-)

Bush Weekend

I just got back from a weekend away with my Mum. First up yesterday morning we went to the Eumundi markets. I couldn't believe how busy they were. We had to park a mile away and had to walk up several steep hills to get back to the car afterwards. Mum's knee is now not thanking her very much! There were some pretty funky items at the markets, including a silver spoon and fork wind chimes and lots of nice woodwork. I ended up just buying some yummy strawberries and a pineapple.

Afterwards we went out to my Uncle Richard's bush block near Imbil. He is living in a shed but has a few mod cons that run off solar panels and wind turbines. He doesn't have running water as such, just a tank and a dam. It was primitive but so peaceful out there. He has lots of chooks, geese, pheasants and various other birds. His partner Alison (who I have never met before) was also out there for the weekend.

After lunch we headed out to see our good friends John and Susan at Gympie. In the afternoon we helped feed their cows and collect firewood. After a yummy roast dinner we all sat around their fireplace for hours. Today we helped put mulch around some of their gardens since it is so dry. I always love going up to their place because it is so peaceful and they are great company. We were quite reluctant to go back this afternoon. I should have counted the number of "no dam" signs on the highway... there was just so many of them.

Geoff is on Swotvac as of tomorrow and spent the weekend studying chemistry. That exam is next Saturday. All his exams are nicely spaced out which is awesome. He finishes up on the 23rd of this month and then has something ridiculous like 4 weeks holiday! I am hoping to take some time off work so we can go camping. We are thinking about going to Jerusalem Creek which isn't far from Geoff's parent's place. I will have to drag out the Canada thermals for that trip! Brr.

Work has been really busy in the last little while, which is great. A month ago I got vaccinated for smallpox which was not a whole lot of fun. I won't go into the graphic details but will just say that my arm felt like it had been punched repeatedly. :-) Good thing is that the sore is nearly healed and I will be able to shower normally very soon! (And if anyone decides to release the virus as germ warfare I will be safe?!?)

I have some photos to post but they are of the old-fashioned film type and are yet to be developed. Will do that at a later date. I had some great photos taken on mother's day and we have proceeded to lose them. They are not on the computer, or the memory card, and not even retrievable when we use the special software. Very weird.

So that's enough for now. Hope everyone is well. :-)

Bron's getting old. :-)

To our dearest Bron

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

We hope you have an awesome day...
Love always, El and Geoff

Perhaps it's time...

... to update this thing.

What has happened in our lives since our last post? Well, lots of things actually.

Firstly, our good mates Tash and Dunk had a little girl, Isla Jane, on the 24th of March. She was born seven and a half weeks early, and after doing extremely well, was allowed to go home last Wednesday. We had the pleasure of meeting Isla quite a few weeks ago in hospital, but got to have a cuddle of her on Sunday afternoon. What a cutie. She is the most placid baby and was quite happy to be passed around to all her admirers. Tash and Dunk are both looking great and don't appear too sleep-derived at this stage. :-)

While we are on the subject of babies, we can't fail to mention Sally and Andrew's wonderful news. Their little bundle of joy, or munchkin, as it seems to be called, is due on the 12th of October. I caught up with those two this morning and Sally does not seem to be showing a bump yet. :-)

Now onto something completely different. We got our new car!! It is the only baby we'll be having in a while! It is over a month old now and purring quite nicely. There's something very cool about having a car that a) takes off at lights b) doesn't require you to turn off the aircon when you go up hills and c) still has a new car smell! We tried the car out on the beach at Evan's Head over Easter. It powered through the sand quite well and it was only scary coming on and off the tracks from the road onto the beach. Geoff assures me that the bumping and bouncing around is quite normal and you have to go reasonably fast to power through the sand. I am learning. :-)

Geoff did a spot of fishing while on the beach, and didn't catch anything except for rocks and seaweed. It was a pretty crappy day for the beach - overcast, rainy, windy and cold - so Trina and I chilled out in the car instead of lounging around on the beach.

Over Easter we also went for a drive out to Mummulgum, about an hour from Geoff's parent's place. It was coming on dark and there was lots of kangaroos out and about, trying to hit our car. It was a really scenic drive, lots of mountains and farms. It was our car's first semi-offroad experience, going through creek crossings and gravely roads.

Geoff is still surviving uni. He passed two mid semester exams and has got back into studying even though he says it is hard to adjust to being a student again.

The Reality of it all

The whole uni thing has struck me in the face. I forgot how much fun it was to have constant assessment, saturday exams and having to actually pay attention for hours on end is. Besides all those normal fellings of apprehension, things are going ok at the moment. I have a biology exam in about 3 weeks at 1pm on a saturday so that will be fun. I also have another exam on a thursday for physics which I am not looking forward to. Its all questions like" What is the maximum velocity a dolphin will obtain if it jumps out of the water at 35 degrees and into a pot of custard bla bla bla". It is supposed to physics for the real world but I don't know what world these people live in.
Well thats all the whining over for now. The wholes uni concept is not so foreign anymore-the buses, the libraries, the boredom. The hardest thing is coming home and trying to study.
There has already been a dropout from the course. I'm hoping to do alright but tonight I've been good and bad. The good-studying physics and biology for 3 hours. The bad-having a beer or two and messing around on the internet. I have an 8am lecture tomorrow and am working tomorrow night so not too much shenanigans tonight I'm afraid.
We have thrown caution to the wind and have bought a new car. It is a new forester and is getting done up for us this week. It is El's car to replace the pulsar which is going to her brother. We thought if we aren't going to have much money, we may as well be silly about it and get a nice shiny new car(its blue).
As El promised I have the giant drop photo here. It is slightly out of focus but you can get the general idea. Our group is the six people from the left.
Will post more as everythjing develops.

Being sick. :-(

Hello, I'm bored. Geoff is at uni and I am having the day off from work because I'm sick. I haven't had a good cold for ages, I put this down to not having a Summer/Autumn transition since 2004. I always seem to get sick in March. Geoff was crook all last week, and I started to feel yuck on Friday at work. Typical form, getting sick on a Friday! I spent the weekend with a pounding head and no ability to taste food. I slept most of it, but there is only so much sleeping you can do before you get bored with it!

I would like to thank everyone who sent me birthday wishes on the blog! I had a good birthday - had cake at work which was a real bonus, and got to talk to Bron in Canada in the evening (which was midnight for her)! My Mum got me the coolest gift - 2 funky looking platters laden with all different types of fruit - she knows me well. :-) Geoff got me a HUGE box of choccies and a bottle of sambucca... ah, sambucca... I have only recently discovered how good it is. :-)

However, turning 26 had it's downfalls. I am now that much closer to 30!! It's funny, but ever since I turned 25, I have no longer felt like I'm at a good age. 24 just has a certain good feel about it, whereas 25 (and 26) just seem old. I shouldn't complain though. I know when I'm 40, or 50, I'll look back and wish I was 26 again!

Geoff and I have been looking at buying a new car. We have spent the last 5 or so Sundays at local car yards, without the annoying presence of salespersons. I am going to sell my baby to my brother Mark. My car has been making some strange noises lately, and I have to get the clutch and something to do with the diff replaced. In short, I'm going to be car-less for over a week and it's going to cost a packet. Damn cars. I have it booked in for Thursday. I just hope the mechanic doesn't find anything else wrong with it.

Last weekend we went to Dreamworld with Craig, Melissa, Karina and Buzz. I hadn't been since 2003 with Julia and Rachel, and figured that was a long enough gap to forget how bad some of the rides really are on your nerves and stomach! It was also Craig's first visit so he was suitably apprehensive! We managed to do the Giant Drop, the Tower of Terror and the Cyclone rollercoaster. I drew the line at the Claw! I discovered that I still cannot stand the giant drop, and we have the photo proof. Going to have to get Geoff to scan it in. I look like I have seen a ghost, my face is ashen and all droopy. Not one of my best looks. I still cannot get over how long the drop feels like, when it's only a few seconds! I also discovered, that when going on a rollercoaster and doing the loops, to keep your eyes open. It makes the experience far less scary.

Anyway, by the end of the day, all your glucose stores are all used up from all the adrenaline rushes. We hit the lolly store and the ice cream shop, and all was good. And we also stopped at the Yatala pie place for dinner. Yummm...

So that's about it for now.

Back to uni

I am in my second week of uni now. I am doing first year subjects and although everyone tells me I should be able to get credit, I don't particularly want to. Even though I will be paying more hecs, I need to get my brain working again. It has been a decade since I did these subjects and to have to go straight into second year dentistry without having time to adjust to studying seems a little daunting.
My entire first week left me drained. I actually paid attention in lectures which in itself seemed to deplete most of my glucose reserves. I am trying not to sleep in lectures like I used to in my first degree, but when you have statistics at 8am it can be a little dificult.
Adjusting to life at uni again is only proving to be difficult when it comes to study. I got in trouble after my first day of lectures because I had a beer instead of hitting the books. I explained to El that drinking beer and being a student go hand in hand so she let it slide. I just don't know how many times I will get away with it.
At the moment the subjects are fairly mundane, 1st year biology, statistics, chemistry and physics. I am getting used to being one of the older students, possibly the oldest. They are a few other mature aged students in dentistry, but I still think I am at least a couple of years older. One guy is actually doing dentistry after med to do maxillo-facillary stuff. He must be super keen.
It is El's B'day today and she said she feels old. I just tell her how old I am and that seems to cheer her up.
I haven't broken my ties with research just yet, I'm working casually to get a bit of pocket money but I will see how that goes as the year progresses.

We had the time of our lives...

Okay, so the pun is bad... :-) On Friday night Mum, Melissa and I went to see Dirty Dancing at the Lyric Theatre. It was an awesome performance. I think there was about 20 women to every guy, and every time the Patrick Swayze look-alike came onto the stage, the crowd went wild. The dancing and the singing were really good. We got last minute tickets and sat in the back row of the second balcony (as in as far back as you can get). The actors looked like little figurines but it was entertaining all the same. The musicians in the performance were really good too. A lot of the scenes they had a quartet of tenor sax, trumpet, piano and drums - they just went off. :-)

Geoff is in last minute preparations for becoming a full-time student (he is having a beer)! Yesterday we drove out to UQ for a look around. I was the tour guide, and was quite surprised how much I remembered in regards to building numbers and locations. It's only been 6 years since I was at that campus. Eep. I'm old.

We also looked at textbooks. They are so expensive! Only bought one for the time being. Can't wait until the next few years where they will be getting more specialised and even more pricey!

Surprise Surprise

Friday afternoon was a weird one. After returning home with arms laden with sushi I discovered that I had a phone message. All I knew was that it was something concerning dentistry and that I had to call some dental school somewhere back.
I rang up and was offered a place to study Dentistry at UQ. I accepted and will start next week. It is a first year entry degree so there are a lot of young-uns. I think I will be the token mature age. It will be 5 years until I graduate but the only other option is to work year to year in research(of which I am well and truly sick of). I will be working a few hours a week in the lab to get a bit of pocket money while going to uni, at least while the workload permits.
Everyone has been really supportive concerning my quarter life crisis. Everyone says they hate the dentist but keep telling me they want free checkups so what can you do?
We went to Tash and Duncan's place for a barbecue on saturday.
They had these weird plastic teeth just to encourage me. They also bought me a nice plant for my study area so I can get a fresh hit of oxygen while I study.
On Monday I had orientation at the dental school. It looked very interesting but it is very overwhelming to see everything in the space of a couple of hours. It was very surreal walking into a room where 50 dentist drills were going at the same time(not for those that hate the sound of it).
I won't be spending too much time there until 2nd year when we start to do some of the more clinical aspects.
Not much else to write really, but will keep you posted on things as they unfold.
I am putting a few photos on here from saturday night and others I have taken when I'm bored. El is off at band tonight so I've been left to entertain myself.

More Beach Time

Once again I hit the coast for a beach fix, this time with Geoff, Craig and Melissa. The weather was absolutely brilliant and we went for lots of swims in the surf and at the lake. The boys tried really hard to catch some fish, but even after a 4am stint they had nothing but a few bites. We bought a little portable bbq and cooked most of the meals outside in the cool. I can't wait now until we can get some more camping gear and can actually go camping and use it again. :-)

It was a little sad to leave on Sunday since it will be the last time going to the Wurtulla house. My aunt and uncle, after 13 years, have decided to sell up. We have had some really good family get togethers there and there are lots of good memories with that place.

Happy Birthday Wayne!

Last night we went to our friend Wayne's 30th birthday. He held the party at the Campus Club at Griffith Uni. Not a bad setup there, they had this awesome deck overlooking the bush. Apparently it's a whole lot nicer than the Campus Club Geoff and Wayne used to frequent in their earlier uni days. It was good to catch up with Wayne and some other friends. They had a bar tab running which was an added bonus. :-)

Yesterday morning I went with my Mum to a garden show over at Mount Cootha gardens. It was amazing to see the amount of energetic people at 8.30 on a Saturday morning pushing and shoving to get the best plants. I wasn't going to buy anything there but ended up buying a Venus Fly Trap... it was just too cute to pass by. As we were leaving we noticed this massive plant growing in a pond outside the show. The leaves, I swear were the size of rubbish bin lids and the flowers were the size of dinner plates! Like something you'd expect to see in the depths of the Amazonian forest. Very cool. :-)

Happy Australia Day!!

It's been a while since we last posted. :-) Oops.

I love public holidays! Today I went into the city and met up with Janani. We went to a few pubs that were playing the Triple J Hottest 100. The atmosphere was good fun. On the way home I saw the city parade as well. There was lots of people in the parade rollerblading and dressed as fairies. I don't see the relevance but it looked cool all the same.

For anyone out there that reads this and hasn't been in contact recently, Geoff got into Optometry!! We are both pretty excited about it. It's going to be a long slog of 4 years, but Geoff really needs a change in his career. Until uni starts he is still working part-time back in his old lab. Uni starts in late February. He is going to have to get textbooks, pay union fees and setup a desk. It has been a long time since either one of us has done anything like that!

Last weekend I had a beach fix at Wurtulla with my Mum and my brothers. The weather up until a few days before had been hot but (of course) we got all that rain and cooler weather as the weekend got closer. The weather up at the coast was alright though, it only rained for about 10 mins on Sunday. It was pretty windy but we got in two swims - one in the surf and one at the lake. It was just so nice being at the beach again. I hadn't been since before we went overseas. My aunty Jean was up at the house as well and it was good catching up with her.

So that's it for now. :-)

Back to Work

Hey, well unfortunately my week off over Christmas has come to an end and I'm back at work. Trying to get my head into all things sciency again, it has been a bit tough. We had a good new years eve, with a few drinks at the local pub, a few pina coladas back at our house before going to catch up with Rob (who is on his whirlwind visit to Brisbane) and Tash and Dunk. We made up until midnight and saw lots of fireworks going off all over the city from the high position of Rob's brother's backyard at Mount Gravatt.

Geoff isn't working at the moment, instead he is entertaining a school friend who is staying for a few days. I believe they were going to hit the shops today to avoid the heat. I was kinda looking forward to going to work because of the airconditioning, but it doesn't seem to be working very well. D'oh.

Only a little over a week until we find out about uni. The days seem to be dragging on.

Not much else to say really. Best be off now.
El.

Hot Casino Christmas

Well we are back in Brisbane after spending a couple of very hot days over Christmas down in Casino. It was El's first Christmas in Casino so the heat was a bit of a shock for her.
We spent a few days lounging around, going to family things and eating drinking and being merry quite a lot.
We also got to see Mum and Dads new dog -Storm. She is a replacement for the one that died recently. She is a smithfield Blue and they are born with little stubby tails which look quite interesting. She is only 8 months old but with all her speckled grey fur she looks like a distinguished old lady. We were trying to teach her a few tricks but she barks a lot and gets excited a bit too easily.

We followed the usual Christmas routines and went to my Grandmother's place on Christmas Eve. We caught up with a lot of people from Mum's side of the family. We haven't seen some of them for about 2 years so it was good to find out what has been happening. A lot of my younger cousins are bigger and there are some new additions I haven't met before. One of my cousins has had a little(but rather big for his age) boy that was the centre of attention. His dad said that all the ladies get clucky over him until they try and pick him up. El took a liking to him. He really liked trucks and my grandmother lives across the road from Norco so milk tankers come and go all night. El helped him unwrap his present and he was more interested in the paper than the present. He did a faceplant by jumping off El's lap and proceeded to try to pick up people's empties to get the last dregs. Luckily for him we all like a drink so there was never too much left in the cans for him to get.

On Christmas day we woke up early (Daylight savings) to open presents. We had a nice cold lunch , a few beers and an afternoon game of backyard cricket. It has been a few years since all us boys have been home for XMas so it was a good day. We eventually called it a day when the beer supplies finally ran out.

On Boxing day we visited my grandparent's farm for morning tea. We normally go out for lunch but with it being so hot we opted to go out earlier rather than swelter in the heat. We had a few afternoon drinks in preparation for an engagement party which was in a pub so we could save some money. We went and played pool at one of Craig's friends houses for a few hours before we went to the engagement party. The party was fun, with a good time had by all. Tony and Craig got a bit drunk, with Craig volunteering his services as a waiter. He doesn't remember.

My cousin Lee and Tony stayed at the party pretty late and Lee crashed at our place. The next morning we took him to pick up his car and went out to see Lee and his Dad on their farm out at Doubtful Creek. Lee was a litle seedy but took us on a 4wd tour of the property(1800 acres). 1st stop was his prized pumpkin vine crop and then he took us out the back to the run down shack and then we went bush bashing up some of the hills. The views were quite good. We could see MT Warning and a lot of valleys. El thinks she saw a wallaby(or possibly a yowie- we cant be sure) bounding across the track. Neither Lee or I saw it so it is possible she fabricated the whole thing. We were squished into the cab of a 4wd ute while Lee's cattle dog happily ran the entire time beside the truck, stopping every now and then to dunk in the cow troughs to cool off.

We are back in Brisbane now and are seriously considering buying an airconditioner. We went to check out the Myer Centre and Queen Street Mall with Wayne yesterday. It was good but there were too many people and the "sales" weren't that great.

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and has a safe and proposterous New Year.
Geoff and El

Monkey Nuts

It's quite hard to come up with interesting titles, but I think this one is pretty original. :-) We have these annoying palm trees in the backyard that drop ridiculous amounts of fruit which El has affectionately called "monkey nuts" (a throw back to her primary school years). The bats get in there of a night time and have a dance party throwing the fruit all over the place. The problem is that they clog the drains(the fruit not the bats) and when we get a storm the house turns into a house boat. We don the rain coats and brave the elements to unclog the drains but it would be so much easier to get rid of the palm trees(sorry greenpeace). Pity its a rental. About all we can do is mow the lawn. We are a little envious of everyone we know buying houses but we will get there eventually.

It now a year since we left for Canada. How the time has flown! We are seeing all the reports of snow in Jasper and Whistler and with this heat, we are feeling very jealous.

Only two weeks till Christmas now. Last year we had a white christmas so this year it will be a bit of a shock to experience the aussie style swelter down in Casino.
We have a real beauty of a tree up and have bought all of our presents early for once in our lives. Might try and get a photo of the tree (sorry to copy your idea Chris).

Last night we went to Sally and Andrew's housewarming party. It was good to catch up with them and see their new place. Their dog was quite well-behaved and didn't try and hump my leg or anything. :-) We had a good chat with Kylie and Mekiel (spelt horribly wrong I'm sure) and played giant frisbee with Andrew's little cousin.

The storms lately have been pretty spectacular. The last one on the Thursday just gone was massive. Our yard seems to flood and all the monkey nuts that have dropped from the palm tree clogged the drains. We didn't lose any power but in the last house we lost power nearly every time it rained.

It is still about a month until I find out about Dentistry. Fingers crossed. Either way a lot of beers will disappear (mostly by El's hand I'm sure). I still have contingency plans so I just have to wait and see.

Whipper Snippers, work and life

Well I have returned to work for a few days a week until I find out if I get into uni. The work is the same as I left a year ago and it has convinced me that I really don't want to be a scientist for the rest of my life. Hopefully one of the other options pans out and I can get on with things.

With all this rain and heat the lawn has finally got out of control; so much so we had to buy a whipper-snipper to cut through the jungle that surrounds our house(how exciting!) to stop the wild animals breeding. Its a real beauty.
El is still slaving away working five days a week at her job, we're both paying off debts from our trip but its all good getting back to reality. It is a challenge for her being a qualified scientician again. I have weined myself off my ebay addiction, especially after being beaten a couple of times(boohoo). So much stuff yet so little time(and money).

It has been a funny week with mix of good and bad events, but you need to roll with the punches. Unfortunately a good friend of Els mother passed away, so El and her mum went to the funeral yesterday. She said it was a good service. On a happier note, some people we know had a baby. They are going to name it Eleanore(El thinks they should spell it the same way as her name, not some imposter way).

We are both well and hope everyone else is the same.
Geoff and El