See you soon!

Every time I sit down to write an entry, I am first startled by how long it has been since I've written, then apologise for not writing, as though the internet is an elderly aunt with whom I promised regular correspondence but she, knowing better, just shook her head, but I insisted that, no, this time I would write regularly, and she just smiled an irritating smile and said, we'll see, and now it turns out that she was right and knew me better than I thought and I've got to come up with a great excuse for not writing but I'm not going to try to have an excuse, just that I didn't write, but that I've been really busy...dang, that was an excuse, and we can't have that, now can we? So, what's been keeping us so busy that we couldn't add another 20 minutes of computer time to our day? Fruit.

We've decided to try new fruits. There are more things in the market that I don't recognize than I would have ever thought possible. Ever heard of a custard apple? It's about the size and shape of a nerf football, but with seeds. How about Fuyu? We had to ask how to eat it -- like an apple, they said, knowing that we would be miles away before we tried it. It looks like a tomato and tastes like crystallized pineapple, also called a Japanese Persimmon. Now we're waiting for the loquat tree to get ripe (I have NO idea what they're like, but there's a tree in the yard).

See?! We've been busy!

That's it, you ask, you've been busy with (scornful pause)...fruit?

Well, that's not all! We've also, um, been packing a lot of other stuff in, like work (did we mention that Kris has been promoted?), hockey (Kris plays at least twice weekly, me once), and running (with a club called the hash house harriers...you'll hear more on this later, no doubt), but I thought what would catch your interest was...fruit.

And now...more fun signs from Australia!

Gl-aus-aury v 2

scunted: v to be told off, or chastised.

arvo: n afternoon

journo: n jounalist

muso: n musician

rego: n registration (like license plates)

exxie: adj. expensive

guzzies: n globs of splittle, ooze, slime.

marching orders: fired, canned, sacked.

House--not just a TV drama, Kristin

Okay. So its been a week since I sent out a frantic email about our house sale falling through. Needless to say, we are continuing on our fine streak of bad luck. The timeline so far.

April Good Friday 2006 put house on the market
July 2006 lower the price
September 2006 lower the price
October: recieve first offer--a contingency.
January: contingency expires, negotiate an extension
February: extension expires, put it back on the market
April: lower price.
April: get offer--woo, hoo, close date May 15.
May 12: engaged couple split up while measuring for hardwood floors, offer falls apart.
May 14: desperate plea for a miracle.
May 15: offer officially falls apart.
May 16: house back on the market
May 18: new offer recieved.
M1y 20: offer rejected for being to0 low.
May 24: new offer proposed, and accepted to close mid July.
May 25: FINGERS CROSSED!

Its been a real roller coaster, and I have to commend our friend and realtor Curt Britson. If he charged us for the over the phone counseling and all the extra hassle having us overseas has caused, we'd just sign it over to him. We might even be home in July during the closing, so we can dig up our statue of St. Joseph and swear off religious iconography forever.

Unfortunately, our housing luck seems to have followed us here. The timeline goes like this.

Jan 4: Stay in a hostel in a room 8 ft X 8 ft.
Jan 8: Move to Silver suite of holiday accomodation in S. Fremantle.
Jan 18: Move to Gold suite of holiday accomodation.
Jan 25: Move to rental property in Hamilton Hill.
Feb - Mar: Buy furniture, get to know the neighborhood.
April 18: Get a call from rental property agents, the owners want to move back in! Will we shorten our lease and find a new place to stay.
April 25: Agree to look at new rental properties, if they pay moving costs.
p.s. My boss hands in resignation, Dr. in Emergency Center hurts her back, we both start working like crazy.
Apr 25-May 15: Begin negotiating what moving costs will be covered. Start looking at properties.
May 15: Discover moving costs, meant paying for the truck. (get notice about house falling through), decide its too much all at once, decide not to move.
May 20: Receive notice that our rent has increased by 15%.

May 25: Nathan and I are following his original plan, living in a classic VW pop top camper van on the beach. Visitors are still welcome, you can use our tent.

Gl-aus-ary

So we all know that there are some words that are used regularly in australian lingo. Phrases such as "G'day," "Mate," and "I'll have another beer" have been long recognized as casual aussie speak. There were a few new words that have been used in an exam room situation that I had to stop the conversation and ask for a translation. Here are a few.

1. Bogan. (n) Person who is usually of a socioeconomically disadvantaged stratum of society who is not overly interested in grooming or appearance, spends days slacking and having a few stubbies (short bottles of beer).

2. Bluey. (n - various) In the consulting room, an australian cattle dog, so called for its blue ticking, very popular. Confusing because it is also the phrase used to describe a stinging jellyfish (portugeuse man o'war). Imagine the look of shock when asked to examine bluey in room one as it was vomiting. Also means a redhead, a traffic ticket, a backpack, or a heavy coat worn by miners. Very versatile word, bluey.

3. Dag. (n) An uncouth or loutish person. Is often used as an adjective, "She's so daggy, she just opens her lunch (farts) in front of everybody." Can have superlatives, e.g. megadag.

4. Stands out like a dog's balls. (adj) Meaning is obvious. It's obvious what the meaning is. The meaning is, obvious.

5. Ocker. (n) Unsophisticated person. Nearest North American synonym may be redneck.

6. Root. (v) Is synonymous with f*ck in every usage. "I hit a roo, and now my car is rooted." "He's so randy, a total root-rat."

7. Sook. (n, v) A softy, a mama's boy/girl. Used in the exam room to describe those pets that are in constant need of a cuddle. Can also be a verb, "She's going to sook," or even an adjective, "she's so sooky." The superlative is to be a sookie la-la. Really.

These are just a few of the colorful new words that we're adding to the lingo, and a selection based on what I've heard in the exam room. I'll leave you with a new favorite, used to describe a car that I was considering buying that evidently gets very good mileage.

"It'll run on the fumes of an oily rag."

When Nathan and I found out I was going to a training conference in Melbourne, we immediately planned to take full advantage of my free airfare and hotel accommodations. We decided to fly out after work on Friday night to give us maximum weekend. But of course we couldn't get on the same flights. Optimistically, we chose my flight leaving at 6:00 am. With increased security that meant being at the airport at 4:00 am. Nathan was supposed to get off work at midnight, but at 2:00 am I called the hospital and said I was coming to get him ready or not. After picking up Nathan, we rechecked our packing and decided to wait up for the cab scheduled to arrive at 3:30am. We shuttled off to the airport, took our seperate flights (Nathan's 1 hour later than mine) and arrived in Melbourne.

Because we would spend the whole week in the heart of the city, we decided to rent a car and go to the Yarra Valley, a wine region 1 hour from Melbourne. During our drive we stopped at a vineyard for lunch (I had tempura gator in honey eucalyptus sauce. Gator tastes good--but anything does when its deep fried). After lunch, we headed into Healesville for a leg stretching hike through a local rainforest. Yep. I said rainforest, in Australia. Its like Jurassic Park. Giant ferns, stringybark hanging down like vines, weird animal sounds, bugs.

That's when we heard something completely different. It was R2D2 after a severe electric shock. The bushes rattled, more strange noises. Then we saw the Lyrebird.
I am including a video for you to look at. This has got to be the strangest thing we have seen so far. Turn the sound up on your computer, you need the full effect.


If you want more of this weird bird, search www.youtube.com for lyrebird, the David attenborough video is awesome.

After seeing this amazing display, Nathan and I returned to our Bed and Breakfast for 12 hours sleep. We stayed among the vineyards, with a view of the mountains that reminded me of Nathan's grandpa's ranch in No. California. After more hikes through the rainforests and mountains, and trips for wine tasting, and cheese tasting (my favorite), we drove back to the airport to drop off the car, then went into the city.

Nathan's given you a picture of all that we did in Melbourne: Chinatown, Barber of Seville, 3 comedy shows, Miss Saigon, Immigration Museum, Melbourne museum, and food, food, food. We ate at Jamie Oliver's restaurant Fifteen (Jamie's menu, with a youth program that teaches disadvantaged youths to be top chefs.) and loads of other great places.

The city feels like Seattle, more overcast and rainy than Perth, with lots of little shops, alley ways, bars, restaurants, arts areas. The Central Business District is about 1 mile by a half mile, with a collection of ethnic and funky suburbs surrounding the CBD. Even though you can walk across the CBD in 30 minutes, Melbourne has a great public transport which combines several free “trams” (cable cars), commuter trams (pay for a ride), buses, subway, and trains.

There is a river which runs through the center of Melbourne. With the Royal Botanical Garden south of the river, and a sculpture garden running along the north of the river. An amusement park sits on one side of the river with a shows, ferris wheels, and other entertainments day or night. Across from the amusement park, sits rows and rows of boathouses, where the rowing crews take their boats on the river, day or night. We saw several crews rowing in after dark with the coxn holding a flashlight.

Melbourne has its famous market (Great Victoria Market) where Nathan bought a didgeridoo (living up to our tourist stereotype. Getting good will require lots of practice. Its like nothing else. Until Nathan’s mastered it, we’ll spare you the demonstration.) Nathan wandered St. Kilda’s (The uptown of Melbourne) while I sat through lecture after lecture. The last day, we had pizza on Lygon street, famous as a “Littly Italy”. We decided Papa Gino’s was authentic, because the couple next to us ordered in Italian, and our server chatted to them in Italian for a long time. Authentic or not, the pizza was excellent.

Finally back in Perth, and settling in to life as normal again. Well, normal for now, our rental agency has asked if we would consider terminating our rental contract early—because the owners are moving back to Perth. We have the right to stay til January because of our lease, so we can keep our great location near the beach, and the park, and our great native bush garden. But we can trade up if wewant. We’ll see if we can find anything better. Otherwise, it would take some pretty big incentives to persuade me to go through moving and resettling again.

We have tons more photos, I’ll just add a few more for your viewing enjoyment.

Melbourne...

...it's like a baby London. As far as cities go, this one is great! Kris is busy all day in her conference, so I'm roaming the streets looking for things to do when she gets off work, and let me tell you, there's plenty to choose from!
It may be a mix of the best of Seattle and London, with some history, some classical and gothic architecture, but with a trendy cafe and bar scene, good arts opportunities, and seemingly infinite variety of restaurants. And, like both of those cities, it is considered to be more overcast than the rest of the country.
We've been to the opera, the pub, a stand-up comedian (did I mention that this is the international comedy festival site?), and tonight will go to Miss Saigon. The only disappointment so far is that the Percy Grainger museum in the Melbourne University was closed for building works. After all that, there's still all the sports facilities, more comedy, the casino (briefly the largest in the world), more museums (musea? museae?) than you can shake a stick at, and Captain Cook's cottage, transported here from northern England, which I actually find kind of odd. It's not like this city has nothing of its own, that it needs to bring an entire house 15,000 kilometers as a footnote for the guidebooks.
All of this is in a relatively central area -- I haven't even been to St. Kilda's yet, although that's today's adventure -- which is much more easily traversed afoot than is the sprawl that is Sydney. Yup, as far as cities go, this is a definite keeper!

I'm sure they are glad we approve.

Botanical Extravaganza!

Good Friday indeed!

This morning started pretty well, considering that the phone rang at 7:15 on our day off. There aren't too many things that will make me smile after a start like that, but it was a call from our Realtor, Curt, to let us know that there was an offer on our house. A long-awaited, much needed resolution to the Fairway Drive Dilemma is another step nearer. Ahhhh...

After church, we then went to a national park just north of Perth, and had a GREAT hike. A little over 10K of sandy, dirty walking amongst the Tuart trees and kangaroos, finishing off in time to watch the sunset over the water.

For those of you who are keeping score, that's two weekends with time together. This may work out, after all! Of course, I work all day on Easter, so we'll have to see how things go from then on. We'll keep y'all posted.