Happy Tunesday - Wintersong

Happy Holidays

As the year winds down, it certainly has been busy, full of change. Half a world away, it doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon. As the new year begins we'll be welcoming our dogs back home, having almost all of our belongings delivered back to us, and I'll be starting my job search. Once that all gets settled, we'll likely be moving again in April as the owners of the house we're renting have decided they want to sell.

Australia is agreeing with me. I've almost completely given up sinus meds, just an occasional spray of Astelin. I've gone from 4 pills a day for blood pressure to one. I'm losing weight and with good pain meds I'm able to do the exercises that are supposed to help with the joint pain.

I have high hopes for the coming year and wish everyone the best.

RSS Feed

Just a quick note: If you subscribe via RSS feed to this blog you may have noticed a lot of posts showing up lately that have old dates on them. I'm in the process of moving the blog that I had on msn spaces over to blogger.

Puppies in Quarantine

In a couple weeks we'll get to bring the dogs home from quarantine.  We miss them a lot.  The advice that we've received is to not visit them regularly while they're locked up because they will associate you with abandoning them there time after time.  We went to go visit them to make sure that they were doing fine after their long flight, to give them a couple toys to help them pass their time, and to make sure they got their heartworm medication.

We stopped at the front desk and got directions to their accommodations.  The directions said building(s) 9-10, so we weren't sure exactly where they were.  We walked in between the buildings and even with all the dogs barking, we noticed them right away.  It seemed like all the dogs were barking, but after a few barks Oz and Taz paused, looking confused.  Then they recognized us.  We were able to sit in their kennel for a couple hours playing with and petting the pups.  

Both the dogs are looking good, although Oz is looking a little stressed.  He dropped a lot of extra fur while we were petting him.  I've found a vet close by that will be able to give him treatments for his Addison's disease.

Trip to the Sydney Aquarium

Take a Virtual Tour - Sydney Aquarium Australia

I haven't been to a lot of aquariums. I was foolish enough to miss visiting the one in New Orleans when I was there for Tech Ed in 2002. The Sydney Aquarium was on the top of our list of places to see.

It took us a little while to find it since we got a little turned around on the way. In retrospect, between the gas to and from Engadine and parking, it would have been cheaper for us to take the train.

There were lots of smaller tanks with seahorses, jellyfish, tropical fish, etc... but the tanks were inside and a little dim for my camera without the flash and of course the glass on the tank didn't work well with the flash. The duckbilled platypus and Australia's version of the mudpuppy were exceptionally cute. They also had some larger exhibits inside, like the one with the crocs. (Yes, I found Nemo!)

The seal exhibit was the first one that featured the really large tanks with the tunnels that you walked through. Various types of seals would play on top of the water as well as swim around the tubes giving you great views. They also had several "touch" exhibits where you could feel a starfish or seaweed, etc. The one that stood out the most to me was soda can sized rubbery corkscrew item. I thought at first it was a type of seaweed, but it turned out to be a shark egg.

There were 2 more large tanks with underwater walkways for open ocean and for the Great Barrier Reef. I kept expecting to see one of the little fishes become dinner for one of the larger ones, but I guess it wasn't dinner time while we were there. It was quite an interesting tour, and I'll go see it again at some point I'm sure. For those pressed for time, they offer packages where you can see the aquarium, wildlife museum, and a couple other nearby attractions. Since we live here now, I wanted to spread them out.

Next big exhibit post will be on the Wildlife Museum.

Friday Video - Little Britain

Fatty Fatty Boom Boom. They have a channel from the UK here that features a show called Little Britain. Most of it is hilarious. I picked this clip because we have a scale that lets you measure in pounds, kilos, or stones - and when Marjorie estimates Paul's weight to be 19 stone... that's what I am.

I started losing weight before I left the US. Vomiting and diarrhea on a daily basis due to nerves can have that effect. Since I've gotten here I've gotten more exercise walking around town, shopping, etc. It's a good walk up to the train. Public transportation here is a lot nicer than Madison - the trains are fast, roomier, smell better, and homeless people don't ask me to count their change.

I've lost around 10 kilos in the last 10 weeks. It's a good start and hopefully I'll be able to keep up the pace for the next 6 months.

Charlotte's Web - and the Redbacks

We went outside tonight to check to see if the Golden Orb was still around.  The web that it was hanging from last night was completely gone, but then we noticed on the other side of the doorway, she was busy spinner the classic web.  Round and round she walked, carefully placing the the strand of webbing with her back legs.  I tried to convince John that Orb Weavers aren't bad spiders to have around the garden, but he still wasn't convinced.

While we were out there we pointed the flashlight around the rest of the back porch to see what other critters were about...  Spaced along the outside bottom border of the porch were three 1 centimeter dots suspended in the air.  I leaned closer to see what they were, suspecting already something I wasn't going to be happy about.

Redbacks are distant cousins of the Black Widow of North America.  The Black Widows that I've seen are quite a bit smaller than these gals.  Normally, I'm happy to share the yard with our friendly neighborhood spiderfriends, but they're right down at the height that the pups would be sniffing around, so we'll have to look into a way to discourage these particular visitors. 

More New Furniture - Guestroom

Saturday we finally got the guest bedroom set delivered.  John ordered it over a week before I got here so that we'd have something to sleep on until we could go together to find a mattress that would be comfortable with my picky/achy bones.

The company that he bought it from was supposed to deliver it the following week, but made excuse after excuse as to why it wasn't delivered yet.  We went out after a few weeks and picked up a mattress that has been very comfortable and it sounds like the movers will get our old bedroom furniture here during the second week of January.

Any guests that may drop by will now have a place to sleep.  Sorry for the lack of decor, accessories will get here with the rest of the furniture in January.

(Just a side note on comforters... here they have quilt covers.  You buy a quilted type of pad that fits inside a slip cover like a pillow goes in a pillowcase.  They're much easier to wash and cheaper to switch looks.)

Arachnophobia - Close Encounters

A few days ago, John was out back having a cancer stick when he "was attacked".  Tonight I heard him enter the house a little awkwardly and, sure enough, he had another close encounter with our little eight legged friends.

He wanted a flashlight to see if it was the huntsman back for a rematch, but it turned out to be a different variety of famous Australian spider.  If I'm guessing correctly, it's a Golden Orb spider.

The first picture is a little farther out to get a perspective of size with the rest of the back porch, the second picture is a bit closer.  Since I wasn't really able to get a crisp picture, I tried to adjust the levels on the last photo to make it a little clearer.

Friday Video - WoW

 

Link to YouTube - World of Warcraft - Disco Dude Does Darnassus

Some of my friends back in Wisconsin have been asking me to start playing World of Warcraft so we can keep in touch easier.  Knowing what a time-sink games like this can be I've resisted up until now. 

John and his brother have been playing Everquest 2 for some time and lately John was wondering why his brother wasn't signing in... he found out he was trying out WoW.  John went out and bought a copy as well.  I've been playing it while he's at work.

 

My first experience with Aussie healthcare

I still have insurance through work, although since it's an HMO they only cover their own doctors, unless its a pre-approved life threatening emergency. I can submit a request for reimbursement if it is simply medically necessary and they will consider it...  My drug insurance is a different company and they didn't have any trouble directing me to their overseas reimbursement form.

There is a Dr office that I walk by on the way to the grocery store.  I called them to make an appt, but they weren't taking any new patients.  So I did a search on the internets and picked the Dr that was the next closest.

I arrived at the office the next morning (yes, I called Wednesday afternoon and got a Thursday morning appt.).  They verified they had my correct address and phone number and sat to wait for the Dr.  We made a little small talk, then the receptionist apologized for the wait (it was 5 minutes after I was scheduled).

The Dr's desk was fairly messy (not dirty, just very disorganized).  She had me sit down and asked me questions to get a medical history.  She'd actually heard of Lyme - they don't have it here but they have something similar.  I thought it was odd that I wasn't weighed, and no one checked my temperature or blood pressure.  After the history, she looked at my prescriptions and made adjustments for the formulations and dosage differences they have in Australia.  (They didn't have my blood pressure, so she substituted, they give thyroid meds several months at a time, but will only give out 20 pills of oxytype pain killers).

I went out to the front desk to pay...  Dr visits in the Wisconsin have usually run $300 to $400 between Dr fees and Office use.  Since it was a long consultation, it was $65.  Follow ups should be around $40 (that's in Aussie dollars so it would be about $30 US).  Then I went across the street to get my drugs.  Back in Wisconsin, the tags from Walgreens would say that my insurance saved me around $600.  The total for retail here was about $300 (aus). 

Toss Another Shrimp on the Barbie

On "Late-Shopping" day (Thursday), I suggested we go down to the hardware store and look at grills and outdoor furniture. 

When we went to order the mattress last week we went by a store that specializes in grills.  We saw a very nice one for $8000.  Of course they had a Weber Smokey Joe for over $100 (a portable grill you can buy in the states for $20 on sale) - so we figured they might be overpriced.  I remembered seeing some at the local Mitre 10 in the 3 digit range.

We saw a decent 7 piece table and chairs set that was priced pretty reasonable from other sets we'd looked at but we figured we'd hold off till we bought a house and knew what sort of backyard/deck situation we had.  Their cheapest lounge (for my vitamin D treatments, hehe) was $129, and that seemed too much money to spend just for something to lay down in the sun on.

We ended up getting a nice 4 burner.  I put it together last night by 11:00 PM, so still had time to run down to Woollies and get some meat and wine.  A little late for a meal, but I wasn't going to put it off.

Friday Video - When you're in love with a gamer...

 

Tripod perform at a Comedy Festival - Google Video

House - Appliances

I've had a request to show off some of the appliances that John picked out to help furnish the house.  Back in Madison a rental property will include a stove and refrigerator by default.  Here... nothing is taken for granted.  It's not uncommon to not have a fridge or even a stove.  Ours came with a stove and oven.  John added a microwave, dishwasher, and refrigerator.

 

 

 

 

The microwave oven doesn't have a Popcorn button on it. I'm not sure that they make microwaves in the States that don't have a button for microwave popcorn.  The TV is sweet and helps me feel ok about letting go of the Proscan we had in the States.  We're thinking we'll wall mount it when we buy a house.  By coincidence, we ended up with the same model phone/answering machine.

 For a washing machine, he picked up a Fisher Paykel.  We had one back in Wisconsin as well.  They're a New Zealand company and I love them.  They use electromagnets to spin the wash out rather than a rotor and belt.  Like many people here, since it doesn't freeze, we skipped a dryer and just hang the clothes on a line in the backyard to dry.

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** Other notes - John's mom called this morning to let us know the dogs made it on the plane in Milwaukee.  We expect them to land in Sydney on Friday.  The quarantine station allows visitation on Tuesday and Thursday.  While many vets recommend you don't make a habit of visiting your pets while in quarantine (they start to wonder why you keep leaving them there).  We're going to go down on the first Tuesday to give them new toys and make sure there aren't any questions about Oz's medical care.

The king size mattress that we ordered last week is arriving in the warehouse today and we should have it to sleep on either Friday or Saturday night!!

While I haven't posted about our trip to the Aquarium yet, we're thinking of going to Hyde Park and the Wildlife Habitat this weekend, so even if I don't get around to posting right away there should be lots of new pics at Flickr.

The Cronulla Beach

One of the first touristy things that we did after I arrived in Australia was to take a relaxing drive down to the beach.  Australia, of course, has many wonderful beaches (being a giant island).  We went to one of the closer beaches. 

We rolled down the windows and opened the sunroof on the Bimmer and headed for the beach.  We were able to find a parking space not too far from Cronulla Park.  It was rather busy that day as there was a surfing event.  The weather was sunny and very comfortably warm.  The breeze off the ocean was cool and crisp.

     

After the walk along the beach we got back into the car and headed further into the city.  The Darling Harbor Bridge is one of Sydney's attractions.  It is very close to the Opera House and they are often photographed together.  They have a tour where visitors can walk up and down the bridge.  I'd like to take the walk over the bridge one of these days, but I think even heavily medicated it just wouldn't be possible at this time.

Here you can see the tiny people walking up and over the bridge, I guess now you can go over on either side of the bridge.  The view of the city on a nice day must be wonderful.

A few more pictures - the shade of purple from this flowering tree, a glance upward while driving through the streets of downtown Sydney, a building in Cronulla that I just found pretty.

 

The next weekend we took a trip to Sydney's famous Aquarium.

Technorati tags: Cronulla, Beach

New House Stuff

This is our current "entertainment center". The bottom unit is the Foxtel IQ (the local version of the Tivo or Moxi). It's certainly more trim than the US counterparts but it's a little thin on function but I'm not sure if that is the technology's fault or Aussie TV. Here shows don't start on the hour. Some channels seem to try to grab a time with a 0 at the end but others are fine starting at any spot on the clock with commercial breaks that can be less than a minute to several minutes long. Two of the biggest channels don't have arrangements with Foxtel to carry the appropriate digital signal so the IQ is worthless for showing a guide or recording shows on those channels. In the short time we've had it, it seems about as flakey as the completely crappy Moxi. One day it just sat there and rebooted itself for hours.

The next smaller box is our DVD player. It doesn't care what region our DVDs are from. It seems the US is the place that is most concerned the movie studios control over the DVDs you buy... (or is that license... ).

The cute little boxes on top are our dsl modem and wireless router. The modem is from the internet provider, the router is ours. With the lack of outlets in the house we decided it was time to go wireless so we could set up our computers wherever we wanted.

The lovely black leather sofa and chair(s - there are 2 chairs), are the living room furniture that John picked out to replace the sofa and loveseat we had at the old place. I think they're awesome. The sofa is actually pretty comfortable to sleep on as well. We're really hoping that we get a real mattress by the end of the week.

Old House Stuff

The top pictures are of the garden beds about a year after the house was built. At that point I was relatively pain free and enjoyed getting out in the yard and wanted to have as little grass area as possible with lots of flower beds.










The second set of photos are how the beds were left after all the old growth was cut down and remulched for the winter before the house was put up for sale. John had ChemLawn come in and weed and feed the lawn, so there is a lot healthier lawn in the second set. I guess the before and after aren't that dramatic.

Unless the joints start feeling a lot better I don't see too many flower beds in the future for the new house in Australia. The good news is the grass here seems to be a variety that creeps rather than grows high. In the month that I've been here we haven't had to mow, just trim around the fencing.

More evidence that Jesus was gay

Maybe he was just hanging out with his frat brothers, but in this rare candid shot, Jesus is seen apparently dancing to YMCA by the Villiage People.