This afternoon in the living room, I heard a rustling noise. We have a roomie - he usually comes out every evening. I had not seen him in the afternoon before. I'm happy to have him, and you can probably see why from he picture above. COCKROACH EATER!!!!!!

Wednesday is Jeremy's stay at school late night. Blah! I've tried to be productive...Mowed the back lawn with our *lovely, wonderful, fantastic* push mower. SO MUCH FUN! I love push mowers! Um, yes. While I was doing it, our neighbour Mike called down to me: "Leana! Is there something you'd like to borrow?" They lent us their *not as functional, clearly lesser* gas powered mower when the *awesome super duper* push mower couldn't get through the dense grass last time. Although it was a tempting and generous offer this afternoon, I declined - there's something satisfying about pushing that STUPID FREAKIN PUSH MOWER 75 times over one patch of grass. Ah, okay, that's better.

It looks like we will likely have a Canadian visitor for most of April. All I can say to express my feelings about that is "SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" Excellent!

The best advice anyone gave to me before I left for Australia was probably something D'Arcy told me the morning of our departure. "Do you know what kills most Canadians in Australia?" (No, the answer is not dingos) "Cars. Make sure that you look right first. Then look left, then look right again!" This goes against every instinct but is beginning to be more automatic and less forced. I can truly see how someone would just step out into the road without thinking though...Anyway, thanks to D'Arcy for keeping me alive :) Now let's hope when I come back to Canada a few years older, my brain will be able to deal with the sudden switch!

It feel like the majority of Australians are fairly...fearless...when they drive and this definitely takes some getting used to. Most people who have been in a car with me before have become aware of my Amaxophobia. I just can't help my reactions. My co-worker Amy has ever so nicely offered/insisted on picking me up every morning and driving me to work. She's great - but very Australian in her driving. As I don't want my co-worker who I've known for less than a month to realize that I'm out of my mind, I have to work very hard on stifling my reactions. Gah! Roundabouts everywhere!!!

I like Skype. I especially like when I can hear Mum laugh the crazy laugh over Skype! Love you! (Get your camera working please!!)

The weekend in brief:

Jolly Jeremy following UQ Med Sports Day. Felipe & Strongbow at the house - our first "official" guest. Train to Fortitude Valley. More Strongbow & new friends from Jeremy's PBL group. Air con! Late night...fine, very early morning bacon and egg breakfast at one of Brisbane's finest bacon and egg places. Lily Allen's bad influence on me. Jeremy being privileged enough to listen repeatedly to Lily Allen on Saturday morning. Skype galore. Crazy laugh and the way it sucks you in. Hopes are up - hope it really happens! Getting lost on the way to "An Ideal Husband" and missing it. Malodorous lady invading my personal space repeatedly. Dress buying boy compliments. Swimming in swanky South Brisbane apartment salt water pool and hot-tub. Fascinatingly strange person who only goes to bed on a "7". More Strongbow. Sympathy for out of work engineer. Slight awkwardness. Train home. Epic Sunday breakfast of deliciousness. School work on the train. New places to explore - end of the Cleveland line! Ridiculously huge houses, tiny little beach - but OCEAN!


Random message to finish this fairly irritating entry: (this is apparently why we should go to SWIM - Supporting Women in Medicine) Btw - Jez = Jeremy.

And by the way guys. Get your tickets for SWIM- an ultimate good time party this fri night!!!! - Jez tell Leana!

because:

cocktails= Summer loving= I do not look like a chicken Kim!= beer goggles= Chuck Norris says " SWIM cocktail night is hard enough for any mother= crazy fun.

nb- "I do not look like a chicken Kim" is from Kath and Kim an aussie legend TV series. U Tube it.

Miss you!!! (and you, and you, and you!)

This post is dedicated to Tracee, my amazing and loyal commenter!

Goop, if you came here it would be the best time ever!

3:19 pm on Friday...UQ Sports Day started at 10:30 am. Wonder how messy things are by now? The rain is really coming down outside, but I suppose rain can't really hurt a day of tug-of-war, jelly wrestling and bouncy castles.

0 comments, 0 comments, 0 comments

You guys are killing me here!

The beginning of another week. Time passes by so quickly. We've been here for almost six weeks now! It feels longer than that, but shorter - if that makes any sense at all!

I'm still really liking my job. Tomorrow I'll possibly be there on my own, as my boss has to go to a funeral and the other speechie who works there full-time was off sick today and might not come in tomorrow either. Apparently I seem very trustworthy - I already have my own key and the run of the office! Not to mention, Sandra got my e-mail, met and hired me all in the span of two days! Well, I can't complain :) I'm still looking for job #2 since I'd like more hours of work. It would also be nice to work somewhere larger with more people so I can broaden my social horizon!!

Speaking of which, I've started trying more actively to seek out interesting things to join. I think I will join a book club that I've been looking into. I also have been trying to find a casual softball league...I used to play as a kid and it was a lot of fun, I can't really remember why I stopped. The closest I've found is a club about half an hour away by car, or 1.5 hours by bus. Ewwwwww. I may be able to carpool though, so that would improve the situation immensely! I also signed up for a French language club, which meets at 10 am every Saturday. It's free and you can just drop in whenever you feel like it, so that sounded kind of cool.

This Friday there's a big event happening called "UQ Med Sports Day". Guess what? It revolves around booze!!! (Surprise, surprise) Jeremy and the other first years will show up at The Regatta for 10:30 am and wait for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students who have all met up at various other locations. They have a few drinks (Yes...yes..I said 10:30 AM) and then run with the torch to UQ to complete the circuit and then participate in a day of fun-filled activities, sports...and um, perhaps a bit more drinking. These are the unofficial rules:

Some tips for first years...
1. If you run, please stay out of the way of traffic and keep your clothes on!
2. Feel free to accessorize your scrubs, but just remember pink is ONLY for MBBS IV.. Your time will come.
3. If The Regatta doesn't let you in for the kick-on because your scrubs have writing all over them, don't worry.. Go around the corner, turn them inside out and try again.
4. If you are planning to run, wearing thongs can be somewhat of a burden. (Thongs as in flip-flops...Jeremy now wears thongs regularly...bahahahaha)
5. Buy your convenors a drink! (just kidding, but seriously..)

"Keep your clothes on" - it may sound like one of those things that doesn't need to be said, but let's just say I've already seen my fair share of med student streakers (football field + keg party, use your imagination!)

So I'll be meeting up with them around 5 pm, camera in hand, ready for blackmail pics!! Hah!!

Well, I know medical school really sounds like all fun and games but Jeremy IS working very hard. He set up a tutorial group (six girls and two guys, how horrible for the boys!) and arranged everything, including the schedule, meet up times, and the actual tutor. In his PBL group (Problem Based Learning, the foundation for his program) he has taken charge and assigned tasks to everyone, even making sure to make up a list which details who provides snacks each week! He's very organized and dedicated, so it's nice that they have these fun days once in awhile to allow the students to breathe again!

Wow, that was way longer than expected, so I'll end there for now. Au revoir!

Pancake art!

Those blueberries were really plump and delicious. YUM.

Ah, vendredi. Last Friday, Jeremy and I practiced our French with a guy from France. Who knows what this week will bring!

I had a lovely walk home in the pouring rain this afternoon. My walk home is just over 5 km, and five minutes into it I knew I would end up soaked so I decided to just enjoy it. "Enjoying it" consisted of singing loudly to the songs on my Ipod, smiling a lot, and jumping in every puddle I came across. In other words, likely appearing to be an escaped mental patient to anyone who happened to cross my path.

Sad face

Our real estate company called yesterday (LJ Hooker, for those who are interested...heh heh). SO. The girl who rented us the house is no longer with the company. We now deal with a new person, who informed us that the owner of the house had no idea that there were tenants living in it and was planning to demolish it. Apparently the property (excluding the house) is worth about $350 000 and a lot more with a newer, nicer house on it. Sigh. If this is all true, we're only here till July and then have to play the "looking for a house" game again. *sob* So sad! We like this place!

We had dinner again with Annette and Mike (the neighbours) last night and they protested this new development as well. "We finally get good neighbours and they're going to tear down the house????"

:(

As promised, for your viewing pleasure...

Before - eeeep! Yes it was free, but it was not pretty!

I realize you can still see the black mark, and I'm not a professional painter...but my red fridge is pretty great :) AFTER - a big improvement!

I love air conditioning. I would spend my life with air conditioning if I could. Instead I am sitting here, dripping oh-so-attractively, contemplating taking all the food out of the fridge and hanging out in there for awhile. It is HOT! I shouldn't complain though. The news of the forest fires in Southern Australia and the death toll is pretty terrifying. Let's hope it's under control.

In non-heat related news, we bought a washing machine this weekend. How domestic is that?? Weird. We were going to just do the whole laundromat thing, but then Jeremy pointed out that $6 a week over a year ends up costing quite a bit...not to mention, time is valuable...and okay, the fact that the nearest laundromat is a hike up a big steep hill away may have swayed the vote. Since they don't traditionally come with rental housing here, it's pretty easy to find bargains and so we did!

Yesterday we did something a little different. Sarah invited us to this event at the Morooka Bowls Club, as her friend was deejaying and she wanted to support him. We played Barefoot Bowls! I suppose it's like lawn bowling, although I can't say for sure because I haven't ever ben lawn bowling. The premise is simple: Bowls is a sport in which the goal is to roll slightly asymmetric balls, called bowls, closest to a smaller—normally white—bowl called the "jack" or "kitty". Bowls, either flat- or crown-green, is usually played outdoors, on grass and synthetic surfaces. Flat-green bowls can also be played indoors on synthetic surfaces. Both variants are collectively known as "lawn bowls".

Don't worry though!!! We haven't aged 60 years since we've gotten here. (In Canada, lawn bowling is usually something you'd spot the retired crowd doing). It's trendy here and there were a bunch of young people with pink hair and whatnot, as well as the deejay, some barefoot dancing...oh yeah, and really cheap beer. It was a neat/different thing to experience. We headed back to Sarah and Brian's afterward for lamb pizza and pesto pizza (mmmm, homemade pesto!) Board game plans are imminent - D'Arcy may or may not care to know that they play Settlers of Catan here!

Well, my new washing machine has just finished a cycle and now I must go hang the clothes outside to dry. I feel like I've gone back in time, or something!

PS - There was a lot of Skyping over the weekend - Mum, Dad, Ross (a little bit!), Kathy, and Tracee. I like that! Ronan downloaded it, so gold stars for him...and as for the rest of you, what are you waiting for??? :)

The last few days have been eventful.

First of all, I love my job! I really like being busy all the time, doing different things constantly, picking up all sorts of tips/ideas for materials, and just generally being in a speech pathology clinic environment. The kids are so cute too, with their little Aussie accents! Holy moly. Not to mention my co-workers, who are lovely. The owner/director, Sandra is great - very flexible and understanding. Amy is the full-time SLP who works at my site (Tarragindi) and I'm guessing she's close to my age. She got married just this July actally. We have lots to talk about, and I'm missing my girlfriends, so it's really fantastic!

Yesterday evening Jeremy called me over because some neighbours I hadn't met yet were wondering if we wanted some hanging racks (you use them in place of a closet). I went to have a look and they were perfect, so we took them. We actually ended up staying at their place for dinner (ordered pizza) and talking for about four hours on their huge, beautiful back deck. What wonderful people! They're in their early 50s and still have a couple of kids living at home. Actually, their kids are spaced apart the same as Ro, Shane and me - their kids are 28, 26, and 23, so all the kids are 3 years older than my siblings and I who are 25, 23, 20. Annette (the mom) is going through treatment for breast cancer and will be starting the final phase - radiation - in a week or so. Her husband Mike worked middle management for an insurance company but was recently laid off so he's enjoying his break for now, so he can really be there to support his wife. They told us some neighbourhood gossip, and when we left we took with us a microwave, two boxes of glasses/mugs/etc, and a chest of drawers (dresser). They also offered to let us use their laundry facilities whenever we wanted (but we're getting a washer this weekend so we should be okay!) and told us that if we ever got too hot just to come in and hang out in their air-conditioned house!!!! Seriously, how do we find these people??? It's like adopting a family!

We also found out that the previous tenants of our house were refugees from Sudan. In the house that the two of us live in now, there used to be a family of six! Obviously it was a way bigger change for them than for us - apparently one of the little kids said when they arrived in Australia: "Where are all the guns?"

Hope everyone is doing well. I hear there's a Winter Wonderland party going on at the Nichol Farm soon - sounds fab! Miss you guys, wish I could be there (well...kinda! Hehe)

xox

I painted it red!

The town? The roses?

Nope...the fridge! Our fridge is now fire engine red. It needs another coat of paint, but I ran out. The first coat was a huge ordeal so I'm not all that keen on doing it again! Afterwards I had to clean up the overspray that had gone EVERYWHERE - including my lungs! Aggggh...but looking on the bright side (and I mean very bright) I love my fridge! When you see before and after pictures, you'll realize that this was not a frivolity but a necessity. Free fridges are great, but when they've been sitting underneath a Queenslander* for an extended period of time...well, they begin to need a coat or two of red paint!

*Queenslander buildings are identifiable by large verandahs and large double doors which open onto these verandahs. They are typically raised on vertical "stumps," made of timber or concrete. The stumps served two purposes, firstly to elevate the houses for ventilation and secondly to protect them from floodwaters, as well as termites and other pests. Queenslanders are always constructed of mostly wood, although some are restored with prefabricated plastic cladding. In the days before air-conditioning, it was designed to increase air-flow throughout the house by way of large doors and windows, which lined up internally. This is so that the air literally passes through the house, rather than entering through one window and stagnating in the room. Roofs are generally made of corrugated iron or tin, and external walls are sided with timber, often painted in mild pastel colours. Raising the house on stumps meant the under floor area could be used for an old form of refrigeration.

Anyone who just read that must be bored at work, or something! Heh.

Speaking of work, today was my first day at my new job!!! They've never had any sort of support staff before - 100% speech pathologists - so it's pretty interesting/hectic. Lots to learn!

BTW - Mum, Dad and Leanne get 943859845 million gold stars for downloading SKYPE!!!! Hope to talk to you guys soon :)