Magnetic Island holiday!

    Robbie and I had several days off for the holidays and we decided to head to Magnetic (Maggie) Island for a little R&R! We decided to find a beach with not alot of traffic or people to go snorkeling. Magnetic Island has some of the most wonderful snorkeling and you walk right in, so no need for a dive boat!

We stayed at a little motel resort at Alma bay and rented a scooter, well I rented the scooter since Robbie left his license in Laos (what a dork!). So I had to drive it away and then we swapped since I wasn't very comfortable driving on the little island roads.


We ended up going to a secluded beach called Arthur bay.

A nice picnic started our day!

Doing a bit of exploring we found a Bush Stone Curlew (can you see it?)! Maggie Island is one of the best spots for bird watching, we also saw Black and Sulfur Crested Cockatoos, Brahminy Kites, and Bee Eaters to name a few!

We didn't end up snorkeling because a storm the night before reduced visibility and the stingers were out pretty bad and we didn't have stinger suits. We did find a freshwater creek leading to the ocean so we got the best of both worlds!

A cool seat with a view! You can see me to the right at the bottom, relaxing in the freshwater pool, admiring the ocean!

The view from my perspective, not a bad eh?

Robbie meditating on the top of the boulders.

Watching the world go by and the sunset over the mountains. Great day at the beach!

After a long day we built up quite an appetite so we went back to our little resort for a maxed out hamburger! A hamburger with the works here includes lettuce, beetroot, pineapple, bacon, cheese, an egg, tomato, and jalepeños! Quite a mouthfull, it even came with fries (chips)! 

We had company while we dined:

A female blue winged Kookaburra! She was feasting on the bugs the lights were attracting.

Robbie being so concerned for their wellbeing fed one a chip, she smacked it in half then dropped it...

After dinner we thought it might be nice to go for a little cruise on the scooter. 

There were alot of bugs hitting our face as a result of the headlights so we came up with a solution!

(actually it was a bit impractical so we endured the onslaught of protein)

We ended our little holiday with yet another cruise in the morning and look what we found!

A Rock Wallaby!!!

This trip was heaps of fun and I can't wait until I go back and explore even more!!!!

Boxing day!

          As you might know, boxing day follows Christmas day and it has nothing to do with the blood sport. It originated as the day you were meant to open your presents, giving Christmas day the reverence it was intended. In Canada,^[12] New Zealand, Britain,^[13] and some states of Australia,^[14] Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday, much like the day after Thanksgiving in the United States. It is a time where shops have sales, often with dramatic price decreases. For many merchants, Boxing Day has become the day of the year with the greatest revenue. [wikipedia]

        For me it means a continuance of Christmas festivities. Having celebrated well at my friends Jacques’ and Angie’s place for dinner the night before one could say boxing day came with many ups and downs. It started off great as I was awakened by the sound of a Skype call signaling the opening of stockings with the family. It is difficult to put into words what a wonder Skype is to a person living on the other side of the world from their family. It has enabled me to feel a part of the whole and is by far one of the most precious things our feeble human hands have made. We Skyped and giggled and showed off our presents and I even joined in on the festivities with a mimosa; this was great, this made me miss my family terribly, this also made me realize that I am stronger than I ever knew for being able to somehow be away from them during Christmas. I looked outside and listened to the Lories and admired my orchids and the presents scattered on my bed, I reveled in the sound of my family and I got the best present ever, the realization that I am indeed a VERY lucky girl, blessed by God and humanity from head to toe.

      Boxing day as I mentioned before also delivered some lows… this came in the form of Australia’s performance in the fourth test of  the Ashes Cricket final. Just dreadful, so much so that Robbie couldn’t be bothered with watching it, only listening, and even so, very faintly.

        It gives a Cricket lover (and a new inductee into Cricket watching) quite a headache to see the nightmare that unfolded this day. I can only compare it to watching Derek Fisher score that shot from the sideline that knocked the Spurs out in Game 5 (May 13, 2004) of the 2004 Western Conference semi-finals agains the Lakers. In this case the series was tied 2–2, and Game 5 was a closely contested affair. With 11 seconds remaining, Kobe Bryant hit a jump shot to put the Lakers up 72–71. Tim Duncan then made an 18-foot shot in double coverage despite falling away from the basket to give the Spurs a 73–72 lead with 0.4 seconds on the clock. When the game resumed, Gary Payton inbounded the ball to Fisher, who managed to catch, turn, and shoot the game-winning basket all in 0.4 seconds. It was a brutal blow, the same was dealt to Australia this boxing day. 

      I spent the rest of the day, napping and intermittently Skyping, Face-Timing, and calling my various family members and friends in the states. I also chewed up a lot of time playing with my new iPad and realized that I need a new format to this blog as it doesn’t display well on either the iPad or iPhone…

      Things picked up in the evening when Robbie decided to clean out his snake enclosures! This may give some of you the willies but it gave me a much needed burst of energy! 

This is his coastal carpet python "checker" (I know, super original).

All in all the holidays have been good so far… I have off until Thursday so what to do until then….

Christmas in Townsville... a surreal experience.

         Christmas is a funny thing in a tropical climate and even more so when it’s deemed summer. I knew it would be hard for me to be experiencing the “anti-Chritsmas” here without the “feel” of Christmas. The eggnog, the milk punch, the hot toddies, the wearing of bells and antlers, the giddyiness and the joy of the season. I knew it would be harder still without my family so I decided to ignore it. Ignore it and it will go away…. Not very true, ignore it and you will CRAVE it! This became abundantly clear to me when I started missing the presence of decorations strung about town. Don’t get me wrong, Townsville has plenty of cheer, and also, heat and rain so decorations are sparingly placed about. I avoided Christmas music too, I couldn’t bear to hear Bing Crosby’s sweet soothing voice; this was alien to me, all of these needs to avoid what was staring me in the face... that I LOVE Christmas! Carols and giddyiness and giving and Christ, because after all, he is the reason for the season.

In a moment of clarity which was all-too-late I, by chance, ran into a cab driver that took people around to look at lights while listening to classic Christmas tunes. I snatched up the opportunity and grabbed my flat-mate Elise for a Christmas Eve champagne cruise of Townsville cheer!


Here is what we saw:

Not much snow, infact that will never be an issue, but LEDs do a pretty good job of making the season merry!

The sounds of Christmas... blissful to me but still very different to what I have grown up with. [click the video] {may have compatibility issues, comment if you can't run it}

Memories of Christmas seasons long ago entered my mind with the visions of Windcrest in San Antonio and the long lines of cars that went down the street and onto the highway awaiting the glimmering glory that was the light festival the neighborhood hosted.

Impressive displays of roof decorations made you feel like it was snowing.... a luminescent radioactive snow.... but snow nonetheless! 

      Not too bad a light tour for the few inhabitants of Townsville, it's hard to catch everyone's lights up and going during the wet, a string of thunderstorms followed up by a cyclone in Cairns and it's aftermath interrupted the displays. 

          After all of that I was feeling quite in the season… just a bit late… I won’t make that mistake again. Christmas is and always will be a sacred holiday that I will honor, not ignore.

       To continue my Christmas adventures I got the “joy” of battling with the hellish beaurocracy that is Australian customs. My wonderful father sent me a package with a stocking and gifts from my family that we were to open together on Christmas morning (boxing day in Australia). A simple task of shipping something FedEx was turned into a stressful juggling act thanks to one small detail on the customs form. If the entire package is valued at more than 1,000$ AU they will hold it for tariffs. Remember why the US broke free from the Brits, it’s those bloody taxes!!!! This country still hails the Queens and her tariffs also! The one thing I hope to impart on you is to NEVER send anything that you wish to get to it’s destination ontime if it’s valued over 1G. LIE, break up the shipments but for pete’s sakes don’t send it!!! My father and I had many dealings with FedEx and customs and at the end of the day we were champions and the Christmas goodies were delivered, this was not without the blood, sweat, and tears of both, me, my father, and my various wonderful friends that drove me to Australian Air Express to pick up my parcels. Thanks to you all!!!

Here is the big winner and my new (and very unexpectedly) favourite gizmo:

        I originally thought the iPad was silly but I now stand corrected, like the iPhone, it is something you need to experience to understand. This now completes my Apple ensemble of the iPhone, the iPad, the Macbook, and my AppleTV. New converts are arriving daily as a result of my still very new devotion to Steve Jobs. So when do I get a cut from the sales? I won’t hold my breath, but for now, it has ended up being a very merry Christmas indeed. 

The transportation nightmare continues...

     So I lent my bike to Robbie (after he killed the starter engine on his car) to grab some things and I got it back permanently stuck in first gear. I don’t think I’ve dropped down to that gear in the whole time I’ve had the bike. The thing is, I don't think he did it, it probably happened when I crashed but I never noticed because I usually bike in fifth gear or higher. Either way this was a conundrum. 

Hmmm looks like it might be missing something... 

Dad... any ideas...?

I ended up manually changing the gears to fifth and then it worked!!! It's still got a bit of trouble so I will need to address this soon. 

     In other transportation news, the car search continues! Right now I have found a '91 4runner for 4,200$ but the guy has to replace something in the steering so it wont be ready until feb. The price gives me plenty of room for to add a bullbar and snorkel so this sounds good! In the meantime I need to be able to get to work without bumming rides so I might settle for a '88 Hyundai Excel hatchback for a 1,000$. It's a beater but with some jazzy spray-paint it will be converted into an art car and moving forward is better than rolling backwards right? The thing is, it's very hard to find an automatic here, most people drive a manual and doing that with my left hand while focusing on the different traffic rules may not be the best thing... I'll keep you posted!

Magnetic island exploring!

Just off of the coast of Townsville about 8 kilometers (5 miles) is an amazing island paradise. 

View from the Boardwalk restaurant in Nelly Bay

Magnetic Island is only a 20 minute ferry ride away. It experiences on average over 320 days of Sunshine per year, has a large 27 km² (10.4 sq mi) national park and bird sanctuary. 

Excellent walking tracks can be taken between the populated bays and to a number of tourist destinations such as the World War II forts. With 26 beautiful bays to explore & two thirds of this Tropical Paradise a national Park It's a  real treat for a day trip or a weekend getaway. 

Geoffery Bay

The name of the island came about because of the apparent "magnetic" effect it had on the ship's compass of Captain Cook as he passed the island when sailing up the east coast of Australia in 1770.^[2] People have since explored the general area of Magnetic Island with various instruments to discover what might have caused the effect that Cook reported, but nothing has been discovered. Townsville locals refer to Magnetic Island as "Maggie". 

[wikipedia]

Had to drop the pack and flip flops (thongs) for a little toes in the sand action!

It offers some challenging biking so I decided to take my pink beauty over for a little day trip adventure! I rode from Nelly bay, where the ferry lands, to Arcadia and stopped at Geoffery Bay in-between. It started to look a bit like rain was coming so I took a detour to a small secluded bay called Alma Bay.

Surrounded by beauty, even when it's overcast.

I wasn't satisfied with just walking on the beach and wading in the water so I decided to climb some of the boulders for a more elevated view.

 

 Next time I come out to Alma I will climb to the end point, the tide was coming in so it wasn't really a good idea to do it then.

Several little islands dot the area, one can be seen here in the distance.

 Looking back onto the beach, looks like a great picnic site!

Sandy toes and a Christmas pedicure watching the waves crash up onto the rocks.

I'm a happy girl, quite at peace here... I love Australia <3

I had to get going as the weather seemed to moving in pretty quickly, so I made a quick escape 4 kilometers (2.48 miles) back to the ferry landing. Just in time too, it started raining as I left!

Magnetic Island has so many things to do, I'll be spending alot of time here and as a part of the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef Marine Park it will be a diving dream come true!!!

  

The little differences...

Life in North Queensland is definitely unique. From the architecture of the house I live in to the lifestyle and fashion of the people here. Everyday is an adventure into a different culture than that I've come to know in South Texas.

In the wet season it's a bit hard to do laundry because most people don't have dryers. This came across to me as a bit odd but really, it's nice not to use so much energy and cloths and sheets dried in the fresh air smell nice and last longer. This has taken some getting used to. You have to time your laundry with the weather and even though I have a line under a cover it can still get annoying waiting for it to dry in windy wet weather. 

Speaking of cloths, I was out exploring local restaurants and saw this pair of girls and thought they'd be a good example of the Aussie style of dress:

Other little differences are found in speech and food. For instance, I was at a restaurant and ordered greens thinking "oh boy! My comfort food favourite!" and got this:

Not greens as I know them... I like steamed veggies and all but... I was excited about turnip greens or mustard greens or any of the variety of the Southern dish. Ah well! Life is still good. :)

Salsa = party

It seems my salsa and guacamole make people go crazy. Elise went out and bought a bunch of beer, three bottles of champagne, three bottles of wine, two bottles of vodka, brats, sausages, and various other Dutch food. She also bought a bunch of string lights and decorations along with a big pink trashcan that was to be filled with ice and pulled out by the pool. Clearly a big party was in the works, after all, it's Friday night!

As soon as we got back from work we started decorating, hanging lights, buying ice, getting last minute ingredients for salsa and inviting whoever we could get ahold of. I wanted to make my salsa a bit more spicy this time to make it more of a dip and less of something you pile mass quantities of on a chip.

This is it with just the primary ingredients:

Looks like Mexico!!!

I knew it was going to be a fun party so I gussied up aswel. My salsa was a huge hit all around and my guacamole came out a bit late for everyone to enjoy but it was really good (patting myself on the back).

In the end we had about 20 people show up including Elise's parents which were really fun to talk to. I showed everyone how to dress a beer and much fun was had by all! Best of all, when Elise and the boys wanted to go to the club, I stayed home, my elbow and bum still bear the marks from last week! 

I think the next time I make something for people I will make green enchiladas... now to find tomatillos...

Puppy Love

So today was a good day at work. Sadly we had 9 dogs surrendered by their owners for various reasons that never make any sense to me. We had four cats/kittens come in too. It's the depressing part of the job but I do some things to make my day a bit better. Today I went up to 21 days where they keep strays for holding and behavior assessments and washed the 15 puppies and two kittens that were up there. They come in all covered in ticks and poo and pee and no animal feels comfortable that way, the heat doesn't help either. So I figured I would give them (and myself) a little moral boost. It was good fun! The first one always screams like it's being murdered but after a bit they realize that the water is a good thing. The way the puppies bounce around with joy afterwards always makes me smile and not soon after, with tummies full and fur clean, they settle down and nap. I only had 6 puppies left and these had been found in a storm drain. They were listed as Kelpie mixes. The Kelpie is an Australian sheep dog successful at mustering and droving with little or no command guidance. They are medium sized dogs and come in a variety of colours.  However these guys also got a fair bit of Dingo in them. If you didn't know already Dingoes are Australia's wild dog. They often interbreed with the domestic dogs but they are fine animals.

All was good and well and bathing the puppies was fun, I had one more to go and darnit if it wasn't the cutest one!!! I'm in trouble kids, if I had a place of my own or was renting a pet-friendly place, this pup would come home with me.

                        She's got a lovely temperament and will be a beautiful and loyal dog.

                                        She also happens to be nauseatingly cute!

                                      I really like her markings and the colour of her coat.

                                                    With her litter mates.

Sweet puppies..... the thing is, you can't go and get attatched to all of the animals, you'll get your heart broken, however, if I could find a way.... she'd be mine. She'll be in the back for another 19 days so let's see how she goes, it will be interesting to see her change as she grows.

Another little project of mine is this guy:

He was surrendered because his owner died... but something isn't right...

He's got a broken wing and he is pretty scared of people, I think he was a man's bird because he responds positively to Bob's (Ambulance driver) voice. I am not really pleased with the way he's being kept so this bird got assigned to me after much noise was made (you know how I get when I'm passionate about something). I'll keep you posted...

To end my day the manager came and found me and asked me to send my resume (CV) to Brisbane (where the Queensland RSPCA headquarters is) because she has a special project for me and thinks I've got what it takes. What is this project you ask? I have no idea, she said she would talk to Brissy and let me know. Muy interesante!