Canberra - The Capital Territory

Hey, I'm trying to get around to giving you guys some pictures and such... but I've been failing miserably. Anyway, I've got some stuff from Canberra here and a few little tidbits. As I mentioned, Canberra is the capital of Australia (it's name translates to "Meeting Place"), it is located in New South Wales, however it is not the capital of NSW, Sydney is... confused!?! So it is centrally located between Melbourne and Sydney so that neither state capital is the country's capital... it was decided after some disputing between the 2 capitals. The city itself was "designed" by architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin (says Wiki, although I was told only Walter had any involvement in it by an ex-Canberrite... I figured I'd mention both just to be safe). The city structure is really neat, everything is located concentrically around the Parliament Building which is built right into a hill. However, the construction on this was expected to take so long, that they built a temporary building first to be the Parliament Building. There is so much about this city that I can't even begin to scratch the surface (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canberra), so I'll just post some sights that I saw in my personal walking tour of the city and capital territory. Here is a pic of the New Parliament Building:
It's pretty hard to tell how neat this building looks on the sides from this image, but ther are grassy hills going up either side that end on the roof (right underneath the giant flag pole).
Here is the Old Parliament Building:
They've actually turned this into a museum that I did not have time to explore. Right across the street of this building is a large green area with a giant fountain in the center (similar to DC), and there is a camp of Aboriginal Australians who have made an Aboriginal Tent Embassy for their representation (since many other countries and peoples are represented in some way).
Within the Parliament Building (new of course) you can find an original copy of the Magna Carta:
That was pretty neat to see as well, but flash photography was not allowed of this piece in particular, so what you see is what you get.
On the first day there, Del and I tried to walk to Parliament together, but got slightly off track and ended up walking around the giant man-made lake and ended up at the Australia National Museum (as mentioned in my previous post). This place was pretty neat looking, here is a view from the top of the Parliament Building (notice the Chinese Embassy in the foreground):
Here are 2 more neat photos I was able to take... the first one is The Carillon (a bell tower) that plays a tune every hour, it has 13 bells, and the tall structure in the background is the US-Australian War Memorial (very reminiscent of WWII structures):
The second is the Australian War Memorial, this place has the "Eternal Flame" torch:
And lastly (for now), on our way to and from Canberra, we passed a small town called Holbrook. This was a fascinating town, of course it's the first place we saw our squawky friends the Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo but more interestingly; this town was originally called Germanton, but due to the war, the name was found to be unpatriotic so it was changed to the name Holbrook, after a submarine war-hero (Lt. Norman Douglas Holbrook). Eventually, this giant sub, the H.M.S. Otway, was decommissioned and this little town was somehow able to purchase it. So now you can find this relic in a tiny little town in NSW. Here are 2 shots of this:

Well, that's all I've got for now...

I know you're all looking forward to pics of the apartment, but I haven't worked on them yet. Shame on me! I know, but the truth is, I'm still trying to decide if I should show pics of the 1. empty apartment, 2. partially furnished apartment, or if I should just wait until we have 3. a little furniture (like a couch)... so if you'd like to make suggestions for me as to what you would like to see, please comment here so I can decide more quickly as for what to post. Ta!

Kangaroo! A real one.... <.< ....

And here it is! We've finally been able to get a picture of a real kangaroo and this big boy was up close and personal. We were on our way to the barbie, but instead of arriving early, we took a long walk around the block. The trip had mostly just afforded us the opportunity to see many parrots and ants (a ton of ants, big ones too, called Bull Ants). But as we rounded 3/4 of our trip, I saw what looked like a very large statue or carving in someone's front yard, so I kept walking.... then I noticed that it moved.... and there he was! Grabbing his evening tucker (meal/snack) in a residents lawn. We were able to cross the street and get about 20 metres from him to snap these off. Unfortunately, we didn't have the big camera and only had our cell phones, so these aren't the highest quality of images, but as you can see, he's a beautiful boy! While he was eating, he would occasionally slide his arms between his legs toward his tail... almost looked like he was stretching. Then he would place his arms on the ground and arch his back, then move his hind legs forward and move more upright as seen in the pics. We haven't seen any around Melbourne yet, but then again, we've mostly been right around the city. This place was in the more suburb area of Canberra. The people we were visiting confirmed that if you take a short drive about 3 blocks down, you could see so many of them. So apparantly this guy wanted a more secluded meal with a view (of the humans of course haha). Well, hope you've enjoyed! Ta for now!

Our trip to the Parliament Building

Well, we started our trip there on foot, however, Canberra which is a fairly dry climate just so happened to be receiving an out of season rain storm... Go figure! We started heading to the bridge, but the walk was so long and we weren't able to have the internet working before embarking on this trip, we ended up turning around and trying a "shorter" route. Because we were ignorant, we didn't quite get to note our surrounding areas from a map and this shorter route got us closer to the parliament building, but the walk to get there was not possible due to the large body of water surrounding it. So we essentially went the wrong way! Since we were already soaked and getting hungry, we decided to stop at the National Museum of Australia, which was right at the end of the path that we could walk on. We got a snack there and since we weren't going to make it to the Parliament building in a timely matter, we stayed there, it was free anyway!

This is quite a neat museum. www.nma.gov.au We found some great exhibits and some really neat facts about Australia. But one of the most touching exhibits was one about an Endling. An Endling is the last remaining creature of its species; the one that caught our attention was the Tasmanian Tiger. It is a sad tale about a species gone extinct. The Tasmanian Tiger is a marsupial (meaning it has a pouch). Both the male and female Tassie Tigers have a pouch, providing protection of male genitalia and a place for carrying & nursing young on the female. They resemble short-haired dogs, but have stripes (13-21 depending on the animal), that fade as the animal ages similar to a tiger, giving it it's name. They also have a tail similar to that of a Kangaroos. Tasmanian Tigers used to populate all of Australia (including the mainland), however the population dwindled on the mainland and was mostly known to exist on the isle of Tasmania (or VanDieman's Land). This beautiful creature is confirmed to have gone extinct in 1936 when the last one in captivity died at the Hobart Zoo. It is said that due to the introduction of Dingos, rampant bounties, and outbreak of disease caused the downfall of the Tassie Tiger. There are very few photographs of this creature and no recordings of its vocalisations (aussie spelling). There have been unconfirmed sightings of the Tasmanian Tiger throughout Australia since its "confirmed" extinction, but none have ever been supported by proof. The display that Del and I were able to see is quite sad, so we will not be displaying any photos, but if you are interested, you may view it at the following source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacine

On the bright side, it is now 5:18pm and the rain has finally stopped just in time for us to go to a barbeque haha! Our first Aussie Barbie. Too bad the rain couldn't stop for us to make it to Parliament! But in our travels, we did find some beautful birds. Parrots and Cockatoos apparantly fly free in New South Wales so I was able to capture some images of them. However, that will have to wait until after the barbie since I have to get ready now and we all know that I'm a slow-ass person when it comes to that. So take care and we'll still post some fun facts about Canberra and Parliament since we're here. Cheers!

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo (click to read about these birds)

Crimson Rosella (click to read)
Eastern Rosella (click to read)


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And We're "back in business"

Hey everyone! Just writing a quick hello and minor update... So as wonderful as he is, Del picked up a mobile internet connection for me to help cure by down under blues being here all alone all day with no one to talk to. So, before I go to bed tonight I'll jot down a few notes for everyone.

Del is keeping super busy at work getting things done and getting his new work computer working! We've been negotiating with the public transportation system and doing alright with it, but it does get expensive... $3.70 (that's three dollars seventy in Aussie lingo) for a 2-hour pass. We've cooked our first real meal here, it was all vege spicy corn quesadillas and a failed attempt at refried beans, I called them refried soybeans since they didn't have pinto beans at our supermarket. Of course, we had rice with it. Pretty good for a first attempt. Unfortunately, cheese out here is weird, it just has an odd under-taste in my opinion, but Del loves it. I've got 2 pics from our meal, I forgot to take it before I started eating, but it still looks good... I think.

We had a huge thunderstorm here yesterday, it was awesome! The thunder rumbles constantly and is like 95% thunder to 5% without... but right after lightning, the thunder gets really loud and shakes the whole flat. I saw a huge bolt that streaked from above the building all the way across the down to the horizon behind the city of Melbourne (pronounced Mel-bun here - the R is silent essentially). It was a nice storm until it rained inside for me... I forgot to close the kitchen window and the rain was blowing right at it, I had a huge puddle all the way to my fridge and the water leaked down into the cabinets, good thing we didn't have much food yet hahaha. The best was I had just finished mopping like 20 mins before the rain started. I went out to take a video and stopped filming just as the sky opened up a down pour on me, so I forgot in my photo efforts... and only one shot was worth it... the video. FAIL! But it was neat, I'll drop some photos on for that soon.

Our apartment is still a little spartan, we have a beanbag chair, a couple end tables and 2 ottomans. We're still sleeping on the mattress mat on the floor, but we'll be picking up our couch and bed soon, probably after our trip to Canberra this weekend. Those pics are also soon to come. OH and Canberra (pronounced Can-bra) is located in the state of New South Wales. Sydney is also located there. Sydney is the state capital and Canberra is capital of the country.

Well, this just got longer than I had intended, but anyway, I've left you guys with 2 pics of our first home-made meal in Australia. I've never used Cumin before, but it was an experience I'll never forget, and I'll pick up that smell forever.

Finishing thoughts, if you haven't already, sign up to follow our blog so you get the newest bloggie-dates and feel free to leave comments for any of our entries. We would definitely love to hear your thoughts (and thank you to anyone who already has, you rock!) and feelings about anything we write or show. We love and miss you all greatly! Ta!

Driving in Oz and our Rental Car - Slightly different from email!

***I added stuff to this version!!! Please read!***

Okay, here it is, what everyone has been waiting for.... okay, not really, but this is fun anyway! Here are the pics of our crappy ass rental car. It's called a Ford Falcon XR6. I have seen a ton of these on the road and they come in all sorts... hatchback, sport, big fat ass like ours, and even pickup/el camino style! So anyway, here's the deal with cars and driving here:

1. Everything is all wrong... on the wrong side, wrong system, bassackwards!
2. Always make sure your on the correct side of the road... LEFT!
3. Parking on the wrong side of the road
4. Parallel Parking on the wrong side of the road
5. Avoid narrow roads!
***6. Wipers are on the left side of the steering wheel
***7. Blinkers are on the right side of the steering wheel
8. Everything is listed in Kilometers
9. liquids are Liters
10. Trunk = Boot... no one knows what a trunk is
11. Hood = Bonnet
12. Gas = Petrol
13. Did I mention that everything is on the wrong side!!!
14. oh, but the only thing on the correct side are the pedals! Gas on the right, brake on the left! whew, that was a close one!

Both Del and I have had our mishaps with parking on the wrong side of the road... day one, we both managed to scrape the front tire off of the curb and with 20 minutes of each other too! Needless to say, we were both a little nervous to drive after that.

Buying petrol here is a little tricky. You think it looks cheap... oh look! 113.4¢ / litre (yes, -re not -er!)... don't let that shit fool you! 113.4 cents really equals $1.13 (the 4 is like our little 9 for gas). Oh and did I mention that there are roughly 3.8 gallons per litre!?!? That makes gas here about $4.31 per gallon!!! And that's a cheaper station, we've seen up to 123.4 (that's almost $4.70/gal)!

***A typical American thing to do is to turn on your wipers when you are about to make a turn... how funny is that... instead of your blinker, everyone knows you're a seppo because you just wiped your windscreen instead of signaling your turn! A fun way to cover it up is to actually squirt the juice on it and let it fly! Then signal <.< (that's my "you didn't see that" face). In a panic, Del and I still do that... it sucks because usually, you just bollixed something up and you try to correct it by signalling (spelled the aussie way with 2 L's) the right way and then you just gave the tell... you're an american! DAMN IT ALL!

As for driving, after about 1 week, I've finally got it! I don't have to call out my turns before I make them anymore! I still haven't quite figured out a hook turn yet, nor am I perfect on a roundabout (I screw them up regularly or completely miss my turns), but I'm learning... too bad we return this hog of a car on sunday! But up until a few days ago, every time I turned you either heard me call out "Left-Left" or "Right-Left." This way, I didn't turn into oncoming traffic!!! Oh, and I can finally parallel park on the left side of the road and am getting better at pulling in between the lines in a parking lot hahaha.

What speed to drive at... everything is in KM/Hr. And speed limit signs don't say "speed limit" on them... they are a discrete white sign with a black number and a red circle... WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN! It took us a day to figure it out and then reading a book to confirm it.

Trams and Peds have right of way! Passing is called "Overtaking" and Yield = Give Way. There are about 50 different words for different types of streets here, many you'd know and some a little more obscure... here are a few: road, street, place, lane, parade, crescent, court, grove, avenue, close, drive, freeways, tollways, highways, lane, etc. There are many more, but I can't remember them all haha.

Well, I think I've said plenty about driving at this point, we'll have more fun with this sort of thing later... maybe public transportation or something else. Also, I'll share some stuff about local things too. But since we will be without internet after tomorrow, that may have to wait! If I can work on things offline and then have Del load them up, maybe that will work too.

Well, I guess I'll talk to you all later, I do hope to hear from some of you eventually to see how you are all doing. Please feel free to cc Del on any of your emails, I know he'd love to hear from everyone as well.

***P.S. Subscribe to our blog and then you can delete all those damn emails!!!!

Love you all!

Our Temp Flat

Hello once more! So, by popular demand, here are the pics of our temporary flat! I've labeled a few of them with some notes, but not too many. Hopefully this will be a nice walk through of where we are staying until tomorrow (saturday for us). This is called a bedsitter style flat, which pretty much means studio with separate kitchen and bath. We were gifted enough to have ours come with a dining area, a/c, and heat. It also came with a Television, but we found a nice one on sale so we figured, why let it go to waste and we set it up immediately! So, you'll notice in several pics, there is a grey standard tv on the floor behind the little table where the flat screen is... Anyway, this was a really nice place to stay, a little expensive and some minor confusions and issues, but very nice! Quiet too! Okay, well, with any luck, we'll take some pics tomorrow of our new flat and Del could upload them from his office tomorrow or sunday. We'll have to see how busy things are, otherwise, it might take until monday for everyone to see our new digs!

Alright alright, enough of my banter here it is, please be patient, there are quite a few pics....

P.S. took some pics of rental car... it's a Ford Falcon XR6... don't know what that is? Neither do I! I was told it is like a Taurus. Maybe I'll work on those next... we'll see... love you guys!

Good News / Bad News Bears

Hello All! So, I guess I'll start with the good news: So Del and I will be moving into our new flat tomorrow!!! Yay! We've already got a few things to put in it, but no real furniture yet, haha. We have a couch on Layby out here or Layaway as you might know it. We'll have our utilities all turned on for the weekend and we'll be so far set.

And now for some bad news... once we leave our temporary digs here, we will not have any internet at our home until our home phone is connected and we get our internet connected shortly thereafter. The worse news is that our phone won't be connected until the 19th! (well, the 18th for all of you). That means only Del will be able to send emails from work, which means you may not receive as many since he is quite busy there. We're so bummed about that! So no skyping until then and this may be our last message until then also. So sorry everyone! We miss you all so much!

And to finish on a good note... All the homes here have these little vents that go to the outside... I haven't quite figured out what they are for, but every apartment has them unless it is a "modern" flat... Let's think this through... is it to give bugs that get trapped inside an easy way to find out since there is one like every 10 feet in every room that connects to an exterior wall? (quite possible, but an unlikely reason for it) To prevent your walls from getting knocked out when there is a strong wind? (hmm) Peeping toms? o.O (that's a shocked/confused face) Natural Ventilation? (maybe) To let wasps build a home in your walls so that they can have equal opportunity to live and have easy access you when they feel rowdy enough to torment you (you know, a short walk to local entertainment)? (also a possibility)

Answer: After much research, I found that they are added to regulate humidity throughout a house. Since usually the indoor humidity is higher due to cooking, bathing and such, the vents help regulate some of that humidity outdoors since it is typically less humid outside than in. This in turn has the possibility of decreasing the number of molds and bacteria that may develop within the home. Now of course, this has disadvantages when there is no wind, or if there is too much wind it could become drafty or too cold on chilly days. But, it has a purpose, right! It's not just for bugs!!!

Okay, I'm done, thanks for learning with me! Hope you got to enjoy this a little. We miss you all and can't wait until we can chat again! Bye for now!

G'd Evenin' Mates!

Hello! For most of you it's after 6pm on wednesday and a few about 3pm, but here it's after 10am on thursday. Del and I have been keeping quite busy these past few days. We've finally found an apartment (which I will give an address shortly), Del is working, and I've been trying to get things done. I've spent several days filling out apps and printing like crazy to make sure we have everything we need for each apartment before we go to inspect... then out of no where, after finishing my 3 apps for wednesday, I get a phone call telling me we we're approved for a flat... hooray, but all that work lol! Del has been rushing from meeting to training meeting at work and keeping very busy there meeting people and trying to get stuff to compile (sorry, wish I could've said that right, but I don't remember the correct word right now). Driving here is getting better everyday, but still quite confusing at times. The worst is our "for dummies" gps.... I hate that thing, you can't program it while the car is moving, it only tells you streets by road number (i.e. sydney road is 31, but everyone on this continent calls it sydney road, how annoying... even more challenging when you constantly mix up numbers), oh and sometimes it forgets to mention the turn until you've already passed it, then you hear the inevitable "recalculating" in a slightly aussie voice. Roundabouts are still troublesome for me, I keep forgetting that the people coming from the right, have the right of way and then I mix up how to get to certain "exits" from them, so I frequently take the wrong one. Oh well! (should be simple, right?) So, our new flat, will have 2 bedrooms with mirrored closets in each, a small bathroom, a little courtyard (which we are responsible for gardening and upkeep... ugh), comes with a washer (located right where a dishwasher should be), electric stove and oven, hardwood floors in the living room & kitchen, carpet in the bedrooms, and an electric heater in the living room. Here is the link to our apartment, it may only work for another day, but should be down before the weekend. We move in Saturday. http://www.run.com.au/search/property.html?p=PR1037789 We'll send pics upon moving in this weekend. But in the meantime, here is our mailing address: **Please check your email for this information!** * is our apartment number, and ** is our street address, but they are written with a / between the 2 for easy identification of flat #. We are hoping to have our internet connected there soon so that we may skype. But we'll have to see, since I have to look into good plans for us and then get all connected and such. Well, I've gotta get going, but before I write my closing here is a little laugh for the day: Napkins at a restaurant are called "serviettes." Napkins in Australia = Sanitary Napkins or pads! So, if you spill something, ask for a serviette, not a pad lol... and if it's the wrong time of the month, better pack a napkin in your purse lol. And a little piece of Australia to take with: this is called a Magpie-Lark. I spied him on my way home from the market, so snapped some pics for everyone. He's cute, but territorial, he actually flared his wings at me after he approached me lol! Here's a link if you want to read about him (and yes, this one is a boy)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie-Lark

Love and Miss you all so much! Take care!

Hello from Down Under!

Hi!!!! Just wanted to say hello and to share some info with everyone. Del and I have finally gotten our cell phones out here, so, if you ever need to call, incoming calls are free on these phones. It's just good to have in case of emergency, right?!?! **Check your email for those numbers again please**

So, now that we've gotten that out of the way, here's a quick update on things. We've looked at several apartments here, some of them leave a little to be desired, but none that we just absolutely could not live in. Driving here is proving to be quite the challenge... I mean, wrong side of the road and wrong side of the car! But, we're getting the hang of it well enough. I have to learn how to spell my name in Australian... H's are pronounced "hay-ch" if you don't say it that way, people think you're saying "itch." Kind of funny and a little tough to adapt to since in the US that just sounds like bad grammar or something. Things are a little more expensive, but most noticeable is bottled beverages....... almost $4 for for a flavored drink or juice, about $3.50 for a bottle of coke. Otherwise, things are about as expensive as San Francisco with the exception of electronics (way overpriced). Overall, we're having fun and getting settled in. I'll write again when I get to be on the internet again lol! We've got a limited amount of bandwidth in our temp digs, so we can skype whenever we get our own! Oh, and I'm going to work on getting that little blog up for everyone soon (yay, it's up), then you can share in our mini-adventures here... if interested. We love and miss you all so much!!!! Bye for now!