We will be moving into a permanent apartment (actually, 1/3 of a triplex) this weekend! I'll get pictures up once we get the keys. This weekend will be busy - refridgerators are not included with rental units, so we need to buy one and figure out how to get it there.
Nate's on a field trip today. Collecting out at Mt. Glorious out of town. I stayed at home and watched the Phillies finish off the Rays.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Qantas Sale on Tickets
Qantas is having a big sale on tickets from the States.
Round trip ticket prices:
LA to Brisbane for $760
JFK to Brisbane for $960
Newark to Brisbane for $1050
Check out their site for more details.
Round trip ticket prices:
LA to Brisbane for $760
JFK to Brisbane for $960
Newark to Brisbane for $1050
Check out their site for more details.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Some pictures from our first few days in Brisbane.
Taken from the plane. The sun rising over the Pacific as we approach Australia.
After all of the warnings we got about choosing our words carefully (see the bottom of the entry), we saw this street sign while looking for an apartment!
The jacarandas are in full bloom all around the city and are absolutely gorgeous! This is on the University of Queensland campus.
The gash on Nate's scalp from the dive-bombing magpie! We have since learned that these attacks are common during nesting season and have even seen warning signs up around town!
Carrie and Jon's house on the hill and right on the edge of Brisbane Forest Park.
The view of the city (it's way out there) from their porch and a cage of guinea pigs out front.
We got caught in a rainstorm on the way home from the supermarket yesterday. We got home pretty soaked, but the rainbow sure was pretty.
Safe and sound on our balcony. The baby has been making quite a ruckus lately. Lots of big kicks into my ribs. Just about 8 weeks to go until Baby Hardy makes his (or her) debut!Some pictures from our last few days in Davis.
Our room in Tara's apartment. Nate burns calories while waiting for the Bruce the Mover to show up. Note his new glasses.
The truck the moving company sent to load up our 5 cubic meters of stuff.
Bocce Ball Bon Voyage Party at the winery!
Girls' Night at Woodstock's (crashed by two boys who couldn't keep themselves away from us). Me, Tara, Nate, Eddie, Lisa and Fran.
Our super snuggle kitties the last day in their crib before moving in with my sister Becky.
About to get on the plane in San Francisco!Monday, October 20, 2008
we're here!
Sorry it's been so long with an update. Things moved pretty quickly once we got visa approval. Let me see if I can sum up the past couple of weeks...
We moved out of our apartment and in with Tara. She was so wonderful to give up her bedroom for a week! Thanks Tara!
After the movers showed up on Friday the 10th, we stayed with Eddie and Lisa (and their rascally kitties) for two nights. The movers took our mattress, so we needed to crash on their futon.
Then we went to my sister Becky's in Palo Alto for Sunday night to watch football and hang out with our kitties one last time. My parents came up from Kingsburg on Monday to have a bon voyage lunch and give us a few more hugs.
We got on the plane Monday night and landed in Oz Wednesday morning. Nate's boss Shaun was there to pick us up at the Brisbane Airport. After a quick stop off at Nate's new office (to drop off about 200 microscope slides), Shaun dropped us off at our temporary digs.
Our temp. apartment is within walking distance of an enormous mall (the public library is a floor above a gym) where we got cell phones, set up a bank account and went grocery shopping at Woolworths (not at all like the U.S. Woolworths). That first night there was a fantastic storm. We turned down the lights and watched the lightning from the balcony.
Thursday through Saturday we spent getting acquainted with our new city! We rode around on the public train for a while, trying to figure out the best place to get our apartment. We looked at a couple of places, but neither of them seemed quite right, so the search continues.
[While walking through a park on Saturday, Nate was dive-bombed by a magpie! It left a gash on his scalp and we quickened our pace to get out of there. I thought the bird was going for Nate's shiny new glasses, but we learned that it's mating season and that's just what the magpies do! We'll be sure to carry a tennis racket the next time we go for any park walks...]
Yesterday (Sunday) we were invited up for lunch and a bush walk by a new colleague of Nate's - Carrie. She lives up in the hills west of town in a spectacular little house with an amazing view of the city. She and her partner, Jon, have two kitties ('hairy beasts' as Carrie referred to them), a pen full of 'chooks' (chickens) and three or four pens full of guinea pigs (they sell them to the vet store in town). I held a couple of two week old babies and we heard the whole tribe oinking and squeaking ('cuy! cuy!') at dinnertime.
It was great to take a day off from walking around the city to walk around the bush. Carrie and Jon are great and were so gracious to host us. Carrie is a British expat and Jon has lived in this area for nearly his whole life. They answered a lot of our questions and offered advice and suggestions about places to live and visit and contacts for doctors and hospitals for the impending arrival of the baby.
We finished up the night by driving up to Mt. Coot-tha for ice cream and to watch the sun set. A perfect end to a perfect day.
Nate went into work this morning and I trekked over to the public library (not the one in the mall - the nice big new one in Brisbane CBD) to use the free internet.
Australia is kind of like bizarro America. Things look pretty similar, but they're not quite the same. Burger King is called Hungry Jack's and a value meal costs $7. They are constantly showing reruns of Two and a Half Men and the only American news we get is Fox News.
That's all for now. Got to get on finding a place to live so we can set up our little nest. I promise to update more frequently (and with pictures). Thanks for all of the calls and visits in our last couple of weeks in the States!
We moved out of our apartment and in with Tara. She was so wonderful to give up her bedroom for a week! Thanks Tara!
After the movers showed up on Friday the 10th, we stayed with Eddie and Lisa (and their rascally kitties) for two nights. The movers took our mattress, so we needed to crash on their futon.
Then we went to my sister Becky's in Palo Alto for Sunday night to watch football and hang out with our kitties one last time. My parents came up from Kingsburg on Monday to have a bon voyage lunch and give us a few more hugs.
We got on the plane Monday night and landed in Oz Wednesday morning. Nate's boss Shaun was there to pick us up at the Brisbane Airport. After a quick stop off at Nate's new office (to drop off about 200 microscope slides), Shaun dropped us off at our temporary digs.
Our temp. apartment is within walking distance of an enormous mall (the public library is a floor above a gym) where we got cell phones, set up a bank account and went grocery shopping at Woolworths (not at all like the U.S. Woolworths). That first night there was a fantastic storm. We turned down the lights and watched the lightning from the balcony.
Thursday through Saturday we spent getting acquainted with our new city! We rode around on the public train for a while, trying to figure out the best place to get our apartment. We looked at a couple of places, but neither of them seemed quite right, so the search continues.
[While walking through a park on Saturday, Nate was dive-bombed by a magpie! It left a gash on his scalp and we quickened our pace to get out of there. I thought the bird was going for Nate's shiny new glasses, but we learned that it's mating season and that's just what the magpies do! We'll be sure to carry a tennis racket the next time we go for any park walks...]
Yesterday (Sunday) we were invited up for lunch and a bush walk by a new colleague of Nate's - Carrie. She lives up in the hills west of town in a spectacular little house with an amazing view of the city. She and her partner, Jon, have two kitties ('hairy beasts' as Carrie referred to them), a pen full of 'chooks' (chickens) and three or four pens full of guinea pigs (they sell them to the vet store in town). I held a couple of two week old babies and we heard the whole tribe oinking and squeaking ('cuy! cuy!') at dinnertime.
It was great to take a day off from walking around the city to walk around the bush. Carrie and Jon are great and were so gracious to host us. Carrie is a British expat and Jon has lived in this area for nearly his whole life. They answered a lot of our questions and offered advice and suggestions about places to live and visit and contacts for doctors and hospitals for the impending arrival of the baby.
We finished up the night by driving up to Mt. Coot-tha for ice cream and to watch the sun set. A perfect end to a perfect day.
Nate went into work this morning and I trekked over to the public library (not the one in the mall - the nice big new one in Brisbane CBD) to use the free internet.
Australia is kind of like bizarro America. Things look pretty similar, but they're not quite the same. Burger King is called Hungry Jack's and a value meal costs $7. They are constantly showing reruns of Two and a Half Men and the only American news we get is Fox News.
That's all for now. Got to get on finding a place to live so we can set up our little nest. I promise to update more frequently (and with pictures). Thanks for all of the calls and visits in our last couple of weeks in the States!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
plane tickets purchased!
We booked our tickets this morning. It's a go, people! We are leaving the country the evening of October 13th, less than two weeks from now.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
moving date scheduled!
Just heard from the movers! They are coming to pick up our things on October 10!!!
We will buy our plane tickets tonight or tomorrow -- probably leaving on Monday the 13th because our bed will be on its way to Brisbane. Nate's boss here has organized a going away party for the 11th (bocce ball and picnicking at a nice winery) and I guess we'll probably stay with my sister Becky that next night so she can take us to the airport.
Nate's employers are arranging temporary living arrangements for us when we get there! Yes! One less thing to worry about!
(In case you were wondering, the move into Tara's place went off without a hitch. The old apartment has been cleaned and prettied up and now I just have to do one final sort through our things before my mom visits this weekend.)
We will buy our plane tickets tonight or tomorrow -- probably leaving on Monday the 13th because our bed will be on its way to Brisbane. Nate's boss here has organized a going away party for the 11th (bocce ball and picnicking at a nice winery) and I guess we'll probably stay with my sister Becky that next night so she can take us to the airport.
Nate's employers are arranging temporary living arrangements for us when we get there! Yes! One less thing to worry about!
(In case you were wondering, the move into Tara's place went off without a hitch. The old apartment has been cleaned and prettied up and now I just have to do one final sort through our things before my mom visits this weekend.)
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