Australia Day - 26th Jan 2007 and other news

Another beautiful day in sunny Australia. Very warm today, maybe hitting 32 - 34, clear blue skies - just about perfect.
Today is Australia day and we have been very busy. Firstly we got up at 7 and I took the dog for a walk, typically I got 100mtrs up the road and someone stopped and talked to me (yes, people actually talk to strangers here), lovely old bloke who told me his life story, 15 minutes later I continued to walk the dog. As I was leaving him he said he was glad people like me were coming to Australia and embracing the life, he also commented that I would make a good Australian. Why can't people in the UK be so friendly? I don't suppose I'll ever know that one!!

We then went to Buderim (a small town 10 minutes away) where they had a parade through the main street (floats etc) the a carnival type thing in the local school field. It was really good and they had the dog obediance class doing an exibition, I told Sam that it would be her next year with our dog doing all the tricks.

After Buderim we went to an expats meet down in Mooloolaba, there were quite a few people there with some we knew already and some new people we met. We ended up having 2 seperate meet ups as we wasn't sure where we should have met. All of the people we met were very nice and Sam has arranged to meet up with some of the women for coffee (is she ever going to get a job?)

In a minute we are going to our friends (Sarah and Alistair) who are having a sausage sizzle (sausages on the barbie then eaten on normal bread folded over). This is to celebrate their citizenship ceremony that they had today. They've been here 3 years now and are officially true blue aussies. We are planning on having our ceremonies 2 years from today.

It's been a great day with great weather and great new people we are meeting.

I wish that we had come here years ago, we'll just have to make up for lost time now we are here!!

We are also joining the local surf life saving club (Alexandra Headland), Sam and David are already good swimmers but we are all having lessons in the local public pool starting on the 29th Jan. I need to get my confidence in the water sorted and Sam and David need improvements on their strokes. The life saving club provides loads of free training including first aid and our bronze medalions which will allow us to be life savers on the beach. I'll be posting pictures once we get our uniforms - I reckon I'll look a bit like David Hasselhof (but better looking)

Another activity Sam and I are doing is joing the volunteer coast guard, this is a really important service in the community and we are looking forward to it. I'm not sure if I'll go out in the rescue boat but I'll certainly be helping out somewhere.

I start a new job on Monday at a local company called Pro Computers, not sure how long I'll stick it for because I want to get my own business up and running. I've started advertising and I've had 5000 leaflets printed, Sam and I have delivered a 1000 on the estate we live and the others are being distributed this weekend by a local company. The new job will be alright for a while and they are providing a car so at least Sam will have our car during the day so she can meet all her new friends!!

That's about it for now, if anyone reading this wants to let us know what they have been up to then we'd love to hear from you. Email us at kevin@isolveit.com.au.

Bye for now

Noosa

Today Sam and I went to Noosa for a couple of hours. Noosa is a tourist town about 30Kms north of where we live. We have been once before but I wasn't impressed, we spent that time looking around poncy designer shops!


This time we went to the Noosa spit, it is a national park and it is really lovely. As all the beaches around here it was spotlessy clean and the sea was gorgeous :-)) note the colour of the sea


Here is a picture of the local wildlife, pretty much par for the course in sunny OZ :-))


Surfing is really popular in Noosa, this girl was really good


This bloke looked OK as well!!

It's kinda cool living in paradise, I don't think there is anywhere else we'd like to live. The only problem we have is where do we now go on holiday? we have everything we need on our doorstep!!

New addition to our family :-))

We now have a new addition to our family - before you panic it is not a baby!!

We have bought a puppy (12 weeks old), we can't pick her up until next Saturday (13th Jan) because she's just had her innoculations but we are all looking forward to her coming home. We bought her from the local animal refuge, we thought this was a lot nicer than buying from a pet shop where they are on display in the window until they are sold :-((

Our new dog's name is 'Wish' and we will be taken her to obedience classes and lots and lots of walks down on the beach, down the river, along all the tracks around where we live and anywhere else we go.