Merry Chrissy

We wish you a ripper Christmas
A full-bore ripper Christmas
A dead-set ripper Christmas
And a snappy New Year
May the kids have a hoot
May the pressies be beaut
From the big-bellied fella
In the red and white suit
Send cards through the post
Have a big Christmas roast
Then hitch up the caravan
And shoot down the coast
Great pressies we bring
All wrapped up with string
They're not very expensive
But they're interesting.
~ Fair Dinkum Aussie Christmas, Bucko & Champs and Kilmeny Niland, 2007

That's a little sample of Australian seasonal celebrations, which we used to work into a feeling of Christmas. Not quite as easy as snow and mistletoe but we are making do with the help of the friendly locals. We have finally a spare moment to reflect on the year coming quickly to a close.

2007 was a great year for us, filled with lots of visits and time spent with family and friends. Both Sean and I are bad for keeping in touch, but for those of you we haven’t connected with or talked to lately, rest assured you are thought of often. Being down under this Christmas and away from all our family and friends has made us realize how special friends and family are. We have been thinking about all of you and miss being able to spend time with you over the holidays.

Christmas eve we treated ourselves to a pleasant dinner out at one of the local restaurants. The rest of the evening was spent quietly at home preparing for the arrival of Santa Claus. According to the NORAD site, Santa’s first stop is New Zealand as his worldwide journey begins. One benefit of being Down Under is we’re second! About 18 hours later, he makes it over Manitoba. Aiden hung the stockings with care, laid out a number of gingerbread cookies we cooked earlier on in the day and also added a couple of carrots for the 8 great boomers that would be pulling Santa’s sleigh.

Christmas morning Aiden was pretty excited and was still riding the wave days later. Christmas day was cool by Australian standards, + 25°. We had a nice day with a local family, Di and Graham Parkes, who invited us over to share in their celebrations and had fun seeing the Aussie side of Christmas.

An appetizer of prawns and bread with malt vinegar and oil dip followed by the main course of crisped pork and chicken, Mediterranean crepes, roasted potatoes, steamed veggies fresh from the garden and bonbons. To top it off dessert was a chocolate roll with whip cream and covered in strawberries, raspberries and boysenberries served with awesome homemade strawberry ice cream. Delicious!

A nice walk in the afternoon with kangaroos, a koala and echidna were also nice, but it is sure a different kind of Christmas. Roo did her best this year to keep scrooge Sean at a minimum and Aiden and her did a wonderful job of decorating the tree and baking gingerbread. She was a bit lost without chocolate making this year or working for that matter, but she has been keeping busy wowing the locals with her creative talents. Here's hoping that you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and year full of fun adventure in 2008.

Christmas Spirit

Wow, where has December gone? It just seems like yesterday I started this blog and here it is already December 21st. Christmas events are in full swing and the calendar is filling up.

We have had many discussions on how we are going to celebrate Christmas without family to celebrate with. This year was the year to be at my parents place. We will be having a much quieter Christmas here without 5 boys and 1 little girl all under the age of 8 running around. We will definitely miss all the commotion, excitement and company of family but will not be missing the drive. The plan is to keep it simple.

As December approached, we were trying to figure out where one goes to see Santa. Aiden expressed concern about Santa finding him and was hoping to sit on his lap and let him know where he is so that he doesn’t get missed. Also hoping for a photo or two. We searched the local paper to see if it gave Santa’s schedule for the weeks that lead up to Christmas but did not see anything. We decided to check with the locals to find out what the big guy is up to in the next little while.

It appears that around here, sitting on Santa’s lap is not that big of a deal. When I inquired with a few of the local mom’s, they said the closest one that they knew of was in Horsham, about an hour North. This could be partially due to the fact that there are not any malls around. The two closest towns have a downtown-shopping district.

So last weekend we were lucky enough to finally track down the big guy. It is amazing with his busy schedule and all that he will be at the mall in Horsham for a few days. We paid our $9, Aiden sat on his lap, told Santa what he wanted for Christmas and a picture was taken. Took all of about 5 minutes but Aiden left with a big grin on his face and was set for the rest of the day. Sean and Aiden checked out the Horsham pool while I frantically finished the Christmas shopping.

Christmas is in full swing in the stores. Christmas carols playing, Christmas wrap and cards everywhere, toys out front and centre and extended shopping hours. A couple of weeks ago, we went into Ararat and arrived about 12:30 and stopped for lunch, then headed out to do our shopping. Sean headed to the local bike shop and Aiden and I to the local department store. Sean was quick to return. It seems that most of the small shops that are family run close at noon. Makes sense – this way they are able to spend some of the weekend together as a family. We were fortunate enough to find a few larger stores that did not only rely solely on family members and bought the items on our list.

Aiden asked what we were going to do about a Christmas tree since there were no spruce trees around. We teased him that we would go and find a gum tree to bring into the house and decorate it. We don’t actually live right in the Park so there should be no worries cutting down one! Aiden thought maybe a cactus would do the trick, one like Grandma Kay decorated for our Christmas celebration before we left. Sean said he didn't really think we needed one. Both Aiden and I vetoed him so after splurging and spending $12, we are now the happy owners of a 120 cm fake Christmas tree.

Aiden and I have been busy making all sorts of decorations for our tree. Our tree is a mix of traditional and non-traditional decorations consisting of popcorn strung on a string, paper loop chains, paper trees and snowflakes, candy canes (paper and real), bows made from ribbon, smiley faces, flowers, animals, pretty much anything that Aiden has drawn or made in the past two weeks is now hanging on our tree. Aiden is insisting that it has to sparkle more, the glitter on the decorations don’t appear to be enough, so we broke down and bought a small string of lights. It is a very pretty tree. I must say perhaps the prettiest one we have ever had.

Since we made the journey up to Horsham to catch a glimpse of the big guy, we have found out that he is making an appearance in Halls Gap. Last night was Aiden’s end-of-year school concert and he showed up there after a stellar performance by all the kids. The concert was “Spiderella”, a musical bug play based on the classic story of Cinderella. Spiderella had four wicked ladybug stepsisters who tried to prevent her from going to the Christmas Beetle Princes’ ball. The fairy god moths came to her rescue and provided her with a lovely outfit and a carriage drawn by four flying ants, and off to the ball she went. After a special evening of dancing with the handsome cricket, the rolly polly bug and all the little dung beetles, Spiderella ran off at the stroke of midnight, loosing her 8 glass slippers in her haste. It was all good in the end with the prince tracking her down with the slippers and they all had a very merry Christmas. It was an excellent play; the teachers and students put a huge amount of time and effort into it and the kids put on a fantastic performance.

With the hustle and bustle, not to mention the 30-degree weather of late, it has felt more like mid summer than Christmas in many ways. But the spirit of Christmas has shone through with the smell of fresh gingerbread, Christmas carols, and the excitement running through the kids, and we have now all been infected. We hope that all our family and friends are sharing this feeling and the warmth of it is overpowering the winter storms we are reading about. Rain and wet weather has driven the temperature down here the last few days, but we can’t complain about low teen temperatures. The rain has allowed the cancellation of fire standby giving people here more freedom and time with their families, which is a luxury they haven’t had the last few years with the busy fire seasons.

Season’s greetings to all and may 2008 bring much happiness, adventure and fun to you and your family.

The Wild Side - Killer Koalas

Fierce sharks, ferocious lions, monstrous hippos, but the most terrifying was the killer koalas. The past few days we have seen it all.

Aiden and I were lucky enough (Aiden considered himself extremely lucky because he got to miss three days of school) to be able to accompany Sean into Melbourne for his Parks Victoria Ranger induction. Our plan was to take in some sightseeing around central Melbourne. Melbourne is built up around the Yarra River and a number of its tourist attractions are located around its central core. Aiden and I made a deal before going that as long as he gave me an hour or so of wandering through the Queen Victoria market, he could decide where we went the rest of the time.

On the top of Aiden’s list was the Aquarium, so that was the first thing we hit when we arrived. I must say it was a stressful adventure trying to figure out public transportation in an unfamiliar city, with a five year old in tow, but it was well worth the effort. The Melbourne Aquarium boasts that it has Australia’s largest fish bowl. On the lowest level there is an Oceanarium that is a vast underwater world, where huge Grey Nurse and  Sevengill Sharks along with a number of Stingrays and many other fish species swim around you. We were lucky enough to see the divers in the tank feeding the sharks and stingrays. Aiden was impressed although a little intimidated by the sharks and stingrays as they swam overhead in the tunnel sections. Besides the sharks his favourite part was looking at all the amazing and strange aquatic animals in the coral reef tank. He was thrilled to see clown fish.

The second day was lower key and we ended up walking to the Queen Victoria market in the morning and spending the afternoon at the hotel pool. Aiden did extremely well both days. The Queen Victoria market is a huge market that has been around for over a century and has almost 1000 traders selling everything from fruits and  vegetables, meat and gourmet food to hardware, clothing, jewelry and souvenirs.

Sean took the Friday off and we stayed in Melbourne Thursday night and met up with some friends, Joe and Tina, we made back in 1995 when we went to Europe. We picked up pizza and had a picnic in the Carlton Gardens where Aiden and their two boys, Joshua (9) and Anthony (6) had a great time kicking a ball around and playing on the playground.

Friday we went to the Werribee Open Range Zoo where we saw hippos, lions, giraffes, zebras and rhinos to name a few while on the safari tour. It was nice to be able to see the animals roaming out in the open rather then penned up in cages. The hippos were fabulous; there was a pair of them and they gave us quite a show.

After spending the afternoon at the zoo we headed to Anglesea, a town along the Great Ocean Road. Another one of the Canadian exchangees, Scott, lives there and we spent two nights at his place. We pretty much spent Saturday hanging out on one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen and Sunday we headed for home along the Great Ocean Road. On Sunday we actually saw koalas in the wild. That was pretty neat.

In 1993 when we were camping near Wilson’s Prom we had an interesting chat with the locals about Canadian and Australian stereotyping. Canadians are generalized as mushing their sled dogs to work and living in igloos and Australians ride kangaroos. To mix things up a bit they told us that it was a favourite Aussie pastime to tell tourists about the killer koalas. Their sharp dagger like claws were effective tools for shredding naïve people standing below them using their slow movements as a ploy to lure people in thinking that they are just cute cuddly animals. The drop bears then use their elevated position to their advantage when launching their attack. The truth of it being that koala bears really are just cute cuddly slow moving creatures with large claws to hang onto trees and the danger of standing beneath them relates more to raining fertilizer.

While we are exposing truth, perhaps we should fess up about the other dangerous wildlife in Australia. While Australians do suffer with some strange, exotic, dangerous creatures, they live longer on average than Canadians, only a couple of people a year die from snake bite (primarily drunken males), no one has died from a spider bite since the 70’s. Salt water crocodiles, sharks and box jelly fish kill way more people but combined it is a small fraction of the mortality due to bee sting, dog bite or any other less interesting risk in modern life. By far the most dangerous thing we will do here is drive.

Picking up your comfortable life and moving to a foreign country for this length of time creates a lot of unknowns and with that fear. It is pretty easy and seductive to slip into a safe life where nothing ever happens to us. Life is too short to squander that way. It was only when we realized that we were participating in this adventure and the fear set in, that we had been sliding down that slippery slope for a while. The healthy fear and excitement of this new world has already revitalized us in ways we couldn’t imagine. Our exploring spirit has been rekindled and life has more colour than ever before.



The meaning of life is simple really: make life meaningful. Or in scrapbooking terms, fill the pages with fun.

First Visitors

Last weekend, Nov. 24-25,  we had our first visitors from Canada. Lots of people have threatened to come visit but Jacques and Nathalie from Winnipeg were the first to deliver. We were actually a little surprised that they made it. We received an email on Monday saying that they would be arriving in Sydney on Wednesday morning and likely be at our place by late Friday afternoon. We thought that once they arrived in Australia they would realize how far away we were and decide to pare back their plans since they are only here for just over a week.

We should know better than to underestimate Jacques determination, low and behold, they were here for supper. We had an enjoyable meal and then took a short drive down towards the other end of town so they could get their first look at some kangaroos. We, like most of the people they had encountered, were flabbergasted that they hadn't spotted any yet in their travels. 40 or 50 roos later with a couple of emus to boot and they were kangaroo satiated. We also drove up to Boroka lookout to take in the view over Halls Gap.


They have set the bar high for visitors as they came bearing many gifts including hand made maple syrup, crab apple jelly and an assortment of treats they picked up along their travels. We had just been talking about missing good syrup, as all they seem to have here is corn syrup. We went to work on the syrup promptly the next morning over French toast before heading out for a day of exploring the Grampians. Since arriving, this has been Ruth and Aiden's first real chance to get out into the park. Our first stop was Reed Lookout. This gave us a magnificent view of the Victoria valley and in Aiden's top of the world pose you can see Wartook Lake and the Mt. Difficult Ranges. We walked up a little ways to the fire tower lookout and watched a police squad specializing in rescues, practice their climbing skills.

From there we headed to McKenzie falls. We walked to the lookout spot and had a nice view of the falls. When we arrived back at the Kiosk, Jacques and Natalie treated us to some lunch at the concession. We've found that mutton is more popular than beef in many products and Roo and Aiden have been trying to adapt to the new flavours. After a relaxing lunch we headed down the trail that took us to the base of the falls. It was quite a steep walk but was paved and had steps. The tough part was walking back up in the heat. The falls were quite pretty but not much water running over them. Aiden took off his socks and shoes and dipped is toes in the water while Sean, Jacques and Natalie searched for a geocache. Once it was found and signed, we made our journey back up to the top. Aiden made it most of the way on is own steam but had a meltdown about 100 m from the kiosk.


We next headed to the Wartook valley, where one of the park employees, Allan and his wife Victoria, run a wildlife rehabilitation centre. They had a baby tawny frogmouth there that Aiden was able to feed. We also saw

a kangaroo, named Peg, that we were able to pet. Also while we were there, Victoria brought in an 8 month old wallaby for feeding. We were able to watch the baby drink a bottle and then hop around the living room for a little bit before being tucked into a pillow case for a nap. We also learned a lot about kangaroos as Victoria had a video of a kangaroo being born and climbing up into her mother's pouch. They have three teats in their pouch and each joey has a specific teat they use. The joeys stay with their mom for 18 months so there is overlap between young of the year and young of last year and so the quality of milk is regulated to each teat based on the age of the young. Apparently from one mating, kangaroos can have three viable fertilized embryos with delayed implantation, and by regulating the temperature females can choose the sex of their young, often having a few females before bothering with any males. This of course explains why the big males are so protective of their harems as they don't necessarily get a lot of action.

Our next stop was Zumstein picnic area. We stopped and had a snack before going in search of Jacques 1600th geocache. It was up a hill on the other side of the road from the picnic site. Aiden was happy as there were toys to trade. There was a cool little lizard guarding the cache.


Sunday we headed out to see part of the Great Ocean Road. It was supposed to be a hotter day, a good day for the beach we thought, but once we reached the coast, there was cloud cover. We headed south through the Grampians to Dunkeld coming within a few metres of three black swamp wallabies (they are hard to see until you are right on top of them). Aiden had fallen asleep so we stopped at an old volcano called Rouse Mountain for a geocache. We had lunch by the ocean in Warrnambool. We took a picnic lunch and found a neat area near the breakwater. It was a fantastic lunch spot with the waves crashing over the
rocks. From there we carried on down to Great Ocean road. Stopped in at a number of the sites, including London Bridge. We finally found a beach at Port Campbell and ended up spending a good hour or two there playing in the sand and waves. Jacques and Aiden built a large sandcastle which they reinforced against the rising tide. None of us braved the cold water and went for a swim but Aiden might of well have since he was pretty much wet from head to toe. Some surfers were not put off by the temperature and were taking advantage of the the breaking surf out beyond the breakwater.

Walked across the street and had fish and chips for supper. After supper we said our goodbyes to Jacques and Nathalie. It was great to share the excitement of being in Australia with some other people and talk about all the similarities and differences in environment, culture and landscapes. They continued east along the Great Ocean road and we headed for home. It seemed like we took every little back road there was but in the end it was the shortest route home. Thanks Jacques and Nathalie for the adventures.

Freedom!!

Ahhh, driving in a foreign country! Can I wrap my brain around the concept of driving on the opposite side of the road? Translations? rotations? reflections?? I am a Math and Physics teacher for goodness sakes, it shouldn’t be that difficult ;-)

Sean was thrown into the thick of things only a few days after we arrived and purchased our car, a 1991 Mitsubishi Lancer, in Melbourne. There is nothing like learning the ropes as you pull onto a freeway with three lanes of traffic in each direction and Semis everywhere. Not to mention the tricky hook turns that Melbourne has to avoid collision with the trams. Of course he had no choice in the matter because there was no way I was getting behind the wheel in Melbourne. Sean did a beautiful job of getting us out of Melbourne and to Halls Gap safely. He has taken to driving on the opposite side quite naturally. He still has the occasional cleaning of the windshield with the wiper as we turn a corner and he has also become quite the gentleman, often opening my door for me (before realizing he needs to be on the other side if he is going to drive).

I, on the other hand, took a few days longer, perhaps because I like to analyse things a bit before I jump in, make sure I have my brain wrapped around the idea of where I am supposed to be. A couple days after arriving at the Gap I took the plunge.

Driving around Halls Gap turned out to be very easy. Not sure what the fuss was all about. Halls Gap mainly consists of one main street that runs mostly North-South. The first time out I think I consistently said to my self “ next to the center line”. Seemed to work well. Aiden was given a stern talking to before we left that there was to be no talking, no questions, no whining or fussing while I was driving. With in a few days, driving around Halls Gap was a snap. The thought of shopping had me thinking about venturing further afield. I was a bit hesitant to head into any of the nearby towns. It is one thing to drive up and down the main drag in the Gap with the odd detour to Aiden's school, quite another to venture into town and not have a clue where one is going.

About a week and a half after arriving, the need to go into the bank as well as buy some food and the desire to check out some of the shops had me heading to Stawell and then into Ararat. Stawell was not so worrisome since I had been in with Sean twice before and was somewhat familiar with the layout. Ararat was a little bit different of a story. I took the Western Highway from Stawell to Ararat. Australian roads are very narrow, and often there are no shoulders. As I approached Ararat the stress level increased with the amount of traffic on the highway and the number of semis that appeared to be riding my tailgate. Once off the highway, things settled down a little until I realized that I had no idea where I was going. That was easily fixed by pulling over on a side street and consulting the map I had pulled off the Internet before heading out (yeah, I know it is a foreign concept to some of you males out there, but it actually worked). Driving in the city was quite different then what I had experienced so far, definitely more taxing on the brain. Every intersection gave me pause for thought and a second look before pulling out. Round abouts or traffic circles are commonly used here in Australia. They are very efficient but also cause me to have to stop and think about how the traffic is entering and exiting the circle. Luckily I did not have to do much driving around Ararat since the shopping is located mainly in one district.

Heading back home I stayed off the highway and took the more common route for locals, through the town of Pomonal. This road was definitely quieter but I became very aware as I went around some corners on the mountainside that there are no guardrails. Wildlife is much more difficult to see here, bushes and grasses are not trimmed back and come right up to the roads edge. The kangaroos and wallabies are similar to the deer at home. They are mainly seen around dusk and dawn but can be out at anytime. There are even a lot of large trees within a meter of the road. The main roads to the towns around here are fairly straight and little elevation change.

I have yet to tackle the roads throughout the park. They twist and turn, mostly climb up and down the mountain side with steep gullies on one side or the other, are very narrow, and have a 100 speed limit to top it off. There are a number of beautiful trails up in those mountains that will provide enough motivation for me to take the next step and conquer the park roads soon.

It is amazing how much freedom one gains when you are able to drive places. It is starting to feel quite natural to drive on the opposite side. Only the odd hesitation occurs now, but watch out when we get home, you may want to give us a wide berth.

Thanks Jacques and Nathalie for the Kangaroo and Koala sign pictures. I haven't yet mastered driving and taking pictures at the same time.

Kookaburras to Cockatoos

One of the amazing things about living in Australia is all the colourful bird life. Sure we have some nice looking bluebirds, grosbeaks and waxwings in Manitoba, but it is something else glancing up and seeing large colourful squawking parrots everywhere you look. For an early Christmas present my Mom and Dad gave us a 75-300 mm telephoto lens for our camera (thanks again by the way) and we have been trying to put it to good use. Here's a sampling of some of the birds we've managed to catch up with so far.

This fellow is one half of a pair of kookaburras that hang out around our house. They look like a giant version of our belted kingfishers (apparently they are the worlds largest kingfishers) and are easily identified by their distinct shape and infectious laughing call. They eat just about any kind of fish, snake, lizard or insect. They are very charismatic birds. Before this starts to sound like a book report, I have to say that one of the first birds I recall drawing in Grade 2 is a kookaburra as our teacher Mrs. Freeze nee Freel was from Australia. Perhaps that young age exposure to the exotic Australian fauna is what has drawn us into this adventure.


One of the flashiest birds in the backyard are these crimson rosellas. They a quite common and we often get them in the yard where the taller grasses haven't been mowed. They like to eat the seed heads.


These little birds are called blue or superb fairy-wrens and remind me of chickadees the way they flutter around. They are generally very tricky to get a photo of for that reason but this fellow seemed to cooperate for a few seconds while he pruned a few feathers.

We went for a hike last weekend and noticed one of the many types of cockatoos feeding in the trees. They were so focused on eating that they allowed for some interesting photos. These type are called gang-gang cockatoos and are supposed to be one of the earliest forms of cockatoo. Suphur-crested cockatoos are very common in this area, as are galahs and corellas. Anyway, the bird life here is quite fascinating and there is likely to be a post or two about them as more are photographed.

I'm learning how to talk Australian!

When Aiden wants to impress people with his knowledge of Australian, he slips into a comfortable ‘G’day Mate!’ So far his Australian vocabulary only consists of a few word and phrases but he is hoping by the end of 6 months that “his mates back home won’t understand him because he’ll be talking Australian” as noted by Aiden as he returned home from school today.

Aiden has been attending school for almost a week now and seems to be settling in nicely and enjoying getting back into a routine. There are a few names that consistently come up in our conversations so hopefully these new relationships will develop into lasting friendships.

We live about 1 km away from the school and Aiden and I enjoy a pleasant walk in the morning. It takes us about ½ an hour but is truly only about a 20 min walk, if that. There tends to be lots of dawdling and inspection of leaves, branches, worms and bugs along the way. I have been picking him up at the end of the day since it has been so hot and I don’t think I could handle trying to get him to walk the km after a long and hot day at school.

School here is a full day for all students. It starts a 9 am and runs until 3:15 pm. They have a free time in the classroom at 10 am and are allowed to have a snack as long as it is fruit. At 11:15 am they are shooed outside for a 15-minute recess and are also allowed to grab a snack at this time it they wish. Lunch is around 1:00 and goes till about 1:45 pm. During the afternoon they have a short 5 – 10 minute break around 2:30 pm and are let out at 3:15 pm. Things are pretty casual; there are no buzzers. In the morning around 9 am, one of the students is given a hand held school bell and runs around the schoolyard to let the children know it is time to go in. Inside the classroom is set up very similar to that of a Canadian classroom. The Prep/1/2 class, referred to as the junior class, has access to 3 desktop computers and 9 laptops, all connected to the Internet. They don’t appear to listen to the Australian Anthem every morning but do sing it on Monday mornings during assembly.

There are four boys and one girl within a year of him so he is happy. Two will be starting school this Feb and three are already in Prep (their equivalent to Kindergarten). The school consists of one main building and four smaller ones. The main one is the one that contains two classrooms joined by a small teacher lounge/kitchen area. The smaller buildings are the washrooms, the gym, the office and the Arts, Crafts and Music room.

Last Wednesday was his first day and I went with him for part of the day. He was a little unsure to start and needed a little bit of confidence boost. This is likely the only morning that I will know what Aiden learned at school, since I was there. I can’t believe how easily and quickly kids fall into the “ I don’t remember” or the “nothing” response. His main classroom teacher is Frau (German for Mrs.) Stoffel. The morning started off with the group seated on the floor around Frau Stoffel’s chair. They spent a bit of time here and Frau Stoffel introduced Aiden to the class, they asked him where he was from and talked about some differences between Australia and Canada.

From there the conversation led into a discussion about cicadas. They are currently out and making a racket. A cicada is an insect that is about an inch long and ½ inch wide. Its eyes are wide set with short antennae protruding between or in front of the eyes; it has transparent wings and flies. It has no mouthpieces so it does not bite or sting and is harmless. There are three main types in Halls Gap; Black Prince, Yellow Monday and Green Grocer although we were told there are over 200 different types. Cicadas do not produce their sound by rubbing wings or legs together, like many other familiar sound-producing insects like crickets. They  have loud noisemakers called "timbals" on the sides of the abdominal base, which acts like a drum. A cicada rapidly vibrates these membranes, and enlarged chambers derived make its body serve as a resonance chamber, greatly amplifying the sound. They modulate their noise by wiggling their abdomens toward and away from the tree that they are on. It is only the males that produce a song. They hang out, making noise, hoping to attract a female. Their song is among the loudest of all insect produced sounds. And they are loud. Everyone around here says that once the temperature reaches above 18° they start to sing. So we have this racket from about 7:30 in the morning to about 8 at night. A person from the department of Education came out to measure the decibel levels; the cicadas are registering between 88 and 90 db: louder then a jet airplane. They seem to be only in the valley. Of course we are just on the edge of it. Once outside of the Gap, things are much more peaceful.

After learning all about the cicada and taking a look at one, the Preps and one's set about colouring an insect and the 2’s did a worksheet and answered some questions on cicadas. Ten o’clock rolled around and the kids had fruit and the free time was spent continuing to colour their insects. At the end of free time, they gathered on the floor again and did some language. Frau Stoffel did Simon says with a twist. She replaced some to the words with German. They then went and looked at the word “frog” and the four sounds that it made. They came up with two lists of words: one starting with the sounds fr and the other ending with the sound og. Next they did some work in their exercise books with regards to the list of words. It was then time to head out for recess. I had a cuppa tea with the other teachers while we were outside on supervision. After recess, the students pulled out the laptops and booted the desktop computers. They went onto a math site called Rainforest. Aiden seemed to have settled in nicely so I asked him if he wanted tostay the afternoon and I would go and then pick him up at the end of the day. He was good with that and the rest is history.

Australia's friendly insects

Sunny, 35°C

Today was insect day. It was too hot to convince anyone to do anything so we hung out around home, skyped a few people and got going on some blogging. In the middle of typing I felt something crawl up my leg at the table this afternoon. It turned out to be a white tailed spider, which apparently isn't a good thing, but I just coaxed it off my leg and released it outside. Apparently their bites can be rather nasty. By the pictures it looked to be a male so it was naturally a bit less temperamental ;-).

Then I was talking with the people who own the place while I was BBQing supper and mentioned that I have been cautious when turning on the tank due to redback spiders. No sooner had they left and I went to turn the tank off and came face to face with the dreaded beasty who had come out of a dark corner when it got a bit heated up. I got a couple of photos which you can see. Ruth wasn't even interested in taking a close look at it. To top it all off, I just get back in from cooking supper and I feel something crawling across my belly. It takes offense to my trying to squish it against my rock hard abs and decides to sting me multiple times. The tough little bugger turns out to be a type of jumping ant we were warned about that jumps up and can sting you in a trail and are hard to kill. The venom hurt pretty good for a bit, then was swollen for bit but now it seems to have settled down into a red spot. Hopefully Aiden doesn't get into a hill of those critters. There is another ant here called a bull ant which is about the size of a carpenter ant back home and locals say it stings too and if you stomp on it, be prepared for it to start to pack you away. Australia is a fairly hostile place in some respects, but the people are pretty nice.
The crumpled remains of the not so jumpy little ant after repeated attempts to terminate the little bugger.

Stumpy is a good thing

Our second day in the neighbourhood, we were introduced to an unusual couple who share our yard. There is a spring out the front and they were on their way over for a drink when we met.


They are called stumpy tailed lizards, blue tongues or shinglebacks. They are slow moving and don't seem like much of a threat but apparently when they decide to clamp down on something they can be very persistent. What impressed us the most was that they like to eat snakes and if you have them around you are less likely to see snakes. They automatically became our new favourite couple and we are very pleased to share the yard with them. Mike was over and showed us how you can pick them up behind the head if you feel so inclined. We haven't bothered to do that.

Melbourne to Grampians National Park

Wednesday, November 7, 2007 Mainly sunny +22°

Our little alarm clock had us up at seven (Aiden), which we thought was pretty good considering the time change we have gone through.We had breakfast here at the hotel before heading out to try and cross some items off our to do list. Stopped at a Telstra store to look at our mobile phone options. Communications here are much more expensive then at home. We ended up picking up a mobile phone for $299.00, which only includes $10 talk time, and we will be on pre-paid plan. Spent the rest of the day looking at used car dealerships. We were lucky that there were three within walking distance. However, after spending a good part of the morning talking with the various dealers, buying a car may prove to be more difficult then expected. After exhausting Aiden's patience looking at yet another car, we headed to the Melbourne Museum. We spent some time wandering through the museum and playing at the playground. Aiden has been asking about school and when he will get to go. He is definitely missing the social interaction with kids. Luckily there were a couple of boys at the playground that he was able to hangout with for a bit.

We came back to the hotel and had an early supper of sandwiches. Aiden and I hung out while Sean did some more searching on the Internet for a car. He found a dealership that looks promising a little ways away in South Melbourne. Aiden was asleep by 7:30 and we crashed around 9 pm.


Thursday, November 8, 2007 Mainly sunny + 24°

Aiden was awake at 4:30 am. I knew it was too good to be true to think that we adjusted that easily. We managed to keep him somewhat quiet and in bed until 6:30 am. Sean headed off by 8:30 to catch a bus to South Melbourne, to see about a vehicle and some GPS maps for Australia in St. Kilda. Aiden and I hung out in the hotel room until about 10 am and then went in search of sunscreen. We did some window-shopping until we found a bookstore where we spent a good hour looking around. I purchased an Australian scrapbooking magazine. I’m interested in seeing if there is much difference. Sean surprised us by returning around 12 pm. He found a car, a 1991 Mitsubishi Lancer, and put a deposit on it. He had a quick bite to eat and then headed a few block away to try and arrange registration/ownership transfer. That turned out to be a frustrating task. He needed some sort of signed document that proved we would be living in Australia. For some reason, our Visas did not count even though we needed to have an address for them. The only way around it, other then going out to Halls Gap and getting a rental agreement signed by both parties was to have someone who has known us for 12 months and currently owns a Victoria drivers licence. Lucky for us, we knew one of the previous Parks Victoria rangers who came to Riding Mountain and he was willing to fax in a declaration. Sean also found out that his credit card had been frozen. Note for next time; make sure to call the credit card companies that we are going to be in Australia for 6 months. Sean was back by 4 pm so we went out in search of a place to eat. We found a Fish and Sushi bar only a couple of blocks away from the hotel. It was reasonably priced and the food was very good. Aiden was quite happy with the choice since they had chicken fingers. We had an enjoyable supper, sitting at the street side tables taking in the sights and sounds around us. Once we got back to the hotel we turned in early since we had to be up early the next morning.

Friday, November 9, 2007 Sunny + 26°

Up around 6 am and packed a few things before heading down for breakfast. Sean took off for VicRoads to get a client number in order to take possession of the car and returned, just in time for Mike to drive us over to the car and guide us out of Melbourne. Mike graciously escorted us to the edge of the city and got us onto the Western Highway. Sean did wonderful with driving on the opposite side, he took to it quite naturally even in the Melbourne traffic.

We made it into Halls Gap just in time for afternoon tea at 3 pm. We went directly to the Parks office and met Sean's supervisor, another Mike. At afternoon tea, he introduced us to several Parks employees. We hung out and chatted briefly with a number of them. Around 4 pm we headed out to find our new home for the next six months.

Our house is located on the north end of Hall’s Gap. It is a 3-bedroom holiday rental place close to the end of the town bike path, so it is a pleasant walk from the downtown area of Hall’s Gap and about 4 km from the Brambuk Center where Sean works.

We got inside and looked around, unloaded the car and that was about it for me. Since about 2 pm I have been feeling progressively worse. Not sure if is the cold that was lingering from Manitoba or I picked up a new one somewhere in our travels, but I was feeling downright miserable so I pretty much crashed for the night.



Sean and Aiden headed into town to have a look around. While they were passing the cricket field, what’s that in the field but a dozen kangaroos grazing. We’d been promising Aiden that he would see kangaroos when we got to where we were going to live but didn’t realize that they would show up so quickly. They are all over the place. Aiden checked them out and one of them even had a joey in her pouch. After a while they became old news and he finally got to stretch his legs and run like a madman all over the field like a cricket star. They came back to share the exciting news and everyone crashed early.