Vacation comes to an end...life begins...

Well it kind of feels like the vacation has come to an end and now we are really starting to "live" in Brisbane. Steve starts work today and I'm busy busy looking for a place to live. There are lots of places available, but not many allow dogs. The few places that we know of that do take dogs have size restrictions of only 5 kg, maximum 10 kg. Jesse is about 22 kg (and that's with hoping he loses some weight at the kennel!). Looks like we might have to rent a house, as that has a better chance of allowing pets than apartments. It just sucks because we want to be within walking distance to Steve's work and most homes are a little further out. Anyway, I'm sure we'll find something, just need to have patience.
We went over to Steve's friend Morgan's house last night and had a lovely dinner with him and his wife. Steve worked with Morgan in Montreal and now Morgan is also working at Pandemic. We had lots of Australian snacks (both Morgan and Kate are from Australia), including Tim-Tams...a kind of cookie (Jolyne, I thought of you!), Shapes...a kind of cracker, a kind of cheese chip...kind of like Cheesies but made with real cheese and an Australian beer and wine, which both were really good! I can't remember the names (I have to start paying more attention!) but I'll find out and let you know.
Thanks for all the comments from everyone on the blog. We really miss you all already and it's nice to hear from you. I will email our new phone number later today. Here's a couple of pics taken yesterday, when were walking around the city looking for apartments...

More brisbane info

The Brisbane river. I find the city to be very clean, which is nice. Everything seems very well kept and maintained. We were told that Brisbane is quite safe and that there really isn't a lot of crime, just the occasional drunk. It isn't just a myth...Aussies really do like to drink!!!
The CityCat, a form of transportation on the river.
Steve and Vic.
The CityFerry. We went on this on Australia Day. Another form of transportation. Steve likes that all buses and taxis here use natural gas.
Me with a fancy bottle of water. We had dinner at a place called QA (where this pic was taken). It was my favorite place so far. Good food and cool atmosphere. It is very close to Steve's work. This is also the same area where we would like to try to get an apartment. Vic was telling me that after 8 o'clock in bars, guys have to wear pants and shoes, not flip flops, or thongs, as they are called here. I found this surprising considering the laid back nature of the place and the hot temps! Girls can wear sandles though and short skirts. Strange, eh? Oh and did I mention that I say "eh" a lot more than I realized?!?
This is what they bring you if you ask for ketchup in a restaurant. I did see Heinz ketchup in the grocery store though. The majority of restaurants here require you to go up to the counter and order your food and pay right away. Then you sit down and they give you a number for your table. They bring your food to the table and sometimes take your plate, but it's not the same as being totally waited on. I'm sure they do have fancier restaurants where you do place your order at the table, but we haven't been to any yet.

An overview of Brisbane so far...

After finally arriving in Brisbane, we made our way through customs and then quarantine. It went quite easy. Everyone on the plane had to fill out a form stating why they were going to Australia and if you had any things that would not be allowed into the country (includes things like food, drinks, anything organic, even dirt on your shoes). They searched one of my bags because they thought I had a shell but it turned out to be hair products, which were okay. From the airport we headed to our hotel, which our cab driver told us was one of the most expensvie hotels in the city, with an average being $400 a night. We got 3 nights for that price through Expedia. The website said it was hot deal, and I guess they were right!

We're now staying at Vic's place. Vic's been awesome helping us to get settled and showing us around. All we've pretty much done since we got here is walk around and explore the city. I am already starting to know my way around and am starting to feel comfortable. I just have to be careful when I cross the street! I have seriously almost stepped out in front of cars a few times, because I look the wrong when I cross. I'm not looking forward to actually driving on the wrong side of the street!

We're definitely going to get in shape here! Average temps have been between 30 and 34 degrees and it's been quite humid (apparently uncommon humidity). So, between walking and sweating, we're definitely shedding some pounds!

We're both already getting tanned and that's with wearing SPC 30 daily. You have to be very careful here because skin cancer is very common! We're getting in the habit of loading on the sunscreen right after our shower each morning. They say Queensland (where will live in Australia) is the sunshine state and I believe it!

I have also found that it is much healthier here than in Canada. There are TONS (or heaps as they say here) of gluten free stuff and GI diet friendly options in restaurants. Fruit and veggies are very expensive though! We went to the grocery store for the first time the other day and I have to say that it really made me realize how far we are from home! Everything is SO different. There are a few of the same foods (even then they have different packaging) but not many. It's amazing how long it can take you to pick up a few groceries when you have no idea what kind of anything to get! Picking out laundry soap took me forever, not to mention the bread!!!

The Australian accent is cool and people are very friendly! I've had a little trouble understanding some of the older people when they speak to me but basically it's not too bad. A few people have already commented to me about how cool we sound when we talk. It's weird living somewhere where we have the strange accent. I asked a woman working at "Big W", which is basically Walmart (same signs and stuff) where the "washrooms" were and she didn't know what I meant. She's like.."Oh, you mean the toilet?". Apparently, it's called the toilet or loo here. Also, while we're talking bathrooms, there are 2 buttons for flushing on the toilet. One for a number 1 and one for a number 2. Basically a number 1 flush uses less water. So many things to get used to!

And as a last note before I head to bed, the money is strange to me here. There is no penny coin so if something comes to $11.11, you just give them $11.10. It rounds to the nearest coin. They have a 5, 10, 20, and 50 cent coin here (the 50 cent coin is HUGE and the 2 dollar coin in very small). They also have, a 1 dollar coin and 2 dollar coin. Tax is included in the cost of something, so if it's $10, you pay $10, which I love. And another cool thing about here...you don't tip! So, no pressure to leave an extra bit of money after eating out or getting your hair done!

Okay, gotta head to bed. I have more Brisbane pics to post tomorrow, so stay tuned:)

More Brisbane

The plants, trees and flowers that grow here are very cool. The plants feel like plastic and look almost fake. Everything is surprisingly green considering that they are having such a water shortage here. I was told that it rains just enough to keep the city looking nice but not enough to provide water for the city to use. The guy that we met with today at the bank (we opened our bank account) said that by next year, they may have no water left. This is scary to me! Currently, there is a level 4 water ban, which includes rules like, not being allowed to water your plants or yard outside. The guy at the bank said that people use their used bath water for watering the yard. They are talking about using recycled water for drinking.
The creatures are super cool here! These little guys are everywhere and like to crawl on the signs of stores at night. I'm not sure what they are exactly, but they remind me of little lizards. I'm cool with them as long as they keep their distance. I was warned today to be careful of any red-backed spiders and was also told that large cockroaches are very common here. Steve and I went shopping today and Steve saw a cockroach run across the ground and up a guy's leg!!! I would FREAK out if that happened to me!!! The first cockroach that I ever saw was on Australia day (January 26th), when they held their annual cockroach race. I have a video of this to post later!
Okay, these birds freak me out. They are quite large and look for food from you as if they were pigeons! I'm going to have to get over this bird fear of mine if I'm going to be living here!
I couldn't believe it when I first saw one of these hanging out on the sidewalk! A local told me that they are called water dragons and like it when you feed them sandwich meat (they are meat eaters!). I asked if they were nice and they guy said they were but he wouldn't recommend trying to pet one! I have seen a few of these since I have been here.
We walked through the Brisbane Botanical Gardens, which is basically a park in the city. Holy beautiful! It's like what you pay to see in Montreal!!!

Yeah!!! Darryl and Stacey have a blog!

Check it out at...http://www.macpurdys.blogspot.com/. Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging guys:)

Brisbane bound!

This is the plane we flew on to Sydney. We flew with Quantas Mainland Airlines. The plane was huge (a 747)! The food was good and it was nice because there was lots of room to walk and stretch your legs. I didn't find the flight all that bad, even though it did take 10 hours. I was super impressed that they actually have fold out beds for babies, which would definitely help make traveling with babies easier (hint hint to the MacPurdys;) ). Steve and I have both been trying really hard to get used to the time change here. We have done pretty good eating on their schedule but sleeping has been tough. It wouldn't be so bad for me if I could just sleep later than 5 am in the morning! It's really only been yesterday and today that I feel really tired but we have been walking around the city in the heat A LOT, so it could be just a combination of everything. Anyway, it's to be expected that we're going to feel the jet lag for awhile and hopefully it won't be much longer before we get in a groove.
Looking out the window of our flight to Sydney.
Well, this is it. This is all we own, all that we brought with us to Brisbane. Now I need to find us an apartment so we can get shopping! We've already done some looking and we find furniture to be pretty cheap and nice. I've already seen 3 sofas that I love! We bought a mattress for at Vic's place and it was only $400 for a really nice double. I'm looking forward to getting settled with a few things we really like.

Aloha!

We had a fantastic time in Hawaii! We stayed in Waikiki beach in Honolulu. A very touristy area. The people were VERY friendly, the service everywhere was VERY good and of course it was nice to be in the sun again (although on our second day, we did get a few showers, but it wasn't too bad). Our first day there, we just spent the day being beach bums and walking around, checking out the neighborhoods and shops. On our second day there, we splurged and took a 7 hour boat cruise, where we saw dolphins, whales and went snorkling. It was very cool! We saw fish that they sell in the petstores at home for oodles of money and the best thing...we saw a huge sea turtle while snorkling! The view from the boat was awesome...definitely worth the money! Steve and I would both like to go back to Hawaii again someday, to see the things we didn't get to see on this trip.
The dolphins. We have a fantasic video of this but internet in Australia is really weird. It works out to be only 4 gigs a month for $60, which sucks and since we're using Vic's internet at the moment, we'll wait to post our videos when we get our own place and internet. I got my cell phone (mobile, as they call it here) yesterday and for $49 a month, you get only 6 hours of talk time (a month!) and Australians find that to be more than enough!!! As the woman at the store said, "That's heaps!". Not "heaps" if you're coming from Canada! One good thing though, you don't use up your minutes if someone calls you.
The boat that we went on in Hawaii. Really nice boat!
The food in Hawaii was really good. Everything came served with a slice of pinappple and a decorative umbrella. This is purple bread that we had with dinner and banana butter! It was very yummy!
One of my favorite things about Waikiki beach was the way they lit torches everywhere once the sun went down. All of the restaurants had lots of these and they were all along the sidewalks too.
The main street in Waikiki beach.

More Hawaii

Bring me 2 pina coladas...
The sunset as seen from our hotel balcony.
A cool surfer statue.
Love this phone booth!
My footprints.

My henna tattoo (before the stuff dried and came off). Don't worry Mom, it's not permanent!
Love this!

A few Hawaii pics...

Steve at this cute little shopping place in Honolulu.
Palm trees. I really loved the trees in Hawaii. Very green and very thick!
These trees were so cool. A local told me they are called iron wood trees and were actually introduced to Hawaii in the 1800s by the Missionaries to get the Natives to be civilized and wear shoes. The seed-like things that fall off them are very sharp and really hurt if you step on them.
This is the beach across the street from our hotel. I liked this a lot about Wakiki beach, where we stayed. There were hotels, shops and restaurants along one side of the street and nothing but beach on the other!
Holy birds! As much as I don't really like birds too much, it did add character the way the birds were always around, just hanging out in restaurants. This little guy decided to enjoy the lady's bread, sitting next to us, while she went up to the breakfast buffet. Surprisingly, there was not bird poop anywhere. The part of the city where we stayed was very clean and well maintained.

This was our hotel, as seen from the beach.

Hey! Just a quick post cause I'm working on limited battery power and internet that costs 55 cents a minute! We have made it to Brisbane! The flight was long but seemed to go surprisingly fast. I have to say we had a pretty easy trip. All our flights left on time and all our baggage arrived everywhere. The only time we had to pay for extra baggage was from Sydney to Brisbane and then the girl cut us a break and only charged us $60 (should have been much more!). We had an awesome time in Hawaii and so far we LOVE what we have seen of Brisbane. We got here just in time for Australia day so there was lots to see and do around the city yesterday. I have SO many pics to post as soon as I can...hopefully this week, so stay tuned! It's very hot here, but SO nice! Steve learned that SPF 15 isn't strong enough for here, even if you do apply it 4 times during the day! Thanks Darryl, Stacey and Melissa for going to visit Jes! We're missing him and are so glad to have you guys to go visit. Darryl, Stacey and Melissa, can you guys also email either me or Steve your mailing addresses please? And can someone let Mom know that we made it here and that I'll call as soon as I can. Every chance that I have had to call so far, just as I'm about to call, I realize it's like 2 am in NS! Okay, that's it for now! Miss you guys!

En Route

Well, currently Steve and I are sitting in the Vancouver airport waiting for our flight to Honolulu. We decided to take advantage of the wireless connection and give you guys an update!

We arrived at the Montreal airport around 5 this morning and left for Toronto at 7. We got to Toronto around 8:30 am and then left for Vancouver around 11:30 am. We got to Vancouver around 1:30 pm their time (3:30 pm. our time). By the time we went through US customs and got our bags (so far they haven't got lost!), we grabbed a bite to eat and now we're chillin'. I have to say (knock on wood!) that so far our voyage has been very smooth! The layovers are a welcome break and a good chance to stretch our legs. We're both a little tired, I slept on the plane to Toronto and at the Toronto airport but Steve hasn't snoozed yet. I have to say that Gravol has been very helpful in eliminating my usual sick ways when flying. I also might go for a chair massage after this:)

We watched The Departed on the way to Vancouver and that really helped to pass the time! Steve's looking forward to watching Open Season on the way to Hawaii. We're both getting very excited about waking up in Honolulu tomorrow and getting a good night's sleep tonight! It's going to be about 2 or 3 in the morning (Montreal time...the time we're used to) by the time we get there, so it's definitely going to be a long day! An almost 24 hour day!

On another note, I just want to quickly thank our friends for the great going away get- together yesterday and the card and Australian money. I was excited to see Australian bills for the first time! Also, an extra special thanks for the song that they wrote and sang for us! You can see the video and the lyrics on Kristjan's blog (link on the side). Check it out...it was great! I have some pics to post from yesterday once I get somewhere with a little bit faster internet! I'll also try to keep you posted on our whereabouts whenever I can...stay tuned!!:)

Sat Night Singing