Merry Early Christmas

Well, today we welcomed a new addition to the Dickinson family. A 2007 Toyota Yaris...Sporting a peppy 1.3 Litre engine, a/c, mp3 player and at 6.4 litres of gas per 100km she'll go to hell and back on one tank of gas. We ended up getting a manual, so after we picked it up, Cari took me to a quite street and started teaching me how to drive a stick. She said I did really good, I seemed to do best on the hills for some reason. I'm not ready for the main streets yet, but give it a couple more lessons and I'll be there. We decided to stop when the car started to smell like burnt popcorn.

Got a hatch back so Jesse will have a nice spot to hang out in when were coming back from the beach

Steve (now owes an Aussie bank money) Dickinson

Where art thou Mr. Plumber?

After a good time Saturday night at the Pandemic party, we came home to discover that although Steve used 2 bottles of Draino in our bathroom drain, we still had serious plumbing issues. When we flushed the toilet, it came up the shower drain. YUCK. Since our rental agency was closed on Sunday, Steve called the emergency number on the back of our tenacy agreement. We figured poop in the shower fell under "health risk" and meant emergency (sorry if you were eating as you read this!). Anyway, our emergency plumber has still not shown up and it's now Monday morning at 8 a.m! He wasn't able to come yesterday but said he'd be here first thing this morning. So, it's been no showers for us and minimal toilet using. You really take all these modern conveniences for granted until they're gone! Luckily our new house has a back- up toilet...outside! I don't get it but homes here sometimes have outhouses in the backyard. Only, it's a modern flush toilet. Just a toilet in a shed. I really don't know why this set-up was originally designed but it sure would come in handy now!

Pandemic Christmas Party

Whips….check, Mistress choker…..check…..Hand Cuffs…..check, Dog collar and leash….check, check, Blind fold….check, Wedding band…..Wedding band?? Oh Yup…there it is, check. Time for a Christmas Party!!
Santa Bitch

Santa's Mistress
Bad Santa!
Rej and Clo waiting to be unwraped.
The Gang, Morgan, Kate, Santa Bitch, Cari, Clo and Rej.

Trish
Cool Santa.






Me, drinking my beer through a straw…Go ahead and laugh, if you have a better way of drinking a beer with a beard I’m all ears!
Ahhhhhhh!

This isn't what it looks like!

Busted!
The 2 Producers of Pandemic, Dylan and Gordan
Now they are hugging, we don't ask, they don't tell.

Kate reminding Morgan Bitch who's the Boss.

No idea, but it looks like fun.
At some point I turned into Santa Mime Angel.
Sticking with Henley tradition, Cari nursed off a hang over in the morning. The party was a lot of fun, I won a $100 gift card to a electronic store here in Brisbane. There were lots of prizes, alcohol, and people, all the ingredients for a good time.

Steve

Finally moving!

Just want to let everyone know that our application was accepted on the house that we applied for. We move in on December 17th, so just in time for Christmas. Luckily, we don't have a lot of stuff, so we should be able to move in, unpack and still have time left over to put up a few decorations for the holidays. I haven't even seen the house. They have viewings at the weirdest times here. The viewing time for this house was 12-12:15 p.m. on a Wednesday and I couldn't leave work. Luckily, I trust Steve's opinion and I'm sure I'll like it! It's just a relief to have something lined up and not have to worry about it! Here's the link to the house, if you want to have a look...ignore the dreadful curtains!

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=402999632&f=0&p=10&t=ren&ty=&fmt=&header=&c=11765197&s=qld&snf=rbs&tm=1195788853

A bit of an update...

There really hasn't been much happening with us, so there really isn't much to update, but here's what I can share...

We're still looking for a house to rent. Steve looked at a place yesterday for us and put in an application. We should know by today if we get it. As usual, I'm not getting my hopes up. The person who was supposed to be buying the house we're in now fell through and now 2 couples are looking into buying it together. One of the couples is planning to move in here, but not until the middle of next year, so there is a chance that they may offer for us to continue renting for another 6 months or so. That would be cool, but of course, we can't plan on that and will continue looking in the meantime.

This weekend is Steve's company Christmas party. It's a costume party. Everyone dresses in something "Christmasy". It's a secret at the moment about what we're going as, but I'm really looking forward to it! It's like combining Halloween (which I missed this year!) and Christmas. My work Christmas party is next weekend. It's all feeling very weird to me. Christmas shopping, wrapping, card writing and parties when it's sunny and warm. I'm not sure that Christmas will even feel like Christmas, but we're definitely going to do our best to make it special!

So, that covers the highlights (I told you there wasn't much going on with us!). Stay tuned for costume party pics!

An "AHHHHHHHH" Update

Seeing as my entire MSN list was deleted (I thought it was only some), I have decided to just start a new messenger with my new email (caridickinson@hotmail.com), so add me to your list! Thanks again!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Oh Man. I'm a little stressed out at the moment. I decided it was time to clean out my hotmail inbox. I had almost 700 emails to delete because, well, I never delete anything. Anyway, I decided to just delete them all, since I had all of my contacts' emails saved. Fresh start. It felt good to declutter. Zero messages in my inbox.

BUT THEN, as I was organizing my contacts (making sure everyone's details were correct...I worked on this for about an hour), I somehow managed to delete ALL of my contacts as well!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AND, as if that isn't crap enough, if you were on my MSN list, you were automatically deleted when your contact details got deleted!

So, I now have no one's email address and a very short list of people on my MSN. Don't ask how I managed to do this.

Anyway, literally as I was writing this and thinking that this must have happened for a reason (positive thinking people live longer, you know...), it hit me! I've been wanting to get an email address with my married name, this is the perfect time to do it! So, if you're reading this, PLEASE email me (even to just literally say one word), so I can add you to my contacts. My new email address is caridickinson@hotmail.com. Also, if you were on my MSN list, can you re-add me, using my old email... carihenley@hotmail.com.

Thanks SO much! Hopefully, I'll hear from you all soon...

Scuba Dooba Doo

Good morning/afternoon/evening ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I’d like to first thank you for reading thedickinson’s blog, we know there is an abundance of crap out there on the world wide web and we would like you to know we appreciate the time you take out of your busy lives to read our crap. During this post I will be typing at an approximate 25 words per minute, at an altitude of about 7 feet. (our “house” is on stilts) Please insure you are not slouching and that your feet are flat on the floor. Enjoy your time on our blog and please come back soon.

The above pic was taken a while ago by Jeff Goslan, of Cari standing on a Bribie Island Beach while the sun was going down. I love the pic and thought I'd post it.
So last Saturday (Nov 10th) Cari, Me, Rej, Clo, Adam and Brianna (we’re all Canadians!) headed down to Byron Bay to go Scuba Diving at the Julian Rocks. The conditions were crap but the dive was awesome (we’ll I thought it was awesome, but I could dive in a bowl of urine and have a good time, I was born to swim) The 2 km (10 minute) boat ride out to the rocks were like a roller coaster ride, huge swells, wind, rain and fog. We all got bounced around, but it was fun. When we got to the rocks, we quickly got our gear on and got in the water. Once under the water we entered another world. The first thing I saw as I reached the bottom was 2 blue spotted sting rays….. http://www.julianrocks.net/sharks/DasyatisKuhlii.htm
They continued on there marry way, so I re-adjusted my rented gear (I really need to get my own gear, I’ve always had my own kit and having to rent sucks shark balls) and looked up to see if Cari was on her way down. To my surprise she was right beside me. She had no problems equalizing and a quick “ok” sign confirmed that she was doing just fine. They say couples that dive together stay together!. (I just made that up) So on we went. We actually had a guide, So all of us like a flock of sheep followed our long haired Aussie guide around a pre determined route that would keep us out of the currents and large swells kicked up by the bad weather.
Some of the more notable things we saw…
Yellow Sea Star…
http://www.julianrocks.net/echinoderms/LinckiaGuildingi.htm
Needle spined urchin….
http://www.julianrocks.net/echinoderms/Diadema.htm
Puffer Fish….
http://www.julianrocks.net/fish/fancyfish/ArothronNigropunctatus.htm
Wobbgonges…(these guys are a type of shark)
http://www.julianrocks.net/sharks/Orectolobus.htm
Trumpet Fish….
http://www.julianrocks.net/fish/fancyfish/AulostomusChinensis.htm

And lots of other fish.

The ladies after the dive, we went to a pub to get some much needed grub.
The ladies plus Rej and Adam watching something on the t.v.
Some random chick at the bar, but if you look above her there's a salt water fish tank...they had these all around the bar. So Cari has the dive bug, I now have a diving buddy. We're both looking forward to doing a lot of diving while were here in Australia.

Scuba Steve

I know, I know. I have to post. I will, I promise. I've just been too busy doing Christmas stuff...wrapping presents, writing cards, preparing parcels. And, that's just been so much fun! But I will post...soon. So stay tuned...

Saturday...

We had such a nice day yesterday! We rented a car around 9:30 and ran a few errands. I picked up my Padi temporary certificate, which means I am an official Padi graduate...Yippee! After a morning of errand running, we scooted home, packed a bag and grabbed Jes and heading off on a sight seeing adventure. We didn't really know where we were going...well, we knew we wanted to end up at the dog beach, but it isn't an off lease beach until after 4:00, so we had a few hours to kill until then. We just drove, stopped for a cold treat and drinks at a little store in the middle of no where and enjoyed the sights, stopping for pictures along the way. We visited the Glass House Mountains look off, but didn't stay too long, as it has been very hot! Temps are getting up to about 31ish and humidity is inching up.

The look off was very pretty.

We stopped to take this one on the side of the road.
We drove by pinapple patches and what I think was a papaya tree field. See the little pinapple growing in there?
There it is!
Papaya, anyone? Australians call papaya "Paw Paw".


Of course we had a great time at the beach! Jesse loved it, as always. He was permanently glued to Steve's side for some reason, which was fine with me. Steve entertained him while I read and relaxed.

Australian pines.

There were a lot of dogs running around the beach, but this old guy was quite content to just sit and take it all in. Just like an old man sitting on his front porch!
The waves were insane! Very big and very rough. Steve tried swimming and got banged around pretty good. Since Jesse wanted to stay right with Steve, he would try to swim out with him, but it was way too rough for him and he got dunked hard a few times. We opted for the "kiddie pool" as Steve called it...the bit of water going from the ocean to the river.
Here's Jesse actually swimming and not risking near drowning death.
He loves that ball. I bought him one awhile back and we lost it, so I bought 2 more, just to make sure he always has a back up. He'll run for hours as long as he's chasing that ball! He also swallows a lot of salt water trying to swim with that ball in his mouth. On the way home, Jesse barfed sea water all over the back seat of the rental car! Lovely.

Steve and I went out for supper in Redcliffe last night...http://www.redcliffe.qld.gov.au/tourism/outandabout.html...It's a cute little town, not far from Brisbane. Dinner was yummy! We shared a bucket of shrimp to start....soooo good! All and all, a great day!