Scary Skinks and Useful Ute's

So we went down to the gold coast and hung out at Iggy and Carlene’s, or is that Carlene and Iggy’s? (Daile’s sister and brother in law) The wonderful thing about the gold coast is that its like being in California or Florida, without the Yanks. I had a look at another two wheel drive ute for about $5k and today I looked at one that is 4WD for almost twice that. I’ve been thinking that it might be sensible to go for the 4WD option because the site is SO steep in places, that any other vehicle isn’t going to be able to get up beyond the current drive….unless we’re talking excavators!!! Now that’s a thought!

Whilst we were down there, Mackenzie, (Carlene and Ian’s (Iggy) boy the younger to Madison their daughter) got out his ‘blue tongued skinks’ which are ‘generally harmless, but their strong jaws give them a powerful bite’…he he. See for yourself what Phoebe made of one of them, a little shocked by the feel of it at first,

but then getting used to it, taking time to have a closer look.

Matilda was slightly less worried….

But familiarity breeds comfort, as Lilly shows here. Lilly is Andrew’s little girl. Andrew is Daile’s brother. In the background is Luis. (…pronounced Lewis) his son.

The feeling is a bit like holding a taught muscle that's been lightly convered in WD40. Its sort of slimey but not exactly...and its claws are really quite sharp.

Got a bit further with the house drawings…and here’s a simple rendition in 3D for the pre-lodgement meeting. Obviously its going to look quite different when its surrounded by land, and I’m hoping that I can find a way to draw that with some accuracy too…


By the way, if you didn't realise, you can get all the pictures on this blog to go full size on your screen by clicking on them.....:-)

A plug for Ol' Blighty...

There are some things that are easy to do, and some that are not. One of the things that I’ve felt a wrench about, a thing that is pretty inconsequential in the greater scheme of things, is the removal of the British 3 pin plug from my computer leads and power tools, and its replacement with the Aussie equivalent. The new one is a simple affair, and is actually quite good to use. The cable exits tangentially to the extension socket, and is smaller and therefore is less awkward to handle.

The ones you see here are rubber, so they’re also nice to feel. Yet there is a permanence to this process that somehow feels incredibly significant, much more so than getting a ‘tax file number’ (Nat ins number) The UK plug is so British. Like Marmite, and PG tips. Its these sorts of things that I’m noticing most….that and the wildlife!

A couple of days ago, Daile nearly ran over a carpet snake. For those of you who don’t
know what one of those is, here’s a picture:

It was about that size!

A site that I went to about them had this to say;

“Many houses on the east coast have a resident ‘carpet snake’ in the roof. Many people are completely unaware of this, and those that are, often ‘adopt’ and name their quiet lodger. These snakes provide a ‘rodent cleaning service’ totally free of charge. These magnificent non-venomous snakes are for the most part quite harmless, but will bite if provoked. Appreciate these animals, but please do not pick them up. Like all pythons, they are incredibly strong, and may coil around your arm leaving you thinking, ‘OK, so now how do I get this snake off my arm?….and OF COURSE – NEVER PUT ANY PYTHON AROUND YOUR NECK.” What are they KIDDING! These things can be up to 4 metres long!

The girls have made mates of the two little girls next door, and they all went with me up to the very local and quiet playground at the end of the street opposite. Whilst we were up there and they were tearing around, I took the opportunity to follow a line of little ants that I could see. They were going in both directions with one direction carrying little bits of food, and the other direction going back to get more. The trail led from the rubbish bin by the barbeque site (they have public barbeque sites) to a tree on the other side of the little park. A distance of about 30m. A bloody long way when you’re that size and the grass is like a forest to you….

Anyway, whilst watching them, I noticed a much larger ant (pictured below)

that was on its own and moving towards the line, which it passed over, shaking off the little ants that took exception to it. When I got home, I looked it up. Its called a ‘velvet ant’ and is actually a flightless female wasp, which if it stings you is VERY painfull for 5 to 10 mins and then subsides slowly. Apparently, its then like having a dull ache like arthritis for about 2 months around the sting site. The length is about 1.5 cm.

About 2 mins after I took that picture, I took this one; Notice how grainy they are? That’s cos I didn’t want to get any closer…ha ha.


This very jittery spider was on the cross bar above the kids as they went on the slide. It was really small, (about 1 cm) and ‘looks like’ a ‘white tail’ spider. I couldn’t actually find an exact shape and colour match, but the white tail is know for its bite, which is supposed to lead to necrosis (where the skin ulcerates around the bite site…) The picture you see of Phoebe in her sun hat, shows the slide behind her, and it was the eldest of the two kids on the slide that spotted this little fella…



Finally, here’s a picture of a cat with an abscess on its neck…which was at the house where I went to look at the first ute. They were only slightly worried about it…!


We’re off to the Gold Coast for the weekend….so it’ll be next week before I’m here again. Have a nice weekend.

Strip-tow and sun

Well its been a few days, and not all that much has happened. After the initial flurry of activity, we’ve petered out a bit. I’ve been distracted by a trailer project that Wayne donated to the cause, and I’ve wasted some time trying to sort it out. This entailed cutting the front of the trailer off because it was rusty, and spending an inordinate amount of time trying to find out where I could get steel, gas, a tow-hook, roof bars to bring the steel back and etc. In the end, before I did actually go and buy all this gear, I worked out that I was going to be spending something like $700 just to have a trailer and roof bars for a car that frankly, is unlikely to outlive them. Well OK, it might outlive the trailer, but not the tow hook or the bars. Suddenly, I done seen the light, and decided that what I need is a ute. (That’s a pick up to you)….and with a bit of luck I might find one with a tow-hook attached for when I have the time to do the trailer at some other juncture. As you can see, its not all that…but we are on a budget.



Tomorrow I’m going to have a look at this one I hope, which is good value, and has a tow hook too.

All this has rather taken my mind off writing my CV, and the house. I discovered that the rules state that we have to build on the allotted ‘building envelope’ as per the original document that we were sent from the vendor’s agent. I’ve arranged for them to send me the forms to have a pre lodgement meeting about the site with some structural engineers and someone who’s representing the trees that they’re worried that we’re going to knock down. I mentioned that if we really wanted to knock down trees we’d have bought somewhere with less of them! I’m arguing that the area of the house is the same, its just that its not on the place where they said. It wasn’t my fault that they’ve approved the knocking down of the trees in that allotted area. Really, someone was being more than slightly presumptive that the people that buy the plot are going to want to build there…..

So it looks like I’ll be right in the thick of bureaucracy within a couple of weeks.

Steepness is all a point of view....

On the way back from the airport, we went to see the land. Daile hadn’t seen what she’d put her name to and we both felt that if we were going to have a row about my unfortunate choice of land site, we should get it over with whilst we were still jet lagged…! It WAS a little steeper than I’d remembered admittedly, but on the whole, she liked it….at least that’s what she’s saying….so that’s good eh? Matilda and Phoebe were a bit confused. Phoebe seemed to have been under the impression that I’d built the house already…and wondered where it was! Matilda initially said that she didn’t like it….and then changed her mind when it was pointed out that it is an excellent site for a ‘Flying Fox’! (Death slide!)….. Sorted!

Here’s a picture of the little poppet on the news of the fun times ahead for her,

and another of the new development immediately below us, which is pretty much what I’d expected I guess….and looks like quite a nice house, although they’ve not left themselves any garden to speak of. Our site is about four times the size of this, so whilst our house should be a little bigger, there’s oodles of space left for all the gardening that Daile wants to do.

Today we went to open a bank account but were frustrated by the fact that in Australia, all accounts attract an ongoing maintenance fee, and many also charge for the transactions. The structure of the contract that you enter into is complex (of course) so its difficult to make a comparison. However the writing seems to be on the wall, as apparently the fees that banks charge is becoming a competitive issue, much as it did in the UK. Ozzie banks make 3.5 billion dollars out of fees….which is a lot lot lot!
http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=264471
On top of this, Daile was disgusted to find that as a ‘foreigner’ its easier for me to open an account that it is for her! My passport alone is all I need, whereas she needs other things like proof of address, driving licence, etc. I suggested that it might be because Australians come from unreliable stock…if you know what I mean, and told the joke about the Englishman who was asked about whether he had a criminal record by a passport official, to which he replied ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was still required!’…. It was like a comedian dying on stage! They both looked at me as if I’d just loosed off a smelly fart or something! (I TOLD you I’d offend them with next to no effort didn’t I?)

It’s interesting that even when I’m not working, I feel a sense of exhilaration at the prospect of Saturday being the next day! Today we're having a little get together with Daile's sister Carlene, (pronounced 'care-lean') and one or two 'mates'...(that's what Australians call freinds...but also what they call people who are complete strangers, as if to feign an easy going happy go lucky attitude - as in G'day 'mate'....how'y'going?) One lad that's coming is 'Johny Jetwash'. Ha ha... another is 'Rudy Judy'. At some point they must have had to earn these titles, and i'm buggered if I know how! They're all a good laugh anyhow, and i'm looking forward to it. I'll see if I can get a picture for ya.

'Laters...'

Flying into the face of something or other...

There have been few flights that have caused me so much discomfort as this one from Taipei to Brisbane. Unfortunately the kids were not even slightly sleepy and as is the way with kids, cut us very little slack for our need for some ourselves. Sadly, Phoebe fell asleep immediately the plane was airborne on the leg from Bangkok to Taipei, a four hour flight, and didn’t wake again until we’d landed. As a result, she was singing away and requiring parental interaction for hours on this flight, until something like 5 am Brisbane time. Matilda was just too excited to sleep at all, and was all knees and arms if you know what I mean. I got perhaps 15 mins sleep, and Daile got precisely none. Perhaps we’ll have an opportunity to have some once we’re ‘home’ as Wayne and Dette’s will now be.

So we sit here, having been ‘woken’ two hours before the plane is due to land. Two whole hours! If it wasn’t so goddam uncomfortable I’d be pissed off about the waste of time. As it is, it’s a welcome relief from the torture of trying to sleep. I passed up on the breakfast though as the food on this airline is without doubt the primary constituent of cardboard, and I couldn’t insult my colostomy bag with it. Airlines really highlight the paucity of the Keynesian economic model when it comes to the account that is taken of a ‘human’ needs such as being able to walk about and stretch your legs. If you stand up, it has to be in the aisle, there’s nowhere to go if you do, so the person opposite has to have your arse in their face until you decide that you can’t be bothered or one of the attendants comes past with some worthless offering or some fat person wants to make it to the bog. ‘Reclining’ the seat has almost no effect, save to piss off the person behind the seat. The benefit when you’re sitting in the seat is almost indiscernible.

I confess to have been thinking about the discomfiture of the slaves on the traders, when they were squished into those ships with no room other than the physical space that they took to lie down in. I guess that was nothing to what they were going to, shackled up, and I suppose that the earliest Australian settlers had much of the same treatment. Crap food, no space, and worthless offerings. Therefore I dedicate my endurance of this flight to the shackle draggers whose version of ‘economy class’ was to set the tone for everyone else. In this case it is a blessing that we can’t do it the same as in the ‘good ole days’ and I take a moment (since I have such a glut of moments at this time) to give thanks. I did hear of a primitive device that was used for torture that involved locking someone into a cage in which they were unable to stand up fully, or sit down. They were forced to slump with their knees against the bars, which were roughened to make the surface painful to touch. The designer of this aircraft was related to the half human monster that conceived of that device I’m sure.

Enough from this entry then, I’ll go and lie in a pit of fire ants for a little light relief, and post another entry later.

Pommy

I considered calling this blog 'Pommy v JAFA' which (it says on the web at; - http://www.rsdb.org/search?q=australian ) stands for 'just another fuckin' Aussie', in anticipation of my finding the people here to be less than sympathetic to my whimsical English-ness. Then I discovered that the lovely people are known as 'shackle draggers' by South Africans. Specifically, the Aussies themselves refer to the residents of Queensland as 'Banana benders'....I have absolutely no idea why. There are a number of derogatory terms used to describe Aboriginals... one of which is 'Boong'. The word apparently derives from a native word from the Sydney area pre 1788 meaning anus. The Aboriginals, for their part, have a term for white Australians namely 'ABC'...which stands for 'Aboriginal Bum Cleaner'. Sophistication it seems is not a widespread social phenomenon here...which should really aid my own integration.

Its 1.25 am (London time) on the day we travel to Bangkok...(Friday the 14th Sept 07) and next week on Thursday, we'll be arriving in Brisbane.

The time on this blog is set to Brisbane time....