Piccies!

As promised here are some piccies of the house and local area. I don't know how to do one of those 'more' links making it optional to view the whole post, otherwise I would. BTW I am a shit photographer. Deal.

Here is one of the baby geckos that live in our house.

Andy’s friend, Nick, heard them communicating on the first night. They kinda chirp. I think there’s two parents, one larger baby and this is the smaller baby. They're supposed to eat bugs and stuff so we're happy to leave 'em be.


This is an example of the crazy patriotism in this neck of the woods. Our neighbour’s not one, but two, Australia flags flying on their front lawn

The other neighbour’s children were running around draped in Australian flags, screaming ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi!’ last Friday. I don’t think they quite knew what they were Aussie-ing nor Oi-ing. A further example of this 'crazy patriotism' is this (re-typed by me - bad editing not my fault) letter to the editor, From one of the free local papers:

'Stand on Crime

"What can we do about the crimes committed in Logan". Well there a few things tat can be done.
1. If the offender is not a citizen send them back from where they came from.
2. If they are a naturalised citizen remove their citizenship and put them on 12 months' probation - if they offend again deport them. [Oh, there's sooooo many commas missing in this darn thing!!!]
3. If they are born Australians then put them into the army for three years.
I blame the courts for most of our problems with crime.'

I have chosen not the republish the local redneck's name. Letter originally published in the Albert Logan News Wed Jan 31 2007, p. 9.
So there you have it kiddies, the troooly Orstrayan solution!

Moving right along...

This is Brodie’s Meal Makers, a takeaway store at Waterford Plaza. I’ve never seen one of these before.

They have chips, fish, burgers and chicken. Nothing particularly exciting. I'm fascinated by the over-excited loaf of bread though.

This is a 7 Eleven.

Yes, I’ve seen them before, we don’t have them in Canberra though, so it’s still a bit of a novelty. This one is a petrol station too!

These are painted electrical posts.

I think this one (above) looks like little green sperm. I think they are supposed to be leaves.

Those from Canberra would be familiar with the painted electrical boxes. The artists were decided through a competition. I don’t know if the painted light posts here were decided through a similar means. I could call the council and ask, but that would involve calling someone.

These are pretty purple flowers in our front yard.

These are palm trees in our front yard.

This is Tygum Lagoon, in our suburb.



Above three photos by Andy.


I was most disenchanted when we got there. By 'lagoon' I imagined crystal blue water. Hurrumph! Andy said, "Why don't they just call it a lake?" To crush all my hopes and dreams, that's why!

Some QUT Garden's Point and Kelvin Grove campus photos coming soon.

Haven't received the hardware for the broadband yet. *grrr*


"Well if you're not going to talk to me I'm going to talk to my orange" - Adam (my 14-year-old brother).

A hunting we will go

Andy and I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday househunting in Queensland. We looked at a number of houses in the Logan Shire, about 30 minutes from Brisbane.

I am proud to announce Andy has purchased a house in the suburb of Waterford West.

This is the house:



The advertisement for the house can be viewed here, with the real estate agent's photos here.

It has a huge backyard which we can put a pool in or, with council approval, sell that half of the block.



The yard is already dog proof, as the previous owners have two dogs. This makes things easier for me, reducing the amount of preparation I have to do when I'm ready to purchase a dog.

There is a snazzy bar downstairs which opens up to an area which we're going to add some shade to to make a patio.





The main bedroom is purple! My office is pink and orange.
Incredibly cute.



The laundry is really spiffy.



I'm also rather fond of the patio that can be accessed via the loungeroom or the main bedroom.



The blinds and curtains are staying which makes life a bit easier for us. I like the wooden blinds too. You can kinda see them here on the side of the loungeroom.



The house is near numerous shopping centres including walking distance to one smallish centre. Also in walking distance is KFC, Red Rooster, Blockbuster video, two servos, two chemists and the bestest darn little fish and chip shop. $1.80 buys a serve of chips that would cost about $3.00 in Canberra.

This is Bill, our friendly real estate agent.



We were able to settle for comfortably less than the advertised sale price. We shall be receiving the keys on January 25. Based on this we will probably leave Canberra on the 24th.

I'm hoping to organise the farewell party for Saturday January 13. Those who know me, get in touch for the details if you don't have them by the first week of January.

I'm terribly excited and feel like I have a million things today between now and when we leave.

Oh! I should probably mention I also received a scholarship offer from the University of Queensland. It has a condition I don't quite understand but if I meet that condition I shall be attending that University and studying under Dr Fiona Nicoll, author of From Diggers to Dragqueens.

I told my brother today of the plans to leave Canberra. He handled it pretty well. I hope mum handles it just as well.

That's about all for now.

"Well if you're not going to talk to me I'm going to talk to my orange" - Adam (my 14-year-old brother).

Shagz and Marilyn - Halloween 2006

Here's the Halloween piccie of my mate and I. It looked better on the camera preview. I still look kinda sleazy, so I like it.

Lazy real estate agents

This photo is of one of the houses in for sale in Brisbane that Andy was looking at. The question I pose is, how bloody hard would have it been to move that freakin' trolley out of the way before taking the picture?!?!



Thankyou



"Well if you're not going to talk to me I'm going to talk to my orange" - Adam (my 14-year-old brother).

There's a Jey on my RiotACT eating chips

See here.






"Well if you're not going to talk to me I'm going to talk to my orange" - Adam (my 14-year-old brother).

Hallowickedness: Jey as Shagz

Attended a Halloween Party on Saturday night. Below is a picture of me as Shaggy 2 Dope from ICP.



You can't see my hatchet man bling in the pic, but I'm wearing it. My watch is also an ICP watch.

I've wanted to wear this costume for a number of years, since I saw them commentate a match with Vampiro on WCW. Shagz and Jay were dressed in baggy suits and looked very fresh. Each Halloween I haven't had the time or the money to get the face paint. Last Halloween I purchased the paint but there was no party held. Finally, this year I got to dress up as Shagz. Next year I'll do the same outfit but go as Jay.

There's also a great piccie of me looking at Marcia's jubblies, she was dressed as Marilyn Monroe. I'll post it when I get it if she doesn't mind.

On the way home we got pulled over for a RBT. My friend who was driving hadn't had anything to drink so that was all good. I was shitfaced and insisted that the police breath test me. I blew .135. This could be an error so don't all go flamin' me for sounding like a fool. It sounds about right though because the limit is .05.

There were three cops. The third was a younger one, a newbie, we figured. He knew vaguely what I was dressed as, he said a 'juggalo', so I thought that was super cool.

Overall a good night. The comedown over the next few days, not so good though.