Sep 30th first day on the IFR

So after last nights early night I was up early and raring to go. Well when I say early it was about 4ish I managed to sleep a little more until 6:30 when I was wide awake. I got dressed and crept out of the room without waking anyone (I think). First things first I went to investigate the breakfast situation. Breakfast starts at 7:15. Dam it I wanted to leave by then so I did, I was out of there at 7:10 ish and was on site for 7:20

Eventually other guys started to show up and it was a bit of a meet and greet session. We went into the marque for the site induction. There was only about 30 of us today as there was a huge show in Brisbane "riverfire". I was introduced to everyone as the pommie apprentice, you can imagine the amount of ammunition that gave everyone. So with the site induction consisting of don't f**k up and don't blow up we were ready to go. Hard hats and hi vis jackets handed out we started loading racks on the first barge. After an hour or so the ammunition was beginning to be fired at me, but after reminding them who owns their country they settled down. Standard procedure followed, group, angle, and nail the racks together. After morning tea we started dropping shells and wiring in. Having never used their firing system it was a steep learning curve but once the code was worked out it was fairly straightforward. Lunchtime came around and we sat down to a platter of BBQ chicken and 4 different salads! I had seconds as did everyone else and there was still food left over! Rather unenthusiastically everyone started to go back to work. I was bored of wiring shells so went with another guy to preload the harbour bridge show. A couple of hours later that was done and in the van and ready to go. I headed back to the barge and found a comfy spot to sit and play with some more wires. For daddy's info they use Fire one, don't buy it I don't like it. Anyway 4oclock came around and it was pack up time. I headed back to the hostel to have a shower. Shower done and an hour or 2 resting in bed I made some sweet and sour stir fry for dinner with enough for tomorrow's dinner too!

My evening consisted of meeting the new room mate a very friendly chap from chile! And watching some TV. Bed time for me now for more exciting happenings tomorrow!

This is the first of 6 barges. 

There is 2 containers of pyro per barge!

Saturday 28th - Symbio Wildlife Park, Sea Cliff Bridge, Nan Tien Temple

Sorry this is a little late but Myles beat me to it with Sundays blog!

We had a little bit of a lie in compared to normal awaking at 8:45 by 9:30 we had showered and were starting to get breakfast. Myles had coffee and toast, Laura just the toast with of course Marmite because we are British. 
So picnic was in order crusty rolls with cheese and salami, crisps drinks and snack bits for wondering around the park. All packed with cool packs because we are in Australia and it is hot here.
Just before we left the radio came over "a lovely 30 degrees today" We both trek back upstairs and swap the jeans for shorts. This was a very good decision! Car packed SATNAV programmed and we were off.
It was about an hours drive along some motorway and some lovely twisty hilly roads which Myles did arrive and the satnav almost got us there but we chose to ignore it in exchange for the brown tourist signs. 
Tiny car park everyone hogged the shade so we stuck ours on the end hoping the shade might get to us by the afternoon. We paid our entry fee and got student discount which we love! And took a look at the feeding and talk times. Unfortunately we had just missed the koala feeding but did see one perched on a tree for photos. Laura made a sharp B-line to find out how much it was for a photo knowing well she didnt care how much she wanted a photo regardless. $15 is about average for where ever we have been around the world, New York, Vegas, Memphis, Toronto. Most of those photos we took a sneaky photo of anyways so it was about time we brought one. Our turn arrived and the bugger was asleep we gave him a stroke but no such luck he wasn't waking up! Photos taken on Myles' camera and there's to get a printed which was lovely to have digital copies as well which is something they wouldn't do else where so thumbs up to Australia, America you suck.

After this Myles made his B-line straight for the Meercat feeding & talk which was in 10 minutes time. I had a peek at the cotton top monkeys and other small monkeys which were SO cute and then the keepers arrived. We had a listen to what they had to say and watched them getting meal worms out of some PVC piping with holes drilled into it. Myles was impressed with this device as it worked as a shaker to put them on the floor for them to find also. During this time the sun was up and suncream went on predicting sunburn! 

We were all then invited to watch the tigers being fed which sounded exciting, but it was lunch time so we went planning to eat after. This was worth waiting for lunch for. They hung some deer meat up on a big pole and hid some in some milk crates for them to have a bash at. The first tiger being the male came bounding out once the keeper had left and charged at the pole throwing himself up it grabbing the meat ripping it from the bungee cord it was attached with and ran off with it. Well that was pretty amazing and fast, he then took it to the shade and enjoyed his lunch. 

Just as he had sat down the female tiger appeared and we were told she doesn't like "Men groups of people loud noises or children" So she doesn't like being in a zoo then? She hadn't been there long we assumed and wasn't quite used to it. Considering it was a Saturday in school holidays it was pretty chilled out and the tiger seemed to think so as well. She had a look around the enclosure until she spotted the milk crate with the meat inside and she started to turn it over flick it around trying to get it apart. She started to get the right idea picking at the bungee cords and then pushed it in the pond much to her dismay. She didnt like the cold water and was grumpy that she couldnt get it out. But doing so a bit of meat fell out into the water. After trying to move it with her paws she gave in and stuck her face in to get the meat which resulted in this face. (Brilliant photo there Myles thank you)

After this she charged very bravely at the male tiger in attempt to steal his dinner but he had already finished so she was out of luck and sulked on top of the shade shelter. He took advantage of this and he tried his luck at the box. He wasn't having any luck either and with that we lost interest. Lunch time.

We walked past the guinea pigs? (We didn't consider these zoo worthy?) and Myles spotted a lovely picnic bench inside the Kangaroo enclosure. Of course we had lunch there and the wallabies were very interested in what we were eating and were hanging around looking super cute. Crisps and a roll each devoured Laura wanted photos and to cuddle these cuties so a long time was spent with the roos and Wallabies. We went and found a wombat which was huge, very much built like a badger. Then saw more roos and wallabies which were being guarded by a goose!! Laura wanted more photos but was unsure of the evil goose which turned out to think it was a roo! It went around with a group of them all day eating grass when they did very strange. 

After this another show, this time reptiles which to Lauras surprise Myles wasn't too keen on finding out he didn't like snakes. Not too much that he didn't touch one. We also touched a croc and a few more snakes. That done we spoke to a parrot and had a look at the next part of the park which we thought was pants. Barn owls, cows, lamas and sheep? We came all this way to find animals we can see everyday if we wished... Typical haha! 

We carried on and saw the rest of the park, Tasmanian devils, koalas, dinog's and Emus to name a few. After this we picked up our photos and exited as customary all over the world through the gift shop just to wind parents up! 

After this Laura saw a sign to the Cliff Bridge drive which is a bridge which is built over the edge of a cliff. Pretty impressive. But before we got to go there Myles wanted to go to a look out point the other way and we came across a beautiful view and to Myles' delight a bikers meeting point! Lots of bikes some old ones lots of new ones BMW's Kawasaki Ninjas, Ducatis, Honda's, Suzuki all sorts. After having a good look at the bikes and chatting to the riders we finally had a look at the view & bridge we would be driving across and Myles then understood why it was special as it was beautiful. With this back in the car and over the bridge. There was a purpose to this as it was on the way to our next destination but Myles had been talking to the bikers for too long and found out there was a fantastic driving road in the opposite direction which he decided we had to do as that's why all the bikers were there. Cant lie I was up for it and the Subaru lived up to expectations and was thrown around hairpins and whatnot having a wail of a time we decided not to go to far and set the satnav for the Nan Tien Temple in Wollongong (I love the name of where it was!) 

Sea Cliff Bridge

We had a long drive suck behind the slowest of slow drivers along some more amazing roads.. Toyota Yaris drivers!!! 2 of the bloody things doing half the speed limit and breaking at stupid times.. -.-

We didn't like this and blasted off when we got to the freeway and were there in no time. It was so beautiful Myles was a little skeptical of going there but I think he secretly enjoyed it. Sadly because it was a practicing temple we weren't allowed to take photos inside but all of the walls were lined with little gold metal plates which had Chinese writing on them. We had no idea what it said but they were pretty amazing and all very symmetrical which Laura liked a lot because shes OCD. 

I found this picture on their website and pinched it, this was the inside of one of the buildings.

It was coming up for half 4 and we still had to get dinner and be home for Tara the dogs dinner!! (This was the most important factor.) An easy drive along the highway stopping for fuel in a little town where Myles was offered to have his fuel filled for him, he didn't know how to deal with that and said no thank you. After this straight home via Coles where Laura picked up some supplies for dinner and for his approaching hostel days.

Supplies acquired home.. Dog feeding time and Myles settled himself in front of the TV awaiting dinner. Dinner tonight was Tacos which we hadn't had in a while and very much enjoyed in Canada with Tasha. (Hello, hope you had a nice holiday if your reading this!!) 

Tacos cooked time to fill them and eat them. This time it was easier because Deb queen of all things kitchen has Taco stands what a good idea!! 

We chomped down on those and enjoyed watching a good James Bond film, the one with the diamonds? I forget the name. 

After this a long sleep because another early start to pack Myles up for his departure that you already know about because he has ruined the timeline of the blog haha! 

As the internet is so slow the photos of today aren't on the blog but are on my facebook as it is quicker to get them on there so check it out (: 

Lots of love to you all, you will hear from Myles for the next week which will be an exciting change!! 

Only a few hours left to vote who writes the best blogs if you haven't already!!!

Sunday 29th

Hi everyone, Myles here.

We started the day off pretty slow partly because Laura didn't want me to go... Eventually I was packed and ready to leave for the IFR. I dipped the oil in tge car and topped up a tadge, checked all the other fluids and headed out on the trek to Sydney. Australians would say it was a short drive but I consider 2 hours to still be a reasonable trip especially when I normally only drive 10 mins a day! Eventually the GPS took me to the door of the hostel. I still think that was the best $99 spent! I got checked in and was shown to my room. It should be $30 per night. I'm here for 10 nights. Do the maths, the chap on reception said it was $282. Naturally I accepted and ran away. I got upstairs and met my dorm chums. 2 girls and another guy, naturally all Germans. This limits conversation rather, but we are getting by. As I write this a rather low plane just flew over, that's not ideal. Although there is a flight curfew at Sydney at night! I Checked out the kitchen and all the other bits there are to be checked, it's pretty normal really, standard hostel haha! I jumped in the car and took a drive to the harbour to have a reckie of where I'm working. I was met with rather heavy security and after explaining who I was, what I was doing, proving I was who I was I was let in. Driving along the port I saw 4 containers marked with 1.3G so I assumed I was close. There were 2 guys stood next to a sea of fire extinguishers so I headed for them. I saw they had Foti fireworks shirts on. Bingo! I got chatting to them and they explained what was going on when. It all seems pretty daunting. As far as I know all the set up will be done in white bay then either put on barges or craned onto war ships. Same goes for Te harbour bridge and hotel roofs. I was given my triple A pass and headed back to the hostel. It only takes me 10ish mins so that's not too bad! There's also somewhere to park my car!! I Took my bags to my dorm to see that the guy in my dorm was watching Australian speed week so I thought it would be rude not to waste a couple of hours watching some racing! Speed week finished and I thought I would have a quick walk around locally to see what there was to offer. There was nothing. The only 2 things that were of any interest were the train station and a van with a rather funny bit of writing on but that's not appropriate for the blog!! I returned to the hostel rather bored and got to talking to everyone here. That would be a total of about 10 people. They were all going out for a drinking session but I thought it a good idea to pass that one up, one because of tomorrow and another I don't really like drinking haha! I had a look in my food bag Laura had packed for me and elected to cook the pizza. Remind me next time to remove the polystyrene base BEFORE I put it in the oven. Needless to say I forgot about it and had a rather interesting tasting dinner. It was nice all the same! So that brings me to now. 18:30 do I go to bed? The 2 girls are already asleep and I don't want to put the TV on and I'm bored of the games on my phone. There's also no Laura to talk to. Boredom has ensued. I'm calling it an early night. Night night guys, hope you all like the new page by the way! 

100th post!!

Congratulations!

By keeping up with our blog you lucky people have read 100 of the things! We have been working on a surprise to celebrate with and this brings me to our new page!! Hopefully you have read this before you looked at the page but we know what your all like! Our new page has videos from our travels which is why we needed so much wifi to get it finished!! 

So take a look and see a few of the things that we have seen! 

Leave a few comments in there as its a bit bare but most of all enjoy it!! 

Updates!! 27th September

Wahoo update number 1 has arrived!!

I assume you will all notice without me pointing it out but after a lot of tweeking whilst you were all asleep, (haha you never saw it coming!!) we have a new photographic blog title which should be lovely and central after playing with the HTML!! 
Let us know if its all working properly and what you think of it!!
More cheeky updates to come this weekend so hold on its going to get even more exciting!! 

This weeks gone rather fast for us both working, Myles in the factory playing with concrete and steel beams and Laura doing the usual bits in the house, cleaning, cooking along with working on these fantastic blog updates for all you lucky people.

The result of Laura's cooking, first roast dinner! Slow cooked shoulder of lamb. No Yorkshires in the photo... They were forgotten in the oven and looked like conkers once she remembered them!!

Blogs will be less whilst were working and hopefully you will get a few from the Pyrotechnician whilst hes buggering off to Sydney and leaving me on my lonesome for 10 days for the highly anticipated Navy Fleet review. 

http://www.navy.gov.au/ifr/ Heres a link for more information I cant be bothered to type out!

I hear its going to be spectacular, they do advertise it enough on the news, they even said its going to be bigger than New Years which will be pretty cool as well. Oh the Ozzies are also excited because some Pommie called Prince Harry is coming down too? 

Either way Good Morning to you all hope you have a lovely Friday the weather is gorgeous here today Myles went to work in shorts!!

Heres one for you Kate (I expect a comment on this as I have addressed you!!)
This is lovely Tara the dog who Laura spends her days with. Myles went to get the post and she snatched it out of his hands to carry it to the door where she waited and gave it back. TOO CUTE!!

Sunday 22nd

Firstly a very Happy Birthday to Steff as it is her birthday today so she gets a very special blog post mention! 

Sunday is a day of rest.. Not here its not! Gardening is a Sunday thing gardening clothes on breakfast eaten into the garden. First more woodchipping for Myles whilst Debra and I washed Tara in the new bath which was very exciting and she liked except the cold water.. Not so good but she looked pretty again which was good. After this morning tea, we had a Chelsea Bun and then back to work. I helped Myles finish one part of the chipping then it was onto bigger things! BONFIRE!! This is a bonfire that has been building up since we got here and it was HUGE. One match and it went, we can see how bush fires start it was crazy! We went to our next job which was cutting down trees and lunch.. Sunday BBQ with our Costco steak which Myles took control of and was lovely everyone enjoyed with a great salad too. More tree cutting followed and Myles got to use the tiptruck to dump stuff onto the bonfire which he liked too! We had started to clear up when Debra decided whilst we were at it to cut down another tree where she was planning to plant some other stuff in a few weeks time. Tree down stump to go. This tuned into a 2 hour effort! Debra and Myles started to dig the roots up and came across a broken power cable! Not good.. After a good look and moving some more dirt there were 4 cables one broken  where the tree root had cracked the casing. Luckily the wire itself was fine! So electrical tape found we were going to patch it up. Trouble is we couldn't because the root was still there. Another hour and a half digging around the cables and Myles delicately using the chainsaw to release the roots we finally got it out and fixed the pipe.. Well it wasn't what we expected but were glad we found it sooner rather than later! Garden tidy up finished the bonfire and it was time to relax! Debra took her mother home and we found War of the worlds to watch. Debra didn't fancy dinner so we had left over curry which was lovely! Everyone opted for an early night and F1 in bed followed. A busy day but good work was done!

Special blog updates 

Very exciting news I am going to use proper office wifi today which means I can do more blog updates! It's still a secret because it isn't ready yet but hopefully it will be soon!

Leave us a comment on what you think it could be or what you would like it to be!

Again very happy birthday to a brilliant sister hope you had a great day at the races and won lots of money!! 

Saturday 21st

On Friday night we were chatting away at the dinner table and Myles' and Ian had planned that I would come to work and help out a bit for the morning to get things ready for next week. This was then  repelled by Deb who said that I was invited to another home and garden show which sounded much more appealing so we left the boys working again and went off to find more things for them to do at the garden show! All arose at 8 ready for work and garden shows. The men (and tara the dog) left in the Renault and Deb Vonnie (Debra's mother) and I set of in the Peugeot. Again  it was in Sydney which was nice but even better it was at the Olympic park which was exciting to see! After about an hour or so's drive we arrived, once the car was parked we were picked up by a small train ( like the Eastbourne Dotto train, and grandma don't tell me that it's not there anymore it will make me sad!!)

Very exciting train ride done we entered the Olympic park. This show was MUCH busier than the last one and Lots more commercial. This was run by the home and garden magazine and TV show so it was expected that there would be home things too. We did everything outside first before it got too hot as it was a rather lovely day again. There were lots of very interesting stalls with things like chicken cages, furniture made out of tyres, plant stalls just all the usual stuff really. The thing that caught Debra's eye was the dog bath on legs! Very impressive bit of kit.. We thought Tara would fit and this would save $50 a week getting here washed so that was purchased.. We came back for that later as it was a tad heavy! We continued to look at things picking up leaflets and entering LOTS of competitions and getting free samples we made our way into the inside bit which seemed to be all home things which was a little disappointing but nevertheless we had a look. During this time we had lunch. Lunch consisted of being given so many free samples of food we weren't really that hungry we had curries, chocolates, brownies, lots of cheeses, fruits, sweets, puddings you name it they probably sold it haha! All very nice and yummy we tried some of the things on offer like a $499 eye mask that is meant to get rid of headaches.. Essentially it plays music in your ears and massages your head which is great but it made my headache worse and I didn't enjoy it. Others did though falling asleep whilst trying it! So we didn't buy that as it didn't work! We had a good mooch around and came across a makeup beauty stand where I got insulted by the most heavily makeup'd and wrinkly woman in the world who said she thought I was 13? Charming, I thought he looked about 59 and properly used all this magic cream and still looked that way! But we kept that to ourselves.. Debra tried some of her magic cream which puffs your skin up to reduce wrinkles around your eyes. We had seen ads on the tv like the JML adverts at home and thought pfft this will never work! Magically it did and we were all surprised and found out it was made in England yaaaaay. Moving on there was a stall called 'free perfume' this could be fun I thought seeing all the bags with union jacks on them! There was a man behind the counter who called us over to smell his perfumes and went into pitch mode. He had done this 10,0000 times before and was very good at it. We tried 4 fragrances and a men's fragrance which would all be free and at the value of over $800!! Wow, bit I loved best was that he was saying its the number 1 selling perfume in the UK and in Europe.. 1 Pommie stood right in front of him never even heard of the brand or recognises the bottles but he carried on with his speech telling us how amazing the offer is. "We don't advertise on TV because you can't smell perfumes" blah blah. Best bit was at the end, "ladies this is a bargain, all we require is $50 for this first perfume which is Hal price for the show today." So it's not free then? Goodbye!! We left that one very promptly and could no longer smell any of the 4 that he put on our wrists haha! Good sales there, and with that and a few other bits we were ready for and ice cream! After the most expensive flake99' in the world we headed back into the show to pick up our purchases for the day and head back to the car. This was easier said than done. Once plants were picks up we had to get the dog bath. The box wasn't heavy as it was plastic just awkward as it was the same size as her! The man who sold it carried it to the gate where we carried on to the car with Debra balancing it on her head! A small jiggle and it was in the car success! We were all a little tired after wondering in the heat for the morning but we had one more stop. Costco! There are only 3 in Australia and it is an American shop. Not sure if we get it at home but I expect Mark to know if we do! It was a HUGE bulk buying superstore discount place thing. Very exciting we arrived parked the car in the underground car park with no signs, Americans eh? And waited for the lifts to find out you HAVE to take a trolly from the car parks and take it in the lift to use it! Stupid idea!!! Americans again... The lifts were big lifts but the trolleys were American sized like double normal trolleys with under storage like in homebase or wherever. They had everything catering sizes of apple pie, cameras, TV's, meat, Christmas decorations, wooden outdoors children's play frames, anything you name it from food clothes just stuff they had it and in BIG numbers! Which was great picked up a weeks supply of food a months supply if looroll and corona for more than half the price! Great until we wanted to pick up some rice for dinner.. I have never seen such big bags of rice! All catering bags the size of pallets! It was mental think ikea and then times it by 5 with food. Every isle had someone cooking a product going you samples so there was second lunch! We were pretty much the only Ozzies in the place it was mainly asian or indians and it was shoulder to shoulder getting around (a downside to big trollys) After we had a full trolly we left very tired.. So that was an experience in its self. Because we had bought so much meat we needed a chiller bag to put it all in as we had another hour+ drive home so went to woolies to pick one up. Easy you might think.. After an HOUR and 2 shops we got one and left.. Speedy drive home down the freeway and we found the boys.. They didn't run out to help with the shopping we came inside to find them both asleep in front of the TV watching rallying! Obviously a hard day for both. Curry was on the menu for tonight with a spice mix we bought from the show as it was lovely! It was a vindaloo spice mix but you can add the chilli separately from the flavour to choose the heat, half the packed went in and Myles thought he might cry. We don't like it too spicy but we are learning! We had a gorgeous curry and it was just right not too spicy but a good kick to it! 

As you probably know it was a F1 weekend which meant no early night as it stated at 10:30 for qualifying. Myles watched this whilst I slept,( I think that was the better choice too!) 

Reply to comments on previous blog!

The poll was Myles' idea so if he is losing then its his own fault!! Don't vote me down because he never writes on the blog! Cheeky sods...

Website tweaks

I have had some spare time on Saturday so I thought I would borrow the computer at work and add a couple of bits for you all to play with. We have a voting poll on the far right hand side of the screen, you only have 10 days to vote for who writes the best blog! Further down the page there is a view counter so you can all see just how many times you have looked at the blog! Along with this, there will be something new and exciting coming soon, its being built now so be patient and check back shortly. Bye for now x

Talk like a pirate day 19th September

This was a very exciting day in Debra's office as they were celebrating talk like a pirate day. This then turned into dressing up like a pirate and having a pirate lunch at work. Best of all I was invited too!! Good bit of fun. Up early we left to go to the shops. Debra wanted some piratey things like treasure and swords obviously.. We popped into woolies and got some gold chocolate coins and then the 'crap shop' which sells just anything and everything like middletons in ringer combined with trading for you in Uckfield. Just stuff. 

We had a rummage and went to the dressing up part first and got some pirate beards. We then found the children's toys and found loads of guns swords plastic treasure. All sorts you name it they had it! Perfect we picked up some more bits and paid. We started to drive to work and Debra realised she didn't have a treasure chest and wanted to go back home to get one, I told her I would make one at work so off we went. We took a lovely back road drive through the countryside to get there. Debra is an accountant so we arrived in a shopping mall that had all sorts from cafés to fishmongers, dentists and accountants obviously. I was introduced to everyone and found out their pirate names for the day. With that I was given an office and computer and let loose! I acquired some boxes and made a fabulous treasure chest.(not as good as some I made whilst working at the school but it wasn't half bad) 

This was then filled with plastic and chocolate coins. Beautiful. After a few bits pronted off the Internet I was done and started prep on the blog! (Something very new and exciting is coming but ill keep you waiting for that!!) {we need to keep you reading somehow!}

With that it was about 12ish and I started to lay the tables with plates etc that I had been given. This was very wrong as Debra came in email in hand about how everything should look! Everything off table cloths on and plastic red plates it was ready again. Disaster averted or so I was told! Office drama eh? Everyone arrived and we were told the menu. Fish and chips (fishy cheese biscuits with crisps) dead mans fingers both black and white (two types of sausages) marinated BBQ parrot (marinated chicken cooked on the BBQ. Yes they even have one at work on the balcony!!) there was also cannonballs (meatballs) and jacksparrows eyes (pickled beetroot) very lovely everyone tucked in and enjoyed. The first complusary pirate song was played. There were 3 in total getting worse as each went past! But it kept everyone amused alongside gun fights across the table. Once everyone had finished eating it was time to do the pirate crossword. I was at a disadvantage because I didn't have the homework sheets to learn about pirates until the night before! I also didn't get a chance to look at them :P

Nevertheless everyone did them together and eventually we got the bloody thing done! Wahoo pirate day done. Clear up and back to work for the accountants and I was left to tinker with the blog and do general Internet things for the afternoon. Same drive back home except in the dark.. Once I got home Myles asked me to get his jumper from upstairs, after calling him a lazy bugger I went to get it. What I then found made me angry and excited at the same time.. There were 2 HUGE jars on marmite on my bedside counter...MY MARMITE HAD ARRIVED!!!! (Backstory: 2 weeks ago mummy asked if I would like anything sent out as we would be settled for a while assuming I might like clothes or something? No I wanted marmite as one of the last earthquakes in New Zealand had broken their marmite factory which is why we couldn't find marmite anywhere! So that's what I've been told anyways) good times you might assume? But how did it get open.. I had been excited for 2 weeks to open my marmite box and MYLES opened it! After a big winge he was in bad books all evening and Ian shouted in 'told you so!'

After this we had a great pasta which had chillies in which we were sceptical about but turned out to be amazing! Bed followed shortly after a very exciting day! 

Myles' 21st birthday

Laura has instructed me to write this blog as its my birthday and as I haven't done a blog in a while so here goes.

Saturday morning came around and we wished we had gone to sleep at a much more sensible time than we did as we were rather tired, Laura disappeared downstairs for a while and instructed me not to follow. Me being me the temptation was great but I resisted and laid in bed for half an hour. Laura returned with breakfast in hand! A vast selection of sausages eggs fried bread beans etc, all the bits a man could want for breakfast. Laura ran off again and came back in with some presents she had bought, being on the budget we are on it is very hard to choose something to buy and the fact that I am very hard to shop for (apparently). Anyway Laura had got me a top gear magazine, a lovely shirt that I wore all weekend and a wallet to replace my current one that was starting to look a little tired and some nesquick. I have had a desire for a milkshake for a rather long time so that should settle my craving! No time was wasted and we started getting ready for our big trip out! We packed all we needed and threw it in the car. The other thing that wasn't so easy to put in the car was Tara. She knew the drill once the collar was on and she walked to the car. I lifted her in and she settled down straight away. Debra and Ian had flown to a wedding in Melbourne so the house would be empty, Debra had arranged for Tara to go to a kennel for the night, well a dog hotel really. We dropped her off and headed to the mountains. After a little bit of a drive we came across a waterfall called Wentworth Falls where we stopped for a photo opportunity and lunch. Lunch consisted of leftovers from last nights BBQ. We packed up and hit the road again. The GPS took us to the hotel door with only one detour but we won't go into the mind of the sat nav. Laura had booked us into the Palais Royale hotel which on the outside looked rather lovely. Inside however was also just as lovely. We got the keys and found the room when a minute later a bottle of complementary champagne arrived! Myles popped the cork and we had a glass each. We popped the bottle in the fridge for later and investigated the town to find an eatery. We walked up and down and settled for a little Italian place, it was called papadinos and run by a rather eccentric Italian chap. An old boy that had no real idea of what he was doing however made a joke out of anything and everything he could so it was a good laugh. Dinner was great we both had a calzone only mine had more bits in than Laura's. After dinner we walked back up the street watched a fire dancer, decided he wasn't as good as the maniacs from Fiji and left. We got back to the hotel and finished most of the champagne while watching a programme on wildlife in a rainforest. Yes that is how we spent my 21st, watching a program that didn't have David Attenborough in. There wasn't much in the way of clubs in the blue mountains and even if there was we wouldn't have gone anyway. We settled down to bed and had a brilliant nights sleep. 

Sunday morning came around and we were up nice and early to catch the breakfast. A proper breakfast was served none of this continental breakfast rubbish  and we both tucked in! Eventually we finished and went back to the room to plan our days activities. Laura decided that she wanted to go to a chocolatiers along with the scenic world trip. We gave our keys back and headed out. We found the chocolate place easily however Laura then realised that it opened at 10. We were there at half 9. Change of plan we went to scenic world first. Again we found it with ease and went in. Scenic world is basically a tourist attraction that takes you through the rainforest in the blue mountains. Cable cars take you across the forest looking down on the canopy along with a view of around 170km to the horizon. That's about 102 miles for you British folk. Or a bloody long way for the Australian folk. We had a go on the worlds steepest railway, it was indeed very steep. We had a walk around the rainforest for a couple of hours and headed back once it started to get hot and people started to arrive at the height of the day. We then headed back to the chocolatiers and sampled some delightful chocolate. This made Laura very happy indeed. We strapped up and headed for home. On the way back Myles spotted a sign that read "famous Australian panorama" this intrigued us, so we turned off to investigate. This made the sat nav very angry. We looked and looked but saw no panorama. We got to a junction feeling defeated and decided to head home but for some reason we both decided to turn left instead of right. Turning right would have taken us home. We found a winding road that went on for a couple of miles and all of a sudden came across a national park!! We saw no staff now a barrier so we forgot to pay and went in for a drive about. The roads were rather steep with hairpin corners. A petrol heads dream if we were in a supercar but as we had borrowed Debra's car we edged around carefully just enjoying the view. Exploring every lane each containing a different view. It was brilliant! Time was pressing on so we decided to head home. The drive home was as nice as it was on the way up and arrived home to see that Debra and Ian were home before us. We told them all about the trip and headed to bed as we were so tired. We did manage to have a chat to daddy and Andrew which was great to catch up! 

This was the 170km view. To give an idea of scale the mountain in the middle is of similar size to Ularu! 

This was one of the cable cars that took us down into the rainforest. Yes it is as steep as it looks!!

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Friday the 13th (ooh spooky) also Myles' prebirthday

Debra and Ian had left the night before so we were fending for ourselves. Up for work we both went together in the pursue of Internet for last few birthday preparations. By 11 Laura scooted off to finish last minute birthday preparations. This consisted of wrapping presents and cooking a cake. Time was ticking on and Myles was due home any minute but luckily the icing had set & decorated and was in the fridge ready for the big day! Myles came home and we had a special prebirthday BBQ dinner. Sausages and lots of chicken wings! We greatly enjoyed these and tucked in filling our tummys. This resulted in us being very full and having left overs for lunch the next day! We were watching a lot of TV as English shows were on which was exciting and just as Russell Howard finished it was 12... Myles' birthday! Presents balloons and banners followed by us swiftly going to bed... After Laura prised the top gear magazine out of Myles' hands. Big day tomorrow heading up to the blue mountains! 

(Reason for late blog: Myles would find out about birthday secrets, also no Internet in blue mountains. Weekend blog to follow written by Myles!!)

 

Myles' cake, we couldnt not have fireworks could we!

9th - 12th

Hope your all sitting comfortably because this is going to be a thriller...

We aren't doing anything that you aren't doing at home really. Were just doing normal things which makes for dull blogs frankly. But this blog is to let you all know we are alive and kicking! 

This week has consisted of going to work for Myles, shopping and keeping the house for Laura and going to Campbelltown again to finish getting things ready for Myles' big day Saturday.
Speaking of which we're still on for our trip to the Blue Mountains national park over the weekend. Not so good news is that its due to rain all weekend!! Typical as we haven't seen more than 2 days rain in the month that we have been here!! Nevertheless we are English and this shant phase us and we shall wack on rain jackets and make the most of it. More of this Monday.
Over and out until then!! 

Laura & Myles x

Sunday 8th

 An early start for Laura today as she was off to the Sydney Australian Garden Show with Debra and her mother. 8:30 and we were off with an hour and a half drive to get there. The weather not as nice as yesterday with rain predicted! Well we only had 1 day of rain whilst we were in winter so we can allow this. We had a great time looking at the gardens, hose displays and such like. They had chicks hatching live next to the chicken sale and pens which were lovely. They also had a area where you could pick and plant your own strawberry plant which is used to feed those in need. They were lovely and colourful as you can see from the photos I was very excited to do one. I couldn't think what to write so I asked myself what would Myles do and I remembered that he liked to graffiti our blog all over the world so that's what I did! 

"Letstravelthisworldtogether.com strawberry for those in need" and some lovely drawings of strawberries. 

After this we had some more time wondering around the garden show until lunch time. We stopped off on the way home to get fish and chips. We went past a fort called Laperouse which had the aboriginal flag apparently?But anyways they don't do fish and chips like we do at home... We had battered shark! It was yummo (I didn't get a photo of this one) 

Then it was time to go home... Not to Tahmoor but to Brighton! Deb made a detour to take me home to Brighton! It's a tiny place with a sandy beach where people were out jet skiing. The beach did trump England's but the sky was about as grey as the one back home so that's okay. After dropping Debs mother back home I got an exciting detour to a nursery which also had a nature walk with grey kangaroos and wallabies. I was amazed its literally 5 minutes away from where we are staying! After a lot of photos we headed back home for dinner. Tonight is F1 so another late night for Myles ahead! 

Saturday 7th

We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning and Myles was excited to start his day in the garden. After breakfast Myles set on with the weeding going at it like a machine. I went with Debra to vote which didn't happen because there was ques out of the school where the polling station was. (Can you tell people are excited about this election?) so we did some shopping and decided to come back later. Once we were back at home we all cracked on with the gardening and just before lunch I was asked to go pick up Debra's mother from the next village across about 30 mins drive away so once I picked her up it was time to cook lunch. We had BBQ'd sausages with onions and what not which was very tasty! More gardening until late afternoon when I had a lovey long FaceTime Skype thing with the family which was great. After This a very yummy steak dinner followed by the election results! Yippee Ian didn't have to move to New Zealand because Kevin Rudd lost! Tony Abbot is now in power we shall see if people like him or not. It struck 10 O'clock which meant that it was F1 time where I retired to bed for the night whilst Myles enjoyed the qualifying. 

Wednesday 4th, Thursday 5th & Friday 6th

This was meant to be a Myles post about work and such like things but he keeps forgetting to do it so its a 3 day special!

Over the past few days we haven't done a lot its mainly working until the weekend and Myles' Birthday which is fast approaching! 
Wednesday 4th was a working day for both of us so not a lot happened other than me cooking a pasta bake for the next days lunch and doing so much that we had it for dinner that night!! (It was for Myles so had Dinosaur shaped pasta :P)

Thursday 5th was very exciting because I got to go to Campbell Town in the 'Funky Sweet Pea of Happiness' (A green Citroen C3) 

This is Debras other car which she has said I can adopt and use whilst Myles is at work which is very lovely of her!! 
I did a spot of washing sorted out the dog and dishwasher picked up Ians glasses and set off. As I was driving past work I was asked to drop off Ians glasses. This was fine except I wasnt 100% sure where it was but found it just fine in the end. After I dropped them off I saw a very worried looking Myles and set off again!
SatNav programmed and stuck to the window I pulled away. The Citroen is a Automatic but it has Manual paddles on the steering wheel which allows you to change gear when you want as well. This was useful as I didn't always agree with its gear changes. I took the back roads to Campbell Town because its a nicer drive and I still haven't driven on a motorway yet! It was a fun drive with lots of twisty corners and took about the same amount of time as the motorway which was fine by me as it was much more scenic (:
I followed the satnav till I got to where I recognised where I was and found my way into the carpark. The first job I had was to pick up my glasses from specsavers. I had a fitting service which I hadnt had before and took about 20 minutes. In this time I had a chat with the girl who was doing the fitting and she was fascinated with the fact that I was from England. This seemed to be  theme with my day with anyone I spoke to asking if I was from here or if I was English. Once I got my new glasses I went to MacArthur Square Mall to do a spot of shopping. My trainers have taken a battering in America and have finally given up with a huge hole next to my big toe so new shoes were needed along with some jeans as mine had a growing hole. After a relaxing afternoon shopping I had a lovely drive back home did a few jobs collecting and chopping wood and then Myles came home. Very surprised that I had done so many jobs he taught me how to light a fire which was interesting. That evening there was an English man doing the finance news and Myles was shocked and asked if we sounded like that. Debra and Ian looked at hum " Yup." Oh dear we have adjusted so much English people sound like they do in movies or cartoons!! With that we headed to bed.

Friday 6th
After a late night chatting and watching TV it was a slow start to the morning. Myles was off and out for work while Laura stayed in bed for a little longer. The usual morning chores done I went to get the keys to the Citroen to find they werent there and the Subaru keys in its place... Myles took my sweet pea!! Very disgruntled I assumed it was as I didnt get up at 7:30 and headed out in the Subaru to sort out a few birthday things and do some shopping as we needed milk and butter. On the way I saw the Subaru had low fuel so knowing that the petrol station was next to Myles' work I picked up a cheese and bacon pasty and popped in to say hello. I loitered around and used the good wifi whilst Myles was on his lunch break and headed back home. More jobs and some Brownies baked it was home time for Myles with news that we were getting taken out for dinner!! What a lovely surprised. We picked up Debras mother and went to a beautiful Italian restaurant where I had the biggest Calzone I have ever seen! Luckily I know ive got a lovely lunch tomorrow for Myles and I :)Tomorrow is another work day for Myles doing some overtime in the yard.

The weather here is still so beautiful hope its still sunny back home. 
Lots of love to you all reading xx

Sunday 1st & Monday 2nd

Sorry for the delay in blogs it seems that Sunday was a tad busy and I was ill yesterday and spent most the day asleep. 


Sunday 1st
Today in upside down world it was Fathers Day which is lovely as it is also the last day of winter hurrah!! I say this but we have had an above average winter and seen 1 day of rain so it has been lovely!! Spring and Summer have a lot to live up to... 
As a Sunday it was a bit of a lazy morning arising at 9 for breakfast. We got Ian a joke fathers day present and a bit of a thanks for having us here present. He unwrapped it during morning tea and got rather excited to see a remote control helicopter! After battery's being inserted and charged we had about 10 mins of enjoyment trying to watch him fly it. After this it was back to jobs with Ian and Myles trying to fix the pool pump again and Debra and I starting to get Lunch ready. It seems to be a tradition here to have a BBQ on a Sunday which is very nice. Aaron Ians son had arrived and was cooking the meat on the BBQ today. We had 2 types of sausages, pork, prawns, onions and lots of salady, cheesy, fruity bits to go with it. (Debra makes lovely fruit & veg platters with each meal and todays was huge!! It had fruits from pineapple and melon to carrot & tomato's ) Once all was cooked we all sat down by the pool to enjoy our feast. After we had all eaten it was a swift waddle back to the days jobs determined to get them finished! Soon as lunch was cleared up Debra made a start on dinner!! Today was a roasted shoulder of lamb that we had picked up from the butchers the day before.  That done I popped into the next town over, Picton to get a few bits of shopping and have a general drive around. After this not a lot finishing off jobs and a bit of relaxing getting things ready for dinner. Today was a bit of a food blog day but we had some lovely lamb with gravy pumpkin roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings made by Laura. (They came out a bit odd looking due to using pizza flour and not having a recipe or scales so they were a tad odd but tasted pretty good none the less.) After indulging in a gorgeous roast a huge pudding a little TV and then sleep! 

Today was also a very special day as it was our first month in OZ. Only 11 more to go!!


Monday 2nd

Not a lot to report for Monday. Myles went to work early and I didn't do a lot other than sleep and go to the shops to get bread.. I woke up when Myles came home and helped cook left over surprise which was lovely and then made the boys some pineapple and strawberry fruit salad pudding. We all watched a program on US Navy ships and headed for an early night. Whilst trying to sleep there was a single mosquito in our room which proceeded to bite Laura on the shoulder.. and so the bites slowley return!!