Officially Australian.

Well, the time has come.  We’re about to be sworn in by the Mayor for our citizenship.  We’ve been waiting for several months for all of this to come to fruition. 

So what’s it mean becoming an Australian?  Mostly, it means we can now vote.  It means we have a say in which politicians we want, to run this country. 

It also means we can apply for government jobs….to be a part of the ‘red tape’ brigade. (oh goody)   No, we’re not going to do that.  But we COULD!

In truth, I already consider myself an Australian.  I’ve lived here for over 30 years.  I know the ‘lengo’, I know those ‘hidden’ rules of conversation and engagement.  I know about the flora and fauna.  I know the majority of its history.  I understand it’s sport,…well,…except for Cricket, but I don’t feel bad about that because nobody else does either.

There’s a subtlety in Australians that’s hidden by their bawdy humour and their larrikinism.  They’re quick to take on new mates and open their hearts and homes to those in need.  Australians are a light hearted group as a whole and most know what’s going on in the rest of the world and understand how it effects them.  But they don’t dwell on the negative either.  They seem to be philosophical, but will take on the world for the underdog. 

Yes,…I will enjoy being an “Official” Australian,  And for my relatives from America, don’t worry, I have dual citizenship, so I will be BOTH.  And while my accent is still as strong as ever, I will ALWAYS be known as an American to the Australians. But in my heart, I’ll always be an Australian.

A new family member added to our nest.

This is the latest member of our family. She’s VERY affectionate and purrs like a well oiled engine. The folks at the Animal refuge center called her “Genna”. (short for generator.)  Her name now, is Maddie and she’s four months old. 

Maddie has explored the whole house now.  And Bella has discovered there’s a CAT inside the house!  So she’s been glued to the back sliding doors as she watches this,..this…CAT scampering throughout the house like she OWNS it or something.

Maddie sleeps with us at night and promptly wakes us at 4am.  Well, she wakes CHRIS at 4am but I sleep on despite the purring whiskers in my face.

You’ll notice that part of her tail is gone.  I thought she may have been a Manx breed, but no, she’s had an accident somewhere along the way as there’s a tell tale kink in her tail as well.

And she’s house trained as evidenced by the sand gravel scattered across the laundry floor in the mornings.  After further investigation, I strongly suspect that Maddie may be of male gender too as certain parts of her anatomy look distinctly male.  I guess we’ll find that out when the vet looks at her at de-sexing time in the next couple of months.  (no, I’m NOT able to tell the sex of a cat.  You’d think it would be apparent. Go figure.)

Maddie loves exploring. She’s discovered the bathroom, all the bedrooms, the pantry, the linen cupboard, and she’s discovered that she can jump on the rubbish bin to get to the top of the desk where I have my computer.  And she tries to hunt the cursor and anything else moving around the computer.  She watches my fingers type away and tries to attempt to bat them and play too.   I have found out that she definitely DOES NOT like the vacuum cleaner.  But she’ll learn in time that it will go around her, not through her. 

Well, having Maddie around certainly has given me a new lease on life too.  It’s fun to play with her and talk to her.  I love watching her antics as she explores the house. 

She’s already caught one big black spider and ATE it. YUK.

I’m hoping she’ll be a good mouser too.  We may need that skill later on.

Well, I for one welcome Maddie into our home.  She’s going to be a great entertainment and a wonderful little companion.

Homeward bound, worn and weary.

Well, we’re homeward bound now.  We’ll be home in about four hours.  Washing needs to be done, groceries need to be bought, and Bella needs a cuddle.  (I know this cause we have a psychic connnection.)

All of us are worn and weary.  And as we make our way home, plans start formulating on what the next step is. 

Pam and Ron are due to fly out in the next couple of days.  Chris is due to go to school in the next month to get his Real Estate License, and I have plans to go to school and pick up a job somewhere.  So with all of that in mind, I’ll grab another cup of coffee before we go.

From out bush to the “Outback”

Okay, before I start here, I need to let you know that while we were in Undarra last night, I’ve written 5 postings, so keep scrolling down to the next five blogs.  This one is the latest news in what’s happening.

We landed at Undarra Lava Tubes last night.  We had a good meal and headed back to the carriages for a restful sleep.  These carriages contained two single beds.  There were no coffee facilities or bathroom facilities.  The bathroom/toilet were in a separate carriage.  We could have gotten ensuited rooms, but I’m not sure what happened there.  But it was a unique experience at any rate.

We were all up early in the morning and packed the car before having this “bush’ breakky.  There’s nothing better than bacon and eggs on an open grill in the bush.  And we had plenty of coffee to go around.  You just had to watch out for

these guys as they will take your bacon or sausages away from your plate in the blink of an eye.  They also operate as the morning alarm to let you know what time it is.

 

Once we finished breakky we headed off on our tour through the lava tubes.  We took the two hour tour because we had such a distance to go to.

 

 

 

 

As we walked down in to the cave, we prepared to get wet.  With all the rain they’ve had in the last few weeks, the caves had knee high water in one and in the other, it was shoulder height.

 

Here’s Chris and Pam in ankle high water listening to the guide talk about the lava tubes and how they were formed.

 

 

 

 

The view as we made our way back out of the cave.

 

 

 

 

Well, we finished our tour and started heading to Hughendon for a layover stop.  This road is a “development” road which means it’s being developed.  So there’s part tarred/bitumen roads, part dirt road, and part boggy mess road.

We even crossed a few creeks that were overflowing with water.

Einasleigh Station creek.

 

 

 

 

The view from the other side of the creek.

 

 

 

But we did see a bit of life along the road apart from the guys who were working on the road.

 

 

Just before we landed in to Hughendon, we stopped in at Porcupine Gorge to have a “sticky beak”.

The river above is Gregory’s River which cuts through the station.  And this little guy was just ‘hanging’ around.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, it’s been a very long day and a tiring one too.  The driver is having a sleep and the others are resting before their dinner at the local pub.  Tomorrow we’ll have to see if the road out to Larke Quarry is open as we saw a couple this afternoon who booked in as well and said they couldn’t get out there because it was too wet.  It could be that we go straight to Longreach in that case.  We’ll see.

Today is the BIG DAY!!

We got up the next morning trying to remain relaxed but excited at the same time.  Chris took the bride and her ladies to Casey’s mum’s house early in the morning so they could get ready. The photographer was due at 11:30 for family photos.  Rob and Marc showed up mid morning, and Neil and Brett five minutes later.  Everybody started preparing for the photos.

Scotty and Cody chillin before the chaos starts.

 

 

 

 

Chris and I doing that last minute checkup on the dance routine.

 

Even grabbed Pam and Liz for a quick lesson.

 

 

 

 

The boys already to go.

The Bride and the Groom.  This is  the only picture of the wedding I’ll be putting on the blog.  There’s more on my facebook page for those of you who want more wedding pictures. For some reason, I feel that putting this on the blog is wrong, but I know that there are some who are not on Facebook and would like to see the photos.  If you want to see more photos, please email me and I’ll send them to you.

 

The wedding was magical.  And it wouldn’t be a typical wedding if some things didn’t come off without a hitch.  But for the most part, it went beautifully.  Even the weather behaved itself while the wedding party made their way across the golf course for more photos.  The meal was superb.  Each person received their own mini wedding cake to take home along with chocolates and candles.  Everybody behaved themselves and still had a great night.

Our congratulations to the bride and groom.  May they live “happily ever after”.

Catching up with family today….

It’s Saturday, the day before the wedding.  Al, Heather, and the boys arrive right after breakfast.  We decided that we would have a look in town to have a cup of coffee and see the esplanade.

 

It wasn’t raining, but it wasn’t too far off either.  Showers were the order of the day.

As evidenced to the left and right of the camera shot.

 

 

The groom, who seemed very excited.

 

 

 

 

The bride, who decided to drop off Camille’s dress at the marina where we were having coffee.

 

 

 

 

 

Camille tried on her flower girl’s dress which fitted beautifully.  She looked just like a fairy princess and it makes for a great “spinny” dress!

 

 

 

 

Here we are at the marina catching up.

 

 

 

 

After lunch we headed back up in to town so some of us could get the Easter shopping done.  We picked up some food for the night and eventually caught up to Al and Heather, who went their own way for the day.

Miss Camille certainly wasn’t shy about posing.

 

We headed over to Jenny’s unit for dinner.  We were going to have a progressive dinner in each of the units, but with Cody needing his sleep, we had the whole affair at their unit.

 

Heather brought chicken and salad, Jenny, the nibblies, and I brought the desserts.

The bride and groom catching up with family the night before the wedding.  But there was more to look forward too……

 

 

Everybody joining in the fun.

 

 

 

 

Scotty and Brett’s first go at dying Easter eggs.

Brett’s first attempt came out quite good!!

 

 

 

 

Well, with Easter Eggs done, Camille and Cody in bed, it was time to send the groom home and the bride upstairs to her unit.  Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!

Heading in to Cairns and the big day.

Well, it’s been a few days now since I’ve blogged and MANY things have happened along the way.  We’ve since had the wedding, caught up with family, headed up to Cooktown and we’re now on the return home journey.  So this may require a couple of blogs, so read through.  I’ll start off where we left.  We made it to Atherton Tablelands for the night.  The following day we headed in to Cairns.

Here we are at the Curtain Fig, also known as the strangler fig.  It’s a parasite that actually covers other trees and the root system creates a curtain like effect.

 

 

Here we stopped in to see Lake Barrine.  It’s a small, beautiful  crater lake.  There’s a little restaurant on the lake where we had a Devonshire tea.  As you can see its raining so we didn’t get to take the boat tour around the lake.

 

There didn’t seem to be a tour of the lake going, so we left and made our way to Cairns.

 

 

 

We finally got to our unit and caught up with the kids.  The girls were heading out to a hen’s night and the boys went out for a few drinks.

Jenny and Liz ready for a night on the town.

 

 

 

 

 

Liz and James pausing long enough for me to take a photo.

 

 

 

 

 

Jenny and Scott having their OWN wild time.

 

 

 

 

 

Grandma and Camille having their OWN wild time.

 

 

 

Grandma babysat Camille while the adults went out.  Grandpa filled in later to give me a chance with my cold.

Tomorrow we go in to Cairns and have a look around.