Rain, Rain and More Rain

Queensland is supposed to be the Sunshine State, what's wrong with the weather!  It was so windy and wet today.  Seems like most of the country is this way.  Lovely way to end a long weekend.

Joel still was up bright and early to golf.  He said he golfed so bad due to the crappy weather conditions that he stopped counting his scores.  He never does this, so it was a really bad day on the course.

I stayed in and did the only thing I could think of to kill some time.  Cleaned the house from top to bottom and got all the laundry done.   Tomorrow's mission- reorganizing the closet.  I need to put away some of the really summery things and bring out some jeans for all this wet weather.

I did a great workout (I moved up to a harder series last week and have so far followed it to a tee!) and now am hoping that will help me have a better sleep then I did last night.  I'm working on the Debbie Siebers Slim Series and they are awesome!  I bought them just before coming to Oz, so I didn't get a chance to fully get into them till now.  I always like having lots of workout videos, because I get bored of the same one day after day.

This evening I caught up on some scrapbooking.  I didn't really have many pics to scrap, as the last month wasn't that exciting for us.  I realize it's been a LONG time since I posted any of my pages.  I'm ready to fall asleep now, but I promise I will post some tomorrow!  And update my 365 blog...

A Foggy Trip to Nimbin

Today we took a drive about two hours south to Nimbin.  This is a small village in NSW that was highly recommended as something to see by many of our friends.

It was a grey cloudy day.  Melba took us through the back roads, which was actually pretty cool.  We drove through clouds and fog up into the mountains on some really curvy roads.  Views were awesome, and on a sunny day I can only imagine how much more amazing they'd be.  Every other car that we passed was a Subaru, so the drive became the Subaru Safari.  We were both pretty impressed with how well Brutis held up on some of the tight corners and steep inclines on the drive!

Nimbin is a weird, hippy town with a population of 350.  It became popular in 1973 when the Aquarius Festival brought in a bunch of free-spirited Uni students seeking an "alternative" lifestyle.  Nimbin is also famous for it's yearly Mardi Grass Festival.  There's not really much to see here, just the main street of "local" goods.  Most visitors create their own adventure, if you catch my drift.  We saw some real Bogans chilling and dancing in the street. 

Check out the Rasta man in the bottom right of this picture.  Wonder how he ended up here? 

There was a free museum, where we met some more special people.  It was a "living" museum, which meant there was real foliage and spiders inside.

After walking the main strip and checking out the museum, we had lunch and headed home.  I was pretty happy to get out of here and get back to the city, but it was good to go on a road trip and check out something new.  I feel like more of a traveler now, as we haven't checked many new areas lately.

Looks like the rest of the weekend will be rainy.  Tomorrow is a public holiday here in Queensland, the Queen's Birthday.  I don't know why it's called this, as her birthday is actually in April.  It must have something to do with her coronation date, however every other Commonwealth country celebrated it last Monday.  Queensland is a backwards place most days.

The Q1 Skypoint

Yesterday afternoon after golf Joel and I headed to the Q1 building and took the elevator up to the Skypoint Observation Deck.  At 78 stories high, the Q1 is the highest residential building in the world.  It is taller the Chrysler Building in NYC.

Even though it was a cloudy day, we had some amazing views of the Gold Coast.  I knew there were lots of waterways, but didn't realize HOW many until we were up here.  There are nine times more canals on the Gold Coast then in Venice!

 Look Dewey, I wasn't scared of heights!

 Look at that loser car down there!, Oh, it's Brutis!

 You can actually climb the top of the tower.  Lucky for us there was a group going up there!  They are latched onto the rails for safety.

 We enjoyed champagne and snacks at the little cafe.  The sun decided to come out so we got to see the coast at sunset, which is the most popular time to view (cue hundreds of Asians).

 

The top of the tower has a ring of lights going around it.  It's usually a different color each night.  (Sorry for the crappy picture, Joel was photoed out here!)

Master Chef?

Here's something you don't see too often- me cooking! (and wearing my glasses).

I decided that since I have so much free time here, I'm going to attempt to cook one meal a week.  I was flipping through pinterest (you can follow me here) and saw some interesting recipes and thought, I can try that.  For my first attempt I thought I'd make something easy that didn't require spending a lot of money on ingredients.  I saw this penne with asparagus and balsamic butter and decided it was the one!  All I needed to buy was the asparagus, shredded parm and balsamic vinegar.  I walked over to Coles for some sunshine and picked up my ingredients for under ten dollars.  (I also needed a little bit of brown sugar, so swiped some from a coffee shop!  Thrifty thinking.)  I started cooking about ten minutes before Joel got home, and he was happy to have such a nice surprise to come home to after a tough day at work.  All in all my cooking turned out pretty good!  Joel loved it and said he'd eat this dish again.  (He's a tough critic.  Last time I cooked for him he said never to do it again).  I overcooked the asparagus a little and had some trouble reducing the vinegar, but I was pretty proud of myself for making something edible that required more then just boiling plain pasta.  I think I'm hooked!  If anyone has some tasty and easy recipes for me to try, feel free to share!

Joel and I have a nice, long five day weekend.  Monday is a holiday here, the Queens's Birthday.  I took off Saturday and Joel took off today because we were planning on going away for a weekend.  Turns out all the prices go way up for the long weekend, so we decided to save money and just do some day trips instead.  He went golfing this morning and when he's home we're going to go to the Q1 observation deck (finally!) for drinks.  I have cleaning to do, but am feeling lazy so I think I might go back to bed.  That's what days off are for, right?

Sunday Morning Surprise

This morning I was paying my bills online when I had a surprise skype call from Jill and Kirsten!  They were getting ready to go out to a party and decided to call me and say hello.  Totally the highlight of my week!  Here's their proof that life's not the same with out me.  Love these two.

This morning Joel went golfing (even though it was pouring) and found out he won a new Puma golf bag!  I guess all the winners of each week's competitions (of which he has now won three) gets entered in a draw and he won.  What a lucky guy!

Usually Joel is really unlucky, but since we've come here his luck has changed!  He got (a good job) on his first interview, has won tons of vouchers at the golf clubs he's joined, and now this bag.  Looks like I've inherited his bad luck- tons of failed job applications, a speeding ticket, and a big phone bill.  Hope his luck continues and he gets an Audi job in Melbourne!

The Four Month Mark

As of next week, we have officially been in Australia for four months.  It seems like a lot longer to me.  This trip has gone much differently then I had hoped.

I've done alot of thinking about the long term visa Audi is offering to sponsor us for.  Joel really wanted to go for it, as for the first time in his life he loves his job.  He really pushed me to go for it, but it is just not possible for us financially and I think it's a bad idea to go in debt in order to get it.  I am really not happy here on the Gold Coast, so even if we had the money I would be hesitant to stay in this city longer.  On our current visa, we can only work at one job for a maximum of six months, which means by August 23 Joel can no longer work at Audi Gold Coast.  There is absolutely NO work for me here (not even McDonalds is hiring) so I see no point in staying in a city that just continues to depress and disappoint me.

We've done alot of talking and discussing things over the last couple days and decided that the best thing would be to move to another city in August when the lease on our apartment is up.  Joel is set on staying with Audi (VW is no longer his true love!) so is going to apply at all the Audi dealerships in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth and we'll see what comes up.  We're thinking Melbourne would be a great choice, but we'll see who's hiring.  I think moving cities would be a positive change for me, as right now I'm feeling pretty jaded and resentful about all things Aussie.  The Gold Coast is a great place to vacation, but not so much to live.  For awhile I wanted to just cut our losses and go home, then  decided that we should stick out the year as planned because we will probably never come back.  If I can find a better job in  new city (currently I am averaging sixteen hours a week!) and we have two full paychecks to play with, we should be able to save the money we need to do the travel we want and get the full Australian experience.

Joel is still convinced that we will end up getting a longer stay visa down the line.  Who knows, maybe the next city will really feel like home and we'll have awesome jobs and I'll want to stay longer, but at this point I really want to be back in Canada.  Yes, our weather can really suck sometimes, but after being away and experiencing life in another country I've realized how good we've got it! 

Now I wish the next two months fly by!  And that we don't have any more bumps in the road financially.  Next month my parents will be here for a visit, so there's something to count down to and look forward to in the meantime.

Movie Night

Today was rainy and cool all day.  I had big plans to head to the mall and apply for part time jobs, but ended up on the phone and skype most of the day, then just didn't feel motivated to go out.  I also got my first ever speeding ticket in the mail today.  I can't believe that happened!  I thought Joel was the culprit, but I can see blonde hair and sunglasses in the photo.  Guess there's a first for everything right?  With that came our hot water bill, which was way less then expected ($15 for four months!) and  cute card and some little keepsakes from Baby Sister.  Love that she addressed the envelope to Victoria "Spicy" Hunt (I call her Little Chicken, Big City, she calls me Spicy Chicken.  Long story).

  I did do alot of thinking of what our plans should be for the rest of our time in Australia.  Joel found out yesterday that Audi will sponsor us to stay here longer, but it's going to cost us a pretty penny that we are nowhere near saving (nor am I interested in spending that much to stay here).  Tonight we need to have a good talk and decide what are next plan of action will be.  On our current visa we can only work at one job for a max of six months.  This means in August Joel will now have to find a new place of work.  We need to decide if we should stay on the Gold Coast, move to another city, or just come home.  I'd love to just travel, but we are not making enough to do that either.

On the bright side, I cleaned the apartment top to bottom.  I tend to do that when I'm upset about things here.  Joel is working late and hanging out with a co-worker, so I decided to cuddle up in bed, have some popcorn (which is becoming my Thursday night tradition) and watch a movie.  Tonight is "Wife Vs Secretary" an old black and white Jean Harlow movie.  I just finished another one of her biographies from the library last night, so thought it fitting to watch one of her movies. I love old movies, and Harlow is my favorite.  Can you guess why?