Rain

I've just been reminded of how I used to like the rain. In the UK it's a non-event, an everyday annoyance. In a dry climate, when the rain comes, it's a relief. The air is scented with green ethers and one can sit under the eaves and look out as the drops fall and puddles form on the ground. And when it goes on through the  night, you sleep well; perhaps the morning is somewhat cold and then the sun is warm again.

I much prefer rain that way - all the more valuable because it's rare.

Pete is a mother

Remember our pet huntsman spider, Postman Pete? He is still hiding out in the letter box, despite the occasional bouts of bad weather, daily intrusion by the real (human) postman and us peeking in to check up on him. Him? Well, not quite, because Pete is a mother.

A couple of weeks back, he spun a thick, white web under which was a soft white cushion of what could only be little baby spider hatchlings! Hundreds of them, perhaps thousands! Since then he - and she shall remain a he - has been sitting atop his brood looking menacing, and we've been slightly more cautious when checking our post.

Here's a pic of the one BIG happy family :-)

Jump!

Today we cleared the new house of the old, tired decor till the skip was overflowing with drab curtains and blinds, broken up wardrobes, drawers, mirrors and tons of greenery hacked out of the once overgrown garden. Job done, we headed up into the Hills to Stirling and had a walk around the Woorabinda reserve. As late afternoon moved in, the sun came out and we drove down to the ocean for an amazing sunset on the beach. We even saw a dolphin frolicking some 50 meters into the water - see if you can spot his fin in two of the sunset photos. All the pics are here.

It's been a good day; a very good day. So......... JUMP!

Rally without a cause

There is an annual rally in Norwood, a bosh (bohemian and posh) suburb of Adelaide, and it brings out the creme de la creme of petrolhead amateurs. It's really just an excuse to take the piss, and there is a street party to prove it, with the whole of the main drag closed off for one afternoon. They race around the Hills in souped up vintage cars (aka old bangers) and then mosy on down to line up on The Parade to show off. All spick-and-span chrome, American muscle cars taking up two parking spaces at a time, MG and Jaguar leading the British pack, Porsche Carreras and Targas, as well as Italian fiery flair led by - you know it - the Fiat Cinquecento. A version of this model used to be the national car of old Yugoslavia, which tells you how good they really are.... If it doesn't start, you can stick it on your stove to boil some spaghetti or in the garden to pot a plant. There were several podium ceremonies, until everyone got a medal. Champagne gushed, eyes sparkled, sausages sizzled on the barbie... Happy days!

    

Sprung

Within a day, at the very end of August, the weather turned to spring. From heavy rain one day, all of a sudden it was sunny the next and the temperature hovered around 27C for a whole weekend. We discovered Semaphore beach, with wide dunes full of flowers, much less crowded, sheltered from the wind and peaceful. Off to the beach...

Postman Pete

Helen opened our letterbox to pick up the post and... a small furry object wiggled out from under her palm. He likes the metal letterbox cos it's warm during the day and safe during the night. His species like to live in and around houses and come out at night to feed on insects, so people keep them as useful pets.

Two days into his sojourn, we realised we'd rather like to keep him - he is very cute and furry! We just need to pick up our post a bit more carefully until we grow more accustomed. It's one thing to be told they are harmless, quite another to believe it!

Friends and family, meet our new Australian pet and sub-tennant, Postman Pete, the friendly neighbourhood huntsman spider :-)

First day for everything

On Monday, it was my first day at work after more than 10 years spent at my previous job, plus two months of being a house husband with a bit (of contract work) on the side.

Day one is total confusion; three hundred seventy thousand eight hundred forty one bits of information thrown at you every second, half of them acronyms specific to just that company. That first night I felt like I couldn't do the job, there was simply too much to learn.

Now it's day three and I'm feeling a lot better about my prospects. You get into a panic, try to cram tons of information in all at once, then when you actually succeed, you wonder what all the fuss was about! What I assumed to be true going in, remains true in the cold light of day three - 70% of the job is the stuff I know, 30% isn't, and that's actually an exciting prospect!

Change jobs people, c'mon, get yer arse in gear! Although I would not recommend day one. Take a day off and skip straight to day two - it's much better. 

It's all coming together...

... for a true suburban fairytale! We bought ourselves a lil' house and I got meself a job! All in a space of two days!

The house is small and the decor needs a lot of TLC but it shall be a wicked home once it's been done up. We have a couple of lemon and orange trees in the garden and the fruit tastes delicious - they are in season just now... Location is very good, close to the city, work and the beach. I dare say it's in a rather fancy area, with the other houses in the street being larger and more expensive - but hey, we won't hold it against them.

Address is 2/17 Malvern Avenue, Malvern SA, 5061, have a look-see at the pics here. And start packin' those bags to come and see us!

From now on and for the next 12 months I shall be known as Program Manager, ICT Capital Program at the Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology, Government of South Australia. If that's too much of a mouthful, try pen-pushing-civil-servant for short. It looks good on the CV though, let's hope it drives me only slightly more crazy than I am already - it's the best one can hope for in a government job.


To top it all off, I've been told August is the last truly cold month of the winter - those sunny 17C days are becoming such a drag... - and the weather quickly gets warmer from September onwards. Bring on the kitesurfing season! :-)

Beached

Whenever the weather is sunny and warm, we head on down to the beach. Two weekends ago it was West Beach and the weekend just gone we went to Brighton.

It was windy but sunny and warm, and Brighton beach brought out the world and his dog - quite literally!
 

Shock horror, we saw our first shark in Australia! Small, yes. Dead, yes. Harmless even when alive, yes. But a shark! Plus it's fun to play on people's fears of Australia as a place full of deadly creatures who just can't wait to sink their teeth, claws, stings and other paraphernalia into your unsuspecting derriere... It is... full of 'em...

Shock of the shock of horrors, we saw a dead seal in the water! You know what they say, where there is a dead seal, there is a shark around....

Oh alright, I don't know who said that, but someone must have said it at some point.

Strangely, one of its flippers was pointing upwards, stuck in rigor mortis, as the tide took it southwards, some 30 meters off and parallel with the beach.

Anyhoo, let's not end on a sad note, here's the full set of warming pictures of the beach - enjoy!

Playing ball

Seems like my basketball efforts are yielding some results. Having used Gumtree to find a team to play with on Sundays, in the boondocks, I've been invited to join a second team - the Kings - who play on Tuesdays, just around the corner.

It turns out I need a white jersey to match their current outfit; and when I say match, I mean it needs to have a white base and whatever else you wanna put on top of that. I didn't want to go with a Serbian thing, nor a British thing, nor any down under jokes - so to speak - so I came up with this ingenious design!

The two squares actually came up by default as they could not do the special Serbian characters in any font... I plan to just write them in with permanent, waterproof ink :-)