It's May now

Notice: there are no kangaroos in this blog post, so if you were expecting more kangaroo-news, you will need to wait. The Joey at the Gym continues to show up most days but she hangs in a sling on the doorknob and passersby would never know a baby 'roo was nesting there. Kangaroos are quiet!

Melissa and I are both officially singing outside the shower. She has joined her school choir and I am now a happy chorister in "Cool Harmonies", which is the local community choir. Yvonne, the director, is a joyous and bubbly Susanne Sommers look-alike. She leads us in warm-ups such as "Pops Got a Head Like a Ping Pong Ball" sung to the tune of The William Tell Overture. We sing gospel tunes, native American and Aboriginal songs, and lots of African rhythms accompanied by Yvonne on the drum. One of the first things I noticed is that my fellow singers don't sound Australian (or 'Strain, as they call it here) when they sing! We sing at a convalescent home in a few weeks, and then at a Choral fest.

Last weekend, in addition to a rainy day marathon Monopoly game, we took in a Mooloolaba river cruise. It's what the tourists do, so we were called to task. It was a smallish, tired boat and our trip was fairly short, but we had a nice overview of this busy fishing harbour which was dotted with mega multimillion dollar mansions. I felt so sorry for those poor homeowners who had to put up with us looky-loos cruising alongside their anchored yachts. A seafood lunch was included in the price so we opted for the freshly caught prawns. Our skipper assured us if we got too messy eating them he would hang onto our ankles while we cleaned off in the river. Funny guy.

OK, so ANZAC Day (Australia's Veteran's day) was this past Monday. I figured since I'm here, I might as well go whole hog and get up for the dawn service. Our friend, who lives 30 minutes from us is an ex-pat American named Don. This made for a bit of confusion for Tom, when I woke him up during the dark pre-morning hours, telling him it was time for the Dawn service. "Don? Service? what?!???...why is Don having a service?...." was his befuddled reply. When he finally registered I was speaking of the ANZAC services, he rolled over, muttered something about it still being dark outside, and went right back to sleep....

So, I got myself to the appointed spot in town and listened to the decorated military veterans speak about remembrance of those who gave their lives in battle. At 5:30 AM there were HUNDREDS of people gathered. This is a patriotic country! Pictured to the left is a tin of the special cookies (or "bickies") for the occasion...coconut macaroons in American-ese. They commemorate this addition to the basic rations for the soldiers in Gallipoli in 1915. America has candy for every occasion but I don't recall any veteran's day or memorial day confections!

Ever heard of a cane toad? These critters are everywhere, and they are poisonous too (and some say hallucinogenic too, if you lick them!) They are an invasive species that was introduced in 1935 in an attempt to control the sugar cane beetle..but oops the toads can't jump high enough to eat them. So here in Queensland they are now huge pests. One female can lay 20,000 eggs, and dogs and other animals will die when they eat the toads. Last year the government introduced "Toad Day Out" which offered prizes for the most and biggest toads brought in. In one town alone, in the northern part of the state, they euthanized over 10,000 of them!! Apparently, locals have no compunction about the rather vicious but effective toad eradication policies. I'll just mention blow torch and you can let your imagination go wild.

My heart sings during class as I glance over and see my hubby doing his downward dog pose keeping his head in the sinta of his outstretched ahms away from his boe-dy (rhymes with Cody) and his heels pressed toward the flo. He's enjoying the class and wants to keep it up post-Australia. Rumor has it they have classes in Arcata ........YA THINK???!!!!!!

Random one liners: Joan and Steve are coming on Monday Yeah!!-----I'm doin' Zumba, are you? -----all the pop music on the radio and in stores is American!!!!

P.S. Don't forget to check out Tom's article about our stay here in the April 28th edition of The Arcata Eye. below is Eli's entry in "Australia's got talent"

Jilly the Joey at the Jym

You know you are in Australia when someone brings a Joey to the gym.  Her mother was roadkill so she is now under the guardianship of a wildlife carer who brought her in this morning. She is 6 months old, about the size of a loaf of sourdough. I thought she was much younger. When kangaroos are born they are the size of a lima bean with little back legs. Following a trail of saliva left by the mom, they crawl up to the pouch, latch on, and don't let go for 3 months. Her carer now gets up for nighttime feedings at 2 AM (I don't miss those!). Jilly, snug in her human pouch, was hung on the doorknob at reception whilst her carer ran to nowhere on the treadmill.

At the soccer field last weekend this fine specimen of our local kookaburra was posing for us. Isn't he a beauty? When you hear these guys "laugh" it is much more of a sneering, mocking call. They seem to be saying nyah, nyah, nyah. I can see why it's called a laugh but I can assure you it they are definitely laughing at you and not with you. They are quite common here on the coast but most of them are not as large as this one.

We have a holiday coming up on April 25th, ANZAC day. This is a remembrance of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp in their first military action in WWI. Labour Day is next Monday. While this is a similar holiday to what we have back to home, what is unusual about the Australian version is that it is celebrated on 4 different days throughout the country depending on where you live!  Australians celebrate about the same number of holidays as America, with some notable differences. June 14th is the Queen's Birthday and on Friday of the same week there is  a public holiday for our local *Show Day*. What is this?  From what I can decipher, it is  a week-long agricultural expo/county fair sort of event. Sounds like fun, but a public holiday? Schools, banks, and stores will all be shut.

Speaking of holidays, we were a little surprised to see what Good Friday was like around here. Everything was shut. Stores/restaurants were open on Easter but closed on Good Friday. Apparently we are in a more predominantly Christian country than America. This must be why I looked all over town at greeting card displays and found nary a bat/bar Mitsvah card. (Sorry Kayla!) There is no dilemma about naming our recent school holiday "Easter break".... It was printed all over the school literature and on signs everywhere. I'm not sure how it is handled in the cities but here in our local PUBLIC school,  a Chaplain is on board (and receives a stipend for his services) for pastoral care.  He handed out little red bibles to all the year 8 kids the same way the Rotary hands out dictionaries to 3rd graders in Arcata. Hmmm....

 Here is a photo I posted on facebook last week.. I post photos now and again, but this one received no less than 10 (ten) comments exclusively from females. Eli was totally uninterested in this fact because, of course, all my friends and family are way to old  to matter. oh well.....

Lastly,  keep an eye out for an article in the Arcata Eye that Tom submitted for their "Arcatans Elsewhere" column. Should be published in a week or so. Bye for now!

A ......... of Kangaroos

So what is a group of kangaroos called? See below for answer. This sighting was on Wilderness road in Lovedale in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. They stared at us for several minutes and as we encroached on them they bounded away. We spotted another collection of them the next day also. We've petted them a few times now in enclosed areas but my parents and niece needed to see them in the wild, a requirement for any visitor to oz.

A fabulous time was had by all on our holiday, though the kids would interject that not enough hours were spent in the water. We ran out of time, We had a lot on the list: A sunset cruise on the Noosa river where we saw hundreds of bats out for nighttime feeding. The "flat" hike to Kondalilla Falls which concluded with a 90 min wait in the parking lot as we were unable to move our car until the owners of the car behind us finally returned from their walk (luckily they were not camping) We took in the Mooloolaba beach and pier and the famous Australia zoo complete with a song and dance number by Bindi, Steve Irwin's daughter who is well on her way to fame. On to the Hunter Valley for some touring,wine tasting,and aqua golf (thank you Eli for winning that bottle of wine and meat pie!) The girls colored some eggs, and Eli got in on the action when it became apparent there were chocolate ones hidden as well. Here he is tossing Mel in the pool as McKenzie looks on, grateful it wasn't her, as the water was NOT warm.

We could have spent a week in Sydney but had just a few days. These are a few of the reasons is why it's one of the great cities of the world 1)the ferries 2)fascinating museums and art galleries 3)the opera house, and how enjoying the sheer beauty of this amazing edifice has nothing to do with opera 4)not one but two city explorer buses 5)a multicultural populace, in stark contrast to Coolum and Arcata 6)great swaths of parkland and enormous trees with a backdrop of skyscrapers 7)street performers, including a guy doing the foxtrot with a life sized doll 8)looking up often and not caring if we were tagged as tourists 9)Bondi Beach and Lebanese food 10) going out in the morning for an urban stroll to Circular Quay and Rocks (the first convict settlement) whilst my family slept 11)Cheering on the international competitors in the Sydney Triathlon Sunday morning 12)the Harbour bridge 13)4.5 million Australians, one fifth of the nation.


And the name of a collection of kangaroos is........a mob or a troop. I like troop better, don't you? And this from my mom: if you ever find yourself in the company of several giraffes, they are called a tower. It's true. Look it up!