Hangin' with the Humpbacks

'Tis whale watch season here in the southern continent and we just happen to live purdy dern close to where they like to play.  Adverts claim "The best whale watching in the world" Well, we went for ourselves and see if this was truly the case.  The verdict is: YES! Up to 7000 of these 40 tonne cetaceans migrate from Antartica to the warm waters of Australia and the south Pacific Islands during the winter and spring. Our local harbour has boats that take trips during the season, (one of the most well known is the Whale One, belonging to the late Steve Irwin's family) but for an actual good look at these guys we drove north three hours to Hervey Bay. As you can see we were in spittin' distance. They are bemused by the boats so they spy hop: stick their mouth straight up so their eyes are out of the water. We also saw many a tail and pectoral slaps, but no breaching. Big fun.We also happened to arrive sort of in the middle of the town's whale festival parade, complete with camels, firemen dressed up like koalas, and heaps of nippers riding on trucks.

Eli also had a good weekend, but he wasn't with us. (this has been happening more and more) He was body boarding with his mates in Byron Bay, New South Wales, about 4 hours south. It was a birthday trip for a fellow year 10er, Cameron. One dad and 4 boys spent two full days in the water catching waves and having a great time. His wetsuit tan line was his souvenir.

We've been hiking with Jill and Angel most days, tackling Kondalilla falls again which is so beautiful I could walk there every day,  Buderim Forest Park, Noosa National Park, and Mt. Coolum. It wasn't until the last day we spotted 'roos (that weren't road kill) but we spent plenty of time looking!   A few days ago we ventured to the wilds of nearby Nambour, planning to watch Melissa perform with her high school orchestra in yet another rife with rules eisteddfod. It was a day with a lot of driving, and we did our best to be there on time, but the two tight lipped bitties at the door wouldn't let us in despite my pleading as the door was closing JUST as we arrived.  We were relegated to listen from the fire escape. Oh well. She's been on stage since she was about three and I reckon we will have another chance to see her perform soon. Um, like this coming weekend with her dance class.....

Australian:Not a mozzie in sight during winter, but still warm enough for a barbie. Eli to mom:  "Can you get me a big bag of lollies from Woolies?" After brekky Jill and I donned our sunnies  and creatively arrived downtown for yoga class and stretched our hammies. And...in addition to the thumbs up for the local favorite bickies, Angel actually thinks Vegemite is yummie.

American:  Mosquitoes did not  interrupt our barbecue last week of local Mooloolaba prawns and Hervey bay scallops.  Eli's gift of choice for the birthday boy was a nutrition filled bag of candy from the grocery store.  Jill and I had some delicious fruit bread for breakfast, and planned to catch the bus, but oops there it goes. Missing class was unacceptable, so armed with yoga mats and sunglasses we thumbed it and within a few minutes a nice surfer dude stopped. We stretched muscles I knew about, like my hamstrings, and others I had forgotten about. In addition to lamingtons, our guests sampled Tim-Tam cookies and Vegemite. This hugely popular Australian condiment can be compared to Spackle mixed with coffee grounds in a jar, and tastes like super salty yeasty bitter paste. I'll pass.

Other weekend activities: local comedy (better than the last one we saw but still wouldn't be mistaken for the pros) my choir singing at at Coolum Celebration Day, visiting the Yandina Ginger Factory where they produce 70% of the world's candied ginger, and stumbling into a cute cafe/vintage shop for a farewell lunch with Jill and Angel. It was great having them, and all our other company too. It appears we have no other guests slated to bunk with us....must mean the end is coming. I won't count the weeks yet. And here's a link I'm passing on (thanks Susanna!) from the blogosphere catalogliving.net It's  hilarious...enjoy.

Sunshine Coasting

Tom's sis Jill and her partner Angel arrived yesterday and we took advantage of some sunny weather and made an afternoon jaunt to the Noosa National Park. It was a lucky day for Koala sightings as this little guy was perched in his eucalypt only a few feet above our heads! He even confirmed he was alive by imitating a newborn: opening his sleepy eyes briefly, stretching a little hand, and defecating.

Australia's first women Prime Minister was appointed a few months ago, and the media has been quick to fill us in on her private life. She  has a male partner, but they are not married. She also describes herself as an atheist. Me thinks these two qualities would keep her out of the highest office in land in the states. Seeing the need for a public mandate as she was appointed not elected,  she called for federal elections. She had three years to do this, but jumped on her tide of popularity.  Australians will vote for the party of their choice on Saturday Aug 21. Voter turnout plummeted years back, so the powers that be decided voting would be compulsory so they say 95% of enrolled (registered) voters turn up, but as in America heaps aren't registered. Shame. Julia Gillard represents the Labour party (whose views seem to be aligned with American democrats) and her main opposition is Tony Abbott (representing the Liberal party, republican-esque)In addition to the Greens party, other voter choices include the fishing and lifestyle party, the Australian sex party,  and the climate skeptics.  

At Kondalilla Falls with Kim and Anjie

Mah Jong

The Perrett clan  hosted some guests recently... travelers Kim and Anjie, from Hong Kong and Germany respectively.  They had been working for Julie and Gary, our friends who live nearby, as "woofies" which is short for WWOF (world wide organic farm) association. This outfit matches folks willing to work for room and board, usually on farms! Gary and Julie don't have a farm, and our tiny tomato patch hardly counts, but none the less it worked out just grand-- in return for a bed and vittles, they did a smashing job washing our windows, re-organizing the pantry, helping with dinner, and cleaning our barbecue.  Plenty of time to wash the sheets before Jill and Angel arrived less than 36 hours later.

Last weekend was a treat for me, I was  down the road 1 km for a yoga retreat, my first ever but not my last. It was blissful to do so much yoga in one weekend. The Ayurvedic food was delish,  company fabulous, and the teaching superb. The most astounding participant was a petite power house named Vivian, always dressed in fetching purple togs.Somehow she could accomplish a myriad of poses requiring strength and flexibility far beyond my scope........and she is 37 years my senior!

new uniform for Sunshine State High School

Melissa has now finished three weeks at her new school, and the report is all thumbs up. She is really enjoying her new classes, but I still don't quite understand how she has so many.... in addition to the four traditional core subjects she somehow also has  manual arts (she's enjoying making a wooden pencil case at the moment)sport, Italian, art, and music. She has already made  new friends, as she was at a girlfriends house Friday night, and then onto a slumber-birthday party Saturday night. It sounded quite familiar.....a whole room of giggling girls eating junk food, watching movies, and gabbing until it was almost light. She was one tired puppy on Sunday!

The door was open a few days ago and in flew a magpie. He hopped around for quite awhile and seemed to consider staying but after he got a good look at the place out he flew. Finally, Here's a snap of a spectacular sunset we had last week. G'day mates!

The joey at the jym part 2

Jilly the joey is now 9 months old and quite a regular at the gym.  Next week she is changing carers and will live about an hour from here with a mob of other rescued joeys.  For a year or so she'll live  in an enclosed large property, and then will be released to the wild. We'll miss her cute face! Yesterday she looked quite stylish trying on some lime green plastic crocs owned by a 4 year old.

We have been on two wheels a bit lately, as Tom scored a great bike for a great price a few weeks ago. We have ridden to the gym (5 miles) exactly once...and have lots of excuses for not doing it more.  Sunday, leaving our eldest at home, we pedaled on down  the lane a bit to a lunch spot. Melissa has a pretty clear condition for coming along: she's keen to ride if we are going to end up at someplace fun, preferably with food.

Spring is just around the corner (well a long corner, the whole month of August) and I have officially been forewarned of a seasonal  danger of biking  during September....Magpies!! It is breeding season and the males will swoop and attack people without warning. Reportedly they go for bike helmets, so some have taken to wearing very odd looking helmets with plastic spikes all over to keep their heads safe. I guess the pecks can really hurt.....

Ok so obviously I didn't take this picture but we did see one of these critters the other day. It's a blue tongued lizard and they are fairly common 'round these parts. Kinda like a fat snake with legs, they are about as long as my laptop. Lovely color of blue, isn't it? They are not poisonous but creatures resembling snakes do make a person jump a bit.


I can't wait to see what's going to bloom during spring, as the winter flowers around here are spectacular. These are the best and brightest from around the 'hood. A trumpet creeper, a poinsettia (huge!) a wattle tree (what we call a mimosa) and a queensland icon, the banksia.

The moth larvae in the pot outside have multiplied, sometimes we see as many as five of them crawling around on top of the dirt. A friend saw them recently and tells me they are not actually witchety grubs, but  some other kind of larvae. Whatever moth or butterfly that will  emerge from these is going to be an insect to be reckoned with. These guys are as big as a travel size bottle of shampoo.

Right here I intended to post more pictures but blogger had other ideas. So till next time, thanks for staying tuned and as always, I love hearing from you. My inbox is always open!!

1 Raymond + 3 Bradshaws+ 4 Perretts = FUN

One of the best things about living here is having folks come visit. Our guests arrived later than expected due to delays in San Francisco, which meant we had time to clean the house a little more, twiddle our fingers, and make a killer loaf of bread. Hugs all around at the Maroochydore airport later that afternoon!! We explored the sunshine coast for the first 6 days then headed to Fiji for 5 nights/4 days. As expected, we packed in as much as possible. Here's the breakdown, by the numbers:

15 different pointe shoes tried on by Melissa before finding the perfect fit.

14 total dives between Scott, Cindy, Stephanie and Tom, plus 6 tanks between Connor and Eli following their introductory course and pool time. We compared sightings of moray eels, octopus, reef sharks, rays, green turtles, and thousands of brilliant colored fish and corals.                    

13 or so guests at our 4th of July Party, but we had hot dogs, hamburgers, and potato salad  for 30 (the extra was packaged up as party favors.)

12 hikes more or less, including the Noosa Coastal track,  to the top of Mt. Coolum, and to and fro on the island of Malololalai where our lovely bure sat facing the ocean.  Scott, Cindy and I walked across at low tide to another Fijian island  on our last day to have a look at a rural school, and a chat with the inspiring, progressive, phenomenal principal. He is changing the lives of 168 kids with his work ethic and high expectations. No lazing about for these kids!

11 items at least on the buffet table in addition to the whole roasted pig on a spit complete with an apple in it's mouth. I personally declined the offer of a piece of crackling. (roasted skin)

10 minutes was about all the boys got on the wake board before a screw pulled out and they were back on the beach. The complaining stopped when they had milkshakes in their hands.

9 times 10 koalas at the koala sanctuary, in addition to the hundreds of lorikeets and dozens of kangaroos available for petting. We couldn't let Jaycee go home without being cozy with a marsupial.

8 (or more) groans from  kids( mostly Eli) as we took a drive in the van to do some sightseeing in the sunshine coast hinterland,including the Yandina  farmer's market, Eumundi craft market, and Kenilworth cheese factory. Big smiles as we watched our teenagers go for giggles at the playgrounds.

7 poker guys came over to our house in Yaroomba when the gals headed to Brizzy on the train...which we almost missed, as we arrived at the station at 7:01 and  the train departed at 7:05

6  testosterone driven activities undertaken by Connor and Eli:  pummeling each other, wrestling, extending horizontally from a pole, running up a waist high rock wall, sleeping until  after lunch when possible, and shoveling copious amounts of food into their mouths several times a day.

5 big ones would have been a good catch on the deep sea fishing trip undertaken by Scott, Cindy, and Tom, but instead they just had a long boat ride 

4  of us toasting with excellent Australian Shiraz to Scott and Cindy's 19th wedding anniversary at Ba Viga restaurant in Mooloolaba. Also 4 kids hanging out, gossiping, playing scrabble, swimming, and ditching the adults whenever possible.

3 hours or so Melissa and I were up on Tuesday night in Fiji as she had the flu (details omitted)  

2 thrilled and beautiful girls after getting  la-ti-da facials in  Brizzy in honor of Mel's passage into teenage hood

1 fabulous trip with the Bradshaws and Jaycee; we all looked forward to it and now it is all memories and pictures, sigh. As of this week our oz adventure is half over. We are sad and happy, missing our friends, but not the fog and Tom is REALLY not missing the stress of the office. In three weeks Tom's sister Jill and her beau Angel are coming to see us .... no doubt we'll make the most of it!

Witchety grubs , flat whites, and a new Prime Minister

This witchety grub (moth larvae) was groovin' in a potted plant right outside our front door.  Looks nice and meaty, don't you think? Eaten raw or slightly cooked they are  high protein bush tucker for aboriginal women and children, which leads to the question, why don't the men eat them?? We opted not to cook it up, but reportedly it tastes like scrambled eggs with peanut butter, or almonds, and when toasted the outside is like crispy chicken skin. Yum-yum.

Coffee house culture rivals California, with Australian brands like Gloria Jean's and Coffee Club dominating. Recently I read 61 of the 85 Starbucks in Australia have closed. Lattes and cappuccinos are popular, with a lessor focus on all the fru-fru syrupy concoctions that have become so popular stateside. A flat white is almost like a latte, just a little less milk. If you'd like an ordinary cup of joe you're going to have to make that at home, as the baristas only serve up espresso.  I thought folks around here would follow the English tradition of tea but the cuppa of choice seems to be the bean.  At school the break around 11 is called morning tea, but no one drinks tea.

Tom and I ventured onto another kind of surfboard this week, SUPS (Stand Up Paddle Surf). It would be imaginative to call it surfing as we were in the river on quite flat water, definitely a prerequisite to maneuvering one of these honkers in the salty water. Our wetsuits were handy only when it started raining as we actually stayed upright for the entire hour plus! Heaps o' fun, good exercise, and a nice way to do some sightseeing on the river. We're planning to get up to the Noosa everglades someday (a crocodile-less beautiful stretch of river up the road a bit) and we can rent these boards and take them there. Alternatively we could go in a canoe but then we would miss the adrenaline rush of an ever possible spontaneous swim.











So Oz is in the news again, as the first ever woman prime minister took office this last week. Politics are politics in lots of ways (haggling over new tax schemes, will we ever get out of the war in Afghanistan, issues regarding refugees, rising utility costs, etc, etc......) BUT Australia has quite a different way of handling how the party in power (presently Labour)deals with sinking popularity of the person holding the highest office. Just a few days ago, Kevin Rudd "stood down."  This means he didn't object when the caucus voted to replace him with Julia Gilliard, the Deputy Prime Minister. So, in a blink, Kevin is out and Julia is in. Parallel situation in America would mean the upper echelon of the Dem's could vote to replace Obama with Biden. Can you imagine? ! The fact that Obama's popularity is in the toilet partly because he hasn't fixed the huge travesty in the gulf is a mystery to me. Is he an elected leader or do people think a fairy godmother can grant him supernatural powers??

Saturday I helped out at our local Cancer Council of Queensland Walk 4 Cancer event registration. Around 700 of us walked some 20 kms along our beautiful coastline. I was thinking of my dear departed friend LuAnn, sister in law Katie, and mother in law Julie, who all recently lost their hard fought battles to this horrible disease. You might notice I am not either one of the people in this photo as I'm not a costume queen, but I can appreciate those who are....

Here's Eli and his mate Jakob, an international student from Germany. Eli's trying to talk him into coming to Arcata High next year.They have gotten on well and spent a lot of time surfing together. Unfortunately Jakob is headed back to Germany next week. Coolum High has an influx of 16 new internationals this next term, and Sunshine High will have 49, including Melissa! We have her new uniform all ready to go for the first day, July 13. She has predictable trepidation about being the new kid (again!) but is looking forward to being in their orchestra. The Ar-Mac orchestra at home is just around the corner and she has her sights set on being in that number.
 

Here's Melissa's 13th birthday dress we made last weekend, and the best looking of the tomato plants on the back deck. We are in the process of giving the house and yard a much needed scrub.....our visitors will be here in a matter of hours!
We are all QUITE excited...we'll  be taking in the local sights this next week and then July 5 we are all headed to............................................................................FIJI!!!!!

fifty plus one

Me thinks I am showing some signs of homesickness. If you're going to be sick, I guess this is a good one as no kleenex are needed, it is not contagious, no aching joints, and your face doesn't get splotchy. I know I am homesick because recently every other person  looks like somebody at home. I went to the grocery and oh look there's Kim! (no) Hey, look that looks like Pete! (nope) Isn't that....? (no again) So this too will pass,  it's all part of the experience. If I didn't miss home something would be wrong. Arcata is dear to us in so many ways......but we do feel special we missed out on a REALLY wet winter and spring.

Thank you  everyone for the birthday wishes.  I am now officially 51 it seems. I am continually grateful I know so many superb women (and men!) ahead of me in the *collect the years* game. I have nothing to fear but more wrinkles and gray hair. Oh goody. I'm still sticking to the same story, I have earned every one of these wrinkles.

To celebrate the big day, Tom and I enjoyed an early morning jog on the beach, followed by a cuppa (one of my favorite aussie expressions)  then we were off like a herd of turtles to Brisbane. We took in the Ron Mueck exhibit at the Queensland Modern Art Museum. He's the guy who makes Big People (not to be confused with the other big things of Australia) I had seen his work some years back in Washington D.C and was quite impressed/bemused. He is Australian born and currently living in London. His work is phenomenally life like. One in this exhibit is a newborn baby that's bigger than a baby sperm whale.

Following a particularly gastronomic heavenly event known by the common name dinner,we skidded over to play we had booked. It was billed as a comedy but the plot had gone missing and no one in the audience laughed. Thankfully it was over in 75 minutes! Sunday morning Melissa and I attempted to take the train to yet another dance competition her studio was participating in. Didn't quite work out as we were on the train for a little too long before I realized we were headed in the wrong direction.  Stressed is not quite a strong enough word to describe the ensuing emotions. In the end we made it to the appointed theatre with we thought  about three minutes to spare, but she ended up not going on stage for another hour.  It would have been a very long day for all of us had she missed her performance!

Sunday afternoon was a rugby league game at Suncorp Stadium. (capacity over 50,000)  The Brisbane Broncos pummeled the Rabbitohs, a South Sydney team. We ended up sitting mostly among the Sydneysiders, near a rather loud fan screaming "Go Bunnies!!!!"  The cheers when the Broncos scored were deafening.  My how those 250 pound guys with thighs like fire hydrants smash into each other. We watched some poor soul  dragged down the field several yards as he hung onto an opponent's shirt. As we were leaving our seats a woman approached Tom and said " don't I  know you?" he said no, she said " are you sure? from the movies? T.V.?" He missed his chance to impersonate a famous actor. Must be his new sevelt figger.


Monday was a holiday.  Happy birthday Lizzie!  (Queen Elizabeth that is) We drove to the glass house mountains, not far from here, and hiked around admiring these lava plugs, cores of ancient volcanoes. They have been here awhile, about 25 million years.  Named by Captain Cook in the 1770's, he thought they looked like glass furnaces.

Here is a photo of my favorite piece from the fused glass workshop I attended last week, a couple of shots at a magnificent place called the Buderim Forest Park, and, courtesy of Melissa Ryan, a photo of the scoreboard at the Giants' game in San Fransisco over Memorial Day Weekend. (which she arranged) I'm sure it was a bitter sweet occasion for her friends and family to be together there without LuAnn, watching the team she loved. I miss her. We are so excited Scott, Cindy, Conner and Jaycee will be here in less than two weeks!!

Heading toward half way

Today was celebrity day here on the Sunshine Coast. Our local globe sailing teenager Jessica Watson floated  into the harbour in Mooloolaba. The papers declared over a hundred thousand  turned out in Sydney a few weeks ago on her arrival. Her hometown welcome audience was a bit smaller but no less enthusiastic.  The town was afloat in pink!  Her boat, the Pink Lady, was named  in honor of  a cosmetic company called Ella Bache which was her main sponsor.  Anyhoo,  the pink balloons and streamers were everywhere along with plenty of pink clad fans. We arrived in time to see her ushered in by 30 or 40 yachts, kayaks, speedboats, fishing boats, and any other vessel anyone had access to.We peered over huge crowds to get a glimpse. Of course the pictures were better on the news....
For those who missed my introduction of her a few blogs ago, this is the gal who recently completed a seven month solo circumnavigation of the globe, all before her 17th birthday. I am so impressed. I love to hear about people doing amazing feats of courage and determination, especially someone so young!
Here are a few of the snaps from our afternoon:

Life is cruising along swimmingly for the  Perretts as we coast toward the half way point of our adventure here in Oz.  We're well ensconced in the daily life we have carved out, still finding differences which delight and astonish. Our most recent OMG epiphany was at dinner the other night. We patronized a Japanese restaurant with sushi conveyor belts. I had seen one of these before in San Fransisco, when the plates floated on a little canal. It was  fun treat and certainly nice if you are in a hurry to eat. We noticed  some of the dishes had a white sauce drizzled on them. California rolls with, uh, icing? No... news flash: Australians like their sushi with mayonnaise.

Yaroomba Bushland Park is a lovely seven minute stroll from our door and one of my favorite slices of aussie heaven. (Another  is the raspberry crumble bar from the bakery downtown.) Here in our neighborhood park  is a boardwalk over the ferns, bush turkeys, a swamp, these gorgeous huge palms, a beautiful understory vine called the red fruited palm lily, and solitude aplenty. A bit of bush just down the street. I've been going several times a week, and just like redwood park in Arcata, I love it every time.

As the end of the semester nears (June 25) and we ponder our educational choices for the second half of the year, it seems likely we will have a son continuing at Coolum and a daughter going up the road to Sunshine Beach High School. Melissa is just a school changing sort of gal. Assuming she attends only one high school at home, (given our track record for this issue it almost seems unlikely) her school career, counting preschool, will span nine schools! Sheesh. Thank you all who have listened and will continue to listen to my angst/dilemma about schools. It has been my obsession since they stopped drooling, why did ever I think it wouldn't follow me here??

Tom returns from Bangkok on Thursday, and he will not be missing the 100 degree wet humidity. His trip was touch and go for awhile before he left due to the political instability, but it has subsided now as the thousands of protesters were effectively cut off by the government forces and they surrendered. The Red Shirts were protesting the removal of the deposed and corrupt prime minister. Thailand has historically been a peaceful country but has become increasingly divided since a military coup in 2006. Tom says a shopping center near the hotel he stays in was partially burned, and the curfew imposed slowed business to a crawl for several days, but things are getting back to normal.

Mama and Joey spotted this morning when I was helping out at the World Environment Day at the university, Eli having a go as a midfielder, and an autumn sunset, Coolum Beach style. Thanks for staying tuned!