Welcome to Bowen!

We finally have a place to call home! After a week and a half too long in little Collinsville we have successfully secured ourselves a beach house in Bowen. That also means we finally have a return address, so the Thank You notes are on their way too.

We had a bit of a scare in our apartment hunt. There was only one furnished apartment and one beach front apartment available on the market. Those were our two requests. Doesn't seem like a tall-order for a town surrounded by 5 beaches. Yet, the day we dropped off our application for the furnished beach house, we also received the news that someone else put in an offer to PURCHASE! Yikes! After a gruesome weekend, we got the call that the sellers were not accepting the offer. Apparently they are asking high dollar - $800,000!

Unfortunately, we learned that just because you buy a furnished apartment doesn't mean you don't have to spend a lot of money setting it up. 5 trips to the grocery store now and we still don't have it all. Towel, linens, food, cleaning supplies. The list goes on and on.

Now we just need a boat.....

Reality Sets In

After 16 hours of driving, that's 1400 km or about 870 miles, we have finally made it to our new hometown.

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Matt's company set us up with some temporary housing until we find our own apartment. I'm currently sitting out on the front stoop eating Nutella and Arnott's Milk Coffee biscuits. You might be asking yourself "Why is she sitting on the front stoop?" I have to tell you, we knew the temp unit would be small, but I think we were in for a reality check.

The unit is half of a trailer. There's a full-size bed and a night stand. That's it for furniture! After we got over the initial shock - which was exponentially increased by the discovery of the 2" cockroach in the teakettle - we've realized this place is actually livable. There's a mini-fridge, a sink and an oven. Both pubs and the grocery store are in walking distance. We have our own bathroom which has hot water and was surprisingly immaculate. So what if the front stoop doubles as my office? So what if the TV doesn't work? So what if all of our luggage is still in the car? So what if Matt's too tall for the bed? At least there's a view of the lawn bowling club! It's a big deal on a Monday night, let me tell ya!

Here's a panoramic sweep of the place, the whole place:



I've done a bit of apartment hunting and we have hopefully found the one. I'm taking Matt to look at it on Saturday. Hope we have all the proper documents to get an application approved! This place is awesome! I don't want to spoil the surprise so no pics yet.



For those of you petrolheads - we got our Defender 90! It's a beaut! We got the last one in Queensland. It's a diesel bullet-proof tank and I can't park it but I sure get a lot looks driving through town. I'm feeling like a 15 1/2 year old driving a big truck for the first time. I only have a US license so I'm partially legal. I know what the road rules are, I think. I'm still getting used to the steering and the clutch is on the wrong side. But I sure am having a good time!

On the road again....

I know this may come as a surprise to many of you, but I am currently procrastinating.

We have been living in this hotel room for 3 weeks and its finally time to pack up and hit the road again.  Turns out Matt's mine site actually wants him to be on-site at some point.  And Monday isn't coming soon enough for them.

You can imagine after three weeks we've started to settle in just a bit.  Time to pack up our 9 suitcases again and take the 15 hour drive up North towards our new home.  That also reminds me - I wonder which bag the Garmin is in????

We've enjoyed our time here in Brisbane. It was a great place to start getting used to the lingo.  It's kind of like talking to Snoop Dog - everything has a nickname.
Breakfast = brekky
McDonalds = mackers
Woolworths = woolies
Aggressive = aggro

I just got a little surprise as I was typing this up to.  Just another reason why I have the best husband in the world.   He sent me flowers - and proceeds went to Breast Cancer Research.  What a guy!

In the swing of things...

Matt and I had hot dogs last night. Sure, they were called frankfurts at the store. Sure, they were a little redder than what you would expect. But for me there was a sense of comfort and normalcy. Not that I don't love the fact that I can stop anywhere within a 2 block range for a nice kebob. But what isn't more American than a hotdog and doritos?

Really the food isn't so much different. There's more access to Indian and Asian food. They like meat pies better than apple pies. Maybe they just don't know what they're missing? Aunt Mary, I'm going to need that recipe now!



We're getting into the swing of normal living again. Matt's in the office. I'm on the phone all morning. We went car shopping this week. Put a deposit down on a new Land Rover Defender 90. If you don't already know what that is, you probably wouldn't understand the appeal. We don't have the car yet, since we have to go through Matt's company to get the lease approved. Keep your fingers crossed!

I'm loving day-time TV here. Anyone remember Two Guys and a Girl? Ryan Reynolds was still cute even when he played a bumbling idiot. Other shows which can regularly be found on TV here: The Love Boat, Smurfs, Cheers, Xena, Murphy Brown, Perfect Strangers, Rosanne and The Brady Bunch. It makes me feel like I'm playing hookey in high school again.

Evening is just as American, only a little more up-to-date. Big Bang Theory is on 2 or 3 times a night. I'm getting hooked. Simpsons is Matt's default. They're airing last season's episodes of How I Met Your Mother, Glee and Two and a Half Jerkwads (that's what the MX News called it anyway).

There are some Australian shows, like Home and Away, but you just can't bare to watch them. We are still adjusting there, I suppose.

Oh and we keep making fun of all the commercials who only call out Australian actors. For example: "Watch the New Charlie's Angels staring Australia's Rachel Taylor." That's it, no mention of the other two girls. And now they're advertising for Wedding Crashers staring Australia's Own Isla Fisher. But hey, who are Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson anyway?

~ Jenn

PS - note that I've made this page easier to access. You can now go directly to www.AuSchucks.com

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

We went to the coolest place ever on Saturday! It's called the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Tons of Koalas hanging out in trees, looking all cute and cuddly. They're really not that cuddly though, and they weigh more than a toddler. But at least they smell like Eucalyptus.

Truth is, the koala's weren't even the highlight for me or Matt. I loved the dingos. They had a new little puppy who just came in 4 days ago. They were still trying to socialize it. I talked to one of the carers, turns out dingos are generally pretty friendly. They're legal to own as pets in New South Wales. You have to obtain a special permit to own one in Queensland,or else I'd have left straight from the sanctuary to the pet store.

Matt's favorite was the platypus. He's kind of obsessed with them, at least that's my opinion. He was pretty cool. Much bigger than I expected and he's a quick little bugger in the water. You'll have to check out the video. Did you know that when he goes underwater he closes off his eyes and nose and uses electro-senses just like a shark? I sure didn't.

The other super cool part about this place was there was an open reserve with kangaroos, wallabies and emus running loose. You could just walk right up to them and feed them. We watched an emu come up from behind this one girl and steel her bag of kangaroo food. She screamed, the emu ran away and the kangaroo ate both the food and the paper bag. The guided map said not to touch the kangaroos, but they were just so darn cute. And they really didn't care. Some of them just let you walk right up to them and scratch their ears. If you look closely in one of the roos I petted there's a baby in the pouch with it's feet hanging out. We were a little nervous about getting up close at first. Matt bent down next to one of the wallabies and I thought it was going to give him a kiss!

So I left there a bit disappointed that I won't be getting a dingo as a pet. But, don't look so sad, my friends. Turns out that wallabies make great pets too! They love to cuddle and you can walk them on a leash. They grow to be 2.5 feet and only 40 pounds. Wouldn't Bentley love having a boxing buddy? I sure think so....

Until then
~jenn

Brisbane Botanical Garden & Mangrove

So, there's this really pretty little garden a few blocks from the hotel. Turns out it Brisbane's Botanical Garden. Its free and open to the public. There's lots of palm trees and bamboo plus poinsettas. It's gorgeous garden and there's even a river stage in the back. Motley Crue played there last Wednesday, unfortunately tickets were $140 minimum. Slightly out of our price range!They weren't kidding when they said everything was more expensive here.

Oh well, we did enjoy our stroll and found a really cool bridge off the side of the river. And on the south side of the river there's a cool little area with multiple pools and fountains for the kids to play on. Check out the slide shows below.

We've got one more week left here in Brisbane. Matt's got an orientation class scheduled at work. Unfortunately it's scheduled for Thurs/Fri/Sat. We're still searching for apartments up north, and researching our options for cars. Will let you know more as we start getting things figured out.

~Jenn & Matt
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Mangrove & Beach


Botanical Gardens

Brisbane Pictures!

We've got some pictures for you!  So, we had the weekend to run around Brisbane a bit.  We're staying at a hotel in City Centre this week and next.  So we have just been wandering the neighborhood so far.

Matt went to the office first thing Monday and they weren't expecting him.  I guess that start date was a little more fuzzy than we thought. Turns out they weren't expecting him in the office til Friday.  Nice for us, as we'll get a few more days exploring time.  Too bad I still have to work in the mornings.

We've got a pretty sweet situation with the hotel.  One bedroom on the 40th floor.  Great view of the river!  So far we've learned how to use most of our appliances.  The stove vent was a tricky one! 

A few observations we've noticed so far:

• Everything is expensive.  The camera we bought in LA costs double here.
• My bags are entirely too full as it is, so I can't buy anything anyway.  
• Mobile phone shopping is a nightmare.  Pre-paid or post-paid?  Unlocked or tethered? And who ever heard of a manufacturer called Huawei which is pronounced "whar-way"????
• No matter were you go, you will never escape the fast food industry.  McDonald's has family meals.  Burger King is called Hungry Jack's.  Pizza Hut & Dominoes are everywhere as well.
• There is a 7-eleven on every corner.  And sometimes two.