Cliff Diving...

Without further ado, Justin and John jumping off the cliff in Kuaui. You will have to look close because they are so small-- this should tell you how high the jump was! Check out the waves in the foreground. Good. Clean. Fun.

Make Me a Palette (at the Melbourne Zoo)...

*Rushing in with the hamper.

This past weekend we packed up a hamper (picnic basket) and headed north to the Melbourne Zoo. Over the summer the zoo puts on a twilight concert series after regular zoo hours. It was a "blues" night with three acts, two Australian and one American.

Because it was after hours, I was really excited. I figured we'd pretty much have all the animals to ourselves. The animals had a different plan. I think that plan was to eat and then go to sleep completely out of view from the "tourists".


*Two (of only a handful) awake animals.


*Zebra (pronounced zeh-bra, not zeee-bra)


*Make me a palette!

The New Place...

*My own private patio.

It's been almost two weeks since we unpacked. We've started to settle in and really like the area. Neither of us realized just how close into the city we are; we went out for a jog one day and stumbled onto downtown. It's quite lovely. We are on the ground floor and have a courtyard. While not technically ours, we are the only people who have direct access. We picked up a grill on eBay this weekend and had a little grill out on Sunday. I even grabbed two Budweisers to mark the occasion. Mostly, when I say grill Australians look at me with puzzled expressions..."Ohhh, you mean BBQ."


*John and the bbq.


*Tico, the courtyard possum, apparently has direct access to the courtyard.

We've Moved House...

*Across the street

We finished unloading the truck at around 2am last night...I'm sure that both our old neighbors and our new neighbors were psyched. In retrospect, it would have been good to have had both electricty and boxes. This is the second time we've moved in the middle of the night with no electricty...I'm beginning to see a pattern in John's moving technique and don't think I like it.

The new place is huge (in comparison) and we actually have a closet, a real closet! Once we get it a little cleaned up, I'll post some photos. More to come...

Sound Relief...

*Sound Relief at The G

Yesterday John and I went to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (The G) for Sound Relief, a one-time benefit concert for bushfire victims. In case you didn't know, Victoria (our state) has been ravaged by the most damaging bushfires in Australian history.


*The G

There was a simultaneous show happening in Sydney and it turned out to be the largest paid concert in Australian history. It was a really good line-up with both legendary Australian bands (Midnight Oil (yes!), Hunters and Collectors, Split Enz, Wolfmother) and international acts (Jack Johnson, Kings of Leon, Coldplay). Kylie Minogue did a little MC'ing and Tony Hawke showed up too (?).


*From our seats


*Kylie on the jumbotron.


*Boy, did it rain!

Catsitting/ We're Moving!

*Billy "The Cat".

Hello again,

This past week two big things happened-- we catsat and we found a new apartment!

Start the countdown, cause we're moving on up to the southeast side in six days!

It's a couple of suburbs away in South Yarra and is easily twice the size of our current dorm-like accomodation, so whenever anyone wants to come visit we actually have room. Somebody better come visit. Really. Seriously.

The facts- it's two bedrooms, has a large kitchen, a large courtyard and room for a washing machine! We are close to the train station, so John's commute should be considerably easier/shorter and we will be just south of the Yarra River (ergo South Yarra).

The catsitting was good too. His name is Billy and he is energetic. We watched him for a friend while she was out of town. It was fun having an animal around (even if he did claw me a chew on me in my sleep) and I guess I have the scratches on my face to remember the good times.

Can anyone else believe we've already been here for a year? A year!

Long Time, No Blog...

*Burrito. Hawaiian style.

So we've obviously had some trouble keeping up with the blog. Lots has happened since the last post two months ago-- we took a vacation to Hawaii to meet up with John's family. What a credit to the U.S.! John and I spent three days in Maui, then met up with the fam for a week in Kauai, then John and I spent three days recuperating on Oahu. We packed a lot of activity into the seven days we were all together...


*John and Jan on the way up to the Waimea Canyon.


*Na Pali coast line.


*Justin and John and the luau.


*Cousteau going for a swim.


*Waimea Canyon


*Wailua Waterfall

It was a truly wonderful trip.

Thank you Cunningham's-- the condo was excellent!