Our Cairns Trip

We've just come back from a really nice trip to Cairns... it's the biggest city in northern Australia, and being closer to the equator, it's warm year-round. Actually, in the summer months (Nov-March) it's REALLY humid up there, so we thought we'd be timing it right by going in the cooler "dry season" (which is now). Our plan backfired on us a bit as we happened to have the ONE wet/windy/cooler week of the entire dry season, but we tried to make the best of it anyways.

Here are loads of pictures to show what we did (in random order)... I'll explain underneath each one.

We rented a car and drove up to Port Douglas one day (about 75 minutes north of Cairns)... it's a small town that kinda has a West Van feel to it... very nice. Here we are overlooking "4 Mile Beach." There are crocodile signs everywhere though, so we didn't swim here (plus the weather was cool and windy.) The next day we took the car up to a small mountain town called Kuranda, which is a little hippie place. They have a few little markets and restaurants, but it was pouring rain, so we didn't stay for long.


The reception area of our "resort."


The night markets in Cairns. Mom, remember the Pearl Market and the Fabric Market in Shanghai? This was kinda like it, but much smaller, cleaner, more civilized, and no bargaining! We got a nice Chinese massage here for $15.


This was a random guy we saw out in the street blowing his didgeridoo. He had all his worldly possessions tied to the roof of his filthy van, and seemed to not own a pair of shoes, but didn't care at all! Very amusing!


This is the esplanade that goes along the waterfront in Cairns... a nice place for a walk/run/rollerblade, etc. When the tide is out it looks like a giant mud flat for about a mile out, due to all the dredging they've done to keep the shipping lines open. Kind of a yucky view. But when the tide comes in, it looks like a normal ocean... you'd never know the water is only about 2 feet deep.


Along the water they have all these free exercise stations... kind of like a mini gym. So you can walk/run along the ocean path, and then stop at all these little stations for some extra exercise. A lot of kids use it for a playground though... guess it's still fun!


As you know, Andrew is guitar-crazy, which means we always seek out all guitar stores in whichever town we visit. This time it worked out perfectly since the weather was so shabby... I packed along a book so I wouldn't get bored. He had a great time and ended up buying a new pedal for his electric guitar (which is something you plug the guitar into to give it more "crunch.")


Here is our hotel room... we spent as little time here as possible since it didn't smell too good. I think it used to be a smoking room since that's what it smelled like. The smoking area was also directly outside our room, so we had some nice whiffs coming through. Luckily it had a TV, so we watched Wimbledon quite a bit at night.


Our hotel was quite a ways away from down town, so we usually rode the city bus ("Sunbus") into town... it was a great way to see more of the town and meet lots of interesting people to have conversations with. The only bad thing about it was that it took 30 minutes each way, when driving directly took about 8 minutes. We decided to skip the bus one day and walk into town, but that took 1.5 hours and took us down a busy highway, thru the industrial area, and also near the dump, so it stank. We stuck to Sunbus after that!


The skate-park along Esplanade... you can go skateboarding with an ocean-view! You can see the hospital right behind the skate-park, which I think is a very logical location. Also, there was this tree (on the left) that was full of old skate shoes and bike tires... kind of nice... new decorating idea!


All over town they were selling these didgeridoos (an Aboriginal instrument that you blow into and it makes this deep, interesting "woofing" sound)... I was gonna try it, but then thought that heaps of other tourists would have already done the same thing before me, so decided to keep my mouth off it and just pretend!


Lots of gelato in Cairns... yum, my fav!! I had it quite a few times since they don't have it in Rocky and I don't know when I'm gonna have it next!


Hands-down the BEST meal we had was at the Bavarian Beerhouse... authentic German food served by waiters in Lederhosen, and the whole place smelled like Oma's house before Sunday lunch! The German Lowenbrau beer was even served in nice Steins and tasted great with the food.


Another view of the Esplanade and mud flats at low tide. The big white building in the distance is the Shangri-La hotel, which is the place we used to relax (in the lobby) when we were tired of walking around in the rain, but didn't want to hop on Sunbus back to our place yet.


We checked out the big marina, full of nice boats. We didn't go on the boats out to the Great Barrier Reef though since the weather wasn't great.


In one of the music stores we met a salesgirl called Tiffany, who we started chatting with, and she ended up inviting us to her church called Freshwater Church. It took some figuring out how to get there on Sunbus (since it was a little ways out of town), but was really good. It reminded us of Hillsongs church in Sydney, but on a smaller scale.


One day we rented these yellow scooters (motorbikes) and toured ourselves around all the rain-forest attractions. One of the places was called "Crystal Cascades," which was a series of little waterfalls and swimming holes (minus the crocs!). If it had been warmer, it would have been a fabulous place for a dip! We settled for a walk along the the path beside the falls.


Here's us on the scooters. Behind us you can see the waterfall at the Barron Gorge. The scooters were SO much fun... I would definitely recommend them if you ever go to Cairns.

All in all it was a great trip. I know the weather wasn't awesome, but it was just so nice to get away together, to be out of Rocky for a bit and see something new. We didn't talk about work at ALL, and ate so much great food (Japanese, Chinese, Turkish, Mexican, Indian, German, Italian, and Thai).

It was also nice that Andrew finished his first masters course just in time for us to go away. While we were up in Cairns, he got an email from his prof saying he got an A on his course, so that was encouraging since he'd put SO much work into it.

Anyways, that's it for now! Hope you enjoyed!

Track & Field

This past weekend I've been competing in a big track & field competition (they call it an "Athletics Carnival" in Australia) here in Rocky. Some of my students at school do track & field and invited me to come be in this competition. I didn't really want to at first, seeing as it took up the entire weekend, but then I realized it was on the first weekend of school holidays, so I've got two weeks to rest up after the competition.

Last week we had to "nominate" for events (that means "sign up" here)... since I haven't done most of these events this high school, I figured what the heck, I'll just sign up for pretty much every single event! It seemed like a good idea at the time (when I was checking off the little boxes on the paper), but after actually doing all 11 events this weekend (after my soccer game on Friday night), I'm a little sore.

I've never been that awesome at track & field, but since having my big birthday I'm officially in the "veterans" category now. The sad part about this is that it sounds like I'm old now, but the good part is that there's not as much competition in this category, meaning I can get medals more easily... woo hoo!

Overall it went really well. To put it plainly, the fat chicks were better than me at the throwing events (shot put, javelin, and discus), but I was better at the running and jumping events (60m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, long jump, triple jump, and high jump).

Actually, to be honest the high jump didn't work out so well for me. I was the only woman veteran who entered, but I managed to knock the bar off onto the flop mat a couple times (as I was jumping), and then landed directly on the bar! It KILLED!! I have some nice bruises on my bottom and back now to show for it.

Luckily I got some rewards for all my efforts this weekend though: a sweet sock-tan, and:


Andrew and I are really looking forward to our trip to Cairns... we leave tomorrow morning for the week, and will be checking out the Great Barrier Reef, etc. It'll be great to get away together, especially since Andrew's been working really hard on his masters and we haven't been able to spend as much time together as we usually do.

... so watch this space for a Cairns post in a couple weeks!

Becoming Citizens

A few weeks ago, Andrew and I had the privilege of attending an Australian citizenship ceremony as our friend Karen and her family (from South Africa) were becoming citizens. They have been in Australia for 5.5 years now, and it was finally time for them to get it.

The ceremony was held outdoors at Rocky's "Heritage Village." The mayor and officials spoke from underneath the gazebo, alongside a huge cardboard cut-out of Queen Elizabeth... see if you can spot her above.

All the people becoming citizens (and us, the audience) sat underneath these huge tents facing the gazebo. The people becoming citizens were broken into two groups: those who had "under God" in their citizenship oath, and those who didn't.

It was interesting b/c many of the people becoming citizens wore clothing from their original countries (eg- see the guy in the yellow shirt above?... he's wearing this skirt/wrap... not sure where from). In the mayor's address, he made sure to say that becoming a citizen of Australia does not mean that you forget your original country, or that those memories are lost. I bet this was comforting for some of the people who came to Australia b/c of unsafe conditions in their home countries (as opposed to us who are here purely for the awesome warm weather!)

Here's Karen, her husband, and three boys getting their citizenship certificates and shaking the mayor's hand. It was a bit of an emotional experience.


Andrew works under Karen (she is the Math coordinator at our school) and she's been a great friend to us, so it was special for us to be there for her.

After the ceremony they had a "parade of nations" through Heritage Village... so many countries carrying their flags and dressed in their national dress.

All in all it was a great experience to witness!

This is Winter?

A couple weeks ago Andrew and I went to the beach for the afternoon. We were just going to go to the main beach, but then we bumped into our friend, Therese, from work. She has a 4x4 and was just about to drive up the beach with her family, and invited us along.

Driving on sand feels similar to driving in snow... it skitters around a bit. We drove up about 8km to a place on the beach where there were hardly any other people and hung out there for a bit. We still can't get over the fact that "winter" here is about 23 degrees during the day. It's also the dry season, so almost every single day is sunny with blue skies... you can definitely get a good tan in this! (It does get quite a bit colder at night and in the early mornings, but that's okay).

We were trying to take a self-pic on the beach that day, but it's a bit tricky with the iPhone b/c you can't feel where the button is, so you don't always really know when it's gonna take the pic. I think Andrew wobbled the camera a bit here, so we ended up looking a bit weird:


And here's a pic of Therese, Alex, and baby Lily:


Yay for "winter"!!

Batching

Andrew and I recently read this book called "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferriss. If you haven't already read it, I highly recommend it. I don't necessarily agree with everything in it, but he has some great ideas, one of them being "batching."

The idea behind this concept is to do certain things all at once in order to save time. For example, in the book Tim shares that he only does his laundry once every two weeks, deals with his mail once a week, and only checks his email twice a day.

I thought it was a good idea, but not all his examples would have worked for Andrew and I, so I started thinking about changes I could make to incorporate batching into my life to save time. One of the major things I thought of was making meals... I realized I was pulling the SAME things out of the fridge every night to make my lunch for work for the next day. So I thought, "why not do it all at once for the week?"...


... so I did. On Saturday afternoons I have started making 5 containers of veggie-styled lasagna (it keeps fine for Mon-Fri). I hard-boil and peel all the eggs I'll need for breakfast for the week. I bake all the muffins, granola bars, whatever and wrap them individually, I wash and cut up a huge ziploc bag of celery, etc.


Then I stick it all in our midget-sized fridge and just pull it out every morning before work. True, it makes Sat afternoons a bit annoying (when I'd rather be relaxing in the sun), but it is a big time-saver, and it makes me feel like I have some "time off" on weekday evenings after being at work all day already.

Good times!

My Birthday last month

Last month I celebrated my 30th birthday... fun times. It was on a Sunday, so when Andrew woke me up I had some relaxing time to peruse the treats he had put on the table for me... flowers, a card, some chocolate, and a couple magazines I like. The card had a "coupon" in it for a kiteboarding lesson, which I'm so excited to use, but it hasn't been windy enough since my birthday to give it a try. It might take a couple more months for the wind to pick up, but I'll def be out there asap!

After reading my cards and opening presents, Andrew took me out for brunch at Ridges, the resort we used to go swimming at a lot. It also happened to be Mother's Day that day, so the whole place was full of moms and very loud kids, but that's okay. We all got a welcome drink (champagne) at the door, so that was nice. Any place that puts a drink directly in my hand upon entry is good! Nice and relaxing after a bit of a drive to get there.

Here's the view from our table... pretty nice!

And we were seated right next to the live entertainment... this guy was really good and I loved listening to him while we ate.

After brunch we took a stroll around the grounds of the resort and had little game of tetherball... with racquets. Not quite sure what it's called, but you can imagine how it works.

The next day at work I was called to the office to pick up a "package." Thinking it was the book I had ordered on Amazon for Andrew's masters, I wasn't too excited, but when I got to the office it was actually this amazing flower arrangement from our friends Dave and Nikki in Brisbane. It was SO nice of them to remember my birthday and think of me!

As more cards came in the mail that week, the table was getting pretty crowded with birthday stuff. If you sent a card, see if you can spot it above!

At the end of the day on my birthday, Andrew and I played on the worship team at our church (as we do every 2-4 weeks). Andrew usually plays bass, electric, or acoustic guitar, and I always play keys.


Overall it was a good birthday... probably a bit more low-key than if I'd turned 30 in Vancouver, but that's okay. Thank you so much to everyone who made the day special by calling and sending cards... very kind of you!

Getting Crafty

For the past couple years I've been coveting these Havianas flip flops with a Swarovski crystal on them. I always promised myself that the day my old Roxy flip flops bit the dust, I'd go out and buy these.

The day finally came a few weeks ago where my Roxy ones broke, so I happily went off to the store to claim my new flip flops. But as I stood there in the store trying them on, I wondered if the $39 price tag was really worth it.

I tried to justify it by telling myself that I don't buy shoes that often, these ones were really cool, etc etc, but I just couldn't justify spending that much on two little pieces of rubber. So I decided to leave them there and think it over while I went grocery shopping.

At the grocery store, I happened to pass by a bin full of no-name flip flops for $1.99. Problem: no crystals! But I tried a pair on anyways, and they fit and were comfortable, so I bought them. On the way home, I stopped by the craft store and bought:

A pad of sticky crystals (not Swarovski, but whatever), and a bottle of crazy glue. When I got home, I did a quick glue job, resulting in:


Even better flip flops than the Havianas... I got TWO crystals on each foot... guess I one-upped them!

The Rocky Zoo

Here I sit at 2:20am, unable to sleep after a busy day, so I shell tell you about our visit to the Rocky Zoo last weekend. It was our 2nd time going to this free zoo, and it's always a good time, especially the chimps, Cassius and Octavius ("Cassy" and "Ocky"), who are both around 40 years old.



At first Cassy was way up high in his cage... but this loud Philippino lady convinced him to come down to the observation window and give her some kisses thru the window (see first pic). I tried to copy her, but Cassy was not too keen on kissing me (see second pic)... but at least I got my pic taken with him.

The Rocky Zoo is a free zoo, and is linked with the Botanical Gardens beside it. Discovering this little gem in the midst of Rocky has made living here all the nicer. It's full of lush tropical trees and vines... a really nice place to go walk around and relax and see some interesting Australian animals. There's also a nice path along the river that's good for running on.


Here is one of the dingos... playing dead I guess.


Here is a freshwater crocodile... you can tell them apart from saltwater crocs b/c of their long, pointy snout. They usually don't feed on humans, but last time we were here this guy took a snap at a kid who stuck his fingers thru the fence (marked, "do not feed your fingers to the croc")... the kid pulled away just in time though! This pic is not too great b/c you couldn't really take a good pic thru the fence... Andrew was trying to hold the camera above the fence, without seeing the viewfinder.


Leaving the zoo... here is Andrew driving our little car (we call it the "Blue-Bottle")


Here I am trying to operate the canon-launcher. It was made in Germany, and used to fight in WWI in Turkey (Galipoli), where it was seized by the Aussies and brought back to Oz. Now it sits in the Botanical Gardens in Rocky (they traded it with Sydney for a big gun), next to the giant war memorial in the gardens. It blew my mind how such a heavy piece of equipment has traveled so far around the world. (By the way, this thing shot 15cm canons up to 8km!!)


This is an emu. It was making these strange noises... like a grunting pig. We seriously thought the zoo had wild pigs when we heard this noise from a distance... but when we got closer we noticed the noise was coming from an emu! This one was about as tall as me. An interesting thing about emus is that the male bird sits on the eggs, and then raises the young for the first couple years, not the mom.

More Vancouver Pics

Here are a few more pictures of my recent trip to Vancouver for Em's wedding. The first one is of my friend Cathy, who is having her first baby in a couple months. It's funny b/c when I saw her at Christmas she was all excited about being pregnant, but you couldn't even tell she was pregnant at all, even when she pushed her belly out after eating a big lunch! A few months later, you can totally tell she's really pregnant! :)


I also got to hang out with my good friend, Alysa. Alysa and I have been great friends since doing our BEd together at UBC 6 years ago, and she's one of the funnest people I know. In April she and I went to her friend's Passover celebration meal, which was really interesting. At the front door there was this Jewish flamingo, complete with the Jewish hat and 2 curly locks... we nabbed him for a picture.

Part of the meal involved re-enacting the Israelites' escape from Egypt. We were all given roles to play, and Alysa was the Pharaoh (see above). We went thru all the plagues, including the plague of boils... the host put these little yellow circle-stickers all over us (boils), which you can (kind of) see in the picture.

One of the most creative parts of the meal was the dessert, which was the parting of the Red Sea made out of cupcakes (maybe the icing should have been red?!). Such a cool idea!

That's all for now... more to come!

~Corinna