Hugh & Justine’s Excellent Adventure

I've been gathering Aussie vocab for you and just never had enough room in prior posts - until now! It was a bit of a light week in terms of new experiences, so I'll take this opportunity to share some Aussie vernacular with you. Starting with a word in the title of...

OK, you better put a pot of coffee on or crack open a bottle of wine - it's been a busy week! Three very important things happened this week. First, it was one year ago on December 7 that I received the job offer from Central Queensland University that has changed my...

Hugh and I have gone south at Christmas for a number of years, so being somewhere warm over the Christmas holidays isn't strange. But being somewhere warm in the lead up to Christmas sure is! I have a monthly calendar that I brought with me from Canada and when I...

Let's get the frog part over with. I am keenly aware that just one week ago, I commented that the green tree frogs in our gutters didn't bother me. I lied. They are LOUD. When it was just one, not too bad. But when a second one arrived (or maybe more, we still haven't...

Before getting into this week's Aussie experiences, I wanted to follow up on a couple of last week's. First, our friend Ray sent this interesting article about vegemite in the NY Times last week (definitely worth reading - right click on the photo to open in new tab,...

Before I forget, I need to share the exciting news that Hugh has finally cracked the mystery of getting sourdough bread to rise in the hotter, humid environment here! Three batches in a row have risen to perfection, so we now consider this problem solved. He just had...

OK before I get into the rest of the items for this week, Hugh and I went with our friends Leigh and Darren to a trivia night on Friday to raise funds for the local Rotary Club. Two important things came out of this night. First, despite our table being comprised of 2...

Warning - if you're tired of bird photos, this is not the blog entry for you, just close this down and continue on with your day! Yesterday, Hugh and I went to the Rockhampton Botanic Gardens and Rockhampton Zoo. They're right next to each other so you park in one...

I know what everyone is waiting for is our first snake sighting and I'm sorry to disappoint but, happily, still no snake sightings. However, I am pleased to report on our first spider - drumroll please... By "first spider" I mean first one we just happened across. You...

I don't even know where to start for this week's blog! So we'll start with the birds. I've been trying to get a photo of the Masked Lapwing for you pretty much since we arrived. I see them everywhere but I either don't have my camera ready or they fly away. I finally...

One of the common phrases you'll hear around here is "too easy." The first time I heard it, I interpreted it too literally, as in, that's a super easy request, I can handle way more than that. Another common phrase is "no dramas" and again, the first time I heard it,...

First I must apologize for not posting last Sunday! The WordPress site was down during my prime writing hours of 4-8pm here. Of course back in Canada, that's in the wee hours of the morning, so they probably think that's a good time for maintenance - clearly not...