I’m not sure if work should ever be considered the highlight of the week, but it has been really awesome starting my new job. All the staff have been amazing – so welcoming and helpful! My team at Mac is hard to top but we may have a tie for first with my new team at CQU :). I have a nice office with a big window (hopefully the a/c works well in the summer…) and they had my name on the door for when I arrived:
All the things to make my office look home-y are on the container ship so it will be a bit bland for another 6 weeks or so, but it’s still a very comfortable office. The CQU Rockhampton North campus is beautiful – it seriously feels like you’re walking through an arboretum. Here is a little waterfall I walk by between the parking lot (parking is free, by the way) and my office:
While I was settling into work, Hugh began practicing life as a retiree – so far he’s acing it! He played his first round of golf at Yeppoon Golf Club on Wednesday. One of the guys he played with invited him to play again tomorrow so I guess he’s doing OK :). Kangaroos (or wallabies – don’t know how to distinguish yet) seem to love hanging out on golf courses:
I’m not sure where the over/under was at for if/when Hugh would start woodturning again? Hugh was quite adamant that he had turned more in the last 7 years than most do in a lifetime and he was ready for a change. Well those who guessed he would last 11 days after landing on Aussie soil win :). The Rockhampton Woodworkers Guild was excited to welcome Hugh this past week and he already jumped in to help a new turner:
Our new house has a huge shed so I’m anticipating that woodturning may resume :).
We had rain last Sunday and Monday and since then it’s been non-stop sun – barely a cloud in the sky, reminds me of Arizona. Everyone here talks about the “beautiful Queensland winter” and I can see why – it is weather perfection! Bit chilly overnight and when you get up in the morning (around 12-14C but I swear it feels colder than that, apparently one acclimatizes to tropical temps very quickly!) and then warms up to mid-20’s in the day. The condo we’re staying in has amazing sunsets out one direction and sunrises like this out the other:
The tide here is enormous – 4m! This is not quite low tide:
And the entire beach is engulfed in water at high tide.
We’ve been enjoying a lot of foods here. In addition to the Red Jew fish we had the other week, we’ve now had Red Emperor too – both are AMAZING! And this is coming from someone who previously had to force herself to eat fish. Coffee here is very European in style – no such thing as a “medium regular” here! We’ve been having “flat whites”, which are made with steamed milk but different from lattes and cappuccinos (Hugh looked up all the differences but I’ve forgotten them). Curiously, I’ve been able to drink most of them without sugar whereas in Canada I always had to put sugar in. Not sure what the difference is. The only disappointing food so far is potato chips :(. Those of you who know me well know that I’m a chip addict and it has been a struggle trying to find a brand of chip here that comes even remotely close to Miss Vickie’s or other good kettle chips. But we are the House of Science and we continue to do compare and contrast studies to find something that will do! Not sure why they can’t replicate the crunchiness of Canadian kettle chips – Hugh found a brand called Double Crunch today so maybe it will be the one, fingers crossed.
Now the biggest news of all – pickleball is quite the going concern in little Yeppoon! While only one person at work (including staff and students) had ever heard tell of pickleball, those in the know are diehards. Our little town has 8 beautiful new courts and 6 MORE PLUS A GRANDSTAND are about to open, making our facility the largest in all of Australia! They have all sorts of neat leagues and a weekly Skills & Drills night as well. Reps from Pickleball Australia are coming in July for a big training event. Hugh played the other night and the calibre of play is really good (we’re going to have to step up our game…). This coming Friday is pizza night at the pickleball club – seems like a really good group. It’s way more expensive to play than we’re accustomed to, but the quality of the courts and leagues is worth it. No one at work could understand what I was saying at first, between never having heard of pickleball and then my Canadian accent, so one person recalled it as “gherkinball” – so we are now fondly calling our favourite sport gherkinball :).