Fe Fi Fo Geese!

Hi!

Well, that was a busy week. Busy at work as we're losing a person a week, so that leaves very few of us to do twice the work. Nice. (Oh dear, Kona just kicked one of his ping pong balls right off the balcony..... Oooh the neighbors below will be so pleased to discover a multi-colored ping pong ball on their patio). So yeah. Work. Busy. New subject!

I bought new clothes to look nice at work (kind of a change of subject). They're nice, but boring. Corporate gear. Just what I wanted. I look nice though. Everyone thought I had a job interview to go to. Not any time soon, sadly. Just got sick of the same 4 outfits that came with the suitcase I brought. Always nice to have new clothes. Reminds me of the first day/week of school. So after work on Tuesday Jan was kind enough to take me to this outlet mall (out by the airport) where the clothes are the same fancy-pants stuff in the shops and boutiques in town, just 50% off. Cool. She's so nice. She's the one that brought a little bit of her farm (barley hay and little logs) for Kona to get in touch with his inner farm cat.

Friday night I met Mave and Roger (and some of the people he works with) for dinner/drinks after work at Zen Bar (in the middle of town). Corporate hang-out only with bamboo trees (I guess that's what makes it Zen - bamboo trees). He's doing this really big triathlon up in Noosa at the end of this month with a couple of these guys from his work (they're old pros at this stuff, this is Roger's first bigbig one). So they spent half the evening talking about their previous times, workout hints and tips and how old songs from the 60's and 70's have been remixed to sound new (like Elvis' "Little Less Conversation", etc). I was so damn tired I had to be rude and stumble home at the dark hour of 9pm.

What else... See? I'm trying to think of interesting things, but I'm afraid you're bored stupid..... I'll keep going.....

Saturday, Mave, her neighbor Angela (works with Roger, up from Melbourne temporarily to work on a project), and I went to go see "The Devil Wears Prada". Excellent! Well, if you've ever worked in an office for dragons. I have. Mave suffered through pretty much the same thing (as in the movie) only for a majorly self-important hairdresser (picture Jose Eber, only Lebanese with a big thing for rainbows and pink speedboats). So she really loved and identified with it. Meryl Streep was amazing. The gal who played 'Emily' the first assistant was hilarious. Great lines. Really good little movie. Then we wandered back to the pub to wish Daryl, the Manager, bon voyage as he leaves the pub to move down to Coffs Harbour (about 6 hours or so south of Brisbane, right on the coast. Nice spot. Very pretty bay. Or so the guidebooks make it out to look). We'll miss Daryl as he was a font of interesting and funny stories. Good luck to him down there!

And today - mini-adventure! The usual suspects and I went up to the Glasshouse Mountains for a little nature walk. Very nice. Hell, always nice to get out of town, even if for just a couple of hours. The GHM's are just over an hour north from Brisbane, in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, about 10km (miles?? Math??!) from the Australia Zoo (crikey!). In fact, the main road to get to the GHM's, Glass House Mountains Road (pretty creative), is going to be officially renamed the Steve Irwin Way. That's nice of ol Peter Beattie (Queensland Premier, like our governor), considering Steve Irwin singlehandedly put this nice little corner of Queensland on the map. Lovely little drive. Anyways, so after our walk, we stopped in at this cute little cafe with a lovely view of the mountains. Get this - they had guard geese under the stairs. Hilarious. Big suckers too. Loud. Had to be quick up the stairs if you wanted all your toes and ankles.

Heehee, every time we go on these little mini-adventures, as we go down the freeway (sorry, motorway) I spend most of the ride staring out the window looking for koalas in the eucalyptus trees, because, well, that's where they live. I haven't seen one yet (Mave spotted one tho, well done, it's hard to do). I'm always afraid that seeing as some of these trees hang over the road a bit, am terrified one will drop out and land on/in the windshield. Hey, sometimes it happens, the little critters fall out of their trees. Not often, but it happens. And I'm just afraid it'll happen while we're rocketing down the motorway doing 85mph. Eeek. I look out for kangaroos too. Same worry, minus the trees. They like to bounce out in front of speeding cars at dusk. So the general rule is you shouldn't drive after 4pm until dark. Most of the trucks (big and little) have "'roo bars" in the front to prevent the ugly event killing anyone else besides the poor little (well, not some of them) 'roos. I have yet to see any kangaroos either. Maybe they're smart about the motorway. Or maybe I need to get out of town more. Or maybe they really do like country living as opposed to living in the suburbs. I'd love to see a koala in a tree outside my office in town, or a kangaroo hopping down the Queen Street Mall.

So there you go! A little bit of adventure was had. A nice little colorful week. Am tired tonight though. We felt the temperature creeping into summer during our walk. Hot and humid. Ugh. Still nice at night though. The bats have come back again (seasonal I guess). These guys are massive. I'll try to get or find a photo of one. But they're really neat. The geckos have come back too, chattering and clicking during the night. The crows have shut up for the time being while they build their nests. The trees are blooming and turning greener. It really is a lovely city. Come visit!!!!!

Bye!

J!