June 8th, 2008
It’s getting closer for me to depart AU so we are searching for some deals with airlines. We haven’t decided where we want to go yet, ie: Fiji, Guam, or Auckland. Seems tho that if we go to Auckland I’ll have to get a Visa for that country, but if I go to Guam, it’s part of the U.S. so I won’t need a Visa. And it’s only 4.5 hours flight from Cairns.
Driving is becoming much easier now. I actually drove with an ice cream cone. 
I drove roundtrip from Gordonvale to Cairns and back without turning on the windshield wipers as well! PROGRESS!
Still have trouble with store names. Dunno how long it’ll take me to get used to. Lyn laughs every time I say one wrong. **blush**
Internet is funky here. So not like the U.S. Here you have to pay for bandwidth. Rather sucks because it gets quite expensive! I’m paying for 5 gig bandwidth a month for $40! I paid for unlimited use in the U.S. for the same price. They don’t have much in the lines of competition with businesses so they can pretty much charge what they want. I purchased an internet mobile device. Virgin Broadband Mobile but I tell ya… it’s massively S L O W ! ! ! I was clocking the highest rate at 5.2kbs DAMN! Downloading a 1 meg file took 10 minutes. But it’s like a cell phone, if the signal is weak, slower connection. SUCKS!
I’m not much of a sports person. I never liked sports in the U.S. all that much. Football is ok but the Footy here is pretty cool. They don’t suit up at all, and it’s all around different. I’m quite liking it better. Rugby, however, WOW! That’s grueling! But something I could definitely watch. Figuring out the game is the hard part but Lyn’s explaining it to me little by little.
So it’s coming into Winter here. Winter in July! How ’bout that! My first Winter Birthday! (July 7th). Yeah, I know it’s only June. Anyway, the temperature is just gorgeous! I can’t imagine what summer must be like. (in December!) Oh my god! I just can’t get over that! Summer in December… hmmmmmm
Tags: airline, Auckland, australia, bandwidth, birthday, business, Cairns, christmas, competition, deals, december, download, driving, Fiji, file, flight, football, footie, footy, game, gig, Guam, internet, july, june, meg, money, paying, plane, rugby, summer, ticket, unlimited, Visa, winter, xmas
Posted in Driving in Australia, Thoughts | No Comments »
May 27th, 2008
Ok, trying to get stores names straight around here is pretty funny! Stockland’s is a mall with numerous stores in them. Big W and Target are two. Then there’s Dick Smith (electronics) and Crazy Clark’s. So what did I go and say? Dick Clark! Angus & Robertson’s (book store) turned into Albertson’s. Oh my….
Lyn’s sister Jenny is married to Barry. I’ll give you one guess what I say….
Give up?
Benny & Jerry!
Ok, so it’s not so bad. I’ll get used to it soon enough. I’m getting better at driving if that’s anything positive. I have to admit tho, I love how Aussie’s shorten their words. If you’re not an Aussie, take this test…
Brekky =
Postie =
Mozzie =
Macca’s =
“Comment” with your answers…
Tags: albertsons, Big, Big W, book, clark, dick, drive, electronics, name, store, target
Posted in Thoughts, Tidbits | No Comments »
May 19th, 2008
Well I’m still adjusting to living in Australia. At times I have to laugh. Just at things said or the different types of foods. I’ll say “huh” or “what”? a lot or just do a double-take.
Just the other day I was reading the paper and came across an advertisement for ink at some office store. The main headline read something like “Heaps of Ink, Tonnes of Cartridges”….. Tonnes? Ok. What’s a tonnes? So not like how we spell TONS but that’s how it was spelt. How was I to know? I thought it was a typo. I pronounced it Toe-nes ROFL! Well, come to find out, “tonnes” is their “ton” in liters. Our “ton” is American lbs. So I accepted that answer. Fair enough.
I can’t seem to order food or ask questions to people at shops. They look at me funny or have to ask me what I said. Is it my accent? I don’t have an accent! What are they talking about? LOL! Lyn has to resort to asking for me.
Driving is getting a bit easier, although I think I’ve mentioned that already. Still struggle with the turn signal and wipers. Lyn busts a gut when I do it to! Grrrr! Ok ok, I have a chuckle myself.
The wildlife, I haven’t seen much of yet. Although I did see a peacock walk across the road. A gosh dang peacock! I’ve only seen those in zoo’s! OH, and a huge flock of cockatoo’s. I’ve only seen those as pets! It just amazes me! Anxious to see more!
Last night I thought about my next flight. Which will be in July sometimes, mid July I’m guessing, but I layed in bed and thought about it and strangely enough, I got anxious to fly again. I couldn’t wait to get up there in the vast blue, puffy whites (or stormy grays) below me. How do I feel now? I lost that intense feeling but I think I should have no problems with flying now. Still won’t like the decent feeling, the pain in my ears and the turb but I still like being up there. It’s worth it really.
Ty’s adjusting quite nicely. The kids love him, play with him a lot so that’s a good thing. He still sleeps with me and still follows me. I guess he’ll always do that no matter how many others are in the house. He’s my boy.
So besides some little quirks about Australia, they are quirks that I can adjust to and most certainly live with! I absolutely LOVE living here! The scenery is gorgeous, the weather is perfect (right now). What more can I say? Love experiencing something new everyday. I’m so looking forward to building my new life here with Lyn and her family.
Tags: accent, adjust, australia, clouds, cockatoos, dog, drive, flight, flying, food, gorgeous, pain in ears, peacock, plane, pug, quirk, scenery, stormy clouds, turbulence, weather, wildlife
Posted in Driving in Australia, Pug News, Tidbits, Ty | No Comments »
May 15th, 2008
Well here it is. This is my new site. Since I don’t have flight Jitters anymore I decided to change the name of my blog. I’ll still be travelling and still be flying but all for a different reason. And I really wanted my own domain. 
Everything is still going great, although I swear Ty picked up some bad habits in quarantine! I really haven’t slept well in the past 3 days because he’s been panting a lot. I’m used to sleeping in a cool room with air conditioning which keeps Ty’s panting under control. Last night I resorted to keeping him in the living room until Lyn gets up for work at 1am. By then, the house is much cooler and less panting from Ty. I dunno how well that’ll work, he did a bit of whining at the bedroom door until Lyn’s youngest layed down with him on the sofa. She fell asleep, and he pooped by the door! Eeesh!! No one’s to blame… no one’s fault… LOL!!
Driving is getting a bit easier. Still struggling with the dang wipers and turn signal thing! Ugh! But driving on the left…. piece-a-chocolate mousse!
Tags: australia, blog, blogging, dog, domain, driving, habits, living room, new, panting, pug, quarantine, site, sleeping, website
Posted in Pug News, Ty | No Comments »
May 13th, 2008
Finally have my boy! I was so anxious when we got to the airport but we had to circle around and drive to the air express package pick-up area. With it being around 10:30 at night it, the main office was closed so we had to interrupt some workers. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: crate, Creek, dock, dog, flight, plane, pug, quarantine, reunite, rocks, Visa
Posted in Pug News, Ty | No Comments »