Posts Tagged ‘australia’
Monday, July 28th, 2008
Well, made it safe and sound to New Zealand. I’ve been meaning to write but kept getting side-tracked or just plum forgot! New Zealand was beautiful but I’m guessing it’s twice as nice during the summer. I still have a hard time with the whole winter in July bit but it’s ok. Christchurch on the South Island is where we stayed. Quaint little place with Trams and old architecture. Sorta Gothic/English looking. Very cool! It was chilly tho. I’m guessing about 40’s during the day (and that’s in fahrenheit).
So I completed flights 4 through 7 now. Cairns to Brisbane to New Zealand to Brisbane.. then Cairns. I think I’m getting the hang of this quite well now. No worries. Fiji next? Hmmmm
We flew Jetstar and Pacific Blue (Virgin Blue). Both planes were 737s, seating was 3-3. Both flights to New Zealand we got the emergency exit seats. Nice and roomy! But on the way back we were just one seat behind. I think I feel more comfortable over the wing. I was also told that you can’t feel as much motion either. Regardless, I still take my dramamine. Pictures of the clouds and some New Zealand shots can be found on my deviantArt gallery.
So if you’re wondering or if you’ve guessed, I made it back through customs in Australia and am on round two of my 90 tourist visa. No questions asked. Lyn and I have now been physically living together for 6 months. Another 6 more months and we can apply for our interdependency Visa. That’s gonna require lots of paper work and money for the fees. I really hate that I can’t work and earn anything.
My mum sent me a package for my birthday. She made me the cutest little wooden jewelry box. She does wood burning like stuff so she engraved an Arizona scenery on the top. When I opened the box to look inside there was a little piece of paper with a poem on it. It reads:
It isn’t very big at all. Nor tiny, not one bit. You coudln’t buy it in a mall, Cause all my love is in it. So when you lift this tiny lid, And stardust falls upon you. I’ll always be there by your side, miles from Lake Havasu.
Well as you can imagine… I bawled! As I’m doing now since I just re-read it. LOL! So my mum misses me heaps. I miss her too! I wish she would get her passport and start putting some money aside to come and visit. But we talk on Yahoo quite a bit and I’ve been calling her on the phone. All is good.
I’m really comfortable here. I’m glad I followed my heart! I knew that I loved Lyn and wonder sometimes what my life would be like had I not made this life changing decision. I’d probably still be some computer geek sitting at the desk watching stupid movies and wasting my life. Lyn is now my life and I can’t imagine living without her. Truly, I don’t care where I live as long as she’s by my side.
Tags: airport, architecture, australia, christchurch, computer, english, flight, gothic, Jet Star, jewelry, New Zealand, Pacific Blue, passport, plane, trams, Virgin Blue, Visa, yahoo
Posted in New Zealand, Thoughts, Tidbits | No Comments »
Friday, July 11th, 2008
Where have I been? Right here all along, just have had nothing much to report. Ok, actually we’ve been busy sorting out flights and where to go. We are finally booked and in about 2 days will be flying to New Zealand’s south island to a little place call Christchurch. Dead of winter no less so we’ll be going from 70 degree temps to about 40 degrees. DAMN!
I’ve been a bit apprehensive over the past few weeks about the upcoming flights but since Lyn and I started packing for our mini-holiday I’ve gotten a little more excited about it. Time for “us”. Christchurch isn’t exactly where we wanted to go but it’s the cheapest we could find on our very slim-to-none budget. Next mini-holiday will be to the North Island/Auckland. At least we’ll be better prepared budget-wise.
My birthday was on the 7th of July. I guess you could say I had two days of it. Since I’m in Australia, my actual birthday in the States was Monday the 7th, but actually Tuesday the 8th here. I know, I’m confused too but I celebrated on Monday. Lyn took me to the Rainforest Dome in Cairns. I got my picture taken with a Koala Bear. OMG it was the cutest little thing! Next? A CROC! 
Tags: australia, budget, Cairns, flight, flying, holiday, koala, New Zealand, packing
Posted in Flight Plans, Tidbits | No Comments »
Sunday, 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 »
Monday, 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 »
Thursday, 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 »