Christmas over already?

Christmas has came and gone, all too quickly for the kids. Now before we know it, it will be Easter! Cheap flights abound too with airline carriers discounting fares to encourage some post Christmas and mid year travel - most excellent timing for our Victorian and NSW friends planning a visit. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink!

We had a fantastic Chrissy, we spent the last weekend before we left Ballarat with my extended clan and had a wonderful time eating and drinking too much along with the obligatory exchange of gifts. The kids never really get enough of that.

After being in QLD for just over a week we made another road trip to Sydney for Christmas with Karren's extended family, the food was plentiful and amazing, it was great to catch up with everyone and the girls love the time they spend with their Grandma and cousins. It is amazing how similar the girls are and how well they get along despite of that! I had a spot of luck with my Kris Kringle gift and managed to score myself a DVD copy of Kungfu Hustle. Kudos to Andrew for a brilliant and well thought out gift!

The crew enjoying Christmas lunch.

We decided to drive the New England highway to and from Sydney in preference to the all too busy Pacific highway, both are a lot more challenging than the Hume. The Mondeo performed perfectly and was miserly with the fuel, consuming around 120 litres for the 1960km round trip. Much better than the Hilux did from Ballarat to Brisbane, where it used 190 odd litres for 1750km trip. There were the usual morons on the road, you know the ones, some who pass you while you have the cruise set on 107 then slow down in front of you to 100, and the others that drive along at 90 then speed up to 110 on the overtaking sections. A couple of highway heroes even did the overtake on double white lines trick, in spite of all that we made the trip without real incident and got home safely. As usual the truck drivers we saw were very well behaved.

The dog was his pitiful self again on the Sydney trip, refusing to use the provided relief stops for anything other than a sniff around and a drink. Unfortunately when he does get to the final destination you have to spend 15 minutes waiting for him while he empties his long range bladder, the burnt patches on the grass are a real bugger too!

This is typical of my view in the rear vision mirror. Pathetic!

Now that we are back home (strangely it still feels like we are just visiting QLD on holidays) it is time to settle in and do a few of the more tedious jobs associated with the move, get QLD drivers licences, QLD rego, changing address details with inumerable organisations  and corporations. It is not a task I am looking forward to, however we have had a small victory, not that it started that way; I rang to cancel our family membership with Ambulance Victoria and was told because we were cancelling within six months of renewal we wouldn't receive a refund, that's annoying I quietly thought to myself, fortunately the feeling of being ripped was short-lived, I found out that membership with the Queensland Ambulance Service was FREE, cost nothing, nada, nix, zip, zero - I could not believe my luck. Another bonus is our Medibank Private membership is cheaper in QLD as well. Winning!

I ventured out into the back yard this evening to account for any Cane Toads dumb enough to make their way into our yard and found three more to dispatch, the tally is now over 35. I did find a rather large Huntsman (I think) and took a couple of shots of him, an impressive size and easily the biggest I have seen.

Huntsman spider (I think)

The opisthosoma was about the size of a 10 cent piece

The girls had a wonderful Christmas this year, however Emily is too clever for her own good and has discovered all too soon how it all works, Karren was understandably very upset, Milly is now a member of the secrecy pact and has sworn the Sergeant Schultz oath

Peace and quiet now whilst watching DVDs in the car

Some Festive Cheer

Merry Christmas to all from Steve, Karren, Emily and Rosie.

We hope you all have a great Festive season.

Plenty of Wildlife in Pullenvale

We have been quite surprised by the different types of fauna we have seen in our first week.

On our first night together we were greeted by what we believe to be an Agile Wallaby (Macropus agilis) which was feeding in our next door neighbours yard, the next day we found fresh droppings to indicate that they came in for a feed in our backyard. Charlie found them (the droppings) to be tasty but I am not sure of the nutritional value of Wallaby poo!

Whilst looking about Sunday night we also discovered that our yard was infested with Cane Toads (Rhinella marina), I then spent the next few nights getting rid of any I could find, so far I have exterminated 25 of the nasty creatures. They will continue to come in and I will continue to cull them so our wonder dog Charlie doesn't try to eat one. The Cane Toads we have are much lighter in colour than the one in this photo, but just as ugly. The biggest one I have seen was around the size of a softball, but they can get quite large, apparently the largest recorded weighed in at 2.65kg.

We stumbled across a couple of Common Green Tree frogs (Litoria caerulea) while hunting cane toads, they were quite big and quite beautiful in comparison to the horrid Cane Toad.

Yesterday coming home from the supermarket we very nearly collided with a full grown Red Deer doe (Cervus elaphus) it was just two doors down from our place and was running through one of the wildlife corridors and across the road, it had been disturbed near the Pullen Pullen Creek and was making for higher ground. Can't wait for a stag to come and visit!

Last night while out hunting Cane Toads Emily and I saw what at first glance appeared to be a Bush Rat eating the fallen Mangos from our trees. Later when Karren and I investigated further, it became apparent that the little creature was too big to be a Bush Rat and was (we believe) a Long Nosed Bandicoot (Perameles nasuta). Tonight I hope to get out with my camera and try to catch a decent photo of the little critter so we can better identify it.

We are all excited by the abundance of wildlife and we can't wait to see what pops up next.

Kids Are Resilient Our Dog Not So Much

Rosie and Emily having a snack while watching TV

The girls seem to be settling in very well, they love their new rooms and the space that our new home provides, great new hiding spots and plenty of room to run around outside.

The only downside is getting used to the heat of Brisbane, it hasn't been extreme and is certainly not something we haven't lived through before. They have been wonderful and not complained at all. I guess they are still very excited by the whole adventure and there is no doubt that so far they are loving the move.

I am sure they are missing their friends but thanks to the electronics at their disposal they are only a keyboard stroke away.

Connection to the interwebs took a few days, after initially being told there was no ADSL at our new address we managed to get off plan ADSL2, however it is a little slower than what we were used to, but we don't have to change our email address!!!

Rosie wrote a little letter to her old classmates at Pleasant Street so we emailed it through.

Charlie on the other hand is in struggle town, I don't think it's the heat, although he is feeling it. I just get the impression that he is still in full retard mode, he doesn't cope well with change, too many things are different, there are nasty thunderstorms, horrible tasting hopping creatures called cane toads (thankfully Karren saw him pick it up), no fences to keep him in, Wallabies and many more new things he doesn't quite understand. One thing is certain though dogs know how to find the coolest place in any house!

Charlie - Captain Sadsack in full retard mode

Brisbane - The start of a New Life

Nightmare Start!!!

The thought of moving interstate was daunting at first but one that the whole family was looking forward to, we planned everything to the last detail and with the benefit of hindsight probably didn't allow enough time for other peoples stuff-ups.

Our old place in Lexton Street

I got a phone call at around 11.15am EDST on Friday the 14th of December from our Ballarat Conveyancers letting me know that the sale of Lexton Street had not gone ahead. We were not sure why but in the end it didn't matter because the settlement of Olivia Place had already been canned due to an error on behalf of the vendor. It turns out that head office had sent our titles docos to Colac branch instead of Ballarat.

So we were just about to hit Brisbane, no house settlement at either end, nowhere to stay and all our worldy possessions due to arrive on Saturday but no house to put them in. OK so we tried to negotiate with the Vendors of Olivia Place to allow us access to the property - no luck, they would not let us in.

At this stage I have to say that the people we had engaged to act on our behalf Balben Property Transfers, Littles Lawyers and Ben Hando at the Commonwealth bank have been sensational for us and worked so hard to help us get sorted.

Moments after being told of the Lexton Street settlement issues Karren called me to let me know that negotiations had been made to allow settlement of Olivia place Friday afternoon - PANIC STATIONS. I was pinging, we now couldn't settle Olivia Place because there would be no funds from the sale of Lexton Street. AAAAARGGGH.

Our new abode in Olivia Place

Long story short, Ben Hando, Sam at Balben and Sharynne at Littles got us into Olivia Place at 5.15pm on Friday afternoon, and both houses were eventually settled.

Now what can I say about the Vendors, unfortunately this blog is not the place to accurately describe them using the terms I would prefer. But I will summarise a few things they have done to indicate what sort of people they are...

1. Tried to make us pay $140 for bottled gas that they purchased just after we signed contracts, that they wouldn't get to use.
2. Wouldn't allow us access to the house even though it was their fault it didn't settle, then reluctantly said we could have access to the house but only if we paid $150/day rent. yeah right eff off!!!
3. Left the house in a filthy dirty state, it was putrid, they also left all their rubbish in boxes at the back door, including filling the recycle bin with rubbish. 80kgs of crap went to the tip, thankfully BCC gave us some vouchers for the tip.
4. They demanded that there be a new fence put up and negotiated with the neighbour to make this happen before the house was sold but then refused to pay him their share because they were selling!

Now that we are sort of settled, most of the boxes have been unpacked, we have a few days to acclimatise before driving south to Sydney for Christmas.

Road Trip - It Begins

The trip began from Ballarat at 9.30am on Thursday the 13th of December, just Steve and Charlie the dog, fortunately the girls decided to fly up to Brisbane. Travelling with a dog enclosed in a car is always a challenge but thankfully Charlie was in full retard mode (he doesn't cope well with change) and decided to sulk on the back seat of the Hilux.

First stop was bogan central - Shepparton Victoria, pulled in at SuperCheap to get some supplies to stop the tarp on the trailer flapping and flaying about and then grabbed a quick bite to eat. The less time spent there the better!

Next was a quick stop at Jerilderie to let the dog have a walk, what is it with country towns and redundant army/navy equipment?

In this photo a capable go anywhere, reliable and well armed vehicle, oh and a Leopard tank as well.

The drive then continued through the afternoon with little or nothing to speak of I was only interrupted by a couple of phone calls from the Solicitor to inform me of settlement issues, but more of that later!

The first fuel stop was Dubbo, I grabbed a bite to eat and added 100 litres of diesel. The generosity of strangers is a wonderful thing, a kind lady offered me a discount voucher at Shell and saved me $8 - bonus!

I was starting to feel a little drowsy by about 10.30pm, 40 or 50k out of Coonabarabran a couple of text messages from the Hereford Head kept me going and I continued on until the other side of town then stopped at a busy truck stop for a sleep. Two hours later I was rudely awoken by the sound of cattle stomping and banging in a cattle truck that had just arrived in the stop. Realising I would not get any further rest I walked the dog then prepared to continue on through the Pilliga towards Narrabri. As I departed the truckstop I noted that every other truck that had stopped had now departed, it seems no one can sleep in the same stop as a cattle truck!

It was a mind numbingly boring drive only briefly interrupted by infrequent stops to water and walk the dog. I was absolutely amazed by the number of trucks on the Newell Highway it was incredible, and don't they motor, if you went anything less than 105km/h they were all over your backside like a bad suit. In my tired stupor, I was continuously reminded of a song as each truck in a never ending procession went past me - and I am sure I was not the only one singing the song that night.

The drive through the Pilliga was a shocker, the sheer number of Kangaroos on the road was frightening, it was a very slow part of the trip. I was also aware of a story of the Pilliga Princess, and the thought of meeting Clare Wibson along the way was one I wanted to avoid. Many stories of Pilliga Princess can be found on the web.

I had prepared a couple of MP3 CDs for the trip and one song played at a rather appropriate time and I can all you Springsteen fans that your  eyes get pitchy in the wee wee hours! On a long flat straight stretch of road out of Narrabri I took this photo, at the time it looked perfectly clear, only after resting my eyes completely did I see just how blurry the photo was.

A blurry shot of some boring road north of Bellata

I stopped shortly after this photo just north of Gondiwindi, grabbed a little more sleep then decided to finish off the last stretch to Brisbane. I felt like I was finishing down hill with a tail wind and a wet sail. The sense of euphoria that the journey was nearly over was smashed flat by a simple phone call.