Christmas in Oz!

Hello again!

I thought I would share some pictures from our first Australian Christmas. It certainly was a different kind of Christmas this year!

Our Target Christmas tree

Before Christmas, my parents and I participated in the inaugural Inter-Continental Christmas Cinnamon Bun Bake Off. We set up our respective computers in our kitchens, started a FaceTime chat and made cinnamon buns together. It was so much fun, it almost felt like we were in the kitchen together baking. Almost.

The Inaugural Inter-Continental Christmas Cinnamon Bun Bake Off begins!

You know the saying, "it's 5 o'clock somewhere"? Well, I made good use of it on baking day. And it was close to 5pm in Calgary, so I felt justified in my mid morning drinking. (Don't worry, I CAGE'd myself before imbibing.)

I was showing my parents the finished product

We chuckled to ourselves on Christmas eve, because the air con was on full blast and it was warm and humid outside, creating condensation on our patio sliding doors. It was almost like at home, when it gets so cold outside that it causes the condensation on the inside of windows to freeze. Don't worry, our air conditioner wasn't able to create frost, but in a weird way, it felt a little like home, but backwards. But hey, we are "down under" after all!

Santa was doing some pre Christmas jet-skiing on the Brisbane River earlier on Christmas eve day.

On Christmas Day we woke up and did some more mid-morning drinking.
Mimosas, just like at home!
And we had our cinnamon buns, just like at home!
And we sat on the patio, because it was already 28 degrees outside, just like at... Oh no, wait, that's different...

Merry Christmas!

Chrismosas

Cinnamon buns

Patio time

Chilling on the patio

At this point we decided to embrace the lack of cold weather and snow, and we headed to the beach for the afternoon.

Just laying in the water

Playing in the waves

Mudjimba North Shore beach

There was sand everywhere in our car after this...

He's a water dog, through and through

Alan & Jasper

Amanda & Jasper

We headed home, and made our Christmas dinner (just like at home!) and sat on the patio to enjoy it (not just like at home!)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Dog in Oz!

He's finally here! After 5 months of planning and bloodwork and paperwork and $$$, Jasper has finally arrived in Oz. Alan and I took a road trip to Sydney this weekend to pick up the pupperton. It would have been fairly easy to have Jasper flown from Sydney to Brisbane, but we figured his last plane ride was 14 hours so he'd be a little stressed out if he went on another one. And hey, what better way to see a country than by road-trip?

Yup, that's a windsock in the middle of the motorway...

For a second there, I was worried about Harry Potter's house elf... But he's Dobby, not Nobby. Phew!

My favourite billboard of the trip. "Road crashes affect more than just you. Don't rush" with a picture of a rather grumpy looking surgeon.

By the time the weekend rolled around, we were quite glad of our decision to drive to Sydney and get him because SE Queensland and New South Wales experienced quite the heat wave this weekend, with temperatures around the 40 degree Celsius mark. Not exactly good pet flying conditions.

Hot! Thank goodness for A/C!

We stayed overnight in the Eastern Creek area, close to the quarantine station. The quarantine station only releases animals between the hours of 10 and 10:30 in the morning on weekends, and we didn't want to be delayed by any traffic incidents or GPS issues, so I found the closest hotel to the quarantine station. And we were there waiting by 9:45 on Sunday morning. My dad would be proud. There were a few other families waiting to collect their pets as well. So we joined the queue and waited. By 10:00 the doors opened, and we were in! They checked our ID, and made sure there was nothing owing on our account, then they took us in where they had all the animals scheduled to be picked up that day. They had them in their crates on a truck, not sure why, I wonder what would happen if you didn't make it in time for the 30 minute collection window... Would they just leave him out on the road with his crate and a sign that says "Brisbane or Bust"?

Lots of stickers on his crate.

Fit to fly checklist

Baggage tag?

Alan took a video of our reunion, but it basically shows me fidgeting (I was so nervous!) and Jasper's reaction was pretty much as follows.

Quarantine staff member brings him off the truck
Jasper - "Freedom! I'm so excited!"
He rushes past me, in a excited flurry, then catches our familiar scent
Jasper - "Oh hey I know you guys!" Sniffs some more. "Great, glad you're here. Okay, now, how do I get out of here? You have opposable thumbs, let's do this people!"
He was so anxious to find the exit that I'm not sure he totally realized who we were until we got to the car. Where he promptly pissed on Australian soil.

I just had the strangest dream, or wait...

We drove past the quarantine station both going to and coming from the Blue Mountains and it is a massive facility. Check it out on Google Earth (Eastern Creek Animal Quarantine Intake Station).

We spent the night in Mullaway, just past Coff's Harbour, in a little beach shack. It was a great little spot, and we'll definitely be back, seeing as it's pet friendly and all. We took a walk on the beach on Sunday night, Jasper went for a swim, dug some holes on the beach, and tried to eat dead sea urchins and seaweed.

Mullaway Beach, just a short walk away

Reunited and it feels so good

Roo guard

 The next morning, I was up early and was doing dishes when a kangaroo hopped past our patio. So exciting! Prior to this, I had only seen kangaroos at the koala sanctuary, so this was pretty neat to see one in the wild, up close and personal. Jasper was shocked. It was the biggest rabbit he had ever seen. Ever. Of course, the camera wasn't closeby so we didn't get a photo, but it was pretty cool. (Last night, we saw a possum on our walk. The biggest squirrel he had ever seen. Ever. I think his first impression of Australia is that everything is bigger here.)

Our beach shack, the kangaroo stopped right on the wooden pathway beside the small green plant

Having a dog here means that, aside from the poisonous spiders and snakes, there's also a paralysis tick to worry about. So our first stop in Brisbane was at the pet store, to pick up a tick collar, flea treatment and heartworm prevention. The tick collar has a minty odour so he smells minty fresh at the moment. And his first full day in Brisbane just happens to be the hottest day in 11 years, so we have been hanging out indoors, enjoying the air conditioning.

It's quite strange actually, because as weird as it feels to finally have him here with us, at the same time, it feels as though he's always been here.

Home sweet home.

Next post - Blue Mountains!

Countdown to Jasper

It has begun! (And in my mind, it sounds really good if you start singing Countdown to Jasper to the tune of Nightflight to Venus by Boney M, just an FYI, feel free to join me. Or not. Whatevs). Not counting today, we will be reunited with the pupperton in 9 days. This is monumentally exciting!

I was chatting with my sister (Hi Meghan!) the other day and expressed to her that I was feeling a little bit homesickly. Not overwhelmingly so, but I just have this niggling feeling of, "Alright, ready for the trip to be done, we can go home now"and this is compounded by the fact that Alan will be back in Calgary for a week in December for work. Sans Amanda. Yup, that was some hard news to take. Especially when he kept referring back to the trip as "When we go to Calgary..." as in "When my coworkers and I go to Calgary...". (We have fixed this). To be fair, I probably could have gone with him, but didn't for two reasons. Well, two and a half reasons.

1. We pick up Jasper on Dec 2. (Yippee!) Alan leaves on Dec 8. Nothing says "Welcome home man's best friend!" quite like sticking him in a random boarding kennel for a week.

2. It's hard to stomach the flight cost, as we would likely only go for a week. We could go for longer, but that would make reason number one an even bigger deterrent.

2.5. Alan would be flying business class. I would not. I am spoiled. I fully admit that. But have no fear, friends and family in Canada! This doesn't preclude a trip home in the future, just not this December. I honestly don't mind flying economy, but I'd rather fly economy with my spouse, rather than being 50 rows behind him and sitting on his business class ottoman for dinner. It's justifiable, right?

It's a bit of a moot point now, because as of Monday I am gainfully employed! Yay! Just wait for pictures of the uniform. No scrubs for me.

I anticipate that having Jasper here with us (finally!) and starting a job will help ground me here a little bit. It's not going to remove the whole home sick feeling, and I wouldn't expect it to, however it will be nice for our little family to be complete again, fur-child and all.

BTW, If you want to see pictures of Jasper in quarantine, you can do so here http://www.dogwalks.com.au/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=1230

Brisbane days

We kept quite busy for most of Meghan's trip down under, but we had a few free days in Brisbane. It was so nice to have someone to do some touristy things around Brisbane with. It was also nice to have someone in the car with me to make sure I stayed on the left, as well as clarifying some of Karen's (our car GPS) directions. She can be a tricky lady, that Karen.

One of our first stops on the Brisbane tourist trail was to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I love this place.

There are literally hundreds of koalas at the sanctuary

Meghan and her new friend - Barnacle

I was excited because the kangaroos were actually awake and hungry this time!

Making more new friends

Food does aid in the friendship making process

Yum!

Do you have any more?

My new friend

There were some joeys around, some in pouches and some that have been kicked out!

They are cute!

 We also took a run along the river and came across this statue.

Teneriffe

I like her bag

Meghan joined us at curling a few times.

We spent another day at the GOMA in Brisbane, the Gallery of Modern Art. It was really fun, and free!

You can use static electricity to stick a plastic shower curtain to a wall and call it art!

Cheeky photo

My favorite. A bright red polar bear!

It matches my sandals! (They have two so certainly they wouldn't mind if I just took one...)

A balancing act

A whole row of metronomes, all at different tempos

Shadow fun

Woot!

We also looked around at the public art in Brisbane

Southbank Bougainvillea pathway

Pelicans on the river

Kangaroos in the CBD

Me on the Kurilpa Bridge

Kurilpa Bridge

I was pretty bummed when Meghan left. It was so wonderful to have her here and our time together just flew by! But you know what they say about what happens to time when you're having fun...

In other news, Jasper is in the country! He's making friends at the quarantine station and I'm hoping to get some pictures back from the dog walker to share with you very soon. I am literally counting down the days until we go and get him. Very, very excited for that!