Bula!

We recently celebrated our anniversary, and we were fortunate enough to celebrate it in the beautiful country of Fiji! Be prepared, there are heaps of pictures in this post!

I have always wanted to go to Fiji, and seeing as it's only a 4 hour flight from Brisbane, I think we'll keep it in mind for future vacations. Fiji is beautiful and the Fijian people are so friendly and warm. We had an amazing time. We were able to snorkel every day, we drank some cava and numbed our tongues, won a hermit crab race, had our first and second ever massages, and on our last night in Fiji, the resort had a live reggae and cover band which meant... BOYLE DANCING!!! (Only my Alberta cousins will appreciate this.)

Dog Park Sunday

We recently spent the afternoon at one of the many dog parks located in Brisbane and the surrounding areas. A number of the dog parks in Brisbane have agility equipment installed in them which makes for a fun afternoon outside. We recently purchased a new camera so we decided to head out with our much photographed canine and play around a little bit.

You will be pleased to note that Alan stayed off of the equipment.

This one had jumps, weave poles, an A frame, table and a ramp.

Lady Elliot Island and Noosa National Park

Have you ever been to a private island? One that's only big enough to land a small plane on? Where you can walk around it in 45 minutes flat, and need to watch for planes when you walk across the runway? Me neither! Until we visited Lady Elliot Island.

Lady Elliot Island

Lady Elliot Island is a small coral cay, located at the south end of the Great Barrier Reef. Our day trip to the island started dark and early (the sun wasn't even up yet!) because we needed to catch a plane from Hervey Bay, which is about a 2.5 hour drive from Noosa. And the plane left at 8:10 am. And we needed to be there 45 minutes before departure. So the alarm clocks were set for 4:30 am. The motorway between Noosa and Hervey Bay (the Bruce Highway) has seen it's fair share of accidents over the years, so the Queensland government has introduced a few unconventional methods of keeping drivers attentive and awake. They have roadside trivia! I love trivia! Although I think Linda was the only one in the car to get a correct answer (the state animal of Queensland is the koala), it was a neat way to engage drivers along the road.

Once we got to the airport, and were ready to board the plane, the pilot said "Oh it looks like a full plane today, does anyone want to ride up front with me?". I didn't even think he had to finish his sentence because Alan was already sitting in the co pilot seat at the front of the plane. True story.

Australia Zoo/Fraser Island

On our next weekend, we were able to get away for a few days to one of my favorite places around Brisbane: Noosa and the Sunshine Coast. Not only did we have the opportunity to explore Noosa and surrounds, including the world famous Eumundi Markets, but we also stopped in at the Australia Zoo on the drive up, and then took a few days trips to Fraser Island and Lady Elliot Island as well.

The deadly hose is allowed to roam free at the Australia Zoo.

First up, the Australia Zoo. The Australia Zoo is the home of Steve Irwin's biggest and baddest crocs. The Irwin family is well represented here, with a life size bronze statue of the four of them greeting you at the entrance. Both Bindi and Bob, Steve's children, have action figures, dolls, and a series of books named after them. It's pretty impressive. The zoo itself is a massive park and you can easily spend the day here, feeding kangaroos, getting up close and personal with koalas, and watching all the different animal shows and information sessions that the park offers.

Oddly cute little things

Crocs!

Tamborine Mountain/Byron Bay/Springbrook National Park

We were very fortunate to have some visitors over the past little while. Alex & Linda, Alan's parents came for a visit. They proved themselves to be intrepid travelers, staying awake until almost 10 pm on their first night in Oz, after arriving on the 7 am flight from LA. I'm fairly certain Alan and I didn't make it past 6 pm on our first few nights in Brisbane. It was so nice to have people staying in the "guest wing" of our apartment, in fact it felt very empty after they left for Sydney. Thank you so much for traveling the long distance to visit us, Alex and Linda! We had a wonderful time!

Our first weekend together took us out to see Tamborine Mountain, Byron Bay, and Springbrook National Park.

Tamborine Mountain is in the Gold Coast hinterlands, and is an artsy little town filled with galleries, shops (including a cuckoo clock shop), wineries, and restaurants. Alan and I were here a little while ago on a very rainy weekend, and the place was empty, which was probably a contributing factor to our cuckoo clock purchase. With Alex and Linda, we were fortunate to have a beautiful sunny day and Tamborine Mountain was transformed into a bustling hive of activity. We took a walk to a waterfall, wandered the shops, and had lunch with some lorikeets at the Polish Place restaurant (where the views are considerably better when it's not pouring rain and foggy).

Here are some pictures from Tamborine Mountain!

A little walk through the rainforest.

Good God, it's been a while!

So much has happened!

Brisbane almost flooded again.
We went to Hawaii, and met up with my mum and papa, and bro and sis-in-law, Chris and Lis!
We had a few visitors through Brisbane to see us. Cousins Sarah, Steve and Isabella. Uncle Peter. And the main attraction, Alex and Linda came to stay!

Just sorting through photos, and will be posting some over the next few days. Watch this space!

Things that are different!

Canada and Australia are similar in a number of ways, and moving here has certainly eased us into the whole "living abroad/expat" mentality. That being said, there are lots of little differences that we've noticed over the last 6 months, especially since I started working at a hospital again.

Without further ado, I bring you... (drumroll please!)

Things that are different about Australia! 

Sorry for the lacklustre title

 First off, before we even delve into the concrete terminological differences, we should start with the simple linguistics of things. You know, putting the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle and pronouncing things completely wrong. I swear that people look at me strangely on a daily basis.

Garage - Gare-age, not ga-rah-ge
Debut - day-boo, not day-bew
Jasper - Jas-pah, not Jas-per
Knife - Knoife, not knife (this one's for Lanair)


Thrilling stuff! Ready for more fun? And away we go!

 Out and About

Capsicum - red bell pepper
Rocket - arugula
Lemonade - fizzy lemon soda
Lemon squash - A more sour version of lemonade as above, but more like the lemonade that we're familiar with
Bottleshop or Bottle-o - Liquor store
Arvo - afternoon
Petrol - Gas
Ta - Thank you
Tea - a drink, but also a meal, as in morning or afternoon tea. This gets confusing when parents ask where they can get tea at the hospital, and I say "I'll grab you a cuppa", (feeling all hip to the aussie slang) and I ask them how they like it, and then I get a weird look and a clarification "I meant my evening tea". Oh. Ok, right.*sigh*
Chemist - Pharmacy
Rice Bubbles - Rice Krispies

Hospital

Paracetamol & Panadol - Acetaminophen and Tylenol (same exact drug, completely different name)
Nurofen (ibuprofen) - Advil 
Amethocaine or Angel cream (topical anaesthetic cream) - Ametop
Wee - Pee
Nappy - Diaper
Bubs - Babies
(Sidebar - Can you imagine the looks I get when I ask about babies, pee and diapers at work? Oh, and for the record, the top of a baby's bottle is a teat, not a nipple. *sigh*)
Cannula or drip - An intravenous, or IV as we would refer to them at home
"The cannula has tissued" - "The IV has gone interstitial" - Or in layman's terms, "the IV is no longer in the vein" 
Bloods - Bloodwork
Ambo - EMT/Paramedic

When you write the date on a chart, it's day, month, year, which makes sense, but then I start to second guess myself, and the order of things and get all confused and wind up sneaking a peek at something else to figure out the right way to write the date.

Around the home

Lift - Elevator
Roller door - Garage door
Spanner - Wrench
Lounge - Sofa
Air Con - air conditioning, not a new airline catering to convicts (bahaha!)
Thongs - Flip Flops, sandals
Toilet - Washroom/Bathroom/Restroom/etc.
Rubbish bin/Wheelie bin - garbage can

Well, that's all for now folks!