Basil and Bonkers

We have our BBQ this weekend with the neighbours....thanks England....which we're really looking forward to. Our homestay students are driving us Bonkers, so it will be nice to get away from them. Got to just keep grinning and bearing it, and think about the extra cash.

Had my birthday, turned 34, now feeling old, well oldish. Next year I'll be half-way to 70. Nice. Megan took Basil and me up to Peregian Beach on the Sunshine coast for a nice weekend away. We all loved it and had a wonderful relaxing time, except maybe the time I had to chase Basil down the beach with a small jellyfish in his mouth. Needless to say he's starting to get very quick - not as quick as Usain Bolt mind you, but I give him another couple of weeks until he's making me look like a 90 year old marathon runner. Oh, and also got some lovely cards and pressies from everyone, so thank you, and even managed to get a light tan.

Megan's conviced we should both chuck in our jobs and open up a cafe somewhere up the sunshine coast to escape from the endless grind and monotony of slaving away all day every day to line someone else's pockets; am tempted to agree but somehow feel that this would be swapping one type of grind for another that comes in a mug. Decisions decisions.

Off to Byron Bay with Basil and MC and possibly also Carls and Matt at the start of October. Really looking forward to that. In the meantime we'll just be getting on with things, trying to plan our return to the UK and generally just enjoying the great weather we've been having.

Basil & The Ashes

Since I last wrote, apologies for any keen readers out there (though I do get the feeling I am mostly writing for myself), Basil has arrived, August has come and gone, and almost most importantly England have won the Ashes. What fun I've had consoling my Strayian work colleagues. At least they're still good at the pole vault, or one of them is anyway.

Naturally England's win meant i won my bet with the neighbour, so thay are very kindly hosting a huge slap-up bbq for us in a couple of weeks. So jolly kind of them!

Basil....hmmm....Basil is a little monkey with piranha-sharp teeth. He is unbelievably cute and good-natured, when he's not trying to chew the backs of your legs. We've now had him for just over 5 weeks and he has doubled in size, eats like a horse, and craps like an elephant. but he's still cute. The picture is of him on his first visit to the beach down the Gold Coast. He loved it. Since then he tries to go swimming at every opportunity, which includes in his water bowl and under the garden hose. More of Basil later.

Having had a 3 week break from the homestay students we're now back up to full capacity with two swiss girls staying with us. It turns out that one is a sous-chef in real life so we're looking forward to some tasty meals in the next few weeks. In fact, we've got a pretty full-house at the moment with a couple of Megan's friends from the UK also staying, as they journey round the world.

Sadly megan and I have had to forego our honeymoon plans for October, owing to my work. We've been informed that we all 'have' to take 3 weeks off over xmas which basically means we can't take time off at any other time. So it looks like we may well be coming back to the UK and Hungary for xmas and New Year, and then will try to fit in our honeymoon on the way back out to Oz. Looks like we'll try to go to Thailand or somewhere similar. We shall see.

Thought I'd start putting in an Albertism every time I blog - in essence, a comment/deed/action or lack thereof, made by the father-in-law which should never have been made or contemplated in the first instance. At his daughter's graduation (yes the other one!), he was somewhat taken aback by the number of people of Asian extraction going up to collect their degrees and queried rather too loudly whether in fact they were getting their degrees in English.

Basil

Since I last wrote a fair amount has happened. I've been to the UK and Hungary on a lightening visit. Got horrifically jetlagged and caught some pretty manky flu. Our resident Colombian and Swiss students have moved out to be replaced by a Taiwanese and another Swiss student. I'm convinced one of them is a botter, a hamrider, a teapot man, a doughnut puncher, bats for the other side, whatever you want to call it. Hey-ho, that's his choice.

Anyway, the most important news, aside from England winning the Lords test, is that we went out to Toowoomba (or T-bar as the locals call it) to see the little fella in the picture.....Basil. Megan will be picking him up next Friday, and then bringing him home. Can't wait, he's so cute. He starts puppy pre-school on the 12th.

Oh, and it was Megan's birthday on Monday, so one lucky (young) lady got very spoiled. We went down to the Gold Coast on Saturday for lunch with some of the family, and then came back up to Brisvegas in the pm to be visited by the rest of the family. Needless to say it was a fun day.

Almost forgot - And then there were.....

....about 360! It finally happened, the powers that be (the 'little one'!) said 'roll over', so one rolled over and 40 fell out. The global economic downturn has hit E&Y Brisbane. Last week about 1/10 (about 40) of our staff were 'let go', including 11 from my tax group. I think a further 60 or so in total were also let go from our Melbourne and Sydney offices. The little one has so far neither confirmed nor denied that there will be any more.

That said, we have been told that everything should be ok for the next few months (hmmm!), however it does look likely that enforced unpaid leave and 4 day weeks/9 day fortnights will be coming into the equation fairly soon.

It's like a whole series of 'Survivor' here, not just one episode. Better start honing my 'hunter-gatherer' skills, and learn how to spear fish!

Homestay

We're now over a week into our first ever homestay experience. Taiki, a 20 year old English language student from just outside Yokohoma, at one of the language colleges here in Brisvegas, is our proverbial guineau-pig. Despite moments of incomprehension on both sides, my dreadful attempts to simplify things by using pigeon-english with a japanese accent and his inability to make a sandwich in under 30 minutes, everything seems to be going pretty smoothly.

In fact, being an ardent Man Utd supporter his arrival has given me a 2/3 majority for watching sport on the big screen. Shame the season's nearly over; guess, i'll just try to convert him into a cricket and rugby union fan for the rest of his 3 week stay with us.

Taiki (pronounced Tacky) unbeknown to him has already accumulated a couple of nicknames - Tic-tac to MC and the girls and Turkey to one unspecified individual (Mat!). Oh, and before you ask, he does have an incredible amount of gadgets for just about everything. Sadly, though, not one for making a sandwich in under 30 minutes.

As I've said everything seems to be working out, so we've agreed to take on another homestay student for 8 weeks from the 23rd May. This one is from Switzerland I think....language hopefully shouldn't be as much of a problem, as it sometimes is with Taiki. Poor chap took two days to work out that when the new chap arrives he doesn't have to share his bed, we'll be turning the study into a second spare room with a little help from Ikea. Yes, they have that here too, only it's not half as decent as it is in the UK.

Bank Holiday Weekend

Almost the weekend, and a 3 day weekend too on account of Labor Day up here in Qld. It would be made so much better if they could actually spell labour properly. Maybe I let things like that get to me a bit too much!

All of Megan's nieces are coming up to stay for a pyjama party on Friday night, as they have a big dance competition on Saturday morning up here in Brisvegas. The girls have been so excited, especially Soraya who is now my email pen-pal!

Then on either Sunday or Monday we will be welcoming our first homestay student, who'll be living with us for the next 4 weeks or so. In between all of that we'll probably be popping down to the northern end of the gold coast to check out some places, and I expect I'll probably be up late on Saturday night watching the 2000 Guineas live. It's got to be between Delegator and Mastercraftsman, with preference for Delegator after his thumping win in the Craven.....7/2 odds may be a bit short though, with not much value in that.

All in all, chcuk in a few beers and it should be a fun weekend, especially if the weather stays this nice. Hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend back in the UK too.

Oh to be in England

Autumn is slowly fading into winter out here. We've just had our coldest morning yet - a chilly 15 degrees - and everyone is moaning, apart from me. Many thanks also to those of you that have been emailing me descriptions of the sights, smells and sounds of England in Spring; it's making me feel very jealous (you know who you are!).

The weather today reminded me of a beautiful Spring morning in the UK, and evoked Robert Browning's poem 'Home thoughts from abroad' - quite apt really. It was also one of dad's favourite poems. I remember him quoting it to me every springtime when i was younger:

Oh to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England - now!

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark! where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops - at the bent spray's edge -
That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower-
Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower

Now i feel really homesick. Better go have a beer under the palm tree I think!