Merry New Year

Merry New Year to you all from us both.

Just a quick picture of me on 4 mile beach up in Port Douglas (part of tropical northern Queensland) when we were up there back in September. Port Douglas, along with Cairns, being inthe Tropics is one of the most humid parts of Oz; so humid that mould will grow on your furniture during these times. December to March (normally Oz summer) is rainy season, and for much of the year you cannot even swim in the ocean on account of the stingers (jelly-fish). having said that it truly is beautiful up there and has very easy access to the Barrier Reef.

Yes, the beach really is about 4 miles long (I'v e run it and was well and truly knackered) and yes the temperature is even hotter now than it was back then. Today it hit about 35 degrees down here in BrisVegas, but thankfully the humidity was down on the last couple of days. We're are loving our air-con!

We're off to celebrate the New Year with some friends, Benita & Brenden and their retriever Oscar, who happen to live round the corner from us. Chin-chin and enjoy!

Have a great New Year and see you in 2009.

Santa Lives or Any Takers?

Santa Claus is real, or so a 6 year old living on the Gold Coast gets to believe for yet another year. His sister is now counting the cash...one can only imagine what the going rate will be next year!! Maybe the elder brother will get in on the scam...heck, the way the world's financial markets are falling apart maybe i need to get in on the scam. In fact, maybe i need a magician...a special magician?

That said, whilst Santa lives, we hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas, and all got what you hoped for. We certainly had an enjoyable and relaxing time. Christmas was, from past experience, remarkably unhectic, fun, and when not playing cricket in the garden or baseball on the wii, not painful either (the shoulder!!).
It should be pointed out here that generally you do not have a big roast dinner at Christmas; it is simply too hot. Cold meats and seafood, bbq's sometimes and just heaps of cold beer and white wine are the norm.
A few days of that and soon the home instincts start kicking in......curry! It just can't be helped.
Thank the curry king of Miami (also known as Abe Froman, though not as well known for his sausages...or Chicago for that matter) for his Tandoor Palace. It's been found. Finally, a fantastic curry house round the corner from Chook and Albert's place (that is the future in-law's place, Sandra and Alan to some, Chook and Albert to others, and to a few Madge and Harold!!). I'll just end this now by saying i did not have the heart to try either the 'Vindaloo Roo' or the 'Kangaroo Korma'. Those dishes are being saved for someone far braver than the both of us. Any takers?

By Way of Explanation...

....the title of this blog, you may have realised, bears a slight resemblance to a recently released film. Thankfully on this site there will be no pictures of Hugh Jackman and/or Nicole Kidman, and this one time aside no mention of Baz Luhrmann! There might however be pictures of stunning beaches, dramatic backdrops, beautiful sunsets, bottles of beer (or bubbles in this case), shrimps on the barbie, and our almost-houstrained gecko - he knows that he's not supposed to go into the house or else we throw things at him.
It also sounds a bit like what natives of this country call their homeland. Well, to me anyway!
I thought that by calling it Ozztraaaaaalyah (got to get the right amount of a's in there) I could present a Bill Brysonesque insight or view into what Megan and I get up to, where we go and what Australia is like from an English (well, half-English) point of view. It also seems like a great, but more fun way to keep a diary, that everyone can see. We'll see.

In the meantime I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and I hope you don't have to go through the ethical dilemma that one of Megan's nieces is going through at the moment. She has just worked out that Santa (shhh!) isn't real, and that her parents have lied to her, her entire life....should she or should she not tell her younger brother the truth....all will be revealed !!
Merry Christmas.

Katch Up

Well here we are. We made it out here in one piece, sanity intact and raring to go...well, that was 3 months ago. It's now coming up to Christmas, we've been in our new place and new jobs for about 3 months and there's just under 3 months to go until the wedding - life is moving pretty damn quick.
I've got to apologise to so many people who might read this - it was promised so long ago and i've only just got it up (no pun intended) and running!
I'll revisit lots of what we've done so far in the coming weeks, but suffice to say that so far we have worked out why australians have 'watch out for the kangaroo' roadsigns, why it's good to carry a spare fuel can in your car, why it's also good to put suncream on before lying by the pool for 2 hours, how not to cook kangaroo, named our friendly garden gecko, seen a possum, hidden from the hailstones, been confounded by people's kindness, and whilst living life at 100 miles an hour being busy, managed to relax a bit too. We've also found the best pie-shop next to the craziest-looking pub in the world!
OH, and summer is just arriving!