New Visitor

Well a change of bait seems to have done the trick. After a few months of common garden doves and a few pigeons I changed the seed in the birdfeeder and at last we have had our first Cockatoo in the garden. Hopefully the first of many. This adds to the 2 Rosella's that graced us with their presence about a month back seen in the picture below. If things keep moving this way it won't be long before I am known as the weird bird man of Brisbane again!!!

Ashes Saturday

What a super experience it was at the Gabba over the weekend watching the cricks with a full house of 40000 fans and a few icy colds.

The weekend kicked off with us picking Jim and Gen from the airport who had flown up from Sydney for the cricket. That evening was loads of cricket talk to complement the number of beers that were being consumed.

Game day started where we had left off the night before with a few beers outside the gabba before heading into the ground just before the start of play. I must say it is a really different experience watching Test match cricket in with a stadium full. The atmosphere was super though the Queensland Police did the best to dull all the atmosphere in the ground. There was still the usual limitless number of beach balls flying around the crowd and at one stage a blow up doll managed to escape police capture for a good 5 minutes before police managed to get their hands on her, much to the amusement of the 40000 people who suddenly weren't following the cricket all that closely.

Sar's and I both had a blast and are now looking forward to the 1 day international between these 2 teams in January at the same venue. With the Ashes test now behind us we are looking forward to hosting our first "ushering party" this weekend when we plan to usher in the festive season with a few friends. I believe this to be the 1st "ushering" held in Oz and we will bring you news and pics of the event next week.

Sarah prepares for her dubut

Can you think of a better way to make your Test match cricket watching debut than at the 1st Test of an Ashes series with Aussie trying to win back the urn in front of a full house 40000 people at the Gabba. As a seasoned cricket watcher this exites even me. As for Sarah this will be her first experience of Test match cricket and I can't imagine picking a better game to start with. We know the cricket is going to be extremely aggressive and with the "Barmy Army"in full cry the atmosphere will be electric. Our seats are 4 rows from the front so will be right in the thick of it, right next to the bloke who threw the chicken at Symmo a few years back I hope!!!

We will no doubt take some pics and blog them next week and as the slogan says "IT IS DEFINATELY ON"

Come on Aussie, 4-0 with one draw is the prediction. Sorry Chris.

The Race that stop a Nation

My first experience of the Melbourne Cup didn't disappoint, it is truly a "Race that stops the Nation". Officially only the Mexicans, sorry Victorians have a public holiday though really the entire country comes to a grinding halt at 2pm on Melbourne Cup Tuesday. Our office put on a BBQ come midday on the day, an office sweep was organised from which I drew a 3 legged donkey-no I reckon a 3 legged donkey would have beaten my horse by 3 lengths!! Once the BBQ was done we all headed to the pub for a punt and a pot. The place was packed at 13.30. We had a couple of beers and for once I backed a horse that came in though no money was to come to hand as I also put a bet on for Sarah who claimed to have insider information on her pony!!! It came in 2nd to last!!! You can see from the above picture that Sar's office also put on a lunch/drinks for staff to see the race and in fact Sarah won $2 in her office sweep. Nededless to sat I was very impressed with Sar's choice of headgear for the day, if this was a pre festive season warm up on the head gear front then it is going to be one hell of a time.
After the race a few more beers were consumed as Troy and I sat and bet on every race televised that afternoon winning and losing. We had it running like clockwork as the races around the country are arranged so there is roughly 5 minues between start times of all races so we would do the 15.00 in Brisbane followed by the 15.05 in Adelaide then the 15.10 in Darwin and so forth. It wasn't quite dark when we left but were forced out as we weren't quite prepared to put our hard earned $'s on the dogs.
It really was a good experience, if you can remember the opening day of the World Cup Rugby 95 it had a very similar feel to that with all roads deserted come 13.30.

TICKETS

Well after months of trying, hours of begging and many more hours spent on Ebay Sarah and I have secured tickets to Day 3 of the Ashes Test at the Gabba (hopefully I don't get tossed out this time). Sar's cousin Gen and her partner Jim are travelling to Brisbane for the test. As it turns out Jim, who in fact has tickets to all 5 tests and is following England, had 2 spare tickets. It was obviously a no brainer when they were offered to us. It is undoubtably going to be an absolute cracker of an opening test and to be there on the Saturday will no doubt be something to behold. I will no doubt update the blog after the event with some pictures. HAPPY DAYS.

Test Video

Having just signed up to you tube I have put on a test video off my didital camera. If this works you can look forward to many more snippets from our adventures "Down Under". The first video is just catching Sar's in the kitchen.

Enjoy and let me know what you think...

Mo-vember

It’s Movember

I remember some years back flipping through Men’s Health —a magazine to which, at the time, I was subscribed despite a poor diet, lifestyle, and a severe disinclination to do anything about either— spotting on the back cover a full-page advertisement for prostate cancer.
Not that they were selling me prostate cancer, just trying a raise awareness. More Australian men die every year of prostate cancer than women of breast cancer, yet it receives only one tenth the funding. People like breasts. I like breasts. Nobody dislikes breasts. You need look no further than the massive media coverage of Kylie Minogue’s breast cancer scare to see a global preference for breasts in action, but nobody really likes the prostate. It’s like the gall bladder, or the pancreas… nobody gives a damn until something goes wrong.
And who can blame them? The prostate isn’t exactly glamourous, but somebody has taken up its cause. For the last two years, the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia has been organizing Movember: a national prostate cancer awareness-building and fund-raising exercise. Blokes sign up, they coerce their family and coworkers to donate money, and they spend the entire month of November cultivating a luscious moustache for the cause.

To be honest I didn’t know until three days ago that it was a charity event —I thought Movember was just a goof that an unusual number of university students participated in— but it turns out that it’s a great opportunity to grow a ridiculous moustache that no girlfriend, wife, or employer could possibly object to: it’s for a good cause, after all.
For those with itchy credit cards and a desire to encourage this kind of thing, head on over to the Movember Sponsorship page and sign up to grow one yourself. You know you want to.


We are doing a blog movember starting a day late but never the less email me pics of your clean shaven faces and at the end of the month with your newly groomed porn-star tash in tow. We will be sure to post the results on the site. Take my face in the picture below as the start.