The Tasmanian Devil does exist, and it has the jaw strength of a crocodile.

So on to last weekend. I started my job at ASADA (Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency) last Thursday. It's an entry level position but so far it's good. I deal with the negative results that we get, entering them into the database and filing them away, in the new year I will be doing some work with the legal team as well when I'm not busy. Right now I'm busy back filing to try and clear stuff out before we break for Christmas.

Last weekend we finished up our Christmas shopping and made an attempt at getting a Christmas tree, a whole lot harder than I would have though. We only found one this past Thursday and let me say, it doesn't look like a regular Christmas tree at all, it's just weird.

Sunday Andrew went with me to a Swedish Christmas service, sadly it was in Swedish so neither Andrew nor I could follow along, but it was still really neat, and really cool to hear traditional Christmas songs in Swedish. After the service we met up with Anna, a Swedish girl in my jazzercise class, and her husband Jason to follow the others from the service over to the Swedish embassy. There we had coffee, pepercorker and swedish christmas buns while sitting outside on the patio chatting. Finally they had the Santa Lucia processional through the ambassadors house. It was very sweet to see all the little children dressed up, the one picture I took isn't so good but I didn't want to block anyones view.

As I said, work is going well so far. I get to enjoy flex time, working 9-5 with a half hour lunch and a great Christmas break. We get done this coming Thursday on Christmas Eve, probably around noontime, and we don't go back until the 4th of January, and we get paid for it! Andrew is off during the same time, he actually took a few days leave so he's on holiday now which makes him quite pleased.


Thursday night I met Andrew and some of his workmates at O'Malley's for goodbye drinks for one of the guys. After a drink there we went to a place called Phoenix bar for another quick one while we waited for a table to be made ready for us at Hogg's Breathe Cafe. I really like the Phoenix bar, it was a dark, dirty hole in the wall with a great feel to it. We had a great time at dinner before heading home to crash out.

Friday we made an attempt at getting the Christmas tree inside the house. We got it in with lights on it, all the ornaments up. It looked funny but it was standing. About an hour later I hear Andrew yelling from upstairs and I saw the tree on the floor. All the ornaments had been knocked clear of the tree so we were luck only one was damaged. We arranged it on the floor for the night and my mission the next day was to find a stand. I spent all morning on Saturday calling around trying to find anyone with a tree stand, apparently they don't really use those down here because no one had any. We settled for a large tub and 50L (2 giant bags) of mulch. It managed to work and the tree is still standing.

Saturday afternoon we decided we were in need of a swim so we rode our bikes about 15 minutes down the road to a nature reserve called Pine Island where we settled by the river with some drinks and enjoyed the nice weather before swimming around in the water a bit. A very relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

After Christmas craziness I can tell of our weird aussie celebrations.

New Zealand is the first country to see the sunrise

We're finally back up and running with internet, which we are so grateful for, it has taken us almost two weeks to get it going. So, some backtracking.

We headed to New Zealand early early Saturday morning on the 5th. Our flight was at 6:45am, and we traveled for most of the day. First on to Sydney. To understand what I had to deal with between Kate and Andrew we were given a muffin on the plane and they both proceeded to stick their fingers into mine and Andrew even licked it. Bunch of jerks. Our second flight was better, I threatened them both with my knife to stay away from my food so it was an uneventful flight.

The jerks and my breakfast

Andrew's parents and Uncle Dennis met us at the airport and drove us over a mountain to the harbor on the other side of Christchurch. Dennis has an amazing place on the hillside near the water looking onto the water. It's mostly holiday houses so his neighbors weren't there so they let us use their place, which was real nice, it gave us all a bit more space. Before dinner Kate, Andrew and I went for a walk out to a point with a small hill to get more of a view of the harbor and area around where we were staying.

The driveway up to Dennis' house, the whole area is covered in beautiful flowers
Dennis' house is the one with the red arrow pointed to it and we stayed in the one on the left

They're going to build houses on the point we were out on so of course before building anything, or selling any of the land, they decided to build fences with locked gates at some parts so we had to climb over them to get out if we didn't want to walk all the way back around the hill

The stairs to the top of the hill

Dennis is an amazing cook and we were treated to a three course meal beginning with eggplant stuffed with cheese, garlic and I don't know what else, followed by braised pork loin and salad and finished off with delicious pavlova topped with whipped cream and strawberries. For those who don't know, Pavlova is similar to snow pudding except baked, so it has a crunchy outside and soft inside. It really can't be described through, it's best to just try it.

The view from Dennis' couch

The view from our bedroom

The neighbors house we got to stay in

Andrew likes to look creepy

Crazy flowers growing in New Zealand

Sunday we got up and headed on a drive to one of Andrew's aunts houses for the annual Walker family Christmas party. Luckily Kate and Andrew didn't know most of the people there either so we made friends with one of his cousins and sat around drinking and chatting for the afternoon. At the end of the day someone pulled out some family video footage they had found recently and we were treated to some very old school pictures of the family, including Andrew's dad at probably only a year old after his confirmation playing in the yard, it was really pretty neat to see and made me want to see some of our old family videos.

Monday we drove down to Wiamate, which is about 3 hours down from Christchurch. This is the town Andrew's mom is from and his grandmother still lives in. She was sick when I first arrived in Australia and has been moved into a nursing home which she is still adjusting to. Wiamate is a small town, a cross between East Andover, NH and Franklin (for those who have been). There is one main street with a few shops including a cafe or two and about three bars. The first day we just bummed around and met Andrew's uncle Les and one of Judy's (Andrew's moms) friends for drinks.

There is a famous racehorse name Phar Lap, and he was from the area where Andrew's grandmother lives

This is the main street of the town

The house that Andrew's grandparents bought after the war and Judy grew up in

Tuesday we wandered around the town a while, popping into the second hand shops, including one where I bought an old brownie camera that seems to be in working condition. We went to see Andrew's grandmother in the afternoon, she was either waiting for us at one of the non-exit doors or waiting to make a break for it. It turns out that she has made a few breakouts before, although she doesn't remember doing it. She showed us around the home and her room and we had some tea before we headed out to meet Les for dinner and drinks.

Wednesday Kate, Andrew and I were heading out so we said our goodbyes to Andrew's grandmother and Les before beginning our long journey home. We took a bus for over 2 hours, a plane for 3 and another plane for half an hour before driving another half hour home to crash for a while before all three of us had to get up for our public service jobs. (I'm a public servant now).

We made a quite beach stop before our bus trip up the coast

Following up tomorrow will be the new job and catching up on the past week.

And we end with a video about New Zealanders that cracks us up.
Beached Az

Australian law: It is illegal to wear hot pink pants after midday Sunday.

It has been a packed week, hence the lateness of this blog. Last Wednesday Andrew and I moved in to our new place. It’s a two story, three bedroom, two bath townhouse. We’ve already settled in nicely, we’re just missing the main furniture for the guest bedroom and the office/music room to get it all together, and of course hanging things on the wall, but all in good time.

Thursday Andrew and I went down to King O’Malley’s pub in the city for a Movember party. Movember is to bring awareness to prostate cancer and men’s depression. To do this guys grow mustaches and people donate money for them to do this throughout the month of November. Of course Andrew had to participate, thank god it’s gone now but it was a month of ridicule at Andrew’s silly mustache. A lot of the people at the party dressed up to highlight the mustaches, we had builders, 1920s gangsters, the Swedish chef from The Muppets, 1970s cops and so on. It was quite a group. So I could fit in a bit I bought a fake mustache to wear for the night. It worked pretty well and I even got called out by the politician hosting the event as a nominee for Miss Movember. Since I was nominated I had to get up on stage with three other girls, all the guys we were with said I was robbed when I didn’t when but it was all just good fun to even be nominated.







Friday was Andrew’s big department Christmas party. I had to work but after I had Andrew’s mom drive me into the city and drop me off at one of the pubs to meet some of Andrew’s friends Jamie, Dave and Steve. The four of us hung around with people from their department for a while before we decided it might finally be time to head over to King O’Malley’s to meet up with Andrew and some of his other friends. We journeyed on to a few different pubs eventually before finally hailing a cab home.


Saturday we did a bit of shopping to get some stuff for the house and some things for the Thanksgiving meal I was making on Sunday. We also had to move some more furniture over and Andrew’s computer which made him really happy, he quickly set up his computer and projector so we could watch tv giant size. It works really well, with surround sound and everything. I tried making the sticky buns for Thanksgiving like Jess and I used to do with Mom every year, last year in London they turned out great…this year, not so much. I don’t know what I did wrong but they were not good. It was a bad start to my first Thanksgiving where I was going to have to cook a whole turkey for the first time by myself.

Sunday we got up bright and early to clean and so I could start cooking. I got the turkey into the oven on time and it made the place smell great. Before we knew it friends started showing up, first came Damien and Bonnie, who just had their first child Connor a little over a month ago. Then Kate showed up and finally Will and Pip, each bringing something with them to help make my day a bit better so I didn’t have to do everything myself.

We let Damien carve the turkey because neither Andrew nor I trusted ourselves to do it. The turkey turned out really well, moist and tasty. After we stuffed ourselves we took a short break lounging in the living room while Will finished baking the apple and blueberry pie he made. It was so delicious and the perfect ending to the meal. I would steal the recipe from Will but he didn’t end up following one, instead he looked at a few of them that Pip printed out and then did what he wanted, it turned out so well.

Everyone went home briefly before Will came back to grab Andrew and I to join Damien and Nathan to go to the Tuggeranong festival which is a weekend festival in the suburb we live in. Ian Moss was playing Sunday night and the boys were really keen to see him, he wasn’t too bad and they did a nice little fireworks display at the end, which was kind of cool. It was a good end to a fun filled weekend.

Monday I received official word that I was hired on a 3 month contract to work at ASADA which is the government sports anti-doping agency. Kate works there and when there was an opening she talked to her boss about me. It’s a big pay raise and government work means I get some great public holidays. I have to talk to my boss about what I can do to keep the job, it probably means getting my permanent resident visa a few months before I was going to but if it means keeping the government job it will be completely worth it. With the offer on the table I told my boss at the motor village that I was giving my notice. She was very understanding and happy for me, everyone at the motor village was really happy for me. So I start next Thursday, which will be awesome. I work in Kate’s team, which is just three of us. Stephen, our boss, made sure to ask us both if we would be ok working together, so it pays off big time that we get along so well.

I’ve been trying to keep up with jazzercise as much as I can, I went once this week and even stood in the front row. Instead of going for a second night I instead went to something called “Personal touch” which is done by the jazzercise people and I got a free trial of since I’m new. It’s a small class and you work on muscles, so we did a lot of stretches, moves with weights and resistance bands. Most of the moves engaged our core which means today my ribs have been so sore, I can hardly bend over without feeling a pull. I know it means the exercises are working but it’s killer right now.

Tomorrow morning Andrew, Kate and I get up at the crack of down to catch a plane over to New Zealand. Both Andrew’s parents are from there and we’re going over to see the relatives and go to the Walker Christmas party, which is held this weekend every year. So it’s going to be a big meet-the-relatives go round, only fair since Andrew did it with my entire family last year after we’d only known each other a few weeks.

I will tell all about the New Zealand trip and starting my new job next weekend.