Sea-kayaking on the Maroochy River

Friday night, we met up with several of the other doctors & staff at the hospital for drinks at Zachary's in Mooloolaba. It is a great little trendy-ish bar just off the main drag down there. Lonely Planet calls said bar, "Where hair gel goes to die." =) Either way, all of Jon's colleagues are amazingly nice and the bar was a lot of fun.

We woke up this morning and did an inspection on the property at Marcoola Beach Resort. It was huge & had enormous balconies, but I think we are leaning towards the one at Surfair. We are planning on submitting our application tomorrow! Keep your fingers crossed!

The morning was quite overcast and did not appear to be a good beach day, but luckily enough the clouds burned off around noon and the sun was shining So, Jon and I decided to go check out some sea kayaks for hire on the river in Maroochydore.

We went for a short paddle around the little islands in the river. The views were lovely, the sun was shining, and the wind & tides were perfect. And of course, I got mouthfuls of water from numerous paddle splashes from a playful Jon.



By the time we got home, we were both completely knackered from a long day out in the sun & salt air. All plans of going out with the other docs in Cotton Tree went to hell in a handbasket & we ended up spending the evening watching Ghostbusters II on TV and eating Domino's. Pretty lame, but we have to be out of the house by 7:00am tomorrow for our 4WD trip through the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park.

Life is a Highway... and I have to learn to drive on the left of it....

As I am writing to you, I am on our back patio and the sun is stinging to say the least. It's only 10:00 in the morning & I can already feel myself burning, so this will have to be short & sweet. Otherwise, put me on a skewer and I'll be a kabob.



I'm about to set off on the of my greatest Australian odyessy yet: I am going to drive to look at the Surfair apartment all by my lonesome. Just me and a lot of left-hand driving. Now, I wouldn't be so scared, except for the fact that Jonathan, who is way more accustomed to this then I am has pulled a few brilliant driving maneuvers since we have been here, i.e. forgetting where we are and making a right hand turn out of the rental car parking lot into oncoming traffic. There are so many roundabouts and what not, that I am very nervous about it.

Things have been continuing to going well. Jonathan has picked up an extra shift at the hospital tonight, so he will be on-call in the wards until 9:00 tonight. After that, we are going down to Mooloolaba to join some of the interns and house officers at the pub for the weekly Friday night get together. So, it should be a lot of fun.

I am going to look at the Surfair apartment before 2pm & then I have an interview in Maroochydore at a well-known Queensland newspaper publication. After that, since Jon has to work, I plan on taking a drive down the "tourist drive" through the Blackall Range. We can see the Range from our house, but we haven't been up there yet.

Per Mum's suggestion, we have reached out to the Americans in Australia and Americans in Brisbane groups. It's a nice security blanket to have; they have sporadic events & a daily email group to ask "the silly questions" that you have being new over here, but feel like an idiot asking an Aussie.

Also, I found a Knit & Natter group here on the Sunshine Coast that specifically knits for Queensland's Needy. They get together a few evenings a month to knit, have brunch, and just relax & chat.

Alright, time for me to take shelter from the sun ~ would you believe that it is so hot here right now that the metal buttons on my jean capris are so hot that where I have the laptop leaning on them it is burning my skin!

P.S. If you were wondering, the girl I was hoping to get eliminated from Aussie Princess wasn't eliminated ~ they kicked of the doctor girl that Jon & I were both rooting for!

Need to Get A Jobby Job

At the beginning of our second week, being that we are settled in a little bit more, I have started to look for a job. I really only started looking Monday and already have been on two interviews. Things look promising and there are more career opportunities here than I initially anticipated!

Jonathan is working in the orthopedics department and loves it. It is so nice having him on regular hours where he leaves at 7:30am and is home by 5 at the latest. He's going to nights for the next 6 weeks, but the way the hours work out he works 5 days for from 9pm to 8:30am and then has the next 5 days off. It's a beautiful thing. His next two rotations look like they will be in General Surgery, but that may change.

Not much to report, things are going well. This weekend we are planning on going to make a final decision on the unit we are going to rent, and then on Sunday we are going to do a tour of Cooloola. It's a rainforest walk, tour of the colored sand beaches, 4WD safari down 40 mile beach & snorkeling. It gives us something to look forward to during these rainy afternoons!

For those of you who worried with us over the Medical Board registration, you should read this article from today's Courier-Mail about any inquiry into a Scottish doctor up in Townsville:
www.news.com.au /couriermail/story/0 ,23739,21037016-3102,00 .html

Apparently, doctors trained overseas is a real hot-button issue here in Queensland. In retrospect, all went fairly easily!

A Day At The Beach

Jon and I spent our Sunday cruising the coast in our rental car and relaxing on the beach at Coolum. It was an absolutely beautiful day, but the water was a bit treacherous because of a cyclone up north. There were really strong rip currents and all of the seaweed and sand was being churned up off the ocean floor making for less than ideal swimming conditions. To top it all off, there were jellyfish the size of dinner plates every few feet!

But, the weather was beautiful, which has been rare around here since we are in the midst of the rainy season. We had a lovely lunch of fish & chips (burger for me!) on the beach and visited the Ginger Factory in Yadina.



The Ginger Factory is yet another agrigcultural tourist trap here on the Sunny coast, but they have a nursery where they sell plants. I picked out two little plants for our patio to make it feel a little more like home!

He lives in a pineapple under the sea.....

It has been exceptionally hard to find an air conditioned, furnished apartment within our price range. All of the real estate agents I have spoken to assure us that this should change when the summer ends, but we really don't want to stay in Nambour (or Damn Bored! as we've started calling it) any longer than we have to.



We found two units that we are interested in that are fully furnished and set up as holiday rentals. That is great for us because that means electronics, pots, pans, crockery, flatware, etc. are all included in the rental. All we need to bring is our stuff and linens.

Both units are located in Marcoola in beachfront resort complexes. We are doing are final inspections of the properties on Friday & Saturday to make a final decision.



Then, on our way home we visited the "Big Pineapple" in Nambour. It was thrilling for a few minutes and we purchased a really tasty pineapple, but other than that ~ not so much to report. Jon did purchase a bottle of hot sauce of a special varietal; it was called, "Smack my arse and call me Cindy." There were several other "very descriptive" types that I care not to repeat that he wants to try during our time here.

Our First Week: Top 10

1. Jon and I have confirmed that toliet does in fact flush in the other direction.

(An aside on our toliet: Some of your would think it's super cool! In that, I know there are some guy friends of ours out there that are proud of their bodily functions and frequent rateyourpoop.com, but I'm not naming names. You would be insanely jealous. On the good old American Standard there is one handle to flush right? One standard flush. Get this, we have TWO buttons, a tsunami of a flush and a baby flush.)

2. 9 out of the top 10 deadly species in the world live in our backyard, or where we swim, etc. You get the idea. A woman I met at a barbie (bbq) has me so insanely frightening of finding a redback spider (poisionous) in my shoe, that I spray them before I put them on ~ that can't be good for the feet.

3. DJ Joel was right about Nambour. All of you were no trading (shopping) on Sundays? Nothing is open after 7pm ever. The entire town is one big upwards hill. I stepped in a dead tree frog walking up that damn big hill from the shops. Right now, I have a gorgeous view out my window of the Blackall Range (I think) and the Feed Store!

4. Australian Princess is my new super-secret reality TV obsession. As many of you know, I was head over heels for a TV show back in the States called Beauty and The Geek. I think I've discovered an international conspiracy: There is a he/she out there who just jumps from country to country trying to win reality TV shows. Check it out the photos. Eerie, ay?



5. Sawyer from LOST wasn't crazy; a chirping, croaking tree frog while you are trying to sleep will drive you mad. We have this one behind our unit that is equivalent to the sound you here back home when a outdoor pet cat gets attacked by a racoon. You know you know the sound. It's terrible.


6. They don't make dryer sheets in Australia. That makes us sad.

7. For a tropical climate, apartments with air conditioning are few and far between. It's a novelty. And, no of course the windows are all almost floor to ceiling to accentuate the views, sigh, so no window A/C units fit. But, I really can't complain =)

8. I never really had such a profound appreciation for inexpensive medications, groceries & herbal supplements when I was stateside. Now, when we left I saw a CVS flyer with buy one, get one Centrum 300 pill vitamin bottles for $10.00. I was in the Chemist today and the small 100 pill bottle was almost $34.95. That's about $28.00 USD. Tylenol, Advil, NyQuil, all these things you take for granted are SO expensive, even the native Aussie brands.

9. Jon's contribution: Just because there is an ATM machine doesn’t mean you can get money out. Just because a store accepts Mastercard or Visa (and you have plenty of funds in the account) doesn’t mean you can buy stuff. Our credit cards work one in 5 times at best and in one in 10 ATMs. We have to walk 3 miles to an ATM to get money out to take the bus, only to walk back those 3 miles to the bus stop right in front of our unit. Life’s funny that way, isn’t it?

10. Probably the most important thing I have learned: I am the luckiest woman in the world. I have a wonderful, loving, caring man who loves me as much as I love him. We are living in absolute paradise (yes, even Nambour is nice.) We are surrounded by people who are extending themselves to us beyond anything we could have ever believed. Life is a bit slower paced here, but that's a good thing. It has given me the time to stop and smell the roses, or tropical flowers =) The act of leaving the States allowed me to heal some old wounds and regain my life, but I still hold all of you back home very close in my heart. Moving made me realize what is important and what everyone in my life has meant to me. I love you all! And I miss you terribly!

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve Day was our first excursion to Nambour Center to go grocery shopping and pick up some basics. We were surprised at how expensive groceries are here! Our property manager, Ian, was kind enough to give us a lift to the shop and back, so that we wouldn't have to carry our groceries the whole way up this monsterous hill that lies between us and a the center.

Ian was also kind enough to invite us to join him at a New Year's barbie at the home of his Kiwi friends, Liz & Bruce, in Palmwoods. We graciously accepted! They had a lovely home that overlooked the Blackall Ridge & we saw one of the most majestic sunsets I've ever seen! We met a bunch of their neighbours & had a night of lovely bbq, good conversation and a few glasses of wine.

We arrived home before midnight due to absolute jet-lag. We watched the fireworks in Sydney on the tellie. They were supposedly the biggest display in the world this year. You can check them out here: www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov .au/nye/

Happy New Year to all!