Maybe in Oz

or wraped around your finger, as was engraved on Phil's wedding ring when I first picked it up, or wrapped arund your finger on the second try.  But third time was a charm, and soon after his wedding ring was wrapped around his finger forever. Until he decided to become an ironman, and then he started loosing weight.  Soon this forever ring was flying off his finger, so we came to the conclusion that it was time to get a new one (can't resize titanium). Well we took a trip to our classy local mall in Cranbourne (those of you who have been there can stop laughing now).  The first trip was highly unsuccessful as the power went out just as we entered the first store.  The second trip at least the power was on, and we found a ring we both liked.  It was carbon fiber, which Phil has an addiction to, and it has a good price, which I love.  We went to order it and the lady measured his finger.  O, she said.  O what?  I said.  O.  He's ...

Yesterday the high was 15 degrees, and when I stood in the sun just so, I could almost convince myself that spring is near.  So Phil and I decided to try our luck today and drove out Wilson's Promontory (the Prom), the southern-most point of mainland Australia.  Of course, the sun was hiding behind thick fog that turned into rain and made for a soggy drive.  But we persisted and it finally burned off, leaving us with a beautiful day to explore some gorgeous scenery.  Several beaches, a nice long hike, and a stop at a winery for a drop and some cheese made for a great day - here are a few snaps of our day- Tidal River Squeaky Beach View from the vineyard The happy explorers Emu tracks on the beach!

Lately my coworkers have taken it upon themselves to laugh at me every time I use the American pronunciations for words. Phil and I think they pronounce things funny, but we'll let you be the judge.  Here are a few of these words and the aussie pronunciations: fillet ( fill -it) garage ( gay -raj) solder ( sole -der) Mazda ( Maaz -da) Addidas ( Add -i-dass) Melbourne ( Mel -bin) Cairns (Cans) Canberra ( Can -bra) Nissan ( nyss -n) Bernard ( Burr -nerd) Sonia ( Sawn -ya) Nike (Nyk)

Last week it was back to Katherine once again, this time via Sydney, Darwin, and the 3-hour drive to Katherine.  After returning through Adelaide I realized something funny - in the span of three days I had traveled through half of Australia's "big" cities.  It still amazes me that in a country the size of the continental US you can count the number of cities here using your fingers. It was around 6 degrees when I left Melbourne that morning, and each leg of my journey found me wearing fewer layers.  Landing in Sydney, off came my winter coat.  It was a beautiful morning in Sydney and I had a chance to see some nice views from the plane, first of the harbour with the bride and opera house on display, and then of the Olympic Village. Landing in Darwin, there went my sweater.  It was really strange wearing a tank top with a winter coat draped over my arm.  Then it was in the car for the trip to Katherine.  The trip was uneventful, and we met some cus...

Last weekend I had some coworkers in town and so we took them to our favorite place around, Phillip Island.  It's one of those places where they'd probably never go on their own when visiting for work, so it's a joy to see how much everyone ends up loving the area.  We did the usual - stop at Koo Wee Rup for hot jam donuts, see the koalas, grab a meat pie, check out the beautiful beaches, watch the amazing penguins.  As many times as we've been down there you'd think we'd get tired of it, but it is great sharing our litle part of the world with others.  It's fun when they experience some of the things that make our every day life different down here, like when they order a meal expecting one thing and get something completely different, or when they realize just how different their version of English is from the English they speak here.  I think it's also a bit validating - perhaps we aren't the crazy ones after all! Though we may ha...