It's Hot in the Red Centre

That's how they spell 'center' of here ya'll --> centre.

Anywho, best friend Dougie Phresh Albright came and visited us. Unfortunately, he too had flight problems and got stranded in Sydney because Qantas is dumb. He finally arrived and the Frobii parents, me, Hyatt and Doug all traveled to Dookie for a tour of the farms and dinner. I have no pictures of that, sorry.

Hyatt's parents departed and Hyatt, Dougie Phresh and I flew to Alice Springs for the roadtrip of a lifetime - p.s. we almost missed our flight, barely got our bags checked with about 1 minute to spare.

Unfortunately, Doug's luggage didn't make it but Qantas (who suck) gave him this nice pack of pajamas.

Arrival at the Alice Springs airport - happy and not yet really hot.

We HAD to play golf on another continent - it was awesome. Doug helped me with my long game

Our caddy who finally learned how to NOT drive on the greens.

After a short time in Alice we headed towards King's Canyon - via this road. Five hours of no pavement with Hyatt driving. I'll hold my tongue.

Wild horses aka brumbys were everywhere

Some of the beautiful secenery at King's Canyon

The initial climb at King's Canyon - very steep. Doug and I wanted to die.

Looking out over the vast Red Centre

He tried to pick me up for this picture - both Doug and I yelled 'No! What are you doing?!'

A little entertainment and gambling - nothing like bidding with

tea and sugar packets (Doug won btw).

Gorgeous sunset

First night at Alice Spring resort - the chefs.

K-S-U alumni in front of Ayers Rock/Uluru

It's a big freakin' rock in the middle of nowhere, literally.

Very dark red rock during sunset with some loser guy in my shot.

After an amazing time at Uluru (we climbed it, yea!) we headed to Coober Pedy where there is an abundance of opal mines and underground hotels but there is a shortage of water.

The entrance to our hotel - underground.

Hallway in underground hotel

Our cozy little room - we stayed pretty cool but the air got kind of stale since there's no windows.

Left Coober Pedy and it's 40 degree heat (that's 110 F) and went to the Barossa Valley, where we did some damage at Penfold's Winery. I discovered I really, really like dessert wine.

So that was our trip in a nutshell - it was RIDICULOUSLY hot the entire trip although it did rain occasionally. I took a ton of pictures of Uluru and King's Canyon so if you want to see them, look me up on thefacebook. Also, we visited a farm the last few days but Hyatt is going to blog about that (get excited)!

Until Hyatt blogs,

~ Buzzard ~

Tasmanian Devils

Hyatt's parents came and visited us from October 25th(ish) to early November. After a slight hiccup with their flights (a delay in Chicago caused a missed flight which resulted in a day later arrival) we picked them up to explore Melbourne for a day before we left for Tasmania. I was super pumped, like always, to go traveling and couldn't wait to get there where it rains a lot and the weather is cooler.

During our time in Tassie, we went to a Tasmanian Devil wildlife reserve and saw some cool new feathered friends, too. We went on a boat tour of Bruny Island and saw some amazing rock formations, wildlife and sealife. We went on a tour of Cascade Brewery and visited Port Arthur which used to be a work camp/prison. Then we spent a ton of cash at Salamanca Markets in Hobart - that was fantastic (many of you will have Christmas presents that originated from Tasmania). Of course we did lots of random things too that I don't feel like explaining but I am sure by looking at these pictures and also at the albums on Facebook, you'll get a good grasp of how much fun we had.

First wildlife spotting - echidna. Dan investigated

Hyatt and I in our fluoro vests at the Cascade Brewery tour

Vicki really really liked the Tasmanian Devils

They're kind of ugly little devils but very funny

We could just walk up to these guys and pet or feed them

That cool looking lime green and yellow goose let me pet it and I wasn't expecting it to - the best picture Hyatt has ever taken!

It was Dan and Vicki's anniversary so we made them take a picture together to commemorate the trip

 We got up close and personal with a parrot

This bird is ALMOST as cool as the black breasted buzzard and the kookaburra (but not quite). It's the tawny frog mouth - mouth looks just like a frog and this bird can blend in with any tree!

The church at the Port Arthur prison - I took a lot of pictures

Dan prior to departure for our boat trip - it was raining and a little bit cold.

They call that the King on the Llama, I don't know about you but if I was a king I'd rather ride a horse than a llama. Llamas spit and are mean.

The blowhole - suction, pressure, water etc all resulted in this big water explosion. Very cool

Sea birds - I forget what they're called

Lots and lots of seals



More pictures on thefacebook!

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

Boxing kangaroos

Hyatt and I have purchased a deck of cards from every country we've visited together. So far we have

- Fiji
- South Africa
- Australia

What an extensive list.

This is the deck for Australia

Allow me to narrate:

Hyatt: come here baby and give me a kiss

Me: ugh, get off me. you need to shave. *eye roll*

I hope you have appreciated your comic humor for the day.

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

Caviar and Tentacles

We had an amazing night out last Saturday. We didn’t stay out very late,

because we’re lame-o, but we did have a great time.

We had dinner at Little Creatures (sound familiar? There was one in Perth, too) where I tried caviar, WHICH IS DISGUSTING, but even more unusual was that my pan fried calamari was not breaded and therefore looked like this at dinner:

 

If you can’t see very clearly, that is a ball of tentacles and the SUCKERS WERE STILL ON THEM! I tried a bite of it but the texture was too much for me. So I threw it in the traveling garbage disposal, aka Hyatt. Also, if you look closely you can still see the scar on my chin from the stupid boar attack during Hyatt’s trial.

As the evening progressed, so did the weird-ity.

We found Waldo, in case you had lost him.

And Vickey made friends with a pseudo pregnant guy…

And finally, I know I’ve been telling you how expensive Australia is for

quite some time but I thought you needed a visual aid:

Yes, one shot of Jagermeister is ten freakin’ bucks. Also, one bottle of cider is $7.50 (not a big bottle, but a normal sized drink bottle). That is ridiculousness in its finest form, folks (try saying that five times fast). 

And last but not least, the ying to my yang, Vickey.

She’s lovely and I love her.

Until next tiiiiiiiime,

~ Buzzard ~

p.s. YKWRGMG update: I am so ticked off at Blogger right now for not allowing me to cut and paste in the funny pictures I had edited directly from Word. I'm never doing that again. I might stop blogging for awhile, I'm that mad.

Hyatt and NHS

Hyatt sometimes gets what I lovingly refer to as NHS (Nappy Hair Syndrome) and therefore, to save $$$$, I have to practice my expert hair shaping skills. It’s gonna get real, folks. Here’s happy Hyatt prior to the hair cutting extravaganza

Check out my tools – clippers, backcomb (mine and lives in my purse) and utility scissors.

To begin with, you wet the hair. Try not to get water in his eyes or he whines and it’s annoying – then make a Mohawk because seriously, what other chance do I have while he’s sitting still and not squirming around. Bam!

Isn’t he dashing?

OK – next step, attempt layering. He likes it a little longer on top and short on the sides so I clip the sides with the comb and clippers and then I pull the middle together and trim and trim and trim and trim.

I come it to the front to see if I’m doing well and realize that maybe I shouldn’t be cutting hair.

Me thinks it looks a little uneven. Or it’s his weird hairline and misshapen head. I think the latter.

He cut me off from taking pictures after this but I should let you know that I totally evened it up and he looks fantastic. I took this picture the next day when he was in a better mood. See???

Well, his hair looks fantastic. His face looks grouchy.

And that’s how you cut your hubsy’s hair, friends.

 Please, soak up the knowledge that is emanating from this blog.

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

Side Kiss Greeting Thing...Awkward

Today marks the completion of this goal "98. Post every day for 1 month on From Oz to Aus" from this list. So yay me (and Hyatt helped too)!

But I feel like posting that above paragraph doesn't really count as a post so I better come up with something real, right?

Ok - random thoughts and events for the week.

1 - Australians greet people with the side cheek kiss thing. I think it comes from the British influence. Regardless, it makes me feel super awkward. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, here's a visual:

This lady looks much happier than I am when she's being greeted.

I feel like this is a semi invasion of my personal space but I go along with it because it's hard to avoid an incoming kiss-greeting and it's also a little bit rude to turn it down, I think. But it still makes me feel weird and I never kiss back. Next time you meet someone new, speak with an Australian accent and do the side kiss greeting - you'll freak people out. I think I'm going to do it when I return to stateside.

2 -  Tonight while on our way to dinner at our friend's house, I started walking a pipe fence. I made it 16 steps without falling off - woo. Big life accomplishment. So on the way home, Hyatt decided to try his hand. **Sidenote**: Hyatt is NOT coordinated. Although he tries very hard. Anyway, for 20 flippin minutes he tried walking the fence to beat me. Unsuccessful - personal best 11 steps. I wish I had a video of it, because you would have peed your pants from laughter. I love him but wow.

3 - Tomorrow (Saturday) marks the first weekend that I haven't had to get up early for a conference, meeting, work or to catch a flight. Amen to that.

4 - Two months from today (Friday) we will be doing some major life changes..... drumroll............................................. We will be returing to the states that day. Only two short months left and we've got them jam packed - trip to Tasmania, trip to Alice Springs/Uluru/Coober Pedy, two research projects (not Hyatt's) and a conference in Adelaide where Hyatt and I will both be presenting. Time will fly by and we're going to try to fit as much time in with our friends here in Melbourne before we leave. :(

Ok- that's about all for today. Thanks for reading and commenting. I noticed that commenting has started to drop off towards the end of the 30 day goal so I/we must have been annoying you. No worries, you can expect to only have 2-3 posts/week from here on out. Much more manageable I hope.

Lastly, at the conclusion of this little adventure, what would you like to see done with this blog? Should I add the phrase 'and back again' to the original title? Continue with our random life happenings? Cease the blog? Looking for some comment love here, folks

Holla,
~ Brandi ~