I had a hard time getting to sleep last night - and, would you believe it, ended up waking up at 10:40am this morning. I couldn't believe it when I called out to Mike to ask him the time (there is no clock in our bedroom) and he told me how late it was. He had woken up about 90 minutes before me and went on the computer while he waited for me to wake up. I put on a load of laundry as soon as I got up as I had to do two loads today and they had to get up asap on the line. After that, I needed to get something to eat and since it was so late, we ended up having brunch instead of breakfast and lunch.
While we were eating, Christine (our landlady) called her dog, Josie, but I thought she said 'Sue', so I answered her. She told me to be really quiet as there was a snake in the yard and she was going to kill it. My heart sank into my feet, I think. I hate snakes with a passion - I once walked ten feet around a DEAD snake. Mike and I continued to eat our brunch, and a little while later, Christine yelled to us that the snake was on our patio. I freaked some more. I quickly held tight to the screen door which was closed, but doesn't latch. Then, I closed the glass door to the patio and stood staring at the snake (and was really scared). Mike told me he would watch it while I finished my breakfast, although I was no longer hungry by this time. Mike said he was amazed at how still the snake was and I was amazed at how fat it was since it was so short.
Christine was talking with her neighbour who was in her yard and I couldn't understand why she wasn't coming back to try and kill the snake. I wanted to yell at her to hurry, but she had told me to be quiet so I thought that I wasn't allowed to make any noise in case it frightened the snake away and she wouldn't know where it was to kill it. Mike turned around from looking at the snake and was talking to me and when he turned back to look at the snake, it was gone. We were both a little worried at this point. I heard noise and Mike looked out the window and Christine was talking with the missionaries and she had the snake in her hand. All of a sudden, I realized that the snake was fake - I told Mike that I was going to have to hurt Christine. :-)
It turned out that she had seen in the snake somewhere on her property and had called her neighbour over to help her kill it (shhh, they're not supposed to kill them so we're not telling anybody here that she was going to do that :-) Anyway, she and the neighbour have a system where the neighbour uses a rake to hold the snake still and Christine then uses a shovel to cut it in half. When she tried to cut this snake, a 'bunch of eggs' fell out (stuffing). She thought that we had put it there, so she thought she would throw it on our patio and see how we would react. She figured that if we had put it there, we would laugh and she would know that it had been us. I told her then that I was going to kill her. :-) We all got a good laugh about it afterwards, but even thinking about it now gives me the heebie jeebies.
After we all settled down from that 'adventure', the missionaries came inside and chatted with us for about an hour. Elder Coy is from Adelaide, Australia and Elder Hurst is from Provo, Utah. They have been assigned to be our home teachers (they will come to visit us once a month and leave a spiritual message with us) and so today was a 'get to know you' day. We talked a lot about ourselves and our family and they shared a lot about themselves and their families. The message they left with us is how we need to keep spiritually strong by nurturing ourselves (praying, reading the scriptures, going to church). They likened us to a tree - if a tree is not nurtured (nourished) by water, sun and good soil, it will eventually weaken and die. So it is with us - we need to make sure that we continue to do all the right things so we stay strong.
We spent the rest of the afternoon writing emails, playing card games and chatting. At about 5pm, we went for our daily walk. We have decided that this is the perfect time to go for a walk since the heat of the sun has cooled and there is still a lovely breeze and it's still light. What I am finding is that when we are inside and being a bit lazy in a day, it's hard to get motivated to get out and walk. Today was one of those kind of days, so I had to just tell myself to get a move on and get outside. Once we were walking, it felt good to be out in the fresh air and to be getting some exercise. When we got home, we fixed dinner and then we watched two tv shows. The first was 'Glee' - it is such a cute show about a high school glee club. The second was called 'Rush' and it's an Australian cop show - it turned out to be a pretty good show, actually - you almost felt like you were there at times.
I still had some minutes left on my phone and it was going to expire tomorrow, so I called my mom. It was nice to talk with her (and not have to leave home to do it). I am bugging her to get Skype downloaded onto her computer and for her to get a webcam so that we can talk with each other and see each other at the same time when we come back to Australia after our seven week visit in December/January. It will likely take Mike to sort it out and get it done - my mom is not a fan of computers! :-) I have to say that I am impressed that she is actually reading my blog each day AND answering my emails (and not with short emails back, I might add!) :-)
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Today was a rather uninteresting day. We started off by putting in the laundry - we did two loads - first thing in the morning as if you don't do it right away first thing, the clothes don't have a chance to dry until late at night. The washing machine takes about 90 minutes to wash just one load, so by the time you do two it's almost noon it seems.
We spent a lot of the rest of the morning filling out my forms to register for teaching in Queensland and to supply teach once the registration is done. I have been putting this off as I hate filling out forms - they are so long and tedious. Once we got going, we realized that we are not going to be able to put in these forms yet anyway. I was hoping that I could put in what I had and just get the two things from Canada that I needed and then send them off from Canada as that would be cheaper than sending the whole package from there. As it turns out, if I don't send a criminal record check or a paper saying that I have applied for the criminal record check, they won't even look at my file. Since I can only apply from Canada for the criminal record check, I am going to have to wait until I get back there, get that plus a reference from my principal, then either pay a lot to send the forms/papers to Australia or wait 'til I get back here and then send them in.
After a few card games, Mike had to do some work on the computer so I watched 'Murder She Wrote'. Mike then took himself off to bed as he was not feeling well. He has been feeling draggy for three days now - we are not sure what it is - it could be that he's not sleeping terribly well since we are sleeping on an air mattress. It could also be that we don't have a couch to sit on (only wooden kitchen chairs) so there's no support for the neck when he is sitting down and no place to relax on.
In the afternoon, it started to rain and we were so excited - we felt like the 'natives' - we even rushed outside to take some photos of it. I would attach these pics to the end of this entry, but you can't tell it's raining - just that the pic is greyish and seems out of focus. It only rained for about five minutes, but the grass is even greener than it was before the rain - it's so neat that it doesn't take much rain for the grass to be affected.
Around 5pm, we took off for our walk - we walked for about an hour - just around the neighbourhood. Each day we are going to go for a walk, Mike checks out the map and works out a route for us to go. Today we walked along the roads for a bit, but then walked for quite a while up a greenbelt. It's amazing that here it's not like in Canada (yet) - you can be right in the city and still be able to feel like you are in the country. In this greenbelt, there is nothing besides grass and trees - it's really beautiful, and so peaceful to walk through.
Since our day wasn't that exciting and there wasn't much to write about, I thought I would share with you some of the other things that I have been keeping a list of that I thought might make interesting reading. The first is the toad population: many years ago these brown toads were brought in to this area to help curb the beetle population. They did that, however, now they are overrunning the land and they cause quite a havoc in gardens and to some animals. They are ugly things, too - we saw two of them on our patio the other night and watched them catch/eat a couple of huge beetles. The beetles were flying into our glass patio door - when we heard the noise, we went to see what it was. We then watched them (that's when we saw the toads sitting ever so quietly on the patio stones) and the beetles keep flying up and landing plop on the ground - we couldn't understand why they wouldn't use this ability to fly to get away from the toads. Next thing we knew, the beetles fell to the ground once again and the toads hopped up and in one fell swoop (or rather, gulp) ate the beetles. Yuck! Our landlord was outside the other night making a racket and when we looked out the bedroom window to see what was going on, he told us that he was killing the toads - he hits them over the head with a big stick or shovel and then scoops them into the garbage. Double yuck!!
Another interesting thing has to do with their money. There are no pennies in Australian currency. They decided many years ago to do away with them - I think it's a great idea. Goods are still priced to the penny (eg: $2.99 or $1.12), but when the total is rung up on the cash register, they round the amount up or down to the nearest 5 cents. So, for instance, if the total ends in a 1 or 2, it's rounded down to a 0 - so if the amount is $1.12 for example, they ask you for $1.10. If the total ends in a 3 or a 4, it's rounded up to a 5 - so if the amount is $1.14, for example, they ask you for $1.15. It works the same if the total ends in 6 or 7, they round it down to a 5 and if the total ends in 8 or 9 they rounded it up to the next 10. I guess in the end, it all works out fairly evenly with regards to the 'pennies' and it's a lot easier not to have all those pennies in your pants or purse. Also, I love the way that the taxes are included in the advertized price. What you see on the item you are buying is what you pay (so no more having to add 13% to your total). The amount of the GST is listed on the docket (receipt) so you know how much you are paying, but it doesn't seem as painful this way when you are buying something.
We spent a lot of the rest of the morning filling out my forms to register for teaching in Queensland and to supply teach once the registration is done. I have been putting this off as I hate filling out forms - they are so long and tedious. Once we got going, we realized that we are not going to be able to put in these forms yet anyway. I was hoping that I could put in what I had and just get the two things from Canada that I needed and then send them off from Canada as that would be cheaper than sending the whole package from there. As it turns out, if I don't send a criminal record check or a paper saying that I have applied for the criminal record check, they won't even look at my file. Since I can only apply from Canada for the criminal record check, I am going to have to wait until I get back there, get that plus a reference from my principal, then either pay a lot to send the forms/papers to Australia or wait 'til I get back here and then send them in.
After a few card games, Mike had to do some work on the computer so I watched 'Murder She Wrote'. Mike then took himself off to bed as he was not feeling well. He has been feeling draggy for three days now - we are not sure what it is - it could be that he's not sleeping terribly well since we are sleeping on an air mattress. It could also be that we don't have a couch to sit on (only wooden kitchen chairs) so there's no support for the neck when he is sitting down and no place to relax on.
In the afternoon, it started to rain and we were so excited - we felt like the 'natives' - we even rushed outside to take some photos of it. I would attach these pics to the end of this entry, but you can't tell it's raining - just that the pic is greyish and seems out of focus. It only rained for about five minutes, but the grass is even greener than it was before the rain - it's so neat that it doesn't take much rain for the grass to be affected.
Around 5pm, we took off for our walk - we walked for about an hour - just around the neighbourhood. Each day we are going to go for a walk, Mike checks out the map and works out a route for us to go. Today we walked along the roads for a bit, but then walked for quite a while up a greenbelt. It's amazing that here it's not like in Canada (yet) - you can be right in the city and still be able to feel like you are in the country. In this greenbelt, there is nothing besides grass and trees - it's really beautiful, and so peaceful to walk through.
Since our day wasn't that exciting and there wasn't much to write about, I thought I would share with you some of the other things that I have been keeping a list of that I thought might make interesting reading. The first is the toad population: many years ago these brown toads were brought in to this area to help curb the beetle population. They did that, however, now they are overrunning the land and they cause quite a havoc in gardens and to some animals. They are ugly things, too - we saw two of them on our patio the other night and watched them catch/eat a couple of huge beetles. The beetles were flying into our glass patio door - when we heard the noise, we went to see what it was. We then watched them (that's when we saw the toads sitting ever so quietly on the patio stones) and the beetles keep flying up and landing plop on the ground - we couldn't understand why they wouldn't use this ability to fly to get away from the toads. Next thing we knew, the beetles fell to the ground once again and the toads hopped up and in one fell swoop (or rather, gulp) ate the beetles. Yuck! Our landlord was outside the other night making a racket and when we looked out the bedroom window to see what was going on, he told us that he was killing the toads - he hits them over the head with a big stick or shovel and then scoops them into the garbage. Double yuck!!
Another interesting thing has to do with their money. There are no pennies in Australian currency. They decided many years ago to do away with them - I think it's a great idea. Goods are still priced to the penny (eg: $2.99 or $1.12), but when the total is rung up on the cash register, they round the amount up or down to the nearest 5 cents. So, for instance, if the total ends in a 1 or 2, it's rounded down to a 0 - so if the amount is $1.12 for example, they ask you for $1.10. If the total ends in a 3 or a 4, it's rounded up to a 5 - so if the amount is $1.14, for example, they ask you for $1.15. It works the same if the total ends in 6 or 7, they round it down to a 5 and if the total ends in 8 or 9 they rounded it up to the next 10. I guess in the end, it all works out fairly evenly with regards to the 'pennies' and it's a lot easier not to have all those pennies in your pants or purse. Also, I love the way that the taxes are included in the advertized price. What you see on the item you are buying is what you pay (so no more having to add 13% to your total). The amount of the GST is listed on the docket (receipt) so you know how much you are paying, but it doesn't seem as painful this way when you are buying something.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Today was another busy day - and would you believe it, the sky was cloudy and it didn't change all day - what's with that? :-) Last night, it actually poured rain and the 'natives' (our landlords and their neighbours) shouted for joy in the morning when they saw that it had rained. It has been ages since it's rained and now the grass in many areas looks green - it's amazing how fast the rain worked.
Julianne picked us up in her car today and, after dropping her off at her work, we dropped our videos off at Blockbuster's and then headed to Bunnings (like a Home Depot). Mike wanted to check out the cost of a few things we have at home to decide if he wanted to bring them to Australia or not. The two big things he checked out were a generator and an air compressor. He has decided to bring the generator, but not the air compressor. The cost of the air compressor is $200. and by the time he built a crate to house the compressor to move it to Australia and added the cost of moving it, it would be around cost to buy it here. The cost of the generator is $500. so he will likely have that shipped over from Canada.
While we were looking around the store (I think this will be one of Mike's new stores to go and stickybeak around when we are here), we saw this nice outdoor set that seemed to be a reasonable price. We found a guy who worked in that department and he showed us an even nicer one (yes, a little bit more expensive, but not too much) and we really liked it. It included a glass table with an umbrella in the middle of it, six chairs with reversible covers, a two seat swing, and two loungers. We are going to keep an eye on it when we get back to see if it ever comes on sale. A girl we talked to said that things are so low in cost there that they rarely go on sale, but we will keep an eye on it, just the same.
When we arrived in Sydney in October, Mike bought a cell phone with a pre-paid plan: he paid $49 for this plan and for that he got $350. worth of calls to any cell or land line and $350. to any Vodafone phone (that's the name of the cell phone company - like Fido or Bell Mobility). Since we hadn't used the phone as much as we thought we were going to, there ended up being tons of money left on the plan. So, Mike went online last night to figure out how much it would cost to call the girls from the phone. It turned out we could talk with each of them for about half an hour. So, in the Bunnings parking lot, I called Terri-Ann (no answer), Krystal (no answer), Jennifer (bingo - answer :-) When I got a hold of Jennifer she told me that Terri-Ann had just called her. When we were finished our call, I asked Jennifer to call Terri-Ann and tell her that I was going to call. Terri-Ann had heard the phone ring when we first called, but they were in the middle of Family Home Evening and so she didn't answer the call then - she did when I phoned back. When I finally got a hold of Krystal, it turned out that she had been at her acting class and had just returned home when I called the second time. It was really great to talk with the girls and get more caught up on what is happening with them.
Our next stop was to the Council offices (like City Hall) to find out what they could tell Mike about starting his own business. They were only able to supply Mike with information regarding the types of business allowed in the various zoning areas. This mostly deals with if you are allowed to have employees, if you require additional parking, or if you are allowed to put up a sign, most of which will not apply if Mike decides to open his own handyman business (which he is thinking about). The woman there wasn't too sure where Mike could go for more information, but suggested he try the Office of Fair Trading for more assistance.
Last on our list for today was to do the grocery shopping at Woolworth's. We chose to do it there as opposed to Coles (which is where we went last week) because we had to buy our Vodafone refill from Woolworth's (they give a 10% discount there). We checked out the produce there and it's not as nice as Coles and there wasn't as big a selection in the bakery section there, either. However, we do get frequent flyer miles at Woolworth's. We are going to check if Coles does something similar to the air miles - if not, we might be shopping at both stores.
By the time we were finished with all the stops on our list, it was almost 2pm and way past lunch. So, we decided to use a coupon on the back of one of our dockets (receipts) to get a pizza from Domino's. It turns out that since it was Tuesday today, they had a deal on (Cheap Tuesdays) and it was cheaper than the deal on the docket. We ended up getting a large Double Bacon Cheeseburger pizza (they don't know what large is over here - their large is like a medium pizza in Canada) with ground beef, shredded bacon and mayonnaise on a barbecue sauce. While we were waiting for the pizza to cook, I realized that I could have asked for thick crust at no extra cost (that is what I'll get next time). The pizza was very tasty - we like the way they have barbecue sauce as a choice over here.
When we were finished eating, it was time to go and pick up Julianne from work. We were a little disappointed that the time had gone so fast as we were planning on spending some time at the beach today. What we have decided now is that we will do a quick shop on Friday (when we will have a loan of Julianne's car again) and then spend the rest of that day on the beach - it will be something for us to look forward to all week. I just checked out the weather for that day and it's going to be 31C and sunny - a perfect day to go to the beach, don't you think? :-)
We spent the evening playing lots of games of cribbage (winner and loser crib), added some more entries to our cruise blog and watched a movie. The movie was called 'Wicker Man' and it starred Nicolas Cage. It's about a police officer who is asked to go to a secluded island to investigate the disappearance of a local girl. It sounded so good on the cover, but it ended up being fairly creepy. We gave it a 6.5. We have three movies left from the library to watch over the next week.
Julianne picked us up in her car today and, after dropping her off at her work, we dropped our videos off at Blockbuster's and then headed to Bunnings (like a Home Depot). Mike wanted to check out the cost of a few things we have at home to decide if he wanted to bring them to Australia or not. The two big things he checked out were a generator and an air compressor. He has decided to bring the generator, but not the air compressor. The cost of the air compressor is $200. and by the time he built a crate to house the compressor to move it to Australia and added the cost of moving it, it would be around cost to buy it here. The cost of the generator is $500. so he will likely have that shipped over from Canada.
While we were looking around the store (I think this will be one of Mike's new stores to go and stickybeak around when we are here), we saw this nice outdoor set that seemed to be a reasonable price. We found a guy who worked in that department and he showed us an even nicer one (yes, a little bit more expensive, but not too much) and we really liked it. It included a glass table with an umbrella in the middle of it, six chairs with reversible covers, a two seat swing, and two loungers. We are going to keep an eye on it when we get back to see if it ever comes on sale. A girl we talked to said that things are so low in cost there that they rarely go on sale, but we will keep an eye on it, just the same.
When we arrived in Sydney in October, Mike bought a cell phone with a pre-paid plan: he paid $49 for this plan and for that he got $350. worth of calls to any cell or land line and $350. to any Vodafone phone (that's the name of the cell phone company - like Fido or Bell Mobility). Since we hadn't used the phone as much as we thought we were going to, there ended up being tons of money left on the plan. So, Mike went online last night to figure out how much it would cost to call the girls from the phone. It turned out we could talk with each of them for about half an hour. So, in the Bunnings parking lot, I called Terri-Ann (no answer), Krystal (no answer), Jennifer (bingo - answer :-) When I got a hold of Jennifer she told me that Terri-Ann had just called her. When we were finished our call, I asked Jennifer to call Terri-Ann and tell her that I was going to call. Terri-Ann had heard the phone ring when we first called, but they were in the middle of Family Home Evening and so she didn't answer the call then - she did when I phoned back. When I finally got a hold of Krystal, it turned out that she had been at her acting class and had just returned home when I called the second time. It was really great to talk with the girls and get more caught up on what is happening with them.
Our next stop was to the Council offices (like City Hall) to find out what they could tell Mike about starting his own business. They were only able to supply Mike with information regarding the types of business allowed in the various zoning areas. This mostly deals with if you are allowed to have employees, if you require additional parking, or if you are allowed to put up a sign, most of which will not apply if Mike decides to open his own handyman business (which he is thinking about). The woman there wasn't too sure where Mike could go for more information, but suggested he try the Office of Fair Trading for more assistance.
Last on our list for today was to do the grocery shopping at Woolworth's. We chose to do it there as opposed to Coles (which is where we went last week) because we had to buy our Vodafone refill from Woolworth's (they give a 10% discount there). We checked out the produce there and it's not as nice as Coles and there wasn't as big a selection in the bakery section there, either. However, we do get frequent flyer miles at Woolworth's. We are going to check if Coles does something similar to the air miles - if not, we might be shopping at both stores.
By the time we were finished with all the stops on our list, it was almost 2pm and way past lunch. So, we decided to use a coupon on the back of one of our dockets (receipts) to get a pizza from Domino's. It turns out that since it was Tuesday today, they had a deal on (Cheap Tuesdays) and it was cheaper than the deal on the docket. We ended up getting a large Double Bacon Cheeseburger pizza (they don't know what large is over here - their large is like a medium pizza in Canada) with ground beef, shredded bacon and mayonnaise on a barbecue sauce. While we were waiting for the pizza to cook, I realized that I could have asked for thick crust at no extra cost (that is what I'll get next time). The pizza was very tasty - we like the way they have barbecue sauce as a choice over here.
When we were finished eating, it was time to go and pick up Julianne from work. We were a little disappointed that the time had gone so fast as we were planning on spending some time at the beach today. What we have decided now is that we will do a quick shop on Friday (when we will have a loan of Julianne's car again) and then spend the rest of that day on the beach - it will be something for us to look forward to all week. I just checked out the weather for that day and it's going to be 31C and sunny - a perfect day to go to the beach, don't you think? :-)
We spent the evening playing lots of games of cribbage (winner and loser crib), added some more entries to our cruise blog and watched a movie. The movie was called 'Wicker Man' and it starred Nicolas Cage. It's about a police officer who is asked to go to a secluded island to investigate the disappearance of a local girl. It sounded so good on the cover, but it ended up being fairly creepy. We gave it a 6.5. We have three movies left from the library to watch over the next week.
Monday, November 23, 2009
A bit of a work day today - sheesh, isn't this supposed to be a holiday? :-) We spent the morning cleaning - yuck!!! It took quite a while to clean the bathroom. I don't think it had been done in quite a while. Christine asked us to use this cleaner that is environmentally friendly (she made it up for us) and so we used that to clean the shower stall (walls and door and the outside of the stall as well). She has asked us to use an environmentally friendly cleaner because the water that goes down the drain (grey water) is captured and then used to water their garden (a common practice in Australia due to water shortages). I had to use a green scrubby all over the shower stall and then throw water on it from a pail and then wipe it down. And no, it was NOT exciting at all. :-) After that, there was still the sink, toilet and floor to do. It took ages to do and since there is not a ceiling fan in the bathroom, we were quite sweaty by the end of it all. I went and stood under the fan in the living room for a while just to cool off. We then figured we might as well keep on the cleaning track and so went outside and cleaned off the outside chairs (totally filthy) which took ages to scrub down with my little green scrubby. However, they are lovely and clean now and ready for us to sit outside on and enjoy the fresh air and warm sun and lovely breezes we get here in Hervey Bay. :-)
After lunch, we decided to watch the last of the Blockbuster movies - this one was called 'Body of Lies' and it starred Leonardo Dicaprio. The movie was basically about a CIA agent who was looking for the mastermind behind a wave of terrorist attacks in the middle east. We watched about half an hour of it before we turned it off. The movie itself wasn't badly done and Leonardo was good in it, but they showed a lot of people being tortured and it looked like the rest of the movie was going to be more of the same. So we decided that we weren't really into watching any more of it.
Christine called us out into the yard while we were watching the movie to show us what looked like grey clouds in the sky, but was actually smoke from a bush fire that had started not that far from Hervey Bay. Her husband, Chris, works for the local council and his job today was to watch the fire from here and to see how bad it looked like it was going to be. When we watched the news later on, it turned out that there were fires in three areas not that far from Hervey Bay. The temperatures have been around 30C here in Hervey Bay for the past week, so it has likely been higher in those affected areas which are inland from us.
While we were out there, Christine showed us around her yard. They have tons of fruit trees, vegetables and nuts growing in their yard. They have over an acre of property and much of it has something growing on it. They would like to become self-sustaining in the fruit/veg/nut areas in the next few years. She is growing some plants that we have never heard of, so it's going to be interesting to see what they look like when they produce fruit. They also have two chickens (chooks) in a pen in their yard which produce fresh eggs daily for them.
Since we had turned off the movie, we decided to watch another one (this one from the library as we had gone through all the ones from Blockbuster) - this one was called 'Wire in the Blood'. It was about a squad of detectives who used the assistance of a clinical psychologist to catch a killer of patients in a hospital. It reminded me of 'Criminal Minds', so of course, I really liked it. We did try to watch a dvd of a British comedy called 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em', but the humour wasn't funny to us - as Mike said, it was too dry. I do like some British comedy, but this one isn't one of them.
While I read the paper to catch up on all the local happenings in Big Town Hervey Bay, Mike learned how to put photo albums on this blog and he successfully did it. If you look on the right of this blog, down below the 'Blog Archive' (which tells the dates I have entered a blog), you will see three photo albums: one with just two Hervey Bay signs (more photos of Hervey Bay to come), one with pics of the granny flat we live in, and the third with pics of our chapel here in Hervey Bay (when you look at those, notice how different the building style is from what you are used to seeing in Canada). If you click on a photo album, it will open to a large size and you can click on the arrow at the top to see each photo or you can click on slideshow at the top and it will automatically run through the photos. Mike says, "to get back to the blog, you have to click the 'back arrow'."
After a few games of cribbage (Mike says he keeps letting me win :-), we went for our daily walk - we try to get in a walk every day that we do not have the use of our friend's car. Today, we walked around the block one way to go and see the outside of a house that is for sale. When we got there, we realized that we had seen the house from the outside before - it had a big green power distribution box in front of it which blocks clear access through the gate to the back yard. So, needless to say, we crossed that property off our list. We are still looking at houses in the property for sale newspaper even though we aren't going to buy anything until the exchange rate between the Canadian and the Australian dollar improves. We still haven't found anything that matches up to the 'dream house' that we found a couple of weeks ago - everything we see, I compare to that house.
We spent the rest of the evening watching two of our favourite tv shows: 'Big Bang Theory' and 'Criminal Minds'. We're quite tired today - we both almost fell asleep on the carpet in the front room today - so I think we will call it an 'early' night tonight and head off to bed at 10:30pm.
After lunch, we decided to watch the last of the Blockbuster movies - this one was called 'Body of Lies' and it starred Leonardo Dicaprio. The movie was basically about a CIA agent who was looking for the mastermind behind a wave of terrorist attacks in the middle east. We watched about half an hour of it before we turned it off. The movie itself wasn't badly done and Leonardo was good in it, but they showed a lot of people being tortured and it looked like the rest of the movie was going to be more of the same. So we decided that we weren't really into watching any more of it.
Christine called us out into the yard while we were watching the movie to show us what looked like grey clouds in the sky, but was actually smoke from a bush fire that had started not that far from Hervey Bay. Her husband, Chris, works for the local council and his job today was to watch the fire from here and to see how bad it looked like it was going to be. When we watched the news later on, it turned out that there were fires in three areas not that far from Hervey Bay. The temperatures have been around 30C here in Hervey Bay for the past week, so it has likely been higher in those affected areas which are inland from us.
While we were out there, Christine showed us around her yard. They have tons of fruit trees, vegetables and nuts growing in their yard. They have over an acre of property and much of it has something growing on it. They would like to become self-sustaining in the fruit/veg/nut areas in the next few years. She is growing some plants that we have never heard of, so it's going to be interesting to see what they look like when they produce fruit. They also have two chickens (chooks) in a pen in their yard which produce fresh eggs daily for them.
Since we had turned off the movie, we decided to watch another one (this one from the library as we had gone through all the ones from Blockbuster) - this one was called 'Wire in the Blood'. It was about a squad of detectives who used the assistance of a clinical psychologist to catch a killer of patients in a hospital. It reminded me of 'Criminal Minds', so of course, I really liked it. We did try to watch a dvd of a British comedy called 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em', but the humour wasn't funny to us - as Mike said, it was too dry. I do like some British comedy, but this one isn't one of them.
While I read the paper to catch up on all the local happenings in Big Town Hervey Bay, Mike learned how to put photo albums on this blog and he successfully did it. If you look on the right of this blog, down below the 'Blog Archive' (which tells the dates I have entered a blog), you will see three photo albums: one with just two Hervey Bay signs (more photos of Hervey Bay to come), one with pics of the granny flat we live in, and the third with pics of our chapel here in Hervey Bay (when you look at those, notice how different the building style is from what you are used to seeing in Canada). If you click on a photo album, it will open to a large size and you can click on the arrow at the top to see each photo or you can click on slideshow at the top and it will automatically run through the photos. Mike says, "to get back to the blog, you have to click the 'back arrow'."
After a few games of cribbage (Mike says he keeps letting me win :-), we went for our daily walk - we try to get in a walk every day that we do not have the use of our friend's car. Today, we walked around the block one way to go and see the outside of a house that is for sale. When we got there, we realized that we had seen the house from the outside before - it had a big green power distribution box in front of it which blocks clear access through the gate to the back yard. So, needless to say, we crossed that property off our list. We are still looking at houses in the property for sale newspaper even though we aren't going to buy anything until the exchange rate between the Canadian and the Australian dollar improves. We still haven't found anything that matches up to the 'dream house' that we found a couple of weeks ago - everything we see, I compare to that house.
We spent the rest of the evening watching two of our favourite tv shows: 'Big Bang Theory' and 'Criminal Minds'. We're quite tired today - we both almost fell asleep on the carpet in the front room today - so I think we will call it an 'early' night tonight and head off to bed at 10:30pm.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Another lovely Sunday in paradise - it can't possibly get better than this! :-)
We had another wonderful day at church - we really are feeling more and more a part of this branch each time we meet with the people at church. Today was the Primary presentation in Sacrament meeting. There were six children in the presentation - one boy, Ethan, who's 12, and five beautiful girls. It was very different from the Primary presentations I have been used to in the past (count yourself lucky to be in Orangeville, Terri-Ann, where the Primary is huge :-) The presentation started off with one of the young girls introducing the theme of the meeting and then the children and Primary leaders sang a song (one that I had heard the children sing when I was in the Orangeville Primary - 'My Eternal Family' - it's so neat know that children are learning the same songs the world over in the church - it makes me feel so connected. :-)
After the song, Ethan gave a really good talk about being a strong family - he seemed much older as he gave his talk - he spoke very eloquently. After Ethan's talk, the same young girl as before (with the help of her older sister) introduced the next part of the program which was one of the leaders, Debbie, sharing what the children had learned this year in Primary. The congregation then sang a song. After that, another young girl introduced the Primary President, Sister Newton, who spoke about strengthening the family. She also talked about how much she loved being with the children in Primary. The meeting closed with President Brown (the Branch President) talking about how wonderful children were and how they were the leaders of tomorrow in the church. One of the stories he shared at this time was about his grandson: he said that the children in the ward where his grandson attended were making covers for the scriptures and his grandson chose material with $ signs on it. When his mom asked him why he would choose that cover for the scriptures, her son said "Mom, when you have the scriptures, you are rich." Out of the mouth of babes, eh? The thing that I found different about this Primary presentation is that I am used to hearing lots of songs sang by the primary children and also more involvement by the children. I guess because they only have a few children and some of them are only able to come every other week, it's difficult to put something together. It made me appreciate the Primary that Colin and Caleb go to.
Sunday School was taught again by Rosalea and it was a very good lesson (this time I made sure to go up and tell her afterwards what a great teacher I think she is). Her lesson was about how every member is a missionary. We talked about how it's not just what you say that counts, but also the example we set for those around us. She also said that this teaching starts in the home. We made a list of all the things that we thought children should be taught at a young age so that they can be good examples in the world, too. Some of the things we thought they should be taught were: love, compassion, tolerance, honesty, work ethic, and integrity, among other things. I really enjoy the Sunday School lessons in this branch - so many people participate by sharing their thoughts!
Relief Society was taught by Julianne and it was titled 'Be of Good Cheer' from the May General Conference. It was basically about how we all face trials in our lives and how we need to remember that if we "remain steadfast and of good cheer" and make "the gospel of Jesus Christ the center of our lives", "this attitude will pull us through whatever comes our way. It will not remove our troubles from us but rather will enable us to face our challenges, to meet them head on, and to emerge victorious." "Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you.” The talk ended like this: "Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts as we walk uprightly and keep the commandments. There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us." It was a really good reminder of how much we need to remember to find the positive in all around us.
After church, we got a ride home from Chris and Chris and they invited us to lunch with them and the missionaries. We had already organized lunch, so we just brought our lunch (sweet and sour chicken, mashed potatoes and corn) to their picnic table and Chris brought out stuff for sandwiches and we just shared it all. We must have sat for about an hour and a half just eating and chatting (mostly chatting). The weather was magnificent (sunny and warm) and there was a light breeze blowing - if I didn't know better, I would have thought we were in heaven already. :-)
When we came back into our granny flat, we put on one of our Blockbuster movies, "Basic" starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. It's basically about a U.S. Army training exercise gone bad. The story was good, there was too much swearing (typical army mouths) and the ending took a little time to think about, to get what had been happening throughout the movie. I gave it a 6.5 and Mike gave it a 7.
We then did three more entries in our Star Princess cruise blog today. They have updated the program and so it took a little getting used to. Some parts of the update are better and some are not and, at times, I got really frustrated, but Mike is good at calming me down when that happens and so we were able to get through it fairly well. It's getting closer to being done which is exciting. It's been a lot of work, but also very rewarding recording this amazing journey in our lives.
After supper, it was on to another movie: '28 Days' starring Sandra Bullock. It's the story of a young woman who is addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs. After she crashes a car into a house while under the influence, she ends up sentenced to either 28 days in rehab or jail - she chooses rehab. The movie chronicles her struggles as she deals with her addiction in rehab. We both thought it was a really good story, but it moved a little slow at times. I gave it a 7 and Mike gave it a 6.5. We are finding that there are very few good movies out there. I wonder if all the good ones were made years ago - if you look up the 'AFI's 100 Movies (2008)', how many have been made in the past ten years? The answer is TWO: 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Sixth Sense'. Just goes to show that the calibre of films today are not what they used to be and that is disappointing.
We had another wonderful day at church - we really are feeling more and more a part of this branch each time we meet with the people at church. Today was the Primary presentation in Sacrament meeting. There were six children in the presentation - one boy, Ethan, who's 12, and five beautiful girls. It was very different from the Primary presentations I have been used to in the past (count yourself lucky to be in Orangeville, Terri-Ann, where the Primary is huge :-) The presentation started off with one of the young girls introducing the theme of the meeting and then the children and Primary leaders sang a song (one that I had heard the children sing when I was in the Orangeville Primary - 'My Eternal Family' - it's so neat know that children are learning the same songs the world over in the church - it makes me feel so connected. :-)
After the song, Ethan gave a really good talk about being a strong family - he seemed much older as he gave his talk - he spoke very eloquently. After Ethan's talk, the same young girl as before (with the help of her older sister) introduced the next part of the program which was one of the leaders, Debbie, sharing what the children had learned this year in Primary. The congregation then sang a song. After that, another young girl introduced the Primary President, Sister Newton, who spoke about strengthening the family. She also talked about how much she loved being with the children in Primary. The meeting closed with President Brown (the Branch President) talking about how wonderful children were and how they were the leaders of tomorrow in the church. One of the stories he shared at this time was about his grandson: he said that the children in the ward where his grandson attended were making covers for the scriptures and his grandson chose material with $ signs on it. When his mom asked him why he would choose that cover for the scriptures, her son said "Mom, when you have the scriptures, you are rich." Out of the mouth of babes, eh? The thing that I found different about this Primary presentation is that I am used to hearing lots of songs sang by the primary children and also more involvement by the children. I guess because they only have a few children and some of them are only able to come every other week, it's difficult to put something together. It made me appreciate the Primary that Colin and Caleb go to.
Sunday School was taught again by Rosalea and it was a very good lesson (this time I made sure to go up and tell her afterwards what a great teacher I think she is). Her lesson was about how every member is a missionary. We talked about how it's not just what you say that counts, but also the example we set for those around us. She also said that this teaching starts in the home. We made a list of all the things that we thought children should be taught at a young age so that they can be good examples in the world, too. Some of the things we thought they should be taught were: love, compassion, tolerance, honesty, work ethic, and integrity, among other things. I really enjoy the Sunday School lessons in this branch - so many people participate by sharing their thoughts!
Relief Society was taught by Julianne and it was titled 'Be of Good Cheer' from the May General Conference. It was basically about how we all face trials in our lives and how we need to remember that if we "remain steadfast and of good cheer" and make "the gospel of Jesus Christ the center of our lives", "this attitude will pull us through whatever comes our way. It will not remove our troubles from us but rather will enable us to face our challenges, to meet them head on, and to emerge victorious." "Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you.” The talk ended like this: "Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts as we walk uprightly and keep the commandments. There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us." It was a really good reminder of how much we need to remember to find the positive in all around us.
After church, we got a ride home from Chris and Chris and they invited us to lunch with them and the missionaries. We had already organized lunch, so we just brought our lunch (sweet and sour chicken, mashed potatoes and corn) to their picnic table and Chris brought out stuff for sandwiches and we just shared it all. We must have sat for about an hour and a half just eating and chatting (mostly chatting). The weather was magnificent (sunny and warm) and there was a light breeze blowing - if I didn't know better, I would have thought we were in heaven already. :-)
When we came back into our granny flat, we put on one of our Blockbuster movies, "Basic" starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. It's basically about a U.S. Army training exercise gone bad. The story was good, there was too much swearing (typical army mouths) and the ending took a little time to think about, to get what had been happening throughout the movie. I gave it a 6.5 and Mike gave it a 7.
We then did three more entries in our Star Princess cruise blog today. They have updated the program and so it took a little getting used to. Some parts of the update are better and some are not and, at times, I got really frustrated, but Mike is good at calming me down when that happens and so we were able to get through it fairly well. It's getting closer to being done which is exciting. It's been a lot of work, but also very rewarding recording this amazing journey in our lives.
After supper, it was on to another movie: '28 Days' starring Sandra Bullock. It's the story of a young woman who is addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs. After she crashes a car into a house while under the influence, she ends up sentenced to either 28 days in rehab or jail - she chooses rehab. The movie chronicles her struggles as she deals with her addiction in rehab. We both thought it was a really good story, but it moved a little slow at times. I gave it a 7 and Mike gave it a 6.5. We are finding that there are very few good movies out there. I wonder if all the good ones were made years ago - if you look up the 'AFI's 100 Movies (2008)', how many have been made in the past ten years? The answer is TWO: 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Sixth Sense'. Just goes to show that the calibre of films today are not what they used to be and that is disappointing.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Today was another busy day. We started off by going to a baptism of a woman named Terrie Ann White. When I read the program with her name on it, I tapped her on the shoulder and asked her if she went by Terrie or Terrie Ann. She said she goes by both, but that sometimes she adds her middle name Ann because she gets 'teased' because Terry White is the name of a chemist (drug store) chain here. I told her that I would remember her name since it was the same as our daughter, Terri-Ann, even if it was spelled differently.
The spirit at the baptismal service was so strong and I was so happy that we had come. It took me back to how I had felt when I was baptized back in 1974. I remembered that I had written in a journal that I had felt lighter when I came out of the water and that I had felt that a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I suggested to Terrie Ann that she go home and write down how she was feeling this day. She told us later that she felt so special, like a princess, with how the focus was on her on her special day.
After the baptism, we were invited to go over to Amanda Brown's home for a luncheon in honour of Terrie Ann's baptism. It was really nice to be invited and it gave us a chance to talk with some more members on a more personal level since there were just a few of us there (about fourteen). It's nice when we can be a part of smaller gatherings as we get a chance to really talk with people and get to know them better. The food was really yummy, too - Amanda had cooked steak, chicken legs, and sausages on the barbecue (the barbie :-) and salads and bread. I felt a little bad for Terrie Ann because she had to go even before lunch was served because people were coming to her place from quite a ways away and even though she asked them not to come, they still showed up. I told her that we would enjoy her luncheon in her absence. :-)
While we were at the luncheon, I got a phone call from Julianne asking us if we would like to go out for supper with her and her husband, Clive. I told her we would love to do that - I always like to go out for a good meal and with good company. I thought this would be a good way to get to know Julianne a bit better and for us to meet her husband. We went to the Hervey Bay RSL club - they always have great roast dinners there and tonight was no exception. They had roast beef with gravy, roast potatoes, carrots, cauliflower with cream sauce and peas. It also came with a very warm yummy roll with butter. I gave my cauliflower to Mike and he gave me his peas. It was really delicious! We enjoyed talking with Julianne and Clive and ended up talking way past finishing our dinner. We checked out the desserts, but Julianne and I decided that the cost of what you got for the portion size that you got was not worth it. When we told Clive this, he invited us back to their house for dessert (ice cream with chocolate sauce and nuts or peaches). It was a really lovely night out and we told them that we would like to do more of these get togethers once we come back from Canada.
One interesting thing that Clive told us tonight is that he is an identical twin, but that he and his brother did not share the same birthday. That would be easy enough to understand because twins could be born minutes apart: if the first one was born close to midnight, the second could be born just after midnight. What was amazing about his story, though, was that he and his twin brother were born eight HOURS apart. This was back in 1951 and neither his mom nor the doctor knew that she was having twins until after the first boy was born. I have never heard of twins being born hours apart - I thought that was amazing!
The spirit at the baptismal service was so strong and I was so happy that we had come. It took me back to how I had felt when I was baptized back in 1974. I remembered that I had written in a journal that I had felt lighter when I came out of the water and that I had felt that a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I suggested to Terrie Ann that she go home and write down how she was feeling this day. She told us later that she felt so special, like a princess, with how the focus was on her on her special day.
After the baptism, we were invited to go over to Amanda Brown's home for a luncheon in honour of Terrie Ann's baptism. It was really nice to be invited and it gave us a chance to talk with some more members on a more personal level since there were just a few of us there (about fourteen). It's nice when we can be a part of smaller gatherings as we get a chance to really talk with people and get to know them better. The food was really yummy, too - Amanda had cooked steak, chicken legs, and sausages on the barbecue (the barbie :-) and salads and bread. I felt a little bad for Terrie Ann because she had to go even before lunch was served because people were coming to her place from quite a ways away and even though she asked them not to come, they still showed up. I told her that we would enjoy her luncheon in her absence. :-)
While we were at the luncheon, I got a phone call from Julianne asking us if we would like to go out for supper with her and her husband, Clive. I told her we would love to do that - I always like to go out for a good meal and with good company. I thought this would be a good way to get to know Julianne a bit better and for us to meet her husband. We went to the Hervey Bay RSL club - they always have great roast dinners there and tonight was no exception. They had roast beef with gravy, roast potatoes, carrots, cauliflower with cream sauce and peas. It also came with a very warm yummy roll with butter. I gave my cauliflower to Mike and he gave me his peas. It was really delicious! We enjoyed talking with Julianne and Clive and ended up talking way past finishing our dinner. We checked out the desserts, but Julianne and I decided that the cost of what you got for the portion size that you got was not worth it. When we told Clive this, he invited us back to their house for dessert (ice cream with chocolate sauce and nuts or peaches). It was a really lovely night out and we told them that we would like to do more of these get togethers once we come back from Canada.
One interesting thing that Clive told us tonight is that he is an identical twin, but that he and his brother did not share the same birthday. That would be easy enough to understand because twins could be born minutes apart: if the first one was born close to midnight, the second could be born just after midnight. What was amazing about his story, though, was that he and his twin brother were born eight HOURS apart. This was back in 1951 and neither his mom nor the doctor knew that she was having twins until after the first boy was born. I have never heard of twins being born hours apart - I thought that was amazing!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Another busy day today - we were able to borrow Julianne's car again which was great! After dropping her off at work, we went to find the Tourist Information place. We were on the right road, but we turned left instead of right and ended up going out of town. It turned out well, though, as we went by the 'Welcome to Hervey Bay' sign and so we were able to get a photo of that. We also took a pic of a 'Hervey Bay' sign which showed a whale as part of the sign (Hervey Bay is well known for their whale watching tours). One of those photos is now on the top right of this blog page. We are going to take some more photos of Hervey Bay next week so that you guys can see some of the places I am talking about in this blog.
We did find the Tourist Information place and we were able to sign up for a 'Resident's Discount Card'. It's called a Staycation card as well and we can use it to get discounts for accomodation, attractions and activities, dining, and businesses and services in the Hervey Bay area. The idea is that they want you to stay in Hervey Bay for your vacation and so they give you discounts to all these things to entice you to 'staycation'. There's really not many discounts that we will use, but it's nice of them to give these cards out to those of us who live here. We also received a 'Welcome to Hervey Bay' package which had in it: local maps, guide pamphlets and booklets about local services, parks and visitor's guides, and a handy little pocketbook which has a yellow pages, white pages, maps and postal code directory in it.
After that, we went and did some exciting shopping. To Aldi's to get some canned goods, to Sam's Warehouse to get some sheets and a clock, to Big W to get Mike a swim shirt and to Coles to get the rest of the groceries. We also went to the local butcher's and I asked the woman behind the counter if I had to cook my chicken right away and not leave it in the fridge when I bought it from the butcher's. I told her how earlier this week I had bought some chicken on Monday and left it in the fridge 'til Wednesday and it went totally off. She said that chicken will not last long in the fridge at all and that I should cook it today (which I did). Since we didn't use a butcher when we were in Canada, I guess I am going to have to figure it out as I go. I did talk to Julianne about it and she said that she freezes everything as soon as she gets home. For now, we cooked the chicken tonight and the hamburger as well - we ate the chicken tonight and will eat it again tomorrow and the hamburger in spaghetti sauce on Sunday night. It was frustrating to have to throw the chicken out last Wednesday, but I guess I have to get used to using it right away if I want to use the butcher since we only have a small fridge and no freezer. The butcher's meat seems way fresher and the one that we go to has really good prices even compared to the major supermarkets.
After bringing everything home and putting it away and having lunch, it was still only about 1:15pm and we didn't have to be back at Julianne's work until 3:30pm. I suggested to Mike that since it was such a hot day (31C today) that we get changed into our togs (bathing suits) and head down to the beach for a swim. We decided to park the car at Julianne's work and then walk to the water (her shop is right across the road from the beach). We weren't sure what kind of swimming it would be there (shallow or deep), but it didn't matter to us as we just wanted to cool off and enjoy the ocean. It turned out that at the time we went, the tide was quite far out and so we ended up basically sitting in the water up to our waists. It was really nice to just sit and relax and chat while we cooled off. We were only there about half an hour, but it was very refreshing. It's such a treat to us right now and I hope that we don't start taking it for granted. On Monday, we are going to ask Julianne if we can use the car again and this time we are going to do our shopping quickly so that we can go and spend a few hours at the beach.
I had to catch up on my emails today, so I spent some time this afternoon (after Julianne dropped us off) on the computer while Mike played some cards games at the kitchen table. When he had played all the games he could, I told him I would get off the computer so that we could make dinner. After dinner, we were taking down the swimming towels off the line when Chris and Christine asked us how we liked their new purchase. They had bought a small pool to put in their backyard for when they get really hot and just want to take a quick dip to cool off. We got to talking with them and after a bit they asked us if we wanted to sit down at their picnic table and try some of the hummus that Christine had made. I told her we would try it but that I am quite fussy when it comes to food so that she was not to be offended if I didn't like it. The hummus was made from chick peas, lemon and paprika and she served it with rice crackers. It smelled good which is something I always do with new foods (if I don't like the smell, I don't taste it) and so I took a small bit of hummus on a cracker. It actually tasted quite good and so I had some more. We ended up chatting with them 'til about 9:15pm - they are a nice couple and we had a really good time chatting and getting to know each other better.
When we came inside after our visit with them, we decided to put on another one of our movies that we had rented from Blockbuster. Tonight's choice was 'Anchorman' starring Wil Ferrell. I went to 'Rotten Tomatoes' to see what kind of percentage they got from that community and they got a 65%, 69% and 83%. Well, for us, we couldn't even rate it as we thought it wasn't funny at all and stopped watching it after about half an hour. I couldn't believe that people thought it was good or funny - to us it was just plain dumb and not even the funny dumb, either. I am glad that we only paid 99 cents to rent it, that's for sure.
We did find the Tourist Information place and we were able to sign up for a 'Resident's Discount Card'. It's called a Staycation card as well and we can use it to get discounts for accomodation, attractions and activities, dining, and businesses and services in the Hervey Bay area. The idea is that they want you to stay in Hervey Bay for your vacation and so they give you discounts to all these things to entice you to 'staycation'. There's really not many discounts that we will use, but it's nice of them to give these cards out to those of us who live here. We also received a 'Welcome to Hervey Bay' package which had in it: local maps, guide pamphlets and booklets about local services, parks and visitor's guides, and a handy little pocketbook which has a yellow pages, white pages, maps and postal code directory in it.
After that, we went and did some exciting shopping
After bringing everything home and putting it away and having lunch, it was still only about 1:15pm and we didn't have to be back at Julianne's work until 3:30pm. I suggested to Mike that since it was such a hot day (31C today) that we get changed into our togs (bathing suits) and head down to the beach for a swim. We decided to park the car at Julianne's work and then walk to the water (her shop is right across the road from the beach). We weren't sure what kind of swimming it would be there (shallow or deep), but it didn't matter to us as we just wanted to cool off and enjoy the ocean. It turned out that at the time we went, the tide was quite far out and so we ended up basically sitting in the water up to our waists. It was really nice to just sit and relax and chat while we cooled off. We were only there about half an hour, but it was very refreshing. It's such a treat to us right now and I hope that we don't start taking it for granted. On Monday, we are going to ask Julianne if we can use the car again and this time we are going to do our shopping quickly so that we can go and spend a few hours at the beach.
I had to catch up on my emails today, so I spent some time this afternoon (after Julianne dropped us off) on the computer while Mike played some cards games at the kitchen table. When he had played all the games he could, I told him I would get off the computer so that we could make dinner. After dinner, we were taking down the swimming towels off the line when Chris and Christine asked us how we liked their new purchase. They had bought a small pool to put in their backyard for when they get really hot and just want to take a quick dip to cool off. We got to talking with them and after a bit they asked us if we wanted to sit down at their picnic table and try some of the hummus that Christine had made. I told her we would try it but that I am quite fussy when it comes to food so that she was not to be offended if I didn't like it. The hummus was made from chick peas, lemon and paprika and she served it with rice crackers. It smelled good which is something I always do with new foods (if I don't like the smell, I don't taste it) and so I took a small bit of hummus on a cracker. It actually tasted quite good and so I had some more. We ended up chatting with them 'til about 9:15pm - they are a nice couple and we had a really good time chatting and getting to know each other better.
When we came inside after our visit with them, we decided to put on another one of our movies that we had rented from Blockbuster. Tonight's choice was 'Anchorman' starring Wil Ferrell. I went to 'Rotten Tomatoes' to see what kind of percentage they got from that community and they got a 65%, 69% and 83%. Well, for us, we couldn't even rate it as we thought it wasn't funny at all and stopped watching it after about half an hour. I couldn't believe that people thought it was good or funny - to us it was just plain dumb and not even the funny dumb, either. I am glad that we only paid 99 cents to rent it, that's for sure.
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