A Shadow Over Burrum Heads

I'm really sorry to keep telling about the weather all the time, but it's almost the only thing happening right now.
It feels like we're now trapped in a H.P. Lovecraft story where a small seaside town is cut off from the outside world.
All the roads from and to this town have been cut off. It was that roads in-and-around flood-prone rivers (like the rivers around here) were being cut but now it has been raining for so long there's just nowhere for the water to go even if you are not near a river. Some towns around here have been declared disaster area's, but we're luckily not one of 'em yet.

Today on the way to the pub I spotted my first kangaroo in town, but I guess he'll be eaten by a shark if the rain keeps up like this. And according to the weather forecasts, that is what we're getting.
I'm going to australia and I'll bring: Umbrella, boat and personal floating device. Now, normally, those would not be my first choices in that game. But I seem to have brought some true dutch weather to Australia, making it the wettest December in 67 years

Like I wrote in my last post, Christmas was fun. We had a good bbq, nice food, good company and some nice presents.
I got my very own fishing rod, so I will be able to catch my own lunch. Sport-fishing is not real big here. You eat what you catch, and I'm fine with that. Never really liked the fishing where you throw the fish back in the water.
Also I got some nice chocolate, a dvd-player (combined gift with Kat) and my very own stubby-cooler, to keep the drinks cool in warm weather.

One nice thing is that I won the weekly 'pot-draw' in the local pub. So Dutchie just won 80 pots of beer in his 3rd week here, while some people never won it in 6 years. I feel a little bit embarrassed, but at least I don't have to pay for my drinks for a long time.

I tried quite a few of the beers here, and I think it's safe to say Australia is not a real beer-country. They drink it A LOT, but taste-wise it's not that good. From the 8 pilsners / lagers I've now tasted, the only one that's drinkable would be the XXXX Bitter.
But Kat's dad brews his own beer and I've had some awesome tastes from the micro-brewery in the shed. Also the red wine and port being made in the shed are just awesome. The red port really had to be the best port I've tasted in my life.
Well, that's about all for today.

G'day, mates!

Getting Sunburnt at Christmas & Attack of the Killer Cicada

Short update to show I'm still alive.
So we had a nice Christmas and the weather was good almost the entire day. The family came up from Brisbane and some friends from around Burrum Heads.
We started eating and drinking from around 10 'o clock in the morning, had a lot of shrimps, ham, salads, trifle, and XXXX beer. I got a nice tan yesterday, which was about time. Right now it's raining again.

In the afternoon we went to the apartment angela rented for a week and played cards and were attacked by insects called cicada's. Although harmless insects, they were about 10cm long and can make a hell of a noise. Some species of the cidada family in Queensland can produce up to 120db (!) of noise.

Right now we're going to have lunch, so I'll be updating more later.

Clear Skies But More Rain To Come

It has now been a week in Burrum Heads and already experienced quite a lot in just a little town. And most had to do with the weather. I have witnessed some amazing storms with an amount of lightning I've never seen before.
And besides the lightnings, floodings and landslides we also witnessed quite some power-outs.
Right now we have clear skies for a few moments, but according to weather reports, we haven't seen the end of it.

Our House in better weather

Life in Australia is nice and pretty easy-going. People are not so rushed and a lot of life is based around pub-life. It's not unusual to meet your friends in the pub at 11 'o clock in the morning, from what I've seen.

Since my parents blessed me with an international pronounceable name, from day 3 in the Australia I have been nicknamed 'dutchie,' and now that name is being used in the local pub as well.
Only deal is that I now need to learn to react to that name ;-)

Another thing I found out is that Christmas is really big here. People are talking about it months beforehand, who to invite, what to cook, where to play the traditional Christmas-day backyard cricket, where to watch the boxing-day cricketmatch, where to put the shrimps on the barbie, where to buy the ham and so forth.
We will be celebrating it in Burrum Heads with a large part of Kat's family in the backyard and entertainment area.
Boxing day (2nd Christmas Day in  the Netherlands) is a sports filled day here, with 2 major events: the cricket and the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

"And oh, how pleased his lordship was, and how he smiled to say,
'That's good, my boy. Come tell me now; and what is Christmas Day?'
The ready answer bared a fact no bishop ever knew -
'It's the day before the races out at Tangmalangmaloo.' "

Storm about to hit

And this is what a storm in Australia looks like about 15 minutes before it's about to hit. I have to say that I don't think I've seen anything quite like this.
Hail, rain and a lot of electricity in the air. According to the weather reports, we'll be getting more of these today and tomorrow.

Burrum Heads

Went for a small walk this afternoon with Kat and the dogs. Just to show some pictures:

3 minutes walking

In the Tree

A little further

Me

Kats and Dogs

 

 

And then we had to rush home, for this is about to hit us in a few moments:

So much to do

Only when you move to a new country you find out what a hassle it can be to get settled.
Bank account, Mobile Phone, Tax Number, Health Care, 18+ card (hey, I gotta drink...) Drivers License Permit, ID, Cenalink, job-hunting, insurances

And in the meantime trying to settle down, learning about the culture, weather and nature and meeting new people every day.

The place I'm staying in, Burrum Heads is really nice and quiet, and surrounded by national parks. Today and tomorrow are the first days I don't have to do anything, so there's finally some time to check out the beautiful surroundings, ocean and other birds then magpies ;-)

A friend of Kat said that Australia has the noisiest insects in the world. That's true. But the birds really do their best to keep up.

And they call it the Sunshine State...

Greetings,

Kat and I finally arrived at Burrum Heads, where John and Sandra, Kat's parents, live. The last couple of days, quite a lot has happened.
We stayed over at Angela's place and I have already been to a birthdayparty of one of Kat's nieces and to a christening of one of Kat's nephews.
Something I learned is that it is never too early here to start drinking. That might take a little bit of getting used too.
When a party starts at 10 'o clock in the morning, it's already 28ºC outside and people crack open their first beers.

Today is the second day of sunshine in a row and that is supposed to be normal, but it hasn't been the last week. The trip from Brisbane to Burrum Heads took about 3,5 hours and was non-stop rain. Roads have been flooded everywhere.
It all looks really pretty despite of it.

Burrum Heads is a real small village with less then 1000 inhabitants and really quiet. We live a 100 meters from the beach and you hear absolutely nothing except the sounds of nature. We're surrounded by national parks, ocean and nature.
More to come today I hope, I have seen a lot.

Just no real good pictures yet, but they will come

Short Drive Trough Brisbane

This morning we were going to pick up 'some' clothes at Kat's old apartment. And some is in brackets, ' cause we took over 2 suitcases of clothes back ;-)
I was able to meet 2 nice people, Elveric and Nate, who were her old housemates.

The drive there was really interesting, to see how Brisbane is built up. The city consists of 1 big downtown center and dozens and dozens of suburbs. The suburbs are nice to look at with a lot of big and small wooden houses, really late 19th and early 20th century. Houses that reminded me, strangely enough, of the houses I saw in the Baltic States like Estonia.

Downtown Brisbane was a world apart, from what I've seen from the car it's a combination of 18th and 19th century houses, right next to big skyscrapers, next to an old abandoned church, next to a park with another skyscraper in the middle. And lots of iron-lace.
It's really hilly, so from the car I could see quite a few miles, when we were on top of one again

This is a city a would really like to explore soon. Wander around, see it all and admire
But in a few moments an old friend of Kat is coming over, one that I've met before in the Netherlands, so a lot of catching up to do and she's going to give me the tourist places to go around here :D

Then tonight we're going over to Shantelle and Justin, also 2 old friends of Kat who I had the pleasure to meet. Really nice people around here, I've met so far.

Well, soon I'll go out and discover more, but the temperature just hit 28ºC, the airco broke down yesterday, and this kind of weather is going to take a bit of getting used to for me.

Still no usb to sony-ericsson cable available, so if anyone in brisbane has one spare, I would be really grateful if I could borrow it. :)

The First Days

After a long, 2 day trip in the wrong direction, I'm feeling this thing called 'jet-lag'. First I was wondering if the gravitation is just heavier on the other side of the planet, but after some googling and wikipedia I found out that was not the case ;)

I took some pictures on the way from the place where we left (Leiden, -3ºC, covered in snow, having a blizzard) to London (0ºC, fog and rain... what else) to Singapore (27ºC and humid) and then Brisbane (22ºC, storm and rain)

But as of yet, I have not been able to find my usb to sony-ericsson cable, so I still have to get and post them at a later date.

The weather is better now and I have been sitting outside with coffee and a book today, at Angela's house, watching the beautiful butterflies and listening to the Noisy Miner, who really deserves it's name.

Today took the first steps at living here, so I now have an Australian bank account and medicare, Australia's universal health care program.

It has been quite a busy day in the house here, and since there was no-one to cook dinner, I introduced a few people to good old dutch hutspot already :-)

Now I'm going to call my mom for her birthday and promise myself to update this blog and keep you informed.

De eerste opzet

Dag lieve mensen,

Ik ga toch maar beginnen aan een blog om mijn reis in Australië bij te houden voor mensen die daarin geinteresseerd zouden zijn.
Nu ben ik op dit moment voornamelijk bezig met een jetlag en alles op orde te brengen, dat ik nog niet echt bezig ben met wilde avonturen of impressies.
Wel kan ik zeggen dat ik veilig in Brisbane bij Kat's zus aan het logeren ben waar het weer inmiddels wat beter is geworden dan de eerste anderhalve dag. Queensland heeft te kampen gehad met zware overstromingen en het weer kan van zonnig in 2 minuten omslaan naar storm en hoosbui.
Maar goed, ik ga proberen dit blog veel te updaten, met foto's en de soort.
Groeten!