Tangalooma Trip

Novey's sister came to visit us a few weeks ago, so we took a weekend trip to an island about an hour and a half from where we live called "Tangalooma." One word for you.......Beautiful!!!! It is a national park, so there is almost no development on the island. It is almost like your on a deserted island. Anyway, if any of my so called "friends" ever make it out here, this will be the first place i take you.

Jim, Ginnie, Novey, and me on the ferry to the island.

They sank some old ships so people can snorkel in them. From the island looking out. I swear the water is even bluer in person.

While we were there we got to hand feed some dolphins. This is what they ate. I'm not gonna lie, i was a bit nervous about them biting off one of my digits (That's fingers for you guys that aren't hip).

Collectively we have the maturity level of a 2nd grader.

The sun setting on the ferry back to Brisbane.

We actually got to kill 2 birds with one stone because on the ferry to the island we saw a few whales. That is money that i don't have to spend now on a whale watching tour. Life is good!!

The Move To Brisbane

If you did not know, we have moved from Sydney to Brisbane. Brisbane is the 3rd biggest city in Australia, and it is now our new home. To get here, we rented a car and packed everything we own into the back seat. The only problem was that we had no experience driving on the left side of the road. Lets just say we almost died a few times, but all in all it went pretty well. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Novey singing while driving on the wrong side of the road. Do not try this at home. She is a professional.

Target......Australian style.
HUGE shrimp. Oxymoron? (Your an oxymoron!!)

A dude in a kilt on a motorcycle.......Welcome to Brisbane.

Our new home.

Gig in Houston

While I was in Houston, I got to play 2 gigs at Berryhill. Here are some pics from those gigs. Thanks to all my friends and family that came out and supported me. It meant a lot.

If you look behind me there are shelves with all sorts of objects on them. Throughout the night, the vibrations from the speakers made things fall.....and hit me on the way down. It was funny, but some of them kind of hurt.

The things on the floor after they hit me.

The rest of the pictures are of friends and family at the gig. I am not going to type in all of the names, so deal with it.

Thanks again to everybody that came out. Hopefully we will do it again next time I'm home.

Trip To Houston

Since I have been in Australia, the things i have missed the most are my family, and my old mans food. If you have had the opportunity to taste the goodness, you know what I'm talking about.....If you have not, you better ask somebody.

Just looking at this makes my mouth water. It melts in your mouth like cotton candy.

Steaks cooking on my dads new grill.

The steak getting ready to go into my belly. (Yes i like the cow to still be mooing!)
My niece sporting her pink Australia jacket. (I love that smile!) That's my hairy hand holding the Koala puppet.

The delicious cupcakes she made just for me. (Thank you Kenslie)

Basically i ate like a king the whole 2 weeks i was home. Thanks Dad........and Mi Rancho!!! I still miss my cheap mexican food. I'm actually thinking of starting my own mexican restaurant in Australia, so if you want to invest let me know. We could make a killing. They have no idea what good mexican tastes like.

Last Gig In Sydney

These are my flat mates and friends that we have met in Sydney.

These guys came out every week and might have a careers as back up singers.
People enjoying my skills. Everybody dancing to the good tunes.

Statues

So i was going through my photos, and apparently i take a lot of pictures with statues. Here are some of them.

I was told it is lucky to rub a pigs snout.

Her I am wrestling a sea lion.

Ginnie and I hanging out with the gorillas.

I am not sure what was going on here.....but I wanted to find out.

Helping with the yard work.

OK. This one has a funny story. I initially put this statue in a head lock, but some crazy old lady started screaming at me with a few choice words. She thought i was going to rip it off of the block and steal it. We could not stop laughing. Anyway, i went with a nicer pose.

Just chillin' with my merman friend at The Royal Botanic Gardens.

I am sure there will be many more statue photos because they are all over the place here. Keep checking back, and feel free to comment on my posts to let me know what you guys think. All you have to do is click comment on the end of the post.

Our Location

A few people have asked for pictures of where we live, so here you go. It takes 5 minutes to walk to Central Station, 5 minutes to walk to China Town (CHEAP FOOD!!), and about 7 minutes walk to where the Real World House was in Darling Harbour. When the Pope was here i managed to walk to the Opera House in 15 minutes........... well it ws more of a run, but basically we live in a great location and you can walk everywhere.

This is our street. Our house is the white one with the arrow pointing to it that says our house.

We live right next door to a Malaysian Food Restaurant, and across the street from this Thai place. It takes literally 10 seconds to walk from our living room and place a take away order. This is a picture taken from our front door.

This is a picture of the city taken about 50 meters from our house on the corner of our street.

For those of you that didn't know, we are in the middle of winter right now. That is why there are no leaves on the trees. It is about 55 F. Some people actually celebrate Christmas in July to have the cold weather. Everybody else does Christmas at the beach in the middle of summer. This is all very strange, but i'm getting used to it. I'm not sure if i have mentioned this before or not, but the toilets flush in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere. The first thing i did when i landed in Australia was go into the bathroom and find this out for myself. And its true. Mind boggling i know.

Anatomically Correct

Like i said before, i work at a day care a couple times a week....... well pretty much when i feel like it. Its a good gig. Anyway, recently i took a group of kids on a field trip to a Koala Park.

I got to pet these things, and they are so soft.

They also had kangaroos at this park. You were allowed to go into there "area" and feed them and pet them. It was here that i found the highlight of my field trip..................

This giant kangaroo statue.

If you look closely, it is "Anatomically Correct"

Yes, I am 24 years old. Yes, I still laugh at fart jokes. And YES!!!, I will always laugh at giant kangaroo balls!

Contemporary Art?

We went and visited the Contemporary Art Museum today, and lets just say it was interesting.What does "contemporary art" even mean? While there were some cool exhibits, there was also some crap ones, but i won't bore you with that. I selected the best exhibit to share with you guys. It was creepy and cool all at the same time. Drum roll please....................... This piece is called "Novecento" by Maurizio Cattelan

So stuffing and hanging dead animals from the ceiling is officially art. I'm not going to lie, it was really cool to see in person. But who thinks of that? I told Novey i will be impressed when they hang an elephant from the ceiling.

Outside of the museum there were 4 statues of Jesus by different artists meaning different things.

After we left the museum, we followed the massive crowd students there for World Youth Day to a re-enactment of the crucifixion. I thought it was quite moving, and the backdrop was beautiful as the sun was setting. The pictures didn't turn out as well as i hoped, but you get the point.
I think my flatmate took better pics, so i will try to post them when i can. You had to see it with the orange sunset. If you haven't noticed, i have posted more than 1 blog in the same day. I amaze myself too.

Mexican Food In Australia

Let's just say your choices are limited to about 2 joints in the city. I miss my cheap mexican food in Texas. It is a little pricy out here, and they are stingy with the chips and salsa. This is all the chips they gave us for 5 people. If you want more, it is $3.50/bowl.
We went with fajitas and quesadillas. That tiny margarita cost $14. Had we known before ordering, it would not have been ordered.

Our dutch friends Franca and Maarten, Jim(USA), Novey(World Citizen), and Me(Texas)

The food was actually quite good. I won't tell you what the final bill was, but lets just say you could eat mexican back home for at least a week. I have pretty much decided that my first meal back in the U.S. will be Mi Rancho. If you don't know about them......you better ask somebody.

JB