Sinkhole in Baulkham Hills

Today I got a new assignment. Figure out how this happened.



Sand, sand, and more sand.



Should I get a little closer?


Wow - that's a big hole.

I figure this should keep me busy for the next week or so. And because it's Friday, I thought I'd add something really shocking....

Cookies

I'm way behind on photos and new entries. So, I'm posting some photos we took a while back. Nothing too exciting, just to keep Grandma and Grandpa updated, especially since Grandpa has us as his home page! I'm sure he'd rather see these photos than that stock photo of the Q-Man. Look at the determination on that face....must..mix..dough.

Professional photos

The company I work for is launching their new website. Part of the website is a "People" page with our CVs and photos. They brought in a "professional" photographer to take our photos. I spent an hour (YES - a WHOLE hour) making sure my hair and makeup were presentable. An hour is a pretty big deal for me, with having a very limited amount of time to get ready in the morning before rushing to get Mitch to school. Every morning I run around packing Mitch's lunch and backpack, swearing "That's it - tonight I'm packing everything before we got to bed". Then every night I sit my ass on the couch, much like now, and surf the internet and watch AI (Go Adam!!) or Desperate Housewives, or Project Runway, or...well, you get the idea. Where was I? Right, the professional photographer. She had the fancy camera with the long lens and authoritative directives, "turn a little more to the left, lean forward, arms back, face down". That is about where it ended. How can someone who gets paid for doing this for a living take such horrible photos? We got the proofs today. I didn't get to choose which shot they are going to use. That's because my choice would have been to burn the lot. Over the years I've become an expert at having photos taken. I lift my chin up and to the side to e-l-o-n-g-a-t-e my neck for a slimming effect. Not in this photo. The photographer had me turn to the side from the hips, then lean forward, and tilt my head. The final result is something that resembles someone who has thrown their back out and is trying to find relief....with a triple chin. The photographer also kept saying "big smile big smile". I hate big smile. Some people do the big toothy grin well, I am not one of them. But she wouldn't let it go - BIG SMILE PLEASE. The only consolation is that everyone else looked just as heinous. The guy that sits next to me has a double chin in his photo, and he is totally fit and in shape. I'm really trying to blame the whole thing on the photographer. Then again, maybe I'm just not that photogenic.

When we were in Brisbane we came across a street performer making balloon animals for donations. Donation my ass; he quoted prices. I personally think he's figured out a way to skirt the tax laws. Anyways, Mitchell wanted an Alien so we "ordered" the Alien and $5.00 later Mitch walked away one happy boy. We packed the Alien for the trip home. However, when we got to Brisbane baggage screening they pulled the Alien out and announced that we couldn't take the balloon onboard with us. Something about security guidelines, and how it could freak people out if it popped during the flight. Whatever. I was too busy trying to quell the sobs of a five year old boy to listen to reason. So tell me, how does it feel to crush the dreams of a small boy Mr-Baggage-screener-man? Don was on the other side of the metal detector, while Mitch and I were still near the conveyor belt. What do you do in a situation like this? So I did the only thing I could think of on the fly. I gnawed holes in the tips of the alien and squeezed the air out of it. Unfortunately the sight of having the Alien deflated in front of him proved to be a wee bit more traumatic for Mitchell than I had anticipated. He started howling, and these huge bloopy tears came pouring out of his eyes. At this point with people backing up around us, I shoved the deflated Alien in my pocket, picked up Mitch and hoofed it through the metal detector. With the excitement of the airplane ride (and the giant bag of M&Ms) I guess Mitch forgot about the Alien. I was doing a load of laundry the other day and found the Alien. I just can't bring myself to throw him away.

Brisbane - Part IV - Lone Pine Koala Sancturay

We spent our last full day at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. It's a great little place about 45 minutes North of where my brother lives. Even though we had gone to a koala sanctuary where we first arrived in Sydney, it was no where as nice as Lone Pine. For example, at the koala park in Sydney when we bought kangaroo food it was a baggie of honey nut cheerios, seriously. I felt bad feeding the kangaroos the cheerios, since obviously it isn't part of their natural diet. And worse, because everyone pets the roos while feeding them, a large proportion of the roos in Sydney had cheerios stuck to their mangy fur. Not the best experience. However, Lone Pine was really an incredible place, the animals were really well taken care of, and it looked like the staff really cared about their welfare. This is one of the senior koalas, the look on his face is priceless, just kicking back chewing on a gum leaf.

Here we are feeding the kangaroos. And what do you know, it was kangaroo chow. I felt much better feeding them this time. Can you see the baby Chihuahua joey?

They also had lorikeet feeding. The lorikeets obviously know when the feeding times are; there were hundreds of them. There was no way to avoid them; I think Mitch got a little freaked out at one point. They also had a great Birds of Prey show. The birds flew right over our heads, and at one point one of the bird's wings even tipped Don's head. Don's loves this photo, I have to agree it's awesome.


They even had a demonstration with sheep and Border Collies. I really enjoyed it, but Mitch got bored pretty quickly. I think he would have preferred to run around with the dogs.
We found out that there was a 90 minute boat trip from the Sanctuary to the CBD, so we took that option at the last minute.

It was a great end to the trip, just a relaxing boat trip down the river. We met another couple visiting from San Francisco, she was American and he was Australian. We had a nice chat on the way back. Overall, just another great day in Brisbane... and a wonderful end to our trip.

Cadbury's new ad

Not sure if this commercial has made it to the US. Probably not, since Cadbury definitely doesn't have the same market share that it does here and in the UK. I'm not sure what to think. Some of you may already know how I feel about Cadbury, so I'll just follow my Nana's advice and not say anything at all. Except that the kids are really cute.

Brisbane - Part III - South Bank & the Museum

I got a little sidetracked this week. Mitch is on his second week of Easter Break. With him at home, Don and I have been tag teaming by working half shifts until he returns to school next week. I just caught myself today referring to it as Spring Break. What a maroon.... Anyways, I have a ton of photos from our Brisbane trip, so I thought I'd post about our trip to the Queensland Museum. Mitch loves Museums, and if it's hands on even better. He's a tough one to peg. He doesn't care for the aquarium or the zoo, but give him a museum and he's in heaven. We went to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and he kept asking to go back so we brought the annual membership. After that, I kept talking to other parents who said their kids get bored there. I don't tell people we have a membership, I feel like an anomaly. Like having a kid who hates candy, or begs to go to the dentist, or get a shot. But I digress. Anyways, Mitch was very excited to see this new museum. We spent about three hours there, and I think we did everything there was to do. Another plus - absolutely free to enter! Here are a few photos from our visit.

After the Museum we walked to SouthBank . I had been there when I visited in 1997 and I thought it was a great little place to walk and grab something to eat back then. I couldn't believe how much it had changed in ten years, I guess like most things. Mitch was dying to go on this gigantic Ferris Wheel. He wouldn't let up so I tried something new and just told him that we didn't have any money. It actually worked.

We also passed this incredible man made beach (sponsored by Streets Ice Cream) built between the river and the city. It's really beautiful, almost like an oasis. If we had brought our swimmers we would have gone for a dip.

We walked the other way back (along the backside of the beach) and ran into this play structure that was right out of a five year old's dreams. It was built over water, with tons of climbing rocks all around. Mitch asked right away if he could climb on the rocks since there were other kids doing it. At first we told him no, thinking that the kids had climbed over the fence or something to get to the rocks. But then I realized that the rocks were actually there to climb on. Mitch made some friends and hopped over the river and the rocks for close to an hour.

Someone slept well that evening.