Binarynomad

Sorry it’s been so quiet lately, recently I’ve been busy working to get a photo gallery setup and hope it will be up and running by Wednesday.

Meanwile, here is a little catchup:

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

A few weeks ago, Kristen and I gassed up the car, and headed north to Brisbane to visit the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. One of the first things we discovered was to “never again, use (www.whereis.com.au) for driving directions”…..EVER! The site seems to have some aversion to telling the user when you need to change from one highway to another. (it also doesn’t help that they don’t seem to believe in North or South, they use the local suburb names, for example, they don’t say “drive 880 South”, they say “drive 880 San Leandro”, so it helps to have intimate knowledge of the local suburbs). As we tried to find our way around we quickly discovered we need to budget for toll costs for the roads. (We’ve been spoiled living in California with all our FREEways 🙂 ). Eventually we made it. Lone Pine is a great place, one wonderful thing we discovered was that they don’t have a problem with the visitors being up close and personal with the animals (not counting the crocs, dingos, and tazzie devils). There was this one small (unmanned) gate we passed through that led to a fenced in park area, with picnic tables, trees, and tons of Kangaroos. You can walk upto the herd and pet them, unsupervised. We fed some birds, got Koala Hugs, hung with the roos and had a fun day.

Fun In The Sun

Yesterday had a constant rain that ended up in thunder and lightning (god I miss that) into the night, but today I woke up to a right blue sunny sky and decided it was a great day to head out and play in the surf. The waves were perfect for beginner surfers so I grabbed a board from the local shop and paddled out. I caught a few waves, not for extended periods of time, but I was up 🙂 I practiced keeping my balance sitting on the board between waves, and also discovered out that I really need to work out my arms a lot more (you get tired real quickly paddling back to your spot into the waves). Unfortunately I had to end it when my knee shifted while I was trying to push up on by board on a big wave, luckly it wasn’t too bad, but I’m currently nursing it and going soft until it isn’t so tender.

In three weeks I’m meeting with an instructer to learn how to Kite Surf grin

Stitches Are Out

On Friday I finally got my stitches removed and they told me that I don’t have any melanoma cells. (yay) Although I think I’ll take out my own stitches next time, that nurse seemed blood thristy with that talon of a knife that she was using. I had to have bandges put on afterwards becuase she cut into my leg and it was bleeding.

I would have to say that today ranked as “interesting”.

For some reason my body decided (with out consulting me of course) that 7am was the perfect time to wake up and not fall back asleep. So it was an early rise for me, some tea, some toast with chedder cheese, and cartoons. (not too bad). Kristen and I had talked about heading off to the beach in the early part of the day since I had an appointment around 3pm.

We grabbed our stuff, slathered ourselves with sunscreen and headed out. I wanted to pass by a surf shop I knew and rent a body board, but to our dismay we discovered that it didn’t open for another hour or so. (oh well) We headed over to our favorite spot (due to the absence of metered parking and untold hordes of beach goers) on the beach. We set out our stuff and then I decided to explore a few buildings that we had always seen (while waiting for my sunscreen to absorb). Much to my surprise, I found a shop that rents both surfboards and body boards (right at our favorite spot…yay). I quickly made it back to Kristen, grabbed the car keys, headed to the car, grabbed some id and money, went back to the shop, and got a body board. I quickly set upon the ocean, had loads of fun (and exhaustion) fighting and playing in the waves, I met someone called Craig, and we chatted in the surf for a while (about both the states and Australia) and then went our different ways. After I returned, Kristen headed out to play some, she caught some good waves, and then she came back. I played a little more before returning the board back to the shop. At this point we were both ready to head home.

As we approached the car, a dreaded realization dawned on us, I never gave the car key back to Kristen…OH CRAP, IT WAS IN THE OCEAN! To top this off was the fact that Kristen didn’t have any of her keys with her, they were back at the house, but the house was locked and the house keys were in the car. ARGH! Luckly, I had signed us up for RACQ (think car insurance and AAA in one) roadside assistance. (thank god) All we had to do was contact RACQ, get them to break into our car, so I could get my wallet and house keys, then find a way to the house, so we could pickup Kristens keys, get back to the car and finally drive home. (guh). So first we try dialing RACQ, “We’re sorry but this number has been disconnected….” (WHAT?!?) So we try dialing directory assistance, “Yes that number is correct, you shouldn’t have any problems dialing it, try contacting your service provider”. (dialing customer service) “I’m sorry but we can’t help you, let me transfer you to directory assistance” (ARRRGH!!!!). Somehow Kristen gets her phone to dial RACQ and a driver shows up within 10 minutes, pops our car door and we get to our stuff. We tell him what happened and he offers to give me a ride to our house if his next job is in that direction. The job comes in, and I’m on my way home. (there was not enough room in the truck, so Kristen had to wait). I thank him for the ride, get Kristens keys, call a cab back to our car, show up and then get us all home. AND…..I still had 30 min to take a shower and make my appointment. (whew)

Remember the last post where I mentioned the skin cancer stuff. We’ll it turns out that one of the moles tested was “dysplastic”, meaning “is not cancerous, but has a good chance in becoming cancerous in time”. (translation = cut the sucker out). I had to return to the clinic to have the mole removed. Another local ansthetic, larger cutting (required 4 stitches), and a bandage with instructions to leave alone for at least 2 days (2 weeks for the stitches). (oh, and -$200 out of my pocket). It was good that we caught this, but technaclly it is not over yet. 1) They have to send in the cutting, and test for any melanoma, if any is found, I have to go in again and they want to take a bigger cutting to make sure it is all gone. If none is found, I’m all good. 2) when changing the bandage tonight I noticed another mole that didn’t seem right that we missed on the initial scan. I’m going to have to go back and have them check that one out. (I really hope that this is the end of it)

Kristen and I decided to head out and check a few pubs (being St Pattys day and all). We cleaned up a bit and decided to walk to this one place that was nearby (so we didn’t have to drive home). It was an “ok” place, live music, but small, and it seemed much more of a “locals only” place to me. While we were standing around, Kristen got about 4 visitors, and I found $150 on the ground (woot). We decided to head into Surfers Paradise after we finished our drinks (especially now that we have cab fare, and I was now buying 🙂 ). We wander around, tons of people, so much so that most of the pubs we tried were rejecting new people because they were full. We settled on this one pub, pretty nice place in my reckoning, good mix of people, room to sit or stand, optional food if needed, live music (except the band didn’t show up that night so management was pissed). We asked for rum and coke, and pretty much got rum with coke coloring (the bartener even asked if that was enough rum or not) Kicked back for a while, and enjoyed the scenery. After a while, we decided to wander some more, debated on coffee or home, and home won. After some failed attempts at calling a cab company, we cornered a driver that had pulled into a gas station for a break and got a ride home.

So over all it was a really good day, a few twists and turns, but no real stress.

Hope you all enjoy yours. (It so weird being in the future (this timezone) like this, we pretty much experience everything before the rest of you.)

During Kristens orientation, she found a very disturbing fact. Statistics show that (1 in 2) people in Australia get some form of Skin Cancer. This is a pretty sobering fact for me, you see I grew up in Cyprus (nice sunny greek island) where I ran around most of the time bare backed. I always hated (and still do) sunscreen because it was so slimy and oily, but I only remember getting really burned a few times in my 10+ years there. One price I ended up paying was that I have a large number of freckles and moles (compared to most Americans). Then a few years ago during a checkup, a doctor mentioned to me that he saw a few spots he was concerned about. We decided it would be best to remove them and do a biopsy, and much to my happiness, nothing was found. Well the other night I noticed one very dark mole on my leg that got me concerned and I figured I should to the smart thing and have myself checked out. Since skin cancer is so prevalent here, I wasn’t too surprised to see a number of “Skin Cancer Clinics” while driving around, so today I picked one to visit in Surfers Paradise. I didn’t know if they could do anything for me since I was not covered by Australian health care, but it turns out that a full body check was only ($60 AUD), so I dove in. After a full body check, the doctor said I was pretty healthy and that most of my spots are pretty normal. She did find (3) that she wanted to check out, so she gave me a local anesthetic and then cored out each of the spots. I am to call back in a week to see what the results are (wish me luck).

Over all I’m very glad I decided to have this checkup, it only cost me a total of ($160 AUD which is only $117 USD) for a better piece of mind.

BTW: nowadays, they have non-oily (not really, but close enough) sunscreen which I wear anytime I play in the sun. Take care of your skin, it is one of the most abused organs of your whole body.

…Better, stronger, faster…

Life is good again, we are finally connected (as my desktop hungrily devours our bandwidth with over 150mb+ of downloads for updates). You should start seeing my IM and Skype active again 🙂

Lately we (Gold Coast) has been battered by a major storm, huge waves, beaches closed, tons of rain, the works. It isn’t really cold (72f), I’m still walking around in shorts and sandals (but Kristen is wrapped up in sweats). If this storm keeps up, you can expect to see me online for the next few days.

Today Kristen and I wandered around a bit, we first went shopping and then decided it was a good day to hit the movies. It’s amazing how mixed up the schedule is here. On one hand they are showing “Munich” which was just released as we left the states, but on the other hand “Aeon Flux” is due out soon (that was out in early Dec 2005). We settled on seeing “Firewall” which was pretty much your standard Harrison Ford movie, family man who gets involved with people because of his job and then ends up saving/defending his family at the end. (no surprises). Afterwards, we drove over to Surfers Paradise and (indulged in a minor cure for home sickness) visited Starbucks. We found (much to our surprise) that it was open every night until 12am AND that they will take our American Starbuck Cards (woot). I enjoyed a white chocolate mocha while Kristen found comfort in a vanilla latte. (aaah comfort food).

After we headed back home, we found that the internet connection had been provisioned, so I got everything setup and finally closed off the night watching “Back to the Future” and “The Borne Identity”

The past few days have been pretty low key, a large wet storm has moved in from the coast, the beaches are closed and we discovered that when it rains, it downpours. (luckily it is still warm enough for shorts, t-shirts, and sandals) So, Kristen is adjusting to her school schedule and I am slowly building our home network. I got an LCD (for my shuttle) and a Canon bubblejet printer, which I then hooked up to our temporary wireless network so she and I can print from our laptops. One nice benefit (of the Airport Express)is we can now play any of our iTunes collections over the wireless network and have it come out the TV speakers.

Brian Huddleston & Kristen Spinola
1/88 High Street
Southport, QLD 4215
Australia

(the 1 is the unit number)

We finally got it! Yesterday, within about 1h period, we got a call from both the rental agency and from the car rental place. The rental agency was ready for us to fill out the final paperwork and pick up the keys.

The car place was ready for us to check one of our options.We first checked out the car, automatic with air (88 Toyoda Corolla), I bit banged up, but they would first process it through their shop and then give us full coverage for 3 months, including registration, all for $1700. We liked the deal, they still needed a day or two to get it sellable. (we got another call today with a second possible option that will be ready for inspection on Friday, which is great, I’d rather have at least one or two options).

We then headed over to the Rental agency, filled out all the forms, signed here, and here , and there, over here, and…etc. Grabbed the keys, and went straight to the store, and purchased ($179 AUD) of stuff, drove home unloaded, then grabbed a kebab before heading over to the hostel and emptying our room. WE ARE DONE!

We got to sleep in our own beds and wash in our own showers (and not have to lug our stuff back to the bedroom), it was so nice. The only problem was breakfast, we had bread, peanut butter, jam, cerial, milk, cheese, BUT…. no knives, no plates, no bowls, no spoons, UGH! So that ment another shopping spree this morning for another ($179 AUD) worth of stuff. We are finding that generic brands are our friends.

One thing to warn the visitors about, we are next to a major street, you hear the traffic, you don’t have to see it (bunches of bushes) but it is there. I’m slowly getting used to it.

Today I had the power transfered to my name and asked to have a phone setup so we can get DSL, unfortunately we discovered that it can take 21 days to provision broadband (AAARRRRGGGHHH!!!)

We went shopping at the Slavo (Salvation Army) again and got a toaster, phone, desk (which I have to wait for delivery today), hopefully after getting our car and clothes washer tomorrow we will be completly done! Then it is just school and play.

We are still waiting to hear from both the current residents of the unit and the car rental place (guh), but this should go much easier today. I just dropped Kristen off at school (for her orientation), and I’m off to the ocean for some surfing lessions. Woot!

UPDATE:

I had a blast, they took us out to an area call “The Spit” and then had us perform some warm-ups and then a run (they wanted to make sure we were fit enough to get into the water). They had us perform a number of practice steps while on the beach with our boards, before letting us out into the water. We all lined up and took turns going out to the main instructer in the water. At first he would hold our boards and have us lay upon it and then would push us with the waves as we paddled, once we had enough speed, we would attempt to stand. I was up most of the time, and was able to stay up until I ran out of wave. As we got better, they started sending us out in groups and then let us play to our hearts content. Let me warn you, surfing is a workout! My body is so sore, but I had a great time.

So playing at the beach was a blast, I had forgotten how strong the ocean can be. The waves were only 8ft high, but the current tossed us around like rag dolls. I got rolled a few times, once flipping my legs up over my head, but I recovered just as quickly and dove in deeper. We only stayed out for 1h’ish but that was enough, I can now see why everyone is so fit, that was a massive workout. Swimmers are only allowed to swim between two flags posted on the beach, the lifeguards move these flags as the conditions allow. There are a number of these areas up and down the beach. One thing we kept noticing was that the washback of the water kept pulling us outside of the flags. It’s really easy to see how people get quickly get in trouble.

After drying off, we headed back to the hostel to relax for a while. I pulled out some dice and taught Kristen how to play Farkle and she taught me Cadis. (I like the game but, per Kristen, it is earning me the name butt-head 🙂 )

Yesterday I wandered around Surfers Paradise and found a Surf shop that does rentals. I spoke with Sean for a while and started learning the differences on the sizes of the surfboards, bodyboards, different fins, clothes to wear, etc. It turns out that the water doesn’t get cold here until (their) late winter (yay). I’m seriously looking at buying a board.

Today we had to return our cute (AC, cd, auto windows, auto locks, automatic transmission) KIA for a Nova (no ac, tape player, manual windows, manual locks, stick shift) until we can buy a car. Given our price range, I think we are going to end up with something more like the Nova in the long run. I have to say, driving stick wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Shifting on the leftside seems more natural. I thought I’d have to do some practicing before getting on the road, but I just hopped in and went.

Since we’ve been here, Kristens eating habits have rubbed off on me. I’m eating about (1/3 to 1/2) of what I used to which is actually working out great, I’m losing weight and still feeling pretty energetic. I’ve started revisiting and old time comfort food for breakfast (tea + toast and sliced chedder cheese) I used to eat this back in Cyprus all the time. Most of the other meals we’ve been splitting, this has helped cut costs quite a bit. The few times I’ve cooked, we’ve had some stir frys (round one bombed, round two was much better), and I found all the ingredients for tacos (which turned out great, and then turned into taco salad for two more nights), and the other night we ordered and split a small (by American standards) pizza. I’ve found it is hard to cook in a shared kitchen.

Today we found out that we might have to wait until Thursday before we can enter the new apartment, which sucks for Kristen because her orientation runs both Tuesday and Wednesday. We are hoping to talk to the current residents and see if there is anyway to speed up the transition. (wish us luck)

…Argh…Phppth….

I’m having problems posting to my blog from this (free) library computer. They have a number of security programs in place that don’t like the text editor that it uses. The only alternative is to use the Hostel comptuer (@ $2/20 min).

Since it looks like we are getting our place tomorrow we decided to revisit the car rentals. There’s a rental agency that (as bad as it sounds) is called Rent-A-Bomb. Yes, they have older cars but they are fully registered, insured, and cheap. We started asking about extended rental periods and found that they even sell their cars. Now we are looking for a car to keep us on the road for a year, and I really doubt some of these will last longer than that, BUT for $1700 AUD we get a small Toyoda Corrola (don’t know the year) that is an automatic and has 6 months of registration. I asked him what happens if the car craps out on us and he said that if we brought it in, they would do the labor for free and only charge us parts. We’re thinking this just might work out.

This weekend we are pretty much killing time. We REALLY want to move in, unpack our stuff and have a bathroom/kitchen to call our own, but we have to at least wait until next Monday (perhaps even Tuesday). So, we get to kill time this weekend. This morning we went shopping (to at least price) some of the requirements (bed sheets, bathroom stuff, etc) and we found a working microwave at Salvation Army for $30 AUD (thats only about $21 USD) Sweet! It wasn’t the newest but it works.

We’re planning on running out to the beach and playing in the water today. (sunscreen is our friend) We’re going to play it safe and only fry ourselves for 2h’ish. (wish us luck and lots of “not burning”)