Rebas' Adventure in Ozzieland

It is now the 1st of Feb, wow! has this year flown by. I have moved again, that makes 5 moves since coming to Australia, that has got to be some kind of record. I have the same housemate as before, Melissa the school teacher, and will be adding a new one, Jayelle, Nurse who goes to Mel's church. The house we were renting was put on the market and we decided to move once our lease was up and not wait to be told at some point, that we had no control over, that we had 30 days to leave. I really like our new place, it is a newer house and has a much nicer feel to it, cosier and more light and airy. you can see from the pictures that this is a pretty house and has a much bigger kitchen!! (raptures!). You will also notice that most of the pictures are dominated by the shower head. Now, in 4 of the 5 places I have lived they have had this kind of shower head (my last place did not). I am here to say that, hands down, this is the best kind shower head I have every had. you will note that it can be moved in every direction and it will stay there with good water pressure too. As a tall person I have had to deal with short shower heads for years;now, even with a short housemate, there is no problem for either of us. also the ability to control where the spray so one can soap up etc. is terrific. if I can, I will buy one of these shower heads and bring it home with me.______________ Wednesday the 26th of Jan was Australia Day. sort of like a 4th of July except Australia never really left England, like Canada, they are still part of the Commonwealth. We had a BBQ and there was the option of fighting traffic and going down to the beach to see the fireworks. we opted to stay put. it was a very Holidayish day. we hung out, worked on a jigsaw puzzle and ate good food. really fun. Leoni and Tim hosted, but since they are rather short of money these days, they asked that everyone bring a salad/dessert/drinks to share and bring meat for yourself. I have never done that before, but it worked really well, I brought a piece of marinated chicken, someone brought a few kabobs, another sausages and the guys grilled it all up and we each took our meat and ate together. a good way to have a BBQ without great expense to any one person.

Junko and Reba at New Years Party New Years Eve party, Tim L. in a funny hat Chrismas ice cream pudding, oh yeah! opening my stocking from my mom Leoni and Izaac on Christmas morning singing carols on Christmas eve in the park drive thru liquor store, very common over here, made me laugh I am all set, baby! Melanie and Me snorkling Rottnest Island Since I have been a very slack blogger for the last month I will try to relate to you all the fun I have had since Christmas in 500 words or less. First off you will notice the many photos with captions and that they are chronologically incorrect, a little trick my blog likes to play on me and one I am not patient enough to fix now, unless you would like to wait another few days for this post? I thought not. Now to explain the photos. The week before Christmas I went to Rottnest Island for a day trip with my friend Melanie as I mentioned in my last blog, as you can see in the pics, such a beautiful place, it is where all the locals go for holiday.________Christmas day I spend with Tim and Leonie Cramp and their sun Isaac, very lad back and lots of fun. On Boxing Day our bible study had a brunch. Boxing day is the day after Christmas, it’s name (after much discussion) comes from the rich boxing up the left overs from Christmas and giving it to the poor and the servants who had to work on Christmas and so would get the day after Christmas off. It is a great holiday because it dispels any post-Christmas let down. For new years we decided to have a progressive dinner. My house was the last of four and all I had to provide was coffee and champagne for the big count down. They don’t have an equivalent to Time Square, but the radio and TV stations do a countdown. New Years resolutions are tradition here, but kissing your sweetheart at midnight is not. I mentioned this tradition to our married and dating couples, but no one gave us a demonstration. __________the other really, really fun thing that happened over the holidays is that the Rowbottoms let me borrow their second car for the month. Oh man, the sweet feeling of being on the road after almost a year without driving was so awesome! I have only driven on the wrong side of the road once and that was on a residential street with no traffic. I am pretty good and handling a car that has the driver’s seat on the right side. I keep asking if they want the car back, but I still have it and will me very sad to give it back, which will probably be this next weekend, sigh._____________I have had lots of fun this month with going to outdoor movies, BBQ’s and swimming in the sea (sorry to rub in the summertime fun for you all stuck in winter, but I have to get my kicks somehow). I have realized something about the beach here, when someone invites you to go the beach, it is usually for about a half hour. I have been raised where a trip to the beach is an all day event, but when it is an easy 20 min drive, people tend to go for a quick swim and then go have fish and chips on the wharf. Because the sun is so intense, lots of people go swimming in the early evening. It is really nice, but it took a shift in prospective for me. This blog is getting too long, so I will stop now. I promise a new post within a week!