Australia Day

Hello and happy Australia day mates!  Just another day off for the hard working Australians today, except for me as I was busy digging trenches and concreting stuff out in the yard at the Chamber residence.  It has been wicked hot here lately, early last week had 3 days above the 100 degree marker and this week has been solid 90's solidly solid.  Not sure what was with the solids there but just go with it.  On Tuesday, or Wednesday I really can't remember, of last week we went to watch the Australian open.  There are over 20 courts that have games going on pretty much all day long so you get an outdoor ticket and can walk around and watch all the different matches that are going on.  The good part about going early in the open is that you can see the big start out on the outside courts where later in the tournament they are all inside the arena's which you need to get different more expensive tickets for.  We say some girl play, can't pretend to spell her name but she was 10th in the world followed by Marat Safin who has won the open before and is ranked 26th.  Just going to tell you that what you see on TV is nothing like watching it live, they hit the ball so hard on every shot it is just insane.  The serves were over 200 km/h.  It was a fun day and came with a nice little sun burn.  Jelena Dokic is a big story for Australians here in the open and was finding myself jumping up and down every time she wins, its on TV all day so it is pretty easy to get into.

What else do I have for you...  Talked to the boss man Monday and a week or two and I will be shipped off to Port Headland to carry around a shovel and follow around machinery all day long.  May not have seemed like it but I am really excited for it, I should hopefully learn a lot which can hopefully help me out when I get back home (yes I will be back!)

Here is a story for you... I went out to move Sarah's mums (not mom, mum, don't ask me its what they do here) car.  So I open the door which is hard to do being that I always end up going to the wrong door, and what do I find?  A spider, not a Minnesota-esk type spider, this bad boy look like a tarantula!  It had a solid 6 inch leg span and was all furry, I hate spiders.

Not much else has really been happening here since my last installment of the worlds greatest blog.  Just riding a lot of mountain bike, trying to get used to working in the heat, and hanging out with Sarah.  That reminds me, we did go to a market last Sunday.  It takes place right along the river in downtown Melbourne.  There are restaurants all along the river as well its really cool actually.  There was some pretty good stuff there but nothing really worth getting that excited about.  One guy was selling hand painted pictures of Australian pubs (like in crocodile dundee, if you haven't watched it I would just for the laughs) but left the name blank so that you could have it say what every you want it too.  We got one and called it the Stoney Bears Pub.  Sarah's family calls her bears due to her love of carebears growing up.  The band list includes The Wet Bandits with Eric Clapton.  Hey we can dream can't we?

Well I suppose I best be off.  Just waiting for the plane ticket to show up so I can head out!  Talk to you all soon before that day comes.  Thanks for reading and hope it wasn't boring.

Erik

Ta = Thank you

Fairdinkum = use in place of 'oh really?' and 'fair enough' and I WILL be bringing this one back with me!

Post Christmas HIghlights

Hey everyone!  Like to give a special hello to Mrs. Lawrence, thanks for waiting so patiently.  Hope everyones holidays were good and enjoyable.  I had a blast down here, never been swimming on christmas day before.  It was about 90 the whole week of the holidays and we were up at the farm where flies resemble the rush to get into Wal-Mart the day after thanksgiving.  I did some farming while I was up there and while driving around in a combine (header) we jumped up some kangaroos, four little babies and one big old one.  We also went up to Sarah's grandma's house which is right on the river.  We went out fishing and I caught myself a nice cod, it was different fishing down here, but I think we are heading out to the ocean, or at least a by of it and doing some fishing this afternoon.  Snappers here I come!!

I got myself a job putting in a fiber optics cable from Port Headland to Norman in Western Australia.  It is about as far away from Melbourne as you can get and is very isolated.  Which means, Sara, that I will most likely not be able to write to you all for 4 week at a time.  I work 4 weeks on and then get one week off.  I should be making enough so that I can travel around Australia on my week off which I am very excited about.  Mostly because at this point I don't really do much there for I do not have much to talk to you all about.

Last night we went lawn bowling which is another big old person sport here in the land down under.  It is pretty much like curling but takes place on grass.  It was actually really fun and takes a lot of precision and skill, or you could be like me and just roll the ball down there and see what happens.  What happens is that your team wins with the last roll which I put right next to the jack (the number of balls that your team has closest to it is how many points you get)

Well I should be off, sorry to keep this one so short I'll add more stories in the next one I promise.  Everyone enjoy the snow for me, we never have had that much snow so of course since I am down here you will have tons up there.

Miss you all and hope your having a good time!!

Erik

Aussie terms -

boot and bonnet: Trunk and hood of a car, careful of what you have in your boot.