Movin' right along... again

Surprise surprise – we’ve moved again. We are self-professed geographic sluts. We have once again erased all trace of ourselves from one house and started "scent-marking" another house - replacing the remnants of someone else's dirt with our own.

On the road again

Kerry's contract at the zoo ended and Ben needed to run some more experiments for his PhD. So we’re back in Sydney, now. Ryde, to be specific. And with Sydney just announced as the most expensive real estate in the world, couldn’t be a better time to move back! Yay!

So you should help us take advantage of all this money we’re spending on rent and come visit us. :) We have 3 bedrooms, so there’s plenty of extra space. And we have a great back porch, with a view of the city (and any fireworks that might be going on in the greater Sydney area). And we’re within walking distance to some great restaurants and nice parks. And shopping, if that’s your thing. So let us know when you're on your way!

Ani overseeing the unpacking process

Ummm… Anyone have an ark we can borrow?

When we moved to Dubbo, we were looking forward to dry weather, big blue skies, water restrictions, none of the chronic mould problems we had in Sydney. And that wasn’t just being naïve – that was based on my experience in Dubbo over the last 1.5 yrs. We were NOT expecting one of the wettest years in history. But that’s what we got.

Burrendong dam has gone from 8% full to 130% full over the last 6 months. Farmers have gone from one of the best harvests due to the rain to one of the worst harvests due to the rain – even small farms have lost $80,000 in the blink of an eye. The river has been higher than I have ever seen it, and the rain keeps interfering with my bike commute to work – a problem I never had before.

And then last week, the clouds took it to a whole new level. On Wednesday, the bike path bridge went under. On Thursday, the Serisier/“little” bridge went under, meaning there was only 1 way to get from one side of Dubbo to the other. Traffic chaos ensued – there were back-ups that would put Chicago or Sydney rush hour to shame. The highways in almost every direction from Dubbo are closed. A few remain open, but are covered with water. And I don’t mean there’s a bit of water on the road. We had a friend coming home from the coast who said the water was almost over the hood of her Forester and she couldn’t tell where the road came out on the other side. Several towns around central-west NSW are being evacuated or have already been cut off completely.

And there’s another major storm heading our way this week.

And the locusts are starting to move in. Guess the “worst locust outbreak in years” doesn’t pose much of a threat to the farmers anymore.

River lookout when Mom and Dad were here.


River lookout on Thursday.


Now it's all underwater - I can't even get in to take a similar pic.

For more pics you can check out this website

Our new baby!

Didn't know we were expecting, did you?!? Neither did we!
But we are now the proud parents of a baby sugar glider - a little boy, 37 grams.

How cute is he!?!
He was found in a tree that had been cut down. His mom and siblings probably moved on after the tree was cut down, and he was left behind. He will be released eventually, so our job now is to get him to that stage. He's on 5 feeds a day: 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, and 10pm. Other than that, he pretty much hangs out in his pouch.
And he still needs a name, so suggestions are welcome!

Ani's Birthday

Happy 7th birthday to Ani!!

Being the loving parents that we are, it took us about 3 months before we got around to celebrating it. And we still made her do the humiliating birthday photo with a tempting treat sitting right under her nose. But she didn't seem to mind when she got a whole meat pie - this year's "human treat" birthday present. Notice those flashy new bowls that she got for her birthday, too! (The dog she stayed with when we went to the States ate her old recycled tupperware bowls.)

Her technique was pretty amusing - she took off the top and ate it, first, then licked out all the filling, then ate the bottom crust.

She seemed pretty satisfied with her birthday present.

Spring!!!

Today, spring sprung! :) Sunny, amazing blue skies, and 27 degrees (that's 81 in US-speak)!! It was so sudden and so perfect. I love warm weather. Some people blame their moods on hormones - for me, it's all about the weather (which still probably gets back to the hormones, but that's OK). I didn't have to wear gloves or a hat on my bike ride to work (and could have gone without a fleece), I almost put on a dress to walk Ani this evening (but then got lazy), I didn't have to turn on the heat at all. And it was capped off with an incredible sunset that just kept going and going. I'm sitting outside at 10pm, completely comfortable. Happy girl.

Dear Mr. Magpie

Dear Mr. Magpie,

Despite what you might think, the more you dive bomb my head, the more I want to hurt you. You are not doing yourself any favours by snapping your beak as loud as you can in my ear, striking my helmet with your big ol' beak, or thumping your chest against the back of my head. I call myself an ecologist, and I understand your motivations, but I promise I don't want your chicks. And why don't you attack the walkers right next to me? What did bikers ever do to you? I appreciate a good obstacle course, but this is getting to be a little much.

So in the interest of yourself and your loved ones, BACK OFF!!!

Sincerely,
An intrepid bike rider

PS - If less that 9% of you are vicious attackers, why are there THREE of you along my 15 minute commute??

PPS - Why did you have to teach your bad habits to the wood duck along the bike path, too?? Seriously, what duck charges a bike??

Election Time

It’s election time down under.

“Wait,” you say – “didn’t you just get a new prime minister?”
Why yes – yes we did. Now it’s time for another one.

In order to understand the last regime change, it is critical to understand that in Australia, the person who is the head of the majority party is the prime minister.

So when the party leaders freak out because poll numbers slip a little bit and decide to oust the current Head of the party and put a new person in place, there’s nothing stopping them. And that’s exactly what the Australian Labor Party did. Almost overnight, they executed their ‘bloodless coup,’ as the papers called it. When Australia woke up on 24 June, rather than talking about Australia’s win over Serbia in the World Cup, everyone was saying “What the hell?!?” K-Rudd got the boot, and Julia Gillard became our new leader. First female prime minister.

And that was all done in preparation for the next regime change – the federal elections.

Elections have to be held every 3 years, but the prime minister can decide to hold them earlier. So shortly after Gillard took office, she announced that elections would be held 21 Aug – a mere matter of weeks away. So Australia has been a flurry of election activity. Everyone is whinging about the never-ending campaining. Seriously?? 5 weeks?? That’s NOTHIN’!!

But here’s what cracks me up. Watching the campaign ads, you’d think it was all about which prime minister – a lot like presidential campaigning in the US. But Aussies don’t vote for the prime minister. They don’t even vote for the party they want for prime minister. There is nothing on the ballot related to the prime minister. In fact, there is nothing about the prime minister even written into the constitution. You just vote for Senate and House representatives. The prime minister comes from the party that wins the majority of the seats in the House (turns out the Senate doesn’t really matter). And yet there are lots of furious people saying "I didn't vote for Gillard, I voted for Rudd!!" Well, no, you didn't.