I'm Still Alive!!

Sorry I've been slow on updates but I've just been having too much fun.  My vacation has been fantastic so far and I'm even good at driving on the wrong side of the road.  Tammy, Nancy and I have been to Hervey Bay to visit Fraser Island.  We were hoping to whale watch but the water was just too rough.  We loved Noosa and scored an amazing three bedroom condo with all the luxuries a girl could wish for.  From Noosa we headed to the Gold Coast and enjoyed some sun and surf fun.  I'm in Byron Bay right now for the next few nights before we run around Sydney later this week.  There will be a proper blog with lots of great pictures when I'm back at my laptop in Melbourne.  Until then I'm going to enjoy my vacation and company. Keep well.

They are HERE!!!

This morning Nancy and Tammy arrived here in Melbourne after a billion hours of flying.  I can't tell you how happy I am to have their company for the next few weeks.  We have many adventures planned and of course a ton of giggles and smiles.

This evening it was my job to keep them up and moving despite being in transit for over 24 hours.  We headed down to St. Kilda to snope around a bit then catch the sunset.  But the ultimate goal was to see if we could see any of the penguins on the pier.  We were successful on all accounts.  The last photo may look at bit blurry (which it is because I couldn't use a flash to keep the penguins eyes safe) but if you look real close you can see one of the penguins.

The Dandenongs Saturday Sept 12, 2009

On Friday Danielle and Zane invited me for dinner and drinks.  I spent the night (in my own wing of their house) and on Saturday morning we went on a road trip to the Dandenongs just north east of Melbourne.  Before we left Danielle put out some bird seed to see if the rainbow lorikeets would come and feed. Well they did and boy were they beautiful.

Rainbow Lorikeets 

Our first stop was at Grant's Picnic in the Dandenong Ranges National Park to feed the Crimson Rosellas.  Zane and Danielle had bird seed which they happily shared with me.  Danielle had me a bit freaked out because the last time she was there feeding the birds a cockatoo bit her in the hand.  As soon as I had food in my hand birds were all over me and I got pretty spoked.  But the longer I was there the calmer I felt.   I was visited by parrots, cockatoos, and rosellas.

Me and the some of the rosellas.

Zane and the rosellas.

Danielle and the rosellas.

A parrot that Danielle fed but it quickly made its way up into the tree.

Once we finished feeding the birds we visited the gift shop before moving on.  Our next stop was at the top of Mount Dandenong, the Sky High Mount Dandenong .  Unfortunately the sky wasn't all that clear so the view shots I got weren't as good as they could have been.  If you look closely though you can see the Melbourne skyline in the far distance (you might want to double click it to actually see anything).

While on the top of Mt. Dandenong we did a little hike through a forest, and we walked through a beautiful garden. Below is me on a bridge in the garden.

By this time in the day we were getting hungry.  We had thought we would each lunch at the top of the mountain but when a basic hamburger was $22 we figured we could go else where.  We had a quick stop in the village of Mt. Dandeong before stopping for lunch in the little town of Olinda.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch and snooped around Olinda for a while.  While there we stumbled on to this very interesting tree.  The branches grew all kookie.

The Crazy Tree

From Orlina we headed to Sassafras to snoop around a bit before heading back to Montmorency where Zane and Danielle live.

Sassafras

Zane and Danielle dropped me off at their local train station and I headed home.  It was surprisingly warm when I got off the train and instead of waiting for the bus I walked the 2.5 kms.  Apparently it was 30c this evening even though it was no where near that warm while we were in the Dandenogs.  It makes me wonder what type of weather I have in store for me.

As a side, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUE!  I know it's a big one for you and I'm sorry I couldn't be there to celebrate it with you.

And the best news of all.... six more sleeps until my friends Tammy and Nancy B come to visit ME!!!  I can't tell you how happy I'll be to have them with me and to be on SCHOOL HOLIDAYS!!! Five more go to work days and then it's SPRING BREAK!!

A Long Week Followed by Some Weekend Fun and an Illness

This past week won't go down as one of my better weeks while here in Australia.  I'm not sure what set me off at work this week but I was near tears most of the week. I think I'm just so tired of everything to do with work and from time to time I can't see the end even though I know it's coming.  I know that I have some really great visitors to look forward to as well but I keep thinking about how I still have to go to work each and every day.  I've never felt so miserable like I do Monday to Friday.

As I mentioned in my previous post I signed up for Ironman Canada 2010.  I knew my niece was having her Bat Mitzvah during the summer of 2010 but I was sure it was at the end of July.  Well, I was wrong and as it turns out it's the same weekend as Ironman Canada 2010.  Needless to say that put me into a huge stressed mess.  IMC is a non refundable event and with over $600 invested I need to find a way to keep everyone happy.  I've had such a low emotional year while I've been in Australia that I really need the challenge of the Ironman to get me back on track.  But obviously my niece is extremely important to me and I would NEVER miss her Bat Mitzvah.  I've toyed with a few ideas but right now I have to put it on the back burner.  Work stress seems to be about all the stress I can take right now.  I'll find a solution that will work, but it may involve me missing some of the "celebration" aspects of the weekend.  It will suck big time but it will get me to the most important part of the weekend - her synagogue services. 

As the weekend approached my spirits lifted again.  We have an ESL student teacher (she's already a teacher at another school) at our school and she drives right near my "melbourne" home and so I was able to get a ride to work on Thursday and Friday morning.  It was a super treat.  But the best part is that on Friday after work she took me home and we left just a few minutes after school was over.  Now that was the best treat ever!!

Anyhow this weekend was another ITF weekend in Healsville.  Saturday morning I was up early and rode my bike to a local commuter train station and headed out to Lillydale the end of one of the lines.  Deb from Healsville picked me and my bike up and we met at the meeting point.  Everyone else showed up and we had to decide if we wanted to ride or visit wineries.  Well I know this will come as a huge surprise to you but I chose to do the bike riding instead of the winery visits.  Two weeks ago I was in Bendigo and managed to come home with seven bottles of wine.  Plus the wine touring was going to be in the Yarra Valley and while Danielle, Zane and I haven't hit every winery in the area we have hit many.  I figured riding a bike in a different part of Victoria would be a nice change (and a break on my wallet).

As I mentioned I was encouraged to bring my own bike on the ride but if I had asked enough questions it probably would have been better for me to hire a bike like everyone else.  I'm riding a road bike these days and the trail was anything but road.  

The Trail

We road the trail for about 14 kms to a small town called Warburton.  Before we parked the bikes we checked out this "different" house.

The Interesting House

The "ITF GANG" that safely rode to  Warburton

We walked around the small town of Warburton and had a great lunch at a polish restaurant before heading back on our bikes, and back to the meeting point.

A view of Warburton

Danielle and I in Warburton

A funny sign in Warburton 

(I've posted it in honour of my nephew Robbie)

Once back at the meeting place we headed to the Maroondah Reservoir to check it and its dam out.  If you haven't already heard Melbourne is an a bad state of drought.  There are water restrictions every where - like only four minute showers, no car washing, no plant watering etc...  As you can see in the photo the reservoir is way lower than it should "normally" be.

The reservoir should be up to the tree line.

The steps up to the dam.

Zane at the bottom of the steps.

Once back from the dam we met our host families in the parking lot.  I was being hosted by Jeanne.  Jeanne is not a teacher but a friend of one of the weekend organizers.  I felt like I hit the jackpot staying with Jeanne because the first thing she asked when we got into the car is if I wanted to go by a winery in Healsville before we headed back to her place.  Obviously I said that it would be fantastic.  She and I did some wine tasting at Innocent Bystander (which lead to me buying another bottle of wine), and enjoyed a great cup of coffee.

Some of the wines I sampled.

We then headed back to Jeanne's and got ready for the evenings pizza and bon fire event.  The pizza was good and the company great.  We stayed at the event for a few hours before we headed back to Jeanne's for the night.  By this time I was having some trouble with a gland in my throat.  It was getting harder and harder to swallow.  No matter what type of medication I took it didn't seem to help.  I was in a great deal of pain.  Needless to say I didn't sleep very well on Saturday night.

Sunday morning came too quickly.  While sitting in Jeanne's home I noticed a bird in her front yard - a king parrot.  Parrots are wild birds here and while I've seen many I felt lucky to get this picture.  I also took a picture of Jeanne's orange tree.  I don't know why I was so taking a back by it but I guess it's because I've never seen an orange tree before.

Wild King Parrot

Jeanne and her orange tree.
We had an orange as part of our breakfast and it was mmm, mmm good.

After a great breakfast (thanks Jeanne) she dropped me off at the Healsville Sanctuary.  The rest of the group showed up, as well as two families that weren't there the previous day. We all wandered around the sanctuary and saw a lot of aussie animals.  I didn't feel too well though.

An Emu

A Kangaroo

Two kokaburros sitting in a gum tree.

A Pelican

A dingo

A mother and baby Koala.

The same mother and baby Koala

After I wandered around for about 2 hours I was feeling really awful.  I went to the coffee shop to just sit, and I was practically falling asleep.  I figured that wasn't the best idea so I went looking for anyone from our group.  I ran into Melody and Deb (one of the organizers) and Deb was kind enough to let me sleep in her car.  I felt like total crap but managed to rest for close to two hours.  I then went and joined the group for the bar b que lunch. Unfortunately I missed the highlight show "The Birds of Prey" but I know I just couldn't have watched it.  I felt too awful.

Once the lunch was over most people decided they would skip the afternoon walk and headed home.  I was taken back to Deb's house (and we got to feed her horses although I look awful in the photos so you won't get to see that), before her partner drove me back to Lillydale to catch the train home.  About 90 minutes later I was back in my home.  Even though it was only 5:00 pm  I was so tired I just went straight to bed.  I did remember to call for a replacement teacher though as there was no way I would be able to work on Monday.  As I predicted it was another night of little sleep.  I tried advil, tylenol, and panadol to help ease the pain and none of it worked.  I took vitamin c, drank hot ginger lemon honey tea, and gargled with salt water but none of that worked either.  In the middle of the night it felt like my gland was so swollen it was blocking my air passage.  Needless to say I was very thankfully to have taken Monday off work.

Today I went to the doctor.  He seems to think I have an infection in one of my glands. He's prescribed me antibiotics but told me to only fill it if the infecvtion doesn't show signs of improvement in the next day or two.  He also suggested that I take Tuesday off work too to rest.

So that's where I am now.  It's about 8 pm on Monday night and other than a trip to the doctor I've been in my pjs most of the day.  I haven't eaten  much but I have drank a lot of tea and orange juice.  Hopefully I'll start to feel more normal tomorrow.  As I type this I should be back at work by Wednesday.

Anyhow that's the update for this week.  Next weekend I'm sticking around Melbourne.  I'm  hoping to get a run in (I think I've run three times since I signed up for the Melbourne Half Marathon), and I'll be heading on a day trip with Zane and Danielle.  I'll tell you more about it when I get back. Until then good luck all my teacher friends as I know you're all heading back to work.  I can totally sympathize with you.  I've been working every day since mid July , without a pay cheque in winter weather.  With you going back to work I'll finally see another pay cheque.  It's can't come soon enough!  Welcome back to school.