Laura and Paul's Wedding

Laura and Paul are now married and I went to their wedding as a groomsman.  I flew straight to Melbourne from Alice Springs a couple of days before the event.  Those days were pretty busy.  There were a few hiccups along the way but it all worked out well.  The wedding was held at a the registry offices with the reception at the grand Windsor Hotel a short walk from the registry offices. The day went off without a hitch and before you knew it we were outside on the steps getting our photographs taken.  The reception meal was quite grand but very tasty.  Before I knew it the day was over.  The next day Laura and Paul left for their honeymoon in Tasmania and Mum, Dad and me drove back to Brisbane via Bega, which is on the south coast of New South Wales, to visit Lewis.

Lake Broadwater

For the last couple of days I've been out at Lake Broadwater looking for Pale-headed snakes. That was the main species that Stewart wanted to see so I thought I'd tag along and see what I could see. It's quite fun going out there and finding things that most people will never get the chance to see. We went out there with Lee who is also interested in reptiles. After getting out there and then setting up camp we headed out to the northern part of the lake to see what we could find doing a bit of spotlighting. We were looking for pale-headed snakes which go out hunting on trees around the area at night. After 3 hours of spotlighting we'd only managed to find geckos and frogs. There wasn't a snake in sight. After a walking for what seemed an age Lee and I got bored with out findings and convinced Stewart (quite easily) to go out for a drive and see what we can find. I've found that that is the best way to find reptiles. We were on the road for about 5 minutes when we came upon our first snake. It was crossing the road and heading towards the lake. Stewart was pretty excited when he jumped out and found that it was a pale-headed snake. Unfortunatly though that was to be our only snake of the night. Around 11 o'clock we headed back to camp happy with our find. The next day consisted of an early morning due to the many cockatoos that were flying around the camp site. Their screeching lasted from just before dawn which is around 5 o'clock until around 8 o'clock. By that time it was pretty warm and they all left the camp site to look for a shady spot and probably rest their voices for the afternoon performance and the next morning.

On the second day we found a lace monitor, bearded dragon, a couple more geckos, skinks and frogs and killed about 10 000 mosquitos that seemed to be drawn towards us when ever we stepped into a shady area. That night we went out for a drive but because it got quite cool at night there was nothing other than a few frogs out. Even so it was a good trip out there as we found the pale-headed snake that we wanted to see although only managed to see a dead grey snake that had been killed on the road. Unfortunalty the one that was hit was gravid and so had about 8 little babies scattered around and coming out of her. It was not a pretty sight. The next day we drove straight home as I had to be back in the afternoon.

New Years 2009

It’s new years day today. The first day of another year. Another year of unchanging days. The same monotonous things will be happening as they did all last year and the year before that. I seem to say that every year. This year I’m going to have to really try and change things!

Christmas 2008

Christmas has now come and gone for another year. This year was another quiet one as Mum had to work in the afternoon. Even so, in the morning we had a breakfast/brunch after opening the presents under the tree and then watched a few videos in the afternoon. It was a good day.

Sea Otters gambolling in the wild, wild surf

I must say that I’ve read some weird books in my time but I’ve just finished reading one that must take the cake. I started reading the novel two days ago and have just finished reading the 260 or so pages of the oddest storey I’ve read (including those with characters such as Orks or Wizards)! This story by John Bennett involved a 16 year old kid who’s just sat his ‘A’ levels. He finds an odd plastic statue in a 99p shop. The statue, a balding man shagging a pink, glittery otter, intrigues him so much that he flies around the world trying to find out why it was made. It was written the way a 16 year old would speak so it took a little getting used to, even more than the implausible and ridiculous journey he goes on. The book was total crap, but the odd thing was that I couldn’t stop reading it. Sea Otters gambolling in the wild, wild surf certainly makes me think though. It would be great to just get up one morning and head away from everything on some pointless quest. Maybe I just need a holiday!

Roadworks or just traffic jams

I’ve just driven back down from the coast and you would not believe the amount of road works that are going on between 100 kms or so of road between Logan and the Sunshine Coast. At points it seems that the whole of the motorway is a road work zone. One thing that did annoy me tonight though was the change of speed limit signs for road works. Now I am all in favour of them lowering the speed limit when the road workers may be in danger but when the signs are put out and the traffic forced to slow down to 40km/h when there is nothing there is just pointless. It is so frustrating to sit there in traffic at 10 o’clock at night when you just want to get home. Words can’t describe how infuriating and exasperating it is. I guess the fact that there are so many road works about at this time because of the current state governments inability to conduct forward planning and put off costly infrastructure projects until the road system is so bad that there are traffic jams from before the sun rises, to well after it sets!

Gliding over Victoria

On Saturday I was given the chance to go up in a glider above Bracss Marsh. It was AWESOME!!!

Second Semester Results

Today my marks for semester two of this year came out. Although overall I am pleased if not a little amazed. My marks are below.

Subject	Class Title	Grade
COR 111	Environment, Technology & Sustainability	Distinction
SCI 102	Biodiversity and Environment	Distinction
LFS 112	Human Physiology	Credit
PUB 102	Environment and Health	Distinction

I was thinking that I wouldn't do as well for Human Physiology but I did thing I would scrape in with a pass. Therefore a credit is more than I thought I would get. I am curious to know why I didn't do better for Environment, Sustainability and Technology. For the assessment pieces I scored highly and although the test contained very dopey questions asking for the answer you thought the teacher thought was right as opposed to the correct one, I thought I'd get a HD. I didn't an I am quite amazed. Unfortunately I won't be able to find out why I didn't get one because you don't get a run down of what you did wrong. You just have to accept it. Never mind. I should be happy.

Mum's 60th Birthday

I'm writing this from Melbourne where I came down to surprise Mum for her birthday. Mum went down to Melbourne to visit Laura and to help her get some of her wedding preparations done. I flew down the day before her birthday and surprised her. We took Mum to the Melbourne Aquarium. The aquarium itself is not that big but pretty interesting. There is a shark viewing area where you look at them swim around in a big tank that surounds you. It is quite breath taking to sit there and watch them. We also watched them get fed which was interesting and looked quite unsafe. Not that the sharks would intentionally bite them. Just that they would put the food right up against their mouth then pull it away as they tried to bite it. Then they would throw it towards their open mouth pulling their fingers away at the last minute. I'm guessing with they probably have quite a few work place accidents. That night we went out to an Italian restuarant off Lygon Street called Michelino's. I had a pizza which was very nice.

End of Semester 2 and the oncoming holidays

All of the exams are now finished and I'm now at a bit of a loose end of what to do. I am on the coast for another week and then I move out of where I am staying. After that, I don't know what I'm going to do. I need to get a job now but I don't know what I should look for or where I should look. I'm going to head out to Alice Springs in January so any work that I get would only be temporary (four weeks worth). At the moment I don't really know what to look for or where I should be looking. I think that I will apply for some temp work, hopefully I'll be able to find some that will give me enough money to return to uni next year. It's amazing how quickly my saving have deteriorated over the year. I don't know where it goes and don't really have anything to show for it. Either way, I need money.