noosa

yesterday, kp and i celebrated our 5th anniversary (just three months shy of #6) by going to noosa up the sunshine coast in queensland. we'd each spent the actual day last fall with colleagues/mentors - i took mine to dinner at bistro daisy in new orleans while kp went to the beach for the day. we were excited to get GG out on the road, break her in, and i was astounded to learn that we were just two short hours from this kind of scenery! 

our first stop was the glass house mountains, the eroded remnants of 25,000,000-year-old volcanos that jut out above eucalyptus fields and pine plantations.

  

another 45min in the car, and we were here: 

lunch on the beach: tasmanian oysters au natural

it turns out that oysters and wine go straight to your head... so we hit the trail after lunch to walk off the afternoon buzz. destination: hell's gate. i found at least three perfect beach picnic spots along the way, and kp stopped every 200m or so to admire the surfers... so the light was fading fast by the time we got to the top, and we made it back to the beach just in time for sunset.

this guy was one with the wave

 

next weekend we're probably going to hang around brisbane - the farmers' market is back on saturday, and i've found an antique store i want to check out - but i'm thinking we'll have to come back here at least once more before we head to canberra. for a texan, proximity to a beach like this is just too tempting!

tea time

one of our neighbors dumps a bucket of stale bread out of her second-story window every afternoon. she calls it "tea time," and these are her guests...

i totally crashed this party, by the way. there were at least a dozen parrots hanging around, as well as some others, but every time i moved, they took off. bread-lady said they were bothered by my presence. hmph! it also just so happens that this afternoon party takes place in the shade, which is too bad, because the light at this time of day is gorgeous.

the powerhouse market (more fun with the 50)

on saturday kp and i grabbed all the cash we had (which was only $35 since we'd forgotten to run by the atm. doh!) and went to the new farm farmers' market, aka the "powerhouse market." we needed coffee and dinner fixins', so naturally, the first two purchases we made were strawberries and kettle corn. doh! and with that, we were down to nearly $25! but in the end, we did pretty well, as you can see from the "still life with powerhouse goodies" shot i took as soon as we got home: organic eggs, berries, mandarins, coffee (and kp sweet-talked the gal into giving him a free latte with his purchase. smooth!), lettuce, a red bell, three bars of soap (including one made with dirt from a nearby town - does it get any more local than that??), and the corn.

believe it or not, we managed to eat a proper meal that night thanks to the leftover lamb we had from friday's date night at ortiga, which was amazing, btw. and the strawberries are hands down the best i've ever eaten.

also, i'm slowly getting the hang of this 50mm. imagine what it could do if i took it out into the light!

the siglet

meet sigi, the cat we are caring for in exchange for a pretty dope apartment in new farm (one of the hipper areas in brisbane). sigi was not impressed when we first moved in and generally steered clear of us unless it was mealtime. she's warmed up though, so much so that we're starting to feel guilty about two-timing bob...

anyway, i thought the siglet was ready for a photo shoot though by her expressions here i'm not so sure she agreed. these were taken with the 50mm on the new camera. i'm still working out focusing and depth of field on this one, and i think i should be using a tripod indoors (most of my shots are super blurry - what else is new?), but these aren't too bad.

this one's my favorite. can't you just hear her thinking "b*tch, get that camera out of my face"??

zoom zoom!

ladies and gentleman, without further ado... i give you GALAXY GIRL!! the mazda 3 sp 23 we bought after a mere 24 hours in town! jetlag shmetlag. we knew what we wanted. and when we found out that we could only get financing through the end of our visas, ie, june 2014, we realized we literally could not afford to wait. so she's ours. well, she'll be ours in two years. 

 galaxy girl, or "gg" for short

so, it turns out taking pictures of the car is significantly easier than driving it. holy mind-melter, batman! things go really wonky when you're on the right side of the car. the left side of the street is bad enough - i can't tell you how often my mind just goes blank when i come to an intersection - but the inside is the real challenge. we've got the cleanest windshields in town because every time we try to put our blinkers on, we throw on the wipers. (this happens a lot because the aussies, as it turns out, take indicating very seriously). and depth perception? forget it. it takes 20 minutes to park this thing on a curb (or "kerb" as the aussies put it). and i haven't even tried to parallel park yet. 

our crib

i never thought i'd say this, but we're kind of into the whole apartment building thing... i hear canberra is a lousy market (expensive and kind of sh*tty - yay!) so we're thinking we might go for something new and clean and most likely totally void of charm... hey, we did "charm" in paris. it came with mold. it might be time to try something else.

 

our alarm clock

sydney!

kp was invited to give a talk at one of the universities in sydney last week, and i got to tag along. the guy who hosted us is an old friend from paris, a guy we thought we'd never see again when he left france in 2009 to take a job back in australia... and now here we are. who knew!

he took the day to show us around town, taking us for lunch at bronte beach and for a stellar view of the harbour... we're sold. this city is amazing.

mt. coot-tha botanical gardens

we've been here a week, and the jet lag is just now wearing off... which means that our first week in town wasn't the most productive. a lot of blank stares and afternoon coffees.

the best way to handle jet lag, we think, is to walk it off. if you've ever come to visit us, you know that we're big believers in the just-off-the-plane-epic-walk... so last sunday, kp and i walked over to the mt. coot-tha botanical gardens so we could play with the new camera. well, *i* played with it. he just walked around smiling at me. 

i broke it out before we even got there...

    

welcome to australia, land of spiders, snakes, scorpions, centipedes, jellyfish, sharks, kanga, dingo....

arid region plants

testing out the new zoom...

inside the tropical display dome

i don't know what these are... but i love them

how ya goin', mates?

or, greetings from brisbane! as usual, i've neglected the blog... but fortunately, i had a crap day at work yesterday. and nothing gets me excited about posting on fravina like professional dissatisfaction! so here i am.

a lot has happened since i posted kp doing karaoke on moreton island... we said goodbye to new orleans, bob lost four teeth, kp finally sold the pathfinder, i fiiiinally got a new camera, we started a memorial fund for a beloved teacher, and oh yes, i moved to australia. 

i had a moment last friday morning - a moment that was as profound as it was banal - when i looked out the window of the cab and thought, "holy sh*t. i live here now." i live here. not here in brisbane - i'm only here until mid-july, at which point we'll move me to canberra - but here in australia. australia, where when driving at dusk one must look out for the kangaroo (who, i've been told will "gut ya" if you're not careful). australia, where chinese take-out costs $50! australia, where people respond "you're alright" when you thank them (odd, no?). australia, where the sun mocks my fancy french 50spf sun cream. australia, where they drive on the other side of the bloody car (more on that mind-melter later). so far i'm loving it. terrified, but loving it.

yes, so i live here. not "i'm living here" like i was living in l.a., or vietnam, or paris, or new orleans... i knew when we moved to paris that we'd be moving on in a year or two. same with basically every other address i've occupied since i left home. this is the first time i've landed somewhere not expecting to pack up again. of course, that could happen - my fear is that we'll go to all the trouble to move our whole life over here only to get jobs in the u.s. in a couple of years - but it could not happen too. this could be it. we could have kids that call me "mum" and speak in triphthongs (the horror!!)

anyway, i digress. i'll have some pics for you soon. but for now, let us remember what has changed...

bob's face: with all those teeth gone, it doesn't look quite like this anymore 

(can you say snaggletooth?!?)

the pathfinder: 1994-2012

we traversed the distance between texas and california FIVE times in this beauty