We have INTERNET - HOOOOOORAY!

Finally finally finally - we have internet at home, I may just cry with happiness:)
AND since they messed up our billing, and won't start billing us until tomorrow - I am going to blog today like CRAZY!

So, firstly - I would like to state that I HAVE finally been to the beach and I have braved the waves! Funnily enough first time we walked down to go swimming we heard an announcement from the lifeguards telling us that bluebottle jellyfish had been stinging people all day and that there was nothing that you could do about it other than just wait it out (around half an hour of excruciating pain - fun)! So, we walked down to Shelly Beach instead (which is sheltered & hopefully did not have the jelly fish - it is just past Manly beach) - also, because I wasn't ready to face the waves yet. But alas, I have been two more times now, and I admit - the waves were not as bad as I remembered them!

Anyhow, now that we have internet - time for some more pics. Now that I will be caught up I won't have to post SO many photos each day:)

Murray managed some great photos of the noisy but cute lorikeets that visit the tree just near our balcony daily

Gosh they are such a colorful rainbow bird!

One night this last week, after a lovely dinner at Helen's place, we came home and made ourselves this lovely newspaper dining table - to get an idea of the size of a table we saw in the store that day. It was perfect - but don't ya know - once we called back the next morning to say we wanted it, it was gone (it was a one off sales price) - bummer ! Ah well, guess it wasn't meant to be.

The night before Australia day I baked a pan of brownies, and Murray experimented with food dye


The goal was to make an Australian day flag/brownie

I put our little flag nearby for reference

I think it turned out pretty darn cute in the end! (a bit avant-garde perhaps, but we liked it)

Then it was time to celebrate Australia Day (January 26th) - we went to Steve & Selina's for a BBQ & Amelia was the official Aussie tattoo artist

Putting another tattoo on Murray's other arm

AND one on the jaw bone - of course!

She was very precise and did an Excellent job!

Steve's parents Jeff & Pam, me & Selina
Steve, also known as the BBQ king, at work

Amelia also tried on her brand new school uniform to show us - she had her first day of school this week - very exciting!!! (we got a phone call from her telling us about it - TOO cute!)

And the lovely aussie desserts - lamingtons, pavlova and of course - a brownie flag!

The pavlova Selina made was absolutely fantastic!!!!

Murray & Clara

The girls playing around with the flag flapping in the wind

Me & Amelia - showing off our cheek tattoos

All in all a great day - great fun with great friends:) (and my FIRST Australia day IN Australia - very fun!)

The week passed with job searching, swimming, and more job searching, then it was finally time for.......
all of our living room furniture to go out on the balcony so we could get NEW CARPET!

The dude showed up nice and early and got straight to it ripping up our gross old stuff

My living room on the balcony - not bad huh? I read an entire book while he carpeted (Winterdance by Gary Paulsen about racing dogs in the Iditarod - wow was it a great book!)

After the carpet & padding was pulled up we had to vacuum because there was dust/sand ALL over the concrete floor

Measuring out for the new stuff!

My view from my balcony living room

After the carpet was installed, Murray opened the vacuum filter to help me clear it out and we had a little bit of an accident - dirt pile - on the NEW carpet - EEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK!

But finally, we got it all cleaned up and Murray & Thomas brought up our new bookshelf and tv stand (flatpacked in that box)!

They took a beach swim break while I finished up some stuff I had to do at the house (and I was getting over a cold so didn't want to go swimming) - when I looked outside I noticed THIS guy climbing on our chair!!

I also at one point looked out (I had moved in out of the sun by then) and saw 5 birds sitting on the top of our couch - eeek! I clapped loudly & they moved on, with no poo left in their wake thank goodness.
When the boys got back they got to work assembling our tv table!

Then it was time for the exciting part - bring out our big new........
Television - hooray!

Not bad, not bad at all. Gosh it's great to have a tv and a shelf to put stuff on - now it's really starting to feel like a real living room! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh