In the Aussie news this weekend...

Oh no, Justin Bieber... Australian Police Pull Plug on Justin Bieber
(I also was deeply disgusted to learn of young Bieber's nationality today)

Chair sniffer... Chair-sniffer Troy Buswell 'was in mock sexual ecstasy'

These two headlines have been alternating on the news updates ALL DAY. What is this world coming to???

Roundest yet!

This year's World Cup ball by Adidas.

Car Spider

Early tonight I was teaching adult beginner swim lessons and Andy was picking me up. He got there early, decided to go to the bottle shop next door first and then wait in the pool parking lot. On his way to the bottle shop a large spider darted quickly across the windshield (outside) and he nearly crashed the car. He got the beer and made it back to the parking lot in one piece, and as he was waiting for me the spider ran across the windshield again! He kept an eye on it, with the windows closed, and finally as I was coming across the darkened parking lot got out to try to kill it but it had disappeared. He related the tale to me and I didn't want to get in the car, but did, and then spent the 8min drive sitting stiffly, twitching at every foreign touch, even my hair falling on to my shoulder.


Now in Canada and Texas (and England where Andy's from) when you see a spider you don't really care much. Yeah it might bite you, but it doesn't hurt much and can't kill you. It's also not very big (I saw a bigun in Austin once outside, I think it was a tarantual). Now when you see a spider in Australia, you get scared. And rightly so. There are some nasty and aggressive spiders here, and except for a few, are hard to identify in a single glance (St. Andrew's Cross spiders are easy but low risk, oh and female Red-Backs (close relative of Black Widows) are easy too and fatal).


After hearing Andy's description of a 15cm diameter, fast, dark coloured guy with a big body, I thought immediately it's probably a Huntsman. No, no says Andy, it could've been anything! And I think it's living on the outside of the car somewhere because it kept coming back!


So I did some research online and I still think it's a Huntsman, which are low risk and not aggressive. Two separate websites (one government issued, so it must be accurate) used the fright of seeing a Huntsman dart across your dashboard as a reason to be scared of the unsightly beings. They flee and only bite if corned, like if you were to put a shoe on that had one inside he'd bite ya.


SO, I will sleep well tonight knowing, or at least thinking, Mr or Mrs Huntsman is harmless and will be gone in the morning and will not jump on me and bite me when I get into the car tomorrow :)

My new best friend... tomorrow we'll make snow angels for two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse cookie dough as fast as we can, and then... we'll snuggle.

EARTHQUAKE!

There was an earthquake in Adelaide last night!
We didn't feel it though, it was only 3.8 on the richter scale.
I did some quick research and apparently Australia is covered with little fault lines, and there are a fair number down here in SA.

Cake, Glorious Cake

Yum.

We made another amazing cake on Sunday afternoon. It actually was 'we' this time, Andy did almost everything according to my instruction and under my watchful eye. He, of course, claims he did it all himself and is now the best cake maker out of the two of us. Right.

The cake was called Blueberry Cheesecake Gateau. Let me translate: Pound cake with cream cheese icing and blueberries on top (and strawberries).

In other news, it's getting cold here. We had a rainy Saturday that brought the cold in with it. Boo. On Monday I got us both Kmart slippers and we have even slept a few nights with the windows closed. My tan is fading and my hands are always cold. The coldest it has been at night is 6C (40F), but thats too cold in my book. It's still in the 20s during the day at least.

I've been getting more hours with the swim lessons, slowly, so there is hope with that, finally!

AFL

AAMI Stadium: Home of the Port Adelaide Power... and the Adelaide Crows

On Saturday afternoon Andy and I got out of the house with our roommate Ben and went to our very first AFL game. Ben, who is from Adelaide, is an avid Port Adelaide Power fan and has season tickets to all the Port Power games... so he was obviously our guide. And boy did we need a guide. Let me explain...
AFL = Australian Football League. But 'football' in this instance is not soccer or American football, it is Aussie Rules Footy and it makes little sense to the naked eye. Seeing it without knowing anything about it looks like a bunch of fit men in little shorts and tight shirts fighting over an oval ball on a big oval field (150m long by 135m wide) with 4 big, tall, white posts at either end. At some points it really looks like they're trying to grab a greasy watermelon. And as the game progresses and continues to not make any clear sense (like the way the ref bounces the ball on the ground and into the air at center after a 6 point goal is scored (there is a 1 point goal too) and also how the ref throws the ball in backwards after it's gone out, no matter what team made it go out) you start thinking of the games you played as a child. The games you played in the summer that had the rules made up as you went along... and the rule maker was that bossy kid who always made a new rule to help his situation. That's what watching AFL feels like- oddly nostalgic.

Another Non-Believer

Today I chatted with Julia online and she really let me down...

She's been making her boyfriend, Ryan, watch the entire Star Wars saga from Episode 1 through to 6. But tonight she messed up. She put on Return of the Jedi BEFORE Empire Strikes Back! I am both appaled and disappointed.
She corrected her mistake about 15mins into Jedi, but unfortunately it appears the damage has been done.

I am being a douche and Ryan no longer believes in the force because I am drunk.

Just what the world needs: another non-believer :(

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

It's Monday here and we're planning to have another relaxing day at the beach and checking out Port Adelaide. It's been a pretty laid back long weekend with lots of beach, beer, coffee, cookies, and of course chocolate. Andy got me a giant chocolate egg thats bigger than my head.

Oh yeah, we decorated sugar cookies on Friday too.