Incy Wincy Spider

Found this little old spider in the garage, still waiting to find a really really big one.





Something big I do find around here is those really ugly cane toads; introduced to eat the scarab beetles in the 30s (they don't). They are poisonous and are killing the native animals that usually eat toads and frogs. And there's more bad news - they are evolving (since the 60s) and are becoming faster, therefore are spreading faster throughout the country. Good news some snakes are evolving too - smaller mouths, longer bodies so they can only eat smaller toads which have less poison. Some birds have learned to flip the toads over and eat them (poison is on their backs). The law sort of protect the toads, you have to kill them "humanely." One way is put them in the freezer. Now doesn't that sound yummy. Just found out that people are putting cat food beside the ponds that have emerging baby toads. A type of ant is attracted to the cat food and they attack the baby toads, killing them.

Line Dancing 101

This morning was my first ever line dancing class and, hold on to your boots, I loved it!! I'm sure a few of you are saying, what a minute back the truck up, is this not the same person who avoided country and western music at all costs? I've seen the light, C & W music is good for something after all, but it's not all C&W, we did the cha cha and the waltz. There's 10 in the class, 3 of us had our first class today and for a change I'm not the oldest. I have to take my hat off to the other students, they're all about 10 years older than me and they just breezed through the 2 hour class. Tomorrow morning is the intermediate class (2.5 hours) and the instructor says since I have seem to have a bit of talent (got her fooled) I could come along if I like. Price is a bargain - $5.00.

Graduation Day

Today we completed the 6 week J24 training classes and naturally we all passed. Another windy, gusty day - one of the boats tipped over, sails right into the water but righted themselves - glad it wasn't us. Got to try out my new sailing gloves they do save your hands from blisters, unfortunately they could also give people the impression that you know what you're doing! The only tragic part is that despite Chris going through the course twice (once before I came back) is that the instructor said: "Chris, maybe you should take up golf."

Who Sails in the Rain?????

Friday night, another sailing opportunity. We did this 2 weeks ago and there was no wind, this time there's wind but also rain. Just as we're finishing up the BBQ dinner it just poured down and we assumed (or hoped) the skippers would change their minds (come to their senses) and call the whole thing off. Was not to be and we (read I) didn't want to chicken out so we jumped onto the "Welsh Dragon" hoisted the sails and ventured out into the damp night. Fortunately it stopped raining (mostly) and turned out to be quite entertaining. The skipper and first mate exchanged a lot of jibes, told stories and basically kept us entertained. Not a bad deal - BBQ, entertainment, city lights, and sailing for $5.

And the winner is.....

The winner is Sundowner once again on Wednesday afternoon and for a change I had a hand in it. Instead of being ballast I womaned the port jib sail winch and both backstay winches. As you can see by the photo I also played skipper while the rest of the working crew took down the sails. The owner of the boat for some reason took over once we were close to the dock. Was a grand day for sailing, or some thought, a lot of the skippers chose not to sail because the wind was strong and very gusty, good weather for wrecking bits and pieces of your boat. The wind was so unpredictable that at one point I got wet because we heeled over suddenly and the person on the main sail didn't let it out fast enough. I should explain that to effectively haul on the jib sheet I had to straddle the back of the cockpit seat hence my leg was perilously close to the ocean at times. I also managed to get the old sailing white knees which was rather strange since the boat was turquoise.

Holy Sierra hotel india tango

That's what I said last night on my way home from tribal dance class. I was driving home the back roads which run through cane fields when I had to swerve around a giant snake (yellowish in colour, might have been a carpet python). I've swerved around a lot of different things in the past but a python, never thought that would happen!!! It's body was almost the thickness of my fist so it was probably a few metres in length. Pity some of it was in the grass so I couldn't see how long it was. I turned the car around to go back for a better look but alas, it was gone!

Check out this website for a short clip on brush turkeys and a sneaky scrub python.
http://www.wildaction.com.au/movies/movie_8.html

In my backyard

Bandicoot: nocturnal marsupial, spotted just tonight. Gestation period is an amazing 12.5 days (rabbits 30) they're about the size of a small rabbit or large rat. Took the photo of the brush turkeys the other day, the other got from Wikipedia. They lay eggs in a communal mound nest that the male tends. The last one is a bright green tree frog.

Cairns

Photos of Cairns. The lagoon (turquoise triangular pool right foreground) is man made. The city council wisely had the lagoon built since there is no beach in this area and when the tide is out it reveals acres of quite ugly mud flats (other photo). It’s a well used tourist gathering place for those seeking the sun and don't want to make the drive to a beach. The view is from the sea, the water in the background is the inlet where you can find the Cairns Yacht Club, Cairns Cruising Squadron, Navy yard, and lots of moored boats which we try not to hit during our classes.

Marine Radio

Weather in North Tropical Queensland has been perfect for weeks but things are looking a little dry. I'm sure everyone would welcome a good downpour which has been in the forecast now and again but the weatherman here is as accurate as anywhere else.

After sweating and fussing all week over the Marine Radio Operator's course we've done the exam and will have the results late next week. It was easier than anticipated - multiple choice and we all participated in a mock test before hand. The questions on the actual exam were very familiar if you get my drift LOL. Very tricky instructor - he had us all working so hard to get through those 404 questions (some appeared to be redundant but worded just a wee bit differently so we were all scrambling to find a different answer to all the questions which was not possible) in a week's time, and in the end it was a piece of cake - well maybe.

Foxtrot uniform charlie kilo echo delta uniform papa

Another week gone by in paradise. No rain for weeks but it's in next week's forecast. Risk of fire in the rain forest is high so rain is needed.

Attended my first tribal belly dance class here. It's the same but different so I've decided to be the "smart" one in the beginner's class rather than the "dumb" one in the intermediate class.

After breezing through the boat operators' course attending the first of 2 workshops of the marine radio operator's course was a shocker. We've been sent home with a CD of the manual and a handout of 404 questions that need to be answered by next Thursday. Here I sit reading the manual with a Bailey's in hand (and pencil), so you can imagine how frustrating and difficult it appears to be. It makes absolutely no sense to have a simple test to operate a vessel, potentially endangering lives, and yet to get permission to operate a RADIO  one needs to be a bloody brain surgeon.

One more tidbit of information: there's a girl's soccer team called the Bosco Beavers - no lie!!!! They don't have beavers here.

Licenced to Kill

I didn’t have to offer a bribe and I’m now legally licensed to ‘run amok’ on the roads as well as on the high seas!

Australia has 6 States and Queensland is known as the ‘Sunshine’ or ‘Smart’ State and the powers that be of the ‘Smart State’ have this week issued me a driver’s licence and a boat licence all in the space of 4 days!! (Did I mention that Queensland is known as the Smart State?)
The driver’s licence was simple enough…fill out a form, pay the fee, get your picture taken, wait 3 minutes and ta da……… a bona fide, fair dinkum, without too many questions asked, driver’s licence (‘Smart State’?)

The boat licence was a bit more involved. Chris and I paid the fee earlier in the week and received a text book to study and a DVD to view. The book told you everything you needed to know to pass the test (if we had taken the trouble to read it), and the DVD told you everything that the text book didn’t, in order to pass the test (if we had taken the trouble to watch it). Sunday morning at 7:30 we headed off to ‘class’..... 5 hours of theory followed by about 45 minutes of driving a powerboat (50 HP outboard) around the Cairns Inlet, terrifying anyone that dared to venture in our path. Totally aced the theory – got 100% (guess I should mention so did Chris). There were 3 people in the class but for some reason I got to drive the boat for most of the time; I’m not buying the theory that I needed more practice just because I ran the "drowning person ball" over 3 times before I rescued it.  I’d like to think that it was just one of the many ‘perks’ for living in the ‘Smart State’!