We've Come To A Land Down Under

Hello! Allison here, writing to you about wildlife in Australia!  It's a well-known fact that there is plenty of wildlife around Australia. Prior to moving here, I didn't believe I would have much interaction have with wildlife, as we would be living in the beachy eastern suburbs of Sydney. I'll admit that I've been proven wrong. It seems that Australians don't mind sharing their space with the wildlife all around them (whereas I typically do). First, some of the fun wildlife interactions. Two days in a row, we had lovely Rainbow Lorikeets visit my home office window. We'll constantly see these guys flying quickly overhead and their sharp chirps from the backyard trees. On two rainy afternoons, they stopped to say hello for a while and are absolutely gorgeous! While cats and dogs aren't typically defined as wildlife, most of our cat encounters are from pet cats, that prowl the neighborhood. Next, is wildlife in captivity. After several straight weekends of r...

Howdy y'all, Ferg reporting. You read that right, we are now the proud owners of a 2008 Piaggio Scooter. 100cc of rock star power rockets us across the eastern suburbs of Sydney. We love it and we think you will too.  Here are some pictures. While the buses and trains have been fantastic, sometimes the scooter makes life so much better. For instance, we both have been playing soccer and volleyball at a park about 5 km away from our place. Without a scooter, it takes us 45 minutes to get to the fields; 25 walking and 20 on the bus. With our scooter, we can get there in about 15 minutes. Life = Easy. With it being only a 100cc bike, it doesn't really go that fast. I've gotten it up to 50 mph with just me riding it.  Allison currently does not have the license to drive the moped herself but that should change in a month once she takes a course.  Another perk of the moped is fuel economy. Petrol in Sydney is currently around $2.18 AUD per liter. With 3.79 liters in 1 gallon, ...

Hello to everyone!  It has been some time, but with good reason, we’ve been busy. We are no longer counting how many WEEKS that we’ve been in Australia, but how many MONTHS! With that, we are almost to 3 months in our new home, Sydney. One of the reasons that we’ve been so busy is that we’ve both actually been working. More on that below… The whole reason why Ferg and I were able to get to Australia, was because of my job! The first 2 months were quiet however things have been picking up. I am starting to travel again but instead of flying to McAllen, TX every two weeks, I get to explore different Australian cities! My first trip was to Canberra, the capital city of Australia. On a map, Canberra seems to be one of the few cities in Australia that is not right on the ocean. The location of the city was picked so that it would be between the two major Australian cities, Sydney and Melbourne. It's like trying to remain neutral when picking your favorite child. The trip was less than 2...