The Australian Rainforest

In our effort to see all of Australia by the time our expat rotation is up, we went for a weekend in the woods. Or as I was corrected over and over and over again . . . a weekend in the bush. It was actually a rainforest that grew out of the rich soil from an old volcano that is long since gone, but anyway. To make a long story short (because I could probably blab on about beautiful hikes with nice waterfalls, and the cute little cabin that we stayed in, blah, blah, blah), I am going to focus on the little furry friend that we made while we were up there. We were sitting in our cabin, waiting for Jason to finally light the fire in the fireplace because it was freezing cold!! And he looks up at two eyes staring back at him. Sure enough there was this little critter hanging out just outside the window watching every move we made. We were so excited because we had been dying to see some exotic Australian wildlife. Although, I don't know how wild he could have been, seeing as he was obviously waiting for us to notice him and give him food. And yes, we are huge suckers, so we through a few bits and pieces out the door and watched him eat it all while we were safe behind a pane of glass. The next morning, we went to check out of the cabin, and I, excitedly, described the critter to the lady behind the counter in order to ask her what it was. And with our dumb luck . . .Yep, it was just a stupid possum. Oh, well. We enjoyed watching him anyway.

Andrea Bocelli

Well, I am having to go out of chronological order on these blogs now because . . . well . . . basically . . . I am an idiot. In an effort to satisfy my inner couch potato, I downloaded more than my monthly allotment of tv shows, and now, our internet has been slowed down to a snail's pace. So for now, you will have to appreciate the only story I have to tell you that is not associated with any photos because I can't seem to get any photos uploaded. :) We just got back from a trip down to Melbourne because we were invited to the Andrea Bocelli concert there. As my parents are probably more than willing to tell you, I am not the most avid opera fan, so my expectations of this concert amounted to . . . well, at least it is an excuse to go check out Melbourne. Which is to say that I wasn't necessarily looking forward to the concert itself. So we arrived at the venue that also houses the Australian Open tennis tournament, which, at the time, that fact was probably more exciting to me than the upcoming concert. (ok, have I made me point yet, that I don't like opera music?) We were led into the arena, where the concert was to be held, for a special viewing of the sound check. Ok, that's kind of cool. Not a lot of people get to do that, right? Then, we were led next door for a nice meal before the actual concert. Then, showtime. We walked back into the arena, and it turned out that we are in the second row. Ok, that is kind of cool, too, right? Things were turning out ok so far, but I hadn't yet had to sit through the 2 hours of upcoming torture. Then, Andrea Bocelli comes out on stage, and to my surprise, after just a few notes come out of the man's mouth, I must say I was a believer. I still wouldn't want to listen to his music for hours and hours and hours, but the man can sing. And how many people can pull off music from La Traviata and Elvis Presley, huh?? The concert probably should have been even more spectacular due to the arrival of one of his special guests (based on the amount of applause when she came out on stage), but our excitement was diminished since we had to lean over to the person next to us and ask "Who is that?" because she wasn't familiar to us at all. Turns out she has been a famous singer in Australia for years. Who knew? The next day, Jason went to meetings, while I went shopping, so by definition, not a bad trip overall. The only downside was that the tube o' germs, otherwise known as the airplane, gave me a sore throat, so I am sitting here talking to you in the only way I am able right now. Just for the record, laryngitis stinks!