Down and Under and Bird Lesson

Ramblings on Tuesday

Well today we had some of the ‘down’ in down under. Just one of those days where I realized as glamorous and fun as it is to be in Australia, I still have to get groceries [by bus and taxi], Abby still seems to have 8 billion molars yet to cut thru that seem to pain her most in the middle of the checkout lines, and the three flights of stairs up to our apartment are not going to be ‘great’ for getting me in shape, they are just flat out SUPER annoying.

So there it is. Tedium is an international epidemic.



Wednesday

Well to try and get the day off to a better start, we began our running routine this morning. We, meaning me, pushing Abby in the jogger. It was fun to get out there with all the other joggers and see the beach at an earlier time. There is a little workout station at one point where you can do pushups, pull-ups and that sort of stuff. I’ve bet Les that I will be able to do 10 pull-ups by the time we leave. So today I meant to get a crackin’ on that, but when I ran past it was full of scary looking personal trainers and overly intense women in glammed out workout clothes. So, I’ll get a crackin . . . . .later.

Here is an official update for our ornithologist friends:

Thanks Emily for confirming that we have Sulphur Crested Cockatoos in the neighborhood. They are huge and LOUD. They sound like a cat that got his tail slammed in a door, repeatedly. Like this, AGHGHGHGHGHHHH. That’s their bird call. The bird web site describes it as, “a loud raucous screech” and they aint kidding. The other birds don’t like the Cockatoo. Entire flocks chase after a single one in the air. They probably think its call is annoying and wrecking the otherwise peaceful ambience of the neighborhood.

Then we have a lovely flock of green parrots. The technical name for these wild parrots is “Lorikeets”. Their under-wings are bright orange so they are fun to watch because every angle is colorful.

Finally we have this bird that would look like a crow, but for the white spots it has all over it. Like a Holstein cow. I was expecting some sort of cow-based name in fact. But, they are Australian Magpies. They have a perky, wooo-AH! call that Abby likes to imitate.

All in all it’s a busy area in our treetops.

Good news - customs has agreed to finally release our box containing Abby’s toys, bed linens and the microphone we need to use Skype. We only had to provide a vial of blood each and swear Abby’s plastic bike wasn’t really a rocket launcher or a foot-and-mouth disease germ in disguise.

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