Having fun down under - sunny Queensland

Mum and Dad have been showing me around sunny Queensland - naturally my mum took me shopping and I had to share this place - it's a shopping centre built over a small river - you can even hire paddle boats to get to the other side!



We also spent a day travelling around the Queensland hinterland where I found this fantastic moth on a tree and some amazing views.





In keeping with the native wildlife theme, I manage to find a galah or two - though not flamin'!

Having fun down under - saying hi to Melbourne

Bridie spent the weekend in Melbourne with family and friends; checked out old haunts and discovered some new ones. Our wonderful, fabulous friends, B and Emily organised and hosted a party for me while I was in town and we had a fabulous night.

I also spent the day with my brother and his family and got to visit my favourite boy - Puck! He's looking particularly evil in this photo...



I tested out my new camera (a digital SLR) on Southbank at night - Melbourne is a particularly pretty city and more so at night...



I spent my last morning in St Kilda, having breakfast with more friends, getting a wee bit of sun and checking out the gardens outside Luna Park - and what did I find but some of our gorgeous wildlife (rainbow lorekeets) hanging around upside down in the palm trees...




One last look around Melbourne and I headed down to the St Kilda pier where Melbourne's ever changing weather started to roll in...



And finally, for all our friends in England - this is what drought country looks like - so brown and dry because there is almost no water to be had - we're losing more bushland than ever before to fires...

Home down under

Bridie has left Steve behind the UK and has landed in Queensland, Australia, where her parents now live.

They've bought a beautiful home in the town of Buderim, just outside of Maroochydore. It has everything a homesick Aussie could want - a pool, billiard room, big TV room, a beer fridge, dim sims in the freezer, and the list goes on.... I'm in heaven!

I've been enjoying the sunshine and the pool - check it out!

I'm not the only one that is enjoying the pool - here is an intrepid cane toad before Mum and Dad got him with the Dettol!

It was swimming around and around, trying to get out when Mum scooped him up and doused it - I believe it is currently feeding the denizens of the rainforest that's behind the house.

Buy your very own unicorn today

Happy New Year 2007!

Because of travel and school and stuff, we rarely get to travel anymore. But we made a special effort and went to Copenhagen for their New Year's Celebrations.

Check our photo website

Now it seems the Danish have a special love of fireworks. And going to the city hall square in Copenhagen with a truck load of them seems to be the thing to do. An exploding Acme Fireworks Factory has nothing on these Danish pyromaniacs.

It was like a war zone. Rockets over head, sparklers underfoot, and explosions all around. It seemed that the rockets weren't so much as going up as across. And into the crowd. Bridie and I did the only sensible thing; we hid behind a crowd of other people.

Let them be the shrapnel catchers. A technique I picked up in 'Nam.

Here's an example of the madness I nabbed off YouTube: