Easter — What's Going On???

Greetings & Salutations to one and all, wherever you may me. Hopefully you're either thawing out or putting on your winter "coats", depending on which side of the pond you are.

Things have been plugging along at a pretty steady pace over here in Townsville. The house is consuming most of my spare "free" time. I've emptied out another 32 boxes and the word "crap" came out a lot during the ritualistic-type unwrapping. As some of you may remember, I really didn't have any mindset as to which way I was going to go, in regards to where I would end up after Boise. As such, I kept a lot of stuff, that, in all rights should have stayed in Boise, had I been 100% positive on moving to Australia.

After unpacking a dozen or so boxes of clothing, the thought struck me that why the hell would I need 24 pairs of jeans, 16 pairs of runners and 32 long sleeve shirts while in the tropics of far North Queensland??? Must have needed my head read I reckon. Just for the uninitiated, living in Townsville is bit like snogging with a good sort - hot, wet and energy sapping, and you dress (or un-dress as it seems) accordingly. For a lot of the locals, dressing up is making sure you have clean pair of matching thongs (flip-flops) to go with your footy shorts.

The house is coming along pretty nicely, even if I do say so myself. I've got all the furniture in place, all the crockery/cutlery/linens & things are all in their respective places. The kitchen and computer rooms are all sorted, while my Californian King bed has totally dominated the entire master suite - go figure ;-)

The only downside of the house so far is the fact that it takes nearly 3 hours to mow the bloody yard. Being in the tropics, you have to keep on top of the mowing or it'll fair bit you on the arse. It only takes a bit of moisture and your looking to pinch someone's goat to have a crack at it. I've never seen anything like it. I left the lawn alone for 1 week and it near took me twice as long to mow the yard.

Speaking of mowing, they're a real safety conscience lot over here. Everywhere you go, they've got the wide brimmed hat and sunglasses. A fair few of them have the hi-vis t-shirts as well. Obviously with the entire blessings of the sweet patron Saint of stupity, the vast majority simply go with a pair of footy shorts and thongs or worse - barefoot!!! She'll be right, they reckon. Pigs arse I say!!! Ain't no way I'd ever be giving up an offering to the digit dicer that's cunningly disguised and an urban beautification tool.

Plans for remodeling the house are slowly taking shape. As much as Boise is an indoors/outdoors entertaining setup, the tropics is more outdoor living orientated. I'm formulating plans to fit out a granny flat/mother in law living are in the lower portion of the house that is only used for storage at this point in time. This project would be the primary focus as I'd like to have the room mate downstairs so that we both have a bit more privacy.

Next on the list would be to increase the deck areas of the house to make it the primary living area. I would also like to add a garage with a living area/deck above it so that I can knock a few walls out to increase the bedrooms and install a master suite on the back of the house. As I said earlier, the plans are just formulation at this juncture, but it is progressing.

Some of my other "free" time, as if I've got heaps of it, has been spent researching things to do and see in Scotland and Ireland. A whole heap of us Alice Springs Dingoes are headed across the pond for the World Golden Oldies Rugby Festival in August for a bit of a giggle. If you have any suggestions on things that are pretty cool, unusual or just fun, please email with the details and I'm looking for ideas.

Stay Happy ;-)

Fitzy