Jimieke

The 2 photos on the left are of Jim in Spearfish 3 weeks before heading to Australia. The photos on the right are of Jim after being in Australia 3 weeks. Does anyone notice a difference?

Sorry for the delay in posting another blog entry. We have no excuse. We'll try in the future to not let you faithfull down who are checking it everyday!

Today is Australia Day - a public holiday. Jim is looking it up on the internet to see what it's all about. We've heard there's some fireworks somewhere around town tonight and most of the shops are closed today. I think most people just have a bbq or go to the beach. As for us, I have do to some school work and Jim has to do the final touches on his business card so he can get out there and make some money! We'll put up some more information about A-day (that's the abbreviation for it that I made up) once we know more.

Here's some photos of our first race in Australia - my first triathlon ever.

It was a success for both of us. Jim raced in the Open / Elite class and ended up 18th out of 600 and some total competitors. There was some stiff competition for him including 2 time olympian Olivier Marceau. If he had raced in his age group he would have come in 2nd in the 25-29 year olds.

His race was a 750meter swim, 20km bike (4 loops) and a 5km run (2 loops). He said they all started out very aggressively on the swim and that he got bunched up a bit turning around the first bouy. After he got out of the water he looked back and didn't see anyone (editors note - he did say there were a few stragglers way back). Jim's quote "I basically got my butt kicked in the swim." The bike course was very busy and he was just off the lead pack by a minuted nearly the whole way, so he didn't really lose time on the bike. Not bad considering he did it all on his own, whereas the top 10 or so were in a drafting pack. His running seems to be getting stronger, so he's really happy about that. He had his personal best 5km run here (18:27)!

My race was an Enticer (for beginner) that was really short - 300meter swim, 10km bike, and 2.5 km run. There were 66 ladies in my group, 16-34 year olds. I was 37th out of the water - my super swim skills at work! In the end I finished 4th in our group, so I got to pass lots of people on the bike and a few on the run. I was really happy with the end result - especially since I didn't drown in the lake. The water was extremely dirty - you couldn't see more then 1 foot so that was a bit different than swimming in the pool with the line to follow.

If any of you want to see the complete results and times, go to: www.usmevents.com.au and click on the Gatorade Queensland series, Race 4 at Robina, provisional results.

Thanks to all of you who are leaving comments. We love reading them!

The first photo is from the botanical gardens downtown Brisbane, next to the university. The other is of some bird hanging out in the gardens.

We need help again from the sub-tropical urban wildlife biologist to tell us what kind of bird that is.

For any of you who may have tried to call us these past few days and couldn't get through, it's not because you were dialing wrong, it's because our phone line is down. It's just like at home, the phone company said it was because of the internet, the internet said it's the phone company who's supposed to fix it.

The phone guy came yesterday and said the line was good to the pit in front of the apartment and that it is something wrong from there into the apartment and he's not allowed to work on that part of the line. The landlord called the electrician to fix it today. He's here now and says the wiring's fine, and that the phone company has something wrong with the line coming into the complex. In other words, no one really knows what's wrong. Maybe we'll have a phone again next week sometime. We'll let you know as soon as it's fixed...

Photos: Yeronga 50 meter pool for training and....our newest neighbor, Lenny the lizard.

This is the 50 meter pool where Jim and I have been swimming - well mostly Jim. Yes, Judy (at the BLM) it's nice enough here year round for an outdoor pool. In fact Jim complains that the water temperature is even a bit too warm! We actually live a 3 minutes walk from another outdoor 50 meter pool that I spend more time at.

We're not sure what Lenny the lizard really is. Perhaps there's an urban sub-tropical wildlife biologist out there that can clarify that for us (Desa?).

On Sunday we will be heading to Robina (a town about an hour from here) for our first Australian triathlon. Jim will be doing the main event, whereas I will be doing an enticer (a very short one for beginners). If I don't drown at it, I'll post our results when we get back.

Photo 1: Jim admiring our first delivered plant. Thanks Mom!

Photo 2: Artwork in the botanical gardens located next to the university.

Photo3: A windy day at Surfers Paradise, the town where we bought our car.

I also want to thank anonymous at RAMVAC (were not guessing who you are - haha) for telling me our RSS feed wasn't enabled. I didn't have a clue what that meant and Jim sort of explained it to me. I read up on it a bit and think I now have a link so you can get RSS feeds from our blog.

For those of you who also have no clue what that is, it's a way for you to have a link on your home page of Google, Yahoo!, etc. to our blog to see if anything new has been posted without having to visit our site all the time. Just click on the square, orange icon on the blog homepage, near the counter (left side of page) and follow the link from there to get it set up. Good luck!

So it appears that a lot of you seem to be looking at our blog during work hours. I can't tell who you are - just that you are! It's okay for us since we're unemployed, but...well, for those of you who are - just keep it up!

Thanks for the comments from those who have left them. Those who haven't, get after it!

Even with the steering wheel on the wrong side and the blinkers and wipers knobs backwards, Jim's done a great job of driving. Only a few close calls so far!

This is Jim's workspace / garage...

This guy's been hanging out between a couple of palm trees in front of our apartment this past week. He's really quiet and doesn't bother anyone except little flying critters.

You can leave us comments through this blog. Just click on any of the comment buttons below the inividual entries. We'd love to get feedback and hear what you all are up to as well.

Funny thing happened when we left the Rapid airport. We had 5 big bike boxes and 3 large suitcases to check (all weighing 69-70 lbs). We flew United and you know how small those planes are to Denver. The ticket counter lady (who was the most helpful and friendliest airline employee I think I've met) told us because we had some many items to check they may have to go on later flights. We had a 10 hour layover in LA, so it was no big deal.

As we were boarding the same lady was at the gate and said they were able to get all of our bags on because they sent 5 people over to the Delta flight. The five empty seats were then used for the larger carry on bags. Mine got strapped in right next to me. I couldn't believe how accomodating the airline was - that never happens! They even charged us less than I was expecting for the extra and oversized baggage.

On the other end in Australia the customs officials were also very helpful. One of them even pushed one of our carts with a couple of the bikes. They only looked in 2 boxes to make sure we had the bikes clean and off we went with no extra charges.

Here's a photo of the city from one of the overviews. Notice all the trees and the river. It's a very clean city and what may appear as a bit of smog in the photo is more the have because of the humidity (and of course there's a bit of smog because of the size) but you definitely don't notice it compared to smog in places like Cairo.

Another photo of the beloved Ute...

Here's a photo of our transportation for the year. We've yet to name it, suggestions are welcome!

This is the second attempt at posting something. I'm trying to do it with a photo this time. I'm also working on a way to share photos we take online. As soon as I figure out which site I want to use I will let everyone know. We also want to thank everyone who has e-mailed us so far and apologize for not getting back to everyone right away. We'll try to do better as soon as we get in a regular schedule here.

We've been enjoying a visit with the Andersons from Spearfish. They are on a 3 month working holiday and have spent a few days with us. The extra bedroom and bath seems to be working out great, so for those of you coming to visit - we've got a spot for you.

Again another beautiful day in Brisbane - partly cloudy, upper 80's...

We arrived in Brisbane on time at 10:00am on January 2nd, 2006. We left the morning of Dec. 31st, 2005, so New Years Eve completely evaded us. We had no problems checking into the airport in Rapid City with our 5 bikes and 3 big bags to check (all weighing nearly 70 lbs.)! It was even cheaper than I thought it would be!

Once arriving at the Brisbane airport, the customs officials were very helpful. One guy even pushed one of the trolleys with a few of our bikes on it. He just checked 2 of the boxes to make sure the bikes weren't dirty, and we were on our way.

Within the first week we found a furnished 2 bed / 2 bath apartment and a car. That way we'll have a spare room for visitors.

We haven't seen any kangaroos yet, but then again we haven't really been out of the city yet. It's only a matter of time. Jim did see an 8 foot snake on the road and there are plenty of big spiders around!

I've started the MBA program. I can tell it's going to keep me plenty busy, but I think I'm really going to enjoy it. The classes are diverse, people from Australia, Germany, England, China, Hong Kong, India, Saudi Arabia, and a few other places that I can't think of right off hand.

We'll post photos as soon as we can.

More to come later...