Another sign of the change in lifestyle was this morning. We attended a pasture management course up at the Robo stockyard. This incidentally is believed to be one of the locations used in the film 'Babe'. Learned all kinds of stuff about working land. 

The kookaburra is a strange and unique sounding bird. However nothing can prepare for you for what I simply call the 'R2D2' bird. Yup, that's right - sounds just like a cheerful R2 unit. Someday I'll figure out what the locals call it, but I believe this name is the best description.

The house closes in a week and a half. Took a look at Google Earth (I'll provide coordinates to friends and family) and it's right at 14.6 miles from the ocean - yet a world away. If you're impatient, just find Robertson NSW - to the left and down a spit from Wollongong. 

In fact - if you climb the hill right behind our new house, you'll be looking down the Illawarra Escarpment, across the lowlands, and out over the Pacific. This amazing view is just one pasture away from our house! The view over the edge of the Escarpment itself (a huge cliff about 10 miles inland) is simply astonishing. Now this hill is private property, but maybe I can work out a concession to take a few friends up once in a while. If not there's an access road to the cliff edge a couple of kilometers away.

Change your height exaggeration to 3 in the Google Earth prefs and use a low viewing angle towards the east to get a rough idea of what I'm talking about. 

Took a little road trip today to check out some of the surroundings. Started with my daughter's hockey match in Mittagong - then went to the coast via Wollongong; to the mall at Shellharbour, and then back via Jamberoo. Oh yeah - we kinda' had to stop at Chili's in Shellharbour because it's one of the few places around here that isn't totally alien to a California Kid. 

Quite a lovely coastline. Kinda' reminds me of San Luis Obispo, except in a scrubby rain forest that looks strikingly like the central Yucatan.  The weather was nice - clear and about 21c or high sixties. We had a bit of a wind storm last night, but clear and 21c ain't bad for winter weather.

Today is my birthday once again. Had a lovely dinner at the Briars in Bowral. So what does a Yankee expat eat at a five-star Australian restaurant?  I went for the kangaroo. In fact it doesn't taste like chicken at all. It tastes like beef. Maybe just a hint of gaminess like buffalo - but without the fat that buffalo has (you can fill a schooner with the fat in a slice of buffalo steak).

OK, a schooner is the 'large' beer glass in most of Australia - 12 oz. When you order a beer, you order either a regular or a schooner. I find this amusing. The bartender or waitress always looks at you with wide eyes like this schooner is something to be afraid of. Now 12 oz. is the normal size beer bottle throughout the world - or around a third of a liter. However in the west (Perth) and some parts of the outback a schooner is the smallest glass in the bar and the normal sized drink is at least a liter. That's more what I'm used to. A liter is a decent glass of beer. I had to laugh the first time. What's this pathetic schooner thing you gave me? I ordered a large beer.

But I digress.

So anyway kangaroo tastes just like any other big yummy steak.

Have some crocodile with that? 

We aren't roughing it completely, but still living on limited 'luxuries' since the move. One computer on the net that we all share, no guitars. Only 8 changes of clothes. Most of the furnishings here likely came from garage sales or St. Vincent de Paul. It's pointless to buy anything but bare essentials since we already own plenty of stuff; it's just a matter of camping out until it arrives. 

It isn't horrible, but could be a bit more convenient. The container with all of our stuff isn't set to arrive for another week or two. In fact we were told that it was scheduled to hit Sydney last week, but it turns out that the date given was for a change of ships in Singapore. Another week to Sydney and then another week to clear customs.

Oh well, at least our belongings made it to this side of the world. I'm assuming this - as we haven't been told otherwise.

Made an offer on a nice house in Robertson about 4 kilometers up the road. It's going to be another year or so before our house on the lake is finished - and we're currently in a little 1850's 2-bedroom cottage. You can see right through the planks on the floor. Since winter is almost here, that means it's going to be expensive to stay warm. If we buy a place for the interim, we can always turn around and use it as a rental later.

The Corrola is here, which will be my car, but the other family car (a Toyota Prada) isn't scheduled to land for another week or two. Heck, it might even be on the same ship as our furniture. [snicker...]

The job search is tough. As I surmised, most of the software jobs are in the big city. Oh well, it just means a nasty commute is highly likely. Whatever. But I've got to get a few hundred more resumes (known as Curriculum Vitae here) in circulation. Only got one call so far and it was for a pretty weak job in the city. If I've got to commute, I'm not doing it for a menial job paying entry-level wages.

On the bright side, found a home-brew store in Moss Vale. With good beer running close to $20 a six pack, I'll be a customer there the moment my brew pots arrive. And it turns out that moonshine is legal here. You can buy a still at the home-brew shop and buy books with vodka and scotch recipes. Even though I haven't consumed such products in quite some time, it's still rather intriguing. I have fond memories of some tasty Kentucky moonshine that I'd love to re-create. In the U.S., creating moonshine is a serious offense.