We are moving house!

We have decided to FINALLY rent a place in town and wait a couple of months until we buy a new house. And once we decided, we found a new home very quickly and are moving this weekend. It is stinking hot still and as you can imagine... writing a blog so much more appealing than packing boxes!!!
Craig was going to stay home today as well but had a very convenient important meetings come up... sigh!

Anyway - here are some pictures of the new place, mostly because my mum cannot wait to see them!!!

This is a typical Queenslander Home, very traditional with plenty of gaps for air to flow through and the house is standing on stilts for better cooling. Carpark underneath the house and plenty of storage and water tanks. We particularly love the view from the back deck! Life in the jungle! And the hilarious old fashioned bathroom, I cannot imagine it ever being cold enough for a hot bath!
It is a lovely home and I cannot wait to move in there. Will now start packing boxes so the removal van can pick everything up on Monday morning.
Think of me!!

Australia Day in Sydney!!!

Having Audra over for all of January was just bliss! Great to have some girlie times and talk rubbish all day, fantastic! I think the pictures of us in Sydney on Australia day speak for themselves???

Frohe Weihnachten - Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas and all my best wishes for a wonderful happy and bright New Year 2009.
I cannot believe that I have just survived my second Christmas in Australia and my first year here has just flown by!
We had a lovely romantic Christmas eve just with the two of us and Wilson under our teenie tiny Christmas tree and then spend Christmas day out at Rob and Jackie's farm with a massive BBQ, lots of prawns, cold beers and 32C! So hot! It was great fun, 7 adults and 6 dogs! No grey skies, no colds, no rain. I guess we are doing pretty well for ourselves!!
But still.... I will never get into the Christmas spirit in this heat, it is just wrong! I miss being with family, being tucked up inside with comfort food, with Christmas carols and Christmas decorations.... The only way you know that Christmas is happening in Australia is because everybody is on holidays and of course the CRICKETT is on!!! Craig is glued to the TV screen and everytime I look the guys in white are breaking for lunch/tea etc. I don't get it!

We are very well and feeling a lot more settled. We have even been invited to a couple of dinner parties lately! And I am so excited that we will have quite a few visitors from Europe this year!!!
Kicking the New Year off - Audra will come over in early January for a couple of weeks of sun and chill. We are planning a week in Byron and a long weekend in Sydney over Australia Day Weekend. I can't wait!
And then Donna and Tim are flying over in March for a bit of beach and a lot of diving. Hurray!!!! And later in the year my brother is coming out with his family for a bit of a road trip holiday up the coast. Fantastic news!
It means the world to me to have friends and family out here. Even though we feel more and more settled, it still feels like I am lightyears away from the people and things I loved all my life. Thank you guy

We are at the Sunshine Coast at the moment, 2 hrs north of Brisbane to enjoy 10 days of beach and chill. Very relaxing and the coast is beautiful and fairly undeveloped, just the way we like it! I had my first go at trying to surf yesterday, think I am a bit old to learn! All the 5 year olds are looking better than me! But will persevere and report back.

Lots of love and all my best wishes for a good start into 2009.
Tanja xxxxooxxxoxoxoxxx

Meet Mister Wilson!

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This is our lovely new addition to the family - Wilson! We inherited him from the sister of a friend of Craigs who are moving overseas and were looking for a happy home for their baby and we could not resist. He is very very sweet and seems to be smiling a lot, very cute. It is so nice to have a dog around. You might not be aware that I am one of the very few people on Earth how never ever had a pet. Great to finally fix that!
Like most dogs Wilson just LOVES having his bum scratched and driving in the car, he likes running away and being chased, he likes to play ball and his favorite food a raw carrots! Very special dog...

Weekend break in Byron Bay

We had a glorious weekend in Byron Bay with lots of sun, beach and no surf :)
Honestly, the water is so cold after the storms that we really could not face going in for longer than a couple of minutes... But it was beautiful and clear. I cannot believe it took us so long to do a beach weekend! Must do that at least once a month now!



We stayed in my favourite hostel - Anna's, a little guesthouse with only 3 rooms and a swiss hostess.

Cyclone in Brisbane

Some of you might have heard about the CRAZY storm in Brisbane last weekend.
Last Sunday (16 Nov) we were enjoying the 30C heat and sun and sat in the garden, too hot to do anything... very relaxing and then suddenly at 4.30 the sky turned black and a massive storm attacked a selected number of suburbs, including ours! GREAT!
I was totally terrified! Hail the size of golf balls, enormous winds from all directions and of course torrential rain flooding the streets in seconds! AMAZING!!! We have a huge gumtree (about 50m high) in the back of our yard so we hid in the furthest away room hoping for the best! Thunder was deafening and the lighting lit up the black black sky, really scary!
Then an almighty BANG and a big tree branch went through our roof and into the kitchen! Totally shocking.



We are safe, thankfully and damage is limited. Craig (always in calm control) immediately got on the phone to State Emergency Control and we ended up on top of their waiting list. The guys came out about an hour after the storm and climbed on the roof, sawed the tree in pieces and put a big orange tarp over the hole.



Now we are safe and dry again and hopefully the ceiling will dry out in a couple of weeks. It continued to rain like crazy all week but our house thankfully did not get flooded. We were without electricity for about 10 hrs which is much better than many others. The damage to the power lines is substantial, traffic is a nightmare, a lot of the tunnels are flooded, school are closed etc. Incredible.

We were lucky and very grateful that the big tree did not snap off like many others. Some people have lost absolutely everything. Thankfully we are well and all the other Millis Clan members are safe and well also. Very lucky.

Have a look at the link for some pictures of the drama:

BRISBANE has been officially declared a natural disaster area, as soldiers help to repair damage caused by one of the biggest storms to hit the city in 20 years. More than 32,000 properties across Brisbane, Redcliffe and the Gold Coast were without power this afternoon after yesterday's storm brought hail and wind gusts of up to 130km/h, ripped roofs from houses and toppled power lines and trees.

This is a photo that made all the front pages - storm gathering over the CBD.

Some Groove and some Grape

Last weekend we had a great time at the Groove and Grape festival in Brisbane, sponsored by the casino and a vast number of Queensland vinemakers. Match made in heaven. Delicious local wines and yummie food combined with really good groovy bands all afternoon and late into the night.

Vanessa Amorosi was playing which was a great surprise!


Soaking up the sun in the afternoon....


And this was much much later in the night....