Where do nanners come from?

Ever wondered? Trees like these:



This weekend I visited my friend Ed at Goldie for a surf... it was blowy and messy, and I'd like to believe that that had something to do with me not surfing very well but probably not... Anyways, afterwards we went back to his place where is awesome girlfriend [Edit: Kate is now Ed's fiancée, he proposed Monday and she said yes!] cooked us pancakes with imported Canadian syrup. Afterwards they let me tag along on a visit to her grandparents place in the Currumbin valley where they have a banana and avocado farm. Beautiful country...

This picture of Ed & Kate was taken at the farm, and may qualify as the engagement photo...

To Ed's credit the box was full of nanners, avos, soup, tomatoes, and was very heavy... probably upwards of 5 kilos.

In a carton?

Aussie sour cream comes in a carton. And it's thick, so you can't pour it out if you only open one end of the carton. Weird.

I'm cooking a roast tonight, mmm...

Indy Weekend

Well, I didn't actually go to the Indy but I did head down to the Gold Coast with a friend and his gf for some beach/surf. The weather wasn't that great and was overcast the whole time, but it was better than sitting in my flat in Brizzie.

Going to join a co-worker tongiht for his b-day at the Story Bridge Hotel. Last time I was there I ended up 2-stepping and buying shooters (not necessarily in that order) at another pub.

The Sands Are Shifting

Maybe it's time for me to readdress the purpose of this blog. Its original intention, to document my travels after accepting an assignment to work in Papua New Guinea, is somewhat obsolete since I'm no longer going to PNG. I had wanted to be able to post pictures of the PNG country side, wild boars, tropical flora & fauna, cannibalistic natives, malaria carrying mosquitoes, and of course the 3 weeks holidays I was going to go on every 2 months.

I was considering asking the people that read this what they thought, but I won't for fear of not getting any responses. For the time being the content will be essentially the same even if the end goal has changed... I'll write about the notable things I get up to as well as a few un-notables.

My First Cricket Match

In a warm up for the Ashes match I have tickets to in November I attended my first cricket match with a couple blokes from work tonight. It was an non-epic battle between the 1st place Queensland Bulls and the 4th place Tasmanian Tigers. The Tigers batted first and managed to score a pitiful 172 runs in 49.2 overs, after which the Bulls blazed to glory in only 38.5 overs with Matthew Hayden leading the way 91 runs for a final of 173 to 172. The crowd was relatively sedate save for a few pockets of college kids who had hit the turps all day, but they only added to the atmosphere of The Gabba this night.
Here's what most cricket players are doing in the field most of the time, this bloke was from Tasmania and was taking a heck of a ribbing from one of the aforementioned college crowds. Good on the clam though for taking it and giving it back in good spirits.


The Gabba is the stadium/cricket-field where the game was played (AFL Aussie rules football is also played here in Brisbane). Here is a picture of it from my apartment taken tonight:

All in all another "fine" night Brisbane...

Uh oh

http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/there-goes-the-png-gas-pipeline/2006/10/05/1159641459484.html

Have a read of the above news article... Eos' (a joint venture between KBR and Worley Parsons) focus has been shifting from the "pipeline across the Torres Strait" to a possible LNG plant near Port Moresby... this has essentially resulted in a major demobilisation of our staff and left us with a team of under 30 to support Exxon's study into the LNG option. To date I have been one of the 30 left and told I would be here until December. For me, this means no more construction assignment on site in Papua New Guinea and a shorter stay in Brisbane than originally planned. However I've been told by Houston not to worry about long term employment as KBR has many other positions to send me to, so no worries there.

There is still the possibility that after this October-December period Exxon and it's partners will decide to go ahead with a LNG plant and monatise the gas is PNG that way... this would have a whole different set of ramifications that I can't speculate on right now...

In the meantime I suppose I just enjoy the next three months with my relatives visiting, the weather as it starts to heat up for summer, and the weekends... Heading to the Gold Coast this weekend and staying with a friend... the usual dose of surfing, golf, casino, and beachin'.

Save thousands on a trip to Africa

copy and paste this into your internet browser: mms://live.wildlife.wavelit.net/nk1957

Apparently it is a live web cam of a watering hole in Africa. If you're lucky you see a predator eat another unlucky animal. Credit to Bob.

Eagles Kill Swans

As if we didn't know already... but Eagles are way tougher than Swans. And yours truly was closest to guessing the final score spread and consequently won $0 because all the losers left before we could collect.

Also, the Brisbane Broncos beat the Melbourne Storm in the NRL grand final. No one at work liked my "Broncos weather Storm" analogy, but what do they know.

What else is happening? Oh yeah, I've watched seasons 1-3 of Scrubs and am currently on episode 5 of season 4. Needless to say I don't have cable, but have hooked up my laptop to my LCD t.v. with a DVI cable and it rocks. This coupled with a wireless keyboard and mouse. I'm a dork but google.com.au has never looked so good from my couch.

Australian'ism of the day:
ocker (adjective):- pronounced ocka, a stereotyped uncultivated or uncultured Aussie male who exhibits excessive drinking of alcohol, womanising, chauvinism, and worships the God called Footy! To call a female ocker is to suggest that she is somewhat butch. Similar to the US redneck. See also yobbo.