Yeesh, we’ve been slacking on the blogging lately. Since our last post, there have been a few adventures.

Fiji:

Sara’s company was celebrating it’s 20th anniversary and to do so in style, they took the whole company (including families) to Fiji for Easter weekend.  It’s was a short (3.5 hours) direct flight for us from Brisbane, woo.  All expenses were paid, so there was much eating and drinking!  Our room was a ocean view Bure (Fijian style villa) and it was wonderful.

There was a bit of stress with a category one cyclone passing near us on the second night.  It was very windy and quite loud, not an experience I’d like to repeat.  The next morning, we awoke to a lot of standing water and quite a bit of debris that washed ashore.

So that was a bit more excitement than we bargained for, but the rest of our time there was quite enjoyable and relaxing.

Sports:

In the summer we made it to a NBL basketball game and a T20 cricket match. Now that the seasons have changed, there were some different sports on offer – including a quadrennial competition, so it was time for more!

First, the Commonwealth Games were coming to the Gold Coast.  We decided the best option would be to pick a sport that we would otherwise never see live and then make a day out of a trip to the Gold Coast (which is about 1.5 hours away, but the event ticket includes free train travel).  After narrowing down our options to Squash, Weightlifting or Badminton – we decided on Badminton!  But first, time for beers!

We live just down the road from Suncorp stadium, which is the rectangular stadium used for rugby and soccer.  We chose to go see the Brisbane Broncos play – they are a rugby league team.  When we were in Melbourne went to a rugby union game.  Don’t ask me what the rule differences are, because I have enough trouble following the game.  I think rugby league is meant to be the more exciting of the two.  It certainly has a much larger professional league in Australia.  Unfortunately, the Broncos lost.

The Brisbane Lions are the local Aussie rules football team.  They play at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, otherwise know as the Gabba (it is in the suburb of Woolloongabba). They’ve been pretty terrible the last few years and are doing about the same this year (currently 17th out of 18 teams).  Unsurprisingly, the Lions lost.

USA Trip:

As I’m always up for an excuse to travel across the world, I decided I’d join my mates for the annual golf trip to North Carolina again this year.  This year we were treated to glorious weather with the courses all in great condition.  Our golf skills remain as mediocre as ever.

I combined the golf trip with a stopover in California to see my mom and brother both coming and going.  Jeff and I even managed to sneak in a round of golf.

I also stopped in to see my friend Mike in SC.   Shockingly there is no photo evidence of the time I spent with Mike in South Carolina.  We played golf and ping pong,  ate tacos, grilled steaks, drank beer and sat in disbelief as the Caps actually beat the Penguins in the NHL Playoffs.  It was a good time.

Brisbane:

We are still loving the Brisbane weather.  The autumn / winter here has been pretty great.  Still shorts weather and days full of sunshine.

I’m still golfing with my Australian mates as well.