Winter in Newcastle

Good afternoon, all. I made a bold statement a few months ago, alleging that I would post on the blog once a week, a promise that was broken exactly one week after my last post. I apologize for that, and I hereby announce I'll make no such claim again in the near future. Done and done.

As the rain again falls here in Newcastle, the Queen city of New South Wales, I'm reminded again that winter began five days ago on the first of June. We've had exactly two sunny days in the last three weeks and when you live in a city that revolves around the beach you're hard-pressed to come up with original plans for the weekend days. Venturing a guess, I would say that the top five google searches on our computers have been...

1. Fiji cheap awesome deal

2. Hawaii military special cheap awesome deal

3. Vanuatu

4. Cook Islands cheap

5. cheap fares from Newcastle (to anywhere)

Now we have to slap ourselves every once in awhile, remembering that we're in gosh darn Australia, living the dream of every young couple in the USA. We love it, couldn't be happier (the rain is responding to my typing by beginning to torrentially downpour - how is the lawn still yellow?!?), and we really are lucky that we're in a stable place, I'm not deploying for months on end, and we have the ability to explore one of the most amazing places on earth. Speaking of that, Nina's folks (Brad and Leigh, we can't wait for you to get here!) arrive in less than two weeks and we jet off to sunny (I may have just jinxed the trip) Port Douglas, Queensland with them in three weeks to explore the Great Barrier Reef, Daintree Rain Forest, and hopefully spot a few crocs to boot. Should be loads of fun and be a chance for me to get some color in my paling complexion. We're looking to play the rest of the trip by ear, but it will be a great chance to catch up and get some time off of work.

Work has been good, and I've been here and there since my last post, spending the majority of time local with a trip to Adelaide for a week, flying in support of some special forces teams. I'll be packing my bags after Nina's folk's leave and heading to the Northern Territory for a bi-yearly exercise called "Pitch Black" to fly for about a month. Following that I'm taking a week off and Nina's flying up to Darwin so we can cruise the outback, looking to explore Kakadu National Park and some other outback locales. Hopefully we won't get eaten by any stray crocs. Seriously, you can't go in any water up there that has any connection to the ocean, lest you desire to make yourself a dinner special for those things. We're looking forward to it!

All right, back to some taxes (we get a 2 month reprieve from the April 15th deadline being out of country and I'm using all 60 days). I'll post soon-ish, and I hope everyone back in the US of A has a great summer!!!