Saturday, December 24, 2005

Twelve Days of an Aussie X-mas

Here's our version of the 12 days of Christmas, Aussie style (plus explanations; could be sung along to the popular Christmas carol, but that is not encouraged!)

Twelve Roaches Scurrying

Regular readers of our blog know that this needs no further description. Note that when the temperature exceeds 40 C, the little buggers start to FLY!

Eleven Lorikeets Singing

Very pretty, very colorful little, very loud birds that awake at first light (5:30am!)

Ten Roos a Jumping

The Roos actually hop.

Nine Wombats Scratching

Wombats are famous for sleeping on their backs and scratching. Since they are nocturnal, the only thing you ever really get to see them do during the day is scratch. (Wombats, by the way, are the closest living relative to the koala.)

Eight Bowlers Bowling

We had to get a cricket reference in here somehow.

Seven Black Swans a Swimmin'

There are many swans in Sydney, and they are all black. They live in Centennial Park were Nick plays baseball.

Six Koalas Sleeping

Now that I have pet a koala (at the very cool Featherdale Wildlife Park), I can claim that I am a koala expert. Koalas sleep up to 18 hours a day, and spend the other 6 hours eating Eucalyptus. Koalas are soft and cuddly, and we're figuring out how to kit out the bathroom to make it hospitable to a little marsupial. The koala is not endangered, so it is ok to pet, right?

Five Golden Chips


Mmm... even after the chip moratorium, we still occasionally enjoy a fried potato.

Four Kookaburras

The kookaburra sounds surprising like a monkey, they eat fish and have been known to steal food off the BBQs.

Three Echidnas Sniffing

My favorite animal, the echidna sniffs out ants and grubs and slurps them up.

Two Fruit Bats

The bats are very happy this time of year -- lots of bugs and lots of fruit.

One Tawny Frogmouth in a Eucalyptus Tree

The Tawny Frogmouth is my new favorite bird. They blend into the environment, looking a lot like a tree branch. They're very cute and very soft, and we got to hold one at the Wildlife Park.

We hope you all have a Merry X-mas and Happy New Year!

posted by Peggy C. at 7:12 PM

Monday, December 19, 2005

The Bat and Ball

Both Peggy and I have wrapped up our respected sporting leagues for the year, her having completed Cricket and myself, baseball. We will reconvene in a month or so for a few more weeks of play and the finals, but the majority of the season is behind us.

Australia's oldest baseball club, the Waverly Waves, is reeling somewhat. After starting off fairly strong, we've dropped four in a row. I seem to be the only one (literally, most weeks) who makes a point showing up for practice. We just don't play together well as a team come weekend.

Funny story about the Waves, the club is organized and coached by two brothers, Ray and Lew Elbourne. Their great grandfather was one of the founding members of the team, having played in 1898. Since then, each generation of the Elbourne family has played on the squad. At one point (the last year the Waves went all the way) they had six out of the nine starting squad from one family: a dad, his three sons, a cousin and an uncle. To add to that, the remaining three players were all brothers from a different family.

I get to see glimpses of Australia that I normally wouldn't get to see through the Waves. Lew is a craps dealer at the casino, whereas Ray is a carpenter and both guys are extremely colorful. When looking at their baseball throwing mechanics, it is something out of those old, grainy 8mm newsreels from the early 1900's. Very stiff, deliberate and fundamentally proper, not to mention fascinating to watch. Sometimes their mother comes and sits with us in the dugout and tries to mediate her son's often heated arguements on how to manage the team, leaving myself and the Japanese players awkwardly twiddling our thumbs.

Peggy won her Twilight Twelves cricket league and received a genuine trophy for her efforts. Twighlight Twelves is played in the course of a few hours (as opposed to a few days) and has been a good way to get some exercise during the week. We're fortunate enough to practice on the same field every Thursday night, of course I am usually standing alone waiting for anybody else with a baseball glove to show up. Will try out for the University squad in March to see if their organization is any better.

Peggy has been bowling a bit and I've been pitching a bit. We both suck royally, but have flashes of greatness every now and then.

posted by ncawthon at 6:43 PM