Beauty all around...

Here's a shot of the countryside just out the back of our house. We were on the way to horse riding so took some shots of the rice fields. This is a very beautiful time of year...the new bright green colours of new leaves and freshly planted rice fields are breathtaking sometimes. In a month this field will be so green you won't be able to see the water at all. Now is 'frog season'...when you pass these fields in the evening the sound of the ribbiting frogs is almost deafening! One of the reasons I love going to horse riding is the beautiful scenery we pass on the way to get there. It reminds me so much of the roads I used to drive out the back of Howick...before all those houses were built there! Minus the rice fields of course! I love the feeling of freedom driving past all that nature!

The Wierder....

What's the new Pepsi flavour?? Anyone guess?? I heard one good guess, 'lettuce'...mmmm, just as gross but the answer was Cucumber!! Yuk!
Can you believe it???
But I haven't tried it so I can't really judge....

The Wierd...

Pizza Quiz.

And the winner is....
Well, what can I say?? You guys are so much fun!! I really enjoyed reading your fun answers. Some of you really got into it. I hope you had fun guessing!
The answer is...MELON.... huge chunks of it!
Disappointed?? Well, I was shocked to see it come around the table that's for sure! How did it taste? Well, it wasn't awful....just a little like eating dessert with cheese on it! Mmmm...I am one who dips her fries into her chocolate sundae at McDonalds so maybe I'm not a good judge of taste...but everybody else said it was good too! Not something I would order again..but I survived! hehe... The shocking part (for me) is that when I told Shibby the answer..he was really disappointed..he said, 'But that is so ordinary'! on pizza?? ok......
So who won??
Kris! You finally guessed Melon!
Robyn, you were clever to come up with Canteloupe, but that's the ORANGE melon!!
Your mum Carolyn caught on quick and got it with 'Honey Dew Melon'...on the nail!...maybe you two should share?? hehe.
Look forward to your Choc coming in the mail! Congratulations!!
Ready to play again??? There's a new Pespi Cola out now with the wierdest flavour.......!

The Wonderful...

Some of you may think the rainy season sounds horrible...but it does bring it's pleasures. You may be wondering what the yellowish/green blob is in the picture on the left...? It's my pathetic attempt at getting a picture of a FIRE FLY! With the rain come the fire flies. This picture of course doesn't do them justice. There are thousands of them all flying around the river, and they look like mini shooting stars. Quite mesmerising! They fly around so gently and their lights fade on and off in a pulse, it feels like magic! The kids love to catch them. Often they just fly into your hands. Of course, we don't take them home because they only live one night or two and need to find their mate before morning.
We have a river just below our house that has a few, but the river near Erinn's (about 10 mins away) is so full of them! The locals have taken pains to preserve the river just for the fire flies. If any of you are in the area around June I would LOVE to take you!

Culture in a nutshell......ok, or a huge space capsule...(?)

OK, here's something to write. Today is the first day of the rainy season. How do I know? No, not because I saw my first centipede in the house (that was last year), no, not because I can see fireflies zipping around my house (they live in the river...and I don't have one of those in my garden). And the most obvious of them all....NO, not because it is raining. Actually, it IS raining, and it's definitely the rainy-season rain, the way it falls so gently so as not to disturb, and the way the sky is a bright gray colour all day, and the way the humidity in the air builds up so that you sweat uncomfortably and when it finally rains you breathe a sigh of relief because at least the rain brings a muggy breeze. But those are not the reasons I KNOW it's the rainy season. I know because they announced it on the news this morning....and my neighbour was gardening in the rain so I said 'working in the rain today are we?'..and she said, 'yeah, it will be raining a while from now on so....' . So, that settles it. Cultural update: everything about the weather is announced on the news here. Oh sure, back home they tell us the weather too, but here it is a little more detailed. I mean it had been raining all week last week and I asked someone, 'So has the rainy season started?' and they replied, 'No, not yet.' I asked, 'How do you know?'. She said, 'Because they haven't announced it on the news yet.'. So there you go. The news caster will also tell you when to change your clothes. If you come here in May you will see a lot of Japanese walking around with long sleeves, even though the temperature is 30 degrees Celsius. This is because the news caster hasn't told them to change to their summer clothes yet. I am one of the ones who gets into her no-sleeve shirts at the slightest hint of sun, so they are continuously asking me, 'Aren't you cold?'......?? I have given up replying 'IT'S 30DEGREES!!', because I know they just want me to conform to the gospel of the weatherman. I can tell you it really freaks them out when my dad comes over in December (winter here) and walks around in shorts and t-shirts. Personally, I think it is just an Aussie pride thing...he he!
So, this next month we should get all our rain for the summer and the rice fields will soak most of it up.

Off to a good start!

Ok, so I started this page and got writer's block straight away...typical....
You'll just have to wait until I think of something funny to say. Once I get going it wont stop so then who'll be complaining...??!!!