Grants and Rants

Hi everyone!

Just to let you know I AM still alive, but I have been busy writing a grant. That goes in on Monday so I should become more sociable again. :)

In other news I would just like to say don't ever ever use DHL as a courier because the are the most useless people in the world!
We had problems with them in Canada so I almost didn't use them again, but foolishly I thought it might be different here. BUT NO!
They apparently tried to deliver it when I was HERE, and there was no little note left. AND they have no phone numbers on the web. So I sent a little message through their web site asking them to give me contact details for the local people. The guy was very apologetic, but didn't give me any phone number. So I tried to stay home a little later today, and missed them by an hour! Again NO NOTE, but they did leave a phone number so I range them up. They were very NICE, but said it was their policy only to make two delivery. AND WHERE THE HELL IS THE NOTE?? Lumpy thinks they are trying to deliver to the wrong place (despite having our address correct). It's true we are a little hard to find, but a two different sets of delivery people as well as Australia post manged to find us. In short, THEY SUCK.

Ok, I'm done now. Back to the grant. :P

Wildlife

So it seems that we've moved into some sort of bird sanctuary.

These are rainbow lorikeets and I don't believe I've ever seen them so tame. Someone around here must be feeding them regularly. They showed up at our balcony this afternoon and more or less demanded to be fed something. Rachel has a grape which one particularly bold lorikeet is eating out of her hand here.

Our new place is really cool! It backs onto the Lane Cove National Park - which is part of the reason why the wildlife is right on top of us. We've also seen and heard the kookaburras:

and currawongs

and other wildlife...

all from our living room balcony.

Wot? No more grapes?

Bye!

B

A quick update

Hi there

We still don't have internet at home yet, so just a quick one...

I've started at work at the Sydney ABS office and all's well. Rachel started at Macquarie Uni too. We're just in that inbetween stage where we are living in a mostly unfurnished house, and we're slowly acquiring things. Our new futon arrived on Friday so at least we've got something comfortable to sleep on (we had been sleeping on spare matresses that Rachel's folks brought up from Canberra - and may I say how much easier it is to do this when parents are within driving distance!).

We should get the net within the next week or two - Telstra just have to send us the new ADSL modem.

Anyway, now we're going shopping for a couch! It will be better when there's somewhere other than the carpet to sit on!

At least we have a great view over the Lane Cove National Park - we could hear the kookaburas laughing last night which was good!

Bye!