Bugs, waterslides, cockatoos and good weather.

Interesting things have been happening over the past couple of days. Some of which are good, and others which would be better classified as 'not so good'.

We're really happy to be in our new apartment, however we have been faced with a challenge most Canadians are not accustom to. Australia has cockroatches.
They are big and gross and disgusting. We're invested in a serious stock pile of bug repellent and traps and have been reading up on how to live with these creepy things. Mostly this involves keeping the place very clean. We can't leave dishes in the sink and crumbs have to be cleaned off the counter. We're bought cocking to re-trim the countertops and fill any holes in between tiles. A few days ago we did a pretty serious clean and extermination and we haven't seen anymore bugs inside since. We fully expect that there will be more (Apartments/buildings are not well sealed here) but, we are resolving to do the best we can to keep clean and try to keep our cools. We've talked to locals who say that they're just unavoidable. They're even in the more posh buildings.

Another not so good thing is that all of the temps at Jeff's work got let go, so we are currently jobless. However there are lots of part-time gigs in Manly. We'll take what we can get. I'm actually allowed to apply for my working visa now, so hopefully we'll have some luck soon.

The last not so good thing is that I (tia) got bit by a cockatoo at the Royal Botanical Gardens yesterday. We were taking pictures of them on our arms (Jeff went first and he was fine) but my cockatoo thought that my pinky finger looked delicious or something and proceeded to try to open me up like a nut. Jeff took some pictures which you can all see once we're home. Why is it that I'm the only one having issues with the native wildlife?

Some good things are:
-We saw some GIANT bats at the gardens. They were awesome. We also saw a lot of neat parrots and birds and plants that we don't have in Canada.
-Tomorrow, we're going surfing at Bondi again.
-We went bodyboarding and had a riot.
-We went to the Manly art gallery.
-We discovered that there are waterslides right across the road from us.
-We tried vegemite. It's good and salty. I think it'd be nice with avocado.
-Amazing race starts tonight and we actually get that station. (Australian TV is hilarious. We're sure that most locals probably think it's lame, but to us, it's great.
"I love the short tail shrew. It's got short hair and a short tail. Awwwwsome"
Maybe it's just the accent.