Of Mice and Men

This is not a mouse

This is the First Australian Spider.  (technically the second, but I didn't get a photo of that one).  It is a lot larger in this photo than it was in real life - about thumbnail size.  I have no idea what type of spider it was, but it was a Spider.  And seeing it was an Australian Spider, and Some Australian Spiders Bite, and are Poisonous, I did not attempt to make its acquaintance.  I simply took a picture, and left.  Surprisingly, the Spider was still alive after this date.  I figured killing one would not particularly affect the population, so I didn't see the Point.

This is an Australian Idea of Edible Fungus.  I disagree with the previous statement, not so much about the Australian part, nor the Fungus part, but more about the adjective "Edible".

On a more edible topic, this is the Australian Idea of a Caramel Magnum Ego.  Yes, it was italicised on the package.

It had a surprisingly small amount of icecream in it, but an enormous amount of caramel, and a considerable amount of chocolate, which tasted an awful lot better than the Australian Cadbury's I encountered the other day.

It didn't quite look like a real Magnum from the outside either:

Instead it was rather smaller - considerably smaller - and a little misshaped.  However, what it lacked in appearance and size,  it made up for in taste and caramelisation.

I have come to the conclusion that although I could happily live without Australian Spiders, and will never never come in contact with an Australian Idea of Edible Fungus, the Australian Magnum is definitely something I will meet again.  Probably in the very near future.

TTFN!!!

A Little More Larry

We're often asked - sometimes asked - well, somebody asked me once, why don't you write a blog about flying.

Not quite.

More to the point, somebody asked me once, who's Larry, anyway?  Ahah!  A very valid question!  

This is one of the foolish cartoons that sticks with me from my childhood.  It seems to get more and more funny the older I get...  Not Veggie Tales in its entirety, but more the intermissions of Larry's Silly Songs. From 3:00 onwards is probably my favourite part. Usually incredibly well parodied.

Sort of gentle Weird Al Yankovic ish.

Another favourite:




This post had absolutely nothing to do with Australia.  And in making this statement, I have now said something about Australia, so the Oz Report is satisfied and I can go back to bed and sleep the last 2 hours before I have to get up for ATPL Law ...

TTFN !!!

EDITED: PS who knows where the initial quote comes from?
PPS who spent the last 6 minutes or so watching these?
PPPS if my lips said adios, I don't like you - I think you're gross, that'd be too bad, I'd be so sad.  HA!

Untitled

What more can I say?  Celebrations dot com

Red is the Colour

I tried really hard, honestly, I did.  To like yellow, that is.  Mainly because yellow is Dad's favourite colour.  I now have to admit that I have failed in this undertaking.

Red.  Undoubtably, this has got to be the best colour in the world.  It's warm, friendly, raging, kind, ferocious, cheery, insane, enthusiastic, maddening in its intensity.  It appears that the Ozzies share my love of red, at least in Brisbane.

The above picture doesn't do justice to the deep, vibrant red to be found inside the elevator in the hotel. I chose this particular picture not because of its qualities as a picture, which I'm sure you will all agree do not consist of much, but more because it contains a reflection of myself.  This is just to help you guys recognise that indeed it is me, myself and I who is writing this blog.  Im fairly sure that as that is the plural form of moi, it should read as "who are"...

MOVING ON!

The wall inside the training building...

And finally, not quite such a nice deep red, but red none-the-less, is the long tile wall inside the Ladies' at the training building.  Gentlemen, I introduce you to the once unseen depths of a Ladies' Toilet.  Well, what you can see of it in this photo, anyway... Ladies, I apologise (not overly sincerely) for making such a sacred female-only place a public image.

I wasn't going to write a post tonight.  I was going to get an early night after far too much swotting for the exam tomorrow.  However after lying in bed for an hour or so, I decided that this wasn't such a good idea after all, and that sharing my love of red would be much more enjoyable.  For me.

I don't like to overwhelm you all with too much info in one post, so I shall leave you with this parting piece of information.

Prices here are ridiculous.

For one bottle.  One measly 500ml bottle.  Cider, I'm afraid, is not going to feature much on my menu.

I didn't take this picture so much to show how high prices were, but more to show how awesome a price this is.  C assures me "it's because it's a Remy Martin!"  Whatever that means.

TTFN !!!

Chocolate

It's rank.  What more can I say ???

All animals are created equal

The day is day 3, and there we have it, in all its entirety.  I could finish this blog post there, or I could continue and give you all of the mouldy details , such as this photo that I took about half way through:

Let's see, how many books do we have for this subject
AIP
ERSA
CAR1988
CAOs
3 x charts
CPL Law text book

All, bar the text book, we are permitted to take into the exam, and we can highlight to our hearts content, and put 5 tags in the ERSA and 10 in the AIP.

Instead of the AIP, they have issued us with Jeppesen manuals, so all of the references in the textbook and  module exam papers refer to the AIP... and we must translate this and find the relevant paragraphs to highlight in our Jeppies.  During the exam we can refer to the books, and/or answer the questions alone - hopefully getting them right.  Pass rate is 80%, 40 questions in the exam, therefore 8 questions can be wrong.  Someone else calculated this, I'm too lazy to check it, so I am presuming its truth !

Today we left early - around 1530, as our brains were fried, and we thought a break and then some more swotting would be more profitable than dragging it out another couple of hours.

Current status... 9 module tests down, 1 to go, 2 practise exams down, 6 to go.  Myself and the 3 other victims of Friday's exam are meeting in my apartment at 2000, which is as good a reason as any to tidy this place up, although thankfully the cleaning person came today while I was gone !!  The official reason is to review the mock exams, although I wouldn't say a couple of beers would go amiss either.

News flash !!!  Australian Crunchies are WAY bigger than Irish ones.  I have not been brave enough to try one yet, but I think this could be in my near future.  I've bought a couple of Australian Cadbury's bars, but not eaten them just yet.

I still want to take photos of all of the different trees here.  The trees alone convince me that I am in a foreign country - not that I needed any convincing, but still.  Palm trees, eucalyptus, and lots that I don't know the name of are dotted between the skyscrapers, which tower over forty floors into the sky.  I know this, as our hotel reaches to 40 stories, and it is by no means the highest.  The birds are different too.   There is the occasional crane-type bird pecking away at the base of one of the afore-mentioned trees, its feathers white with a little grey, and a long curved black beak.  What looks like a wagtail only much much bigger - magpie sized, and beyond that who knows.  Seagulls, but we have those in Ireland, so I wasn't going to bring those up, except that otherwise you would think that there weren't any other birds.  No bugs as yet.  The bugs have stayed out of my apartment - I shouldnt say this too loud, otherwise they might hear and think I was looking for attention.

I have not forgotten apartment photos, but all these major photo shoots must wait until after my exam on Friday, which incidentally is at 1300EST.  One more day in class... and then... the execution.  If I should die, think only this of me... etc.

A box of grapes is almost the same price as a cucumber.  This is a random fact, but one I thought you should know.  Grapes are now the new cucumber, and shall be inserted into all dishes previously requiring cucumber, except for those involving tuna (I dont think that one would work too well).

Rob (our instructor) said to us yesterday that we should sit at the same table, the four of us.  So that we could be the Number One Priority.  Apparently this doesn't make any difference except that we can confer amongst ourselves as to where an item is found in the endless mounds of text.  I've sighted him once or twice in the distance with the binoculars that I brought along for this purpose...

Right !!!  Enough waffling for now - "we don't have time for this!" as Rob would say.

TTFN !!!

Nothing To Report

Well... another day at the office.  While we've been inside, the weather has been doing this:

And no, those are not clouds, they are reflections.  Just in case you wondered about this strange Australian phenomenon...

It's been a long day 2...  I didn't sleep well last night - ending up reading CAR1988 from about 0130 to 0300... which was profitable in one way, but not in another!  Turns out only 4 of us will be sitting the exam on Friday - me and 3 others, as there are not enough manuals to go 'round.

I think i wasn't the only one to find it tiring:

Sorry about the REALLY boring post today - but I'm exhausted, and got to get back to the books for another hour or two ...

I'll do a proper picture post at the weekend - promise !!!

TTFN!

PS: and I set the fire alarm off two consecutive days...