I had a fabulous day today–not that they aren’t all fabulous here in the land of kangaroos and koalas but some are more so!!! Took Chris into work this morning so I could have the car and to those of you who have been asking about his ear—keep praying!! It seems he must have something like swimmers ear called tropical ear where because of the moist (that is the nice word for it) weather it just never dries out. So since he is done with the antibiotics today it is off to the doctor he goes next Tuesday to hopefully get things looked at a little bit better. He is still having some pain and hearing loss so he does need to get it taken care of. He is going to a doctor that was recommended by a coworker so hopefully that will be “our” gp now!

I came back into Townsville and met Gillian and Anne for morning tea –the place we were to meet was closed due to illness so we walked up the street to a cute place called Betty Blue and Lemon Tarts or something like that and had a nice couple of hours catching up. Gillian, for those of you who don’t know, is the one who hosts the weekly craft group and since i have had such a hard time getting in there on Tuesdays it has been awhile since we have caught up on things. She is always really full of information that I need so I look forward to asking her things like where to get drycleaning done, where a good picture framer is, etc. Left there to go meet Ann, Janette and Belinda at a cafe on The Strand for lunch and we had a great time there too! Funny how we all have experienced a lot of the same things since we have been here. Belinda and I came about the same time, Ann moved here in January and Janette has been here 2 1/2 weeks so we are comparing notes on things which is great. Had a great lunch and went across the street for ice cream which was WONDERFUL! I chose a chocolate kind, had white shorts on, it was dripping over the sides of the cup and somehow I managed to not get a drop on me! Not quite sure how i did that because white is usually a magnet for me to have spaghetti sauce or whatever there is around on me.

I have to get my passport renewed as it expires in August so I have been trying to figure all of that out and thought I finally had it all together. Went to the bank because I had to have US funds to mail in with it as the exchange rate (and I don’t even want to talk about that right now!) fluctuates from day to day so much that by the time they recieved it if it was in Australian dollars it would not be right. So the girl and I muddled through it, I got the funds and headed to the post to get the appropriate envelopes to ship and have it returned to me. I double checked everything and sure hope that I have it all right. It goes to the US Consulate in Sydney so hopefully it will all be done and i won’t have lost the passport! Then when I get it back I have to get the Australian government to link my visa to it as it is linked to the old passport number. I am sure it won’t be a big deal —it is all done electronically but it is another thing to do!

I had about an hour before I had to pick Chris up so I finally went to the library and got my official library card!! You know I lived in Iowa longer than I have lived here and never even did that for some reason! Not sure why. I took all the right stuff with my name and address on it to show proof of living here so it was all good and I am now an official library card holder. I browsed and checked out a ton of books and had them recommend some Australian authors so we will see how that goes! But I guess the point is—I am feeling a little bit more settled.

Quiet weekend ahead–hope to go see “Slumdog Milliionaire” if we can find it on someplace and then Monday I will be watching the Academy Awards at noonish right along with you guys!!!