November 2011

No-see-ums: Those Pesky Biting Midges Are Back! thumbnail

My wife says I have ugly feet. Normally I’d disagree, but not today. Because today my feet are ugly, and painful, and itchy and, well, they look like this… Let’s take a closer look… Unhappy feet. This, as many of you will know, is the work of Ceratopogonidae. Or, as they are more commonly known, [...]

Eddie Izzard

…Including an Indian meal and a few beers. On the 28 April, 2008, Eddie Izzard performed a stand up show called “Stripped” for the first time. In 2009 he toured the UK with it and also created a recording for DVD release. In 2010, he took the same show to America and Canada. And just [...]

flag

Step One: Check here to see if you qualify to apply, and if you do, pay the fee. Ours cost $260 each. Step Two: Wait to hear the date of your Australian citizenship test from the Department of Immigration & Border Control. Step Three: Crack open a tinnie of your favourite beer and…. Step Four: [...]

Somewhere in Brazil, young lads would put their hand in a glove made of bullet ants and get stung repeatedly for 10 minutes. In Ethiopia, men are asked to jump over a herd of cows. The Kaningara Tribe of Papua New Guinea have patterns cut into their skin scarring them for life. And some women [...]

get ready

For me? Yes, a letter from the Premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh, for me. Although it has to be noted that the letter was addressed to “Fellow Queenslanders” and not me personally. It appears this same letter has gone to the other 4.3 million or so people that live in the state as well. But, [...]

If it doesn’t rain by tomorrow morning, and it’s your not looking like it’s going to, Brisbane will have recorded its driest start to November on record. The record it will beat is 18 days without rain in November of 1915. Apparently it was also quite dry back in 1842, but as Weather Channel meteorologist [...]

Lorikeet

Time for another reprint of one of my recent articles for Australia and New Zealand magazine. With impeccable timing, given the cockroach and snake posts of last week, today I’m going to be talking about Australia’s ‘other’ wildlife; the nice stuff. With articles like this, I have an advantage over the magazine, even if I [...]

Birthday

Well, for us it was. Four years ago on this very day, me, Mrs BobinOz and a very young Elizabeth landed at Brisbane International Airport and passed through customs as permanent residents of Australia. Now that we have been here for four full years, we are entitled to apply for Australian citizenship. I’ll tell you [...]