What a ripper....

......another famous saying from the late Steve Irwin and another trip to his home at Australia Zoo, this time with Mum and Chris.

Thought this was an appropriate phrase for this kangaroo who took great pleasure in scratching his armpits!

And on this visit (my 5th!) I saw Terri Irwin, although unfortunately not to speak to as she was driving in her car (a very nice one at that) out of the zoo. Better luck next time!

Feeling old...

........because one my little girls turned 10 today!

It really doesn't seem like 10 years ago that I held her in my arms for the first time.

I remember people telling me back in those days of sleepless nights and dirty nappies, that I was to enjoy every moment becuase 'they grow up fast you know'. Now I DO know.

Anyway, we celebrated earlier in the week with a meal at Lone Star steak house and Grace took a friend from school. Grace was suitably embarrassed by Lone Star staff with her free dessert and Happy Birthday song sang by the waiters and waitresses!

Crocs rule!

.........is a famous saying by the late Steve Irwin!

At the weekend we had Simon staying with us from New Zealand (a friend whom Kevin and I worked with in the UK), so we all went to Australia Zoo for the day. We have been a few times and love the place. Simon was keen to see it whilst he was here in Brisbane.

We had a great day seeing all the animals: elephants, koalas, kangaroos, and of course the crocs. Although I've seen this show about four times now, it doesn't cease to amaze me:

Crikey mate!!

With thanks to Simon for the awesome photo!

Aussie Aussie Aussie......almost..

Today Kevin and I took a trip into Brisbane CBD to the department of immigration where we were able to take the first step to becoming Australian citizens. The first criteria for us was that we had to have lived in Australia for two years. We had been here two years back in December 2005, but if you take off the 28 days I had out of the country for our holiday to New Zealand and my trip back to England, then we didn't actually meet the '2 year' criteria until early January of this year. I booked our tests at that time and because of the huge numbers of people wanting to become Aussies, we couldn't sit our tests until today. This wasn't a bad thing though as we had a 48 page booklet to read and study in preparation for the test.

It started with a 15 minute 'interview' where we had to hand over our birth certificates, marriage certificate, passport, visa etc (to a man who could hardly speak English, let alone understand it!!! I thought this was very silly in a citizenship application area, where we have to sit a test to prove we understand the language!!!). After this we had our photos taken (mine had to be done twice as the man said my head was not straight!!!!) After all the paperwork was done we were given a secure code to type into the computer in the test room. We entered the test room and it was all quiet....I soon put an end to the silence with my giggles as the first question on my test asked what the responsibilities were of an Australian citizen and one of the multiple choice answers was 'to hold a gun'!!!!

Kevin was asked if 'Star spangled banner' was the national anthem, but he was able to control his laughter unlike me. Anyway, after 7 minutes I'd answered all 20 questions and was rewarded with a pass mark of 85%. Kevin got 100% on his SECOND!!! attempt.

Next step is to hand in our applications for citizenship, then we have a waiting time of about 3 months for a ceremony.....so, watch this space!