Hindmarsh Island, South Australia

My good friends Ana and Paulo, who live in Slovenia currently, sent me a surprise box of goodies for my birthday.

The box looked like it had been round the world as it was showing some wear. Australian Customs had also opened it and inspected the items inside. Some foodstuffs (like some types of teas) are prohibited in Australia so they were doing a good job in checking.

I resisted the temptation of opening it at the post office and I was very eager to finish the shopping and get back home. I also was wondering if it was 'booby trapped' with sparkles and sprinkles. I have caught out both of them by putting glitter stars and sprinkles in envelopes when I have sent them cards.

The first thing to great me was a card on top, then the Australian quarantine pamphlet telling me that nothing had been removed or confiscated by them and what was prohibited in coming into Australia.

The box was packed tightly with a wonderful selection of goodies and all in Slovenian language, which I can't read. Luckily the pictures were self-explanatory as to what the contents were.

I was like a kid in a lollie shop.

Inside was 2 boxes of herbal tea. One looks like a rosehip and the other mixed berries. There was a large block of chocolate, lots of tubs of honey, some ground coffee, a cinnamon (I think) cake topping (at least I think that is what it is because there is a diagram of a cake slice on the label), two boxes of chocolates and two sachets of chocolate spread (I was guessing).

And rounding it all off was a funny birthday card with a great message from Paulo and Ana about being sweet. Ahhhhhh

I made myself a tea from the berries packet, this was beautiful and a deep red colour. As part of my lunch (I ate a healthy wrap first) I opened each of the packet chocolates and had one each and then I just couldn't resist but I opened the sachet of two-toned chocolate and ate that very slowly with a small spoon.

I am in heaven. Thank you my dear friends for my birthday gifts.

Paulo and Ana are the reason for one of my obsessions hobbies which is postcard exchange through Postcrossing.

Tags: ana, birthday, chocolate, gifts, paulo, slovenia
Posted in Comment of the Day, Family, Postcards, World around us |  | 1 Comment »

Without much notice and with a minimum of fuss there is a high-rise apartment complex developing next door to where I live on Hindmarsh Island.

A couple of years ago there was only one pair of residents – Black Ravens (or commonly called Black Crows) and they had what I thought was the penthouse, they went about their business without much fuss or bother and with only a little bit of noise from their children. Then about 2 years ago a new set of residents – White-faced Herons who moved in on a lower level and they were very peaceful neighbours. They were joined by another couple of White-faced Herons who set up house just across the way from the first couple.

In the last months a fourth set of residents – Goshawks have set up house in the complex and they have very noisy children. You can hear them from houses away. They went even higher that the Ravens and have the super penthouse location.

Yesterday a group of very noisy visitors descended upon the apartment complex and made more noise than all the residents combined. The Corellas perched at the top of the Norfolk Island Pine tree next door and not a peep was heard from any of the resident babies.

Tags: australia, bird, corella, goshawk, heron, hindmarsh island, raven, tree
Posted in About Hindmarsh Island, Environment, World around us |  | 1 Comment »

Take 12 photos on the 12th day of the month. This is my day on 12th August 2010.
David and I did a trip to Murray Bridge (over 100km away from home) for a car repair. While the car was being fixed we found some geocaches (and didn't find one), saw a bunyip which is 'out of order'. I think the sign should say 'out of water' as his lair was waterless and he was just sitting there glaring at us and not roaring.

This is a project by Chad Darnell
And is adopted and promoted by Podcacher.com

Tags: 12of12, car, geocaching, Murray Bridge, Photography, podcacher
Posted in Comment of the Day, GPS Games, Photography |  | 1 Comment »

12th July 2010 was a Monday and Apty was on holidays and was interested in going to the regular geocaching pub lunch in Adelaide. FlitterbyG had finally given in to our geocaching obsession and joined and she came along too. Apty's son Tom was also in our group. FlitterbyG found her first geocache, which was very exciting. The group of us found (and didn't find) some geocaches on our way home from the city. We dropped FlitterbyG off at home and then had some drama with Apty's car boiling.

This is a project by Chad Darnell – 12 of 12
And is adopted and promoted by Podcacher.com

Tags: 12of12, australia, Photography, podcacher
Posted in Comment of the Day, GPS Games, World around us |  | 1 Comment »

Take 12 photos on the 12th of each month. This is my day on 12th June 2010.

We were away camping and at a Geocaching event at Jamestown for the long weekend.

This is a project by Chad Darnell  and is adopted and promoted by Podcacher.com

Tags: 12of12, Photography, podcacher
Posted in Comment of the Day, GPS Games, Photography |  | No Comments »