Saturday, May 29, 2010
My first post
I figured I'd start things off. I got transferred here last December 2009 for two years and after much arm-twisting (not) Debbie agreed to come along. The cats agreed as well. Given that two of my old Marine buddies are married to Australians we already had some contacts here. Plus, I lived in Tasmania for about four months in 1986-87 (that's another story), so it wasn't unfamiliar (although it's a little more sophisticated now). All in all, it's great here.
My philosophy here is to let family and friends know what we have been doing. I had been sending out periodic e-mails with photos but those got cumbersome and clogged peoples' in boxes and some servers wouldn't accept such a large e-mail or thought it was spam and sent it to the junk file.
People have been telling me I should have a blog, now I do, so Herr Kleinert, you can sleep now.
Also, I realize that some of the captioning may look askew or not be lined up perfectly - I'm still learning this. I had it all perfect and then I decided to make the font bigger and it changed the spacing on everything. And since I leave tomorrow for a trip out of the country, I don't have time to fix it.
My intention is to post photos from our adventures or to note things we find interesting, such as some of the Australian marketing/packaging that is either unintentionally hilarious or simply makes you wonder "what were they thinking?" There will also be the obligatory sunset and sunrise shots, the countryside, trees, strange animals, and lots of pictures of Debbie walking up steep slopes or in front of waterfalls (I have a weakness for those types of shots). It's hard to take a bad picture here, frankly - there is so much natural beauty.
Thus far, we have been to Alice Springs (stabbing capitol of Australia, if you go there you'll get an idea why), Ayers Rock/Uluru, Kings Canyon, The Olgas, the Kangaroo Valley, Sydney several times, most of Tasmania (when my brother Jim visited), and many of the local sights in around Canberra.
And yes, there are kangaroos everywhere. At dusk it's a toss-up between hitting them or the wombats with your car. In fact, a few weeks back I sent out an e-mail entitled "Wombaticus Deadicus" in which I challenged folks to determine which picture was of a dead wombat and which was of my cat Kismet - it's not that easy.
For those of you who have seen my e-mails, I will be going back and incorporating those into this blog. I will try and keep things organized so you can see what we have been up to but can also always go back to your old favorites (if you're spending time doing that, you need to get out of the house).
Anyway, I don't know how long this will last, but everybody else seems to be doing it, so who am I to argue with conformity?
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Chuck - your blog is wonderful! And of course Debbie is as beautiful as always. As usual, your wit and charm come to the fore. I can't tell you how much the wife and I are looking forward to dinner with you tonight at The Lodge!
ReplyDeleteAnd I promise not to serve Foster's this time - awful stuff.
All the best,
Kev
Kevin Rudd
Prime Minister of Australia
Chuck! I thought you were having dinner with US tonight! The kangaroo has been marinating all weekend!
ReplyDeleteTony
The Honourable Tony Abbott
Leader of the Opposition
Colonel & Mrs. Colonel...
ReplyDeleteWe knew you could do it...!!! Brilliant bipartisan beginning...Rudd & Abbott...together at last...in your very own corner of the blogosphere! This accomplished, will you next nosh Brown & Cameron, or tackle regional tough-talkers, Kim Jong-il and Lee Myung-bak? Throw an extra Roo on the Q. Can't wait to see who's next! Oh, wait...who's on first. What's on second? Blog-on!
BTW...perfect pic for your launch! CONGRATS!
...whk
Chuck -
ReplyDeleteWho's this Kleinert fellow? Sounds a bit dodgy to me. By the way, we've moved didgeridoo chorus practice to Tuesday night - don't forget you promised to bring one of Debbie's apple pies for the after-practice buffet! And don't forget to work on your circular breathing - I found that tape on Mongolian nose-music to be enormously helpful to me - just remember I need it back (I promised the Obamas a little recital when they come).
Cheers -
John
Senator John Faulkner
Minister of Defense
P.S. - you'll have to stop hanging things in your office - the facilities people are complaining about the holes in the walls. I know you need a place to hang all those citations and things, but what with the Strategic Reform Program underway we can't afford any more repairs just now. And the black light and the Jimi Hendrix poster have GOT to go. You can keep the lava lamp however.
Chuck,
ReplyDeleteThe Blog is great! The picture of the you and Debbie beautiful. Am looking forward to all the posts.
Take care!
Andi
Love the picture of Kismet cave painting! Just love the whole blog.
ReplyDeleteChuck - You may be Australia's best new promo guy. Forget NYC, Portland and SF, as soon as we get some big white american sneakers and fanny packs, and rattle out the piggy banks we'll be on our way!
ReplyDeletePS How do we ferry the Winnebago over?
Love to you both, Marianne and Jeff
So fun! Thank you for putting this together -- I could do without the spiders and snakes, however. Bleh!
ReplyDeleteDid you know, or maybe I'm making it up, that Jan's parents ran the restaurant at the top of the tower for something like 20 years... Or was that the snack bar at the war memorial...
Katie