Budgies, Bikes and Kayaks

When we arrived in Brisbane with nine suitcases last year, I never would have imagined how much more stuff we would end up buying. Of course we needed furniture, dishes and cooking items, but within a year we have acquired five bicycles, a whole fleet of pirate ships, two budgies (parakeets), a blender, mini food processor, espresso maker, and now a folding kayak to be delivered to the US and taken back to New Zealand, Queensland and who knows where else.

Although the thought of such rampant consumerism makes me shudder, having such comforts does make us feel more settled. The budgies have become great pets. They now are reasonably well trained and will perch on my finger, come out of the cage, safely fly around the room, and even take baths on top of their cage. They don't like to be petted or cuddled like a cat, but, on the other hand, it's pretty easy to take them to the neighbors when we are gone away.

The bikes have also provided us, especially Mark, with countless hours of recreation. Owning both road and mountain bikes might seem a bit extreme, but it works pretty well. For example I can put paniers (saddle bags) on my mountain bike for going to the pool and shopping and go trail riding, but use my road bike for longer (20k +) rides around the city. Mark gets even more use out of both bikes. Using the mountain bike when it's wet out or if her gets up later and wants to ride in the shade of the forest.

It will be interesting to see how the kayaking works out. Ideally, it could be a reasonable alternative to sailing. There is an abundance of rivers, creeks, estuaries, and lakes around Brisbane that wouldn't be that well suited for a sail boat, and if we ever work our way up to overnight trips, there are lots of islands and water access only campgrounds in the area. Not that we've actually gone camping anywhere in Australia other than the backyard, but this whole first year has been spent figuring out where to go.

So far the plan is to stay almost another two years, so hopefully we'll get some camping in at some point.