AussiePics 1: It Works!!!!

At long last the pictures are here! The text is terse at the moment, but at least you can see the photos. We'll try to add a bit more text as time passes. This is already better. Photos were taken at various resolutions, and were scaled down to 640 pixels in the long direction. Thumbnails are 180 pixels wide or high. Full resolution files are available if you want to print one out or search for hidden wisdom in the jpeg compression artifacts.

First roll of "film"

Pre-Trip Fun

Jon and his camera, and
All of us playing Settlers of Catan!

The Trip

In Dulles preparing for departure.
More of the same.
A nice sunset on our way out to LA.
Laura during our delay in LA.
Charles during our delay in LA.
Charles wears silly earplugs.
Filling out customs forms prior to landing in Australia.

Mannix

On our arrival we stayed in Mannix College, a residential college run by the Dominicans, and just opposite a main entrance to Monash. Our room was very nice and had a great view of one of the courtyards. Everyone was very friendly, and it was a great way to spend our first week in Australia.

The House We Didn't Choose

We looked primarily at two houses, agonized a little bit, and decided this one was just a bit too close to the freeway, and a bit too large. Nice floors though, and very well-maintained.

Our House on Highview

So here's our house for hopefully the next couple of years.
The yard.
The Kitchen (Left of the entrace, blends with LR)
The Living Room (Left of the entrance)
The Hallway (facing diagonally right from the entrance). Bedrooms off to the sides.
The Bath (down the end of the hallway on the right)

Moving in....

The light side...

So that's why it's called Oz?

The Dark Side...

First a nice picture of the yard at night. Then...
This was the smaller of the two (three?) spiders we encountered soon after arriving. Charles still doesn't like looking at this photo unless its in a very small window. Still, it is a nice photo. We haven't found any on the glass since then. One in the mailbox, one on the frame of a window, but none posing quite like this....

FlutyPflushka?

David will understand.

Botanical Gardens

Our second weekend in the house we went into the city centre and toured the botanical gardens. They're great, and we will go back in the Spring. Most impressive were the flying foxes. There were thousands. (Actually, they've become a nuisance and are being exterminated, partly because of infection.) So we were grinning and pointing and shouting, "Bats! Bats! In broad daylight!" The last photo of course is of interest to philosophers, as its title reveals.