Due to a quirk in the billing system, I have free electricity until tomorrow.

Sleeping with all the aircons on tonight!

I unpacked my suitcase last week, four months after arriving in Australia.

Yup, I finally found somewhere to live!

And it’s awesome.  A three story townhouse, two big bedrooms, two bathrooms (an ensuite from my room), two balconies (one from my bedroom, and one from the living room).  Five minutes walk from the beach, 20 minutes walk from the city centre.  I love it!

it also has geckos.  They live in the gap behind the cooker and come out at night when they think i’m in bed.  I catch them hanging out on my walls and ceiling if I come upstairs late on.  One of them always runs for cover when he sees me, the other freezes hoping i don’t see him there.  I love my new geckos.

for anyone who’s interested, here’s a few pics of my new place!

The last few mornings when I’ve been leaving for work, there’s been a spider lurking.  Waiting for me.  Right outside my front door.

Being in Australia, it could be a deadly killer death spider, or a harmless little fella.  I have no idea.  But every night he builds a big web in front of my door, and uses my ute to anchor it.

Every morning I break the web as I drive the ute away.  Or have to break it to just get to the vehicle.

The spider just hangs there, but I can see the resentment in it’s glare.

Yesterday I decided I needed to do something about the spider before it decided to do something about me.  I set down my spider-getting equipment by the front door, where I could grab them on my way out the next morning.

With my plan vaguelly established in my head, I went to bed, looking for a good nights sleep before the oncoming arachnoid battle.

This morning I woke up, fully refreshed, and ready to rumble.  Opened my eyes.  And saw, sat on the pillow about a foot from my head, the spider.

Lurking.  Waiting for me.  I could see the resentment in it’s glare.

We fought, I won. (I took full advantage of my extra weight and reach)(ninJA)(alltho I did suffer a nasty bite to my leg which continues to swell up as the day goes on).

Australia is full of spiders, I know I can’t prove it was the same one from the front door.  But I think it speaks for itself that when I left for work twenty minutes later, there was no spider outside the front door.

In the last few entries I’ve glossed over the dangers of crocs etc, concentrating more on the dangers of hose pipes and ceiling fans.  However, with all the flooding currently ongoing.  Deadly snakes and crocs are getting washed out of their rivers and creeks, and ending up in people back yards.

A quote from the local paper:

Several crocodiles have been seen swimming through local streets, while a deadly brown snake shocked drivers waiting for the water to recede on the Bruce Highway south of town.
Resident Patrick Barrett said the town was surrounded by crocs waiting out flooding in the cane fields.
“Every night we see them, you can just see their eyes.
We know they are out there.  You can hear them groaning during the night.”

Sounds like the plot to a schlock horror movie, a town cut off, crocs surrounding the place, waiting for the floodwaters to get high enough to invade, locals huddled in their houses, being kept awake at night by groaning noises and the occasional flash of a glowing eye, watching, waiting.

Right now Queensland is in monsoon season, taking record rainfalls, and massive flooding.

62% of Queensland is currently underwater.  62%!

Townsville has some flooded roads, but isn’t doing too badly by comparison with our neighbours.  We are however cut off.  To the north, west and south of us is flooded.  To the east is the sea.  It’d be a good time to own a boat.

We had our 2nd cyclone pass through the area last week, it crossed the coast about 100km north of here and travelled west, then looped around and started heading back in our direction.  At the same time, a potential cyclone was forming to the east of us, and heading inland.  With Townsville sandwiched in the middle.  Brilliant!