spectacular storm...cyclone weather

we decided it would be a really good idea to go driving and then wandering around the jetty in a huge storm. it was awesome. we saw incredible lightning and the entire sky was orange. the jetty was gusting with wind and it started to pour soon after we got back home.  really incredible skies and weather here.

santas little helper

had to add another couple of photos of miski because she is too cute.  finally got a really good picture of her in reindeer antlers while she was passed out on the couch. trying to enjoy my last precious few days off...hoping it will rain.

Derby Christmas

merry christmas from derby! what a different christmas this has been for us. new country, new friends, new weather, no christmas tree, etc.  but it's been great anyway! yesterday we had a lovely lazy day together with the puppy. i made sweet potato casserole to bring to the orphan xmas party we were going to later on. thought a taste of an american dish would be kind of fun.  went to the christmas party and had lots and lots of food, drinks, and laughter.  my dish was a hit! we even had turkey and salad so it was almost like a late thanksgiving. but it was SO hot last night we were pouring sweat, which was rather unpleasant. not even a bit of a breeze.  zonked out early and woke up to have christmas with the little pup.  gave her a very special christmas breakfast cake, opened her presents and stocking with her and then jose and i exchanged gifts/cards and had a huge xmas breakfast together.  now we are going to snooze the afternoon away. to all those back home...merry christmas eve to you all.
love from nicole, jose and miski (woof!)

snoozin with the woof

for some reason this has been an exhausting week. it was absolutely blazingly hot today. taking a day off tomorrow and had a bit of a cat nap today with the puppy. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

jose's first day of work

jose got a great job and started today!  he went off in a very cute uniform feeling confident. had a great day at work and will be working there indefinitely while we are here in Derby.  yay!

merry christmas, feliz navidad, happy holidays, feliz año neuvo, happy new year, peace and joy to you all

christmas cheer!

 

 today was a bit rough, not feeling well, but i rallied and brought home some christmas decorations. jose took it all in stride and has been really positive and lovely when i am feeling tired or down.  brought me an amazing lunch today at work as a nice surprise!  i am a lucky girl. anyway we put up some of our decorations and got the table all set for our xmas dinner and breakfast.  can't wait for some holiday relaxation and puppies first xmas! happy holidays!

taco salad and xmas sugar cookies!

 

after making breakfast sunday and puppy training, we took a walk, lounged, then i made us lunch from left over burger patties and bread (another hamburger and bruchetta on the side). yum. then headed to the pool for a dip with emmett, came back and began making sugar cookies. i can't find molasses to make the family ginger cookies (sniff) so i thought i'd do something xmasy anyway.  forgot that i didn't have a rolling pin or cookie cutters but hey you do what you can with what you got.  also made the boys taco salad and we sat outside for the first time ever! it was beautiful out, yummy salad and delicious beer.  nice way to end a lovely weekend.

lazy sunday breaky and puppy training

sunday morning...nice and lazy start. made spicy scrambled eggs with tortilla strips mixed in, breakfast potatoes, and sliced bananas.  cleaned the backyard up, lounged a bit and then practiced teaching the dog to sit. it's going very very well because she is the best and smartest puppy ever.  no bias here! starting to look for a few xmas decorations because there aren't many around town and people here don't do xmas trees...very sad.

homemade blue cheese burgers!

so we all decided we needed a feed here this weekend. after jose and i madly cleaned our place today we all headed out to woolies for groceries. we picked up a heap of food and started making lunch. i decided to try my hand at homemade burgers. after a quick call home for some burger making tips, i ultimately made mine with oregano, rosemary, salt, pepper, paprika, diced onion, diced bell pepper and then stuffed the patties with aged blue cheese. yum. Grilled those up on the stove while we boiled some sweet corn and cut up an easy asian salad with mint and toasted some turkish bread for the burgers. we put lettuce, tomato, grilled onion and mushrooms, pineapple, and sauces on top. it was HEAVEN! totally made me feel like i was home again. been missing a good burger here.  after we were all in food coma heaven. it kept raining on and off all day and was so lovely outside jose and i took miski for a little walk by the marsh.  it was absolutely gorgeous, with fresh cool air and cool sprinkles. at one point i felt a bit cold which was very welcome...i'd forgotten what that felt like!

enjoying cold beer with another fabulous sunset

after a rather difficult week for us all...i've had a remote trip and tons of follow up and jose started a new job only to be offered another job he'd prefer...we headed to the jetty with emmett to soothe away the sorrows with some cold beer and a beautiful sunset. it's been hot here but last night was beautiful, nice breeze and an amazing sky. we stayed long after sunset and just enjoyed the evening air. miski seemed to want to explore the waters (that would have ended badly) but eventually flopped down and fell asleep.  a perfect friday evening. more photos in derby album

soccer with the pup!

she is a natural, loves to play soccer and is learning all her new grown up skills so fast. she's a sweet little muffin. took her to the vet for the first time for a round of puppy shots and her vet (who is in town two days per week) is from Montana! i thought that was pretty amazing.  so another yank in the kimberley (what we call this region of australia).  it's been super hot and humid here, building up to the wet season that has yet to arrive. can't wait for the relief of the rains.  almost xmas...happy holidays everyone!

Fx trip and fantastic skies

had another remote trip to fitzroy. this time it's the end of their school year for summer vacation. so bizarre to have that in December. anyway the trip was good and the skies were amazing!!!  there are more pictures at the end of the derby album.

Hospital Xmas Party

xmas party at the hospital last night was a blast. started up the evening with a few at emmett's place and then wandered over to the party. emmett ended up being santa which was fantastic! great evening - lots of food, drinks, and good conversation.  the only thing missing was claire! more photos posted under Derby album.

Visit from Broome Speechies!

The ladies from Broome paid us a visit here in Derby to help out with some work items and we had an incredible time! They helped me out so much and we had a dip in the pool, a great dinner at Jila and fabulous conversation as always. Cheers ladies.

a new addition to the pack...

we have a new little addition around the house! after much debate and a rather confused puppy we have named her Miski (Quechua for sweet, like a candy). she's a rescue pup found with heatstroke on the streets here and my bleeding heart couldn't let her go to the pound. i think jose is rather annoyed but i'm hoping he'll come around and love animals almost as much as me someday.

fabulous skies

wow.  the skies here are the most amazing i have ever seen.  the lightning storm that evening was incredible. makes you feel good to be alive

wednesday surprise :)

this week was a little rough and i had been neglecting myself and jose a bit...and wednesday when i came home jose met me at the door and made me close my eyes. When I opened them the table was set with flowers, wine, a really lovely card and a fabulous dinner! i was totally surprised and definitely made my week a million times better :)

crazy storms and kangaroo curry

well we had an amazing weekend full of fishing, swimming, cooking, etc.  sunday evening, as I was cookin up some kangaroo curry and freshly baked bread, the wind started to howl and lighting was flashing every few seconds.  it took quite some time to get the rain pouring down but eventually we got dumped on too. it was really exciting but i am super glad we weren't outside walking at that time. a co-worker was out on the marsh and almost got hit by a tumbling piece of corrugated tin about 7 feet wide and 5 feet tall. yikes! the local bar lost its roof too...happily our place is new and built to withstand a class 3 cyclone or more.  kangaroo curry and bread turned out lovely.  back to the grindstone this week...and it's been a rough one so far. 

fishing and puppies!

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yesterday we got to skype the whole family (both in peru and in the states) and I got to see the thanksgiving dinner going on full force without me :( last night we went to a wonderful dinner party and then this morning headed off to have a go at fishing! we went at low tide and didn't have any luck sadly. caught several crabs but they were too small to eat really. jose also caught a sea snake! that was exciting. we saw lots of birds and cute mud skippers and jose had his first go at driving a car! he did really well and we'll start doing more of that soon.  even though we left empty handed we had a really fun day and then went to grab the new puppy in town who needs a home...guess who wants to keep him (her actually i think)!  I want to name her happy or noodle. we took her to the pool and had a lovely swim and now are relaxing at home.  fantastic weekend as usual. puppy adoption to be decided....

more food, broome visit

well it seems that most of our time is spent cooking, eating, and taking pictures of it. I need to join a gym asap! anyway we had a fabulous left over curry dinner the other night with a Mediterranean salad to match. I went down to Broome for work for two nights and got put up in this unbelievable hotel.  While work was pretty busy and I got a lot done and got to see some good speechies down there...I also made time to swim in the beautiful pool there, enjoy some touristy spots, have some great dinners and such. Sadly I missed Emmett's bday - happy birthday emmett!!!!! - and Claire is sorely missed.  Drove back from Broome today and saw lots of weird looking cows, huge termite mounds, and beautiful rivers. Got home and jose made a great meal for us which was really appreciated! Pics still added to the end of the Derby album http://picasaweb.google.com/nicole13/Derby?feat=directlink)

curry night!

well we had a ridiculously delicious curry evening. this was preceded by ecuadorian coffee, banana bread and white choc chip & macadamia nut cookies after swimming most of the afternoon. we then began cooking for the curry night and then more friends joined us with even more food and i think i ate enough for a hippo. emmett made the best crepes with chocolate sauce and fruit on top! yum! after dinner we headed off to a local (huge) bash for two people's birthdays and enjoyed the live music and costumes there for a bit before walking home under the nearly full moon. i had to wait another hour before i could lie down without feeling like i was going to hurl from being so full. gross...portion control anyone? sadly claire, our partner in arms, has left us to return home.  she is going to be sorely missed and i am currently plotting ways to ensure her return.

fitzroy visit!

i just got back from a remote trip with claire to fitzroy crossing. we saw lots of kids, assessed them, made up treatment programs, etc. it was a fantastic and productive visit and we also got to fit in lots of swimming, bootcamp, dinner, more swimming, and a visit to geikie gorge (pronounced geeky) where we saw wonderful dark rocks, a beautiful river, and wild kangaroos! the second picture has a kangaroo but you can't see it because my phone's camera is not very good. oh well. someday i'll get a good one and prove they really run wild out here. think we saw a croc's nose in the water too! beautiful sunset, great town, great company, just hard to leave jose behind with his training in derby. maybe next time he can join us.

after party nacho time, making fried rice, and hair cuts

Have had a great time lately, making nachos from left overs after swimming all afternoon, watching the boys cook up a storm in the kitchen while claire and I sat back with a glass of wine and our feet up. lovely. then claire gave emmett a much needed haircut and hilarity ensued. we retired to the veranda outside and had some beer, talked about storms, life, work, etc.  we're all really depressed though since claire is abandoning us to go back home...sniff. i am plotting a way to get her back here asap. also plotting to keep emmett here for another three months so our little pack isn't totally torn asunder. more pics under derby album

salsa, mediterranean tucker and spanish!

all the makings of a fabulous dinner party with great new friends in town.  Everyone brought a dish and the theme was Mediterranean cuisine. Turned out all veggie which was actually lovely, although jose was missing his meat.  we had sangria, fried cheeses, musaka, salad, potatoes with aioli, spicy salsa, pita, guacamole, antipasto plate, hummus, and then cakes, cakes, cakes, and cookies. it was awesome.  we listened to cumbia and salsa music and i attempted to dance while the columbian ladies put everyone else to shame. got to practice my spanish with the columbians and the ecuadorian guy too.  it was a blast.  more photos under the derby album...

boab prison tree and driving lessons

we've been out and about doing lots of fun things in town, mainly with our new friend Claire and when he is around, Emmett too.  Claire took me out to learn to drive stick which went fairly well for a first go-round.  Then we stopped by the boab prison tree, a site of significance here in Derby. Then we also stopped by May river up the Gibb River Road to get a peek at what the famous river track is like. It's beautiful but HOT! No crocs sadly, but really interesting rocks.  Sometime in the dry season we can go camping up the gibb

storms, sunsets, cooking, dinner parties!

So kind of more of the same. It's a bit of a one horse town so we spend a lot of time down by the jetty watching the sunset with a beer or a glass of wine. Lovely really. And we spend a lot of time cooking meals from scratch because food is expensive here, especially to eat out, and there aren't a lot of restaurants to choose from (3 i think).  We recently had another dinner get together with friends from work and had an absolute blast.  We've been swimming and moving furniture around to suit our taste. We also went on a walk for a free breakfast put on by the town shire (rec center), met a lot of nice people, and scoped out where all the ripe mangoes were hiding in town.  We've added more photos to our derby album (link under photos or on the right under albums or here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nicole13/Derby?feat=directlink)