War declared on the Cane Toad

Here is a recent story about the Cane Toad

People in the Australian state of Queensland have taken part in a mass capture of poisonous cane toads as part of a collective effort at pest control.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7970651.stm

Hundreds of participants in five communities across northern Queensland snacked on sausages, sipped cold drinks and picked up prizes as the portly pests were weighed, measured and killed in the state's inaugural "Toad Day Out" celebration.

House for Sale in the Street

House no. 17 is up for sale in our street, you can see it here at this link

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=105644810&rsf=emailalert-propdetails

Its priced at $659,000. The house is the same size as ours but with a very small garden. Lets see how long its on the market for and how much it goes for eventually (the sale price gets published in the newspapers).

Plant Fair

Today we indulged in Inge's twin passon of visiting open gardens and buying plants. There was a plant fair in a 6 acre garden about 45mins drive away on the edge of Brisbane. Its always nice to see what people do with their gardens here creating a little oasis around the house. So we stocked up with cheap potted plants to keep in our garden until we move to our own home.
The weather here is getting much nicer now, nice temperature and not as hot and sticky as in the summer months but stil 28C.

Water Dragons

This part of Australia has some interesting local wildlife, the water dragon is no exception...it can run on water! We see the water dragons mostly at the local park pond when they are out of the water. Its easy not to see them and almost walk on them when they are on the park path. They are harmless but do give you a scare when they move suddenly when you havent seen them first. The big ones are about 1m long.

Cockroach Detector

Our cat droelie has an amazing habit of being able to detect cockroaches in the house long before we see them. We hate cockroaches! So as soon as he has sniffed them out we grab the spray can and make sure the nasty little buggers are doused in chemicals and do the final dance before entering cockroach heaven...

Immigration Cut

During the boom times, when skills shortages were the main brake on Australia's fast-paced growth, UK and other foreign skilled workers were targeted by successive Aussie governments. My job was on the list of 'jobs in demand' which is what made me apply to come to Australia.

Now, with unemployment reaching a near four-year high, potential immigrants are being told they are surplus to requirements. The government says that Australian workers should not have to compete with their foreign counterparts.

It is the first time in 10yrs that immigration has been cut - the skilled migration programme intake will be reduced from 133,500 to 115,000 - a 14% reduction.

Bricklayers, plumbers, welders, carpenters and metal fitters are no longer required, but Australia still needs doctors, nurses, engineers and IT specialists.

Looks like we got in just in time....

Impressions of Dalby Big Air

I thought everyone might like to see some of the videos taken of Dalby flying hanggliders.
Take a look here :
http://www.hgfa.asn.au/~dhgc/
and here
http://vimeo.com/2635082
It really is that awesome in the air.
The weather when I flew was even better than you see in the videos.

Dalby Big Air Last Day

Sorry no photos today, I didn't take my camera with me. The last day of the competition and the weather was even better than the day before with light winds and lots of nice puffy clouds. The locals described it as a "typical" flying day at Dalby, strong thermals upto 1800m and perfect conditions from horizon to horizon. I cannot describe the view well enough. The task was a triangle of I think 114km via two turnpoints and back to the airport. It was a racing day and the crack pilots just smoked around the course. I got lost after the 1st turnpoint when my gps died on me so just headed down the tarmac roads until I spotted where I was. I made it round the 2nd turnpoint and then headed back towards Dalby but didn't make it and landed 1/2 way towards Dalby. I saw our retreive car by the road picking up one of our team so decided to land there. We then raced back to the airport just before dark and had a barbbque and prize giving ceremony.
So that was Dalby, an epic weeks flying and possibly the best I've ever had. The weather usually makes for great flying here. I joined the club so will be back here again in the future.

Dalby Big Air Day 4

Today Friday the 13th the weather finally improved to set a good task, via a waypoint to Condamine 138km away. I got off fairly late but managed to drift downwind and hav some great flying, the weather improved down the course and there were strong thermals to 1500m. I flew over some interesting countryside and met more eagles, all very friendly. I was too busy to take photos. I had two low saves and managed to get up again and finally make goal, there were about 10 others there out of 40 competitors so I did fairly well. The photo of the gliders far away is where I landed in the goal field.

Dalby Big Air Day 3

So today the winds dropped and is was possible to fly but there was a lot of cloud which didn't produce any thermals. I decided not to fly and help out on launch instead. Most people flew but didn;t get far mostly 12km down the road.

Day Off at the Flying Museum

So when you cant hangglide you do touristic things like visiting the local aviation museum run by the Australian Army..yes Army not airforce. It was a 120km round trip, so a local tourist attraction....distances are big here.

Dalby Big Air Day 2

Nothing much to report today as the flying was cancelled due to strong winds and overdevelopment. We hung around the hanger until 1.30pm when the task committee made the announcement, we amused ourselves in the meantime playing space invaders on the video console. So anyway Neil and I sorted out my radio (it didn't work yesterday) and bought some groceries in town. Dalby is a reasonable sized outback town with 10,000 people living here. I has one main shopping street, a shopping mall with a supermarket a few coffee bars and a few pubs. I may take some photos of the street scene here if I get the chance.

Dalby Big Air Day 1

So the first day of the competition. They set a big task to fly 338km to a place called Mitchell, it will be the longest distance of any competition held in Australia. I launched late after most had left and struggled to stay aloft in the beautiful looking sky, the weather was just perfect for long distance with a 50km/hr wind up at 2000m. The thermals were strong and punchy and rough low down due to the turbulence off the trees. I got low 65km out from Dalby and had to land as I couldn't find more lift. It was at this time I had my first encounter with a Wedge Tailed Eagle who appeared from no where and parked himself 2metres behind my wing. They are big a 3m wingspan. I was in the middle of nowhere but I saw that there was a small farmhouse nearby so when I derigged and carried my glider 1km (phew!) I met the locals. The retreive car from Dalby couldn't find me so they headed further along the courseline towards Mitchell to find the others in my team including Neil. It was obvious that they would only be picking me up very late into the night so the farmer kindly offered to take me and my glider back to the airfield...wow was I lucky! He had a trailer which my glider fitted on perfectly so off we went on the 80km drive back to Dalby. I got to chat with Scott and Kellie who were really nice people and told me a little about their lives here..very interesting.
Neil just sms'd me to say he landed 18km short of goal.....an incredible 320km!!!! so a long drive back.
The weater forecast for the rest of the week doesnt look good as a cyclone is heading down the coast with 220km winds..we'll see what happens..

Dalby Big Air 2009

I am here at a hanggliding competition which is being held at a place called Dalby which is 3hrs drive west from Brisbane into the farmbelt hinterland. The photo is of the dragonfly which is a motorised plane wich can tow hanggliders into the sky, the other is looking outside of the hangar. I shall be here for the next week staying in a motel in the town. Some of the top hangglider pilots from Australia are here. Today was a practice dayand some flew 100km triangle flights and landed back at the airfield. The sky really looked beautiful with perfect cumulus clouds for as far as the eye can see from horizon to horizon. This really is a country made for flying big distances.