Ronnie Down Under

Well, last night I got to experience my first Australian Bucks Show. A Buck is the groom and the Show involves a stripper (Australian Bachelor Party). This show was held at a local football club. There were about 30 men, mostly about 22 years old, in attendance. I’ve only attended a few bachelor parties in the states but none of them were quite like this one. It reminded me of the movie Animal House. The first few hours the stripper walked around topless making sure everyone had plenty to drink while heaps of meat was served up off the barbie (barbecue grill). I made due with nuts and chips but sure drank my share of beer. Then it was time for the show. All the guys moved chairs around the room in a big circle with the groom sitting in a chair at one end with a carpet in front of him. Most of the show took place on the carpet but some of it took place on the groom and even a few other guys. I won’t go into details but I will say that many props were used and the stripper even did a few magic acts. However, it wasn’t a hat she was pulling things out of. By the time my brother-in-law and I left, the strip show had ended and the boys were getting a little wild tossing chunks of meat and beer across the room at each other while others chose to step outside to settle some argument the old fashion way. Boys will be boys I guess. I had a great time and I’m only suffering from a mild hangover as a result.

This is our new (old) house. We are only going to pay $41,000 Australian dollars for it. We have $50,000 put aside for remodeling but are hoping to make do with $30,000. It’s a three-bedroom house on a quarter acre of land. There’s a fireplace in the living room and master bedroom. It needs a completely new bathroom, kitchen and ceiling. We are hoping that the hardwood floors can be sanded down and refinished. We are going to add a wood railing around the front porch and paint the house yellow with a green trim. The back yard will need to have a privacy fence installed and we are going to have a large metal shed built with a carport. We will also need to have a small patio built behind the house. I’m going to have a big water tank erected to collect the rainwater from the roof for the native garden I plan to make out of the back yard. I’ll finish the front yard off with a picket fence. Our closing date is Jan 27th so we only have a few more weeks till we move in.

Back of House

This photo was taken from the back property line. The dirt road is our drivway running all the way through the property.

Here is a photo of our new 4x4 Truck. It’s a Nissan Patrol Turbo Diesel ST. It’s got a bull bar on the front, 39-liter refrigerator in the back, full length roof rack on top, two diesel fuel tanks, a snorkel for driving through deep water, duel batteries under the hood, and a UHF CB radio for short range communications. I’ve purchased a Dell Laptop Computer with a GPS, which will be mounted on a stand in front of the passenger seat for moving map satellite navigation. I’ll be adding a 4x4 trailer to this to carry extra fuel, water, tires, bikes, and anything else I can’t fit inside or on top of the truck. This rig will be able to carry us just about anywhere we want to go. We already have two one month long trips scheduled for April and August of this year and are looking at a possible one more month long trip. I think with all the work that we need to do to our house and garden that that will be about all we can do this year. Perhaps we can fit in a few one or two week trips when we need a break.

Well, we made it to Australia. We have been so busy shopping around to take advantage of all the after Christmas sales. We even got a new all wood bed-room set half off. All the stuff we shipped from the US will be arriving on a ship next week and we move into our house the week after. I can't wait. I'm going to try to upload some photos of our house and truck. The internet connection I'm using right now is a very slow dial-up connection so I hope it works.