World's Most Venomous Snakes Snake Species Distribution 1 Inland taipan Australia 2 Eastern brown snake Australia 3 Coastal taipan Australia 4 Tiger snake Australia 5 Black tiger snake Australia 6 Beaked sea snake Australia 7 Black tiger snake (Chappell Island ssp.) Australia 8 Death adder Australia 9 Gwardar Australia 10 Spotted brown snake Australia 11 Australian copperhead Australia 12 Cobra Asia 13 Dugite Australia 14 Papuan black snake New Guinea 15 Stephens' banded snake Australia 16 Rough scaled snake Australia 17 King cobra Asia 18 Blue-bellied black snake Australia 19 Collett's snake Australia 20 Mulga snake Australia ...

After the first weekend There's a funny story surrounding how we got this bed. Remind me to tell you sometime. Table upgrade: I made a couple of trips back from the store with a piece of flatpack furniture slung under each arm. After a week we finally got some furniture delivered. Hooray!

"Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time."                                                                                                     - Old School  “Behind every successful shopping expedition there is a good shopping list.”              ...

13-Feb-2011 A cold blast of wind whipped through the open courtyard on the cloudy, gray afternoon. We hurried across to the stage. There we found some music blaring and a man shouting down a microphone at the small crowd who were bouncing a giant inflatable ball around. I reassured Aaron that there was also Mexican food and dance lessons, and suggested we take a look around. We found some over-priced under-quality vendors and an indoor room filled with people huddling together sheltering from the wind outside. I was a little disappointed that this place charged $20 a head entrance fee and was so far not living up to the standards of the free concerts I had been to in Sydney. I wondered if we should turn back, but we were meeting my new friend Lulu and her boyfriend, Anthony. I have made friends all over the world, and sometimes met people in odd places, but the story of how I met Lulu has to be one of the most surprising! A week after I arrived in Sydney I went into the city to ope...

Seasoned from our first Apartment Hunter episode Jean and I thrust back into the fray with lower expectations and reluctantly higher price margins. We rested on Sunday but preparations began soonafter. Coworkers and friends have been offering loads of advice including: Bring the first month's rent in cash and a completed lease application to the viewing Offer to pay $10-15 more a week in addition to the advertised rent Go to the mid-week viewing as they're not as busy (usually) Live with your parents Preparation for Saturday began on Monday with Jean combing the property leasing website. Viewing announcements seem to begin as trickle and surge as the week progresses. She found a couple of mid-week viewings. The first was a property near campus on Tuesday afternoon. I didn't attend by Jean reported back that it was nice but had been crawling with people. Thursday evening brought us to the Potts Point area of which the residents seem to be a hodgepodge of backpackers, ...

Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!                                                                         -Dr. Seuss  And for your listening and viewing pleasure, here's a little clip from around this time last year found exclusively here and no where else.   Perhaps this explains my degree of musical aptitude

Because when they strike it can be that quick that if they're within range, you're dead, you're dead in your tracks. And his head weighs more than my body so it's WHACK!                                                                                                          - Steve Irwin February 13, 2010 Jean and I had our first day of apartment hunting yesterday. As apartments are only open for viewing for a 15-30 minute scheduled block, Jean put together a detaile...

I did get your response concerning the ADVERT i posted on Craigslist.com The house is still available but I'm not around presently. I did bid for a portion of petroleum land sometimes ago in West Africa and fortunately i won the bidding so i have to move quickly down to Africa to have my company set up because i will still have to rebid for it in the next 8 years. I came over here with my wife (Felicia) and my Daughter (Kim), we both bought the house when we got married. As soon as we settle down here i had a thought of selling the house but later my wife advised against that. She said we may not be able to win the bidding next time, in other to keep our head when we return that we have to keep the house. I reasoned with her and accepted her advise. Later we decided to have the house rented out. If you notice, you will discovered that the price we are offering is far below standard market price, this is enough for you to know that we are not after the rental fee but ...

"You're going to reach out for something and it's not there... it's not there." - Silencer Tropfest is a short film festival. Correction, Tropfest is the largest short film festival in the world. I've never heard of it though. Jean, Rachel and I headed out to the Domain, a sprawling park in downtown Sydney, to watch the finalists one Sunday afternoon. We found ourselves amidst 100,000 or festival goers spread out over the grounds on picnic blankets and lawn chairs. The event was being simulcast in venues all over Australia easily pushing the numbers of of a quarter of a million. When I think of short films, the image of two cheery Lego knights jerkily hacking each others' limbs off instantly pops into my head. As the sun set and the movies began to roll I quickly discovered that these were very polished, very professional works. No cheesy Grapes of Wrath parodies shot the night before the project is due high school productions here. The films had al...

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8 February 2011 After fourteen Jean posts I finally made it to Australia. Whew! I'm sure the suspense was mounting as to whether I ever made it out of Shanghai. I was looking at the map that I've since taken off our blog and realized: 1) The page loads a lot faster now 2) We've come a really long way since last April. After eight months on the road moving east, Australia should just be hop, skip and a jump away right? But no, it was still over a thirteen hour flight to get to Sydney.  Here are some shots from my first week in country. Reunited with my wife! As I found Sydney wonderfully warm I returned to my usual travel attire Catching a ferry On a ferry in Sydney Harbor The yellow cab's aquatic cousin Lots of activity in the Harbor I escaped Chinese New Year in China only to come to Chinatown in Sydney XO Project  I have my sister's XO laptop on loan to tinker with. She got it as part of a program to distribute computers to child...

26-Jan-2011 Bondi Beach on Australia day Australia day is a national holiday of celebrations and apparently the thing to do on Australia Day is BBQ. Around mid-day I headed to Bronte Park with Rach and Yariv to meet their friends. The roads were lined with cars parked for miles and people milling around near the beach entrances. When we reached the park it was chock-a-block full of people. Thanks to friends who had staked out a small patch of grass early in the morning we had somewhere to sit. The only thing we lacked was a BBQ pit. The public ones were so popular people were standing in a queue for about an hour to use it! Eventually a kind neighbour lent us theirs. Street outside Bronte Park Bronte Park - Australia Day After a tasty fill of BBQ some people made space for a game of volley ball and others checked out the beach. Bronte is on the ocean side so has massive waves that come crashing in ferociously! Too rough to swim, but fun to splash around for a while and ...