June Update

Greetings everyone!We've realised that its been a while since we last sent an update we've been busy and have lots to fill you in on! You'll find we've marked the spotswhich have pictures attached with a *. On the study side we have made lots of progress with Natalie finishing off the draft of her Master's thesis and Andrew handing in his Literature Review.We visited Andrew's Dad in Canberra in May, many thanks to Hugh and Brenda for kindly letting us stay, feeding us and showing us around town! We saw the Bell Shakespeare Company perform War of the Roses which combined at least 3 different plays and was great! Visited the War Memorial on ANZACd ay long weekend and Parliament House* where Natalie got her photo taken with Bob Hawke.* The trees are wonderful in Canberra during autumn but unfortunately there hadn't been much frost to allow for the usual amazing transformation. Its definitely an arty city, so we couldn't pass upvisits to the excellent National Museum* and Art Gallery where we saw a political cartoon exhibition. *

Its been a very cultural couple of months actually, we've visited the Brisbane State Art Gallery and Museum with a very funky exhibitioninvolving sculptures made from money, VHS tape and coke cans! And we caught a production of Puccini's Opera Tosca, which put Natalie in a singingmood, though her full rendition of Madame Butterfly when we got home atmidnight wasn't too popular with the neighbours in our complex. Speaking of which, we have made another friend here in the complex, helikes to sit on the tree outside our study, so we just wave and say hello. We have included a pic of him sunbaking downstairs*.

Singing and dancing was definetly on the cards again for the EurovisionSong Contest which we watched with some friends from Andrew's lab, for thoseof you who also caught it we thought the Moldovan grandmother who playedthe drum should have won alone :) Natalie was extremely disappointed that Portugal did not get into the Finals, despite having to admit that they weren't very good. There is a never ending supply of Festivals here in Brisbane, a couplewe've been to recently were the Caxton Street Seafood Festival, which had a distinct party atmosphere although there was definitely more alcoholthan seafood. Whilst there we were accosted by a Vodaphone marketeer whoposted our pic on their website*. The Southbank Buddha Festival was also very colourful.*

Some of you may have seen reports on the news of snow in Brisbane acouple of weeks ago. Well it wasn't quite snow but a massive hail storm instead. The hail was knee deep in places and you could still see some of itbeside the road 2 whole days later. We've had a couple of nights out on the town as well.* Kip came up from Melbourne again and we all went to a Turkish restaurant complete with authentic belly dancing, sorry guys the photos of that one came out toodark to see anything! Thanks also to Andrew's Uncle & Auntie, Raya and Stuart who came and visited us for dinner in the Queen Street Mall. Next time you visit we'll take you on a cruise of the river!Another highlight from the past couple of months have been our trips toIKEA to round out our furniture colleciton.* Natalie' reckons its the largest IKEA in the southern hemisphere (well the largest one she's been to any how) and gets very excited every time we make the long drive down (its halfway to the Gold Coast).*

We are also sad to report that we have had to hand over our WA licencesand rego plates for Qld ones, but never fear we are still West Australiansat heart. Next weekend we're seeing two of our favourite DJ's, Deep Dish playing at Brisbane's biggest nightclub, Family in the Valley so it should be an excellent and very late, late night! Thanks for all your emails, its nice to know that you're thinking of us. Hope you are all having a great week and email again soon!!!