This morning, Dave, Josh, Marnie, Matt and I braved the heat and went out in service with the Victoria Point kingdom hall. It was about 35°C and not even 10:00am yet. That's a rare 90°F mid-summer heat wave back in NY, and this is just the end of their winter! I'm beginning to understand why they get up very early each day, around 5:00 or 6:00am. Because they can get things done before it gets too hot in the middle of the day.

Victoria Point Kingdom Hall

We saw some interesting creatures in the Hazael's back yard. Inspired by yesterday's snake and koala sighting, Carmel turned over every leaf looking for a redback spider, one of the more common and poisionous ones in this part of Queensland. They like to hide in dark cramped places like cinder blocks, the undersides of chairs, and as I would imagine, shoes. We didn't see any of those, but did see plenty of cross spiders (Argiope Keyserlingi to be more precise). They are called that because of the bright and tightly woven X on the center of their web. It reflects UV light and hypnotically attracts pollinating insects. They sit at the center disguised with their legs held together in pairs to form an X. This one was roughly 2.5 inches long. We also found a "bearded Dragon" in the grass. He didn't seem to mind my holding the camera less then a foot from his face, but jumped up and ran to the fence when Carmel poked him. She said it'd make a better photo, but the camera just wasn't fast enough.

St. Andrew's Cross Spider

These Guys are Everywhere

Bearded Dragon

Crikey!

Josh got the bad news this morning that his holiday is over, starting tomorrow, because he has to start his new job. That means he cant hang out with us this week during the daytime. So, we decided to take advantage of his last free day and go spearfishing near the wrecks off of Peel Island. We'd take the catamaran out, despite the 25knot wind, and snorkel with a disposable underwater camera in hand. Josh was really excited about the idea, and I thought it'd be cool to shoot a fish instead of just hooking them as usual, so we went for it, pulling the boat over the low tide mud and rocks to the water with my bare feet and heaps of sunscreen. With a great deal of effort, and much foot stubbing, we unpaked the boat, raised the mast, and assembled the stays, being extra careful not to forget anything. Going out in heavy winds, you don't want to carelessly rig up a high performance boat like this one. To help attach the sail, I climbed up onto the boat to help. But, before I even put my weight upon it, the trampoline pulled away from one of the hulls, pulling the screws sideways through what must have been a rotting piece of wood. With no method of quick repair, Josh's excited look was instantly replaced with disappointment. We had to take it all apart again, and bring it back up the hill to show Peter. Josh felt bad because we couldn't go spearfishing, and I felt bad because we'd broken the boat. I didn't get any photos because I planned on using the underwater camera instead...

We had a wonderful dinner at the Wagner's house, which is literally next door to the kingdom hall. Michael and Genelle's mom is a great cook. She told me what the dishes were called in her Phillipino language, but I could not possibly rememeber, let alone spell them. All that mattered to me was how good it was! More and more friends started showing up, until there were thirteen in all. I also met Naomi, a sister visiting from France. She's staying in Australia for a whole year! She showed me all sorts of pictures of her family and of her travels around the world, explaining each one in fluent English, but with a mesmerisingly thick French accent. Then, Michael got out the "Magic Sing" karaoke machine, and everyone started singing to the TV. Matt and I exchanged sideways glances at each other, wondering where they got their courage from! Even though there were some songs I knew, there was no way I'd ever do that - I'm just way to self concious in large groups, I think. But, they seemed to have no fear at all. We all made plans to go to the Australian Zoo on Thursday. I hope that works out, because it would be my last opportunity.

Watching the Karaoke	Michael Wagner	Martin, Michael's Dad	Josh
''Ok, Who's next!''	Everyone	Genelle and Dave	Genelle
''We all live in a yellow submarine...''	James	Naomi and Tammy	Ellie and Cherryl
''Heeeyyy...''	Naomi, Tammy, and Genelle

I also got a chance to talk to James, the guitarist I met at the Turkish restaurant in Brisbane at the beginning of my trip. I'd just figured he played with a witness band for fun, but they do it professionally! We stopped by James' place on the way home, after dropping off Naomi at the ferry (just in time to catch the last one!), and he gave me a copy of thier demo sample CD. They play mostly covers, like Beatles and Eric Clapton, but his originals were brilliant. The demo cd was mixed so well, they sound just like the original songs. We stayed there, Matt, Josh, and I, playing with his mandolin and listening to music past 1:00am.

Lightbulb Gecko