I’ve made a number of videos lately from Sydney and before, but this by far is my favorite!

Ginormous! from Jesus Salgueiro on Vimeo.

Well, that’s my mentality.  I’m living here in Perth, Australia till September on a TDY (temporary duty) for work.  I’ve moved into an apartment close to the base and near enough other things.  I’m still settling in and working on buying some groceries and other basic necessities.  I hope to explore some this weekend on things to do and keep me busy (maybe some horse back riding, or fishing charters).  Mandy is coming out here at the end of July for a few weeks to ‘live’ here too.  It’s a real sacrifice to be away from the family, but it’ll be worth it in the long run.  I hope to convince anyone else that wants to visit out here to come.  I’m staying in a spacious 3 bed 2 bath apartment in a gated community on a golf course with a community pool and jacuzzi (tempting?!?!  anyone? anyone?!?!).

Before I left Mandy and I threw a party so that I could see some people before I left, it was fun and I really appreciate the people that could make it so last minute!  I’ll try to keep you posted with what’s going on here and what not.  I let Mandy keep the camera to take pictures of things back home for me, so you may not see so many pictures from me, but I have the webcam on the laptop that I might use.

Well, we’re home again!  It’s really good to be home, but I won’t be here for long.  I head back to Perth, Australia June 23rd till September 3rd.  There are a lot of people I’d love to catch up with, and I’ll try to contact everyone I can.  Mandy and I are thinking of having a party at the house Friday or Saturday night or just go out to dinner as a big group.  This week’s lunch is already filling up meeting with people.  I hope I get to catch up with everyone I want to, otherwise, see you in 3 months…

We’ve spent our last day, with little sun but no rain, shopping. And boy did we do some damage. As a result, we’ve had to unpack a majority of everything I packed last night to re-pack all the items we bought today. On top of that, we learned that when passing through customs, anything purchased totaling $300 or more, we get the Australian tax back, which we want! So, I’ve had to pack a bag solely with those items to get through customs. I’m so over packing I tell you. However, I have cleverly sorted our dirty laundry into darks, lights and jeans, so doing laundry will be easy when we get home.

Anyway, tonight’s email is short as Zeus has compiled a photo montage of our trip for your enjoyment. We’re looking forward to coming home and we’ll see you all soon.

Thanks for joining us in our adventures!

Mandy & Zeus

“Another winter day, has come and gone away…
And I feel all alone, and I want to go home… let me go home…
Let me go hooooommmmmeee, I’m just to far from where you are and I want to go home…”"
- Michael Buble

That’s right… you read it here first. I’ve (we’ve) had a brilliant idea for a restaurant…but more about that later.

Today was a glorious day and here’s why:

1) Slept late and thus got a late start

2) The sun was trying to come out

3) Went to Pylon Lookout where the sun DID come out for the remainder of the day

4) Spent the afternoon at Sydney’s Oldest Hotel & Brewery- Lord Nelson’s- and had the BEST meal we’ve had our entire time here…more to come.

That’s right today was glorious. We weren’t expecting the sun to come out, but when I woke up this morning and looked out the window, I noticed it was trying to make its way out; however, we still dressed warmly and brought our umbrella b/c we figured it would end up raining anyway.

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Who makes my sister seem like “NO MAINTENANCE!” And I am not joking people. Those of us who know and love Katy, know she’s by far the most high maintenance of the four girls, however on our trip to the Blue Mountains, we met a girl (from LA), who opened my eyes to what high maintenance really is…

Our tale goes a little something like this…

Our driver Rob picked us up promptly at 7:30. It was us and another American couple from…can you guess? Close to Merry Hill, NC? Elizabeth City, NC. Kidd you you not! Turns out Fran is a wildlife biologist and her husband Tom is a pilot for the Coast Guard and they have two girls, who are ballerinas! They were very nice. We next moved to the Marriott to pick up newlyweds Logan and Kerry…a.k.a high maintenance. Kerry is a teacher (shout out to the teachers) but jobs are hard to come by out there so she’s currently a nanny (which must pay a boatload b/c they’ve done some extensive traveling and I don’t know how they’ve paid for it) b/c Logan just completed Pharmacy school two weeks before they got married, so we know he wasn’t making any money. Now they were very sweet, don’t get me wrong. They were nice and friendly and outgoing, and they promptly let us know they were honeymooners and had been married for a week. I can remember that feeling so it was fun to reminisce…shout out to Jill and Micheal who get to experience this themselves in April.
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