Travelog for: Bubu

Hi Mom,
I did something for my brain, 
today I visited the University of Applied sciences and then I rested in the park!
Germania was quite a nice pillow!

Love, Bubu

Hallo Mama,

Today I helped to make cupcakes and muffins! This was great! I measured the ingridients and whisked them together.
Then I lined the muffin tins and tried if I fit in a paper liner. I almost did  which means the muffins were quite huge compared to my small self. Then I filled the tins, put them in the oven, waited 25 minutes and controlled then with a stick, if it cames out clean when inserted into the muffin, so that I knew that they were ready. I took a oven mitt, took the muffins out of the oven and let them cool! I'm a chef!

And if you ask yourself how the muffins were ... delicious 

Bye!

Hi Mom!

Today was a holiday here and my hosts had friends invited for a huge breakfast. You can see me on the table as I checked if everything was ready! We also tried the muffins we had baked yesterday.
The breakfast was really great but I ate so much so that I had to recover on the couch!

Bussi (Kiss) Bubu

Hi Mom!

A new toyvoyager has arrived: MrCoolHH. He likes everything red!
He was lucky to have just arrived in time for the Linzertorte.

I have to go back to my cake now- I don't want the others to eat my slice 

Bye, BUBU

Hi Mom!

I had so much fun today! We TVs helped our host-mom to make a present. We made placemats for the birthday of a friend of our host. We put a template on the placemet and then dabbed it with a special fabric paint. I think we did a pretty good job! Then the mats needed to dry and we had to wait for several hours. Then we had to iron it, so that the paint would stay on the mat even when it would be washed in the washing machine.

Liebe Grüße, Bubu

Hi Mom!

This weekend we went up on the Schlossberg. First we had lunch in a nice little restaurant up there. You can see me with a Vulkanlandplatte, which is a plate of assorted Vulkanland-Ham. The Vulkanland is a part of Southern Styria, where we once had vulcanoes- a long time ago...

We then went on to the Clocktower (Uhrturm in German). There is something going on with the hands of this clock... First, the clock just had a long hand for the hours, so that those could be seen from far away. Later they added the small hand, for minutes. Normally it's the other way around...

We also looked down on the Kunsthaus, the museum of Art and photography. You can see it in the background- it looks like a blue bubble and is also called the friendly alien!

On the last picture you can see me looking down at the Townhall.

I really enjoyed this day so far because it was a beautiful and sunny day!

Hi Mom!

There is a bank holiday today in Austria, so we decided to continue our sightseeing tour.

We went to the Mur Island. It was built for the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2003 and now houses a café.

Then we went to Herrengasse, the main street in the pedestrian area and looked at the Painted House. The facade has about 220 suare meters of frescos on it.

We went further on to the Landhaus. You see me in the courtyard, looking at the arcades. On the second picture of the Landhaus you can see the Styrian crest in the background, a white panther on green background.

After my sightseeing tour I was a bit tired but I got an icecream cone. Sorry, no pics of that one  .

Love you,
Bubu

Hi Mom!

Today was my big day! I'm off to my new host in Australia now!

Yesterday we had a Goodbye-Party! We had some champagne and a lot of fun! Snuttig also starts his journey!
It was a bit sad to say goodbye to my new friends, but I'm pretty excited to travel that far!

Maybe I'll see some of my fellow TVs again!

Let's go to the post office now!

Auf Wiedersehen in Australien!
Bubu

Hi mom! I arrived in Australia... after only 5 days! Wow I wonder if that's record time... Sara things it was quite fast actually... I'm already going to be going on a short road trip... tomorrow were going to Bathurst. Maybe I can see some kangaroos? That would be a great way to start my Australian journey wouldn't it? Write again soon! Miss you mom! :-)

In case you were wondering, here's a picture of me on the street I'm living on for the time being... Kokoda Street... I'm pictured with the new toyvoyager that Sara is hosting Eeyore Cutie...


We had to do a very quick stop off at home before we left to Bathurst... Sara got bored in the car so she took a few photos... little known and little annoying fact about living on Kokoda Street? There are people that park on either side of the street so it makes it nearly impossible to drive down the street sometimes... hah! How annoying... I'm sure glad I don't drive! It's too crazy down here...

Anyways, onto Bathurst...

Today we visited Bathurst... this time it was a bit more rushed than normal, but we still checked out one of the biggest reasons people drive all the way out West... for the Mount Panorama race track, which holds the famous Bathurst 1000 which stops the nation every October, and makes everyone in the Central West quiver with fear as there are SO many people that come from all over just to see the races... it's a mad house in October...

I got to see the now famous Peter Brock statue that was unveiled last year at the races. He died a day or two after the famous Steve Irwin died... he's famous for winning the most races at this track... he's won 9 races at this track. Tragically he died in a qualifying a few days before a race, not at this track though thankfully... although there have been a few deaths on this track sadly... and some, not human...


...Sara took us up to an over pass section just near the entrance of the track to take some photos up there... Sara's not great with heights but she did it anyways, here I am looking at the starting gate of the track... quite fancy yes?


...and of course I can't visit Mount Panorama without seeing the famous 'Mount Panorama' sign on the side of the mountain... apparently when they were making this sign in the 70's someone messed with the rocks that used to make up the sign and made it say a bad word... which they then published in a newspaper, quickly realizing their mistake, had to gather all the newspapers which had already been delivered before the morning. Kind of a funny story none the less... haha...


Sara found this a bit funny... when she got up there there was a tractor on the track...


Finally, we got to take a ride on the track itself... if you look at the ad's on the side you can see some accidents that would have happened. Towards the end of the photos, you can see a blue sign that says "Falken" it's got a huge gash in the cement... that happened last year in a non fatal accident thankfully... and when you see the 'Holden' signs and then the drop, that's the top of the mountain that you can see from the Mount Panorama sign photo that I'm in if you look closely... :-) Anyways, here's the photos:






















So now you've seen the track up close and personal, it doesn't look like much but I can promise you at the speeds they go it would be kind of scary! Especially that drop, it's quite a tight turn after the drop as well... pretty exciting... now many V8 tracks you can drive on. Funny enough, sometimes people have to drive on part of the track to get to their houses, and there's a TAFE (community college) right next to the track as well. Not to mention quite a lot of vineyards...

Sadly since the kangaroo view area that we go to is close by this area, sometimes there are kangaroos that are hit on the track while the race is going on... pretty crazy, quite a few near misses as well! Poor things!

Sadly this time we didn't see any kangaroos when we went and searched for them! Ah well! Write again soon mom! Miss you!

Hi mom! Sorry I haven't updated in a long time! It's been crazy down here, Sara hasn't been able to take us out really at all... she said she's very sorry but has a few things planned for next fortnight. Hopefully she can do a bit more sightseeing around Orange...

Since I wrote Miily and Rob Dyrduck left us for China and Libbs a tiny tiny brown bunny came to visit us. It's been quite fun... today it's been very rainy so we weren't able to go out like Sara wanted to do today... ah well! More to do in the next few weeks then!

Today we decided to help Sara make a spaghetti dinner for her Daniel and us of course... she doesn't have spaghetti very often so she always makes so much more than she needs (not on purpose just because she forgets)... whatever she and Daniel don't eat just goes to the dog, Anni.

Here I am helping with the cooking of the onion and the spaghetti, as you can tell were only in the beginning stages of the cooking at this point... were trying to rush it though so we can sit down and watch a movie... :-)


...and now we brown the meat...


...and add in the tomato and tomato sauce... yummy!


...and we drain the noodles...


...and while Sara serves up the plate (everyone eats off of one plate when it's spaghetti - hah) we sat down and watched some of Sara's favorite show lately Masterchef Australia... there are only 5 people left now (well 4 now) with two people that beat celebrity chefs so they're going to the final week... Sara's favourite is Andre, which is who is on the TV in the first photo...


...and they're in Hong Kong right now... this is Gary, one of the judges trying his dish...


...It was a very good dish Gary told Andre... sadly he didn't win the test though so he had to go through something called the 'Hong Kong Super Challenge'... sounds pretty confusing I'm sure, but Sara's been hooked right in - haha... but Sara was taping it so we watched a bit more before they turned on American Beauty and watched that...


So now you have a bit of an idea of what Sara and Daniel's average night looks like... there have been a lot of movies being played, since it's the cooler months it's much easier to snuggle up in a blanket and watch movies! I promise we'll do something more fun soon! Write again soon mom! Miss you!

We got two new visitors today! Charlis the dog, and Moxy ugly doll the... ugly doll... wait, I see Charlis but where is Moxy?...


Oh there he is! He was hiding with the much larger ugly dolls that Sara has... they're kind of cute though for being "ugly" dolls aren't they?


Sara decided since she has been lazy to show you her pets. I know of them know, crazy animals! But you don't so... here's a photo of Sara's beagle Anni. She's insane. To say the least... as you can tell that's her front "lawn" which more looks like a dirt pile because of the dog... fun! Anni has been quite a handful and very hard for Daniel and Sara to take care of when they have Sara's son Andrew, who is disabled... so I'm sure you can imagine... hah!


Next is Sara's birds... she's got an aviary in her kitchen... quite a funny place but it's the best place for the light. Here I am in front of the birds... there are nine Star finches both the red and yellow faced, four Gouldian finches, Zebra finches, two Spice finches, two Society finches, that look more like this, and two Diamond doves. She also has two bottom dwelling birds, two Button Quail, which also look more like this for the male, and without the "bib" for the female. Can you see all the different birds?


Sara decided this time to take a small video so you had some ideas of the sounds they make, since for such small birds they're very vocal... VERY vocal... hah! Here's a short video if you want to see it right here. It's not easy to tell, but the zebras are making most of the noise, where as the few chirps here and there are the society finches, the peeps at the end are the star finches. One of the male Gouldians kind of... dive bombed the star finches on the platform at the end of the video - whoops! The spice finches only make noise during the morning mainly... quite noisy birds in the morning haha! Ah well, it's always fun to watch them... they're all Australian birds except for the society finch, which isn't native to anywhere... it's a captive bred bird for mixed aviaries. :-)

Anyways, moving on... Sara's also got some mice... 3 domestic mice, and 3 wild mice (the smaller cages below since they're so small)... there's a Fawn coloured one (kind of tan/orange coloured) called Fluff, a little brown one called Bongo, that Sara believes was a domestic mouse and a wild mouse must have bred and was taken to the pet store... she's also got a long haired black mouse called Shadow... they sleep in a hamburger! How crazy is that! hehe... you can't see it though because it's in the paper at the bottom... :-)


Sara's also got some fish... don't mind the 'Sara' on the side of the tank... that was all thanks to Sara's husband Daniel. They're mostly platies, but a few Chinese barb fish that have been around since 2005 when Sara moved down! There's also a bristlenose catfish, also known as a sucker fish that are common in pet stores in the US. There's also some kuhli loaches but you'd never know.. they hide so well!


Sara's also got some... well, I wouldn't call them pets by any stretch of the mind... but Sara's getting her bathroom re modelled in a few days since it's old and well... falling apart. It's very common here for bugs to get into the houses, this includes slugs, snails, spiders... all those weird things... well, Sara had a few slugs and a snail in the back of her house so she "rescued" them so they weren't killed and is releasing them outside... here we are with the few slugs in the container... yucky slimy things eh?


Well, that was all of Sara's pets.. quite a story with all of them isn't there! haha! She's quite the animal lover, and her animals love her back! She even had a partial tame Gouldian finch baby! Well, I'll end this with a photo of me looking outside... been quite dark and dreary outside lately! Oh well, it's Winter time I suppose!


Write again soon!

Well, this was day 1 of 10... we surely didn't get up early but we tried to sleep in but the loud BANG BANG BANG! Really woke us up! What was that? Well, it was a contractor in Sara's shower area tearing everything apart... ugh! She says they really needed it since when the shower was built it was not built right and tiles were falling off... so they tore all that off and jack hammered the floor... see this is all the stuff they took off the bathroom? Can you imagine? Geez that's a lot of stuff there!...


...when the contractor was done for the day we had a bit of a look back there... it's amazing, the difference even from yesterday. The right corner of the photo was where the shower is (you can see the piping a leading to the shower head). The window, on the left side was a sink... and in front of all this... was a really big wall. He tore down the wall though, pretty quickly mind you!... it's all a big surprise even to Sara and Daniel - they're not sure what it's going to look like in the end... but I'm sure it'll be nice... interesting to watch it step by step though! Here I am in front of the now torn apart shower area...


Write again soon!

Today we went to Bathurst... on the way to somewhere else... but on the way we stopped in Bathurst and had a look to see if we could see some wildlife... and indeed we did... can you see him?


Sara had a hard time getting an actual photo of him... took a few shots and focusing again and again to get a clear one... here's a much closer shot. As you can see they're very nervous creatures... and they need to be unfortunately because a lot of kangaroos get shot by local farmers! :-(


Just as Sara was looking around a bit more for anyone else, someone behind her popped up and looked quite nervous ready to jump away at any time... thankfully she stayed there... almost posed for the camera... :-)


Right near the last one, was a much smaller one laying down next to her... Sara tried to get a photo of one laying down and just as she clicked he started to get up...


...and here he is in all his glory... pretty small kangaroo though..


Sara finally decided now that she's got some proof I've seen a kangaroo we can get in the shot... sometimes they're very nervous and bounce away before Sara can get a toyvoyager in a shot... so precautionary measures.. here I am, see them behind me?


After another 20 or so shots Sara decided to get a last shot of the first kangaroo we saw... she realizes it's the one she sees all the time in the photos - he's got very distinctive eyes...


Sara has another scan around the area and doesn't see anymore... and then... what's this? Do you see it?


It took a good trained eye to notice it... but a large kangaroo is laying there... here's a closer shot of him... he doesn't seem to mind us there - although still quite a distance I think he's more concerned about getting some shut eye than paying attention to us!


After a few more shots to make sure we got a clear shot of him, Sara goes to open the car door... and then, he got up... opening the car door must have spooked him because after a few seconds Sara looked back and saw this... look at those claws! Isn't he amazing?


Now THAT is a very large male kangaroo! Sara made a few clicks and noises to get him to look at her (in the photo above) but he decided he had had enough... you can see a (not so great quality) video of him here. Sara's never caught one laying down, let alone on video... here's a few more photos of him...




...one last look to make sure were no threat to him...


...and... BOOM! He's down again...


Sara was absolutely wrapped about getting photos of this since usually they bounce off and totally ignore me, but this huge male decided to almost pose for us... how cool is that? Definitely a first for the toyvoyagers! :-) Write again soon! :-)