I finally understand... The pieces have fallen into place... At last I realise what my dear sister meant when she said that I will not be able to put the book down...
Ladies and Gentlemen, you might not know what I am talking about, but I have just finished the last book of Harry Potter. I finally have the full story, and I finally understand why my sister has read them so many times and why she just can not put them down when she does. What an amazing story and WOW, how good is J. K. Rowling?! Just think what an imagination she must have to be able to creat such a awesome world! Anyways... I just had to get all my excitement out somehow :) And to all of you who have not read them, please DO :D 

The latest few days... Almost the latest week now, come to think of it, it's been very quiet at work, barely any flights. October and November are usually very quiet, since it's in between seasons. So we have all spend a lot of the extra time cleaning and getting the place sparkling :) I have been cleaning and dusting around the souvenir shop, which was REALLY needed, I have almost got it all done now:D The boys have been cleaning planes, cutting the lawn and the hedges, although they have not been too happy about it... it's not a fun job to do, especially in 38 degree heat... Well, let me rephrase... It's not a fun job to do, for them :) But I can't help laughing a littlebit at them when their outside sweating, and i can just stay inside with my beloved aircon. I have been doing a lot of cleaning and dusting and I have pretty much rearranged the whole store, so I'm not being lazy or anything, but I get to escape the heat:D
I did go outside and took some pictures of Wade and Andrew when they were cleaning one of the planes :)



Just couldn't help myself, Wade just looked so funny in that cowboy hat, especially since I'm used to seeing him in his pilot uniform. Of course they turned the hose into a weapon, and my jeans did get pretty wet, but that's a price I was willing to pay (typical me) hihi :D

Hey everyone...
Just thought I would give you a link to my video I just uploaded. This "little"(depending on how you see it) guy visited me early this morning when I was counting the till. Bet your pretty glad you don't find them big things in Sweden:)

Mister Cockroach

On my very precious day off I decided we needed something nice for breakfast, so I made Swedish pancakes:) mmmm... Really nice!




Most of the day off I just tried to relax, but then in the afternoon I managed to get myself over to the gym and the pool as usual and enjoy some sun and work out for a bit. It's the only time I can do it, so I'm trying to do it every day I have off.




I also wanted to show you this picture. it's a sign that you can see on the drive from Jabiru to the airport. I don't know about you guys, but it's the first time I have ever seen a sign like it... :)

*xoxo*

Today I had some changes in my everyday life... They decided that they don't need the casual pilot that was helping me out behind the counter, because we're now getting into the quiet time. It will be quiet until the wet season starts at the end of November/ beginning of December. So they asked me if I would consider working 6 days a week instead for a while... It is going to be tough, but hey, they need me and it means I can save even more money for when Uni starts in February. :) I'll try to still keep you guys updated though, after all, I update while I'm at work most of the time :)

*Lots of love to you all* 

Ok... I know, I haven't written in a week, sorry about that... You know how it is, sometimes you just don't find the time. But hey, better late then never.
I can't say that I have heaps to tell you about the week, the only thing that happened that was out of the ordinary, was that Carlos got an Aeromed call on Tuesday night. When the pilots get an Aeromed call it means that they have to get to the airport and put up the lights along the runway so that the plane coming to get the sick person can land. Then you have to wait around until they take off and collect all the lights again. So on Tuesday night Carlos got a call at 11pm. Since I am so very nice I got up and went with him, even though I could have stayed in bed... ;) But I just thought that that would be a bit mean... I would have taken pictures of the event if I could, but it was too dark, and my camera is not good enough for night pictures... It was quite an experience, but I hope I never have to do it again, because getting up for work the next day at 6am was not fun AT ALL...
This week I have spend a lot of time in the souvenir shop getting everything sorted. No one has touched that area for while, and there is lots and lots to be done. The boss is coming to visit again next week, so I have to make it look good until then :)

The weekend was pretty good, didn't do that much. As usual I went to the gym and the pool and enjoyed. I also went and did the weekly food shopping. And I have FINALLY started reading the Harry potter books again. I had read no 1, 2, 3 and gotten through half the 4th one twice, so now I am finally gone read the whole story :) Looking forward to finding out the ending :) (but for those of you who knows it, please don't tell me) :)

*xo xo*

I'm back at work after 2 great days off, but as usuall, they went by way too fast... I think that's the way it is with the weekend all over the world, no matter what country your in :P I started Sunday with getting up early and dropping Carlos at work, then I cleaned the house to perfection :) The pool didn't open until 12 since it was Sunday. So after cleaning the house I had time to make a really nice lunch. A sandwish with an egg on the side and a home made sauce, mmmm...


It was just as nice as it looks :)

Then I enjoyed the pool for 3 hours 

When I arrived I saw this little guy drinking out of the pool... :)

My plan after that was to wash the car, since we have been planning on doing that since we got here(I know we're a bit slow)... I went to the airport to get it done, but I ended up going flying with Carlos on his last flight of the day instead :) He asked if I wanted to come, and I was thinking: hmmmm, washing the car... or go flying... washing the car... or go flying... Yepp, flying it is :) I know, I have already showed you a lot of pictures from when I've gone flying, but I just have to show you a few more... :D


The Uranium Mine

     

 
Arnhem Land

     

   
East Alligator River...


   


Yesterday I decided to sleep in, so I didn't set an alarm and slept until 11.45, best sleep ever and sooo needed. After that I went to the gym, which I haven't done in 2 or 3 weeks, so it felt really good, but now I have to deal with being sore for like 5 days... Which is fine most of the time, except for when Carlos is poking me, because he thinks it's funny... And then of course, I spend another couple of hours in the sun by the pool, just enjoying not working for a change. I finished my weekend with washing the car... So now it's FINALLY clean :)

*xo xo*

I don't have much to tell you about the latest few days. Been working from 7.30 to 17.00, some days 17.30. In the evenings we usually just relax, watch some tv, read our books, take care of our animals and have dinner of course. But one thing that I did yesterday was, deciding the names for my birds :) . I named the girl Aria and the Boy Arcus. I was looking at Latin names that has a meaning and found these 2 names. Aria means "a beautiful melody", which I chose because she is always active and "talks" a lot. Arcus means "rainbow", and I do not think I need to explain why I chose that name... :D




Arcus is the one to the left and Aria to the right. You can tell them apart by looking at the colour of their chest. The male always has a stronger colour, he is dark purple and she is light purple. Aren't they cute? :)
Tomorrow and Monday I will have my 2 days off all by myself. Because Carlos had to have Friday and Saturday off this week. Next time I write I will update you on all the fun stuff I did, all in my lonesome in fun and entertaining Jabiru :) Although I have not quite worked out what that will be yet...
*Kisses and hugs* 

Last night we got back from our weekend in Darwin, and today we are back at work for more 10 hour days (been here for about 8,5 hours now). Darwin was great, although I wish we had had a little more time, it went by way too fast.... Most of our time in Darwin was spend in petshops in and around the Darwin area. Because I had decided that I wanted a pet for my birthday, and so did Carlos for his (even though his birthday is not until the end of October). It was hard to decide what to get, and we spend a big part of both days deciding... But in the end we got 2 Gouldian Finches for me, which is a native Australian bird that is endangered in the wild. And 6 little fishies for Carlos, all Guppys. So getting our pets was the big highlight for the weekend.

     

The other highlight was experience room service for the first time of my life. We spend the night at the Crowne Plaza and just before we were gonna get ready for dinner we started watching a movie... And since we were tired after our very long week, we suddenly did not feel like going out anymore, so I had a look around and found the room service menu. I got the Chicken Ceasar salad and Carlos got the Crowne Plaza Sandwich, they were both really good. 

 

I am actually really glad that we celebrated my Birthday with dinner in bed instead of going out, different and so much more memorable :) So a weekend at a nice hotel, room service and two birds. Yepp, I do have a great boyfriend :D   

And just finishing with a few pictures from last week at work:)

     
Carlos checking the fuel levels around 6.30 am just as the sun was rising, and I dont officially start work until 7.30 so I thought: what better way to spend the morning then taking pictures :)

 
Inside the Airvan...and... the helicopter.

*xo xo*

So... Yesterday was my big day, my birthday :D Those who know me well, knows that I love birthdays, not just my own (even though that one is at the top of the list), but I think birthdays are fun, makes the day a little bit special. Unfortunately, we were working the whole day, so we could not celebrate it that much. I made my beloved Swedish cookies "Negerbullar" myself, because Carlos has not learnt how to make them yet (he will though). So I at least, followed the family traditon of having those cookies for your birthday, and I also brought them to work so everyone got to taste them (they liked them, what a surprise).
Since we did not get to celebrate properly on my birthday, we are going to Darwin on our days off instead. We are gonna stay at a nice hotel, go shopping, see the city a bit, go out and just enjoy civilisation for 2 days :D Definitely looking forward to that, and to choosing my birthday present.... hmmm... Got to think long and hard on that one, it is important to choose wisely. :)
I did not take any pictures yesterday, but I was looking at Carlos pictures and realised I never uploaded any of his pictures from last weekend. So here you have a few of those.

 


Bats....SOOO LOAD!

   


Peekaboo :)




A nice little picture of us :)
And I forgot to say Thank You to everyone who wished my a Happy Birthday, but thank you so much, means a lot :) Talk again soon...
Lots of Love

Our second walk started well. It was a really nice walk, not as much musqitoes as the first walk and not too hot and no flies... A lot of warning signs though...


      
My collection of warning signs :) Apparently crocodiles are dangerous... Who know?

     

Still going along East Alligator River, just in a different spot.

 

See... Here we are all happy, still not to hot or annoyed by the flies...



Cool footprint, wish mine looked like that ;) (not really)

   
I really loved the rock formations, and they were easy to climb too, which we of course did :)


haha, where did that head come from?

                        
The view over the river              A Cockatoo sitting at the top of a tree...


Carlos in the opening of a cave



Love this picture, even though it's of a dead tree



hahaha, yeah, I know how this looks , that's why I took the picture :) hihi, sneaky..



 

It was after this point things got a bit too much, we had done about half of our second walk and we saw a sign for another walk, so we thought, why not. But that walk ended up taking a lot longer then we thought, it was a lot hoter and a lot more flies that were going around, around and around our heads... In the end I just wanted to scream and I did eventually. But now I am happy we did it. We ended up walking for about 6 hours, we were exhausted of, but we got heaps of good pictures and were kept entertained for most of the day :) And like always, the nature was absolutely amazing...

*xo xo*

On our first day off we didn't do much, besides relaxing after a really long week. The one thing we did do, was to go to Bowali visitor centre and get information about heaps of different walks you can do around the park. So we picked out 2 of them for this weekend, but we are planning on go on all of them before we leave Kakadu.
Monday morning we got up at 6am to get an early start, we figured it would be a lot easier doing the walks when it's not 35 degrees. We drove for about 30 minutes to get to Ubir, where we went for our first walk, which took about an hour. It went along the East Alligator River, but no Alligators, just Crocodiles :) There are 3 Alligator Rivers in Kakadu National Park, East, West and South Alligator River. It was some explorer that went up the rivers ages ago, he thought that the animals in the water was Alligators, but they were infact Crocodiles. There is actually no Alligators in this area (not that it makes you feel any safer).

   
East Alligator River from the first walk we did, and a little Croc trying to catch the morning sun.

 
Carlos...         ...and our pretty car

   
This spikey tree looked really cool, so I just had to get a picture of it. Looks like it is trying to keep everone and anyone away.
After this shorter walk we drove for about 5 minutes to get to where the second walk started, Which was supposed to be a 2 hour walk......... But.....

I thought it would be nice to give you a more detailed report about how it feels and what it looks like when you go for a flight in Kakadu:)
Some of the pictures are from when I went on a fixed wing flight and some from when I went on a helicopter flight.

 
The first thing you get to see is the Uranium Mine.

   

   
These are pictures of Arnhem land.

 
Here is usually a big waterfall in the wet season


 
A happy flyer :)      And the archway


     
This is East Alligator River...                       ...and the Wetlands

 
The airport just before landing

Flying is a really good way to get a good view of the park and if you ever get a chance to go on one of these flight, do it! Helicopter flights can take you closer and fixed wing flights covers a bigger area. Do not make me choose a favourite... I will soon get back to you with a bunch of pictures from the adventures of the weekend.
*Lots of Love*

We arrived in jabiru on a Saturday night, on the Sunday afternoon we went to the airport to have a look and to meet everyone etc. The first thing they did was to put us on a flight so that we would see what kakadu Air flights are all about, that was pretty exciting, at least for me, who has never flown in anything smaller then 737 :) Carlos was not as excited :P It is a absloutely beautifull National Park, and to see it from the air was amazing.

After the flight I worked for a few hours just to start learning all the different tasks that lies under my responsibility, which is a fair few... From the beginning my role felt really daunting, it was just so many different parts to remember and the first couple of weeks were really hard and tiring. But I have to say that now, being on my 4th week here, it feels easy, because now I know everything and I have everything under control. :)

 
      
The first week we had seperate days off work, I had Saturday and Sunday, and Carlos had Monday and Tuesday. So on my days off I went to the gym and to the pool, which is located just a 5 minute walk from our house. 35 degrees, not the best in a gym with no air-con , but really nice when your lying in the sun by the pool :)

 

   

The highlight of the following week was definitely the 45 minute helcopter flight (without doors) that I went on. It was absolutely amazing. A very different experience compared to the fixed wing flights, although I loved both experiences. And this week (and from now on) they had given us the same days off, so we went bush walking and explored some of the incredible nature that this park has to offer.

       

   

Last weeks highlight was when I went on my second fixed wing flight, only this time I went for an hour, sitting in the front seat while Carlos was flying :D That was a lot of fun, almost felt like a pilot myself..almost... :P

*Lots Of Love*