The first night in my new bed was great. The only thing that disturbed my good sleep was a bloody insect that decided to have a solo consert outside my window. It was not the normal sikata but something else that I cannot figure out, high pitched singin noise and reeeeally loud. I tried to scare it but it just would not shut up... poor thing just doing its best to make a sexy mating call and not realizing that I could not sleep...

Forgot to mention that I bought a bed yesterday, finally I will sleep on a good comfortable bed :) Me, Kylie and Ellen also went to IKEA yesterday and bought some stuff for our appartment. I had old and hoorrrrible curtains in my room and needed new ones so I checked out the prices... too expensive I thought... but then I saw very cheap shower hangers for 6 dollars (300 IKR) and I decided to try that. So I bought bright red shower hangers and now my room has a very red mysterious glow... Works beautifully and if I get bored of the color I can always buy it in another color :o) Who needs expensive curtains when there is plenty of cheap shower hangers out there ???
Dont forget to check out my new pictures !!!

Here are some new pictures, I specially reccommend the Antechinus pictures in Nelson :)


Adelaide


Alice Springs (party pictures...)


Coober Pedy


Rannveig meets Antechinus minimus !!!


My new house ... only one picture, but there will be more :)

Wow, what a trip :) Me, Ellen and Susi went for a 5 day fieldtrip and stayed in a Caravan Park in Nelson, which is an hour from Portland. The trapping sites were in gorgeous heathland outside Nelson with looooots of spiders :) like the Jewel spider which live in huge multiweb, many spiders in the same web and Leaf curler spiders which were absolutely everywhere. We trapped loads of animals, mostly Heath mice, Bush Rats and ANTECHINUS MINIMUS !!!! All these species are just adorable and we had some fantastic moments with them, even when one Bush Rat peed on me twice and some Antechinuses had diarrhea... We also trapped one big fat Bandicoot (marsupial) which had squeezed itself in the small trap and was stuck there, just hairs sticking out of the trap... Poor thing.
When we came to work last thirsday to take the car it did not start so we had to jump start it and we drove to Warnambool where a guy checed out the battery. He said it was fine so we did not do anything... The morning after the car would not start so we got another jump start ... and we had to keep the car running while we checked the traps because if it would die again we would have to walk for 2 hours back to Nelson. The car somehow survived and when we got back we got the battery replaced. Apart from that there were no dramas, lovely weather most of the time but it rained the last night so the heath was completely soaking the last morning. Would have wanted to have my gumboots then.
Fresh pictures will appear here very very soon :o)

NEW PICTURES !!!!

Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Kata Tjuta (Olgas)

Kings Canyon

Whitchetty grub adventure

I bought a bike yesterday :) It had to be put together so Kylie and Ellen helped me but we needed some tools so we could not finish it. We will get them today...
Tomorrow me, Ellen and Susie are going on a 5 day fieldtrip to Portland (near the border of South Australia). We will be staying in a caravan park and have to go and check the traps every day at dawn. I am so looking forward in seeing my beloved Antechinus minimus for the first time :o)

Hey everybody, thank you soooo much for all the birthdaywishes. It was a very long 'birthday' starting on Australia time on saturday and ending on Icelandic time on sunday :o) Kylie and Ellen were so lovely, put up Happy Birthday posters in the house and gave me great pictures to hang up on the empty walls in my room. It was a very hot day and I did a lot of baking for the sunday because then Barb had invited all from work to a BBQ at her place. Lovely weekend with hot weather, meeting Ellen's family for tea in Torquay, beaches, loads of food and good company :) We put 7 candles on the birthdaycake because the package only had 24 candles...
Elsku allir, takk fyrir oll sms, simtol, tolvuosta, komment a heimasidunni og hlyjar hugsanir. Sakna ykkar allra og hlakka til ad hitta ykkur aftur. Risaknus, ykkar Rannveig

Jibbiiii... I saw my first Antechinus today, it was Antechinus agilis not Antechinus minimus, but an Antechinus it was :o) Extreeemely cute little animal... Antechinuses are tiny carnivorous marsupials (like kangaroos and koalas) and my project will be on A. minimus. My trapping site is called Urquharts Bluff and in summer (winter here) I will be marking little pouch youngs while they are still in the mothers pouch and then see where they go when they leave theire mothers. But first I will have to do a LOT of reading...

Was going to borrow Ellen's bike this morning but it was pouring rain so I got a ride to Uni. Yesterday was fun, we were 6 who went together to look at Kate's sites. She is one of the honour students and will be trapping small mammals like me.
I will meet up with my supervisor Barbara today and then we can start designing my project :o)

Very sad to leave Adelaide, I made some really good friends there... Hope everything is working out with you guys, Michaela, Rebecca and Mark. I spent my days in Adelaide mostly on the beach with Rebecca but I also went to museums, galleries and shops (January sales...). We had a BBQ friday night which was my last night and went out to our favourite bar FED which has lamp I want to buy. Took the bus really early fridaymorning to Melbourne, 10 hours, and Fred and Judy picked me up (thank you). Saturday I went to check out my house. I will be sharing it with Kylie and Ellen, which I will be working with. It has 4 bedrooms, a big kitchen, 2 lounge rooms and has a big garden with native plants. I cannot beleave my luck !!! It is close to the University so I am going to get a bike somewhere.
I moved in yesterday and we were all exhausted after the day. Today is my first day at Uni, feels great, I am not doing much already though, just reading articles :) Tomorrow I am going with a group to do fieldwork, that will be great.

Now i am back to Adelaide, in my old room and lots of familiar faces around me :) Its cold here... but its good to be able to take a shower without sweating as soon as i step out.
My scratched eye started to feel worse yesterday and it was really bad this morning so I went to see a doctor. She cleaned it and gave me eyedrops and it feels much much better. So I am very happy about that :o)
Cooper Pedy was amazing, big Opal mines and Opal shops everywhere. Most people live underground and we slept in an underground bungalo. 40 degrees outside but nice and cool in our rabbit hole... very nice :) The mine museum was very interesting.
I forgot to mention something that we did in our 3 day tour in the center. We dug up a Witchetty grub, which is a wood-boring, edible caterpillar of a moth. The grubs live in the underground roots of wattle trees. Huge white caterpillars !!!! We found one which became our pet for half a day, then we grilled it like the aboriginies do. It smelled so nice and tasted like egg. Very very good :) I tried to find a picture of it on the internet but the pages are closed... but if you put 'Witchetty grub' in Google you will find some pictures. Aboriginal delicacy !!!
I developed my first 3 films and will put them on the internet soon. I will head back to Melbourne soon and move into my house on the 7th of February :) Thanx for all the sweet comments. Love, Rannveig