Hey hey! I’m back from my holidays. I have to say the Netherlands is totally awesome. I highly recommend it as a country to visit and I will be writing a travel post including photos of questionable quality, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime enjoy this good photo, that I didn't take, of the Hague.

Source

I also enjoyed being back in the UK and catching up with friends, many of whom I haven’t seen in eight years. I also went to my first ever UK cricket match at the Oval in London. What's annoying though, is that they make you pay £1 for a fancy reusable cup to discourage beer snakes. 

I believe this makes the beer snake the world's most endangered snake, and if it hasn't come to Australia yet, I'll assume it's only a matter of time.  

The only thing I didn’t like about my holiday was the crappy weather. Some days were 15C or less. In response to that, I’m glad I bought a second pair of full length yoga pants, since basically I chucked out all my winter clothes when I moved to Panama. 

Secondly, as an Aussie, this really messed with my head since August is instinctively winter and sub 20C is definitely winter. 

But I was in Europe and it was meant to be summer. 

I think you can see where I’m going with this:

Try harder Northern Europe. Your summers suck balls! 

So what's been happening while I’ve been away? I don’t know. I’ve been completely shite at following anything that’s not steemlords related. 

Apologies for that since I do regularly go through and comment on many Team Australia posts. Basically I didn’t have time to read anything while I was away, plus I was trying to keep my character alive and in the quest with my limited steemit time.

Sadly, steemlords has now finished (although a few conclusion posts rounding out the journeys of various characters are still coming through). On the plus side, it will continue in the form of a Masters of the Universe challenge. I am thoroughly looking forward to continuing the adventures of ChooXena: Vegan Warrior Princess once she escapes from Lord Percival’s clutches on board his sex TARDIS. 

@sirknight, please don't keep us waiting too long for the next set of instructions. 

Official notices

You should follow @mrsquiggle, who is doing a great job recognising and rewarding creativity within Team Australia. He will also submit the most worthy posts to @curie, which would result in a massive upvote if you can tap that gravy train.

You can support Team Australia members by following the centerlink curation trail in Streemian. Instructions on how to do this are here.

Be sure to check out @centerlink, who is busy putting Aussie-battler tax dollars to work in the form of dole payments for posts, as well as showcasing Australia's most worthy dole recipients.

Don’t forget the Minister for Welfare @ausbitbank has created the @discordia bot, which you can use to increase your upvote moolah. Some of the proceeds will support @centerlink so give it a try.

Of course, also check out the awesome Minnow Support Project. Details on how to join are are here and here. You can also come say hi in Discord. It's fun and you can make new friends!  

 

Candidate 1 

Name and bio 

@overthewait is a 40-something Queenslander and single parent. He grew up in regional Queensland and has worked and travelled all over Australia. He has picked grapes in Menindee, swum in the Murray River at midnight in July in Mildura, bailed hay at Boonah, and grafted cherry trees in Sorrel. He’s even driven a horse and carriage tour through the streets of Darwin, and held the keys to the gates of Government House. 

@overthewait’s blog focuses on cooking, local food, gardening, sustainable and regenerative agriculture, weight loss and his own unique philosophy. 

Fun fact  

“I’m into steampunk and costuming.” 

I really have no idea what this is about. It sounds like a whole new world. 

Candidate 2 

Name and bio 

@senseiteekay is a Kiwi and a music producer living in Brisbane and a steemit veteran. He's been on here since July 2016 and when the price of steem was 0.08 USD. (Oh how we'd love to go back and buy in then!) 

Over the past year @senseiteekay has started a business, moved house, found love, and reconnected with old friends. He has also been quietly building a following whilst promoting steemit in Queensland. @senseiteekay is currently in the process of starting a cryptocurrency business using the steem blockchain for one of his applications.

Fun fact 

“I love skateboarding!” 

Skateboarding is cool. I, however, am very uncoordinated and I doubt as an adult my skills will improve. 

Candidate 3 

Name and bio

If you’ve been following steemlords and/or are a regular in the Team Australia chat room on discord, then you will know who @phelimint is. What you probably don't know is that @phelimint is a nurse from northern Ontario, Canada and that he has a wife and two young children. He also enjoys the rural lifestyle, raising chickens, and growing fruit trees.

@phelimint's interest in joining Team Australia has stemmed from being part of steemlords. However, he also had an Australia working holiday visa a few years back and even applied for his Australian nursing licence, but never ended up coming here. Why? He met a girl (not his current wife) and decided to stay in Canada.

Fun fact 

“Many years ago I decided I wanted to be a professional bull rider. I went to rodeo school and got my Ontario Rodeo Association membership. I competed at maybe half a dozen events, never really figured it out and got roughed up a bit before I came to my senses and gave up my rodeo career. But it makes a great a fun fact and used to be a great pick up line.” 

Hmm… Well now I’m interested to know if this is the line you used to get your wife?

 

Candidate 4 

Name and bio 

@travelgirl is a wife and mother currently living in Sydney (I'm guesing from her blog). She migrated from Hong Kong more than 20 years ago, and writes her blogs in English and Cantonese. 

@travelgirl’s favourite things are travel, travel and more travel. She’s also keen on Japanese food and snowboarding. So far she’s snowboarded in Japan, Korea, Canada, USA, New Zealand and Australia. Her favourite ski field is Niseko, Japan. 

Fun fact 

“I love snowboarding and have been to a few countries to try their slopes. And as per my alias, I love traveling so most of my posts are about travel.” 

I concur; travelling is indeed a highly enjoyable activity. Snowboarding I’m not so keen on. I'd put that in the same category as skateboarding. Plus it involes winter.

Candidate 5 

Name and bio 

@yeahnah (which sounds Aussie as!) is a husband and father of three. Two years ago him and his wife rented out their house and set off around Australia, while home schooling their kids. However, he is currently back in Bathurst as ‘the tenants stuffed the house’. This means they will be taking shorter trips from now on. 

@yeahnah is also into prospecting while he travels. Hmm, this story sounds an awful lot like @dardi’s story. Is she your wife? 

Fun fact 

“I worked with a pit crew for the Bathurst 24 hour races.” 

If you are @dardi’s husband, did you also appear on Housos during Bathurst?  

Candidate 6 

Name and bio 

@simonsays is from Melbourne. He is a massive foodie who’s run and organised several food festivals, including two Melbourne events that focused on world street food. He loves travelling and is always hunting down street food in the cities he visits.  

@simonsays worked in events management focusing on music festivals and touring artists for 10 years. He then entered the corporate world as a business analyst/manager for another 10 years. Even though this wasn’t highlight of his career, it taught him self-motivation skills and about organisational processes and procedures, which have served him well since. 

Fun fact 

“I can eat extremely exotic and spicy foods.” 

That sounds yum. Or really gross.

@sirknight, please add these new members to Team Australia. 

The rules for joining Team Australia

If you’re not yet a member and want to be, this is what you need to do:

1. Vote here for our resident steemit witness @ausbitbank.
2. Regularly check the  Team Australia and Australia tags and upvote the content you like. 
3. Follow and upvote existing members of @teamaustralia who you share a common interest with. Alternatively, you can show your support by following the centerlink curation trail in Streemian. Instructions are listed here.
4. Comment below or DM me on steemit chat or Discord that you want to join.
5. Link your introduction post so I can find out a bit about you. If you’re new to steemit you'll have to write one so use the introduceyourself tag to help boost your following. You can also follow this handy guide written by @teamsteem.
6. If it’s not mentioned in your introductory post, tell me which city and country you’re in, cos let's face it, a lot of us live in Australia's fourth largest city—London.  
7. If you’re not Aussie tell me why you should be a Team Australia ambassador. 
8. Tell me a fun fact about yourself. This can be anything. For example, maybe you run a successful business, or you have eight kids and three dogs, or you rode your bike across America, or you won the blue ribbon for javelin throwing at sports day back in high school, or Toadie came into the pub you work at one day and you served him a beer, or, maybe you can fit 55 maltesers in your mouth like Ed Sheeran can. It doesn’t matter what it is, I want a fun fact about you!

Once I receive this information I will try my best to write a good introductory paragraph about you for the official Team Australia membership updates. So the better your information is, the better I can make you sound. Where relevant, please use the teamaustralia and australia tags to promote your work. I will try and post weekly updates unless there is a lot of interest, in which case I will try and post sooner. 

Team Australia banner by @bearone

Page dividers by @kristyglas