Hi everyone, I'm back home in Panama after my latest European adventure. It was so good. Vienna was lovely and my secret steemit project went really well. I'm super happy with the outcome but I'm still waiting on the photos before I reveal what that was about.

Then I flew to Greece. I had no idea how amazing this country is and I wish I had another week or so there to keep exploring. 

While in Greece, I met and travelled with Hive account@martibis, the creator of steemitworldmap for a few days, and that was really fun. One or both of us will probably blog our adventures at some point but don't hold your breath waiting. Despite running a daily travel blog, it turns out we're both quite shit at writing our own travel posts!

Feature photo

The top photo was taken by award winning photographer Hive account@intrepidphotos. It is a painting of Baiame, a legendary ancestor and the maker of all things, according to the Wonnarua Aboriginal people. If you like it please upvote it here.  

Meet-ups: The ones you missed

Melbourne

The last Melbourne meet-up took place on Sunday 20 May in Carlton. Four steemians showed up including Hive account@datascience, Hive account@mslillypilly, Hive account@bobaphet and Hive account@itstime. 

Hive account@datascience's post here. Hive account@bobaphet's vlog here. Note, both posts are outside the payment window now so please upvote something more recent if you enjoyed them.

Credit: Hive account@datascience

Perth

Perth had a meet-up on Wednesday 23 May at the Lucky Shag (lol!) since Hive account@positiveninja was over there for work. Hive account@superoo7 went along. 

Hive account@positiveninja's post here. Hive account@superoo7's post here.

Credit: Hive account@superoo7

Upcoming meet-ups

Adelaide

End of month drinks are tomorrow 31 May from 6 pm at the Jade. Details here. Surely you know what they all look like by now, but if you don't, here's a reminder of Hive account@holoz0r's beard.

Credit: Hive account@holoz0r

Melbourne

The next Random Drinks will be on Saturday 2 June at the Good Food and Wine Show. Details here.

Get your discount tickets for the the Good Food and Wine Show here.

Team Australia Christmas Party

The Team Australia Christmas Party is happening in the Blue Mountains on Saturday 15 December. Details here. 

I just booked my flights to Australia a couple of hours ago so I'm one step closer to going. AND—in exciting news—my steemit bestie Hive account@kubbyelizabeth looks like she's now going. She's looking at flights as I write.

A house has been booked for the weekend and it's been dubbed "Ballerhouse" by the Mallsballers (i.e. the Adelaide crew). 

Hive account@mattclarke is auctioning off the second room this week after Hive account@o07 secured the first one. If you don't live in Sydney/the Blue Mountains and want to stay here, check out this post and get your bid in. 

You've still got plenty of time to plan/save. No need to FOMO just yet.

Credit: Hive account@bearone

Baby on board, something, something, Burt Ward!

Suck it. You're now going to be singing that all day!

Finally, congratulations to Brissy mum Hive account@cooknbake who had a baby on 20 May (I think). She didn't actually say if it's a boy or girl, just that it's out. 

Both doing well. Details here.

The usual community notices

You should follow @mrsquiggle, who is doing a great job recognising Aussie creativity by curating quality content.

Check out @anzub, the Australian and New Zealand upvote bot in the Australia-New Zealand Discord server. You need to register to receive upvotes and delegations are welcome. Speak to @jackmiller if you have questions.

Check out the awesome Minnow Support Project (MSP). Details on how to join are here. Come say hi in the #teamaustralia chat room in PAL-Discord. It's fun and you will make new friends.

You should consider voting for the MSP witnesses, particularly @ausbitbank and @aggroed, who've a done a great job in getting the MSP project off the ground.

Lastly, if you're feeling generous, you can delegate SP to the Team Australia upvote bots @centerlink, @mrsquiggle and/or @anzub (or any other bot you like) using Vessel. You can delegate to any of the MSP bots using this link. 

Candidate 1

Name and bio

Hive account@sanddrift is from the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. He's an environmentalist and nature enthusiast, as well as an amateur singer-songwriter, poet and photographer.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I like swimming and getting smashed by waves and walking out naked losing pants and all."  

Hmm, perhaps you need tighter pants.

Candidate 2

Name and bio

Hive account@trevorpetrie is a reluctant IT professional and songwriter from Bendigo. He's been writing songs and playing bands for 25 years. He also has his own record label.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"Although I'm 6 foot 4/ 193 cm, my first ever chat handle was 'dwarfman'. Back in the dial-up modem days, I used to chat on a site called OzChat. My chat handle actually had nothing to do with my height though and was actually a reference to the fact that I used to be a complete and total Red Dwarf tragic."

Sigh. Isn't most internet in Australia still dial-up speed? Hive account@ausbitbank is the only person I know with good internet.

Candidate 3

Name and bio

Hive account@run.vince.run is an Aussie living in Auckland. He's a software engineer, endurance athlete, and author. He's passionate about technology, sport, health, and fitness.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I am turning 40 this year and to do something a little crazy, I am running 4 marathons in 4 months for my 40th birthday."

Ha, nice. Good luck! Plus fit at 40 sounds preferable to fat at 40.

Candidate 4

Hive account@melbourneswest is a community development worker, an aspiring politician, and wannabe bodybuilder. Unsurprisingly he's from Melbourne.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I am literally the funnest person to be around which can be confirmed by pretty much all of Melbourne. I host some of the best events and I'm not afraid to push boundaries."

Hmm, that's a pretty big call.

Candidate 5

Name and bio

Hive account@jk6276 is from Coffs Harbour where he lives with his family after escaping the Sydney rat race 10 years ago.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I am actually pretty un-Australian... I don't like beer or vegemite."

Urgh. Another one that's anti vegemite. I think we need a clause on this. 

Candidate 6

Name and bio

Hive account@aliyah2017 is from Melbourne. She's Hive account@nextgen622's wife and a stay at home mum. 

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I have studied in university across four continents. I have been a café owner. I have a twin sister."

These are all cool fun facts. I feel like there are some good stories here.

Candidate 7

Name and bio

Hive account@steveblucher is another one of Hive account@mattclarkes' Adelaide recruits. He's a high school teacher and teaches coding. He recently become a Wiggles fan thanks to a small person living in his house.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I have double-jointed thumbs."

I'm not sure what practical benefits there are to this, but I feel that it would be a source of amusement at the pub/parties.

Candidate 8

Name and bio

Hive account@piquet is an Aussie living in Seattle. He moved there four years ago for a very cool job at Microsoft. He's also into Ironman triathlons, marathons, trail runs, and surfing.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I got my nickname Crazy because I went out for a 220km bike ride with one water bottle and no food. The guys I rode with said I was Crazy. I had a VISA card—I don't know what their problem was?

Lol. This seems perfectly reasonable. You don't want unnecessary weight on the bike over that kind of distance.

Candidate 9

Name and bio

Hive account@jojijoji is from the Bendigo area. S/he had a pretty traumatic childhood and now suffers from hEDS (hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome) and POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome).  

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I can dislocate every bone in my body except my elbows!"

Eek! That's making me queasy just thinking about it. Sounds like you and Hive account@steveblucher could put on a show though.

Congratulations everyone, you're now part of 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 and our Minister for Welfare @ausbitbank.
2. Send me 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 and teamaustralia tags to help boost your following. Use this handy guide by @teamsteem if you don't know what to write.
3. 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. You need to have a connection to Australia to join.
4. Tell me a fun fact about yourself. This can be anything. For example, maybe 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! The more fun, the better.
5. Regularly check the Team Australia and Australia tags and upvote/follow the content you like. You can show your support by following the centerlink curation trail in steemauto. Instructions are here.
6. Comment below or DM me in PAL-Discord that you want to join.

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. 

Gif by @justcallmemyth

Team Australia footer by @bearone

Page divider by @kristyglas