Girl Talk and Australia Day

I arrived safe and sound in Brisbane and was met at the airport by Nicole who had arranged her work schedule so that she could do so. I'm feeling a bit sorry for her as she is the first adult female company I've had in over a month and I haven't stopped nattering at her since the moment I got in the car. It has been really nice to have some girl talk. She got me settled in the house and then we went out to see the neighbourhood and do a booze run. We enjoyed the afternoon on the balcony with a few cocktails and more girl talk :-). Once it got dark we could watch the possums running from tree to tree along the telephone wires beside the street. It's interesting that I've seen more possums here than in the countryside at Brian's. They're kind of like squirrels in the city.

It is very hot and humid here, but there is often a breeze on the balcony and it's quite pleasant to sit out. Running errands or just walking around is a different story and we're all taking several showers a day. I'm hoping to do some running while I'm here, but will have to do it first thing in the morning or not at all. It is very hilly around here and I'm sure that the heat and hills will do me in.

Paul and Nicole both had Friday off so we met up with some friends of theirs for Australia Day celebrations in town. It was much like Canada Day with lots of people out and about enjoying the live music, barbeques and cold beers. We cracked our first pint at 11:00 AM on the nose and we didn't look back. At my insistence, we left a beautiful pub balcony in Southbank at about 3:00 to go check out the annual cockroach races on the patio of the Story Bridge Pub. This was quite an event - the place was just packed with people betting on the races and each race was preceeded by a pipe and drum procession, and followed by a trophy awarding ceremony. The pipers and drummers were clad in the ubiquitous yellow and green of Oz and VB (see below). The cockroaches were released onto a large target on the ground and the first one to cross the outer circle won. Unfortunately, due to the heat, I was only able to watch one race before I absolutely melted and my entourage insisted we get ourselves into an air-conditioned venue. The cockroaches also seemed somewhat affected by either the weather or perhaps the lack of air in their container, as many landed on their backs on the "race track" and stayed that way. Strangely, nobody seemed to be concerned that they had just put money down on a dead cockroach. Given the amount of beer being consumed, I would have thought that this would have started riots.

We left there and went to the Elephant and Wheelbarrow which was less crowded and allowed us to sit inside out of the blazing sun. This pub also had a promotion going on. Unfortunately, it was sponsored by Victoria Bitter (VB) which is sort of Australia's version of Labatt's 50, and we didn't want to have to drink it to participate. Finally one of our entourage, Rebecca, agreed to drink the VB and "take one for the team" so that we could particpate in the contest. She's still young and resilient, and we were very grateful to her for her efforts. (Although in all fairness, she got to drink free all afternoon, so I guess she's not the fool wee took her for.) For every VB bought, you were given a little stuffed koala. The koala was placed on a tee (like kids use for t-ball) and you had to whack it with a cricket bat at a wall of stuffed kangaroos. When you knocked over a kangaroo with a koala, you were awarded the prize that corresponded to the kangaroo. We all came home with VB hats, t-shirts, stubby holders and the like. The kicker is that Paul and Nicole also won the grand prize draw and are the proud owners of a new VB bar fridge. All in all it was an excellent day.

Paul and Nicole have been wonderful hosts and I'm feeling a little guilty here. They are treating me like royalty and don't seem to want to let me help or pay for anything. They really need to be a bit more careful or I may never leave. And on that note, I may in fact stay on a bit longer than expected. They have a couple of celebrations coming up (housewarming and Paul's 40th) which I may stick around for.

A note of interest: When I was in Melbourne I discovered a french fry shop that actually sold poutine as part of it's international menu. They don't have cheese curds in Australia so they use grated cheese instead. It wasn't exactly right, but was a great taste of home.

Couch Potato in Kinglake

Greetings from the land down under where men are blokes and friends are mates. You fill your car up with petrol from the bowser and the law-breaking rowdies are called hoons (a short form of hooligan or perhaps a cross between hood and goon?). Ring-tailed possums do not have rings around their tails, but their tails curl up into a ring as do the tails of every other type of possum. Dinner is called tea, even though tea doesn't factor into the meal at all. Linens, towels and the like are collectively known as manchester. A pickup truck is called a ute (short for utility vehicle) and an ATV is called a quad bike. (Think about that last one for a minute. Is it just me, or is there something inherently wrong with it?) I may not be accomplishing much here, but I am gaining a whole new vocabulary.

I thought it was time to write as I'm getting e-mails from people wondering if I still have a pulse. I do indeed have a pulse, however it's throbbing very slowly these days. I really haven't been doing too much since I returned back to Brian's place after my excursion down the Great Ocean Road. It's been nice to just live a normal life without having to think about where I'm going next.

The weather continues to puzzle and vex me. I thought that we had fickle weather in Canada, but it's nothing compared to southern Australia. It will be 40 and sunny one day and rainy and 12 the next. It has certainly been more of the former than the latter, and since they're in a horrible drought here, there is much rejoicing when the rains do come. Much of the state is still burning and the fire-fighters are really getting worn out. New Zealand, Canada (BC) and now the US (Idaho) have all sent in fire-fighters to help with the battle. Despite the devastation to the countryside, there has been almost no loss of livestock or homes - it's a real credit to the fire-fighters.

I am trying to run regularly, but on the particularly hot and dry days I can't manage it even in the early hours of the morning. It just sucks the moisture right out of me and I'm unable to complete even a kilometer. There is a pine plantation behind the hill that Brian lives on, so I climb up the hill and do my running through the baby pines. It's a great environment for it - the views are great and there are no vehicles on the roads back there. Just me and the beautifully colourful birds. Of course I keep my eyes peeled for snakes on the hike up the hill through the bush, but so far I haven't had any encounters. There are tons of tiny lizards that are really cute but move in a snake-like way and generally startle the bejezzus out of me.

Last weekend we took the kids to the annual Raspberry Fair at a nearby raspberry farm. It was just like country fairs everywhere in the world - rides for the kids, some market stalls and lots of good food. Unfortunately, due to the drought there are very few raspberries this year, so the pick-them-yourselfers were coming back from the fields with very little to show for their efforts. We got the kids hopped up on cotton candy and sno-cones and then delivered them to their mother :-).

This weekend Brian's son Jayden turned 7, so we went to his birthday party at the local cricket pitch. A dozen or so of his friends joined him in a cricket match and the adults all pretended to be fielders while nattering away among ourselves. It was a great party and the kids were happily occupied for three hours with the game.

Speaking of cricket, I have become quite an expert on the subject. This is not necessarily by choice, as this nation is more obsessed by cricket than Canada is by hockey, and it's impossible to avoid. I could even comment on the love lives of the players, but I'll spare you. There are five television stations in Australia and being out in the country, Brian only gets two. Now that the Australian Open is on, there is tennis all day on one and invariably some hugely important cricket match on the other. Just my kind of programming - NOT! I reckon that watching a cricket match is about as exciting as watching paint dry, and some of these games last for 5 days. FIVE DAYS! Who in their right mind plays a game that lasts five days? And how much must you be missing a life to actually watch a game that lasts five days? That is just beyond me. Now Australian rules football is another thing altogether, but it must be the wrong season for it as I haven't seen any on TV since I've been here.

I am leaving the day after tomorrow for Brisbane. I will be staying with a couple that I met on my tour in Peru in October of 2005. They are really lovely people and I'm really looking forward to seeing them. They both work shifts (nurse and cop) so I'm not sure how much time we'll all have together, but it sounds like they have plans for us to visit the beach and do some camping. It will also be nice for me to explore the city, as I remember Brisbane to be really beautiful. I must say that I'm really looking forward to the beach, as there is nowhere to swim around here (other than indoor pools) and I've missed that in the extreme heat.

I'll try to be more diligent in my blogging, and I expect that I'll have more to write about once I get moving again.

Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road

I arrived in Melbourne to typically good Australian summer weather. The sky was blue and it was in the high 30s. I spent the day wandering around town and getting myself acquainted with the city. It is an absolutely beautiful city and I really love it here. As you all know, I'm not a city person, so this is no small praise. It is terribly expensive though, and it makes me wonder how the Aussies can make ends meet.

Brian arrived in the afternoon and we went out for a lovely dinner. We have been somewhat hard-pressed to find any night life here - we know that it's out there somewhere, but it doesn't seem to be congregated in one spot like it is at home, so you have to know where you're going. So far, we haven't figured it out.

We spent the next day exploring on our own. I headed down to St. Kilda which is a suburb right on the coast. There is a lovely beach there, as well as a pier and some cute shops. It was very busy as we're in the middle of summer holidays here, but it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

The next day we picked up our rental car to head out to the Great Ocean Road. Basically as soon as we got into the car, the clouds started rolling in and the weather took a change for the worse. Despite the cloud cover, it stayed hot that day (38 or so) and we were able to get some nice views of the coast. We arrived in Lorne about mid-afternoon where we had a room booked. Given the high season, and the fact that this was the busiest weekend of the year, we had to book a minimum of 3 nights, so decided to make Lorne our home base. We took a look around town and then drank some wine and had some dinner on the balcony outside our room. We went into town and found the "happening" place at the Lorne hotel. We ended up partying with an Australian couple who approached us in the bar as we were the only other ones there over the age of 20. They had us doing Jagermeister shooters in no time and we spent a great evening dancing and generally having a laugh (and working on headaches for the next day).

The next day was the great "Pier to Pub" swim in Lorne. This is an annual event much like the Hope beach volleyball tournament or the race weekend is at home. 4500 people swim from the pier to the pub, a distance of about 1.2 kms. The race takes place in several heats over the course of the day, so the beach and town were packed all day. The day was still hot, but the clouds were low and the rain started shortly after lunch. We watched some of the races and then napped through the afternoon rain (needed to get that Jagermeister out of our systems). We joined the post-race party at the outdoor bar on top of the Lorne hotel in the pouring rain. Once again we were the oldest people in the place, but this time didn't meet any other ancient couples so the evening was mostly spent people-watching. (I have to admit, there were lots of people there worth watching!!!!) Just as it was getting dark the clouds cleared and we could see the stars so we were hopeful for good weather for the next day. By the time we got back to our room it was raining again.

We set off the next morning to explore more of the coast but due to the rain, cloud and wind the views were dismal. Over the course of the first hour or so on the road the temperature dropped from 19 to 13 so we weren't really tempted to get out of the car too often. The one exception was about 10 minutes of sunshine at the 12 Apostles, which is a very cool rock formation just off the coast in the sea. We nearly froze to death, but at least were able to see the spectacular scenery in a bit of sunshine. We took an inland road back to Lorne through the Otway National Park and were able to get out of the car long enough to complete a 2-km hike through the woods to a waterfall. It was a very pretty walk, and in fact the drive through the park was also spectacular.

We had a quiet last evening in Lorne and headed back to Melbourne today. The road that we had hoped to take back was closed so unfortunately we missed out on a couple of things we had wanted to see. We dropped the car off at the rental agency and within about half and hour the clouds parted and the sun came out. The sky is now blue with expected beautiful weather for the next few days. I guess the gods just weren't smiling on us this time.

We'll spend this evening in Melbourne and Brian flies out in the morning for Sydney and then Ottawa. I'll head back out to the other Brian's tomorrow afternoon.

New Year

I haven't written in a while because life has actually been fairly normal for me. During the week between Christmas and New Year, Brian worked days and I just cruised around the countryside. He was given a reprieve from the fire towers so was working more normal hours, but is back on the towers this week for a couple of days. I have been running a bit which feels really good but has underlined how sedintary I have become since leaving Bhutan. I'm hoping to get a bit more regular exercise in over the next few weeks.

I managed to hit some post-Christmas sales and am getting pretty comfortable with driving on the wrong side of the road. I have also pretty much mastered the round-about so can get from point A to point B without too many people honking at me.

Brian has been an awesome host and is spending all his spare time touring me around. He works for the parks so is a virtual fountain of knowledge regarding the local flora and fauna. I'm seeing all kinds of interesting animals and plants that we don't have at home - the parks are absolutely beautiful and quite people-free. Yesterday we went to the Melbourne water catchment which is closed to the public and we drove around all day without seeing a soul. I got to see a platypus in its natural environment, which was very cool. I also saw the biggest tree in Australia which totally excites Brian every time he sees it. Men and their size issues again :-).

We had a busy weekend with the kids and managed to get in a visit to a wildlife sanctuary on Sunday. They house lots of native animals and do a really interesting birds of prey demonstration. We had a great day, but the kids really wore us both out this weekend (Brian more than me) so we ended up falling asleep in front of the TV that evening. We woke up just in time to count down the new year and have a toast at midnight. God, we sound like an old married couple, don't we? Brian reckons that my blog has become extremely boring since I arrived here, but the reality is that it's really nice to just be living a somewhat normal existance for a couple of weeks. Doing dishes and picking up groceries are novelty for me now and it's an absolute dream to be able to shuffle to the fridge in my jammies for a glass of juice in the morning.

Tomorrow I'm heading into Melbourne to meet up with a friend of mine from Ottawa who is also traveling in Australia. His name is also Brian (the third in my collection) and is not be confused with either the British soldier or the Australian fire-fighter. I met Brian from Ottawa when we worked together at AT&T. He's been diving up north on the Great Barrier Reef for the last few weeks. We'll spend a couple of days in the city and then drive out along the Great Ocean Road. I'll post again as we go.