Brisbane

My new favourite Aussie expression is "much of a muchness" which means "six of one, half a dozen of another". Of course I'll always be partial to "fair dinkum" which loosely translated means "I swear on my mother's grave that what I'm telling you is the truth" but I haven't heard it spoken during this visit so I'm wondering if it has fallen out of favour.

I'm having a lovely visit in Brisbane. It has been very relaxing and I've had plenty of down time to read, catch up on e-mails and upload my photos to a website (details coming soon). Paul and Nicole continue to spoil me, but I've finally broken them to some degree as they're now allowing me help around the house. I am proud to say that I've actually taken the garbage out and hung a couple of loads of laundry on the line. I even cooked a meal for them after being informed that "tomorrow is Canadian cuisine night". Paul and I have been to the market the last two Saturday mornings to pick up the week's fresh vegetables and last Sunday we went into the city to check out the Sunday markets along the river. Nicole has taken me to get all the girly stuff done, so I had a pedicure, a hair cut and various other snips, tweezes and waxes. I feel positively feminine again!!! Yesterday afternoon I went and met Paul and his colleagues for after work drinks. Paul and Nicole both had a day off on Monday, so we headed out to the beach together. It was really lovely to be able to swim in the warm sea and bask in the sun. I am getting familiar with the city and the trains so am trying to get out on my own to explore from time to time. The city has a beautiful winding river through it, so riding the ferries is a great way to get around and soak up the scenery (and a breeze!). It continues to be very hot and humid here - I'm having a hard time relating to news of snow and "throwing a log on the fire" from home.

Next weekend we are going camping at Byron Bay a couple of hours south of here. I'll leave three days early and stay in a hostel so that I can spend a few extra days at the beach before they arrive. I visited Byron Bay 12 years ago when it was a sleepy little hippy village by the sea, where you could get organic food and hemp clothing. When I got on the internet to book a room for next week I was amazed to find over 100 choices for accommodation. I guess it has really grown over the last few years and it will be interesting to see the change. I'm really looking forward to it.