Elam Family Down Under

New DVD Player

2007-12-12T11:34:00.000-08:00

Going to get a new DVD player? This one!

Toshiba DVD

More Food Updates

2007-08-05T12:57:00.001-07:00

I've recently been abused (by an lawyer of all people) for eating "like a 12 year old." I think it more resembles the eating of a 15 year old. And what's wrong with that?

More milestones:
-> Cold pizza for breakfast
-> Nice cold Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
-> Ben & Jerry's triple fudge rump widener
-> Wendy's Bacon-a-holic burger (nb: the kids are totally unable to eat kreppy fast food fries now that they've gotten used to Aussie hot chips. Which are made of real, you know, potato.)

More to come, I'm sure.

Food Blogging....

2007-08-03T19:33:00.001-07:00

I had a large list of things to eat when I came home, and here is the progress so far:

Done 1; BoJangles - Chicken, biscuits, spicy fries
Done 2; Q from the butt master, Greg Leman
Done 3; Brisket sandwich with hush puppies and BBQ beans from the Q shack
Done 4; Chick-Fil-A with extra pickles
Done 5; American hot dog, grilled, with ketchup, spicy mustard, fresh onion
Done 6; Ginormous greek buffet at Sparticus
Done 7; Pizza. Sadly, Pepper is finis, as is Mellow Mushroom on Franklin. However, Satisfaction served up some nice 'zar.

Still on the to-do list:
- Chili
- Good pizza from Punk Pizza
- Corn dog (not a Pluto Pup!)
- Deviled egg (hello Penny, you listening?)
- Mexican at Flying

And I'm sure there are more.

Home Alive

2007-08-03T19:31:00.001-07:00

Sorta, jet lag excepted.

I got home Sunday at 9:30pm, after an additional fun 7 hours in JFK. Well, three hours on the runway, and four in the terminal. Fifteen minutes before we started boarding, a thunderstorm rolled in from Jersey. Lovely. The kids were great - at least the two I had. Kudos to my folks for picking me up (finally) with Bo-Jangles, Greg of Q, and Greg The Other for the additional BoJ biscuit and a diet coke (with vitamins and minerals!).

Amanda got home Monday, six hours late, after having an equipment problem in HNL and then getting re-routed through DFW. Charlie did a good job coming home too, apparently.

The house is a tip, of course, as Curtis is partially moved out and we're partially moved in - but this was all expected. I'm a little surprised at how hard the jet lag is on the kids, but this coming week we'll get that all straight.

Amanda's headed off to Academy Of Management (AOM) in Philly for a week or so.

We'll do a few more catchup posts on the blog in the coming week or so.

Lions Tigers and Airplane Rides

2007-07-27T02:11:00.001-07:00

Oh my!

Today was another tour of the North Island - some forests, 1,000 year old trees (all three of 'em), lack of snakes, lack of leeches (yay!), magnetic volcanic sand, squid diving tubes (long story), and a fair bit of driving.

This is on top of more riding in big cats, islands, dormant (hopefully extinct) volcanoes, rain, bit more rain, cold wind, rainbows (lots and lots of rainbows), and plenty of pix to come.

Tomorrow am we hit the taxi with our pile-o-bags (tm) around 8:15, airport by 9, then the flight at 11. Eight and a half hours later and the previous day (!!) we arrive in HNL.

Yowza, warm up the biscuits and chill the tea, the Elam's are comin home!

How Cold is NZ

2007-07-22T14:22:00.001-07:00

Very cold. The high here is the low in Brisbane. And we were cold in Brizzy.

Yet we bravely struggled to the store after a large and delicioso Italian dinner. Yes, we flung ourselves on cookies, chips, soda, and, of course, lowfat milk for brekky. People are strange.

Our hotel, the Quay West, if lovely. Our front balcony (7th floor) looks out on the harbor and we can ships coming and going. Just a block and a half from our front door is the Viaduct (I think it is called) which is like Sydney's Inner Harbour -> choc-a-bloc full of restaurants and things to see.

For those of you counting, we came to Oz with 6 rollaboards (5 regular, one large) and have come home with 9 bags (5 regular rollaboards, 2 large, one large duffel, one medium softside, one box of wine). Plus, of course, we sent home 12kg books and a large bag with K&B.

Not too bad, really, if you consider that we had two birthdays and 7 months to accumulate 'stuff.'

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2007-07-18T13:48:00.001-07:00

Well, not really quite yet, but we move into a hotel tonight (hope they have internet!)(broadband!) and doing the pack and clean. On Saturday we head to Movie World to use the last of our Australian currency (kidding) and then on Sunday we're off to Auckland.

No recent pictures. Nothing else to see here, move along folks.

Amanda goes to Madrid

2007-07-18T04:16:00.000-07:00

Here begins a long awaited post on my conference trip to Madrid. It was absolutely fabulous! The first time I have been back to Europe in many years and my absolute first time visiting Spain. Cliff and the kids unfortunately had to stay home. It would have been nice to share some of the adventures I had. Here are a few of the incredible highlights:

Gardens and Architecture
Madrid is such a beautiful city. The architecture is a gorgeous blend of styles, from moorish arches and spires to ornate wrought iron balconies. Very grand in some areas and quaint in others. The gardens are lovely, too. Very magical and fairy tale like in places. Here are a few pictures that give a flavor.

World's Smallest Hotel Room
I stayed in the world's smallest hotel room, I swear. The bed was a twin which I didn't mind at all. Unfortunately, the room was so small, there was hardly space to turn around in. I swear I could touch the bed, the desk, and the window all comfortably at the same time. Despite the cramped space (by North American standards, of course), the amenities and the service was very good. I think the suburban lifestyle has spoiled me plenty. It's hard to imagine life in some of the small city apartments that so many urbanites live in. I am so used to having room to spread out. Wish I had thought to take a picture!

Standing at the exact center of Spain

Art Museums
I can't say enough about the art museums in this city. I visited the three biggies - the Prado for classic art, the Reina-Sophia for modern art and the Thuyssen-Bornemizza for art from all periods. The first two stops were heavy on the Spanish artists. At the Prado, I learned so much about Velasquez, Goya and Bosch among others. For example, after seeing some of Bosch's 14th century paintings, I realized that Dali was not quite the original artist he has been credited to be. The Reina-Sophia was filled with work by Miro, Picasso, and Dali among others. I have never been as drawn to modern art as I have been to more traditional works, but this experience has changed that. It was incredible to see so much work by individual artists in one place. The Thuyssen-Bornemizza was also unique. It holds a fabulous collection of impressionist artwork, for one thing. I was tickled to see so much Hassam Childe there. It also holds a fascinating collection of less well-known pieces from all periods - which I always find fascinating because that where you find the real diversity in talent and representation in period art. It really had the feel of a personal collection (which it is) made public. A nice surprise.

Shopping
I didn't have time to do much more than window shop and buy a few souvenirs. How sad, too, because the clothes were gorgeous - lots of classic lines with very unique stylings, gorgeous silk embroidered skirts, ruffley summer blouses, and beautiful sundresses. The hotel I stayed in was located near a very upscale shopping district, Salamanca. Lots of very expensive stores and gorgeous little boutiques. Next time!

Salamanca at night

Tapas and Flamenco

The food. Wow. The food in Spain was incredible. I have had tapas before but never this good! Jambon Iberico became a new addiction along with the potatoes and spanish omelette. The Spanish do amazing things with meat and fruits and cheese in their tapas. I also loved the Spanish practice of selling fresh potato chips in small shops around the city, not unlike popcorn vendors. How cool is that! I missed out on Sangria and really good Paella, but then I had to leave something for next time. Our last night of the conference our hosts arranged for some Flamenco dancing. The dancing was very good, but only part of the show really. The singer and guitarist who accompanied the dancer made it an extra special treat. I have always loved the Spanish guitar style of music.

So Madrid is highly recommended! I can't wait to go back. Friends tell me that Barcelona and Sevilla are even more beautiful. Hard to imagine, but I can't wait to find out one day.

Sugar Museum

2007-07-09T11:08:00.001-07:00

One of the few things, it seems, that we did that the kids really dug was the Sugar Museum just below Cairns. It was a huge building including the Post, the museum, a cafe, and a small gift shop - all run by one guy. Small town living indeed.

General pictures here, but here are some classics:

3,200 Klicks

2007-07-09T10:11:00.001-07:00

No, not my son with a remote control, but the length of our drive through Queensland.

And all with no accidents, road kills, or fights in the car. Well, fights not involving kids in the back seat, anyway.

I've uploaded some photos - they span from M's birthday to our first beach huts in Cairns. Sorry, more organization at a future date. (Yeah, sure.)

One thing that was fun was buying not one but two diggeridoos.  We got one for visual art and one for taking around to play. Not that anyone of us can reliably play, mind you.

The interesting thing is that the super painted diggery plays wonderfully. Both are traditionally produced termite hollowed from families close (w/i 300K) to Cairns. We have a kind of one page bio of the guy who produced the painted one.

But we wanted one that the kids could take to school, etc, without a big fantod of worry.

Bugs, Tigers, and Yabbas

2007-06-29T14:22:00.001-07:00

For dinner last night in Port Douglass. Both KTB and I had:

Bugs = small lobsters
Tigers = tiger prawns (biiiiig shrimp)
Yabbas = large crawfish

Most yummy. Barb had scallops on pureed cauliflower, and Amanda had a huge bowl of mussels. Plump and tasty!

The kids had, variously, spaghetti and chicken nuggets. Sigh. But at lunch they all had watercress off of Barb's sandwich, and M did try a piece of rocket and blue cheese. She also tried 1/16th of a mm of fried whitefish (think small fried sardine, 2cm, with head/eyes) but it was not a hit.

Libations from New Zealand were also a hit.

During the day we went up to where the freaking road ends, past Daintree towards Cape Tribulation. We also did a croc and snake tour on a boat in the Daintree. Found several crocs (up to 3M) but no snakes. Charlie claimed to see a croc, got poo-poo'd by the boat (there were 2 other people besides us) and then another guide saw the crow. Soon the other 4 boats on the river were going to see this new 1.5M baby Croc (named Charlie) and asking *our* Charlie to stand up and take credit for finding him. I think he was very proud.

We also did a 'tour through the trees' in the rainforest. Raised platforms and a tower to see all the different levels. Remember to ask John Elam about the Dumb Tree. Very interesting, and KTB got some great pix. Also some Mossman falls action, but more on that later too.

No pix uploads as we're still using my 3G phone for all this. Today we take off for Townsville, so as the towns get smaller, we'll learn more about caffs and pokies, I'm sure.

Carins Is Cool

2007-06-26T10:59:00.001-07:00

We're having a lovely time - our bungalows are 10M from the beach and, unusually enough for Oz, equipped with AirCon in every room.

Life is not always tough.

We went to Cairns esplanade day before yesterday and looked around and had a good time.

Today we went to Port Douglass and had some lovely fish and chips, looked around a bit, made sure we could find the reef cruise spot day after tomorrow.  Then we played on the beach for a couple of hours and went out for (very very good) Greek food.

More later!

Dutch Treat

2007-06-20T13:44:00.001-07:00

So the Dutch cops were doing a random license check and according to this story they pull over this guy and it turns out:

84-year-old man drove 67 years without license.

Never had a ticket or a registered car.

Pause for a minute here.

Now applaud.

Everyone Healthy

2007-06-20T12:02:00.001-07:00

But me, and I'm not dead yet. Not quite.

Keith and Barb arrive today - their flight was supposed to land at 8:00am but is now 8:40am. Lucky them, they get to spend even more quality time with Qantas!

More Sick...

2007-06-18T00:20:00.000-07:00

I got some sort of rebound cold (and I feel worse than last week!) and now John has it too.

I think Amanda may kill us both. :-)

Charlie colored in two of his pictures:

Current Status...

2007-06-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry to be so lame about posting, but we're really living just a normal family life, albeit one where the water swirls in the other direction.

Charlie was sick all week last week. There was definitely some acting at the end, but my theory is that if he's spending 11 hours on the couch including 4 hours of sleep, well that is close enough to sick for me.

That was the week that Amanda was in Madrid, so it was big fun in Casa Elam. Luckily John and Margaret were able to walk to school together. I picked them up every day, not because they couldn't walk home (traffic is actually lighter in the PM) but because I wanted to get out of the house AND thought it would do Charlie good to get some sunlight. Vitamin D, don't you know?

It was a cold cold week here. Like NC in November cold. And since there is absolutely no insulation in these houses AND they're designed to catch the breeze - brrrr.

M and Amanda now have similar flu-like crud. A spent 20 hours in bed today and was not rested in the end. I suspect M will have a similarly fun day tomorrow. And since her birthday party (black forest cheesecake and "traditional" NY style cheesecake in Orly park is the plan) is Saturday I have a bad overall feeling....

The Monster Phase

2007-06-13T10:21:00.001-07:00

Ah, yes, here is yesterday's art work: Bouncing Monster Crab.

Charlie says he's going to color it in. I'll rescan and re-post. Click for the full pix.

The Greek Festival

2007-06-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

We went to the big Greek Festival here in the West End a few weeks ago. How big was it? Rudd and Howard both showed up, but no punches were thrown. Oh well.

(Remember that red circled thing for a while.)

Big fun was had by all and all major food groups were consumed:

Lessie, you got your Greek cola, your falafel, your Greek salad, your gyros, your backlava, your honey puffs, and your ants. A $100 picnic!

And if you were feeling logy after so much food and the heat, well, you could watch people dancing covered in wool and starched cotton!

After lunch we did some rides....

We must have done that ride at Disney four times. Charlie loves the teacup, no doubt.

Some of the rides were more interactive than others:

Anyone want to volunteer to teach John to drive?

And this is what John really really really had to do ($15 each!):

Oh, yeah, teenagers. 80 foot swing arms, do the math..... The funny thing (to me) about this video is that you can see the look of relief as the ride ends, and then the realization that they were just going to spin me backwards for a while. Yay.

One last movie - Charlie on one of those inflatable slide things:

Yeah, too cute, I agree.

All these and more pictures are available here.

Parasailing

2007-06-03T18:37:00.001-07:00

John and I also went para sailing at Tangalooma.

When we were way way up there we could see some large turtles and rays under the clear clear water. It was pretty cool. The boat's crew were competent and professional, in an Aussie sort of way. John was tickled to discover that the sit harness was made in England. We were both wondering about the rope, with John convinced that it was "military grade."

According to the skipper it was standard rope from the marine supply yard, rated to some enormous breaking rating. Funny.

If you look closely at this picture you can just make out John and I waving......

Technically we are flapping our arms, trying to see if the captain would run us up higher!

Sand Surfing Safari....

2007-06-03T17:42:00.001-07:00

One of the neater things to do at Tangalooma was to take the world's most awesome diesel powered 70's school bus 4x4 ever made out to a whopping big sand dune.

Yes, that is Amanda giving the world some cheesecake. Don't worry, I'm safe - she's in Spain for a week. :-)

It's hard to see the scale of the dune, but it's approximately 50M high. When you slide down it on the high-tech boards (more on that later) you actually go well past where the bus is parked.

This may help - this is a picture I took from beside the bus, looking along the dune. The circled area is *not* scrub but is full sized trees a few hundred meters away. It's a biiiig dune.

Think of it this way - if it were a mountain with snow on it somewhere near NC, people would be building condo's and hailing it as a resort.

Here is the approach when we realized how big this thing was.....

Why am I going to all this trouble? Well, as Aussies would point out, it's the largest sand dune in the southern hemisphere, on the largest sand island in the world. So there is that.

But also, when you see pictures of us trudging up and screaming coming down, well, we'll look slightly, only slightly, less silly.

Here are Amanda and John doing their sand slide.

And here are Charlie and I doing a tandem (if you turn up the sound you can hear my PG commentary. The other stuff was sotto voce!) Brian's ride is at the end.

Now, I know that these are a bit grainy and far away, but you don't want to walk down and get right under someone riding a waxed piece of particle board down a 3:1 slope sand dune. Nor more than once.

So we have some professional photographs (thank you Disney @ $15/each!) for your viewing enjoyment. Again, click on them for a bigger view, but they're not very high resolution. We'll get Keith Brickman to do some of his super-scanning for us. Copies should cost much less than the original retail price!

And two of John, because they were too good to leave behind....

Tangalooma Link-O-Rama

2007-06-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, the general resort pictures are here and the scans of the dolphins and sand surfing are here.

Tangalooma Resort on Moreton Island - Dolphins

2007-06-01T16:54:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a long time since we updated, but I've, frankly, felt a little lazy. Plus, except for the Greek Festival (post and pix to come) nothing much new happening.

Except, with Brian and Angela here, we did actually go someplace - Tangalooma. Lovely.

We caught a maxi-taxi out to the Tangalooma Flyer, the high speed catamaran that services the resort. Well, we caught its younger brother, anyway - tres crowded, but only a 70 minute ride. On the way home we got to use the triple decker super cat. Very very nice.

Speaking of catching, I also managed to catch some sort of horrible cold, so I'm not feeling very well right now. But I wanted to upload some pictures and video so people could see how much fun we had.

The first night we got to feed the dolphins before dinner....

These are the "official" resort photos (read: $15/each) scanned in using my cheap scanner. I'll get them to the scanner-in-chief-Keith for a better copy when we get home.

As usual, click on the image for a bigger shot.

This is not technically a picture of our family, but John really wanted a pix of "his dolphins" for the record.

I'm not sure why we got three pictures of Charlie doing the dolphin thing. Perhaps because one was in focus.

And one was cute.

And one was really really funny!

I have more pictures and video to upload, but I'm going to go take a bit of a break.....

Fresh Candy in Sydney

2007-05-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

While we were in Sydney we wandered into a mall near The Rocks.

Well, an arcade, really. But in Oz that is a mall for all practical purposes. Hey, it had air-con!

Some of the malls even have a taste of home available.....

Ok, technically that is the Sydney airport, but it has more shopping than I'm used to around here!

In any case, back to the Arcade/Mall at The Rocks. When we wandered in there were the usual t-shirt shops and what-not, but what really caught our eye was a fresh candy shop that made custom sugar candies, or lollies as they call 'em.

They make colored sugar paste (yummy!) and lay it out according to a computer program. Obviously they lay it out flat and then roll it into a tube. Then they put another kind of candy covering on it. And heat it to about a zillion degrees to start it "setting." You can see the guy wearing leather gloves - it may not be obvious that they are burned on the palms.

Then they run it through a mechanical stretcher and finish by carefully pulling the candy into a 1cm tube.

The girl with the icky purple, red, green, yellow, and orange hair (!!) was taking the tubes (which cool down very quickly once pulled) and wacking them with a paint scraper edge and turning them into candy.

Very very cool. Oh, and free samples!

Lone Pine (Again)

2007-05-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

We went out to Lone Pine with Heather and had a wonderful time. I'll blog more about this but wanted to upload pictures of the everyone who got to cuddle a Koala....

John:

Charlie:

Margaret:

Amanda:

Heather.

No, I didn't cuddle, just not one of my to-do's. I've petted them which was enough. Click on the pix for the high resolution version, as usual.

The pro photographer got better pix (not surprising - he was doing one every 3 minutes while we were there). I figure they were doing $1200/hour during peak.

Charlie's Birthday Party

2007-05-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful party for Charlie at the Aquatarium at South Bank's Street Beach. We invited his class and, of course, the fabulous Chloe.

Around 15 or 16 kids turned up (it was hard to keep count) out of 23 invited and we had six or seven (ditto) siblings too. I was glad I made 30 gift bags!

Speaking of which, thank you Crazy Carl's Discount Store: bag, bouncy ball, two plastic space aliens, two plastic construction guys, bubbles, candy necklace, gummy people - $1.25/kid!

The main action, of course, was in the water.....
o
But people really enjoyed the cake.

And the watermelon.

And, of course, songs were sung.

(You'll have to turn your computer sideways - I keep forgetting and rotating the camera when I take a video. :-)

Charlie got a pile of lego stuff, kid monopoly, paper airplane construction book, book(s), bionicles, kinex, etc, etc. And waterguns (obviously I have offended another parent!) John and Margaret are having fun with all that goodness too.

Oh, and a chia-pet!

Finally, a classic John Elam picture:

Anzac Pix

2007-05-02T13:52:00.001-07:00

Forgot to post the link to the pictures. Videos are below, natch.

Charlie is Six Today

2007-05-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

Well, today in Oz. Tomorrow in the ROW (Rest of World).

He thinks it is very neat to have two birthdays.

He has invited his class to the Aquatarium at South Bank - I am sure pictures will follow.

In the meantime, here is the last page of a homework assignment he's very proud of. (As always, click for a larger image.)

Marching at Kids Level

2007-04-29T03:21:00.001-07:00

Just like in the good old days - the kids were sitting on the kerb, the adults standing behind.

Margaret borrowed my camera to take some pictures and video. I'll post the pix in a few minutes, but here are the five videos she shot:

Maori Marching Band

2007-04-29T03:16:00.000-07:00

Yep, the most unusual thing I saw during this years ANZAC parade. I'll be posting a LOT of videos I took to try to give some of the flavor, and I'll also write a general piece on the parade, but I'm gonna break this into smaller bits.

And here is the first.

Death to Zar!

2007-04-29T03:14:00.000-07:00

Well, not really, but Amanda got her mojo on and made home-made pizza with the kids (and Chloe) a few nights ago.....

Sydney for Kids

2007-04-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful time in Sydney. What a beautiful city!

We stayed down in China Town at the Pacific International Apartments. It was a nice hotel and a great location, if not the most family-friendly neighborhood. We were close to Darling Harbor and a 15 minute walk (at a brisk pace) to the Port Jackson Harbor (aka Sydney Harbor). Next time I think I would aim for a place right in Darling Harbor (especially good location for the kids) or a place around the Harbor or The Rocks (colonial neighborhood next to the Harbor).

Above is a view of the Harbor Bridge from atop the Observatory hill in the Rocks.

Here is a view of Sydney through the eyes of our three pumpkins:

John

We did too much walking in Sydney. It was very crowded, but I liked seeing all the museums. The Powerhouse Museum (formerly the Sydney Museum of Technology) was awesome and I definitely recommend it if you get the chance to go there. It was almost all hands-on and I loved that! It had very few places where it didn’t have an activity that you could touch or play with.

The playground at Darling Harbor was very fun. We had lots of fun climbing and playing in the sand. (We went back every single day to play there.)

Bye now. I have to go torment my little sister and brother.

Margaret
When we went to Sydney, we did lots of things. One of the things we did is we went up the Sydney Tower.

We went into an elevator and went really high up to one of the top floors and we got a view of the whole city. We did the Oz Trek adventure after it, which was really fun. It was a movie and a life-like adventure because you sat in these chairs that went up and down and did things according to the movie. In the movie we visited different parts of Australia. It was very cool.

We also toured the opera house and we got to see rooms that people do opera and ballets in. The opera house looks really different up close than far away. Far away you just see big white sail looking roofs, but up close you can all the little tiles and colors that made it.

Charlie

Sydney was very fun! (Look at our little monkey scale this climbing structure. Just like one of guys at the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu scaling the cococut trees!)

The Powerhouse Museum was my favorite place. My favorite thing in the Powerhouse was playing in Zoe’s Playhouse. We get to play with black bricks that were squishy and I put a brick window and I was pretending to be King Kong when I punched them down to the middle.

We played other games at Darling Harbor, too. It was like the NC Fair at home.

Charlie on Easter Fun

2007-04-21T20:38:00.000-07:00

Easter at school was really fun. Everybody made hats first for the Easter Parade. My hat was very cool because it had a feather on it.

My class got to sing for everyone and then the real Easter Bunny came into our school into the gym. (Look closely and you can see Charlie standing next to his teacher, Mrs Falconer, there on the right.)

He gave us some chocolate eggs, and he danced.

He even danced with the Principal.

We got Easter eggs at Sydney. The Easter Bunny gave them to us. We found them in the closet in our hotel room. It was a big surprise.

The Easter Bunny visited us at Sydney and at Brisbane. The ones at Brisbane were bigger than the ones at Sydney and they were hidden all over the house.

Lone Pine with Mamaw and Babaw

2007-04-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

We were so busy the weeks Mamaw and Babaw came to visit that we missed doing kid posts. The busy-ness stayed with us for a few weeks afterwards as well as we prepared for our Easter adventure to Sydney. In the next few posts we will try to capture some highlights of these adventures. Hopefully we can provide some break from all the food blogging. (It's all fascinating really, Cliff. But there is, umm, a lot of it, don't you think?) Mamaw and Bapaw (aka Amelia and John Matthews) joined us for a couple of weeks in March. They stayed in town at Quay West apartments. They had fabulous views of the city right over the Botanic Gardens and QUT (where I work), which turned out to be a particular advantage as they found it necessary to retreat from the heat during much of the day. Brisbane enjoyed a particularly cool summer, but decided to make a brief appearance in the early fall the week they arrived. One of the highlights of our visit with Mamaw and Babaw was our visit to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. The kids have a few things to say about this not to be missed adventure...

Margaret:
Mamaw and Babaw went with us to Lone Pine. At Lone Pine we fed the Lorikeets. There were A LOT of lorikeets. They are very colorful birds and not afraid of people at all. When all the lorikeets went on the feed bowl I was holding, they were very heavy. We also saw a diamond tail eagle. The reason it is called a diamond tail eagle is because when it is flying it’s tail looks like a diamond. It looks a lot like a different eagle in North America, but I can’t remember the name of it. Lone Pine had lots of cute koala bears and kangaroos.
You can see Mamaw with one of the kangaroos in this picture. I can’t wait to go back to Lone Pine! John:
Lone Pine is definitely worth doing. The lorikeet feeding was really cool. Just remember that the birds are very sloppy eaters. I talked a little kangaroo into eating out of my hand. I slowly moved up to it and stuck out my hand. He sniffed my hand and then ate the food.

I talked Mamaw into feeding a kangaroo, too. Well, Margaret and Charlie helped, too. We had lunch there. The (hot) chips (or fries) were awesome! We watched two really cool lizards during lunch. We saw the emus. They make a funky sound, passing air through something. Daddy thought they were kicking the fence or something.
We got see the sheep dog round up the sheep. And I got to feed a one year old lamb and a young calf. The calf was disgusting. It slobbered all over the whole fence. Not to mention that it was harder to feed than the lamb. It sucked a lot hard. I was afraid it was going to break the bottle.

And back to Mum. Charlie also got a chance to feed the sheep. Slurp, slurp! It was hard to hold onto the bottle.

Charlie also ran into a group of fans. Charlie caught the attention of a small group of Japanese school girls. They seemed to think he was just the cutest thing at Lone Pine. Charlie, of course, was very embarrassed and hid his face in Mommy's shirt. Daddy was very proud and just HAD to take a photo of the girls.

We also managed to get a pretty good picture of another Australian native--the wombat--lounging in the shade.

Love It

2007-04-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight? (That meant otherwise in 1971)

Schnitzel....

2007-04-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I referred to Oporto's "nuggets" as schnitzel, which they are more like than they are nuggets.

We went to the Toowong Villiage Mall this week to check it out - everytime we go through the Regatta stop on the City Cat, Margaret says "I hear there is a good mall over there."

A strange mall, anyway, with almost a dozen ramp escalators in three small floors of mall. Very peculiar. But a nice big Coles, etc, etc. A nasty walk, though, so I think we won't be going back.

For lunch M/J had Schnitzel with Gems (tater tots).

Confusingly enough (for the kids) the Root Beer is called Sarsaparilla here. Tastes good though. Please note the entire absence of veg on that plate!

Charlie went with the old predictable:

I had a very nice roll version, with English mustard, lettuce, onion, and shred cheese. Yum.

Queen St. Performers

2007-04-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

The mall is host to a variety of performers on a given day. Earlier this week Charlie was picked to "help" the unicycle riding knife juggler. Charlie got to hold the knives.

No performers were hurt during this performance.

Charlie was very proud and got an ovation.

(Click to see larger camera phone pix.)

Didn't We Used to Live There?

2007-04-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

Not really, just thought this was a funny sign to see on a side street on the way home from school on Tuesday.

So-Called Snack

2007-04-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

We went Zoob shopping yesterday (Charlie's "big" present from mom/dad) after school. M had already walked to/from the State Library during school, so we were all tired and hungry.

Twenty dollars worth of chips and Schnitzel bites later all was well.

Not a spec left afterwards.

Anyway, we got the zoobs, I found a rain jacket I liked that actually fit ($600 AUD - it is still in the store), Charlie lost his hat again (which is why his name is on it in big letters), and we did a library visit.

Whew.

On the way home we stopped at the Noodle Box and got Singapore Noodles, Wo-Fan noodles, fried rice, and spring rolls ($38 AUD). The kids are certainly more adventurous than they used to be, food-wise.

Hot Chocolate Blogging....

2007-04-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

I'd promised the kids a chance at some hot chocolate because they'd had a good but tough week at school. As it turned out, we had the treat after a tough week on vacation. :-)

Gooooood!

John, in his European Fashion Model Mode.

Margaret happy to have a Woman's Rights - table service and chocolate.

Charlie, still not getting what "smile" means on-camera.

Post Movie Food Blogging....

2007-04-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

After the movie, as it had been at least an hour since they ate, the kids were ravenous. They like this breakfast place on South Bank, pretty near the theater.

Charlie had maple syrup and pancakes. You can take the half Canadian out of America but you can't possibly finish this cliche.

John had a man/cheese crepe. And, yes, that is a new hat he wearing. Not only has he lost his *second* West End State School (WESS) hat, but now Charlie has lost both his original hat *AND* Margaret's WESS hat. Jeeze.

Yes, M had the same crepe.

And, yes, they are all eating my chips from my fish and chips. Hey, you gotta have a good time when Wicked Old Mommy isn't around? (Kidding dear, kidding, please stop hitting me!)
Mmmmm, fresh Whiting and chips ($7) but without the necessary malt and vinegar because (a) they go no vinegar and (b) they charge $0.50 for malt. I just can't get over this crazy charging for condiments.

But the whiting was good and fresh tasting - this place uses non-frozen fish and prawns. They have quite a line, which in the nation of non-fast-food-service-style, doesn't necessarily mean anything, but in this case does. Or did. I kinda lost my Faulknerian thread there.

----

Yes, the kids had soda's - the line was so hazardously long in the theater we skipped our drinks and just had lollies that we brought with us.

Last Day Of Easter Hol's

2007-04-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

We are on THE LAST DAY of holidays and the usual emotions reign. Kids are sad, parents are happy. I never understood that when I was a kid. :-)

Speaking of last days -> the theater was pretty crowded.... Luckily I bought our tix online. Unlike in the US there is only a $0.50 credit card transaction fee, so there is some serious motivation to buy in advance.

We went to another movie yesterday - Meet the Robinsons. Once again we took the Cat to South Bank, but this time we had to walk down to the end of the lagoon pools and dodge 'roun the Weet-Bix Kids Triathlon. Think <10 year olds in an Iron Man. But shorter races.

Once again I am struck at how cheap it is to go to the movies here - $19 for tix for me and the kids, $17 for drinks and a bag of pop corn. So that $36 AUD, or $30 USD. Try that in a city the size of Durham, let alone Charlotte. Plus we took in our own snacks - Aussie style. (It's one of the things that continues to amaze me - you can take your own lunch into a museum, etc, etc. And people take everything from a tuck shop style lunch up to fine dining. Very cool.)

I enjoyed the movie, but only because it had some good moments - you can tell that they worked and worked and worked on this thing in post-production until they thought they could release it.

Also Nothing to Do with Oz

2007-04-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

But parents, especially of boys, will understand this:

10 ways your day can go to crap while your wife is out of town on business (a protein wisdom genealogy, based on actual events)

You could wake from a nap to find that your son has poured an entire bottle of wood seal on your new dog. He got to it by ripping the eye hook out of the pantry door, then scaling the shelves
You could find that the wood oil has been tracked on the carpet, on both rugs, and all throughout the house
You could then find that you are completely out of dog shampoo
You could, in a panic, try using, say, Pantene—only to have the wood oil laugh at such a feckless lather, repelling it like a Kos reader repels facts
Your new dog—a 7 month old Shepherd mix you adopted from Pet Smart—could react to being sprayed with a hose like Teresa Heinz-(Kerry) might react to being served meatloaf or franks and beans
The new dog could feel that you are trying to torture it, and so crawl under your bed and refuse to come out
You could then bundle your son in the car, run off to Pet Smart to buy industrial strength pet shampoo, and hope nothing is destroyed when you return home
Upon your return, you could find that, having tried to lick the wood oil off her coat in an attempt to clean herself, your new dog has vomited all over your office. Which could force you to try to remember where you left the stupid steam cleaner. Not that you know how to use the thing
But before you can ferret out the steam cleaner, you might have to make dinner: ravioli for your son (which he promptly spills on the rug) and grilled salmon for you. Only your propane tank could give out about a third of the way through cooking the fish. So you could pitch it and have a handful of Cajun trail mix, instead
All of which could have caused you to miss your “Blog Week in Review” taping, because you completely forgot about it while you were rushing around like Martha Stewart on ketamine blotting shit up with paper towels. And so you inconvenienced three people who never did anything to deserve such treatment, causing you to feel like a heel and hit the single malt. Which will probably leave you with a vicious hangover.

morning after update: Hangover achieved!

Not that any of that has ever happened at OUR house.....

Nothing to Do With Oz

2007-04-12T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm sure they have mom cars here, but we're on foot so it just made us homesick.

And, yes, you *cannot* get Zima here. I'm sure that is a feature, not a bug.

Sydney Photos - Links

2007-04-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

**BUMP AND UPDATE** --- Forgot the last day - Sydney Opera House tour and departure.

Day One - Unsorted and with the worst of the blurry ones deleted - here.

Day Two - Same song, second verse. Here.

Day Three - Actually went though and deleted really really bad ones. :-) Here.

Day Four - here.

Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves

2007-04-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

No doubt the Romany population will show up and hex my house, but I blame Cher. And Sonny, were he alive.

From a story in the Courier Mail last month:

Deadly gypsy saga of Smith and Jones

A "trivial" comment about a gypsy daughter marrying a Scotsman led to a heated argument between two families that resulted in one man's death, a Sydney court has been told.

Just file this under: stuff we don't got in the US.

TMNT....

2007-04-11T02:17:00.000-07:00

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tomorrow at noon.

On a 90' iMax screen.

Oh, my.

Just Home!

2007-04-10T09:23:00.000-07:00

At least it feels like home nowadays!

It occurred to me this morning that we were paying for three places to live: Durham, Brisbane, and Sydney - ouch to say the least.

The last day was pretty busy - I'd insisted on touring the inside of the opera house. We did the 10:00 am tour as it saved us $50 bucks. Plus, it turned out to be cooler (there is a lot of sunward facing glass on that building) and less crowded. Trifecta.

Then we did some walking around (never popular with the kids) and went into a 'Rocks' museum with some neat interactive stuff. Finally a good pizza for lunch (why is pizza so expensive here?) and then some more walking, ending up at the observatory, the highest point in Sydney. Or so they say - there is a lot of '-est' here, you know?

Then we did some *more* walking and then to the airport. M has a bit of a cold, so today was tough for her, and the landing was not a bundle of fun, but we all got home ok and everyone was in bed by 9:45 (kids) to 11:00 (adults).

Only five more days of vacation to go!

I will catch up on blog posts - we have lots of good pix and commentary, but our internet connection at the hotel ($200 for four days!) was limited in speed and transfer (50MB/day), though clearly not in price!

Good Brekky, Good Day

2007-04-09T12:16:00.000-07:00

We started the day off with a big breakfast at a 'straunt on Darling Harbour. Well, technically, we started the day off with hot chocolate and then breakfast, but you know what I mean.
(NB: Camera phone pix - who'd have thought that would be a useful thing?)

Then four+ hours at The Powerhouse kids museum. Very nice design section, experiments, playground, exhibits, transportation hall, etc, etc. If you'd told me that the museum here was 10x better than in Brizzy I'd have said you'd be wrong. I'd have been wrong.

Pictures to follow once we get home and I have some time.

Today we hit the Opera House for a tour, the Australia Museum, and a few other odds and sods.

Charlie Quote of the Day

2007-04-08T14:07:00.000-07:00

Last night at the 'straunt we were eating yet another bowl of most excellent chips to fill in the cracks after several hundred dollars of food when our very very nice waiter asked if we wanted 'catsup or tartar sauce' and Charlie piped up: "We're Americans!"

We got several containers of ketchup.

Sydney - Day 1 in (brief) Review

2007-04-07T14:49:00.000-07:00

We went to brekky at Mickey-D's, which made the kids very happy (hotcakes, thick toast, eggamuffins, etc) and then took at look at the various discount ticket packages at the tourist office.

We decided that trying to do three things/day was just silly, so trekked onto the Aquarium. We got a combo ticket to get into the Aquarium, Tower, and Oz Trek.

Get to the aquarium early - we did and on the way out noticed a line down the front of the building - in the rain! We had a good time seeing huge sharks, etc, etc.

The Tower was great - hugely above the skyline of the city. And Amanda picked a time when there were no clouds obscuring the view! (Rain and cool weather is a nice change from Brisbane!)

Oz Trek is an IMax-esque tour of Australia with hydraulic moving seats. Very neat.

Dinner was a low key Chinese place - actually got the kids to taste the second course of the crispy Peking Duck! Not that they knew what it was first. :-)

Sydney - Arrival in (brief) Review

2007-04-07T14:42:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed the VirginBlue flight - buying your snacks isn't so bad if the service is cheerful and the choices good. I'd given the kids some "folding money" and they, of course, required more. Like little garbage disposals, they are! But we did enjoy drinks, pringles, cookies, lolly bags, and something else I'm forgetting.

We had an easy Taxi ride into town, found the hotel easily, checkin was easy. We wandered down to Darling Harbor for dinner - Spag-Bols for the kids, seafood risotto for daddy-o, and mom had Calamari. Yummy. Ice-cream for dessert, then 10 hours sleep for the parents - in bed by 8:30pm!

There was a great playground on the way too, so the kids were happy.

In Sydney for a Few Days...

2007-04-06T02:48:00.000-07:00

Pictures later, but so far the trip has been fine. We took a MaxiTaxi to the Brizzy domestic terminal and got there at 2;25 for our 4:00 flight. Then the VirginBlue guys put us on the 3:00 flight - but our luggage made it ok and all.

The Pacific International is very nice - but the room was feeling small, so tomorrow we move to a two bedroom suite (+$30AUD/Day). The hotel is a half klick from Darling Harbour, so a perfect location.

2007-04-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

The local dominant carrier, QANTAS (not QUANTAS, but QANTAS - Queensland and Northern Territories Aeronautical Service) has a great reputation, but my experience has been pretty variable witih the - herin lies a tale of how the business class experience was substandard in a lot of ways over the 8 hours on the plane.

The good:
The flight attendants were very helpful. Not particularly attractive (even the men - the purser had this strange mini-me look uniform going on) which is curious since Oz is full of very very attractive people. (And this difference will be more pronounced as my next leg is on Singapore Air!)

The food was slightly better than I recall, but still AA cira-90's quality. Once again I punted and had the pannini, which took a long time to come, but they warned me and were very solicitious during my wait.

Good beer service.

The bad:
My-oh-my, the seats were terrible. Not cushiony but slick and hard hard in style reminiscent of a Gran Torino. My seat even had a kind of cushion seam and bar under my rear (and I got plenty of padding, you may well imagine. Or not.) and they recline to about 11 degrees. So if you combine hard, smooth, and non-flat, you feel like you're sliding off. Lovely.

Beer selection = poor. For a country with a dozen or so world class beers and just as many very good beers these guys picked: Tooheys, Fosters, and Victroria Bitters (VB). VB is ok, it's the Miller Genuine Draft (MGD) of Australia. Tooheys is not to my taste, but is fairly popular. Think one of those 'boutique' beers from Budweiser. And you can't even really buy Fosters in Australia. In fact, if you want to embarrass someone from Down Under, mention that beer.

First class lounge at the airport. Sadly lacking in good qualitydrinks and the snacky things were pretty thin on the ground. Again, like the UK, Australia has great chips - my current favorite is Bacon and Sour Cream, or Sweet Chili, and the wife is over the moon for Thai Ginger and Lime. And they put nothing out. The beer selection mirrored the aircraft's with the exception of Hahn's, which I pretty much like.

The OK

The AVOD (Audio Visual On Demand) system was pretty good, with lots of movies and TV. I'd have given it a "good" if they'd had any first run-ish movies on it. But Oz is always 6-9 months behind, so perhaps I should have given them a pass on that.

Airbus. I'm a Boeing fan. I just trust the guys from Seattle more than a bunch of French-gineers that brought us Renault. Sorry, sue me. Plus Airbus's rattle on descent, which is disconcerting. Especially in a seat where you can slide around.

---

Why can they get away with this? Because they have a virtual gate and thought monopoly in Oz. I got no beef with the marketing (thought) monopoly, but this gate thing has got to go - free skys says I. Like taxi medallions, there may be no good solution to getting to infinite Wal-Mart style competition, but let's let supply float as much as possible.

Light Posting

2007-04-02T21:06:00.000-07:00

On a business trip (first in five months!) and had good intentions to post pictures of Singapore, Bangalore, and Chennai, but SQ lost my luggage and I am now reduced to wearing tatters and, because I stupidly put my laptop power supply in my checked bag, can't really use my laptop except in an emergency.

Poo.

Long Walk Sometimes

2007-03-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

The kids are usually (pretty) cheerful about the walk to school, though the 9am starting time means that it can be pretty hot already when we go. And by hot I mean that I'm sweating pretty profusely after 1.3k. We walk the shady side of the street (right hand side) but it's only 20% shade.

Coming home can be harder - they're tired, it's even hotter. And even though the shady side (right hand side) is shadier, it's still only 30% at best.

So, luckily, there are bus stops you can sit at. And since you have to "flag" the bus here, it's not like in the US where you'd stop the bus! (This is an old pix from when C had the collar bone thing. He's healed now, but it looks like he's absorbing a golf ball on his collar!)

Behind the kids is some very rare graffiti - it shows up and and is usually quickly painted over. The only stuff I've seen "stick" so far is political stuff ("pimp the system", "free hicks", "no cover up") that stays on side walls. Street from stuff seems to get dealt with pretty quickly.

Haircuts....

2007-03-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

Took the boys to get haircuts at Phillips Hairdressing on Vulture. He's only been there since 1960 so we're taking a chance on a relatively new barber.

He's a great guy - I've gotten two hair cuts from him, Babaw had one. And the price is fine ($17 AUD) since I've gotten used to double-digit haircut costs (1993 event). One barber, two chairs, spotlessly clean - just what you want.

While we were there a woman came in to get her head shaved (#3 guard) "for the cure." Turns out that every year in Oz women raise money from friends/colleagues for a breast cancer cure by having a hair cut challenge.

Margaret declined a shave.

Which is good as Amanda didn't have to kill me when I got home.

Sione's Wedding

2007-03-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

In the vein of movie posts, I've mentioned in the past that we've joined QuickFlix (NetFlix in Oz) and signed up for a bunch of Aussie movies so that we get some good cultural immersion.

Of course Aussies tend to watch US movies, but let's ignore that for now.

So, we got Sione's Wedding in the mail (funny thing: they deliver mail to your box, but you have to drop outgoing mail into a post box) and started watching it.

We looked at each other and said: This isn't an Australian film. It wasn't - made in New Zealand. Something just *different* about the production values, sound, etc. Almost all Aussie films have involvement of a film development board - there tends to be a sameness about them, somehow.

Anyway, four thumbs up from us. Not a kid flick, but darn funny.

Jordan's in the Movies

2007-03-26T10:01:00.000-07:00

We went to watch Arther and the Invisibles at the Imax theater (alas not on the 99ft screen) in Southbank this weekend. It was a good movie, and we all enjoyed the non-rip off prices and aircon theater (how old fashioned on both counts!).

But when the movie started John and I turned to each other and said: Jordan! Actually, it's some cat named Freddie Highmore who has been in a bunch of things, some of which we'd already seen. But in this movie he looked and had a lot of the (physical) mannerisms of Jordan.

Spooky.

Work Hours

2007-03-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

I have had a number of people ask me how work is going at Big Company now that I'm a zillion time zones away.

Well, it may not surprise you that the world keeps turning....

I am working PST hours in order to keep up with my regularly scheduled meetings:
T: midnight to 9am
W: 1am - 10am
T: 2am - 11am
F: 1am - 10am
S: 1am - 10am

Note that I work Tu-Sa - that' s the stinking dateline thing. Also, Queensland is the only state in Oz that doesn't do DST, so my life is an hour less wonderful than it was before.

I try to take a 1.5 to 2 hour nap daily, but if events prevail and I can't hit the sack before 11am, then I have to skip it so that I can make my 7pm bedtime. Like a farmer, really.

Banned In China

2007-03-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

I've never been so proud - my little family has attracted the attention of the last serious Communist dictatorship in the world - we are (ominous music) Banned In Chin a!

Ok, yes, I know, it's blogger, but it's still funny.

Emu's are Big

2007-03-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

And they make weird hollow echoy clacking noises with a sound gland.....

Big like my size big. Gotta imagine that Fred Flintstone drumstick thing....

Pigs and Lizards

2007-03-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

The Lone Pine guys had all the expected animals like baby ducks, etc, etc.

They also had lizards as long as Charlie:

And the kids loved the pigs.

The kids also got to feed some baby farm animals....

I am pretty sure this is M explaining to Charlie that sheep eat just like humans and not through their noses....

Amanda, allergic to wearing wool, made the mistake of touching the soft, lovely, and lanolin filthy beasts. The itching on her hand is almost gone away.

They also had bats big as a cat (in a cage, luckily, no matter what Amanda says), and they had a great show of sheep dogs herding, obviously, sheep.

Kangaroos, always popular. Here John spends ten minutes getting close, step by step, to a very interesting and small kangaroo.

Oh, and the caff had good hot chips and American hot dogs.

De Birds....

2007-03-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

We went to the Lone Pine Koala Zoo (or the Koala Farm, as I call it) and had a wonderful time.

One of the highlights was the lorikeet feeding. All I can say is, if you visit us here in Brisbane, insist on this place (we drove, a river shuttle is available) and bring your camera and don't miss the lorikeets!

The thing they're standing on is a feeding tray - oats and water, basically. Take a look at the kids feeding these lovely guys....

Pictures in living glory, here.

Beautiful Bats

2007-03-19T03:37:00.001-07:00

It occurred to me the other evening, as I walked back towards the Botanic Gardens from downtown, that I would dearly miss the bats here. The Botanic Gardens are full of fruit bats. Every evening at dusk they take flight in droves. They launch themselves high into the sky over the southern part of City and fly over the river towards West End. (I am guessing there are a lot of fruit trees in that direction. There certainly are in our neighbors yards.) It's wondrous sight - very Batman. Riding home on the City Cat one evening, I actually counted 60 bats in the twilight sky over the Brisbane River. What a sight!

It's funny really. You would think (and Cliff has suggested this) that I might be much more frightened by some of my Brisbane bat experiences. Several times now, I have been startled by the unexpected take off of a bat leaving a tree branch directly above my head. One bat very narrowly missed collision by about 2 inches! But I didn't mind at all. In fact, I thought it was all pretty cool. I expect my kids hold a different view. These bats are huge!

Follow the link for more information on Brisbane's "flying foxes."

Pide and Iskander!

2007-03-15T10:18:00.000-07:00

We went to a very very well regarded Turkish place on South Bank last week.
Yes, Ahmet's is the name.

There was a lengthy waiting list happening, which simply doesn't work when you have three hungry kids in tow.

So I explained that I'd lived in Turkey and my wife had lived in Turkey and we wanted our kids to try real Turkish food for the first time.

Table 13, at your service. Love it. All our waiters were Turks, which is always a good sign.

First things first, Osmanli Pide. Fantastic bread and cheese. Had to fight the kids to get my "daddy pieces."

I'd have gotten a better pictures but the starving hordes descended onto it before I could get my camera out.

Then I had to drop the picture taking to secure my piece!

Next up came the Iskander Kebab. Fresh Turkish bread, yoghurt, oil, doner, and spices.

Ab Fab!

John liked his "Kid-Skandar" - he chickened out and, er, got the chicken. I helped a bit with cleaning the plate. Ahem.

And, no, he did not eat the tomatoes.

Mooski had the kid portion of Chicken Kebabs - they were great as well. Fresh and well cooked chicken, fluffy rice with a great flavor.

A good sized portion, which is good since I had lunch out of it the next day.

I think this picture sums up how all the kids felt about the dinner:

Yes, the final important thing:

Phellinus Noxius

2007-03-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

Some strange tree fungus that is attacking some of the figs around the West End Market space. (During hippie free portion of the week it's the Brisbane City High School rowing club!) These trees are as a big as a house. Very sad. We're seeing marks all over the city on branches and roots that are marking what is going to be cut out.

Click on the pictures to read the notice.

Which TV Show

2007-03-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

Yep, Simpsons clouds over the Botanical Gardens?

Gloria Jean's Beans

2007-03-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

Nope, nothing to do with my favorite Filipino, it's an American coffee brand here in Oz. I was starving to death day before yesterday so went in with one of my guests so she could get coffee (ick) and I could nosh.

I give the bacon, avocado, and chicken filo roll a B. Good fresh ingredients, decent price ($5), and free cold water. If the girl serving me hadn't had a silver stud off center through the top of her lip it would have gotten a better rating.

Oporto

2007-03-15T09:52:00.000-07:00

Remember the Nando's $14 chicken burger?

Well, I was malling it around the Queen St. mall with our guests and dropped down into the (heavily aircon) food court at David Jones. So I had to eat at Oporto and get some pix for comparison.

Ok, so the Oporto chicken sandwich is less dramatic, but it's an equivalent amount of food, and it was around 6 bucks.

Have no idea why I'd ever Nando again. O.

Rubbish Blogging

2007-03-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

Apparently once a quarter or so the Brizzy trash guys will pick up just about anything you put out.

Our fair city now looks like post-Katrina New Orleans.

See, these Queenslander houses have great junk basements. They're basically 1,200 ft2 houses on stilts (aircon, as they saw, is a breeze) and people just stuff all their excess stuff underneath.

I've seen the normal, to-be-expected stuff, but what's been really depressing is that I've seen several of my currently owned stereo components out on the heap.

Ouch.

This really excellent pile is from a small (6) apartment building. It's not a Queenslander design, so I'm still trying to figure out where it all was.

We've also seen a lot of students "shopping" for furniture in the piles. So they've been getting smaller as the week wears on.

Mo Light Blogging....

2007-03-15T09:38:00.000-07:00

Well, sorry, more days without a post. I have been faithfully snapping pix for you, though, and will get some stuff out during the next day or so....

Civil Letters...

2007-03-09T12:04:00.000-08:00

Love the phrasing in this letter - click image to read more easily.

More Car Blogging

2007-03-09T10:34:00.000-08:00

Just down the street from us.....

Food Blogging 3

2007-03-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

Airport food, even in Oz, is bad.

Red Robin "breakfast sandwich." Overcooked egg, tasteless "bacon", stale bun. The cheese was nice and cheesy and the drink was cold, and it was only $5.2o, which is cheap for an airport.

I give 'em a C.

In any case, the trip to the airport was pretty easy. Since the cab ride to the airport is the Universal Average Airport Cab Fare Price ($50) I decided to take the public transport. I took the 199 bus to the Cultural Center busway ($2.60) and then the train to the airport ($12) for a total of under $15. And I think that my transit time wasn't that much less than a car.

And since, as usual, I got there waaay early (finished my paper easily) the transit thing was irrelevant. Oh, and since 6 jumbo jets landed at once, our guests were almost an hour getting through customs, immigration, and luggage collection anyway.

The cab line was hideous - 50+ people in line, two cabs in sight. So we took the train back to the central depot (next time I pre-buy the tix) and caught a cab to the hotel ($10). Easy peasy. Not cheaper than a cab when you have three people, but much much faster than the line!

Food Blogging 2

2007-03-09T09:52:00.000-08:00

I finally took the plunge and went to Nandos - it's a small QLD chain serving a lot of chicken dishes in an Australian interpretation of Tex-Mex.

I ordered the "supremo" burger (chicken only) with no tomato. She asked me if I wanted onion, and I was all like, sure, yeah, love onion. $0.80 extra. Ditto Avocado. The burger comes: I asked for no tomato, but it had tomato. I paid for avocado, it had no avocado. (I know I'm sounding like the guy from Office Space here, bear with me.) The bread was good.

The chips (french fries to you) were just ok.

The drink was nice and cold.

$14.20

I give it a D. Not that the food wasn't good, but I can get the same quality meat, not quite as good a bun, for $7 at Oporto.

That's the lowest food grade yet in Oz. I've discovered Applebees in Australia. Yikes.

Food Blogging 1

2007-03-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

Mmmmm, Lamb Korma, Garlic Dhal, yellow rice, water - $7 bucks of burpin Indian goodness.
Oh, yeah, that airplane disaster has been front page news here. They are crediting two RAAF officers with organizing the evacuation.

Light Blogging...

2007-03-09T09:43:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the light blogging - we have some visitors and it's smacked my schedule around a bit.

But I have some good stuff from the last week.....

One of the streets we cut down, in our hood of $500K "original" and $1M "restored" Queenslanders has an interesting car parked in the street.

That kind of thing always makes me laugh because I can just imagine the cop walking up on it to give a warning and deciding on a nice fat juicy ticket instead.

This week we walk by the car and notice:

So I walk around the car, and sure enough:

Ouch, that had to sting. I looked inside and it looks like the drivers side airbag did not deploy, which seems quite a trick.

Cars are expensive here, too, never mind the insurance and gas. Perhaps double-ouch.

Rainforest Hike

2007-03-05T04:50:00.000-08:00

I spent an hour today writing the first version of this post. Then I lost the work I had done when IE unexpectedly quit on me. Don't you hate that?! Consequently, I spent the following hour trying to fix the problem. IE has been giving me all sorts of trouble lately. Darn computers...

In any case, the story I wanted to share was about the very cool rainforest hike I enjoyed on Sunday. Thanks to my darling husband for the kitchen pass, I was able to join two work colleagues - Per Davidsson and Tomas Karlsson - on a 17 km hike in the Springbrook National Forest down near the Gold Coast of Queensland. As you can see from the photo, the views were stunning and I was feeling really happy. Nothing satisfies like a really good long hike in the woods - um, I mean bush. It's even more fun when the plants and animals are new and when you have someone around who knows a little something about the flora and fauna.

We had some interesting surprises along the way. Per knows an awful lot about the fauna in the rainforest. We saw some really interesting palm trees that I decided are "dinosaur palms" because they look like the little plastic palm trees that come on children's dinosaur themed birthday cakes. Another exciting tree was the Strangler Fig which you can see here in Per's very artsy photo. This fig plant roots high in the canopy of a host tree and sends runners down to root at the base. The fig then covers the host with vines and eventually engulfs the whole tree, basically strangling the life out of it. Nice, eh?

Next we came across this little guy. Well, s/he wasn't so little actually. It was about the size of my hand and not so happy to see us on the trail - way up near the top of the mountain. Yup, you heard me. We ran into a blue crayfish at the top of a mountain in the Australian rainforest. We were certainly surprised - or least, Per was when he first saw it. He kind of shrieked in surprise and stopped frozen on the trail. To be fair, we had no idea that crayfish could (1) be so blue; and (2) live near the top of a mountain gorge. Very weird. I have since learned that this creature is called a Lamington Spiney Crayfish, a.k.a. a Blue Mountain Crayfish. They apparently life near creeks and river beds in mountains in Queensland, but are known for wandering pretty far away from their river/creek bed homes. I'm just saying, you gotta be careful when you go off trail. There is no telling what lies beneath that leaf or behind that bush!

The animal watching did not end after the hike. Just across the road from the trailhead, we saw a Rosella parrot - a beautiful red parrot. Down the road a bit, we stopped to look for another kind of bird and we saw a Rainbow Lorikeet - another stunning creature. As we drove back down towards the coast, we stopped to see this koala. The most adorable endangered animal I have ever seen, no doubt! More alert than any of the zoo koalas, so I think it was probably a little freaked out by the crowd on admirers only 12-15 feet below its position on the tree. A thrilling sight for us though!

For more photos, click here.

Bird updates

2007-02-28T11:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was reading on the porch and M came out to "do my homework out here."

In reality she was there to steal my chips, but you can forgive that in a daughter.

There was a horrible noise and Little Ms. Sharp Eyes spotted the parrot in the tree.That was a shot at "normal human eyeball" zoom. I put the red box around the dang bird - it took me a few minutes to find it. And M was pointing, I could hear it, and it was moving around. Good camo!

Here is another look at it - very high zoom level with the big camera lens.That is a bit washed out, but when he came into the sun it just turned out that way. I'm sure I could spend a zillion hours photo-shopping it (originals here), but wouldn't it be easier to go to a professional site? And, yes, he was upside down working on the flowers.

Here are the colors-as-seen:
There are a buncha white cockatoos running around as well. Talk about noisy and lovely.

Breakfast Blogging

2007-02-28T11:37:00.000-08:00

I found this Wheat-Bix stuff, which I vaguely remember from my childhood, at the store.

I find it very comforting somehow.

The big question is: break it before or after applying milk?

What does it taste like? You know the special sawdust you get when you cut plywood? Like that, but pleasant somehow.

Perhaps I was a termite in a former life.

Good Golly, More Food Blogging

2007-02-28T11:35:00.000-08:00

I went back to the Indian Palace, had *more* lamb vindaloo with rice and garlic dhal this time. Yummy. Steam out the ears and a promise of "Indian sweat" when I go for a run today.

By the way, terrible Ben Elton book, avoid it.

It was a hot day but we had a nice rain in the middle of the day. Well, when I say middle, I mean the part where I go shopping and pick the kids up from school. And when I say rain, I mean enough to carry the umbrella but not to open it because nobody else is, but enough rain to get you good and damp. Lovely.

Tried to Take My Nap Today

2007-02-27T22:08:00.000-08:00

I usually try to nap from 10-12 or 11-12;30 or something like that. Today I was tossing and turning and having trouble sleeping when there was a horrid noise from behind the house.

And by horrid I mean someone beating a drum set to death with a cat inside a bag of ringing cell phones.

I got up to see what it was and it turns out there are four or five flipping parrots (or cockatoos, whatever) hanging out in the tree discussing the upcoming election.

Beautiful, but noisy.

Some other minor factoids:

1> Ground beef is called mince. Or vice-versa, depending on how you look at it.

2> Wine is a *bit* cheaper here, but the tax on booze is HUGE so it's not much less than the US, which seems strange as it is 7,000 miles closer to ship.

3> There is a discount bridal shop on the corner of Vulture and Paris, which always makes me laugh.

4> One of the bustops on our line, 199, is Why Not Street. Indeed.

Kebab Blogging...

2007-02-27T09:57:00.000-08:00

I had to go downtown to pickup and mail a package and stopped, what a surprise, at a kebab place: Kebab A Licious. Motto: "Now That's a Kebab!"

I gotta give it an A-: good meat, fresh lettuce and onion, nice mixture of sweet and spicy chili sauce, well toasted bread, and a good lack of grease in the end. And totally snappy service from a guy who has made 10K kebabs and still has a smile on his face. Kebab and a large Coke: $10. They'd have gotten an A if there was a bit more meat.

I at at the "Harvey Norman" mall-let in the Queen St. Mall. That's the one with fifteen more escalators than normal - if Escher was designing 80's shopping malls in Brisbane, this is what you would expect.

I also needed a new set of headphones - my old ones were hurting my ears. I got these Altec Lansings - don't like them very much. The over-the-ear thing is comfy but too warm for Oz, and they really isolate the sound so you can't hear yourself talking. I know I talk loudly, but I suspect I yell when wearing these. Like people need that.

I also, totally un-necessarily, got these mini speaker from Logitech.

Headset in Oz - $60, price in the US: $30. Speakers in Oz - $120, price in the US: $120. Very confusing.

We did a little toy-shopping this weekend - luckily did not buy anything - but did find a GREAT toystore called Mr. Toys. They had everything, including A/C!

Can't Help It

2007-02-26T11:52:00.000-08:00

If you follow UK politics, this is just funny as can be.

Would love to see the same for Oz....

Running

2007-02-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

Because I was just not willing to cough up a big pile of bucks for ghetto workout facilities I had to look around and find something to do, exercise-wise.

I live next to a river with a path down the side, so running seemed a good idea. Plus Amanda and I can (and, it turns out, do) run home after dropping the kids off.

But I really need a goal (preferably something silly but achievable) for working out - so when Aunt Siri told me about a 10K run in April in Brisbane, I thought: that's the ticket.

Day before yesterday I broke 30 minutes running (also did 10 minutes later in the session, but that's not important, really) so I think I'm about half way there to complete the race without stopping for a walk.

The strange thing is that I'm getting the normal lower back, thigh, knee aches - very light and controllable, and nothing that feels structural, if you know what I mean. I got some ankle and calf stuff going on, but I haven't been stretching them, so I'll start that tomorrow (ok, today) before I run.

But what's killing me is the tops of my feet hurt after running. How strange is that really? How do you stretch the tops of your feet?

The good news is that the new (expensive to me) Nike socks seem to have solved the blister problem.

Avanti! (Not the Studebaker, the Roman "go" thing.)

Quote of the Day

2007-02-25T22:45:00.000-08:00

Charlie: I can sleep all weekend without my sling!

Book Review: Guns Of Muschu

2007-02-25T18:09:00.000-08:00

A great read and highly recommended - except you can't buy it in the US. Or at least it's not available via Amazon or BN.com, which is the same thing to me.

The blurb from the website is highly accurate:

During the night of 11 April 1945, eight Australian Z Special commandos landed on Japanese-held Muschu Island, off the coast of New Guinea. Their mission was to reconnoiter the island's defenses and confirm the location of two concealed naval guns that commanded the approaches to Wewak Harbour.

But the secret mission went horribly wrong. Unknown to them, their presence had been discovered within hours of their landing. With no means of escape, the island became a killing ground.

Nine days later, on the New Guinea mainland, the only survivor staggered back through the Japanese lines to safety.

This is the remarkable but true story of the only survivor.

Superb.

One thing I did not know is that Japanese American's, in US uniform, worked in Brisbane during the early days of WWII to interrogate captured Japanese prisoners. Fascinating - I'd always thought that the relatively few Japanese Americans in uniform in WWII fought in the ETO.

Books....

2007-02-25T17:47:00.000-08:00

I recently finished a very interesting book, "The Battle For Australia, Darwin, 1942-1943," by Captain WHJ (Bill) Phillips ED (RET'D). ISBN: 0957803435.

And by interesting, I mean primarily in the fact that it was published out of a Xerox shop in Coff's Harbour and is 19 pages stem-to-stern.

I've been trying to read up on the air battle for Darwin and the hardening of the west coast of Australia in preparation for a Japanese invasion.

So I started with the library and asked for holds on the more interesting titles. (Factiod: when you put a hold on a book you have to pay $0.55 when you pick it up. It takes 7-10 days for a book on the shelf somewhere else to make it to my teeny library.)

This book was more a high level recounting of the situation in Darwin, with a good accounting of the unit numbers and their movement. Not quite what I was looking for, frankly, but at 19 pages it doesn't take long to scoop out the bits you're looking for.

Classic Humor

2007-02-24T16:35:00.000-08:00

In last Thursday's The Australian the following letter to the editor appeared:

I’m an average Australian. I support recycling sewage as long as I don’t have to drink it. I support Aboriginal land rights as long as it’s not to my quarter acre in the suburbs. I want nuclear waste disposed of but I don’t want a waste dump in my state.

I want extremists who support terrorism kicked out the country and people who’d do it to be locked up and the key thrown away. But David Hicks should be brought home.

I want share prices to go up forever so my retirement will be comfortable – but I don’t want businesses to charge excessive prices or my boss to have the power to impose low wages and unfair working conditions. I want the price of my house to keep going up but I want my kids to be able to afford one.

I’m all in favour of multiculturalism as long as migrants assimilate. I’m all for immigration because it helps the economy but I don’t want our cities to be overcrowded. I want global warming fixed but I don’t want to have to turn off my airconditioner – and the coal industry and its huge revenues are too important to the economy to shut it down.

I want John Howard’s steady hand at the helm of the economy, but I want Labor’s social policies that make me feel good about my country. I want the US to come to Australia’s help if we’re threatened but I don’t want us to get involved in any more of the White House’s stupid wars.

That’s not unreasonable, is it?
Gordon Drennan
Burton, SA

That is a pretty funny introduction to Aussie humor, IMHO.

The Pollies Should Talk in the US

2007-02-24T16:30:00.000-08:00

From today's The Sunday Mail, in an article on croc's tendency to encroach on humans in the North. Turns out that they put a ban on hunting croc's 32 years ago, and as they're on top of the food chain, of course their population has roared back. So much so that people near rivers well inland are terrified to swim in traditional 'river beach' locations.

The Gov't is dragging its feet on new regulations, which prompted one Independent Federal MP, Bob Katter, to state:

Action needs to be taken to cull them and push them out of settled areas. Shoot the buggers. The rules are being made by people in concrete pleasure domes in Brisbane and Canberra. The people who tell us we can't shoot them would die of fright if they saw one.

You tell 'em, Bob!

Strine Humor

2007-02-24T16:27:00.000-08:00

From last week's paper - you'll have to click to read the big image.

The headline reads: The upside of beet pulp is your dog won't fart as much. The downside is you can no longer blame the dog.

What Bad?

2007-02-24T15:39:00.000-08:00

A friend commented that I'd had nothing *really* bad to say about Australia.

Well, I am sure that if I understood their politics I would (they have liberals and greens here, but one is not necessarily the other - very confusing), but all I can really come up with is their retrograde cell phone policies and silly internet security.

First cell phones: 24 month contracts, confusing language that makes US policies read like Hemingway, and *monthly* expiring prepaid credits. Yes, you read right, you have to use your pre-paid credits or they expire in 30 days. Pooh.

Secondly: internet security. Combining a British data privacy obsession with a German over engineering paranoia, you get this travesty to create login to your on-line banking account:

I am pretty sure that NASA has lighter password restrictions. I know that the company I work for has much looser restrictions and they're considered pretty onerous.

But wait, as they say, it gets worse. You pick some silly password you can't remember so it's on a post-it note by your computer, and then to type it in you ... use your mouse.

So, there you are typing with your MOUSE and you get to the mandatory number section ... and they have re-arranged the number pad. And every time you type (or click) a number ... the pad reorganizes.

It usually takes me three tries to login. Astounding.

So, two very minor complaints - hoping that does not make me an ugly American.

Perilous Grocery Shopping

2007-02-24T15:32:00.000-08:00

One of the perils of grocery shopping via shanks mare....

I've come home a LOT more wet than that.

When there are not groceries involved I just go into a caff and have a hot choccie or something.

Shopping...

2007-02-22T10:36:00.000-08:00

Someone asked me an interesting question on a con call - How do you feed a family of five without a car to go shopping?

Easy, lots of little trips.

Yesterday I took the kids to school and came home with:The trick is to take no more than you can easily carry home. That sounds obvious, but you have to balance buying heavy and light and crushable stuff.So at Coles I got Arnott's cookies, maple syrup (You can take a girl out of Canada, you cannot take the tree blood off her pancakes), and doritos. From the Lebanese grocer I got grapes, 4 beautiful Fiji apples, and 5 Braeford apples (never heard of them). From the big bakery I got three seed rolls. From the Vietnamese bakery I got two loaves of small sandwich bread (four days worth!). And two library books and a newspaper.

That load was well balanced and easy to carry.

But you can forget and buy too much. I almost bought milk, and we need more sparkling mineral water (for Ribena mix), etc, etc. But that would be REALLY heavy, so today I'll go by Coles and get a 3L milk and a new box of Bubbles (Rice Krispies). One bulky, one heavy, etc. Then I'll hit the butcher and get some steaks, possibly the Bottle Shop for some red wine, the grocers for more broccoli. Then I have two bags that I can balance and protect the breakables, etc.

It's much easier when you have a car, but I'm not convinced you save any time. I can walk to Coles in five minutes from school - is the HT on MLK any closer to DA than that with a car? I shop three or four days a week, but only with other errands - I would never make a specific trip for groceries. But I do that several times a month at home, at 15 minutes/trip minimum.

It's been very interesting.

Indian Palace Lunch

2007-02-22T10:32:00.000-08:00

Yummy.

Lamb Vinadloo, garlic dhal, potato/beans, yellow rice - seven bucks. Bottle of cold water - free. (Yes, I am still stinging about that whole $3.40 diet coke thing. Plus I am drinking a LOT more water and a LOT less diet coke these days.)

It must have been good food, I cleaned the plate and was still sweating Vindy hours later.

And, hey, when have you *ever* gotten a chance to eat at a place called Indian Palace! (Ok, this one was on Vulture St. which is cool, but you know what I mean.)

Picture Question

2007-02-22T10:23:00.000-08:00

As I continue to explore the camera on my phone (yes, I have a bit more free time in Oz than Durrrham) I'm trying to optimize photo size for upload.

Any preferences between these:

300K Photo

200K PhotoOn this one I think I can see very different color richness and a reduction in visible detail.

-----
60K Photo
I don't see much diffo between the 200K and the 60K version.
----
20K PhotoThis is clearly both smaller, with less detail and weaker colors.

I guess if I had to choose I'd probably go with the 60K picture for the web and the 300K picture if I thought I wanted to print it or use it otherwise.

Why is this important? Well, ghetto internet, of course, but also just the ease up upload. To use a 7mp photo from the "real" camera I have to either save it as a lower resolution, or more likely, use SnagIt to clip the portion I really want at screen resolution. The camera phone pictures can be used directly, which is a lot easier on me - so my millions of readers (ahem) get more photo's.

Cool things you see on the way home

2007-02-21T11:05:00.000-08:00

Walking home day-before-yesterday we (Charlie, Margaret, John, me) watched a guy with a truck lift a giant container.As he was lifting it up onto the truck it transition from state (on ground) to state (in air) to state (onto edge of truck) to state (on truck) with a LOUD crashing noise.
Well, it was a buncha fun to watch, as you might imagine. We talked to him afterwards to get some details on how it all worked and John mentioned the "breaking glass." The guy said the container was empty and that was just the chains banging around.

Which was good for the shopkeeper but very disappointing for us.

We also learned that they have different trucks, including much larger ones, for picking up loaded and/or especially heavy containers.

For Casey

2007-02-21T11:00:00.000-08:00

Fifteen different kinds of Kit-Kats at the local Coles. From traditional Big Kats to US-Style Kit-Kats to their new temptations line of mid-size specialty kats - my favorite being the roasted coconut caramel. Yummy.Yes, another camera-phone picture. I think I'm getting the hang of this.

Spelling List

2007-02-20T12:27:00.000-08:00

I was talking on the phone about schools here was asked about the spelling lists.

1 amateur
2 asylum
3 began
4 below
5 better
6 blood
7 board
8 book
9 both
10 bought
11 box
12 bread
13 co-operation
14 culture
15 detention
16 disabilities
17 discrimination
18 equally
19 indigenous
20 jeopardize
21 organization
22 precariously
23 protection
24 righteously
25 unconsciously

Yikes! John got something like 10 out of twenty (five are bonus words) on the pre-test and so far has 17 out of 20 perfectly. And it's only Wed! We also do one or two bonus words to show effort. :-)

More Lunch Blogging

2007-02-20T12:12:00.000-08:00

Day before yesterday I went to Happy Days Takeaway and didn't take away, but sat down for a bowl of "Special Beef Soup." One of the "beefs present" was typical Chinese takeaway "steak" and the other was some sort of fatty pork sausage. Good big bowl of noodles and hearty not-out-of-a-can broth. Excellent value for $6.50. I also got a diet Coke, which added $3.40 to the cost. What's up with that?

Yesterday I went to the Roundabout Cafe, which looks pretty scary sitting there on the corner next to the West End Shopping Center (where our Coles and butcher and one of the bakeries is) but every time I walk by my nose twitches and my stomach growls and I notice a big line....

So I went in and ordered "Marks Special" - lamb, lettuce, tadziki, fresh heated Turkish bread. $7 and quite a bargain it was. Yummy, yummy, plus a nice breeze at the outdoor table. Oh, yeah, the diet Coke was $3.40 this time. But it hurt less with such an excellent sandwich.

Summary: Happy Days when you gotta have some soup, Roundabout whenever you want a tasty dish!

Before someone asks, the book with the big greasy no-CSI-needed-here thumb print on it is a recounting of a Z Forces (Oz special forces, WWII) operation on a PNG island during the latter days of WWII. We'll have a book review later, but so far it is excellent. One thing I can already tell you - books are darn expensive here. That perfect bound trade book was $29.95 AUD!

(PS - Pretty good cameraphone picture!)