We have just returned home from the wierdest event ever. Tonight, Elliott was required to go to school and sing in the choir. The kids did a few songs, but the main event was a handbell concert. Oh my goodness. The Carilloneers from Claremont United Church of Christ in Claremont, CA have come all the way to Brisbane to participate in the International Festival of Handbell Ringers. By making the kids come and sing, the group is guaranteed an audience - otherwise I'm sure no one would actually turn up.
It was the most tortuous evening we have ever spent. As Tim so aptly put it, "That's an hour of my life I'll never get back." We were confronted with a dozen enthusiastic bell ringers - think Salvation Army Christmas bell ringers run amock - performing tunes such as Somewhere over the Rainbow and Yankee Doodle Dandy. After an hour, the audience was literally in a slack jawed stupor. When the conductor announced they were doing an encore, a gasp resounded thru the building. Luckily, the encore was a rendition of Waltzing Matilda. The song brought about the first signs of life in the crowd - even the naughty 12 year old boys sitting in front of us started to sing along to the tune. I think Waltzing Matilda should be the national anthem. We are very grateful the International Handbell Ringers Festival will not return to Australia for 12 more years. I think it will take us that long to recover.
Our other noteworthy, or not so noteworthy event, was a trip out to Toowoomba. The town of Toowoomba is in the Darling Downs, and is about 150 km west of Brisbane. We happened to go out on the day the town was holding a referendum about using recycled wastewater as drinking water. Opponants of the idea were calling Toowoomba "Poo-woomba". I guess enough of these negative campaigns influenced people and the vote was NO to using re-cycled waste in the drinking supply. We had a spot of rain in Brisbane last week, but inland is even drier. The future of water supply and management will be very interesting to follow in the next few years as there is still no sign of the crisis resolving. I guess I bring the water up a lot in the blog, but is an important topic of discussion whenever people get together.
Still having problems with the photos, but will try again to sort those out....one day....
Monday, July 31, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
We live in Australia!
Well, finally it has happened. We feel like we live here. It has taken almost 8 months, but we are now settled into our routines. Sophie has gone back to St. Louis after her month long visit here. We had such a nice time exploring new places in Australia and Brisbane too. When we returned from Melbourne, this just about felt like home. Now Elliott is back to school and I am into my routine of volunteering at school and playing a lot of tennis. I was telling my dad how good I was going to become - but his response was "It's just more time to practice what you are doing wrong." Tim is still swamped at work with a varied schedule, but is doing ok.
The hardest thing over the past few months has been the time change with the rest of the world as we know it. We watched the World Cup Football at all hours of the night. We would get up for a match that started at 2:00 am or 4:00 am. Wimbledon was sadly missed as the coverage started at 11:00 pm and went thru the night. This was the first Wimbledon in quite sometime I didn't waste two weeks in front of the t.v. The past month has been the Tour de France. Everyone who knows Tim is aware what a fan he is. Coverage of that starts at 10:00 and goes thru till about 1:30 am. or 2:00 am. L'Alpe D'Huez - can't miss it! So, Tim has been burning the candle at both ends - staying up till 2:00 am and then getting up for 5:00 am phone calls. Maybe by next year, this will seem normal.
But, now we feel we live here - "blog-able events" seem harder to find. So if anyone is actually still reading this - I apologize! Today, we went to Brisbane Forest Park about 25 km West of our house. It is reported there are some interesting birds there like the Bower Bird. I heard about this bird from a friend who is a keen bird watcher. Apparently, the male bird is like an architect and builds this big nest and decorates it like a groovy bachelor pad to attract a mate. The bird struts around and ...well you know where this is going. So, we head out to the park. It is very dry, and the water level of the lake is very low. We are on constant alert for the brown snake - the secondly most deadly of all snakes - that happens to live in our neighborhood. We see a few birds, but sadly I can't tell what the heck they are. Did we see a female bower bird? Did we see a Fruit Dove? Did we see a Black Cockatiel? Who would know? I took a few pictures to compare to the bird book, but of course, the bird is a blur flying off in the distance. I'm hopeless. I had high hopes for being a good blogger, impressing you with all this detail, but really, I can't do it. I guess all I can say is we went for a walk in the Bush and we saw something that wasn't a penguin.
The hardest thing over the past few months has been the time change with the rest of the world as we know it. We watched the World Cup Football at all hours of the night. We would get up for a match that started at 2:00 am or 4:00 am. Wimbledon was sadly missed as the coverage started at 11:00 pm and went thru the night. This was the first Wimbledon in quite sometime I didn't waste two weeks in front of the t.v. The past month has been the Tour de France. Everyone who knows Tim is aware what a fan he is. Coverage of that starts at 10:00 and goes thru till about 1:30 am. or 2:00 am. L'Alpe D'Huez - can't miss it! So, Tim has been burning the candle at both ends - staying up till 2:00 am and then getting up for 5:00 am phone calls. Maybe by next year, this will seem normal.
But, now we feel we live here - "blog-able events" seem harder to find. So if anyone is actually still reading this - I apologize! Today, we went to Brisbane Forest Park about 25 km West of our house. It is reported there are some interesting birds there like the Bower Bird. I heard about this bird from a friend who is a keen bird watcher. Apparently, the male bird is like an architect and builds this big nest and decorates it like a groovy bachelor pad to attract a mate. The bird struts around and ...well you know where this is going. So, we head out to the park. It is very dry, and the water level of the lake is very low. We are on constant alert for the brown snake - the secondly most deadly of all snakes - that happens to live in our neighborhood. We see a few birds, but sadly I can't tell what the heck they are. Did we see a female bower bird? Did we see a Fruit Dove? Did we see a Black Cockatiel? Who would know? I took a few pictures to compare to the bird book, but of course, the bird is a blur flying off in the distance. I'm hopeless. I had high hopes for being a good blogger, impressing you with all this detail, but really, I can't do it. I guess all I can say is we went for a walk in the Bush and we saw something that wasn't a penguin.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Melbourne - Culture City!
Last week, we spent the week down in Melbourne. Note: pronounced "Mel - bun" It was strange to think we were flying South, yet needed to bring warm clothes. Seems backwards here! So, we rummaged around and finally found the coats and scarves we haven't needed for 6 months now and packed ourselves up. When we moved over to Australia, we could have chosen to live in Melbourne or Brisbane, so it was going to be interesting to compare the two cities.
We stayed in "Southbank", just over the Yarra River from Flinders Street Station. Melbourne seems divided up into various neighborhoods with shops and cafes everywhere. They really enjoy their public spaces and have all kinds of statues and places to stroll around. And Museums! We spent the week going to various museums and exhibitions: Australian art, Picasso's War Years, Leonardo Da Vinci's machines. There was alot to choose from. We strolled around the Botanical Gardens and went up in the Statue of Rememberance. It was also funny to see Captain Cook's Cottage transported from England and a Mock Tudor Village.
Elliott did pretty well schlepping from one thing to the next. He did need most of one day to just laze around in the hotel room - Culture Overload! We both missed our computer game, but it is good to go without for 5 days! Today at home, Elliott is enjoying his last day before "Back to School." He is refusing to leave the house as he wants to make the most of it.
Melbourne seems like a very European city. I can see why English people would really enjoy it. It seems much more cosmopolitan than Brisbane. However, I did have my winter coat on most of the time. We think that we would have lived well outside the city in a suburb. So would suburban life be that much different whether you are in Melbourne or Brisbane? Hard to say, but probably much the same. Brisbane does have the fantastic weather going for it for sure.
I seemed to have technologically regressed and am struggling with the camera downloads. I'll try and do photos sometime soon.
Last week, we spent the week down in Melbourne. Note: pronounced "Mel - bun" It was strange to think we were flying South, yet needed to bring warm clothes. Seems backwards here! So, we rummaged around and finally found the coats and scarves we haven't needed for 6 months now and packed ourselves up. When we moved over to Australia, we could have chosen to live in Melbourne or Brisbane, so it was going to be interesting to compare the two cities.
We stayed in "Southbank", just over the Yarra River from Flinders Street Station. Melbourne seems divided up into various neighborhoods with shops and cafes everywhere. They really enjoy their public spaces and have all kinds of statues and places to stroll around. And Museums! We spent the week going to various museums and exhibitions: Australian art, Picasso's War Years, Leonardo Da Vinci's machines. There was alot to choose from. We strolled around the Botanical Gardens and went up in the Statue of Rememberance. It was also funny to see Captain Cook's Cottage transported from England and a Mock Tudor Village.
Elliott did pretty well schlepping from one thing to the next. He did need most of one day to just laze around in the hotel room - Culture Overload! We both missed our computer game, but it is good to go without for 5 days! Today at home, Elliott is enjoying his last day before "Back to School." He is refusing to leave the house as he wants to make the most of it.
Melbourne seems like a very European city. I can see why English people would really enjoy it. It seems much more cosmopolitan than Brisbane. However, I did have my winter coat on most of the time. We think that we would have lived well outside the city in a suburb. So would suburban life be that much different whether you are in Melbourne or Brisbane? Hard to say, but probably much the same. Brisbane does have the fantastic weather going for it for sure.
I seemed to have technologically regressed and am struggling with the camera downloads. I'll try and do photos sometime soon.
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