Today was the “race that stops a nation” – the Melbourne Cup. Yesterday I placed 2 big bets: $2 on #24 (Older Than Time) to place $2 on #5 (Glass Harmonium) to win In both cases, the odds were about 50:1 so we stand a chance of winning a decent dinner. Apparently the country comes…
We went on an out-of-town excursion on the weekend. This involved: • First car rental of the trip. • Need to drive and navigate on the wrong side of the road • Many one-way streets • Driver not interested in discussing with Navigator, BEFORE starting the car in motion, precisely what route would be attempted…
Here we are in Brisbane, resting our weary feet in the State Library of Queensland. It’s a very impressive new building. Observe Husband reading an Australian car magazine. Brisbane is dominated by the river that loops through the city and occasionally inundates large areas (google Brisbane floods 2011). Finally, here are Husband and daughter comparing…
Melbourne is a very nice city, where even the graffitied back alleys are a point of pride. A few months ago it was named as the Most Livable City in the world, bumping Vancouver down the list as I discussed in a post at the time. Vancouverites were annoyed at the invalid reasons for the demotion, but too embarassed…
I am staying in the Greenhouse Backpackers hostel in Melbourne. The location is ideal and the hostel is quite satisfactory. At $70 for a private room it is half the price of a budget hotel. I use the communal bath (locker room/ dormitory style) but have my own room, with wifi. The kitchen and dining…
This was written during my long flight… I do all my movie-watching on airplanes. I am watching one now which inspired me to pull out my phone (in Airplane Mode, of course) and start reviewing immediately while I watch. If you infer that I am less than captivated, you are correct. This is a WEIRD…
When this is posted, I will have arrived in Australia. Here is my icon at YVR airport. Since I will mainly be blogging from my phone, the posts will tend to be shorter but more frequent. That is in part because I can only put one photo on each email. I spent the day doing…
As always, I am trying to pack exactly the right things and no more. This trip will be generally a warm weather trip – springtime Melbourne and late-spring Brisbane and Sydney. Also, it is a civilized place where they speak English, so I can easily get anything I might need. I do have one business-related…
Seeing Clarely 