I was without internet for nigh 60 hours as we went on a weekend excursion to the Sunshine Coast, a couple of hours north of Brissie. Note that I am catching on to Aussie-speak. The first rule is that fewer simpler syllables are better than long complex ones.
When walking a city for hours with no particular purpose except to get to know the place, one stops and reads plaques and cornerstones.
Australia seems to be prospering, economically, and there are lots of jobs available. We’ve noticed that public money is definitely put into maintaining (and even expanding) the gardens, sidewalks, amenities, public toilets, staffing of information centres, etc. Every Aussie city of any size has a botanic garden, dating to Victorian times. Now, 100+ years later,…
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…
Seeing Clarely 