Spring Downunder

It's a bit difficult to get into my thinking but October is the beginning of Spring in Australia. While Spring here is as warm as a Michigan summer (which makes me a bit apprehensive), the trees are starting to bloom and other signs of the seasonal changes are showing up everywhere. One of the first is the Jacaranda - a beautiful tree with purple flowers that is ubiquitous in this area. Then there is the "Bottlebrush" tree, the flowering Gum tree(s) and many more. It's actually been raining a bit so things have begun to green up as well - but we certainly miss the colors of the Michigan fall. The smell of a cool autumn evening is unmistakable and watching a harvest moon coming up is remarkable - we're not going to be able to replace that with a fireworks display on the Brisbane river!

We do, however, have our distractions. We happened upon the Wynnum Spring Festival yesterday after me spent a few hours at our friends home, watering plants and stirring up their pool. Now this was an interesting cultural event! In the U.S., the local snake wrangler and his advice on snake bite first aid (kits sold after the show - buy one for your automobile's glove box!) are not usually the center of attention. Here - someone pulls out a 7' long brown snake and people start to line up to get a look (and some potentially life saving information). A much bigger attraction than the ferris wheel! (See the "Snake Guy" movie at the bottom of this blog entry - listen to his description on how much venom it takes to kill an adult!)

One thing people go "gaa gaa" over here are "Show Bags". From what I can tell, show bags were once a collection of promotional items given away for free at carnivals or fairs and intended to promote a brand of goods but this practice has mutated into its current form where you take $2.00 worth of junk (usually candy), put it in a bag that's colorful and has the name of the maker of the stuff on it and charge your "customers" $5.00. Kids are all dragging their parents up to the booths, "Daddy, Mummy - we must have a show bag before we leave the fair"! We decided to forgo the show bag and split a slice of Wynnum Pizza's deluxe offering - very tasty!!

We are working at become a bit more "urbane" in our lifestyle down here. For example - I can now make a pretty mean Latte (called a Flat White down here), Long Black (double espresso) or other kinds of coffees - thanks to the machine I bought from the ex-pat I replaced. This is a true "15 millibar" machine - a Sunbeam brand, so not necessarily expensive, yet capable of the pressure required to make a decent espresso. I'm drinking one as write this - yummy! We have also gotten some furniture for the deck so we can enjoy spending time outside as the weather warms up and I am honing my grilling skills on my little WeberQ. For those who are interested - one more piece of arcane Australian information - here, people do not close the lid on their grill to cook. When I went to purchase the Weber grill (small enough to fit on a deck) I was warned extensively that "this was no ordinary grill" but a strange American style product that you must close the lid on for it to cook effectively - was I ready for that paradigm shift? Once the shop clerk figured out I was from America, he then allowed me to acquire the unit without making me sign a waiver attesting to the fact that he had warned me of the strange "closed lid" methodology required for cooking success !

I'm guessing this is enough for now - can I ask a bit of a favor to those back home? If you have any pictures you'd like to share of current events, family, season, etc. - we'd love to see them. Brother Mike has sent a few pictures of his travels for work and Cousin Karen has sent along some awesome albums of their Bethany's wedding and a recent baptism Brian did - maybe you would be willing to share some? Flickr or Kodak album links (and the like) would be gladly accepted. We appreciate all of your notes and e-mails - it gets a bit lonesome here at times. Until next time - keep away from the "Browns"!