Finally something just for fun

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

We started our day late today. Well, actually I started late; Leah got up early and read her book while I slept in. I’m feeling beat and my body demanded sleepy time. I stayed in bed until almost eight. Leah is feeling much better but her cold has settled in her chest and she’s been coughing a lot at night. We don’t have a spare room to sneak off to anymore so she kept me awake for a good portion of last night.

We had some toast and coffee for breakfast and headed over the café for the free internet. We both had another coffee and caught up on some e-mails. By the time we were done with that it was already noon. I called the phone company from a pay phone and asked when they’d have our phone hooked up. It may be tomorrow, or it may be as late as Monday. So we’re still without any form of communication outside of the odd free WIFI we come across.

We decided that, since we haven’t done anything just for fun yet, today was the day. We walked home and packed up our bikes for a ride. I’d forgotten that my front brake wasn’t working but fortunately Andrew and Melisa, our new neighbors, were out and about in the yard. Andrew let me borrow a couple of tools and in about thirty minutes I had the bike fixed and we were off.

We headed west from our place up over a hill and over towards Mt. Coot-Tha. It’s not much more than a big hill but it passes for a mountain in Queensland. The Brisbane Botanic Gardens are there. Actually there are two botanic gardens, one in the CBD and one at Mt. Coot-Tha.

It was only 1.7 miles (2.7k) there and only took us a few minutes. The place is absolutely gorgeous. We walked around acre after acre of perfectly manicured gardens. Leah spent most of the day with the camera in hand and took almost 150 pictures. We both agree that the camera we bought before we left was worth the expense. Some of the photos look like they might have been taken by a professional. Leah really has a great eye for composing pictures.

I was happy to see the names of some of the plants we’ve been seeing around. There are so many beautiful flowering trees around right now I’ve been wanting to know what to call them. One of my favorites is called Plumeria. The Blossoms are white with pale yellow edges. We walk past several of them every day and I’ve been wondering what they were called. They have a faint, sweet perfume that smells incredible. Leah looks great with one behind her ear.

We got our first good look at some critters there as well. There were a bunch of ducks and some sort of cranes in the pond and a ton of lizards called Water Dragons that were running all over the place. We also had a good look at some orb weaving spiders, nothing too big though. The biggest was about three inches.

We didn’t even walk half of the pathways in the gardens. It’s so close that we agreed to pack a picnic and spend another morning seeing the rest. About four we hopped back on the bikes and went home.

We also got out of our comfort zone for dinner. So far we’ve stayed close to home, either eating in or at cafes near here. We asked Melissa where some other options were and she gave us a book called “Brisbane’s Budget Bites 2009” a guide to cheap good eats. We perused the book and though we didn’t choose any of the places in it. It did give us an idea as to where we could find something. We hopped the train, up a couple of stops and explored another neighborhood called Milton.

The first place we saw was a pizzeria with a huge TV showing the Australia vs. England rugby match. We didn’t even have to talk about it, this was it. The pizza was good. Ours had Salami, olives and chilies with Tabasco. Pizza is pizza, but I have noticed Aussies have a love for BBQ sauce. Most of the pies had it. This place did pizza a little differently than I’ve ever seen. They sell their pizza by length. We opted for the 25cm pie, but you could get it in several lengths up to a meter. Obviously it isn’t round; it’s about 8 inches wide and whatever length you order. I think when we go back we’ll have to order one a little bigger. We didn’t understand what we were ordering and assumed the pizza was round. Ours only had six slices, and since we’d only had a light lunch at home we were both hungry. I had a beer, Thooey’s extra dry, and Leah had a glass of wine. Our bill was $32. This is not a cheap place to eat out.

Whenever you see beer on a menu here, they list the alcohol content. The one I had was 5%, the strongest on the menu. I’m gonna have to figure out how Aussies afford to get drunk here. At $6, the cheapest on the menu, it’s hard to even justify drinking with dinner. Not that going to the liquor store is cheap either. A six pack of beer is around $17. I had read that before we came, but we actually went into a store to check for ourselves. I almost had a heart attack to see a case of Corona was almost $90. Srsly, I miss PBR.

After dinner, I was sitting on the back stoop and saw more of those huge bats and some strange possum like thing climbing on the power lines. I didn’t get a good look at that, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled and maybe ask someone what it was.

Some observations from today:

-Most restaurants here are open to the street. To use the toilet (they rarely call it a restroom and never call it a bathroom) you usually have to go outside and around the back.

-Rugby is really fun to watch and brutal. Two guys clashed heads in the match today and the one was still unconscious when they carried him off the pitch.

-Someone said G’day to us! It was actually yesterday at the library. I mentioned it to Sally and she said it’s kind of gone out of fashion.

-Women tend to wear really short skirts, not that I’m complaining.

-I was the only one in the restaurant eating my pizza with my hands; everyone else used a knife and fork.