Back to the Grind

It's amazing how quickly a Monday can strip away the happiness you've built up on a weekend away.  Only two days back at work and I'm finding myself daydreaming about our next weekend away.  I could get used to being a travel show host.

Along with the video we made, we did manage to take a few nice photos this weekend.

Hector's Mexican food stand

I mentioned in the video that we finally found some authentic Mexican here.  For the first time we got our mexi fix and it was glorious.  We spent awhile talking with Hector and bonding over our North American-ness.

The markets at Eumundi were nice but they were more focused on crafts and goods than the markets we normally go to here in Brisbane.  We tend to go to the market to get our produce not to buy a crap load of chotskies.  It was fun to visit but we wont be making it a regular stop.  Hector also sells his food at the Caloundra markets and they're about an hour closer.

Leah on the beach at Noosa National Park

I really love the look of a rocky beach and truthfully I'd almost rather be at the beach on a cloudy day than blasted by the sun.  Our day at Noosa was perfect.  The water temp was perfect for swimming and we spent over an hour frolicking in the waves. 

Some 'roos just chillin on the 10th hole

We stayed Saturday night at a resort on a golf course.  When we were checking into our room we saw these kangaroos and went out to take a few snapshots.  They really don't seem bothered by people though they do give you a sideways glance when you walk up to them.  I remarked to a couple of guys at work that I've only ever seen them chilling out or laying down and want to see them jump around, and the guys all said "No way, it's way too scary when they get hopping around too much:.  A pissed off kangaroo is nothing to mess with apparently.

I have some more photos to post tomorrow.  But I wanted to touch on another topic briefly tonight.  There was a tragic incident here in Brisbane on Monday.  A 13 year old student stabbed and killed another student at school.  It's a sad story and hard to imagine.  We feel terrible for everyone involved but we are a little bit upset by the way the media is spinning this story.  When they are talking about this on the news they almost always throw in a comment about how this sort of thing is the "norm" in America, but it's so odd here.  The news made a statement that metal detectors were standard in all American schools.  

Australians, like most of the world, I presume, are all under the impression that Americans are a bunch of gun toting, knife wielding maniacs who can't wait to harm one another.  Even the guys I work with, whom I consider fairly open minded, think we're all crazy and everyone in America walks around with a gun strapped to their belt.  It's not an image that I find very flattering and it does hurt my feelings a bit to hear how we're portrayed by the media.  Strange as it may seem, I get homesick when I hear the comments about how all the ills of the world come from America that are thrown around by Aussies so nonchalantly. 

I have no intentions of turning this blog into a political discussion site, but I had to get that off my chest.  It's been at the back of my mind for a while and only became obvious when this story broke. 

An observation for today:

Most of the language we share with Australia is common to both countries.  The little differences are what make an impression.  For instance, the ending "ing" as used in America is often left off on words here.  Example.  Serving.  In America one serving is the amount of a food you might eat.  Here it's called a "serve".  In the car business we sell rubber pads called "bushings"  here they're "bushes" "moldings" become "molds" etc, etc etc...  It's only different enough to sound strange to my ears and doesn't get in the way usually, but it is entertaining.