Australia VI

So, I can now say that I am capable of driving on both sides of the road, though I still can't drive stick. I can now make wide right turns, and instinctively walk to the right side of the car to get into it. After having driven about 2000km (and another whole state to go), I think I can say that is the case....
That being said, I still think the North American way of driving makes more sense: if I forget something in my purse, my right hand is still free to rummage around in the bag, answer the phone, make some calls, grab a snack, etc.... the way they drive on the left, it forces me to drive safely and legally (the nerve! :P )!
As you may not be aware, Australia is the world's driest continent, and has been in fairly severe drought this past year (I'm not sure how it compares to years previous, or if it's compounding previous years, but it is significant). Most of the places we've been have been on water restrictions, or severe water restrictions. You can see it in the land; most of it has been clearly parched, with dry, brittle, brown landscapes. It clearly is landscape waiting for bushfires. In fact, most of the state we've just arrived from has been having a dilly of a time fighting bushfires throughout the state. This has resulted in some power outages in several cities.
You can also see it in the waterfalls, lakes and rivers: most of these waterfalls we have been looking at have been no more than small trickles coming down the sides of cliff faces, and many of these large rivers have been no more than small streams, and some have dried up entirely.
Speaking of bushfires, I was watching the "Kangaroo Creek Gang", which is an Aussie Saturday cartoon about, unsurprisingly, a group of animals, including a kangaroo, emu, koala, possum and wombat. Today's story was about fire, and how fire is never your friend, and you should never light one, and you should always stamp one out when you see one. It was actually a bit scary, and very strange in terms of the teaching reality that this is what they need to tell Aussie kids....

Australia V

A few cool things of note:
1. Got tickets to see the opera in the Sydney Opera House. That was cool, though I must admit, the inside's not much to talk about...
2. Went to Hillsong Church for a couple of services. My, I understand why they sell so many worship music CDs; it is pretty kicking! Encouraging and refreshing services, and totally cool meeting people who are onto God...
3. Had some terrible delicious Shiraz and tried a new one I'd never heard of before: Verdelho, which was so good, I'm actually disappointed I didn't buy a whole dozen instead of just a bottle...

Australia IV

In the interest of saving some coinage, my sibling decided that for some of our travels we would stay with people within six-degrees-of-separation, that is, people that we don't know personally, but that somehow are connected to her network, eventually, in some way.
This has recently caused me some great anguish as we ended up in some guy's house that had several legions of various biting insects (and cockroaches to boot): I'm not entirely sure what they were: fleas? bedbugs? midges? mozzies? Despite that, they had been eating me alive and I am totally distressed by the state of my legs: I honestly don't think they'll ever look normal again, as the scarring and discolouration from all the attacks have left them looking like I have leprosy (seriously: I took pictures).
I had no idea how relatively vain I was until I started swelling up purple and brown with welts all over my legs and not being able to put on my shoes anymore...

Soap box/Fruit box

OK, I gotta say something about this, only because it has to do with food justice. Here, I've noticed backpackers complaining about the prices for fruits and veg. I have, however, noticed how almost their entire fruit and veg supply is from Australia. Certainly, they are blessed by having such climates and growing areas that they can grow everything that we can in North America, but also can grow tropical vegetation as well. This allows them to be able to be almost entirely self-sufficient in growing their own food supply; that is very cool.
However, with that comes the fact that they then have to pay the 'real' prices for produce, as they have to pay Australian wages for Australian goods. For example, bananas sell for about $4/kg regularly. However, during their growing season, terrible hurricanes hit the banana growing regions of Australia, and, for a while, bananas cost about $15/kg, as that was the true market cost for bananas. Apples are about $5-6/kg, lettuce is about $2-3 a head, etc...
I have got to say: at least this is food justice, in terms of paying close to the true price for foodstuffs. It then alarms me, that if Australians are paying this much for local foods, then how do we justify paying the Venezuelans less than $0.39/lb for bananas?

Australia III

A curious thing that I've noted is that Australian restaurants have an aversion to having a toilet. There's lots of public ones, to be sure, but it's rare to have one -in- the resto, to wash your hands, etc... it's a little bit disconcerting...
One thing that I have noticed is that Australia is quite... I'm not sure how to put it... perhaps, American-ish, but that's not a fair thing to say at all, and certainly not even close to what I'm trying to evoke. However, one thing that I have noticed is that Americans tend to love Australia, and Canadians tend to love New Zealand (of which I'd have to confess, I'm one of those)... I think there's a lot of culture and environment which play into that, which I won't go into here... but certainly it's quite the different vibe than the Godzone...

Australia II

My bad: it's actually just the state of Queensland that doesn't agree with DST, out of sheer concern for cows, not the whole country.
Also, for those of you who are concerned: I did DRIVE by Steve Irwin's zoo, but we didn't actually go in. Also, FYI, his daughter Bindi, who is now eight years old (you remember her, she's the baby that was dangled in front of the croc a few years ago), now is hosting her own jungle show on TV. In fact, in today's paper, there's a contest where you win a day with her at the Crocodile Hunter's Zoo... I dunno, something just doesn't sit right with me, seeing as her dad died less than five months ago...
At any rate, I was going to say that one of my new favorite animals is the wombat. It's terribly cute. It's one of the very few animals that won't kill/eat/bite/poison you here (in fact, it's quite cuddly looking). I've been warned not to get into knee-deep water, because sharks can still get you there. Then I was warned not to go into ankle deep water, because there are certain poisonous octopi that can still sting you at that depth. Then I was warned not to step in the water, because I could slip and fall... then I was told to make sure that I was making enough noise WALKING so that snakes could get out of the way... oh, for crying out loud... at this rate, I likely won't get very far, or will die trying...