The Emperor's Story

I had to give myself a huge reality check when I opened my closet; I was actually really quite excited to see the selection of clothes that I had come back to... as I had basically worn the same two T-shirts and the same pair of pants for several weeks. This lasted a little bit, scampering around in my finery, until I stopped dead in my tracks: most people in this world are lucky to even have a change of clothing. Many people that I have seen and worked with in India and Africa would likely die of shock to see how well stocked my closets and drawers are filled... especially down on the riverbanks where they wash their clothes, when they get the opportunity, only when it's really necessary... Well, that certainly put a bit more of a sobering reality to my scads of shirts and skirts and pants and socks and wraps and coats and sweaters and...

Australia VIII

Right, the animals here... the following animals I have seen within 1-3m of myself since I've been here and in the wild (in the wild, of course, as I really had a hard time endorsing seeing animals only within the confines of zoos and tourist spots):
Kookaburra, possum (2 species), bats, koala, kangaroo (at least 3 different species), wombat, wallaby (2 species), stingray, dolphins, sealions, seals, echidna, emu, penguins, um, I think that's it... unfortunately, no sharks...

Things I've learned in Australia

1. Centring your day around a pint of milk makes it interesting
2. Eating endangered species leaves one in very awkward social situations
3. Being a dingo eating a baby is not very nice, even if it's imaginary
4. Why are you crying?/Why are you crying?/Please open your eyes
5. Stuff that is burnt-to-a-crisp is totally not cool, irrespective of what it is...
6. Wombats are totally cute, and seeing animals in the wild is much more satisfying than in a conservation park...
7. Game shows leave one with a feeling of being a bit... unsatisfied...
8. Kangaroos can eviscerate you if they get really pissed off.
9. Celebrating and supporting local produce is very cool.
10. I love Tassie!

Tasmania

This is a little piece of heaven; it reminds me of New Zealand in some senses. Forests and rivers and mountains... beautiful local produce, celebrating the bounty that they are able to create, not just in food and wine, but also in craft and art... I believe about a third of its landmass is World Heritage/UNESCO protected... sigh... gorgeous here... great food and drink... nice people.... the weather would be good, if I hadn't thought, "Gee, it's summer vacation, I'm only going to bring one pair of pants"... not so smart when the summer weather down here, at least this week was running around 16-19C and dropping to 10C at night... :P

Australia VII

So, a few more observations:
1. There are a heck of a lot of Germans in this country; most days it feels like half the country is here. They think so too...
2. One of the great things here is that the price that is listed is the price that you pay: all taxes, tip, etc are included in the price. This works well in that you don't have to calculate an extra 30% onto your resto meals. It's also great in that they actually pay waitstaff a decent wage (starting at about $15/hr), so they aren't dependent on tips to actually make a living.... sounds like an ideal world...
3. There's a, I'm not sure how to say it, not really an undercurrent, but more of a 'whisper in the woodwork' of racism in Australian society, I feel. I know, now people are going to get all over me about how judgemental I am. I think there are societal and cultural reasons why this is so. I am certainly not saying that Canadians are non-racist in comparison, but there is certainly more of an undertone here... I will likely end up mulling about this some more, and I think it would be hard to explain... perhaps the language, in naming their Aboriginal peoples the 'blacks', or how hard one group in Australia is trying to deport Sudanese refugees back to Darfur because they bring violence and diseases here (?), or how blokes will just say things to you that make you go 'hunh???'.... anyways, all very subtle, which is why I can't say it's overt, perhaps just a small subconscious undercurrent.... maybe I need to think about this some more...

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...

Australia I

One curious thing that I've noticed, the more I've seen cities in the developed world, is how darned similar they are to one another. There's always a "St Lawrence Market", a "Bay Street", a "Yonge Street", a "Richmond Street", the "gaybourhood", a "Yorkville", etc etc etc... it's a bit disconcerting. Admittedly, here in Brisbane, it's not exactly a tourist destination by any stretch of the imagination (it is, however, a hub to get to other beach and surf destinations on the North coast, and is also home to Steve Irwin's Zoo, which I will NOT be going to... crikey!). It is very much, a city for locals to live and work in, I guess like a Hamilton, or a Windsor.
Another curious thing here: apparently all of Australia does not participate in Daylight Savings Time (there was previously a big debate about it, but people were concerned about confusing the cows, so they opted not to change it(??) ). So, in the midst of the summer, the sun is down by 7pm(!), but up by 5am(!!!), which makes it a bit hard to sleep in, when the kookaburras are already singing by 4:30 in the morning (kind of reminds me of the roosters in Mizoram...)

Beam me up, Scottie

Could someone puh-leeeeese make me a Star Trek Transporter? I completely don't understand how people regularly make the trek between Toronto and Hong Kong... it's enough to make one go mad. Certainly, small graces, like being transferred to an aisle seat in the bulkhead (yes! Possibly one of the most comfortable trans-Pacific crossings I've done, though it's not actually saying much, since I still wasn't horizontal) made things a little bit more tolerable, but it's still quite something, sitting still for 15+ hrs, trying to prevent DVTs like mad...
Have seen some bats and ibises, but not much else, as I'm trying to get accustomed to the hour still...

Urbana

So, those smart folk from Urbana have already got some AV streaming from the conference... boy, have I got envy, but good envy! So happy for Francis, Jimmy, Eileen, Steph, etc etc etc who are over there! Go kids go!

An Xmas Carol

You know, I got all teary-eyed hearing the CBC's narration of A Christmas Carol on the radio this year (not such a great thing to do when one is driving), but I can't shake the vague "Scrooginess" that I get every Christmas. Maybe it's because there's no snow. Maybe it's because Jesus was born in the summertime, and Saturnalia is really not a festival we should be appropriating. Maybe it's because I want to vomit any time I get near a mall for the whole month of December (and most of November). Maybe it's because every symbol that we hold dear at this sentimental time of year, really has nothing to do with the Magnificent, Terrible and Awesome Event that occurred. It has nothing to do with getting together with family (with +/- squabbling), eating way more than is necessary, gift-giving, beautiful trees (though I do like them very very much), big fat elves, rampant consumerism and debt, running around trying to 'see' everybody that you're supposed to over the holidays, drinking too much, too much chocolate, reindeer with sleighbells and red noses, roasted chestnuts, and the whole sentimentality of going 'home for the holidays'.... The Holy Family were actually homeless shortly after they came together....
How did all this mess that we call Christmas come from a dirty, smelly manger of an apparent bastard, refugee child, born in manure, surrounded by illiterate shepherds and foreign, non-Jewish religious men, yet having the heavens singing and dancing for joy for the Saviour had been born? How did we become so syncretistic?
Certainly, I LOVE Christmas trees, and I quite like chocolate, and wine, for that matter (and eating, and parties, and the cocooning we do this time of year). But I wonder: Why do I run like mad, trying to achieve I'm-not-entirely-sure-what, when really, I miss Advent entirely year after year, and the Event that makes the season is -almost- (note I say almost, not is) secondary to the rest? Why do I not fall down and worship in the manure and the hay, and say, The Anointed One, The Ancient of Days, YHWH Himself has brought Himself here, and lament and love the fact that He has chosen to lie, squalling in a feedpen, as wretched as we? Isn't that what Christmas is all about?

The great Q

So, it's finally over now: the hour long commutes, the amazing and gifted speakers, the piles of homework (OK, that's not completely done yet, but it's happening)... but it was totally worth it! Enough so that we'll do it again next fall! Holy cannolli, I am convinced that we could start a small earthquake if we do it again downtown, so downtown we shall go! Warning to all thinking and sentient beings, as I am sure that you need to come along too!

FFT

I'm not sure where she found the poem, but I just thought I'd link it; impressive work from such a young man...
http://lisachildofgod.blogspot.com/2006/11/stand-people-of-west.html

Representin'...

So I was talking with some friends about the Disney Princesses line. One girl, in fact, STILL loves the Princesses line. You know, the whole Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella are all friends thing, so that little girls everywhere will buy all the purses/underwear/dresses/toys/DVDs/etc etc etc that Disney can possible push out of China...
At any rate, we realized some discrepancies... certainly, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella are the highest echelon princesses, the triumvirate, the ultimate trinity of princessdom... but then you throw in Ariel (The Little Mermaid) and Belle (Beauty and the Beast) and it starts looking a little whitewash, if you ask me....
We did concede the fact that Disney has wisely thrown in Mulan, Pocahontas and Princess Jasmine to represent the yellow people, the aboriginal peoples and the brown people, but a black friend of mine wisely pointed out, "And who do they have to represent the black people? All I've got is Nala, and she's a LION!!!! I've got no representation!"
So, hence the problem: Five white girls, one from each other minority group, and the black people represented by an animal... is there something here that nobody else has noticed?

Look both ways before crossing the street...

Again, I think safety sometimes is highly over-rated. Case in point: just got a big lecture of why would I consider going to the Middle East, if I'm just going to get bombed/kidnapped/raped, or all three at the same time? That would certainly put a damper on any trip, I am sure. "You know, that time in Bagdhad? Remember the way we were pistol-whipped and blindfolded and left out in the desert? Yeah, that kind of sucked... but at least the falafels were good... "
However, if we are convicted that people are lost, and there's only One Way to help them out of the quagmire, then safety should not be our greatest concern, nor our greatest goal.
Now, this is partially sheer bellicosity on my part, as I myself lack great courage and great conviction and quite like the common Western comforts of home. As CT Studd once said, "Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell, I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell." Wow.
I know some well-meaning people try to make me feel comfortable in my skin, saying it's OK to be blessed by God and it's OK to appreciate His massive blessings as long as I use them wisely, but I wonder how much of that, in our drowsiness and spiritual stupor, is simply us drinking at Belshazzar's feast, awaiting the writing on the wall?

Bookworms

OK, I just measured the stack of books that I've bought, just over the past few months: it now stands over a metre high....