Bright sunny day in Hobart. Went to the Saturday Salmanaca Market... a big open air market mercifully not hempen-clad and patchouli-soused. Old book sellers, farmers with end-of-summer produce, woodworkers, a ginger beer homebrewer (yum), small garden stuff, etc.

You can click here and see a generic postcard picture... and play 'where's Chris' in the crowd.

I bought seeds, which are just about the only thing I can bring back to the US, plant wise. Here's what I bought: Christmas Bells (Blandfordia punicea), Kangaroo Paw (red and green, Anigozanthos manglesii), leatherwood (Eucryphia lucida), black coral pea (Kennedia nigricans), Celery Top Pine …

Going to New Caledonia for a week in late April.

Gotta leave the country (for visa reasons) every six months... this was the cheapest option, as all the good deals to Bali were all taken up since it's school holidays in New South Wales... and with our road trips to Cape York and the Kimberly, it'd be rough to do it in May or June.

We want to see Bali anyway; figure we'll do that in October from Perth. For some curious reason, it's cheaper to fly to Bali from Perth than it is from Sydney or anywhere else in …

A collection of stuff I've found interesting.

- People here tend not to clean their tables--even at places like McDonald's, only a few people will actually throw away their trash. Most folks just leave it on the table behind them.
- Recycling bins are few and far between--almost everything ends up in one bin.
- Restaurant service can be interesting--often you'll have one person take the order, some one else serve your food, and some one else ask you if you'd like another drink with your meal. Sometimes you pay the server, but most of the time you just walk to the cashier …

Fighting over a scrap of roadkill

One surprising thing about Tasmania is the amount of roadkill. Traveling at a nominal 80kph/50mph, you pass one dead mammal about every 20 to 30 seconds on any of the highways here--anything from the size of a cat (possums, quolls, pademelons) up to dog sized (wombats) and big dog sized (wallabies). What makes it all the more interesting is that Tasmanian devils come out at night to scavenge the road kill. They're carnivore scavengers, and often four or six of them fight over the carcass at once, though you never see it since it's usually really late at night …

This is Bob on the Mole.

Seumas (and I) do find him fun to watch. I'm making sure we're near a TV that can receive Channel 7 on Wednesday nights!

BTW, I think the Mole is Crystal-Rose.

I’m not sure I like it here. Sure, there’s the landscape, and the wonderful animals and plants, but the overall culture is very odd. There are three attributes that just don’t feel right to me. This has been kicking around for a few weeks in my head; here they are.

Tentativeness: Aussies are always comparing themselves to others; you get the feeling that most of the country would live somewhere else, like Tuscany or California or London. They don’t have any connection to the physical country; most of those whom I’ve met can’t figure …

1. Use a Californian accent. Valley or Los Angeles suburb accent is OK.
2. End your sentences like you would a question. "I took the ferry to Tasmania? And then went on some caving, with a good tour guide--she was all right? We saw some really great caves, and neat stuff? It was really great?!?" Many people from California already speak this way to begin with, and if you don't you can easily adapt.

And you're there. Really. Scary.

No wonder that Russel thinks that Rachel Griffiths in Six Feet Under sounds Australian. She speaks with a California accent--specifically southern …

In Launceston, Tasmania. Finding that Tasmania is not just home to a Warner Brothers cartoon character.

Drove from Sydney to Melbourne with an overnight stop in Wangaratta, Victoria. It's about a nine hour drive straight through. Wangaratta was a nice, neat, country town, in a wine and ranching region near Milawa. There were very good restaurants there, but we ate at the doner kebab place.

Melbourne, on Friday, was a quick blow through--though we stopped at 'the biggest Kmart in the Southern Hemisphere' in Campbellfield on the north side of Melbourne. It was... well, big. Note to North Americans: Kmart …

When I told my Mom I was coming to Australia, she said 'oh, you have to look up when and where your great-great-grandfather was born--it was Melbourne, but I don't know exactly where or on what date' She's a genealogy nut. So after five hours or so in the New South Wales state library, I found out he was born in Singleton in December 1848 to one Samuel Bassett and Mary Malloy, married three years earlier in west Maitland. Not anywhere near Melbourne, which wasn't really a viable settlement in the 1840's anyway!

Hm... so I wondered, what was this …

Do Not Speak

Foxy

Yet another cloudy overcast day. In the twelve days we've spent in Sydney so far this month, we've had a day and a half of sun. This is not my idea of summer.

Went to the Bear Essentials Evening Lapse. Strangely enough... I got bored, and told Chris--"this is a great setting; there's free drinks and finger foods... but... I'm bored. This is the third night with this same group of people."

Maybe I should've drunk more (I had a single beer when I arrived). Maybe I should've just made more effort. Blech. Whatever. I just haven't been able …

Went shopping today. After a quick check of mail, the first stop was the Virgin store, for Chris' mobile phone.

Second was Gowing's. Oh, my, this is the store for guys. It's guy stuff, just stuffed with stuff. If guys could do department stores, this would be it. Clothing, and adventure books, and gadgets, and camping gear, and etc etc etc. It's like Men's Health magazine come to life (without the Chivas ads). "All the gear you need to raft down the Amazon in drip-dry style, and still enjoy a cuppa tea in the morn and a semi-fancypants dinner."

Then …

Pics from last week's trip

I wish Sydney weather would make up its mind about what season it is! Yesterday at 10am it was cloudy and drizzly, yet still 20C/68F. It cleared up in the afternoon for the pool party, though :-). Alan and Bill threw a great party, I enjoyed myself quite a bit just hanging out and chatting.

This morning, though, it was cloudy and grey. After a bit of dithering, we finally decided to get Mardi Gras tickets today, so we called the Mardi Gras folks, then hopped a train to their headquarters in Erskineville where a very woofy redbear named Ross …

The local dialect

Sydney leather is all about swapping potato recipes

The apartment we're renting for two weeks in Sydney is smack in the middle of restaurant central. For some curious reason, the block the hotel is on is full of Spanish restaurants. Tapas galore! And it's not just a few--it's every restaurant!

Around the corner on George Street is fast food central. McDonald's . KFC. Burger King. I'm amused that across the street from Burger King is a Hungry Jack's--which is Burger King with a different name. It looks like they're renaming the Hungry Jack's in Australia as they update the logo.

I went to Taco Bell for dinner, and am …

Basically Epcot

High

Cool

Just had an odd thought: how would I describe Sydney to someone who's never been? Here are some bullet points, somewhere there should be some cohesive threads. Or maybe not.

First, Sydney looks like a North American city.

Topographically, it's most reminiscent of Seattle, or perhaps Vancouver. Not San Francisco; while Sydney sits on a harbor like SF it doesn't have the huge inclines that San Francisco has--it has more moderate hills, and none of them are very large like Twin Peaks, or offer the sweeping views you often get in San Francisco. The many inlets of the harbor remind …

We signed up for a day long 4WD tour west of Sydney in our new old Landcruiser

I'm really surprised at how cheap things are here. Everyone back in North America is interested in 'how expensive is it over there?'

Here's a sampling of a few rates... all in US dollars.
- Car rental for a day, Toyota Camry: $35 (incl tax and gas)
- Haircut and beard trim: $7
- Our one bedroom suite apartment in central Sydney: $75 per night
- Valet parking, with in-and-out privledges, per day: $8.50
- 750ml bottle of beer (24oz): $1.75
- Motel room, outside of Sydney: $20 - $30 US
- Big Mac: $1.50, though you can easily find coupons for 2 for US …