First of all, I've gotten a few emails asking if we are near the fires. The answer is yes. And it is real crazy. Last count says 181 dead and over 750 houses burnt down. Nichole went to a conference in Marysville, just outside of Melbourne just before we left for Christmas and now that town is gone. It is just crazy to think about. Our friends Tim and Carol are directly effected. Tim's childhood home is gone, and Carol's is right in the path. It is huge on the mind of Mebournians and all the Australians for that matter. It kind of reminds me of when I was a kid and Yellowstone was burning up. Only this is much worse. they are saying this is the worst disaster in the history of Australia. That is saying something.
I can certainly see why the wildfire spread so fast. Last Saturday was the hottest day in the recorded history of Melbourne. It was insane! 118 degrees! The strangest part was the wind 30 mph. It was like standing in front of a hair dryer. It burnt your skin. Normally on a hot day you like a little breeze. Not this one. You had to shield yourself from the wind.
The day after that scorching heat we went down to the St. Kilda Festival(temps in the 70's). What a cool experience. They shut down this whole neighborhood and had a huge music festival. Every time you turned a corner there was another concert going on. Mind you, some of them really sucked. There was one act that was the quintessential bogan (Aussie for white trash/hillbilly). The music was even worse than his look. We stayed throughout. I just couldn't believe this dude was for real. More importantly the food was fantastic! They had 100 different food stand set up with good fair type food. I've decided this is closest bond with the Aussies. Our food. Only in these two countries will anyone eat so many deep fat fried gut bombs...or stuff that has sat under a heat lamp for 12 hours. It is a beautiful thing!
Finally, being back into the swing of things has reminded me the few things that piss meoff about this place. First off, the money. Nichole swears by it. Thinks it is fabulous. I say it sucks. First off, they have no cool names (nickel, dime, quarter). Nah, it's 5, 10, 20, 50,$1, and $2. They don't even have a penny. That doesn't stop the stores from pricing everything at $4.99. You just round off. So,although it says $4.99 you have to pay $5. Isn't that silly. And the bills look like funny money. They are plastic and multi-colored. They are all different sizes which sucks when carrying a money clip. the only good thing I can say is,when you have a pocketful of change, you have about $20 (due to the $1's $2 coins). Finally,I hadn't thought about this but someone pointed it out to me the other day. Since there are no $1 bills,you just sit there at the exotic dance clubs. Not that it matters to me... I can't see why I would go into one anyway (in 7 years in Washington I never went to one). It is just the principle of the thing.
Another thing that pisses me off is public transportation. Sure it is nice, when you are on it because you can read, or listen to Ipod. The problem is waiting for them. They don't really run on time. They are kind of like the cable guy. You just wait and wait, and you're never quite sure if you just missed the last one or there is one right around the corner. Plus, I don't feel near as cool as when I'm crusing around in "the bad ride" (my '94 Dodge Ram).
I guess that's it. I suppose if those are my worst two complaints,it can't be too bad of a place. For anyone that is still reading this long-winded post, thanks. this is what one does, when he works 6 hours a week. Hopefully, next week the subwork picks up.
One last thing, I fixed the whole comment section so you don't have to got hrough all the crap of registering so feel free to throw out some thoughts.
cheers!
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