Teeeaaaa with jam and bread, with jam and breaaaad!

Howdy Folks,

That title will be understood probably only by my sister Heather. It has to do with a little outing Tim and I took last night (read on for details).

Hope you’re all doing well. It’s been a great week here in Brisbane, it’s been raining and overcast here since Wednesday (it’s now Sunday), a well deserved wet period in the midst of a relatively dry bout (we haven’t had a significant rainfall here since we first arrived in February, and that was short lived). Brisbane is still under Level 6 water Restrictions, essentially meaning that the combined flow of water through the major dams in the Southeast Queensland (SEQ) region is still on average, meeting less than 40% dam capacity. Tim wrote about this shortage in a past blog, the situation really hasn’t changed all that much since then. So this rain, although it’s rather cold and damp, is well needed and people are unusually happy about predicting just how much it’s going to rain. I even find myself going to bed at night wanting to be woken up by the downpours, which has happened on a couple of occasions this past week. A funny thing; because of the water restrictions in this area, the government has introduced this campaign to get people using less water then previously. The target is 140L per household/day and supposedly heavy users are penalized with fines (checked this out, the rules are very vaguely defined and truly, it doesn’t seem like the current regulations have much teeth). This really means that people can’t use water willy-nilly anymore, and people in SEQ have become really good at meeting the 140 target, with the latest stats coming back saying that average daily consumption per household is more like 125-130L/day. It’s pretty impressive. The funny part is that basically this program has been in place for a little over a year, and before the long-term lack of water made things as bad as they are now (where Level 6 Restrictions are in place), folks in SEQ were just as bad as everyone else. Using water for everything from washing cars every week to watering the lawn every second day, the excessively long showers (4 minute showers is one way to cut down hugely on water consumption that is encouraged), etc. Now that the restrictions and targets have been in place and are being met and surpassed in SEQ, people are getting a bit self-righteous, I’ve noticed. Just last week Tim pointed out an article in the paper where SEQers were calling people in Northeast Queensland water-pigs (the newspapers here are a little more tabloid-like then what we’re used to in Canada), and the article pointed out the major differences in consumption, which were real. The thing is, they’ve had rain. We haven’t. They’ve got water. We don’t. This, of course, is not mentioned when people from SEQ talk about how much better we are at conserving water than our neighbors. To me it just reveals how very eager we are to one-up our neighbors, in any way that we can. It’s like everyday Canadians being excited when our dollar is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a cent above the US dollar. Does it really impact the average joe’s life? Not really. But we can say that our dollar is better than the US dollar. And that makes us (including me) feel good.

Another great thing about this week, we were able to put the last chunk of change down on my student loan that I first took out in 1998. If you think I was sounding too cynical about human nature in the last paragraph and that bothered you, I’ll spare you my thoughts about student loans in Canada. You’d never want to read my blog again. Let’s just say, with a bub (Aussie-talk for baby) on the way, we’re thinking hard about how we can keep our kids free from the burden of this kind of loan so early in life. I get fired up just thinking about it. Needless to say, keeping Goob out of major student loans will now be lots easier since mine are finally done with. We are very, very thankful for this.

So, like I said, the week was good. It’s been so nice to have Tim around again…It’s a good thing too. I’m getting tubby and I huff and puff when I have to exert myself in any way. So even if Tim were a terrible, terrible husband (which he is the opposite), I would still have someone that could at least pick up my slack…Like at least give me a push when I have to roll myself out of bed rather than help me up like a gentleman. Although I put up a fuss when he picks up 7 grocery bags and leaves me the 2 light ones, and that kind of stuff, it’s way nicer to have a choice in those matters (i.e. whether there is someone who can help carry things at all).

As a celebration of many things, and as a part of my birthday present, Tim bought tickets to go see a community theatre production of The Sound of Music which opened last night. He also reserved us a lovely dinner at a great little Indian restaurant. It was a good, good night. I don’t know how popular this movie was amongst my friends growing up (Tim hadn’t seen it, but he might not have necessarily been my friend growing up), but when my parents finally gave in and bought a VCR sometime in the early 90’s (so long after all of the cool kids had a VCR, I remember thinking), The Sound of Music was one of the first videos we owned. And my mom probably still religiously watches that movie along with the Anne of Green Gables series, at least once a year. So it was awesome to see it preformed live. It made me miss my family (pretty much everything does these days) because I’m sure every one of my siblings could belt out every word to every song just like I wanted to. I had to restrain myself while watching the production. It’s community theatre so Fraulein Maria was no Julie Andrews (how could you really top her anyway), and Captain Von Trapp was a little weak at times, but overall it was an amazing production. I smiled the whole time. It was a great night. Including using the bus and train to get there and back. Saturday night is a bit dodgy for characters that show up on the trains especially, so we were at the very least ‘entertained’ by a) drunk skateboarders & young punks in general who didn’t purchase train tickets but still felt at liberty to ride the train b) the train police that hunted these vandals down (on the way to the show AND on the way back…same kids) c) the older drunk patrons who by 11:00pm were looking quite rowdy and d) the young chicklets on their way to the city talking about boys and hair, etc. All in all, we felt a bit…old. Making us feel even older, was how we felt today. We got home around midnight after leaving the show, taking the train and then catching a bus which dropped us off a 15 minute walk from our place, and were in bed shortly after that. And there was no drinking at all involved in our night out (quite obviously on my part), but both Tim and I have spent the day re-cooping from…A lack of a 10 hour sleep? I’m not sure. But we both felt rotten and dead-tired the whole day. We had had to get to the market this morning at 6:30 so we did miss out on a couple of hours of sleep last night, but our laziness post-market until now was very reminiscent of having drunk one drink too many the night before. What’s becoming of us? Who really gets wiped out by going to see the Sound of Music?

Last weekend we found a little baby furniture recycling place. They buy and sell and rent good used furniture (that meets Aussie standards) with the idea that people don’t use baby furniture all that long, yet it still costs an arm and a leg, so why not pass it on slightly used and for a better price? I like their philosophy. I’m telling you baby-stuff selling has to be one of the most lucrative markets. Think about it, babies are always being born (i.e. the need for furniture, etc. will never go away), parents want “the best” for their children and “new” generally means “better” in our society (I think that new parents are especially vulnerable to this one), and gifts…how could you go wrong marketing this stuff? Either way, this place, like I said has used, but still usable stuff. Our friend Peter lent us his car for the weekend and we found a crib (and bought a new mattress for anyone out there thinking ewwwww old baby spew, etc.) and a stroller. I will say this. I never thought that I would be the type to be ogling over baby furniture, but the crib we found has ducks carved into the headboard. Ducks! I sometimes go into the nursery room just to look at it. Again, what’s happening to me? We also found out that they rent car seats for very reasonable rates and time periods based on the fact that babies outgrow car seats so fast. We still haven’t decided whether we’re going to bite the bullet and buy a car before the Goob arrives, so buying a car seat seemed like a weird purchase anyway, given we don’t actually have a car. The rental option at least gives us the ability to rent in the case that we haven’t made our minds up by September.

If I haven’t already made it clear in previous entries, we’re still working on our experiment in public transportation, i.e. we don’t own a car and don’t want to…We’re trying to be reliant on the public transit system and our feet. It’s going really well for us at the moment. The frustrations that we experience with late busses, and the amount of time it takes to get to where we need to be are quite real. But I think that they don’t hold a candle to driving in rush hour traffic twice a day, at least. Or the environmental impacts of so many folks driving cars these days. So in terms of making life easier or harder, in the beginning, I think public transport made our lives a bit harder with figuring out the system and not being able to carry big loads (like furniture), but now, it’s way easier. It forces us to manage our time well, to walk a lot more and to know where we’re going and how to get there…And we don’t pay to fill the tank, and brother, fuel costs are soaring here. At the moment they bounce around the 1.30 – 1.50/L range, with diesel costs starting at around 1.55/L. Let’s put it this way. Peter’s car is a Corolla, a pretty fuel-efficient little car. It takes over $50 to fill the tank to 1/3 right now. If that doesn’t get people looking for alternative transportation, I’m not sure what will. So the question is, what are we going to do when I’m in labour or if we have an emergency with the baby? Wait for bus or a cab to get us to the hospital? Well, maybe. But we’re thinking that one through. I still think we can get by without having to own a car. We’re considering renting one for maybe the last month of pregnancy and the one or two months following (seeing how things go). That’s the best option we’ve been able to agree upon so far. I should make it clear that it’s not the money that makes me not want a car. It’s the fact that we just shouldn’t have to have one if we’re living in the city since there is already an existing way for us to get around, and it’s crazy how many people’s lives are made that much more stressful by the fact that they have to sit in traffic for hours in a day. There’s also that the risk of injury that is represented every time you get into a car well exceeds that of getting into a bus, or getting eaten by a croc for that matter. We’ll keep you posted on how things go. And mom and dad, we’re not crazy! If we need to bite the bullet, we will. I think we just don’t want to feel like we have to do what other people are doing, necessarily (although there are lots of people using the public system here). Maybe this is not all the surprising to you. It’s been the story of my life.

So to wrap up, this week wasn’t the most adventurous one we’ve had, but I think we can say that we’re really starting to feel settled (it was the crib purchase!). Tim leaves for another 2-3 weeks up north next Sunday and I actually am not so worried about it this time. Maybe I’ll feel differently come Sunday, but I think that there’s enough going on to keep me occupied. More about that next week.

Love to all, please keep in touch.

Laura