News and Notes

Some of you may have noticed the delay in my getting this next post out and made some guesses as to why. Well it's not because we had a baby.....yet. The watermelon (as our friend Rene calls it) is still safely secured in Laura's belly, giving her a kick in the ribs every so often just to remind her of what's to come. The delay on posting is simply due to laziness/being busy. We've been on the go most nights lately, and I don't think I'm ready to justify writing a blog while at work just yet.

So what's new? I'm happy to report that the unseasonably wet weather here in Brisbane has led to a slight filling of the dams to over 40%, meaning that the water restrictions have been relaxed and everyone has breathed a sigh of relief. There is now enough water in storage to last for a full three years even if we get no rain whatsoever. Hopefully we'll take the recent drought as a warning that the city is vulnerable to water shortages and people will maintain their conserving ways.

It's bloody cold here! There was snow on the outskirts of the city the other day, and we currently have five layers of covers on our bed. Overnight lows drop into the low single digits and there ain't any insulation to be found. It would be a shock for someone to arrive here right now from Canada, where it is in the mid to high twenties every day and drops only to the mid-teens overnight. This is supposed to be Australia - land of beaches and palm trees! Of course, this cold spell is only short-lived, and no doubt by December we'll dying from the heat and humidity and reminiscing of the lovely cool days of winter.

In her last post, Laura alluded to bird attacks here during the breeding season. I got a first hand taste of this the other day when I was bull-rushed by a masked plover while I was out jogging. There was a pair nesting in the park near our house and I made the mistake of running through their territory. Next thing I knew one was headed straight for me. It veered off at the last second, sparing me from the pain and embarrassment of a spur in the head. These Australian animals do attack and defend far more aggressively than other animals I've seen, although this recent attack did bring back memories of being challenged by a partridge on a hiking trail back in my MREAC days.

Along with the jogging I've been playing pick-up touch footy once a week at the university. It's a lot of fun and a good workout. They play Rugby League rules - teams line up against each other and try to advance the ball (no forward passes allowed). If you get touched, you place the ball on the ground, step over it, and a teammate picks it up. The opposing team has to back off the ball while you are doing this, which goes against natural instincts (the ball-swarming mentality of American football). I narrowly missed scoring my first try last game when I was touched just before getting the ball on the ground. Laura made fun of me because it was a girl that caught me. You just can't win with that one.

The pro rugby season is also heating up here. Australia is taking on New Zealand in the Tri-Nations Series along with South Africa (rugby union). The Wallabies (AUS) beat the All-Blacks (NZ) last weekend and the teams meet again this Saturday. We caught another Broncos Rugby League game last weekend which they won against rival Cronulla (a Sydney suburb). The playoffs are not far off and Brisbane is in fifth, with the top eight making the playoffs and whispers of another possible championship in the air. And biggest of all, Queensland defeated New South Wales in this years "State of Origin", making it three years in a row. Imagine if the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs played a three game series every year, only the Canadiens could have all the best players from Quebec and the Leafs could have all the best players from Ontario, and these players played harder than they did for their club teams the rest of the year. That would about equal the intensity surrounding State of Origin. All the other League games pale in comparison.

So that's all the news from here. We're only about a month away from the big watermelon day, and we're starting to think that maybe we might be ready. Our labour bag is packed, the phone numbers are on the fridge, and we know where to park when we arrive at the hospital. Of course, we don't own a car but that's a minor detail. We'll figure it out.