Random Info....

Yesterday we went over to Darryl's coworkers for dinner. Nick and his wife, Mariana moved over about 8 months ago from California. Nick is an animator on Darryl's team. Mariana is actually from Mexico and they invited a few of us over to enjoy a true Mexican dinner. It was great and very yummy! Thanks guys!

This is the awesome view from their balcony. The Brisbane River. Their place is really, really nice. Very modern and along the water. We were all jealous!

After dinner the guys got to enjoy a few video games. I don't think guys ever grow out of this obsession? They love video games. What is it?

And Shamus got to have his own little party after dinner...he was treated to a movie. Movies are Shamus' obsession. I'm sure he'd watch tv all day if we let him.

This is Breagha "posing" for me. I'm not sure what she was trying to do but I still thought she looked cute!

So, I just thought I'd post something else. We've been asked alot of questions about Australia and Brisbane in general. What's the city like? What are the people like? That sort of thing. So, I'm really going to try and take more pictures of the city and post them. Now that I'm working downtown and I'm not taking the kids everywhere with me, I'll have more of a chance to snap some pics.

The city is really nice I think. It's quite new so downtown doesn't have alot of old buildings. A few but not many. It's also right on the Brisbane River so that makes it very beautiful too. Any city on the water is always nice. It's kind of like Halifax/Dartmouth but all one city. The public transportation here is better than Halifax though as it has a City Cat that goes up and down the river and it was several stops along the way. Plus it has the City Ferry that goes back and forth across the river. So, many options for getting across the water.

Brisbane seems to have a wide range of home styles. Very modern apartments to old Queenslanders. A Queenslander would be similar to a summer cottage at home. It's up on stilts with usually an open bottom. No insulation and not usually very big. They are very much the "Aussie" type home. Anyway, I took a couple of pictures of Queenslanders. I was telling Cheryl the other day, "You can have a really nice Queenslander. Well taken care of and in great condition. And then next to it will be a totally dive Queenslander." So, here they are:

A very well taken care of Queenslander. Really nice verandah on the front. Under-
neath is very nice too...not all open like most are.

And then next door you have this. A totally and complete dump. With nasty old cars in the yard! Awful! And yes, someone does live in there. And then back to a beautiful Queenslander. I'm not sure why some of them are so nice and others are awful. But, that seems to be the pattern. The homes outside the city seem to be bigger than in the city.

So, that gives a bit of an idea on the city but I am going to start taking more pics. Next post I'll tell ya how they have their own language here!! And what life is like Down Under!!!