Brisbane Life - By Clare.

We wanted to give you some idea what life was like here is Brisbane. Jennifer and Duncan are still in the UK visiting Jennifers family and freinds and will be home in 2 weeks time. As well as falling into a routine, we are still sightseeing the surrounding area. We have been rock climbing on the Brisbane River, cycling, seen live bands and comedy, visited the theatre and tonight we are going to see a Queen tribute band (a bit like We Will Rock You musical at home). Tomorrow we are going to an outdoor cinema to see Happy Feet as part of BIFF - the Brisbane International Film Festival. This morning Bron came round to give us our first pottery lesson. There is a table and kiln under the house (the house it bulit on stilts). We have made two mugs each. Not sure if we'll be able to drink out of them but we'll give it a go!

So where do we live?

Mark and I have been living in Brisbane at 10 Waverley Street for the last 5 weeks with Duncan and Jennifer, friends of Bronwyns. Jennifer is a fellow Brit who came over 4 years ago to do a degree. She is now studying for her Masters and is employed by the university as a scientist researching plant growth. Its much more technical than that but thats the best way I can explain it and what she doesn't know about plants and vegetation isn't worth mentioning. She also loves animals. Her former careers were in pensions in London and she's also a trained chef, graduating at the same chef school as Jamie Oliver. Duncan, originally from Melbourne, is a former band member of 'Natives of Bedlam', a local Brisbane band. He plays the guitar, didgeridoo, bongo's, violin and piano. He's a self-employed IT consultant and works for a local school and a charity.

The house has quite a history and has been a shared house for at least 18 years (thats how long Duncan has lived here). Its a bit like Wisley Avenue, lots of parties, couples getting together etc. Bronwyn lived here herself for 2 years. The people we have met here has been quite a mixture; musicians, singers, painters, potters, students, there is always someone popping in to say hi and staying for dinner. Its very relaxed and things seem to just 'happen' rather than be planned.

The house is situated off the Ipswich Road which is kind of a 3 lane highway that takes you out of the city (gets very busy at rush hour). The suburb we live in is called Annerley about 10 minutes bus ride from the city centre. The house is a 'Queenslander'which is like a huge single storey cabin made out of wood. Inside is very spacious and they are built for warm weather. They don't have central heating, in fact no heating at all so when it gets chilly its like an ice box! They are very pretty and are painted in different colours, pinks, mint greens, creams etc. The garden is full with tree's, bushes, shrubs, fish ponds and a chicken coup. Jennifer and Duncan have a number of saplings that they are trying to grow, each with chicken wire round it to protect from possums with bamboo mulch covering the surrounding soil. This protects the ground from the sun drying it and retains as much moisture as possible to give the tree a chance in the hot, dry weather.

The house sits at the top of a very hilly San Francisco-style road. From the front door you can see Mount Cootha, the sunsets are lovely. Pete and Angie, friends of Jennifer and Duncans turned up on a Wednesday teatime to watch the sunset. Duncan went outside with them and they sat on a bit of grass with a beer until the sun had gone completely and it was pitchblack. There is very little twilight in Australia. This means that when it gets dark it does so within a few minutes instead of gradually. It can take you by surprise!

Whats the weather like?

Well, it really has been a medley of weather conditions here is Brisbane; heavy rain, blustery winds, icy cold days, then warm sunny days, pretty much like home! We are in the middle of winter at the moment June-August, and some days its hard to keep warm. We have purchased slippers and fleeces and spend evenings with blankets round us to keep warm. Locals tell you to 'rug up!' which means 'put a jumper on!'. In England the heating would definately be on by now!

Brisbane is still in a drought and has been for around 3 years. Dams were at an all time low of 18% which is critical. The Government issue critical levels, 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest. A level 5 has already been issued. In the last few weeks there has been heavy rain so the dams have a chance of filling up, if only a tiny bit. The problem Brisbane has is that years ago dams were built in the wrong place. Its a real bone of contention as the weather specialists, all these years ago, advised the Government to build them in certain places to maximise rain collection for the areas that needed it the most (i.e. the dry area's like Brisbane), but they decided to go against their advice and built them elsewhere. Consequently Brisbane is suffering. Places like Darwin is dry and hot, has a massive amount of rainfall per year and has a dam built near it whereas Brisbane has low rainfall with no dam in sight - it doesn't make sense!

The Government has issued a number of initiatives to help save water including reintroducing water tanks and 4 minute showers. They even post out egg-timers that can be attached by a suction pad to the shower and ensures you don't go over your alloted time. It really has made us think of all the water we used to waste at home. Rain makes front page news like hot temperatures make ours back home. Locals splashing around in welly boots are thrilled that the heavens have opened while office workers in London take their kit off and jump in the fountains, enjoying the sunshine.

What do we eat?

We have been eating massive amounts of kangaroo lately; kangaroo mince, steaks and Kanga Banga's (sausages - thats their actual name on the packaging). It was a bit weird eating it at first, especially since we had already visited Australia Zoo and hand fed the official animal of Oz (some natives won't eat an animal that appears on their national flag). Its tasty, low fat and cheap so it ticks all the boxes. We just have to put images of Skippy out of our minds. Apparently its one of the more humane animals you can eat. Cows spends weeks in a cattle truck, crammed together and afraid of their fate. In the slaughter houses they are electrocuted and sometimes that doesn't kill them first time. Kangaroo's on the other hand spend their lives roaming around freely enjoying a happy life until they are abruptly shot in the head. Death is quick so their bodies (unlike the cows) have not been saturated by fear. Kangaroo's are not bred for food, they are killed because there are too many of them.

We receive fruit and veg deliveries from Food Connect, organic produce from local farmers. When the box arrives you have no idea what you're going to get. We currently have a 'custard apple' in the kitchen ripening very nicely. We are not sure what to do with it so Mark found the custard appple website for recipies! Because of insects, all food has to be put into containers. They also have 'weevils' which are weird maggot type things that live in things like herbs and flour. To get rid of them you have to freeze the food items straight away to kill them off. If not they will overtake the pantry without delay. Food lasts much longer than it does at home - for example bread and milk have a 'use by' date of 2 weeks in the future. You could take a slice of bread out after more than a week and it will still be lovely and soft! There are more varieties of Cadbury's here than at home - some are very weird, I don't think we're ready for them at home!

Where are we working?

Both Mark and I are civil servants working for Queensland Government. Mark works for the Department of Health and I work for the Department of Natural Resources and Water. My work involves issuing people water licences to take water from creeks for
irrigation, domestic use or for livestock - because there is a lack of water at the moment its a very tricky issue. We have issued a 'moretoreum' which means that certain area's around Brisbane are retricted to the amount of water they can take from creeks because there isn't enough water for the public in general. I work with scientists, hydrologists and geologists who visit sites to work out if we can issue licences and resolve issues. When it rains the office is empty as they are all off measuring it, analysing it and generally getting very excited!

My colleagues are nice, they all think the English accent is 'cute'! Its so different working in an office whose main aim is not to make loads of money! Things are much quieter, there are no real deadlines, few diva tantrums, bliss!!!

Possum

Now, I've saved the best till last. We are having an amazing here in Brisbane, but the most rewarding and unique experience by far is looking after Pervical the Possum. Percy was found alone without his mother at a very young age. Jennifer and
Duncan agreed to look after him as part of a wildlife release program. Percy is a marsupial nocturnal native animal. He sleeps during the day and is active at night. When he was 'born' he was the size of a baked bean. He crawled out of his mother and into her pouch to grow. From there he was able to take all the nutrients he needed just like a human baby would do in a womb. At some point during his growth he became separated with his mother, was found by someone and taken to the wildlife centre. They normally stay with the mother until they are around 7 months old, living in her pouch or clinging on to her back. Percy does not have a pouch, instead he climbs down my fleece and snuggles up there.

Its very hard to describe what a possum looks like but I will give it a go. Percy is a Brushtail Possum and in my opinion much cuter than their Ringtail cousins. He has soft grey fur, a face like a mouse with a pink nose and pointy ears, hands and feet like a monkey and a tail much like a monkeys but furry like a squirrls. The underside of the tail does not have any fur on it and he uses this part to grip tightly to things like a branch to steady himself or hang upside down. He eats carrots, banana's, cucumber and sometimes crackers. He would eat anything if he had a chance but we have to make sure his diet is healthy to prepare him for the wild. He also eats leaves and flowers from the garden. He has a large cage with a small box in it that has blankets to keep him warm at night. There are also large branches that he can climb on. He has porridge in the morning in a little 'possum bowl' with rice milk not cows milk - possums are lactose intolerant and too much cows milk can kill them. If you walk away from him he will run after you and scamper up you your legs and perch on your shoulder like a parrot. He is not toilet trained so he has to be taken to the toilet. In the wild his mum would have licked his him to make him wee and poo but as she is not longer around, we have to do it. We hold him over the sink and gently rub his cloaca (the multipurpose opening) until he wee's and/or poo's. I think he finds this soothing as his eyes start to close!
He goes for walks in the trees in the garden. Now he is getting older we let him go out by himself and he makes his way back to his cage when he's ready; probably in the early hours of the morning. He is almost ready to leave home (think Marcel, Ross's monkey on friends) so unless you chop his balls off (which happen to heart-shaped) there is no way he'll want to stick around. He'd rather be running and jumping through the tree's, though we are hoping he will still want to come back to his cosy warm box in the cage.

General

Some gerenal observations we though you might be interested in:

- Walking across the road without using the designated crossings (green man etc) is illegal. There is good reason for this:
A 15 year old girl was run over the other day and killed when she walked out from behind a bus.

- Shops round up. If you make a purchase and the total is $21.97, the cashier will say '$22 please'. Australia has 5, 2 and 1 cent coins so there is no obvious reason for this. Strange.
- Radio stataions advertise 'adult' shops and there is frequent swearing on the radio be that in ads or by the presenters themselves
- People often walk round in bare feet, mainly when its warm
- On the official news programmes we are greeted with an informal 'Hey, how are ya?'
- Road signs warning about speeding are quite blunt and include 'Rest or R.I.P.' and 'High speed, low I.Q.'
- Eucalytus trees shed their bark instead of their leaves
- Brisbane has all the features of a great city without the pretention, people are very freindly and laid back in a 'rural' kind of way

Since I started writing this update we have been asked to house sit for some more of Bron's friends. They live round the corner and have a dog called Sydney who is very cute. That will start on 18th August to 22 September which means we are staying in Brisbane for a while now and will be here for our first wedding anniversary and my 31st birthday. After that we will be seeing the rest of Australia (Ayres Rock and the west coast, then Adelaide, Canberra and Melbourne) and hopefully be in Sydney for Christmas and New Year.

I hope this has given you a good idea of what we've been up to. We are having an absolute ball experiencing new things, meeting new people and visiting new places. Having said that we are really missing you all and as Dorothy said, 'there's no place like home'.