Christmas in July

Christmas is something that Canadians associate with winter.  Many Christmas carols reference snow or ice, and the traditional dinner of ham or turkey is something that suits cold weather.  Brisbane does not fit that mould at the best of times, but especially not during Christmas, which occurs at the height of summer in Australia.  July, however, is a cooler month, and last night we had a "Christmas in July" dinner at a local restaurant.

Christmas decorations

The "Christmas in July" theme is quite common.  The restaurant we went to offered a three course menu (with two choices per course) for $55/person.  Other restaurants have higher-end prices or larger menus.  The Blue Mountains, outside of Sydney, has a "Yulefest" every year, complete with natural snow.  We don't quite need to have a "snow fix" yet, but maybe in the next 6 - 15 years we will miss the -30C temperatures and partake in winter activities.

Re-opened Pools

We took a walk to the South Bank area today to check out a food festival (does today become Boxing Day in July?) and were very happy to see that all of the pools and swimming areas that were destroyed by the floods have now been restored and are open again for business.  Even though the temperatures are a bit cool (low 20ºC's), nothing will stop a kid from going for a swim!

It's nice to see the pools open again, but the best thing we saw this week was a story from Northern Queensland.  A crocodile was spotted in a small town in Northern Queensland, apparently trying to cross the highway that runs through town, and causing quite a ruckus with the local traffic.  The croc was initially subdued by the local police department who held him in place with a push broom while waiting for the local croc man.  When he arrived, wearing his "safetly flip-flops", he was slightly better armed with a garden rake.  He poked the croc with his rake, threw a blanket over its head and then put two big elastics around the croc's snout (apparently, croc's have incredible force when closing their jaws but not to open them).  This was followed by another blanket that went around the croc's body, which was then picked up and put in the front seat of a truck and driven across the highway, where he was released to go back about his business.  No fuss, no muss, just one happy croc.