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.

Tour de Force!

As we are sure everyone knows by now, Cadel Evans has just become the first Australian to win the Tour de France.  As proud as we are of Canadian Ryder Hesjedal for the second top 20 finish in a row, we couldn't be happier for Cadel Evans!  He came back from what should have been an insurmountable time deficit to beat Andy Schleck in the individual time trial and blah, blah, blah.  The important thing is that there is talk of a national holiday! 

Cadel Evans in the Yellow Jersey (from couriermail.com.au)

Australia is a great place to live and work.  There is almost constant summer, the people are friendly with a terrific sense of humour...dripping with self-deprecation and sarcasm that can't be beat.  But there is an issue with the lack of public holidays.  There are 11 public holidays, including New Year's, Good Friday, Christams and Boxing Day, which are celebrated just about everywhere.  That leaves 7 days: Australia Day, Anzac Day, Easter Monday, Labour Day and the Queen's Birthday.  The 7th holiday is a state holiday, the Royal Queensland Show, which is an agricultural exhibition.  That is NOT enough statutory holidays!  Yes, it is the same number of public holidays as in Canada, but we just feel like there should be more.

So congratulations to Cadel Evans on his massive achievement of winning the Tour de France...and thanks for the hope of another holiday.  We need it!

The Doctor

Last night we saw "Dr. Zhivago", the new musical based on the movie, based on the book, of the same name.  This production is currently touring Australia.  It is the story of individuals caught up in the Russian Revolution.   It is a bleak story featuring scenes in the dead of winter...where we find ourselves right now in Brisbane.

A bleak winter's day.  (Sorry Canadians, it is just too tempting to keep throwing these "winter" shots in!  If it makes you feel any better, we generally need a light jacket or jumper in the evenings.)

The theme of individuals caught up in an unstable regime is very fitting right now, as Australia seems to be teetering on the brink of an election: last week, Julia Gillard's government brought in a Carbon Tax.  Last year Julia Gillard overthrew Kevin Rudd, based on the threat to the government over an unpopular tax.  Here we are with a minority government, breaking the promise not to bring in a Carbon Tax, and probably headed for another election only a year after the last one! 

The Carbon Tax is intended to hit industry, with the recognition that most households will be affected by a higher cost of living.  Those on low or fixed incomes will be able to apply for a rebate.  It is a tough sell, especially with the threat of another global finacial crisis just around the corner.  No-one likes the idea of paying more tax, especially a tax that we were all guaranteed in an election promise, would not be brought in.  It's not the tax that is the problem, it is the broken promise.

What has the world come to when you can't trust a politician?  It's a world gone mad.

(PS - Happy Birthday to our friends in Calgary, Ivy and Rodger, both of whom hit a big birthday this week.  Here's to another 50!)

Skippy

In the late 1960s there was an Australian televsion show called "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo" (it aired later in the 1970s in Canada).  This week in the Brisbane Times there was an article titled "Eat More Skippy".  Apparently not enough Australians are eating kangaroo.  We have certainly seen it in restaurants and can say that it takes like a gamey beef.  Our local butcher sells kangaroo on occasion, and seems to sell out quickly.  There are kangaroos all over Australia, both wild and domesticated, so why isn't kangaroo a more common meat?

Kangaroo meat is low in fat, it is obviously locally raised (or at least from somewhere in Australia) and kangaroos are really prolific.  They, like all marsupials, can keep a fertilized egg in utero for many years, just waiting for the right conditions to let the embryo mature to a joey.  Now that there is abundant vegetation from all the rainfall in 2010 and 2011, there are plenty of kangaroos to go around.  The other upside of kangaroo meat is that the animals are never exported to other countries for butchering, countries that may not have great records of treating animals humanely (a recent scandal involving cattle).

Mechanaroo, in a real-life pose

Real kangaroo, world champion lounger

 The article in the paper asked all the questions about why Australians are not readily embracing such a low-fat, tasty and healthy meat.  The animals are humanely raised and are always free range.  The skin of the kangaroo makes extremely fine leather.  They really are the perfect stock animal.  Now we feel bad for buying so much beef!

Canada Day!

On July 1, 2011, Canada celebrated it's 144 birthday!  Like so many things in our two cultures, Canada Day is celebrated in a very similar way to Australia Day: a few drinks, a barbeque, fireworks and a day off work.  Sadly for us, we don't get an automatic day off, just for being Canadian.

We get asked quite often what the differences are between Australia and Canada.  After being here for 10 months, we are struck more by how similar our cultures are.  Maybe because of the influence of the BBC (parent of the CBC in Canada and the ABC here in Australia), the attitudes and concerns are pretty much the same.  People here complain about the government, the bad roads and heavy traffic, poor public transportation, the state of health care and the rest of the world.  They stand politely in lines and say "please" and "thank-you".  There are the same concerns for small towns and the rural way of life and the brain drain to other parts of the world.

There is nothing that is really Canadian that we miss, other than just having the comfort of familiarity.  The name brands of products are different, but the products themselves are pretty much the same.  (In our haste to get everything packed up in a very short period, we went out and bought bulk amounts of every toiletry we thought was vital, just in case we couldn't find what we wanted here...and now we have tubs full of deodorant, toothpaste and hair products that will expire long before we ever need them, and we never will need them because everything we need we can buy at the pharmacy!)

Some kind of bottle-brush looking Banksia-type bush

Oddly enough the thing that we miss is the change of seasons.  Here it is winter and while it is cooler, only a few trees have lost their leaves.  It really looks pretty much the same as it did in summer.  The grass is green, the flowers bloom and we have nice, sunny days.  Come spring in September, there won't be a change or a greening up of the landscape.  Still, if not having to deal with 3 metres of snow and -30C for six months, just to enhance the joy of seeing a tulip poke up through the slush shortly before being eaten by a squirrel is the price we have to pay for moving here, we'll take it!