Order Restored

When we moved here almost three years ago, it was shortly after Kevin Rudd, the then Prime Minister, had been replaced as leader by his party in a back room coup.  Julia Gillard was installed as party leader and, after a quick election campaign, was elected by Australians as Prime Minister (as in Canada, we do not vote for the leader, only the party...she was leader of the party that won).

For three years we all watched as Kevin Rudd was closely watched to see if and when he would make the move to reclaim the leadership.  About 18 months ago he held a press conference from an overseas trip to announce that he would return to Australia to challenge for the leadership.  Julia Gillard and her supporters met him head on and he lost.  After the election was called earlier this year, one of Kevin Rudd's supporters called for him to stand for leader of the party.  Kevin Rudd declined to stand for the leadership and everyone moved on.  Last week, after a great deal of speculation, Kevin Rudd challenged for the leadership of the Labor Party and won!  Three years later and he, according to his supporters, is right back where he should be!  The big problem now is that we are seven months into an election campaign and Kevin Rudd is not bound to hold the election.  We could have just gone through the torture of a seemingly endless election campaign, only to have it extended to last even longer.

Kevin Rudd getting mobbed at an AFL game we attended in 2011

Kevin Rudd is a Queenslander...a very popular Queenslander.  His successful coup happened on the same night as the second game in the State of Origin.  The State of Origin in an annual "best of three" series between the Rugby League players of Queensland and New South Wales.  Queensland has won the series for the last seven years in a row, but they actually lost the first game that was held at the beginning of June.  People were losing their minds over how such a travesty could occur but on Wednesday night the stars were aligned as they should be and Queensland beat NSW...handily.  It wasn't just a win it was an old-fashioned beat down.  So by Thursday morning Kevin Rudd was back as PM, the Queensland Rugby League players had shown total domination and once again Queensland was ruling Australia.  Order has indeed been restored.

Winter

Winter arrived in Australia on the first of June and once again we were reminded of just how lucky we are to be living here.  Other cities have some fairly miserable winter weather (not miserable by Canadian standards, but certainly not pleasant) but it is one of the nicest times of the year in Brisbane.  The weather is dry (humidity less than 85%, so plenty of good hair days!) and the highs are still in the 20s.  Depending on how tough you are, this can still be shorts weather.  It will get cooler as we hit mid-July, but it is still perfect for sitting in one of the many open-air lounges near our house and enjoying a glass or two of wine.

Bright blue sky for the first day of winter

View from our neighbourhood outdoor lounge

We have realized that we have one long weekend in June, then one in mid August and nothing in between.  We have decided to go to Melbourne in August for a weekend that is both sporty and artsy.  We will go to an AFL game at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds, the mecca of AFL in Australia) and then see a Monet exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria...something from each end of the spectrum!

The nice thing about winter this year is that it means we only have another 3 months left in the Federal Election campaign, which was announced in January.  Nine months is a very long time to listen to campaign speeches but someone has introduced the "Truth-o-meter", which is a dial display that is shown after a political speech.  So far almost every reading has been "Liar"!  As much as all of us have had it with campaign speeches, we are sure the politicians are getting pretty tired of it too...how many babies can one person kiss?