At Home In Brisbane
02 November 2010
Christine
Eric has arrived safely in Brisbane - again. He now knows the customs staff by name. Unfortunately, that won't help us much when we import out boat. The procedure is cumbersome and done by the book. For example, we haven't been able to begin the boat importation process yet because we actually have to import our boat's refrigerator first. It contains the R134a gas - nothing unusual - but Australia requires us to import that gas first. Had to pay $400AUD plus 300g of R134a multiplied by 0.00134 cents; get a copy of my passport notarized, submit our boat registration papers, and supply the invoice. When we looked for the fridge invoice we realized that we hadn't ever been billed for the fridge. So we had that unexpected expense as well. The irony is that if it were an older fridge with Freon it would be easy to get a waiver. The import process is quite bureaucratic, but I think it'll go smoothly once we move beyond the fridge. Customs here is quite friendly and helpful despite the reputation they've earned within the cruising community. We assume the reputation is due to a few boaters who started out on the wrong foot with the least easy-going of the agents, and it all went South from there.
We've had a while to let our first impressions settle in a bit and have to admit we still really like it here. The weather has continued to improve, another summer is arriving. The birds are amazing - some call as they do at home (crows for example), but some sing the most beautiful bird song I've ever heard. I don't know the names of the song birds, but lorikeet, parakeet, cockatoo and magpie seem to be among the birds flying freely about. There are some vibrant colors in the trees. Each night at sundown, we also get a treat watching the flying foxed (fruit bats) come out and swoop from tree to tree. They are much larger than you might imagine. The people are friendly - most ask us where we are from, how we like it here, etc. We've had many people offer us lifts to the store, but now we are trying our own hand at driving on the "wrong" side of the road. The driving works fine, but I haven't mastered the turn signal yet; I keep hitting the windshield wipers instead. The walking is a problem...I usually move to the right when I see someone coming which confuses them because they are already walking on the correct side and then they move over to the "wrong" side. We usually do a little dance and I apologize in my accent and they understand immediately.
As I reflect on our all-too-brief time in the tropics (we calculated we will have spent only 3 months in the tropics in our 8 month trip), I conclude that I much prefer the smell of sweat, salt and sand to perfume and hair products. Riding the bus, shopping at the supermarket, taking the kids to the library and museum has put me in the path of lots of perfume lately -- quite an assault to the senses. Cigarettes are also consumed in large quantities here. Packs and packs a day at $100AUD/carton. Most of the beer tastes the same, reminiscent of Budweiser, variations on a theme of light and bitter. For wine drinkers, the selection is much larger and very tasty.
We love the Australian sense of humor. I wonder if it has developed out of the convict past - irreverent and wicked. Last week I took the kids on a river boat cruise up to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. As we departed the dock, the captain gave a safety briefing of the boat. "In the event of a man over board, alert staff immediately. Staff will deploy the man over board ring and we will turn the boat around to go back and pick up the ring....they are very expensive." On the dock at our marina, people know that we are getting ready to sell our boat. Most have stopped to remind us not to clean until customs has valued the boat - no reason to have a good looking boat when the value will determine how much you owe the government. Another boater went so far as to give us various tips on how to temporarily sabotage our engine so it made clunking noises if customs turned it on. We laughed heartily at his suggestions (and assume they were all in good fun), but the question remains of whether he wasn't somewhat serious.
Plenty of seafood in this part of town. The fishing boats pull in and out all day and night just behind us on the dock. We are staying across the waterway from Morgan's, a dynasty of a fish store/restaurant. There are three buildings - one for wholesalers, one is a fancier seafood restaurant, and one is a bustling market open 7:30am - 6pm where they sell all kinds of fish, ready to cook, or they'll cook'em for you. They also have an oyster bar, a sushi counter, and bins of steamed prawns and shrimp of various types. The kids want nothing to do with the seafood, but I was dying for some steamed prawns, so the other day I packed the kids some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and we marched over to Morgan's. Five minutes later, I walked my little ducks over to the picnic area (another section of the Morgan's compound) with my plastic sack of steamed prawns and cup of sauce. The kids ate their sandwiches and watched in horror and I plucked off the heads of the prawns, shelled them and devoured each and every one.
Burgers are another popular standby here. However, they come with sliced beets as a standard ingredient. You have to ask the cook to hold the beets or you get them automatically. I haven't seen an inordinate amount of beet eating in other aspects of the cuisine, so I am not sure how this custom came about, but burgers with beets are quite delicious.
Thursday and Friday we are off to the Australia Zoo (which locals call the "croc farm") and Sunday we have tickets to a Cricket game at the "Gabba." We thought it might be fun to experience a local sport with a local team.
A couple of quirky bits to note: there seems to be a podiatrist's office on every corner. I have had more chances to visit a podiatrist in the last 2 weeks than I have had in my entire life. Also, funeral advertising is very big, including one for "White Lady Funerals, A Woman's Understanding" featuring a.... white lady!... in a wine colored hat smelling a pretty white flower. The picture makes it looks more like an ad for a retired-aged lady escort service or some discreet feminine product.
Another wonderful quirk - even the smallest of parks has at least one gas grill for bbq-ing. The grills are in working order, squeaky clean and apparently easy to use. I've seen parks staff scraping and cleaning them on a regular basis.