Our "Postie"

This is our Postman in front of our house. They are affectionately called "Posties" here. I think it's a pretty niffy way of getting the mailed delivered and very fuel efficent. Mail is delivered Monday - Friday and they will not pick up outgoing mail from your box. Outgoing mail must be put in the large red POST boxes scattered conveniently along most streets. An Australian domestic letter stamp costs $0.55 (these are in Aus dollars, which are currently worth about 70 cents US) ; a postcard International stamp is $1.35 and an International letter stamp is $2.35. Now you realize why we mailed a package to my sister in LA full of Christmas letters and had her mail them with much cheaper US postage! My kind neighbor tells me that they used to deliver on Sat. not too long ago.

You might have seen the incredibly hot weather down south in Melbourne for the Australian Open tennis match last week. Unbelievably and thankfully Queensland was spared that - we've had normal temps around 30* C, give or take a couple of degrees (around 86*F). We've been getting some rain, which seems really wierd since it is summer, but this is their "wet"season. It comes in short bursts for a few minutes and then is gone. You either learn to carry an umbrella or get wet but it's so warm you dry quickly. It also never seems to fail that we get rain when I hang out laundry to dry! Almost all Aussies hang their clothes on some kind of laundry line to dry - many don't even own dryers. Electricity is very expensive down here.

This is the Brisbane Wheel at SouthBank - similar to the London Eye, but about a quarter of its size. Roy and I rode it last Sat afternoon (whoopie - it moves so slow you get almost no sense of motion) as we meandered around the SouthBank craft market for a bit then walked across the river to visit our favorite used book store. A popular way to get from one side of Brisbane to another is on a "Citycat" ferry. The Brisbane River twists and turns bisecting Brisbane and for about US$3.00 you can start near the harbor and go up river about 15 km to Queensland University with numberous stops on both sides of the river. You could ride all day if you wanted to! They zip right along and at night downtown Brisbane is beautiful from the river and the giant flying foxes (bats) swoop around the boat it's fun to ride outside on the bow.