There are two major grocery stores in Queensland, Woolworth's and Cole's. They close at 9:00pm M-F and close at 5:00pm on weekends. The malls and all other retail stores close at 5:00 everyday except Thursdays. On Thursdays they close at 9:00pm. You can imagine the crowds!
Restaurants, petrol stations, and bars are open late. Actually the bars are called hotels and they are open all night. After 3:00 am the bars lock the doors and continue to serve alcohol until 6:00am. Then they unlock the door and let their customers go home. Legal drinking and smoking age is 18.
I miss my Walmart one stop shopping.
One can purchase groceries at the grocery store, first aid creme, band aids, vitamins, and make up at the Chemist, wine and beer at the liquor store, books at the book store, school uniforms at the school, photo developing is done in various stores in the mall. You can't purchase a shop vac from a hardware store, you must go to an appliance store. Appliances and electronics are sold at the same store but you must check out in different lanes according to what you purchased. Oh, how I miss my Walmart! (and they say, "no dramas")
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Australianisms
Here is brief list of some different word usage:
casual vacancies mean that a business is hiring part time help
a mystery bag is a sausage
How ya goin is the standard greeting
water table is a ditch
car park is a parking garage
a sink mixer is the faucet
windscreen is the windshield
no worries and no dramas are a favorite!
tow bar is a hitch
boot is the trunk
flat batteries instead of dead batteries
when you get gas, you top up your tank
chase up means to look for something
hash is the pound key on a phone
arvo means afternoon
prang is a car wreak or crash
Everything gets shortened such as Woolworth's is Woollies, brekky is breakfast, Maccas is McDonald's.
We will add more as we hear them!
casual vacancies mean that a business is hiring part time help
a mystery bag is a sausage
How ya goin is the standard greeting
water table is a ditch
car park is a parking garage
a sink mixer is the faucet
windscreen is the windshield
no worries and no dramas are a favorite!
tow bar is a hitch
boot is the trunk
flat batteries instead of dead batteries
when you get gas, you top up your tank
chase up means to look for something
hash is the pound key on a phone
arvo means afternoon
prang is a car wreak or crash
Everything gets shortened such as Woolworth's is Woollies, brekky is breakfast, Maccas is McDonald's.
We will add more as we hear them!
Indooroopilly State School
Amy and Caleb survived their first week of public school without a blemish. They are required to wear uniforms and if they are outside for morning tea (recess), they must wear their hats. Both children have made friends and seem to settle in quite nicely. Caleb did mention that nobody else prays at lunchtime, but he still does. I hope that he continues! The school is just a short walk down the hill and up half a hill. We do not cross any streets. It is great! They walk to and from school every day. They went to school for one week and then took one week off for Spring break and have one more week of break left before they go back. Caleb was put into the 3rd term of 1st grade because he is so much bigger than the prep kids. Because school begins here in February and Caleb Has a late birthday for the states, he is actually a year behind the other children. The same is for Amy but they went ahead and put her at the end 2nd grade instead of 3rd . Caleb is doing well. This area is a melting pot of foreigners. Children are put into regular classes without being able to speak or understand English. The teacher said that Caleb is doing just fine. No dramas! (They love to say that here)
There is only one school district in the state and it is the Queensland school district. State schools do not provide transportation for the students. There are no school sanctioned athletics. The private schools do have sport programs but not the public schools. Since there is no public transportation and all the schools are in the same district, parents may enroll their children in their school of choice as long as there is room. Indooroopilly is always filled up and you must be put on a waiting list if you live outside of the catchment area. (immediate area around the school) If you live within the boundaries or catchment then the school must let you attend. Some people put their children on public buses to get them to school and some arrive in taxis. We walk!
I thought you might enjoy pictures of Amy and Caleb in their school uniforms and a couple of pics by the river. They both like their school so far. I'm pleased with it also. I do wish we could get Caleb into something physical. He stands on our fence and climbs up on neighbor's metal roof. I'm afraid that he is going to loose a foot. He also can climb straight up the veranda pole which is very tall. I'll keep you posted...perhaps they have stunt man activities locally!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Home at last
Hey everyone! We hope all of you Houstonians are doing okay after the hurricane and we've been thinking about you a lot. We have moved into our new house (as of 2 weeks ago, actually) and we are enjoying being out of the motel. An interesting thing we've learned is that we were definitely staying in a motel and not a hotel. According to some of the people at church, in Australia a hotel is a pub, not a place where most people would stay the night. Anyway, our house is quite nice after the month in a motel and we are enjoying the space we have here. Hopefully one of us will be posting more pictures soon. We have just gotten internet service again and that is the reason for the long delay in posting. Amy and Caleb have both started school and just in time too as they are now on a 2 week spring break! They seemed to like the one week of school that they attended and have both made friends. Caleb has gotten especially lucky because a boy who is also 6 lives right behind us, and they are already great friends. More updates to come soon!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Housing in the Brisbane area
Just a blog to note the difference between what we are used to in the states and the housing here. Most of the houses close to the city are very old. To get the more modern homes, you have to move farther away from the city. Most of the older homes do not have central are or heat. They have one or two units in the house to cool and heat. Bathrooms and garages are not so important. A house can have 5 bedrooms and one bathroom and either no garage or a 1 car garage. Most of the flooring is either timber or tile or both. I only saw one house with carpeting while we were house hunting. Closets are also not important. Many of the houses only have a closet in the master bedroom, either a built-in or a free standing wardrobe. Verandas are popular! Queenslanders are very popular and old. A Queenslander is usually a 2-3 bedroom house on stilts with timber flooring, no closets and a wrap around porch. Parking and storage is under the house along with the laundry room.
The clothes dryers are not vented out of the houses so you can imagine the humidity on laundry days. Every yard has a clothesline to dry laundry.
All of the toilets in Brisbane have two buttons on top of the tank. One is for a half flush and the other is for a full flush. This is part of their water conservation efforts. Many of the toilets are down the hall from the rest of the bathroom. Hmm. Sinks are not necessarily built into the counter. Some have large bowls that sit on top and are plumbed into the counter.
The power here is 240 volts. All of the outlets have a on/off switch for each plug. The outlet must be turned off before plugging anything into it and turned off before unplugging anything. We are never to leave an outlet on when not in use.
Some of the bedrooms are very small. We struggled finding a house with 2 bathrooms and a house that could hold our size furniture. The furniture here is much more condensed. One house that we looked at had a built in toddler bed and just room enough for a small chest of drawers. and the other bedroom had a built in twin bed with storage under it and room for a small chest of drawers. Absolutely no room for toys or walking room. We have two long dressers with mirrors and night stands so it wasn't easy to find a big enough master and a room big enough for Rachel's furniture.
There are no neighborhoods here. They are called suburbs. Sometimes the suburbs are big and sometimes they are tiny. They are all accountable to the Brisbane City authority. You can go through several suburbs in just minutes.
The house we found has two stories, 4 bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, 3 verandas, timber flooring, a one car garage, laundry off of the kitchen. 2 bedrooms have closets and there is a airconditioner in the master bedroom and I can't remember if the living area has one or not. It is a short walk down the sidewalk to the park and primary school without crossing any streets. Mt Cootha Forest is down the street in the opposite direction. The train station that Duane will use to travel to work is about a mile from our house. I will probably drop him off and pick him up on workdays. We get the keys tonight so I'll post pictures at a later date.
The clothes dryers are not vented out of the houses so you can imagine the humidity on laundry days. Every yard has a clothesline to dry laundry.
All of the toilets in Brisbane have two buttons on top of the tank. One is for a half flush and the other is for a full flush. This is part of their water conservation efforts. Many of the toilets are down the hall from the rest of the bathroom. Hmm. Sinks are not necessarily built into the counter. Some have large bowls that sit on top and are plumbed into the counter.
The power here is 240 volts. All of the outlets have a on/off switch for each plug. The outlet must be turned off before plugging anything into it and turned off before unplugging anything. We are never to leave an outlet on when not in use.
Some of the bedrooms are very small. We struggled finding a house with 2 bathrooms and a house that could hold our size furniture. The furniture here is much more condensed. One house that we looked at had a built in toddler bed and just room enough for a small chest of drawers. and the other bedroom had a built in twin bed with storage under it and room for a small chest of drawers. Absolutely no room for toys or walking room. We have two long dressers with mirrors and night stands so it wasn't easy to find a big enough master and a room big enough for Rachel's furniture.
There are no neighborhoods here. They are called suburbs. Sometimes the suburbs are big and sometimes they are tiny. They are all accountable to the Brisbane City authority. You can go through several suburbs in just minutes.
The house we found has two stories, 4 bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, 3 verandas, timber flooring, a one car garage, laundry off of the kitchen. 2 bedrooms have closets and there is a airconditioner in the master bedroom and I can't remember if the living area has one or not. It is a short walk down the sidewalk to the park and primary school without crossing any streets. Mt Cootha Forest is down the street in the opposite direction. The train station that Duane will use to travel to work is about a mile from our house. I will probably drop him off and pick him up on workdays. We get the keys tonight so I'll post pictures at a later date.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Driving in Australia
Every motor car ride is an adventure, whether your the driver or the passenger!
The terrain is very hilly, much like San Francisco only much larger. Anyone sitting in the back seat has to have their windows partially opened so that they don't get ill. road signs appear only at the intersection, never before. If you are familiar with the roads, you better have plenty of time on your hands. there is no such thing as turning around on the main roads. you need to have a key map with you to find roads that intersect with the road that you need to be on. We bought a vehicle today in Fortitude Valley which is maybe a 10 minute drive. It took us well over an hour to find our way back to the hotel. "You just can't get there from here."
The turn signal is on the right side of the steering wheel so we are constantly turning on our windshield wipers (much to the embarrassment of Rachel). You would think that after the 50th time, that we wouldn't do it. That's what 30 years of driving will do to you. The hills pose problems of their own. Automatic transmission vehicles have a truly tough time chugging up a hill loaded with people. Folks driving with stick shifts find it terribly tough to stop at the top of a huge hill and not roll backwards into the car behind them when the light turns green. When we first arrived here in Australia, I thought that the roundabouts were scary. Now I think that driving where you have not been before is scary. I'll have to take a picture of some of the road signs and put them on the blog. Never seen anything like some of them before. I have no idea what they mean.
Duane said that he is determined to enjoy AND appreciate this whole new on road experience. My prayers are with him!
The terrain is very hilly, much like San Francisco only much larger. Anyone sitting in the back seat has to have their windows partially opened so that they don't get ill. road signs appear only at the intersection, never before. If you are familiar with the roads, you better have plenty of time on your hands. there is no such thing as turning around on the main roads. you need to have a key map with you to find roads that intersect with the road that you need to be on. We bought a vehicle today in Fortitude Valley which is maybe a 10 minute drive. It took us well over an hour to find our way back to the hotel. "You just can't get there from here."
The turn signal is on the right side of the steering wheel so we are constantly turning on our windshield wipers (much to the embarrassment of Rachel). You would think that after the 50th time, that we wouldn't do it. That's what 30 years of driving will do to you. The hills pose problems of their own. Automatic transmission vehicles have a truly tough time chugging up a hill loaded with people. Folks driving with stick shifts find it terribly tough to stop at the top of a huge hill and not roll backwards into the car behind them when the light turns green. When we first arrived here in Australia, I thought that the roundabouts were scary. Now I think that driving where you have not been before is scary. I'll have to take a picture of some of the road signs and put them on the blog. Never seen anything like some of them before. I have no idea what they mean.
Duane said that he is determined to enjoy AND appreciate this whole new on road experience. My prayers are with him!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Way Different
As a fellow Texan in the office related today, some things here are surprisingly like those back in the states, and other things are way different. The way cell phone service is purchased is confusing, but so is simply making a phone call. Prices/costs are through the roof for rent, for most food items, for a coca-cola, but laptops, mowers, and other food items are similar in price. How about this, for 6-month savings deposit the bank will pay 8%pa. And that's not for huge sums either, how about for only$10k deposit?!
Autos on the other hand are some of the expensive items. A new Honda Legend (yes HONDA Legend!) runs $75000, that'd be more like $50,000 in the states. But then a new Honda Accord Euro runs $32,500, very similar to the States again.
We don't hear a whole lot of what is going on in the States, we hear mildly about the Presidential Election, but we get the US Open tennis tournament every day, match after match.
Some public policies are interesting: it is the law that every bicycle rider must wear a helmet, but 18-yr olds are allowed to purchase cigarettes and purchase alcohol - i suppose the purpose is to get more purchases AND more GST (that's goods and services tax). Of course income taxes are referred to as PAYG (pay as you go) taxes. What is kinda cool is that prices, such as laptop computers, etc. are listed in the stores to include all taxes, so whatever the advertised price is, that is the total you pay at the register.
Gotta go...more later.....perhaps.
Autos on the other hand are some of the expensive items. A new Honda Legend (yes HONDA Legend!) runs $75000, that'd be more like $50,000 in the states. But then a new Honda Accord Euro runs $32,500, very similar to the States again.
We don't hear a whole lot of what is going on in the States, we hear mildly about the Presidential Election, but we get the US Open tennis tournament every day, match after match.
Some public policies are interesting: it is the law that every bicycle rider must wear a helmet, but 18-yr olds are allowed to purchase cigarettes and purchase alcohol - i suppose the purpose is to get more purchases AND more GST (that's goods and services tax). Of course income taxes are referred to as PAYG (pay as you go) taxes. What is kinda cool is that prices, such as laptop computers, etc. are listed in the stores to include all taxes, so whatever the advertised price is, that is the total you pay at the register.
Gotta go...more later.....perhaps.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Hi everyone! These are a few pictures that I have finally managed to upload for the blog. They are pictures that I took of the river and the city from the CityCat (the city ferry). I am also trying to get my parents to add something to the blog, and I hope they will do that soon. We have found a house to rent this past weekend and we hope to be moving in very soon. Our furniture and other belongings probably won't get here until mid October, so we are looking into renting furniture until that time. The house we're going to rent is a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house in the Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly. This location puts us pretty close to both the city and the university where I am planning on applying. Hopefully there will be some more pictures and updates coming soon.
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