Crushing buildings and back to blogging!

This is Alex crushing a building with his fingers while the sun sets on Melbourne. I don't know. It was his idea.

So, what is the one telltale sign that you are beginning to become accustomed to new surroundings?

A) You don't feel the need to triple check for oncoming traffic before you walk into an intersection?

B) You start to use the local jargon? As in shopkeeper asks, "How you going?" and you respond, "Ta, no worries mate. How YOU going?"

C) You order anything from any menu and when it comes it's actually what you thought it was?

D) You can go a whole two days without blogging?

If you answered D then you would be where we've been at for the past two days.

Actually we had a minor telephone line issue for the past 24-36 hours which prevented phone calls and even worse an internet connection! AHHHHH! What were we to do? Anyhoo, it has been resolved and we are happily, as you can read, bloggers once again. Interestingly, as you may have gathered from earlier entries we seem to have had our fair share of minor domestic crises. To date we have had a backed up kitchen sink, a backed up toilet (it wasn't me -honest!), a broken water main, a fouled up phone line, two light bulbs burn out, a blown fuse on our transformer, and the ever present possums living somewhere above us. It's all part of the adventure but we are eagerly anticipating a week with no "issues".

I had a great class tonight talking about how people and organizations learn. It goes into brain theory but spends a lot of time talking about how best to teach people within organizations new things - not so much students but teachers. This will be fantastic in terms of my new position. The downside is an 8000 word essay...It has however confirmed for me that I am in exactly the right course - Educational Management - and studying exactly what I want to be studying. Phew! Good thing, eh? That would have been one hell of a big mistake.

Alex had a "tough" day at the ol' learning hole yesterday. To be expected but we felt for him. We know when his teachers say that he seemed "tired" that is really code for there was frustration and no doubt a few tears along the way. We think it had something to do with a new chess class he is in. We are pretty sure that following the rules exactly and losing a few games very quickly in a row might not have sat very well with him. D'ya think? Oh well, live, lose and learn. Today was a much better day.

Colin continues to make and mention many friends. Today was all about a "bloke" named John and the really cool cover they made together using Powerpoint for their small machine project. Sounds impressive to me! He is also getting very good at properly bouncing an Aussie Rules Football so that it comes back to him as he walks. This is much easier said than done though he will do it all the way to school. Dad can do a grand total of one if I'm lucky and if it doesn't hit me where the sun don't shine!

This weekend we are planning a ferry ride along the Yarra River and perhaps a trip up to the highest residential building in the southern hemisphere complete with a glass floor a la the CN Tower. Gulp! Will take lots of pics.

Finally, my Australian culture report comes in on two fronts - television and food (again!)

1) Television

Australian tv is really quite bad. But then, if you think about it - maybe all tv should be. 2 and a half men is huge, as are re-runs of Oprah, Friends, etc. Reality tv is also huge with homegrown versions of Australian Idol and Big Brother. Some new reality shows we admit to watching are 'The Farmer Wants a Wife" and "Ladette to Lady" (which was perhaps the worst promo for British women ever), and "Wipeout" which is an American rip off of the Japanese show "Extreme Elimination"? It is also quite poor but for some reason makes us giggle. Apart from that it's all footy all the time.

2) Sweets - I continue to harp about the food prices but it is really quite incredible. This is a coffee/sweet nation but only of a certain kind and at a certain price. They just announced the closing of 61 of the 83 Starbucks in the country. Incredible! There are a million cafes in Melbourne alone rejoicing. I walked into a cafe today near the uni and they wanted $3.20 for a chocolate chip cookie! The same for a very small muffin. The kicker is that so many of these places are so cool and hip they virtually call out to you saying 'Hey, uni boy, hang out here". And I do, but only until the student budget and the highway robbery snap me back into reality and I have to slink home for a bland pot of home brew.

Oh well, at least blogging is free!