Other Hoosiers!!

While sequestered in the purgatory that is the Homeland Security stockyard at LAX, ran into two other Hoosiers who were returning from Perth - a guy from Bloomington and a woman from ? who is a math teacher.

Driver's license

Woohoo! Instructions: use existing stateside license (including motorcycle) for first 6 months. After that, show proof of living in Australia for 6 months and convert to New South Wales driver's license. (in the Queen's English... licensing / licence; hmm...)

No written test, no driving test - that's only for people who have no previous license (licence), people who violate the rules, or the elderly.

Rumor: lose your New South Wales license (licence)? Fly over to Indonesia and pick up a license there for $30; use it to drive in NSW.

Wedding Factory

The Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney are a wedding factory. There were three weddings going on when we visited on a Friday afternoon.

Wedding Factory

The Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney are a wedding factory. There were three weddings going on when we visited on a Friday afternoon.

Ugly Australian

Had a drive-by by an ugly Australian today. Guy yelled something out his car window - rather out of the blue - we were on the sidewalk in Woolongong (NSW). I didn't even catch what he said but F. did. Oddly enough, this is the second primitive-minded person I've met from Woolongong - a former industrial city now home to a university and sprouting condos by the seashore. I'm speculating that the traditional industrially-employed residents are not so thrilled to be getting priced out of their hometown.

Empire

How strange to be in a land where Empire is accepted as truth,  and royalty is still the figurehead. There is certainly more dignity to that than to the honor of blind avarice and greed as somehow noble endeavors,  and invasions of other countries based on ideals that are held up as excuses ,  but not honored.