New nephew in June.
New nephew in July.
New nephew in August.
New sister-in-law in September.
New job in January.
New university degree (started) in February.
New bathroom in March (no more pink!) - see pic below of progress...
Probably new kitchen and new front landscaping (once it's not 35 degrees each day on the weekend anymore) in the next few months.
Bring it on....
Last post was Vietnam and that is light years ago now!
Spent six weeks in Adelaide through August and September last year (after trip to Vietnam). Was usual cold and blustery Adelaide winter. Did get a trip up to the Flinders Ranges one weekend - way too far to go for a weekend, but absolutely spectacular. Glad we were only camping one night because our airbed went completely flat after 10 minutes... The ground was very cold and very hard (even with a flat airbed and the tent floor between us and it!)
Since starting new job in January have spent two and a bit weeks in Singapore, two days in Kuala Lumpur and now currently spending two weeks in Houston (more about Houston later) with a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur on may way home.
Flight to Houston via Singapore and Moscow (from Perth) and apart from being very long (about 31 hours total flying time, in zoo class) it was really interesting. Flew over the north eastern corner of Afghanistan and the mountains, with snow on them, were absolutely stunning. Flying across Uzbekistan and Kasachstan also beautiful - pretty much total snow cover all the way to Moscow. Was -4C in Moscow, and although I stayed inside the airport, the walk up the non-airconditioned aero-bridge from the plane was very nippy, particularly around my ankles. From Moscow we flew west over Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Greenland then across the North Atlantic to Canada. A lot of the way was cloudy, but over Hudson Bay in Canada - WOW! - the ice sheets were just starting to melt and move and the dark blue water showing between the sheets of glaringly white ice was spectacular. Steward on the plane kept asking me to close the window blind because people were sleeping, but I have to look out the window when there is stuff to see!
Now, Houston... My impressions of Houston (and may apply to the USA more generally). If ever there was an example of extreme capitalism, this place has to be it! Massive 14 lane highways (seven lanes in each direction) with six lane feeder roads along each side. About 20% of the cars (perhaps more) are those massive American 'trucks' like the F250 and even F350s (which I have never seen before). The ads on TV say that the F250 averages about 20mpg highway driving. Very obvious that fuel is too cheap here - it's about $3.50 per gallon (about 3.8 litres). At home we are currently paying about $1.50 per litre so just more than half.
Population of the city about 2.5million and the local county (containing Houston) has a population about 4.1million. The public transport system consists of buses (and there are lots of bus routes), but no one uses them. Took particular notice on my way home yesterday afternoon and the five buses that I saw had about ten passengers in total. Everyone else drives, hence the need for the largest roadways I have ever seen. Bigger than Europe and Australia.
Everything is throw away and hugely over-packaged! Breakfast at the hotel is served on plastic (picnic) plates, the cutlery is plastic and so are the coffee and juice cups. There are individual yoghurt and milk containers. Can't even begin to imagine how that is justifiable! It really makes me see how any little thing I could possibly do to help the environment would be immediately undone by all the CO2 and waste just pouring out of this place!
Anyway for now (again) that's all folks....
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