Wedding Day

Hello Again! It’s Monday morning here in Brisbane – and officially – the big wedding day. We’ll be headed down to Mt. Tambourine for the wedding and the Palazzo Versace Hotel at the Gold Coast for the reception.

But to catch you up on the latest – let’s start with a couple of oddities… Such as…

1. We’ve eaten at KFC once and McDonald’s twice since arriving. Not because we’re so homesick for such familiar fast food, but because there aren’t too many options here. Very few actual restaurants (like ‘Chili’s’ or ‘Applebee’s’) – but lots and lots of cafe’s. You can go and sit with a cup of coffee and cheesecake at a number of places, but they won’t feed you a burger.

2. Every time I turn on the “telly” (or television for us Americans) somewhere, there’s a showing of The Simpson’s! I’M NOT KIDDING! I’d swear it was just a “marathon weekend” or something – but it’s unreal! I’ve never seen so many episodes of The Simpson’s in my life! At the very least – you’d think if they were going to import some sort of television from America it would be Friends or at least something non-animated. Anything but Bart and Homer. They do have quite a lot of American TV like Home Improvement, The Fresh Prince of Bell Aire, 7th Heaven, CSI, Beverly Hills 90210 and lots of music videos. Of course, the main focus of most news reports is the Tsunami.

3. Speaking of Television – Jimmy’s currently sitting watching the Atlanta – Philadelphia football game, live. It’s Monday morning, 10:00, and they’re pumping the FOX football feed directly over here. Technology is a wonderful thing. And while it was good to get the scores on all the NFL games, I’m still wondering if I’ll know how the BCS games work out. If somebody loves me, you could write me back by posting comments on this blog and let me know. I might bring you back a wallaby or t-shirt or something.

4. And by far, my most favorite part of the trip thus far, Jimmy Lakey and I took a drive this morning around Brisbane J Really – I’m awfully glad Jimmy has such a good sense of direction because this whole place just looks the same on every corner to me. He was wonderful! I was completely turned around several times, but he figured out exactly where he was going and was extremely competent. I was – and still am – quite impressed! He still talks to himself while driving – reminding himself to “merge left” and “keep my wife in the gutter” and “when I enter the round-about, I’m in charge”. Our drive around town today went from our hotel to the church to the groom’s house, back to our hotel. Driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right side of the car is not as easy as one would think. Quite impressive indeed!

Otherwise, I’m amazed that it’s only Sunday in the States and technically, I haven’t even taken any of my “vacation time” yet J I’m yet to see a beach, but I’m also yet to see a spider. I consider it an even trade.

After the wedding today, we’ll be checking out of Brisbane and heading up to Coolum Beach and the Hyatt Resort (which apparently is a PGA resort with a great golf course). That’s where the real vacationing will begin.


We’ll let you know how the wedding goes – tomorrow – in another posting to be found at www.carriescomments.blogspot.com, for all the details, without the confetti. :)