Now it is time to write about the most easterly I have been. In comparison of the the previous places (Anchorage, Melbourne and Lisbon) I used to live here. I arrived there after a big flood happened. In fact my date of arrival was changed by the company I am going to work for. It was our first journey into the so called western world after living for more than a couple years in Malaysia.
One of the challenges we immediately faced was finding rented house. It was no simple issue as the area we pick would affect eligible school for our children. In Australia each school has its own catchment area basically for children living nearby the school. Later I learned that we could still go the same school even though we have moved elsewhere provided that our children had been in that school for a year of something like that.
Once we picked the areas we would hunt for the house. Typically agents would represent the owner. We go to the houses on the house viewing days. Next we would apply and wait for the respond. We would pay deposit and some agent would visit the rented house periodically to check the house condition. Not a pleasant visits I would say.
Schools in Australia have their own costumes. Some has even fancy hats. When I ride the bus on the way to my office I could see children of various school wearing their own unique costumes. Those are not cheap, my first office luckily would reimburse the cost of those.
I could pick either bus or train to go to my office. Buses tends to be full and hence I would prefer going by train. The train station is a walking distance from my rented but my wife always fetches me daily the same time as she drove the kids to school. My house is uniquely Queensland style with rumpus room. I put my musical instrument and books there. The living room, kitchen and bed rooms are on the upper floor. All the houses in the neighborhood are pretty much the same. What shocked me the most when I drove around Australian neighborhood was how dark the yards are. In my country people would make sure that the outside of the houses are well lit. Not in Australia. I guess the cost of electricity is prohibitive enough that people would opt for automatic system or have it as option. So apart from street light the neighborhoods are rather dark. Except during Christmas time. During Christmas people are competing to have the most extravagant Christmas lighting outside their houses
When we lived in Queensland we visited Cairns and the famous Great Barrier Reef apart from frequent trip to Gold Coast. We rode a boat with a bunch of people to reach the reef. When we arrived there we could swim around. Out of curiosity I tasted the sea water, it was darn salty. Some people would hire a chopper to fly back to Cairns. Other would have to cope with the trip back. Luckily the boat people would provide some entertainment in the form of band and glasses of wine.
Small note on the name - brisbane is /ˈbrɪzbən/. It was named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, the governor of New South Wales. The name is derived from the Scottish Gaelic "bris", meaning "to break or smash" and the Old English word "ban" meaning "bone". The popular nickname for the city that I knew was "Brissie"
