Musings from the top of the bottom of the world

Sitting beside my beloved in the internet cafe in Cairns, Northern Australia. He is adorned in absolute tourist clothing...his Australia tee shirt with the Australian flag (he is such a flag junkie!), his leather outback hat beside him, his ever present shorts with socks and boots. He is thumping away on an e-mail to one of his friends.

A cyclone is due in town today. The weather man has been tracking it across the ocean offshore for the past few days. This is the rainy monsoon season- spring turning to summer and the weather has been thick with humidity and afternoon rains. This is not the mild little misty rain we get in Seattle, but the gushy, flood the streets in ten minutes downpour that tropical environments get. The storm has held off all morning so we decided to drive into Cairns and brave the internet cafe as soon as our laundry was washed and hung up in the shower, kitchen and deck. Hopefully our sojourn into town will be over before we receive the brunt of the weather. No one out and about seem the least bit worried about weather. Like growing up in Southern California, people that have nice weather most of the time never talk about it. They assume it. Only in Seattle did I develop the habit of talking about the weather every day.

Mike and I had a disturbing talk with Matt yesterday. One of his former roommates died in bed the night before last. Apparently it is too soon to know how he died. It is such a tragedy to have a young person die, and Nick was a nice guy with wonderful parents. It is difficult to be so far away and not able to be with Matt as he deals with the loss of his friend.

I can't help comparing the differences in lifestyle between the cultures we have visited. In the Latin countries, particularly Spain but also Portugal and Italy, everybody is out on the streets until late at night visiting each other, sitting in cafes for long, leisurely meals and partying together. Now that we are in Australia we are back to the lifestyle more familiar to Americans... we eat faster and earlier when we are eating out, we don't linger for long walks on the streets and plazas, and we return to our little abode for an evening of reading and television. I miss the warm night strolls in Spain.

I must admit television in English has its charms though. Mike is so happy to have sports that are narrated in a language he understands that he is even willing to spend an hour or two trying to figure out the rules to the interesting game of bowling. This is not the bowling of alleys that we know. This is a strategic game involving teams trying to place their balls closest to the jack, or white ball, while knocking the opponent away from the jack. Very strategic. Not quite the vigorous sport of football, so age is not quite as important as football. Players are older, wear glasses and sometimes sport a bigger gut than in other sports. We have two Fox sport channels and one other sport channel so there are always things going on that interest Mike. He was even able to watch an American football game on Monday (when it was Sunday at home) so he will make it through this football season with at least one game.

We have not been enamored with Australian food. Yesterday we found a cafe in tiny Kuranda that served health food type meals. Called the Queen bee, the restaurant shared space with a bee products store that sold honey and honey soaps and lotions. We both had the Queen Bee favorite, his a turkey and avocado sandwich and mine the same except grilled and open faced on a single thick slice of wholemeal (whole wheat) bread. Mike pronounced it his best sandwich in Australia and if the drive was not a half hour over mountains I am sure we would go back for more.

I hope to download photos in a few minutes so that you can all see where we have been. I hope you are all still out there, having weathered the quiet while we were on the cruise.

Love from Cairns,
Deanne