Jim Travels The World

.once again, off to adventure in another Mobile Command Unit, this time, a bit nicer than the Tasmanian campervan (caravan). after experiencing the luxury of being able to drive your home to a campsite and have electricity, i don't know if we can slug it out in tents anymore. .we arrived at Grampians National Park, about 3 hours from melbourne, and it was HOT. three days there, nearly 100 degrees each day. .still, our first experience with real colorado-like mountains, nice hiking trails, waterfalls, wildlife, outdoorsiness. .plus, there was a badass ice cream shop in the nearby tourist town of Halls Gap we could retreat to during the day to cool off .we didn't join the roo club, but lisa did take a boomerang throwing lesson. and we paid $6 to watch some cultural video presentation about how the grampians were made. apparently (and I haven't fact-checked this yet so i assume it's 100% true), there once was a great warrior, and he encountered a giant emu. the emu chased ...

Yesterday was boxing day in Straya (but only in VIC, NSW, and QLD, because all seven states can't ever agree on anything together). I'm not really sure what Boxing day means, but I dutifully celebrate it anyway. now for your daily weird picture: naked people on products at the grocery store. could you get way with this in america? i think not.

so, last month when Leeser and I were on our great ocean road trip, on the night we spent at the B&B, we went outside to look for something in the car. While outside, we heard this terrible animal scream. The next morning, while having breakfast provided by our host, we told him about it. He said that it was most likely a male koala, screaming at a female koala. Apparently, he told us, male koalas will force themselves upon females, including eating their young so they can mate with unwilling females. What a terrible story, we thought, that these cute little koala bears are actually rapists. we had no cause to doubt the story this sweet little old man was telling us. I did think it was quite extraordinary, given the fact that these creatures are normally so chill. so, fast forward to this week, while watching football with my Aussie friend Gus, we told him this story and he burst out laughing. "Koalas sleep 23 hours a day!", he shouts. "They have to eat eucalyptus le...

lisa and i have spent the last few weekends doing mostly nothing. I've discovered that when you don't own a car, and also don't have a specific plan for something to do including a means to get there, then the likelihood of doing nothing as a default is high. so, we rather impulsively rented a car this last saturday, without much of a real plan other than to drive south along the morning peninsula, but by God we were going to get the eff out of town. aforementioned car We headed out of Melbourne towards Frankston with the eventual goal of getting Point Napean. As we sat in traffic near Frankston, it occurred to me that traveling via train isn't so bad, because I've had no cause for road rage. our first stop: Cape Schank near the southeastern tip of the peninsula dig that crazy rock formation out yonder driving, trying to be very careful, because in this country, they have speed cameras everywhere in every city, and it's not like the US where you can go 5 mph ove...

I've reached that inevitable phase of every blog where i have gotten lazy about posting. Maybe I've gotten to used to Melbourne and don't find it interesting anymore. Maybe I'm just too busy with work. I certainly haven't been doing anything else creative; no writing screenplays or music since I've been here. Instead of promising to post more often about better things, I just wanted to acknowledge the existence of that facet of my blogging life. even this picture is lazy coming up soon, my office is closing from Dec 21st to Jan 4rth for our forced vacation. Lisa and I are taking advantage of this time to travel up northwest to the Grampians, some nearby mountain ranges. maybe then i'll have something interesting to tell you vultures.; just kidding, i love you all.

everything here is in varying degrees of difference than its counterpart in the US. I'm reminded of this all the time, especially when i see posted signs. they are always so damned polite.