Fruity Capers*

Today's post is about the wacky fruits we've been trying since we moved here. I try to buy some of any unfamiliar fruit I see in the market(s) Since it's fall here there aren't quite as many of the Aussie grown fruits around as earlier, but there are still a few more to try. Many of the popular fruits are from South east and Eastern Asia.


This is a custard apple. (They grow these in California too, so Chris may have tried this one). It's very sweet and mushy with large seeds. We just scooped it out and ate it with a spoon, this was one of our favorites so far.

 These are mangosteens. They cost a lot and had almost no taste, slightly sweet, almost nothing there to eat. To be fair, I think these were pretty small ones.

 These are called water apples, just about what you'd think from the name. You can eat the whole thing, not bad in a salad.

 Red Dragonfruit. The regular ones are white inside, This was yummy, sweet and juicy and citrusy

 The fruits on this plate are fresh figs. Delicious and quite common around here.

  Always lots of papayas around. The stores like to cut them in half for sale, then mark the down if not sold the first day. They're cheap and good as long as you take them home and eat them right away.

Saved the best for last. Australia has several varieties of mangos that folks are justifiably proud of. The season is over now, but in late November-February you can go to a farmers market and ask the old Aussie grower dude to choose a couple of good ones for you and they are to die for.

We still haven't tried Passion fruit, Lychees, Jack fruit and lots of others. Cheers!




*Fruity Capers is also the name of a fruit and veg store in the Toowong Village shopping center.

Why didn't we think of that?

 Today's post  is about some of the things I've seen here in Brisbane that are good ideas we don't have at home. ( There are plenty of good things in the US that they don't have here, but that's anther post.)

 Electrical Outlets ( They're called "power points" here) with on/off switches. We don't need these as much with the lower voltage in the states but they are still handy and are safer.

The dual flush toilet, it flushes more or less water depending on the need.  Neither flush uses as much water as old style toilets. I've seen these in Europe too, but they were invented by an Aussie, so I thought I'd better mention them.

Individual air conditioner/heater units. ("Aircons" to the slangy Aussies). Many homes and apartments only have one or two of these, usually in the lounge and master bedroom. It's nice to only heat or cool the only rooms you really need, closing the doors to other rooms. We have on in each room but only need 1 most of the time. The high price of electricity here prompts a lot of things like this ( Compact fluorescent or halogen bulbs everywhere, solar panels, smaller appliances, lots of shade producing screens etc.)

This the shower/tub in our second bathroom. There's no shower curtain, just this folding glass "shower screen".  These are very common here and I wondered how they can use this and no curtain. I decided it's 3 things; the little raised edge on the tub to keep water from running down the side, The fact that the tub is set in a box of tile, and in case those fail, there's a floor drain. There are no overflows on sinks and tubs here, so there's always a floor drain. In our bathrooms, both the tub and the sink actually run into this floor drain. In most bathrooms, the walls are tiled top to bottom, and the floors are always tiled with a floor drain.

I walked past this the other day. It's an ad for on-your-phone grocery shopping, some things here are so up to date and many other things seem like it's still 1965 or something.

 This is the staircase  going up to Jeff's office building from the board walk. From the front you can't even see that it incorporates a ramp, he rides his bike right up this to the building.

Solstice

Today...some fun facts to know and share.

June Solstice:
Boston 15h 7m
Brisbane 10h 42m

December Solstice:
Boston 9h 4m
Brisbane 13h 52m

Shortest Day:
Boston 9h 42m 
Brisbane 10h 42m

Longest Day:
Boston 15h 17m
Brisbane 13h 52m

Shortest Day to Longest Day Range:
Boston 6.21 hrs.
Brisbane 3.16hrs.
So... not as much variation in length of day here as in Boston

Queensland (The Australian state where Brisbane is located) doesn't do Daylight Saving Time.

Aussie school kids

 One thing I enjoy every day here in Brisbane is seeing the school kids in their uniforms. We live just down the street from Brisbane Boys College and a lot of Brisbane's kids (even grade school aged) ride the trains to and from school. They're in the Toowong Village shopping center/train station in droves, meeting their friends or Mums, buying snacks etc..

  It felt too creepy to take pictures of the kids to post on this blog so I dowloaded a few from the websites of area schools as examples. Public schools generally have more casual uniforms but have been switching to more formal, and very British, uniforms like the private schools Apparently, the public school kids have felt stigmatised in their polo shirt and floppy-hat "outbacky" uniforms, dubbed "povos" (for "poverty") by the posh private school kids.

Can you imagine kids in the US wearing these outfits?

Living on the top of down under

We're moved in to our apartment in Toowong and enjoying the nice rental furniture until our stuff gets here. Our apartment is on the top floor, but the bldg. is only 5 stories, so no vertigo problems.

Having a pool is nice, since it gets pretty hot in the middle of the day. The first day of Fall is today, so temps should begin to ease up. (Australia starts it's seasons on the first day of month rather than on the Solstice and Equinox dates.)

This the view from the balcony looking North-westerly, toward the Taylor Range of "mountains" we can see the famous Mount Coot-tha. ( Australia is such an old continent that the highest mountain here is only 7,310 ft. above sea level.)

Here's the view North-easterly, looking toward the city center. As you can see, we still live right in the city. We're only 1 block from the train station, 3 blocks from the River Cat Ferry stop, and right on the bus line. Jeff only has to ride a block and a half to get to the bike rode that takes him all the way to to the Eagle Street Pier, where he works. He rides along the river and through the City Botanical Garden for 30 minutes or so each way.