Heavenly Shopping Trip One

Mimi had a dose of farm living today. She got to go with her grandpa (Pa Pa) to the chicken coop and gather four eggs. She loved the chickens almost as much as her hamster. Pa Pa was attacked from behind from the rooster and it attacked him in each leg, causing him to bleed. He chased it around with the metal bucket he had with scraps to feed the chooks (that's Aussie for chicken). We may have fresh chicken before the week ends if that rooster doesn't behave itself. We saw the banana trees with green bananas that won't ripen until we leave, pawpaw trees and lots of bush oranges. Also a bush turkey that would look better with a little gravy. No sign of the wallaby yet.

We had to get a small dose of shopping in, got a couple of souvenirs and a few other goodies after we exchanged our US dollars for Aussie dollars. Of course, our dollar isn't as strong as it was last time we came. Seven years ago we paid .50 cents for every Aussie dollar. Now we paid about .93 cents per dollar. Things are quite expensive here, especially food. Gas works out to just over $7/gallon. Makes us a little grateful for the high prices we have in the USA! It's much cheaper to buy by the gallon than the litre. I also like my weight much better in kilograms than pounds. The gravity is better and I weigh only half of what I did in the US.

From our car we saw a hawk attack a mickey, which is a bird. I've never seen an attack so close as it was right next to the car as we were waiting at a red light. Feathers started flying everywhere and Ali said the bird was naked as it ran under the car next to us. The hawk flew off as soon as traffic started moving again. Mimi was sad for the mickey, of course.

Adam and Fiona and their four kids arrived from Tasmania, which was only a 2 1/2 hour flight to Brissy. We met our new sis-in-law, Katherine and her two kids for the first time. We had a houseful - 19 people. Kat's daughter, Neve (10 yrs old) thought Ali looked like Hannah Montana. She was taken with her cuteness and asked Ali to teach her how to speak with an American accent.

Tomorrow I promise to add pictures - we haven't stopped since we got here! By the way, the mall was AMAZING and Ali kept referring to it as Heaven on Earth. It was three times the size of our local mall. Sigh!