March 15 - Australia: Bris-Vegas (Brisbane), Queensland
Today we spent the day with Darren and Michelle, our friends from our China trip. But before we met them, Jon called Bruce from Kelvin Grove Parts and Service to talk about the car. It turns out the problem is with the front differential, but the cost of the parts won't be as terrifying as we thought it would be. So we decided to let Bruce fix the truck instead of having some used car dealer take us for all we're worth when we try to sell the truck. Since it's going to take a few days to fix, we're going to catch a bus to Byron Bay tomorrow and will spend a few days there.
So we got our stuff together - our cooler, pots, pans, various staples and food - and put them in boxes to store at Darren and Michelle's while we're gone. Looks like we'll be backpacking for real again!
Darren and Michelle's
At 12:00 Darren and Michelle came to pick us up from the motel. We loaded up their car with our boxes of stuff and were on our way. They live off Kelvin Grove Road in an adorable "Queenslander" house. A Queenslander is a certain style of house seen throughout northern Australia - usually one story with lovely colorful windows. And Queenslanders are often on stilts, with the area below the house available for parking or storage or whatever.
Darren and Michelle's House
The windows in the back were colored green and red, and the windows in their bedroom were a beautiful stained glass.
Stained Glass Windows
The inside of the house had hard wood floors, high ceilings, and one of the coolest bathrooms I've seen in a long time. It was done in green and beige tiles with an old tub with clawed feet. They had decorated in contemporary/retro furniture, which was a great contrast to the traditional architecture of the house.
Anyway, we sat out on the patio and had cheese and crackers, Bloody Marys, and beer. They had more pictures from China to show us, so we spent a good hour looking at photos and remembering the funny stories from our trip.
Darren, Michelle, Jon, and Me on the Patio
Then, Darren showed us some cool stuff on his PlayStation2 - which Jon was very excited to see. He's now convinced that we don't need a DVD player. Now, we need PS2 which is both a DVD player and a game box. Jon's rationalized this because, he says, when I start traveling with AT Kearney (whenever that may be), he's going to need something to entertain himself. OK.....
So after playing with Darren's PS2, we got down to some serious Mah Jong business. We haven't played since September, and Darren and Michelle haven't played in a while either. It took a bit of catching up, but we got the hang of it again pretty quickly. They taught us some of the scoring rules, which definitely adds some strategy to the game. And so we played, and played, and played, and played, until we were hungry enough to fire up the grill.
For dinner, we had steak sandwiches with grilled onions and lettuce and tomatoes. The grilling process, of course, included the guys standing around watching the steaks cook.
Darren and Jon displaying their expertise over the grill
After a delicious dinner, we settled in and played Mah Jong for hours and hours, drinking beers and laughing like crazy. This went on until it was dark and we were all seeing cross-eyed from the Chis, Pongs, and Kungs. But we had a great time. Late that evening, Jon and I caught a taxi back to the hotel.