I am sitting on the veranda of the “company house” in my UNC Chair—the NCSU one holding all my cords and camera and other necessities!!! Chris dropped me off here while he goes to 2 of the plants down here and I happily opened our boxes and discovered that from the looks of it everything arrived in great shape!!! I didn’t totally unpack the kitchen box yet but the pictures, the clothing, even the windchimes that we brought that came from Mom’s funeral made it unharmed!!! That was one of those items that we wanted to bring to make us feel like we had some parts of home with us. We had about 20 items/boxes shipped and I am just amazed how good of shape they arrived in considering all the miles that they traveled! But I am happy to have some of my clothes and shoes and pictures now that I have missed but they will stay at this house till we can figure out what we are keeping where!
We had a great time in Airlie Beach–we actually walked into the town when Chris was finished at the Plain Creek plant and found a little Italian place to eat dinner. Their wait staff was either from France, Belgium or Canada so that was funny and of course we had to talk to the waitress about things! Most of these kids come over on work/education visas for a year or so and they make money and then they travel around. Airlie Beach is another huge backpacker haven so there were tons of them there and a lot of really rowdy bars with security guys standing on the perimeter when we walked by. We stopped at a good old Baskin Robins for dessert. YUM! Almond Fudge Mocha….
On the way here today we stopped in Ayr to pick up Chris’ shirts so now I don’t have to try to get his one shirt clean every day. The ones we picked up have his name on them in case he forgets who he is….not likely. He had phone call after phone call on the way here so I got to hear all the business! In Australia you have to have hands free headsets –it is funny how rigid they are about some things but then other things like passing school buses when they are loading/unloading does not appear to be a no-no. I have to check on that one. And they are really strict on “drink driving”. I can’t get used to that phrase either. I think their legal limit that you cannot be over is something like .05 or maybe even less. I think that is why there are so many taxis around……
So I guess that is about all from here. I will post some pictures of some of the sights we saw yesterday. Carl asked if we had seen any koalas or kangaroos and the answer to that is nothing alive……most of those guys are out at night and I have not really been out of the city at night. Have seen a lot of dead wallabees and one pretty big dead kangaroo on the road today…..made me sad. Oh and a neat feature on Chris’ car—-after you drive 2 hours this picture of a steaming coffee cup comes on and beeps at you 3 separate times reminding you to stop to take a rest break!!!! I love it!!!
