Saturday in Brisbane

Our Saturday adventure started off a little rough-- or rather cold. It was a beautiful day and we were set to have another fun adventure. The sun was out with a high expected to be 69 deg. F. It was not the weather that was cold; it was our water! As I waited to jump into the shower, I was thinking of all that I had planned for the day--a train ride into the city from our suburb to the Queensland Museum, a ride on the "Wheel of Brisbane" (a ferris wheel), and a ride on the City Cat on the Brisbane river. My thoughts were cut short when I noticed that the water was not warming up. That led to a call to the realty agency, and then to a plumber, waiting for the plumber to come out, and then a succession of calls to the gas company after we found out we were just out of propane gas that is stored in tanks outside our house and the gas company refills. Our service was supposed to be set up before our arrival and we assumed as much-- but apparently not. Then to top it all off, all the utility companies are closed on the weekends! After a cold shower and an hour behind our original schedule, we set out anyway. Despite the setback and Mike's foul mood, we managed to have a great day.
It was a 40 min. train ride to our stop, and a quick 5 min. walk to the museum. The museum was a hit with the kids, esp. the hands on activities in the Science Centre portion. We walked down to the South Bank area for some ice cream, the Wheel ride, and a City Cat ride. South Bank is a cool area with a lot of cafes, outdoor markets, and restaurants right on the river. There was a lot of people-watching to be had as well. It's hard not to notice the concentration of tourists (esp. Asians) in the city. We topped off our day with dinner at a Chinese restaurant before heading back home on the train. I was not too impressed with the restaurant btw.
Sunday was a relaxing day at home except for our first Church visit in the morning. We picked the closest Catholic Church to our house. We don't know if we'll be going back to this particular church. The number of parishoners was sparse-- we're not sure if it's this particular parish or Australians in general. One lady I met there said there is quite a large number of parishoners on paper but they don't come every Sunday. There was only a handful of young families. Mike did not warm to the parish right away. It didn't help when he finally got to the front of the communion line and he noticed the eucharistic minister had a five-o'clock shadow under a thick layer of women's make-up. I think we'll be trying another Church next Sunday.
We have another busy week ahead. We hope to have the gas back on tomorrow. We made good use of the hot pot (pot for boiling water for tea and coffee) for baths for the kids, and the grill for cooking dinner Sunday night. We're also lucky that it doesn't get too cold in the evening.

Few tidbits: There is no yellow cheese in AU; they are all white, not even cheddar. Cilantro is coriander. (When I asked the lady at the produce stand if she had cilantro, she paused and asked, "Where are you from?" She looked it up in a Food book and found it was the same as coriander.) Arugula is called rocket, and bell peppers are called capsicum. I was able to find the jalapenos, btw. I learn something new everyday!