I SAW A GIANT BAT

I just got back from free walking tour of downtown Brisbane. It was really awesome. I learned a lot of Australia's role in World War Two. Apparently, once the Japanese landed in New Guinea, the next stop was Australia. While England could not send backup forces, but the US could, there was still an emergency back-up plan: just give Japan the top half of Australia and pray they don't want more.

I also got to learn about their current politics. People are pretty upset right now since the Labour party (currently governing) decided to remove the Prime Minister and put in a new one. This is totally legal, since in a Parliamentarian system, you vote for a party, not a person. However, it's never been done before and people are upset. Also, apparently the right-wingers are called Liberals. Go figure. They don't sound very liberal.

We also talked a bit about Australia under the monarchy. In the 90s, the Australian people were allowed to vote for three options: Stay with the monarchy, leave and have a presidential government, leave and have a parliamentary government. Staying with the monarchy won out with the majority, BUT the total votes of options 2 and 3 were the greatest, illustrating that the Australians are ready to leave the monarchy. It sounds as if another vote will come around when the Queen gives up the crown and our tour guide is certain that Australians will vote to be independent.

During the tour, we stopped for lunch. I had very good sushi--giant and inexpensive. I am hooked.

One stop on the tour was the old governor's mansion. As we were sitting there, listening to ghost stories, I saw a giant bat-like creature fly into a tree. In daylight.

Me: I just saw this big thing that looks like a bat fly into that tree.
Person from Perth: Well, it was probably a bat. They're a real problem here.

It was very cool.

After the tour, I did some more walking. I went to the City Botanic Gardens and then did a bit of shopping. Target here is cool--their clothing section is huge and pretty decent. I didn't get any clothing, but I did get a neat book on Australia wildlife.

Now I'm back at Laura and Bon's place and very, very hungry.