The new Prime Minister

We went to Bunnings today, a giant DIY (Do It Yourself) store.

It was big alright...

We also went back to a bed shop where we thought we had seen the bed that we want but can't afford. We actually went to make a picture so we can make it ourselves. Stupid enough the bed looked different than we thought so we didn't bother photographing it. Luckily enough Chinatown was close where we had a very nice Thai lunch.

Another day, another license plate.

Today was election day over here. Finally John Howard (Liberals) was dismissed as Prime Minister and the people of Australia have chosen Kevin Rudd (Labor) as their new one. He seems like an OK guy and has many good ideas. Let's hope he executes them as well.

The bathing sparrows

Driving through town again.

This time we went to Rundle mall and Rundle street. Christmas is coming and we shall know it!

The mall's balls.

Santa lives here apparently.

We went into the Borders bookshop. We had a non-alcoholic beverage in their little cafe.

One of the things I had been looking forward to. Where The Netherlands seem a 3rd world country when it comes to smoking regulations, Australia knows smoking regulations for many, many years now. And recently they made it even more pleasant for the non-smoking majority.

These cutie-pies were washing and cleaning in the Rundle mall fountain.

This fountain to be exact.

We saw a shop called "Chocolat". How can we not go in? I couldn't actually finish my "Harry Hazelnut".

I'm buying more and more software these days in an attempt to become a 100% legal software user. This MS Office bundle cost AUD 228. That's about EUR 150 which is not much for what you get.

The reverend

Todays fine selection of custom plates starts with "Bella".

Someone has a plate saying "03". Could this be their 3rd car?

This one was funny. Near chinatown there's a church building for sale. Obviously the reverend was there. Mind the sticker on the window.

And closing todays line-up is "Plum". The car was red. Very red, it could've been Dutch.

We went bed-shopping again. I bloody hate it already. Where in The Netherlands it was easy finding a nice and affordable bed and matching mattresses, it's a complete hell here in Australia. They use stupid sizes. They for example have a King-size bed, which happens to be what we want. But we would like 2 seperate mattresses, right? So you would think that they sell mattresses half the size of King-size. NO, they sell King-single-size mattresses which are 17cm shorter and about 10cm wider. Un-fucking-believable no?

This is Nicole btw, inside a bed shop. Or should I say bad shop?

Then we went to a place where they make mattresses. The factory is actually behind the shop to cut out the "middleman" which is supposed to make the mattresses cheaper. The cheapest of the ones that are supposed to be good was still bloody expensive! I like how they ripped off their logo from Indiana Jones though...

As evening fell we went to Cibo's for a drinkie. I had a nice cappuccino and Nicole had a nice cold cola.

The polling place

Mason was there to great us this morning (like every morning btw). Or rather, he wants us to kick his ball all day long. So for a change we did so I could make a picture but because my hot piece of equipment called camera is just as fast as a broadband connection in this country Mason is already faaaaar away...

We had a few errands (mam: errands = boodschappen) to do so around lunchtime we ended up in a mall again. A tiny one today but with everything you need nevertheless. I got a ham/cheese toasted sandwich at this small bakery. My best one here so far I must say.

The main thing today was looking at a new bed. It has to be a BIG bed. And there cannot be a feetboard. You see, I tend to kick them off due to my height. The one that Nicole is sitting on in this picture will be ordered tomorrow. It will be KING size (200x180 I believe). It also features 2 drawers so that's quite handy.

Going to our usual mall to pin money (we pin the max. for the day and then put it into our new australian bank account) we spotted more Dutch products of great quality! It is actually the -exact- same breadbox as the one we had in Amsterdam!

Malls are fantastic but in The Netherlands they hardly exist. This is funny because with so much shit weather you'd think they started building malls in the 17th century already, no?

This sign is attached to a checkout at the supermarket. It actually means that at this particular checkout no chocolate or candy is sold. This is handy if you have kids with a high risk of whining for candy!

I bought this apple juice today. It is megatastic! No added nothing. Just pure juice. It's green, not orange and also it's not very sweet. I'm in love with this drink.

Today was another good cleanup day in the flat where we're going to live soon. Stuff has been moved around and cleaned. This corner will hopefully soon become our command center from which we control the world.

This weekend there are national elections in Australia. You never realise but how do they vote in the outback? This photo shows you how. People from all surrounding villages drive to a certain location to cast their vote. (Photo is scanned from the voting brochure)

The big ass blog entry!

The street that ours comes out onto - Main North Road - is known for it's many carsellers. Cars are incredibly cheap here. A small one is available from AUD 3999. That's about EUR 2666.

On todays trip we first stopped to fill up our car.

The predictions were true for once. We did get rain indeed. It has been raining on and off all day long. Tomorrow it seems we're going to be in for some bad weather with a temperature of max. 20C.

Fuel prices are quite low here I believe. Well, compared to prices in The Netherlands.

Traffic can be crazy...

Crazy indeed.

After dropping unused clothes off at the Salvation army we drove to Rundle mall where I had to hop in and out of Next Byte, the shop where I bought my iMac.

I had to pick up my copy of Parallels. That's software that enables me to run Microsoft Windows (and MS-DOS and Linux and OS/2 etc.) on my iMac.

We then proceeded to the local IKEA. The boys and girls from Sweden have come a long way it seems. We were primarily looking for a new bed but they didn't have anything interesting.

They did have Nicole's favourite herring though! Oh, and also VERY BAD Christmas songs (in English).

After all this hard work we went to Henley beach for lunch. Pictured is the Henley beach jetty.

We bought fish and chips and soon we were making big friends with the locals.

And the local's friends...

We threw chips in the air for them and some were quite capable of catching a chip in mid air!

But inevitably we ran out of chips and the disappointment and disbelief was great...

We also walked up the jetty a bit and sat down watching over the beach for a while. It's a hard life being unemployed.

Also I spotted a few funny licenseplates. This one spells "TERMIN8" (terminate).

Chloe also passed us.

And Jaras, obviously with polish roots.

And finally someone drives around with the message "No shit" for a certain "J". The plate reads "2JNOSHT". Very creative.

Walking into the mall I got one of the biggest shocks in my life. While passing the local cd store I found Andre bloody Rieu staring at me from a cd rack with all his cd's. I wonder now, HOW FAR does one have to move away to never see this dude again? I guess only the moon is safe...

In the Coles supermarket Christmas has also started.

There is always Dutch cheese to be found somewhere.

And now to make some Apple Mac users cry: I have installed Microsoft Windows Vista ON MY IMAC! ;-P Fair enough, this is virtualized, but still!