At 10:00 am, Phil took us all to Gloria Jean’s – the Coffee Shop where we’ll be playing next Thursday – to meet the owners and talk about the event. It is located in a shopping mall that is very similar to an American mall. In fact, if you were blindfolded and dropped inside this mall, you’d probably think you were in America. Except for the prices. I continue to be amazed at how expensive things are here.
• At a record store, a typical CD costs around $26.
• A 12-month calendar costs $25 dollars (US price: $12.99).
• 24-pack of Coke: $16.99; 24-pack of water: $9.00 (on sale)
• Petrol (gas) is $1.45 per liter. There are 4 liters per gallon, making gas nearly $6.00 per gallon.
• (1) 3 Musketeer candy bar: $3.00
Today is rehearsal day. After a good day of rest, it’s time to get busy with the business of music and worship. During the drive to the church this morning, I told Phil that the instruments we brought with us were purchased specifically to give to the Thornton Church. He and the members of the worship team were extremely grateful. Grateful to the point of tears. Donna and Lara went with a few ladies from the church to visit the town of Morpeth, the Port that started New Castle. We are sharing two “items” (special songs) in tomorrow’s worship service. After we all had lunch at Phil and Sharon’s, we headed to the church building to rehearse and prepare for tomorrow’s worship service. As we rehearsed, Phil poured each of us an ice cold, refreshing beer. Calm down……Ginger Beer is a soft drink that tastes like a peach flavored Ginger Ale (not that I’ve ever had Peach Ginger Ale, but that’s what Ginger Beer tasted like to me.)
We will also be doing an evening of worship Sunday night at the church, similar to our “Encounter’s” at FCC. Most of the songs that are very familiar to us will be brand new to the folks at Thornton, so tomorrow night may be more like a concert. During the performances of the play, the church has bought cold soft drinks and water to those in attendance. Tonight (the last night of the play), Franklin Christian Church is providing the soft drinks at no cost to them, just to try and bless them a little bit.
The flies here are relentless. I’ve never seen so many. In fact, they call the act of shooing flies away from your face the “Australian wave”.
While at Janet's house this evening, we saw a kookaburra bird. I couldn't get that annoying Barney song out of my head...
I haven’t seen many headlines here, but I was sad to learn that one of my childhood heroes, Evel Knievel, passed away recently. I had read that he became a Christian before he died.
Just a few random observations:
• Everyone here drives on the wrong side of the road!! (Well, it’s only wrong if you’re used to driving in the U.S.)
• The restrooms here are referred to as “toilets”. Even the public signs say so.
• The Yield signs on the highway say, “Give Way”. I like that.
• When kids back talk their parents, it’s called “back chat”
• They don’t have many Mexican restaurants here. Sharon misses them.
• The cost of living is much higher here.
• At the grocery store, the cart return is called the “trolley return”
• Chinese take out is called Chinese “take away”
• Any sandwich is called a burger. A fish sandwich is a fish burger. A chicken sandwich is called a chicken burger.
• Tax is already included in the price of everything. When you see a price tag, that’s exactly what you pay for an item.
• It’s unusual to see Christmas trees up in homes during summer weather. This must be what Christmas is like in southern California.
• There are no pennies in Australian currency. Chipper loves that!
• To conserve energy, everyone here unplugs most appliances when not in use.
• There is no tipping here. You only tip your server or waitress if you get really, really, really outstanding service.
• The toilets here have two buttons for two flushing options. I’ll try to be delicate, here. If it’s a mild visit to the toilet, you give it a half flush. If it involves paper work, you give it the “full flush”.
• Several of the folks I’ve talked to are very discouraged about the recent election here in Australia. The Labor Party (equivalent of the Democrats in the U.S.) were voted into power. The last time that happened, home mortgages here soared to…(are you ready for this?)…17-20%! The “liberals” here are what we would consider conservatives in the States; the “conservatives” here are what we would consider “liberals”.
I drove in Australia for the first time today. Phil asked me to drive his car to his house from the church (a whopping total of four blocks). I was nervous and I had the added stress of having Lara, Donna, Ward and Tonja in the car with me. Obviously, driving on the opposite side of the road was completely foreign to me. Every time I went for my turn signal, I turned on the windshield wipers. Everyone else in the car got a big kick out it. Ward laughed so hard, I’m pretty sure he…well, let’s just say he would have benefited from wearing some Depends.
One final note. As you may already know, spiders are not my favorite thing (see my 100 things post). Noah could just as well left them off the ark, if you ask me. But I suppose God has His reasons. Anyway…I was a bit nervous about the spiders they have here in Australia – particularly the ones that can kill you….specifically, the Funnel Web spider. The Funnel Web is common in eastern Australia (where we’re staying) and more venomous than the Brown Recluse spider we have in Tennessee. A bite from a funnel web can cause serious illness and even death, if no anti-venom is available. Bites are most prevalent during summer. (I watch way too many animal documentaries on Animal Planet.) It is now the beginning of summer in Australia. Accidental encounters usually occur with male funnel webs in ground-level dwellings on concrete slabs. Did I mention that Phil and Sharon’s home is situated on ground level surrounded by concrete slabs?
Anyway…enough background. As mentioned earlier, Ward and Tonja are staying with Cathy and John, next door to us. Cathy and John have a swimming pool. When we arrived for rehearsal, Ward and Tonja said…”Rob, guess what John found in his pool yesterday? A funnel web spider!” My teeth went numb at the news. Just knowing those evil blood suckers are lurking just a few feet from my bedroom makes me unsteady. Sleep will not come easy tonight. Pray for me…
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