Bryan's parents arrived last Friday (Nov. 30th) to visit for a couple of weeks and we had a busy weekend around the city from the moment they stepped off the plane on Friday morning. We rode the Oxley train into the city on Friday night to view the first lighting of the Brisbane Christmas tree. The tree is located at the top of the hill at Queen Street Mall so we browsed the shops and watched an Aerial Angels show (see picture) before we watched the official lighting of the tree.
On Saturday we rode the City Cat (the water taxi in Brisbane that takes you to various city points along the Brisbane River.) We got off at Southbank and walked through the Saturday markets and watched the swimmers in the man-made beach and pool along the river. We then continued to ride the City Cat along the northern route and saw the Story Bridge (one of the only bridges in the world that you can walk across . . . not on level ground but harnessed and walking the peaks.) We stopped at New Farm park and strolled through the grounds and let Evan play in the awesome park that they have there.
On Sunday the grandparents, Bryan, and Evan went to the Botanical Gardens and Mount Coot-tha to see the flowers and plants and the magnificent view of the city.
Australian Education:
Australia just elected a new Prime Minister a few weeks ago. We found the entire political election process very interesting here. Here are some of the fine points:
1. They do not have elections every 4 years like they do in the US. The Prime Minister in office has a 4 year window and can call an election at any point that he/she wishes during his term. Once the election is held the 4 year window starts over again. So if his ratings are high at the current time he might choose to have an election so that he can extend his time in office from that point on.
2. Once he calls the election he also states when the election or voting will occur. In the most recent case it occurred exactly 6 weeks after he called the election. So we only had to endure 6 weeks of political campaigning (versus the 2+ years you endure in the US!)
3. Everyone in the country is REQUIRED to vote. If they do not show up to vote on the required date they are fined $50 or more.
4. Instead of just voting by checking the box of the individual that they wish to vote for they have to number the individuals running in order of their preference with #1 being the person they want to get the office the most. If there are 50 people running they have to number each one from 1 to 50. If they don't choose to vote this way they can just choose the party (LABOR or LIBERAL) that they wish to vote for and that is where their votes are placed.
It was interesting that John Howard, the Prime Minister that was in office when we arrived in AUS and had been the PM for over 11 years, had announced at some point that he would be retiring in the near future but he went ahead and ran for office during this election. So everyone basically knew that if they voted for him he might choose to retire within days of the election. BUT, he didn't get re-elected and Kevin Rudd is now Australia's new Prime Minister.
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