Queensland water

We're in Brisbane now with my sister Jill and brother-in-law Nick. Nick has already been talking about the severe water crisis here, which some experts are apparently linking to climate change. The reservoirs that supply Brisbane are down to about 20% of their capacity and dropping. According to Nick water is the No. 1 political issue in SE Queensland now.

At the household level Jill & Nick have installed a water tank to gather rainwater from their garage roof for the garden and have significantly cut water consumption. Apparently there has been about a 40% reduction in water use by households but the reservoirs are still falling.

Brisbane

We have had an enjoyable time in Brisbane city, we traveled in on the new bus only road system, which has encouraged more people to use buses, it was great to see such good initiatives from a major city. The girls cooled off at the inner city 'beach'/pools. The inner city with lots of people, views and food smells - getting us used to what we will be going to in a couple of days - flying to Thailand on the 11th.

birthday boy

"Happy Birthday from Jill and Nick."

A quick chat with Karen

In Brisbane now, great flight, all well - girls sleeping - Gavs sleeping so beta go rest 2 - great to chat, its all worth it on gmail, a good move Michael, hope 2 chat again b4 leave Auz, will try to send photo.

Each family member has their own email account to keep in contact with friends and family. We are using Gmail which comes with a Google Account which one signs upto to establish a Google blog -which this is - if more than one of us is online at any one time we can chat from within Gmail - which is how the above message came into being - hence Karen's txt mode. Oh and just in case you were wondering - a full backup of the blog is stored as it is created - you were wondering that weren't you? (Michael)