zimmers in texas

Well we have been a bit slack with writing in our blog but this is the latest update.
I have found a yoga group and am really enjoying that and also a great massuesse. Glenn has had the first experience with health system as he has had to visit the dentist. Amazingly all went well. We still cant get the bank sorted out, they have sent us a letter asking why we have given an American address for our bank account and now they have sent us an overdrawn notice for a non existent account. This has got to be a record for getting things wrong, not even Telstra is this bad.
We finally got to see the Leonard Cohen movie, I'm Your Man and it was really good.
Last weekend we went to New Orleans and it was a fantastic weekend. All the flights were delayed but not to cause any great upset. The boarding system is quite complex and even though the flights are scheduled for a certain time, down to the minute, it always takes twice as long as expected to board so they all run late and then make up time in flight. This has happened on the whole domestic flights. All the passengers take on heaps of carryon luggage and then get annoyed when it wont fit into the overhead lockers. Anyway on to Nawlins. We caught a flight at about 7pm and had to change at Houston. We arrived at NO at about 1opm and caught a taxi to the hotel. The taxi driver told us that prior to Katrina there was about 750,000 people there but only about 200,000 have returned. The hotel was lovely with floor to ceiling windows overlooking Canal St. This street runs down to the Mississippi and we walked down there for breakfast on Sat morning. We had beignets for breakfast which are essentially hot fried donuts in icing sugar. They were delicious!!! We sat in a large cafe as a trumpet player serenaded everyone. Everywhere you turned there was music and it was all good.
On Saturday afternoon we took a "Katrina" tour and it is impossible to describe the devestation and the lack of any great rebuilding. There would be odd houses in the streets that had cleaned up and moved back in but they were surrounded by houses that hadn't been touched. You could see the mould on the walls inside. Piles of rubbish outside the houses indicated that people were starting to clean them out to either sell or renovate but there were not many like this. People have till 29th Aug to decide what they are going to do but a lot don't have insurance and even if they did it doesnt cover the cost. There are still lots of caravans being used as temporary accomodation but these would need to be evacuated if there was even a low category hurricane. It was all rather sad to see the complete waste. The French Quarter is in the higher part of New Orleans and escaped a lot of damage.
Saturday night we went out to dinner at a lovely French restaurant and then headed up to Bourbon Street. The food is an amazing mixture of French, Spanish and American. It is mostly delicious and nice to choose things that are not deep fried (except for the Beignets).
Bourbon Street was magic, it was like a big party all night. The street is blocked off so people can walk up and down from bar to bar. You are allowed to drink in the street but not be drunk in the street. That hardly works!! We tried the local favourite drinks, a Hurricane and a Mint Julep. Another popular drink was the hand grenade and people were wandering the streets with grenade shaped glasses drinking this potent looking green drink.
There are voodoo shops everywhere so I had to buy a voodoo doll which can be used for good as well as evil. The graveyards are another tourist attraction because they all have to be above the ground as New Orleans is essentially below sea level.
There were police everywhere and we were deafened with the constant noise of sirens. It seems crime is quite high and it is the murder capital of America. There were 6 murders on Sat night and we think we were pretty close to one as about 10 police cars descened on Canal street and arrested a young kid, just as we were walking back to the hotel.
On Sunday morning we went for another walk along Bourbon st and it was just like the aftermath of a big party with glasses and rubbish lining the streets but no bodies. The pubs were open for business all over again. We went for a cable car ride to the French Market which was just another flea market and then we stopped to have a drink and a last listen to some jazz before we came back to Austin.
I got a parcel of magazines from Australia today so I off to read these- see ya.

gz - sorry but having problem getting pics in this one . Will add to next post

Some of the 1.5 million bats that fly out from under the South Congress Ave bridge each evening. A great tourist attraction.

Meryl on way to look at bats. A great tourist.

Ancient Roman architecture just outside Austin.

Local motel in South Congress. Austin is weird man.

from gz and mz

All's well here. Still have jobs in an amazingly disjointed and strangley run project.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic with sigh seeing and touristy things. Sat two weeks ago we went to the Aussie Bar expecting a bit of a taste of Australia but it was nothing like the land of oz. The only resemblence was a copule of items on the menu given Aussie names like Kangaroo wings ( i think they were chicken wings) and dingo dogs (revolting hot dogs in batter). There was a sand volley ball court in the beer garden and we saw a squirrel in the car park so it really was not very Australian. There is a new restaurant in town called the Boomerang and their special is Australian meat pies so we had better give that a try.

G&M Feed faces in fabulous Gaveston restuarant overlooking the beach.

Last weekend we headed off to Galverston and itwas a great weekend ( and yes Glenn sang most of the way). I expected it to be something like Straddie but it wasn't. There was a real mixture of the "Haves and the Have Nots" on the island. It was a really lovely island and the seafood restaurant was a "Lonely Planet" recommendation. There was a great fireworks display this night because it had rained on July 4th and they had to postpone the display. The waitress loved our accents and kept asking us to say "no". She said her mum loves watching McLeod's Daughters and that one day she would like to go to Australia ( like every other person we meet)
Galveston beach wating for next hurricane.

The island is very much under threat from rising waters and was the scene of the greatest disaster in US history back in 1900 when a hurricane washed most of it away. They finished up raising the whole island by 13 feet or so but it still doesn't look like a viable property market to me.
On the4th July we went to a baseball game out at Dell (as in the computer company) Stadium and watched the locals (Round Rock Express named after the town and the train line that runs behing the stadium. The train goes to San Antonio which of course provided another singing opportunity for Glenn- Folsom Prison) defeat the Albuquerque Isotopes (hand up those that can spell Albuquerque - I certainly can't without help). Surprised a few of the locals by knowing the rules. Being the 4th of July of course we were given our US flags to wave as we sang Star Spangled Banner and America the Brave during innings breaks. Fantastic. Fireworks were washed out at the end of the game though due to rain.
Bought a car during the week. I couldn't decide between a Dodge Neon or a Pontiac G6 so Meryl chose a Toyota corolla for us. A much more sensible option - so I am told. Anyway it's good on the petrol which everyone is screaming about the price of. It's over $3 per gallon now and may go higher they say.

Also went on a day trip out to Fredericksburg the weekend before last so we're thinking that we've seen just about all of Texas that we want to (except Laredo that is as I have another song I want to drive Meryl crazy with - The Streets of Laredo for you non country and western fans).

from mz


Band on rooftop in South Congress Ave

The first Thursday of each month is market night on SoCo ( that's South Congress Ave) and they give free drinks so we walked up and down the Ave. The shops are just amazing really quirky. We couldn't resist a visit to Allens Boots. There are thousands and thousands of cowboy boots for sale. They are every colour under the rainbow and I think I will have to buy a pair this winter. Glenn managed to find a leather coat that he liked so we bought that. We didn't manage to get any freebies but it was a good evening with people playing music every block .

I have finally found a restuarant that has great food. It is right next door to the Krispy Kreme Donut place but it is similiar to an Aussie pub and they have a selection of non deep fried food.
The weather is still great and our pigeons are starting to get quite big. I think it is time for them to start flying so we can get rid of the nest.

We have Mexico and Louisiana on our lists of next adventures. Will let you know how it goes.

I really didn't think that my starting work with MAXIMUS would have THAT much of an effect.

gz