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Folks,
G'day! This
has become the trademark of the Aussies working on the project at Boeing.
Sure, you can say Hi, but it doesn't have the impact & even if you don't
know the person, you can still immediately identify him or her as an Aussie!
We have made a
point of going somewhere every weekend. Vancouver was just to get some
stamps in our passports. It was great to see highway signs in metric (kays
not miles). It got a bit hairy overnight when an argument broke out down
in the street & then shots rang out. The whole area was cordoned off
with crime scene tape the next morning, the police cars, forensic, yellow
markers & on the road....seems a taxi driver had a fight and came out
on the wrong end. The classic part of that trip was the 90-minute wait to
get through immigration back into the US along with the dumb questions from
the officer....did you buy anything? shown our one piece of pottery and
a shot glass, he gave us a look and said....is that all? I thought being from
Boeing you would have bought stuff!!! Seems many Seattleites go up there as
the prices are better ( why am I not surprised!)
We've had a quick
trip up to the nearest snowfields, where you can see the ski runs from the
freeway. And across the sound, over the Tacoma Narrows bridge (that's
the one where the original bridge blew down by harmonising in a light
breeze) to a delightful harbour community called Gig Harbor. Then there
was a one day trip to the nearest ocean beach, where you just drive right onto
the beach itself. It's listed as a State Highway, with a speed limit of
25 mph & give way to pedestrians & horses at all times. Not good
for swimming where we went, the sand is black, volcanic & abrasive, the
waves were pounding in & some of the logs that get brought in are several
feet thick. More recently, a weekend trip to Spokane, right across the
State to the east & a quick sprint to Oregon to the south.
We have amazed some of the locals with how far we have travelled. We're
now planning a big one, 2 weeks, flying, to New York, Niagara Falls &
Florida, to get a feel for the east coast before the schools go on holidays
for the summer.
The
interstate highways here are something else - minimum 2 lanes each way
& once out of the city area, the speed limit is 70 mph & you can
sit on it. So if you don't stop, & just allow the countryside to
roll past, timing the trip is very easy, although it does help if it's not
bucketing with rain, to the point that you can see a cloud of spray but
can't see the vehicle that's producing it.
Stewart has
been playing Rugby with a school team. He's been in the rather
unique position of being one of the few who really know how to play the
game. At the North West tournament recently, not only was he
made captain for he competition, his team also won the trophy, and
he was voted by his fellow players as "MVP" - Most Valuable
Player. We were pretty proud, but Stew being Stew, he was rather
ho-hum about it.
Doris has
FINALLY found an organisation for whom she can volunteer without a huge
rigmarole of filling in forms & getting Police checks. It's a
local service group that provides for the not-so-privileged in the area,
by running a thrift shop in the Bellevue Square mall. It's probably
the only thrift shop in a Downtown mall in the world! Our guess is
that most of the government's money goes into the military & not much
else.
We've found
that Americans don't like to think outside the square. If it's not
in the book of instructions, then it doesn't count. Consequently,
the rare individuals who do think laterally tend to stand out by providing
a fantastic service. The other characteristic that we've found is
that everything has to be explained to the absolute n-th degree.
Which means that if someone doesn't care, you get nothing, & if they
do, then you get the whole complete story from woe to go, which can be
useful if your object is to gather information, or can be bloody annoying
if you just wanted a simple answer! But it's great when you have
them building planes & cars.
Rod's
commuting has settled into a pattern. He takes the car 2 days a week
& collects 2 colleagues from a few miles north, then they all head
south on the freeway to work. The trade-off is that they collect him
from the front door on their way through on the other days, so Doris has
the car available without having to walk down & collect it from the
side of the freeway.
Doris &
Stewart are becoming pretty bored with being together all day every day.
We think we have finally convinced Stew that he should go & volunteer
at the Scout Camp, about an hours drive up into the hills. We're hoping
that it will actually put him in contact with a network of kids of his own
age.
The weather has been pretty good and it is so
green and pretty with trees and bulbs in flower. All very stunning.
Stew and Doris travel into Seattle by bus quite often ( too daunting to
drive in and parking costs at obscene ), so they have the chance to see
the impact of spring as the city really starts to come alive. They
recently visited the local Zoo and were blown away by the enclosures.
They got to see baby tigers, an orang-utan who put his face right up to
the glass with their hand on the other side, the enclosure for the bears
looks so natural that at the glass observation bay, you can see salmon in
the water. The gorilla enclosure is designed so that you are in the
socialising area for the gorilla group...you are almost a part of them.
Doris was so awed to be only inches from a silver back male!!!!
Remember to check
the web site for photos - http://www.vzavenue.net/~turnerfiddaman/.
New photos are uploaded at least once a week.
We hope you are
all well at home and that the coming winter is not too bad....we miss you all.
Phone numbers for
those who feel like calling us:
Dialling code - 0011
1
Home - 425
453 5507
Rodney (work) 253
773 8290
Rodney (mobile) -
425 736 0540
Doris (mobile)
425 736 0154
Stewart (mobile)
- 425 736 0117
And our snail
mail address is:
111 108 Avenue
NE, Apt A501
Bellevue WA 98004
USA
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