What Makes Me Laugh

Since I can’t share photos yet, I decided to share a few cultural “funnies” while I have internet access.Since we’ve been here, the news has been dominated by the prime minister’s war on “bikie gangs”. This started because of a brutal beating and murder of a biker gang member in the Sydney airport (just a [...]

    I felt a little like the winner of the golden ticket today (and no, that’s not an oblique reference to the Office) when we toured the Jurlique factory in Mount Barker. Doug took a dramamine to avoid getting sick from the whirlwind, left-hand side of the road taxi ride again (I guess taxi [...]

  When it comes to environmental claims by companies, you can usually color me a little cynical. Don’t get me wrong, I still buy as many organic, sustainable, fair trade products as possible, but I know that some companies simply look at is an eco-marketing scheme, not a real commitment to the environment.  About eight [...]

  Day two in Australia and I’ve already seen things I never thought I would see in my lifetime: Kangaroos in the wild, and Doug giving himself a facial.        For those people worried that we would be met at the airport by Nigerian e-mail scammers, not to worry, we hailed a taxi [...]

After 20 hours of flying (4 airplane rides) and 15 hours of layover, we are finally in Adelaide, Australia. I was so tired that I thought the flight attendants directed us to turn off our “muggle phones” on the descent and then I fell into hysterical laughter thinking about my Harry Potter Freudian slip. Anyway, [...]

Travel Tip #1: Avoid long layovers at LAX at all costs! We are currently suffering through a 12-hour marathon layover in LAX.  Here’s how today was suppose to go: Get up ungodly early, arrive at LAX from Montana at 9:00 a.m., check our luggage with Air New Zealand, throw carry-ons in a locker, and head [...]

Here’s the short version: First, read Martha Beck. Next, set a wildly improbable goal. Then, Google “Win a Trip to Australia.”  Enter contest. Win contest. Travel to Australia. Here’s the long version: It started with my niece Hannah, who is studying abroad this year in Australia at the University of Queensland. Before she left last summer, [...]

 Only one episode left to go in this season’s Flight of the Conchords, and I’ll have to miss it, because … and this is not a joke … I’ll be in Australia. I think it may be the ultimate fan betrayal.  But, we have more important things to discuss this evening. Namely, the poster by [...]

Which is always a good sign… at least for me … that something is truly hilarious. I’m going to Australia next month, and a co-worker of mine recommended reading books about the country before I depart (which is a very sensible idea). So, I went out and bought the obligatory Fodor’s and Frommer’s travel guides (why [...]