July 18th

It was extremely odd going to sleep so early last night. We all woke up a couple of times during the night but strangely all at different times. 6am, however, saw us all up, and we ended up having breakfast really early! Neither Rice bubbles or Kelloggs cornflakes taste quite the same here as in the UK, but we think it is the milk that is making the difference. We are going to try and find some different milk today - easier said than done as there seem to be loads of different types! Beth tried Australian marmite but isn't impressed, maybe we'll try vegemite next.

By 8.30am we decided to go out for a walk and we wandered along to South Bank again. We walked over the Goodwill Bridge which gave us some phenomenal views of the city and Brisbane river, then we carried on to visit a play park to get rid of some of the girls' energy. Another meander helped us to find a tourist information place, a grocery – where we bought cordial (that's squash to the Brits), and a place to buy postcards. Yes – I know we haven't really done anything yet but the girls want to send one each to their classes at school and we haven't much time to send it before the summer holiday starts.

Back to the apartment for lunch and then Ian came over. He offered to show us some more of the city and take us shopping again – the girls had eaten nearly all of the bread we bought yesterday and we needed some other things as well as choosing some milk! We saw the main streets in Brisbane, the CBD (the central business district), some of the neighbouring districts and drove over the river about 4 times – there are a lot of bridges in Brisbane. Once we had done some more shopping, we came back and grabbed a coffee and went to sit on the balcony to chat - the traffic was a bit noisy but it was nice to sit in the sunshine. We found out a bit more about Ian and discussed our aims for the placement. The placement really begins tomorrow when Jon is going to go and join in with the conversational English class in the evening.

Tea was pizza – surprisingly another problem for two of the girls, then a game and bed. We dozed off for a moment but are now trying to stay up so that we don't get up quite so early tomorrow morning. Jon is watching the Bill - a traditional Aussie programme - NOT! He has also found out that Dr Who is on next Saturday - the beginning of the last series and Emmerdale!! We have seen Aussie versions of Deal or No Deal, Torville and Dean's Skating on Ice and Big Brother, maybe things aren't so different over here after all!