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Floridanian feet visiting us in Down Under

Gisela and Pico in Down Under. This year Gisela does not have birthday at all. Not because she was born on February 29th (and even this would not matter in 2003). No, her birthday is on June 14th. How come? Well, Gisela and Pico come over from Florida. Their flight departs Los Angeles at 10:30pm on June 13th. They arrive in Sydney on June 15th at 10:35am. In between, there is exactly one night: the one from June 13th to 15th. Yet another curiosity with regard to the dateline... After they have arrived tiredly but happily, we have a belated glass of birthday champagne. Gisela and Pico are the fourth gang visiting us. Winter in Australia might not be the perfect time since it gets dark pretty early in the evening. However, constant high pressure weather conditions and bright sunshine compensate for this flipside.

Yet another pair of feet (highly endangered...)

Queens birthday weekend around Kiama. A skipped birthday could not happen to the Queen. She has her birthday guaranteed every year, in fact always on a Monday. The Aussies do not question at all how old their head of state becomes on this year's Monday (June 9th), but happily accept the present: A public holiday. Everyone packs their luggage and leaves the city. Claudia and Peter head into the region around Kiama, Jamberoo, and Kangaroo Valley. In Berry we encounter a genuine Australian curiosity: Wood Chopping Contest. Mature men in white shirts and shorts stand on wooden blocks and chop them with an axe as crazy. Goal of the whole exercise is to be "first across the line" in chopping the block into two halves. Most competitors finish within less than a minute. We wonder whether there are Wood Chopping Clubs where they regularly practice once per week!?

No appropriate subtitle for this picture...

Strange operating instructions... A funny side remark. The photo on the left shows a tampon bin in a public toilet in Sydney. The text reads: "This unit operates automatically. Please do not empty.". Bins with this strange sticker can be found in each loo throughout Australia. It took us a full year to understand its meaning (more precisely: Until we discuss the tampon bins during a BBQ with friends and they tell us about it.). Prize competion for our readers: How do you understand the sentence above? We accept suggestions at webmaster@heinpit.de. Have fun whilst guessing!

Sorry, there won't be more colours in the full-size picture :-(

Peter's birthday. Back to this month's main topic: The birthday triplet is completed by Peter. This event even was the reason for Gisela and Pico to come along. But Peter isn't the Queen. So why should he be luckier than Gisela? His birthday does take place but falls through. Just on this particular day – forget above mentioned remark on the stable weather conditions for a second – it is raining cats and dogs. Having "survived" similar weather conditions in former years in Germany, we do not care too much. A trip to Mt. Tomah Botanic Gardens (cf. picture gallery for the month of May) is topped by an appetizer in the ANA Harbour Grand Hotel with a view onto Sydney by night and some homebrews in a picturesque pub in The Rocks area.