Jane and I visited our very good friend Greg at this home in Buderim, on the Sunshine Coast, on the Pacific coast north of Brisbane. Greg is an old college friend of Jane’s, and now teaches drama to unappreciative high school students.  The three of us did a bit wandering about.

We happened to be at Greg’s on election night – in 2004, AUstralia had parliamentary elections just a few weeks before national elections in the USA.  John Howard used the same techniques as our W, scaring the public (about mortgage rates and security), and the outcome was a portent of things to come. Greg had a bunch of Lutheran school teachers over for a party that night.  They were all quite happy, while Greg, Jane and I cried into our wine.