Today is the public observance of Australia Day. With a day off and beautiful weather, the only thing keeping us from the beach is a quick trip to the neighborhood book store. So far, we've been good about reading and find ourselves in need of some new titles. Typically, our first step would be to Amazon.com but shipping to Oz is $5 per book - nearly half the cost of the book itself. I'm sure we'll be able to find comparable prices here...
No such luck. We walked out of our neighborhood bookstore a lot lighter in the wallet than we anticipated. We spent over $50 and for that amount you'd think we each doubled up and got a couple of paperbacks each. Wrong. Two books. We walked out with a total of two books. The book I secured was at least pretty thick, which makes me think it should be more expensive. It would have been better to order them discounted through Amazon.com and pay for the shipping. All I have to say, is that Mr Folsom's "The Machiavelli Covenant" better be one GREAT read for as much as I paid for it.
Don't let anyone tell you the cost of living is less over here. The cost of living in Melbourne is significantly higher than DC. I believe the cost of living here is more in-line with San Francisco or New York. And with the US economy not doing so well [at least, that is what the news over here is reporting] and the Australian economy doing too well that they are working to curb inflation, the cost of living discrepancies seem to be exasperated.
For example, to go to the movies on Friday night cost $32 - and that was for the two tickets alone. Btw, we saw "Juno". I very fun movie to watch. We enjoyed it.
Well, with books in hand, we were off to the beach. Now don't get me started on how hard it was to find beach chairs... ;-)
1 comment:
Still enjoying the blog...amazed at what all (music, photos) you can put on this thing, but very fun to follow the Bailey Adventures. LOVE YA...Bing
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