About my sister-in-law

"They call us JAFAs over here - Just Another Fucking Australian."

- Grace, a JAFA, about a couple of days ago

Around the turn of the century, back in the foggy mists of time, my sister-in-law lived in Heidelberg for a year as an exchange student. On her holidays, she went backpacking around Europe. That was before she married my brother, settled down and became a respectable lawyer, so I imagine her days were spent living the hard-partying, boozy lifestyle I've noted of most Australian backpackers.

Thinking it over, I'm a bit envious. It's one thing to meander aimlessly around Europe for six months, it's another thing to live in a place and really get to know it. And my sister-in-law still keeps in touch with the folks in Heidelburg - in fact they visited them during their honeymoon. Must be nice to know a place as well as that.

At the moment, I'm just a JAFA.

Actually, I'd like to see more of Germany. I've just been in Berlin, and while it's a fascinating city, I get the impression it's not typical of Germany. I'm curious about lederhosen, beer halls and bratwurst. And I'm not going to, because I really don't have the time to go to Bavaria, or the Rhine, or the Alps.Pity.

Still, you gotta walk the path you're on, right? And my path right now is to walk up the road and spend €0.15 on a couple of bread rolls.

In other news, Rudd's increased the first home owner's grant from $7,000 to $21,000. I'd be very happy with that news, but I figure house prices are just going to go up by a uniform §14,000...