A very busy 3 weeks!!!

Well, it seems forever since I sat down and added to this blog, not sure where each day has gone, but they are going ever so quickly, so here's a rushed overview. (I'm actually writing this on November 1st - not October 12th as it says above!) Had a lovely day out on my birthday, went to a charming cafe with my Godmother, her daughter and my cousin, Ailsa, Mum's youngest sister, and her daughter in law, Sue and of course the Brig, representing the male species. Great food and conversation, as always, finished off back at my Godmother's for birthday cake. A great group to spend the day with.

At my Godmother's (left) - (Mum's 2nd youngest sister) celebrating the day and the Beatle's hit "when I'm ..??"

Not long after this event, our Sponsor Child in Brazil, became a sponsor "teenager" - seems like a nice kid, writes lovely little letters and sends us photos, here she is on her big day.!!

Now in between all of this we have still been renovating, some success stories, and a few near disasters, however our furniture arrived from the Bay on October 20th, early - the kitchen people were still here futsing around, the carpet layers had just left, and the tiler was still up and running. Anyway all was unloaded, the garage was packed with boxes and we put the large pieces where they would fit or were supposed to go. The goal was to downsize, and this we did, but hell is it hard deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. The Salvation Army have made a couple of happy calls over the past two Friday's and we still have a load more to sort out. Of course if I didn't save everything from 30 years ago, and the Brig is not much better, then this particular stage of our life would be just a tad smoother. We have been aided a bit by some fading of books, prints and furniture due to the amount of "soleil" the old house tolerated. We will get there though!. While this is going on, the painting of the outside of the house is now under way, so not long now till we can get back to normal.

The Brig is really happy now that he can barbeque and cook outside every night - I don't mind it either!!!. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous every day. and even though most of the coast and Brisbane suffered during, and after, a horrendous storm the other night (thousand of lightning strikes), we could see it, the garden got some rain, house didn't suffer at all and we generally relaxed through it.

What's next? Looking forward to our Christmas down south, then of course we have our reunion with my old Kiwi flatmates in Napier, N.Z. in March, sooh looking forward to that, then depending on currency, health and everything, we may just head further on next year - Who knows!!

Hope everyone is well and happy.

Reno - nearly finished - I hope.

Things have been on the go for awhile now with this reno thing we are doing - no joking, this will be the absolute last one!!!! Still waiting for the plumber, not impressed with the electrician in the long run either, but that's still to be sorted!!! Good side, great young landscaping guys, originated from Bowral, went to Chevaliar College opposite Mum's cottage there. They sort've tolerated my whims, camelia sasanqua's and magnolia port wine hedges with sandstone pavers - in the damn tropics. These plants do work in the area, so here's hoping mine do as well!!! Fortunately we do have a water tank at the side of the house!!!. The new front door and bi folds are done and painted - oh goodness that painter!!! The window shutters and venetians are installed, with the exception of a couple that have been lost (not complete, no pay yet)!!!. The kitchen gets ripped out tomorrow, so another exciting day, pest man sprayed in and out today, and Frank and his new mate Pete have a couple of jobs to do at the end of the week, plus a few other things are waiting. Carpets soon, and then eventually the furniture will attack us from the south. Anyway, nearly over I think and hope. Our brick camphouse should end up as a small cottage sooooon.! In the meantime the weather has been absolutely superb, certainly no complaints there, though I am sure the tropical variations will hit soon.

The "big" Christmas fish!!!

I have just received some photos from my cousin Nalda (she lived behind us down in Batemans Bay) to show off her husband (Ross) , son (Matt), and son-in-law (Rod)'s great catches last weekend. Nal, her daughter Tanya, and daughter-in-law Belinda, had organised this trip for their 3 blokes as a Christmas present last year, but for one reason or other they only got to do it last week - and with great success. They boarded the craft at the Batemans Bay Bridge and mozied on up the Clyde River - famous for its Oysters, but I had no idea it housed these huge creatures as well. Of course Ross was the first to land a monster 12 kg Jewish (sometimes called Mulloway) number - within the first hour, and I think he and son Matt are holding this below.

Then of course came No. 2, not sure who caught it, but it was a whopping 14kg poisson!!

Four good sized flathead were also landed, before this very merry bunch returned home to show off their score to their thoughtful maidens and the 2 grand daughter's, Katie and Molly. I believe the freezers are full of their catch, and I know the Christmas (late or early) cheer would've been flowing well into the night to celebrate.

One year ago!

Today was a very quiet day, it has been exactly one year since we lost Mum. Frank and I met up with Mum's youngest sister and my cousin Ashley's wife, Sue, at a lovely cafe overlooking a small lake in Robina, the Jacarandas were blooming and the birdlife were enjoying themselves, the food was very tasty, Mum would've enjoyed it. It was very peaceful. In rummaging through a few photos (most are in storage) I actually found this one of Mum taken in 1981 , in Townsville, Queensland, where she was adjudicating the Townsville Highland Premiership. The young girls with her were the top performers at this event, and the smile on Mum's face showed how happy she was in the dance environment. I received some really thoughtful emails and calls, and it was once again lovely to be amongst family today.

The Dawn Treader is incredible

Yesterday, the filming of the next portion of the Narnia movie was completed at Cleveland Point, just north of Brisbane near Redcliffe. This magnificent piece of work - the Dawn Treader is 45 metres long, and 12 metres high.

The photo below is it's "butt", me thinks!

Below I believe is Oz's Gary Sweet, who plays Casdrinian, the Dawn Treader's Captain!

And this young lady below, is Georgie Henly, from Ilkley, Yorkshire, she plays Lucy in the movie, and I have read has been enjoying the southern Queensland weather!!

The locals have really enjoyed the last few weeks at Cleveland Point, as some arrangements were made for people to visit and watch a little - apparently an incredible treat for the younger generations. There will still be more filming on the Gold Coast, shall keep the ole ear to the ground.

Before the dust!!!

The day prior to our red dust invasion, young James Mitchell from the Gold Coast, who is the World Paddle Board Champion, was out filming for his new movie off Tweed Heads on the border of New South Wales and Queensland, when a small pod of migrating Humpback Whales surprised him. Apparently at first James was quite nervous, but then settled down to enjoying their company, actually when he moved away, they followed him, breaching and playing. We listened to his story this morning on breakfast TV.

What an incredible experience!!

Note: We are presently having bifolds and a new front door put in as I type this, I have escaped to the computer, far more pleasant for moi!

Where is the sun?

Well just a few photos taken by others up here yesterday afternoon. The dust certainly reached us, we were driving around picking up plants, and it was pretty bad - guess the car cleaners will be the only ones making anything on this in the long run. The state of Queensland has had its water restrictions lifted for a short period so people can wash their cars and houses. The photo below shows 3 shots of the same place across the Brisbane River taken within a few minutes of each other.

The Brisbane River

King George at Brisbane City Hall took his fair share.

Right now we are being warned of a repeat on Saturday, so will just have to wait and see what happens.

A Red Dawn

Well, this posting is for all those friends and family who live outside of New South Wales and now Queensland, who have been here at one time or another. Yesterday and this morning the state of New South Wales was completely covered in red dust, most in Sydney say it was the worst ever. The photos below are a few that I have pinched, just to show what those in Sydney and many other areas woke up to this morning.

Spot the Bridge!

Looking across to the Opera House on a normal morning and then this morning (from the same spot) !!

Someone lost at the Opera House

Martin Place

Anzac Bridge

The Beaches -Manly Bondi this morning

Exercising at Collaroy!

The Kookaburras were confused!

Looking across the harbour from the same place on a normal morning, and this morning!!!

Ferry creeping around to Cremorne, just before all services were cancelled.

And today it has well and truly covered Queensland, and after that they say it is heading across the Tasman to New Zealand.

The very sad situation is that this red dirt has depleted great farming areas, and with it have come some incredibly bad storms, two country places we love (Goulburn and Crookwell) suffered by being smothered with "cricket ball" sized hail storms, right in the middle of their lambing and calving season. So much damage across both States, land, agriculture, animals, people's health, and of course businesses and futures in many cases!

Our past week

The past week has been really busy, this "reno" stuff does take its time, but we are getting there - sort of!! This week we were greeted by some of our neighbours, on Wednesday we arrived home after a very busy day of shopping for - "should we buy that tap, or this one", and so on, to find a very nice bottle of red wine and letter from a group of neighbours in the adjoining street, Frank called one of them and had a long chat - he finished the conversation with sooh much local knowledge. Then on Friday evening, Carol, our next door neighbour held a delightful cocktail party for us to introduce us to some more neighbours - a truly fun evening to say the least. This morning we went for a long walk, however on leaving the house I looked up and there were the Hot Air balloons - I took a couple of not so good shots (palm tree is on our place) and put the camera back in the house, had I taken it with me on our walk then I would have been able to get some beauties, as they came in very close. About those taps, the Brig made a decision this afternoon that he could change the old taps for the new ones, a plumber was definitely not needed!!!!. Well, he had an excellent start, and changed some, then whilst typing this there was this horrendous noise - a damn waterfall had hit the bathroom, anyway water went everywhere - something went wrong, and I am not asking what, but I am sure that after the clean up, there will be a phone call to the plumber!!. SUCH FUN!!

Riverfire

Last night Brisbane lit up once again for the RIVERFIRE. More than 600,000 people lined the Brisbane River, and many thousands more watched from Brisbane's hilly suburbs, and we watched from the comfort of our partially furnished lounge area.

The showpiece spectacle was centred on the iconic Story Bridge, and the river was alive with all types of craft.

Southbank was absolutely packed

Tw0 F-111's blasted through the night sky for the last time, entertaining all. The fireworks were launched from 3 bridges, 6 barges and nine rooftops.

The Grande Finale - a cascading yellow waterfall of fireworks spilling into the river below. We really enjoyed the whole spectacle including the outstanding piloting of the F-111's, the weather was perfect, it started at dusk (my hour), and Brisbane is pretty proud of this event.

Grandkids holiday in Cushendall, Northern Ireland

The KIWI grandkids (Ethan and Immy) have just had a trip back to Northern Ireland, except for their maternal grandmother (Anne) this was Immy's first introduction to her Mum's family. From the photos it looks like the kids and their irish relos had a lovely time together.

Ethan and Immy with their grandmother Anne in County Antrim This lovely day was finished with some great fish and chips and a super steak and guinness pie. What else would you need??.