Trip to Toowoomba

As I explained in an earlier post my brother's wedding was postponed due to the floods in Queensland. It finally went ahead on the 5th of February, only three weeks after the floods.As the wedding was in Toowoomba I was expecting the worst, but really, it wasn't that bad.

On the Thursday before the wedding Mum and I flew to Brisbane and drove from there to Toowoomba. We had also arranged to pick up my 14 year old niece at the airport, as she attends boarding school in Sydney (on a scholarship to a very, very exclusive school. Very proud of her we are). We found her at the baggage claim with a huge box of Krispy Kreme,that were apparently in her words "to share with everybody". The empty box was found hidden under a bed the day we checked out of the motel.

To get to Toowoomba we had to drive through Brisbane and out past Ipswich and up the Lockyer Valley. We had to take a road which I can honestly say is the single worst road I've ever been on. The Inner City Bypass (on a map, it's the orange road running diagonally across from top left to lower right), which bypasses the The Brisbane CBD. First of all the speed limit is constantly changing, and there are pretty much constant lane changes necessary to keep driving along without getting funnelled off it. It is twisty and turny, and quite scary, which has led me to dub it the Inner City Mad Mouse. Once we made it to the Western Motorway I was able to relax as the from here it was a much more straight forward and relaxing drive.

Along the was we passed through some areas of Brisbane that flooded including Milton (we went right past the XXXX brewery) and Goodna.

In the Lockyer Valley, the highway bypasses most of the towns that were devastated by the flood so the worst could not be seen. There were still some road works on the remaining damaged areas of road, although it seems they had been very quick to repair the road. We only encountered a few very minor delays while driving through the area.

The damage to property in Toowoomba itself didn't seem that bad. The flash flooding was confined to the creeks that run through the town. The only noticeable damage were the closed shops along one of the streets and a lot of debris in places it wouldn't normally be. Other things I saw include a water tank that had floated away during the flood and lodged itself on a fence, and perhaps most telling a large piece of steel girder bridge that had obviously floated down stream. The town city seemed to be getting on with life.

We met up with my brother and 9 year old niece latter that night at our Motel room, as they had driven up from NSW during the day.

Friday we met up for morning tea with the new in laws at the shopping centre. The girls went shopping for dresses and jewlery, while we men went looking at mens things...Actually we just walked around for a bit. That night we went to the brides place for Pizza and to meet the extended family.

The wedding itself was simple and quick. It was held in the Baptist church that my brother's new wife attends. As they have both been married before there was no need for the nonsense of bridal parties. I got to be a witness so now I know what happens during the boring bit of weddings.

There was a short reception held in the adjoining indoor basketball court at the church, before photos were taken in the garden of the church. Finally we had one giant group photo taken back in the basketball court. As it was a morning wedding, we all went out to lunch afterwards.

We had lunch at a restaurant called Angelo's House. I suspect it really was Angelo's House, because it was, well, a house. The food was delicious, I would go back for sure.

On Sunday, the day after the wedding we got to do a bit of sight seeing around the town, which was good.

On the Monday Mum and I drove back to Brisbane airport. On the way we stopped for an hour at Mt Coot-Tha and had lunch at the cafe overlooking Brisbane. My niece had been given a ride back to the airport the day before so we didn't need to worry about her. We arrived back in freezing cold Melbourne at 8 pm that night.

I completely forgot to take my camera to the wedding, so there are no photos of that, but I did snap a few on the day after the wedding, and on the way home.

The view from Picnic Point in Toowomba looking
out over the Lockyer Valley towards Brisbane.

And this is what the lookout looks like...

Looking towards Toowoomba

We found this tree while driving around. At first
we thought it may have been a Boab, but we have
since worked out that it is a Queensland Bottle Tree.

Another View of Toowoomba

Our hire car, a Mitsubishi Lancer, which has been
driven half way around Australia to be with us
judging by the Western Australian number plates.

View of the Brisbane CBD from the Mt Coot-Tha lookout
I love how all the buildings are squashed up close
together in the tiny Brisbane CBD. High density,
almost like a mini Manhattan.

A very dirty looking Brisbane River, it could give the
Yarra River a run for it's money in the brown department.

Our ride home, a Qantas Boeing 767.
We flew up there on a smaller Boeing 737.

We are number three for take off. We also waited
for a planeto land, before lining up on the runway.

The small one is a Beechcraft King Air, I'm pretty sure it belongs
to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The jet is a Boeing 737-800
No need to guess the airline...

Leaving Brisbane in golden light.

December Updates

December has been going well.

My car is unreal (well it's my first car). Needs a wash though as it looks like a panther with yellow spots.

Work managed to renew the contract with the government. So I am still employed.

Christmas was good. All of my family were together, a bi-annual event. My brother and his two girls are down from NSW. Can't believe how tall my oldest niece is, she is 13 and is calling me old! Youngest niece is growing too, but is still a little girl. They both got Ripsticks and Nintendo DSi for Christmas and that is all. I like that approach to presents, two big things, one from each parent (they are divorced) instead of lots of little things.

Christmas dinner itself was at my other brothers (who still lives in Melbourne) wifes parents house. That was a bit awkward with our mob invading their house but it all went pretty well.

Boxing day I spent hanging out with my brothers and 8 year old nephew while my brothers wife and three nieces all went shopping. Mum and brothers in laws came to brothers for BBQ that night.

Yesterday I went with brothers and nephew to the cricket at the MCG. I have never been to a cricket game before, and I thought it would be pretty boring. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Nephew was hanging over the fence for autographs, got two, Siddel and someone else. Ended up taking nephew for a walk when he began to get really bored towards the end. I made him walk all the way to the top of the Southern Stand and the Ponsford Stand and back down again to tire him out. Again all the girls went out together, apparently they had Max Brenner at QV and then went up the Eureka tower. Nephew ended up at our place to sleep the night, while the three nieces had a girly sleepover at my brothers place. We played some Mario Kart on the Wii before nephew crashed last night.

Today I woke up at 7:15 to turn the Wii on for the nephew, then went back to sleep for a few hours. After I got up, showered and dressed we played some more Wii, then went out for a game of cricket in the driveway. Brother and sister in law finally turned up at 3pm to get nephew. After recovering I finally got the chance to do some shopping for myself. I decided to go to Westfield Plenty Valley rather than Greensborough or Doncaster. Good move as it wasn't very busy at all. What I really needed was some shorts to replace the pair that got ripped in the washing machine the other week. I wasn't happy about that. In the end I got a pair of shorts from Colorado for half price and a shirt from Target as well.

All in all things are pretty good at the moment.

Still Here

Still in Australia, only a few days to go and I'm off. I have been busy organising things, not much time for blog reading or writing.

I watched the grand final at a mates place on Saturday, was going for the Saints, but it was so evenly matched. The best team won on the day.

I will miss my brother and family by hours, they get back from 6 month around Australia trip the day I am leaving. Well it's really a half Australia trip as they went up west coast and down the middle. Still sounds great. I guess a few weeks won't make much difference after all that time away.

I Don't know how they will cope living in a house again after 6 months in the caravan. Mum went up to Darwin a few weeks ago to meet up with them and they took her to Kakadu and Lichfield national park. They continued on their trip and left mum in a hotel in Darwin for a few nights. Mum reckons sister in law flipped out when she saw all the space mum had in her hotel room.

It's been how long?

Thought I should put in an appearance for August. Can't believe it has been over a month since the last post. What can I say except that my attention has been elsewhere. Mostly on planning my upcoming overseas trip. Only a month to go now. I'm completely over it really. Just get me there already.

Was pulling out some weeds at my brothers house this afternoon. The back lawn is full of them, like thistles. I was going to mow the grass, but it is all weeds. Decided it is my brothers mess to sort out when he gets back. My Brother, sister in law and kids are on an extended trip to Western Australia and Northern Territory. sounds great but there is no one in the house.

While I was there pulling weeds every so often I could hear a steam train whistles in the distance. I had totally forgot about the Wattle Festival at Hurstbridge. Usually a steam train comes out for the day and runs short trips between Diamond Creek and Hurstbridge. I have taken photos in previous years (here), but it all starts to seem the same after a while.

Also to do with my brothers trip, I have been "minding" one of their cars while they are away. And so I have been driving too/from work since April. I am sort of looking forward to taking train/bus too from work again. Don't know how I will go without a car now that I have been indoctrinated to the world of driving, but I'm not going to get one until after my overseas trip.

Speaking of driving, I got my full licence back in July after 3 years on P plates. So glad to be off them. P platers do get "special" treatment from more "experienced" drivers, but not as bad as some of the things I have seen happen to learners. Learners really cop it, they get cut off, overtaken in suburban streets when travelling at 50, and when they try to overtake on Freeways, the car they are trying to overtake will often speed up so they can't. I've seen it all. Be nice to all drivers, don't treat learners badly, it could be your kids getting this treatment one day in the future when they are learning to drive.

Sydney for a day

A few weeks ago when I was home sick from work (bad sun burn) I heard an ad on the radio for charity mystery flights for the Good Friday appeal. So after asking mum if she wanted to go I rang up and booked. 3 hours latter I checked my email and found out we were going to Sydney. Mystery solved.

View of Sydney across the harbour from Watsons Bay.

Last Sunday was the day and we had a good one. Before we left we decided to go to Watsons Bay for Doyles Fish and chips, but we also managed to squeeze in a train ride across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and a ferry ride to Darling harbour via Balmain and Birchgrove.

Cliffs at The Gap

At Watson's bay I showed mum "The Gap" and the view across the Sydney Heads. Mum said she had no idea there would be so many people here, thinking we would be the only one's on the ferry. As to the fish and chips, I think they are some of the best fish and chips I've ever had, and one of the reasons I was keen to go back.

Watsons Bay Ferry

I dunno how but all our public transport connections worked pretty well, the longest we had to wait all day was about 20 minutes for our Watsons bay Ferry from Circular Quay. It was quite expensive though, but still good value. I was prepared for $16 day tripper ticket, but a return gate pass for the airport station alone cost me $14. Mum being a pensioner got away with the $10 pensioner special (normally costs $2.50 without the airport included).

Luna Park in Sydney

One other observation was the verdant green grass everywhere, something not seen in Melbourne (except the Fitzroy Gardens which come close). It's amazing what a bit(lot) of rain does.

I don't need to tell you what's in this photo.

It was a big day for different modes of transport, in all we caught 4 trains, 3 ferries and 2 planes, and drove 1 car. Speaking of planes, I just can't express how much better Qantas is than Virgin Blue. In most cases it's marginally more expensive, but that is made up for in better aircraft, better comfort, better service (had a really nice Japanese flight attendant on the way up, she went out of her way to make small talk with the passengers) and better food. Fly QANTAS.

On the way home

Back to normal

Well my brother and his girls departed for the sunny climes of NSW this morning. He moved back in to our place after 2 or 3 nights away. Their time away did everyone the world of good, stress levels were non existent for the last few days. We didn't do much together, which probably helped a lot.

We had a cheap and cheerful meal with the whole family at La Porchetta on Thursday evening, it was good, although the kids really started to gang up on me, kids can be so cruel. It was sort of a parting of ways, as my Melbourne based brother and family were off to a beach in Northern NSW the next morning. Three weeks of sitting around in a caravan waiting for the rain to stop is going to be fun, not...

It's very quiet around here now, although at least I can get a go on the Wii or the computer. Back to work on Monday too.

Christmas with the cranky brother

After a short unplanned break from this blog, and pretty much the Internet in general, I'm back.

Had a pretty good Christmas - new year period with family. My oldest brother stayed with us for about a week, so I had my nieces to entertain. I spent a few days with all three nieces and nephew doing various things. Christmas day was great. New years eve was pretty good too, sitting around with both brothers and mum until 3am reliving the old days, most of which seemed to occur before I was born. We all found out a few things we didn't know.

Probably the biggest downer was on Sunday with me loosing my temper at my oldest brother and unleashing an ill chosen barrage of swear words. We were in the car so I had to walk the rest of the way home (not far). Although it was a petty argument, the tension had been building inside of me for a few days and I blew my top. After this he claimed he couldn't stand staying with me at mum's house any longer, so moved to our other brother's house (just the excuse he was looking for I suspect). I appologised, but he's still a bit cold with me, which is nothing unusual, the moody bastard. I have yet to appologise to my neices who witnessed this though, but picking the right time with my other niece and nephew around is a bit hard as they won't leave their cousins alone for 5 seconds. They head back north in the next few days, so I'd better hurry up and do it.

Even though things went a bit sour it's been good to have all the family together.

Updates Updates Updates

I've been fairly busy over the past few weeks. Last week was my mum's birthday, it was a big one that ends in zero. On Saturday night we had a gathering of family and her friends at the Ivanhoe Hotel. Everyone enjoyed themselves, and the food was pretty good. We all chipped in and got her a balloon flight, which I thought she'd like, but her reaction was more terrified than anything else. Her sister will probably go with her. On Mum's last big "something zero" birthday they went for flights in Tiger Moths at Torquay, they are both daredevils! My brother from rural NSW even flew down for the night. He flew in at 4:30 pm on the Saturday and flew out again at 9:00 am on Sunday morning.

On Wednesday night I went to Across the Great Divide, Silverchair and Powderfinger concert at Rod Laver Arena. It was pretty good, I've never really been a huge Silverchair fan, and I've really gone off Powderfinger in the last few years, but it was a good opportunity to see these iconic Aussie bands together. Silverchair were a bit disappointing, as they played a lot of songs off their new album Straight Lines, but ended on a high note with Freak. Throughout their performance they were accompanied by Paul Mac on keyboard. Powderfinger didn't disappoint, playing a selection of songs from throughout their career. Bernard Fanning even sang Black Tears, which was subject of some controversy earlier in the year, and received probably the biggest round of applause for any song on the night. My faith in Powderfinger has been restored and I'm going to buy the new album, Dream Days at the Hotel Existence sometime soon. At the end of the concert both bands returned to the stage to play Substitute by The Who, apparently it was one of The Who's birthday (there was a running gag throughout the show about it being several peoples birthday, it wasn't I checked)

Powederfinger

Powederfinger and Silverchair playing 'Substitute' by The Who

On Friday night I went to a mates place to watch Collingwood play Geelong in the AFL Preliminary final, it was just as big a nail biter as last weeks win over West Coast. Even though Collingwood lost, I think we played very well, no one thought we'd make it this far. Geelong was however the better team, continuing their solid run from throughout the season. I hope they win next weeks Grand Final against Port Adelaide. Magpies for Premiers in 2008!

Touching Base

God I hate that term. I over hear it used at work sometimes. Thankfully no one says it to me, if they did I'd punch them in the nose. I assume the term is of American origin, talking about touching bases in a baseball game. Perhaps not?

Anyway just "touching base" with another general update...

On Friday night I went to a play put on by one of the local amateur theater companies. It was called Silvia and was about a man finding a stray dog called Silvia in the park and taking her home. Basically he fell in love with the dog making his wife jealous. Silvia (the dog remember) was played by a person, and was almost too convincing in the role. As was said in they play, she really did have a cute butt, especially when she came back from the dog groomers in the frilly French knickers (ooh la la!).

One of the actors ( a man) played three roles, another male dog owner in the park, a female friend of the wife, and a gender bending psychiatrist. As he/she put it in the play, "am I a man pretending to be a woman or a woman pretending to be a man". By far the best of this trio was the female friend, who had trouble walking in high heels, an alcohol problem and who seemed to attract much attention from the dog. This resulted in more than a glimpse of suspenders and stockings from under her dress, and the audience in stitches. One observation I made of some of the older men in the audience at this point was that they didn't seem too keen on the idea of a man in drag, in fact they looked a bit uncomfortable if not threatened, the women however loved it.

Saturday, I went to the football. In the end Collingwood beat Carlton, I was very happy, we are now third on the ladder. Afterwards we went to the (new for this year) usual pub, the Imperial on the corner of Bourke Street and Spring Street. That place is bride central on Saturday afternoon, I reckon I saw at least 5 or 6 on the walk there. The other thing we saw on the walk from the 'G' was a pair of international students (they were Asian, and I assume that all young Asian people I see in the city are international students) throwing a tennis ball to each other in the Fitzroy Gardens. Not so strange, except that they were putting very little effort into their throws and showing almost no facial expression.

After a pint at the pub (happy hour!), we made our way down Little Bourke street looking for a feed. We ended up in a little place in Heffernan Lane called Kum Den (no I kid you not, almost as good as hung long video). For the price, the food was exceptional. Although, I was a bit concerned about the upside down Barramundi swimming around in the fish tank (there were at leas two of them), I made mental note not to order any fish dishes...

Sunday was of course mothers day. We took mum out for lunch to a nursery/cafe in Yarrambat. The food was pretty good, especially the mud cake I had for dessert. Later in the afternoon we went around to my brothers house for a barbecue which was also good. For mothers day this year I gave mum a DVD of Sweet Charity and Thoroughly Modern Milly (she likes old musicals) and some Belgian Sea Shel Chocolates, she seemed quite pleased.

From my eldest brother in Northern NSW mum didn't get a present, but instead the news that he is in the process of leaving his wife, which is not really the worst news in the world because we all (Mum, my brother in Melbourne, his wife and myself) think she is a bitch have seen it coming for years. Even my eldest niece (she's 10), daughter of eldest brother thinks it's a good thing that they get separated. The marriage was quite literally at the behest of a farmer with a shotgun not quite 11 years ago (you do the calculations). So far, it seems like an amicable separation...