Done and Dusted

Road Trip

Studies finished, time to head south.

Despite the inclement weather ... it rained most of the way as we drove to Orange (NSW) to visit our old friends S and C - with whom we also spent time with when we were in the UK.

We spent three happy days with them in their country-style cottage, helping them look after three little girls.

Floods

Leaving Orange, we were not keen to head south via the Blue Mountains, so we set off to Cowra. Hearing vague news reports on the radio about various flood-ridden shires and blocked roads, and noticing a darkness on the distant horizon ... we dropped into Cowra police station just to be sure. They assured us that there was no way we could drive south from there. So we turned around and retraced our steps - about 2 1/2 hours wasted. We had to endure the slow, winding Blue Mountains road with it's endless roadworks, twists and turns, and varying speed limits.

The Heads

Shoalhaven Heads Hotel/Motel is just around the corner from Mum's little unit, right on the waterfront.

Lovely little spot to recover from the rigours of study and all that!

The Gong

A few pleasant days with the folks, and then off to "the 'Gong" (Wollongong) for our big day. First we attended a video interview (for a job in Darwin) at a site in Wollongong, and then over to the university to finish what we had started.


We both got all clobbered up appropriately, and then graduated (with distinction).

It was an evening ceremony, so then we spent the night in the Boat Harbour Motel in the Gong.

Followed by breakfast by the water. Mmmm-hmmm!

White Sands

To finish off the trip, a few days down at Huskisson White Sands south of Nowra, visiting with brother M and his family. M has a boat ....

... and a spin around the bay was very enjoyable.

M and Peter also went out and brought back a meal for everyone.

Family Time

And of course this was one of those rare opportunities when a large section of the extended family managed to get together.

Various local wildlife came along for the occasion.

Back to Brissie

The weather was beautiful at Huskisson, and we headed back amid warnings of "dangerous thunderstorms" along the way. We heard that there had been thunderstorms in Brisbane in our absence, and Cowra was also now cut off with floodwaters. However, other than a brief shower with huge raindrops, it was fine - and hot - all the way home.

Approaching 'our' intersection in Brisbane, we had the odd sensation that something was missing.



In this photo from several months ago, there is a large traffic-lights pole, and we had often been amazed when looking at it from our windows to see it moving around in even the mildest breeze. Well ... it's gone. I guess it was a casualty of the storms.

AND Santa and friend have apparently moved in to the large apartment block next door.

NEXT??

No idea where to next ... yet. The world is our oyster, apparently.

Little Church in the Valley

There are some magnificent churches in Brisbane city, especially in Ann Street near Cathedral Square.




It is an interesting mix of old and new, with the mighty glass towers casting wobbly reflections of each other.



In amongst all of these, squeezed between one of the tallest and a chunkier yellow block, we found this little old church, the city Church of Christ.



So we have started going there on Sundays and sometimes on other days too.



The building is quite lovely, despite being crammed into a city block.

But the best part is of course the people. Not a very big congregation, and lots of foreign students - as you'd expect in the city centre - most of them Korean.

And the other interesting thing for us is that some of the church members are our long-lost 'relatives' from Murray Island. So we are looking forward to catching up with more of them as time passes.

On the city skyline

Every day, every time we walk around our apartment, we look out over the city skyline. The buildings stay the same, but the mood changes with the weather and the light.




Brisbane has a lot of rainy days, but also a lot of sparkling days like this one.

And then one day I did a bit of a double take - hang on! What on earth is that? I'm sure that wasn't always there.



Over the course of the next few hours it changed position, until finally it returned to its original position.

We talked about what it could be. Maybe an observation deck, or a revolving restaurant - but it didn't seem to have any floor to it. Maybe some sort of radar thingy .... or ??

We went and asked Mr Google - though it was hard to know what to ask. "What's that thing on the AAMI building?" didn't yield any useful results.

Then we discovered it's not really just the AAMI building, but Central Plaza.

That's when we discovered what it's for! It's so that they can wash the windows!!

Can you imagine dangling from that thing?



The other day we saw this thing, and expected to be able to see it move lower - but it never did, and the bar moved the full 360 degrees and popped back into place.

Maybe it's so new they have never had it in operation properly yet.

Getting some CULTURE!

We find that we study through the weekend - not much point in going out with the madding crowds - so we thought that we should take a bit of a break in the week.

Today we decided to get cultivated, or cultured, or something.

We joined the culture crowd in the hallowed halls of the art gallery.

Actually what we went to see was the Ron Mueck exhibition - you know the one:



The one with the odd sized odd people. This big head is really just a face, like a mask.

These two ladies are quite small, but wouldn't we all like to hear what they are saying - and we all know someone who they could have been modelled on!



There is a huge, ugly, but true-to-life baby girl. And there are some very sad ones like "Dead dad" which was apparently the sculpture that launched this chap's career.



This lady was clearly embarassed by all the attention, and we all wondered if she really had knees under those blankets.



Both of these were fascinating, and left us with more questions than answers.



Brisbane is such a beautiful city (... and we've seen some that are less than beautiful!) We went out of the gallery and walked across the messy bridge.



I know it has another name ... it must be new because I can't even see it on Google maps ... I think it is Kunilpa, something like that.

We walked up to Central Station, caught a train to Fortitude Valley (one stop) and walked up the hill to our half-brown half-yellow (still being painted) building.

And back to study ..:)

Brisbane Weather

It rained a bit yesterday - view from our kitchen window.

Now we know where the pot of gold is - other side of the Story Bridge.

Beach Hunting

We've had a week of "getting-ready-to-study" - so many things to do. We spent one whole day (well, four and a half hours) in Centrelink applying for Austudy! And we were still in the throes of putting in an application for Advanced Standing with this university.

We were surprised this morning when we each received a package in the mail containing four text books for our four courses - we are quite impressed.

The whole thing has been quite exhausting. So we decided to go out a bit, and Peter has still been hoping to find a place to go fishing.

Nudgee

So we went across to the coast, to Nudgee - a little community with marshlands on 3 sides and a bit of a beach.



It's not as muddy as it looks! It was a long walk out to the actual water, but the water was quite clear out there with little ripply waves.

And obviously something is alive and busy under that sand/mud. We did see one tiny crab, but it looked like it was dying.

No sign of anyone fishing, although there was a boat ramp ... but not enough water to launch a boat at the moment. There was one of those special metal fish-cleaning tables (with a light overhead for when you come in at night), but not a hint of anything ever having been cleaned on it - not a single fish scale.

We came out of the marshy area, and worked our way a little farther along the beach, and came to

Brighton

There's a fairly familiar beach name! No pavillion here, but a lot more sand than at the British Brighton beach!



Pleasant enough - but no fishing to be done here either.

So we consulted our maps again, and came across a spot a little further inland on a river, called

Deep River Bend

That sounded like the place to go.



Well, it is a lovely spot. Green shady trees and picnic facilities (complete with the odd mozzie), and specially built fishing platforms ... and a fish cleaning table that sported some good-sized fish-scales!

Peter got among the fishermen, and swapped fishing stories.

Well, it seems like it is at least theoretically possible to catch fish here.

Another day, grab the Aeroguard and let's do it!

What about the workers?

Today is Labour Day in Queensland. It occurred to us that we have never seen a Labour Day march, and here we are living in the centre of the city and they will be almost marching right past us.

So we walked a few metres down the road, and arrived in a shady, slightly elevated spot on a corner they would all come around, just as the first marchers arrived.




The police had closed off several streets, and the traffic lights were turned off. Even so we saw one elderly Chinese man come and press the pedestrian crossing button and stand there hopefully for a long time before he just headed across through the crowd.

Many of the unions had employed a marching band, or in several cases a Scottish bagpipes band to lead their procession.

There were truckloads of children, and some travelled in buses or car trailers.



Most groups were chanting about not selling off Queensland. But these live animals had a different protest to make.



There were lots of balloons, in many different colours - but these chaps had the biggest (and best!) ones.



The Prime Minister himself (K. Rudd) was supposed to be here, but we didn't see him.

But, other than that, it was pretty much every man and his dog (with his ball).



So ... that was my first Labour Day march. :)

7 little Ducks

I was exploring our area, flying around (as you do) with Mr Google, and I noticed that if we walked right down to the end of Gregory Terrace, there are extensive parklands near the Roma Street station.

THE Park!




What a glorious park it is! You could wander for hours and still not see it all. There are winding pathways and boardwalks among beds of all colours, textures and shapes of plants, with the occasional whimsy of (for example) a long section of trimmed and shaped hedge suddenly turns out to be a huge caterpillar with eyes and a mouth bugging out at the end.

There are waterways that wind through the park from the top of the hill down to the bottom.
Is some places the water is calm, such as where there are floating pot plants, and in others the water is refreshed as it pours over one of the many waterfalls.



Notice how carefully this father holds his son's wrist as they walk past the biggest waterfall - where the little boy had a few moments before run eagerly towards the amazing sight and sound of it.

The Duck Tale

Everyone was delighted to see this little duck, with her seven babies, swimming in the calm stream. We all watched her as she swam about with her ducklings always sticking close to her tail.

Some observers became quite concerned as the little group floated closer and closer to one of the many waterfalls ... and then over they went!



It was only about a 1 metre drop (see on the right here), but it was followed by a couple more drops ... and the ducklings were so tiny and fluffy!

Only 3 of them appeared at the other side, and swam eagerly after mum. The others somehow got tangled up under the waterfall, and some of us were sure the water would have pounded and drowned them.

A couple of these long-legged birds were wading around nearby, and it was feared they would fancy a mouthful of half-drowned duckling. The mother duck was stretching her neck at them in threatening manner.

Suddenly another duckling popped out of the swirling water, then another and another. Mother duck was swimming around with her six ducks ... and cheeping could be heard somewhere. Everyone wandering in the park today was so relieved when all seven were back at her tail. One of the ladies gave the mother duck a severe telling off for being so careless.

Other wildlife

There are notices everywhere warning people not to feed any wildlife.



This chap only wanted sunshine and insects anyway.

Remember Turkey

As we were leaving the park, I was a little surprised to see a familiar figure.



I have seen this face in this form so many times, but not in this country. You see this in every school and public building in Turkey. Ataturk! See here. This as a slightly unusual war memorial.