Sunday chillin' in Scarborough

Megan very kindly took us out for a spin in her new Mazda 3 a couple of weekends ago; when our car was still poorly in the garage!

We had a great lunch at The Boroughs in Scarborough, good food, and live music, fantastic for chilling out on a Sunday. We had a wander round the beach front, unfortunately missed the markets, but we'll gladly go back another time.....



Also thanks again to Megan for the lovely flowers you sent; here's a couple of shots of the bouquet!

Bridge to Brisbane

Up at 4.30am we'd crashed by 5.20am, literally! It was a terrible start to the day, we picked up Darryl and made our way back through the clubbing district of Brisbane. Even at 5am it was alive, the revelers were still spilling out on to the street. We turned a corner and the next thing we knew a huge Toyota Hilux turned into the drivers side door, as we continued forward it scraped down the side of the car. Its huge bull bars tore at the metal and smashed the rear passenger window. Thankfully Darryl was sitting on the other side and avoided being showered in glass!

We pulled off the road and I grabbed the details of the driver, I wont say too much as I'm not sure it's all settled yet. Although he managed to hit us and a taxi, I think he's claiming it's not his fault.

Anyway, here's the damage.



The assessment centre wouldn't let me drive the car home, they said the pillar was twisted and it wouldn't provide any protection in another accident.

Our car isn't worth much and we were hoping it would be a write off, we even spent a couple of afternoons looking for a new car. Nothing too serious, just a bit of web window shopping.

Sadly it's going to live, the garage called us, they'll have it fixed in a couple of weeks :-(


Back to the morning of the race, Amy took the car home. The drivers door wouldn't shut by itself, it was all bent out of shape. Fortunately with a little persuasion Daryl managed to shut it, spilling glass as he slammed it and attracting attention from passing drunken revelers!

Darryl and I jumped in a cab and snaked our way through the suburbs of Brisbane trying to avoid the traffic. We had a very reluctant taxi driver, every time he hit a jam he's encourage us to get out and walk to the start of the race. I'd ask him how far we were and he'd reply about 4k! We managed to persuade him to drop us a bit further and winced as he nearly had a couple of accidents himself.

Once we got to the start, we were pretty late and found ourselves starting with the walkers. Having said that we both did really well.

At the finish.

I was really pleased with my time, especially with the circumstances.



I spent the whole run worrying about Amy, she was pretty shaken up after the accident. I was delighted to find her at the finish line:

Worried, before finding Amy.

Excitement of finding Amy on the finish line!

Survivors!

Citzenship

It's been a long time since we first arrived in November 2004, not quite long enough that we'd consider ourselves Australian, but the government are willing to.


I wasn't looking forward to the ceremony at all, but I was wrong in assuming it would be as boring as a school prize night. We had Aborigional performers, who lit a fire on stage, along with a brass band and African performers. Very multicultural. The mayor and other councillors spoke with it cluminating in us making a pledge and singing the Australian national anthem. I was dreading the pledge, we elected to go for the non god version and heard very few people chose this godless path! Fortunately about 40% of the people there chose the same option, so we were in good company.






Singing the Australian national anthem as my own was a very weird experience, it was good though and felt slightly emotional. It felt really good to be accepted by another country, almost like I'd tricked them into taking me!

Everyone was given a gift to welcome them as citizens, we were both hoping for koalas, surely anything else would be unaustralian?! Sadly all we got was a pair of bottle brush bushes (callistemon endeavour), we'll try and love them just the same!


Passport applications are in, soon I get to say to the immigration officials "choose one" :-)

Paula's Birthday

Sam organised a surprise party for Paula at O'Reilly's Canungra Valley Vineyards winery. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful setting. We sat by the stream and chatted, drinking wine and eating the picnic basket the winery provided.




Happy Birthday Paula and thanks, we had a great time!

Girls Night Out!

Hi girls,

Sorry it took so long to put up, but here's a few piccies from the night out we had when Cari came for her impromptu visit to Brisvegas in August....I want to know when we make our impromptu trip to Melbourne for the same thing!! Excellent times....

Nanna Winnie

You could never meet a more lovely person than Winnie, our Nan. I remember walking to the post office in Filey Road on Saturday afternoons as a child, and you could almost guarantee we’d get stopped for a chat by one or two people on the Estate; we’d be on the way to see Frank for the pension (and a quarter of pear drops and the latest copy of Smash Hits if I was well behaved!). She had many friends.

I don’t know much about her early life, but it seems she had a pretty tough childhood, growing up in post World War I Britain, not really knowing much about her own family and where she came from. After volunteering herself to be part of the Land Army in WWII, she met and married my Grandad Wally in Hatfield, and moved up to Grimsby to start a family of her own. She went on to raise four children, though sadly this was not without tragedy, as she lost her youngest son, Robert, in a motor cycle accident when he was just 17 years old. Despite these difficulties in her early life, and trying times as a wife and mother, she was the most wonderful, caring person. I don’t ever remember her raising her voice to us grandkids once-normally Grandad would be the one shouting ‘Stop running up and down that passage!’. She always had a smile on her face.

Nanna worked at the old Birdseye factory canteen for many, many years, which meant she was a great cook, especially her pastries. She’d always have baked something for the family gatherings at her house on Saturday afternoons, whether it be sausage rolls, coconut cakes, or my personal favourite, jelly and condensed milk, sometimes with tinned oranges if you were lucky-though I think she just did that one just for me…

After Grandad’s sad passing in 2001, Nanna enjoyed some of the freedoms associated with single life, and I am very glad that she got the opportunity to explore new places and make some new friends. She had easily four holidays a year, every time you spoke to her she was off on another coach trip!

Nanna also seemed to have a knack of winning at cash bingo too, you could guarantee that her and Audrey would be sharing a line or full house down the Gala when you asked her. I also credit her with my helping to develop my memory skills through playing pairs with the old Mr. Men cards, and also teaching the grandkids how to gamble at an early age with pennies in the kitty, playing Kings.

Sitting here and writing this now, I look back at all those Saturdays spent with our grand parents, and think how much I enjoyed that time, and how important they were in making us who we are today.

Nanna Win, if I can be half the Nan you were to my grandkids in the future, I don’t think I’d have done too badly! You will be sadly missed.