Eternal Beau

Mon Feb 13

2012-02-18T09:42:00.000+10:00

Missed this one out - oops!

Monday Feb
13 - Den Haag

This
evening I'm feeling quite tired. We had
a full day viewing five properties and walking, walking, walking. The first
property was Parkstraat 69 and I quite liked it - owned by a now retired French
couple who sell special valves to the oil industry (it's a living!) The town house was used as a residence and
office and would be great with a little bit done to it - but not sure about it.

After a
coffee it was walk, walk, walk to the next makelaar at the next property. He was very good as well and took us around
in his rented (waiting for a new BMW lease vehicle) Citroen C1 - the size of a
suitcase on wheels - very nice for ultra basic transport. We saw a regular house (not happening!) then
an apartment in Archipel (the islands area) which was nice but not enough boxes
ticked. We then went to an apartment
complex opposite the Australian Embassy on Laan van Meerdervoort that we really
liked (garden plus terrace and car park space) but apparently someone has an
offer on it subject to the sale of their home and so we make an offer and the
person decides if they want to go on with the purchase, or not. Great spot and you'd never know a significant
road was outside the complex. This we'll
follow up. Then on to a penthouse of
only 115sqm with a terrace of 70sqm on the 10th floor overlooking
Statenkwartier and Scheveningen. Nice, but not large enough. We went back to the office and got some
details of a new apartment complex right near the harbour so later in the week
(Thursday??) we'll investigate those.

Back into
the Centrum - walk, walk, walk - we went to MediaMarkt and bought a filter
coffee maker (Philips, of course) with a thermos carafe - it's old fashioned
but we like our brewed coffee - forget espresso machines and Nespresso thingamajigs
- just coffee and filter papers and bloody good coffee in quantity every
time. I also bought an all in one
desktop computer (Asus) operating on Windows 7 and a 1080 monitor/hard drive
combined in one unit. It was a challenge
bringing everything home on the bus, but we did it. Then we had to go out again and do food
shopping because we were weighed down before with 'stuff'.

Now I know
why I'm feeling tired.....

Friday - Rene sick

2012-02-18T09:24:00.003+10:00

Poor old Rene is crook with a cold, and he's been sleeping and lying around all day. I went to the shops, and along with a trip to the bottle shop later in the day, we've both been having a rest. Tonight I did a stir fry chicken in Thai green curry with white and wild rice. Very nice indeed. Rene ate all of his generous serving so he must be starting to improve. Tomorrow I want to go back and see if there's a layout of an apartment that I/we prefer most of all. It comes with two parking spaces (we'll only need one) but our guests could park easily. Yesterday we walked into around 10 apartments in the one complex, and after a while you forget what was what. Being Dutch, these apartments have to be painted, floor coverings put down plus a kitchen installed by the owner. The toilets and bathrooms are included.

Last night Rene's niece Lotte and her flat mate came around for dinner. It was a great success - three courses served as stylishly as we could. Great evening. The girls are heading home to the south this weekend for Carnivaal - the biggest party in town! In the Catholic south every community has a celebration some four days long with parties, dinners, sing a longs in cafes and general merriment, plus a big parade in every town. A great prelude to Lent. Nothing like this happens in Den Haag, but eight years ago I went to one in Weert in Brabbant, and they certainly know how to have a great time.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
This evening the news was full of the Dutch Prince buried by an avalanche in Austria around midday today. He is stable but serious in hospital in Innsbruck and is fortunate that he had signalling gear on him. I think he was buried for around 20 minutes.

Thursday Feb 16

2012-02-18T09:21:00.002+10:00

Saw possibly the apartment we might buy - 145sqm, nice area, down by the harbour (yes, I know I said we'd never go there). Just read that a new European School of The Hague - opening August - is in the neighbourhood. That would make four or five campuses to seek casual work.

Wed Feb 15

2012-02-18T09:20:00.002+10:00

The box with the net equipment arrived - Rene toiled and we now have the net on! Marvellous!

Tue Feb 14

2012-02-18T09:18:00.000+10:00

Tuesday Feb
14 - Den Haag

Valentine's
Day - how did you mark it? For me,
around 6:30pm starting to tear up describing how wonderful it is to be with my
man in Nederlands, in front of a female friend.
I had one more beer after that, and then called it quits.

We had a
late start to the day (always nice) and headed off to our only appointment of
the day in the Statenkwartier. We had
four properties to view, and only one met most of our requirements EXCEPT it
had only one full bedroom - not enough room.
A fabulous apartment in a great spot and beautifully renovated - if we
needed just room for two it would have been PERFECT but, alas, we really need a
full second bedroom at least.

We have
many more to see tomorrow.

Seeing as
though we were in Statenkwartier, we called our friend Isabelle for a drink at
her favourite cafe. Three hours later, a
few tears - such a romantic sap I am - we're off to a Thai for dinner -
fabulous! Tram arrived at the stop as we
got there; bus was at the station when we alighted from the tram, in the house
within no time. Great day! Good night!

Sat Feb 11

2012-02-18T09:17:00.000+10:00

Saturday February 11 - Den Haag

We bought a crate of beer this
afternoon on the way home for A$12.40....yes, German beer....24
bottles....'Warfteiner'.....euro9.99 on special. Amazing!
Oh, there was a three euro deposit added, but still....incredible! Want to know more? A crate of Heinekin was even less!

We received mail from Ziggo, our
cable company that explains that we'll probably be connected on Wednesday. We also get an HD thingummyjig for our
television, but I don't think this TV is going to be using it since it is very
nice but the old squarish shape. I plan
on buying the biggest TV possible (OK, not really 'that' big) when we have the
house chosen and I intend watching the London Olympics live - all of it! - and
things like the BAFTA awards which are on TV tomorrow night from London (but
we'll be away visiting the south).

We saw our first Dutch fire
today. Not the one in a fireplace but a
real fire in a building. OK, it was a
small fire in a sort of kiosk-type building at Kijkduin, but it had two police
vehicles arriving separately (the first one at ridiculous high speed) and
followed by two separate fire appliances, then a fire supervisor's 4WD. The little shop was selling fish and chips,
and it appears that it was a fat fire that got out of control. It influenced a neighbouring shop/stall and
it was all happening at Kijkduin, one of the prettier dune beach areas south of
Scheveningen.

To get there we took a bus from
right outside our apartment building (#23) and it took almost 50 minutes to get
there, going in a giant U shaped route through Voorburg, then Rijswijk,
swinging back towards the sea and finally arriving at the terminus in
Kijkduin. It was a beautifully sunny
morning and a balmy -2C at the beach, and the North Sea once again (just like
the other day) was beautifully calm.
There would have been no way in Hell that Rene would have done the trip
if he got to choose, but I encouraged him to do it because we have to become
familiar with our locale, and we had nothing else to do - I've already
mentioned Dutch real estate folk don't do weekends.
We had a lovely coffee and a slice
of apple cake at a sandwich restaurant which looked marvellous. It was still not quite 12 and we didn't feel
like a proper lunch, but I'd love to come back and try something from their
menu - what was coming out of the kitchen looked fabulous! After a walk, the fire excitement and
deciding that Kijkduin's real attraction was in the summer months, we walked
towards a tram line around 1500m away - of course one had to negotiate slippery
paths, so whilst sounding not that far away, we approached the walking with a
certain degree of caution.

We caught our first Randstatrail
tram - a sort of light railway - which took us into the Centrum and delivered
us to the underground Grotemarkt station.
It was our first time in the station (we had walked above and around it
often) and I have to say it is very nicely designed. It continues the
underground tram line under the city hall (there's the Spui Station) and comes
above ground by the time it reaches Den Haag Centraal Station. I remember it taking ages to build and of
course ran over time and over budget, but it frees the streets above and is a
seriously impressive people mover since the trams are virtually 3 carriages
long as opposed to 2.5 of an ordinary tram, and I think wider with 2+2 width (a
regular tram in 2+1 wide). I think there
are plans to put another route into the city with this higher capacity light
rail tram, but platforms and other alterations have to be done, but it is
planned to happen soon.

We went to 'Out of Australia' shop
to buy a gift for Maike's birthday. What
do you buy a 19 year old girl? Ear
muffs, of course, made from Australian merino wool - very smart and so
practical too!

Next we went to the City Hall
library (bibliotheek) and used their free wifi for both of our computers, and I
did my emails and some stuff, read about the floods out West in Queensland
(poor St George!) and felt sort of connected for a short while. That rain out west just doesn't seem to want
to quit.

On the way home Rene checked
timetables and bought tickets for the train tomorrow. We plan on leaving here at 11:24 on the bus, an
11:54 train to Tilberg then a 1:15 bus to near the house of my brother in law
in Bladel. This may well be the only
time we use public transport to go anywhere distant because we will have a car
when we know where we are going to live.

....and that's about all folks!

Oh, forgot, we saw a green parrot,
wild, in the back garden of a house we looked at yesterday. Apparently this is not an unusual sight these
days, but it was cute looking but SO out of place.

(4 hrs. later) Just watched a
concert by Adele from the Royal Albert Hall recorded last September. It was on NED3, without ads, and was bloody
brilliant. Love that girl!

Fri Feb 10

2012-02-18T09:16:00.000+10:00

Friday Feb
10 - Den Haag

Today was a
quiet day, much the same as other days lately.
We met a makelaar at Kleine Nobelstraat and inspected a very nice
apartment almost in the centre of town on two levels - had a lovely three
bedrooms layout on the lower level BUT the living area upstairs was just too
small for our furniture. The car park in
the basement is accessed via a car elevator, and there was also loads of
storage space. We then went to a double
upstairs house that was very nice in so many ways but just didn't really grab
us both. It had actually been renovated
three years ago and was nicely done seeing as though the owner actually wanted
to live in his renovation after it was completed unlike the other renos we've
seen so far done just to make a quick buck.

We walked
home following that visit for lunch and then Rene shopped and I went and
arranged more visits for Monday and Wednesday at a nearby makelaar. I noticed that in the next block from our
place is the Austrian Embassy in a very nice, but unpretentious, building part
of a long terrace. The major nation's
embassies bye and large here are quite large and in prominent inner city
locations.

Rene cooked
chilli con carne tonight in a new frying pan bought from V & D this
morning. It is Dutch manufactured, not
far from here in Zoetemeer, and was quite expensive but so much better to use
than what we have here in the apartment.
New definition of 'desperate' - viewing (and not really minding) the
film 'Get Smart' and laughing out loud a couple of times. Yes, you guessed it; the long promised net
connection didn't happen today. Roll on
Monday.

Point of
interest: Australian real estate agents
do their best selling and viewing on a Saturday, and sometimes Sundays. Not here.
Real estate is strictly Mon - Fri in Nederlands, so we have no viewings
tomorrow so a whole day to go around and see more places in the city. Sunday we're off to the south for a
birthday/family day. Haven't seen the
family since we were last here two years ago. Should be lovely.

Thurs Feb 9

2012-02-18T09:06:00.002+10:00

Thursday
February 9 - Den Haag

This is
quickly being composed at 11:30 - HOORAY!
We have watched 'The Bourne Identity' tonight on RTL7 - the landlady
rang Rene today to explain when the cable should be connected (Friday she
hopes!) and also explained that since we don't have a 'normal' TV - it's a
B&O (Bang and Olifsomething) it requires mastery of a remote control to
make other 'mere' remotes tremble. I
stayed in the city a couple of hours longer after Rene headed back home and
when I came in the TV was working with around 20 free channels, but when we get
internet and cable MORE channels will appear (apparently).

Today after
a late start we took a #23 bus to Thereisa Straat and walked around the
suburb. It's quite nice, and one of my
schools is situated in this area, but the Centraal Station and city office
blocks are really separating it from the main part of the city, but it is close
and very walkable (let alone moments on a bike). Whilst walking we came across the NH hotel
Rene's niece is working in as part of a tertiary course she's completing. We popped in, but she was busy when we rang
and couldn't see us. Further along the
road we came across another local makelaar, called in, and left with several
property descriptions to contemplate. I
have to say that the majority of makelaars and staff we've met have impressed
me a lot - especially sine they started from such a low status in my mind.

We then
took the same 23 bus in the opposite direction to Scheveningen, the beachside
suburb and most popular place in Nederlands in the summer. After lunch we walked along the esplanade and
recoiled at the ugly collection of buildings surrounding the jewel of Den Haag
- the Kuurhaus. This incredibly elegant
hotel would not be out of place in Paris, and the interior is stunning BUT the
incredibly unsympathetic mish mash of architectural styles surrounding it makes
the area a B- as far as aesthetics are concerned HOWEVER all is not lost. 3km of the esplanade is being remodelled by a
Spanish architect to incorporate walkways and so on on top of a functioning
dyke designed to protect the suburb from the severe winter storms. It is due to be completed by Feb 2014 and
looks quite impressive.

Today as we
walked alongside the North Sea it was like a mill pond and it even began
lightly, occasionally snowing - and continued at least until I got home at
5:30.

We walked
on to the harbour, then detoured towards a makelaar from yesterday on 'The
Fred' where we were to pick up some more suggestions for properties. A tram to the Centrum ensured a speedy return
(the transport here is bloody brilliant) and Rene and I parted company so I
could do some grocery shopping on my own for dinner, and while I was at it I
looked into some stores and streets we hadn't been in before. The Passage is an elegant mall or arcade of
very swanky stores with prices to match.
It is beautiful to look at, although the emphasis is seriously on female
fashion.

I wanted a
casserole tonight for dinner. Easier
said than done. I managed to make a
curry beef and vegetable hot pot with sliced potatoes on top and baked (first
time using the oven) to perfection.

Afterwards
we watched the movie, and following my shower I'm finishing off this
entry. The morning kicks off at 9 -
better get to bed.

Wed Feb 8

2012-02-18T09:06:00.001+10:00

Wednesday
February 8 - Den Haag

Not long
back in from a long day doing the rounds of meetings etc. We left home at 9am and returned just after
5:30, carrying shopping and still carefully walking the now melting icy
streets.

We are
getting to know so much about our newly adopted city by walking the
suburbs. Today we walked (this is for
the information of people reading this who know or want to know about the city)
from our apartment on Van Elkemadelaan in Benoordenhout to an agent in
Hubertus-Park on Badhuisweg, then to an agent in Frederik Hendriklaan in
Statenkwartier - got a bit lost but found our way there eventually. We then had time before a viewing, so bought
some things for lunch and went off to our friend Isabelle’s apartment for a hot
lunch, and then she accompanied us on two inspections. We then took a tram ("thank
goodness!" sang my feet) to Java Straat in Willems Park and met with
another makelaar.

The final
part of the day was heading on foot into Centrum and firstly having a well-deserved
beer or two in a cafe then to my 'home away from home' - Hema, where I bought
four coffee cups (we only have two - and we have a dishwasher) and a serving
spoon (our flat owner thinks a ladle is all you need - weird!) plus a couple of
wooden spoons for cooking. Oh, I nearly forgot, an egg flip - how in God's name
do you call an apartment furnished without one? We're dining at home this
evening on chilli prawn pasta and salad followed by a French crème brulee -
yum!

Still no TV
or internet - possibly another eight to ten days! Shit!

PS Dinner
was great (love Chef Rene) and following
that we went through an envelope of places recommended by a makelaar just down
the road - he had put them in our mailbox.
We have a short list of eleven we will discuss with him in the
morning. Some appear too good to be
true, and of course we don't have the net on to double check locations
etc. I turned down looking at a
perfectly good house yesterday purely because it was opposite a school. Any teacher reading this will immediately
agree with my decision.

Tue Feb 7

2012-02-18T09:03:00.000+10:00

Den Haag
Tuesday February 7

Still no
internet or TV connection but we at last got the second set of apartment keys
from the landlord's mother (it's only been promised since last Friday). I'm wondering if even the application to
reconnect the cable has gone through? I
wouldn't mind being given a job # to somehow follow up over either phone or
internet (from a kiosk or a friend's net).

Today we
visited three makelaars and make progress in getting viewing appointments
arranged. More agents to visit tomorrow,
plus Thursday, and we're also fitting in some viewings. The largest problem will be narrowing down
the field because there is SO much to select from, and our price range covers
every style of residence imaginable.

My
favourite on paper is an apartment described as a penthouse, but not as large
as penthouses usually are in Australia.
This one has 115 sqm, not huge, but has a 70 sqm terrace around two
sides. It's on the 10th floor near
President Kennedy Laan and is on the boundary of Duinoord and Statenkwartier. We'll inspect it on Monday, along with some
very nice ordinary houses and maisonettes.

Did a lot
of walking today, again in the snow, and since it snowed last Friday but hasn't
since, the existing snow has become very icy and slippery making it a challenge
to walk, look, cross roads and avoid cyclists - thank goodness I don't try to
chew gum as well!

We've been
looking and looking for cafes around this area of Benoordenhout but alas to no
avail - my idea of popping into the local a few times a week as we did before
in Utrecht is not coming to pass in this leafy and pretty part of Den Haag, and
today we discovered why...around 1920 a baroness sold the land occupied today
by Benoordenhout to the local government with a caveat on it stating that no
bars or cafes could be included, and it can't be overturned until 2020. Well, we are going to look at a house close
by a lovely little shopping centre we discovered last Sunday that is still in
Benoordenhout BUT close to the western boundary so that cafes and fascinating
places like that are just a short walk away across six lanes of traffic, a
canal and two tram tracks (these wide and busy roads are quite rare here). The HQ of Shell is around the corner, so I hope
the house is not overpriced for what you get....we'll soon see.

This
evening we ventured into our neighbourhood to have dinner at a lovely
bar/restaurant called 'Runners'. It was
delightfully warm and cosy and quite busy for a Tuesday night. We got a
recommendation for a house to look at in Kijkduin, but I haven't got the chance
to check it on the net, and I'm afraid it would be probably out of our price
range, but this is a very up and coming part of the beach to live in - maybe
just a little too far away. We'll see -
tomorrow we have three appointments, at 10am, 11am and 3pm. The 11am one is on Frederik Hendriklaan
(known locally as 'The Fred') so I see a delightful lunch in one of the very
many lovely places along that street.
Roll on tomorrow!

Sunday Feb 5

2012-02-18T09:00:00.001+10:00

Sunday
February 5 2012 - Den Haag Nederlands

We have
just spent the first 24 hours in our rented temporary apartment in a very nice
area, Benoordenhout, just north east of the Centrum. The streets are wider, frontages larger and
the cars suggest that much money resides in this area.

We haven't
got everything working right - and the heating is one of them. When I reckon the radiators ought to be
shovelling out heat they are cold, then one side heats and not the other, and
the first time we were here yesterday morning it was SO sunny that the rooms
were actually too hot. Today it is fine but cloudy.

Another
awful inconvenience is the lack of cable (it'll be very soon, but how long
nobody knows). With TV comes internet,
so we are dipping back into the Ice Age with cold outside and nothing to stare
at but the walls of the cave! I miss
just not having the net, but I'll get over it.

Walking
around the neighbourhood in the snow this morning we happened upon a delicious
looking shop selling not only great coffee and cakes but also cheeses (its main
purpose) and delightfully presented delicatessen items. The lovely lass behind the counter told me
that the evening temperature two nights ago had been -17C, the coldest in Den
Haag for 24 years (oh joy of joys, they waited until I arrived to start
breaking records again!)

We have one
bedroom with a bathroom/laundry leading from it, a toilet off the hallway and a
living room with a kitchen (small but adequate enough). The building complex dates from the early
1930's and has lots of fascinating details that evoke another era.

Yesterday
(Saturday) we moved from the hotel into the apartment, immediately headed for
Albert Hijn (Coles/Woolworths equivalent) to load up on things we didn't need
in a serviced hotel room. Once back home we had lunch, then got a bus to Den
Haag Centraal Station to head to Utrecht for the evening. The weather dictated train rather than car,
so by chance we met our friend Isabelle also heading to Utrecht for the
weekend. Normally she drives her
Porsche, but the weather was not suitable, so she lowered her standards and
slummed it on the train. She was about to text that she was in the middle of
the train when we just happened upon her by coincidence. Due to the weather the
fast InterCity trains weren't operating, plus the Sneltrains were also not
operating, so we were in a very new Sprinter train that proceeded to stop at
every station between the two main points (around 11 compared to only one for
the InterCity).

When we
arrived at Utrecht we had not only a full train from Den Haag but even more pax
squeezed onto the train because at Gouda we came across hundreds trying to get
to Utrecht because the Amsterdam/Urecht line wasn't working. I'd forgotten the
occasional cockup that so personifies Dutch Rail.

Isabelle is
Paul's sister, and Paul is Rene's best friend since his days at university.
Isobel has been living in Den Haag for 10 years, but Paul has always seemed to
have lived in or around Utrecht. He
does, however, work in a town near The Hague and drives there every day. Once
nearly at our old watering hole (Ledig Erf) Isobel headed to her brother's to
drop off an overnight bag, and we headed for what turned out to be an extremely
busy cafe.

The Ledig
Erf changed hands just as we left at the end of 2004 after 26 years in the same
hands. A couple of years ago we came
across the changes to decor and clientele so it was no big surprise to see the
physical changes, but the clientele to me seemed younger. None of our old friends were there (no, we
hadn't told them we'd be coming this weekend) so Rene and I had a beer then
Isobel and Paul arrived. It was lovely
to see Paul again, and Rene really seemed to light up when he walked into the
pub. Several drinks later we left for an
Italian restaurant across the canal close to Paul's apartment. Would you believe Rene spotted a lady having
dinner with friends who had the shop beneath the apartment we had rented for a
week two years ago. As we left I popped over to say hello - it's a small country!

Coffee at
Paul's apartment before heading off was very nice indeed, and we have temporary
custody of a Nespresso machine courtesy of Isabelle (Paul had been repairing it
for her). We left the two of them to go
to an over 40's disco and we went off into the cold towards Utrecht
Centraal. We walked and walked and as we
were perhaps 800m from the station a passing bus stopped and the driver
beckoned us aboard for the final warm ride to the station. Lovely gesture!

The return
train was again an all stops and took an hour, and the midnight bus from the
slush covered bus station seemed never to come, but finally a ten minute
journey dropped us near home and the final trudge through the snow to our
handsome building. This freezing weather is to last at least until next
weekend. *^*#@&!

Tomorrow
morning we have an appointment to become registered in Den Haag now that we
have an address. Then Rene contacts the
removalists and we become legal enough to have the container imported and not
returned back to Oz. Now to find a
permanent home - not that easy a job, but we are getting to know so much more
about this small fascinating city of 500 000 freezing folk.

Den Haag Monday Feb 6

2012-02-18T08:57:00.000+10:00

Den Haag
Monday February 6

Still no
internet or TV - a friend here in Den Haag said not to expect it too soon but I
don't think I can wait that long. Did my
emails at the City Hall in a cafe on Rene's computer. Still not the same as
having access 24/7. Nobody, but nobody,
here has an unsecured wifi - how untrusting of them!

Got
registered today at a building that appeared to have no name other than the
number 24 outside. It was in the
Statenkwartier, near The Hague Museum. Took a bus and a tram to get there -
Rene is getting a bike next week, Owen will wait just a little bit longer (the
cyclists are very cautious on the icy roads at present). The city is actually very small indeed and
quite walkable when the footpaths aren't so slippery.

We ventured
after registration back into the Centrum, shopped for some things at Hema and
also bought a wifi printer/scanner thingamajig from Media Markt (the Harvey
Norman of Nederlands). A quick shop at
AH (Albert Heijn) and it was back home - even catching the bus with the same
driver who took us into the city in the morning - cheerful chap! A little wave from him to us as we trudged
off back to our (now warm) apartment.
Yes, while we were out the two huismeisters investigated our cold
radiator and courtesy of a well placed thump with a hammer we walked into a
very warm apartment - remember the building dates from 1931'ish.

Rene made
appointments with several makelaars over the next few days, so we have a full
agenda of viewings. How exciting! We're going to have to be very diligent on
the note taking after every visit because I'm sure we'll start glazing over
after a dozen or more places. They know
we don't want steep, narrow stairs. We'd
like 3+ rooms, at least two toilets and one bathroom, although we did state
that a second badkamer wouldn't be dismissed lightly (very rare here, but they
do exist). Close to transport, not too crowded a street, blah blah blah! I wonder when they show us some offerings how
much they listened. Makelaars and used
car salesmen are of a one kind, and unfortunately I really don't hold them in
very high regard, however I'm prepared to be impressed beyond belief by the
performance of these various makelaars - but I'll tell you about them in
hopefully positive terms later on. I
have to say that our dealings with the rental agency ladies was very positive -
and I might add that they do loads and loads of rentals here in Den Haag - the
place is loaded with itinerants looking for accommodation. On our final visit to the agency a young woman
(I thought was a student) was signing off on her apartment - she was Portuguese
and spoke English almost without accent.
She was here for an internship. I
was amazed she had come straight from the airport with her luggage and found a
place on the spot...alas, no, she had been here twice before (popped over from
London) and had lined it up well in advance.
That's nice if you live close enough, but Brisbane isn't that close
by. Having said that, the people that
bought our house had been flown business class by her employer to Brisbane a
month before coming over to look for a house to rent for the first 12
months. I gather the circles I move in
never have those opportunities.

We decided
to walk up to the local Gal & Gal, a sort of BWS store. Prices of beer and spirits, as well as wine,
seem to be appreciably less than in Oz.
The fun thing is trying the various wines from other countries other
than Australia. Australian wine is
fabulous, and throw in NZ Marleborough whites and you have my idea of wine
heaven BUT in Oz there are not many opportunities to sample wines from other
regions of the world, so we have Spanish and South African wine to polish off
as well as a crate of Heinekin. Rene
also bought some scotch since there was no way with 92kg of luggage we could
manage any duty free purchases on our trip here.

I'm cooking
tonight. No, nothing exotic but at least
it is at home. Rene cooked last night
and it made the sort of gezellig atmosphere so loved by the Dutch. I don't give a damn about TV, but I miss my
internet. Oh, at the hotel I couldn't stream ABC iView because my ip address is
outside Australia, so I'll have to work out how to get an untraceable ip
address that will allow me to see my favourite ABC shows - oh, I can get the
news streamed, but there's lots more I'd like to see to make me feel at home.

....and now
you're up to date with happenings in Den Haag.

PS Just
finished cooking dinner. Discoveries: no
egg flip, serving spoons, wooden spoon (I think Rene deliberately hid them...I
know he loves his beatings) and only two coffee cups. I know we have loads in the container, but I
need to survive these first two months so it's back to Hema tomorrow.

Diary entries

2012-02-18T08:45:00.002+10:00

There will be several diary entries posted starting tomorrow. These were written when we didn't have the net on. I have a spare tablet notebook computer that I bought as an interim 'computer' whilst we transitioned from Australia to our new home. Now the net is on I have bought a whopping large Asus 23.6" screen self contained PC - a little too large for this small living room but will be fine in our new home.

New entries from Nederlands

2012-02-18T08:19:00.002+10:00

Greetings from The Netherlands. 2012 has begun with a massive move from Brisbane to The Hague. Den Haag is quite an international city and Rene and I are slowly settling into the place. I'm moderately familiar with Den Haag but Rene wasn't really at all, so we've both been learning as much as we can by walking (and walking), using trams and buses to explore the city and generally get settled.

The biggest initial part was leaving Brisbane with 92kg of luggage to check in to Virgin Australia - they were kind enough to not charge excess - we were premium economy to Abu Dhabi with them, then Etihad economy to Brussels. Virgin was superb value, great service; however Etihad was totally full - cramped - tres ordinaire!

My sister in law and her husband - Claartje and Jan - were there to meet us and they drove us to our hotel in The Hague. We booked four nights, but we added two more since it was taking ages to find a short term furnished apartment. We moved in on the Saturday after we arrived and it was an effort to settle into a very small 45sqm place after our 300 back in Brisbane.

We have a small kitchen leading off from the living room. A hallway leads to the front door, a toilet and the one and only bedroom. A very good bathroom leads from the bedroom and this has a washing machine and drier. Adequate, and situated on the third floor of a large complex built around 1931. The suburb, Benoordenhout, is very attractive but dull. There isn't a cafe in the whole suburb, due to the wishes of the baroness who sold the land in 1920. We have a bottle shop so all is not lost, but the cafes are elsewhere. We intend buying in one of those areas.

News from Brisbane (at last!)

2011-11-10T17:34:00.002+10:00

Well, just in case you have missed the blog updates since March (no, there haven't been any) I have to tell you that Rene and I are selling our home here in Brisbane and emigrating back to The Netherlands.

We've sold to a Dutch couple (ironic!) from The Hague, which is exactly the city we are moving to at the end of January. We settle here on December 16 then go on a South Pacific holiday and finally depart Brisbane for Europe on January 28.

Rene sold the house himself privately, without an agent, and he feels rightly chuffed about it. It is a beautiful home, and I shall miss it, but we are planning on buying in Den Haag around March next year.

I finish up my job on Dec 2 and I had my last meeting with my network today and they gave me a farewell gift and said lovely things about me (all true haha!).

We still have lots of things happening and loads of quotes to get and bureaucracy to deal with (oh the bureaucracy!).

We will keep our apartment here on the Sunshine Coast (it's already rented permanently) and of course visit often. Tickets to Australia from Europe are considerably less expensive than those bought in Australia heading to Europe. Why is that?

What with removalists to arrange, work to close up, packing to proceed with and of course the Garage Sale of the Century, we have lots to keep us distracted. We are taking our furniture, much of it bespoke, because the last time we left most of it in Nederlands and sold it off or gave it away and it cost a fortune to buy again here.

That's all for now - I plan on picking up relief teacher work in The Hague at my old school and Rene will be looking to get back into his old field of water management and dredging. Last week the UN released a list of the top countries in the world using criteria such as incomes, health, life expectancy, education, happiness etc, and #1 was Norway, a close 2nd was Australia and...3rd was The Netherlands. I might be surrendering the sun, but I am not moving to a difficult country to live in. I'll have to learn better Dutch and also gain a Dutch driving licence after 186 days. I'm sure I can do all that - even learn to be more confident on a bicycle in narrow streets.

More to come later, now that I've resumed after so long. I'm slightly apprehensive about all the things that I/we have to do in the coming weeks, but I'm also excited to be having a change and moving back to the country where I shed a tear or three upon leaving last time two years ago.

Oh, I have a cousin from London arriving around Christmas so we'll have some fun then and welcome Rachel and her family to Brisbane and Queensland, which will always be my spiritual home.

Do I have to dwell on the disasters du jour?

2011-03-19T16:25:00.003+10:00

2011 has not been a very good year to date.

That's called 'understatement'.

It has been an appalling year thus far, with all sorts of natural disasters impacting on my psyche.

It began with rain - loads of the bloody stuff! As I type this Saturday afternoon it is raining yet again, but in some parts of northern Australia it has not really stopped for months! They're measuring it in metres now, and even the hardened folk who are used to living in the Tropics have been saying, "enough's enough!"

Prince William is touring devastated communities this very moment; giving some media attention to the plight of these poor people BUT when you compare disasters, SO many people in many, many places are suffering and enduring unbearable losses and challenges YET one knows that most will overcome this setback and rebuild, as humankind has done since time began.

Japan is huge in my mind at present simply because of the enormity and complexity of the devastation. But we have had Christchurch suffering another, even more powerful, earthquake (6.3) that has made the one from last year (7.1) seem almost inconsequential. Having just come back from there, I felt incredibly connected and concerned - almost as if it had happened here in Australia. We've had communities in our beautiful state of Queensland still not yet able to rebuild after a cyclone and flooding, and yet even more incessant deluges from the heavens. The inland tsunami that wrecked the Lockyer Valley communities just west of us here on the very day we returned from Christchurch was appalling, yet the vision from Japan a week ago was even more horrifying, creating even more cataclysmic chaos on a scale I have never seen before.

This picture (above) epitomises the current situation in Japan. There are thousands of images from Japan in the last week that I could have placed here, but this child - arms up in the air as if surrendering - sums up the helplessness of the population at large around Sendai in the north.

I have reduced confidence in Japanese institutions like TEPCO to handle the truth, the whole truth and nothing but... This is why everybody of note in international organisations are in Japan now seeing first hand what is happening regarding the atomic power station because these institutions have been found out on many previous occasions fabricating results or just plainly misleading both regulatory authorities and government. Even the Japanese PM has been frustrated about hearing of developments through the media and not directly from the company. It stands at Level 5 (equal to Three Mile Island) - let's hope the number doesn't go higher.

(from Bloomberg March 18)

Accurate and timely information from Tokyo Electric Power Co. about the accident at its nuclear plant in northern Japan has been hard to come by.

About 60 reporters at a March 16 briefing with utility officials wanted to know whether helicopters would dump seawater on reactors at the Dai-Ichi station to prevent a meltdown. The company was considering the plan, said Masahisa Otsuki, head of the nuclear maintenance division.

At the same time, a live broadcast on a nearby TV screen showed a helicopter taking off with a massive bucket of water hanging from its belly. Reporters barraged the officials.

“We are sorry,” a spokesman said. “We need to check on this.”

Prime Minister Naoto Kan was so frustrated March 15 by a delay in informing him of a fire in reactor No. 1 that he asked utility officials, “What the hell is going on?,” several news agencies reported.

Neighboring China, worried about the spread of radiation from damaged reactors, urged Japan to keep the world fully informed of its efforts and to provide timely and accurate information, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

‘Confusing Situation’
“It’s a confusing situation, and we’re not getting consistent reports out of Japan,” said Gerry Thomas, professor of molecular pathology at London’s Imperial College who has studied the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster. “There is an awful lot of misinformation, I think, being put out.”

On March 16, spokesmen for Asia’s biggest utility, also known as Tepco, appeared to indicate that the containment vessel of reactor No. 3 was breached, citing a fire and a surge in radiation as evidence. They later backtracked after no breach was found.

They also told reporters that smoke was coming out of reactor No. 4, then later corrected that to reactor No. 3.

My thoughts are with those hundreds of thousands of displaced Japanese who have to stay and call it 'home'. Last I saw it was snowing and -2C and people were hungry and cold. I think I'm taking on too much writing about their plight...

(Picture above of a petrol tanker caught on a windy road heading towards Lyttleton during the Christchurch earthquake - note the change in the roadway's edge - the driver couldn't go forwards or backwards.)

A few thoughts about Christchurch: New Zealand feels like family to me; like those cousins you rarely see but are aware of what they are doing even if you don't chat all that often (much less visit). The once grand city of Christchurch was severely damaged with a third of its CBD to be demolished and a sixth of its population of 360 000 already departed, maybe never to return. The whole Canterbury Region is also affected thus spreading the pain, and everyone here in Australia has a Kiwi connection of some kind thus making this disaster more personal. The senior high school geography lesson that mentioned 'liquefaction' is a distant memory, but on February 22nd streets in the city turned to grey, sandy mush - and water flooded homes and businesses, in some cases creating whirlpools of unstable soil. There is a possibility that some areas of suburban Christchurch (even the CBD) may not be able to be rebuilt on. (definition of liquefaction is at the end of this entry for those who - like myself - have forgotten their schooling from more than 40 years ago).

The Roman Catholic Cathedral will be rebuilt and saved. There won't be many others - all are condemned to be demolished - one third of the CBD (central business district).

The landmark Anglican Cathedral in Cathedral Square will also be rebuilt and saved. Rene and I celebrated New Year 2011 in this square just two and a half months ago, and the bells from the once grand spire rang out welcoming the New Year whilst fireworks exploded in the night air. It will do so yet again - just not for a while.

Another geography lesson came to mind during this event. A 30 million tonne iceberg 'calved' from a glacier in NZ. Now there's something you don't see everyday! I think from memory it later rolled further and the blue parts went below the water level. Nature in all its glory.

If you call Sendai home, or Christchurch, let alone Grantham in the Lockyer Valley, your world will never ever be the same again. Yes, here in Brisbane and dozens of Queensland towns, water invaded homes and disrupted lives to an enormous extent yet almost without loss of life. In the three disasters mentioned above tens, hundreds and even thousands of lives have been lost and as a result families will rebuild with grief as a constant companion. My thoughts are with them - I know I am extremely fortunate to be safe.

The picture (above) is a reminder of the volunteer job I have being an Airport Ambassador. During the floods we all helped the Brisbane Airport assist passengers arriving from overseas or departing during a time of upheaval. We have assisted passengers escaping Christchurch by making their progress through the airport a little easier (and always with a smile). We have seen teams of police and emergency crews leaving for North Queensland and New Zealand
and directed overseas people arriving to assist us here. As I saw the vision of Sendai Airport being swamped by the tsunami last week I was reminded of just how valuable an asset an airport is. It is often something people take for granted, but when nursing homes were evacuated from up north during the cyclone, the patients arrived by military aircraft at our civilian airport and were processed in a temporary set of marquees on the edge of the runway. As I directed a passenger this morning to the airport train station directly from her arriving international flight, her comment was, "we don't have a train at Melbourne Airport". Our transport access to Brisbane Airport is first rate now with new roads opened and bottlenecks removed by flyovers etc.

OK, enough gloom! I can tell you a few things we have been doing lately. We have been to see a touring Dutch theatre group in a production of 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' (part of the WTF World Theatre Festival) which was about three animals sharing a home. The three Dutch actors spoke in English, and it used multimedia visuals to do the speaking whilst they were the animals. After ten minutes I understood who was who, but it was a challenge to get into it at first. Very good! So was Lily Tomlin, who we saw on a weeknight as part of the Brisbane Comedy Festival - she began at 9 and finished at 10:50 and at the age of 73 she had lost none of her wit and her insightful humour. I just wish I could remember her one liners - they were brilliant! There were just too many to remember. I saw 'Wicked' at last on Thursday night (it was postponed from the floods and our seats this time were even better than the previous booking). 'Defying Gravity' and 'Popular' were my favourite songs. Excellent in every respect. I went with five of my friends, but Rene stayed home - he hates musicals. His loss...

Last Wednesday evening I went with a friend to see a free preview screening of 'Biutiful' starring Javier Bardem. Very dark and gloomy (quite Spanish) set in a Barcelona I've never visited. Excellent film, but Kit and I needed a damned good laugh afterwards. Phew!

I'm leaving the best news till last. My dear friend Di has had open heart surgery and come away from it quite well. A leaky valve was found to be torn and relatively easily repaired in a 2.5 hour operation instead of a 4 hour one if it had needed replacing. She was home in twelve days and will have to take life easy for around three months. Her husband, Torquil, has taken a month off work and I've taken on two of his three schools for ESL work.

That's about all for now. Four weeks until the end of term and our trip to Auckland. I still can't quite believe how the year has rocketed by; but with work, a busy social life plus the news dominating daily life one can hardly expect it to be any different.

Until next time.

(High school geography revisited - a definition of 'liquefaction')
Liquefaction is the name given to the process that converts a solid soil mass into a liquid.

Liquefaction occurs in cohesionless soils (typically those with a higher content of larger grains such as sand sized clasts) which have water in the pore spaces, and are poorly drained.

When the seismic waves from the earthquake pass through the soil, the vibrations cause the individual grains in the soil to move around and re-adjust their positions. This ultimately results in a decrease in volume of the soil mass as the grains pack more tightly together (a reduction in porosity).

The pore water which was originally in those spaces becomes compressed. Water is relatively incompressible and as such it pushes back against the soil grains (more correctly this is described as an increase in pore water pressure). The pore pressure becomes so high, that the soil grains become almost buoyant causing a significant drop in the shear strength of the soil to a very low value.

When this occurs the soil loses it's ability to support loads (technically described as a loss of bearing capacity) which can cause subsidence of building foundations.

Our recent visit to the South Island NZ

2011-02-07T17:44:00.004+10:00

We returned four weeks ago to the news of Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley both experiencing deadly flash flooding. Recounting events of our holiday seemed a trifle unimportant then, and only now do I feel ready to tell about our truly wonderful visit to New Zealand's South Island to celebrate our first wedding anniversary.

It began in Christchurch, the city that experienced the 7.1 magnitude earthquake last September. We concentrated for 12 nights on the lower half of the island driving in a clockwise direction, keeping the most spectacular vistas of the west coast as our finale. The first two nights were spent in a delightful B&B in a vineyard just 20 minutes west of the city. There Robbert (a Dutchman) and his partner Scott looked after us, even providing a lovely dinner on the second evening - our actual wedding anniversary. They also provided a taste of the earthquake with a 4.3 aftershock and a 3.5 a minute later on our last morning there to let us have the merest small taste of what they had experienced for 40 very long seconds. Damned scary!

Lunch on the first day was at the Langdale Vineyard restaurant nearby. They were closed for a private function, but after a while they said they could do up a platter to share. When it arrived I had to take a photo of it. Delicious! Oh, the Langdale Rose was really lovely too, but it actually came from the neighbouring vineyard and had the Langdale name on it.

After lunch we drove to the coast north of Christchurch and found the beaches littered with masses of piled up timber from trees along the two rivers north and south of here that had been in flood the week before. The timber was flushed out to sea then deposited back by subsequent tides. This was the root system of a tree, notice the beautiful stones embedded in the roots as it grew alongside the river.

You can take a punt in Christchurch. The city is very English, as opposed to Dunedin further south which is very Scottish.

It was a bit ghoulish to photograph earthquake damage, so I limited the number, but this was a church near to our hotel - one of many to be repaired later. Lots of cleared building sites were in evidence too.

The university had some damage, like the tower pictured to the right of the entrance. It was lifted off the base (left of the entrance) before it collapsed and was decorated like a Christmas tree.

Below - looking towards Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. It was the site of an early attempt by the French to settle here.

The pohutukawa, the New Zealand Christmas tree, flowers in November and December and was in abundance everywhere you looked. I remember outside the New Zealand pavilion at Expo in Shanghai they had an enormous one positioned where visitors left the long walk through gardens stretching down the pavilion's roof. It was a magnificent specimen, but it was fake. Clever Kiwis!

Driving south of Christchurch we came across the Moeraki Boulders, 60 million year old septarian concretions. It was high tide on a rather murky afternoon. In NZ you can have four seasons in one day, and this was one of those days.

More beautiful scenery - just hundreds of calendar moments dotted along the coastline.

Wildlife is in abundance, and one day we saw blue penguins, fur seals, yellow eyed penguins and albatrosses in settings so beautiful and rugged as to be truly memorable.

You may have to click on the picture below to see the adults and pups on the rocks.

We're standing with the city of Dunedin in the background. We were told that 63 cruise ships will call into Dunedin during 2011.

The architecture is very Scottish. Below is Otago Boys High School.

Here we have the Flemish styled Dunedin station opposite the law courts.

The city is littered with attractive British styled churches. It is quite remarkable to see.

The walk (below) is down to Tunnel Beach. It was stunning, but so was the walk back up. Rene took it in his stride whereas yours truly... well, you can guess how I performed.

We had one night on a farm stay B&B, and we had a tour in the afternoon to see the Charolais cattle, the sheep plus the pigs. Dinner that night was created by our guide, Rob, and we dined on local pork sausage and venison. He was a great bloke, and we would like to visit again one day.

This lighthouse is facing due south - next stop Antarctica. Bracing wind made for an interesting walk up to the light. Incredibly rugged coast, typical of the south of NZ.

Wild water rushing everywhere - along creek beds, river beds and down mountainsides.

This lake, like many dozens here, is really this blue due to the sediment from glaciers suspended in the water. We took dozens of pictures of blue lakes everywhere on the west coast.

We only stopped for lunch in Queenstown. It is the centre of snow skiing for most of the year and in summer is still a magnet to tourists.

Fiordland is the home to Milford Sound. This place is truly spectacular with is near vertical sides, massive falls and deep water. While we were here we also had rain, showers and misty sunshine as well as this sunshine at the start. My favourite day of the trip (I think - I really liked it all).

This was taken on the way back to Te Anau, the place where we spent two nights. Gorgeous! I was half expecting Julie Andrews to appear in the photo declaring 'The hills are alive..."

This could well be in Europe, couldn't it? But no, it's 100% Pure New Zealand!

One of the two glaciers we visited, but Fox Glacier was closed to visitors due to extreme wet weather the previous week, so we went half an hour away to Franz Josef Glacier, where we walked right up to the base. Superb experience!

Me on the way back to Christchurch after having crossed Arthur's Pass. More awesome scenery! I deliberately left the word 'awesome' to the end because it is a much watered down word today where its overuse often makes me want to scream. But here, at the conclusion of our visit, I can only use one word to describe this magnificent South Island. Awesome!

Ditch Hopping Yet Again!

2011-02-07T15:43:00.004+10:00

Just back four weeks from NZ and we have already booked a return trip at Easter, this time to Auckland and the North Island. China Airlines have just launched an extension three days a week from their Taipei-Brisbane run to include Auckland, and at a ridiculously low fare. I told my sister in law, who then also booked flights across the Ditch. Steve and Adele are going for 7 nights, but Rene and I are just going for 4. We'll jointly have two nights in Auckland and two nights on the Coromandel Peninsula just 90 minutes south east of the city. Easter merges with Anzac Day this year, so the period Good Friday to the following Tuesday are public holidays.

Logistics and infrastructure.

2011-02-07T15:23:00.003+10:00

Whilst there's always room for improvement, I've been really impressed at how the various emergency organisations and the military have cooperated in putting well rehearsed plans into operation during the various emergencies that have beset this entire country lately. Katrina's death toll was around 1800 and thus far ours is less than 40.

Let's not forget the truckies and food organisations that have reduced the impact of empty shelves in our shops. Here in Nundah we did without fresh milk for three days and bread for two. Some fruit and vegetables are still out of stock, but in the main all companies have worked extra hard to minimise the impact of consumers. We are among the very fortunate Queenslanders who have not been directly impacted by the catastrophic events of the past couple of months. Many tens of thousands at this point in time are without a home, power and in some cases family and friends. They say devastating events play out in three monthly cycles - if not immediately then at some stage later. The mental health of many people will have been jarred to some extent. One hopes the services are there for them when they need help.

Many country communities are struggling though, since entire districts have been affected by floods and residual water still around a month later. One shire had 80% of roads and bridges washed away, whilst others have been without power for a long time. I took the time to mention how impressed I was with the shelves at the local supermarket and the manager was surprised by my comment but pleased. He said that they had been working extremely hard, and will continue to work hard every hour of the day to provide what we all come to expect as a matter of course when we step into a store. What an incredible country we are so lucky to live in.

Breaking News! Monday Feb 7...

2011-02-07T15:18:00.002+10:00

Would you believe just four weeks since the fatal flash floods swept through Toowoomba, the city was hit yet again with a smaller flash flood this morning. Between 6:30am and 7:30am today the city recorded 64mm of rain (around 2.5").

The story of two cyclones...

2011-02-07T14:49:00.004+10:00

...one small, and the other truly enormous! As the state still recovers from the massive floods last month, three weeks later the north and far north of the state gets hit by Cyclone Anthony - not extremely large - and a few days later Cyclone Yasi, reported to be the largest cyclone ever recorded in Australia.

The Premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh, surveys the sea front of Cardwell - or what was left of it. She's accompanied by the Federal Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister, Wayne Swan, who is our local Federal MP.

This image is of Yasi superimposed on Europe. Winds of up to 300kmh, tidal surges, along with flooding rainfalls all combined to create havoc for our northern neighbours. One person has died in the whole area - due to suffocating from the fumes of a diesel generator operating inside the building and not outside.

Yasi on top of the USA - it was an immense cyclone by any one's standards.

The Senior Citizens Centre in Tully (below) was the designated refuge for the area, but the supervisor (pictured) closed it when she realised the storm would be so very intense. Just as well she got them out and into a safer place.

The day after, these Tully folk - all from one family, plus some friends - pausing during the repairs to the family home.

Port Hinchinbrook was home to millions of dollars worth of boats - now all wrecked and tossed around. Note the buildings which are new and built to withstand the Category 5 (highest rating) cyclone. They appear to have come through this event moderately undamaged (except for a few windows etc).

Another victim of the weather is the farmer, who not only has had their home battered but also their livelihood seriously impaired for at least a year. A significant percentage of the banana crops were ruined - and this region is our major supplier.

After the peak has passed...

2011-01-18T15:36:00.007+10:00

Brisbane is still enduring the effects of a devastating flood; and along with nearby Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley, 80% of our state of Queensland has been declared a natural disaster zone. That is an area of 1 000 000 square kilometres, or the area of France and Germany combined. For those of you who know about Hurricane Katrina in the USA two years ago, that covered an area of 230 000 sq km. In addition large tracts of New South Wales and Victoria are also under threat from floods right now, so you could be looking at an area almost the size of Western Europe - unbelievable!

This gives you a little idea, but you have to understand that the Brisbane River is a delta river and meanders along towards the bay and ocean. We are the only Australian capital city with such a river.
The photo above I took, and it shows some of the many, many train sets 'parked' along high tracks that wouldn't get flooded. They stayed there for three days. There were dozens and dozens of three car trains nose to nose along every secure track in Brisbane, guarded 24/7.

The town house of a friend went under up to the steps into the first floor, but the basement plus his things in storage went under. He only arrived back from the UK that morning as the waters were inundating the city. It is just at the bottom of the long white roof, towards the left. He was very fortunate it went no further.

This lovely home featured in my last blog before Christmas. It went under - somewhere in the picture below. It is three blocks back from the river, but it went up to the third shelf in the kitchen cupboards. An army of friends and family plus other unknown volunteers swung into action to help clean up the mess and dump dishwashers and stoves etc onto the footpaths. We had plans to go as a second wave to relieve tired cleaners, but it was truly impossible to enter the area by car - the streets were a veritable car park - so we stayed put high and dry in our home.

The pictures are all a day old, so the peak had been past and the river was slowly receding, but the thick mud and the smell was still very fresh indeed. I have a link, but you'll have to copy and paste in your browser, of the floods across Brisbane from the air. The house mentioned above is in the middle, but you can scroll up and across to see other areas too. Quite fascinating: http://www.nearmap.com/?q=crowthers@-27.5071699,153.0202623&ll=-27.50709,153.020334&z=21&t=k&nmd=20110113

Other parts of the state had floods before the New Year, and Condamine has gone through its third inundation (with consequent evacuations) and Dalby just past Toowoomba to the west has had five - YES, FIVE floods - and at the moment that seems to be it, but we're only at the beginning of the season for rains and who knows what will be next? I know there are no more records to be broken for coldest this, wettest that, hottest this and so on...Mother Nature has thrown it all at us this past few months, but we will endure and learn from all of this.

The picture (above) is of the runway at Rockhampton Airport, now closed for two weeks and due to reopen next Monday (24th). They have been doing it really tough in Central Queensland too, and it's hard to keep all the disasters in mind as you live with the local one that seems to consume one, yet you have to remember those other communities doing it tough. Some have lived without power for three weeks so far and food drops.

Rene and I arrived back last Monday from NZ to the news of a wall of water hitting first Toowoomba, then the communities in the Lockyer Valley between Toowoomba and Brisbane. Toowoomba is my old home town, and it is 700m above sea level. At 3pm last Monday the incessant rain got heavier suddenly, and a wall of water swept through the city centre washing cars and people away. There a mother and son died - just out that afternoon shopping for school clothes and books for the return to school this coming week.

This massive downpour of over 1 hour also drenched the ranges leading down to the valley floor below, and thus an 8m high wall of water descended upon an unsuspecting series of communities washing away not only homes and crops but also the people huddled inside the homes - there was no warning! Nothing in recorded history had ever happened like this before, and the valley was settled for farming 150 years ago. 18 died there, and a further 27 are still missing, but sadly they are dead - just not found. I had a first hand report of a mother wearing just a gold bracelet on her arm, nothing else. She was alive, but her husband and two children were washed away and still missing.

This week I read of Sri Lanka and Brazil having equally tragic floods, with many more deaths and of course the economic cost associated with them. This is not a competition for most bodies or most cost - all are tragedies - but this is personal, here in Queensland and the rest of Australia, and I can tell you nearly a week later 10 000 homes will probably never be habitable again, 7000 businesses are without power, 27 000 homes have no power yet. Five towers in the Brisbane CBD still are without power, and this afternoon three towers lost power again and workers sent home. Our leading hotel, the Stamford Plaza, is still closed, and many basements are full of water and mud.

As I type, a severe storm is happening across our region, so there could be more fun and games, but also there's a chance some heavy rain might wash away some extra layers of mud.

(edit - just ran downstairs and retrieved washing from the line - I was so engrossed in writing this blog that I didn't notice it very dark and threatening - saved it all except for a few spots)

I just can't convey the enormity of the tragedy in the Lockyer Valley and Toowoomba. We have lost streets and properties to the water, but nothing like the walls of water that swept people away last Monday. The world has seen it on their local TV news plus BBC World and CNN - hence the flood of emails and calls from around Australia and the world (thanks, we appreciated your concern). Rene and I are high and dry, and our local creek that has on occasions flooded did not go beyond its banks this time because the rain stopped at 5pm Tuesday - it isn't connected to the river in any way. The rain stopped, our creek subsided, so that on Wednesday morning as houses began going under along the river in Ipswich and Brisbane we looked out to a very low creek indeed.

It was very sudden in Toowomba and the Lockyer valley, almost without warning.

Another family out shopping when the wall of water hit. I met a family from Grantham in Lincolnshire (UK) Sunday morning at the airport heading back home and they had been in the Toowoomba Coffee Club 10 minutes prior to the flood - their meter was expiring, so after debating to move the car and stay or go back to their relative's home, they decided since it was raining they'd drive off - five minutes before the wall of water swept through the city centre. How lucky!

The Coffee Club is upper left of the intersection (above). Amazing film features on You Tube.

There is a weird feeling of guilt in my mind as I think how lucky we are and how unfortunate others are, yet we have to go on and assist in the recovery of the state. Estimates so far are of a bill for A$20b, mostly borne by the Federal Government. The insurance industry is in for a major hit too, with many expensive residences along the river here in Brisbane suffering very expensive damage. Everyone affected was given $1000 per adult and $400 per child by the Federal Government to cover immediate incidentals, and that was immediately available to applicants the next day. Mobile banks set up at evacuation centres, and the defence force immediately had troops and equipment deployed to the various regions as events unfolded over the last three weeks. Our Premier, not exactly the most popular politician in the state, has been lauded for her performance as the crisis unfolded. No end of people have said to me of their surprise and pleasure in being able to commend her. All of our agencies have worked together in a fantastic way up to now, but the true test will be in the long term because this isn't going to be cleaned up inside of a month or two - this will take easily two years or more to be fully rebuilt and operational.

Here in Nundah were without milk for three days and bread for two - bloody lucky! Some poor sods in the centre of the state are likely to need food drops for weeks ahead, but at least the major roads are open again to trucks. Fruit and veggies will be short for quite some time, but I've been absolutely amazed at how the logistics to supply food in an emergency have swung into operation - most impressed! Example would be the main Rocklea Markets which is central in distribution of fruit and vegetables across the state, and it was totally submerged, yet yesterday reopened (well, three quarters of it did).

I went to the airport after a call went out for Ambassadors to come and assist the overrun information desk at International. Four of us turned up on Wednesday, and five on Thursday - although we eventually sent two home because it was less intense by then. There were 150 pax camped in International and 250 at Domestic. Many were evacuated from their City accommodation, many back packers too, and they made it to the airport because they thought it might close. Well, there was no way it was closing or close to it, but they were happy to be there. Getting to the airport was difficult too, because roads were blocked and transport running erratically, or not at all. It was rewarding to help there and to assist very confused pax who were, in some cases, totally unaware of what was happening in Brisbane, and the rest of the state. One example was a French couple with no English who had transport booked to the city and a hotel, but couldn't understand why it wasn't happening, and our regular French speaker was not working that night (helping in the floods) so we employed a translation service to assist. Others working on a remote Pacific island building a school returned with only the rumours from the plane, and I know how limiting that can be because we returned from NZ to be told by the taxi driver of the Toowoomba flood, and I couldn't comprehend the details at all.

That's enough! I hope this has filled you in a little. I know it's a bit wordy, but it has been good to sit down and write this account.

Next time I'll write something on our brilliant trip to New Zealand. It was marvellous! I'll also mention my cousin Rachel who will be visiting us next summer with her family. Exciting news!

Just some extra news (which appears here first - go figure!)

2010-12-28T14:00:00.003+10:00

This building is going to be built in Sydney for a university and is already nicknamed 'The Treehouse'. What a stunningly organic design. The following link gives you more detail. http://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/article/Frank-Gehry-unveils-his-Sydney-tree-house/526653.aspx

The second week of the vacation I was having lunch at Sandgate with friends when the most amazing storm hit Brisbane. We have had records broken all over the place regarding this year's cold, heat and rainfall.

The Aussie dollar is again at parity with the Greenback. As we head off to NZ tomorrow, the Aussie $1 is NZD 1.35 - this exchange rate is both good and bad for this country. We'll treat it for the next fortnight as good for us.

My Malaysian friend Malar is experiencing her dream Christmas - in Paris with kids and snow. The Trocadero looks wonderful - unless you actually want to go anywhere!

My favourite incredible picture of the year - in Guatamala - a huge sink hole in the middle of the city. Unbelievable!

Beetles mating (what will Grandpa think?).

Our friends, Frank and Edwina, have their beautiful home featured on the web page of an architecture company. They had their Fairfield home renovated and extended, and this was the main part of the result. Most impressive.

Don't bother reading this Peter - it's about the weather!

2010-12-28T13:43:00.003+10:00

Everyone has been surprised by the amount of cold weather in Western Europe, including the locals. I hear first hand from passengers who arrive back after having great inconvenience from the unusually brutal cold weather. This London scene (below) features the famous iconic double decker. At the bottom of this post there's detail of the new replacement double decker due out in time for the London Olympics. Very smart indeed!

A Malaysian teaching colleague has ventured to Europe with her family to enjoy a white Christmas, plus the markets. This, below, was Frankfurt this year. Malar has her dream fulfilled! Exquisitely pretty - but bloody cold!

Even Florence (below) didn't escape the chill. It looks brilliant, though, and reminds me of January this year when Rene and I had snow in Seville for the first time in 54 years - not a traditional scene.

A very 21st Century look for the iconic London bus. Love the way light gets into the stairwells now.

More news from Brisbane...

2010-12-28T13:02:00.001+10:00

I don't like Christmas - at all! Not news to my friends and followers, but I have to tell you that it was quite enjoyable this year because it involved loads of dinners at friends' homes and in restaurants plus lots of entertaining in our home. Rene and I have been dining out for the past four weeks with a quite full diary of engagements. There are so very many I can't start to mention them all, but thanks to one and all here in Brisbane for making the season truly remarkable.

Christmas Day was spent doing what I love best - working at the airport as a volunteer. From 7-11am I smiled at hundreds of tired faces, greeted smiling children and ho ho hoed my way through the morning. I raced home and changed, then with Rene we drove across to Capalaba to have lunch with my nephew and his partner. There were folk from both families, and that allowed me to meet a lot of new people as well as my brother Stephen's large extended family. We retired to the quiet of home and an evening of television.

On Christmas Eve we had dinner and drinks at my friends of some 35+ years, Di and Torquil. Their daughter (my god daughter) Amy had left for Wales at the weekend and had taken five days to get there, with two nights in Larnaca, Cyprus, as the flight tried to get to London Heathrow. Even after finally arriving they couldn't get the family from Wales to pick them up, plus the bus booked to replace the pickup couldn't be taken, and there was nowhere for Amy, her partner Alex and baby son Gruff to stay at LHR, so they hired a car and drove to Newport where they stayed with friends of Alex until the rest of his family finally fought their way down the valley to pick them up the following day. All in all it was a memorable trip for them.

Sadly, it has taken this disaster at Heathrow to wake up the operator (Spanish owned) BAA to invest some serious money in snow clearing equipment. Penny pinching by BAA to create extra dividends for shareholders meant something like and extra GBP 570 000 was spent this year following last year's heavy snow. Gatwick spent nearly GBP 10m. Guess which airport coped better? This is the same company (BAA) that failed to heed advice to train all operators at the new T5 - instead deciding, along with BA, to merely train 10% of staff, and they'd train the others. We all know what an unmitigated disaster that was! Yet for 6 months prior the baggage handling system worked faultlessly, yet on opening day ground staff hadn't even been issued with parking permits for the new T5 space, therefore traipsed back to old car parks and got to the terminal too late for the start of the build up of baggage to start piling up. Why? BAA and BA saved money by not training everyone first. I'm sure the Spanish owners lost a lot from that debacle. This recent one will only add to that - how on earth does LHR (let alone Brussels) run out of deicing fluid?

Boxing Day for us was quieter, and I repeated my shift at the airport - this time on departures - but I was quite tired this day. After the first couple of hours I really felt flat, but I still managed to smile a lot and assist, but i was glad when it finished. Rene and I both had an hour's snooze after lunch then drove across town to our American friends Polly and Kit where we had coffee, cake, and later a lovely glass of wine.

It is one year since we arrived in The Netherlands to get married. This Thursday is the first anniversary, and unlike the snowy picture above, we will spend it in a vineyard ensconced within an A frame cottage - the B & B sounds brilliant - there will be photos in the next update. The vineyard is just west of Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand. We leave tomorrow morning. Whilst there, we will spend New Year's Eve in Christchurch welcoming in the earliest New Year's Day in the world - NZ is exactly 12 hours ahead of GMT, 3 hours ahead of Brisbane.

Happy New Year

2010-12-28T12:33:00.005+10:00

This snowy mountain top may appear to be from the northern hemisphere, but it is in fact the top of Mount Wellington, Hobart, the state capital of Tasmania. It was -3C on Boxing Day, and stayed this way most of the day. Down below at sea level the city of Hobart was around 15 - still bloomin' cold!

This photo (above) was taken two weeks ago during a bout of bad weather in the Central Highlands of NSW. This was at the start of summer in Australia this year. A friend mentioned yesterday that I always seem to harp on about the weather in my blog, and I guess I'm reinforcing that conception yet again this post. It really fascinates me.

These are the two new silk doonas I brought back from Shanghai. They are a lovely weight and very sensual to sleep under. This was the first time we put them on the bed, with both pillows having silk covers. Since the first time, we have a silk cover on the top pillow and a regular pillowslip on the lower for actually putting your head on - much nicer (they were too slippery for our taste). Clicking on all three pictures gives greater detail.

This is all for now. A memorable month. I'm looking forward to a bit of a rest in New Zealand, but I'm not counting on it - I love touring and seeing new places and meeting new people.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM OWEN AND RENE.

The Social Network

2010-12-01T07:29:00.002+10:00

I forgot to mention in the last post seeing 'The Social Network' with Rene at the Dendy, Portside. It was some ten days ago, but it still sticks clearly in my mind. A very interesting film full of people I'd rather not meet in real life. The lead character (all are real people portrayed in this movie) is autistic, and although never mentioned by name, this characteristic pervades his reaction to what's happening around him and the way he interacts with others. I'm assuming the events and characters are portrayed quite realistically, and if so it must have been surreal seeing oneself played in a film that starts around 2003. Please see it, you won't be disappointed.

One week until the summer vacation!

2010-11-28T20:44:00.006+10:00

Here in Australia summer is upon us, whereas in Europe winter is very evident indeed. The picture below is from the south of The Netherlands, Son, and is of the back garden of Rene's sister. We were there nearly a year ago in the snow. I suspect snow might be somewhat warmer than just frost and ice. This was Saturday afternoon.

Here in Brisbane we have had the most unusual weather, with persistent showers for days and days. In recent years it would have been very hot, but like today, a minimum of 19 and a max of 26/27 is quite typical of the past couple of months. We've already clocked up the wettest September/October in 38 years. I still prefer our weather to Europe's.

The once every two years Ashes Test series is on again, and Brisbane is hosting the first test match. If you don't know, it's cricket, and the Holy Grail of cricket is contested every two years with the two countries taking turns. Each match lasts five days, there are five 5 day Tests, and fans queue from before 7am to enter the grounds and prepare for the 10am start. Rene drove past 'The Gabba' last Thursday at 6:30am and the first fans of 40 000 were lining up to enter the grounds nicknamed 'The Gabbatoir'.

The airport has handled thousands of fans for The Ashes plus this weekend 5000 Schoolies (students who have finished Year 12 high school) flying into Queensland for the annual rite of passage. Most head towards the Gold Coast. Yesterday they were like lambs, probably because they'd got up really early to get to the airport in Sydney or Melbourne before jetting north to us. Needless to say Brisbane Airport is increasing passenger numbers every month - great for Brisbane, even greater for the Queensland economy.

Catholic schools finish the year a week earlier than state schools. I finish on Thursday for around seven weeks. I'll continue doing volunteer shifts at the airport because that is enjoyable, but I want to get stuck into a very overgrown and weedy garden. The incredible amounts of regular rain have ensured that much of what was planted less than two years ago needs a very, very heavy pruning and shaping.

To break up the vacation Rene and I are heading to the South Island of New Zealand for our first anniversary. We fly into Christchurch, the centre of a 7.1 earthquake last September, for two nights at a B&B just west of Christchurch, located in the middle of a vineyard. Nearby is the Langdale Winery where we are to have lunch on our anniversary day (30th). That evening we dine with the hosts. On New Year's Eve we move back into Christchurch for the evening's big concert in Cathedral Square followed by fireworks. We are staying at the Crowne Plaza, the largest hotel in the city and easily escaped damage in the earthquake. New Zealand builds to take into consideration its nickname of 'the shaky isles'.

We have a further eight nights to fill in, but we have a hire car from Day 1 and can go anywhere. I know that we'd like to go to Milford Sound, the Franz Josef Glacier plus the cities of Dunedin and Invercargill.
Rene is planning the last nights, so it should be exciting since he's been there before, but I never have. I've been twice to the North Island, but everyone says the South Island (or Middle Earth as it has become known) is like the whole of the world's seriously impressive scenery rolled into one place. Can't wait!

This final week is crazy - Tuesday night is trivia and dinner (as usual), Wednesday is the Dutch Alumni Christmas Dinner at Portside, Thursday night we're at the Greek Club for a 3 course dinner, Greek cooking lessons, dancing lessons plus ouzo. Friday I dine with one of my schools at a favourite restaurant of mine for lunch, and Friday evening cake and coffee at a friends home. No doubt next weekend will be busy, like this one, where I did a long shift at the airport and today we had lunch out at Sandgate and drinks at a new watering hole there - the old Sandgate post office, now a lovely bar and grille.

I have not mentioned the tragedy of the lost miners of New Zealand, the Royal nuptials announced this week, same sex marriage law crawling towards some positive resolution hopefully soon or the delightful opportunity to meet up with a friend who has gone to San Francisco to marry and set up home with her new husband. I haven't even mentioned that a family of dear friends who go to Europe every year for three months in their motor home kept in England have returned with joyous tales of their travels.

Finally, dear Rene joins me in loathing the season of joy soon to be upon us. As a counter to this, I purchased two spare tickets from friends to join them at the Concert Hall on December 11 to enjoy 'The Spirit of Christmas'. Rene was playing the poker machines when I was offered the seats, so he wasn't consulted. He was somewhat surprised when I told him upon his return. The Queensland Symphony Orchestra, choirs and singers will force feed us both for a couple of hours. I intend to ply the Dutchman with plenty of spirit before the event. He'll be 'ho, ho, hoing' throughout the night - and so will I.

2011 visitors

2010-11-05T21:31:00.003+10:00

NEWSFLASH Rene and I have been invited to join his Dutch sister Claartje and her husband Jan on Straddie in October next year to celebrate their third anniversary at the restaurant, Amis, where they had their reception in 2008. Seriously exciting news! That bouquet was thrown into the sea as they left Straddie last time as a gesture to encourage their return to the island. We look forward to it happening.

School wins $30 000!

2010-11-05T21:19:00.002+10:00

One of my schools, Mary Immaculate at Annerley, won a state wide competition for staffroom improvements run by the Queensland Teachers Credit Union. There were over 1170 schools entered, and 60 000 votes cast. It was done on line. We got not only our small community (only 127 children) of parents to vote, but by the driving force of one tenacious staff member (bless you Sharon!) we garnered help from many other sources too, including a Face book campaign. One person got her sister, a uni lecturer, to have each member of her class vote on their laptops prior to the lecture beginning, and I requested help from all 95 Airport Ambassadors. You could vote as often as you liked, but only from the one address, and I have three email addresses, so I voted three times. Anyway, last Friday we were announced as winners on World Teachers Day and have been excitedly suggesting just what we can do with the money. http://www.srfi.com.au

Ollie from Hong Kong

2010-11-05T20:56:00.002+10:00

I recently had Ollie, from HK, join me for a shift on Arrivals at International. She is finishing a Masters here in Brisbane involving tourism and administration, and was the most lovely person to work with. It was terrific having her on hand to help with Cantonese speaking passengers - I usually have to seek assistance from other Ambassadors when I strike a completely non English speaking passenger with a problem.

This morning I had a breakfast at the airport as part of the annual 'Passion Days' run by BAC (Brisbane Airport Corporation). These days are designed to connect the very many people and divisions working at Airport who almost never meet. Today was the second of four breakfast meetings. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to be exposed to a large cross section of Airport. The six Ambassadors this morning left with a gift bag containing, amongst other items, a cloth cap (with BNE Airport on it of course) and a very cute kangaroo dressed in old pilot's clothing, manufactured for the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service). I continue to average two four hour shifts a week and enjoy it very much. This week one of our Ambassadors flew out on the inaugural service of China Southern from Brisbane direct to Guangzhou (old Canton). It is Asia's largest airline and third largest in the world - a member of Star Alliance. Its three flights a week will expand next March to seven and bring in a much welcomed boost to our tourism.

This week I caught up with Kay back from Greece and England and plan on catching up with Peter and Bernadette, back from their annual three months in Europe. Karen, our friend who has moved to California, is back and we get to see her around the 8th. Our other Kay, the one I went to Shanghai with last month, is staying tomorrow night before heading off to NZ - so it's all been go around here with friends coming and going. Last weekend we entertained a chap from North Queensland we met some time ago, and with him were two guys from Vancouver here at a conference. It's a never dull around here.

says it all!

2010-11-05T20:46:00.003+10:00

The US Mid Term elections have been and gone. $4b later, the nation has decided they want change faster than 21 months of Democrat control could produce. I guess I can understand that from the nearly 10% unemployed, but the rest? Sanity has eluded Capitol Hill for a while, and blame belongs at the feet of both parties. The mess cooked up by the Republican Administration over 96 months yet not sorted by 21 months of Democrats, therefore the great American public in its wisdom decides to put back control to the folk who

presided over the initial debacle...weird logic to me. Welcome to Gridlock Central aka Washington DC. God help us all!

Art in Shanghai from Brisbane

2010-10-16T17:25:00.003+10:00

I only found out today that many public art pieces at the enormous Expo site in Shanghai were in fact created by a Brisbane company. It does work around the world, all managed from Brisbane. They won an award last night, that's how I found out. Go to
http://uapmarker.com.au
to see the Expo works plus other sites around the world where this energetic Brisbane company is operating.

Chile to India then to Scotland

2010-10-16T17:07:00.003+10:00

Terrific news about the miners this week in Chile. Remarkable tale, with more to come. Fascinating to watch and listen to the people associated with the rescues.

The 19th Delhi Commonwealth Games have finished. I only watched the opening and closing ceremonies for all the colour and movement, with the coverage with commercials on TV being too annoying to watch on a regular basis. Glad they went off without any major hitches, but worth A$15b? Not at all sure!

Next up its the Scots with Glasgow 2014 - it won't be as colourful or noisy, but it will be well run and focused solely on sport. They also know how to have some fun. Good luck Glasgow!

Rain, rain, go away....

2010-10-16T16:58:00.003+10:00

This picture (above) taken today in the Central Highlands of NSW.

Over 5" of rain (154mm) fell on Sunday night and early Monday leaving floods across Brisbane. The pictures above and below are of a road I use to go to work. There was gridlock everywhere on the Northside of Brisbane with significant roads cut. I spent 35 minutes going just one block from my house before I turned around and drove back home. The rains have returned, but not as heavy, and the winds have picked up and the temperatures have gone a bit chilly (Queensland chilly, not Europe chilly). Similar rain at Uluru this week has seen the Rock smothered in white rushing waterfalls. Oh, it also snowed today in parts of NSW and Victoria. Mid October? Crazy!

Sad news

2010-10-16T16:49:00.002+10:00

Last Sunday was the 8th anniversary of Mum's death - a somewhat sad day, but what a brilliant (almost) eight years I've had since then with Rene. At 8:30pm the phone went and a friend of mine, Neil, from Canberra rang to say that his partner of seven years had died of a brain tumour. He was just 65 and had recently retired from the Commonwealth Public Service. Rene and I introduced these two fine fellows after Easter of 2003. Neil at that time was in Toowoomba and Gavin in Canberra. We met Gav in Canberra on a brief Easter holiday and then mentioned his name to Neil when we returned. Neil moved to Canberra in February 2004 whilst we were in The Netherlands. Earlier this year they were two days off leaving on a much anticipated trip to Europe when Gavin had an episode that warranted a trip to the doctor. The news wasn't good. His funeral is in Canberra on Monday. I didn't sleep much Sunday night.

Funny commercials

2010-10-16T16:29:00.002+10:00

Air New Zealand has done it again! After some positive and negative reviews, an ad campaign has gone viral on the net. These ads never go to air on TV, but thousands of people have viewed them on line. I love them! There's also a Virgin Atlantic one which is pretty good too. Oh, Rico has his own Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=121207391268744&ref=mf

with a very funny 'interview' included - clever guys, these folk over at AirNZ:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HLxzevh3NQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZLBY3lYtsQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIUvssYKfzY&feature=channel

Parity reached (briefly)

2010-10-16T16:23:00.002+10:00

I mentioned last weekend the dollar nudging parity with the Greenback? Well, this morning it briefly broke through the barrier, but retreated a slight amount - currently A$1 = US$0.994c.

Dollar

2010-10-10T14:08:00.002+10:00

The Australian dollar has almost reached parity with the Greenback. This week it broke a 27 year old record - established in the year the dollar was floated. It touched (briefly) US 99.7c.

This past fortnight I travelled with it at A$1 = 6.5 yuan and S$1.30 making overseas travel the most inviting proposition for many Australians in decades. In Shanghai I bought at the corner shop across from our hotel two Magnum ice creams, a 1.5L bottle of water, 600mL bottle of orange juice and a small box of tissues for 19.80 yuan - that's about A$3.20. For me, shopping in Shanghai was like I remembered Singapore 33 years ago.

Rain, rain, rain!

2010-10-10T14:04:00.002+10:00

It has done little else here these past few days. Odd weather pattern, so different from the usual. The Sunshine Coast has had 250mm+ in one day and the rain isn't going away any day soon. Here in Brisbane we've had 60+mm Thursday and 45+mm Friday, plus Saturday and today it continues to rain - but not quite as heavily. Three years ago our water storage was at 17%, today it is 100% and overflowing.

Shanghai Expo 2010

2010-10-09T15:28:00.014+10:00

Because of the back to front way Blogger publishes, the end of my short trip to China is pictured first - go figure! Oh well, the trip ended last week with two nights in Singapore to reduce the drag of a long journey. I hadn't stayed in Singapore for 11 years, so there were new things to see. Went up the world's biggest wheel at night to see the splendour of modern Singapore. The location of the Singapore Flyer is on reclaimed land - some 100sq km of extra land in Singapore since my first visit in 1977. They have plans for a further 100 by 2030. I wasn't going to buy anything (having spent up big in Shanghai) but while my friend Kay was shopping for a watch, I wandered into a men's shoe store and came out with a beautiful brown pair of Italian shoes - OK, the Australian dollar is really strong right now and they were a bargain. There were no wide fitting shoes to be seen in Shanghai.

This church is in 'Culture Street' Duolun Lu, Hongkou District, and was built in 1928. Great Virtue Christian Church sits beside our hotel, in an historic part of old Shanghai north of The Bund.
This area was once the American Concession and merged with the British Concession to form the International Settlement. By the 1930's it had become a Japanese enclave and was home to many Leftist writers and artists.

This bus is at Expo, but a route exists on the main Shanghai side of the river where it runs across the city in a dedicated route. These are electric, but don't have large batteries with long charges - these are super capacitor buses which drive along dedicated routes stopping at bus stops that have something like a pair of metal skis overhead. This is an electric rail. The bus stops for 30 seconds, picking up and dropping off passengers, and while it is there a T bar pops up from the middle of the roof and gets a super charge of electricity strong enough to take it a maximum of three stops. This is a joint project between Volvo and Sunwin. At Expo they had regular electric buses with long life batteries travelling through the river tunnels, but this super capacitor bus was the first time I'd ever seen one in operation - most impressive.

Shanghai is very progressive and modern. The streets are clean, spitting and smoking in the streets was rarely seen, and a spirit of happiness and harmony seemed to prevail to these Western eyes. Crowded? Well, 20 million in a small area leads to crowding and of course the familiar chaos on the roads, but nothing seems to falter - I witnessed one minor accident between a cyclist and a scooter (lots of shouting and witnesses looking on silently) and no vehicles appeared to have dents or scratches. Amazing when one considers the apparent chaos of cars, scooters, bicycles (few) and buses all going in every direction possible at the same time.

A large Railway Union Australian man we met at Expo said that as a taxi tried to go across his pedestrian crossing lines as the little man was green, he turned and sat on the bonnet of this taxi until his wife had crossed - he just looked at the driver, and the people stopped and stared too. This guy was tall and built like a dunny! I'd love to have seen it. The pedestrians have to dodge the traffic, even when the lights say 'go'. Interesting experience!

The Australian Pavilion at Expo stood out for a few reasons: a) we didn't have to queue - just show our ID that we were Australian, b) it was the only pavilion I saw where Nationals from the country spoke in Mandarin to the locals - both in the queue to get into the theatre, and the jollying up of the audience once inside - oh, and both were mature Aussie males -, c) the displays entertained and engaged many spectators at the one time (large theatre) and finally d) the only presentation where spontaneous applause broke out from the audience.

Indigenous art was on display, but sadly few Chinese stopped long enough to read and soak up the detail. Impressively presented.

Above and below are just two examples of the large public art on display outside the pavilions. The area of expo spread across both sides of the river, with ferries, bridges and tunnels connecting them. there were free electric buses going through the tunnels as well as a Metro line with a station terminating in the very middle of Expo. Since 1997 Shanghai has built 12 Metro lines, with three more under construction.

Queues - many, many queues! We were warned, and yes, it still was a surprise - not so much the size of the queues but the rudeness of the Chinese. Pushing, shoving and obvious skipping in front of you is something the Japanese don't do, and neither the Taiwanese, and I think in HK they don't either, but in China the manners of queuing are little known or understood. We shared the site with 577 000 visitors on the first day, and as 'little' as 370 000 on the third, and some queues were as long as 4 hours - we never queued longer than 20 minutes therefore we didn't enter the bigger, flashier pavilions. Some required a free ticket issued from machines near the gate, but we were never there early enough to bother trying to get one. On the third day I even elbowed twice people behind me, and I have no idea if they were male or female - all I know is that I'd had enough. NB The next expo is in Milan - now, I expect style and manners plus a great show for the public. Our Brisbane expo in 1988 was fun - lots of street performers, shows and fireworks every night. Shanghai had none of that. Yes, shows were on, but seemed to be booked out early or not on general view. No fireworks (none!). Seriously, expo was a giant business convention - and boy! the Chinese were doing business BIG TIME.

Our local street was calm (see below) with no pushing or jostling, and courtesy from everyone there. I loved Shanghai, and the streets were busy but not without order. The locals were all courteous, and of course we had our fair share of photos taken with locals and visitors alike. Foreigners are not thick on the ground so we often were stared at, usually discreetly.

If you click on the picture above, you can see two old ladies just sitting and chatting. Shanghai has old and new side by side. Liked it a lot.

There are statues along the road, usually slightly larger than life. Many hundreds of locals live everyday life surrounded by an enormous modern city, yet a step aside into Duolun Lu brings a whole different world.

My friend Kay (above) chatting with an elderly gentleman.

We went on a river cruise along The Bund and saw the fabulous modern skyline. It was wet, hence the somewhat milky photos, but it was still most impressive.

Below are a couple of pictures from a garden preserved in the middle of old Shanghai.

The tea rooms in the gardens are famous, even having entertained Queen Elizabeth.

Kay, below, sitting in front of yet another banquet. This was a lunch in a very smart expo restaurant. Delicious, yet capable of feeding four - it was a set menu for two.

The best pavilion we saw was on the smaller site on the city side of the river. Put on by the Shanghai Museum, it featured the theme 'footprints of man' whereby it covered across four enormous floors the relics and remains from a cave 2500BC up to 17thC Netherlands.

Italy and Greece featured (of course) with a marvellous rendition of Troy (below).

From our 17th floor room we looked down upon 'Culture Street'.

Kay had left early on the first day at 6pm but I stayed on for a further three hours and saw quite a few pavilions where the queues had subsided. The folk below were singing songs of farewell to the many guests wearily trudging towards the public transport awaiting. The bus home was just 2 yuan (about 30c) and lasted half an hour. very efficient service.

Some night views of expo. Somehow I couldn't capture the brightness and radiance of the lighting, but rest assured it was very bright and extremely colourful.

The Chinese Pavilion was very impressive, and most of it was hidden beneath the main structure underground.

Sexy tango in the Argentine Pavilion (from the wine bar above the floor).

The Netherlands Pavilion was a disappointment - quite impressive to look at, but it missed the mark by not addressing the issue of large crowds. Called 'Happy Street', it was a spiral walk through Holland, but the rooms (houses) on display sometimes just had a few items in them with little explanation, or a slit in the window where only two at a time could look in to see what was going on. With the immense crowds it was a waste of time trying to look in the slots - and as for the theme 'Better Cities, Better Places', apart from a dredging tool and some water management things, I couldn't see the point of it. Maybe a Dutch person who was there could fill me in on it?

UK Pavilion (above) and the Danish one (below). Didn't (couldn't) go into either. The Little Mermaid looked larger than when I last saw her in Copenhagen.

The Australian Pavilion had one of the few outdoor entertainment areas on the site. I caught a couple of sets from an Australian group whilst enjoying a pie and a can of 'cold' VB - often in Shanghai the beer wasn't truly cold, but it was at the Australian Pavilion.

See the little people below the Chinese Pavilion? Now you realise how enormous it was.

The United Arab Emirates was an impressive sweeping shell. When we tried to get to see inside on the third day it was closed for the morning because of a visiting dignitary.

Remnants of old Shanghai still are evident, like this street on which the former British Embassy is situated.

New Shanghai sits across from the old. Pearl Tower (above) and the interior of the restored Peace Hotel (below) straddle both sides of the river. Both are equally impressive.

A gallery in what is known as the French Quarter. Now it is a bustling precinct full of shops, galleries and history.

Not everywhere in Shanghai is crowded. This is a most attractive street in the French Quarter.

#108 (below) on the left hand end of this terrace row is where the very first meeting of the Chinese Communist Party was held. An old lady sat outside knitting and watching, and when troops arrived, the members all left from a side exit into the nearby lane.

Along with every city in the world, there has been a lot of smartening up of the local areas, and this park was one of countless green vistas within the city.

I went a little crazy in the silk factory and bought two single silk filled doonas for our beds plus woven silk covers and pillow cases. Throw in two silk shirts (dark navy) and I contributed greatly to the economy of Shanghai.

If single silk worms create a cacoon the fibres can be extracted into single threads and woven - my shirts are made from these - but should two silk worms create the one cacoon, these fibres are mixed up and can't be extracted for spinning, therefore these cacoons are used to make silk padding that fills doonas as well as padded jackets. The picture above is of ten cacoons pulled apart, and below the workers pile one on top of another until the desired weight or thickness is arrived at. Both my doonas are 1250g, so you see a seriously large number of cacoons are used in each doona. These doonas are sold by weight, not dimensions.

The fibres are free of dust - great for allergy sufferers - and don't require quilting because the layers don't move inside the cotton cover. The doona is warm in winter and cool in summer.

The factory was an old one, but the products were very new and up to date.

My travel agent here in Brisbane is from Shanghai. He is the man photographed below. His sister (above) lives in Shanghai. He was in the city with a tour group from Townsville plus another group of students from Brisbane. He assisted us in joining the others from time to time to do extra things that were fascinating in our short time in Shanghai. Visiting a pearl factory/shop was something I'd never think of doing, but I found it fascinating.

We had just arrived that morning from Brisbane and (below) we are already socialising and having a hot pot banquet with new friends. I was quite adept at using chop sticks, but occasionally my hand tired by the end of the meal and I resorted to a spoon.

We end at the beginning - this is the MagLev train from Shanghai Airport. It could travel the 33km to the city outskirts in 8 minutes at speeds of near 470km/h, but every second train runs slightly slower, and ours never exceeded 301km/h. It's still amazing to think you travelled on a train that uses magnetic levitation to lift and propel it along the tracks.

Shanghai was amazing, and I really loved the city and its people. I'd love to explore more of China, but I'd never bother going especially for an Expo - it was a disappointment after the one here in Brisbane. We Australians know how to enjoy ourselves. We know how to throw a party and invite the world. We realise that there is a multi dimensional approach to celebrating life and living. Look out for the next expo in Milan in four years time - I'm guessing the Italians know a thing or two about celebrating life!

Prostate Cancer Fund Raiser

2010-10-09T15:15:00.005+10:00

September in Australia and NZ is officially 'Blue September' with money being raised for the fight against prostate cancer. I organised a sausage sizzle and morning tea plus a raffle targeting the staff at Brisbane International and we raised $2000 for research. Three fellow Airport Ambassadors (above) are cooking the 'snags'. This all happened on Friday September 17, two days before I flew off to Shanghai. It was the first time the Ambassadors had ever done anything outside of our regular shifts and it was a great success. We targeted Customs, airline staff, baggage handlers and even taxi drivers - in fact anybody who worked at Airport. As a group we've often raised money for a worthy cause, but it has always been within our group. This was our first venture out into the airport community - and it was a wonderful success. My thanks to everyone who made it possible, a terrific group effort.

A month ago ...

2010-10-09T14:41:00.003+10:00

Yes, I know, I've been slack - but I've been seriously busy and just haven't had both the time and inclination to sit here for two hours or more and post. I'm back one week from my trip to Shanghai, and I'll post that material next, but for now the picture above is from Riverfire - quite spectacular. Mind you, Rene and I met up with two friends at a bar and ended up hearing all the fireworks, seeing the fuel dump burn from the jets and around 20% of the fireworks - but decided the beer and the tapas were better than confronting the throngs of families at Southbank, so we just sat and drank and ate whilst the skies exploded. Following the fireworks we ventured along to just outside of GoMA (Gallery of Modern Art) where there was a free panel discussion featuring celebrities from the world of writing as part of Brisbane Writers Festival.

The following weekend we found ourselves in The Valley having dinner in China Town during the Valley Fiesta, and lo and behold there was this enormous machine made from steel pipes (Pyrophone) which had percussion like sounds emanating from the pipes, created by fire. Add to that quite a few drums, and the scene was quite spectacular. Oh, the meal was great too!

There is an enormous amount of free entertainment each weekend in Brisbane, which makes for an exciting city and a fabulous place to live.

The GG swore in JG at GH last month. The Governor General (Quentin Bryce) swore in Julia Guilard as Australia's first elected woman prime minister. GH refers to Government House, in Canberra, the Governor General's official residence. Ms Guilard now moves into The Lodge, the official PM's residence, having stated that she'd only take up residence once fully elected to the position of PM.

Just as I returned last weekend the Commonwealth Games started in New Delhi. It featured on Chinese TV for all the wrong reasons (lateness of preparation etc) and Singapore TV was heralding their teams preparations for the Games. Outside of the Commonwealth it is no big deal, and I suspect from the small crowds it is attracting in Delhi, it's no big deal in India either. MEMO TO GAMES ORGANISERS: Put it on in Australia - Aussies will support anything sporting in huge numbers, even netball! The next Games are in Glasgow. I reckon the Scots can turn out for a sporting event; but if you want guaranteed sellouts, put it on in Oz.

NB The Gold Coast is applying for 2018 against Sri Lanka - ought to be a shoe in!

Hung Parliament

2010-08-29T16:03:00.003+10:00

Last weekend there was a Federal Election for the House of Representatives and half of The Senate. The result after one week of counting is Labor 72, Coalition (Lib/Nats) 73, Independents 4 and a couple of other seats yet to be determined. Result is a hung Parliament.

Not for 70 years has Australia found itself with a hung parliament. It was at the beginning of the Second World War, 1940, and this country was in turmoil. It has taken a long time to reappear on the political scene, but it has and it's taking a lot of uncustomary negotiating to establish some form of workable government.

Hung parliaments are the norm in Europe, but not in this country. Our system has produced a two sided approach to politics, with left of centre and right of centre holding sway. I say this deliberately, since there is no way our two major parties significantly disagree on most major aspects of public policy. If there is any dissension, it is played out for media and public entertainment - since they both manage to 'drop' these contentious issues literally at the drop of a hat (or poll!).

We're not talking 'Reds under the beds' type Socialists v The Establishment anymore. There's not much to separate them at all when it all boils down to it. One side wanted work place reform, and fought like there was no tomorrow to have it introduced. Later, when pressured by The Polls, dropped it as if it wasn't worth it in the first place. The other side pushed for climate change legislation with carbon trading policies to the fore. They fought, and fought THEN....just dropped any reference to it overnight. We had Fuel Watch, then Grocery Watch, loads and loads of issues that took up kilometres of column space and days and days of TV coverage and analysis....and they were all dropped overnight.

The result was, and is, complete distrust of both major sides of politics. Those of you abroad will understand little of this because in a country with just 6% of GDP owed in borrowings and the country being the only OECD country not to slip into recession last year, headlines scream 'Labor Sends Country Broke' and nobody cites the USA at 28% and UK at 32% or Greece at 48% making our bill to lenders seem totally unnecessary to worry about.

Enter the Independents and Greens. They've always been around, but now they have representation not only in The Senate but also the Lower House. The Greens will have (come July next year) a 9 member block to really influence the deliberations in the upper house. What will the next week bring I wonder? Whatever the result, it is certainly an exciting and fascinating period where the prospect of real democratic reform is not just a possibility but a certainty.

Some of my pictures from Cairns last weekend

2010-08-29T15:08:00.004+10:00

Some performers at the 2010 CIAF travelled days to get from their isolated island homes to Cairns. One group we saw perform live on an island just 6km from Papua New Guinea.

An example of the colourist art from Lockart River. Most pieces on display were already in gallery collections. I think five galleries had the best of the Lockart River paintings on display to sell.

The festival parade was a local affair, full of local organisations and businesses. It got dark soon after it started.

This Gay Pride float and its ancillary support acts won the first prize giving the organisation $3000 towards next year's float. Good on ya' guys!

I took this shot to show the dashboard screen I work on. I think I need a change, so I'm thinking either a new blog site or a new appearance to the interface. What do you think?

A film crew from BBC2 in England was also in town to shoot the festival for a show on indigenous art hosted by popular Welsh comedian, writer, actor and television personality Griff Rhys Jones. We came across him interviewing an Indigenous painter in one of The Tanks, and it was such a surprise to firstly recognise the voice, then the person. I must say, he was looking rather handsome with perfectly groomed salt and pepper hair and quite trim too.

Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair 2010

2010-08-29T14:41:00.003+10:00

Last weekend we went to Cairns for three nights primarily for the 2010 Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair. It coincided with the annual Cairns Festival and; surprise, surprise, the Cairns Gay Pride. We had lots of art, lots of food and drink, lots of people to meet plus a parade and huge fireworks over the sea to end the weekend.

The Festival has another week to go, but three nights was enough for us. We really enjoyed viewing the art works on display, meeting lots of people connected with the indigenous art world plus seeing performers from both the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

It was very hot and (surprisingly) humid, especially on the Friday when it reached 30C. Locals explained that this winter had been very warm with minimum temperatures only touching 16 twice, whereas it ought to be 12. Daytime maximum temperatures have been 2-4 degrees higher than usual too.

The CIAF 2010 was held in The Tanks, a group of five converted WW2 oil tanks. The cavernous cement walls (now covered and lined) made for great exhibition spaces plus a symposium venue on the Saturday. It is situated about 4-5 km from the City centre, beside the botanical gardens. Although there were shuttle buses provided, on the Saturday afternoon, following the symposium, we both walked back past our hotel to The Pier for several well earned beers, before heading back to the room for a shower and change ready for the parade and fireworks. Best beers? At the Drop Zone Bar - great bartender too (he's a Pom!). Cheapest great beer? Blue Sky Brewery, Lake St Cairns. Best seafood? The Raw Prawn, The Esplanade.

Although down here in the South East corner the slump in overseas tourists has been mild, up there in Far North Queensland the drop in (notably Chinese and Japanese) tourists has been significant. The GFC has brought about a decline of something like 40% in overseas tourists. To make matters worse, the healthy Australian dollar has meant more Aussies travelling overseas for holidays rather than staying home and touring.

I really like Cairns. Sadly it is a 2 hour jet flight from Brisbane, let alone 3 hours from Sydney. It is just a bit too far from anywhere, but having said that I met lots of lovely folk who just love living there. Last weekend I realised that I am a Brisbane Boy now, after having moved here from Toowoomba five years ago this month.

Winter is almost over

2010-08-28T14:00:00.003+10:00

This is the back corner of our garden, just 18 months old. This is the last week of what has been a milder and wetter winter than usual. The garden continues to thrive with very little attention.

The poinsettia, bought as a small table decoration 18 months ago, has grown well and provides some stunning winter colour. I will prune it back in the spring to ensure it doesn't get too large.

A slightly longer view of the back terrace. Clicking on these pictures allows a better view, but the general impression is one of depth and colour in what is basically a very small yard.

The neighbouring palms also contribute to the lush feel of what was, just a short while ago, a very barren piece of earth.

The pictures below were taken in March of 2009, a mere year and a half ago. No, we don't do much to the garden, but it does get watered if it's dry and weeds are occasionally collected and the larger shrubs have been pruned for shape and to encourage thicker growth. That's all though - between us we have one yellow thumb verging on gangrenous.

Ambassador Dinner

2010-08-14T23:46:00.002+10:00

Last night Rene and I attended the annual Appreciation Dinner put on by Southern Queensland Tourism and the Brisbane Airport for all the Airport Ambassadors. It was very pleasant indeed - held in the River View Hotel on Kingsford Smith Drive. I'm still organising the BBQ fundraiser for prostate cancer next month. This is taking up some time for now, so I'm off shift at the airport for the next two weeks - which includes the three nights in Cairns. It's always 27C - 29C all year round in Cairns, so it'll be a nice change from the colder south, although tonight/tomorrow here in Brisbane is 15-25, so perhaps it won't be all that different? Queensland is a great state to live in.

Toowoomba Visit

2010-08-14T23:38:00.002+10:00

I had a very busy and quick visit up to Toowoomba last Thursday (it was a school holiday here in Brisbane) and managed to see and chat with a number of friends. The major reason was to do my tax with my accountant, but I also managed to visit the school I left seven years ago, and found quite a few old staff still there. Morning tea was wonderful, and the banter interesting. I had lunch with my brother and sister in law (delightful) then followed that up with a former colleague putting on a delicious high tea in her home. Debbie was great, as usual, and it was lovely to see her husband Andrew again plus Rhonda - a friend from my time in Toowoomba.

The city seemed to be very prosperous and was a hive of new building and renovation. It was very cold and extremely windy - but not unusual for Toowoomba in August.

One week to go...

2010-08-14T23:28:00.004+10:00

The election rolls along. Rene and I have already voted by postal ballot since we'll be in Cairns next weekend. It quite possibly will be a knife edge result. Those of you in countries where it takes months to form a coalition government following a general election (eg Netherlands and Belgium) you might like to know that the final result and the new prime minister almost always is known before going to bed. We compared our voting two days after mailing our votes, and (would you believe) Rene and I both voted exactly the same for both the House of Representatives and The Senate. My vote is no secret to my friends - Labor in the Lower House and The Greens in the Upper.

Langdale Pikes

2010-08-14T23:23:00.002+10:00

I was searching for more family stuff when I came across this photograph from the Lake District in north western England of the Langdale Pikes. They are near Great Langdale and Little Langdale - two charming villages in that beautiful part of the world.

Our Dad on the Net

2010-08-14T23:16:00.005+10:00

My brother Mark found this photo on the net of our father at the 1956 Edinburgh Military Tattoo - he is two left from the conductor, Sir Vivien Dunn. At 32 he was already the Band Sergeant of the Royal Marine Band performing that year. Clever of Mark to unearth this photograph. (click for large picture)

We have borers at the bottom of our garden!

2010-08-09T06:47:00.003+10:00

Yes, borers! Two of them! 200m long and worth a cool $48m each! We toured the work site two weeks ago to see Australia's longest and largest tunnel project and found the whole exercise quite amazing.

It's the annual Royal National Exhibition (known as 'The Ekka') currently and this week I have two days off for the show, so I'm only working half a day today and Tuesday. On Friday I have one shift, then Rene and I are attending the annual Airport Appreciation Dinner for the Ambassadors.

Blue September

2010-08-08T17:41:00.001+10:00

I have seen some quite clever cartoons for this election, and I really laughed at this one of Julia in the prime ministerial privy. The caption reads, 'Australia's first female prime minister begins a long process of change...'

I'm organising a fundraiser for prostate cancer at the airport. Next month is Blue September - Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. Light blue is the colour of the prostate cancer campaign, and we all know that pink belongs to breast cancer. For September we (myself and fellow Airport Ambassadors) are aiming to raise a significant amount of money to donate for prostate cancer research.

On Friday September 17 we are having a BBQ plus morning tea delights from 10am until 1pm targeting the staff at International. There will also be a raffle. My hope is to exceed $600. It is not just here in Australia but across the world where males with prostate cancer die in greater numbers than women with breast cancer, yet early detection is very good, and the disease often is quite treatable. I've used the phrase; "49% of Australians have one, and 100% of Australians love or care for someone who has one". There are good ads on TV now featuring well known males who speak out about ignoring prostate checks. Light blue will be the colour of September everywhere in the world. Wherever you live, urge males you know and love to have a check up to ensure the current hold it has on statistics is diminished.

Films and Theatre

2010-08-08T17:15:00.004+10:00

We've been a bit quiet lately in the entertainment area, apart from trivia every Tuesday. I saw 'Mother and Child' with Naomi Watts and Annette Bening. I really quite liked the film. I had had a friend from Toowoomba visiting and she was seeing it later that afternoon, so I tagged along (Rene stayed with the gallery). I was very glad Pam had talked me into going.

Last night we saw 'Ghost Writer' starring Ewen McGregor - Roman Polanski's latest film. I really enjoyed this film a lot, and as a thriller it maintained momentum right up until the end. No opening credits that I could remember, just a complete set at the end. I wanted to see if one of the female leads was, indeed, Kim Cattrall (of the infamous 'Sex in the City 2' fame). She did a quite good job, even leaving her legs together for the whole movie. Heavens! How I loathe remembering that awful vacuous film from a couple of months ago.

I'm going with friends to a gala fundraiser for people living with HIV AIDS to be held on August 23 at The Playhouse. It's called 'Hats Off BrizVegas' and will have the casts of Mama Mia and J C Superstar as well as many other performers donating their time for a most worthy cause.

Picture this...January 1975

2010-08-08T16:59:00.004+10:00

A former pupil of mine from 35 years ago came up to the Visitor Information Centre at Domestic last Friday while I was on duty. He recognised my name and voice, and we had a lovely chat before he rushed off to check in for a Melbourne flight. He came back a few minutes later and introduced me to his lovely wife. Such a long time to still remember a teacher. I felt quite moved by this chance meeting. Being a teacher doesn't always produce immediate rewards, and one often feels that in the scheme of things a whole year in one's life is quite fleeting; but on Friday I met a man who, as a child, tested my patience beyond belief many times. He has evolved into this normal functioning adult, quite unremarkable if one would pass him by today, yet I still have memories of him with horns and a barbed tail, tempered now by the passage of time plus this chance meeting. Drew - it was a distinct pleasure meeting you.

Climate Change and Politics

2010-08-08T16:41:00.003+10:00

I was driving home today listening to BBC World Service and they had people from the US, Greece and Russia talking about the current extremes in weather. 35c+ for the past three weeks in Russia has created serious fires and drought, impacting on people's health and the economy - the wheat crop is a failure and the price of wheat is already rising around the world. We are having a very mild winter, with us sitting on our deck until 10:30pm following a day of 27c and a balmy evening wearing just jeans and a T shirt. This last week has gone as low as 6, but mainly 10-12 with a maximum of 20-22. I'm sure there is a change in our global climates, but to what degree humans contribute to this is open in my mind BUT there do seem to be consequences and we ought to be limiting as much human contribution as possible.

Rene and I are off to Cairns in a fortnight, coinciding with the Federal Election. We have already voted by postal vote and the envelopes were mailed today. We have two polling booths set up at the airport from tomorrow until Election Day.

All the politicking is directed to 15-17 seats where it is knife-edged, and our electorate is not one of them. Frankly I'm over the whole thing, including being somewhat disillusioned with the two major parties. As for the media...if for just once we could have some objective, unbiased reporting of events. Many times the commercial stations are making the news as in the disgraceful Mark Latham interview in Brisbane yesterday - a pathetic scene where a former leader of Labor is trailing the current Labor PM and trying to twist every single opportunity into a maniacal attempt at self promotion. I can't believe I registered to vote for him whilst I lived in The Netherlands in 2004. What an unattractive individual he has turned out to be. Mind you, even the drover's dog could look good beside John Howard.

Where has the vacation gone?

2010-07-10T14:25:00.005+10:00

With an election looming the knives came out for former Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd (from Brisbane). Sad though it has been, I'm thrilled not to have to worry anymore about which party to vote for in the forthcoming (yet unannounced) Federal election. To say I had lost faith in Rudd and the policy vacillations of the past few months would be an understatement. The dropping overnight of any action or continued pressure on carbon offsetting was disappointing. The decision to go into a mining supertax without initial negotiations with the mining industry was careless and caused unnecessary ructions across the world. Yes, we need something more for every tonne exported, but done in such a way as to feel that it has been negotiated and well thought out instead of a sudden announcement without consultation with Caucus or the industry affected. To go from 80+% popularity a few months ago to less than 40% last month was indeed indicative of the electorate's displeasure; and the absolute worst case scenario was arising...the possibility of the obnoxious, less than endearing Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott becoming Australia's 28th prime minister. Awful possibility, but in fact still possible with a potential date being August 21 for the election.

Here, above, Kevin Rudd signs off after the coup that brought him down. It was a great speech delivered with much tension and humility. It outlined the great good he had done in just over two and a half years, which really generated even more negative images for me of the twist in his stance on many things in recent months.
The lady replacing him is Julia Gillard; an intelligent woman born in Wales, and a former industrial relations lawyer. She doesn't believe in God and won't move into The Lodge - the PM's residence in Canberra - until she has won the election in her own right. I consider her a good replacement for Rudd.

The man above is Wayne Swan, now Deputy Prime Minister and continuing as Treasurer. He and Rudd steered Australia through the GFC and enabled this country to be the leading economic performer in the advanced economies. He is also my local Federal Member of Parliament (electorate of Lilley).

Two weeks ago he was in Toronto replacing Kevin Rudd at the last moment at the G20 Summit. Last Thursday he was at the local Chermside Bowls Club chairing a community morning tea for the Older People Speak Out group. I went along after being invited by Wayne's office to attend now that I am officially a Senior (I even have a Seniors Business Card now). He took questions from the floor and they were life altering questions about health care, ageing and so on. My question was left until morning tea when I queued up with others to ask him a personal question. My question was simple: after giving same sex couples all the legal and financial equalities with straight couples, why not endorse same sex marriage like has happened in Spain and Mexico? The PM doesn't believe in God, so religious reasons can't be behind it, what is the problem? He simply replied that he believed in marriage as being between a man and a woman, and gave me no hope as to it being changed any time soon. Oh well, at least I asked the question.

This dingo fence on Fraser Island was in an album I looked through for this blog today. It has not only bars to stop them coming across but also a mild electric shock because the very resourceful dogs had learned to walk the bars slowly, so electricity was introduced to dissuade the animals from entering the community from the beach.

This was sunset on Fraser. Very beautiful it was too. We have so many glorious places to holiday in within Queensland - no wonder we have so many tourists visiting every year.

Enough said!

A couple of weeks ago we attended a weekend of cabaret. There were many shows on during the festival, but we picked out just two. "Liza on an E" was brilliant, with Trevor Ashley appearing as Liza herself. He had a seven piece band (all in tuxedos) accompanying him and Liza belted out old favourites plus dozens of witty and at times cutting one liners. We had a table for eight with two bottles of wine and platters of delicious food to graze on during the show. Top night! Trevor has been announced as the lead in a new Australian production of Hairspray, opening in Melbourne in October. He will play the mother Edna - you may remember John Travolta in this role in the 2007 movie. He should be astounding.

I'm heading off to Shanghai in September for Expo 2010. I remember well the expo we had for Australia's bicentenary in 1988 here in Brisbane. I'll be there for six nights with a three day pass to Expo. There are also two nights in Singapore on the way back home. I have met now five people who have been to the Shanghai Expo and all have reported it well and truly worth the effort. I'm not doing three days in a row (too exhausting) so will incorporate some more sedate things - my travel agent knows Shanghai well (his partner is from there too) so I'm getting tips. Rene is staying home and I'm going with my friend Kay from Toowoomba. Roll on September 21 (what am I saying? it is rolling along waaay too fast already!)

Expo area is huge, but so are the crowds. I've never been to China (HK doesn't count in my mind). I was in Taiwan last January, so it is sort of like China, but minuscule. I read the other day that Beijing airport has overtaken Heathrow as the world's second busiest airport. You know two and three, what is the world's busiest airport then? Let me know (of course I already know the answer, I'm a member of the famous trivia team that has come first six times this year so far).

The person above is Ennio Marchetto, from Venice, the other cabaret act we saw a fortnight ago. Here's a link to see him in action. One hour of total captivation. Clever!

http://fliiby.com/file/510894/azxfi6bp6q.html

I just love this poster - brilliant!

Need more be said?

Finally:

The Dutch meteorological office KNMI has issued a weather warning for extremely hot weather on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Temperatures can reach as high as 33 degrees Celsius, which is significantly higher than the long-term average maximum of 20.6 degrees. Saturday and Sunday in Utrecht will be 31C and 26C with a 40% chance of rain – quite humid for The Netherlands. Here in Brisbane it will be a max of 22 and a min of 10 on both days with a 20% chance of showers – after all it is our winter. Interestingly, at this time of the year there’s not only the Tour De France but also Wimbledon, where strawberries are synonymous with the tennis. Here in Australia, the winter months are the best for strawberries since it is far too hot for the berries in summer. At the moment, the strawberries from Wamuran, near Caboolture, just 30 minutes from here, are at their peak. Simply delicious!

Last night René and I attended the monthly meeting of the Gay and Lesbian Business Network, now renamed in Brisbane Fruits in Suits. There were around 80 people there, packed into the upstairs meeting room at The Wickham Hotel in Fortitude Valley. The person from Suncorp whom I deal with re insurances was there – did a deal with him this week regarding the house and contents – and the person arranging my trip in September to Shanghai for Expo 2010 was also there, and I handed him my travel insurance papers. Met a gorgeous man from Berlin who has been attending an urban planning conference - we had a fascinating chat. He told me that in Shanghai, where he was before Brisbane, they have a five floor building devoted to urban planning. On the top floor is a display featuring Brisbane’s Expo 88 and what has been done with the site since then. We got a very good mark from the Chinese on the redevelopment of the Expo site. Rene and I were in Seville in January, and they had the next expo after Brisbane. It has not been a great success after the event with much of the area left derelict. Brisbane has done well, even now having the South Bank area undergoing its third upgrade since expo ended 22 years ago.

There were door prizes and business card draws for even more prizes, and René won not one but two: a lucky door prize of five sessions with a personal trainer (I’ve requested to watch, but alas I think I will get the prize since René thinks I need it more – bless him!) and the second prize was a night at a smart Brisbane hotel (Urban) plus breakfast for two. Not only met some new people but won prizes and drank with great friends. Dinner afterwards in The Valley at a terrific Beijing restaurant topped off a great Friday night.

We both watched the Netherlands-Uruguay semi final in bed last Wednesday morning. Waking at 4am wasn’t so bad since we are currently on vacation from our schools. The final this Monday morning at a similar time won’t be as easy since we are both back at work. I figure on watching from 5:30, which ought to be the start of the second half. My heart wants The Netherlands to win, but my head says Spain. Since either of them will be the first time ever for their countries, I wish both well and hope that the refereeing is as good as that by the ref from Uzbekistan the other day for the Dutch/Uruguay match.

I’ve been very pleased with the coverage from South Africa and the organization of the Cup. Everybody wanted so hard for the South Africans to pull it off, and they appear to have done so. Yes, there were a few glitches, but that happens in such events every time they are held. Generally speaking, from far away in Australia, it seems to have been terrific for all. I have spoken to a few passengers arriving back from South Africa about their experiences and they’ve all been positive. It’s not hard to spot them – they’re the ones with a clutch of bloody vuvuzelas sticking out of their carry on luggage. God I hate those infernal noise makers! I now treat it like ‘white noise’ that’s there, but not apparent. At the start they annoyed me enormously, but now it is tolerable. How one could sit in a stadium with those blaring right into one’s ears is beyond me, but there you go – I’m not that sort of football fanatic. At 120 decibels at 3m range, it can cause permanent hearing loss.

Finally, an update...

2010-06-07T22:22:00.003+10:00

I have had my blog printed in America in three volumes. I really love the finished result. We have also received our wedding album also done on line. We had two copies printed, with one of them sent to The Netherlands for our Dutch family to keep. The result is very good indeed.

Thanks a lot to the very many of you who sent birthday greetings to me over the past fortnight. I guess 60 is a pretty good milestone, but I damn well mean to see many more birthdays in the future. I had morning teas at my schools, and on the actual morning my friends the MacDonald's (Di and Torquil) took me out to breakfast at Belle Epoque http://www.belleepoque.com.au/ in the Emporium Hotel. Marvellous start to the day! In the evening Rene joined us at Cloudland, a wonderful restaurant and night club venue recently opened in The Valley. It is on four levels, has a Black Hat chef, amazing decor (truly eclectic) and all in all a very special place to have a special occasion in. A three storey waterfall dominates the front, with a sliding glass roof for admiring the stars. Check it out here http://www.cloudland.tv/ The dinner was truly delicious and quite special. Never one for cocktails, I loved the one I had on the second floor from the bar made of thousands of glass balls. When the lights run around the circular bar every 30 minutes, you have to be amazed.

Work is fine, the airport ambassador work is enjoyable and the weeks just fly by. Rene and I are going to see three productions in the next ten days as part of the Brisbane Cabaret Festival. With trivia every Tuesday, dinner out usually another night and we dine at friend's homes or they dine with us - all in all the days just gallop by. I must include pictures from the garden in the next post. For just fifteen months growth it is quite impressive.

Both of us are in fine health at the beginning of winter. I could do with losing some weight, but I don't think its going to happen any day soon, especially during the colder months. We will look forward to August when Rene and I travel to Cairns in Far North Queensland for the Second Indigenous Arts Festival. He is looking to expand the art on sale here from just Central Desert art to also include some artists from North Queensland. A bonus is that Cairns is around 29C every day in winter (we average 20)

The 60th has been and gone...no pain, only happiness.

2010-06-07T22:08:00.002+10:00

Deep in conversation on the second night at Straddie. Lots of food, wine and jolly good company. We converted the larger of the three houses we rented into the party room. We brought Asian themed food to the island plus on the first night a birthday cake and on the second night a wedding cake.

The birthday cake was a delicious Italian confection from a favourite Italian shop here in Brisbane.

The wedding cake was a heavy chocolate affair made by one of the school officers where I work.

We were surrounded by bush but just five minutes walk to the beach. I had stayed in the main house before with two friends from Copenhagen around ten years ago. The Straddie Pub was just eight minutes away. We had dinner on the first wet night there.

2010-06-07T21:54:00.002+10:00

After a weekend on Fraser Island with just the two of us we had the following weekend on my absolute favourite island in the whole world - North Stradbroke Island ('Straddie') - with family and friends. There were 19 of us in three houses celebrating not only my birthday but also the wedding from last December. Although it rained on the Friday, the rest of the weekend was sunny and bright, although a little cool.

Rene (above) is climbing up from having watched the blow hole working a treat due to the heavy swell. Earlier we had watched four whales cavorting out to sea whilst we had breakfast at a cafe. They were the first of the season - running from June to November.

Here we saw a pod of dolphins (actually, very amorous dolphins) plus a couple of turtles and a few rays. This island is just 50 minutes by barge from Brisbane. Heaven on Earth!

My lovely sister in law Adele 'on the rocks' at Straddie. My brothers Steven and Mark plus their wives joined us for the weekend and helped make it a very special occasion.

2010-06-07T21:35:00.002+10:00

This is Fraser Island, three hours north of Brisbane, and the world's largest sand island. Rene and I spent two nights in Hervey Bay for my real 60th birthday. It is most impressive, and now preserved and protected after a century of being plundered for its sand and timber. Rene is wading along a creek. Even though just on winter, it is really quite mild and the water around 20C.

An aircraft lands on the beach, providing visitors a birds eye view of the lakes and forest.

This is all that's left of the 'Mahindra', a large cruise ship, that was sold for scrap in 1935 and foundered on the beach whilst being towed to Japan during a storm.

We had a one day tour with 37 other people, so we couldn't really escape folk - but it was really very pretty and spectacular.

Rene walking along the edge of an enormous fresh water lake in the middle of the island.

Fraser Island supplied all the timber for the building of the Suez Canal plus Tilbury Docks in London. A hard wood tree that was impervious to borers made it popular for use in water. There are some preserved, but not many.

2010-06-07T21:23:00.002+10:00

Our friend, Di MacDonald, standing in front of a row of pictures done by her students for the opening of the new parallel Gateway Bridge. Incidentally, they have been renamed the Sir Leo Hielscher Bridges, in honour of the recently retired head of the Queensland Treasury and investment corporation. Sadly for him, nobody will change the real name of the bridge. It is THE GATEWAY BRIDGES on the Gateway motorway - sort of how the Sears building in Chicago, although renamed the Willis Building for many years, will ALWAYS be the Sears Tower.

Yes, I wuz there! No, the children aren't mine, although I do know the lovely lady on the right.

2010-06-07T20:43:00.002+10:00

I heard on BBC World Service a Greek journalist who said that Greece would be charged something like 8% if it could borrow funds. Germany can borrow at 2-2.5% yet loans it to Greece at 5%. Germany stands to make a lot of money for standing guarantor for Greece, and I'm waiting to hear from another 'expert' as to how all this makes economic sense. No country these days can afford state pensions at 58; yet banks will burn and people die in a country where only 40% of people pay any taxes, and those that do are pilloried and ridiculed for doing so. I did economics at university many lifetimes ago, so I guess my learnings and understandings at that time are severely out of date? Or are they?

Monday June 7, the day after Queensland Day (6th)

2010-06-07T20:33:00.002+10:00

Where has the time gone? A month since the last update has simply flown. We have been as busy as ever, and I think we are averaging three nights out a week. The crowd on the bridge (above) is made up of some 170 000 Brisbanites who ventured onto the new Gateway Bridge before it opened to traffic a week later. Yes, we were there, but really it was more to tick off the experience since standing in the middle of a road with high fences either side on top of a bridge is little different to standing on an overpass anywhere on the planet. Still, it was well organised and got us out early on a Sunday morning walking with several friends.

Love the 'Courage' picture. The Arizona cartoons are not so lovely.

Huub is 50

2010-05-03T14:54:00.004+10:00

Rene's older brother was 50 this week. The family had one daughter and three sons. This picture was taken at our wedding dinner - the two silver napkin rings were a great look. An enlarged photo of this very picture was posted at the end of Huub's street by Claartje and Jack, his Dutch based siblings. One thing I noticed in The Netherlands was the very public announcing of family events - like birthdays, births, graduations etc. It's very lovely indeed.

Please click on the picture (left) and read the text. Brilliant!

Married 24 hours

2010-05-03T14:49:00.003+10:00

A whole 24 hours had passed by when this photo was taken at New Year's Eve in Utrecht. The wedding rings still looked shiny and new. Believe it or not, kissing in public is still kind of strange for us both. We are kind of shy I guess.

NYE Utrecht

2010-05-03T14:39:00.002+10:00

I forgot to post some pictures from the New Year's Eve party at former neighbours in Utrecht. They arrived while I was still away and sort of got forgotten in the rush to settle back into routine. It was truly lovely to see everyone there, and this was just 24 hours after the wedding. We'd already left the honeymoon suite that noon, travelled by train to Utrecht, checked into our apartment, seen friends at our favourite cafe, been to the beginning of a party at friend's home, then on to this dinner by 8:30pm. We both had a ball, but were truly exhausted by 1:30am. Yes, we went to bed early for New Year's Eve, but I think we had a good excuse.

May Day Weekend

2010-05-03T14:09:00.007+10:00

Rene and I have both been enjoying a relaxing long weekend, the second in a fortnight - the last weekend was Anzac Day.

It has been nice relaxing on the new sun lounge out on the deck now that the temperatures have come down a bit.

The wooden tulips in the vase in the foyer downstairs come from the airport at Schipol. We had one from Rene's sister and brother in law from 2008, so we thought we'd add ten more on this trip.

The koala here was photographed last Friday at Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast. I went there with a lot of Airport Ambassadors just to familiarise ourselves with the layout. It is most impressive, and I can imagine how tourists would find the whole place fascinating.

My entire blog has been printed by a company in the US (well, I'm not sure exactly where, since it was freighted from Belgium). It is in three volumes and covers 2007 (Jan) up to 2010 (Mar) and is of great significance to me, but I'm guessing to nobody else. It has documented significant events in the recent lives of both Rene and myself and has been very interesting reading. Of course, it is all here online...but a hard copy is lovely for me, personally.

We have also just had printed a photo album of our recent wedding. There are two copies, and one will be winging its way to The Netherlands very soon. It ought to arrive here this week (we received notification of its departure from the printery at the end of last week).

We're at the end of a very short update, but with 10 shirts to iron plus dusting and vacuuming to be done before we have three visitors for dinner (one is from Japan), there is little time left. Simple dinner of Portugese chicken (BBQ'd), lamb cutlets, potatoes, green beans, corn on the cob and salad. Finish up with triple chocolate ice cream with raspberry sauce plus copious quantities of great Australian wine and you have the perfect end to a Labour Day Weekend. Hope yours was terrific too!

Nearly the end of autumn...

2010-04-17T21:45:00.010+10:00

Last year, whilst staying in Lafayette, Indiana, our house was attacked by a pesky woodpecker. The other day I found this cartoon and it all came back to me. Love it!

The Australian Tourist Commission

recently launched a new slogan complete with catchy ads. Within 2 hours the campaign was joined by a series of print ads online that were amazingly clever - and the NZ one is just a single example.

One of my friends sent the following two cartoons, which are very clever too.

This final picture is from Utrecht, NL, where Queen Beatrix is alighting from the Dutch Royal Train. The reproduction was completed for the Royal Train Exhibition that opened last week in the national train museum in Utrecht. There are many carriages, including a whole train from the mid 19th century, on display in what observers have noted is a unique exhibition. If you are in The Netherlands I would suggest perhaps a visit to the beautiful city and witness what train buffs from around the world are checking out this summer.

______________________

I had my blog printed this month. Yes, a company in America printed my blog of over three years length in three volumes, and the result is fabulous. It's quite nice having a hard copy of the endless blogging over the years. It is very deep and meaningful to me, and actually is easier to thumb through and find information from the past than searching the blog online. We are now working on the European Wedding Album - a hard cover affair done through an Australian company. There are many companies worldwide doing these albums now, and it's reassuring that personally significant online work is somehow preserved - at least for now.

I'm at the airport in the morning, and I'm expecting it to be a little quieter with the volcanic ash issue disrupting European travel. Passengers who have an onward ticket from an Asian port to northern Europe are not being flown out of the country since accommodation in major Asian cities is totally full. I think Athens and Istanbul are still open tonight, but other destinations are closed - and little likelihood of their reopening any day soon.

School has resumed for Term 2 and winter starts in a fortnight - this year is wayyy to fast yet again! I have a 3.5 day week this term and I'm already loving it, having had Friday off this week. I did a CPR refresher course last Thursday evening - if you are going to need me to perform it any day soon, better get me while it's fresh in my mind. Better still, don't bother me - stay healthy and well.

During the short Easter break (just 8 days) we visited Kay in her new home in Toowoomba. She has done yet another terrific job of renovation and extension. I think this is house #5 just in the block where she now lives. There have been two others plus the second last one - a complete new home from scratch. Now she's settled in this one, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see yet another one done - just to keep her hand in.

After years and years I'm finally going to Australia Zoo with the Airport Ambassadors to see what it is like. I've always resisted going - I think it was the shudder factor associated with the persona of Steve Irwin - but everybody, and I mean everybody, who has ever been there have simply raved about it, so Friday week I go and will no doubt report back on it next time.

My plans for next months significant birthday are complete: the real birthday weekend Rene and I will spend at Quarterdecks at Hervey Bay (2 nights) with a day trip to Fraser Island included. The following weekend friends and family are joining us on North Stradbroke Island for a relaxing, fun weekend.

This week is another busy one with dinner tomorrow evening at brother Steve's and Adele's home with all of their children and families. That should be most enjoyable. On Tuesday, the trivia kings (and queens) - we won last week for the third time this year - try to retain a second win in a row, then Wednesday a friend and I (Rene didn't want to go) are seeing Julian Clary at The Tivoli. It will finish with dinner at Wynnum with Peter and Bernie (plus Beck of course) before they head off driving and camping in Central Australia. I think they finish up in South Australia. I am jealous of their trip - but not the thought of camping. They ought to see Australia at the best it has been for something like 30 years. The floods from Queensland are still meandering their way southwards - I heard that the Paroo River from Western Queensland is in continuous flood right down into New South Wales, joining the Darling, later hopefully even the Murray, for only the third time in recorded European settlement history.

With Rene downstairs polishing the album to be uploaded sometime this week, I will say farewell for now. I retire to my bed happy and tired. My day started with fresh croissants for breakfast from the Clayfield Patisserie, then I cleaned the screens and windows on the deck (they are 6m wide, 2.4m high), washed down the deck, cleaned the master bedroom windows as well (I couldn't stand looking at the dirt and dust on them anymore), then this evening prepared salmon steaks with a brilliant salad. Add some laundry washed and dried - and put away - and I retire a tired but happy man. Not only that, but I have the entire day to myself tomorrow - oops, forgot, Sunday shift 7am at airport - departures L4...OK, I have the afternoon to myself - until we go off to my brother's.

Busy, but happy.

Two posts in two days - a record!

2010-03-21T10:46:00.004+10:00

Our first new tunnel (one of four planned or under construction) opened this week. Named Clem7 after a former lord mayor of Brisbane plus being part of the M7 motorway, it has brought both praise and condemnation from all and sundry.

It is free for the first three weeks, then has a discount of 30% for another month, but since it is free and new, it has been plagued by sightseers and drivers with the mental capacity of my spasming leg - because it's free. Can you believe three cars broke down one after the other (in this day and age!) plus one stupid woman got out of her stationary vehicle and had a bit of a walk through the tunnel, thus holding up the traffic when it did start moving moments later. Good grief! I've been through it three times for work and it is just terrific. A journey to work from home across the river to Annerley which normally would take 35 minutes was down to 20 minutes. Superb! On the first day it took 10 minutes off the journey from home to Inala - again, superb! In the afternoon the signs warned of congestion in the tunnel, therefore the Riverside Expressway and the Inner City Bypass was used - and guess what? No delays at all (they were all stuck underground checking out the new free tunnel).

I just love the whole 6.8km of the thing. Mind you, when our neighbouring tunnel is also completed, it too will cut off enormous amounts of time at peak hours. Until 2012 we have to put up with lots of minor inconveniences, but come three years time I too will yet again be singing the praises of the BrisConnections tunnel, connecting to the Clem7, giving Brisbane the longest continuous road tunnel in the country. Eat your hearts out Sydney! (just joking).

At the top of this post is a photograph of the new Northern Busway tunnel, being built parallel to the road tunnels, allowing buses to travel virtually free of traffic obstructions (cars, lights etc) from Kedron to the CBD. It, too, finishes in 2012.

5th wet weekend in a row

2010-03-20T13:41:00.004+10:00

(Photographed at our weekly trivia night recently)

It hasn't rained continuously over each weekend, but frequently enough for me and the rest of Brisbane to be over it for a while. Our dams are 98% full, our gardens verdant and lush, and our rain water tanks full to overflowing. I went and pruned a whole load of bushes and small trees this morning just so the jungle doesn't get away from me.

Right now the H2O is merely drizzly stuff, but we have a cyclone off the coast of Queensland expected to cross the mainland late tomorrow and expected to bring with it yet more heavy rain.

I must admit the light drizzly rain is very refreshing whilst it remains 26 C right now, so the fact that I put a whole load of washing on the line to dry speaks volumes for my optimism. If I have to bring it in tomorrow and finish it off in the drier I will, but I really try to avoid using it ever.

Rene has a new exhibition which opened last night - www.centredart.com.au - and we had a few visitors, but so far today he has had more visitors. It's not yet 2pm and more are expected. The photo of Rene at the top left of this page appeared in this week's local paper.

I have a final Saturday shift at the airport 4-8pm at International, and from next weekend my colleague and myself are going to trial Sunday 4-8 - we anticipate it being a little busier. I still enjoy the Airport Ambassador shifts, and will enjoy it even more so next term when my school load reduces back to 3.5 days a week.

I think I mentioned before that we saw Avatar in 3D (loved the effects, got bored with the film though towards the end) but we saw Alice In Wonderland in 3D a fortnight ago and loved it. I like Tim Burton movies a lot, and Johnny Depp is always good value. We also saw Avenue Q, the puppet and actor musical (billed as Sesame Street meets South Park) and I quite frankly loved it to pieces (it's on at QPAC Playhouse until March 28). The cast, the music, the musicians all contributed to a wonderful night out, and I loved it so much I bought a set of buttons to wear out when I'm feeling brave plus the CD of the Broadway cast. I have to note that to my ears the current American cast do every bit as good a job as the original Broadway cast, and perhaps even a slightly bit better in some roles. Top show - but I wish I could get the damned music out of my head! I keep humming 'Everyone's a Little Bit Racist' all the bloody time!

My glasses broke, so now I finally have new ones. I couldn't find a previous pair to use in the interim, so I settled for a pharmacy pair that were perfect for the left eye, not for the right. I struggled for 10 days like that. Not a pretty sight! Oh, I do love the new ones, but you'll have to wait for a picture.

Two weeks to Easter. Rene and I both have a whole week off then from school, so we plan on catching up on things around the house and generally sleeping. I am going to include a trip up to Toowoomba on a gallery day when Rene is at home, but apart from that I intend to attempt to relax a bit. I have to go and get ready for my airport shift, so for now, tata!

Rain, rain, go away......

2010-03-07T11:39:00.003+10:00

It has rained for the last three weekends. Not solid rain, but drizzle and occasional thunderstorms. We had the threat of Brisbane flooding last Monday and Tuesday, but what happened was very local indeed. Our dams have a combined total of 84% (Monday edit - now 94%) and climbing. Two dams have been letting water escape for days now.

Out west, a vast area - larger than France - is under water or threatened with flooding. St George (near where I used to teach - Dirranbandi) broke an 1890 record yesterday for the highest flood ever recorded, and this water is like an inland sea - not very deep, but everywhere, from horizon to horizon. It is going to have incredibly good results in the future once it has fallen, but I remember it back in 1974 as hanging around for weeks.

Is it March already?

2010-03-06T12:20:00.010+10:00

We've been back some six weeks now and I've let things in Blog Land fall by the wayside, however with this posting I'll be more up to date. The pictures are all over the place, but they all make for an interesting story.

These first two pictures are from our short two night stay in Taipei, capital of Taiwan. It is a most interesting city with lots of Asian hustle and bustle yet order and sometimes tranquility. The National Palace Museum (top) is one of the four top museums in the world - mainly because of the ancient Chinese collections from over the centuries smuggled out safely in 1949. Taipei's main concert hall is featured above. One dinner on the first night was like a sort of Mongolian BBQ with boiling water in the middle and a grille all around the outside, plus endless choices of meat, seafood and vegetables, along with rice and noodles - this was very good indeed.

The food is interesting, and they like lots of broiled meats and vegetables. This was one of our lunches (extremely inexpensive). New Taiwan Dollars have lost around 20% to the Australian dollar, so Taiwan is now one of the best value holiday destinations for Aussies. Add a frequent, clean and phenomenal MRT system (all English signs everywhere) and travel in Taipei is really simple. The locals are extremely happy and pleased to help visitors looking confused. The night markets are vast, too, and the drinks inexpensive. Rene and I liked it so much that we were sorry we couldn't spend at least a week exploring the provinces.

Old world architecture presented in a modern way. Below is the view from the top of T 101, until January the highest building in the world.

T 101 has a unique small footprint - very narrow indeed - and I compared it to the Sears (Willys) Building, Chicago, that I went to the top of back in October, which has a very broad base indeed.

Below is a picture of a place that couldn't be more opposite to Taipei - the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. We spent a week in Spain as part of our month in Europe over Christmas. Sadly, the gardens were nowhere near their peak, but the buildings were as impressive as ever, and it was a truly amazing place to visit - and in winter there are no crowds.

The gardeners were pruning and planting, but the fountains operated beautifully.

From the top of the fort, the view towards the mountains. The fort was constructed in the 14th century.

Across the valley, it is hard to realise from this photo just how enormous the palace grounds are.

The people standing on the fortress are testimony to the size of the structure.

One of the court yards in the palace. There are three palaces in the Alhambra complex.

The plaster designs in this ceiling have the most beautiful blue incorporated in the design.

One can only imagine just how stunningly beautiful these places must look like in spring and summer.

Ancient Granada sprawls below the Alhambra. There is low cloud in the distance, and the rain returned in the afternoon after our visit.

Icons are not allowed in Islamic interiors, but beautifully illuminated Arabic script is - as you can see from this great close up of mine.

These stunning ceilings were in several places. Perhaps my favourite architectural touch.

Incredibly steep steps and streets descending from the Alhambra down to the city centre.

The Royal Chapel where Isabel and Ferdinand are buried was worth a visit. Granada's cathedral next door was not - a very unsettling building where I felt quite uneasy. I have no explanation - I just did not like the 'feel' or spirit of the place. I was surprised by my reaction.

One entrance to the gardens and the steep climb up to the Alhambra. It was a challenge in winter, but I can't imagine Granada in the middle of a super hot summer being walking weather.

The recently restored Arab Quarter gates. There was a brilliant bar just before this gate where we tried great local wines and tasty free tapas.

We made a dash by Spain's high speed train from Seville to Cordoba to inspect the marvellous Mezquita church - part Moor mosque, part Catholic Cathedral. It was snowing outside now, and the light was poor, and my phone camera hasn't got a flash - but I reckon the pictures aren't too bad.

Stunning architecture, simply stunning. 2000 worshippers could be on mats at the same time.

The snow had started, and it was the talk of the town. Back in Seville, while we were away for the day, it snowed for the first time in 54 years.

After the Moors were evicted from the last part of Spain, this building was preserved, with the central part demolished to create a Catholic Cathedral of modest but impressive dimensions. It was hard to compete with the Moorish architecture, but what they did in building this alter and dome - with all its light - is quite stunning to witness.

We started our week in Spain by flying Ryan Air from Weeze in Germany (just across the Dutch border) to Seville, where we enjoyed some cool but sunny days. The cathedral was beautiful, and the Giralda Tower (above) is a triumph of Moorish architecture, and the cathedral attached contains Christopher Columbas' tomb.

This was one end of a bridge built for the Spanish Exposition in 1929. Beautiful tiles, and the weather wasn't too bad either.

The Plaza de Espana (second above) was a beautiful legacy of the exposition of 1929. Still used today as government offices, and occasionally for movie sets like Lawrence of Arabia (1962) where this setting plus many other Seville buildings stood in for Cairo.

The picture (above) shows the view from the Giralda tower. The top is reached by climbing a ramp, some 16 stories high. The ramp follows along four sides of a square tower. The cathedral roof is beautiful too.

The Plaza de Espana has impressive murals created from tiles. Each section on the base of the building reflects a part of Spain, Portugal and every other Spanish speaking country in the world.

This palace is just about refurbished and renovated - ready for the government to move back into.

From Spain, we go back in time to our brief stop at our friend Linda's home, situated in Kleve, Germany. The snow was still occuring on a regular basis, and after three weeks we were a little bit over it. Linda works in Nederlands but lives just across the border in Germany. It is very beautiful.

Fresh snow that morning made for a tranquil walk into town for some brief sight seeing.

Another of those "I was there' type pictures, but I like it ...

Anne of Cleves is the town's most notable native (briefly Henry VIII's wife) and Richard Wagner included the castle (Swan Castle) in Lohengrin.

Rene inspecting Linda's backyard, complete with a fresh covering of snow.

We had almost a week in Utrecht, our old home, and enjoyed cold weather which included periods of sunshine and snow. Rene met with the director of the Aboriginal Art Museum in Utrecht (above) and below is the view of the snow from the living room of our apartment. Our 1690 apartment was situated not far from our old apartment area, on a street said to be the oldest shopping street in Utrecht.

Yes, we did have some sun, but there was no warmth in it at all. We were filling in time at the laundromat (one has to have clean clothes).

Before we leave Utrecht, I just have to say that Rene got very, very ill in the lead up to the week there. We both had experienced colds etc that seemed to get progressively worse as the Christmas led up to the wedding. Mine was a comparatively minor bout, but poor Rene really copped it with a sore throat, temperature and constant runny nose. With all the talking and partying, eventually on New Year's Day his body and voice gave up, and he spent the whole day in bed. That is unheard of for him. He had been able to cope with the wedding day followed by New Year's Eve, but when the pressure was off, he just collapsed into bed and slept and slept. It did the trick because he was much better after that. We both were.

Having said that, Utrecht was wonderful as ever. The people hadn't changed in five years, the places had barely changed and the city felt very much like home. Friends seemed like they were before, only their children appeared five years older. We visited friends in their home just outside Utrecht - did it all by wonderful public transport - and it was like we'd last visited a month ago. Yes, they had two pet rabbits now (the size of small dogs) and the boys were in late primary and high school now, but everything else felt comfortably familiar.

We dined out frequently, and I have to say that all over The Netherlands, the quality and presentation of food remains outstanding. Yes, the small town pizzeria our family dined at on our last night was a bit of a Fawlty Towers experience (it happens) but an Utrecht dinner beside the canal in a favourite restaurant of ours was bliss, and in Rotterdam we were taken out to a most amazing restaurant with an impressive menu - and fabulous food. Home style cooking at dinners and parties also made for a wonderful experience, and we enjoyed the hospitality of many, many family and friends. You know who you are - Rene and I thank you very much indeed.

Kegelen...yes, those of you not Dutch will think this is ten pin bowling, but it is in fact the home grown game that has some significant differences. You use regular shoes, the balls are standard without finger holes. There is a barrier across the front so you can't cross it. The lane is narrow for half the length, then widens. There are nine pins lifted and lowered using rope and a machine. What does a large group do between the wedding ceremony and dinner? Well, I didn't really relish the thought of ice skating (since I don't) and the opportunity to break something valuable (like a leg, arm or wrist), so kegelen seemed a fun option. The electronic scoring showed at the end that, despite being the most senior player that evening, I was the winner by two points. Yes, my dear brothers, pick yourselves up off the ground...your older brother (59) actually won a sports competition against players as young as 17 (well, little Anneka is not quite 5). Might I add that Rene was just rubbish at this game. I am milking this for all I can since I'm ghastly at most things, especially anything competitive.

The family gave us a surprise night in a honeymoon suite at a local hotel (once a convent). This breakfast was delivered just before 11am. We'd only got there at midnight and had to leave by noon (although we had a 5pm check out) since we had to be in Utrecht by 4pm to get our apartment key - it was New Year's Eve, and we were currently in the south of NL and Utrecht is much further north. With the help of Jan and Claartje we got picked up, went home, got dropped off at Best station (it was just starting to snow again) and made it to Utrecht in plenty of time.

Before the wedding, the family assembled at Jan and Claartje's home. We had coffee and cake beforehand, then set off for the town hall. This cake was a champagne mousse with raspberry from de Bijenkorf in Eindhoven - light and simply delicious.

Here Rene tucks into a delicious traditional Dutch home style meal in the house where he was born. We had just returned from France, and we were invited to his uncle and aunt's home across the road from where Rene was brought up. His lovely uncle and aunt tried very hard to include me in their conversation and I felt truly at home there, but Rene was in his element - familiar old style surroundings (extremely Dutch) with food and drink to match. A truly memorable evening

The house above is where we had the dinner. Rene was born in a room on the right side of this house. Two months later his family moved across the road to their new home which was just completed (below).

On the way back home from Christmas in France, we stopped off at one of my favourite cities - Antwerp - for lunch. Here they are ice skating in the main square. I guess this was my third or fourth time in the city, and even in winter it was amazing.

The picture above shows a tram using the newest link in the extensive network in The Hague. This line was just being started on when I was working in Den Haag in 2004. It passes very close to one of the schools I worked at. Before going to meet gallery people in Rotterdam (where Rene has Aboriginal paintings being exhibited for sale) we took a detour via The Hague to drop in on one of my old schools and see what's changed. Answer? Not much, except for some staff. I must admit the snow and ice was a challenge to negotiate in the streets, but apart from that all was familiar and very nice indeed.

We're standing at Cap Gris Nez, the closest point between France and Britain. It was bloody cold and windy. You could see the cliffs, I swear.

Jan and Rene, plus a wayyy too eager and excited Splinter, on the beach near Condette on Christmas morning. Splinter even went into the freezing Channel and frolicked like there was no tomorrow. I was there too (NB shadow lower right).

This is Jan and Claartjes holiday home, situated in Condette, very near Boulogne sur Mer. It was very comfortable, and the town is very cute indeed. Boulogne was a surprise - very large, very post War 60's rebuild, but with an elevated medieval old city centre that is well preserved and extremely attractive.

Yes, food again, this time lunch in Dunkerque on the way to Condette for Christmas.

On our first morning in NL we went to the town hall in Son en Bruegel to meet with the celebrant; the government official who conducts the ceremony. She was extremely interested in us, and a week later she cemented together the pieces from our 90 minute conversation to create a most intimate and moving ceremony.

On our way to the twon hall on foot we passed beautiful Son homes smothered in snow.

The one above has a thatched roof. It was extremely large and very handsome in its proportions.

Yes, I know, I've posted this before, but I have to tell you this is my favourite non wedding picture of the whole trip - walking through a short cut in the small forest beside Jan and Claartje's home towards the town centre.

We were met by many scenes like this on our first day in The Netherlands. Quite beautiful.

OK, the rest here are an eclectic collection of stuff I found here in my picture folders - firstly a stuffy picture taken before we went to the top of T 101 in Taipei. God I look tired!

This airline has a sense of humour - T 101 followed by flying 101 - if you can click on the picture, each section of fuselage is labelled - I just love it!

My friend Di and I sat in a booth at GoMA (Gallery of Modern Art) here in Brisbane and played with a program designed for kids (I suspect). The result is truly scary.

I've forgotten where this impressively painted bus operates, but the creator of the art work deserves a medal. Now if that doesn't stop traffic in the street, I don't know what would.

The final two above are rather superb parts of the world. The top picture was sent the other day to a friend of mine here in Brisbane by his mother. It is of Sierra Blanca in New Mexico, the famous site of a ski resort in the central south of the USA. I've been up to 11 000' on that mountain, and the air was mighty thin up there.

The final picture is one I plucked off the net one day recently, at the North Pole, with sun and moon together reflected in the water. Stunning.

More on the wedding

2010-02-07T17:39:00.006+10:00

Somebody at coffee this afternoon (yes, you Bernadette) said that the previous post on the wedding was short on detail and emotion, but really I didn't have time to do it better. Here I am trying to do a better job.

We arrived at the town hall in Son en Breugel at 3pm on December 30. We waited behind the family whilst 'secret' things were put in place. This turned out to be a tenor who sang as we entered the room, plus champagne on the table for the end of the ceremony. Normally, when it is busy, there's reluctance to allow such time, but nobody - yes, nobody - gets married between Christmas and New Year, so we had the place to ourselves.

Five cameras recorded the event, unfortunately there was one above the staircase, so you see our shiny heads. I still like this picture. We were so self conscious and slightly nervous, but obviously enjoying every moment. Both of us had never married, so at 59 and 48 respectively, this was a first (and never to be repeated).

We entered the room, the main meeting chamber of the council. It had been refurbished in 2008 and was very attractive indeed, with a very lovely ambiance created by the furnishings and the feeling of love and joy in the air. I wax a trifle lyrical here, but all the members of the family plus the officials, and of course ourselves, created a feeling of great joy and happiness.

Lea, our official, carried out her duties with good humour and dignity. We had spent 90 minutes with her the week before and therefore she knew a lot about us. About 60% was in English and the rest in Dutch. I understood perfectly all the Dutch spoken, and I felt very included in all the proceedings. Notice the tea lights around the tables. There was a beautiful light in the room, quite cozy for such a large space.

In this Maxwell Smart picture (the 'Cone of Silence") Rene is looking quite self conscious. This was part of the very serious ceremony, and I was looking very serious and I think Rene was choking up a little - not sure.

Done! The certificate is signed. Rene signed first, then myself, followed by his sister in law Claartje and her husband Jan - our witnesses. This was only fair since we had been witnesses at their wedding the year before in Australia. I felt euphoric that the formalities were over.

I love this photo. It's after the paperwork was done but I'm not sure what Rene was reacting to. One is so wrapped up in the moment that sometimes it's difficult to reflect back on everything in detail. All I know is that we were both exceptionally happy.

There was an opportunity to make a vow and say some words, and Rene declined but I went ahead and it all got a bit mushy and teary for a short while, which is good because up until then it all seemed like a damned good party. This was serious stuff, and we did have those moments, but not all the time.

I thank our tenor, a relative of my brother in law, for his beautiful singing. It was relaxed but also formal when necessary. We had to leave then and make our way to the town's cafe (pub) where we had a few drinks. I'll post those pictures later.

Here we are leaving in the world's smallest wedding limo, a bright yellow Hyundai Atos. It had green silk on the dash and rear parcel tray plus yellow roses around the windows. Perhaps my favourite wedding picture.

After the cafe we went to a neighbouring village to play kegelen, a Dutch form of ten pin bowling. The pins are picked up by string, and the lanes are a different width, narrower for the first half. You use a standard ball minus holes for the fingers and then you bowl under a wire across the start of the lane. It's all electronic and has screens, but the string on pins idea was very old fashioned to me. I'll include a picture in the next post. Oh, I might mention that OWEN WON against 11 other adults playing (I'm not including 4 year old Anneke).

We went to yet another neighbouring town for dinner, at Auberge de Zwaan in Oirschot. If you want to, you can check out the menu for the current season. It was a superb a la carte dinner for 14, and everyone loved the food and the service. We had our own room plus a beautiful fire in the sitting room beside the dining room. It was a superb choice. http://www.dezwaan-oirschot.nl/

During the dinner the family performed a song 'Aus-tra-li-a' to the tune of YMCA. They gave us some funny gifts, as well as a book of the slides used in a Power Point presentation that was before dinner. The edible undies and flashing ducks were funny, but the gift of a surprise night in the honeymoon suite of a beautiful local hotel (once a convent) was a real surprise. Although we didn't get there until midnight, we were taken to our room and found a jacuzzi, champagne and nibbles (we were so very not hungry, but lovely touch) in our large suite with a late checkout of 5pm. My sister in law had smuggled out our toilet bags and a change of underwear.

More next time, but for now, this is enough. With coffee and cake at 1:30pm, wedding at 3, cafe at 4, bowling at 5, dinner at 7 we were really quite tired when we reached the hotel room, but we still tried the jacuzzi and drank the bubbles. We retired exhausted but sublimely happy. It was already New Year's Eve and we had to be in Utrecht by 4pm to pick up our apartment keys and start the round of three social events for that evening. Right now, though, we were consumed by deep and very comforting sleep.

Heavy rain overnight

2010-02-07T13:49:00.002+10:00

We had a great deal of rain from since before midnight last night. We needed it. Some areas near us have had around 150mm but we've had around 90mm. A few pictures from around lunchtime today - the rain has stopped, and apart from the potential for showers, has passed.

Favourite Winter Photo

2010-02-07T13:44:00.003+10:00

It was our first full day in The Netherlands, and this was taken in the forest just beside Jan and Claartjes home in Son en Breugel, near Eindhoven. Splinter, their dog, loves these woods. We were walking to the town hall to discuss the wedding details with the official conducting the ceremony a week later.

Citizen Dings

2010-02-07T13:32:00.003+10:00

On the 26th of January - Australia Day - Rene Dings became an Australian citizen. Since we are now married, Rene can have dual citizenship like I have. He can also contribute fully to this country as a voting citizen. A general election is due at the end of this year. Some friends came along too to witness the event. There were almost 1000 people becoming citizens where Rene was, but altogether 16 000 people from 144 countires became new Australian citizens.

First Post 2010

2010-01-31T20:50:00.003+10:00

Welcome to 2010! This post will be short since I don't have a lot of time, but I am making myself do this before the weekend is up.

We celebrated Christmas in France with family, we celebrated New Year in The Netherlands with friends and in between we got married. Yes, we actually tied the knot one month ago.

Add to that a week in Spain with, amongst other things, the first snow in Seville in 54 years plus three days in fascinating Taipei on the way home, and you have one wonderful and memorable month abroad.

I'd love to add many pictures, but for now I'll add a few here and more at the end of the week in some on line album.

I have to tell you that the wedding was far more significant and wonderful than I could have ever imagined. In fact both Rene and I were taken aback slightly by just how fabulous, exciting and happy the day was. Thanks go to the family in The Netherlands, especially my sister in law Claartje and her husband Jan who took care of the fine points organising the event locally - plus they were our witnesses. The official from the local government in Son en Breugel, Lia, was also brilliant in the way she matched humour with formality, English segments with Dutch. I felt very included and we both loved the room where we were married.

Do I feel blessed? You bet! Do I feel fortunate? Absolutely! Do I feel loved and welcomed by my new family? Certainly! Add the most wonderful husband in the world and I have every reason to be grinning like a Cheshire cat in every picture.

Last Update for 2009

2009-12-17T15:52:00.005+10:00

This will be it for 2009, the final communique via this medium. What a year, what an ending to the year! Our garden is a bit dry at present, like everyone else's in Brisbane, but it is growing well considering it has only been planted since last February.

Last night we attended yet another delightful dinner party, this time not only with great food and company, but also mango daiquiris. Seriously, deliciously wicked concoctions contrived by the wonderful hosts Edwina and Frank. Thanks folk for a gorgeous evening, yet again.

The very small back garden is coming along well with its small lemon and lime trees and olive bush. Once again, quite dry, but still thriving...and not yet 11 months old.

Some of our first lemons, still with a way to go, but still - our very first fruit is on its way.

Lovely colour. We have endeavoured to have a variety of colours and heights in our small garden.

A friend gave us this climbing plant around last March and it has produced its first blooms this week.

Last Monday friends and family gathered at Hamson Terrace for a lunch in the park. Our home is immediately behind the group. Mosquitoes were annoying, so be bathed ourselves in repellant. The food was terrific, and we later adjourned upstairs in the air conditioned house and partied on until the final guests left around 10pm.

Little Griff, my god daughter's 4 month old, looking quite animated at the camera phone. His grandmother, Di, is holding him. Griff's Welsh grandmother and grandfather are arriving on Monday to spend Christmas and New Year Down Under. I can only imagine the degree of spoiling this little chap is going to get over the next few weeks.

My newly oiled deck plus revarnished railing. A lot of work, but a great result. Three coats of varnish on the railings, two coats of oil on the decking.

Sunday we depart to Amsterdam via Taipei and Bangkok. My new phone weather ap shows me snow showers in Eindhoven NL, and even Boulogne in France where we spend Christmas (actually, Condette, just outside of Boulogne). We have an appointment in Rotterdam for dinner with the gallery owner where Rene has some of his art on exhibition there. On the eve of the wedding we are having dinner with an uncle and aunt of Rene's who live in a house across the road from where Rene was brought up. We have New Year's Eve planned in Utrecht where we meet the old friends from the cafe around 6 then go to dinner at the apartments where Rene once lived. We meet the wedding official on Tuesday morning in Son. After that we go to a family Christmas party - we have four small gifts each to place in the middle and take turns throwing the dice and selecting and swapping the presents. Spain is arranged, the flights from Germany and back to The Netherlands are booked, and the Taipei stopover is organised. Add to that the wedding day on the 30th, then you could say we are packed and ready to fly.

The photo above was the first one taken with my new phone, and of course it features dearest Rene. Here he is distracted by the ever present Nintendo DS. Upon our arrival back on these shores January 20, he is going to receive his Australian Citizenship at the Convention Centre on Australia Day (26th). The City Hall is closed for renovations, so this coming year everything is transferred to the very large Exhibition and Convention Centre. There is no limitation on the number of guests one can have at the ceremony.

Many members of our trivia team recently attended the Singalong Sound of Music at the Lyric Theatre, Brisbane. This slightly blurry photo is from a website where various audience members were featured. A fun night all round (see a previous entry about it below).

Well, this is it, have a brilliant Christmas plus a fantastic 2010 complete with happiness, good health and perhaps, even, peace on Earth. Next update after January 26. Thank you for your comments and taking the time to read this. I really appreciate the newsy emails and phone calls generated by this blog.

86 10 150

2009-12-10T18:25:00.002+10:00

On this day, my mum would have been 86. Today is also the 150th birthday of the State of Queensland. December 10 is a good date.

Alfred Nobel also died on this date, but he had read his obituary eight years earlier when a newspaper accidentally published his instead of his brother's. In it he was condemned for being the inventor of dynamite so he set about leaving a better legacy to be remembered for - hence the Nobel Prizes, awarded each December 10.

No, I go back to Meg, my Mum. Happy Birthday Mum, wherever you are. I'm sure you are happy knowing that your big boy is finally getting married - she had tried many times to marry me off.

From two days ago

2009-12-09T14:57:00.002+10:00

A Spanish man who was imprisoned as a teenager for being gay has become the first to receive an official letter of apology.

Antoni Ruiz spent three months in jail under a law introduced during General Franco's dictatorship.

In 1976, when he was 17 years old, Mr Ruiz told his family he was gay.

It was just months after General Francisco Franco had died and homosexuality was strictly illegal.

When Mr Ruiz's worried parents confided in a Catholic monk, he promptly denounced their son to the authorities.

The teenager spent three months in prison and was banned from returning home for another year.

Mr Ruiz now heads an association for other former prisoners and estimates that around 5,000 homosexuals suffered a similar fate to him during Franco's dictatorship.

Now he has become the first to receive official recognition of his suffering in a letter from the justice minister of Spain.

- BBC

Rene and I are honeymooning in the south of Spain - where gay marriage is also legal now. The country has advanced far in three decades...

Not long now

2009-12-09T13:46:00.003+10:00

Ho, ho, ho, holiday! Yes, the summer vacation has already begun and I'm making the most of it being very hot before we jet off into much colder climes.

It's not long before we set off for Europe. I'm starting to get excited, but there's also some fear of setting off on a very long plane journey - Brisbane/Taipei/Bangkok/Amsterdam. Of course we travel Cattle Class, so that makes it worse, but I'm fairly sure we'll have exit row seats on each leg. You can never guarantee these things, but I called into China Airlines office beside the one we Ambassadors use at Brisbane Airport, and they saw me and sort of assured me we would get the seats, but they don't know until the day of departure.

For those of you who, like me, know more about aircraft than that they just have jet engines, I can tell you that we go firstly on an A330 to Tapei, and change to a B747 to Amsterdam. The return is also a 747, but from Taipei to Sydney we have an A340 (I've never been on one of those before). Several of my friends reading this have suddenly glazed over - WAKE UP, back to news...

We've rented an apartment in Utrecht for a week - built in 1690. It looks wonderful, and it's right down where our favourite cafe is, beside the canal. We arrive in Utrecht on New Year's Eve and currently we hope to meet some friends at the Ledig Erf cafe for a wonderful first night back in Utrecht for five years.

The pictures below are of New Mexico in the USA and remind me of the first time I went there in the mid 80's. I've been back twice because of friends there and the fact that the South West is such a fantastic place to visit. The desert, mountains and a very special atmosphere all combine to make this a very extraordinary part of the country to investigate. I had a whole album emailed to me just today, so I thought I'd share a couple of typical views.

A couple of posts ago I mentioned the great difficulty I had in choosing a new phone and a plan to suit my needs. Well, my patience and research has paid off with an exceptionally good handset - the HTC Magic - from Vodafone, complete with a data download facility for exactly the same amount per month as my old phone. This SmartPhone is too clever so far, and I am taking small steps each day to master it, but it is wonderful. It has a 3.5 megapixel camera, GPS, Google maps, Android OS (which means it's not Mac or Windows based) and it is light, easy to use as a phone, and text messaging is via a very large QWERTY keyboard that is touch sensitive. The memory card in the phone is 8Gb - so lots of music and videos can be stored on it for long trips on planes (hint, hint) plus if we get lost or need phrases in French, Spanish etc, it has an Ap for these too. When I type messages I can turn the phone sideways and the keyboard is bigger. How cool is that? I love it!
I've been to several shows lately, the most recent being the Eurobeat show - a send up of the Eurovision Song Contest. It was a very funny, most entertaining evening. I organised a group of eight to go, but alas Rene chickened out saying things like, "I'm not sitting through crap like that!" etc etc............ he had surrendered more than enough dignity in attending the Sound of Music Singalong a week earlier, where he provided more than enough entertainment as we all watched him cringe with horror when we all raised our arms every time the word 'hills' was sung, and we booed the Nazis and hissed at the Baroness.

I've got a few dinners left this coming 10 days, an airport Christmas lunch - now at the City Novatel since the new Airport Novatel won't be ready for this Friday. I attend the AGM for our apartment complex on the Sunshine Coast tomorrow, and I have one evening shift left at the airport before I hang up my uniform until next February.

My friend Kay helped me select a white cotton shirt for the wedding, so now I have all my clothes sorted. It's always a challenge to travel light for me, but we will have to try really hard not to take anything unnecessary on this flight. At one stage (Weeze to Seville) we are flying Ryanair - the only direct choice available in winter - and they have a 15kg limit on luggage so I'll be leaving some gear at people's places and collecting it after our return. We fly Transavia back to Eindhoven from Malaga and they have a 20kg limit, so we'll more than manage.

Finally, I am about to start on the oiling of the deck. The timber requires a refresh of oil into the timber every year or so - it's exposed to the western sun a bit and everyday wear and tear - so in readiness yesterday I hammered every nail flush to the boards and this morning washed the deck throughly. Over the last three days I've sanded the handrails and given them three coats of varnish - really good varnish made in Norway. The front should look lovely and refreshed after I'm finished. It's lovely being able to get out and do these things with school closed now and my departure still a few days off. Last vacation I left for America the first day of my vacation and came straight back to work afterwards so felt exhausted most of the term.

There will be one more update before we go. Enjoy December!

Gay Marriage Now in the ACT

2009-11-26T17:35:00.001+10:00

[From the ABC] The Federal Government has agreed to allow gay couples in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) to hold legally binding civil partnership ceremonies.
The ACT Legislative Assembly passed a Greens bill earlier this month allowing same-sex couples to recognise their relationships with a legally binding ceremony.
The Commonwealth had indicated it was uncomfortable with the new legislation and asked the ACT to amend it. It blocked a similar bill last year when the Territory introduced its Civil Partnerships Act.
But the two governments have now reached a compromise that will allow gay couples to continue holding ceremonies in front of a civil partnership notary.
However they will also have to notify the registrar-general of their intention to hold a ceremony.
ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell says it is a big win for equality in the Territory and a step forward for gay rights in general.
"This locks in the role of ceremonies for same-sex couples," he said.
"We have legal ceremonies and we have legal ceremony celebrants and that is a very important reform.
"This now opens the door for other states and territories to follow the ACT's lead knowing the Commonwealth accepts ceremonies are now a legal part of the equation."

My! Is it that date already?

2009-11-22T16:46:00.004+10:00

I am currently freaking out over just what plan and phone I should move to when my contract ends on December 10. I have been totally bamboozled by the plethora of plans available which I am sure are designed to confuse and corrupt any decision making ability I have left. It also makes me feel very old and a bit of a troglodyte, which I'm sure I'm not (quite)! The old Sandgate Road bridge near to us is being widened to something like seven lanes wide with extra width left for the future, so we have had a little night noise to contend with - thus the decision to sleep with the vent from the a/c on and the windows tightly shut. The tunnel will start beneath this road. Joy of joys! News this week that the TBM (that's tunnel tech talk for tunnel boring machine) starts arriving next week in dribs and drabs. It's 200m long and will take four months to assemble. The whole project was one year old this week and $1 billion of the $3.9b has already been spent. In March when the TBM starts operating underground the surface noise will (according to the developers) be gone for the next two years - then of course all the stuff placed in the park will have to be dug up and removed. Can't wait!

Not sure if I mentioned the Subaru car factory in Lafayette that I visited in September in Indiana? The day before we got there they had produced their 3 millionth vehicle after first turning out an American built Japanese car 20 years before.. It was stunning to see the whole car building process from beginning to end. By the end of the tour I'd have bought a Subaru on the spot. Great PR for the company and a terrific employer of some 3000 people.

On the subject of Indiana, I should mention just how fascinating I found the architecture. Quite varied designs but not much variance in materials used. The climate is pretty rough on these buildings. I think in general we have it quite lucky here in Australia with the general absence of severe cold and tornadoes.

These happy folk below are the people I travelled with in the Mid West. We had a great time and got along like a house on fire. I was my usual, happy, smiling self in the picture - I just can't take a good picture, I always look pained.

Just on the subject of Chicago, my favourite US city, this is the entrance to the Chicago Tribune building. The whole design of the building is evocative of another era, where newspapers and their owners were God. The walls have building materials from every significant building of the time from around the world included in the lower sections with a plaque describing its source. Amazing!

Finally, I come back to Vegas and its extremes. The newer buildings have a size and grace that is hard to condemn. Yes, they are huge. Yes, they are a bit kitsch. Yes, they are over the top in detail. Having said all that, they are impressive structures. Only in Vegas!

We head off in less than a month. Where has the time gone? It is only two weeks before school ends and the social calendar is packed. I have been out five of the past seven nights. Last Sunday we saw Allan Cummin perform a one man show (with a pianist and cellist) at the Powerhouse. He has a lot of theatre and film under his belt. A charming Scotsman who sings, dances, writes, plays piano too and of course acts - whether it's with Helen Mirren or Hugh Jackman in the X Men films - he's done it all and continues to impress. I attended a book club meeting in New Farm on the following night where he was the guest. Terrific to meet and chat with a man who has a social conscience, works with well known people and above all in totally unaffected. He has been a campaigner for Gay Rights in both Britain and America, was married to his partner in Britain (met him, very handsome) and lives in New York now. He entered the library meeting room very dramatically, pushing a pram with a beautiful baby girl in it. The two gay dads followed behind, and after much cooing and ahhhing they took over the caring whilst Alan began his part of the meeting.

Tuesday saw our trivia team come third (yeayy!!) and then Wednesday and Thursday saw us at home (ye Gods!). Friday we went out to the Sound of Music sing-a-long at the Lyric. It began at 7:30 and finished at 11:15. Rene died several times during the night (he really didn't want to go). He did laugh, and we enjoyed seeing him squirm in his seat. We booed the Nazis, barked at Rolf, many brought along torches for the search scene in the abbey, and we all had a bag of things we flashed or waved or exploded at the appropriate times. We had invitations to the ball from the baroness (more hissing), we lifted our arms whenever 'hills' were mentioned, we also exploded poppers when they kissed for the first time (there was the odd premature popper - they can't help it poor sods). Anyway, loads of people dressed up (no, we didn't) and all in all it was a great night - we even took extra beer into the theatre (something they normally never allow).

Last night Rene took me out to the pub for dinner. Ahhh! Love that man.

This coming week we have Tuesday trivia, a dinner at friends on the Wednesday, going out with friends from the trip to America on Friday and so far that's about all. I did buy eight tickets for Eurobeat - the send up of the Eurovision Song Contest. My gorgeous cousin Rachel in London loves the whole Eurovision thing like I do. Here in Brisbane the show (from London) has been set in Sarajevo with two very camp Balkan hosts played by Glynn Nicholas and Rhonda Burchmore - love these two. Alas, Rene REFUSES to attend so I have other friends I'll go with instead. That night he'll go to our friend Di's birthday dinner and I'll call in on the way home.

In a couple of weeks time I'm trialling PM shifts at the international airport (4-8pm) to see how they go. I'm still enjoying the role of ambassador at the airport. Each shift brings an enormous sense of satisfaction (and tiredness - four hours standing around looking useful haha!).

Britain has had terribly destructive rain, Adelaide has just endured two weeks of above 40C temperatures, the other night it remained 24 all night here in Brisbane. We have had just the vent system blowing cool air throughout the house at night, but today we put the chilled air on around noon when it was already 29 at 10am.

NEWSFLASH - I have finally decided on what to wear at the wedding. It has been a running joke where almost every woman asked immediately they heard the wedding news 'what are you going to wear?' and I couldn't answer. Well, now I've gone out and bought the suitable attire for the informal family wedding in Holland. There is a jacket, but no tie. That's all I'm saying. What's Rene wearing, I hear you say? Blowed if I know. I've asked and asked, so I've gone alone and done the deed. He'll look fabulous in anything at all, whereas I'm more your Welsh pit pony and need a little extra care in choosing the right look. Whatever I wear, I'll still look like a short, rotund chap - but totally gorgeous!

Catching up quickly

2009-10-31T22:48:00.003+10:00

Preparations are well in hand for the wedding. 3pm on Wednesday December 30 in Son en Breugel. I picked up my new wedding ring last week and Rene's dad's wedding ring will be used by him (I had it polished at the jewellers). We are having seven nights in Seville and Granada after New Year (from the 7th). I booked the airline tickets yesterday.

My friend Merle and myself toasting a terrific night at the Sports Bar at the Paris Casino. Two for one Happy Hour deal meant I had to drink 2x26oz beers with my dinner, mind you so did Merle and her partner Ian (taking the pic). We had just been to see 'O' by Cirque du Soleil at The Bellagio. What an incredible experience, totally engrossing and entertaining.

This week I have been very busy with work and socialising. Rene had his 48th birthday on Tuesday and I surprised him by arranging a morning tea just for him plus at trivia that night I had a birthday cake for 14 people brought out before the music round and everybody in the pub sang 'Happy Birthday', which embarassed Rene no end. Oh, we also placed first that night and shared the money around. The next night we went for a birthday dinner to a lovely French restaurant nearby called 'Rhubarb Rhubarb'. There were six of us in the party, including a friend of ours who had her American boyfriend over for a week or two. She moves to the States in January.

Only five school weeks to go, then off on holiday. We don't leave here until December 20, so I have a little break before jetting off again.

There is lots more to report, but I have to quit and get to bed. I have my second shift at International in the morning and we have some troops returning complete with bag pipes and excited families in 'arrivals'. I really love my volunteer job.