Want some rain? Have some of ours.

There's some serious arguing as to where the next dam should be built. One argument says that we don't even need another dam, use what we have smarter. All this aside, the area just north of us here on the Sunshine Coast is likely to be the next dam site. Presently it only rains in this part of south east Queensland. Yes, Brisbane has a sprinkling of rain here and there, but here where we live we have had loads and loads of rain. The picture shows the rain 30 minutes ago just over where we live (we're between Maroochydore and Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast). We had 75mm (3") in the 24h until 9am this morning. There's been a lot more since then. Brisbane had just 0.4mm (I think that was a cane toad that peed on the road).

We had an early meeting with Ray our builder on Wednesday. To save fuel we both took our cars to Beerwah station (31 km from here), I left mine in the commuter car park and got in with Rene for the drive into the city. After the meeting Rene drove me to my school nearby the house then he went back home to the coast. After school I got a train into Bowen Hills from Windsor station near to my school, changed onto a Nambour train, sat on that for 91 minutes and got out at Beerwah, drove home 25 minutes and arrived feeling that I don't exactly want to repeat that trip again in a hurry. I left school at 3:30 and arrived at the basement car park in our building at 5:45. I only had to stand on the train from Bowen Hills until Petrie, but all in all I'll stick to my car until we move back to Brisbane at the end of June.

Photos from the meeting with the builder are here on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/orloo/ - forgive the amateurish appearance of the layout, I just did this late last night after a friend of mine in Toowoomba sent me a link to her Flickr folder. I thought, "If Debbie can do it, so can I". Thanks Deb for the motivation. If you play around with the pictures you'll see a description with each picture. Click on the 'enlarge' icon and see more detail. Progress is halfway with the addition of stairs and a door being the major changes, although 'stuff' is happening all around the site every day.

The 2020 Ideas Summit is in its second and final day in Parliament House Canberra. PM Kevin Rudd announced a couple of months ago that 1000 people would be invited to attend from the many nominations. Each participant is paying their own way to Canberra (well, some have their costs being met by various organisations) and so far no one outstanding new idea has emerged, but the networking must be incredible to behold. Details and summaries (even viewing and listening to presentations online) are available here http://www.australia2020.gov.au/ A friend of mine representing Carers Australia is attending, but she's a lobbyist in Canberra, so it's sort of a working weekend close to home for her.

Friday night saw Rene and I head off to a house at Coolum Beach for a night of chatting, eating and drinking plus playing cards. The monthly get together of four couples was reduced from 8 to 5 with one bloke having to work, another in Melbourne working and his partner in the States. We both had a most enjoyable time, lots of talking and laughing. Next month we assemble again, this time at our place here on Kawana Island. I'm looking forward to it.

Last Wednesday Rene prepared an Indonesian 'rijsttafel' dinner for our neighbour Gina who was leaving the next day to visit family in Sydney. He only prepared around 8 main and side dishes, but there were only three people dining. He's a great cook and it was absolutely delicious - look here for more information if you're not Dutch or Indonesian http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/2772

Now, I'm not a size queen but....have you seen the progress on the world's tallest building? It's called the Burj Dubai, and it's absolutely phenomenal. http://www.burjdubai.com/ Currently it's at it's maximum height of 141 floors and beggars belief. Now I won't enter a conversation as to why it has to be so tall etc etc, suffice to say one day I'd love to visit it and just see it for myself (I think I'll have to stand far, far away from the base). Conversely it makes one admire the creation of the Empire State building and that glorious (still my favourite) Chrysler Building in New York. Considering they were designed and then constructed in the late 20's, early 30's it sort of puts them into the all time amazing category, along with landing a man on the moon nearly 40 years ago - that still seems incredible, even today.

Currently I'm reading Jeremy Clarkson's collection of road test articles for the Sunday Times called "Don't Stop Me Now". I just love his way of painting pictures with words. Yes, it's not high literature, but it's a bloody good read for those of us into cars and reading non fiction. I mean to say, mentioning 'walnut-faced Italian peasants' - what a terrific piece of imagery. Anyway, poor old Rene is deep into his serious 'real' book in bed, and the 'slightly' rotund guy beside him is chortling away over another brilliant descriptive passage. Thank goodness for separate mattresses (very European) otherwise as I guffaw and giggle, body heaving involuntarily, the poor chap would be launched skywards.

On that note I'll conclude for this week. I have a workshop for African mothers this Wednesday at school conducted by a lady from the health department. We're looking at ways of packing healthy school morning teas and lunches. We want them to avoid copying the bad habits of Australians who frequently buy prepackaged foods for convenience that are often not healthy and downright expensive. Many of these ladies are trying to cope with new foods and labels they don't understand - just what do the nutrition and ingredients labels mean? Should be a good session. I like my work....