It's been a while...

Yes, I have been slack, and yes, it is getting harder to get enthusiastic about filling in this blog, but here goes...

I'm not bored! No way, in fact life is so full and interesting at present that I'm prepared to say I wouldn't be dead for quids. Presently I'm on the first week of a fortnight's spring vacation, and it has just flown by. Rene and I visited Canberra last weekend flying down Friday afternoon and returning Sunday evening. We caught up with Graeme, Neil and Gavin as well as visiting the 21st annual Floriade along the shoreline of Lake Burley Griffin in the centre of Canberra and also caught the Emily Kame Kngwarreye exhibition at the National Museum of Australia.

What a brilliant artist this lady was, having only painted from the age of 80 for a few short years. To produce such works without ever seeing a gallery or had lessons was brilliant to behold in person. It's on until October 12 if you have the opportunity to see it in Canberra. The collection was assembled for Osaka and Tokyo exhibitions and its Canberra outing is the only one in Australia.
Enjoy some of the exhibition at this site - the colours are very special indeed. http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/utopia_the_genius_of_emily_kame_kngwarreye/the_exhibition/

Canberra's weather was warmer than I had expected, therefore I had to buy, firstly, two short sleeved shirts and later another three (there was a sale on). I really like Canberra, and the future plans for this 'bush' capital are truly exciting. I'd still rather call Brisbane home.
We're just days off Rene's sister Claartje and her partner Jan arriving in Brisbane. They're coming on Monday morning after a stop over in Hong Kong. We're off to Straddie (North Stradbroke Island) on Wednesday for their beach wedding on Thursday with a lovely dinner at Amis restaurant high above the water. They're opening the bar early for us to allow us to sit and watch the sunset whilst sipping our champagne. We have a lovely apartment over there high above the ocean which will be cosy and suggest they are anywhere else but Holland.


Our Dutch friend Janine had a wedding in the south of Holland earlier this month with a reception in a castle. She and her beau looked very happy indeed.

I attended my niece's wedding at the Gold Coast a couple of weeks ago and they had a delightful (if windy) ceremony beside the water and a terrific reception with loads of lovely food - plus my nephew drove me so I could drink freely and have an even better time. The warped photo is from my niece Katelyn's camera. My pictures of Michelle and her husband David suggest lots of wind. It was the first time in years that all the Langdales were in the same spot. Terrific day. No, I didn't have all that much to drink :)

Nephew David had an exam this week so his mum and dad replaced him at our table. Now the trivia night is at a local gay pub here in Brisbane, and when Adele told her children that they were going to the pub to replace their son (at my request) the kids were horrified that they would set foot in such a place. Well, we all had a nice dinner, several drinks and many laughs, and sadly we still only came fourth, but a good night was had by all.


We now have our new BBQ working up on the front deck. Assembly of the thing was not an issue, the sourcing of the correct connection hose from a bayonet fitting on the wall of the deck to the BBQ was something else - four efforts to locate the correct pipe resulted in dinner from said BBQ on the plates last night for the first time. I tell you what though, the types of folk working at these plumbing supplies places leaves a lot to be desired. The second last time I drove from home to South Brisbane with the specifications and came back with a tube with one wrong thread so I had to go back again. AARRGGGHHHHH!!!!! They even had the damn bottle gas connection pipe there (I took it with me) but they STILL stuffed up. Anyway, I'm over it now, but if we ran our schools like some of these businesses run theirs we'd produce even more morons than we presently do - mind you, there's a career in plumbing ahead of them for sure (ouch!).


The air conditioning folk from two companies returned yet again this morning to fix the noise/vibration issues when it is on the heating stage of operation. Rene is severely pi#*ed off with them all after four previous efforts to solve the problem (he stayed in bed refusing to deal with them again), but hooray, today we had a breakthrough. Apparently there is a pipe that was in contact with something important that created a resonance, so a clip fixed that, plus they're returning with some sound deadening material for around the condenser outside. Maybe they'll get their final 10% payment after all. It has only taken 8 weeks. Telstra still has to fix the shoddy line installation done 9 weeks ago. It ought to happen tomorrow, but I'll believe it when it happens. Oh, the joys of building. (edit: a Telstra guy came, saw how it was left, was amazed at how a colleague could do such a thing, rectified it, we are now happy customers).


The Qantas A380 landed in Brisbane today on a technical flight to check facilities here and do some publicity. Brisbane is one of 60 airports worldwide capable of handling this 450 seat aircraft. Our services don't begin until next year but the first commercial flight for the A380 to LAX happens on October 20 leaving from Sydney.

On the subject of planes, we flew in a brand new Virgin Embraer 190 to Canberra and back at the weekend. What a delightful Brazilian aircraft this is. Very comfortable, and it flies at 38 000' too. Ideal for the smaller capacity routes - it has 104 seats.


Went this evening with our friend Kay to see 'In Bruges'. Kay had seen it twice before and still wanted to see it with us again. What a fine film, very black, funny in parts, an incredible amount of swearing that surprisingly didn't irritate me, fine acting from a terrific cast, and of course the beautiful city of Bruges. Kay had been with me to Bruges in 2004, and Rene and I had been there a few months earlier, so we had a lot to watch as well as listen to. Lamenting as to why they (the hit men) had to hide out and get lost in Bruges, one guy says they could have done it in Croydon, then adds, "or Coventry". I laughed out loud, seriously loud. Rene and I hadn't been to the movies since the coast, so it was a good one to see. I've missed 'Mamma Mia', I'll try to catch a rerun before it hits the video stores.

(The statue they're sitting in front of is of Jan Van Eyke, the inventor of oil painting. His first oil painting is in the cathedral in neighbouring Ghent.)

Rene has just turned on the security, it's after midnight, I'd better toddle off to bed. Tomorrow we have five guests for dinner - Rene's doing Indonesian rice table, I'm doing a blueberry and passion fruit cheesecake. Saturday sees us off again to the coast for the monthly cards night, and we'll stay over at the farm and take our cossies along for a swim too (the weather is very warm right now).

Until next time - oh, I'll mention the kookaburras, water dragons and carpet snake next update.