News at last!

OK, I'm not dead, but on occasions it felt like it. Yes, I came down a fortnight ago with that dreadful bug going around Brisbane that seems to attack the head, chest and that's all. I have had a dry ticklish cough for ages, but the serious symptoms long ago passed through my system.

I'm sure you are all extremely interested in what has ailed me (not!) so I'll move right along... Rene's gorgeous sister and new brother in law left a fortnight ago after having had a monumentally fabulous visit. No hitches, even their flight back home was without a hitch. They've seen more of Australia in five weeks than most Aussies. We miss them a lot.

(Claartje doing her 'Priscilla Queen of the Desert' routine at King's Canyon).


Claartje and Jan have wasted no time at all back home getting their new holiday home in France in order ready to spend a fortnight at Christmas there. It was repainted while they were in Australia. Nice blue trim. Now, all Rene and I have to do is find our way to France to use the house as their guests. Such a nice thought, such an unlikely possibility for the foreseeable future, but one can dream.

One forgets about how fascinating visitors find our wildlife. A simple galah - all pink, grey and quite stupid, appears captivating, and in reality it is beautiful. It's lovely having visitors remind oneself of the beautiful, if commonplace, things we have in this stunning country.

We just came in from a lecture at the QUT in the city about Central Desert art, then we finished off with a walk across to South Bank where we had a delicious dinner at the Ship Inn. Brisbane was looking very attractive this evening with a full moon and a cooling breeze. It's a nice city.

Rene had visitors today from the Gibson Desert. These people are Aborigines from a community over 600 km from Uluru. After driving to The Rock, they flew to Sydney, then on to Brisbane. They're here at the Queensland Art Gallery as part of a new exhibition of indigenous art. They all came to the gallery around noon today to visit, have tea, and Rene also bought some of their art to sell here. They are all off to Melbourne on Friday. I was working so missed out on meeting them.

Three weeks until I have seven weeks vacation over Christmas. Our first Christmas party is at the Sunshine Coast, this Friday, after work. We are joining some 30 people from our old apartment complex for dinner and drinks and a terrific time I'm sure. We come back in the morning for Rene to open the gallery by 11 and then that evening we have guests for dinner. It's such a dull life (ha!).

We had a soiree last Friday afternoon for the staff at my various schools here at home. They drank bubbles, toured the exhibition downstairs and checked out our new home upstairs. It was very relaxing, fun and of course extremely social (I like that a lot).

Merle sitting in her new car in front of the Three Sisters, OR

The picture above is of my friend Merle from Portland Oregon. She rang me last week after President elect Obama was confirmed as the next US president. We had a marvellous conversation for an hour. Earlier, emails and calls were flying back and forth between myself and friends here and overseas excitedly talking about the election result. Brilliant acceptance speech, horrific time to take the reins of Office. I'm not going to dwell on the economy except to say we in Australia are better off than most nations to weather the storm, but I really don't have a handle on the whole situation other than to state that the anecdotal evidence I'm hearing about and reading about is very scary indeed.


Yesterday was the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day, and all across Australia we stopped at 11am to remember the fallen and those who fought in the war to end all wars, plus the many more since. I have no idea why, but all day I had this image in my head of Rene and I sitting in Comfort 1 on the Thalys train hurtling through the northern French and Belgian countryside at 340km/h sipping our wine and eating our meal in a deep and sumptuous armchair whilst the famous WW1 names flew past the enormous picture window. I remember being deep in thought for many minutes back there in 2004 reflecting on what had occurred in that beautiful countryside so long ago.


Well, it's done for now. I have to finish. There may be more added in the next day or two, but for now I leave you with a picture of some nuns in a bar sent to me this week by a friend. I'm sure they were checking the results from the Melbourne Cup held last week here in Australia. I, incidentally, for the grand outlay of $2 won $14 in a sweep at one of my schools. No, I didn't race out and do anything truly exciting with the winnings. Until next time...