Social butterfly strikes again!

Yes, you all know how much I like to get out and about. This past week is no exception. Last Friday night we enjoyed our first Christmas party of the year at our old haunting ground, the Sunshine Coast. Our friend Sue from the Caribbean apartments where we once lived invited everyone across the road to the cafe for dinner and drinks. We wandered back across the road around 11pm - I sort of fell over in the process, no major wounds except to my pride and right foot (oh, and my right knee). The beer and wine certainly flowed well. A whole bunch arrived back at Sue's apartment for more drinks and merriment, and I fell asleep around 2:30 and dear old Rene (the consummate party goer) came to bed around 4am. We had to get back to Brisbane to open the gallery for 11am, I had to cook dinner for seven people that night up on our deck. The dinner party was terrific, the food a great success, but we were too tired to go to a pub afterwards when we had previously arranged to meet friends there. I'm afraid at 58 my powers of recovery are no longer in the super hero class.



Tuesday saw us at trivia. Thanks to all the people who helped with the photo question - it was in fact Roddy McDowell, from Batman TV series 1966, playing The Book Worm. Sadly our team still came fourth (but we had lots of fun).

Last night (Wednesday) just before the storm we attended the "Creative Southbank" function in the restaurant at the Southbank Institute of Technology where our friend Sue works in the Indigenous Arts School. Fabulous finger food, stunning wine and brilliantly displayed student works made for a stimulating evening. We toured the galleries, workshops, music studios etc in a complex just four months old. The facilities are phenomenal. Rene and I met a lovely didgeridoo player and artist called Ricky plus a student who has a brilliant past as a makeup and hair designer and is now learning more about other artistic fields. Adam was certainly the standout find of the night. His paintings and sketches are brilliant. One charcoal sketch called 'Indigenous Queen' so looks like the diva Eartha Kitt, whom he did makeup and wigs for when she toured here. Bris Vegans, go forth and venture into the facilities of Southbank. I guarantee you'll be amazed (sorry, the food and wine was just for the opening).

Tomorrow night we are attending the exhibition opening at Footsteps Gallery in the City of the artists from Lajamanu, the first art centre we visited in the Northern Territory last year. There will be some of the artists and the new art centre manager to meet. What fun! I hope I'm not burnt. I'm spending tomorrow at a swimming carnival with one of my schools. It is forecast to be 30 again tomorrow. Yuck!

Saturday sees us hosting another dinner party. This one is an Indonesian rice table prepared by Rene. We'll have four guests and many courses. Rene does this sort of food brilliantly. One of the guests is a Dutch journalist who has written several pieces on the gallery for Australian and Dutch magazines and newspapers.

Rene even got interviewed the other day over the phone by a newspaper in Toronto doing a piece on tourism in Australia. A recent sale to Italy plus a couple more to Germans visiting the country means every bit of publicity counts and can lead to further sales.