Last Update for 2009

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

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

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

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

[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?

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

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.

Yes, I'm back...

Hi, back again after a big break. I had all the comments done for the photos last Sunday, but due to an error with Vista (feel free to insert swear word here) the comments were 'lost' when the 'publish' button was pressed. Owen was NOT a happy chappy!
Beautiful trees and homes in Lafayette Indiana, where I just spent seven days.

The court house at sunset. My first ever trip to the Midwest - and I loved it.


Covered bridges everywhere, to keep the snow from destroying the wooden bridge.
Amish farmer working with mules PLUS a motor on the thresher.

Pesky woodpecker decided to make Lafayette history and peck perfect holes in the walls of the house we were staying in. Nobody around had ever heard of it happening before. Solution was to caulk the holes and place four hawk silhouettes on the wall with duct tape.

Peter and Bernie had done a house swap - their town house in Lota, Bayside Brisbane, for a huge house in Lafayette. The SUV came with the swap. Terrific vehicle for six adults.

Harry Potter's Ford Anglia at the Chicago Museum of Industry and Science.

Many folk stood on the glass deck atop the Sears Building (now called the Willys Building) in Chicago. Alas the coward in me, totally ill at ease with heights anyway, refused to put any more than a toe on the deck's floor.

Chicago, now my favourite city in the world. Fabulous architecture, new and old, plus wide streets along with a lack of litter and grafitti. Locals have every right to be proud.

Public art was everywhere, plus beautiful gardens and architecture. Glorious!

Love this signage.

From atop the Sears Tower.

The top of the Sears Tower from my bedroom in a two level apartment.

From the boat on the architecture cruise - beside our apartment building near Printer's Row.

Where we stayed (I was on the top floor).

(below) - yes, I sinned. A selection of cakes at the famous patisserie at The Bellagio, Las Vegas.

Back in Chicago, the now iconic shiny spaceship landed in the Millennium Gardens.

Another creation in a public garden nearby. Simply impressive.

The water feature in Millennium Park. Projected faces of locals spurt water every 20 minutes or so (there is a twin upright opposite it too).

New City Center opening December 8 in Las Vegas. US$9 billion invested in this complex of hotels, apartments, casinos and shops - complete with its own three station monorail system.

Paris Casino, Las Vegas. Yes, it's as tacky as it looks, yet weirdly impressive. Unlike Chicago, it was very hot indeed, which limited one's enjoyment outside during the day.

'Whatever!' my favourite expression, much to Kay's chagrin.

Look, just to get back to some reality, this is the main street through my suburb 50 years ago. Perhaps some neon, but that's all. I just wanted to say that four nights in Las Vegas was perhaps one night too many. My friends Merle and Ian, from Portland, made my Las Vegas trip a lot of fun and it was terrific to spend time with them, but Vegas can swamp the senses. It is magnificently fabulous and awful all at once.

Don't laugh, this was Sandgate Road and Julia St intersecting around 1909.

A local watering hole, still functioning today with faux Tudor panelling.

A local Nundah home built with the kitchen in a separate section (just in case of fire). This is built around 1880.

This hotel, the Prince of Wales, was built around 1879. This was it in 1929. It burned down around 1957, replaced now by something in boring '60's brick.

Myself, Di, Rene and Di's husband Torquil - my oldest friends - at Brisbane's 150th birthday celebrations just before I left for America.

This is a cottage in the back blocks in the US rented recently by my friends Polly and Kit. It looks very idyllic and isolated. Seriously not Las Vegas or Chicago! They like it like that.
Here's my god daughter's new son, Gruffydd. Yes, Griff has a Welsh dad. The boy is just so wonderful. Di and Torquil are one set of grandparents here in Brisbane, the Welsh set of grandparents arrive at the time we leave for Holland.

WELL, TEXT SHORTER, BUT NOW COMPLETED. SORRY FOR THE DELAY.