Winter vacation at last

I just read in the British papers a few minutes ago that Sunday should reach 30C in London with the overnight minimum hanging around 18. That's gorgeous weather, much nicer than ours right now, although we're still quite mild. It's really chilly tonight, going down to 10, but tomorrow it'll reach 22.


The picture below was actually taken a month ago, but it is still worth checking out that dear old Rene still knows how to enjoy himself. He's sitting on my knee while our friend Stephen looks on. We've done quite a bit of socialising lately, and managing to still stay recession-proof.

Last weekend I went on my much anticipated weekend fun cruise to Sydney, and I have to say I'm not really sold on this idea of cruising. Our lovely ship was late being delivered back from a fortnight's refitting in Brisbane. On the Friday night before leaving I had a text to say boarding wouldn't be until 8pm (instead of 2pm) due to the ship being late being handed back by the dockyard. Bummer! With only 42 hours to play with, the loss of 6 hours was disappointing. Oh well, onwards to Saturday...

Of the four cabins we had (independently) booked, only two were notified of the delay. It appears a significant number of the 1950 passengers were not notified, so some had half a day to fill in at the wharf. I rang Princess Cruises in the pm to find out what exactly was happening since the on board webcam on the ship showed no movement (not until 5:40pm) and was told to be there at 7 to get onboard earlier. There would be refreshments and food for those waiting (this never appeared). As the taxi arrived at just before 7 the ship was sitting mid stream anchored and checking rudders/propellers etc and didn't come to the wharf until just after 8. No drink, no sitting (totally crowded) we began boarding after 8:45. We then went into holding patterns and didn't get aboard until 9:45 - still no refreshments or seats.

Once aboard, we went to the restaurant to have dinner (10:10) and finally sat down and drank lots of water. After a reasonably nice dinner with a terrific bottle of wine, we went to look around. I went up on the highest point to go under the Gateway Bridge here in Brisbane. The ship left around 11:30, by midnight we were going beneath the bridge, and by 1am Kay and I decided to go to bed.

In the cabin we discovered no luggage. I went hunting for it, and down near deck 5 there was a pile of six dozen or so bags without tags. This is a 14 deck ship. By brother Mark was there looking for his baggage, and I spotted it by way of orange ribbon applied to all three pieces. By the time I got back from failing to find our luggage it had actually arrived and Kay was already in bed. In bed by 2am.

At 4am I awoke to feel the cabin moving and swaying. It was fun, and interesting, but those prone to sea sickness were already not having any fun. The remainder of the trip down the coast was in at times quite heavy rain, strong winds and a big swell. My dad would have loved it; he always loved a violent sea. Rene loves that too. Me? I can take it or leave it, but I did enjoy the sensations most of the time.

It's sort of funny having a shower in a tiny bathroom and swaying from time to time. At breakfast I discovered that my brother's cabin hadn't got any hot water to the bathroom plus the toilet had overflowed - and the ship was full. Crew came and fixed the toilet, but the whole of the Riviera Deck (14) did without hot showers on the weekend. This is after he had supposedly been 'upgraded' to a better cabin (sorry, stateroom). Well, at least our cabin was dry and had a hot shower.

The rest of the trip shall be covered here very briefly: the ship is lovely, the crew we met were marvellous, the drinks were seriously delicious, the entertainment was fine (how those dancers manage to do their thing on stage with the whole place heaving is beyond me), the communication from our point of view was seriously crap - right up to the end when we missed out on having disembarkation information, tags and documents delivered to our room. To get them required queuing up for ages at the information desk served by five staff (everyone ahead had similar or worst experiences to our group).

A lady my brother met, a veteran of some 40+ cruises, said not to judge cruising by this example. Trouble is it was sold as a 'taster' to see if you'd like to go on a longer, proper cruise (God, no!). A tour group leader we met in an elevator stated that of the 20+ he had been on this was the worst experience - so that was the consensus of most people we met.

We did enjoy Sunday on board, in fact our group loved it. Such a shame we didn't get off on the right foot.

I took this last month in the Brisbane River. Beautiful ship.Four deck atrium dominates the middle of the ship. The floor coverings (marble/carpet etc) were all freshly laid at the refit, the glass all replaced on the decks, a new mega screen built over the pool. Very nice indeed.

Our cabin (below) was more than adequate for two nights, but a longer cruise would require a window , or better still a balcony. Our friends had an upgrade to a verandah stateroom and this was very nice indeed.

On Monday morning the seas calmed a little, a watery sun even ventured out for a while. The pools were closed all trip because of the incredible swaying.

Instead of arriving in the gloom of a 7am Sydney winter's morning, we arrived in Sydney Harbour around 11:30am to the best weather Sydney had had in a month. Large cruise ships usually arrived early morning, leave late evening. Our arrival in the middle of the day aroused lots of attention.

The ship sounded its horn for more than 10 seconds before the Bridge and again just after the Bridge. It was the absolute best part of the trip. Everyone clapped on the decks and those climbers on the Bridge also clapped and yelled. Brilliant moment coming into Sydney through the Heads, then gracefully along the Western Channel into Darling Harbour. Worth the price of admission!

With the idea of a half day shopping expedition in Sydney quashed due to arriving late, we decided to head straight to the airport. A further delay to our flight saw us not getting home until 9:15, but we had spent time with my family and friends, had a few drinks, I bought a dozen bottles of wine (and joined a wine group) and met a friend who (coincidentally) was flying back from a separate weekend trip to Sydney on our very plane. I discovered this friend (Edwina) was to be on our plane as we left her home a few days before after a very delightful dinner. It's a small world.

I now have a fortnight's vacation to rest up, although there's going to be little time for that I fear. My voluntary job at Brisbane Airport starts this Wednesday, with three other days at the airport in this vacation. The shifts are four hours long. This week is at Domestic, next week International.We give out information on transport, where to seek lost luggage, places to see etc. I'm hoping this will be lots of fun and very interesting. I'm curating an art expo of some of the refugee children's art done in art therapy workshops and I have lots of that work to do at home. We also have social engagements with my god daughter, a friend up the coast, our trivia nights etc etc, so you see life is busy and very enjoyable indeed.

Winter has arrived in Brisbane

This last week has been relatively freezing in Brisbane. Those of you in cooler climes will laugh, but here last Thursday it was a minimum of 6C and a max of 17C - seriously cold for us. For a sub tropical population it was remarkably chilly. Yesterday (Saturday) it was 8 - 20 (better) and today we are 8 and heading to 24. We haven't even got to August yet, traditionally our bleakest month.

On Wednesday night Rene and I joined comedienne Judith Lucy for 90 minutes at The Power House. She was enormously funny and I loved seeing Rene laughing along with the patter. I'm not even going to try to remember all her lines, suffice to say you'd be crazy to miss her if she's on in your town (she also does the Edinburgh Festival).

The famous cube buildings in Rotterdam are being converted into a hotel, with 49 of the wildest rooms you'll ever get to stay in. A world famous residential complex from the mid 80's, it has been less than successful as a home because tastes have changed, and people need more efficient use of space, and this complex of cubes tilted onto one corner is less than efficient. It straddles a road and has to be one of the most remarkable buildings I've ever seen, but then again Rotterdam's architecture is very modern and confronting - brilliant in fact!

From the river it looks cute, with public space, shops and offices below at promenade level.

It's very contrived, but fascinating. Not to my taste though for living in.

Privacy? In short supply here, but then again the Dutch often don't mind others looking in, especially in living areas.

Yes, each one of these cubes is interlocked across a vast intersection.

This next item is related to the fact that the actor Geoffrey Rush was born in my old Australian hometown of Toowoomba, where he attended the Toowoomba East State School until the age of nine (when he moved with his mother to Brisbane).

Geoffrey Rush has won a Tony Award - Broadway's most coveted prize - for his heralded performance in 'Exit The King'.
Rush won in the best performance by a leading actor in a play category.
The win is the latest honour for the 57-year-old Australian, who has won an Oscar, two Golden Globes and three Screen Actors Guild awards for his film work.

Last weekend was Queensland's 150th birthday, and we have been celebrating the state's sesquicentenary all through 2009. On June 6 1859 Queen Victoria signed the Letters Patent allowing a new colony called Queensland to separate from the vast colony of New South Wales. Rene and I toured the newly reopened Old Government House (1862) which was the home to 11 governors. The building was without a ballroom, therefore in 1910 it ceased to operate and the governor moved to historic Fernberg House which had such a ballroom - essential to the social life of the new colony, and later, state. White ants and termites, the curse of timber in buildings, were eradicated and timber replaced in a $15M refurbishment of the old building.

The Goodna sandstone looks very handsome, all cleaned and looking bright.

A detail of the windows and veranda outside the day nursery (there's also a night nursery).

The carpets are a 1985 reproduction of those in the house in 1895. The lights reflect the appearance of the fruit hanging from cocos palms.

Finally, three of the new paintings on display at the gallery. Rene also has a collection on display in Rotterdam - the exhibition opened last weekend.

Oh, I nearly forgot. I'm off next weekend on the Dawn Princess. It's only for two nights, but my family and friends will be on board and we should have a wonderful time. We fly home Monday evening from Sydney.