Grand Fairy God Father

My God Daughter Amy MacDonald has had her first child, a healthy blue eyed boy weighing something like 7lbs 7oz (what is that in grams?). She and the bub are going home today. Alex, the Welsh father, is acknowledged in the beautiful quilt I had commissioned, made by a friend for the birth as a most suitable gift. The dragon in the middle was carefully recreated from the actual design on the Welsh flag. We should see her Thursday afternoon after having given them some space (they've already had proud grand parents and friends visiting - I can wait). You can click on the picture to see the detail - it even has various fish patterns sewn into the quilting.
On Wednesday afternoon distant relatives of Rene's came to visit us. Matt and Nellie are connected via Nellie's grandmother and Rene's grandmother being sisters (I think - it gets very messy in these huge Dutch families). Anyway, a year ago they saw Rene's name in an article in the national Dutch Courier newspaper and rang up from Victoria to make an initial contact. A year later, whilst holidaying at Noosa, they dropped by for a coffee and chat. They emigrated here in 1952, twelve years before I did. A very charming and lovely couple.

Last night Rene and I darted up to Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast for dinner and cards. We came home at 12:45am and then I turned around and did a 0700-1100 shift at International this morning. I'm having a short snooze after lunch - I'm very tired.

Edwina and Frank Crowther, friends of ours, were at the airport heading off to New Zealand. Edwina saw me first and grabbed my attention. She's there for a fortnight, Frank for a week (working I guess). They are the first people whom I have recognised at the airport during one of my shifts. It'll be terrific next year when all the NZ flights are treated as borderless-domestic flights, with a saving of around $60 each way in fees.

Also today I met a charming man heading off to LA on V Australia - his first trip overseas. He'd have been around late 20's I guess. He mentioned that he was going for three months and that he'd already sent over his two cars ahead of him. That was too interesting a detail to mention without finding out more. It appears he's sent a drag car and some other sort over already. I said he was the first person connected to drag racing I'd ever met; I also mentioned that usually the folk connected to drag I meet have waaayyy too much make up on plus a wig of preposterous proportions. I thought he was going to convulse on the spot with laughter. There's an anecdote to tell the friendly cabin crew on V Australia as he flies to what will be a wonderful American experience.

Yesterday morning Pete, a friend who will be in the US next month, rang and told me they had booked three nights in Chicago the day after I arrive in Lafayette. It's a penthouse apartment overlooking the river. So of my 19 days away, the first four are in Vegas, the following one in Lafayette, IND, then three in Chicago. That's eight taken care of already. I am looking forward to this sojourn immensely now as it draws close.

I nearly forgot; other social news is that we came second last Tuesday at trivia and our new neighbours came for drinks last Thursday evening. They are a delightful young couple (33, 34) with Denise being of Chinese Vietnamese origins - she arrived on a boat at 18 months of age - and Nathan of Italian Sicilian origins. Both work in alternative Chinese medicine and both are the most fascinating people to chat with. They are the epitome of what Australia is in the 21st century - a cultural melting pot. We are, after all, a nation made up mainly of immigrants. Of the four of us on the deck last Thursday, one was second generation from Italy and the other three were all born overseas.

My brother Stephen and his wife Adele head off for London tomorrow evening. They popped in yesterday to pick up my Tom Tom, the Dutch GPS device I received from Rene for my birthday this year. They are borrowing it for their British leg of their tour since it comes complete with not only Australian maps but also Britain and Ireland. Bon voyage guys!

What grand weather for winter

The Kurilpa Bridge
I know it's boring for many of you, but I just have to mention the glorious winter weather we've been having this past month. It is dry, and not about to change, but the temperatures have been blissfully beautiful. Minimums this week around 9-13C and maximums between 23-27C are crazy, but delightful. We still have a fortnight to go until it is officially spring.





I met an American lass from Connecticut in the US at the airport this morning and she was lamenting the fact that she was returning to her country. She loved us, the Aussies she had met, plus the fact that everywhere looked exactly as she had seen it in pictures. It was clean, safe and the weather was sublime. I asked her how much of her country she had visited, and the answer was; "not very much. It'll still be there for short trips later when I'm older". You have to ask yourself: how much of your own country have you visited? With my eighth visit to the US looming next month, I can quite honestly say I've seen lots of the States; but I have also seen much of Australia, including the interior. I must admit it was terrific to be the latest audience for this wonderful ambassador for Australia who will go back and encourage other Americans to visit this wide, brown land Down Under. Oh, have you been following Stephen Fry's journey around America, the series which began here last Sunday? What beautiful countryside in the New England area. This week, Dixie. Sunday, ABC, 7:30pm, available in wide screen digital HD too! Gorgeous.





'There's nowt as queer as folk' goes the old Yorkshire phrase for describing human activity. Airports do tend to bring out the most positive and negative elements of human character. Just today I had a lovely conversation with an elderly passenger heading back home to Auckland. She had a strong accent, a very lined face, a smile so charming it made her appear younger than I suspect she was, and a sparkle in her eyes indicating good health and a joy of being alive. She possibly was Maori, not sure, but she spoke in a very strong accent; her English slightly abbreviated. We chatted for a minute or so about travel, Australia/New Zealand relations and fishing (yes, I can chat about ANYTHING). I met many New Zealanders this morning - quite like the Kiwis.





Last Wednesday Rene and I attended the annual appreciation dinner put on by Brisbane Airport and Tourism Southern Queensland. It was a cruise down the river on the Kookaburra Queen plus a delicious buffet dinner. The food was excellent, the company fascinating, and all in all a very enjoyable night. Rene networked a bit and is going to have some brochures at the airport courtesy of the manager of Tourism Southern Queensland.





The art market has just this past fortnight seen a spark of life. After quite a dull period, life is slowly returning to interest in and purchasing of art. Hooray!





The Italian teacher at one of my schools has had her hours cut. The Italian Government pays for the language lessons, and it is cutting back as a cost saving measure. Reports I hear is that the Italian economy is really suffering from the GFC. They are closing the Consulate in Brisbane from 2011 (although there are people appealing this decision). We have very minor impacts from the GFC here in Australia compared to the rest of the world. I know this because the finance correspondent on ABC TV News Alan Kohler says so (I love that man).





Social life has been busy, as usual, with a dinner at my brother and sister in law's last Wednesday - the day of the Ekka holiday (EKKA is the annual agricultural show or 'Exhibition'). We also dined at our favourite Indian restaurant with a group of nine. Tonight we dine at West End with new friends recently back from a stint in Qatar. [edit: meal was a superb 3 course Dutch meal, beautifully prepared, totally delicious.] Tomorrow we dine at a friend's house for the first time and it promises to be something lovely. This friend, incidentally, knows our new neighbours who moved in less than ten days ago. They are acupuncturists, and he has known the lady since she was 10. All of Brisbane to choose from and they come right next door. It is a small world.





Mind you, it has not been all beer and skittles this past fortnight. Last week I returned home on Tuesday night after being out from 7:45am until 10:15pm. I check the mail box and in there was a community notice mentioning that in 2 days time the tunnel work site next to us (well, maybe 400m behind us) would be going 24 hours a day Monday to Friday. I was furious that everything was rushed, especially since we were told that 6:30am - 6:30pm Monday to Saturday would be the rule until they began actual drilling, then it would be 24/7 for two years more - but of course, this would be underground and the extractions all taken by conveyor belt far away from the site, well beyond our park area. I felt a conspiracy, and to cut things short, I contacted the company by email, also the ABC Radio and my local government plus state member of parliament. I got to bed at 1:45am, woke up to a phone call at 6:30am from the ABC to do an interview on radio at 7:15. Channel 10 interviewed me on film at noon, and they shared this footage with ABC TV for their news that night, and the local newspaper covered it too. The construction company came and sort of placated me that afternoon, and so far I haven't really heard anything - although I suspect I heard some distant quiet 'tapping' noises for a while around 4:45am this morning. I was in Toowoomba this week and was told people had seen me on TV, and lots of Brisbane friends too, but Rene and I were out and didn't see it, but so far so good. I have a 1800 number to call if ever anything too noisy occurs at night. It sometimes pays to be a squeaky wheel.





Mind you, the final result of all this construction will be truly excellent. The new work on the Brisbane/Ipswich motorway sections (especially at the Centenary merge) is just brilliant.





I'm going on an inspection on September 1st of the new Clem 7 tunnel from Wooloongabba to Bowen Hills. This trip is put on by the Brisbane City Council as a promotion of the new 6km tunnel ready for operation in 2010. This is the first of three road tunnels criss crossing Brisbane. This should be fascinating. The Airport Tunnel beside us is due to be ready in 2012.





Red Tape; don't you just love it? Yesterday I use my only free day in a seven day week to go and get a statutory declaration witnessed by my solicitor for The Netherlands. The translated Dutch says a solicitor or public notary. Well, I get to the Department of Foreign Affairs to have an Apostille Stamp applied (that'll be $60 please!) only to be told I couldn't have a solicitor witness it, it had to be a notary public - and the office closed at 1pm (it was then just after noon). I charge off to get this done at the nearest Public Notary, only to find he was in court. Ready to scream, I left the City having failed miserably, went back to where I had parked my car (near the Fairfield Station) and drove home. I found one in a nearby suburb and went there during the afternoon, and after another $50 I had my witnessed 'stat dec'.



Finally, our new pedestrian bridge across Brisbane River is called the Kurilpa Bridge (top of page), after the local indigenous people's name for that area of the river. It looks fascinating and contemporary, and above all gives pedestrians a short route to the Roam Street railway station from outside of GoMA - the Gallery of Modern Art.

The settings on Blogger are stuffed up...arghhh!

House boat on the Seine, Paris

Kay's new renovation

How it looked before.

The Ghan train running from Darwin to Adelaide is 80 years old.

We are having dinner on this boat Wednesday evening.

David and Michelle, our neighbours of one year since we moved in, are leaving this weekend and new people are moving in. They have been terrific neighbours and we will miss them.

The rare whale sighting last weekend made the media. Here's a link to the Sunshine Coast Daily http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2009/jul/27/rare-sighting-whale-watchers/

Bureaucracy is alive and well both sides of the world. We have to get documents for the upcoming wedding from both the British and Australian sides of government. After a long phone call and parting with GBP 63 I have a birth certificate, complete with Apostille Stamp, coming from England. I have the original one from May 1950, but this one has to be less than six months old, with the signature on it verified via the British Foreign Office. I have to have proof I left Utrecht in 2004, plus proof from the Queensland Government that I am single without encumbrance. Rene has similar documents to source, and they all have to be collected and then sent to The Hague for the wedding documents to be prepared. Just as well we have until December.

I was on arrivals at International this morning and I chatted to some cabin crew from China Airlines just arrived from Taipei. They were charming in their smart lilac uniforms, looking quite stunning considering they'd been working for the past 10 hours or so overnight. As I was waiting for my train to return home I saw the A333 taking off back to Taipei and was reminded that it is only four and a half months before we fly with them to The Netherlands. I am getting excited.

Two out of every three women I mention getting married to immediately ask what I'm going to wear. No idea frankly, but I do know I want to have a wedding ring, something plain and gold. Yes, there will also be clothes.

Our team placed equal first the other night at trivia. Yeaahh!!

This Wednesday Rene and I are joining the Airport Ambassadors on the Kookaburra Queen, an old paddle steamer on the Brisbane River, for an appreciation buffet dinner put on by the airport and Tourism Southern Queensland. It should be a lovely night. Brisbane always looks stunning at night from the vantage point on the river.

Speaking of rivers, I found yesterday a fabulous link to a house boat moored on the Seine in the middle of Paris. For e100 a night per couple you can sleep on a boat that is moored beside the Louvre and opposite the Musee D'Orsay. Check it out; my brother and sister in law are doing so (they're there in Europe later this month). http://www.bateau.johanna.free.fr/johanna%20english/index.html#

A colleague of mine from 25 years ago dropped around yesterday for coffee and a chat. I haven't seen her for nearly 20 years, and she brought some photos from when we were consultants together. These pictures are from 1984, the last time I wore shorts in my job. The silly one wearing odd hats (we were handwriting advisory teachers - H A T s) was taken at The Arts in Battle Dress restaurant that was on Petrie Terrace beside The Arts Theatre.

Our friend Kay, in Toowoomba, continues to buy and renovate most of the eastern part of the city where she lives. These before and after pictures are of her latest creation, a two bedroom semi detached home in a dream position overlooking the Lockyer Valley back towards Brisbane. Living in a four bedroom house on five acres out of town was getting too much for a single person, so she has remodelled a terrific house into a luxurious abode that is easy to handle (no more ride on mowing, EVER!).

EDIT: sorry for layout 'issues' this week, but I just can't solve them tonight.