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.