The weather has returned to average for this time of the year. I mention this because today (and yesterday) were 'average', meaning around 23-24C whereas last week we had a Monday with 36 and records across the state tumbling for the hottest August winter's day on record.
Our papers left by mail a week ago heading off to The Hague in The Netherlands ready for a permit to marry being issued some time soon. It took us two months and more than $600 to get the paperwork and certificates completed. Anyway, it is now finished and hopefully there will be no last moment bureaucratic 'glitches'.
We plan (if all goes well) to marry on December 30 in Son en Breugel in the south of Holland. The picture below is of the countryside there in winter. This is where Rene's sister and brother in law live, just outside Eindhoven. The picture below the snow scene is market day (in summer).
[NB - all pictures can be clicked this week and actually expand, except for the last two. Of course the final two are my own, but go figure!]
I have had these old photos of Nundah, the suburb of Brisbane where we live, on my computer for months now. I'm posting them today because they are a timely reminder of just how far we have developed as a nation, and how resilient we have been, and remain so today. Just this week we recorded a +.6% GDP growth for the quarter, the best performing advanced economy in the world at present.
This home is on the corner of Sandgate Road and Rode Road (Rode was an early German settler). Today it is frantic with traffic jams and lots of noise. This was just 1930, the home was newly built.
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor visiting Nundah in 1927 - the year parliament began sitting in Canberra. They had travelled by sea to open the new parliament house.
Rene and I had breakfast this morning here in the old bakery. Today it's right near the station on a busy road, but then there were horses and carriages. The year is 1907.
This is a picture of a couple sitting along the banks of the creek right where we live, around 1894. They would be Toorbul people who lived around the waterholes here in Nundah (now Kedron Brook). Noongah means 'chain of water holes' in the Toorbul language. At the time our community was called German Station after the German missionaries who first settled here high on the slopes overlooking Moreton Bay. The indigenous people on the lower swamp lands and the whites up on the higher slopes lived in harmony.
This is where I'm staying in Las Vegas from the 17th. My friends from Portland, Merle and Ian, will be joining just me (no Rene this trip) for four nights. They have their own room, I have a junior suite all to myself (that's the picture above). I can't wait! Those of you who go tripping regularly overseas would be quite blase about this, but I haven't been overseas for just about five years, so I'm looking forward to it.
When I join Peter and Bernie in Indiana following Vegas, I am with them in West Lafayette for just one night, then we're all off to Chicago for three nights staying at the River City Residences (pictured below) in downtown Chicago, right on the river, three blocks from the Sears Tower. The apartment is a two level penthouse with a roof terrace complete with fabulous views in all directions. Can't wait!
Just in case you think life has got a bit predictable, I ventured on a small tour of our newest road tunnel under the river, from Bowen Hills to Kangaroo Point. The Clem7 Tunnel should open 2-3 months ahead of schedule around the middle of next year. Even though I had a hard hat on, clear protective glasses, reflector orange shirt, steel capped wellington boots - I still didn't feel quite butch enough. Mind you, there were enough Tonker Toys moving around to stir up the most dormant testosterone levels - quite fascinating to experience. My pictures are just rubbish (sorry!) but they are testament to the fact I was there. It's 4.8km long, but will be over 9km long when eventually linked to the tunnel from the airport that is being constructed near to us here in Nundah. The final section will be easing traffic congestion by 2012.
Shafston Avenue exit from the Clem7 at Kangaroo Point. The tours are arranged via the Brisbane City Council and are fully booked out until October, but they are accepting bookings up to Christmas.
In closing, we bumped into my god daughter Amy, Alex and the beautiful baby boy Gruffydd in the main street in Nundah this morning. Griff is doing well, but the poor young parents are exhausted by the interrupted sleeps and added pressure of having their first baby at home. Griff was merely happy in his pram observing all around him. We went to their home a week ago for an evening BBQ and had a wonderful time. The grandparents, Di and Torquil, are also doing well and loving every moment of grandparentdom (is that a word? Well, it is now!).
Ciao!
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