The Sunshine State

Not too long since the last post, and boy, wait until you see what I’ve been up to!

Saturday 11 May. As usual I woke up early in the morning, feeling pretty well and, given the look of some other people, glad I hadn’t drunk too much! Originally Bill had kindly offered me a lift back to Brisbane, however after a leisurely breakfast Jez, Bill’s flatmate, became my driver as he was returning slightly earlier, and Brisbane hosts Anthony (son of Max and Freda) and Theresa (who I had not yet met despite spending several nights at their home) had a spare ticket to an AFL game! It transpired that Jez was in fact a West Ham fan, and had even watched them in action! After some heavy rain, a traffic jam caused by a crash, and getting somewhat lost, we were a bit late arriving at Indooroopilly... As I was joining Max and Freda and grandson Matthew for the game, I was disappointed to again be the cause of inconvenience to these gracious folk.  Thanks to granddaughter Genevieve’s tactical driving we made it to the game before the end of the first quarter, although regrettably the Brisbane Lions were losing by this point. The Lions made something of a comeback and were level going into the final quarter but were beaten after a poor display towards the end (seemingly jinxed by Max’s talk of how well the Lions tend to do in the last quarter) and the home crowd dispersed feeling rather dejected.

A grey day for the Lions

Sunday was Mothers’ Day in Australia and seemed to be a day off for the rain! I wished mum her second Happy Mothers’ Day before again attending St Peter's service, notable for  a couple of tunes (Sibelius’ Finlandia and Beethoven 9) put into hymn form. Lunch saw Mark and Robin and their daughter Melinda join us in celebration, followed by a trip to Scarborough (similar to how I imagine the English counterpart only warmer) to see Theresa’s mother! We started the return journey as night time crept in and I was given a short tour along the coast home, passing familiar names including Brighton and Margate, in the diminishing light. Apparently these beaches are not favourites of the locals, compared with vast expanses of white sanded competition (such as the Sunshine coast to the north), although relative to our beaches at home they looked pretty good...

View from the waterfront at Scarborough

The subsequent two days continued fairly rainy and miserable, hopefully not setting a precedent. In between showers (which I am informed were not really rain by Queensland standards; a very wet summer has just passed) I went for a short walk along the river, thankful not to get caught out by the weather, and managing to get only slightly lost. Conditions were even less enviable on the Tuesday morning so I stayed inside, spending the time catching up on Internet related activities. The afternoon saw me journeying to the other side of Brisbane, again thankful for a lift from Genevieve. Although the rain had eased off, the ‘short’ walk to Indooroopilly station may have been a struggle given my luggage and the gradient of Brisbane hills! I successfully completed the trip without any hiccups and met my host Ralph who drove me home from Boondall station. Dinner was an Indian takeaway for ten – Ralph had his four offspring and their partners over to celebrate son-in-law Matt’s birthday; post-meal I was relieved to be able to provide a couple of answers in their newspaper quiz tradition!

Wednesday morning brought a nice surprise! On an early morning outing Ralph passed an abandoned bike with a sign reading ‘please take me I am in need of repair’ and soon after I returned and collected it - sure enough, it did need some restoration! Mercifully Ralph is an old-hand when it comes to mending bikes and successfully fixed a punctured inner tube and oiled some parts (it was pretty rusty). As a break from the repairs we took a drive up to Sandgate for a short walk along the seafront and a tour of local scenery. On our return Ralph made some wheel adjustments and a short test drive showed my 'new' bicycle to be in reasonable working order!

My 'good as new' bike