Sep 30, 2015

Through Frew



In the afternoon of the Gruffalo's Child, Nicole had an appointment with a person of the Medical Persuasion in order to have her increasingly irritating allergies. We, the undersigned, fetched her from her University location where she was doing something or other that was no doubt important, and delivered her to the hospital.

While she was there we, via a tortuous route frustrated by the GPS's inability to deal with a temporary road closure, visited the new Playground Du Jour - Frew Park, voted by the discerning playground public that I talk to as the best park in Brisbane.

Eloise, never having been there, was very impressed. After five minutes Nicole phoned to say she was ready to go and so go we did, with slight regret and a promise to visit again soon.

Nicole will be back on the allergy injections in the New Year, news that was greeted with mixed emotions.

Grufallo's Child


Claire, our Cultural Convener, organised an outing to see a performance of the Gruffalo's Child, a school holiday outing which Eloise and Lyra enjoyed immensely.

Ungrateful bastard that I am, I would like to say thank you, if I did not do so previously.

The play was pretty good even for a grown up. The seating I recall provided an opportunity for toddlers to learn about the value of sharing. An opportunity that was once again sadly spurned.

Sep 29, 2015

Chemistry


They were running some chemistry lessons down at the Museum, and for some reason Eloise was keen.

A note on parking down there; it's become an ongoing problem; the convenient car parks always seem to be full and it's a right pain in the arse. I blame all these people who keep moving here and then visiting places I want to go to.

So for some reason or another, I forget what exactly. probably hair or clothing choices, but maybe not, we were running late. And the convenient car parks were full.

This meant that we had to park at the other end of South Bank and leg it to get to our venue in time.

And when I say leg it, I mean like actually run.

At times like these I begin to realise I might not be totally unfit after all. I jogged gently along with Eloise in the distance behind me completely unable to match me for pace or distance. Zola Budd-like, in the respect of going barefoot rather than being a top endurance athlete or elbowing fellow runners out of the way, I cruised along, occasionally stopping to let the laggard catch up.

And, like the stadium-based final leg, we jogged into the museum and down to the science centre where some bleeding functionary admonished us the name of Health and Safety for jogging in a public place before telling us that we were in entirely the wrong place anyway.

So the Chemistry stuff was good and fine and Eloise made proteins out of balls and springs and investigated the vagaries of the hydrogen bond and all that.

And then a text message came through from the Early Warning people that a huge storm was coming - and we had to run all the way back to the car again.

Sep 24, 2015

Some Lone Pine



A trip to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary with Claire and Georgia which passed uneventfully if entertainingly. Eloise fed the lorikeets, always the high point of her day.  On this occasion the cirds had the unexpected bonus of an Indian boy's head. Nice, hey?

The memorable thing for us grown-ups I'm sure will be Eloise's end-of-day disappearance with Georgia leading to me calling out the Search Detail as they vanished like a puff of logic into the ether of gullibility. One minute they were behind us as we exited the establishment, next they were nowhere.

Claire minded Lyra next to the Unconvincing Koala of Photographic Opportunity while I strolled purposefully performing my Whistle of Summoning to no avail. I purloined a Young Functionary who put out an APB as we roamed the establishment. I returned to the front door, but no signs of the miscreants.

Had they been kidnapped?! Had they fallen off the bridge into the Grassy Crevasse?!! Never to be seen again?!!!

After another fruitless tour, I returned to the front door to find them, contrite, having buggered off back to the car super quick owing to some vague commitment I'd made at the start of the day about some hanging chair swing thingies. They'd gone back to swing on the thingies.

Eloise told me that Claire had words with her. She denied it.

Sep 23, 2015

Haircut


Here's Lyra attentively receiving the ministrations of a ladies' hairdresser at our posh hair-care provider down in Fashionably New Farm.

Sep 22, 2015

Happy Birthday Nicole

Nicole's Birthday today. I don't know if there's a number base in which she's 21 any more... hang on... nope/

Lyra in childcare means fun for everyone else, and it's school holidays so Nicole, Eloise and I go down to the South Bank to see the Luck Child by the bloke out of the Umbilical Brothers who Isn't Bald in the Spiegeltent.

First though we visit Paddington for a slap-up breakfast. I just hope I'm not the one who's due the slapping.

Our first breakfast venue appears promising but unfortunately suffers a kitchen fire in their rangehood, necessitating a cancellation and evacuation.

The second venue is far superior in that they actually serve us food. Which is nice.

Then to South Bank and the Spiegel Tent and very entertaining it is too, if life-threateningly hot.

Weirdly, on the way out Eloise and I are collared on the way out by a camera crew. Weirdly also I agree to talk to them, which turns out to be a life-shattering experience as I attempt to be an erudite smartarse about things I'm unable to pretentiously riff on and consequently make a complete arse of myself.

Afterwards we visit the City Hall and the Museum of Brisbane where Eloise is bored and unafraid to show it before we ascent the dizzy heights of the clock tower to gaze out over the vista of towers that are much taller than we are.

After picking Lyra up we head back to Paddington where we visit an Italian place where we gorge on oily pasta and fondle finely sculpted statuesque ladies' breasticles.

Sep 20, 2015

Frank, My Dear



Max the Potato Guy has some puppies. It seems he has chosen to retain one, and bring him to market, probably to attract nubile ladies to surreptitiously ogle. Who knows.

Any Frank the Dog is a big hit with Eloise and Lyra, unsurprisingly, being a dog and all.

Sep 18, 2015

Building Blocks


Lyra proving that wholesale building blocks destruction isn't the only game in town.

Sep 10, 2015

College's Crossing


Another introductory visit to a playground of our past, after a visit to a ho-hum Ipswich Art Gallery toddler fun-time activity thing which proved, as I think I said, a bit ho-hum.

College's Crossing is an expansive area by the Brisbane River (I think) where Recreation is Officially Sanctioned by the Powers That Be.

Our initial parking space led us to a playground that was reasonably shite but a shortish walk led us to another playground that was quite nice and where literally quite a lot of minutes of gently playful fun was indulged in, until the bark throwing started and toilets needed to be visited.

For some strange reason I had a Sisters of Mercy song going through my head that day.

Sep 9, 2015

Anzac Park

So here we are on a post-swimming Wednesday outing with C&G at a previously unvisited by them and only vaguely remembered by me park on a what I recall to be a suspiciously sunny day where the sun beat down, as it does on days such as this, on my neck in a vaguely threatening way.

The park, well-appointed once upon a time no doubt, appears jaded and past its best to the adult eye, but provides a possibly entertaining venue for the ongoing personal space issue that appears to characterise the Lyra-Georgia dynamic. Duo.

Sep 7, 2015

Nicole in Day Off Shocker



I'll not attempt to provide a running commentary upon Nicole's progress on her Ph.D. as I am barely qualified to do so given the patchy and rambling reports that I am privy to, plus the fact that try as I might to understand what's she's doing I can shelter under the pretence that it's all just too much for my pretty little head to worry about.

Anyway, on this particular day, the photographic evidence suggests that Nicole took a rare day off from her jobs and to celebrate this we undertook an outing to your favourite up-and-coming bohemian beatnik suburb and mine, West End, to wander around and invariably purchase ladies' self-betterment products from Perfect Potions.

And after indulging in this retail relaxation we visited a coffee caravan to imbibe their caffeinated comestibles along with some fine veggie cuisine which left me at least feeling portly and mildly faint.

Sep 6, 2015

What Is Known As Parklands

It seems according to the photographic evidence that we visited the Roma Street Parklands the next day.

My increasing memory lapses suggest early-onset dementia though perhaps not being able to remember what I was up to three months ago is just plain normal for a man of my advanced years.

It's my suspect recollection that a new playground had just opened which we attended with high - and perhaps unreasonable - hopes which were gently deflated after a pleasant walk through the gardens, thankfully involving Lyra's remaining clothed and failing to swim naked upon the Many Steps of Inappropriate Nudity.

The playground was OK and has in fact improved upon further visitation, but we moved on on that occasion to the trusty playground just up the way where Eloise demonstrated her athleticism as shown above.

And a good time, I'm sure, was had by all.

Sep 5, 2015

Grange May Fair in September


The Grange May Fair normally happens in May, around May Day, as you might expect but this year was disrupted by inclement weather probably to do with climate change and all that - lots of rain, general unpleasantness - and so was rescheduled for whatever day this is in September,

We pitched up and before long met up with the Bs who were as usual bullish on entertainment, not to mention pizza, and we watched tap dancers who tickled Eloise's fancy and were in fact very good even according to my exacting dance-dad standards before sampling the delights of the petting zoo and pony rides around which banter was had with the Lucks.

Did you know about the etymology behind the naming of animal meats, for example? For behind that lies an intriguing story of those who write history, they being the rich french-speakers who were able to write; hence pig and pork and cow and beef and so on. Anyway, I digress.

Ponies were ridden and stalls were visited and dancing was witnessed and singing was heard and before long Tony and I headed up to the Pizza Shop of Gourmet Perfection to procure pizzas to be wolfed watching the fillum.

And as night fell we hunkered down for Paddington, and lo there was wine and there was pizza and there was a picnic blanket and the sort of middle-aged discomfort that come with being over-reclined for too long.

And then back to ours on the back deck where an unscheduled extra festivity occurred involving more wine and a certain amount of jollity.

If I remember correctly.

Sep 4, 2015

Uke Harries Notes

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Power chords on the Ukelele. Played with great enthusiasm but surprisingly little skill. I wasn't even cleaning the windows at the time.