A Sense of Balance

It took her five minutes to get from the bedroom to the kitchen.

Stormy Weather

The storm on Sunday was the worst to hit Brisbane in 25 years, so they say, and the radio and telly were already having a screaming orgasm over the general devastation rained down upon The Gap through to Mitchelton and Ferny Grove when on Wednesday storm number two created its own little low pressure system over us for most of the night and dropped 300mm of rain around and about.

We were due to get ourselves up to the Sunshine Coast to visit Julie and Gary and ickle Jarrah in their salubrious waterfront accommodation when the Severe Weather Warnings started coming through on Thursday but that we wouldn't let the weather get in our way so we trotted on up there and had a nice afternoon with them at Underwater World.

We were in two minds as to whether to go straight home after we had finished there as the skies were looking a bit ominous but decided to stay for supper on the balcony of their holiday apartment, and munched away merrily as the clouds rolled over with fork lightning doing its thing out to sea.

Looking South we could see the skies over what we presumed was Brisbane and it looked like the place was under attack with flashes flashing over it constantly, so we thought we'd hop in the car toot sweet and get our behinds back as the dogs were outside and likely having cadenzas with the thunder.

We listened to the radio on the way back - and the local radio has been a very well run source of information - and this didn't really improve our spirits when, as we got closer, the distant lightning crackled and hissed over the transmission which even broke down completely at times, kind of like a post-apocalyptic radio transmission from the last survivors of some dreadful event. But we heard talk of hailstorms in Lutwyche and power lines down in Everton Park and floods in Bald Hills so drove down expecting if not the worst then some good entertainment and some very scared dogs, as we drove through heavy rain and the lightning continued to flash ahead of us, growing slowly closer.

Neither of which actually turned out to be the case as we missed the alleged flooding on Gympie Road which people had allegedly been aquaplaning into at 80km/h and saw no particular signs of hail or rain or wind. In fact once we were out of the rain it was an easy drive.

And everything was in one piece when we got back. Even the dogs.

Hot Then Not

It was as they say a scorcher today, sweaty by nine in the morning when J & G & J set off for the Sunshine Coast and a little holiday.

We tried to get out for a walk at the brook with Eloise but she wasn't really up to it... overtired... so I took the dogs out in the car instead with air-con set to stun and we trundled around the forest for a bit with the sun beating down upon us through the insubstantial mantle of eucalypt foliage high above.

We had leftovers for lunch before retiring for our nanny-naps. I oscillated ponderously in the hammock out back reading Iain Banks before drifting gently away.

I awoke to a glowering sky and before long perceived the glower to be increasing. The news reported roofs blown off at the Gold Coast and that a sever storm cell was heading north, and as the first rumbles rumbled and Nicole returned from a goat's milk sally, the rain radar showed black black rain headed towards us.

And rain it did indeed, reportedly 70mm in half an hour in Ferny Hills (not that much here) and thunder clapped aplenty. Nicole had mysterious headaches and I sensed the overcharge viscerally as the energy grounded.

100,000 homes without power so they say. Not us though ;)

Although thinking about it we were without phone for a few days last week due to a fault on the line and now we have a dangly new one running across the garden until they can come and fix it properly. As an aside.

Babyhood Revisited

We've had a visitation this week from Julie and Gary, our friends from Sydney who Nicole went to University with, and their new baby Jarrah.

It hasn't exactly been a helter-skelter what with the little boy being nine months old and therefore in need of regular naps and feeding and having attention lavished upon him left right and - you wouldn't have it any other way - centre, but we made it down to South Bank and out to the playground and in to more than one swimming pool and off to Kelvin Grove Market in the days they have been here, and it's been entertaining for the most part.

Eloise has been most engrossed with the little tyke giving out general cuddles and games and pushing the pram and all that jazz and of course bathtimes have been shared affairs and she has enjoyed herself thoroughly.

There was a toy though that played irritating songs in a Julie Andrews style. And the parents did insist on repeating them ad nauseam even when the toy wasn't around.

And.. ha ha... the sound of Eloise's voice at five am.... "Jarrah! You woke me up and I'm not happy!!"

Rain Deflowers Tree And Other Stories

The jacaranda tree outside the house was looking lovely until the other day when the heavens opened and it rained all day. After that the poor tree looked somewhat denuded.

It's been a challenging week this week child-wise too as something seems to have clicked inside her head to move her into a new, even more willful and headstrong phase of existence.

"Mercurial" said the new music teacher, "isn't she."

On Thursday things came to a bit of a head at swimming when she wouldn't hold on to her float and wouldn't wait on the table but instead decided that she was so good at swimming that she didn't need to follow instructions.

So after being complained to, and being persuaded to apologise to the teacher, we embarked on a discipline day which was painful to say the least.

Valerie reckons it's because she's got worms. I have yet to see any evidence of this, though I may get out a torch later on.

I reckon it's just sheer redheaded head-strength coupled with exponential neuronic cohesion. I may never see any evidence of this, even with a torch.

Impromptu Swimming

Today, with Nicole working a long day, we slept in til 8 o'clock before attempting to get ourselves together.

I suggested a trip to the beach but this was flatly refused, and the brook insisted upon, so off we toddled after the suncream drama and the shoes trauma and all that had been negotiated.

Some paddling was done by the rocks but later on we climbed down to look under a footbridge at which point Eloise gleefully and not altogether accidentally tripped over and went for a swim. Which must have been quite an experience because the water was at least a few feet deep (up to her waist probably) and flowing quite fast. But she merrily blew her bubbles and kicked her little legs and did her rolly-polly arms and flatly refused to get out.

Yes, I'm noticing a lot of flat refusal going on today too.

I'm not sure, I could be wrong, but yesterday in the afternoon we went to the South Bank and had a jolly time at the Museum and the Gallery of Modern Art. In the GoMA they had a new exhibition consisting of video stuff one of whose exhibits was a big room with a huge screen - ten feel tall by fifty long probably - on which a man swam up and down a pool with a stitched perspective showing the whole thing as though the swimming pool were behind the wall, with the camera underwater and the bloke swimming from one side of the screen to the other and back again in an endless loop. Anyway to cut a long telling of a short story slightly shorter but still quite long, Eloise was taking notes about his kicking action and hand motions and so on and so forth and I'm basically postulating probably without foundation that this may have inspired her little swim today. Although it could of course be the fact that she goes swimming every week, thinking about it....

In the afternoon we went shopping for Lexie's birthday which is tomorrow and Eloise chose a couple of fairy-related books which we had a lot of fun wrapping up after supper.

Been a While

but we've been busy what with one thing and another.

Mumsy has departed now for the snowy English climes, and things have settled down to a nice 25 degrees here.

She came back at some point - last Wednesday I think - after having been to Melbourne and Cairns and we just kind of did the daily grind thing of going to classes, falling asleep, walking the dogs.

But now it's back to the daily grind of going to classes, falling asleep, walking the dogs.

Although I've been commissioned for a photographic job, which I have completed half of, that being to photograph Angel from the Music School who has taken over operations there and requires new promotional material. So I took some portraits of her the other day and will be doing some kiddy shots, hopefully of kiddies being enthusiastic, for them to print up as posters and put on their walls.

They're offering me some exhibition space to so I will get some pictures printed up and framed over the next while to stick on their walls and who knows what might come of that.

The dogs are being a royal pain in the ass in the evenings at the moment, chasing around the garden and barking, and we have found out that it's because a couple of possums are using the shed as a hide-out. Not to mention that next-door seem to have acquired a big dog too. Happy days.

Back to Nudgee

Walking at Nudgee Beach without Eloise was a much more straightforward affair than we are used to.

We were able to walk for long distances without interruption or incident, and the tide being out and the sun warm, we were able to paddle and toddle our way along on the flats and through the warm water for a considerable distance before taking pity on our childminder and returning to fetch the fairy.

Free Plants

We got a flyer the other day from the city council (or just "council" as they prefer to refer to themselves) advertising a local tree-planting effort to increase shade along the streets of Grange, and offering free plants to those who volunteered.

A few days later blue crosses mysteriously started to appear by the sides of the roads, and putting two and two together we figures that was where the trees would probably go.

And sure enough the other day one of those Caterpillar things with a big drill on was doing what you'd expect something with a big drill to do and drilling holes where the blue crosses were.

So we toddled along yesterday, late, to be greeted by our local councillor, one Fiona King, at Lanham Park where a full-scale kitchen was set up for the obligatory post-planting sausage sizzle and from where large parties of people were departing with spades in hand to plant the trees which had appeared that morning next to the holes which had been dug where the blue crosses were that we surmised were for the trees. Correctly.

And, having introduced ourselves and put ourselves down as volunteers, free plants for the procuring of, except not free of course as we expected to toil for our horticulture, we set off, escorted by Mrs King to meet up with our team leader, passing new trees all the way.

When in fact we did manage to catch up with the tree-planting spearhead, some several streets later, I helped some young whelp with the spade and we planted the tree. Eloise at the same time encountered her erstwhile Nursery buddy of last year, Hannah, and that was the rest of the day sewn up for her.

The sausages were reportedly very good. I retrieved the car to get our six plants wot we earned for our three trees planted (there were a lot of people, OK?) and after hanging around in the park for a while Eloise bagged a playtime offer and went off to Hannah's house while Nicole and I relaxed chez nous.

After a while the girls came back while Hannah's Mum went shopping and we played hide and seek with them. They weren't very good frankly either at hiding or at seeking.

Then Eloise went back to Hannah's house and we went to the beach for to walk the dogs.

When Eloise was picked up after that, it seems that Hannah had sparkoed on the couch leaving Eloise to fend for herself, and she had helped herself to Hannah's fairy dress. Perhaps on a permanent basis.

Homeward Bound

The next day we hoofed it and made it to Rolleston just as we were about to run out of petrol, which was a relief.

Then we drove to Noosa, just a ten-hour drive... getting there after dark. We met up with Nicole the next day and they went to Eumundi Market while I walked the dogs at the beach then slept in the car park, totally knackered.

Then back to Brisbane and an early night.

When we dropped the camper off the next day we were quite glad we'd got the full insurance option as they merrily pointed out dent after dent. I don't know how - or frankly even if - we did half of them. In fact I only know how I did one of them.

And that was it, road trip over, back to normal.

Mum chipped off to Melbourne the other day to hang out with a chum of hers; it's cold down there she says. She'll come back sometime but she doesn't know when. She's gone up to Cairns now.