Little Miss Picasso

Eloise spent the afternoon drawing abstract works of art on every available surface, mostly paper thankfully, but also magazines, one of her books, till receipts, the wall, and herself. The background music to this creative activity was Elgar and Vaughan Williams, as well as Mahler and Holst. Punctuating the classical music was the somewhat more contemporary Front 242, Future Sound of London and Groove Armada.

Later we drove out to Mt Glorious to take in the sunset. The lookout we went to has a boardwalk which reaches out over the hilltop. It is "conceptually circular" in that you can walk around it, and come back to where you started. It is probably 100 metres around, and you can't see one side from the other as a hill is in the way. Oh the hilarity as I

1. snapped off a piccie of the sunset, then
   
2. chased the child who had run off in the meantime,
   
3. chased by the dogs. We didn't know who was chasing who, but Eloise was shrieking with delight the whole time.
   
4. I would escort Squeaky then back to the viewpoint.
   
5. Repeat until tired.

We got back to find the fullest nappy it has been my dubious please to empty for some quite considerable time. It's possible it could have been my driving. The Mt Glorious road is extremely hairy.

On the Subject of Hats

Doesn't Tiny look fetching in this one?

One of My Handkerchiefs is Missing

Hats have been going mysteriously missing for a while now. There were two pink hats, a grey camouflage hat, a little hat with a red rim.

Yesterday before we went out for our morning constitutional I searched high and low for any hats. None could be found. Problem being that when we go out walking, Eloise goes in the backpack, and if she decided she doesn't want to wear her hat any more than she takes it off, then sometimes gives it to me to look after, but sometimes throws it away. Oh the joy of retracing our footsteps looking for chromatic anomalies on the ground. The camouflage hat ironically was always the easiest to spot. I assume she ditched the hat in the forest the other day while we were lost...

Did I mention that we went to Bunyaville Forest on Tuesday? We meant to go to Samford Forest as part of the ongoing dog exercise venue discovery effort. When we arrived there were horse boxes parked in the car park. We aborted and went to plan B, spotting horses out and about in the forest on the way, the kind of horses the dogs really hate and go mental about - i.e. ones with people on their backs.

So we pitched up at Bunyaville forest after driving around for a while because Squeaky had fallen asleep in the back of the car. We parked in a different place and set off into the woods, and happened across a circular path with signposts and informational placards on conservation, tree types, etc. We walked around the circular walk but peaked too early and tramped off in the direction I thought was back to the car, but things started to look increasingly unfamiliar, and one thing led to another....

Two and a half hours later we found our way out. This mishap needless to say was great for the dogs, but bad for Eloise's routine which was somewhat disrupted - to apocalyptic vomit-inducing effect - what with swimming to go to in the afternoon, and because I assume at least she lost her hat there and I didn't notice.

Which kind of brings me back to the point that there was no hat, so I had to improvise, in a Yorkshireman-going-to-the-beach kind of way.

Stylish, or what?

I said, stylish, or.... Oh, I see.

Anyway E didn't respond well and hated swimming, well the dunking parts anyway, and though she ate enormous quantities of Neil's spaghetti and salad, it all ended up on her bedroom floor later on.

Batty Boat Cruise

Nicole spotted a Batty Boat Cruise which was run by some local wildlife people, the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland. It left on Sunday from Mowbray Park and headed up the river for a few hours, to see a bat colony in full effect at dusk. It looked interesting and she was really keen. At dusk bats wheel around over in our house in what up until Sunday seemed like legions and Eloise loves them.

They aren't your common or garden English bats mind you. They have an apparent wingspan of probably a foot or so, and are flying foxes, fruit bats which are harmless but quite noisy at night as they fight over fruit trees in the neighbourhood.

The boat left from a jetty on the park at around 4.45 and by 4.15 quite a few people were already waiting by the quayside as we whiled away the time in the playground watching some parents mete out discipline to their over-excited daughter. A taste of things to come?

The boat arrived and an orderly queue was formed, which Eloise promptly and contemptuously walked straight to the front of and straight down the ramp. Even if the Aussies were prepared to put up with this, they weren't about to let us get away with it, so we let a couple of people through and then pushed in.

The boat was open-topped but with a hard sun cover on it. We managed to get some seats right at the front. It was quite a hot day but as the boat set off the air passing through kept us reasonably cool. Nicole had had the foresight to suggest long trousers all round, from the insects point of view as well as the coldness, and with the breeze and the imminent onset of dusk this was a bright move. The first time I've worn long trousers in six weeks; quite a strange feeling.

The boat moved West up the river, passing through the city centre. The skyscrapers towered over us as we chugged past under the Story Bridge, and various other bridges. Citycats whooshed by occasionally and the boat rolled in their wake but otherwise the river was very calm.

As we moved out to the West of the city past Indooroopilly we passed beneath the newly constructed Green Bridge. The previously urban river banks gave way to forests on one side and steep cliff banks on the other, on top of which perched some pretty spectacular houses. Soon the sun began to set. We were treated to quite a beautiful spectacle. Some rainy looking clouds had rolled in from the West and the sun shone beneath them creating a lovely yellow glow, which was revealed to us as we rounded a bend in the river.

Eloise was starting to get tetchy as this was around tea time. We bought her off with chocolate, fruit juice, and date and walnut cake.

A commentary had been underway for quite some time, but now we started to pay attention as it became clear that we were getting close to our destination. The odd winged shape moved overhead through the gathering dusk and we could hear the shrill cries in the distance.

It seems that these flying foxes are fruit bats which eat most fruits they can get their hands on, and that continuing urbanisation is a Godsend for them as people like to have fruit trees in cities. Out in the sticks the bats are reviled as they are quite noisy and there have been some health scares revolving around them being carriers of Ross River Virus, a reasonably unpleasant disease, but according to our loudspoken bat expert these scares were just that, and blown out of all proportion.

Now we knew we were getting there as the numbers of bats increased. We could see them flapping around in the trees to our right hand side. Then the sky simply filled up with masses and masses of them, wheeling around in the air. Literally thousands, and I do not use the word "literally" lightly, as a bat person when asked estimated that this colony has a population of at least 40,000. And bats aren't high flyers; they were flapping around literally tens of feet above our heads, though I admit I might be using the word "literally" lightly there.

As the minutes marched on there just seemed to be more and more of them in the air, and the wildlife geeks were goggling at the sight as well, eulegising over the loudspeaker system about how this was the best outing they'd ever seen. We felt quite lucky.

The trip back was hugely entertaining, as Eloise decided she'd quite like to learn how to use my camera and got very upset when we tried to relieve her of it. Nicole's thighs, at least what I think of as thighs were getting quite sore from Squeaky's fidgeting and foot stamping. She had
to be bought off with hot chocolate.

It was completely dark by the time we got back to the city and saw it for the first time nocturnally, as it were. There's a certain je ne says quar (that's my franglais creeping in there) about cities at night. Eloise was delighted by it, though that might have been the hot chocolate. Delighted within the contraints of being very very tired that is.

The boat called in at South Bank for a while with technical problems. We were there for probably twenty minutes while on the spot repairs were made. I was thinking we might have to walk the rest of the way through the South Bank Parklands. Nicole seemed quite keen. But the boat got cracking again and soon we were back at Mowbray Park, realising that to walk it would have been much further than we thought. We made sure we were the first off the boat, and dragging a flagging child up the hill, got into the car. After a twenty minute drive, if that, we whisked a sleeping Eloise out and to bed without so much as a bath or a change into pyjamas.

In the morning she smelt absolutely awful.

Dogs Tired

Today's recreational activities involved a lie-in - Eloise didn't wake up til 7.45 - frantic breakfast eating and dressing and suncream application and bag packing and dog feeding and car loading and delivery to Nursery by ten past nine which was pretty remarkable by the standards I set myself these days.

Eloise had been, I thought, quite enthusiastic, but when I left her at Nursery she bawled and it was a little heart rending.

Nevertheless onwards and upwards - literally - to Mount Coot-tha where we drove around to the North (I think) side of Samuel Griffiths Drive, which is a very large circular road which encircles the environs of the mountain. We found an anonymous place to stop with a little path leading down into the valley which suggested a circular walk was 520m away. So down we went, and we were down there for about two and a half hours of quite steep hill climbing and general doggy good times. According to the signs the circular walk was 2820m in length, so my maths tells me we must've walked 3860 metres... well it felt a lot further than that, and when we got back and I opened the car boot to get the dogs' water out Matilda leapt immediately into the boot and wouldn't come out - and it's not the sort of boot that has a window; in America they would probably call it a "trunk."

The landmark on the walk was Simpson's Falls. It was as dry as a bone. No falling happening whatsoever. Quite Brazilian, James.

Then up to Camp Mountain which has lovely views over the D'Aguilars to Brisbane and across Moreton Bay.

We got home around 2ish. Tiny retired to the sofa and Matilda had to go an lie down in a darkened room.

Then after some fiddling (lunch) and shopping, picked up Eloise who was very much happier and had a lovely day.

Nicole switched to a long day today but got left over early so got back in time to see something of the aftermath of the Chickpea Croquettes with Coriander Raita and Cucumber Salad wot I cooked. Yoghourt is always popular.

Eloise is become quite articulate in her outbursts. Unfortunately they are nonsense. Words and phrases of the week are, and there is some translation and possibly some imagination going on here, "Get Down," "Shoes," "Juice," "Chase Me," "Poo," and "Go." We're working on "Stop." I think it may be important.

Spirits Dampened

Young Eloise wasn't so bad today as yesterday, but woke up in the middle of last night and came into bed with us. Tossing and turning was done in copious quantities, resulting in parental sleeping being done in apparently miniscule quantities. Decision to have quiet day today, heavily influenced by heavy, constant rain.

Oz TV on a Saturday morning consists of chart and music video shows, seemingly dominated by heavy rock and crap cartoons.

Eloise was quite jolly to start off with but tired quickly and after a sleep was quite ill again, mewling away and obviously feeling seriously crook, as they say in these parts. Nicole gave her drugs and after a while she perked up, but after lunch (which she ate in bulk) was getting tired again so off to bed.

I went out to a Photography market, leaving Nicole to study. I thought I would just nip back to get my camera, in case anything came up that I might need to test with it, to find her plucking her metaphorically bleeding eyebrows. Honestly you need to watch that woman like a hawk.

I found my way to Cathedral Village, the mooted venue, after driving round the block a couple of times, then I drove round the block a further four times attempting to locate a driving space. I eventually gave in and parked in the Chinatown Carpark for a flat $8, and immediately turned the wrong way out of the door, walking through a soaking Brunswick St Market in entirely the wrong direction. Across the road some Chinese were protesting about the Communists harvesting body parts from Falun Gong adherents for transplantation. Lovely.

Eventually I realised my mistake and turning around, running across unsheltered zones, dodging meditating hippies, and playing pedestrian crossing in the pouring rain very carefully, arrived at the market only partly drenched to find out that because it was raining noone had turned up.

Marvelous.

So as I had lost another lens cap the other day and really needed a new one, and knew there was a Camera Shop in the Indooroopilly market, so off I went. Not thinking really... what's the ideal day to go to a Mall on the car? When it's raining. I spent a good half an hour trying to find a parking place for a miserable ten minutes shopping. Then home. Two and a half hours later.

Not much else happened today. Lentil and Coriander with Hard Boiled Eggs for tea. Must remember in future to lower eggs gently into water with spoon to avoid hard evacuated eggs. Never mind eh!

Eloise ate like a horse. She is feeling much better. Thankfully.

Still for all the rain they say out in the sticks it's the best rain they've had for fifteen years. Though if experience is anything like England, it won't make any difference to the drought, as it will be the wrong kind of rain or something.

Squeaky Piquey

Here is a picture to keep you Grannies happy content. The music in question was Basement Jaxx, which Eloise appreciated.

Today Eloise has come down with something or other. She has been feeling increasingly warm over the last day or two and has been a little under the weather for a little while now. We met up with Nicole this afternoon at the optician (Nicole will sometime get round to telling you how she lost her prescription sunglasses, along with her new Composter and the CD she discovered, etc etc) and she had some hot chocolate with a cook ie and cream. When we got back she was starting to feel properly feverish so we gave her some Calpol type stuff and she was promptly yacking up this foul smelling puke. Poor thing. She's asleep now with the window open and the ceiling fan on and feels a lot cooler.

Hopefully she'll be back on form tomorrow as Nicole has found out about an Art and Photography market down in Fortitude Valley which we fancy going along to, and it's our Bat Boat Expedition on Sunday, so young Squeaky needs to be fighting fit for that!

North

'Twas Nicole's day off yesterday so we thought we would do something nice. We thought we might go up to Bribie Island mit die Hunden fur Sonnen und schwimmen but decided in the end to go up to Moolooloobah to a doggy beach we saw many years ago (weeks actually, it just seems like years) which Nicole remembered as being dog friendly. I had also found out a lookout point over the Glass House Mountains which I fancied a go at, and which we could take in on the way back home.

About an hour later we were there, and the surf was roaring in, with probably a couple of feet worth of breakers. Nothing too extreme.

We walked up the beach a little way and staked out our spot. There was a fresh breeze, if that's the right term, and it wasn't too hot. We were all jolly happy little paddly people and animals. I threw balls for the dogs with my Big Red Ball Thrower and the dogs ran into the sea until a wave came towards them. Then they stopped running into the sea, and ran out of the sea, decided discretion was the better part, etc. etc. and besides I seemed to paddle in and get the ball when it got washed back in anyway. The currents as the surf washed out again were very strong - so we got Squeaky in there.

The moon was high in the sky - and rising - and if I'd put two and two together I would have realised that this meant that the tide was coming in, and that we should probably expect the odd big wave to come in behind me when I wasn't looking and while Nicole and Eloise weren't looking, wooshing up and soaking poor Sproggy, spilling her off her feet, as well as dampening my derriere to boot.

Things went downhill from there as Eloise obviously didn't think we were giving her the care and attention she really deserved. She whinged bitterly until we decided to call it a day (after we'd had some fun games with the dogs, paddled around a lot, and been swimming - well I say swimming, I suppose really it was slightly braver paddling with swimming costumes on).

So we picked up a pizza and some beer (yes, for Nicole) on the way down to the Bruce Highway and we got down to Wild Horse Mountain about 5.45 with the sun getting low in the sky. It wasn't far off the Bruce but a sign informed us there was a 700 metre steep climb to get to the lookout. Ugh!

Off we went and it was hard going I can tell you. I wanted to snappy snap so I was in a bit of a rush, but Matilda was much more interested in sniffing the undergrowth. Nicole offered to take Matilda, which I appreciated as I had Sproggy on my back and my legs were hurting, and I hot footed it up the hill, once hearing impolitenesses from behind as Nicole was pulled off her feet.

Up at the top was a covered gallery. A proper photographer was there with a very nice Panoramic camera was there, I might have to get one of those... a snip at only several thousand pounds.

Looking out over the Glass House Mountains though the view was quite eye boggling. Picturesque wouldn't really do it justice. The mountains were laid out beneath us like, well, steep bumps in the land, but until you see them all together you don't really understand how steep, bumpy, and unnatural they look, poking as they do out of gently undulating flat land all around.

So I took a couple of piccies, and was quite pleased with myself until I realised that I'd lost my third lens cap in as many months, and my lens was not as clean as it could be. Which is to say it probably couldn't have been much dirtier. Still you can't tell that sort of thing in the dark, and I didn't realise until we got home. Oh well!

Still it was very nice looking out over the spectacular vista as the sunsetting, munching on pizza and drinking chahocalola with my wife, my daughter and my dogs. Eloise was running around staring at strange people and the dogs were barking and whining, tied up as they were at the far side of the railings. Nicole was the only well-behaved one out of the lot of them. I gave the dogs some pizza.

Bunya Forest

Our travels took us out to Bunya Forest today, which is outside Brisbane but only a fifteen minute drive or thereabouts up South Pine Road and onto the Old Northern Road. We couldn't see any evidence from our internet search before we went that dogs weren't allowed and saw no evidence when we got there, indeed some dogs were being walked as we arrived.

So we picked a secluded spot and off we went down a trail into a dry forest of tall eucalypts which the narrow track wound through. The dogs thoroughly enjoyed themselves though Matilda caused some angry cawing by some sulphur-crested cockatoos who were a little agitated before we got there, and their calls were echoing through the forest all the time we were there. Tiny just stuck by our heels and was happy to follow us around, as she so often is these days.

We kept walking up the trail, hoping my some chance that it might be circular, until we ran out of time. We retraced our steps, and were thankful that we weren't lost; although we hadn't actually taken any major turnings, you never know...

Eloise was practically asleep in the backpack by the time we got back. I put her to bed after Nicole had gone to work and I had to wake her up by hissing in her ear as shaking, cooing, unzipping and opening and closing cupboards doors hadn't done the trick. She was a very enthusiastic swimmer, though as usual somewhat lacking in concentration.

We went to Stafford shopping centre later to get some provisions to cook with (Haloumi and courgettes with salsa) and she caught the eye of a lady in a hairdresser who insisted on giving her a goody bag of hair care products on account of here cuteness and winning smile. Could this be the start of a subsistence strategy?

Miss Demeanour

Eloise is becoming quite a little character. They say that toddlers like to push boundaries and I suppose that she is no exception.

Here current modus operandi revolves around liquids. Give her a cup of milk, and she will happily glug away at it, until when she gets almost to the end - or sometimes before - she just tips the whole lot over the ground. This makes me grind my teeth. "Why," I demand, "why did you do that?" She looks at me as if to say "Go on, what do you think of that then. Do something, go on."

So today when she did it I carted her off and put her in her room for a couple of minutes. Perhaps, with repetition and gently persuasion, this will be effective as a means of communicating.

Now when Matilda does something wrong, such as, just as an example that springs to mind, jumping up on a work surface and eating my tea, Eloise will shout "Da! Get Da!"

So she does understand right from wrong. Doesn't she?