Another Thursday in Moggill

As we are living on the 'sunshine coast' you can be pretty certain that it will be sunny by 9am even though it is the middle of winter here. There are very few clouds so it stays lovely and warm (about 22 degrees today) but it does get dark at 1715 exactly, every day! There is no sunset, it is very sudden so you need to be prepared for the dark (head torch/lights for bikes etc) and for the change in temperature (need a light jumper/long trousers/socks in the evening).

We've been lent jumpers by kind friends but not only jumpers: a guitar (for Alfie), a saxophone (for Oscar - from the local school) as well as a clarinet, a car (well an 'almost' car - it must be the smallest car in Australia, a Daewoo Matiz that refuses to start most mornings - the kids are getting pretty good at pushing it out the garage, down the small ramp while I turn it over), riding boots and gloves, books/guidebooks and two surf boards...amazing generosity!

The boys had a day off school today because Alfie has a cold and has a sniffly nose/sore throat. He has his sights set on the final Queensland cross-country race that is happening on Saturday so he needs to be well by Saturday. His PE teacher here at Moggill school saw him win the 800m in such style that he made sure that he knew about this upcoming race. As Patrick is doing a cross-country race in the Glass House Mountains on Sunday there will be a little bit of competition between them for who can do the best in their respective age categories!

Oscar didn't have an excuse for missing school today other than his least favourite teacher, Mr Leggett, would be teaching today and I couldn't really see why he had to go in especially as the schools in the UK have now finished so he had the day off too! We didn't do much. Well I say that and then I realise that I went for a run at 0630 and then caught up with my university work before taking the boys to see the place that we are going to canoe to/stay overnight at on Saturday night. It is right on the Brisbane river and belongs to the parents of the people whose house we are renting. While we were there I had a go with a stock whip and ended up with a lash across my own back! I managed to make it 'crack' in the end though. Meanwhile, the boys were turning the rotary line around as it had 4 kookaburras sitting on it and we all laughed as we watched them trying to keep their balance on their very own merry-go-round.

This evening, I took one of the neighbour's horses out for a spin. It was a bit lame in the offside fore because it had had it's hooves trimmed yesterday so I just walked it on the verges. I've got a dressage lesson lined up for tomorrow and I'm arranging an outride with an endurance rider I've just met (she rides 160km at a go). To stay with horses, we've just watched the Australian classic movie 'The Man from Snowy River' - get it if you haven't seen it cos it has some fantastic horse riding in it! And then, to keep the horsey theme going, my dad texted from the UK to say he has a horse for me....it is a 15 year old gelding called 'Cowboy Boots'!  Worth getting it just for the name!!

Ride 'em Cowgirl

So this is what I've really come to Australia for...mustering cattle!

Here is my 'no name' steed (with Greig who owns the cattle station - don't call it a 'ranch' round here).

KJCC shirt gets an outing ... but not on a bike. In my element...chose to wear my new 'endurance' helmet (as worn by the Aussie mounted police) rather than my usual Aussie, kanga-hide, cowgirl hat because this one is guaranteed to stay on. Could have done with long sleeves as the trees/thorny undergrowth was very dense at times. My horse got pretty anxious when it couldn't see or hear the other riders which was 'fun'...Greig said he'd only ridden this horse once, that they knew nothing about it and it hadn't been ridden for 8 weeks so it did pretty well really.

The boys got to see some kangas and they watched as we brought the cattle into a coral for branding. They weren't too impressed by one of the cowboys as he was quick to whip the cattle with his stock whip when riding behind them...my horse caught the end of his whip on its nose at one point which startled it some more!

Oscar rode one of the horses back to the paddock. All of the horses were fed day-old bread that they'd got free from a bakery. It turned into a 'bun fight' when we lobbed bread rolls at each other!

Byron Bay (in the rain)

OK - rain wasn't forecast so we planned to drive south for a couple of hours and spend at least part of the weekend at Byron Bay. I was last here more than 20 years ago and at that time I swam with sea turtles, dolphins and small sharks and touched the velvety inside of a giant clam - all very memorable. But today it is raining...!! We are staying with Peta's parents, Bruce and Carlene and they are sooo hospitable. We have the run of a 'granny annex' and the boys are delighted to be able to play with their corgi, Jock. It takes us a while to get out of the house as nobody (except me) is keen to go outside!

Oscar enjoying the surf...

Surfers enjoying the surf...

Volcanoes across the water. We didn't let the rain deter us and all of us (except Patrick) went swimming/body surfing. Mind you, it was freezing out of the water and the wind turned both the brollies inside-out! EVERYBODY else who was in the water had wetsuits on....

When the rain cleared we walked out to the lighthouse along a boardwalk and saw DOLPHINS - yippee! So this is us at Australia's most easterly point - next stop New Zealand. With the sky darkening, we ran all the way back to the car and headed back for dinner with Carlene, Bruce and a friend of theirs.

Morning Mr Magpie

Just thought you might like to share the view from our house...taken early one morning, note the blue, blue sky, the adjacent pony paddocks (I'm riding a couple of horses that live next door: Spider and Waffles) and the ever-present birds, in this case, a magpie.

Brisbane by river taxi

You can travel around Brisbane's public transport system using a 'go' card that allows you to not only take the bus and train but also, to take the water taxi service. We got on at the university of Queensland and took the taxi firstly, to the Powerhouse, a renovated power station that is now an arts centre and then all the way to the end of the line (and back again). The boats are sleek catamarans and they zig-zag  up/down the river, picking people up from both banks. It is a great way to see all the different bridges including the recently opened 'Go Between' bridge. There isn't a guide on board - there are plenty of other boats that provide 'guided' tours of the river - but the conductor on our return journey was very witty, making jokes at the expense of the guy who was in charge of opening/shutting the gates each time they docked to pick up passengers.

As it was Sunday there were a lot of people milling around the Powerhouse. We stopped to listen to a brass band performing in the band stand. There was a group of people in front of us celebrating a 50th birthday so we all had to sing 'Happy Birthday'. Oscar climbed one of the trees and then got down quick when he realised just how many HUGE ants there were in the branches!

Aardvark in the kitchen

Paintings by Ali Hill that we have in our Queenslander house

The real stuffed aardvark lives in Ali's house next door. It originally belonged to her grandfather. This painting has just been shortlisted for a Aus$15000 prize so we all have our fingers crossed that Ali will win the prize.

Apologies for the poor quality (reflection) photo...another painting by Ali Hill - it has sold but we can enjoy it until the new owners come and pick it up.

Ali loves birds...she works as a taxidermist in the Brisbane museum - photos to follow shortly of our exploits stuffing birds and mammals in the museum!

Noosa

Alfie relaxing at the house at Sunshine Beach, Noosa. Stayed with friends of friends - always useful to know people with beach houses!

Lots of white sand and enough waves to make it worth taking out the surf boards. Clayton told us all about the dangers of rip tides (that can sweep you out to sea) and then he promptly put the kids in a rip tide so that they could get washed out to him on their surfboards! Luckily, he is such a 'surf-dude', he knows what he is doing!

This is 'Effe' and she belongs to Anna and Lucy, the daughters of Peta (who has invited Patrick out to Australia). Effe had only been with them for one day (she is 8 weeks old) and she is simply adorable. Part Pappillon, part Lhasa (?). Anyway, bundle of fluff and fun for us to play with!

Another lifeguard hut...note the beautiful beach in the background. We set ourselves up in the shade of a few trees at the edge of the beach and kept an eye on the bush turkeys that would eat anything...we settled for eating delicious ice cream from Maximo's ice cream parlour in Noosa - great to go back to a place we knew!

All the kids jumping down a sand dune...bigger ones to follow on North Stradbrooke Island.

Daisy HIll Koala Sanctuary

The Daisy Hill Koala Sanctuary is within a conservation park filled with different types of eucalyptus trees. It is about 25km south west of Brisbane. 

http://www.360tours.com.au/DaisyHillKoala/index.htm

There is a bigger Koala Sanctuary near Brisbane called the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary but we didn't really want to go somewhere to hug a koala/have your photo taken with a koala - we preferred to go the Daisy Hill Koala Sanctuary where they rehabilitate injured koalas and provide a small, informative display about koala habitat, habits and threats to them such as swimming pools (that need to have a rope in them so that koalas can pull themselves out).

Not only did we see koalas, we also saw a wallaby....

And got a good close-up of a kookaburra. We actually see and hear these all the time but this was a good opportunity to get a photo. We can hear them laughing from our house and boy, are they noisy!

Here is one of the koalas doing what they do a lot of the time - sleeping.

And here is one doing what they also do a lot of the time - eating eucalyptus leaves. They are quite fussy eaters so not just and eucalyptus will do!

Queensland Diving

Brilliant day for the boys at the Sleeman Sports Complex, Brisbane.

Brisbane City Council run a series of workshops and activities for children during the school holidays. 

http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/whats-on/featured/school-holiday-activities-for-kids/index.htm?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D94601849

These activities include:

• abseiling
• climbing
• stand-up paddle boarding
• diving
• drama and craft workshops
• various games and challenges.

All the places are subsidised so for example, it only cost $10 (about £6) per child for 2.5 hours of diving tuition with the Queensland diving squad.

The boys started off in the dry area. They REALLY want a foam-filled pit at home now....so that they can do back flips from a trampoline in safety!

When they had got the hang of leaping off the trampolines and diving boards they went poolside.
There are plenty of pools to choose from: two 50metre pools (one indoors and one outdoors), a play pool with slides/flumes, a 25 metre pool and a diving pool. I made use of the 50m indoor pool while the boys dived - I could watch them from the pool.

Here is Oscar on the 3m diving board (above) and Alfie mid-dive (below).

We all thought about Sue and Peter while we were there because Peter taught the boys to dive - thanks Peter! You can see where they have got to now....and Alfie says he would like to do it when he gets back to the UK.

Maybe one day he might be able to do something like this - better as a movie clip - but this is one of the Australian Olympic team divers in action...they were all practising while the boys watched from the pool...this guy, Ethan Warren, did a 4.5 somersault from the 3m board - incredible! And we saw synchronised pair diving from the 10m fixed platform. Couldn't believe how graceful they were and soo together!

 Here is Ethan Warren of the Australian Olympic squad being interviewed at poolside for Australian TV. They also shot footage of the kids diving so the boys could well have ended up on Australian TV too!

Charming snakes

We went round to a friend's house (Kieran) to see his collection of reptiles. He let the boys hold one of the friendlier pythons! As you can see from their faces, it was quite something to have them slithering up towards your face. You can't hold them, just have to keep your hands open and let them move over you. You can feel every muscle/bone and they feel very strong.

These pythons are green when they are mature and when they are young they are yellow - see below.

This one is about the size of my finger! I really like the way they curl up and then drape themselves around something - such a neat knot. This one was sleepy because it had eaten something recently. The green python that they boys are holding only has to eat about 6 mice a year and for half the year it doesn't eat anything. It only eats when it is mating time of year!