Category Archives: Australia

QLD

Not so hot in Queensland

It’s supposed to be warm in Queensland… right?

Because I’m not.

I’m cold. 24 degrees is not sitting by the pool weather for me and certainly not in the bikini I’m really too old and too fat to wear. But if I were to sit by the pool I would be able to wash my feet of sand with this nifty water footbath. Very clever.

The footbath...no more sandy feet
The footbath leads from the artificial beach to the paved poolside area

The pool really is more of a lagoon with 1000 tropical fish. Yes you swim with the fish. It’s a little gross when the guy feeds them with bits of squid but entertaining…
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The lagoon at the Mariott
The lagoon has a waterfall and a tunnel slide as well.

The view
This is the view from my balcony. Two pods of whales swam past today apparently. I missed both.

By the way… it’s MUCH cheaper to eat out over here! Went out to lunch today at a little beachside cafe… of average flashness. Lunch was $9.90. I had a red prawn curry. There must have been about 12 large prawns. You would have paid more like $20 in Perth. And it was really tasty.

If anything underlined how expensive Perth has become that would be it.

QLD

But I don’t surf?

5 Comments

Busy nights

Here I am in my luxurious BrisVegas room at the Marriott in Surfers Paradise. My first ever foray into Queensland.

Surfers reminds me of Orlando or Miami or Atlantic City. Mile after mile of big multi-story hotels. A giant strip mall. I drove up from the Gold Coast Airport and scored a great taxi driver who was like a personal tour guide. Everyone has been very friendly. You can tell this town makes their money from tourism.

The Marriott has those huge cane fans lazily pushing air back and forth in the foyer, a massive curving stairway and a pool that looks like it’s been themed by Universal Studios – who knows – perhaps it has.
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I’m here for a conference looking at crisis communications. The line up looks good and certainly the venue is lovely. Now if only I could get my multimedia devices to do what they are supposed to do.

Ah well – I guess I’ll just have to lie back and watch cable TV… 🙂

Creative Commons License photo credit: Dafydd359

Introspection, Random, WA

Eighties flashback to Atlantis Marine Park

A recent post on The Worst From Perth made me laugh… and remember one of the first dates I went on with Groover.

We went up to Atlantis Marine Park to see the Dolphin show… It must have closed pretty soon after and the dolphins went to Underwater World – now AQWA. It was a pretty sad story actually because the dolphins had been caught in the wild. They had some babies. By the time the dolphin show thing stopped, they couldn’t reacclimatise so they went to Underwater World. And then, as we know just a few years ago the last three dolphins died mysteriously.

Anyway back to Atlantis Marine Park… there were all these limestone statues in a big circle and we had fun getting up close and personal with them…

Club Capricorn

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Club Capricorn

Okay, perhaps not the best look, but this was before we got really PC in the mid-nineties…

I always wondered what happened to them… and now I know thanks to TWOP!

Extracurricular, NSW, Work

Why you shouldn’t criticise Fashion Week

5 Comments

my little black dressA couple of days ago I was in Sydney for a work shin-dig while Australian Fashion Week was on and I posted a slightly sarcastic post about what a fashionista I was… not.

I waved a trendy vermilion scarf at the fashion gods my friend, and the gods turned to look at me in my LBD and sighed.

That one is tempting fate, they said. And poof! They flicked a finger in my general direction.

The fashion gods give

Oblivious I sashayed downstairs to meet my fellow part-tay goers, enjoy a little pre-dinner drinkie, and hop on the bus.

I love your dress, some cooed and I felt pretty good about my outfit. The ultra-cute Lisa Ho number (okay from last season but I just love it), my S&M boots. I felt hot.

We had the canapes, the entree and a few beverages and I wandered upstairs to the ladies.

The fashion gods take away

Now I should point out that the dress is a little – tight – and despite my best efforts – control tops – it had been a bit of a struggle to zip up.

So I sit down and breathe out and as I do, I feel something give.

A certain tightness across the torso had lessened.
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I bring my hand behind my back and realise the horrible truth:

The zip had split. Completely.

A wardrobe malfunction of mammoth proportions and most of the evening to go.

How I survived

Luckily that vermilion scarf I’d waved earlier in the evening was draped, shawl-like, around my shoulders. I pulled it down to cover the zip and walked carefully back to my table. Luckily our table was against the wall and I was able to slip my leather jacket over my dress without exposing my back to an audience. But dancing later? No. I don’t think so.

The Lesson

And that is why I say, my friends, you must never diss the fashion gods or any festival they might choose to support. They have the power to use fashion against you!

Fashion week? A brilliant event for all. That’s what I say… now.

Sydney Harbour

The confident smile of someone who doesn’t realise her zip is about to leave the party without her.

Dippity, Hugamuga, WA

Journey to the Mid-West

Last weekend I drove up to Geraldton with my dad and two small people, Hugamuga and Dippity. Dad wanted to visit his step-mother, the kids were on holidays, and it was a good chance for me to visit our Geraldton office as well as seeing my step-Grandmother. Now 86.

I thought I’d tell this story in pictures.

We drove up on Saturday. First stop was lunch at a little picnic spot just north of Badgingarra.

Geraldton 2008

We stopped at the old convict bridge, washed away in a recentish flood. I lost my akubra (well Groover’s hat) but luckily had written our name and phone number inside it and the lovely gentleman at the Hampton Arms Inn rescued it for me.

Geraldton 2008

After rescuing my hat, the kids and I decided to visit Greenough’s historic village which was quite well preserved, if a bit dusty. The new cafe is very swish. This is the jail.

Geraldton 2008

A classic Greenough tree. A river gum bent double by the strong winds off the coast.

Geraldton 2008

It is still very dry at Greenough.

Geraldton 2008

My step-grandmother and father in her crowded kitchen. She has two stoves and four fridges, although she only uses two at the moment. I’m making a video of her house – it has to be seen to be believed – so if I get permission – stand by. And yes, you picked it, she is Japanese.

Hers is an interesting story which I will tell when I show you her house.

Geraldton 2008

A sunset view from the house.

Geraldton 2008

The next day the kids discovered the Merry-Go-Round by the Sea, inspired by Randolph Stow’s famous autobiographical novel.

Geraldton 2008

Geraldton 2008

And we visited the memorial to the crew of HMAS Sydney, especially poignant since the discovery of the wrecks and the fact today is after all, ANZAC Day. Now they can, rest in peace.

Geraldton 2008

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Geraldton 2008

Yes it rained. But the earth seemed so dry as to reject the water. We were a little worried about our night camping but the weather bureau’s radar looked promising so we headed to Cliff Head, via Dongara.

We had to go to Dongara because that’s where my dad built his first solo construction. Aged 13.

Geraldton 2008

Dad went on to become Engineer of the Year and was involved in a great many projects. My favourite is still The Stirling Bridge in Fremantle which was his first project as project manager. I remember going to the opening… ah but that’s yet another story.

So we made it to Cliff Head. Camping to my kids means marshmellows:

Geraldton 2008

Geraldton 2008

And to my dad, means fishing:

Geraldton 2008

Geraldton 2008

Geraldton 2008

He used to fish here with his mum and dad.

We slept on the beach which wasn’t as successful as we hoped given the bright moonlight and my Dippity falling ill and the next day mooched our way home, stopping on the way at the Pinnacles Desert near Cervantes.

Geraldton 2008

It was my dad’s first ever visit to this famous West Australian tourist destination.

Geraldton 2008

Geraldton 2008

And it was my first visit too. I’m not sure why they are such a popular tourist destination…

PS: I didn’t break a nail til I came home and did the washing. Meh.

PPS: Here’s where all the photos live.

WA

How to go camping without a tent

Last night we slept on the beach at Cliff Head.

Of course when I say beach I’m actually meaning the two foot thick seaweed shelves that slope down to the sea.

Me on the beach

It seemed a good idea at the time. The seaweed was soft and we hadn’t room to pack blow up mattresses. We had a big tarpaulin. It felt adventurous and we were confident that our sleeping bags designed for sub-zero temperatures, could cope.
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We hadn’t counted on a full moon.

It’s very bright. And the seaweed didn’t seem so soft when we lay down on it. Also, Dippity was sick.

Needless to say I’m very tired tonight.

WA

News from the windy city


No, not Chicago, Geraldton… Western Australia.

It is windy, raining and surprisingly warm all at the same time. I look out of my window and see the artist’s representation of the Merry-Go-Round by the Sea as depicted in Randolph Stow’s famous autobiography. It’s a dangerous thing which is why the kids love it. There have been children on it all day.

The earth is dry though. Dry as dry can be. The rain this morning pooling on it’s non-wetting surface as if now that it’s waited so long for life giving moisture the sand rejects it in a pique.
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We plan to go camping on the beach tonight. Hmmm could be interesting.

Creative Commons License photo credit: fastskybus

Modern Life, Travel, WA

Two little kids

NeighboursWe went down south for the long weekend and ended up for part of the time on a winery close to where those two little kids went missing the weekend before.  At the time I couldn’t believe they could go missing so easily but the bush there is really thick, unbelievably so.

At work, I was bracing myself for the news and I know that a number of journos covering the story had already sketched out their scripts for bad news.  Even when the news came that the kids had been found, many assumed initially they’d been found dead.  So you can imagine the relief.  Big burly policemen had to compose themselves. 🙂

For me I could not help but remember my little boy who was blonde at the age of 2 and a half, and had a little friend, our neighbour, about six months older than he.  She had bright red curls too.  It was a case of “there for the grace of God go I” as I could imagine the same thing happening to them.

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When we got down to the “Bush House” this time, the bush had been cleared around the house to reduce the fire danger.  The scraped landscape shocked us, so used to the lush growth.  The kids wandered around lamenting the necessity and wondering if the orchids would come back.  Time will tell.  In the meantime my two are now unlikely to disappear into the undergrowth and go missing!

 Neighbours kids in car

Extracurricular, Travel, WA

Ennuin Easter

EnnuinWe spent the last four days at Ennuin Station with some good friends from Hong Kong. It must of been such a culture shock for them after more than two years in Asia to be plonked down in the spare vast landscape of outback WA. The heat was so stifling that all we could do when they arrived was look at each other and wonder what the hell we were doing there – aren’t there beaches in WA??!

Then that night it rained. The 4mm cooled us down, the bush came alive with all its beautiful scents and Lake Deborah glistened in the early morning dew.

We walked to the lake and the kids had a ball skidding and sliding over the salty mud. Were not that happy when it dried on them leaving them with stinging limbs and a long walk home but they didn’t complain too much. It had been worth it.
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We lit a campfire that night as the sun set behind us and the moon rose over Lake Deborah, and used the coals to heat two old iron baths on the ridge. And we soaked and sipped wine, put our heads back to wonder at the milky way… “hey it actually looks milky there are so many stars…” Not a bad part of the world to be in.

Ennuin Ennuin Ennuin