Down under, 'Down Under' and Thunder.

I spent much of the day down under in the man cave while Dulcie made some chocolate chip cookies. (Follow the recipe for the jam drops and sultana biscuits and just mix chocolate chips into the biscuit mix).I did find 3 dead cockroaches down there...a delayed reaction to Dulcie's 'Baygon'.After breakfast I put together our two 'Rast' chest of drawers that are going to double up as bedside cabinets. I cannot count the times I have put together flat pack furniture, but to commemorate my achievements they have named one of the essential tools of assembly after me; the Allen key! Today I also had to use a hammer, a Philips screwdriver and a flat head screwdriver too! It was that complicated!Once  built I set about staining the pine to match the darker wood of the bed frame. The finished cupboards looked really good. I will post a man-cave picture update soon.Dulcie had been listening to the radio and said that she had heard there was a storm coming. I looked on the 'rain radar' website (yes, they have one here) and sure enough a storm was approaching.I went out onto the front verandah and watched it approach. The clouds were very dark and spread out in a line across the sky. I could see forked lightning as well as sheet lightning. Dulcie came out to say "don't lean on the railings!" I stood back from them quickly.It is quite amazing how quickly these storms approach. Suddenly I heard a strange noise, getting louder and louder. It was the heavy rain approaching across the roofs over the road. I dashed back in the house and closed the door. The rain quickly passed over and the clouds appeared to get darker and the lightning became more frequent. We later heard that some areas had lost power and further south large hailstones had smashed skylights and damaged roofs.After the storm had passed there was a lovely sunset.  The outlook is good for the next few days before more storms are forecast for Thursday onwards. 

Lycka, Frycken, Kolon!

It has been overcast and grey all day here, such familiar weather  that I have had to keep reminding myself I am still in Australia. We found ourselves at Ikea once more. Ros came with us and apparently so did everyone else from a 50 km radius of the store. It took us some time to find a space in the vast covered car park. We joined the queues wandering past and admiring the Pult, Sniglar, Mumsig and fingering the Lycka, Fryken,Kolon.We got a few more items for the man cave and Ros bought some bottles of Glogg and a tin of Pepparkaka  before we headed back to the car park. Will went off to get the car while Ros and I waited in the Customer Pick Up section. A few minutes later he came back...he couldn’t find the car. Ros went with him while I sat with the trolleys. It took them quite awhile to navigate to where I was waiting and I very nearly started nibbling the Pepparkaka and sipping the Glogg.We went to Bunnings, for some wood stain and more seedlings to plant in the garden here in Brisbane. I checked out the rodent traps but they were all pretty deadly. Is Rambo expendable?The Mount Gravatt Men’s Shed (?!) were in charge of this weekend’s sausage sizzle and Will and I succumbed to the mouth watering aroma...we were starving!Back at Ros’s we managed to squeeze the bookcase she had promised us into Roxy and drove home.We placed the bookcase in its new home in the man cave and were saved from assembling flat pack furniture by the arrival of Danny, Will’s brother. He has just returned from China where he got married and he showed us some of the pictures from his trip.Will and I both zonked out after tea with David Attenborough in Wild India and the rain that had been threatening to fall all day finally let go of the grey clouds it had been clinging on to.The flat pack furniture lies in wait, downstairs, for tomorrow. Perhaps like the shoemaker in the Grimm fairytale I shall awake in the morning to find it all assembled, only not by elves...by cockroaches!I dream.

Not so Galore!

I think I should have perhaps named this blog 'Mosquito Galore!' I have the itchy lumps to prove it.However just tonight we heard a thump on the back verandah roof and then some scratching. Will went to investigate and it was indeed....(Fanfare sounds)...this blog's first....Possum! It was a Brushtail Possum.I went to peek and could see it silhouetted against the sky. I rushed to get my camera but by the time I got out again it had gone, so sadly no photographic evidence as yet.While I am here, again, sharing creatures, Dulcie said tonight that while we had been away she had been down under the house and sprayed 'Baygon' ( other cockroach killers are available!) into every nook and cranny. She said she went downstairs this morning to check. She asked us to guess how many she found dead, but told us before we could answer..."None!"Heck! I was shocked! I have seen at least three down there. There was one just before we left for Frogknot that I went at with a hammer...as quietly as possible because Dulcie was in bed! It was sat on top of the door into the man-cave. I missed it. It was a quick beggar!Anyway, I went down later to fetch something and only noticed a cockroach lying on its back with its little legs weakly waving in the air. I assumed it was succumbing to 'Baygon' (other....etc). I got some paper and bent down to pick it up when the flippin' thing leapt up and started running off. (I suspect Rambo put him up to it!) I got him anyway and dumped him in the recycling bin!That was when I noticed the other cockroach on top of the door...again! I bet it was the same one from the failed hammer attack! I went at it with another handful of paper but, remember this one is the quick beggar, and he got away... again.That is not the end of this tale...oh no! I had to go down again to fetch Will's camera sometime later and just checked the top of the door again as I passed. There he was like King Muck! I opened the recycling bin and reached in for the empty 'Baygon' can (you know that other...etc). I figured there might be some still left in the can. There was!I aimed carefully, but just my luck, as I pressed only air came out at first and blew him off the door before a little 'Baygon' shot out and sprayed all over the wall. Damn!I found him again though and aimed and sprayed at him. I swear he flew directly at me into the spray, bounced off me and flew down onto the floor and crawled out under the closed door into the night. I think I got him. I hope I got him....or  did I?Time will tell.

Back to Brisbane – A Long Way...and an amazing discovery!

Rambo was about again last night playing tricks with my mind. After quite a loud clatter I got up to see what it was but could find no evidence. I reckon he’s taken to banging pan lids with a wooden spoon, running and hiding and then giggling from some hidden crevice as I stagger out with my head torch. Yeah? Well, time is running out Boyo! I got back in bed and googled rat traps!I woke again at 3.30am and heard rustling from over by the door away from the kitchen. I felt around silently in the dark for my specs and slipped them on, then grasped the head torch and silently sat up, my finger poised on its switch then flicked it on! I saw him scurry back towards the kitchen in shame!I didn’t hear him again.Will was up early trying to quietly fill the kettle...but my ears are Rambo trained...nothing get past them not even the tiny trickle of dam water into a kettle. I was up before 8...on a Saturday!“What’s in that bag by the door?” I asked him.It was the garlic shallots he had removed from the garden to take back to plant in Brisbane.“There’s plenty left outside, why didn’t the silly rat eat those?” He said.This is Rambo though. He has his motives.I made bacon butties while Will skyped Phoebe, his 5 year old daughter, in Canberra. The connection was really good to say we were in the bush. She played the ukulele and sang for him and then they went, via Skype, to her bedroom and he ‘helped’ her choose her outfit for the day, which was topped off with a dragonfly fascinator in her hair.

Will and Phoebe                                      Will sings with Phoebe - 'This Old Man'.

When the Skype was over Will got out his angle- grinder, as you do. Yikes! What a scary and noisy thing it is! He cut some strips off a corrugated iron sheet with sparks flying everywhere, seemingly unconcerned as to the possibility of starting a bush fire. He used the strips to patch the roof where we had noticed rain water dripping through the other day. We then untangled a long passionfruit vine and fastened it to the verandah roof poles.

After a quick tidy we headed off back to Brisbane. Driving down the track we could see that Dave had been back and had done even more clearing of the track. What a star! Will rang him and thanked him and then we carried on. It was 11.45 am.Will wanted to go back a different way down The Range via Killarney and Queen Mary Falls. From Stanthorpe we headed out through Liston on the Mount Lindsay Road. Much of it was dirt track like yesterday and can be quite slippy but Roxy coped well.

We stopped at Queen Mary Falls. I noticed a chap walk past in the car park and his back was covered with flies! It didn’t take long to realise why, they were everywhere and very annoying. Luckily the walk to the falls was not far and just at the start I found a large white cockatoo feather lying on the path. I picked it up and used it to swat flies away from my face, much like Queen Mary would have done when she first discovered these waterfalls! ( I joke of course, no Queen Mary would ever be found dead in such a place.)[gallery ids="622,623,630,624"]Despite the flies, it was worth it. The falls were quite magnificent but because of the flies we did not hang around too long and headed back to the car.  It was amusing back at the car park to see people near and far all twitching and swatting at flies. We swiped at our backs before we got into Roxy and carried on. Somehow two flies had joined us but as we headed down off The Range into the coastal heat I hoped they would bake and it would serve then right.It was not a major road and there were a few ‘odd’ road signs. A couple promised a view point ahead and would count down the kilometres to it. Anticipation grew only to be shattered when you got there...there was hardly a view...perhaps trees had grown and blocked it out. We did find a stunning view at Carrs Lookout, though, that looked across to Wilson’s Peak.

 

We set off again with the road signs saying ‘ the road ahead was NOT SUITABLE for buses, trucks, caravans and trailers’ and then around the corner was another sign that read ‘ buses, trucks, caravans and trailers MUST USE LOW GEAR!’ Why waste the money on the first sign if no one pays attention to it?The road twisted down through the rain forest and then suddenly there was another sign that read ‘Road Ahead Closed’ with yet another pointing right which read ‘DETOUR.’ What a flippin’ detour it was! We headed off on a dirt track through Koreelah National Park and ended up driving all around Wilson’s Peak. It must have taken an hour to get to the road that we would have eventually come out on had the road not been closed. There were some lovely views of The Great Dividing Range though so we didn’t mind too much.

We headed back to Brisbane via Boonah and Ipswich and got back about 4.00pm.My mosquito bites started to itch so I put on some ‘Stingose’ (other itch relief creams are also available!). It is a clear gel but turns white after a few minutes. I bet I looked a sight when we went out later to get the fish and chips for tea that Dulcie wanted, covered all over in white blotches.While we were waiting for them to cook our order at the Fish and Chip shop we wandered next door into an Indian supermarket we had noticed and had been meaning to visit. That is where I made the amazing discovery! At first I couldn’t believe my eyes but there it was on the shelf!

(How spooky is that Catherine?)

So what if it was nearly £5 a bottle I had to have it! (As it turns out it is a huge favourite in Saudi Arabia! Who would have thought? It tastes slightly different and seems much darker in colour but it is the same company...and here it is just up the road from me in Acacia Ridge!)Will got some Virgin Pink Himalayan Salt for the bargain price of $1.50!  (90p) Bargain! He couldn’t believe it!

He also picked up some rice pancakes but when we got to the till the shop keeper shook his head and said; “They are past their sell by date.”I went to get some more from the pile on the shelf but he called after me,“No, they are all past their sell by date.”Why keep a shelf full then?What a wonderfully, expensive but cheap odd shop!

Frogknot at night and the bath on the rock.

I can't believe my camera takes pictures like this without a tripod!