Weekend break!

As Cameron, Obama, Putin, Joko Widodo and others arrive in Brisbane we have escaped to New South Wales and are down on the Clarence with Trace and Jen.It would seem that the rest of Brisbane had the same idea...today was a special G20 holiday and all the Brisbane schools were shut along with lots of other public services......(no showers as Blue Care don't really care about hygiene when it comes to holidays).....the road south was packed and we crawled for miles and  the journey took us over 4 and a half hours almost double the usual time it should take.The Mayor of Brisbane, Graham Quirk, is shouting 'We are open for business!' but no one wants to negotiate all the road closures in the city so there has been a mass exodus. The city shops will probably not have a good weekend. It will probably look like a ghost town on the news.There are barricades up with plexi-glass walls and eggs and kites have been banned! Barack Obama's people even wanted a roundabout demolished so that his motorcade would not have to slow down. Graham Quirk, who looks like he is related to Shanita and would also never deign to frighten a goose, found some balls from somewhere and said 'No!'Wendi is looking after Dulcie for the weekend.There is also a heatwave due this weekend with temperatures predicted to hit 40 degrees...hopefully it will be cooler here with the river breezes.We are off to the beach tomorrow for a dip....Great White Sharks permitting. 

The legacy of 'Shithouse' plumbing.

So... the night before last, as we settled into bed, I thought I heard the toilet upstairs running....it does it it sometimes when the flush mechanism sticks. Will went up to check it but it was fine and yet weirdly when he came down he could still hear water flowing in the pipes. Was it a leak?He meant to check the water meter yesterday...to see if it was moving when we had all the taps turned off...but we forgot.We all went down the garden today....to see the 'little fish' in the old bath pond.Dulcie is very concerned about them having seen big black crows down there and peewees and ibis's.We originally bought 6 but they have bred and there are countless minute fish swimming around now.We pointed some out to Dulcie....'Good God!" was her reply.Heading back inside we looked in at the fernery and that is when Will discovered standing water against the wall. He dug down and almost created another pond....he scooped water out of the hole but as soon as he did it it filled up again....it was not good!We eventually thought we could see it coming out of the wall where our shower room is downstairs....and feared the leak might be under the concrete....but did not let on to Dulcie.Will turned off the water and phoned the plumber.Two arrived just before it was time for our 'respite'. They looked about 15. I felt old. I was pretty convinced they would just make mud pies in the wet earth in the fernery but....no, they actually new something about pipes!They discovered that the leak was outside the wall, much to our relief, and headed off for the parts.We spent our respite say under the house waiting for it all to be sorted. We left Blue Care upstairs chuckling away with Dulcie.(I said to her later, "She sounded very happy!" Dulcie replied, "She needs to grow up! Big kid!")We paid the 15 year olds a very grown up $311.30 for their work and off they went ....back to school I imagine.We were just relieved that:a) we discovered the leak.....(Heck! With all the World leaders coming it would not have looked good if Brisbane ran out of water because of us!)b) it was not as bad as we had thought.The legacy of 'Shithouse' plumbing still comes back to haunt us!

'Our home is girt by sea'.

So....I ended up back at Sunnybank for 'respite' time .....I know...but we did really need some milk and tissues and Dulcie wanted sliced beetroot and avocados.I went for a wander around the mall....for exercise, you know.... and found myself walking through the middle of  Remembrance Service there in the centre of the mall...."Lest we forget" said some man into his microphone.I had forgotten.I carried on and was suddenly consumed by guilt....I didn't even have a poppy.I turned round and went back and stood with the rest of the crowd that had gathered.Wing Ling Hoo read the poem 'On Flanders Field'.A woman sidled up and slipped me an order of service....just in time for 'The Ode'."They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morningWe will remember them.""We will remember them" we all said.It was followed by the 'Last Post'.It always gets me and even here in the middle of Sunnybank shopping mall I got a lump in my throat. TheThen came the 1 minute silence.....thank goodness I hadn't been walking through at that  moment!At the end of the minute silence someone flicked a switch and the Australian National Anthem came on.Eek! I covered my mouth with my order of service....I knew the tune but not the words.I pretended I was singing behind my paper by moving my mouth to the tune.I thought I knew one bit and sang,"From sea to shining sea"....only that is from the American National Anthem and in the Australian National Anthem the line is,"Our home is girt by sea." Doh!I noticed I wasn't the only one having trouble....most of the other people near by didn't know the words either except when it came to'Advance Australia Fair.....(la la la la la la la la) .....Advance Australia Fair!"The service ended and I went up and bought a poppy......$2........not a bad price for freedom.The poppy's here are so much nicer than the ones in the UK...well, apart form those ceramic ones at The Tower of London......much more realistic.....and not paper and plastic.(I left it upstairs and can't be bothered going back up now to get it so I can put a photo of it on here....I'll do it later...it is after midnight here now.)I need to learn the Australian National Anthem.Here it is.....you can learn it too:Australians all let us rejoice,For we are young and free;We've golden soil and wealth for toil;Our home is girt by sea;Our land abounds in nature's giftsOf beauty rich and rare;In history's page,let every stageAdvance Australia Fair.In joyful strains then let us sing,Advance Australia Fair.

'Oi, Fatty!" II - Return of the Dietician.

Jess, the dietician came today and weighed Dulcie.52.3 kg!The last time Jess weighed her she was 50. something kg.Jess was very pleased and signed her off, though she was reluctant to let her go because Dulcie had brought her results up.She said it was very rare for people to do as well as Dulcie had done."You should be pleased with yourself.""I haven't done anything, Dear," said Dulcie modestly.

Made it!

So.....the plan was to go see 'Interstellar' tonight after Dulcie had gone to bed.We toyed with the idea of asking her to go to bed early until we discovered that the final T20 cricket match, South Africa v Australia, was on tonight.Dulcie loves her sport...so we said nothing and she settled down to watch the cricket.She watched the first half...ie. South Africa batting and Australia bowling, before finally heading to bed at 8.00 pm.As soon as we said 'goodnight' we were out of the door and off.We left at 8.15 pm, got parked in town at 8.33 and the film started at 8.45 pm.It was a very long film.and I found the loud music very annoying.Will loved it, I was a bit disappointed and don't really think it lives up to the hype....but go see it for yourself.