When we had been to Barb and Ron's for dinner recently, Ron had expressed the view that he desperately needed to get out of the hands of the Gates of Hell. I had found and bought a copy of the marvellous $14.95 Linux book (complete with a copy of Red Hat Linux 5.2, so we stopped by for coffee on the way out of Brisbane. We left at 3.30 pm having once again solved a major part of the world's problems and brought down every kind of wrath on the Evil Empire.
We were discussing the Economist and Ron pointed out that some of their journalists actually write quite well. At this point, he said some very complimentary things about Rachel's writing which he thought to be up there with the best. He did say that he detected in the writing that same smile which is evident in conversation when she, emulating her father, argues a point which might not be strictly held but which makes the debate progress.
In an e-mail from a lady who had seen the URL on the back of the Motley, we had been invited to a Brisbane Sunshine Wanderers rally out past Beaudesert.
The location, a place called Darlington Park is 25 km (15miles) south of Beaudesert on the banks of the Albert River just to the west of the Lammington National Park, is absolutely superb. The camping ground is well maintained by the rangers and the surrounding bush is quite beautiful. The river winds round the site and the gentle murmur of water running over rocks provides a wonderfully restful background to the constant chorus of birdsong.
The river flooded last week and its hard to believe the evidence of the debris. This is a small river not more than 15km (10miles) from its source and is perhaps 30 cm (1 foot) deep. The bridge, which is now at least 2 metres (6 ft) clear of the river was under more than a metre (3 ft) of water and the first 20 metres (20 yds) of the camping ground was under water. Now, only a few days later, with the clear blue sky and the sweet autumn weather, it is once again beautiful, tranquil and untroubled.