We had to return to Brisbane to spend time with Rachel who is arriving tomorrow. We left Carters Ridge after morning tea and transited to Brisbane in the airconditioned comfort of the Motley.
Towards the end of our journey, we passed by a three car pile-up which had caused a total traffic jam on the northbound carriageway of the Bruce Highway which extended for ten km (6 miles). Jean had been saying that we had to travel a day early in case of hold-ups and this proved how right she was.
We settled in to the caravan park, switched on the airconditioner as the temperature had reached the predicted 40°C (104°F), and used the laundry as we were completely out of clean clothes.
In the evening, we shared the remains of last night's curry with those at Patricks Rd but the heat drove us back to the Motley immediately after dinner.
We veged out for most of the day before going to the airport to pick up Rachel. It was so good to see her again and she seems very well and happy.
We went back to Patricks Rd. As soon as I suggested a visit to Cafe Zanetti everyone moved like lightning to get ready. We had supper there and drank copious quantities of coffee (well all but Rachel who is on a caffeine free thing). There was much chat including catching up and arguing (mainly between Rachel and me of course) about the rights and wrongs of the War against Terrorism.
This was a girl's day out so I took Jean, Sarah and Rachel to the Summit Restaurant at Mt Coot-tha where Rachel entertained her mother and her sister to lunch.
After dropping them off, I went shopping for spares for the Motley. The guy at Coast to Coast suggested I buy a complete awning rather than a spring assembly now and a new canvas later, keeping the good parts of the old awning for spares. I nearly succumbed to the suggestion but, when I realised that I didn't have any space to keep the spares, and that the savings would be negligible, I continued with my original plan to replace the spring now and the canvas later.
I got back to Mt Coot-tha just in time to pick up the girls and we went back to Patricks Rd. Dinner was al fresco and afterwards we drank copious amounts of booze and had lots of fun playing Uno well into the night.
The plan was to spend the day at the Science Centre so we all met at Cafe Zanetti before going into town by train.
The Science Centre is extremely well set up with lots of hands on things to do with many opportunities to learn something new about the world we live in. There were a few too many people there as the schools were still on holiday but we all had a good time. When we got home someone asked Ross if he had enjoyed it and he said "You saw me there didn't you?.
In the afternoon, Al took Rachel to the airport to pick up Jeremy who had flown up from Sydney.
Sarah was suffering from some kind of gastric ailment so Alain stayed home to mind the kids and Jeremy, Rachel, Jean and I went off for an unplanned outing. We finally decided to have lunch at the restaurant in the Botanic Gardens in town. After some tricky navigation which took us into the back of the university, across the river and several times across George St, we parked outside the Queensland Club and walked a circuitous route to the restaurant. Jeremy has a Sony digital camera which does everything including taking movies which was just what was needed to capture a Brush Turkey running around in big circles.
Lunch was extremely good and the Normans unwooded chardonnay went down particularly well.
Rachel wanted to walk by the river so, after lunch, we found the mangrove boardwalk. I was amazed to discover that what looks like a mature mangrove forest only came into existence less than thirty years ago as a result of the silt deposited by the 1974 floods. It does one good to be reminded that everything in nature is for ever changing.
Jean and I copped out before dinner as we were exhausted by so much continuous activity.
Al was crook with Sarah's complaint and Max was at work so the rest of us went off to Mount Glorius for lunch. Sarah and Jean did the sensible thing and sat in the shade while Jeremy, Rachel I and the kids went off on the shortest of the bush walks. We saw Rufous Fantails, heard Catbirds, observed trees which had fallen in the forest, Ross met a leech at intimately close quarters (he was a bit frightened but bore up pretty well when Rachel told him how brave he was). When we finally returned to the picnic ground, Ross decided that he couldn't walk any further at all.
Lunch at the Glorious Cafe was excellent and the view over to the islands was stunning.
The barbecue planned for Wednesday but postponed because of the weather was scheduled for today. Nobody else seemed willing or capable of doing anything about it (or perhaps they all thought that the grey nomad was the prime nominee for bush cook!) so I extracted the giant gas barbie from the corner of the carport, cleaned it, cooked all the lamb chops, all the sausages, and found some onions and cooked them. Jean had microwaved the spuds and Rachel had done a salad. Everyone said it was delicious so perhaps I have graduated from my rank of apprentice bush cook.
Jeremy, Rachel, Jean and I visited Barb and Ron for lunch. They are both remarkably well and we had a predictably good visit. As we were leaving to hurry off to catch the plane, Ron was calling out over the balcony rail his opinion of Lindsay Fox and Solomon Lew, the new owners of Ansett, reminding us some of their past "achievements" which had left them richer and others poorer.
Rachel and Jeremy flew back to Sydney to go to a wedding of an old friend and to spend time with the Fitzhardinges. We retired to the Motley to get some rest.
We slept in, had breakfast, did the laundry, had some lunch, did a little shopping, watched some tennis and some cricket, and rested some more.
We spent the day at Patricks Rd. I finished the draft of the chapter newsletter and did some maintenance of the email address book.