TYPICAL AUSSIE THINGS PART 2

More beach warning signs...
The BIG Bull (mum told me a great story how they've had to increase police patrols around the BIG Bull because it's testies keep getting stolen !!)
Everything ends with the letter "O", even the cleaning products...
And finally, the good old Aussie Ute...

TYPICAL AUSSIE THINGS

We do have beautiful beaches here in Australia...but there are a lot of warning signs.... The red & yellow flag is seen on every beach....it's essential to swim between these.... The Gum Tree...with bird...The Cask of wine...

The Traditional Meat Pie...

Australia is also famous for it's BIG things....here are a few examples....

The BIG Pineapple...

The BIG Crab...

DREAMWORLD PART 3

Because there were 3 adults we all took turns to go on the the “big kids” rides, well Angela & Greg did, I just went on everything twice !! We went on The Claw, The Rollercoaster and The Tower of Terror (it’s called that for a reason). Here I am after going on the Claw, twice in a row... Overall it was a wonderful day and was all made even more memorable when Joseph turned to me at the end of the day and said "you're my friend Aunty Sue". Oooooohhhhh. He then wouldn't let me leave the house and proceeded to wrap himself around my leg in a comical, but very cute way. It was when he got into my car and started to put on a seat belt that I started to worry but I'd quite like to bring him back to England with me anyway.....

DREAMWORLD PART 2

There is a really cool native Australian animals section at Dreamworld. These are Koala Bears....This is an Emu...And this is a kangaroo !! I think I was more scared patting this kangaroo than I was on the rides. I kept having those images of them getting up on their tale and kicking people ! (but then Angela pointed out that only the big red ones did that so i calmed down)

Joseph is a big car lover so he insisted we have a go on the vintage cars.....he's only 3 and a bit so he didn't quite understand that the cars were on tracks and therefore thought he was actually driving, bless.... Just the excitement on the kids faces is enough to make you laugh. Audrey was desperate to go on the big kids rides...Angela and I relax by the pond..

The kids were very good all day and were then rewarded with a big lollypop each which they managed to get EVERYWHERE !

To be continued...

DREAMWORLD PART 1

I kicked off my birthday celebrations with a bang with a trip to Dreamworld with my friend Angela, her husband Greg and their gorgeous children - Thomas, Joseph and Audrey.We started off with the hour drive to Dreamworld which is halfway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. To my amusement (or should it be amazement) I discovered that children do actually say "are we there yet?" every 10 minutes or so !! So it's not just something out of The Simpsons....
We started off slowly on the kids rides and then moved our way up to the big kids rides...Audrey loved this game at Wiggle World...
And Joseph spent most of the day trying to find the Wiggles themselves, we had to explain (a couple of times) that they were away on important "wiggle" business in New York.....he didn't let their absence spoil his day....

To be continued...

SPORTY SUE

I took on my cousin's wife - Janine and her son James in a very heated game of ping pong the other night......I was around there because my cousin Laura is designing a website for me... The ping pong was all practise for the big game of tennis I had with my uncle Peter the following morning. Peter and I both used to play a lot of tennis before I left Australia 8 years ago. Back then, I was fit and played quite a lot and as much as some of it is like riding a bike - alot of is it just fitness....which is my excuse as to why Peter beat me 6-0 - 6-2....well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it....that reminds me, I must challenge him to a rematch...

Sport can also include watching sport (well by my definition it can) so I have also featured here a night of watching the State of Origin with Tim and his brothers.....Queensland won of course....
No sporting fixture is complete without a quick half time trip to the Bottleo (a.k.a. Off License for the English). This Bottleo was even cooler than most because it was a DRIVE THRU one !! Aussies have drive thru everything.....I wasn't drinking of course but I didn't mind picking up a few bottles for the boys....

BLAIR BEAR & SUE DO BRISBANE & HELP QLD WIN THE STATE OF ORIGIN

Dad and I had a lovely day together last week when we decided to explore Brisbane's Botanical Gardens. I had no idea of the amount of history involved and it was great to hear it all straight from my dad's mouth.

We caught the bus in and then walked from Southbank across the new Goodwill Bridge to get there... here's Dad posing with Brisbane over his right shoulder....
This is Dad standing next to a level to show how high the water was in the 1974 Floods in Brisbane. Dad remembered it well and apparently 375 mm of water fell in one day !!
There is this really cool rainforest section in the middle of the gardens with lots of ancient trees in there...the first of many of them in Brisbane...
The other "first" for the Gardens was the sugar cane plant. Cuttings from this very plant were spread all across Queensland and that's how the sugar cane industry grew - it's also how cane toads grew, but that's another whole story...
It was the day of the second game of the State of Origin and we were quite surprised to run into the New South Wales team in the middle of the gardens !! The State of Origin involved Queensland playing against New South Wales in Rugby League - we play 3 games and whoever wins the most, wins, if you know what I mean. The New South Wales team won the first game (by a free kick!!!) so as you can imagine, I was quite keen to thwart any chance of them winning the second....
I tried to convince the gardener to run them over with his mower but he wasn't that keen. I decided to just send them bad luck and it seems to have worked because THEY LOST and WE WON so there !! Yay !!! The decider is still to come though...
Overall it was a brilliant day and one I will remember for a very long time....

The Infamous Gemini Lunch

We had a lovely Gemini lunch a few weeks ago at Dunk & Tash's for my birthday (20th June) my Aunty Marg's birthday (10th June) and my great uncle Frank's birthday (15th June). I'd say we were all pretty much typical geminis if the following traditional gemini traits are true:

Adaptable and versatile

Communicative and witty

Intellectual and eloquent

Youthful and lively

THE RODGERS

I had a lovely dinner the other night at the Rodgers and we even watched some of my films. Megan & Marian came over too....Rob is generally a bit shy when the camera comes out but here she is showing me her new piece of artwork....We are going away together next week so I shall try and get some more photos of her then. I have known the Rodgers since I was 2 years old. My older brother Dunk went to school with Kath and the families became friends. Here is a lovely family portrait at a recent ceremony when Kev was given the Order of Australia - congratulations again..

MORE KIDS....

What the hell I say - they're all so darn cute.... Beccy's beautiful little girl Emma.... Libby's friend Amanda's adorable little Christian.... And Melissa's gorgeous Lilly.... on a trip to the hairdressers, she wasn't that impressed ! the hairdresser (rather wisely) pointed out that the reason kids don't like getting haircuts is because they are brought up being told that scissors are "bad" so you can sorta see why they freak out when having a pair shoved in their face....