Sunday 27 August 2006 - Brisbane

It has been an interesting week - just after I posted the last message I discovered that I had 2 scrub ticks as souvenirs of our camping trip. Darryl quickly assisted me to dispose of them, but a week later I can still feel pain under my arm where the poison was injected.

We are both still getting over our 'flu - every day is a bit better. Shane stopped over on Tuesday night and he and Marc flew to New Zealand on Wednesday morning to go snow-boarding at Queenstown. I haven't heard from them, but have been keeping an eye on the web-cam where I think they are, and the weather seems to have been good. Apparently, it has been some of the best snow falls in years, so I guess that the reason I haven't heard is that they are having a really great time. They fly back on this Wednesday, so we will catch up with Shane then.

Vision just rising off the ground

Yesterday I didn't do very much, as I wanted a quiet recovery sort of day, and I tried to go to bed early, but I was so excited as I had to get up at 4am this morning to go BALLOONING!!!!!! I went with the company Balloons Over Brisbane in the white Vision balloon - and it was just fantastic. Luckily the recent fires seem to have died down, so the view was spectacular as we floated above the city.

Our pilot, Ken, me and one of the other passengers

We left from a park in Coorparoo, east past the city and landed in an industrial park at Bald Hills, a distance of approx 25km which took about an hour. There were 4 couples and the pilot in our balloon, but another company also had the Remax balloon leaving from the same park. When we were up high we were travelling at about 30km/hour, and about 7km/hr when lower. When you are low the dogs below just go crazy with the sound of the burner. I was amazed to see how green Brisbane actually is, despite the drought and water restrictions currently in place. Landing was quite a surprise as we ended up with the basket on its side on the ground - it helped to explain the divider in the basket which kept the other people from being right on top of us.

Me with the city in the background

Sunday 20 August 2006 - Brisbane

I had a short working week this week. The Ekka Show Holiday was on Wednesday and I took Thursday and Friday off. Darryl and I were planning to go camping for 5 days, but on the Wednesday he was sick with a viral infection and basically slept all day. I took the opportunity to work on data cleansing on my family history file.

On Thursday Darryl was feeling a bit better, so we headed off towards Mt Barney National Park. With Darryl being sick, and me with my sore knee we really had no intentions of doing much walking, but it was nice to be out in the country, and after lunch at a small roadside park, we got to the 'Lower Portals' car park.

It had recently been burnt (at least one log was still smouldering), but the walk would have been too far, so we decided to drive to a camping ground called 'Flanagan's Reserve', which seems to be run by the council. The reserve is beside the upper reaches of the Logan River, which means there is a decent waterhole, and the whole camping area is a large flat area which is lightly wooded with large eucalypts. Unfortunately, due to the drought, it was very dry and dusty. There were only a couple of other campers, and we were able to choose a nice site far from everyone. We pottered around and set up camp, then watched a lovely sunset behind Mt Maroon.

While we were still sitting relaxing, the only other couple near us came over to invite us to their campsite for Mulled wine. Lionel and Debbie made this very tasty drop by putting red wine in a kettle along with a whole orange, some cinnamon stick and some sugar. As I was starting to feel the effects of the sickness this hot spicy mix made me feel great! The night was very cold, but I was toasty! Darryl woke up with cold feet, but I had to go to the 'loo' so found his army socks to fix the problem.

In the morning we took our time packing up. I took photos of the lone grave beside the campsite and asked about the history of it - apparently in the late 1890's the reserve was part of the stock route and a drover's wife died in childbirth, but no-one knows her name. Eventually we hit the road and headed for the 'Upper Portals' of Mt Barney along a road which was supposed to be 4x4 only. bad, and ran along the ridges between mountains. When we got to the top there were lovely views of Lake Koogarah and Mt Barney. We took a bit of a stroll along the track, but my virus was starting to kick in so I couldn't go far. We had some lunch, and then decided that we would have a look at Spicer's Gap National Park. Darryl said he was pleased that I had the GPS and maps on my iPAQ as some of the back roads we took certainly didn't look like through-roads! It certainly made a big difference to the trip.

It wasn't all that

We arrived at Spicer's Gap and decided to firstly go and have a look at 'Governor's Chair'. This is a spectacular lookout (only a few 100 metres in, so easy enough to cope with in our fatigued state!).

Heading back towards the campsite we also called in to see Moss's Well. This campsite was also quiet, with only two other lots of campers. We had a fairly early night, due to the cold (and not feeling well), but this place strangely had excellent tv reception, so we were able to watch 'Collectors' on ABC! Darryl fell asleep watching the movie, and I read until I was too tired and called it a night. Actually, I had a terrible night, with the aches hitting all my joints (especially my hands and shoulders), and the fever coming and going.

In the morning I told Darryl that I was too sick to take another night out in the cold, so I had breakfast while he went on the short heritage walk. I also checked out the pioneer grave-site near the camp, then we packed up and headed home. I slept all afternoon, and all Saturday and quite a bit of Sunday. Darryl is starting to feel better, but my nose has started running and I am coughing and sneezing lots.

The photos are:
Mt Maroon from Flanagan's Reserve
Mt Barney from the Upper Portals car park
Darryl filming from 'Governor's Chair' Lookout

Sunday 13 August 2006 - Brisbane

I hurt my knee while walking to work on Monday morning. I am not sure what happened, but I ended up hobbling around for 3 days, and am still having pain (although it is much better than earlier in the week). On Tuesday I will see a doctor to find out what is going on.

Darryl went to the Ekka (the annual Royal Agricultural Show) on Friday, and seemed to enjoy himself. He took some interesting photos of a water-wise plant display which won an award. He didn't get home until late and I took photos of the fireworks from our balcony. Shane called in - he had been in Brisbane all week at training, and stopped by on his way to the airport on Friday evening. Darryl missed seeing him, but he will be back in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday, I spent a lovely day at the State Archives, and found to my amazement that Mathilde Weibler had died on a property not far from Rockhampton in 1890. I had always presumed that she died in Maryborough, but had never found her. There was an inquest into her death which included 2 letters, written by her son Christian, on letterhead from his workplace, the Northern Miner in Charters Towers. Notations on the side of the documents also confirmed that his sister married a Gorman - every little bit of information leads on to another....!

Sunday 6 August 2006 - Brisbane

This week included another trip back to Rocky - from Wed to Friday - to do more training. It seems to be colder there than in Brisbane - although I will admit I am comparing it to the centre of town, and where I am working. The weather was beautiful, though, and it was nice to see Marc and Shane once more. I surprised those at the CQ Family History Association by rocking up to the general meeting on the Wednesday evening. They had a very good speaker, talking about the CQ special collection out at the University Library. I made some notes on things that I will have to follow up next time I am in town!

Yesterday was my monthly User Group meeting for 'The Master Genealogist' which is the family tree program I use. It is very interesting to find out new ways to do things in this very powerful program. Today I headed out to Gaythorne to the Qld Family History Society to try and sort out where William Melchert actually lived in Arthur Terrace. I was still not able to get an actual house number, but I was certainly able to narrow down the search. I checked Post Office directories (I had consulted these years ago, but had not recorded enough information) and was able to determine neighbours and also surrounding streets. The trouble was that two streets mentioned were not in the Gregory's Street Directory! I was able to find some old maps at the society and was able to see that those two streets had changed names. I now have at least one block in which to search - and I know which side of the street!

I will finish off with a couple of photos from last weekend - Graham and Diane Smith and I, and some of the sculptures down at New Farm Park.

Sunday 30 July 2006 - Brisbane

After my Duyfken visit I returned home then Darryl & I went cycling to look at some of the houses that family had lived in.

First stop was 1 Ricardo Street, Kelvin Grove. This house is called 'Coolgarra' and is the house the Grandpa and Grandma Anderson owned from 1948 to 1957. I took some photos from the outside before knocking on the door and discovering that the current owners are John and Maureen Murphy. John kindly invited me inside and I was astounded to see, that although it looks just like a Queenslander from the outside, the inside is quite remarkable. I was wondering if they knew that the name of the house was Coolgarra, as an old photo from Grandma showed a sign outside, but the moment I walked in the front door I knew that they were aware of it. Across the front door is a neoclassical with the name in huge letters. This is balanced by a similar feature across the front window. The inside verandah wall has large tiled feature panels - all unlike anything else I have ever seen. The ceilings have intricate plaster-work, and the Murphy's have decorated it in a style which matches the house style. I can see why Grandma loved this house, and was unhappy about leaving it to live at Fingal.

After viewing this house, we headed off the Arthur Terrace in Red Hill, where the Melchert's lived while in Brisbane. On the way there we passed Red Hill Fish Shop and since it was lunch time, settled down to some lovely fish and chips. Arthur Terrace was a disappointment, more due to the fact that is is over 1km long and I really didn't have any idea what number house I was looking for. I will have to do more research before returning!

We then rode down the buzzing Caxton Street and past Suncorp Stadium before heading to the bikeway along the river, back through the botanic gardens and home.

Today has been a lovely relaxing day. Graham and Diane Smith picked us up mid-morning and we experienced a beautiful brunch at the New Farm Deli, before strolling through New Farm Park and then touring nearby streets checking out all the apartments.

Saturday 29 July 2006 - up to the morning

I have just had an interesting couple of weeks. As you know, Shane was in Brisbane, and visited us. Then on Tuesday night I flew to Rocky. I was quite excited about going back to see everyone, but home wasn't quite the same. There are 3 households in one and as a result there is not much room - the only place I could find suitable to put down some mattresses was in the middle of the lounge-room floor. None of my stuff was in the right place, so it didn't quite feel 'right'. Marc picked me up from the airport and then helped me get the Camry back on the road. Darryl had disconnected the battery (which was new just before we left) and it started easily, but the tyres were down (the one with the very slow leak was down to 10 psi) and Marc thankfully came to the rescue with his 12 volt air pump.

It really was great to catch up with everyone again at work, and my training went well. On the weekend I was pleased to have a sleep-in and then did a bit of shopping before heading out to the Family History Society to catch up with everyone there. On Sunday I mowed...yes I said MOWED!!! This is the first time in my life! Shane has been doing it, but it was raining the weekend he came to Brisbane, and by the time I got there the seed heads were looking pretty untidy, so I pulled out the non-motorised one and did the footpath. I also fixed some loose palings from the fence and did a bit of pruning. I also washed all weekend as the linen in the cupboard was smelling very musty.

Monday saw me training again, and once again this went well. I headed back to Brisbane on Wednesday night, and it really felt like I was coming home. Darryl was very pleased to see me too! On Thursday evening I went out to 'The Banyan Tree' Indian restaurant at New Farm with a large group of people from work to farewell Sharon, who is heading overseas shortly for a holiday. The food was delicious, but I am dubious that it was all gluten-free, as they had told me, as I had some effects the next day. Shane came over to see us on Friday evening, before flying back to Rockhampton.

Yesterday Darryl convinced me to go to the river to look at an interesting sailing ship, and I discovered that it was the replica Duyfken, built originally in 1606 and the first dutch vessel to come to Australia. There was a large lineup of people, but I managed to get a few good shots.

Sunday 16 July - Brisbane

I had a great week this week - it was the third and last of the Super User training. Now they have to go out across the state, and over the next 6 weeks or so, train the other 500 staff in Information Division. It is very exciting for me! I also have my end-user training to do, and will head up to Rockhampton this week, returning Wed 26 July.

Shane came down from Rocky today - he is here to 2 weeks for training - and came around for a really delicious roast pork dinner cooked by Darryl. Of course I took a photo of him! He is looking really happy and healthy! In fact today has been quite exciting around here - first thing this morning there seemed to be a lot of police & fire-engine activity just down the road (Wickham St) so we went for a walk and discovered that someone had crashed their car into the front window of 'Paddy Pallin's' - the tow-trucks were out in force...I think we saw 4 hovering to be the one to pick up the wreck. Apparently the driver was ok - luckily! Later in the morning there was a car at the nearby service station which attracted police attention, and I was wondering what was happening as a paddy-wagon turned up to back up the original vehicle. The police proceeded to search the car carefully and pat down the two guys. Eventually they were handed a pile of yellow papers (defect notices????) and the car was towed away, with the two guys stomping and swearing...

Yesterday I went out to the National Archives at Cannon Hill, and I was excited to find in a  Register of Engagement of Seamen, Thomas Weinheimer, who was engaged on the Sailing Ship 'Croydon' on 21 Aug 1893.

Sunday 9 July - Brisbane

It was a pretty good week this week. My second week of training was even better than the first week. And, of course, this coming week will be even better!

Darryl cycled a couple of times to Mt Cootha. He is really enjoying these trips. I spent Saturday at the Queensland State Archives. I am continuing to get lots of interesting information there. I got home only just before I was due to meet Robyn, a friend, and my boss while at Concept Training. We had a lovely dinner at the Punjabi Palace, an Indian restaurant at West End, and then topped it off with coffee and dessert (which neither of us could finish!) at Vroom on James in the Valley. It was great to catch up again, as we hadn't seen each other since Robyn's birthday party in Mackay last year. Although she lives in Brisbane, she is very busy and doesn't get to spend much time here.

Monday 3 July - Brisbane

Wow - what a week! I had the first lot of Super Users to train in the new processes - the whole reason I have been here in Brisbane. It went very well considering it was a course never delivered before. Of course, after review, there were improvements to make, but on the whole I am very happy, and now am off to repeat it this week and next.

On Friday night Darryl and I headed out to visit my cousin Peter, his wife Kim and children Kelli and James, who were also being visited by his sister Paula and her partner from Adelaide. It was lovely to catch up with them all again. Over the weekend we planned to go camping and on Saturday morning packed up the car and headed north. We headed to Bribie Island, and had lunch then walked to the beach and saw dolphins just off the beach. We also took a walk near their arts centre..although the tracks petered out just out of sight of the centre! We also checked out their WWII Bunker which is in a dilapidated state with no history information and lots of graffiti. Nothing really inspired us to stay so we decided to investigate the Glasshouse Mountains. We found the lookout, and a bridal party soon turned up. We thought then that we would look for a place to camp, but once again couldn't find anywhere interesting, and drove as far north as Landsborough. I noticed on one of our brochures that there was a National Parks campsite at Coochin Creek, so we tried there. It was fully booked, so finally we decided to head home. (Probably not a bad idea, as by all accounts it was a pretty cold night!) At least the car had a bit of a run, which was one of Darryl's main aims.

Sunday 25 June - Brisbane

This week we had Marc in Brisbane. He was down here on a work project, and it was wonderful as his birthday was on Wednesday and we all caught up in town for lunch (see the photos).

There is not much to report for this weekend - I went to the City Library on Saturday to do some research on Ancestry.com, as they offer the service free of charge. I was able to find a lot of my Scottish ancestors in the 1841 census of Scotland. One great find was that of Agnes Smith, who was living on the same farm as one of her daughters and son-in-law, but under the name of Agnes Young (her maiden name). It is probably not all that unusual for Scottish women, but as I couldn't find her husband Francis, I think he may have already died. It is quite exciting to find her there. It will certainly lead to more research! Today I spend working, but took a break this evening to go for a walk around Spring Hill with Darryl. There are some lovely worker's cottages in this area, which have been done up very nicely, and lots of other interesting houses.

Sunday 18 June - Brisbane

This weekend has been very quiet. I went to the National Archives on Saturday to follow up with more research on William Melchert and his career working as a recruiter on the ships bringing South Sea Islanders to Queensland to work in the canefields. Interestingly, I also found some of the Weinheimer family signing on to work on some of the coastal steamers.

Today was a lovely showery day in Brisbane - and I spent most of it working. This week all of my manuals have to go to the printers so it is really do or die!

Tonight Marc turned up. He is on a project at work and they have finally convinced him to come to Brisbane for a few days. He will be here until his birthday on Wednesday, so we are planning dinner on Tuesday night. He is looking great, as you can see by his photo.

Monday 12 June - Brisbane

This week we have had George and Eileen (Darryl's parents) with us from Gladstone. It was lovely to have them with us, although I was away at work most of the time. They caught up with Lionel, and spent time checking out the shopping centres. Eileen and I had a lovely coffee and cake on Saturday morning at Tognini's Bistro, which is just next door.

We put them on the train on Sunday morning.

I have spent most of the weekend working due to pending deadlines, but we will be happy to have a day or two off, later when things quieten down, and when it isn't a busy public holiday (the traffic 'copter on the news was showing solid double lanes of cars all the way from Caboolture to Brisbane!)

Tonight there was a lovely sunset over the Royal Brisbane Hospital...so I have attached a photo.

Cleveland

Sunday 4 June - Brisbane

We had a very social time this weekend - Kathlene came down from Rocky on Thursday evening and she and Adam stayed with us.

We all went for a stroll to the Mall on Friday night, looking for somewhere to eat, and ended up at the carvery at the Casino - which was delicious!

On Saturday, Kathlene and Adam headed down to Dreamworld with Beccy. I went to my TMG user group first thing and then around lunch time Darryl and I caught the train to Cleveland to meet up with Lionel and Viv Ledlie to sample the Moreton Bay Seafood Festival. It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed Spanish Paella along with marinated baby octopus and local wine. Lionel knows lots of the history of the area and took us on a tour of all the developments and many historical sites. We were also lucky enough to see koalas in the wild at Beckwith Street Community Bushcare area. We saw 5, but apparently there can be up to 20 in the area.

On Sunday, my friend Krystyna came down from Ipswich, and we went down to the Riverside Markets and met another friend of hers, Barbara. The weather was absolutely spectacular, and we had a lovely time investigating all the stalls.

Mon 29 May 2006 - Brisbane

We had a very quiet weekend this weekend, as I had a work deadline today so worked most of the weekend. Saturday morning Darryl convinced me to cycle to New Farm Park Markets, which were very nice. Apart from some savoury sprinkles to go on salads, I had some vietnamese rice paper rolls, a gluten-free cake and a nice coffee. The fruit wasn't all that cheap, but Darryl bought some apples which he says are very nice.

On Sunday afternoon, we had a lovely visit from cousins - Graham and Diane Smith from Glenhaven in NSW. Darryl made the 'best' sushi I have ever eaten. De-licious!