I went bush the other weekend to the Goomburra Section of Main Range National Park. We were sitting round the kitchen table on Thursday night after dinner and Mum was planning what she needed for her weekend away. I suddenly realised there was nothing stopping me from going, and I really needed to get out Brisbane. 5 seconds later I was going and we were planning the new logistics. We nipped over to the shops to get some extra groceries and I packed my bag ready to depart shortly after I arrived home from work on Friday. It was also the first time my car got to go a little big trip, all up doing about 400km and going up and down some steep hills 🙂
I can’t describe how absolutely happy I felt on Sunday morning as I was walking up to the toilet block, the sun was shining on the eucalyptus, the air was filled with the scent of those gums. Then there was this wanderer butterfly that always seemed to appear as I walked up to the toilet block. Yep I’m the sort of girl who decides that one of her highlights for the weekend is a wanderer butterfly that always appears when I go to the toilet block but never when I was exploring with my camera.
I got to give my ankle quite a work out too and bar a bit of minor “yes I do remember hurting this ankle on Saturday evening” I was brace free and happy scrambling up/down/over/under all weekend, well for the most part. I couldn’t physically bring myself to rock hop up the creek though so I took off my shoes and waded.
I spent the weekend, reading, a bit of walking and generally just lazing around. Quite nice 🙂 Ohh and one of the highlights was hearing Lyrebirds x 100 times, ok maybe more like 40 but it was soo cool, I just wish I had seen one!
It has been a very busy last few days at work. One of the girls has been off this past week extremely sick and then the other girl has been off after having her wisdom teeth out. Which has left myself, the other new girl, our boss and our part timer trying to catch up. It has been keeping us very busy. Thursday though I had to get out of the office and have lunch in the square which is where a few of these photos are from. Friday though I finished at 4pm, ever growing stack of files could wait till Monday. I caught the bus into The Valley and went to the Thai grocery/DVD store to get a few things I was after from the cooking class with Leanne the other week. Friday night Mum had a slideshow with the three other ladies that she went walking in NZ with. That was quite nice. So many nice places in the the Fiordland area.
Saturday, yesterday, I didn’t do much, it was a stinker of a day. We turned the air con and I watched some more Alias before making some pasta for lunch. Then I watched some more Alias. Then I went to Taste in the Valley for a Moghul cooking demo with Gaynor Long. Then I watched some more Alias, cooked tea (Harissa grilled steak with cous cous and a pea/capsicum/sundried tomato mixture. I then crashed to the sounds of classics on 4MBS.
I woke up at 6 this morning. I couldn’t sleep. I had breakfast, made some not so melting moments (the still taste ok but just not like melting moments) and then went back to sleep for a little while longer. Just taking it easy, I’m going to go out later for some music and assorted fun. As I type this now though, I am listening to a piano CD I have from ABC Classics, the current “song” is Adagio from Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata. I have my desk cleaned off and actually creating for the first time in ages, I had forgotten how it feels to write with a pen on cardstock. To look at photos, thumb through papers.
There is all this stuff I want to say but it doesn’t feel like the right time to say those things at the moment. I need to dwell on them for a little while longer. It is frustrating. I’m looking for that fast forward button. I want things to start now. Moving on.
Yesterday morning, Mum and I dropped Matthew at work and headed off to the Hotel Broadway markets. We parked the car at the Kangaroo Point Cliffs and walked the rest of the way to the Hotel Broadway. It is a relatively small market but it was good. We got some Mangrove Honey 🙂 We walked home via the specialist food shops on Balaclava st, which open at 7am every morning! We had a good walk, window shopping, garden shopping, people shopping watching and I had fun taking some photos.
I went with Mum 10 days ago to give blood but was turned away as it had been less than a week since I had a Hep B shot. Pabbi picked me up from work today to take me to give blood just in case I was a little woozy after donating and would not be able to drive home.
Total reverse happened. It was my 9th donation and my best ever. My iron level was 130 which is ok and I donated my 470ml in a bit under 8 minutes. None of this having a low iron level, using the whole time and only getting about 400mls out like in the past. The best part? I literally stepped up from the chair, had my muffin and walked out of the Red Cross Centre feeling 100%. No woozy/dizzy feelings at all. So Happy, I just hope it is a sign of future donations. Still pretty stoked about it.
And here is a photo of my Mum, if Mum didn’t donate, I don’t know if I would donate or more to the point, I don’t think I would have 9 donations by now. I have so many memories of Matthew and I spending time with Mum in the City waiting for her as she gave blood and then sitting in the chairs having our cheese and Jatz.
Most people are eligible to give blood. If you are eligible what is stopping you? Yes it might hurt, Yes it does take about 45mins out of your day, Yes you need to be careful with your arm after donating and Yes in 20 years time you might have track marks on your arms but for all those the bigger question if you don’t donate your blood every 3 months, will be there blood when you or someone you know needs blood products. 1 in 30 Australians donate. The number should be higher. You can make that number higher.
Last Saturday morning, Mum and I packed up the car and headed north, first stop was the Eumundi Markets, which were interesting, I picked up a dress, a long dress as in down to my toes dress. I have always thought that long “maxi” dresses look weird and never tried one on. This one doesn’t look too bad at all. It also means I think that I have more dresses than I do jeans or shorts. If you had told a 17 year Helen that I don’t know what she would have said.
Back to the weekend though. After cruising the markets for a while we met up with Hilary, her daughter Erin and nephew Sam, or a Fairy and a Pirate as their painted faces suggested. Once we were done with the markets we headed north again to Gympie and the Tin Can Bay rd, which would lead us to our first destination of Seary’s Creek for lunch and a paddle.
Seary’s Creek by mum
Seary’s Creek. This is a most wonderful place. A decent creek flows out of a swamp and is just a nice creek – “they” have put in a lot of board walks etc to two swimming holes and you can float / swim from one hole to the other. On a body board, you just float down – very pleasant. Both pools have “tame” yabbies. The yabbies come and nibble / tickle toes if you stand still. We went both days and the first day there were kids catching and releasing them with a net. The second day Helen gave up trying to catch them with her hands as she wasn’t quick enough but managed to catch quite a few with a bowl. Sam was not successful, but he had a great time trying.
After we were all nice and cool we headed down a side road to explore and to see if the flying duck orchids that were in flower 6 weeks ago when Mum was up there last were still in flower and they were!!
Then we drove in to Poverty Point, which is a campsite at the southern end of Tin Can Bay. That was my first real experience driving through sand which I quite enjoyed. There were a few loooong stretches of deep sand that made me glad to have AWD on the car. We camped about 10m from the sand and our fire was just on the bank above the sand. Hilary and Mum both brought along a box of fire wood and Hilary had remembered to bring the marshmallows. Mum and I seem to always take the firewood and then forget about the marshmallows.
This is how Mum described the beach.
It has a lovely little sandy beach and when the tide goes out it is sand flats rather than the expected mud flats. There were these things washed up on the sand that looked like wafer thin dried apple slices – but most were only 3/4 circles – we realized that they were dried snail egg masses. Erin found a fresh one in the water, which is what we normally find washed up on the beach.
After Erin and Sam had gone to bed, Helen and I went walking on the sand flats in the low tide where we found all sorts of things; little soldier crabs having a feed and a wide array of shrimps, little fish, hermit crabs, snails and other crabs that were left behind in the sting ray feeding holes.
On Sunday morning, Sam and Erin had had breakfast and were in their swimmers by 6.00am!! It is a great beach for little people as when the tide is in it is a long way to deep water.
Once we had broken camp, we went for a short walk to look at the Orchids that Mum had found on her walk yesterday as well as just generally having a nice stroll in the bush. It smelt marvellous. It seemed to have a crisp apple aspect to it. Which is not at all what the bush normally smells like.
After we went on another walk/paddle in Cooloola Creek, we headed back to Seary’s Creek for lunch on the boardwalk, a swim, some yabbie catching and general fun.
Then it was time to start the drive home. We took the Cooloola Way home from Rainbow Beach which was a nice drive back to Gympie. We had a quick stop in Gympie so that I could have a looksie in the windows of a bank that my company has done a lot of work in. Driving home we stopped to have a look at a large colony of fruit bats just north of Nambour. There were 1000’s roosting in the trees beside the highway for a good 500m-1km.
In pictures instead of words there were…..
… plants
… a sunset
… people
and there was my newish Crumpler bag that I love to bits (a Barney Rustle Blanket).
Sunday, Mum and I spent the day doing some cultural sight seeing around inner Brisbane. We started off at Southbank before getting on the City Cat down to the Powerhouse to check out the new photography exhibit (not the biggest fan of it) and then back on the City Cat to Bulimba to the Queensland Centre for Photography where my Aunt is currently exhibiting some work.
Then we met up with Georgie for a quick stroll on Oxford St, a browse at Riverbend books and a bite to eat (the above picture, which we split into three parts). Then it was back on the cross river ferry to Tenerife and the bus into the Valley where we browsed in Mod Cons and then finally the bus home.
