Grease - the musical

The production of Grease, the musical commenced at the Lyric Theatre in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre on the 20 August.  Sharryn and I decided that as we have enjoyed going to many productions, especially while we both lived in Melbourne, we needed to keep up our reputation by booking to go and see Grease.

We chose to go to the matinee on the Wednesday afternoon - mainly because we wanted to take the bus into the city and didn't want to be travelling at night.  Neither of us had clothes that were dressy up, but we did our best - however no leather jackets or bobby socks for us!

The story line of Grease is well known and although neither of us knew the two actors playing the lead roles of Danny or Sandy, we did know the ever popular Bert Newton (who took absolutely no mistaking) played the part of the veteran disc jockey Vince Fontaine.  Another favourite was Todd McKenney (who was one of the judges on the popular Australian Dancing with the Stars television program) who starred as Teen Angel.  The other star we recognised was Anthony Callea who was the runner up of the 2004 Australian Idol however he didn't sing his most popular single "The Prayer". Instead he took the role of the All-American rock star student, Johnny Casino.

The production commenced at 1.30 p.m. and we did well to sort out which bus to catch which took us across Victoria Bridge from the sitting with a stop directly outside the theatre - thank goodness the Brisbane public transport system has a good website.  The bridge looked very bright and inviting with the coloured Grease flags flapping in the wind.

Bridge with flags with city scene

We arrived in plenty of time so that we could join the crowds of people who had the same thought in mind as us - to arrive in time to eat lunch at the cafe in the foyer. From the crowd around us we were with the right group - large numbers of women friends out for an afternoon at the theatre but I must say a lot were dressed to impress.

S & G before show

There were no photographs allowed during the production, which is quite normal, but we were able to take a photo of the stage with the Grease lightshow prior to the beginning.  The Lyric Theatre which opened in 1085 was quite impressive and seats 2000.  Although we had chosen to sit in the gallery we had an amazing view as the seating is tiered and not close together, and there were plenty of spare seats so our view was not impaired in any way.  In fact we changed seats at the interval (to save having to walk further up the stairs) and even then we had no one sitting in the same row as us.

We had a great afternoon.

Next day we decided that lunch out was the norm for us so we made our way to "our local" with is The Gap Tavern.  Here they have an expansive deck with tables and we were able to enjoy a really nice lunch together.  From here we spent the afternoon shopping with the desire of buying an outfit for Sharryn to wear to the upcoming wedding - Toowong Village was our venue.  However, we weren't successful and the only shopping actually purchased was some goodies for Sharryn's grandchildren.

How we filled in our Sunday

One of things I always check out when we are in a new area is where the local markets are held.  This is not that we necessarily want to buy heaps of gear, but the produce direct from the farmers is always great, and it is a good way to mix with locals and other visitors.

Before Sharryn had arrived in Brisbane I had watched a television program on South East Queensland and a segment was on the Boggo Road markets.  So come Sunday morning we headed off to find these.  The markets were held adjacent to the historic Boggo Road gaol (between 1883 and 2002 more than half a million people passed through the gates as staff, visitors and inmates).  It is known as one of the most notorious prisons of the 20th century and is now open for cultural-historic tours.  We could have joined a tour but there queues and it didn't hold a lot of attraction for us so gave it a miss. Instead we came for the markets!  Boggo Road is in the suburb of Dutton Park which was nearly fifteen kilometres from The Gap, and we passed the well known sports complex "The Gabba".

The only shopping was for edibles - and the beautiful fresh strawberries were first items purchased and I must say consumed before we got home.

We enjoyed wandering around the market which was quite small really and had a good variety of stalls.

From here we went back to Southbank where we parked and meandered along the parklands - I had already visited a couple of weeks earlier but for Sharryn it had been sometime since she last visited. Again as it was a beautiful day there were lots of families have BBQ's and picnics and swimming in the beach area.  We headed down to the jetty and caught one of the City Hoppers.  Again the views of the city and the bridges were wonderful.

Story Bridge

City buildings

We had initially planned on going the full length of the river to Bretts Wharf where the cruise boats berthed.  This required us to disembark from the City Hopper (as it doesn't go that far down the river) and join a City Cat.  It took much longer than we had initially thought and we realised that we were parked in two hour parking and we didn't have time to go as far as Bretts Wharf.  We got off the City Cat at Bulimba and was that a mistake.  We had not realised that the Bulimba Festival was on - this family friendly day has live entertainment, fashion parades, buskers, demonstrations and apparently 250 market stalls and as in excess of 100,000 attended you can imagine the crowds.  We were really disappointed that we didn't have time to wander the festival (poor planning on my part!), instead we just had to join the queues and wait for a City Cat to return to Southbank and our car.

It was a relief to arrive back at the car and no parking ticket - I didn't want to be the first person to get a ticket in this car.

Walkabout Creek

Just up the hill from where we were staying was the entrance to a National Park - D'Aguilar National Park.  This was easily within walking distance but as Toby the Golden Retriever thought that any walking involved him and dogs are not allowed in the national parks we took the car.  A five minute walk required us to drive nearly three and a half kilometres but we couldn't disappoint Toby!

There is a visitors centre at this part of the park which is called Walkabout Creek.  The park is 36,400 hectare of eucalypt forest and rainforest and is the closed national park to a state capital city in Australia.

A wildlife centre has been built (along with the customary cafe) and various reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish and mammals are on how.  There is a nocturnal wildlife in a night house and also a walk through aviary.  It is one of the few wildlife displays with platypus on display.  We were able to watch them swimming around and playing in the water but as the display is in the dark it was virtually impossible to get a photo, and they are just so quick at swimming around.

We were not at the centre for a ranger feeding time - instead we timed it when we could have joined a wedding party.  The ceremony was held in a unique and secluded (but not so secluded as we could easily watch from within the wildlife centre) on a platform out over the lagoon in the rainforest.

Of course there were the customary kangaroos feeding and jumping around.

The park is a popular venue for school trips and families and in additional to the wildlife centre there are picnic facilities, BBQ's and many tracks with walks of varying lengths.  It is certainly a great resource to have on the edge of the city.

Peter visits New Zealand and Sharryn visits Brisbane

Over the years since we first shifted to Melbourne in 2000 we have travelled "the ditch" many times and often these trips are singularly - I will go for one reason and Peter for another.  In the past he has been able to combine work trips with family trips which has been great.

As we were staying in Brisbane for seven weeks we decided that this was a good opportunity for Peter to make a trip to New Zealand to catch up with family.  So to co-incide the planned trip with family events he booked to travel on the 24th August in time to attend our nephew Danny's 41st birthday party.  Our son-in-law met him at the Auckland Airport and they travelled to our home in Mt Maunganui together where they met up with the rest of our family.  He had a great week-end in our home, along with our daughter and son-in-law and three grandchildren and of course Danny and Alana, and our Melbourne based niece Sandra who had also travelled over for her brother's birthday.

After his time in the north he travelled to Wellington to spend time with his wonderful Mum and surprised his sister by being able to attend her 60th birthday.  They all had a great time.

While Peter was in New Zealand I wasn't lonely.  My great friend, Sharryn, came over for just over a week and it was great to spend time together.  After a very busy few months she was in need of some rest and relaxation so our lovely holiday home fitted in with that theme.  We loved just spending time sitting in the outside lounge area relaxing, drinking coffee, having leisurely breakfast or lunch, watching the birds and enjoying each others company.

Of course we had the constant company of Toby, the Golden Retriever, when we were at home.  He is like a shadow and would follow and sit wherever we were.  I walked Toby twice a day, a longer walk in the mornings and a shorter walk around 5 pm and initially Sharryn joined me on the morning walks but with lots of time needed for relaxing, and "phone calls taking up the time, she often missed the wander down the hill to the park and the 20% incline on the way back up the drive.

We went out each day exploring the local areas without necessarily "sight seeing".  Spending time wandering the shops, having a coffee and snack in one of the many cafes was much more important.

One day we north up to Caloundra as the car needed a warranty check.  While that was happening we explore the shopping strip and then made our way to the beach front where we had lunch at one of the restaurants before wandering along the beachfront.  It was a beautiful day and very pleasant.  From here we drove along through Mooloolaba (where we had both separately had previously holidayed) and enjoyed seeing how that area is developing.  There are lots of happy memories of earlier holidays.  We continued on to Maroochydore to Sunshine Plaza which is a very large shopping centre - quite a unique building plan with the river running the middle with paddle boats etc and you can sit on the balcony overlooking from one of the many restaurants.  We didn't have restaurants in our plans, Sharryn was shopping for her grandchildren and keeping an eye out for something to wear to a spring wedding.  We achieved success on the children shopping but sadly not on the wedding outfit.

It was late by the time we eventually arrived back at The Gap - just an hour from the Sunshine Coast but the afternoon had slipped away.  This was the only day Toby missed his afternoon walk - he was much more keen on his dinner and our company than wandering down the hill.

A visit to EKKA

In the time that we have been in Brisbane we have seen a lot of advertising, on television, in the newspaper and bill boards for EKKA.  Initially we had no idea what EKKA stood for but it didn't take much guessing - this is the annual agricultural show of Queensland.  Its formal title is the Royal Queensland Show held at the Exhibition Ground.  It is commonly called EKKA which is apparently a shortened version of exhibition (but not in my language!).

It is the largest annual event held in Queensland and it seems that "everyone" attends.  It is held over a ten day period and apparently over 400,000 people attend.  This year, two of those attending were us.

We purchased tickets on line in advance and then took the bus from just down the street and with only one bus change we had just a short 300 metre walk.  We had left home around 9 am so that we were early and we were surprised at just how many people were already at the grounds when we arrived - these numbers just continued to increase throughout the day.

We entered through a side gate and this took us through the children's side show alley first.  It was a school day so there weren't too many children about although one lady said to us that she always took her children out of school for a day to visit rather than go on show day or the week-end.  Of course there were the normal fairy floss (candy floss), hot dogs and lots of chip stalls in this area.

With no children accompanying us we were able to quickly leave this area behind.  As the show is an agriculture show we headed to one of the many pavilions.  Here there were a large number of a variety of animals on show - and big animals.  We watched a horse display, with stalls showing a variety of different horse breeds from draught horses to Shetland ponies.   Of course the animals were beautifully presented with an attendant keen to explain all the details of the particular breed.

There were a large group of teenagers, all in their school uniforms, sitting on tiered seating and watching a screen  We soon found that it was an interactive classroom with one of the large cattle stations situated a long way out west.  The students were able to ask questions and the station staff were responding.  What a great way for the students to learn direct.

The pavilion reminded us of what a visit to the New Zealand National Field Days would be like - our son-in-law is a regular volunteer at those field days in Hamilton and our daughter and grandchildren always look forward to their visits.  As they are dairy farmers we had a peek at the cattle on display - far too many to take too many photos.

The variety was amazing and it was good to see a group of wool spinners displaying their work.  I was a member of the Upper Hutt Spinners and Weavers Group for a number of years and enjoyed many spinning events where such displays were always available.

The smell of the animals was getting to Peter - he really isn't a true country boy, so we wandered back outside without going through any more of the animal pavilions.  It would have been easy to remain in this area all day.  A very popular part is where there is an animal nursery with lots of baby animals and the children are allowed to enter and touch, interact etc.  A great opportunity for many city children that might not otherwise ever see these animals other than on television or in a book.

Along with animals there were displays of plants and fruit and vegetables.  I wonder what happens to all the vegetables after the show - some would still be all right but others???  Surprisingly there was no refrigeration apparent.

The dog show is run over the entire ten days of the event and appeared to be one of the most popular for public participation.  There was tiered seating so that the public can watch the dogs being paraded and judged.

We watched for half an hour or so before entering into the main pavilion where the dogs and there owners "camped" for the days of the show.  The puffing and preening of the animals was just amazing.  With a variety of brushes and combs and hairspray, and obviously the use of clippers, the dogs were prepared for the judging ring.

The diversity of the exhibition pavilions was quite amazing and we spent 95% of our time at the show in various pavilions.  Vintage vehicles always appeals to Peter but unfortunately there weren't too many on show.  There were a few of the motor vehicle dealers with new models of vehicles on show as well - perhaps the Patrol replacement should have been bought from here?

We came across this living statue on a number of occasions - he certainly was good.  Imagine being able to stand that still for what seems like hours and to totally ignore the stares and comments.

The exhibition pavilions seem to go on and on - we had hearing tests (and we were both reassured that our hearing is in the excellent range, especially for our ages), back massages and a chiropractic assessment.  That wasn't quite so good for me (additional weight bearing on my right in protection of my left knee) and recommendations to seek x-rays and treatment (which I said no too - I will see the specialist in Melbourne in October) but for Peter who has had years of back pain he got the all clear. Excellent - however I am sure he is keen to visit with Bruce, his friendly chiropractor, on our return to Melbourne.  There was food and food and food - free samples of a variety of foods and of course lots of stalls to buy lunch etc.  Most impressive.  The next exhibition pavilion we went into surprised us both.  We knew it was an agricultural show, and had already seen the baking, the cake decorating, the jams and pickles etc but to see huge hunks of raw meat - something I have never seen at a show before.

We were getting to the point where going home was high on the agenda but I hadn't seen the show bags.  Show bags are a very popular purchase item for most people who visit shows in Australia (we hadn't seen this in New Zealand prior to living in Australia) and it is common to see people walking around the show with a number on their arm.  A variety of show bags are taken to a selected school for the children to compete and decide which are the best bags.  We were surprised at the number of show bags on sale, and the as they catered for all ages there were plenty of shoppers.

As the show bags pavilion was close to a railway station we decided it was time to head for home.  However a quick walk through sideshow alley was necessary just to reinforce that we were at a show catering for everyone.  It had all the usual and lots of queues to go with them.  Not for us that was for sure.  Instead we headed to the train and soon we were swapping to the bus to The Gap and heading home to the welcome of Toby.

It was a great day out and we were really pleased we had visited.  There was certainly something for everyone there and we could understand why it was so popular.  It was the biggest show we have been too.

Time for our friends to say good-bye

Jocelyn and Greg stayed with us from Saturday until Thursday morning and we had a great time enjoying their company.  For them it was a first time experience of "house sitting" and they were quite taken with the opportunities that are available.  However they do travel with their little companion, Marley, who is a young spoodle so that poses a few difficulties.

On the Wednesday it was Jocelyn's birthday.  After a relaxing morning, with Jocelyn receiving a number of birthday wishes by 'phone, we all had a swim in the heated pool and walked the dogs. We then left the dogs at home to entertain themselves and we headed to Samford Village.

Samford Village is about twenty minutes drive from The Gap.  It is a very popular area with a number of cafes and as it is on the rural edge of the city encourages lots of day visitors.  We had missed the fact that it was a public holiday (Brisbane Show Day) as these days make no difference to us now that we are not working.  However, on this occasion we should have thought ahead and made a booking at a cafe.  We tried three different cafes and were told that it would be forty minutes to an hour and a half before a table would be available.  A number of other cafes we didn't need to even ask as it was clear the answer was going to be the same.

So we chose to go to the village hotel.  This is far from second class as it had a huge open dining area, plus verandahs and outdoor gazebo.  We were able to get a table, the menu was impressive, and we placed our orders.  It was really pleasant and we enjoyed sharing Jocelyn's birthday with them in this way.

Back home it was time to bake a cake so that the birthday celebrations could continue.  We had a delightful day, and it was a bit sad to say good-bye next morning.  Jocelyn and Greg have a time
frame in which they need to be back in Melbourne so it was important that they head back to the caravan and begin their meander down the country.

Birthday lunch

Goodbye to the Nissan Patrol

We purchased the Nissan Patrol in March 2010 with two specific reasons in mind.  We were planning and preparing for our caravan trip around Australia and as we were intending to upsize the caravan Peter felt it was important to upsize the car as well.  So at that stage it was good-bye to our one year old Nissan Pathfinder and we purchased the Nissan Patrol.

We had used the Pathfinder extensively as a member of the Landrover Club in Melbourne - yes the Landrover Club.  We had chosen that club over the Nissan club as friends of ours were members (always a big advantage when joining up with something new) and secondly the club monthly meetings were held within a couple of kilometres of our home in Box Hill North.  The Pathfinder had performed very well and we had enjoyed the 4wd outings and events we had attended.  With the Nissan Patrol we had no doubt that it too would perform well and it always did.

After our lap of Australia trip in excess of 50,000 the Patrol had serviced us very well.  We have now sold the caravan and as we live in New Zealand for about six months of the year our use of the Patrol moving forward was going to be somewhat limited.  This year we had ticked off two of our major 4wd bucket list items - to travel the Simpson Desert and to explore Fraser Island.  It was now time for the Patrol to go.

In some ways sadly, Peter spent a few days emptying the Patrol of all the extras he had gathered for our various trips and negotiations had been completed with the prospective buyer.  It was time to deliver the Patrol to the vehicle broker.

The next task was to buy a much cheaper vehicle, that was reliable and could transport all our camping gear (remember we have been away from Melbourne already four months so not travelling particularly "light").  We had a quick education on the State laws about buying vehicles when away from your home state (ours being Victoria) but fortunately we had a Queensland address so we could have a vehicle ownership transferred and registered.  Without this there is a very limited time in which to have the vehicle registered in Victoria and we will not be returning to the state within that time frame.

We were very lucky that the people that we are house sitting for were keen for us to use their vehicle on a regular basis.  This allowed us the opportunity to drive and look at various second hand vehicles. After lots of internet searching, and looking at a couple of vehicles, we are now the owners of a 2001 Ford Falcon Station Wagon.  We are now mobile again and with much less money tied up, we are comfortable to have this vehicle sitting for extensive periods of time when we are absent from Australia.

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