Qld Trip #1 - March 06

Its been six weeks since I had my first Queensland Trip so I guess its about time that I post something about it.

Wednesday 22nd March

• Flew from Melbourne to Brisbane on a Qantas flight. Things surely have changed with check-in at Qantas now. You go to this machine and put in your name and then it issues your boarding pass. I am supposed to be then told to go to the check-in counter to hand over my flight coupon. I ended up just going straight to the counter as directed by the Qantas staff.
  
• Mr Kettniss picked me up from the airport. I was staying at their place for the night as I had an early flight to Rockhampton on the Thursday morning.
  
• Dinner consisted of a combination of beef & lamb as Mrs Kettniss didn’t realise she had taken two different lots out of the freezer.

Thursday 23rd March

• I got the 0905 flight to Rockhampton
• Vikki picked me up at the Rocky airport and we headed off to the doctors. On the way to the doctors I bought some chips for us all to snack on, Vikki had forgotten to bring a snack for Karl. At the doctors in the kids play area Karl ate pieces of chalk… they were lying around.
• Had an afternoon nap for about 2 hours. When I woke up Karl played inside for a while and we managed to get him rocking on the rocking horse, although he kept putting his feet on the ground, not on the rests at the side.
• We then went outside and played with his soccer & footy balls. We were kicking the balls around. I was also practising my volleyball shots on the soccer ball. It was quite funny cause Karl started to copy me and was always dropping the ball after trying to throw it. After a little while he would throw the ball up and catch it. Quite good for an 18mth old boy I must say.

Friday 24th March

• Woke up about 6.30am.
• Vikki’s washing machine wasn’t working so we went to somebody’s house to use their washing machine. You just can’t go without a washing with a baby, especially if you are using cloth nappies.
• Had an afternoon nap again today.
• We headed off to Aleena’s (Vikki’s friend) so that Vikki could pinch some rosemary for the roast we were having for dinner.
• We came home and then Karl played outside for a while. Karl was a bit hot in his Bonds Singlet and kept on trying to take it off so we thought it might be nice for him to go into his little pool, full of balls. He loved it as it was nice and cool.
• Aleena, Vikki’s friend, and her husband came over. Paul & Aleena’s husband went down to play in the local soccer game. The girls ate roast dinner, played take two, which I inevitably played terribly. There was an ice-cream truck that came past and we decided that we would buy some ice-creams for desert. We decided on mint drumsticks and planned to eat at least two before the boys came back. They were very yummy.

Saturday 25th March

• Vikki & I had planned that if we got up early enough we would head off to Yeppoon for the morning before Karl had to go off for his swimming lesson. It was an absolutely gorgeous day.
• We headed down to Rosyln Bay as there didn’t look there was much beach at Yeppoon (the tide was in). Last time we came for to Yeppoon was Karl’s first time at the beach and the tide was out.
• Karl & Vikki went for a bit of a paddle in the water. After a little walk down the beach we headed back to the car and drove up to the lookout at Yeppoon. The lookout was quite good and Karl had a bit of a run around. We then headed back to North Rocky so that Karl would be able to get to his swimming lesson.
• I learnt how to do Sudoku’s. They are very addictive and I must admit I now have a book that I take on the train

Sunday 26th March

• Today was my grandmother’s birthday. She had not been too well and was deterating quite rapidly each day.
• She came out in the wheelchair to have a look at the presents that we had brought for her, a couple of orchids and fruit to put on a fruit platter. She didn’t last long before wanting to go back to bed.
• After lunch dad drove me to Suncorp Stadium. I was very excited as it was going to be my first beloved Broncos home game for the 2006 NRL season.
• I picked up my membership cap from the Southern stand. It’s a white cap with the Broncos logo on the front and Nike logo on the side. The fabric is “dri-fit” and feels really nice and light & dry on.
• The game was really good. Brisbane won 30-10. One of the try’s was awesome. Justin Hodges did this flick pass to another player from about 30m from goal line for him to score.
• I decided not to go back to the Leagues club, as it had been a very big day for me. The players only go back to the leagues club on a Sunday afternoon, not for the night games.
• I met my parents and we went to Ipswich Church.

Monday 27th March

• Dad drove me up to Toowoomba to visit my Oma (German for grandma). She has got to the stage that you cannot communicate to her in anything but German. A couple of months ago you could talk to her in English and she would respond in German. I’m actually not sure that she recognised me when I saw her.
• We then headed back to Allan Street and picked up mum on the way to visit my friend Nicole & her new baby boy who was just 10 days old. He was very beautiful but small. He was only 10days old.
• Then headed up to Aunty Alice’s to visit her as hadn’t visited her since about August last year. We were going to have dinner but decided just to stay for a quick coffee.

Tuesday 28th March

• Went over the road to visit my parent's neighbours, Tamara & Talia (just under a year old) and played with her for a while.
• Parents drove me to the airport so that I could head back to Melbourne.

The trip was surely a hard one, but very worthwhile doing.