Qld Trip #2 - April 06

Saturday 15th April

• I arrived in Brisbane Saturday about 12pm. Whilst waiting for my mother to arrive the Adelaide Crows & Melbourne Demons players arrived. The Crows players really did nothing for me but a couple of the Demons were quite good looking. I couldn't believe the amount of water & sports drinks that they travelled with. Mum & I picked up the hire car so we could get around for the next couple of days. I had told my mother to book an automatic car as I hadn't driven a manual for a while and cause I didn't really know my way around Brisbane.
• Mum drove me to Langlands park, Greenslopes, to watch the East Tigers vs Toowoomba Clydesdales game. Brett Seymour was playing in the lower grades to gain a bit more confidence and to regain his form. There was quite a crowd there, about a couple of thousand. Had actually never ventured to this ground on the eastern side of town. The family that I was sitting next to were Broncos fans, apart from the father who was a hardcore Manly Sea Eagles fan. When I lived in Brisbane it was only north and the weekends were always so full. It was so good to see him play well and I was so excited about this match as it was something that would cheer me up after a couple of hard days.
• He communicated heaps to his other teammates which was extremely encouraging them. He really looked like he was enjoying the game, disagreeing at times with player’s options, showed a lot of variety in his game and gained a lot of confidence and even scored a try. Another couple of weeks in Qld Cup would do the world of good but if he gets promoted again then he's surely up for the challenge as well. I remember watching him celebrate with Sam Thaiday (Broncos player watching him play) the great win that they had over Easts, 28-30. High fives and huge hugs :)
• After the game we went back to my grandfather’s house in Meadow Street and then back to Myrtle Cottage, Allan Street and over to Michael & Tamara’s house to sleep in their spare bed.
  

Sunday 16th April

• Had Coco Pops for breakfast.
• Today was Easter Day but it was different this year. Every year I love to sing at Easter, Good Friday and Easter Day all the fantastic choral music. My grandmother passed away peacefully on Thursday 13th April at age 84 and I was actually only in Brisbane this Easter to attend her funeral on the following Wednesday.
• Mum & I went to church with grandfather & Aunty Jill. I was fine until the minister mentioned Mavis Andersen.
• After the service was finished we headed out for a quick morning tea, then started to proofread the order of service & summary of my grandmother’s life.
• We left the church about 1.30 and then headed off to find something open to get a couple of groceries. Been Easter day and all there really wasn’t much to offer.
• Duncan, who was doing the main eulogy, was arriving at 2pm so we had to be back at Meadow Street by then. Once Duncan arrived and we had a quick afternoon nibble
• I went into the room my Aunt was staying in to watch the DVD, which had arrived from Canada the previous week, a vacation planner for Walt Disney World. Well what can I say but it surely is a very good and showed the examples of the main rides and attractions, including the new attractions also.
• We then headed off to Ipswich church for the evening service.

Monday 17th April

• Had coco pops again for breakfast.
• Just before mother left Tamara & Talia came over to look at the ducks. The multi-coloured ones were ducklings only about 8 weeks ago.
• I decided to stay at Allan Street so that I could watch the Panthers vs Storm & Wests Tigers vs Sharks replays on Foxtel
• I also went over the road and talked to Tamara & watched Talia play with her presents she got for her first birthday.
• Michael, Tamara, Talia, Father, Mother & I all went off to the Goodna RSL. Talia wore her shirt that I gave to her for her 1st birthday. The colour, strawberry, really suits her and her red boots match perfectly. I couldn’t decide what I wanted to have… thought about having the Beef Lasagne but decided not to as I wasn’t going to have lasagne made by anyone else but Ian, whilst he was in Brisbane. I finally decided upon T-bone steak with salad & chips. It was very nice and extremely filling.

Tuesday 18th April

• Had coco pops again for breakfast.
• Stayed at Tamara’s for a while and watched Talia play
• As we had a hire car I drove to Nicole’s house, at Petrie, and visited her & Xavier. Was an hour trip.
• When I arrived Xavier was playing on the playmat. We had some home cooked packet fish n chips and I had some Pepsi for lunch. On Easter day Nicole had had lots of chocolate and coke and Xavier didn’t really like it and went a bit crazy. His sleep patterns were affected quite badly, instead of eating & sleeping every four hours it changed to two. Lunch was very nice and we sat down and talked for a while.
• Nicole had not ventured out driving since she had Xavier and she had no fruit or vegetables in the house so we went for a drive down to the fruit shop. I carried Xavier around while Nicole got the groceries, fruit & sweets that she needed. He fell asleep while I was carrying him and basically stayed asleep the whole time.
• Two of her working colleagues visited Nicole once we arrived back to her house. Sam was coming from the doctors and found out that she was pregnant, so that was good news as she had been trying to get pregnant again. We cut the cake, which was a caramel scroll from Brumby’s and it was absolutely scrumptious. We talked for a while and then they left. I left about 5.15, once the peak hour traffic had left I started to head back to Allan Street.
• When I arrived back at Allan Street mother let me know that Ian had cooked lasagne for tea and that we would be having tea across the road to celebrate Talia’s birthday, as they had finally got an ice-cream birthday cake from the home ice-cream van. My brother makes the best lasagne but I must say it wasn’t quite up to his scratch, but scrumptious nevertheless. We then had our desert and Talia got the ice-cream cake all over her face. She really enjoyed it so that was really all that mattered.

Wednesday 19th April

• My grandmother’s funeral, or as we wanted to call it “Service Celebrating Her Life”. Service started at 10am.
• We (Tamara, Talia & I) had to leave Allan Street by 9.15am to arrive by about 9.45. Anyway Tamara comes over at 9.15 to say we had to make a short detour by Michael’s work as her only pair of shoes had been left in the car. This just stressed me more and I got very upset cause I kept on thinking I couldn’t be late my own grandmother’s funeral. So it was decided that we would meet Michael on the side of the highway and he could give us the shoes there.
• The service went well and there were alot of people in the church. All the six grandchildren were pallbearers (although the coffin was on a trolley) and father, Paul & grandfather followed behind.
• After the service there was morning tea. It was great to talk to family and all the people that had come for the service. Could catch up with all mum's friends that had come too.
• About 12.30pm I then headed off to the airport, as I had to get the hire car back. On the way I thought I would quickly have a look at the DFO at the airport, specifically Pumpkin Patch, Colorado & Table Eight. Couldn’t find anything that I needed so headed onto the airport. Gave the car back and went to the check-in counters.
• Got the 2.50pm flight back to Melbourne.