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London & Train Trip

2011-07-19T22:07:00.003+10:00

Train Trip to London

Was an early morning. We needed to be at Berlin Hauptbahnhof for train leaving at 7.20am.

This train took us to Cologne where we had about 5 minutes to transfer to another platform, lugging our heavy suitcases down the stairs then back up again because there were too many people

London 1 day - (Photos of London)

The view outside our room up near St Pancras/Kings Cross Station was nice.

Weather was very ordinary drizzling, raining, overcast, cool so we decided to do the hop on hop off bus and not walk. I got absolutely saturated on the bus tour as I was determined to sit outside!! Bad move.

Summary of where we went included:

- Tower of London (watched the tower bridge open up too)

- Big Ben/House of Parliaments

- St Pauls Cathedral (and half evensong)

- Big City Tour

Dresden & Berlin

2011-07-15T22:01:00.004+10:00

Sitting on the Thalys train from Koeln to Paris Nord on the way to London. Just enjoyed lunch with wine and the Belgium scenery is flying by at over 300klm/hr. As this is just a short trip I will post my photo links upon my return.

My week was lots of fun spending with relatives and trying to improve my German.

Over the past week we achieved:

- A stopover in Dresden

- A day trip to the Harz Mountains

- A day trip to Potsdam

- Listening to the Australian Chamber Choir sing & dinner afterwards.

- Walk up the Dome at the Reigstag for lovely views of Berlin

- Coffee and Cake up the TV Tower with spectacular views of Berlin

Its one day in London then I'm back to Australia. This trip, as all trips always has gone so quickly!

Salzburg, Vienna & Prague

2011-07-08T03:48:00.004+10:00

Well it seems that we have been so busy that I've not posted anything about Salzburg, Vienna & Prague.

Photo links will be posted at a later stage.

Salzburg - 3 nights (2 1/2 days) - (Photos of Salzburg)

Highlights of what we did in Salzburg included:

- Untersberg Mountain Cable Car to see the Austrian Alps (1836m)

- Hohensalzburg Fortress

- Mozart's Birthplace

- Michael Haydn Museum

- Hellbrunn Castle & Trick Fountains

- Salzburg Cathedral

- Mirabell Palace & Gardens

- Klavier concert

- Good coffee and cake

The weather was so lovely here. This is my favourite town so far on the trip.

Vienna - 4 nights (3 1/2 days)

Highlights of what we did in and around Vienna included:

- Vienna University

- Cathedrals & Churches

- Staatsoper

- Hofburg Palace

- Stephansdom Cathedral (also went to quartet strings concert & Sunday morning choral mass)

- Schloss Schonbrunn & gardens

- Cruise up the Blue Danube from Spitz to Melk and explored the Benedictine Abbey.

- Good coffee and cake

Unfortunately the weather in Vienna was not too kind to us so we spent a lot of time indoors at museums or madly trying to take photos with umbrellas

Prague - 3 nights (2 days)

Highlights included:

- Old Town Square (Tower viewing and the astronomical clock). A bugler plays each hour at the top of the tower too.

- Charles Bridge

- Prague Castle (St Vitus' Cathedral, Golden Lane & Old Royal Palace)

- Czech Museum of Music (Instruments & Dvorak exhibition)

- Concert in St Nicholas' Church (Violin, Piano, Organ, Harpsicord, Oboe & English Horn)

2 days is definitely not enough time to explore this town. We had beautiful warm weather here too.

Munich

2011-06-30T06:05:00.006+10:00

Train Trip - Marl to Munich

We got an early train from Marl to Essen, then onto Munich. We went through a couple of lovely towns including Wurzburg which had a lovely train.

Munich - (Photos of Munich)

In Munich we stayed with my Aunt's friends family in their townhouse in Munich. It was lovely to catch up with them again after a few years now. Over the time when we were there we managed to do the following

* Sightsee around the city on foot & by car. The glockenspiel (clock) show was awesome although it went a bit long with no major climax.

* Enjoyed dinner & beer (Paulsaner) in a local biergarten.

* Watched the 1st game of the Womens Rugby world cup. (We arrived in Melbourne on the first night)

Gescher

2011-06-26T02:26:00.004+10:00

Day 5 & 6 - Gescher (Photos of Gescher)

Highlights in visit to Gescher included:

Visited the the town my father was born in

Looking at the church my Opa & Oma were married in.

Seeing the house my father grew up in Germany

Met some more cousins who live in Gescher

Visiting the bell shop to buy a bell for my mother

Europe Trip - Cologne & Marl

2011-06-24T21:01:00.004+10:00

Day 1 (Flight)

Our first flight from Melbourne to Singapore on the A380 was delayed. On this sector I managed to stay awake. Was not particularly impressed with the range of movies but watched "No Strings Attached" and . I did like the fact that the screens were

We then got off the plane in Singapore and literally walked around the corner to the next plane. Our flight to Frankfurt on a 747-800. On this flight we had worked out that I needed to sleep a few hours as we would be arriving in the morning. I ended up with about 6 hours sleep, which was really good.

______

Day 2 (Cologne) - Photos of Cologne

We walked for what seems like ages to get from the luggage hall to the train to catch the international connecting train to Cologne. The train ride of just under 1 hour, travelling up to speeds of just over 300klm/hr. After arriving in

Cologne we checked into the hotel just next to the station. View outside our room was the Cologne Cathedral.

The rest of the day included:

Cathedral Dom (End of service so heard organ played. On way out rehearsing choir)*Walk through the Old Town on way to the Schokolade Museum. Ate Bratwurst in Brotchen (Sausage in Bread) and Pommes Frites on way to 2 hour cruise down the Rhine.

Finally to end the day we then had headed to Cologne Cathedral to organ concert with organist Winfried Bonig. He played Vierne, Bach, Durufle & Liszt.

______

Day 3 & 4 (Marl)

Got train to Essen then onto Marl Sinsen. We were picked up by cousin Gert (who speaks a little English). But wife speaks no English & 3 children speak very little. From my 3 years of German I learnt at school 20 years ago I really don't remember alot. On the 2nd day here it was a public holiday (Corpus Christi day). I downloaded some German notes so that I am able to learn some German. In the afternoon we went to visit a cousin for Kuchen (cake) and Kaffee (Coffee).

What a game Billie!

2011-04-04T22:03:00.003+10:00

Now I wasn't really revved to go to the Storm tonight as I normally am, especially since Matt Duffie wasn't named in the team on Tuesday. The Canterbury Bulldogs having not lost a game so far this season & Storm loosing their only away game. Anyway after long but very productive day at work I decided to go.

I turned up and sat down & low & behold I didn't have enough time to sit on my seat before he scored a try right in front of me! Of course just had no time to pull out my camera... it was that quick like 49 seconds into the game. And then the rest of the game where Billie was on fire! He has matured so much over the past couple of years. The other good side is that the Bulldogs scored enough points so as not to knock the Broncos out of the top spot.

Yes we are in no 1 spot for now... Lets hope we can stay there for a while yet!

What a week it will be.

2011-03-20T19:02:00.003+11:00

This week looms as such an interesting one.

Last week my trip home for my cousin's wedding, this coming Saturday, changed a bit to be extended a day to also include Opa's (German for grandfather) funeral. His passing definitely wasn't unexpected as he has been struggling with life for a while and each extra day was a blessing. I really thought in December when I last went out to see him would be my last, and so it was, but it's still difficult all the same.

For the rest of my trip to Brisbane I'll be visiting a few friends & booked a few appointments Thursday & Friday and Saturday will be my cousin Ruth's wedding to a man she obviously adores on the Saturday afternoon. So I think I'll be in task for a Sunday afternoon nap on arrival home in the morning on the Sunday in full steam ahead for year end at work!

Baby Shower & 30th Birthday

2011-03-03T20:51:00.001+11:00

Off to Brisbane tomorrow to go to my cousin's partner's on Saturday morning & my best friends 30th! Hope the weather is not to humid.

So glad week is over!

2011-02-27T22:35:00.003+11:00

Wow what a week last week was.
Got through work - Tick
Passed my exams - Tick

Only 113 sleeps YEAH.

Europe Trip June-July 11

2011-02-11T22:29:00.009+11:00

Europe Trip Planning is going well. Not long now... Less than 5 months.

Looking forward to meeting some relatives - Marl, Berlin & Dresden
Visit where my father grew up as a boy & where Oma lived - Gescher
Visit the church where Opa & Oma were married - Gescher
Visit where Opa grew up - Potsdam
Discover Marl & Gescher area
Discover Munich
Discover Salzburg
Discover Vienna
Discover Prague
Discover Berlin, Dresden & Potsdam
Discover London

Click here for a link to the map of our trip! -Hopefully won't change too much more :-)

199 days since last post

2009-01-15T22:17:00.003+11:00

Well I can't believe its been over six months since my last post... Not quite 200 days.
Anyway not a huge deal has happened since then except....
* I worked lots of hours
* Been to QLD a couple of times
* Travelled to QLD for a stinking hot New Year & break
* Watched Melbourne Storm get flogged in the 2008 NRL (National Rugby League) grand final by a skillful team, Manly Sea Eagles -
* Finished a year of study

Tonight I went to the movies with a friend to watch BRIDE WARS, starring one of my favourite actors... Chris Pratt as Fletcher, Emma's boyfriend/fiance. I'm not going to spoil it as I guess most have probably not seen it yet. But I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This week I've experienced Korean & Japanese meals. I must say that I would probably prefer the Korean, but the Japanese was ok. This month is a nice relaxing month for me as I have no school, no choir, just work & time to play. At least we have cricket & tennis now that the summer is here & boy was it ever this week.

I've decided to move to lj

2008-07-01T22:26:00.001+10:00

You can now find stuff about my Bon happenings here

Australia - Historic Buildings

2008-05-08T23:28:00.001+10:00

Australia - Historic Buildings

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PSP

2007-12-17T20:36:00.001+11:00

I decided yesterday that I would buy one of the PSP Slim & Lite. Now I was quite content on getting a black one but when searching the net today I came across a deep red one. So I just had to buy it. It should come in the mail on Wednesday or Thursday. What a fun Christmas it is surely going to be.

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Just a mobile phone salesman

2007-11-29T22:11:00.001+11:00

Embedded Video

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Ten Inch Hero clip

2007-11-27T19:26:00.001+11:00

Embedded Video

OK so I may not be as much as obsessive as some of my friends (from which I decided to copy this from) over Jensen Ackles but hey this is kinda funny so peoples enjoy.

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Philip Island

2007-11-18T21:21:00.001+11:00

Yesterday I went for a trip to Philip Island as I haven't seen a surf beach for a while & really wanted to see one. My father was visiting me for the weekend & so we drove the hire car downs to Philip Island. We spent the day there & I was amazed as to how much there was to do there. Our day included a trip to National Vietnam's Museum, Smiths Beach (where I had a little paddle), Pyramid Rocks, The Nobbies & the penguin parade.

I really enjoyed my time at each of the different locations for different reasons. It was surely interesting with a beautiful beach, even though the weather was not crash hot, with a bit of drizzle on and off during the morning and afternoon, however it managed to remain fine for the evening penguin parade. I managed to forget my coat & as usual it was cold but a blanket did surely help. Please note my picture of the penguins was not taken at the penguin parade but actually at the Nobbies.

Thursday night lecture

2007-11-18T20:51:00.001+11:00

On Thursday night I went to a lecture, given by my uncle, on the research that he has been progressively doing over the past 15 or so years. He would work the oddest hours & when I first moved to Melbourne back in June 2002, I understood exactly the crazy hours that he would work. He would constantly be at the uni & probably wouldn't get home until 2 or 3am each morning. Well he has since got a laptop & now is able to work for hours at home.

It was great to get a better understanding of the work that he has been doing with dicty (slime mould) in mitrochondrial diseases. It was actually quite interesting to see the video presentation as it really helped me understand the concepts a bit better.

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2007 Australasian Science Prize

2007-11-14T22:55:00.001+11:00

Tomorrow evening I am heading off to see my uncle, Professor Paul Fisher, be awarded with the 2007 Australasian Science Prize for his research work into slime mould (the scientific name is Dictyostelium discoideum, or better known as dicty). My father is flying down tomorrow morning/arvo to help celebrate the event with him.

ARTICLE FROM NOV/DEC EDITION OF AUSTRALASIAN SCIENCE MAGAZINE

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Fungible

2007-11-14T22:49:00.001+11:00

The word of the day in my facebook account the other day was "FUNGIBLE".
Meaning
1. being of such a nature that one part or quantity may be replaced by another equal part or quantity in the satisfaction of an obligation
2. interchangeable
3. flexible.

Does meaning no 3 then mean that fungible is a common word for accountants to use.

Copied using Flock web browser

2007-11-12T21:23:00.001+11:00

Well today I decided to have a look at using another web browser, as I've sort of got bored with Flock so I'm doing a quick test to check out how it works & whether the blog post copies over well.

There are some really cool features in Flock:
Quickly viewing your facebook account (For those who use facebook)
Copying photos to a web clipboard to past later to blogs... (thought I'd test that out too).

I really feel like having some "Clem's BBQ" right now.

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I'm a neglectant blogger

2007-10-30T00:14:00.000+11:00

Well I’ve been pretty slack with my blog over the past while. I keep on meaning to update it but sometimes it’s a big effort just to update one little thing. So unfortunately its long again.

1 - HEROES DVD: Last Thursday my Heroes Season 1 DVD arrived from the States. I waited a lot longer but saved about AUD20-30. Its such a cool dvd and I really enjoyed the commentary for the unaired season pilot.

2 - TIGER AIRLINES: Today Tiger released new flights destinations from Melbourne to Canberra, Newcastle & Launceston & so they had sales. I purchased a return ticket to Perth and one way tickets to Canberra & the Gold Coast. Still managing to get the cheap fares, without working for an airline J

3 - 2008 NRL Draw this was released on 13^th October, about a month earlier than other years. I have already planned what games I hope to goto next year which are 2 away Brisbane games & an away Titans game, but that will depend on the actual timing of the games. Well now I guess I can celebrate the off season with the cricket games and extra sleeping

4 - WORK WISE: For those who don’t know I started a new job over 2 weeks ago (15^th October), still working in accounts department but for a consulting engineering company. It’s been pretty crazy & the finance team has not really been all in the office at the same time… I mean when in a two week period you take into consideration training courses, study leave, duty travel, bereavement leave & annual leave, all leave aspects are pretty well covered. And now for the next week we have a guy come over from NZ to help us out. Thursday lunch we will have a “Welcome to the Team” lunch for me. And then on Friday afternoon we are having our monthly staff meeting, so that should be interesting. A couple of the distinct differences are that I have to travel longer to work, but I’m enjoying it and today was the first day I walked from work to Flinders Street station after work (not really sure how awake I’ll be of a morning to do it but that’s the aim too), we have casual (including jeans). One of the corporate team each week also arranges morning tea for the Friday & someone collects the coffee/chocolate orders. Last week we had the theme of “Cookies & Cream” – black & white day. This week we have the theme of “Halloween” wear red, orange or black or pumpkins. So its nice to stop work & have a break to socialize.

Finished up at MH on 5 October was surely an interesting experience. On the last day I had lunch at the Imperial Hotel, which I thought was really nice but I failed to make one specification with my booking, to ensure we were seated downstairs. Anyway Trav joined us for a beer or too & I had a couple of raspberry vodkas J so it was all awesome. I was given as a farewell gift

5. HOLIDAY IN QUEENSLAND: (6^th-13^th October 2007).
Saturday 6^th October - Melbourne to Brisbane
Flight was delayed & arrived in Melbourne about 10pm. It was hot. Took off my jacket & didn't put on again for the whole trip.

Sunday 7^th October – Steam Train Ride (Brisbane)
Went on a Steam Train Ride run by the QR (Queensland Rail) with my friends Vikki & her husband Paul & their two children Karl & Toby. (Pictures of train below). It was a lovely train ride from Roma Street to Pinkenba in North east Brisbane suburbs. Played cards in the evening

Monday 8^th October
Today the big event of the morning was heading off to the hospital & looking after the kids, whilst in the car short parking area. Karl & I watched some of the “Mr Men” dvd that I had bought for the kids. The main one was Mr Strong but their were some of his friends too. I stayed the night with my mother at Ascot as she was housesitting. Today was absolutely stinking hot.

Tuesday 9^th October – Petrie, Brisbane
Today I visited my friend I went to school with, Nicole in Petrie & her little son. It was really nice to spend the day with them. Nicole needed to fix the muffler on the car so we headed off to accomplish that errand. We also had a look at the beds in the furniture shops across the road. There are some interesting beds out there for kids & adults that’s for sure. There was a very big storm brewing up and I was driving back to Goodna for the evening. I stopped at Ascot on the way to avoid the storm & heavy rain.

Wednesday.10^th October – Millmerran
At 9am I drove to Millmerran so that I could visit my Oma & Opa. They are slowly deteriorating but that is I guess what happens to us when we get old.
Once we arrived in Millmerran we firstly headed off to the council to check out the procedure & cost of plots at the local lawn cemetery. Opa wants to be buried with Oma so we needed to know what to do.
We then had some lunch at the B&B café. I had a normal burger, not the works burger, a coffee & half of the lemon cheesecake. It was delicious.
We then went & visited Opa & Oma & during the visit Opa gave me this gold cross that was worn by my great, great, great grandmother in the Austrian war in 1850 so this is very special & I need to look after this.

Thursday 11^th October – Lazy day
Today was a pretty relaxing day. In the afternoon I drove over to Ascot & then got a train to meet my friend Belinda for dinner. We had dinner at a place called the “Jackpot Noodle” in Toowong. It was cheap but delicious nice Chinese. If you are ever anywhere near that area I would surely recommend it.

Friday 12^th October – Mapleton, Gympie & Currimundi
Today I went for a big drive with my mother.
Had lunch at “Fish Tales”, a seafood shop that family friends own in Mapleton Queensland. During lunch we had a lovely view of the surrounding lily ponds. Lunch was a “Mountain Burger” or a burger with the lot (including egg & bacon), less beetroot with a couple of calamari’s. It was very filling and satisfying.
After spending about 2 hours at the café we then headed off to Gympie to visit my parents’ old neighbours’, Tamara, Michael & Talia. We arrived just after 3pm & Talia had fallen asleep so we just talked for a while. When Talia (3 years) woke up she was full of beans. I went & played with her & read her a book. We had dinner at the club & it was a buffet. I enjoyed the Parma & also the veggies.
We then headed off about 8.30pm to our friends at Currimundi. We talked with them for about an hour & mother picked up some shells.
We then headed off to Goodna, arriving home about 1.30am. I didn’t get to sleep until about 3am.

Saturday 13^th October – Flight back to Melbourne
Today I flew back to Melbourne refreshed & ready for starting new job on Monday 15^th.

Falcon Beach DVD

2007-09-21T05:18:00.000+10:00

Yesterday morning about 10.45am whilst talking on the phone to Katy, my friend, she said to me look what just arrived. It was a parcel from Amazon with her boys "Supernatural" Season 2 dvd another one & a dvd set for me "Falcon Beach" Season 1.

This show is kinda little like The OC, set in Canada & has wake boarding in it. One of the actors, Steve Byers is absolutely great. When I got home last night I managed to watch the pilot (1hour long) & 3 episodes. I've only got 10 now to go. This show used to be a nice wake up for me on a Saturday morning at 11am on ABC here in Australia. I might end up watching 2 more now before needing to get ready for work.

Today is brought to you by 'H'

2007-09-18T21:43:00.000+10:00

I got this little game came from Katysam She's chosen letter 'H'.
I need to list my favourite things starting with my letter.

1. Hugs - they're just awesome!
2. "Halcyon" - name of a house I grew up in as a teenager
3. Haighs - chocolate stop at lunch
4. Hairspray - the movie that I saw on Sunday. It was awesome
5. Hey - the word. I say it a lot I've been told.
6. Horse - my rugby league (Brisbane Broncos) team mascot
7. Hard Rock Cafe
8. Hosanna to the Son of David (Weelkes) - fav church anthem music
9. Holy moley/boley - saying
10. Hammer Vodka - actually just Vodka with raspberry.

Mobile has arrived!

2007-09-13T20:44:00.000+10:00

At about 4.32pm this arvo I got a call from reception to say my parcel had arrived. I now have a black & orange mobile & I feel real again. One of my work colleagues could not believe how excited & how quickly I ran to get my my new phone. My life is back again!

My mobile, a swimming in the Yarra

2007-09-12T19:45:00.000+10:00

Last Tuesday arvo I was walking along the footbridge from Flinders Street Station to Southgate & I managed to drop my phone. It smashed into pieces & went flying into the Yarra River. So now all I have left of my mobile is my battery, which didn't fly into the river. SILLY ME!

My new mobile, a Motorola Z6, I had calculated to arrive at work today, but unfortunately it didn't. Hopefully it will arrive by Friday, otherwise I'll be on the phone to Australia Post on Monday.

I'll let you know when it arrives.

Quebec City Photo

2007-09-10T21:08:00.000+10:00

I'm just going through my photos from when I was in Quebec City & came across the house number 70 1/2. It just reminded me of Harry Potter 7 3/4 platform

My boys (Broncos) bow out of the finals

2007-09-10T20:05:00.000+10:00

Yes well, yesterday saw the home final Storm vs Broncos (in Melbourne AWESOME).
The Melbourne Storm boys were very good & thrashed my boys 40-0.

But hey what can be said, it was our 13th halves combination in 25 games. Pretty much vital to keep the same combination. I nearly had a fit when they named Sam Thaiday at 5/8 (he's a big 2nd rower).

It was really good to see the Broncos players after the game to get a few smiles out of them, especially since the Melbourne supporters were hassling them so much. :) All for the good of the game & them thanking me for all their support.

Thanks to Katy, Gina, Lisa & Ryan (2 year old) we have tickets to the preliminary final. So I'll be going to the game. The opponent will be known next Saturday, the result of the Eels vs Bulldogs game.

So much a happening with so little posts

2007-09-08T10:31:00.000+10:00

It been over a month since my last post so hears a quick rundown of what has happened.

* My boys, the Brisbane Broncos played against Storm in Melbourne on Aug 12. I went to the game. We lost 14-6 and really gave Storm a battle. Afterwards I went around to see the players. Saw Corey Parker & met these some Broncos fans from the Gold Coast. We went to dinner in Lygon St & bought Koko Black Chocolates -yummy.

* I got a bout of bronchitis and managed to loose my voice for 2 weeks. Still went to work & you know what I think everyone loved me not having a voice.

* On 31Aug7 it was Trav's last day at work. Had a very long lunch (3 1/2 hrs) at the Portland Hotel. Then we had a work function & played chubby bunnies. Really can't believe the one of my colleagues had 14 very large marshmallows in his mouth.

* Storm hosted Gold Coast Titans in the last regular season round at Olympic Park. Storm won 50-6. My favourite player Scott Prince plays for them so I went around to see him after the game. They surely weren't too happy campers.

* Broncos played Parramatta Eels in Parra in the last regular round of the season. We lost 68-22 which was equaled our biggest scoring margin & also our biggest scoring loss.

* Yesterday I handed in my resignation for my current job & will be starting a new job on 15th October 2007. I will be having a short break in Queensland before starting work.

* Tomorrow there will be a final played at Olympic Park. Storm will play host to the Broncos. I'm really looking forward to this match & there has been a lot of hype in the media about this game. We have a lot of key players out injured so I guess that doesn't help the cause. It has been highlighted as the match of the round, by Sunrise. Don't really understand why cause like the betting odds are like Storm $1.10 Broncos $7.75.
If Brisbane loose tomorrow their season is all over red rover. If Storm win tomorrow they have a week off and have a home final in week 3 of the finals. I'm meeting up with some Storm friends for lunch before the game so it should be a great. I'm sitting with them in the game, even though i'll be in the Broncos colours.

!GO BRONCOS!

Postponed Birthday Lunch - Thur 9 Aug

2007-08-10T23:02:00.000+10:00

I went to postponed lunch date today at the Elephant & Wheelbarrow with Travis my fellow colleague, who I had stood up last Thursday cause of my job interview. It was very relaxing, filling & yummy. I had a chicken Parmajar. Yum!

Aug Trip to QLD

2007-08-10T22:33:00.000+10:00

Friday 3^rd August
Today I was heading to Brisbane to spend some time with my family & friends over the weekend & to go to a couple of games (or miss some too). I got the train & sky bus to the airport and got the 850am flight. The flight was pretty good. I arrived in Brisbane about 11am & mother & father picked me up from the airport. We then headed off to visit Mr. & Mrs. Kettniss & Vikki and her kids were there too. I had a roast beef sandwich & then headed off to the train so that I could visit my friend from high school, Nicole & her little boy Xavier. We quickly did some shopping as I needed to find and then headed off back to her place in Petrie. I spent the afternoon with little Xavy so it was lots of fun. I then got a train back to my parents house.

Saturday 4^th August

We left home this morning at about 7am as we had a long drive. We drove from Goodna to Millmerran, where my Opa & Oma are currently living. It’s always difficult to visit them. Oma has Alzheimer’s is being German can only understand very limited English. Opa’s legs have deteriorated very quickly & it will only be time until he needs a wheelchair.

At about 12.30pm we left Millmerran. I was very excited about the prospect of seeing real cotton bushes on the side of the road so we went & I picked nearly all of the cotton off the cotton bush in the photo here.

We then went on our way to Leyburn, a very small town, which ran out of water supplies in April 2007. We decided to have lunch there & I had a hamburger & some beautiful homemade soup by my mother. After Leyburn we then headed down to Karara onto the Cunningham Highway & then off to the Gold Coast.

We arrived at Carara Stadium, the nights venue for the Gold Coast Titans vs West Tigers game. My favourite player, Scott Prince, was back after being injured and was at his best. I collected my tickets & arrived at my seats just after kick-off (about two minutes). The Titans won 30-14. Little Taniela Tuiaki, who was also the captain for the West Tigers, can surely run. After the game we drove back to Goodna for a good nights sleep.

Sunday 5^th August
Well this day maybe I should just write was a write off. I woke up about 4am firstly disturbed by the possums then about an hour later I was vomiting. Then the hours to follow I felt terrible & don’t think I have ever felt so sick in my life and so spent the whole day in bed.

The plan for today leave at 7.30am for a steam train trip & then off to Suncorp (aka Lang Park) for Brisbane Broncos vs Manly Sea Eagles game.

Monday 6^th August
It’s surely amazing what 24hours can do & how on earth can someone feel so much better in that time. But alas I did. We left Goodna about 10am, with a short trip to red rooster to collect lunch & we spent about 2 hours at my grandfather’s house.

After lunch we headed off to the “pink elephant”, a friends house, for my father to do some errands there. We spent about an hour there & then headed off to Vikki’s so that I could spend the afternoon with Vikki & the kids. When father arrived Vikki made full use of him to pull down the blinds in one of the children’s room & replace with a curtain. Unfortunately we had to go to the shop to make sure we had the curtain rod, as there was none spare lying around.

At about 7pm, when the children were all in bed, I headed off to meet my friend Belinda for coffee. We talked for just over an hour and then headed off to the train so that I could get home. Its amazing what you can talk about for so long.

Tuesday 8^th August
I was heading home this morning & as my brother and two friends were arriving on a flight at 1110 I decided to get the 1150 flight to Melbourne. When we arrived at the airport I went to the virgin terminal, even though I was departing Qantas. I wanted to see my brother, if only for a couple of minutes, before heading back to Melbourne. The flight was very very bumpy. I arrived in Melbourne and got a taxi from the airport home, as I was still feeling a little queezy from Sunday & the smooth (not) flight.

My Birthday - 2nd August

2007-08-10T22:30:00.000+10:00

My birthday was on Thursday 2nd August but I really wouldn’t have know apart from the fact that Karen, my supervisor at work, bought me a Raspberry muffin from Egan's. I love those muffins.

I had a job interview at lunch so had to stand up my lunch appointment & postpone it until the next week.

Lunch today

2007-07-17T15:24:00.000+10:00

When I arrived at work this morning on my desk was a lunch box, with lunch in it for me.

Yesterday one of my work colleagues was telling me how he was making Beef Wellington for dinner. I had no idea what it was but I must tell you after my taste at lunch, which was very filling I indeed tell you, try it. Its fabulous. Thats I guess so long as you like Beef. It was such a wonderful surprise that he really didn't have to bring for me.

News of Today 10 Jul 07

2007-07-10T21:35:00.000+10:00

Well there was a huge news item confirmed today.
Matt King has confirmed he has signed with Warrington (English Super League) for 4 years commencing 2008. He is surely one of my favourite players of Storm but life goes on & so do the players.

Secondly I started my TAFE course tonight. I'm studying 4 courses this semesters So that means Tuesday & Thursday nights. Courses I'm studying include:
1. Apply principles of professional practice to work in the financial services industry
2. Apply health and safety practices in the workplace.
3. Process business tax requirements
4. Process payroll

Falcon Beach Season 1 / Heroes Season 1 release on DVD soon

2007-07-07T08:39:00.000+10:00

I checked my email this morning, received my weekly Falcon Beach newsletter. It informed me that Falcon Beach Season 1 would be released on DVD. This maybe in states but can always order it.

Falcon Beach Season 1 on DVD - US release date is 4 September 2007.
Heroes Season 1 on DVD - US release date is 28 August 2007. / Aust release date is 5 September 2007

Broncos win 4th game in row.... but Scotty injured (UPDATED)

2007-07-06T23:39:00.000+10:00

Well Broncos were playing the Titans tonight. My allegiances will always lie with the Broncos who managed to win a thrilling game 19-18 but the most sour point of the evening for me was that Scotty Prince (co-captain Titans & my favourite player) was injured badly as he was crunched in a tackle. I was speaking to a friend of mine who said he looked pretty bad in the dressing rooms so I went a searching to see if there was any news. I found out the following:
1. He was taken to hospital in a serious condition with a drip.
2. Mostly likely broken collarbone with puncture in airway, causing difficulty breathing
3. Later reports showed he was now in stable condition in hospital and would have scans on neck & collarbone.
4. Reports earlier in the morning report no serious damage. Just putting a scare through my heart.

So he is all fine, although probably in a lot of pain .... thats the main thing.

Meet Corey my work mate

2007-07-06T19:54:00.001+10:00

Corey my pet fish at work
I arrived back at my desk after lunch today & found a new work mate.
A fish that my boss had bought me to thank me for all the work that I did in relation to our move. She had done very well in relation to choosing him & his environment. He's maroon (with some blue), in a maroon tank with maroon gravel. One of my work colleagues actually bought a fish on Tuesday. So now Sam has a friend. Sam has not eaten yet, but Corey surely didn't show any shame in eating. He finished off the first lot that I gave him & then I left some for him when I left work. I've never had a pet fish so it will be lots of fun learning about him and something to amuse me through the day.

Interesting feature in our office. (Energy saving lights)
We have sensor lights in our office. These lights automatically turn off when there is no movement in the area around the sensor & on when you pass the sensor. Some of the workstations are too far away from the workstations so staff have to work in the dark.

Moved & Surviving (Just)

2007-07-05T20:41:00.000+10:00

Its now Thursday & this week has been so busy but its actually been better than what i expected.

Monday was absolutely the most horrendous day. I just knew it was going to be a bad day. I firstly tripped up the train station stairs & dropped my plates for use at work. When I arrived at work I placed my coffee on my desk & then when I came back it had spilt all over the desk. I then had to clean up the mess at my lovely new workstation & then unpacked & had to rearrange my desk as everything was on the opposite side to my previous workplace. So by the time I changed everything there were cords going everywhere. There were lots of complaints from the office, but hey it was the first working day of the month and in accounts you need to balance for month-end. That was our priority. Although completely out of wack with everything we managed to balance by midday. Awesome team work, thats what its all about. I had to have my headphones in all morning as it was so noisy in the office & I just couldn't focus. Points I really hated on day 1 were
* could hear every word everyone spoke in the staff room as it has this huge echo sound.
* mobile pedestal cabinet is not as practical as previous ones. Only have 1 top draw & 1 filing draw
* very noisy with all the sales staff & open plan.
* cupboard space is very small, probably about half of what we had before & at floor level so will get sore back.
* no eating at desks. Had to eat lunch out as staff room smelt terrible.

Tuesday was such a strange day. Managed to rearrange my desk and organise some structure in my draws. I was so relieved. Was a constructive day. We managed to unpack the majority of our boxes so that they could be returned to the packers and everyone was asking about the stationery cupboards. During the day I managed to get something completely confused, that been a specific type of screw that is used to hold a desk I bought from work together. Now I was sure that is was a "Camel Screw" but in actual fact it is a "Cam lock". If you want to google the camel screw definition you are most welcome to but I have no idea how I got it mixed up. Today I also met "Sam" one of my work colleagues fish he bought for the office. Even though we have these 4m x 3m desks I've managed to fill most of the desk. Its really amazing but in working it out I probably had the same space I had at my our old office.

Wednesday was an ordinary day, but it was a quiet day (noise wise) in the office. We finished unpacking all our boxes. State of origin in the evening. QLD managed to lose to NSW 18-4 but after withstanding some pretty horrific injuries to pretty key players that will affect Storm, Broncos & Sharks teams.

Thursday been today I decided to bring in some posters to put in our personal lockers, as we're not allowed to place anything on our lovely new partitions. So I brought in a calender & couple of photos/pictures that I really like of some rugby league players. It was kinda fun putting them up this morning, just like been a bit of a kid again.

Tomorrow is Friday. Friday is usually a day at work when most people will be in the office. It will be noisy so I will probably just have to put my headphones in my ears & listen to my zen v+ most of the day.

Work is on the move

2007-06-28T21:56:00.000+10:00

Tomorrow will be our last day in our current office building at work. On Monday we will be starting in our newly refurbished office, well just across the road & down a couple of numbers. Some people are going into our new office on Sunday, but we really don't see the point as we would have to find time to take time in lieu & we don't have the time.

You would think that one would only have to pack a few boxes.... but in fact over the past couple of weeks each afternoon, I have packed about 50 boxes. I counted them today (30 boxes of just stationery & then 10-15 boxes of filing and then 5 boxes for my work related stuff). Each of these had to be labeled with new location & then there was also about 50 more archive boxes that had to be labeled. The dismal thing about moving is you have unpack the boxes at the other end. Thats about 50 boxes to unpack.

Don't get me started on the filing stuff as you would think that going to a newly furbished office that equipment would be up to date. Well in fact they didn't find out how much filing draws or cupboard space we actually required just allocated some. We have been given 2 lots of cupboards, about half the current space and also 4 suspension filing draws when we currently have 22 filing draws. Our desks will be huge though, can't really understand why (4m x 3m). I managed to locate some alternate storage containers which hopefully will do the job. We'll just have to see what the office is like on Monday I guess & play it by ear.

QLD Sunshine Jun07

2007-06-19T10:41:00.000+10:00

During the long weekend I headed up to Queensland. The main purpose of my visit was to catch up with some friends from Pennsylvania, who I had just seen about 9 months ago, on my trip to USA and visit my family & other friends.

Saturday 9 Jun 07
Arrived at the airport about 7.05am hoping to get a seat on the 8.05am flight Melbourne to Brisbane. I ended up on the 9.35am. The ride up to Brisbane was a bit turbulent around Sydney/Hunter area & I could see snow on mountain tops, which I am not really sure where they were but it was pretty nonetheless. Dad picked me up from the airport & we headed off to Goodna, my stop for the next 3 nights. My parents old neighbours, Michael, Tamara & Talia arrived & they joined mother & father & I for dinner at the local RSL. I then headed off to a restaurant in Tenerife, Brisbane for a surprise birthday dinner for my friend Bill from Pennsylvania. It was great to catch up with both Bill & Bec and also other friends I have not seen for a while.

Sunday 10 Jun 07
This morning I went to St Stephens Presbyterian Church for the morning service. I gave the minister my little punch (this has been a tradition ever since I was about 5 years old.). Its got a little lighter over the years. In the afternoon I went to my brother's friend's wedding ceremony, we also checked out the room they were staying in at the Conrad Treasury Hotel. It was quite nice. She wore a lovely plain dress. After the wedding we came back to Goodna. I was exhausted so I ended up sleeping from about 5-7.30 then I watched tv.

Monday 11 Jun 07
Today my mother, father, grandfather & great aunt headed up to my parents shed in Jimboomba for a picnic lunch, of red rooster. It was a nice day, apart from my grumpy moods.

Tuesday 12 Jun 07
In the morning I had my hair cut. Then we headed off to Optus World in the city to sort out our mobile phone accounts. We arrived at Vikki's about midday & this was were I was staying the night tonight. Karl was still awake but Toby was asleep. We had lunch then Vikki & Karl had a sleep & then we went grocery shopping. That was the afternoon pretty well gone. For desert Paul, Vikki & I had some lovely ice-cream with chocolate sauce.

Wednesday 13 Jun 07
Today was the day I was leaving. I was awoken at 5.00am by Toby but went back to sleep for an hour. This morning we headed off to the manse, her parents place. Not really sure what we actually went there for. Vikki & Karl took me to the airport for a 4pm flight. I arrived in Melbourne & they said the temperature outside was 6degrees, coming from a top of 21degrees when I had gotten on the plane. It was also a little wet, different from the sunshine I had for the following couple of days.

Not mucha happin'

2007-05-31T19:52:00.000+10:00

Well the past month has surely been quite quiet but here are some highlights.

* QLD won the first of the State of Origin matches 25-18.

* Brisbane Broncos having won only 3 of 10 matches, and facing bottom of the table won their match against the Newcastle Knights, breaking lots of records. It was their biggest win & winning margin in the 20 years playing as a team 71-6.

* There were some pretty freaky scores over the weekend which included 25-18 for Titans game (same score as origin 1), & the two Saturday night games were 13-12 & 12-13.

* Melbourne Storm lost their first game of the year against Manly (who are 1 on table).

* This weekend will be the start of a couple of busy weekends. Two of my friends get married on Saturday, and the groom has composed the music for the entrance of the bride. We had a choir rehearsal last Sunday arvo and it sounded great. Forecast is for Melbourne weather at its finest, cold, windy with a few showers.

* Over the long weekend (is extremly long for me), as I'm taking an extra couple of days off work, I'm heading up to get some warmth in QLD. No games this time just to visit some friends, from Pennyslvania USA, who are spending a couple of weeks in Australia visiting family & friends.

LAST WEEK IN APRIL 2007: Part 2

2007-05-06T23:08:00.000+10:00

Thursday 26 April 2007: Gympie

Today we headed up to visit Tamara & Talia in Gympie. This was the first time that I had ventured up there since she had moved over a year ago. Talia has just turned 2.

We arrived in Gympie about 1.30pm and had lunch (i made a rice salad with chicken). We finished eating our lunch and Talia went to watch "The Fairies" on the TV. This along with "Dora" are basically the only two DVDs she watches & so Tamara doesn't get to watch much. She has this very educational toy called the "Sort n Soar rocket" that i really think is fantastic. Teaching children about numbers, colours, ABC & colours.

Later in the afternoon we made a trip to the shops, which seemed to take up the rest of the afternoon. Once we came back we had roast lamb with veges... very yummy. After main course my father & Michael headed off to get some desert. Lovely chocolate Bavarian cheesecake.

We headed off about 8pm for the trip back to Brisbane. I was again staying at the manse tonight as I had a dentist appointment in the morning & my parents car was in for a service. Wendy (a friend from school) & her friend, from Bendigo, were also staying at the her parents place too.

Friday 27 April 2007: Brisbane Game

I had my dentist appointment at 10.00 am. All was well & I didn't have to have another appointment as the bleaching had worked on my tooth. It was just refilled.

After the appointment i headed off walking down to Toombul shopping centre, in search of a pair of headphones as i realised that i didn't have them in my bag, only my sports ears. I headed into Toombul Music, the only music shop Centro. The only headphones they had in the store were

I got the train to my friend Nicole's place so that I could spend time with Nicole & her 1 year old boy Xavy. He had grown so much and was a beautiful cheeky boy. Had dinner of Kangaroo (usually its lovely & tender) but a couple of bits were a little tough.

I headed off to Suncorp Stadium (aka Lang Park) for the Broncos vs Storm grand final rematch. Brisbane haven't really being travelling well this year so it was a matter of touch & go as to whether they would pass. I got to see Corey Parker sitting on the bench. During the game in which Storm won (report here) Matt King & Ryan Hoffman both dislocated their fingers. It was great to finally see my first game with the Broncos playing.

After the game Bel & I headed off for a couple of drinks at the Normanby Hotel. We were there til about 12pm & then i had to head off home to parents place.

Saturday 28 April 2007: Brisbane - Melbourne

Today I headed back to Melbourne. We had a quick stop at my grandfather's on the way, having red rooster for lunch.

I was listed on the 1450 flight and arrived with about an hour to spare, so had a quick browse in the shops and grabbed a Royal Gala cappuccino to drink. The coffee was great and just what i needed.

We boarded on the plane and I was just sitting waiting for us to taxi & then take off. As the other passengers were boarding I noticed that Michael Crocker from Melbourne Storm was sitting in one of the emergency exit seats... then i also recognised Brett White & GI. But there was only about 12-15 from the Storm squad on the flight. During the flight Billy Slater was also on the flight (but he was sitting in Business Class).

We arrived in Melbourne on time and it was raining. I ended up getting home at about 6.30pm and I was glad that I could have the Sunday to recover as I surely needed it after such a busy week.

LAST WEEK IN APRIL 2007: Part 1

2007-05-03T23:27:00.000+10:00

It surely has been quite a time between updates. I mean my last update was the excitement over “Heroes” starting in Australia & last night they played chapter #14.

Well what can I say but it was so good to head to Queensland for a little relax (or not)

Sunday 22 April 2007: Melbourne – Sydney – Brisbane
Firstly something interesting about today:
Left Melbourne, it was raining.
In Sydney, it rained.
Arrived Brisbane, it was raining.

Early morning to get the 8.30 morning flight to Sydney.

Decided on a ferry ride from Circular Quay to Manly as I had only ever travelled around Sydney Harbour from the Quay under Sydney Harbour Bridge. So this was a new experience for me, to check out the other side of the opera house & other sights.

Grabbed some lunch of Smiths chips & coconut gelato at the Corso then headed to Brookvale Oval, for the Manly Sea Eagles versus Titans game. Whilst waiting for the game to kick off at 2pm, I decided to stay, put up with the rain & get soaking wet in the meantime.

The game was good. Manly won (report here). In the first 4 minutes Manly scored tries not only once but twice, one to Brett Stewart (one of my top 5 NRL players). This was my first live game that I got to see my favourite player, Scott Prince, playing for his new team, Titans. At one stage I was in a bit of worry when he hit his head awkwardly after been taken out after a kick. He was on the turf for a little while but seemed ok after a couple of minutes.

After the game I headed straight off to the Airport as I needed to get a hurry to the airport so I would make it to Brisbane that night. I had no problems checking in for the 7.15pm flight. Half of our plane had boarded when there was an announcement “Due to an electrical storm within 5ks of the airport we are unable to continue boarding passengers. Those that had already boarded, were required to stay on board. I passed the two hours by, by talking & going for a quick walk.

I finally arrived in Brisbane about 10.30pm (2 hours later than originally scheduled)

Monday 23 April 2007: Brisbane

Today I was educated in some childrens programs:

Went to my dentist appointment, the main reason why I headed for Brisbane for a week, at 9.30am then played a Sudoku game

Mum dropped me off at my friend Vikki’s place, to spend 1 ½ days with her & her two beautiful boys. One is 2 ½ & the other is 7 months.

In the afternoon we went shopping (Mother, Father, Vikki, 2 boys & I). The 2 year old was helping my mother by putting the groceries in the trolley. That kept him occupied for some of the time.

Once back at Vikki’s, we watched Maisy’s and then we played outside & then cleaned up as she was having inspections the next morning. Whilst we were cleaning up i took some photos of 7 month old in his swing. Desert that night we made chocolate mouse. (I can’t believe what the ingredients were…. Not one thing healthy!!).

It was an early night for me at 1030pm.

Tuesday 24 April 2007: Brisbane

Tuesday was an early morning, as you just can’t sleep in when you have a 2 ½ child running around upstairs. Breakfast consisted of porridge. It's so nice to have a bowl of porridge, that’s for sure, especially when you don’t have to make it.

I played with 2 ½ year old for a little while until about 9.30am, when the other children arrived as Vikki was having bible study at her house. Everyone arrived rather late & it was good to talk to lots of people but there was a strict agenda & everyone had to be out by 11am. We studied Acts 1 & only got through half of the study.

At 1055am the landlord arrived, along with three potential leters of the house Vikki is renting. They have bought a house but there is still a few months left on their lease. Everyone arrived whilst the bible study people were leaving too, so it was a bit of a mess.

After organising the kids lunchs they headed off for their afternoon sleeps. Vikki & I watched a movie, "Dying to Dance". It was an interesting movie about the struggle of anorexia & dancing. The kids woke up so we headed off for a quick drive to Wonabel to complete some errands (banking & bakery where we got a gluten free lemon cheesecake.

After dinner my parents picked me up to take me back to their house.

Wednesday 25 April 2007: Brisbane – Anzac Day

I got up at about 0345am to head off to the local service in Goodna, Brisbane to start at 0427am. My father served in the Vietnam War. We then headed off to the Goodna RSL for some breakfast of soup. I also had some rum & coke, about the only ever day that I end up having it so early in the day. .

At about 8.30am my father & I headed off down to the train to march in the Anzac Day march, which started at 1000am. We actually didn’t start marching until 1130am & then did the 1.5km or so stroll down George Street, down Ann Street & then down Edward Street

After the march went back to grandfather's house to have lunch. Spent some time reading the newspapers & then heading home. Lazed around at home & finally went to bed about 11pm. It was surely a very long day.

HEROES IS COMING TO AUSTRALIA

2007-01-20T21:56:00.000+11:00

It was very exciting news on Wednesday to learn that Heroes is coming
to Channel 7 on Wednesday January 1st. I watched a few episodes on
my US trip and its very good.

One month today!!

2006-09-08T13:13:00.000+10:00

At this time in exactly one month's time I will be at the airport awaiting my flight to New York. It is very exciting as its my first overseas holiday. Basically everything is all booked.. just got to book a couple of days events and then I will be all set.

Canberra Weekend 26-28Aug06

2006-09-08T13:11:00.000+10:00

Saturday 26 August
Well I had a 7.45am flight and as I didn't really want to drive (I just hate driving, or the matter was that I would have to drive back to Melbourne City in peak hour Monday morning) I caught the train & the skybus out to the airport... so it was an early morning. The flight was nice and I took a nice photo of the Telstra Tower from the plane and also saw the snow of the tops of Snowy Mountains as well. I arrived in Canberra on schedule and Gemma, my friend from Canberra, met me at the airport. As her mother was flying out that morning too we decided to stay and have a coffee and chat. We left the airport about 10.20am and headed off to my Gemma’s flat in Reid. I settled in for about 1 ½ hours and then rang a family friend who lives in the suburb of Charnwood to take me to their house to say hello to her family.

The family has 5 kids and they are very energetic and conversations run none stop. All of them were at home, including their eldest son who now lives in Roma and broke his ankle playing rugby union. In the afternoon we headed off to the Raiders Storm game. It was a very entertaining game… including fight & sin bins. The people I was sitting with had some kids and they were all dressed in Storm gear so it was quite a lot of fun as they wanted to borrow my “King of the Storm” banner. I let them occasionally but not towards the end, or when Kingy was off in the sin bin J

After the game there were loads of Storm supporters waiting for the players to come out and there was a barrier from the dressing room to the bus. The players came out and did lots of autographs but they had to get going quickly.

I rang my friend Gemma, she picked me up and then we decided to grab a bite to eat for dinner. We went to dinner at this lovely Indian resturant in Canberra Central. There wasn’t actually very much left. Then we went back to her unit and watched “Six Feet Under” Series 2.

Sunday 27 August
I slept in until about 9am, which was quite nice as I don’t think that I’ve actually done that for about 3 months. As it was turning out to be a lovely day, after a cool start to the morning I decided to take a walk.

I walked over the road to a park and decided to take a couple of photos of the entrance to the park. Whilst I was taking photos of the pillars I heard a voice in the bushes say, “excuse me”. I realised that there was a male having a pee. I then proceeded further into the park & found Gandi's Guidelines. I thought they were great! Anyway I proceeded for a walk and decided to go shopping. I managed to find a black jacket in the exact style that I had been looking for for about 3 years so I proceeded to make that purchase.

I headed back to Gemma’s flat about 12.20pm and then we headed out to get some lunch, had lunch & then went to the church they sing in and started rehearsal about 3pm. We sang evensong and managed with only 2 sopranos, of which one was me & my voice was still not 100%.

After evensong we headed back to the flat and cooked dinner, which was a nice mixed meat grill with veges and then we also had ice-cream and strawberries. The three of us, Gemma, Gemma’s boyfriend & myself talked quite a bit during the evening until I decided it was time to go to bed as had an extremely early start to the morning.

Monday 28 August
Woke up at 5am and then headed off to the airport at 5.40am. Gemma’s car had frost on it so she proceeded to try and clear it off. My flight was leaving at 6.45am so we had plenty of time to clear through although after having a coffee in the morning and then talking I nearly managed to miss the flight… they were calling my name quite a bit. Luckily Canberra airport is not very large.

It was such a lovely relaxing weekend and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I’ll have to spend a couple of weekends there next years, especially as another one of my friends is moving there.

Flight bookings all confirmed!!

2006-08-29T13:06:00.000+10:00

Just got the news today that all my flight sectors for my flight to New York are confirmed !! Its only 1 week 1 month & 2 days til we fly out.. so all is good !!!!

Slight changes to my itinerary

2006-08-23T14:13:00.000+10:00

Due to relooking at my overall trip I have decided not to travel up to Kiruna for the couple of days as by that time I think I will be too exhausted. Have decided to spend a day in Uppsala and then the rest in Stockholm. Accomodation changes also had to occur to as it was too expensive to stay at the Lady Hamilton Hotel during the week. Changes are:
First Hotel Linne' - Uppsala
Gustav Vasa Hotel - Stockholm

My booking is mainly confirmed so its just a matter of 1month 2weeks 1day til I leave!!!

Can't believe I haven't posted about Buster

2006-08-23T13:45:00.000+10:00

For those of you who have been out of the loop... Brett Seymour had his contract terminated with the Brisbane Broncos on 10 August, after breaching their code of conduct on alcohol and drugs. This meant he would no longer play for the Toowoomba Clydesdales or Broncos. He had been told that he would also not be required to play for the Broncos anymore and was free to negociate with other clubs if he so desired.

I was devastated to hear of the allegations made against him after the incident occured at the Regatta Hotel, Brisbane, on 30 July 2006 (the same night I was there & I guess not necessarily surprised of what could have happened).

Since then the allegations against him have been dropped so it will be interesting to see where he plays next year :)

Its been an awful long time since update

2006-08-19T14:40:00.000+10:00

Lots has happened over the past couple of weeks but haven't really been able to update cause my computer is actually out of order at the moment. Highlights over past couple of weeks have included.

Celebrating my birthday with dinner in Brisbane. It was a great night at Kapsali's restaurant Southbank and would recommend any one celebrating their birthday to head here on a Saturday night as the entertainment is great. Great to catch up with my family & friends

Going to the Broncos vs West Tigers game (in Brisbane). Broncos lost but Scotty Prince played very well in his 150th game :)

Went out to the Regatta Hotel in Brisbane and running into a few Broncos & Toowoomba Clydesdales player (one actual misbehaved on that night). Was interesting night.

Celebrating my birthday with lunch in Melbourne. It was a lovely afternoon at the Old England Hotel, Heidelberg, spent with family & friends.

Going to the Storm vs West Tigers game (in Melbourne). Wests Tigers lost and inevitable ending their finals chances. Had photo with Scott Prince afterwards.

Booked my flights for my East Canada/East America & Sweden trip. All now confirmed except sector from New York to Stockholm. Cancelled the idea of spending 2 days in Kiruna as I might end up being too exhausted by the end of the trip.

Going to the Broncos vs Storm game in which Storm won 18-12 (in Melbourne). Quick trip up Friday back on Sunday afternoon. Great to thaw out from the cold!!

Broncos won against Bulldogs in Sydney last night, 0-30.

Storm played NZ Warriors tonight at Olympic Park. Already they have their minor premiership after Broncos beat Bulldogs last night.

Doing CD recordings for a church hymn CD tomorrow afternoon after attending church in the morning.

Next weekend (26-28 August) off to Canberra to visit a friend & her boyfriend & going to the Raiders vs Storm game. Really looking forward to spending this time with them.

What Ive been up to over the past 2 weeks

2006-07-16T17:29:00.000+10:00

Wednesday 5th July – QUEENSLAND won SOO III !!!

Met friend from Brisbane, Belinda & her sister Aime at the hotel had few pre-game drinks SOO 3 game was awesome. Queensland won 16-14. Kingy scored try for NSW (well done)
Seats were absolutely fantastic – thanks to Katy for organising them. Crowd was 54,833.
After the game went out to the “Club Odeon” at Crown, with Belinda & Aime which was lots of fun but only arrived back at the hotel at 4am having only the last drink just before leaving the club. Had one and a half hours sleep.

Thursday 6th July

At work it seemed like a very long day as very tired from night before and didn’t feel too crash hot. It was home straight after work and early to bed.

Friday 7th July

Worked & then met Belinda & Aime at the hotel.
Storm Broncos game. Storm won 10-4. It was a very good game although the outcome wasn't really what we wanted. Kingy got players player for the match. Buster had a pretty ordinary game and was pretty bummed after the game.
After the game headed around to try to find Lockyer as Belinda wanted her jersey signed. He managed to sneak onto the bus. Caught up with Suzie & her mum from Sydney. Was good to have a quick chat with them.
Headed over to the Melbourne Storm social club. Belinda had her photo with Jake & also Billy and I had a photo with Matt King. Belinda thought it was not very good of me to have a photo with my Qld jersey on and as a Broncos supporter (he plays for NSW & Melbourne Storm).
Went back to the hotel and talked with Belinda until about 2.30pm. They just didn't feel like going out.

Saturday 8th July

Slept in.
Met Belinda & Aime and headed off to the Melbourne Aquarium. It was quite good and very relaxing. The last time I went in March 2004 and I didn’t really remember a lot of it… mainly only the greater deep. Both of our cameras’ batteries died but I managed to get a bit more use out of mine. (Spare battery was in my bag in the hotel.. doh!). The frozen giant squid was quite eerie and my favs were probably the sea orchards & the jellyfish.
After going to the Aquarium we headed off to the Observation Deck at the Rialto Towers in the city. Its quite a good view of the city from up there. Had we waited maybe about 10-15minutes more we would have got the night view as well.

Sunday 9th July

Slept all day as not well

Monday 10th – Sunday 16th

Worked Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday with sick day on Wednesday and early to bed each night to stay out of the cold air, as per doctors orders.

6 hours 33 minutes til kick off

2006-07-05T13:27:00.000+10:00

State of Origin 3 is on tonight at 8pm Melbourne. I'll be one of the 55K+ crowd cheering on the Queensland & New South Wales teams (hopefully more Qld's)!!

GO QUEENSLAND!

Very busy last weekend

2006-07-04T20:14:00.000+10:00

Well its been over 2 weeks since I last made a post so I thought I'd better write some of my happenings.

Cousins' 21st Birthday party

Friday night I helped my cousin celebrate his 21st birthday held at a place called Caz Rieztops Dirty Secrets in a private area downstairs. The speeches were great & my cousin was very emotional.
Mind you it was a fantastic venue and was set out really well. During the night I kept my cousins' girlfriend in downing a few shots together :-)
Arrived home about 1pm.

2 days in Brisbane - Saturday (concert)

Left home at 5.30am for 8am flight Mel-Brisbane
Arrived in Brisbane, sunny & 15degrees; headed to my parents house and slept for a couple of hours
Went to dinner at the club having Chicken Parma
My father & I headed off to St Johns Cathedral, Brisbane to listen to the Choir of Trinity College, University of Melbourne sing as part of their national tour. The music was a range of repotoire from the evensong music they sing during the semester. I knew most of the music. Probably the piece that I thought was sung best was by Maurice Greene "Lord, let me know mine end". The Allegri Misere was also sung although I must admit it was not the best I have heard and/or sung as part of.

Sunday (game day)

Went to church at Ipswich for 9.30am service.
Headed off home and then to Lang Park for the Broncos v Sharks game. Today's game was a very special game for Shane Webcke, as he was not only captaining the side but celebrating a milestone of 251 games. He didn't want to celebrate the milestone of 250 games as it was an away game against Manly and Broncs don't have a fancy record against them.
Arrived at the game before gates were to open as my brother was working and I was meeting a friend who was going to watch the game before hand. The food outlets weren't open so I had to wait a little while to have lunch... although we'd had morning tea at church so I wasn't starving or anything like that. Met my friends at about 1pm and then we headed off to the season seats she has allocated Broncos games.
The game before was not actually too bad and the scoreline in the end showed a pretty even match... can't actually say that I took much notice.
Pre-game entertainment was the St John Paul College's Marching Band. They were very good and the flag bearers (or whatever they're called) are much better than the Broncos cheergirls.
The players came out to warm up and for some reason the Broncos players warmed up at the Southern end of the ground, not the northern end like they usually do. Maybe it had something to do with the sun. As I was sitting at the 30 odd metre line at the Southern end, I decided to stay until they left to go to my seats. Boy I remember Parker in the fashion parade last year.
I went back to my seats to meet Misty & Alex. Misty had never been to a game before and now she wants to be a season member. Its amazing how different it is to go live as opposed just watching it on TV. The Broncos came out and dominated the first half. At one stage it was 16-0 and they had completed all but 2 of their 16 sets at one stage in the first half. This was such a great achievement as they had 11 players out due to origin duties and injuries. Corey was all over the field and just seemed to have a great game, apart from his goal kicking which was shocking.
Buster (Brett Seymour) had a very solid game and scored in the second half, at a very crucial moment in the game off a rugby style hit back from Brad Thorn. It maybe enough to ensure he plays in the next round.. we'll just have to wait & see. He's been named at 19 in the squad, which will be reduced to 17.
The end score was 26-12 to the Broncos. Brad Thorn was the official man of the match. The players did their lap of honour and I got a fantastic wave from Corey so that made more of my day :)
Father picked Alex & me up and we headed off to get some dinner, Hungry Jacks, before going to church at Ithaca. After the service I was able to catch up with my grandfather and a couple of other people. My Aunt, however cornered me and I was stuck being grilled for information but I was able to cut it short as I had to get to the airport to get my midnight flight.
On the flight on the way back from Brisbane we had a group of people who had just spent 3 years living in remote areas of Papua. It was very interesting as they were dressed in summer gear and we just couldn't understand why. They surely had some interesting stories to tell.

Philip & Mirella's wedding

2006-06-17T18:41:00.000+10:00

This afternoon I went to Scots church and sang as part of the Choir for Philip & Mirella's wedding (Mirella sings in the choir). It was such a lovely small wedding. The bridal party was a total of 4, with bridesmaid in Green & bride in Cream. It was a lovely traditional cream dress and she had a veil with a small train. She looked beautiful. The service was quite short, over in just under an hour. As she is part of the choir, the music was carefully selected. She had two hymns (Love Divine, All loves excelling & God be in my head), Psalm 121 (I will lift up my eyes to the hills), Anthem: Greater Love; John Ireland and Blessing: John Rutter's Gaelic Blessing.

SOO 3... 18 sleeps to go - Bring it on !!!

2006-06-17T18:29:00.000+10:00

Well it officially a Sell Out to State of Origin 3 to be held in Melbourne Wednesday 5th July. In fact they have now decided that they will release another 3,000 standing room tickets so that more people will be able to enjoy it. We've had our tickets organised for a while now and so I will be going along with a group of my friends. We're only 3 rows from the front just behind the goal posts!

State of Origin 2 was played last Wednesday night and it was such a great game. Queensland beat NSW 30-6, in fact until just the 77th minute it was 30-0. Justin Hodges had yet another great game and Karmichael Hunt (Brisbane Broncos) & Adam Mogg (Canberra Raiders) made solid debuts. Darren Lockyer was the official man of the match. So now the series is level 1-1, whoever wins game number 3 wins the series.

Just a few hours ago Karmichael Hunt is ruled out of playing football for next two months due to a broken foot. This is such a big blow not only to the Brisbane Broncos but also to Queensland team. But its not as if we do not have any further fullbacks... Greg Inglis (so long as he's fit by then), Billy Slater, Rhys Wesser, Clinton Schinofske & Matt Bowen.

Broncos lose & Games night with Mexican Twist

2006-06-16T00:20:00.000+10:00

On Saturday night I went over to Katy's house to watch the Rabbitohs play the Baby Broncos. You see each year when the Broncos play the weekend before State of Origin, they usually have between five & eight players not playing, they have to field a team of younger not so experienced boys. So this week they were 8 players down with another 3 out injured from the regular team. Anyway the game was on delay so Katy went and had a look at the score. She came back and was so well composed and her comments were "you'll like parts of it, maybe" or along those lines. I did like parts of it cause Brett Seymour scored in the 25th minute :) Broncos lost 34-14

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As it was a Queens birthday holiday on Monday, its a regular routine of members of the choir I sing in to organise a games night. This time we decided it would be a Mexican theme. That meant Mexican food, mexican drinks & then games. We didn't all go into dressing up bit though. Anyway I arrived at Flick & Richard's place just after 5.30pm. While Aidan & Cooper were madly running around the house, Mitchell was sleeping.

At about 7.30pm we decided to venture to have entree of Tacos. We then played this Playstation game SingStar Pop. As the teams only consisted of 4 each and there were 10 of us Richard & I missed out (what a shame), although we did manage to backup for Jim, as he didn't know a lot of the songs. The boys won but only just. After finishing the game we prepared dinner, which was Tacos & Fagitas. They were yummy.

Next game on the agenda was the Margaret & Davids at the Movies Board Game, which is quite a bit like Trivia Pursuit, although it takes so much longer as the questions are just about movies. I honestly am not one who is too fussed on Trivia Pursuit anyway. I think we finished about 12.30pm and by the end we were just wanting to finish so that we could have lovely desert consisting of sticky date pudding, apricots & ice-cream. Surely yummy.

Music whilst Director of Music is away

2006-06-04T22:37:00.000+10:00

Our Director of Music, his wife & their son are travelling and will not be at Scots' for the next 8 weeks or so. Before he left he did up a choir music list, however going by the music that we sang this morning I am very sure that list will change somewhat and we will choose the music that we would like to sing. This morning the offering that we sang was in unison (only one part) and when we had a choir with lots of men this morning... we should have been able to cope with a SATB (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass) piece of music that was a bit more challenging.

GI Joe is such a marvel to watch

2006-06-04T22:21:00.000+10:00

Melbourne Storm played Sydney Roosters last night. They won 20-16 and recorded their 10th straight victory at Melbourne's Olympic Park. Storm played a very hard match tonight against a Roosters team that were not so clean (meaning they played a bit dirty and stretched the rules a bit). Lisa quoted "they were like Chickens laying on eggs" which I thought was so appropriate. But I must say I'm glad that Storm won in the end.

Greg Inglis is just such a wonderful and exciting player to watch. At times you have to remind yourself that he is only 19 years old. He scored two tries, one of which was a 60 or 70 metre sprint to the try line. We had such a big group go to the game with Katy's nieces, Emma's brother & sister in law & nephew and Scott's brother & girlfriend came too. That made it a total of 21 including babies (i think) sitting in our usual spot. The babies were well behaved again. After the game we headed off to the social club and then after about 1 1/2 hours ended up deciding it was time for dinner.

We headed off to Sofia's in Camberwell. I had never actually been there and was quite impressed with the value for money and the quality of the food. I must say I was my appetite was elegantly satisfied by the end of the meal. It ended up been quite an early evening in then I think I was home about 10.30pm. I am sure that I will make the effort to visit there as its a lovely place.

Broncos win.. but injuries again in New Zealand

2006-06-04T21:07:00.000+10:00

Fulltime score 18-23. Each year when the Brisbane Broncos travel to Auckland to play the New Zealand Warriors we seem to come back with a couple of injuries. Just over two years ago one of our players Brent Tate injured a nerve in his shoulder from a tackle and since then it has not been 100%. Last year we also had a couple of injuries again this year we have three players injured, Tonie Carroll (knee), Tame Tupou (knee) & Corey Parker (back). We did however win as our record against the Warriors is not very good. Out of the last 10 meetings we have only won 3.

I actually decided to head to the pub today to watch it live, as I don't have access to fox sports at home. It was so an entertaining and close game that I needed to stay til the very end. Due to the fact that I was singing in church I basically missed the first 25 minutes of the game though. They seemed to play pretty well at times and in the second half it seemed to rain alot.

Holiday update... Aurora lights a goer

2006-06-02T19:28:00.000+10:00

After checking with the travel agent consultant I have been dealing with about flight cost of the flight from Stockholm to Kiruna is appears the cost of the flights return is only AUD200. That means its actually cheaper than me doing more trains down to Malmo & Copenhagen about AUD400. The 200 is far less than the AUD1,000 that I was quoted from a lady from another travel agent. So the Aurora lights are back on the agenda!

I haven't really done a huge great deal more on my trip plans apart from booking accomodation or places I still have to book...
Accueil Chez François B&B, Montreal
Acacias B&B, Quebec City
Bond Place Hotel, Toronto
EJ Bowman, Lancaster Country PA
Brouwers House (friends), State College PA
Big Apple Hostel, New York
All Star Movies Resort, Orlando
Lady Hamilton Hotel, Stockholm
Hotel Rallaren, Kiruna Sweden

And just a glimpse of places/things we plan to do include:
Montmorency Falls, Canada
Crayola Factory, Strasburg RailRoad, Amish Farm & House,
Penn State College Football Game, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Walt Disney World, JFK Space Kennedy Centre, Florida

Past 9 days and 3 games later

2006-05-28T22:57:00.000+10:00

Manly Sea Eagles vs Melbourne Storm: 20May06

Emma, Katy & I arrived in Sydney after a relatively smooth flight from Melbourne in the afternoon. We met Trent, Caz & Campbell at the hotel at about 4.20pm. It has only been four weeks since I had seen Campbell but boy how he had grown in just that time hey.

There wasnt much time before settling in and the kick off to the game. Katy & I went in venture of drinks and also Smiths chips with NRL Tazos (in Melbourne there is only AFL ones). We even swapped them. We also decided to buy the game tickets so that we didn't have to deal with them later.

Just after 6pm we arrived at Brookvale Oval. It was a pretty uneventful game apart from the fact that Storm lost 34-12. They do not have a very good record at this ground... thats for sure. The game was Brett Stewart's 50th NRL game and he played pretty well, although it was the first time he had not scored a try at Brookvale Oval since beginning of last year. The Storm State of Origin players, Greg Inglis, Matt King, Dallas Johnson & Cameron Smith were not playing because of their respective State of Origin duties for QLD & NSW. I didn't even take a photo of any Storm players in the end.

After the game the others caught up with a Matty Geyer, whilst I was off outside the Manly locker rooms waiting for them to come out. I had no luck in my hunt of Brett though. There's always the next game. David Kidwell also made an appearance.

We headed back to the hotel and had a midnight snack of Pizza.

Katy, Emma & I headed off to the airport for a morning flight back to Melbourne. Trent, Caz & Campbell stay back at the hotel for a little while as they packed up. We made it to the airport check in with just a couple of minutes to spare and time for Krispy Kremes donuts before boarding our flight. I tried the raspberry filled glazed ones and they are so much nicer than the lemon ones, maybe not as sugary.

The flight home was interesting. I was sitting at the back in the plane in between two ladies. Lady on my right had only flown once before because has a fear of flying. She talked about it most of the flight to Melbourne and I tried to distract her so that she didn’t keep on thinking about it. The lady on the left side was just as afraid of flying but at least she kept quiet about and didn’t go on about all flight. The landing wasn’t fab either, probably the worst I’ve actually experienced and hit the brakes pretty hard. It was all-ok & we made it all made it back to Melbourne in one piece.

Campbell surely loved the full attention of 5 adults for the time we were there!!

State of Origin NSW versus QLD – Wed 24 May

On Wednesday was the State of Origin I (series of 3 rugby league games played between New South Wales & Queensland). Final score was 17-16 with NSW now one up in the series. Queensland had seven rookies in their team. Greg Inglis, Steven Bell & Matt Scott played pretty solid games even though having shaky starts.

Greg Inglis scored 2 tries, Steven Bell one too. With the scores tied it was a matter of who could get a field goal in and it was NSW. I still remember the try saver push from Greg Inglis on Matt King’s arm to make him lose control of the ball.

Storm Home Game #4 2006 – no 2 for I’ve been to

Tonight was Melbourne Storm number four for the 2006 NRL season. I have really missed the past two home games and was so glad it was time for another. I also couldn’t believe how much all the babies had grown. Beckham, Campbell & Ryan are well behaved as they are now getting used to all the noises at the games.

Enough of the babies, reason why we were at Olympic park; Storm played Penrith Panthers. Storm won 17-16 in extra time. Scary as that was the same score as the Origin game on Wednesday. I must say the first half was pretty ordinary and I even managed a toilet break in, which Penrith scored a try. The second half did manage a little turn around and by full time it was 16all. We then had another maximum of 10minutes. People actually started to leave at full time, as they mustn’t have known about the extra time. The Storm boys I think need to learn how to kick a field goal as they only managed to get it over after their sixth attempt.

After the game Katy, Emma, Glenn Tanya & I went to the social club which was held in a different location to where we normally have it. The musicians were shocking so after a little while they all left and I probably stayed about five minutes longer and then got the train home.

Aurora Lights... a no go in Sweden for holiday

2006-05-19T22:08:00.000+10:00

I've been doing a little more investigating for the Sweden part of my trip and it appears that flying to Kiruna from Stockholm is going to cost AUD1,000 & that will only be two nights there, one full day (not that you actually get much daylight anyway). Getting a train really isn't an option as it'll be about 18hour train trip up too. Time & money are the main deciding factors here :) Thats were you get to view the northern lights best... Hopefully I'll still see it while I'm in Sweden anyway.

So it seems that when I'm in Sweden I'll travel to Gothenburg from Stockholm & then onto Malmo by train. I'll make a quick trip over to Copenhagen during my stay in Malmo.

Manly Weekend #2 - 2006

2006-05-19T21:04:00.000+10:00

vs

Katy, Emma & I are flying up to Sydney tomorrow afternoon. We're meeting Trent, Carolyn & Campbell at the hotel... they are doing the roadtrip. In the evening we are heading off to Brookvale Oval to watch the Manly Sea Eagles (less Origin duty players Steven Bell, Steve Menzies & Brent Kite and Ben Kennedy injured) play the Melbourne Storm (less lots of players who are on Origin duty - Matt King, Greg Inglis, Dallas Johnson & Cameron Smith or suspended Billy Slater & Michael Crocker).

Brett Stewart will be back for the Sea Eagles after having a couple of weeks out injured. He will also be playing his 50th first grade game.... all the best Brett and GO STORM!!

Qld Trip #3 - May 2006

2006-05-16T23:52:00.000+10:00

Thursday 11th May

Left work 15 minutes early to the airport for the 1905 flight from Melbourne to Brisbane. The meal on the plane was a beef Mince Penne and the penne was extremely dry and the meat not so tasty, but the white wine was great though. Arrived in Brisbane 2110. It was nice and warm. I took my jacket off and didn’t put it on for the rest of the night.

Friday 12th May

Slept in this morning. Breakfast was puffed wheat, sultanas, cashew nuts, raspberries and milk and a latte frappe drink.
We headed over to my grandfathers house in Meadow Street, Eight Mile Plains. We had lunch once we arrived, which was oriental fried rice with smoked ham. Desert was lemon custard slice, which was scrumptious.
After lunch mum & grandad puddled around in the house, while I made a couple of phone calls and addressed the back have about 55 envelopes for grandfather.
Picked up Alex at Riverview, had dinner at Goodna RSL. I had ordered Beef Lasagne with chips and vegies. Originally my order and Alex’s order came out incorrectly so I ended up with more chips than I was probably supposed to have. The lasagne was a little overcooked but quite nice nonetheless.
Back at my parent’s house, Ian & I watched the City Country match and the movie “Sweet Home Alabama”, whilst mother & Alex made chains in the sewing room. The game was actually quite ordinary, hence the reason why we flicked between the two channels.

Saturday 13th May – GAME DAY (BRONCOS VS SEA EAGLES)

We headed off to Sofitel Brisbane for breakfast, so it was another early morning. The morning absolutely splendid, sun beaming and not cool either. Just perfect. There was lots of lovely food for breakfast. My favourites were the cheeses, Danishes and chocolate Brochette. The fruit smoothies were also yummy. The view of Brisbane was great and I sat right in front of Central Station Clock.
Alex & dad walked up Jacobs Ladder. We drove dad to Sherwood for a Vietnam Vets barbeque get together and Alex at Riverview, so she could do shopping for mother’s day.
I watched the Tigers Manly game that I had on DVD and had Nachos (which had lots of garlic in it) that Ian had cooked as lunch about 3pm.
Ian was working at the Broncos vs Sea Eagles game so Alex & I got a lift in at 4pm, arriving about 4.30pm. The gates at the stadium didn’t open til 5pm so we headed off to “The Coffee Club” in Park road. I remember this place very well from my Brisbane days. Alex ordered a Mango Iced Frappe and I ordered a Jamacian (Liqueur) coffee. Whilst having coffee I spotted a small gift shop to buy my mother her mother’s day present and a card. I had made a card for mother but had left it in Melbourne. Doh!
I was meeting Belinda, a friend I met at the 2005 Broncos fashion parade last August, at her seat. They were in the Eastern stands about 20metre from the Southern end. We talked for about 1 hour whilst also watching the pre match game, Aspley vs Wynumn Colts. She’s flying to Melbourne for the 3rd State of Origin and also the Storm Broncos game so we talked about that and Broncos & Reds players (B Barnes).
Alex and I headed back around to our seats at about 7.15pm with a stop on the way at Red Rooster. I actually didn’t realise they had a Red Rooster at Suncorp, or pizza to be honest. We both had Strip Subs and a drink. The game started about 7.35pm. Steve Bell, Brett Seymour (Buster) & Justin Hodges (Hodgo) all played. Brett Stewart however was out injured. The crowd for the game was 24,991. Buster was back after having a few weeks in the Clydesdales to build his confidence and work on his form. Highlights for me from the first half were ‘Karmichael Hunt’s (K)’ try & Buster’s try right in front of me, after running about 20metres. The look on his face was of utter amazement… he didn’t think he’d be able to get into the space to score the try. He had a really good game in many facets. You could tell that he was more confident and enthusiastic than in the earlier rounds this year. Justin was fantastic as his par for this season.
In the second half Lockyer scored his 100th try and K scored in 79th minute after some sneaky work from Hodgo. Locky’s try was quite good with some great back up work from Thaiday & Hannant after a loose ball spilt from a Hodges tackle. The final score was 32-10. When the players went around the ground, as they usually do with half going one direction, and half the other. Hodges, Buster & Corey Parker all went round via the Southern stand. Corey & Buster both gave me a huge grin and wave. It surely was a complete end to a great game.
I went back to Goodna and watched the Broncos game on Channel 9 and then Ian & I watched ‘Firefly’.

Sunday 14th May

Another early morning as mother, father & I were leaving at 7.30am for Mother’s day breakfast at Ipswich church. Breakfast consisted of cereal and warm pancakes with maple syrup and little muffins.
Went to church service, which was at 9.30am.
After church we drove up to Toowoomba to visit Oma & Opa. We arrived 12pm on the dot. She looked like she had improved quite a bit since I last visited her two months ago in the nursing home that she was in respite in. Opa’s health wasn’t too good though. We had sandwiches for lunch and also cake from Michael’s Patisserie. He always orders the cakes from there. We think that he must like the girls.
On the trip back from Toowoomba I listened to 4bc and the Wests Tigers Knights game was live call. We had to take slight detour on back roads on the way back as at one stage we came to a complete stop as a tyre had burnt out on the road and caused the highway to be closed. This meant about another 20minutes. Once I arrived home I watched the Tigers Knights game.

Monday 15th May

This morning woke up at about 7.30pm. We were visiting Kathie & her new baby Bailey and Anabelle this morning. We had bought some paints as that is what they had run out of and required. Mum wrapped them up and then I gave her the present. This is my present.. I love receiving presents is what she repeatedly said.
The baby was absolutely tiny (7days ago 52cm 7lb2oz). I held him for a while and he was very light. Unfortunately he was not really awake at any stage we were there so we didn’t see the eyes. Mum & Dad went off to get lunch of KFC. (In Queensland they have hot & spicy chicken all the time, not limited time only like in Melbourne).
We headed to the airport so that I could get the 1550 flight from Brisbane to Melbourne with another detour along the way for about 10minutes to visit grandfather. The flight was quite good and landing was a bit uncomfortable. It’s at least another 5 weeks til my next trip to Queensland.

Three sleeps to warmer weather.... yeh!!

2006-05-08T19:27:00.000+10:00

I'm heading to Brisbane/Ipswich on Thursday night to get some warmer weather cause its Mothers day on Sunday, if you didn't already know. The director of music of the choir I sing at so nicely decided to have recordings this weekend from 12.45-2.45pm. I gave him my apologies via email, as it Mothers Day for goodness sake :)

Saturday morning mother, father & a family friend are having breakfast at the Sofitel Brisbane.
In the arvo I'm meeting a friend for drinks before the Broncos vs Sea Eagles game (we all know that's the the main reason for my trip, of course). I'm going to watch Brett Stewart & Steven Bell from Manly and Justin Hodges & hopefully Brett Seymour from Broncos... plus the rest of the Broncos players :)

Sunday we are having breakfast at my mother's church and then will probably head up to Toowoomba to visit my Oma.

Heading back to the cold Melbourne Monday afternoon.

Qld Trip #2 - April 06

2006-05-06T23:41:00.000+10:00

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.

Qld Trip #1 - March 06

2006-05-06T00:00:00.000+10:00

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.

158 sleeps..... or 22 weeks 4 days

2006-05-03T18:23:00.000+10:00

that's how long until I leave for my trip to Canada, America & Sweden.

About 8 months ago I started planning my trip which was to be to Vienna & London but then I starting talking to Katy about how I would love to go to Disneyworld, but couldn't find anyone to go with... it all changed from then. Well I'm not even going to the same continent :-)

Itinerary as follows:

Visit east Canada (New York-Montreal-Quebec City-Toronto), by train with my father for 10 days
Hire a car for 6 days in Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, Lancaster Country, Gettysburg & State College) to visit my friends in central PA
Meet Katy & Emma for two weeks in New York, Orlando & Miami. Father will spend one night before departing back for Australia.
Fly to Stockholm & for five days in Sweden (hopefully go to the north and see the Aurora Lights!!) or maybe I'll go down to Copenhagen to visit Princess Mary (lol). Katy & Emma flying to Las Vegas.

Train & flights for travel within US & Canada are booked, just have to get my book my seat for the flight to New York (but can't do that til August 8). It will be so much more fun with my family & friends. We've booked our accommodation for Orlando & Emma has sent off for our booking in New York. Just have to book all the other accommodation and work out what we're going to actually do in each of the places. Its lots of fun researching & planning !!

Choir Roadtrip - Coronation Music

2006-05-01T23:33:00.000+10:00

Last weekend I visited Hamilton, Victoria to perform in a concert, with the Scots' Choir, at the "Southern Grampians Promenade of Sacred Music".

(click picture to view larger)

Saturday 29th April: I left home about 10am and my first stop was Caulfield to pick up Jess, my company for the 4 hour drive. We drove along the Princes Freeway & Hamilton Highway and had a toilet and lunch stop at Lismore. We found this little cafe called Swaggies Rest so we stopped for a little while there. The toilet here was in an old railway carriage. After potato & leek soup with bread, raspberry lemonade, nachos, & cappuccino in a mug we were very well satisfid and headed up to Hamilton.

Arrived about 4pm in Hamilton and checked into my hotel, "Hamilton Townhouse Motel on Shakespeare". It was a lovely motel. Once we arrived we contacted Felicity to see what sightseeing they were doing. They were coming back from some falls and we met them at the Hamilton Art Gallery. There were vases, paintings and fine china being exhibited. I must admit, artwork does not give me a huge appreciation at this point in my life although I think I might be gradually growing. Maybe we'll revisit that thought at the end of the year.

We then ventured back off to the motel and we had 40 minutes to spare before rehearsal at the Lutheran Church at 5.30pm. (I discovered that I had fox sports 1 at the motel and that the Broncos Raiders game was on at 9.20pm. I then began to plan the evening based around the thought of been back at my motel room to watch the game). A few of the choir members did not arrive until about 6pm so Douglas, our conductor, was not too happy about that. We were seated in the arrangement of two choirs. It was very strange because we usually stand near the other sopranos and altos but basically all we could hear were altos and basses from 2nd choir. In one of the pieces there was a three part division for the basses & Tom (who was right behind me) sang this very low F. It gave me shivers up my spine and still does thinking about it. After rehearsing for about an hour we then had a break, dinner and then changed for the concert that would start at 8pm. During the break I nursed Mitchell and he spewed on me.... then he fell asleep on me!!

The concert we were singing at was entitled "CORONATION MUSIC", however not all the music that was performed was originally part of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.

Choir programme was as follows (not necessarily in order):
1. We wait for thy loving kindness, O God - William McKie
2. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace - Samuel Wesley
3. O Clap your hands - Orlando Gibbons
4. I was glad - Parry
5. O taste & see - Vaughan Williams
6. The Old 100th tune - Vaughan Williams
7. Zadok the Priest - Handel

There were also two organ pieces and a string piece that were played as well and were playing splendidly. Overall the concert was a huge success although there were a few glitches, especially in the debating over the correct pronunciation of some vowels. I was so confused I don't even know whether I sang it right or not in the end.

Concert was over... job here for the evening was done... time to party & relax.

After the concert we had some wine and nibbles. (Time went by and I was still at the church, I guess I didn't really want to watch the game that much. I knew Katy was taping it for me). It was great to mingle with all the people that had attended the concert.

We then headed off to find somewhere open that would serve food. Slight problem here in that it's a country town, 10pm and Saturday night so limited amount of places opened. We found this pizza place "La-Piato" but they were only doing takeaway so we went in ready to order and go back to the motel rooms to eat it. Well they saw the number of people and said we could dine in. I shared a pizza with Richard, which was a supreme without olives and extra onion. I also had a chocolate milkshake too. Dinner was very yummy. Some of tdefectedsters difected to the commercial hotel instead of the pizza. We kept on sending SMS' to Ric saying "Pizza...hmmm....yum...." I also sent him a message to tell him that the Raiders had lost against the Broncos, just to rub it in. Once our appetites had been fulfilled some of us called it a night and some headed off to Commercial Hotel to meet Kate, Ric & co. We stayed for about 1/2 hour and then ventured off to beds
......................................................................

Sunday 30th April: The agenda for today was to sing at church and then venture on back to Melbourne. The choir members that made the trip up (less Tom, Will & Lizzie) were divided into two choirs so that we could sing at the Uniting & Anglican churches. I was singing at the Anglican church. I really miss the traditional communion service each week and all the "smells & bells" associated with it too. We were meeting at 8.45am for a quick run through the music. I picked up Kate & Ric from the place they were staying at. We met a couple of others and started to rehearse. There was five of us but then with about five minutes to spare a group of about another five joined us. We wore robes, men had blue rope belts too and women had red ones and red scarf like things around our necks.

After the service we headed out to the hall to get have some morning tea that the lovely ladies had made for us. Highlights were profiteroles and carrot cake. I then took some photos and then had to venture via the Uniting Church to pick some people up to drive them back to Melbourne. I had a quick detour to the Lutheran Church. I had Allan in my car for the trip from Hamilton to Mortlake. We had decided to meet in Mortlake for lunch as it would be more likely to have something open. We arrived at Mortlake and ended up having lunch at this lovely place called the "Celtic House". It was a coffee shop & bakery with cooked had home cooked meals. Outside there were some interesting looking plants with painted shoes as the pots. One set even had the plants growing out of the toes. I ordered Chicken Parma with cappaccino in a mug. I was served nearly last, as is usual.

The boys then had a quick fly of the frisbee and then we continued on our journey back to Melbourne. I ended up with 3 boys in my car as they live in close vicinity to me than the others, which also ended up full. I had stops in West Brunswick, North Carlton, Mel Uni and then my home.

It was such a great weekend to spend with some lovely people and I really cannot believe that I considered not going the previous weekend.

Manly Weekend: 1-2Apr06

2006-04-15T01:14:00.000+10:00

Two weeks ago Emma, Katy & I headed off to Manly for a weekend of league games. Katy & Emma were really going for the Manly Roosters game & I was going for Tigers Storm game, although it was the Tigers players I were more interested in than the Storm players. Scott Prince, my favourite player, plays for the Wests Tigers.

On Saturday mid morning we caught out flight to Sydney, picked up a hire car and then did some shopping in Warringal Mall. After that we headed off to our hotel room and walked to Brookvale Oval for the Manly game. We got to the game quite early as Emma & Katy wanted to sit in their usual position. It was my first venture to Brookvale & its such a great venue as spectator to watch games. We waited after the game to see Belly (Steve Bell) & Matt Orford. They were pleased to see Katy & Emma. Whilst talking to Belly he gave Katy his phone so that we could have a look at pictures of his new daughter. She looked adorable.

Sunday morning we had some time to kill, so we headed off to Manly beaches. The first one we went to was North Curl Curl Beach and it was rough. We then headed around to Manly and had some breakfast which consisted of corn fritters, omelets, pancakes & ice-cream and checked out the calmer waters. We arrived at Leichhardt Oval about 2.00 (about 1/2 hour to spare) before the game started. I was very excited about this game as I was going to watch Scotty Prince play. He played pretty well and Melbourne Storm didn't play very well. Tigers won 30-28 (flatters the Storm a bit).

After the game had finished Katy said, "I guess we'd better go find some Tigers players". She was so right as she knew I wanted to head around and talk to them. Whilst we were waiting, Katy & Emma found a group of Sydney based Storm supporters and we were able to catch up with them. Quite a few of the Storm players came out. They did not look too particularly happy with themselves. Cam (Cameron Smith), Kiddy (David Kidwell) & Matt Geyer stopped for a quick few words.

Every now and then I would disappear from the group in search of Tigers' players. I eventually spotted Scotty & got Emma's attention to come over and have my photo. I had my photo but it makes him look really tall as he's standing on the footpath and I'm down at gutter level. Emma then decided that she wanted a photo with Scotty too, which surprised me a bit as she isn't overly fussed about him as a player and/or person. Katy headed to get the car while Emma & I waited for Benji Marshall to come out. Also had my photo with Benji as well, although the photo isn't too good. Katy, Emma & I then headed off to the airport, doing a couple of circuits of the whole of Sydney airport in search of the five dozen krispy kreme donuts that we brought back to Melbourne.

St John's Passion Concert -14Apr06

2006-04-15T00:49:00.000+10:00

Well Good Friday has come and gone and Bach's Passion has been done for another year. Its now the fourth year that we have sung St John's on Good Friday and every year is getting we seem to improve on the previous and I seem to enjoy it more and more too. I am so glad that I stayed in Melbourne for the performance and will really miss not singing with them this Easter Sunday. I unfortunately ended up having to pay for the parking. So I was actually paying to perform in the concert, unusual situation I guess but would never have it any other way, so I also missed the warm up.

The soloists were excellent. It never seems to amaze me at the fabulous talent Thomas Drent has been given in his singing. He always sings with such accuracy and musicality that seems to capture me more and more each time, quite often giving me goosebumps. One of my favourite parts of the Passion is the Aria, "Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen (Come ye souls whom care oppresses). Other soloists Deborah Kayser, soprano, (has such a powerful voice, real delight to listen to), Kate McBride, soprano, (great dictation and fantastic pure tone) and the Tenor (can't remember his name) were all great too.

After the concert we then headed off to Fed Square (we had huge limitations as to what was open due to Good Friday) and the pub Trnzport, which was pretty ordinary (compared to the reports that I've heard) but was good to relax and have a drink after such a big day. Its a shame that I couldn't stay any longer as I have another big day on Saturday, flying to Brisbane to be with my family for Easter.

Easter Week Music

2006-04-12T23:51:00.000+10:00

As most people know this coming Sunday is known as Easter Day. To a lot of people it means a holiday, to others, spending time with family, others, Easter eggs and the Easter bunny and to others a religious story of Christ's sacrifice. The week before Easter day in the liturgical calender year is known as holy week. On Good Friday, for Christians, its a day of reflecting that Christ sacrificed his life on the cross, to suffer for the sin that we commit each day.

Now every year on Good Friday for the past four years the church choir I sing in has performed "The Passion according to St John", by J.S. Bach. This for me is a wonderful opportunity for me to continue one of my great passions, church music. As this piece of music was originally written in German we sing in German. This can be quite a lot of fun and can also be a bit confronting, especially with the faster movements with words requiring difficult articulation. Tonight we had our first rehearsal with the orchestra and it went quite well. There is a lot of things that we surely can improve on both as a group and also individually. We rehearse again tomorrow and then on Friday we perform.

I attended a concert during my lunch on Monday which was also "The Passion according to St John", but by a different composer, Schutz. It was performed by a group of five people, most of whom are a part of the Scots Church choir. Its not actually often that I get to be on the listening end of a performance and I must say that they were very good. There were parts were a couple of the parts were a little inconfident of the pitch and timing was slightly out (which I'm sure would have been resolved with some more rehearsal time) but otherwise a fabulous performance and another job well done.

Welcome to Anna's blog

2006-04-12T22:53:00.000+10:00

Welcome,
Yes I've been convinced that this is such a great way of communicating that I've finally set up my own blog. I'll try to update it regularly as exciting or the not so exciting things happen.
Anna