New Years BBQ

Ronny did fish and prawns on the barbie for us on New years eve.

Trip out to Fitzroy reef

Ronny & Kerstin bought new hats for the bright sun and thought the trip out to the Fitzroy reef was a bit windy!

Stingers

We hang out at the beach, but couldn't swim because of Stingers.

Patrik & Ronny enjoying a swim in the Hideaway B&B

Hideaway, 29th of December

Wall had New Years at Agnes waters in a quiet Bed & Breakfast called the Hideaway. Ronda and Dough (the owners of the place) where fantastic nice.

Patriks parents arrived on the 28th of December

Ronny & Kerstin enjoying a brekkie on the 29th on our balcony.

Christmas Day 25th Driving along

Unfortunately they had stingers in the water on Christmas Day and so we couldn’t swim in the sea. So we decided to go for a drive. Until we realized that everything is closed on Christmas Day. Even the petrol stations! And they don’t have any self service stations.
So after realizing this, we bought ourselves some ice-cream in the 37 degree heat. Then looked at the meter to see if the petrol in the car actually could take us back to where we where staying, Agnes Waters. Barely, but yes it should, if we drove very fuel-efficiently…
The Old man in Miriam Vale looked very serious when he said – you are sure that you will get back? making us even more worried.

Back in Agnes Water we celebrated with Champagne as all Australians do the 25th on the Beach. Patrik did some excellent Barrier reef fish on the BBQ and we sang Christmas carols all evening.

Christmas 24th Dec at the Barrier Reef

We caught the ferry very early Christmas day from Town of 1770, to embark on our trip out to Lady Musgrave Island. The sight of the Island and its lagoon was thrilling! But in true British Colonial style, we didn’t do anything before we had been served our morning thee and fruit cake. A glass bottom boat took us and a guide to a walk on the island. The island was covered with birds and trees. The amount of birds living on this island was extraordinary.
On the glass bottom boat back to our pontoon and boat tortoises were swimming around. Had it not been for our energetic boat driver driving over it all the time it might just had been able to get up to the surface to breath.
With the exception of lunch we spent the entire day in the water looking at fishes, corals and other sea animals at the reef. It was too much to take in. We hope we can get some pictures up here for you to see how good we looked in our snorkelling gear!
After heading back we had a great Christmas dinner at the Tavern in Agnes Waters for Oysters and great prawns.

Christmas snaps

We need to get more in to a Christmas mode than we are right now. So tonight we’re planning to have a Christmas dinner with some typical Swedish ingredients. We will have; herring (two kinds), ham with mustard, mini hot dogs, pate, beetroot salad, fresh potatoes and snaps.
The herring we bought at IKEA but they do have it in the supermarket as well. The snaps is home made spiced with cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves and the peel from an orange.

House party

Yesterday there was a house party in our apartment building. A little “get-to-know-your-neighbour” get together hosted by the management for the building. Since it is close to Christmas Santa Claus paid a visit, bringing candy and gifts to the children. But it seems as if they have a different approach to the Santa here than we are use to. In Sweden he is usually an old respectable guy bringing hope and happiness to the people he is visiting. Here he seems a bit more hysterical, maybe you could say that he is a little more Disco.

Ho, ho, ho

With the holidays coming up we decided that we are going to do something different for Christmas. Since this Christmas already is kind of unlike to what we are use to we will try to take it a little bit further. Our plan is to leave Brisbane a couple of days and go up the coast to Agnes Waters. It is a 5-6 hour drive to get there but it is suppose to be really great. Up there is where the tropics begin and for the 24th we are going on a barrier reef cruise.
We hope that it will turn out good since we are planning to do almost the same trip for new years. But then it will be together with Patrik’s parents who are coming down for a visit.

Sunday afternoon

We are slowly getting in to the Australian culture. One thing that we now learned is that Sunday afternoons is for mates (friends) and beer. On Sundays people either come together for a BBQ or they meet up at a bar in the afternoon to drink a few cold ones together. This Sunday we were in fact invited by some fiends to a bar in Bulimba witch is just a bit down the river from our place. It was a really nice thing to meet up for a few beers and then go back home for the Sunday night dinner. We will definitely do it again.

Pullover

On Wednesday Patrik went to see an Architect that runs a one man Architect and house builder firm. Some friends that we met at a BBQ had been hiring him and recommended Patrik to get in touch with him. So Patrik got in the car together with the street directory to find his way to Camp hill. It went pretty well driving with one eye on the map and one on the road. Soon he was there, just one final right turn to get to the right street. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to turn where he wanted to so he continued to the next set of traffic lights to do a U-turn.
After this little episode he was happy again feeling good about finding the way through the city. The feeling didn’t last for long though, as it soon was distorted by a look in the rear view mirror. There it was, the classic “things-you-don’t-want-to-see-behind-you-when-you-driving” police car with flashing lights. After pulling over a policeman came up to the car asking about what the reason was for doing a U-turn over by the traffic light. After some explanation the policeman realized that this was just a stupid Swede trying his best. So he settled with telling Patrik that it isn’t permitted to do U-turns by traffic lights unless it is stated so on a sign. Patrik then thanked him for the information and they shook hands on that he would now follow the Aussie laws.

Aussie Christmas

Christmas is getting closer and the truth is that it is hard getting in to the Christmas spirit when it’s 36 degrees Celsius in the shade. There are a few signs that the holidays are coming up but not very many. There are Santa’s at the shopping centre and some weird looking Christmas lights hanging of some balconies and the city’s big plastic Christmas tree with a neon shining plastic star on top at the kings square. But that’s about it.
See for yourself how a Christmas in Australia can be at: http://www.kenduncan.com/gfc_ausxmas.php

+35 degrees C

Ok, it is getting slightly hot and everyone keeps saying, February is the worst time a year when it passes 45 degrees C. We will be happy to have airconditioning in our unit by then I guess.

You wake up in the morning being dehydrated because you didn't drink enough before you go to sleep, which is strange to us. From now on we always have cold water available at home and always sleep with the doors open so that the breeze can come through during night if the air con is not on.

Sunday Walk

On Sunday we took a walk around Brisbane to see parts of the city that we haven’t explored yet. This took us around the river to the South Bank part of the city. The major part of South bank was built for the World Expo 1988. Since then it has kept developing to a very popular with café’s, restaurants, BBQs next to the river walk. South bank also has a artificial beach with white sand and blue water very popular enjoyed by families with kids. The beach has its own beach rescue team and tower in the middle of the city.

Straddie

On Saturday we drove out to Cleveland where the ferry leaves for North Stradbroke Island. It is a “sand island” meaning that the whole island is made out of sand. On the island they have an interesting fauna, in some parts threes and bushes grow with almost no access to water while growing in the sand. Some other places are just the opposite with very green bushes standing around some lakes.
Unfortunately we forgot the sun block, but the waves and water was wonderful as the temperature reached 37 degrees C. The island was quite big so we had to take a bus over to the “point lookout” where there was a great view over the ocean and dolphins played in groups in the water.

View from our window by night

This view is very well accompanied with a glass of cold white wine!

View from our window

This is the view from our window on the 4th floor. Wonderful to have a the breakfast overlooking the entire city!

Christmas concert

Saturday, after a day at the beach we got ready for a Christmas concert at the Brisbane Botanical Gardens. We could hear the singing from our apartment, and it proved to be a really big concert with a number of Australian well known artists. The entire concert was taped by national television to be sent on Christmas eve. Which was a bit unfortunate since Australian television certainly isn’t as good as Swedish television on doing live shots. The number of retakes was rather amusing at the end.
We did however really enjoy singing along with the Christmas carols while having a picnic in the park, and it did remind us that Christmas is coming up which seems very strange in 30 degrees hot weather. Santa by the way had the most Party alike (with glitter) outfit never seen in Sweden.

Friday night was Party Night

While Patrik enjoyed a night out with his Architect friends in Fortitude Valley, Kristin and Heather crashed a Christmas Party with one of the company’s travel arrangers BTI. After the taste of free champagne and food and live music by Australia’s Idol winners this year, we gave the city’s Casino a go. We enjoyed their good Australian live music, and danced, cooling down with some strawberry daiquiris. Patrik came along to enjoy the dancing at the casino leaving the Architect firms Christmas party behind as they started the party just maybe a bit early.

the W.A.G.S.

After doing some shopping to get the right gear for standing the Aussie sun, Patrik headed to go sailing yesterday. When arriving to the yacht club it was just to sign up as crew for the W.A.G.S. (Wednesday Afternoon Going Sailing) at the bar.
After a few cold drinks the skipper of “Double or nothing”, a 40 ft boat, introduced himself and along with a Brazilian couple and some guys from Germany. There where approx. 30 boats in the competition, with different handicaps & starting times. Boats are given a handicap based on their performance in the water, and the specific race track of the day. The race went on for 2 hours with sting rays and dolphins joining the boats through the water. It was an excellent experience, and Patrik is going back the coming Wednesday, probably bringing Kristin’s colleague Shane with him.