OLD FRIENDS

This weekend we visited friends on the Gold Coast.

It takes about 45 mins on the M1.

Ben and Lyn have been our friends for 40 years. They took us out for dinner.

These two oldies have been friends since their early 20's when they lived in the same town in Switzerland. They decided to migrate to Australia to learn to speak English. They intended to return to Switzerland after a few years but as you can see they never did. After they learnt English, they parted ways. Bill went to P/NG and Ben went to Sydney. After 10 years they met up again in Brisbane, both with Australian wives. Since then Ben and Lyn have lived in northern Australia and in the Gatton area west of Brisbane but now they are on the Gold Coast.

The dinner was huge, Lyn and I had Barramundi.......

Ben had T-Bone steak....

Bill had Lasagna

We all shared a Tiramasu and went back to their place to play cards. We play a Swiss game called Jass. The boys verse the girls. Mostly the boys win but sometimes us Aussies beat them at their own game.

The next day they took us to the Gold Coast Botanical Gardens. They are new and still being developed but it was a nice place to be. The flowers were beautiful.

Gum blossom buds.

Gum blossoms

Then we walked through the posh suburb of Emerald Lakes. This is called the French Quarter, the appartments are modelled on the old French style.The appartments cost between $350,000 to over a million dollars.

The view from the apartments. Then we had a coffee there and returned to our humble abodes.

BIRTHDAY BEAR ON BRISBANE RIVER

Well its that time again. Our birthday group celebrated George's birthday last Tuesday. He decided to have lunch and a river cruise on the Kookaburra Queen, paddle steamer.

Paul. Helen. Ann, George, me, Bill, Mary and guess who is in the sriped bag next to Mary? It was Mary's turn to dress Birthday Bear for George. (This is what we do instead of giving presents, we pass the bear around the group, but each time it must be dressed differently)

There are the two Kookaburra Queen restaurant cruise boats.

Upstream is the Storey Bridge..Brisbane's landmark.

Looking up we see some of the office towers.

and some apartment blocks

Then the tour guide calls us on board (what a character)

The photographer came.

We settled down for lunch but Birthday Bear was a bit shy to come out of his bag until we finished eating and made room for him on the table.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGE.....George has just recently retired and Bear is dressed as a retired fisherman.

His hat has hooks and sinkers on it, his shirt is covered in fisherman's excuses for not catching any, He has a tin of bait over hs arm, a bottle with a wriggly worm and of course his fishing rod.

And a book on 101 things to do in retirement.

After lunch the boat did a U turn and we headed back. We pass the renovated Powerhouse, which is now an upmarket Arts complex for theatre goers who like way out productions.

Back under the Storey Bridge......

...to the CBD.

Goodbye Brisbane River. Birthday Bear went home with George and Ann on the train, Helen, Paul and Mary went home on the City Cat ferry and car, we went home on the bus and car.

We did our bit to keep traffic out of the city, saved on parking fees and got off peak, pensioner concession tickets on all the public transport.

FAREWELL BILL W. FROM THE QUEENSLAND ASOPA GROUP

ASOPA stands for the Australian School for Pacific Administration, which operated during the 50's, 60's and 70's to train people to work in the Australian Territories especially Papua/New Guinea. Some of us were Cadet Education Officers, (yes we were called CEO's) but we were really student teachers. In 2007 a group of us ex CEO's from Brisbane organised a 3 day reunion for all ex CEO's in Australia and from around the world. It took us a year to organise the reunion activities and in that time the Queensland group had many meetings and became a group of very good friends. From then on we have continued to have meetings without having a meeting, we just have lunch and a good time. However one of our group, Bill W., is leaving us to move to Victoria. So what a good excuse to have a lunch together. We had it at our place. Bill W. (on the right) is a wonderful guy. He is one of the fittest 70 year olds I know. He has always been an athlete and has won many gold medals in a variety of world wide competitions for hurdling and running. He spent most of the last 10 years caring for his sick wife, who sadly passed away some months ago. He looked happy to be with us yesterday, even though he has to have surgery on his knee today.

Bill was the chef...a Swiss chef cooking an Australian barbecue.

The QLD ASOPA group from L.to R. Josephine, Richard, Colin, Denis, Ros and Bill W. ( Henry, Joe and Kathryn couldn't make it today). Everyone is enjoying Bill's delicious menu.

Garlic Prawn Kebabs on a bed of rice with tarragon.

Rib fillet steak, beef sausages, Potato Salad, Bean Salad, Greek Salad, Pumpkin Salad and Russian Salad.

Apricot pie and ice cream, you can see it is still hot weather here.

Colin enjoying his pie.

Ros entertained us with some historic nostalgia. She found some letters, that Denis had written home to his mother when he had been posted to a remote island off the coast of Papua. He was only 19 years old in a primitive island village, with no stores. He waited for supplies and letters to come on a boat once a month. He asked his parents to number the letters on the back of the envelope so he knew which one to open first. He did the same with the letters he sent home. Ros read some to us. The stories these people can tell of their lives as young people living in the wilds of P/NG are gob smacking. My stories are not so exotic as I was posted to Pt Moresby, which was like a country town.

Colin saying goodbye to Bill, who is looking forward to a new life in Victoria with a special friend, who is also and ex CEO from ASOPA.

PISCES LUNCH

Last Sunday we were invited to our friends' place for their annual Pisces Lunch. Ruth and Bill C. enjoy making a birthday lunch for their friends but in February they have 3 friends with birthdays. So instead of having 3 different lunches they do one and call it their Pisces Lunch. The three birthdays were my Bill, Maureen and Franco. Poor Franco was badly burnt recently when his car burst into flames and he and his wife were unable to come this year. Bill C and Ruth live in a lovely unit overlooking the Brisbane River at Indooroopilli, a suburb of Brisbane. The river is still brown from the silt washed down during the storms in January.

We were watching the river fun from the balcony.....

...where Bill C. has made a nice little garden

It was a very hot day so we ate inside in the aircon. Ruth is pouring the Pisces a drink while.......

...Bill C. cooks in the kitchen.

He made us melon,figs and bruschetta for entree and...

Lemon Thai Chicken for mains. As usual, Ruth made Bill his favourite dessert...

Tirami-su and silly me forgot to take a photo.

Another fabulous Pisces Lunch. Thank you Ruth and Bill.

DR RALPH TO THE RESCUE

In 1962 I went the Australian School of Pacific Administration to train to be a teacher for Papua/ New Guinea. There were about 60 students in my year, most of us in our 20's, a few younger and older. After we were posted to P/NG many of us lost contact with each other. Some stayed for many years others moved on. In 2002, 40 years later, a couple of ex students took it upon themselves to find everyone and organise a reunion. It was a hilarious 3 day event, ex students came from all over Australia and the world. It took us the first day to recognise each other and renew friendships. It was interesting catching up with every one's life over the past 40 years.

One of our group was Howie Ralph, he and his wife brought a baby wombat to the reunion. Naturally that became a topic for conversation. It turned out that Howie left the teaching profession and returned to university and studied to be a Doctor of Medicine and a Veterinarian. He and his wife were caring for the orphaned wombat that needed bottle feeding regularly consequently it attended the reunion and won everybody's heart.

It wasn't surprising to read this news story recently, written by Josephine Asher for ninemsn. (I have shortened the article)

Dr Howard Ralph has taken time away from his vet surgery in NSW to treat animal victims of the Victorian bush fires. He has treated horses, dogs, dingos. goats, koalas, wallabies, a turtle, a duck and a peacock.
Most were treated for burns and injuries sustained while frantically trying to escape the fire, like puncture wounds, eye injuries and head injuries. Some animals had to be euthanased as the burns to their eyes and faces were too severe.
Dr Ralph was very sad to see these animals suffering and he does his best to alleviate their stress.
Dr Ralph is a volunteer with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and he has attended wildlife rescue operations all over the world including in Borneo but he has also worked as doctor and an anesthetist in Sydney and Canberra.
He is currently setting up Southern Cross Wildlife Care in Braidwood in southern NSW.
I feel honoured to know this compassionate man.

We saw many heart warming scenes on TV of owners being reunited with their pets including the peacock pictured above.