PARTY, PARTY, PARTY

I had  more parties to attend and visitors to entertain.

 I recently joined Curves Gym. I have been pleasantly surprised at how much better it is to any other gym I have belonged to. Last week the gym owner organised a Christmas Dinner at Lychee Village Chinese Restaurant next door to the gym. We filled the whole restaurant. I met lots of new people.

 But Joan (right) and I have been friends for many years. We met at Playgroup about 38 years ago. 

Talking about Playgroup! The mothers from Springwood Playgroup back in the 70's still meet twice a year for dinner.  We had a get together at the Carindale Hotel. It was very noisy but we still had a good time sharing photos and stories about our children and trips.

 Joan and I fronted up again for more out to dinner fun. We are with Maureen and the three of us walk in the forest together every Saturday morning. We'll have to do more of that to work off all these dinners. 

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This week we have had visitors from Switzerland staying with us for a few days. We took them to Baan Thai, our favourite local Thai restaurant. We had never met these young people before but they were very nice house guests. Marc (right) is the son of a distant cousin of TOH's, they have the same surname and now that I look at this photo Marc reminds me of TOH when he was that age. The other two, Jurg and Sybill, are friends of Marc. We took them for sight seeing trips each day and they were very appreciative. Yesterday morning they hired a campervan and they are off touring Australia. Just after TOH dropped them at the van hire place, he then headed to the airport and picked up our daughter who has come for Christmas. I quickly changed the sheets and cleaned the house while he was dropping off and picking up our next guests.

 Now I know why you can't book into motels until after 2 o'clock. It sure is hard work having fun when you're retired.

BIRTHDAY BEAR'S LAMENT

Besides celebrating our birthdays with Birthday Bear we also enjoy having a Christmas lunch together. Ann loves dressing Bear for Christmas. He has been dressed as Santa, as a Christmas Tree, as a Social Butterfly, and as an Elf  but this time Bear is dressed as a Christmas Pudding. For those who are not familiar with our 

 Ann puts the finishing touches to Bear. He is inside a Christmas pudding with a white brandy sauce on top together with a sprig of holly.

 

Bear has written a lament for us. (Clever Bear)

He looked good enough to eat.

I climbed on a chair to take this shot of the top of the pudding. The things you can do when you're a silly senior.

L to R Mary, Helen, Ann, Birthday Bear, Bill, Paul, and George

 We chose to go to the Sunnybank Sports Club again. It is close to home and the food is good.

 I had salmon on a corn salsa with fancy potatoes which look like pineapple.

Another fun Christmas outing.

PARTY ON

The tennis ladies had a day out. This is one of the seven Christmas parties that I will have been to by the time it is family party time. They are all with the groups that I have joined since retiring. I go to more parties now than when I was a teenager. "Making hay while the sun shines" (before I'm too old to do it. Party that is).

Anyway this great bunch of old girls went to Cleveland for the day. We all went by train and bus so we could all be together and chatter all the way. 

 We stopped for coffee when we arrived at Cleveland by train. The service was quick and friendly. We were on the deck and the outlook was pleasant although it was a bit breezy. 

 After coffee we walked to the bus stop and caught a bus to The Grand View Hotel. It is the oldest licensed hotel in Queensland. It was built in 1851. We were early for lunch so we checked out the "Heritage Hall."

 The eating area is in the back garden overlooking Moreton Bay. We had booked our own little gazebo. It was very breezy and so the plastic walls had been dropped down , which was nice as we still had the view but no wind.

 The view of Moreton Bay and Stradbroke Island from our gazebo.

 The service, food and company was excellent. I had a chicken salad.

 We talked and laughed our way throughout the day. We also had a Secret Santa game.

 From L to R Kay, moi, Sandra, Judy, Helen, (Marie, Val, hiding) and  Bev.

 Merry Christmas everyone. 

Waiting for the bus in the shade of the Banyan Tree with its aerial roots.

12.12.12 at 12:00

On the 12.12.12. at 12:00 noon I was at a Christmas lunch with my friends from the U3A Walking for Fitness group. It was held at June and Kevin's house. They are the leaders of the group and take us on 2 hour walks every Thursday morning at 6:30. Kevin leads us on many different winding and hilly tracks through Daisy Hill Forest. He doesn't dawdle either but sets a good pace.

 June, second from left sitting, and Kevin far right are also splendid hosts.

 A delicious salmon pate and a cheese ball for starters, followed by a scrumptious ham and turkey salad, which I forgot to photograph.

 Fran explains a secret santa game. We all brought a small gift relevant to walking or camping.

 Then we drew a number out of the hat. When Fran called the number we chose a gift from the table and opened it and left it in front of ourselves visible to everybody. The person with the next number called could choose to take a gift from the table OR take one opened in front of anyone else.  The person who lost their gift had to go on the end of the list to choose another one and so on and so on.

 It was loads of fun and I ended up with a great little waterproof pack to clip on my belt when walking in rain. Fits my little camera well. 

Then it was time for a selection of mouth watering desserts.

Thanks to June and Kevin and all the good company for a nice time.

Now I need to go on a long walk to lose all the food overload.

A WALK IN THE PARK 6

Another day another park. Actually that is not quite true. This is Underwood Park and we come here often but we took a different path this time. We were heading north towards Rochdale.

 It wasn't an overly interesting or pretty walk but it was flat and that suits TOH. The path wound along the back of houses and on the edge of bushland. This little wallaby came out for his evening feed. 

 The Jacaranda trees are finishing their beautiful display of violet blooms and dropping them to make a purple carpet.

The walk ended at this road
where there was a little creek
boarded by a stand of reeds.

Then we turned around
and headed back to the car.

 The car was parked at the entrance to the park where it is very pretty.

A DARING DAUGHTER

Some people have the best office Christmas Parties. My daughter went on a Sydney harbour cruise on  "Southern Swan". An authentic wooden tall ship built in the 1850's style of Danish oak. 

Carol-Ann (right) and a work colleague.

Guess what she did next?

"Look mum no hands"

MARITIME MUSEUM

Waiting for the train 

At this time of the year our calendar fills with end of year celebrations. We call them Christmas Parties but they are more like luncheons or dinners. I guess that is a sign of our age. We are not into rip roaring parties with dancing, loud music and getting drunk, but we sure have fun when we have our get togethers. Last week we had our Camera Club end of year lunch at the Plough Inn at South Bank after we had a shoot at the Maritime Museum. TOH and I went into town on the train.


Happy II, the little yacht on the left is one of the smallest boats to sail across the Pacific Ocean (13 ft long). Howard Smith sailed Happy I from the east coast of USA and through the Panama Canal. It was wrecked near Noumea, where he built a replica HappyII and continued Australia. His attempt to continue to circumnavigate the world was squashed. 

Ella's Pink Lady, (10.23m long) was sailed around the world by 16 year old Jessica Watson. We saw her sail into Sydney Harbour at the end of her epic voyage.


The HMAS Diamantina, is a River Class frigate built in Queensland in 1944. She is the biggest surviving WWII ship in Australia.

Underneath the Diamantina in the dry dock.




The communications room on the Diamantina. A little different to today's war ships methinks.


The Forceful is a coal fired steam tug built in 1925, which served the Port of Brisbane for 45 years. In 1971 she was donated to the Museum and it was used as a workboat on the river until recently. Now she is a floating museum.



After a few hours of shooting photos it was then a short walk to the Plough Inn for our end of year lunch together.