Brisbane Day Five

 I woke up very early, so Dad took me for a walk. This was the view looking back towards there place.

 Greta and Bruce were still around, and the weather was wonderful.

 We had left over lunch on the balcony.

 Bruce and Greta took off after lunch and the rest of us went for a trip to Daisy Hill Koala Centre. They sure are sleepy creatures.

 The surrounds were Australian bush.

 There was a lookout tower which you could climb to try and spot the koalas in the wild.... No success.

 After the we went for a drink at the Grand View Hotel.

 They were very Christmassy.

 I played cards and read my book and we discussed the awful musician that was torturing various popular songs.

 We went down the road to a picnic area with a barbecue, a light house and a historic pub (which was unfortunately closed).

 Thomas surveying the view.

 This is the pub, it looks like it sells gelato too. mmm.

 Dad and Thomas cooked some sausages and we ate dinner there.

 On the way home we stopped to watch the sunset and while we were waiting for it to go down I collected some shells and glass.

In the evening we watched the Doctor Who Christmas special and it was brilliant, even a Bill Bailey appearance!

Brisbane Day Four

 We started Christmas on the balcony with pancakes.

 My great Uncle Bruce and Greta came around and Dad cooked prawns on the barbie.

 Christmas lunch.

 Those prawns were so huge!

 Mum and Bruce looking out over the view.

 Desert :)

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas everyone!!

Brisbane Day Three

 Woke up to a very rainy, early morning. Scanned the channels for Spongebob and found it - Success!

 We wandered down to the shops in the rain for lunch and went to the gluten free cafe. I had chicken pakora (tandoori chicken deep fried in chickpea batter).

Sunny Brisbane.

 We went for a drive and saw dozens of kite surfers.

 Dad took us to look at this house he had seen when he was cycling past. You can read more about him here.

 While we were standing around outside taking pictures a guy came out from inside and offered to let us have a look around inside.

 His name was Frank, he was from Italy and had decorated the whole house by hand himself. The plaster molds you see above the desk he made himself.

 There were many beautiful things in his house, but my favorites were the old glasses that he had used as picture frames.

 He took a picture of us in his dinning room. In fifteen years he thinks he will have the whole house finished like this, he works on it all day long like a job. (He is pictured to my right in the framed photograph, but it is from many years ago).

 In the afternoon I watched the documentary 'The Legends of Santa' which showed the historical progression from Saint Nicholas to Santa Claus and the various other figures in other cultures.

 After dinner Mum and I put together the trifle for tomorrow. Sponge, brandy soaked cherries, cherry juice and custard.

:) Merry Christmas everyone!

Brisbane Day Two

 Today we had pancakes on the balcony for breakfast again.

 And then went for a walk around the neighbourhood. It is all very tropical around here.

 It is an odd mix of very rundown cottages and pricey apartments and houses with huge windows of sea veiws.

 After lunch it was horribly rainy.

So we stayed home and watched the movie Hanna which was amazing. It was so picturesque and beautiful. So this is the trailer.

 Dad and I played on the wii after that, we like the resort plane game where you shoot each others balloon.

After dinner I went for a swim in the rain.

Once I had got the spider out it was really good.

Brisbane Day One

 I arrived in Brisbane at 7am yesterday morning. We had a nice breakfast of pancakes out on the balcony and went into town (which after being on the flight seemed to take hours). There were several balloon vendors on the main street. This guy is making those bobbles on the end by sucking them in his mouth.

 Elmo!

Over Christmas and new years my family are having a photography competition. This is  how my dad will look over the holidays and here are the rules:

1. All entries must be in by 12pm (noon) on 1 Jan 2012

2. Photographs will be received in the following categories:

• Landscape
• Portrait
• Action
• Macro/small
• Nature
• Christmas theme
• New Year theme
• Shittiest (really bad) photo
• Architecture - interior or exterior

3. Up to one (1) entry per person per category

4. Entries must be in JPG format and must have been taken between 7am 22 Dec and 12pm 1 Jan

5. Editing using software such as the GIMP or Photoshop is permitted

6. Voting will take place on the afternoon of 1st Jan and will be by secret vote

• Steven will label each photo and put on a memory stick for display on the tv
• Voting will take place within categories
• One vote per person per category
• No voting for self

7. After the winners of each section have been determined from the voting we will all vote on the best overall photo from the winners.

 In our wanderings we found this book shop, its front really upholds its promise...

Because inside was just aisle on aisle like this. That is Mum in the crime section and Dad sabotaging my picture in the bottom right corner.

 We had lunch at this great Mexican place.

 Nachos... MMm. They tasted cinnamony.

 On the way back home we came across a bunch of pelicans along the walkway. They sure are big.

Mum took me for a little drive to look at the bats. I love bats, last time I was here there would be these amazing thunderstorms in the evenings and the bats would swoop around, it felt just like being in a gothic novel.

We had pork chops (which dad did a really good job of cooking), salad chips and stuffed vine leaves! (my favorite!) for dinner. We went for an evening walk along the beach, and had hot chocolates and cake.

Om Nom

The day after Chris came home we went to a Japanese restaurant and talked about our future.