Harry's Graduation

Well they always said it would happen. Harry (aka my Honda Civic) has Graduated. Just like a beautiful caterpilla turns to a butterfly, so too has Harry the Civic turned into Harry the Euro.

Yes, my little boy has grown up to become a Honda Accord Euro and here he is:

Do you like the funky number plates!!!

Harry has 4 doors. I know that's not much to a lot of people but to me it was a huge selling point. Never mind the flashy bits inside and out - 4 doors!!!!!!!

Brisbane Adventures

Well Monday was a huge day of adventure for us. We packed the car and headed south for a trip to 'The Big City'. Only 1 hr and we were in the heart of the Roma Street Gardens which is a bit like Honeysuckle/Carrington to Nobby's distance from the city and the River. The Roma Street Gardens are a newly established garden right in the centre with new buildings surrounding it with a train station. It occured to me when we started walking past the train station that i hadn't heard a train since October last year. Something so simple but it was nice to hear it again. We were armed with a simple sketch map of Brisbane City but somehow we managed to negotiate our way around just fine. We went through the Queen Street mall first but nothing was open as we had arrived too early for a Public Holiday. Nothing opens much before 10.30am in Qld. :-) We then wandered down to the river and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked (you get the idea) all around the river edge, past botanic gardens, mangrove walks, floating walkways and many other bits and pieces along the river. The temp was 33 deg and the humidity 82% so it was thirsty work. We had lunch in Fortitude Valley. A bit like a mini Kings Cross (what were we thinking) but the Indian Food we found for lunch was superb. Our sketch map then showed a short walk to Farmgate. WRONG!!!! another hour later and we were still nowhere near the river. Eventually we found it and decided that our feet were VERY tired so we'd catch the City Cat back up the River. I refused to sit down and just watch this beautiful river go by so still standing at the front of the Cat and loving it. Back to Southbank we went which was still a good 5klm+ back to the car. Oh well.

We had heard about the new DJ's store in Queen St Mall so we headed in and found it. It's official opening isn't for another 2 wks but it's unoffically opened now. It's the biggest in the southern hemispher apparently. i'd believe that. the lighting, the fitout and everything about the store is just perfect. but i wasn't up for shopping, just some R&R in their airconditioning.

We didn't see anything majorly gobsmacking but just the novalty of a new city was enough to excite us. i'm sure we'll have many adventures again in Brissy.

We did stop at the Brisbane City Museum which used to be a Customs House (I think) back when..... It has a huge pipe organ with 4747 pipes. How awesome that would be to hear. We've signed up to find out when that is happening.





Outside/Inside/Pipe Organ


Brisbane Uniting Church - then & now




Storey Bridge/Bromiliade Flower/Lillipilli Garden

Thai Chilli Chicken - Spirit House Style

Just call me Hughie!!!!!

Do you love a good Thai Chilli Beef. Me too. But when you don't have beef in the freezer, it becomes Thai Chilli Chicken. :-)

I made it last night and it was sooo yummy. Here is the receipe. It's easy and very tasty. I also added a stack of stir-fry vegies and then doubled the below receipe for the sauce. Enjoy.

Ingredients

8 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

4 small hot chillies, red or green (I added the seeds from my Firecracker chilli)

2 Tabs veg oil

2 sliced golden shallots

400g meat (chook or beef or tofu if your that way inclined)

1 Tab fish sauce

1 Tab soy sauce

1 Tab palm sugar

1 Tab sweet soy (ketcup manis)

1 cup Thai basil (home grown was pretty tasty)

Method

Make the paste with the garlic and chillies and shallot. Heat oil in wok and cook garlic mix for about a minute. Add meat and stir fry for a few minutes. I then added my already steamed vegies and stired in for about 1 minute. Add fish sauce, soy, palm sugar and sweet soy. Keep cooking until the sauces have combined and the meat is cooked. Stir through the basil and remove from heat. Serve on rice.

It tasted just like a bought one only a lot cheaper.

Ginger Flower Festival - Yandina

We've just returned from the flower festival. There were people EVERYWHERE!!!! i ended up parking about 1klm away but it was worth the walk. The flowers are just out of this world. they look like someone has done some origami and stuck in onto the plants. here are some photo's. The blue one is called "Blue Ginger", the red one is a "Heliconia" and the yellowish one is the "Beehive" ginger.





I ended up getting sucked in an bought some myself. I bought the Siam Tulip and the siam Jewel. This is the siam tulip. It's a beautiful little ginger with pale pink flowers and they are just like a real tulip. the Siam Jewel which i cant find a photo of and mine doesn't have flowers yet, are a more complicated looking flower but still a pretty pink colour.

There were hundreds to choose from but it was too busy to even think past these 2 plants. Maybe i might go up there next week when they have too many left overs.

No Place Like Foam

Well the beaches are awash with foam. They look like you've just made a chocolate milkshake with about 1/3 icecream, shaken it up and the creamy top is what's all over the beach. It stinks of dead fish and the high tides have been huge (2.68m) so it's been bubbling up through the drains in the main streets. Here are some photo's from today's paper at Pt Cartright (near Mooloolaba).

KidFitz

Well today is a typical Thursday. Every thursday morning it either rains, looks like rain or is raining on the way to KidFitz. But i soldiered on and met Brodie at Happy Valley as the clouds were gathering over Bribie Island. I packed the rain cover, packed my umbrella (not sure how you hold an umbrella and push a pram up hills successfully) and just to be safe, wacked on the 30+ sunscreen on both me and Kirrily.

It was raining for most of our walk to Kings Beach, then the clouds took off and it's been sunny ever since. I love KidFitz on thursdays as Wesley the Kelpie comes with us too. He is brown and nasty looking so he clears the footpath for us to charge along. Brodie worked us hard today with uphill runs, downhill runs and then stair climbs. did I mention Tricep dips. I"m pretty tired but full of beans from doing something good.

I've also been gardening again today too. The weird brown/red plants out the front that i trimmed back in the hope that they didn't live have flourished. So much so they are taking over so i trimmed them back again today. So i've decided they can stay for a while but i'll trim them up. not sure what they are but they are pretty tough plants.

This is Kirrily watching TV. She seems to be obsessed with Wiggles (or as she calls them 'Woggles') and High 5. The Woggles I can handle but Charli's voice on High 5 is a little bit 'frustrating' at times. If i want some spare time, i usually wack the woggles on for 10mins. Kirrily doesn't move. Aunty Anne bought kirrily the High 5 DVD for Christmas. Absolutely perfect present.



We've also had the first lot of David's brochures printed. they look FANTASTIC. The first printer was dodgy but these next printers are brilliant and very helpful and cheap. We've been walking out at night delivering brochures in people's letterboxes in the hope they want to sell. Not sure about success yet as David has been at 'In Room Auctions' for most of the day. It only takes 1 person to say yes and we're away.

I've also got a trip planned to N'cle so can't wait to visit you all. 21st Feb - 25th Feb. YEAH!!!!!!!!

We are also planning a trip to the Ginger Factory tomorrow. The annual Ginger Flower Festival is on from 24th - 27th and it's supposed to be pretty good. There are flowers (obviously) and cooking demonstrations with ginger plus other bits and pieces. http://www.buderimginger.com/gingerfactory/whatson.htm
There are some weird and wonderful flowers on the gingers that almost don't look real. my favourite is the one that looks like a little bee hive. I'll report back with some photo's hopefully.

A new member of the family

Meet Zwort. Zwort is a Zebra Plant (Aphelandra). He is our newest edition. Abigail, Troy and Izzy Zwort gave him to us for a house warming present so he has now been named after them. He almost looks like a "Day of the Triphods" plant. He is now happily growing near the front door. This is the flower that is on it at the moment.

Aphelandra - AKA Zwort the Zebra Plant

And this photo has nothing to do with the plant at all. It's just a cute photo that i managed to take the other day of Kirrily. She is hugging her new teddy (Sebastian) while she is off in the Land of Nod. I crept into her room and she didn't even budge when i took this. If only they were this cute all the time.


It's raining and windy again today so that's why i've had a chance to jump into my blog. David has now officially started working and is fully licenced. We had to wait 7 weeks for this licence as Christmas held up the process. He's been door knocking, phoning people and generally bombarding people with business cards. So far no listings but it's looking promising from the door knocking.

She's "Bean" where?

Well I understand why people kept telling me why i shouldn't want Kirrily to walk. "She'll be into everything now" is the main comment and SHE IS!!!!

This morning while having massive drama's with publisher, the printers and formatting David's brochures, David was supposed to be watching over Kirrily. He of course, wasn't. He let her run free and as a result, Kirrily went to - THE GARBAGE BIN!!!

So, what did she find - yesterday's ground up coffee beans that i threw into the bin to make this mornings coffee. She was happily feasting on the old coffee grinds, chewing away at them. When i found her laughing at herself in the kitchen and going NO NO NO, she had a ring of coffee grinds all around her mouth, in her hands, down her T-shirt and on the floor. what a mess. All i could do was laugh at her as she was a site and a mess.

I have only just managed to put her to sleep now at 1.30pm. Caffine is NOT good idea for little children.

'Sun-Shine' Coast afterall

Well today was a beautiful Sunny day. I went walking with Kirrily down the Passage to Bells Creek. It was hot and very humid but I didn't care about any of that as the sun was beautiful. We both slip, slop, slapped our way into the great outdoors and walked for 2 hrs. On the return leg, the clouds were building, the sky was turning grey, the original locals (they are the one's that have been here longer than 10yrs and there's not many of them) gathered their 'brollies. We walked fast back to the car just in time for the rain to start, then the pelting rain started. I knew it would rain as i took the car outside after 'Harry' had his wash yesterday and i blackened the wheels. It ALWAYS rains the day after that. :-) oh well, we did get our walk in and that's all that counts.

Tomorrow's weather forecast isn't looking promising but i think i have had my share of Vitamin D for the month.

This photo of our backyard that was filling with water. it's all drained away now luckily. Ironically i had to water the herbs and vegies today as they are in pots and built up garden beds.

Look out for Chickens

Today Kirrily has had her needles for 18months. It was her chicken pox vaccine. She looked a little disturbed for about 1 minute when she realised she was at the Dr's but then continued to play with her new little handbag and some purple leaves that were picked before going into the Dr's surgery.

Once inside the Dr's room, she was having fun talking to the Dr, walking around his room, looking at the steps, showing him the little handbag and didn't seemed worried at all.

Then we headed for - the Nurses Quarters. There sitting on the table was the needle, the vaccine, a Shrek bandaid and some snake lollies.

Kirrily wasn't happy once the needle went in for about 10 seconds then her next worry was "when am i getting my snake".

All is well now, no tears, no tantrums nothing. just a happy, sleeping little girl. No need to be worried about chickens after-all.

Cyclone Sunshine Coast

Well there is no sun on the Sunshine Coast. No Beautiful One Day, Perfect the Next. Just rain rain rain and more wind. 100klm/hr winds actually.

We are sick of sitting inside as i have a snorkel to be used, Kirrily has a plastic trike that needs to be ridden and balls to be kicked outside. At this stage, i'll be using the snorkel to find my way out of the backdoor as it's very boggy and filling with water. We even went to KMart to buy a bored game and a 1000 piece puzzle we are going so crazy.

I've been stamping like mad but forgot to take photo's of Greg/Edna's wedding anniversary card (bummer) and the 1st birthday cards are still a work in progress. I suppose the good thing is it's raining so i'm getting heaps of stamping done.

New Year's was very uneventful for us really. With the weather being so bad, all fireworks were cancelled. We did have some fireworks at midnight but they were of the illegal variety that someone down the street let off himself. I was in bed sleeping as the Channel 10 footage of the fireworks in Sydney was crap at 9pm so i wasn't staying up for the midnight one's. We did go to Keith and Fiona's place for some seriously delicious Cornmeat and veg. It wasn't just any cornmeat and veg, it was something i didn't have to cook and Fiona makes a wickedly delicious stock for the meat to cook in. Yummmo.

Our resident Kangaroo that hops around the school (the big kangaroo about 2m tall) had jumped the fence the other day and was out hopping around our Estate just as we drove past him. He was spooked and we nearly had him jump over our car. scary stuff.

Aunty Megan and Uncle Peter came up for a visit over Christmas but the weather was crapy for them too. Isobelle, Abigail and Troy also came up for a visit so Kirrily got to play with Izzy.

Back to stamping.