SNEAKING UP ON US - Take 2

On Sunday we found ourselves free from the restraints that we have recently been under with aged parents, so we set off for the city centre where there were some new sights Tony wanted to show me.

We call it " Going into town".



Surprise, surprise the city centre was swinging into Christmas mode.
Yes I'm sorry I mentioned that word but I've been reminded it is but a few weeks away !!!

It was quite a shock to realise how close it is ...




but when I saw the Christmas windows in Myers it really hit home how close it is.



I took some photos with my phone but it's not too good and I'm not good at taking them either.
Thought I'd include some with people in them so you could see how different it is to have Christmas in Summer time.( and casual dress is the way to go on Sunday in Brisbane!!!)

As usual the Christmas stories were all about a snowy Christmas



with little relevance to Aussies and our climate.



No wonder most of us list experiencing a White Christmas on our Bucket List !

The "something new" Tony wanted to show me was a very glitzy new shopping arcade called
The Wintergarden.



Can you see the building front above the Tourist Information Centre?
 

Very colourful and quite unusual though I've seen a building in Paris that looked a bit like that.
There were huge colourful butterflies resting all over it.

On street level there were quite a range of shops

with this Aussie icon taking pride of place

and this one full of sparkly stuff.

When you moved inside it was pure glitz.

High end fashion





and other expensive "stuff "

 

 There was even a ten pin bowling alley !
 

I guess that will give tourists something else to do ????
or perhaps it will become the "in" place to be seen before hitting the night life later in the evening?


We spied this Japanese restaurant and decided to give it a go for a late lunch ( we've not tried Japanese much ).

It was called Wagamama which my nephew says means "selfish".
A strange name for a restaurant but possibly something was lost in the translation !

 

 
 

 Anyhow, I was selfish and ate all of mine myself !!
 

 

I have to say it tasted better than it looked .

Cheers.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

I have been working very hard at planning our overseas jaunt to France and Switzerland next year.
With the amazing resource of the Internet at my finger tips I have booked flights and reserved accommodation in apartments in four different locations.
The next thing on my list of "to dos" is to see if I can write, add photos and post to my blog using Tony's iPad.

If you can see this post I have been successful and I will be able to take you with me on my holiday.

Isn't technology wonderful ?

 

 

 

Edited from my laptop:

 OK, that worked alright don't you think? I just need to work on putting the photos in better.

The top photo came from the images already stored on the iPad and the second photo I just took using the iPad camera. My next mission will be to try to place the photos in amongst the text.

 

Advice from anyone out there with any expertise in this would be welcome. 

FLIGHT SAFETY MESSAGE

 

 



For all the fans of the Lord of the Rings movies and the latest one "The Hobbit" .

 

 

Here's a  Flight Safety Warning unlike any other from Air New Zealand.

 

Click     here

ACTION IN THE GARDEN

Hello!
It's Springtime here in Brissy.
In Spring you don't expect to be faced with this when you venture into your backyard.


Lawn all brown,
trees and shrubs dropping leaves
but we haven't had rain for about three months and everything looks awful.

Time for some serious action!!!

That bougainvillea with its rampant growth is gone!

but watch out for its vicious thorns !!!

 

and after a mighty struggle the passionfruit vine that has come from the neighbour's yard and covered the Leopard tree is almost eliminated.

 

There are still some bits high up in the tree

 

 

where even Tony still can't reach them.

The tangled mess where the vine has crossed the fence and taken prisioner a large grevillea is presenting quite a challenge.

This large "tree" is a world champion sized weed!

We call it Wild Tobacco.
Look, it's ready to flower and spread.

and here's a new one just starting out.



We thought we'd killed these other bougainvilleas

but here they come again !

Time to poison them.
In future the only bougainvillea in our place will be in pots like this one. 

We've got quite a job ahead of us to get rid of all this mess and quite a bit more to do in the cutting back department.
Let's hope we get some rain soon so it all recovers and starts to look nice again.
It's quite depressing looking at all that brown in Spring.

On a more cheerful note I've planted these pretty coleus for some colour in the garden room.

 

Hope all those in the path of the big storm in the USA stay safe.

Cheers.


PS. I may be absent for a while as Dad may have his valve replacement procedure next week so fingers crossed for a good result.

BRISBANE QUILT SHOW - Final

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BRISBANE QUILT SHOW - Part 2

Edit : Far Out!!! Don't you hate that? I've been up in Hervey Bay visiting the Oldies and tried to post from there however Hervey Bay's wireless Internet is c#*p and didn't load the photos properly.

Hope this is better. Thanks for persevering.

Every year the Queensland Quilters present a challenge to their members and the resulting entries are exhibited at the Quilt Show.
I'm always amazed at the variety of ways that these talented ladies approach the challenge and the fabulous quilts that are the result.

Here is this year's challenge:

(You can make it bigger by clicking on it if you have trouble reading it).

and this is the fabric that was chosen for them to use this year.

Now, just look at all the different ways the material has been used in these quilts.

 

 

 

 

Soooo clever !!

A change from the dominant blue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aren't they amazing?

And to think they all came from the same piece of material!!

Cheers.