A Visit from Family

We had a lovely long weekend with my little brother Geoff and his girlfriend Ashleigh. They flew up from Melbourne late on Saturday night, and stayed until Tuesday evening. It was great to see them, but the best thing was saying goodbye knowing that we'll see them again in a few short weeks. I am dreading saying goodbye when we leave Melbourne, as we won't know when we'll next see them, but I know it will be too long :-(

 

But a few random bits first......like the first Frangipani flowers blossoming :-)

And one of the few "don't do this" signs that hasn't immediately made me want to try it! Almost like instructions for aliens!? V odd!

Some Lebanese food I'm not keen to try!

A shortcut for anybody attempting Movember...you don't have to grow your own 'tash but you do have to have your nose pierced!

And, at some point anyway, haven't we all been here?!

Saturday Pie and I took Crack to the playground.

Geoff and Ashleigh arrived about midnight. G was disappointed we couldn't get the England Australia rugby game on our tv, but seemed happy enough with the F1 qualifying!

Sunday was very hot and sunny and we took the ferry (where we spotted a few jellyfish who'd made it 18km up the river!) to the Southbank Parklands, where we visited the Nepalese Peace Pagoda...clearly the "make love, not war" saying is close to their hearts!

 

Afterwards we had an awesome Vietnamese lunch and took Crack swimming. We barbecued some lamb for dinner and opened some Shiraz we brought back from Margaret River (as well as a few other bottles!)

By Monday, Crack was overcoming his shyness and starting to play and chat with his Uncle Geoff and Ashleigh.

 

They had arranged to show us around Surfers Paradise and meet some of their friends from when they lived there a couple years ago. It's about 1.25 hrs away, past a lot of theme parks, south of Brisbane on a stretch of coast with never ending beautiful beaches...

Unfortunately, we managed to go on the worst day weather-wise! We hardly saw the sun, it was very overcast and extremely windy...epic fail!! But we walked around, imagining how lovely it would be on a clear sunny calm day, with humpback whales breaching offshore and the beach filled with tanned hotties!

 

The reality was a little different! Someone told us that Surfers was a bit like Australia's Benidorm.....I can see why they would say that, but it's really not as bad, as tired or as tacky as Benidorm! But it has it's moments! New handbag anyone? Or perhaps you are searching for that perfect gift?

We stopped in at Pie's favourite shop for a coffee and to give Crack his first taste of Aussie pie (he loved it!)

We had a great day and despite the weather, which was whipping up the sand, Crack enjoyed his time at the beach! Although we did avoid the water with Crack as Geoff and Pie reported heavy breakers and full on rips from their brief swim whilst Crack napped!

 

Tuesday was Melbourne Cup Day and whilst Pie knuckled down to a full day of work and evening Skype meetings, the rest of us went into town. I hadn't fully appreciated that Australia near enough shuts down for the Melbourne Cup! I've never seen anything like it for a horse race! In Victoria the day is a public holiday and in Brisbane it might as well have been! Those who went to work at all went in half day, you needed tickets to get into the bars to watch the race and, weirdest of all, they all dress as if its Royal Ascot, just to go to the bar! The whole city was in suits, dresses and fascinators, some with miniature horses wired in! Bonkers! Anyway, Geoff popped into his company's Brisbane office to say hi to the guys he speaks to on the phone and then we wandered back thru Brisbane, stopping at the Botanic Gardens and Crack's fave playground before having yummy Lebanese lunch together - Crack's favourite restaurant as it overlooks the river and the bridge and there's plenty of boat action for his amusement! Found a few 'Roos and a kookaburra on the way!

 

 

 

After lunch Crack and I headed home for nap time, whilst Ashleigh and Geoff went to watch the race. They came home a few hours later having both won some money on the race - Ash had money on both 1st and 2nd place (first was one of Pie's tips! How does he do it, not knowing a thing about horses!?). We enjoyed a little more time with them before they caught a taxi back to the airport. They very kindly took one of our bags back to Melbourne with them, solving our dilemma of how to fly from Brizzy to Sydney with only 2 checked bags when all the international flights give us 3! Unfortunately, the plane was delayed so they didn't get home until early the next morning, but we had a great time with them, so very pleased they were able to come! Crack's been missing them both, spending the morning after they left wandering round the apartment asking "Cuddle Ash-leigh?" over and over again!

Back to status quo for the rest of the week, with Pie at work and Crack and I doing various errands on the way to and from different playgrounds! Well, apart from the lunchtime when I chopped a whole Greek salad, only to accidentally flip all the feta onto the floor! I settled for vegan salad, Pie added cheddar......ew!

 

We've managed to book our flights to Sydney, flying out on the 20th, so the countdown has really begun! We've decided only to spend a couple days in Sydney, planning instead to visit the Blue Mountains (assuming they aren't on fire!) and take a little more time driving down to Melbourne. But more of that as it happens! For now we are making the most of what is probably our last weekend in Brisbane, as we are hoping to take a little trip south next weekend....