Eatons Hill

We have arrived safely in Brisbane after a long flight from Heathrow. We travelled with EVA Air via Bangkok and Teipei. We arrived at 10:30 am to be greeted by Jamie and the girls in lovely warm sunshine. Lovely! Spent the remainder of the day chilling at Jamie and Renee's place. Examined the new pool that is being built in the garden. Looking great - just a shame it isn't finished as it is so HOT!!! A cool off in a refreshing pool would be just perfect. Still, hopefully by the time we leave in April we will be able to make use of it. Slept very well and awoke refreshed, ready for a shopping day with S and S. Renee and Jamie were at work, so we were in charge of the girls. We spent 3 hours at Chermside shopping centre, where the girls browsed and deliberated on what to spend their Christmas dollars on. We came back laden - they managed to buy lots of goodies with their 60 dollars each!!! Day 2 with the girls we set to on a sewing project. We were making felt gnomes!!! Both of the girls enjoyed the activity and concentrated for 3 hours to complete their first little gnome. More to follow in future days. Later in the afternoon we drove into Brisbane city with the girls. We walked along the south bank, which was busy with families enjoying the man made beach and pool next to the river Brisbane. The girls made use of the park, before we met up with Jamie and Renee after their day's work. We ate at Gnocchi Gnocchi Brothers - a great little restaurant serving very tasty food. Next stop - Cirque du Soleil, situated next to the Brisbane cruise terminal. The huge marquee was packed, and must have seated 2000 people. A magnificent show - quite a spectacle to behold. The girls were enthralled (as were the rest of us) and at times did not know where to look next - there was so much going on on the stage. A very late night for all of us, and we all arrived home feeling exhausted. We are still acclimatising ourselves to the time difference, and were very ready for our beds!
We had a lazy day on Thursday, then on Friday we took a walk along the seafront at Redcliffe. In the afternoon we watched Sophie training at her Gymnastics club.
On Saturday we went for a walk at Sandgate and watched fishermen on the pier for a short while. Sophie took her roller blades and Samantha her bike. In the evening we enjoyed a bbq and Kevin, Harmony, Bianca and Emily joined us all for a few beers.
Sunday was Australia Day and the day Jamie was formally accepted as an Australian citizen. We all went to his acceptance ceremony which was in the theatre at Redcliffe and he received his certificate along with 114 others from many other nations. A very interesting ceremony (although the girls did not agree!).
After the ceremony we wandered along the front at Redcliffe, through the Sunday street market, to enjoy a celebratory lunch at Mon Komo. The adults shared a seafood platter (meant to feed 2 but SO much beautiful fish) and a starter platter of chicken wings, mini burgers, rice rissoles and chips. So much food, but we managed to eat most of it.Samantha had her face painted whilst we waited for the under 12 Lamington eating contest at Suttons Beach - our girls did not take part and it was not pretty. We did not stick around for the adult version.
Monday was bank holiday so we all drove up to Caloundra on the Sunshine coast for a day at the beach - the girls' last chance for the school holiday as they return to school on Tuesday.
After taking the girls to school with their dad on Tuesday we spent the morning at Eatons Hill getting our trailer and Ute sorted for our road trip. Jamie meanwhile spend some time tidying up the garden which was benefitting from some rain showers. For lunch we slipped off to Chermside where we enjoyed a brilliant Thai meal at Kinn Derm - very tasty.
Upon returning we packed up our equipment, food etc ready for our trip the following dayRead more