Sunday, 2 April, 2017

We only have one more week here in Brisbane.  Dad's first week of the practical course went okay.  It started off well with the airplane being available for Monday and Tuesday, but then it wasn't available on Wednesday or Thursday.  Fortunately, it was available on Friday again.  Dad really enjoys this part of the course and his students are really liking being able to look at the airplane and talk about things they have discussed in the classroom.  Dad has also made up a number of troubleshooting activities for the guys to do and that's really helpful and useful to them as it's really applicable to their work.  

I continued on with the gym this week and by Tuesday, I had reached my second weight goal.  I decided to treat myself to a manicure, so off I went to the mall after my yoga class.  I went back to the same nail place I had been to before and had another lovely pampered session.  The photos don't really show the colour I chose - but, since the nail polish on my nails comes off after about three days, I chose a silver sparkle polish which doesn't show as much when it chips off.

My silver sparkly nail polish - how long before I start biting my fingernails, though :-0

Thursday was a very exciting day here in Brisbane - on Wednesday, Cyclone Debbie hit land way up north in Queensland and created a ton of devastation.  On Thursday, however, the effects of the cyclone were felt all the way down the coast of Queensland and into New South Wales.  The rain was so heavy all day and the wind was whipping around like crazy.  So much so, that the government closed a number of schools in Queensland as they were really concerned about flooding and suggested that businesses close at noon and allow their employees to get home safely.  I had been following the news all morning and was messaging with Dad to let him know what they were saying.  Shortly after 10:30am, Dad told me that he had sent the guys home and that he would be home in half an hour.  I was glad that he did that as we had no idea how bad things would get.  Fortunately for us, although it rained a ton that day, it never amounted to anything in Windsor (where the house is located). 

Today, Dad and I drove to a city called Ipswich (about 40 minutes from where we are staying) to visit with our friends, Trudy and Peter (I am annoyed with myself that I didn't get a photo of them while we were there - grrr). They used to live in Hervey Bay, but when Trudy retired from teaching at the university in HB, they decided to move close to one of their children (about ten minutes away) and closer to the Brisbane Temple.  They have a lovely home, although, as it turned out, their daughter has since moved away from there (lesson: don't move close to your children cuz they will move away :-)  Trudy made us a delicious lunch and we visited with them for about four hours.  It was really nice to catch up with them and to see how they have been making out since they left HB.  

Sunday, 26 March, 2017

Dad was home all this week prepping for next week when he will start the hands-on part of the course.  It was nice to have him home for lunch every day.  He spent most of his days in the office, so I spent most of my time either at the gym or knitting.  I did go out on Wednesday to the mall and met up with Dad's boss' wife, Dawn, for another round of shopping, chatting eating and iced chocolate. :-)

Yesterday, I took the bus to the mall so that I could get a pedicure.  I decided that my reward for losing the first ten pounds was to get my nails done.  I love being pampered and it was wonderful at this nail place.  I sat on the massage chair and relaxed while the young girl gave me the spa pedicure.  It took her an hour from start to finish (including drying time) and it was heaven. :-)

I love getting bright colours on my toenails :-)

Dad picked me up from the mall and we drove to a restaurant called 'Harry's Diner' for dinner.  We have decided that we will go out once a month for a meal.  This place is set up like a 50's diner - mostly hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries and milkshakes on the menu.  Dad and I shared a meal: hamburger, french fries, onion rings - and an A & W root beer for Dad and an iced chocolate for me.  The food was delicious, but Dad and I decided that it was a bit expensive for what we got.  It's always nice to try new places, though.

 Harry's Diner - 50's style

 Painting on the wall of Harry's Diner

 I thought that this sign was funny with twelve hour hands :-)

 The front of Harry's Diner

 Me with my iced chocolate - so yummy! :-)

 Our shared meal

Dad at Harry's Diner

Sunday, 19 March, 2017

Another week of much the same as last week.  Dad finished up his course which he was really glad about.  Since he spends so much time either teaching or prepping, it is very mentally taxing for him - he was at the point where he really needed a break.  All five of the guys passed their last theory exam with Dad (there's one more exam for the electronics part of the course) and the guys gave Dad glowing evaluations which is always nice to see.  Hopefully, Harry (Dad's boss) will read them and appreciate what a valuable employee Dad is.  Dad will not be teaching this coming week, but will have to spend many hours prepping for the two weeks hands-on part of the course.

I continued on with attending my gym classes - I had a bit of a hard time at the beginning of this week - I just seemed a little bit weary when I was doing some of the classes.  It was a bit discouraging since I have been doing really well up to now.  Fortunately, by the end of the week, I was back on track.  I also began crocheting a square for the blanket the Relief Society sisters in HB are crocheting for - I decided to mail it to Robyn so that she can show Effie (who was our instructor and is putting the blanket together) to see if I was doing it right - and if not, how I can do it right.  Then, once I get her feedback, I can work on doing more of them.  They work up really fast - I can do one in a day in between everything else I am doing.

Dad and I had my birthday day all planned out for yesterday - we were going to do lunch, then a movie, then dinner and birthday cake.  Then, the movie theatre decided to change the time of the movie we wanted to go to and it didn't work out with our plan.  So, new plan: go to a late lunch, postpone the movie, and have my birthday cake after dinner.

We went to a restaurant called 'Hogsbreath' which is similar to the Keg, but nowhere near as good or as classy - the Keg is also better value for the money.  However, because we have a frequent diner card, you get a free dinner on your birthday, so we figured that was a good choice.  Dad and I both ordered a prime rib and Dad had pork ribs as well.  The portions were huge - and since we are not eating big these days, we were full for the rest of the day (no supper for us).  We did buy a chocolate mud cake and had a slice each later on in the evening (very yummy!).

 Dad with is prime rib, pork ribs, jacket potato (with sour cream) and Caesar salad

 Me with my prime rib, jacket potato (with sour cream) and garden salad

My chocolate mud cake birthday cake

Mud cake with ice-cream - so yummy!!!!

We decided that we would put off the movie until Tuesday - better time and better price since it's 'cheap Tuesday at the movies' on that day.  We are going to see a movie called 'Jasper Jones' which is an Australian drama film based on a novel of the same name.  It's basically the story of two boys (one white and one part aboriginal) who try to uncover the person who killed their friend.  I have seen a couple of Australian movies which have been quite good, so I am hopeful that this one will be the same calibre.

Sunday, 12 March, 2017

This week was pretty much the same as last week as far as what Dad and I got up to.

On Thursday evening, two Relief Society sisters came to visit teach me.  They are assigned to visit teach any sister who is new to the ward, visiting the ward for an extended time or newly re-activated.  Sarah and Jackie both have a Canadian connection, too: Sarah's Dad was born in Manitoba and Jackie was born and raised in Montreal and spent some time living in Mississauga before she moved to Australia to do nursing here.  She was originally coming for one year, but loved it so much, she stayed and has been here for ten years now.  We had a lovely visit together learning more about each other - they wish that we were moving here, they told me. :-)

On Friday, I walked to Dad's work (about 32 minutes) for a luncheon they were having for one of Dad's bosses, Melinda, who is going on maternity leave.  Sarah, her assistant, arranged for chicken, fries and garlic bread to be delivered and also bought a white chocolate mud cake.  All of the staff who were here that day were invited to the staff room (along with me, Dawn and another wife (who couldn't make it)) to give Melinda a send-off.  It was nice to see all of Dad's colleagues again and to celebrate the coming of Melinda's baby (who will be named Ava Grace).

That's it for this week - short and sweet - hopefully, next week, we will have more to tell you since we are going to go out for the day on Saturday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of my 29th birthday. :-)

 Woodwork on the doorframe leading into the dining room from the living room - and bars on the dining room windows so that the windows can be left open when it is hot  (no screens on the windows)

 We think that they used to have a woodburning stove in this space where the oven is - there is a smoke chimney and a couple of air vents above where the stove is now

 The back of the house - we park in the back and have to climb those stairs to get to the back door  (good exercise :-) - just to the right of the top of the stairs, you can see a part of the house which sticks out - that is where the stove used to sit in - you can see the chimney sticking up from it - this kind of house is called a Queenslander as it sits up high so that the breeze can help keep the house cool and keep it from flooding back in the old days - often, the bottom of the house is open, but a previous owner constructed open slat walls around the outer edges so that it can be used as a secure storage area - there is also a washing machine plus a second bathroom and shower down there

Woodwork above our bedroom door - I just love it - so much character - it is hard to see, but there is an emu on the left side and a kangaroo on the right side which are on the Australian coat of arms

Sunday, 5 March, 2017

This week was pretty much the same as last week.  Dad continued on with his instructing and prepping.  The guys had two exams this week and all passed with flying colours.  Dad is finding his days to be long and mentally tiring.  Since he has never taught this class before, it is taking him ages to get ready for the next day.  He puts a lot of time into getting ready for the course and making sure he provides relevant questions for the guys to ensure they are getting maximum learning about the airplane.

I continued on with my exercise classes at the gym.  Here's my schedule which I will continue on with while we are here in Melbourne: Monday - Body Balance (a combo of tai chi, yoga and pilates) and Aquafit, Tuesday - Yoga, Wednesday - Aquafit, Thursday - Pilates, and Friday - Over 50s Workout and Aquafit.  I enjoyed all the classes, although I much prefer the Wednesday Aquafit instructor to the Monday/Friday instructor - the Wednesday woman keeps us moving, changes up the exercises quickly and makes better use of the pool compared to the Monday instructor.

On Thursday, Jon, our housemate, who we have been getting along with really well, and Dad and I went out for Vietnamese.  When Jon found out that I wanted to try that kind of food, but wanted to make sure that we went to a restaurant which served good food, he suggested we try one this week which he recommended.  The restaurant itself was pretty ordinary, but the food was fabulous.  We went at 6pm and there weren't many others there, but by 7pm, the place was packed and there were people waiting to get in.  We decided to each choose a dish and get some steamed plain rice.  We had crispy chicken with plum sauce, sizzling Mongolian lamb and barbecued pork with noodles.  Yummy!

 Dad, me and John with our Vietnamese food

 Dad and I are trying new ideas for our eating plan - this one was shared with us by Jennifer - ham and egg nests with cheese and green onions - so delicious and quite filling!

Sunday, 26 February, 2017

Dad's week was pretty much taken up with either instructing or prepping for instructing.  There are only five guys in the class which Dad likes - he is teaching the B737 aircraft this time.  The guys are really keen to learn about the airplane and ask Dad lots of questions, which he likes.

I took the time to check out what was available at the local gym as I wanted to find some place where I could do tai chi, aquafit and yoga to continue on with my exercising that I was doing in HB.  The gym is within walking distance (about 7 minutes away) and has a pool, a gym area and exercise classes.  I was able to get a 25 day pass which works out to $9. per day. So far, I have tried a couple of aquafit classes and an Over 50s Workout class and I enjoyed them all.  Next week, I will try some more classes which are offered at the gym.

'Fitness First' - our local gym

On Tuesday, I met up with Dad's boss's wife, Dawn, at Chermside Mall which is a huge mall about a 15 minute bus ride from where we are staying - the bus stop is about a 3 minute walk from the house.  Dawn and I get along really well, so it was nice to spend some time with her.  She was the one who introduced me to iced chocolates, so I had to have one while I was out with her. :-)  We did a lot of walking around the mall while we did some shopping and we also had lunch there.  I was able to get a delicious Indian meal (butter chicken and chicken korma) as Dad wasn't with me - he can't eat curry meals cuz it upsets his stomach and he doesn't even like the smell of it.

 Dawn

The iced chocolate I just HAD to have :-)

Yesterday, Dad drove me to the temple so that I could meet up with the sisters of HB who had planned a day at the temple.  It was nice to be able to attend a session at the temple with my friends, especially Robyn.  It is so peaceful at the temple and it is so nice to go in and leave all the worldly cares and thoughts outside and just concentrate on the things of the Lord.

The Brisbane Temple

With our weight loss / get fit plan, Dad and I have decided to go out for dinner just once a month and last night was the night.  We checked out a few places we could go to which were near to the house and chose a Mexican one called Guzman Y Gomez - we both love Mexican food and this place did not disappoint.  Dad had nachos and I had a burrito - both were yummy!

 The Mexican restaurant - an open air eat-in or take-away place

Dad eating his nachos (with my burrito in the forefront)

The Enoggera ward chapel

Sunday, 19 February, 2017

Another very busy week for us - always is the busiest before we are leaving for a course.

This week, I did my usual tai chi, aquafit and yoga classes along with a facial (won't be having one of those again for seven weeks - waaaaaaah), a chiropractor visit, two ultrasounds (breast and shoulder - didn't hear back from the doctor so that is supposed to be good news in that there is nothing to worry about) and a massage (so relaxing).  I also had three social activities to attend this week (what a surprise, me being a social butterfly, hahaha).

On Tuesday, my friend, Maureen and I went to lunch and then to a movie.  I didn't know what was playing at the movie theatre, so I checked out the synopses for the ones showing and chose one called 'Lion' which I thought sounded really good.  It turned out to be a wonderful movie - very happy, sad, moving, etc.  I would recommend it if you have a chance to see it - it is based on a true story and is basically about a young Indian boy aged about six who gets separated from his family in India, is adopted by an Australian couple and then decides, when he becomes an adult, to go back to India to try to find his family.

The second social event was on Thursday when some friends from church and I surprised another friend, Denise, for a going-away lunch.  I had organized for the other four ladies to be at the restaurant ahead of time and I brought Denise to the cafe.  She was so surprised when she walked in to the cafe and saw the other ladies sitting there.  Denise is such a lovely lady and has been a good friend of mine since we arrived in the Bay - she and her husband, Robert, have sold up their house here and are retiring to a smaller house in a smaller town about 2 hours away, so we won't likely be seeing much of her from now on.  We gave her a photo frame as a gift and I put a pic in it of Robyn and Denise and I which I had already taken at a previous lunch - we had our pic taken at this lunch and I will print it out and send it to Denise and she can put it in her frame to remind her of the wonderful friends she has in HB.

Back row: Daphne, Maureen and me / Front row: Audrey, Denise and Robyn

My third social outing was Homemaking yesterday.  The theme of the month was 'service doesn't have to be big and grandiose to be meaningful and make a difference'.  The activity was learning how to crochet a granny square - we are asking each sister to make four in total and then we will be putting them together to make a quilt which will be donated to someone in need.  We had twelve sisters come to this activity which was a perfect amount actually - it would have been hard to teach any more sisters how to crochet.  I will be doing my granny squares while I am here in Brisbane and take them back in April to add to the rest.

Left to right: Daphne, Robyn, Sandy, Judy and Sandra

Around the table from the front left: Trish, Allison, Christy, Jessica and Leanne (and Effie is the teacher and is the one standing in the bright orange and pink skirt)

On Tuesday night, I babysat two little girls from church - I have told their parents, Ben and Lisa, that I would babysit the girls, Scarlett and Indiana, whenever I am back in HB.  Ben asked me last Sunday if I would be able to babysit the girls on Tuesday (Valentine's Day) to which I readily agreed.  The girls are so cute and seem to enjoy it when I come over to watch them.  When I got there this time, the girls told me that their mom had told them that I was going to be making cookies with them (what a surprise) - fortunately, it was from a cookie mix so it was easy to do with them.  Before baking the cookies, they asked me to go on the trampoline with them and play a game where I bounce really high and try to get them to fall down.  It was a lot of fun and showed how 'old' I am in that it didn't take very long to tire me out.  I was able to rest a little in between rounds, but we must have stayed on there for at least half an hour.  The girls love to be read to, too, which I love to do and so we read nine books which I had brought over to read to them and two of their own.

Robyn and I went visiting teaching to Maryborough today - that is a town about half an hour from HB and there are a lot of sisters there who used to be mainly visited by Lyn, but she and her husband, Dan, have now gone on a mission and so Robyn and another sister, Jan, have taken on visiting these six sisters.  Jan, however, was away this week and so I told Robyn that I would join her in visiting these sisters. I love visiting teaching and always have, so it was an enjoyable day even though we only got to visit with two out of the six sisters there.

The missionaries came over for dinner again on Friday night - along with Robyn - and we had another delicious meal - Dad cooked hamburgers and sausages on the barbie.  The missionaries love meat and so they ate extremely well that night. :-)  One of the missionaries, Elder Ha, will likely be gone by the time we get back to HB - we will miss him as he is a very humble and funny missionary.

Dad's week was boring compared to mine - other than going to see the chiropractor, the doctor (to get his stitches out) and having massage, he spent the week preparing for his upcoming course.  He knows the B737 airplane really well having worked on it many years ago, but he has never taught the course before, so there is a lot of refreshing for him to do.

Yesterday, after Homemaking, Dad and I drove to Brisbane where he will begin teaching his course on Monday.  Dad's boss, Harry, has bought a house here (about three minutes from work) and that is where we are staying this time.  The house is called a 'Queenslander' which is quite common here - the house is a raised bungalow on stilts generally with some kind of unfinished open area underneath which is often used for storage.  The house is very old, but has lots of character.  There are very few electrical outlets, so there are power boards and extension cords all around the house.  One of Dad's co-workers at QAC, Jon, is staying here for two months as well - he seems very nice and has been quite hospitable to us.

We went to church today and we felt so welcome - it was really nice. As soon as we sat down, the Bishop came down from where he was sitting up front to introduce himself to us and find out who we were.  In Relief Society, one of the sisters came up to me and said they would like to come and visit with me next week.  A number of other members came up to us during our time there to introduce themselves - I don't think we have ever had such a lovely welcome in any ward we have been to.  Since we are going to be here for seven weeks, it was nice to feel a part of the ward.

 Family centrepiece I made for an upcoming Homemaking activity - I think it turned out great! :-)

Beautiful crocheted doily which Effie made for me - she is the sister who has been helping me to refresh my crocheting skills - she had made one for our display about the activity and I had admired it so much - she surprised me with this beautiful one she made this week - I just love it!