Brisbane in a weekend

It's not everyday that your family come to an overseas country that you happen to be inhabiting. And when such a day arrives, it usually causes some excitement. All the moreso if that means you have an excuse to go for a weekend away somewhere.

Little sister Joelle and her beau Joseph came over for a holiday to visit Joe's parents who are living on the south side of brisbane, so seemed a great excuse for us to head south for the weekend. Also a very opportune time to go and purchase some wheels so that Mez can actually get out of the house over the next five weeks or so that we have left in Gladstone.

So after an extremely busy week again, we headed south on friday after work for the six hours or so that it takes to drive to 'brissy', arriving somewhat exhausted a bit after 11pm that night. fortunately Joe's parents had another spare room for us which was really nice so we had a bed awaiting us in addition to smiley (though equally as tired) family.

Saturday morning we made our purchase - a 2003 toyota camry sportivo which will do our budding wee family just fine, and allow for the expansion to a second child later in the year. Yes, we're having another baby towards the end of the year. No sense mucking around eh? So very pleased with ourselves we headed for a cruise down to the Gold Coast to the Seaworld theme park for some cheesy family entertainment. Abbey was most impressed with the sharks and the fish in the big Aquarium, and only mildly amused with the dolphins, seals, pelicans and waterskiers which she could only see at a distance. Mez did the obligatory rollercoaster along with Joseph, despite warning signs suggesting that people with 'conditions' such as pregnancy should not go on the rollercoaster (is that because they don't want to be responsible for the death of more people than they realise if it comes off its tracks?!!) Needless to say Joelle and I held the bags and were quite happy to do so. Mez mocked me senselessly for being too scared to go on. And i took the abuse and came up with some lame excuse as to why i couldn't possibly have gone on it.

All in all it was a great day. Abbey seemed to enjoy it - though will probably get more out of it in another five years or so. Though at the rate we're currently going we might not be able to fit our family in the current car, let alone afford to take them all to Seaworld in another five years. We'll see how we get on though eh!! Great to spend some quality time with Jo and Joe, and just to relax and wander around some interesting stuff for a day. Astounding proportion of pregnant females in that theme park though. I was amazed. Everywhere you turned, there was another pregnant woman. Sheesh. Not that pregnant women are in any way negative. That's not a negative sheesh! it's more of an amazed sheesh! Craziness...

So Joe's folks had a few family round to celebrate Jo and Joe being there and to say g'day and goodbye to their uncle Dave (who works in the middle east and was home for a two week spell) so Saturday night was curry's and drinks and a good chance to sit around with a few others and commiserate as the Hurricanes capitulated again in resplendent fashion to the all conquering Crusaders. Kinda boring after a while. Great to meet some of Joe's family too, and even greater when he hushed everyone up and then got down on one knee and proposed to Joelle! Was really special for us to be able to be there to witness that and to congratulate them both. Really capped off a great day. And nice to see a smiling happy (and shocked) little sister with a beautiful bling ring on her finger. Really cool.

As an aside, i have to say that it's been an unexpected, but really welcome surprise and really enjoyable part of life to be in big families where they just keep getting added to - both in terms of partners and in terms of kids... between Mez and my families there are 5 more babies to be born before the end of the year, to add to the two last year and one slightly older nephew. Really cool time of life, and great to marry into a family and more than double your quota of brothers and sisters, then to more than double it again as they all marry off. Those with big families are I think richer for it... at least that is how I feel!

So it's great to be adding another brother to the fast growing list! Just need a couple more sisters and we'll have a complete set! (no hurry though Jim and Tony!) So that was cool.

Sunday morning we headed off rather early, to try and make the drive a bit more manageable. Especially as we had to drive back both cars, so no opportunity to have a break while the other drives for a bit... Abbey decided she was going to enforce a few more stops than we had anticipated with a record number of poo's in one day which made for some interesting motorway negotiations. We somehow managed to find ourselves on the motorway towards Noosa and elected just to stay on that road 'cos it didn't look too far off where we were headed anyway. Not the truth. Mental note - small distances on Australian maps are still big distances. Well worth the trip mind you. Noosa is BEAUTIFUL. Now there's somewhere I wouldn't mind winning a beachouse. Winning one would be about my only option as i don't think I could earn enough in a lifetime to buy one. Very nice beach though, and Abbey enjoyed her frolick in the sand and waves, well right up till she toppled flat onto her back... probably knocked the wind out of her, but she cried for a couple of minutes then was all keen again to play in the waves. Clearly no harm done.

So after Noosa we pretty much headed straight back home. Eventful only by it's painful longevity - the drive is not a bad one if you've got company in the car and either cd's or a working ipod. Unfortunately neither of us had either of those so we had the painful option. but we got here. Safe and sound and no Roo's on the road to write off our nice new car. Excellent.

All in all, a great weekend was had by all. I'd do it again!! Amazing too that the entire time we've been here I've been walking to work, and it has never rained on me... Today (tuesday) it was bucketing down, but fortunately my nice wife could drive me to work. I reckon someone's been looking after us eh?!