Esmo & Rach

Blown off!

22 October 2006, Sunday - North Stradebroke Island

We started bright and early on Sunday, and arrived at Cleveland's jetty in 3 separate cars. But we squeezed into 1 Toyota Prado which Leo droved and parked on the ferry. Once the car is lined up like toys on the ferry, we went up to the second deck to catch some sea breeze.

The sea breeze was more like a typhoon! We nearly got blown off the deck!












We couldn't stand the "assault" for long so we "took shelter" in the ferry's second deck for some tea and coffee. Though the ferry was fairly large, the "breeze" caused some real havoc in the seas. The ship was rocking like a cradle! Lucky for us, good conversations took our mind away from the swaying...









After a rocky 45 minutes ride, we arrived at North Straddie. First stop, Cylinder Beach - to check out if we could take a dip in the ocean. The fine sand, the blue sea and clear sky was so inviting! But we were put off by the gusty winds, the choppy sea and cold water.












Though we were put off, a lot of people aren't. Quite a number of gutsy youths braved the cold water to surf waves. The only difficult part is getting to the waves. There's also a couple of brave uncles who stood on the rocks to cast their lines into the sea.












After more than half hour's walk, we decided to get some morning tea. We drove to a lookout and brought out our home-made goodies. There were chicken wings, braised eggs and raspberry cake.












Next stop, Main Beach. We tried walking out near to the edge of a cliff, but we took several steps back to avoid being blown off the cliff. Taking pictures in this windy condition is challenging to both the photographer as well as the photographee... keeping our hair in place for a pretty pose is quite impossible.
























After getting blown left right and centre, we decided to hide and tame our hair. Our grumbling stomachs drove us in search of Straddie's fresh seafood. We wanted to get some oysters and prawns, however the shells were all sold out so we were left with prawns to go with our fried rice.









We found a "calmer" spot to have our lunch. After fulfilling our stomachs, we couldn't resist the paper tree's invitation to "lounge" on it's wide spread branches. To lounge on its branches requires certain level of skills and nimbleness. But, all of us passed the test and have soon climbed up the tree like monkeys.


















We also decided to relive our childhood days and try our hands at the playground.












We also tried to be a gymnast....












a can-can dancer....












and a treasure seeker...









We came back to Main Beach to explore further. It was another cliff and this time, we really got blown off... Esmond's cap (actually, the cap belonged to David) was blown off, down into a deep descending cliff, never to return... (sorry David!)












Last stop, pipis picking. Leo drove the 4WD down to the beach, all the while searching for "puffed up shadow" - signs of pipi activities under the sand. And we were not disappointed. A small area "produced" more than 5 kilos of free fresh live pipis. We packed them in a bag and drove towards the jetty, waiting for the ferry to bring us back to the "mainland".












It was one hour before the ferry arrives, so Leo decided to "fly" his model plane while Esmond, Rachel and ML decided to get some desserts for everyone.

We not only came back with ice creams, we also came back with a dog! This dog followed us and even raced us to the jetty! Halfway up, it saw a tap and hinted that it wanted a drink. After lapping up and quenching its thirst, the race continues...












Finally, the ferry arrives and brought us back to the mainland, signally the end of our second family outing.

LIVE MATCH...

7 Oct 2006, Sat - A chance of a lifetime for Brisbane dwellers, LIVE Soccer Match: Socceroos vs Paraguayians!

It is rare for the Australian national soccer team to be playing in Brisbane, so Brissies throng up the Suncorp stadium in force - 47,000 strong of them including 5 of us.


On the train, on the way to Milton Station, the nearest station to Suncorp Stadium.





We paid $20 bucks each to have a seat in the restricted viewing area. How restricted? We didn't have much clue but just to speculate that we might be staring at the goal posts since we are in the third row from the front.


The view from our seat. Not too bad, not that restricted. Just that we can't see all the action that's happening on the other side





Nevertheless, we made our way there at half past six, only to reach the Milton train station packed with supporters. We had to walked right around the stadium from the station to our gate entrance (taking us a good half hour), rendering us missing the grand entrance of the Socceroos and some butt butt had the cheek to sit at our seats!

But, things soon settled down, and we proceeded to enjoy the atmosphere...


Look at the amount of people here!






Instead of hearing "Referee kayu!!!", the chant here is "I'm deaf, I'm blind, I wanna be a ref!" when they are mad at the referee's decision. Some other chants to sneer the opponents are "Bull Shit Ah..................." . Also, there were no curry puffs or bandung sold here, but only beer, soft drinks and hot dogs....


Fanatic fans....






For the first half, all the action took place at the other court. From where we were sitting, all we could see was a bunch of people running around, supposedly trying to score. However, no goals were created then.


Back up players, warming up.











Come second half, we thought that all the action will take place at our side. But to our surprise, it wasn't to be. The Paraguayians seemed to have "wake up their idea" and improved on their defence, but was attacking the Aussie goalie too.


One of the few goal mouth scramble before our very eyes....










But our wait was worth it, because the first goal was created right in front of our eyes! It was over in a whif, but everybody was egging the Socceroos on, watching the match at the end of their seats and when the ball was headed past the Paraguayian goal keeper everybody jumped up from their seats with their arms in the air shouting "GOAL!!!!!!!"... Everybody was so elated.

But our joy was shortlived, as a couple of minutes down the road something happened that caused the whole stadium to come down to complete silence. Another goal was created. But there was no celebration.... because it was an own goal made by a Socceroo. It happened so fast, that most people went: "What the? What happened?"....

The match ended 1:1. It wasn't a perfect ending and when the match ended, everybody sort of shuffle through. There wasn't much jubilation / celebration... Then again, this match was mostly for players who are playing their last match before their retirement. Hence, not as crucial as a real match.



Until the next match in Brisbane....

Toowoomba Flower Carnival ....

23 Sept 2006, Sat - The annual Flower Carnival at Toowoomba beckons 6 of us to make the 1.5 hour drive to Toowoomba.









Our first stop is theToowoomba Train Station. Toowoomba is a city filled with OLD building structures. This gives off a very different feel compared to other cities. Since the GPS failed us, we decided to walk our way to Queens Park, which according to the GPS is 1.5km from the train station.












It was a tiring walk, especially under the hot spring sun. After much complaints and tired legs, we've finally arrived at the "flower exhibition". There were beds after beds and plots after plots of nicely 'choreographed' flower patches.













They've erected a stand so that "tourists" could have a "bird's eye view" of the exhibition. There were also a Live band to provide some entertainment.





















When we've got enough of the flowers, we started our walk back to our cars so that we could get some grub into our grumbling stomachs. This time, with Roger's navigation, it was a much shorter walk back (short cuts!). The human GPS is still better than the electronic GPS!

We proceeded to our next stop, Picnic Point, for our picnic. From Picnic Point, we could view the "Table Top" Mountain. A mountain whose top looks as if the Gods above had smacked the mountain with a spade in a spit of anger.





















On our drive back, we decided to stop by Laidley, and we were in luck because from the lookout, we could view the sunset.












We also found out that in the past, settlers would only need to pay 25 cents per acre! That's $2.50 for 10 acres of land! Ha ha!










花儿盛开时。。。

春天的来临意味着花儿盛开期。可是，那微薄的雨季也造成了花儿无法健康茂盛的开。可是为了年度花展，多Toowoomba城全力让美丽的花朵顺利的开放。

从早上9点，我们6人组驾着两辆车子到了Toowoomba Train Station。我们把车子停好后，就开始“逛街”。这个城市有数多的古老建筑屋，有着跟一般城市很不一样的风格。我们一路走，一路拍照，脚步也随着漫起来了。

应为我们所借来的GPS 失灵，我们决定要走到Queens’ Park. 在大太阳下漫步，是一个很累人的事。当我们走到脚酸，大喊累的时候，我们就到了花市展览。 那耀眼的花好迷人哦。平时我们都只看到被绑成一簌簌的花，这样的景色可是少见了。

当我们看花看够了之后，我们开始走回车子，开到Picnic Point，吃午餐。填饱肚子了之后，我们便走去观看Table Top Mountain – 平台山。这座山的山顶仿佛是被神明在一时之汽的时候被盖了个大火锅 – 排便了！

在我们回家的路上，我们绕到去Laidley，也很幸运的能够观赏日落， 也就完成了我们一天的行程。