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。

Outdated Updates....

2 Sept 2006, Saturday - Spring is here! (and so are the flowers, pollen and hay fever! haha)

We once again troupe out in cars to Ipswich / Boonah for our Lavendar Farm visit.









9 adults, 1 baby in 4 cars, arrived at our first stop, The Workshops Rail Museum. We had originally allocated 1 hour for this museum, but we didn't expect the museum to be THIS big! It covers a lot of grounds and we are not prepared to pay AU$16.50 per person to speed past everything in the speed of light. Furthermore, they have an upcoming exhibition on 29 Oct where one could actually travel by steam train from Brisbane city to the museum in Ipswich! The only flip side is that we each got to fork out about AU$50 for that ride!





















Giving the museum a miss, we proceeded to The Carmel Lookout. Our first reaction was, "Is this it?".... There wasn't much to see ....





















After some munching, we drove to Mount French for another lookout. The view here is much much better than the previous one... After some photo taking, we "pigged out" at the picnic facilities provided.









And then, we finally arrived at the Kooroomba Lavendar Farm. Out came the cameras again, taking pictures from all angles to capture our visit so that we could look back in the future and say "I was there!"... We had some interesting deserts. Lavendar flavoured tea and ice cream... Is it nice? Well... let's say it's not to everyone's liking.... but it is something different...and you won't get to eat it anywhere else...





















Our last stop - Lake Moogerah. Beautiful scenery with the sun set as its background. The only spoil sport was the heaps and heaps of cow dung all over the place... So we were all walking with our eyes fixed to the ground, avoiding any "booby traps" laid on the ground by the cows. (Moo-moos revenge on humans?)






It was said that behind the range of mountains is the state of New South Wales. This kinda reminds me of the movie "The Sound of Music" where they had to "climb every mountain" to get to their freedom from the Nazis... haha..










薰衣草之行

春天来了！

我们一伙人（总控有9个大人，1 个婴孩），驾驶着4辆车，开始我们一天的薰衣草之行。

首先，我们驾驶了一个钟头的车程到达了The Workshops Rail Museum。 这是一个以火车为主体的博物馆。可是，我们发觉这并非一个小型博物馆。原本我们只设定华一个小时的时间来游玩这个博物馆。可是，见到那地图，我们警觉到那是一个不可能的任务。况且，在10月29日 它们会有一个大型的展会，可让观光客乘搭古老的水汽火车一路从布里斯班城市中心到博物馆。但是，车费和入门费价值不菲，大约每人澳币50元。所以，我们放弃观赏此馆，等到10月底在来。

之后，我们到达了Mt Carmel Lookout 。 原以为我们能够看见美丽的景点，但是当我们到达目的地的时候，我们都很失落的感叹了一生“怎么才这样儿以啊？”

吃了些小吃，我们就赶路到Mt. French。应为这座山来得比上一个根高，跟偏僻，它的景色郊动人多了。放眼一看，似乎可以看到那无止境的澳土。拍了无数张照片，我们那饥饿的肚子，推动着我们的身躯往车子后箱走，取出我们各所准备的食物。

野餐一番后，我们就开往主角薰衣草农场 - Kooroomba Lavender Farm。我们再次的那起各自的照相机，把所看到的景点都捕抓起来，好让我们以后能够随时从温。我们也尝试了薰衣草口味的茶和冰淇淋。冰淇淋好吃吗？它有一种很特别的口味，但是不是每个人都能够接受。

我们最后的地点是Lake Moogerah。它其实是一个水坝。太阳西落的景色实在绝！可是，唯一杀景的是那遍地一堆堆得牛粪！导致我们都“抬不起头”的走。

我们也听说那排山后面就是新南威尔斯州。

玩了一整天之后，我们也开始我们回家的路途。路程遥远，为了娱乐大家，益荣与姚生大唱起张学友的“真情流露”。怎么娱乐全部团员在各自的车呢？他们两位对着对讲机大唱。对这场急性表演，其他队友可是哭笑不得！

吃完晚饭之后，我们的一日之行也开心，圆满的结束了。

The Great Inconvenience....

Apologies for the lack of updates for the past few weeks as I was feeling way under the weather for a whole week (with fever as high as 40 degrees for 3 days!)

As my colleagues would testify, I seldom get sick in SG. and to think that I had to get THIS sick in AU?! (Hopefully, after this ordeal, I will have better luck! haha...)

Now I truly understand why people say that it's better not to get sick in Koala Land. The private health system here is so different from what we have in SG and MY. For one, you may not get to see the doctor if you did not make an appointment beforehand. So imagine how you would feel when you are delirious with fever, shivering and nauseous and the receptionist has the cheek to tell you "I'm sorry, the doctor is all booked out today and he won't be able to see you today. Would you like to make an appointment for tomorrow?"

Fortunately, there's still some practices that allows "impromptu visits", the only condition is that you have to be patient and wait for your turn (which can take up to a little over an hour. However, I found out that even with an appointment you might still have to wait for about 30 - 40 minutes.... sigh....)

After seeing the doctor, you'd think that your ordeal is over and you could head straight home for your bed. But NO, you still need to go get your medicines! And you won't get them from the clinic. You have to drage your sick, aching body to a pharmacy to get your prescription. And if the doctor wants you to do some tests, you'd need to go to a pathology lab too!

This experience had made me realised that most of us take our private health system in SG and even MY for granted. At the very least, they won't make the poor sick souls walk all over for their meds and tests!

Why didn't I go to the public hospitals? Well, because th doctor said that I'd have to be prepared to wait for about 5 - 6 hours! I thought I might as well go home and lie in my own bed rather than to have to sit in the A&E for 5 - 6 hours. However, we found that the 5 - 6 hours meant from waiting in the A&E, to getting seen by the doctor, to getting your tests done, having your shots / IV drips / bandages etc, to observation, to prescription to discharge. It may take a shorter span of time sometimes, depending on your condition and the crowd at the hospital then. Upon learning the truth, I really regretted no admitting myself, at least I won't have to "suffer" for so many days... haha....

最严重的不方便。。。

首先，非常抱歉，应为我有好几个星期没有上网填写我的步洛课。我病了整整一个星期，发高烧（40度哦！）整3 天！

我当时在想，我怎么在新加坡不病，反倒来这里病得比在新加坡还要严重。或数， 熬过这场病，就会有更好的运气来临吧。 （真希望是如此！）

在澳州，看病是一个非常麻烦的事。最大的分别就是看病前要预约！你想象，你已经病的模糊不清了，他们还跟你说应为没有预约，医生今天没有办法见你，请你约明天再来吧。辛好，还是有些诊所让你“叉队”，只不过比蜀要有耐心等。

况且，看医生和那药或做任何测验是两麻子事哦。医生只能帮你打针，诊所并不会开药给你。你必须到一个药方抓药。可怜的病人只好拖着那非常不舒服的身体（和心理!），拿着药单到最靠近的药方买药。

为什么我不去医院呢？应为医生告诉我们去医院必须等个5 – 6 个小时！（不过我们后来才发现，那5- 6 个小时包括了在急诊室等候，医生诊疗，做任何测验，打针，钓水，开药，观察，最后出院。当我们知道真相时，都好后悔没有到医院去。至少，可以少受罪几天！）

这一场病，让我深深的感觉，其实新加坡和马来西亚的私人诊疗系统还要远远的超越澳州。至少，它是“包罗万有”的。