Downunder Diary
by Guest Author
April
The boys went back to school after a lovely long weekend in Burrum Point National Park near Woodgate, a small seaside resort village four hours north of Brisbane, which is only accessible by 4x4. The Swanepoel family joined us at this lovely out-of-the-way camp site at the mouth of the Burrum River, which is full of pelagic fish. Our dinner on the second night comprised of fresh Silver Travelli caught by Fred. My Giant Herring caught on a lure off the back of Chilly Bean our canoe, was too bony to cook. Our stay also included some 4x4 exploring along the river, a walk along the Banksia Trail and lots of relaxing in the perfect champagne weather.
Our very own movie star Keal made his acting debut in a short film called Once upon a time produced and directed by a good mate of ours, Rob Porter, as a follow up to his recent award winning short film The boy and his fish. Dressed as a ninja turtle, Keal, along with his mates, Harry Potter and some army guy, saved the birthday girl from the crazy party clown in what was two gruelling days of hard filming. He started rather hesitantly, but we couldnt get him off the set at the end. During the shoot I nipped off to watch a top school boy rugby derby between Churchie and Nudgee College, where the visitors won in the dying minutes. Both Keals U7 and Tyles U10 wins earlier in the day were a far cry from this breeding ground of future Wallabies.
As the cooler months approach Im sure that my beautiful wife will have some projects lined up for me as she gets ideas from two popular TV shows Renovation Rescue and Backyard Blitz. I personally prefer the programs like Getaway and The Great Outdoors. Although we pay a lot of income tax it is reassuring to see that after only minimal corruption and government spending a lot goes into providing good infrastructure, education, health, policing and services for the country. Many Aussies have retained the art of whingeing from their pommy ancestors as to how tough they have it, if only they knew............
June
Winter has arrived with temps plummeting to seven degrees and only creeping up to 21 degrees in the day causing everyone to dig out the old moth-balled jerseys to avoid the cold and flu germs flying around. It looks like the poms, Australias second highest immigration statistic, have also brought their wet weather with, as it has been raining on and off for a week now. A sure sign that Im becoming soft in my old age was evident when the wet weather forced me to make my potjie on the stove in our cozy warm kitchen. We pulled out some biltong and treated a few Aussie couples to some South African hospitality on Sunday afternoon.
Saturday afternoon was spent in the Hewlet Packard box suite at the Gabba with an old Aussie mate, from where we watched the Brisbane Lions smash Melbournes Carlton in what was a very ordinary bottom of the ladder clash. In AFL they still get one point for missing the goal and there is a lot of argy bargy off the ball. Umpires in white coats have long since been replaced with normal colourful outfits and are called green maggots by the crowd. We had some celebs as special guests to the after match function where it was so funny to see the Aussies pretending not to recognise them, but at the same time watch them carefully out of the corner of their eye. All the same it just isnt rugby.
Home