Birthdays galore!!!
Down in Port Douglas (Australia) it’s my nephew Darcy’s birthday today and he got a walkman!
And in Maroochydore (also Australia), it’s Tallulah’s birthday on Sunday and she’s going to be in hospital, where she’s been for the last 6 days, having a number of operations on a nastily infected heel. Poor baby.
Hippo Birdee to my little darlings, Darcy and Tallulah. Love you!
Angel Evie
Would you just look at this magnificent creature. She is the happiest baby I ever did meet. Doesn’t she have the most infectious smile! She’s beautiful and I love her muchly. She turns one year old today. Her name is Evie and she is my god daughter and niece. Happy birthday darlin’ girl. Wish I could be with you.
Through fields of cane…
Cattle and Cane
I recall a schoolboy coming home
through fields of cane
to a house of tin and timber
and in the sky
a rain of falling cinders
from time to time
the waste memory-wastes
I recall a boy in bigger pants
like everyone
just waiting for a chance
his father’s watch
he left it in the showers
from time to time
the waste memory-wastes
I recall a bigger brighter world
a world of books
and silent times in thought
and then the railroad
the railroad takes him home
through fields of cattle
through fields of cane
from time to time
the waste memory-wastes
the waste memory-wastes
further, longer, higher, older
_______________________________________________________
Cattle and Cane song lyrics by the FNQ born lush, Grant W McLennan of the Go-Betweens. A friend of mine, actually. He goes home every year to the Atherton Tablelands for the picnic races there. The house in the photo above is not actually on the Atherton Tablelands, but in the foothills. It is an old sugarcane farm on the way to my brothers house. Every time I went past it, I would break into “Cattle and Cane” and think of Grant. It’s my favourite Go-Betweens song ever, and actually, I sing it a lot even here in Tokyo. It totally evokes a touch of homesickness for people living far away from their childhood in the Queensland tropics. You can listen to it here.
The Frangipani flower
Merry Christmas, everyone. Have a fun day wherever you are (especially you Japan workers who will be…erm… working…) and I hope that the New Year is full of cool stuff and special treats and dreams-coming-true.
The flowers in this photo are frangipani’s. They smell great and in fact, as I type, I can smell the frangipani tree outside in my Uncles yard. It’s quite intoxicating. Hmmm. Or is this intoxicating sensation just from the large glass of absolutely magnificent 4-sisters semillon savignon blanc by my laptop? OK, I might have to put it down to a heady combination of the 2, with the added bonus of the mosquito coil in my verandah doorway.
Mooloolaba
Mooloolaba – the family home. Looks nice, doesn’t it. These days it’s over developed and over crowded, but it wasn’t always that way. This place will always be important to me. Mum and Dad had their first date (and kiss) here, wayyyyy back in the late 1950′s, just before Mum headed off to Europe on her obligatory post-uni adventure. And I had my first kiss here too. I have been dumped by countless waves at this beach. Me and my brother have eaten countless post-beach ice-creams purchased from the old ice cream shop on the corner of Brisbane Road and The Esplanade. We have watched dozens of Santas be ferried in on little motorboats to crowds of excited kids. Mums ashes were sprinkled into the harbour here, and Dad’s ashes will be joining hers there when it’s his time. I reckon mine might too. It’s nothing like the lovely, sleepy Mooloolaba of old, but it will always hold a special place in my heart.
Tallulah and Hannah
Two sisters: Tallulah, not yet 3, and Hannah, just 7 weeks. My best friends kids. Today was hard: I had to say goodbye to these angels who I have gotten to know a little over the past 4 days, and their parents. The trouble with holidays: they always go way too fast.
I’m back in Brisbane after a lovely few days on the Sunshine Coast where I stayed with my old and dear friends Jackie, Adrian and Russell, and did the rounds with my Dad, visiting old family friends and drinking a lot. Also got poked and prodded by pathologists, doctors and dentists and had all sorts of sharp scary metal things stuck into me and am happy to announce that I am 100% fit and well.
Tomorrow, we’re off to Port Douglas in Far North Queensland – a sleepy old resort town. My brother lives there – actually, he lives on acreage out in the foothills behind Port Douglas. There is a waterhole just down the road, and plenty of rainforest to gaze out at. You can’t actually swim in the ocean there at this time of the year because of the man-o-war jellyfish so having the waterhole is a very cool option.
I am loving being home again for a while. Being away for so long makes coming back a very novel experience. I have been particularly entertained by the Australian Language and accent – on my first night back I had to ask my friends to repeat themselves constantly coz they were all talking too fast for me to hear what they were saying. Weird. Words I had fogotten about include:
“Ta” (thanks)
“Ta-ta” (see ya)
“Hoon” (short for hooligan, late night car drivers)
“Stroppy” (irritable)
and best of all – being called “dear” and “love” by complete strangers
So, dears, from the lovely world of Uncle Tony’s broadband cable, ta-ta for now.
