Weather and Wine

I saw this notice on a local bulletin board recently. Never seen anything like it on the bulletin board  outside the Bidgoods Post Office at home;-)

Funny, I talking with a guy at a bus stop recently who was telling me proudly that Queensland didn't have any poisonous snakes and then I go and read this notice. Well it just says "Snake" not "Poisonous Snakes" so maybe buddy is right. Australia does have more species of poisonous snakes than anywhere else in the world or so I've been told. It says on the notice that buddy would relocate the snakes to D'Aguilar Park. I go walking there!!! 

There was a Python snake living in a tree in the backyard here for over a year. Tony only recently "encouraged" it to move somewhere else not long before I arrived. Apparently it had eaten a couple of guinea pigs from next door! 

I wrote this next little part a few days ago so yesterday is not really yesterday and so on. It's actually been quite comfortable the last couple of days. 

It is s-o-o-o-o hot!! Yesterday it got up to 33 degrees but the “feels like” value was 35. Thankfully, it cooled off to 25 overnight;-) It’s much the same today. There’s really not much doing outdoors in those kind of temperatures…not for me anyway.  Bushwalks are out of the question unless you could get up in higher elevation. The high humidity is the killer and this area of Queensland is famous for it;-)  

I thought I might catch a movie this afternoon at The Barracks but this voice inside of me that said, “You can’t be going inside on a sunny day like this!” Doesn’t matter that every day is sunny…it’s been ingrained in me I s’pose that we have to “make hay while the sun shines”. Movies are for evenings or rainy days;-) There’s a saying here in Queensland that goes something like this: “Today is beautiful…but just wait ‘til tomorrow, it’ll be perfect!” Little different from “If ya don’t like the weather, wait five minutes”-)

The school where Erin is teaching is without air conditioning…I can’t imagine how uncomfortable it must be in those classrooms. The teachers have to ensure all students are wearing their big, broad sun hats and sunscreen when they go outside during recess and lunch breaks…surely not as time consuming as getting the little ones ready to go outside at home this time of the year with hats, mittens, boots, zippers etc. That is of course only when you can actually get outside. Often, the horizontal freezing rain, ice pellets, sleet, 100km winds, three metre high snowdrifts, combined with slippery conditions underfoot prevent the children from getting out at all. So….I guess I won’t be getting much sympathy complaining that’s it’s too hot sometimes… fair enough;-) Time for another photo in case you just want to look at the pictures;-)

Taken while walking along the Brisbane River

The weather here in Australia is as much a part of the news and conversation as it is at home in Newfoundland. It is a huge country geographically with very diverse climate conditions and extreme weather. First of all, it is one of the driest continents with half of it receiving less 25-30cm of rain a year. Eighty per cent of it gets less than 60cm. Newfoundland for example would get twice that on average and significantly higher in snowfall amounts. Drought conditions, bush fires, cyclones, flooding are part and parcel of life in many parts of this country. Even in the few weeks I’ve been here, newscasts have reported flooding in the Northern Territories  as it is their rainy season and drought in pretty well some part of every other states.

Bush fires are always a major threat in Australia with Victoria suffering immensely in the last few years. In February 2009, a series of bushfires came to be known as Black Saturday, killed 173 people and injured another four hundred.

Some areas are known for extremes, for example, Adelaide, broke records this year for having the most consecutive days over 40 degrees (12) then broke a record for the highest rainfall on another date!

So I did get to my movie but I went in the evening and I have to say, it was a movie experience rather than just a movie;-) Before I get to that part though, I have to mention the bus driver at my stop down the street. When I mentioned to him where I wanted to exit the bus, he said he didn’t stop anywhere near that area. In the meantime, when I got on the bus, he didn’t look at me but kept staring straight ahead, never said hello, k.m.a. or anything. I stepped off then and walked back home. I checked my computer and found that the bus did indeed stop near there…just a short five or seven minute walk away.

I went back to the bus stop and waited for the bus to come round again hoping I wouldn’t get the same contrary fella. As I was waiting, I knew I had a much shorter time to make the movie now and more importantly, order the wine I wanted. You see, that was the main reason I wanted to go…you could bring wine into the theatre;-)  I’d also have to run a bit and it was already warm and sticky out so I said, shag it, I’ll go another time and went home. Erin had just arrived home from yoga and without waiting for her boiling blood to cool down from the story of the unhelpful driver, we got in her car and she drove me there;-)

 The cinema was in a building called The Barracks, which is a converted military barracks. I would call it a sort of upscale affair as far as movie viewing goes. Before entering the upstairs cinema area, you pass through a wide aisle not unlike the aisle you would walk through going to a movie at Sobey’s Square if you went in the front entrance. The similarities stop completely after that as The Barracks aisle had all kinds of novelty shops, sushi bars, cafes, wine bars and nice restaurants on either side of the aisle. There were tables and beautiful upholstered chairs and stools for patrons in the aisle and it was buzzing with people and conversation. The end of the aisle before you headed up the stairs to the cinema was a glass wall with a city view.

View of the moon from the back veranda (nothing to do with what I'm writing…just a snap)

Once upstairs though was the best! When you purchased your movie ticket, you could also order wine and a cheese platter to take in with you! There were all kinds of comfy chairs around to enjoy some wine as you sat looking out over the city while waiting to go inside and watch your movie. I didn’t order a cheese platter as it was really a thing for two people and it was $18.00. I was having a glass of wine to take inside though just because I could!!;-)

I saw the movie Nebraska which is a drama set in sepia tones about one elderly man’s mission to get to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect on his one million dollar winning sweepstakes ticket. Remember those things we used to get all the time….didn’t they come with Reader’s Digest? I didn’t care what they showed on that screen… the seats were large, cushiony and comfortable…I was almost wishing it would recline though, …there were only about six of us in the whole theatre and no one sitting in my front view so I felt like I had the place all to myself. It was just lovely;-)

After the movie, I had a quick walk around the immediate area as it was buzzing with life! People were out and about enjoying the bars and restaurants on a beautiful evening. As I headed up the road though, to find a bus stop, down came the rain….hard! I found one sheltered bus stop but when I inquired about the bus I needed, I was told that the bus didn’t stop there at this time of the evening. I walked on in the dark and pouring rain up the busy street pass the Suncorp Football Stadium to another stop. By this time, I was soaked! It was warm though and I was pretty sure I’d make it home before hyperthermia set in. 

I found a stop with the best bus driver in the world! As most of the drivers I’ve met since I’ve arrived, he was very helpful and dropped me off at The Gap Village, which is the shopping area I frequent and about a fifteen-minute walk from home. Still in the dark and pouring rain, through a couple of short cut trails, I make it home, changed and all was good!

 It brought me back to a time when my children were young and we were at the cabin in Gambo. In those days, we could only get to the cabin by boat. I can’t remember what it was we needed, all I know is, I volunteered to go to town to get whatever it was. This involved taking the canoe up the pond to Mint Brook. I didn’t have to go too far up the pond and I hugged the shoreline, which was hard paddling because it was shallow. I went by myself in the pitch black and I mean black with a grocery bag over my head because it started to rain. Maybe it was on the way back it started to rain. In any event, our van was parked on the other side of the brook so I pulled the canoe up and drove into Gambo. I recall coming back and turning off the van lights, it was so dark. Even heading up the brook onto the pond, it was awhile before I even made out a cabin light. I don’t think I would be fussy about doing that now;-)

I spent another enjoyable afternoon earlier in the week at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art or GOMA.  It was another “stinker” heat wise as they say so an afternoon in a cool environment was in order. I went against my sunny/hot code and walked inside. Thankfully, the devil didn’t strike me dead and the sunny days have continued so I wasn’t punished for doing so;-) Anyway, here are a few shots from the exhibition:

You can say what you like about art, it usually calls up some sort of response from your gut. You like it, you hate it violently, love it passionately, you’re totally awestruck, or as I tend to be a good bit of the time…bewildered by it;-) Whatever the case, the main exhibit I viewed brought forth a myriad of feelings and I have to say was well worth the fifteen dollars IMHO. Just showing off my texting lingo;-) I learned a new one today….HTH….which is “hope that helps;-) Okay the art….it was by Cai guo-Qiang: Falling Back to Earth.  You can read all about the exhibits on line. The one with the animals around the water was amazing. I walked around the display taking my time at least three times. The biggest impact was when I first walked in the room. Were the animals stuffed? Were they created? How did Cai (pronounced "Sigh") come up with this concept and what are the main ideas behind it? I watched a video there on how the display was created and some of Cai’s earlier work. He’s responsible for some of the most fantastic fireworks displays at Olympic and cultural events around the world. Happy reading (or not;-)