Tuesday 1st Febuary 2011

Tuesday 1st February

Monique is at school now and has been for about a week.  She seems to be settling in and enjoying herself.  There are two new Year 10 girls in her room so she is able to be the one showing them around this year, instead of being the newbee.  I think she enjoys that.  We dropped her off at school on the Sunday afternoon and then she went to Sylvia's again on Tuesday afternoon because of Australia Day holiday the next day.  So it was a short week for her.  The week before we had to go to the school and get uniforms for her because nowthat she is in Year 10, her uniform changes.   Boy, I thought that uniforms were expensive before, I am now having to revise my opinion on all uniforms bought previously as the ones for this year were excessively expensive.  OMG.  I could have almost made a mortgage payment with the amount it cost.   Anyway, she is outfitted and settled down.  And then, news of Cyclone Yasi which is expected to hit Cairns on Wednesday night.  Sylvia received a phone call asking her to pick up Monique as only those boarding students who have no one to go to will be staying at the school during the cyclone.  So her week is interrupted again.  She is very happy about these events. 
I headed off on the plane to Brisbane on the 25th of January and spent 5 days with Esther, Jed, Josh and Suzie who are now living at Sunrise Beach in a gorgeous two story house that is only 5 minutes walk to the beach.  So great.  We went to every market in the area, had a massimo's icecream (which is the best icecream ever and must be had on every trip to the sunshine coast), breakfast on the beach on Australia Day, walks to the beach every afternoon with the dogs (most of the walks ended up being in the dark as we were
a bit slow getting started - but they were spectacular - especially on the last night when the wind was blowing a gale, it was wild and wooley and brilliant).  We went to the local farmers markets and Eumundi and Peregian markets, had lunch at a cafe on Hastings Street, window shopped all day in gorgeous little stores all over the coast.  Esther and I talked and talked and talked catching up on everything as we hadn't seen each other since the end of October.  I met her friend Chrissy who is lovely.  She came along on some of
our excursions and we all had such fun.  Jed started school at the local Steiner school which he is thoroughly enjoying.  Josh finally found some work while I was there and was happy to be working again.  I had met Suzie briefly in Mount Isa before leaving so it was great to catch up with her again also.  She had headed to Cairns but it didn't work out so she is now living with Esther, looking for work and enjoying the spectacular lifestyle of living so close to the beach. 
On Sunday afternoon, Dad and Rhonda picked me up and I'm now spending a couple of days with them.  Yesterday we headed down to a forestry nursery near Beerwah to sort out 260 bags of green pine cones weighing approx 20kg each.  We had to get them out off the truck, sorted into groups of pine types and then laid out on trays to dry out ready to be put into the kiln, then tossed so that all the seeds are extracted.  It was hot sweaty work heavy work but not too bad, although Dad reckons I whinged the whole time but i don't remember that (lucky that I have short term memory, hey).  Dad has started his own business doing this type of work and it was the first trial run of what had to be done.  Pretty cool, but I will admit that I am glad that I won't be here when the next lot come in.  I am definately a lazy person.   Today, Dad is going to show me how he cooks his bread.  I have had a couple of pieces and they are really good.  So hopefully with the time spent with Sylvia experimenting with bread and time with Dad, my bread when I get back to Port Moresby will be good.  Here's hoping anyway.  I am heading to Bundaberg tomorrow to spend a couple of hours with my grandparents, and they going on the train to see my sister Tam and her family on Thursday at the Gold Coast.  Then a couple of days with my sister Yolander, before flying back to Cairns on Tuesday.  I am then hoping that my car will be fixed (Brenton had a bit of a crash in it about a week after we went to PNG) so I will go to Townsville for a couple of days with Tiarna.  Steve is flying in on Friday 11th of Febuary for 4 1/2 days, and then we are both flying out
on the 16th of February. 
I was going to catch the train in Cairns and head to Brisbane, stopping off at a heap of towns on the way to see a heap of people but it was so expensive, so I flew to Brisbane instead. Maybe another time a train trip can be done, as I haven't really travelled by train, so I was really looking forward to the experience.  They have tickets that last 3 months and you are able to get on and off the train anywhere in Queensland as many times as you like.  That sounds great......
Well the bread turned out really nice and I am confident that I can now go back to PNG and make my own successfully.  Yum.  We ended up having a heap for lunch with salad.  YUM YUM YUM.  This afternoon has been busy organising for Tiarna's car (that we had fixed and road worthied just at the end of November and is now not going) to be towed to her new place.  She was doing some shifting of some of her gear and it stopped working.  I'll get it checked out next week when (hopefully) I am down there to pick up my car.  As she left the car on the side of the road near her old unit, I had the police call this morning asking about it.  They asked that we remove it, so I had to get a tow truck organised.  And I also had to make sure she was safe with the big cyclone coming in.  It looks as though it is going to hit nearer Cairns which doesn't make me feel any better as that is where Monique and Syl and her family are.  Crossing all fingers that it down grades before hitting.  When I spoke to Monique this afternoon, she said that she was a Sylvia's place and the school had closed for the rest of the week.  They are in the process of batting down everything and checking where the best place in the house will be.  I'll keep this updated.