Adventure | 1000 Fields of Roses

Grab Some Books!

…like we did! 🙂
The Lifeline Bookfest is on again in Brisbane, until Australia Day, when the books will be marked down.
We went on Friday – it was a big day out, so I wasn’t too lively by the afternoon…
Got some bargains, though. 🙂
There’s three sections – the $1.00, the $2.50 and the High Quality (prices as marked). We spent most of our time in the $1.00 section, with a brief look at the $2.50.
Here’s a couple of the items I bought –

I thought the folder would be good for my Chemistry/Biochemistry etc notes, and the Anatomy colouring book is supposed to be good for learning…

There’s two more days – go and have a look!

Published in:

Adventure

on January 24, 2016 at 5:36 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Lifeline bookfest

Science Fiction Future And The Sweet Birthday Boy

Yesterday we went to South Bank for littlest bean’s birthday day out. We spent the morning at the Sciencentre, where they had a special exhibition on Science Fiction, Science Future. We all had an “augmented reality wristband”, which we used for “medical”, “career advice” or “DNA” scans (I was missing a brain in the medical scan, but could upgrade my memory chip… I’m apparently suited to a career in teleport engineering, though.) There were various interactive exhibits, promising that we could “move objects with your mind, turn invisible right before your eyes, be mimicked by a life-like robot and see augmented reality in action.”

This was the centrepiece at the entry..

Here’s littlest bean on the teleport pad..

.. and here’s what happened after..

There’s a look at a holographic future..

… and the chance to be invisible..(something to do with light refraction)

After a picnic lunch, we went to South Bank, where the boys swam, and I lay down on a bench, out of the sun, and had a snooze…
Here’s my view of the afternoon 😀

A good day was had by all!

Here’s littlest bean, signing off, and showing everybody that he’s “10” years old.. 😀

Published in:

on September 12, 2013 at 5:57 pm Leave a Comment

Through Time And Space!

I had something else entirely planned for today…
But then I found THIS!!! (click here 😀 )

Ever wanted to look round the TARDIS a bit?
Click on the double white arrows once you’re on the street view map..

You’re welcome 😀

Published in:

Adventure

on August 14, 2013 at 9:44 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: dOCTOR Who, Tardis

Suddenly…

…. a wild duckling appears.

Went to have a chat with the neighbour this morning (the same one with the tomato guttering. It’s all excitement over there.) She’d rescued a baby duckling, but didn’t know what to do with it next… We offered to ring round, and found someone who takes in random wildlife. Little Duckling is now sharing a home with a baby dove, a blue tongue lizard, a canary, and a dog who raises ducklings and lets them follow him round the garden…
He’s a feisty little thing. Tried to get out of the box whenever possible, but didn’t really show any signs of distress until we started the car to take him to his new home… I had to hold him and stroke that little head the whole way in.

Littlest bean took time, before we worked out where to take him, to try to figure out what sort of duckling we had. He pored over his bird book – didn’t get it quite right, but didn’t do too badly. Seems it’s a “woody” duck.

Little bean chatted as he researched. Little duckling chatted back.
…and so our quiet morning became a little more exciting.. 😀

Published in:

on August 9, 2013 at 8:11 pm Comments (1)
Tags: duckling, rescue

Park2park

Went to Park2park this morning, for Ipswich Hospital Foundation – our church had a group there, so we did the 700m Family Challenge (i.e – walk 🙂 ) Others did the 5 or 10km…. 700m was a nice brisk walk for a Sunday morning…

Littlest bean had a friend with him, so they ran on ahead… biggest boy stuck with his friends. We walked along in the sunshine… I love watching the tiny ones running – it’s like they fling their whole body into it, while occasionally looking back to check Mum/Dad is still there… perhaps we should live life more like that..

Did I mention that we got medals?

That was a surprise.. I thought it was only the kids who got one..

It was a fun morning. We’ll be back next year!

Published in:

on July 28, 2013 at 12:09 pm Comments (3)
Tags: Park2park

Retreat

I went away on the weekend, on a Women’s Retreat with the church. We were up at Mt Tamborine, and stayed overnight at Cedar Creek Lodges. Started with a morning tea at the Botanic Gardens..

A bridge to possibility?

Gateway to hope?

Had a quick gallop along Gallery Walk..

This was beautiful… something that “fills me up” is just browsing amongst gorgeous, creative, sparkly bits and bobs – things others have crafted to show beauty in the world..

Fairy mushrooms 🙂

Then we went for lunch at the place where we stayed. Meals were a selection of buffets – more food than I’ve eaten for a while at each meal, and very enjoyable 😀

It was wet and gloomy when we first got there..

It cleared up eventually, though.. a bit muddy on the Saturday, but a clear, crisp, blue-sky day on Sunday.

The cottages were small but lovely – just the place to sit by the fire and chat..

One of the main joys of going away with a group is that you get to know people a bit better than you can otherwise – youcan sit by a fire, with no other obligations for a short space of time, and just talk. It’s good to get to know people a bit more than the “Hi how are you” sort of thing. The afternoon was spent getting to know a bunch of beautiful women a bit better…

There were games later, and more chatting. And chocolate fondue.
There was a creek flowing right outside the cottage..

The view from the verandah.

It was a constant sound, like rain, but not quite. Soothing, gentle, whispering, relaxing. I came back after the evening activities, exhausted, and was lulled to sleep by the creek flowing past. I have not slept so soundly and completely for a long time – there was chatting and other sounds during the night, but I only vaguely remember.

This is where we had the church service in the morning – out in the open, surrounded by nature. It was the perfect end to the weekend’s activities. Talked some more… went off for more shopping… went home..

I did have a restful retreat. The shopping was fun, but also a chance to remember the “me” of twenty years ago, and how I would have seen things then, as compared to the “me” of now, and how far I’ve come in my perceptions and beliefs 🙂 The sleep was wonderful – I hadn’t realised how overtired I was. I have been randomly snoozing all week, so it was obviously a need that I hadn’t taken the time to consider – the break from the everyday meant I had to look at it. This week has been a week of sleep and refocusing. Terribly indulgent, really, but I feel that I at last have a handle on some changes that need to be made. Sometimes stepping out of the everyday makes some things clearer.

And here is a random glass peacock.
Because it’s beautiful.

Published in:

on July 25, 2013 at 1:49 pm Comments (1)
Tags: Cedar Creek Lodges, Mt Tamborine, retreat, revive

At The Next Beach And Up The Mountain..

One more visit to Dicky Beach on Friday morning..

..where littlest bean honed his stone skimming skills..

Then we were off to Kings Beach in Caloundra.

The boys had a swim for a bit, then were asked to get out of the water to allow a group of fishermen to bring in a school of mullet.

The net was attached to a truck at one end of the beach, and the other end was taken out by boat to attach to another truck.. they were drawn together and then pulled in by hand..

It was only a small school – the first of the season.
It was quite exciting to watch, but also confronting to see the fish trying to escape. We don’t eat fish much, but we do have some in the freezer.. I do think that if we are going to eat meat/fish, we should be willing to look at how it gets to our plate..

The seagulls flocked, but were ultimately disappointed, even though they were thrown a few fish.

The fish were separated into male/female containers – the females would still have the roe inside, so could be sold for more.

A bit more swimming before we went up the mountain… a typical crowded Queensland beach in May 🙂

Little bean spent the next night in a tent out past Maleny with his friend and another four boys. It was freezing, and I’m not sure how much sleep was had.. there was some tension and “overwhelm” happening over the 24 hours of the party, but they had fun overall!
The adults at least got to sleep inside – still cold. It was a house full of Whovians – this was behind one of the chairs in the lounge.

I didn’t sit there.

It was a school project, made by the eldest daughter of the family… there was a lot of random art dotted throughout the house.

We sat out next to a small barbeque fire that evening, toasting marshmallows and chatting. You know when you meet people and it’s like you’ve just known each other for ages? It was like that… It was the first time we’ve met half the family, and we’ve only caught up with the other half a couple of times… we felt comfortable there, though.

They run a flower farm, native trees and flowers, by the look of it, grown by biological farming. It’s the off season, so there’s not much by way of crops at the moment.

This was our view over morning tea (with extra marshmallows)

Obviously, there’s much more to a farm than toasting marshmallows over a fire… I could get used to this as down time, though 🙂

The other fields..

… and the view from the back verandah.

We had a busy time, but fun..
We’ll be back! 😀

Published in:

on May 26, 2013 at 7:02 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Beach, fishing, Maleny, mullet

At The Beach

We spent the part of the weekend away.. left here Thursday morning, came back Saturday night (yesterday)
Littlest bean was invited to a birthday party sleepover just past Maleny, and we wanted to visit another friend in Maleny, as well as spending some time at the beach..

We went to have a look at Montville first.. it was a tad disappointing..

Still beautiful – gorgeous views.. the quirky little shops I remember from past years seem to be upmarket brand name shops now..

Still – gorgeous views.

Littlest bean was fascinated by the big water wheel. It’s not functional now, but we discussed what it would have been in its previous life..

The footpath is lower than the entrance to the shops, in most places, and they’re bordered by various flower gardens.

Littlest bean wanted to be in the shot..

There he is again! 😀

😀

Great views… you could see right down to the coast, which is where we were headed after a stop in Maleny to see our friend. He makes (amazing!) sausages, and we got to watch the process from getting the sausage meat into the casing, to the final packaging. We had sausages down at the local park… we discovered that we’d forgotten to bring any barbeque utensils, so had to make do with a plastic fork to turn the sausages, and some water, tissues and the remains of the fork to clean the barbeque after – I think we did quite well!

We spent Thursday night at Dicky Beach, where the remains of the wreck of the S.S.Dicky still lie on the beach. Our unit was about the size of a shoebox, but it was just a short stroll to the beach, and comfortable enough for a night. We got there before dark and went down the beach.

The S.S.Dicky.

An evening stroll/run…

The boys were trying to touch the pole in the water just in front of them, while still dodging the waves. They didn’t succeed… there were wet, sandy pant legs to be dried before morning..

There was a woman filming in and under the water.. I’m not sure why..

…and so to bed..

Published in:

on May 26, 2013 at 6:00 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Beach, Montville, S.S.Dicky

Festival

Went to the Ipswich Festival this afternoon, starting with the parade..

Littlest boy waiting for the parade to start.

Lots of people in town today..

The theme was Fairytales…

There were balloons..

..old bikes..

… and a dragon. Because, why not?

After the parade we caught up with some people we met last year, who happened to be in town and unexpectedly contacted us to meet up. They didn’t realise it was the festival.. we had an enjoyable evening, sharing pizza and catching up..
There were various attractions dotted about the mall, including “living statues”..

.. but this made my day!

ooooo-weee-oooooooo!

Another view. Just because.. 😀

Now, sometimes when I see the Tardis, there’s a little voice in my head that says, “THE ANGELS HAVE THE PHONE BOX!”
That’s OK, though, because there’s no sign of…

DON’T BLINK!!

Here’s the Angel in action…

There was a not-quite cyberwoman on a segway..

Because Ipswich is cool that way..

One of the friends we met up with bought a lightsaber, which gave me my last photo of the night.

There’s really nothing left to say..

Published in:

Adventure

on April 27, 2013 at 10:11 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: dOCTOR Who, festival, living statues, Tardis, weeping angel

Lights, Noise And Angel Wings At The Sciencentre

Yesterday we had a day out in Brisbane. It was nice to just enjoy a day with all my boys…

We went mainly to spend time at the Sciencentre, but had a look at the Gallery of Modern Art, and the main Art Gallery, and checked out the gaming exhibition at the State Library. I even became a library member! 😀 It was a long day, there was some whingeing going on in the end, but overall we had fun..

The Sciencentre had a display on different forms of light (and sound), and how it works…
This is what we went in through…

You could stand inside a kaleidoscope..

There was a screen that “captured” shadows, and a white screen that you could walk and stand in front of… as you watch your shadow, and move your hands etc about, little coloured flowers/stars (not sure what they were..) spray across the screen.