Chicken in Pajamas

Does anyone else have strange names for things?

We always called grasshoppers hoppergrasses. Butterfly was flutterby (after all, they do flutter by, not butter flies!), the white maraya tree that grew around the chimney was the chimney tree, as are all other maraya trees I've seen since then.

I went to lunch with the ladies on Sunday to the Yatch club. Sounds flash, but it's actually a small local affair that's been there since day dot. It won't exist much longer, they'll be "developing the potential" of the site any day now. Such a shame, it's rustic, just like a local bowling club with a beautiful view of the marina, the drinks are cheap and the food is good & reasonably priced as well. Lasagne, chips & salad for $10. You can't go wrong with that. Anyway, enough advertising, nobody in Townsville reads my blog anyway!

It's funny, I get so used to the way I mangulate the English language that half the time I don't even realise I'm doing it anymore. It's not until I speak to someone from a non English background (these guys have trouble understanding most Aussies, we're good for talking in slang & dropping bits off words) but when I ordered lunch the other day I asked for chicken in pajamas. That would translate to chicken parmigana. The lady behind the counter just looked at me and I didn't even realise what I had done until she gave me "the look of confusion". When I translated, she still gave me a bit of a look.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Grandkids

I'm one of the luckiest people in the world. I often have to remind myself of this, that thought gets lost far too easily in this world today.

I've given birth to one child, my daughter, and she is the centre of my world. I don't let her know that too often, I don't want her to get self important, or think she has the deciding vote on things (but in reality, she does!) but she'd the reason that I get out of bed on the bad days and try to make them better.

But that's not the only reason I'm blessed. I have 3 stepsons from a lifelong friendship with a man that I still love and that loves me in return. One of the best gifts he has ever given me has been these 3 boys. Don't get me wrong, they have their moments, all of them, but I love 'em all, heaps. Well, in the past 10 years these guys have given me 7 (count them, Seven) beautiful grandkids. And that's only 2 of the boys, 1 still hasn't started!

And the whole point of this post is that I've just given my blog address to the Twin Set (One family is 2 sets of twins, 18 months apart. Keen, hey!!!), so I wanted to say a great big HELLO to my beautiful babies, who I miss so much it hurts. I'm such a proud Nanna that I want to put their photos here to brag about them, but I'm a bit wary of photos of kids that can be identified on the big old World Wide Web. Too many bad people out there and it's Nanna's job to protect. All of my babies still live in Sydney, I havn't convinced them to escape to paradise yet, but I'm still hopeful! Unfortunately all my boy's women have family down there, so I don't like my chances. But there is always holidays.

Anyway, hello my beautiful babies. I hope you feel better again soon Miss Feral, thank you for your email Lolly and when am I going to hear from the Flasher & the Footy Boy?

Nanna loves you all the way to the moon & back.

Total Isolation = Total Bliss

What a beautiful place!

And so isolated, we were the only ones there. Wow. I forgot how amazing the outback is.

This is a dam that was built to service a gold mine that has been closed for the last 10 years. One of the good things about all the mine work in North Queensland (apart from the healthy economy) is the infrastructure they provide. There's a lot of environmental restrictions now (thank god, you only have to see the destruction in other countries that don't have these limits to understand why they're in place) so the environmental footprint is relatively minimal, or as much as it can be from mining, and we get these amazing dams and roads to places that would normally be inaccessible, even by 4WD. My little 22 year old Mazda 323 would make it up here! I want to take a vehicle with plenty of extra room in it next time, there was all this amazing pink granite & quartz up there. All I could see was a sea of granite bench tops & the most beautiful garden edging imaginable. It'd probably cost me more to cart it home that to buy it in town but I don’t care, the effort makes it more valuable.

The location is only known to people who have been in the area for work & the local cattle station owners. It's been a known fishing spot for the locals for a long time, so much so that someone has built a hut there with just a roof & 2 sides, looking down to the river, absolute bliss. Anyone can use it, as long as it is left in the same condition that it is found. The station owners have even provided a compost toilet along the track, although I reckon that this has something to do with people not burying their poos properly & "bits" getting washed down the creek, which goes past the station house. Yes, up here when you go outback you have to take a shovel & toilet paper. Once you get used to squatting (I've been camping all my life, it doesn't bother me) you have a great "loo with a view".

Anyway, the fishing was excellent, although most of them got away. We kept getting excited & forgot to net the fish before they got away. Clever little buggers. Lots of bites, but there must be lots of food in there, they didn't bother to chase the bait much, just had a taste & moved on. We also took up the crab pots & got lots of yummy redclaw freshwater crayfish. Soaked them in port & honey & cooked them in the cast iron pot over the coals. That was just soooo hard to take! We even brought a heap home & my cousin (Cuz) said that it was a small catch, next time we'll do better. Between the rocks and the crays, I don't know if I can take it!!!

Next time we might take a boat that works. I towed a 14 foot tinnie all the way up there, loaded with grog & fishing gear & as soon as it hit the water it gave us nothing but trouble. I've has lots of experience with these guys and their boats so I never got in it. It DID start, got to the middle of the dam and then stopped. All we could hear was Ugly Gutz yelling "Whore, slut, bitch" etc, trying to row with an oar from a tiny blow up dingy with a cigar hanging out of his mouth. I've never been so proud, go my brother. Hopefully it's not in the genes. He spent the next couple of days mucking around with it and they did actually get it going & got to the other side of the dam (they started rowing first & then tried to start it. And it worked! It's a miracle!!) & put the crab pots in the spot Cuz said was the best, except we actually caught more out of the pots we threw into the creek near the hut. Fish don't stay in one spot, funny that.

We want to go back to this place, but we need to stay for longer, we only just started to get into the groove & then we had to come back. And wasn't that an adventure, the car got a leak in one of the fuel hoses & kept loosing power. Trouble was, it was dark by the time we left, so we couldn't do much without light, and we really were in the middle of nowhere, no phone reception, no houses, nothing. Not even a tarred road, we were still on the dirt. We were starting to think we'd have to camp on the side of the road & wait for a roadtrain to come through & ring the RACQ (our roadside emergency service in Qld) to come & get us. But the old dear just made it over the ranges, after we took the boat off & put it on Cuz's car. I'm not sure why we didn't do that first, pride maybe? She'll be right attitude more like it, typical Aussies. Anyway, the 4 hour trip home turned into 7 ½ hours. Never mind, it's all part of the adventure! The little kids thought it was fun for a while, we kept having to pulling over & the kids got to get out & poke the dead animals on the side of the road with a stick. All children seem to want to do that. Horrible creatures really.

I don't care, I'm going back again. But next time, I take the 22 year old Mazda!

QldDeb: Loo With A View

QldDeb: Loo With A View

Quiet Weekend

I went for a walk on Sunday morning with the Monster & the dog (the young one, Chicko, not the dementia dog Zoe, who is still with me, by the way, my heart sings!) at Pallerandra, a beach near me.

It was just soooo beautiful. It always is. But this time it really was lovely as it was a bit overcast so the tourists were absent, it was just the locals walking their dogs. We saw the tourists flying overhead in the sight seeing tours, I waved at a few of them, thinking how lucky we were to be a part of the scene, not just glancing at it for 5 seconds before moving onto the next thing to be done and seen.

The tide was going out so as we were walking along we kept finding little worlds to inspect. Hermit crabs running around trying to escape, bugs skimming across the still ponds, anemones moving back & forth as the waves move over it, small fish swimming through the sea grass & darting away as they realise they are being observed, collecting cuttle fish for my cousin's strange puppy that likes to eat them. Apparently they're a great source of calcium, so maybe he's not that strange after all. Although I've only ever known birds to each cuttle fish. Chicko eats watermelon so I suppose I shouldn't judge.

Because it was overcast Maggie Island looked different, with the landscape seeming to change with the moving light as the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. It was a welcome change to have the clouds and rain, the day before the humidity was terrible, it felt like the middle of the wet and it hasn’t even started yet. The local north Queenslanders all welcome clouds & rain, the relief from the relentless sun is undescribable. Mind you, I actually prefer the sun & heat to cold and wet, but even a good thing can go on too long. And I also love going inland to the rivers, it's a completely different scene, but these rivers need the big wet to flush out the stagnant areas & make them swimmable.

I really am very, very lucky. I live in a land that abounds with natural beauty but also have all the conveniences of being near reasonably sized urban centres so I can get my "city fix" quite easily with a 2 hour flight to the capital city for around $200 for the airfare. Not that I seem to do that, I'm quite happy up here. It's usually for family events that we make the effort.

So next time I feel a bit sad, it's off to Pallerandra for a walk with the dog & the kid. Even the kid comes out of her shell there. Don't tell anyone though, she'll get upset if anyone finds out.

Hmmmm

The picture says it all.