Post #138 6 April 2017

Gentlefolk,

This post describes our time in Brisbane 21 February to 2 March 2017 (with a side trip to Noosa on 27-28 February).

Jen & Tom have a nice house in a suburb of Brisbane called "The Gap", about 10 km north-west of the city.

A view of their pool from the verandah.  Their house faces a park on three sides - they only have a neighbour at the back - so lucky.

The three boys are growing so quickly.  Kurt will be 12 in July (High School next year), Kurt was elected as Captain of one of the sports houses at Hilder Road Primary School - great effort!  Nate turned 10 in March, and Sid will be 7 in April 2017.  Good kids.   They support the Brisbane Broncos Rugby League team - didn't like me wearing the Canberra Raiders t-shirt!

With our daughter, Jennifer, who turned 41 in January.  She is an impressive young woman.

I helped Tom remove some trees and shrubs in his garden. Turned out to be a much bigger task than we expected.  Fortunately a neighbour saw us struggling and lent his chain-saw - made all the difference.  

We enjoyed swimming in their pool, usually twice a day, in the morning and again in the afternoon.  It is not very large, but you can still get a bit of a workout - and it is deliciously refreshing to jump in on a hot day.

Tom is keen on fishing and has his own run-about.  This time he took some friends out prawning, but only came back with a couple of kilos - slim pickings. They have two cars: a Pajero diesel and a little Hyundai i30. 

We attended the weekly assembly of Hilder Road Primary School which the boys attend.  It is about 1 km from their house, about 500 students.  A well-run school with lovely big grassy play areas. At this Assembly Kurt had to make an announcement, and Sid received an award.

Jen & Vera at the school Assembly.

The boys are crazy about sport, especially cricket, surfing, fishing and rugby union.  Tom got tickets to attend the first "Super 15" Rugby Union game of the season at Suncorp Stadium; the Queensland Reds beat the Durban Sharks 28 - 26 in a nail-biter! 

Nate making a face during the Reds game.  The boys play for GPS in Ashgrove and proudly wore their uniforms. 

One night we had dinner at the Sichuan Bang Bang restaurant.  It's unusual in that it shares space with a pizza restaurant called "Violetta".  We enjoyed some Chinese dishes (delicious!), but then the boys insisted on finishing up with pizza!

In the Chinese - Pizza restaurant.

Vera and Jen preparing dinner in their kitchen.

Having dinner in their dining room. The got the comfortable dining chairs from Reddie (click HERE) and the table was made by Tom's cousin in Melbourne.  Beautiful real-wood furniture.

On 27 February we drove up to Noosa to stay with our old friend Will Costin. Noosa is regarded as one of the premier beach locations on the east coast of Australia. It is located at the northern end of the Sunshine Coast, and is about 2 hours by car from Brisbane.  There are many nice beaches on the Sunshine Coast, Caloundra, Mooloolaba, Maroochydore, and Coolum, but Noosa is the pick of the bunch.

 Will and I met in 1973 when we were both working in Jakarta; Will was a young engineer with Kinhills, and I was in the Trade Section of the Australian Embassy.  Will grew up in Narooma on the south coast (where my sister Angie now lives) and went to school in Bega. My High School in Cooma used to have sports competitions with Bega High, so it is very likely that we met on the sporting field. Anyway, we became firm friends.  Later Will worked for the Asian Development Bank in Manila and Vietnam.  He came back to Australia five years ago and settled down in Noosa, a lovely seaside town. 

One of the lovely beaches at Noosa.  Isn't the sky beautiful?  We rarely saw skies like that in our 6 years in China.

Will is an avid body-surfer and we caught some waves - great fun.

Will is a keen golfer and showed us the Country Club to which he belongs: golf, tennis, swimming pool, gym, restaurant and bars. 

Noosa and nearby Noosaville have several "canal developments" flanked by impressive, large houses. 

On the return journey we spent a night at Tweed Heads to catch up with old friends Irene and Dennis Smith, and Sue Searson.

Then stayed with the Morrisons again at Nambucca Heads, and the Miltons in Sydney - gracious hosts, we are so lucky to have them as friends.

We popped in to see my niece, Sasha, who lives in the suburb of Sylvania in Sydney's south.  Her husband, Davide, was at work.  They have two gorgeous kids, Bonnie and Oscar (both in school).

From Sydney we drove to Wollongong, about 100 km, to see my ex-student Yu Zhi Chao (Charles).  This is a view of Wollongong from the top of the escarpment.  Charles is doing the 3+2 program, in which a student does 3 years at a university in China and then two years in Australia; he will end up with two degrees.  We booked into a motel, and took him out to dinner that night.  He seems to be going really well; majored in Safety Engineering at the China University of Petroleum and is doing Mechanical Engineering at University of Wollongong.  He hopes to graduate in June 2017.  An impressive young man.

Charles and me after dinner in Wollongong. 

The main beach near Wollongong City.  It was windy and there was a big surf running, so the beach was closed to swimmers. Beautiful white, soft sand.

The following morning, Tuesday 7 March 2017, we were planning on a leisurely drive back to Canberra.  But we got the news that Simon's father had passed away (after a long battle with cancer) and his funeral would be held at 10.30am on 7 March.  So we got up early, and drove straight to Canberra - got to the funeral parlour just in time.

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So ended our three week trip up to Brisbane and back to Canberra.  We were blessed with fine weather (later in March Sydney, Wollongong, and the north coast was hit by torrential rain and flooding).  It was good to catch up with several old friends - when you get to our age you value friendship more and more.

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The next post will be about events in Canberra.  Then on 28 March we flew to Hong Kong to see our new grand daughter - that will be the subject of a separate post.

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Best wishes, stay healthy and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah

Canberra, Australia

Thursday 6 April 2017

(We are currently in Hong Kong; I've managed to catch up on a few posts - almost up-to-date now).

Post #137 5 April 2017

Gentlefolk,

Our trip to Queensland and back was from 15 February to 7 March 2017.  I'll do two posts on the trip; this post will describe the journey up to Brisbane, and the next post will describe the return.

The ANU College intensive English course finished on 3 February, and we decided to drive up to Brisbane to see Jen, Tom & the boys.

It was the first long drive we did in our Subaru Forester D-S.  Went great. The diesel engine was economical - averaged about 17 km per liter.  Still getting used to all the electronics, though.

Canberra to Sydney is 300 km, and Sydney to Brisbane another 1,000 km.

We stayed for one night with the Miltons in Sydney, then drove up the coast to Nambucca Heads where we stayed for three nights with the Morrisons.  Bob has equipment to transform old VHS tapes to digital format and I was able to transform a number of family movies from 1990 and 1991.

The next big challenge is to get some video editing software to make better versions of these very-amateur movies.  If any of my readers have experience in video editing, I'd love to hear from you.

We normally continue up the coast road to Brisbane, but this time we diverted to Armidale to see our old friend Paul Barratt AO.  I knew Paul when he was with the Department of Trade and later with DFAT,  He had a distinguished Public Service career, culminating in becoming Secretary of the Department of Defence in 1998 - but then he had a very public falling-out with the Minister and became a bit of a 'Cause Celebre' - to see his Wikipedia entry click HERE.

We stayed two nights with Paul and then took the New England Highway to Brisbane,through Guyra, Glen Innes, Tenterfield, Warwick, and Ipswich.  Nice countryside.

We had a week in Brisbane with the Roberts; got in a side trip up to Noosa to see Will Costin. Then back down along the coast, with stops in Tweed Heads, Nambucca Heads, and Sydney.

One of my former students in Qingdao, Uu Zhi Chao (Charles) is now studying at the University of Wollongong, so we decided to return via Wollongong, and then up the Illawarra Highway through Robertson back to Canberra.

It was an enjoyable and relaxing three weeks.  Good to catch up with lots of old friends.  We should do more of this kind of tripping around, now that we are really 'retired' (or are we?).

This post has photos of the trip up to Brisbane (the next post will cover our time in Brisbane and Noosa and the return home).

This was the first long trip we did in our Subaru Forester D-S; it performed very well.

We drove from Canberra to Sydney, then up the coast to Nambucca Heads (near Coffs Harbour); then inland to Armidale, and finally on to Brisbane along the New England Highway.

We stayed with Bob and Siri Morrison in Nambucca Heads, 50 km south of Coffs Harbour. I first met Bob back in 1972 when we were both at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.  They are great friends.  Amongst our family and friends Bob is the only one who scored the trifecta: he attended our wedding in 1973 in Jakarta, Jen & Tom's wedding in 2002 in Bungendore NSW, and Andrew & Caroline's wedding in 2014 in Bali.  

Saturday morning coffee at Nambucca Plaza is a tradition with Siri and Bob Morrison, as they help with the weekly Lions Club raffles. Bob is very community minded and helpful. He was on the local Council for several years - the way he describes the political infighting it must have been an interesting, and nerve-wracking, experience. 

We went to the Lom Talay Thai restaurant with the Morrisons - has the best reputation in this district.

Having dinner in the Thai Restaurant. Delicious food.

Some of the tasty dishes we had at the Thai restaurant. 

From Nambucca Heads we took the road through Bellingen and Dorrigo up to Armidale.  A lovely, scenic drive.  We stopped at Ebor and Wollomombi to look at the waterfalls.

In the village of Ebor we stopped at a cafe called Fusspots for lunch.

Vera inside Fusspots Cafe, so called because they had many teapots for sale, all shapes and sizes., as well as other arts & crafts.

As we were leaving the cafe, who should walk in but Roy Robertson - we hadn't seen Roy for about 20 years - amazing coincidence.  I first met Roy back in 1984 when I was in the Trade Section of the Australian Embassy in Beijing and Roy was selling specialised feed mills to Chinese chicken farmers; a very smart and successful businessman.  

The nice waterfall at Ebor.  They also call this road "Waterfall Way" because of the many waterfalls in this district.

From Ebor we went to Wollomombi.

The enormous gorge at Wollomombi - really quite spectacular.  But the Falls were small because there had not been much rain (although it rained that afternoon as we approached Armidale). 

On the side road to Wollomombi we were slowed down by a herd of cattle on the road - a very rural touch.

Vera and Paul Barratt AO.  Paul showed us around Armidale, including the central park which has this memorial to HMAS Armidale. Paul grew up in Armidale (his father was a lecturer at University of New England); about 4 years ago Paul decided on a tree-change: he left Melbourne to return to his roots.  

Paul has a lovely home, in a sub-division of 5 acre lots, about 10 km from Armidale.  Very comfortable, modern home, 4 bedrooms, all windows double-glazed.

A view of the back of Paul's home near Armidale. He has planted quite a few trees and shrubs.  He said that just keeping the garden under control takes a couple of hours a day.

The Armidale district was settled by Whites in the 1830s. Good pasture country. Armidale now has a population of about 25,000.  Its elevation is about 900 m above sea level, so relatively mild summers and cool winters (quite a few frosts, even the occasional snowfall in winter).  Four distinct seasons.  It boasts two cathedrals, Anglican (built 1888) and Catholic (built 1919).  The main campus of the University of New England (UNE) is here. This photo shows the Anglican Cathedral, an impressive structure.

The plaque at St Peter's Anglican Cathedral. It was designed by architect John Horbury Hunt, who was also the architect of Booloominbah House at UNE - see below.

The interior of St Peter's Cathedral.  It was been well renovated and looks great.

Armidale's Catholic Cathedral is also impressive.  Quite amazing to see two large, imposing cathedrals in such a relatively small town.  

The interior of the Catholic Cathedral.  A midday service was in progress when we visited (it was a Monday). 

Paul's father was a lecturer (Psychology) at the University of New England, and Paul studied science here (majored in physics).  UNE started life in 1938 as a college of Sydney University; in 1954 it became a university in its own right. It has an enrollment of about 13,000 undergraduates and 6,000 postgraduates.  UNE also has a large 'distance education' program (15,000 students).  Paul is a respected alumni and chairs the UNE Foundation.  He also gives occasional lectures on international relations.

'Booloominbah' houses administration, including the Vice Chancellor's office.  It was designed in 1887 by John Horbury Hunt for a wealthy local farmer, Frederick White.  White's son-in-law, T. R. Forester, donated the homestead and 74 hectares to University College when it was founded in 1938.  John Hunt also designed Armidale's Anglican Cathedral.  He was born in Canada in 1838 and came to Australia in 1863.  He was responsible for many fine buildings mainly in Sydney but also in country NSW.  Unfortunately the recession of the late 1890s ruined Hunt and he died virtually penniless in Sydney in 1904.

Booloominbah contains a famous stained-glass window which depicts the life of Major General Charles George Gordon (1833 - 1885).  He was also known as "Chinese Gordon" for defeating the Taiping Rebels in 1863-4, and "Gordon of Khartoum". He was the Governor General of Sudan for a while, and died in 1885 defending Khartoum from Muslim attackers (the relief force arrived two days after Khartoum had fallen). A remarkable soldier, he was fearless in battle - the Chinese believed he possessed supernatural powers.

For his services in defeating the Taiping Rebellion, the Emperor of China made Gordon a tidu (提督), equivalent to a field marshall.  A very rare honour bestowed on a foreigner.  Here is Gordon in his Tidu robe.

On Tuesday 21 February we said goodbye to Paul Barratt and drove to Brisbane on the New England Highway A15, via Guyra, Glen Innes, Tenterfield, Warwick, and Ipswich.  We normally take the coast road (the Pacific Highway) so we just took our time and enjoyed the nice scenery and countryside.  

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The next post will describe our time in Brisbane and the return journey.

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Best wishes, stay healthy and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
Canberra, Australia
Wednesday 5 April 2017
(Actually, I'm writing this in Hong Kong where we are meeting our new granddaughter.)