Friday 25 September 2015

"I hate this city!!!"

BRISBANE!!
This weekend just passed, mum and I ventured to Brisbane for the hens party of a beautiful friend of ours. The company was lovely and the food and tours were very nice. But..... navigating through Brisbane city..... arrgh. We discovered early on, that my phone would not communicate when we were in tunnels and somehow ended up going under the water without our knowledge. So a few missed exits and probably about an hour and a half in total of extra driving and I was a bit over driving through Brisbane! Not for this little country lady. My navigator was also a bit easily distracted (talking to much) which didn't help, and the map on my phone shows the tunnels that you are driving over but can't see, which also adds to the confusion. We made out alive though so that's a bonus.  
  

 

On our way down to Brisbane we made a stop over in Childers. A little town that I discovered last year when I was the rural ambassador. We visited the Vintners Secret Vineyard for a cup of tea and some beautiful cake. This place has a gorgeous garden that you can walk through and as we were wandering, this gorgeous little pony stuck his head through this little window in the garden. He was none too impressed that we had no treats for him. We also went to see the Old Pharmacy that is there and for anyone travelling it is well worth the visit. I think mum really liked it, it was really old fashioned and showed how they used to make all the drugs and concoctions back in the early 1900's. The gentlemen who ran it was the pharmacist, dentist, vet and a couple of other things that I've forgotten. Very interesting place. 


Bit cute. 
 We also stopped over at Bamboo Land. Another spot that is well worth the visit if you appreciate nice gardens. Very lovely and I have been driving past the sign for years and always meant to stop for a look. As we walked around the grounds we found these three happily eating in their sheltered little bamboo island. Made me miss my little Rabbit. Was pretty good though because it showed all the different types of bamboo and when it was planted. Some were only 15years old and at least 50ft high.

This was our view from our apartment at the Meriton in Brisbane. 

Our walk home from tea was beautiful looking over to the Storey Bridge. We traversed this bridge by mistake in our travels a couple of times!

Breeze was a bit cool for us Northerners. 

That really tall building was where we were. I thought it was a good target for a plane!

Photos of Jamie with something new. I'm not going to elaborate on what it is. 

Erin, checking out the baby grapes! 


Jamie in a sticky situation! 

My lunch at the Ocean View Vineyard. Was lovely duck but a little too sweet for me by the end of it!

Deconstructed Gay Time. I couldn't resist. But again, bit too sweet for me!



Jamie and I with something old (in the background, it's a bit hard to see)
So it was a lovely weekend despite my wingeing about the driving. And aside from poor mum having the flu and getting a good solid dose of food poisoning, from our meal with my cousin Jess and her partner Daniel on the Sunday night. Doesn't make it sounds like a good weekend at all, but it was lovely to catch up with everyone. 

Sooty, not understanding the concept of a tennis ball on a rope. He ended up pulling the pole over. 
Prior to Jamie's hens weekend, I also managed to get another year older. 

My birthday present to myself. 

Spoilt by mum as always. My favorite coffee cake! 

I decided to have my birthday breakfast for tea the night before because I had to leave for town the next day and wouldn't see Justin. Gotta love me eggs benny! 

Justin and I have a running joke about anyone who gets rain when we don't. We very affectionately name them "Bastards"

Some experimentation that I'm really enjoying, of doing time lapse photos into a single shot. I really like this one. 


Tuesday 1 September 2015

Just another day in paradise.

It's funny when you go back through you phone or camera and find photos that you had forgotten about! These are from a cocktail afternoon a few weeks ago! Very cheeky!


 Our trip to Crestwood a few weeks ago to check on our steers. They look happy!



Some UFO. Sightings. I tried to google what had caused them, but all I could find was UFO so I'll go with that. 


Might have to same these if they plan on sticking around!

Anna found a nice chair on Indie.

Not particularly impressed with the tides putting this salty water into our paddock!

Giving Justin a hand to put in a strainer post on the creek to stop the cattle walking around it. 

Deciding that it might be a bit too risky to take the tractor into the mud! Good call I think. 


My tomato harvest!! Yummo!

My gorgeous snapdragons that mum grew and planted for me!

Soo pretty!

My new robe! Not my colour but it's VERY warm!!

Had a visit from my beautiful friend Ange and her two youngest. Was lovely to have a catch up.

Chilling out with Indie, who had hurt her leg and was resting. 

After my visit from Ange, we went out that afternoon to pull the bore because we hadn't had water for a couple of days. We had done all the checks that we normally do before pulling a bore; ensuring there is power and none of the switches were stuffed. Nope..... has to be the submersible, or a hole in the submerged line. So we pulled it up. Not a task that is particularly pleasant. Replaced the submersible and put it back down...... Nothing!!! What the?!? So we ran through everything again! Nothing! All the plugs were good, pressure switch was good, there was no hole in the line, everything should have worked, it was a band new subby and by now we are pretty good electricians, so we were sure that everything should have been fine...... So I sat and stared at it, because that's what I do when things are completely baffling. Now you may think what I'm about to say is obvious, but believe me, it's not!

There is a tap in the line (only because it's the only fitting we had that size and it just so happened to be a tap), just before the pressure switch, I thought "self, I wonder if that taps is turned on self?". It wasn't! Some #$%&^@, had used our submersible (we have another tap with a hose attached) and turned the main tap off. We were not impressed. By turning this tap off, it had stopped the flow down the line and therefore our secondary pump was not getting water and thankfully the flow switch on that saved it from oblivion, not to mention our cattle that were fast running out of water. Not to mention the time and effort we spent replacing the pump, when there probably was no need to.... Grrr!  Needless to say, I removed the 'tap handle' part of the fitting so it is not so easy to turn on and off. Just when you think you know everything that could possibly so wrong with it!! What a day.