9th October 2011
Last Sunday we celebrated Damien Pote’s
fiftieth birthday at our little dwelling in Lota. Damien is our French nephew
by marriage and delights in calling Nancy and myself Auntie Nancy and Oncle Nigel.
Damien and wife Susan (our actual niece) live only a 15 minute bike ride from
us along at Wynnum and although they have a very nice town-house, it is not big
enough to cater for a large gathering. Damien’s parents are currently visiting
from France obviously timing their holiday to coincide with Damien’s 50th. Some time ago when Susan mentioned
having a lunchtime gathering Lisa offered the use of our good sized back-garden
where we are currently renting, it has plenty of room for a BBQ gathering. So
we turned the caravan around to use as a food preparation centre, put the
awning out for a bit of shade, then we set about putting up marquees, several
gas BBQ’s, tables and chairs, access to numerous fridges and esky's and table
settings for about thirty plus seated guests. By the time Damien’s mum and dad
had finished setting the tables they looked fantastic, white table cloths and
all and at least three different types of wine glasses per setting and all
nicely finished off with hand fashioned table napkins, it looked more like a
setting for a high class wedding reception instead of a Sunday BBQ and while we
were doing all this we had to blow up numerous red, white and blue balloons of
the French colours at the same time. It all looked rather elegant and French but
I think Damien’s dad came down to earth with a bit of a bang when as soon as
all of the Australianised French guests arrived they just grabbed any glass off
the tables and headed for the wine eskies, men one end talking sport, the women
the other talking ?? whatever, they don’t take long to learn all of our good
habits do they !?!?
In all honesty it turned out really nice,
the weather was beautiful and everyone had a really good time – it was great
day.
Monday Art lesson I started my first
portrait, this one is of Margaret Olley and although I’ve yet to finish it I’m
really pleased with how it is progressing. If it turns out ok I’ll post a photo
in the blog
Tuesday, stitches out and the results of my
blood tests and biopsy. Well I haven’t got Coeliac desease, which is a good
thing but I do have some sort allergy related dermatitis with a name a mile
long. Doctors verdict was that it can’t be cured but it can be controlled with
the use of cortisone ointments and to kick it I take a cortisone tablet twice a
day for ten days only, he was most specific about the timing. The process can
be repeated every three months if necessary. So at long last I appear to be
getting some relief. Still no idea what triggers it off although I’m pretty
sure it was stress originally.
Wednesday we took Damien’s parents to
Stradbroke Island for the day, catching the 9.00am barge we were fortunate
enough to see a Whale and calf half way across the bay and not that far from
the ferry, that was good start.
At Point Lookout we walked the cliff tops
and watched numerous migrating whales doing their thing as they frolicked with
their calves on the long journey back south.
We had lunch in the bistro at the new Point
Lookout Hotel overlooking beautiful Cylinder Beach and out across a flat calm
bay where trawlers rest for the day before starting their nightly ritual of
work and in the distance the coastline of Moreton Island could just be made out
in the haze, once again the weather was perfect.
A pleasant stroll along the waters edge on
Cylinder Beach, a scoop of the best Gelato you have ever tasted at the Point
and we were once again heading for Dunwich to catch the four o’clock vehicular
ferry back to reality. Where did the day
go?
I think my French amounts to please, thank
you, hello and goodbye, thank goodness Bernard and Claud’s English is somewhat
better and with the occasional help of a bi-lingual dictionary we all managed
very well. We thoroughly enjoy Bernard and Claud’s company and having known
them for several years now, find communication no real issue, if we’re really
stuck we just throw our hands in the air and say “voila”.
It was another wonderful day in retirement.
Thursday – we had an appointment with the
builder to discuss the contract details and to at least have those ready to
roll once the Brisbane City Council has finished procrastinating and holding up
progress.
Taking the documents home for review and a
promise to have them back and signed in a week or so Casey’s parting comment
was that he felt the BCC approvals shouldn’t be too much longer.
No sooner had we got home, Michael the
architect rang to say specific design approvals had finally been passed by BCC
so the project can progress. Yipee at long last, that means the builder should
be able to start by the beginning of Nov.
However, overnight I noticed changes on the
contract drawings compared to the original set that we had. During the previous
course of events and in an attempt to bring the project in somewhere near
budget we had agreed to a minor change to the house front profile, this was
mainly in an attempt to reduce the amount of expensive steelwork required by the
engineer for bracing. As it turned out the saving was bugger all once the
engineer revisited it and then on the new set of drawings that came with the
contract I noticed the minor change had grown substantially to quite a major
change, to a point where it was detracting from the visual appearance. So with
a bit of reservation having waited so long for BCC to get their bums into gear,
we asked the architect what was involved in going back to original concept and
how much extra would it cost, he in turn queried the builder and thankfully it
wasn’t too much in the scheme of things and won’t delay the start. Phew!
Last night we had the pleasure of being
guests of Bernard and Claud, Damien’s parents, to say goodbye as they are
flying back to France today, we felt quite sad and will miss them, they are
good company. We did have an enjoyable evening at the Fish Café restaurant
Manly but only because of the company we were with, unfortunately the food was
just not up to scratch and it’s not cheap. It is a shame because it was always
superb, so I sent them a constructive email and hopefully they respond
positively so the proof will be in the eating.
That’s all for now I’ll do some painting
and then watch the Wallabies beat the All Blacks.
Nigel
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