Awake at 5 a.m. to raucous bird noises outside. I'd forgotten quite how noisy most of the common birds are, particularly the parrot family and the aptly named Noisy Miners. I read whilst Pam slept on. The boys came in to say 'bye before leaving for school and I then had breakfast in bed before a shower and hair wash. Harry is anxiously awaiting the results of school elections to choose next year's officials. He's in the running for three.
We were due to be picked up at 10.00 to collect the hire car , by which time it was raining - after a few weeks of hot sun. The young girl arrived 15 mins late and it soon became obvious that the pick-up was in central Brisbane not the venue we'd arranged. Would we ever find our way back? With the aid of a printed route we successfully negotiated the labyrinthine streets and were back home at 11.30 in our white Nissan Tilda. Brisbane traffic is horrendous at all times of day, some worse than others.
After a coffee, we drove to the Mount Cootha Botanical Gardens, walked to the lake and, noticing the navy clouds approaching, made it to the cafe for a snack lunch. A torrential rainstorm made the roof leak like a sieve, not the canvas, it streamed in via the metal supports. Despite a rush of buckets we had to move as the splashback was just as wetting. Good fun actually. A chocolate ice-cream cone helped while away the time until the rain lessened. A 10 foot tall heavily thorned tree stem had white flowers on the rosette of leaves at the top. Whatever is it....
It continued to rain for the next hour or so, no birds on view anywhere on the drive to JC Slaughter falls and Bardon. It gradually stopped and we were able to photograph some of the flowering trees and soggy birds.
Noisy Miner - a Honeyeater
Pacific Black Duck - Mallard type
Hardhead
Australian White Ibis
Harry's news was good, he's House Captain for his final year and very proud.
Played word games at the table with Josh and then, FIFA 2008 on the Wii. I was rubbish but scored one goal playing for Arsenal (!!)
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