Liddy has been having a rough time at work lately. Political games. I know it's part of all work places but honestly, I think people aren't working hard enough if they've got time for this stuff. Plus she's been sharing germs with me so not a happy bunny. This being the case we decided she really needed to get off the rock for a bit.What she wanted to do was have a long weekend at my mum's. Sorry mum. Couldn't remember when you got back from your Murray River trip & you really don't want to share germs with us. Consequentially Liddy booked herself a driving lesson so we couldn't have got away any way. Instead we did a day trip.
Down the coast........
And up into the mountain ranges where the roads are steep & narrow & wind through the hills like a switchback.
Unlike Ditz & I Liddy hadn't done Natural Bridge so that's where we headed. It is a lovely & very easy walk but I don't like it because it is very touristy & there always seems to be swarms of tourists round. Yes, even on a Thursday.
One professional photo shoot & we can pose Ditz anywhere! It is degrees & degrees cooler in the rainforest than anywhere else. The creek is all big boulders but not as much water as when we visited last time & the girls couldn't swim. Everything is cordoned off, to Liddy's disgust. Tourists hanging over on of the bridges were gibbering about seeing a platypus but they can't possibly have. For starters it was quite the wrong time of day. They are morning & dusk feeders & not active at other times. For seconds they prefer creeks with mud banks to burrow in, not the rocky sort of culvert at Natural Bridge. Thirdly, they are very shy & with the amount of racket going on would never have shown. What there were were really big eels. Ew!
Bunches of vines hanging down in swags over the road. Quite lovely.
We were going to go on to Heinze Dam so the girls could swim but it was closed so Liddy headed back down the mountain to the Gold Coast for a beach walk, something we don't get on the island & love about going up to mum's. We ended up at Burleigh Heads & as we walked along the boardwalk we spotted dozens of bright blue wrens. These tiniest of birds are a stunning, vibrant blue in the males but it is mating season & I spotted plenty of little brown females as well, zipping in & out of the lantana. I'm hoping the picture will enlarge so you can see the one perched in amongst all that green stuff. 
Anyway, they look like these ones: beautiful, delicate, fragile; so very pretty.
The water was absolutely freezing. Any ideas the girls had about swimming were quickly shelved. The water was far too cold!
We pretty much walked from headland to headland. Lovely empty beach as school holidays is still a week away & it is still too cold for most people to contemplate swimming. The boarders were out but the flagged areas were small so lots of rips still & DANGER: No Swimming signs everywhere. Still, people were getting in the water outside the flagged areas. You have to wonder about people. Our beaches are lovely but among some of the most dangerous in the world ~ even the famous touristy ones!
Liddy didn't want to be driving on the highway during peak hour so we left before 3 pm & headed back into Cleveland where the Voyage of the Dawn Treader has begun shooting. Last time we looked the prow & poop deck were still in pieces all over the grass but my suspension of reality is incapable of dealing with a boat suspended 20' above the ground & devoid of any actual water!
When they began rocking the thing I dissolved into giggles, to Ditz's disgust. She's still mighty peeved to have not been able to find the casting for extras for this thing, it being local & all. Trust me, a movie diva I do not need ~ nor any more running around~ so I'm not weeping over this one. Everything always takes ages & is behind wire fencing so you just aren't close enough for the action to be interesting. I'll just wait for the movie to come out & enjoy it then ~ if I can get over the sight of that ship dangling mid~air!
6 comments:
I found your blog somehow and love lurking here. I adore, adore, adore your sense of humor and wit ! You make mundane things come to life so beautifully. I am an Asian immigrant woman, christian now an American Citizen. I grew up in a country with cricket and miss all that. Before you I never knew what a quaker was. And I so enjoy your stories and your memories. I sat up late and read your blog like one would read a book. You write so entertainingly. And I so enjoy your Ditz. She sounds adorable.
This is my first time commenting and I chose to come out of lurkdom. Why you ask ? Because I took it upon myself to find something about extras casting for Voyage of the dawn trader. Now please don't be mad at me or hate me, but I feel someone with Ditz's passion will do so well in Narnia. Who knows, this extra money could help pay for Singapore and maybe Europe !!
I love how you consider yourself a simple woman of simple faith. To me you are an amazing woman who lives an exotic life. Thank you for being generous with your life. I learn so much from you. About being a mom, having a sense of humor and living a simple life. You are such a lovely person.
I am hoping this link works and this helps Ditz find some extra work !!
http://hannahmontanacasting.blogspot.com/2008/11/chronicles-of-narnia-voyage-of-dawn.html
But in any case, just wanted you to know how enjoyable I find your blog and your family, especially Ditz. Ever think of writing a work of fiction ?
Thank you and God bless you !
Sylvia
Oh, it's evil of me, but I hope you have to tread everywhere before dawn so some budding movie stars can be in a major film! I'd be so excited.
And I remember memorizing that poem ages ago, but that's all I remember of it now. :]
Hey I didn't know they were making that one into a movie... cool :-)
Ha, I can totally see Ditz as a movie star. *grin*
I wonder why your photos sometimes enlarge with a click and sometimes don't? Today is a *don't* sort of day, but they're lovely anyway.
I'm gonna bite my tongue & be polite with respect to swarms of tourists. Let's just say that coming from the home of Anne, I know how it can get. ;-)
Sylvia: Welcome to my corner of net madness! I am so pleased you came out of lurkdom & introduced yourself. Think of all the lovely comments I've been missing! ;) Ditz thanks you for the link. We will try it & see....When NaNo starts in November I will post the emergent novel ~ if there is one.
MrsC: you are an evil, evil woman to think such things! :P I will send Ditz your way & you may get up pre~dawn so the child can be a movie star. I should post about her being Demetrieus for the Dream. With her chest & voice she is so not convincing as a man!
Moly: Actually I have worked that out thanks to screwing up Dearest's blog for him. lol He needs all his images to enlarge. Took me all afternoon to work out A. I can't multi~load if I want them to enlarge b. I can't shift them round on the page once they're loaded if I want them to enlarge c. I can't edit in any way shape or form if I want them to enlarge. I then had to go back & redo absolutely everything, in the right order [which is backwards] to get the thing done for him! That being the case I am not redoing this post but I may reuse some of the pics & I will make a point of not fiddling. Anything in particular you want to look at in more detail?
#1. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. What a gorgeous country you live in! :)
#2. People are crazy. Simple as that. A rip-tide and swimming?
Ms.G..thanks for the warm welcome !
I do enjoy your quotes at the beginning of each post.
And I do think you have the imagination, vocabulary, skill and dare I say enough material based on your life to write a fictional book. You live on an island, you see exotic animals and sea creatures (well maybe mundane t you, but exotic to me), you commute by boat every time you need to go somewhere. Still think your life is ordinary. I think not !!
God bless you.
Sylvia
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